Quarter Auction Invitation for March 19th!

I wanted to share my St Pat's Quarter Auction Celebration invitation with you. I saw a card similar to this in an old "Simply Handmade" magazine published by Northridge Publishing. I love looking at magazines old and new to get my creative mind turning! It is always so funny to me how the picture I may be using as an example never turns out like the original! HA! My card doesn't resemble it's scraplifted original by any means, except we both used the Cricut Sentiments cartridge to cut the chair!

Of course, I couldn't resist making a few different versions just by varying the color of the ribbon, "upholstery", buttons, and flowers. Other than that, I stuck with the same pattern for these 6" by 6" cards. Many people shy away from sizes other than the traditional 4 1/4" by 5 1/2", but I like to surprise my recipients every once in a while! Another thing I don't do often enough is use my crafting tools! I have gotten so used to stamping my my papers and hand crafting my embellishments, that I really haven't used tools lately! The ovals are die cut with my Big Shot and of course hand stamped and inked with a Cocoa Stamp Pad, (Z2114).

Now, these cute crocheted flowers are not from Close To My Heart, but rather American Crafts "Dear Lizzy" collection. Which brings me to another point. Use what you have in your craft stash, or around the house for that matter with your Close To My Heart products. I love mixing old things with new things. I am a texture girlie for sure, so I also like finding unusual objects and incorporate them in my cards, scrapbooks, and various other projects. It is just fun to me to think up new ways to use ordinary things that may normally discarded! (I have a secret stash of toilet paper and paper towel rolls that I just KNOW I will be able to use to create something fabulous! Ha!).

I can't wait to hear about the reaction to my invitations by the guests that I am inviting to the Quarter Auction! It is 9am Saturday, March 19th at the Manhattan Country Club and should last about 2 hours. $10 gets you a paddle, breakfast, beverages, and most importantly, a fabulously great time! I myself am planning some gorgeous prizes to give away! Call or email me for more information if you are in the local area!



Valentine Home Decor for my Extravaganza Application

I love creating home decor pieces to give as gifts and hand around the house. This cute Valentine inspired frame was no exception. Close To My Heart just has so many cute accessories to embellish to my heart's content. The Sweetheart papers (X7134B), gave me just the inspiration I needed to create this frame! Here, I used Liquid Glass (Z679), to permanently adhere my papers, ribbons, crocheted flowers, and buttons.

Here is a close up of my very favorite new type of ribbon. I used this fancy ribbon to made the handle to hang the frames, and also as embellishments on the frame itself. I glued cute pearls in the middle of my flowers for an extra special tough! I layered the cute flower shaped buttons on top of white daisy crocheted flowers for even more whimsy!

It may be hard to see, but along with sewing on the center piece of the frame, I also added touched of Glitz Glitter Gel (Z1313), to give my picture even more dimension, as well as Foam 3-D Tape (Z1151), behind my saying to make it pop a bit. The kits and color coordinated accessories CTMH has, make blending elements together to achieve a unified look so easy!!

I can hardly wait to find more time to be able to make even more of these cute frames. They are very fun to make if you don't mind getting a little bit of glue on your fingers. The key is to use a very thin layer of liquid glass directly on your projects surface smoothed out so you don't get any strange ridge lines showing through your paper. For your first project, use darker, printed paper which is more forgiving until you are used to the technique. I promise, you will love this mixed media type technique to make little boxes for your cards and home dec items.

So EXCITED about Extravaganza Projects!

Yippee! I KNOW I have not been my usual scrappy self the last few months. Well, that's what it seems like by the looks of my blog! Ha HAA! Not true. I have been more creative than ever. I have also been sharing Close To My Heart more than ever.

The last week or so, I have been creating projects for the chance to be an instructor at Extravaganza during the CTMH Convention in July! Since the deadline was March 1st, I thought I would post a couple of the projects I entered.

This invitation is the card I entered. I just love mixing the different fun colors of quality CTMH cardstock. I used cardstock in the new Pear (X5764), Crystal Blue (1292), Blush (X5460), and my fave Hollyhock (1246)! This card has almost all of my favorite things: a variety of stamps,both old and new, banners, buttons and ribbon, pearls, sewing, and ordinary household goods made mini like these adorable clothes pins I found! LOVE IT!

It is probably hard to believe this little birdie started out as a 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" square! I used the corner rounder (Z578) to round each corner, then cut the top and bottom with my scissors to make a sweet, fat birdie! Then I just cut some feathers like long tear drops stamped the bird with matching dot background stamp and shaded with a sponge (Z697), and then glued birdie all together. Of course, I draw some little legs in pencil and stitched them with embroidery floss. The stamps I used are Friendship Alphabet Small (C1401), Over the Rainbow (D1426) and the new Pennant Alphabet (E1018).

I just love adding texture to my products and accessories and techniques are the best way to make my projects fabulous! The assessories I used on this card are some of my very favorite. My first favorite accessory is the designer pink ribbons collection (Z1384). Ribbons are a staple for most of my projects, along with some sewing. I also love adding pretty buttons of all sizes and colors to my projects. I like buttons, because they can be glittered, sanded, inked, and drawn on to acheive many different looks. You can string them with floss, waxy flax, or even hemp depending on the look you'd like to accessorise your projects. Another of my favorites is bling! Sparkles and in this case, pearls put the finishing touches on many of my products! Bling comes in so many colors, sizes, and shapes making them perfect accessories!

What are your favorite accessories?What techniques do you use to make your projects fabulous? Cross your fingers for me and wish me luck on my application for Extravaganza!!