Another Mothers Day card

I got the inspiration for this card on Pinterest. I spend so much time on there and I can't decide if its a big waste of time or if I learn and see enough inspiration on there to validate spending as much time on there as I do. There is a ton of inspiration and so much information on so many different things!
 I admit it, I'm addicted, but I have gone for days without looking too.
Anyway, back to this card-it was posted on stampinconnection.com which is a Stampin Up demonstrators community. And since I'm not a Stampin Up Demonstrator I can't log in and give credit where credit is due. So I copied it the best I could using Close To My Heart products.
Pemberly paper pack.
Stamp sets: the sentiment  Simple Beauty D1261 (retired)
                                         Rosy Regards DB1369
                                         Card Word Puzzle C1494
I created the roses by first embossing  on white cardstock the rose from Card Word Puzzle. I used Silver Pearl Z678 embossing powder (no longer available through Close To My Heart, but it's a Ranger product) I love the look. It's white with a pearlized sheen.
 I didn't have a Honey ink pad, but I do have the reinker- not sure what the deal is there. So I dropped a drop of ink on a tissue, dabbed it off on a scrap and then circular rubbed it in on the embossed rose. I wanted the center of the flower darker and some of the edges. I did the inking before I cut the flowers out. There's only one stamp size of the rose so I created two and then cut one down when I had it colored the way I wanted it. I used the same tissue technique and used a little Autumn TerraCotta ink in the centers of the roses.
Seam Binding Z1732     and a bling brad  z1360  pretty much finish it.
It was a little difficult for me not to do some ink distressing on the edges of the papers! I caught myself a couple of times getting ready to start inking, but the inspiration card didn't use any and I really liked everything about the card and so I reframed. It really gives a clean look without the distressing. So here it is....

Another card for the Heart 2 Heart challenge for this week

Enjoy      Polly

Heart 2 Heart challenge - Mother's Day card

Heart 2 Heart challenges has a very appropriate challenge for this week. Let's remember our Mothers and all that they mean to us and all that they do or have done for us. We'd be in a very bad way if we didn't have mothers in our lives, in many aspects. I am blessed to have my mother and mother-in-law still living and they've both played big roles in my life. I don't do enough to show my appreciation for them.
I made this first card and used it for two card classes that I had recently. I have had a lot of fun making these Prima-look-alike flowers and wanted to teach my crafty ladies how to create them too. Here is where I got my inspiration for them. http://simplypaperandcreativity.blogspot.com/2011/06/wild-roses-tutorial.html  she has several different flower tuts. I am sooo in love with these flowers. They become hard after misting with water and creating the scrunched, pinched leaves and drying and so aren't easily crushed, can be made with cardstock and/or patterned paper. I haven't tried the lighter weight paper. The patterned paper I used was double sided cardstock weight paper. You can ink them, glimmer mist them and more. Best of all they can be cut using a flower shape in the Art Philosophy cricut cartridge!
 I used some older Close To My Heart papers:Perfect Day and Veranda
The leaves were cut from the Art Philosophy cart also. I textured them using a stylus and a mouse pad and then inked them.
I made the flourish using VersaMark and clear embossing powder with some glitter mixed in with it.
I started out with a rectangle of  Colonial White cs. I rounded the edges, stamped and heat embossed the flourish and then inked over it all using Sorbet ink and a sponge dabber. Then stamped the sentiment.

here are a couple of close ups:

Entering this in the Anything Goes challenge #66 Wings and Things and also
Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday challenge. It's a recipe challenge. 

Let's look through your stash and include
at least 4 of the following 8 on your project:

rub ons
ribbon
brads
stickers
glitter
the color purple
butterfly
flower

 

  I used ribbon, glitter, butterfly and flower.           Hope you enjoy!       Polly

Hello!?.....I'm back.....

First off, to those who may have been wondering if I dropped off the edge of the earth, I apologize, life has just been happening in a big way here. Partly due to being gone for 6 weeks this summer, I think that some of the things that didn't get done while I was gone have just now been catching up to me. Things like bookwork and then getting the tax paperwork done and ready to send off. This is exactly one of the reason that I procrastinated in even starting a blog, but that's not really a good enough reason not to start a blog.
 Adding another person back into your household adds more work than I anticipated and of course somewhat changes some of your routines. Our oldest son moved back here to Texas from Indiana. I am totally thrilled with that and am not complaining, just stating facts. I do more cooking and more laundry and more "hey Mom, can you do............" He is dating a girl down here and we are thrilled with that and know that his being here in our home will only be a temporary thing. He will soon be 23 and he's been on his own for about 5 years previous to this move.
One of those classes is a sewing class for the ladies at our church. Most are beginners so we started with a beginner pillow. We did a lapped back and the flower on the front gave them a chance to work with ruffles.
Here is the sample I made. Everyone else made theirs bigger, but I already had this pillow form. I also want to make several pillows in several sizes and put them together on a bed.

This is just a 12" pillow. I used Toile Decorator fabric for the base and then muslin for my ruffled flower. And old button finishes the center.

New from Close To My Heart!

For those of you  who have ordered from me through my Close To My Heart website, it is no longer around. CTMH has provided us with a brand new website! It is easier to navigate and has a lot of new features. You will see my contact information including my blog and FB page (which I hope to open soon). I will now only have to load my classes, my creations and all other info on my blog instead of two or three places. You can see the Idea Book there and it is much more viewable. The first tab at the top is SHOP, click on that and there are lots of options, but I want to point out that the bottom selection is "While Supplies Last" you can get some super deals here. Another tab PROJECT INSPIRATION features CTMH TV which are short videos showing techniques, ideas and how to use our products. This also has the Workshop On The Go projects, the bonus projects and more. PROMOTIONS tab shows the currant promotions like Constant Campaigns and Stamp of the Month. Also, when you are on the home page, there is a moving marquee featuring the newest things that have been added such as videos and such.
Shipping is cheaper than it used to be. It is the same as when you place an order directly with me. When you order from the website the order will go directly to you.
Another new item, we've been provided with a monthly newsletter! Most of the content will be written by Close To My Heart, but we will have limited space to add our own news. All my contact info will be there and I will be directing you to my blog to get further information on classes and such.

Feminine card and new technique I tried

As I said before, I have a bunch of birthdays in March, so here is another card. This one for a friend of mine. I used Frosted Designs card sketch #14 for this card. And The Shabby Tea Room is celebrating its second birthday this week with lots of prizes and inspiration going on. Go on over there and check it all out. Their weekly challenge "Spring Is Near" has a photo for inspiration. We need to use three of the colors in the photo and dry embossing. We were to use our imaginations for the dry embossing and I remembered I'd just seen someone showing how to emboss using acrylic packaging. I'm sorry I don't recall where I saw it and so I can't give credit where its due. I used a piece of acrylic packaging and ran it through Sizzex Texture Boutique. Then I cut my flower shape using my Cricut and the Art Philosophy cartridge. Next I swiped Stazon Timber Brown ink over the flowers. I cut three sizes. 1 1/2", 1", and 3/4". Then I heated with craft heater to shape and dry the ink. You need to be very careful here. It doesn't take much heat to soften enough to bend the petals. To much heat melts the texture right out. I know! But, it was fun and easy to do and I really like how they look. Another great way to reuse and recycle!
I cut my circle card shape, the little flowers, and the sentiment label using the same Cricut cartridge. The seam binding I dyed to match the Sweet Leaf cardstock strip that I laced through a Color Ready Self Adhesive Border from CTMH. The paper is an old paper pack: Notebook. The card base is Desert Sand cardstock and I used D1477 Universal Backgrounds stamp set to get  the woodgrain texture. The ink is Desert Sand for a tone on tone look. Here is the sketch:

 

 And here is my creation-

 

An inside peek-

 

And a close-up of the acrylic flower-  

 

I will definitely be using this technique more. 

Have a blessed day.                               Polly

 

Lucky to have you in my life Challenge

Not sure what happened with my last post. I said I entered it into 2 challenges, one being the weekly Heart2Heart challenge, but on checking back later in the week, I discovered that I hadn't added it to either of the places that I should have. I thought I remembered doing that, but I guess not. Maybe being busy getting ready to go out of town and age have something to do with that! Haha. It's quite a process to do everything that needs done to get a post ready. Make the project, take pictures of the project, upload pictures to computer, take them into photo program and do whatever you gotta do to them (which I don't know a whole lot about), save them, then go create your post and get everything in it, then go link it to whatever your wanting to link it to. That leaves quite a lot of areas where you could leave something out, especially when your in a hurry. So I completed all the challenges at Heart 2 Heart in February, but you won't see that over there.
Heart 2 Heart's challenge this week is to make a card for someone you are lucky to have in your life and also to use the color green. March is a month full of birthdays of friends and family so I chose to make a card for one of them. Green is good for a masculine card, so that's what I chose to do. I am combining that with the Mojo Monday 232 card sketch challenge. Here is the sketch.

 

And here is my card. I used patterned paper from Close To My Heart's Stella and a small piece from an old paper pack called Rustic Trail. I used CTMH's ink colors: Bamboo, Desert Sand, Olive, and Stazon Black. I used a stipple brush for the background and used 3 of the ink colors mentioned. Most of the stamp sets were retired stamp sets. I used our twill for the ribbon.

 

And the inside:

 

Now off to create more birthday cards.

                                                                    Blessings,       Polly

 

H2H challenge and a birthday card

This coming week my baby boy will celebrate his 19th birthday. Where have all those days and years gone? It's amazing, I remember clearly thinking when I had him, what am I doing? How can I do this? He was number 4 and I had a 3yr. old, a 1 yr. old, and now a newborn. We were blessed to have the oldest a daughter who was 11, but I was quite overwhelmed at the time. But, I survived and it's flown by. Since then I've done several things that I didn't think I'd be able to do. I've homeschooled the last 3, something I didn't plan to do and didn't really have a desire to do until it came the right time to do that. And I've even survived 4 teenagers! They've really all been good teenagers and we have been blessed. That's not to say we haven't gone through some trying times and some embarrassing moments, but overall, I am thankful. I am proud of them and love them each one.
So this week for the H2H challenge we have a photo inspiration and it had the colors and elements for a perfect boy card! Here is the photo.

And then Mojo Monday's 230 sketch was a circle or square card. And here is the sketch for that.

And here is my creation from this inspiration.

I find that sometimes its harder to come up with a boy/man card, there's just not as many things that you can use for them. No frilly stuff, flowers and whatnot, but I am happy with what I figured out for this one.
So go on over to both of these sites and check out a lot of other creativityness.
Hope you enjoy.                                                       Blessings,    Polly