Water Color Technique Video

I just love the soft look of watercolor. When I saw the this flower stamp in the catalog I started dreaming up a watercolor card. After a few attempts I came ups with a pretty good technique for making a soft watercolor background using stamps and inks. Here is a video I made!

Fishing Shirt Tutorial

 I made this card for my Dad for his Birthday back in August!! The awesome shirt is cut with CTMH Artiste Cartridge. Below I show you the steps I used to make the vest. For the decor of the vest I used some older fish stamps for assorted sets and I hand drew some hooks. I add a little twine and some brown pearls to finish it off.

1st up I cut out 2 of the shirt patterns from the cartridge.

Next up I drew in the sleeves of the shirt and a v-neck for the vest.

After I cut the sleeve I used it as a pattern for the other side. Lastly decorate!!

Butterfly Card with Tutorial

Stamp Club Members, mark your calendar because you get to make this card on May 1st! But for those of you not in the club here is a little step by step of how to make this fun fringe. For this card I chose to use some vintage book print. I used 6 pieces 1 1/2" wide folded in half and then fringed. (I folded and fringed 3 layer together)
If you have some of those fancy fringe scissors this will go faster, but I don't so I just cut about 1/4" wide slits in the fold.
I attach the bottom layer (note-put a staple in the layers to hold them together) and then I add the next layer slightly higher.

Lastly, fluff with your fingers.
Don't you just love that pattern paper-get your pack today for only $5-all the details are here.

Milk Carton Bird House-FREE Directions with Purchase

Look at this lovely Bird House Made from the CTMH Milk Carton! For the rest of the Month of March when you make ANY purchase on my Close to My Heart Website I will email you the full color step by step instructions. Below I have provided a list of the CTMH supplies used to make this Bird House as a suggestion for your purchase. You can buy one or all of the items listed. You can also purchase anything not on the list as well. Shop for Products Here.

Supplies used for the Bird House from Close to My Heart
BUY ONE OR BUY THEM ALL TO GET THE FREE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS PROJECT.

Z1739 My Creations Milk Carton
Z1336 Opaques Adhesive Gems
Z1710 Paradise Paper Flowers
X5917 Spring Cardstock Combo Pack (Buttercup, Blush and Crystal Blue)
X5919 Autumn Cardstock Combo Pack ((Olive and Smoothie)
Z1294 Sanding Kit
Z2137 Olive Ink
Z2196 Smoothie Ink
Z1204 Bone Folder
Z679 Liquid Glass
Z1114 Piercing Tool Kit
Z578 Corner Rounder
CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
The directions is 13 full color pages of step by step instructions created by me. A purchase is required to get them.

Comic Strip Flower Tutorial

Today I am going to give you a quick lesson on how to make this great flower. This is a fun way to use the Superhero paper pack in a unique way! You can make your strips any size, but for this flower I used 6 strips. (Three-1/2"x 6" and Three-1/4" x 5") You will also need a hole punch, a brad or flower center of some kind and a little adhesive.
Start by creating loops by folding the paper ends to the center and gluing down.
Next punch holes in the center of each loop. Inset the brad through all 6 pieces layering the smaller ones on the top. Fan out to create flower.
I added the flower to a card base along with some great velvet rub-ons from CTMH.

Holly Cards in a Round Box

Today I have a fun set of Holly Christmas cards. I used CTMH Stamp A Holiday--this stamp rocks for 2 reasons 1-its $6.95 and 2-if you have the CTMH Art Philosophy cricut cartridge, it cuts the leaves and the circles!! Awesome!
As for this great box? You would never guess that I got the circle box at the grocery store! Below you can see that I used the Laughing Cow Cheese box and a little paint! On top of a great box the cheese is soooo yummy!!
1st I peeled off as much of the label as I could. Then I covered it with some deep grey paint. (If you are going to use a light color of paint, you might want to paint it white first to help cover up the dark parts of the label that wont come off)

And in case you were wondering about that fun ribbon, I created it myself by stamping on it!!

File Folder Holiday Planner

File Folder Holiday Planner- I have created this planner and had planned to teach this class, but I am not going to have enough time. Purchase the below supplies from My Website and I will give you the directions and additional supplies for FREE.

Shopping List (Purchase these items) Supplies needed to complete the Planner
X7145B Believe Level 2 Paper Pack ($9.95)
Z1450 Cork Letters ($5.95)
Z1482 Silver Glitz Glue ($2.75) if you already have silver you can sub a different color
Z1615 Designer Ribbon Red ($5.95)
Total $24.60 (plus tax and shipping)

What I will give you for FREE for purchasing the above items for the project:
Step by Step Color directions
2 file folders
2 binding rings
4 print out planner pages
14 pre-cut pieces from the CTMH cricut cartridge
1 binder clip (colors vary)

Additional Supplies needed
Hole punch
Sponge for inking
New England Ivy Green Ink
Adhesive

Please Note: To get the instructions and supplies for FREE you need to place an order for the above items. You may add additional items to your order. One set of supplies and instructions per order.

Pocket Bowl

Awhile back there were lots of blog posts of this really cute card that was a flower pot and flowers, the flowers pulled out and made a kind of "tag" for the card. Here are the directions for the flower pot. Although I really wanted to make one, I never got around to it. When I saw the cute stamp from Close to My Heart called You're Sweet I thought of that flower pot card and wanted come up with the same concept using the fruit and a bowl.
Supplies from Close to My Heart-
White Daisy Cardstock
Indian corn blue cardstock
white ribbon
white ric-rac
chocolate ink
holiday red ink
olive ink


foam tape
You're sweet stamp set
Bowl full of cherries stamp set
other-
tacky tape

Here is a second card using the apples in the bowl.

And below you will find some simple directions for creating the pocket using the circle format.

Enjoy!

Mini Clipboard Tutorial

I had several requests on how to make the mini clipboard-so here goes!
Supplies-
Corner rounder
Chipboard
Pattern paper (to cover the chipboard and the binder clip)
note pad
binder clip

I am not giving measurements, because you can really make this any size depending on what size note pad you get.
1st-corner round the chipboard and the pattern paper. Then glue together. I used tombow adhesive to attach mine (holds up well)

Disassemble your note pad. For this spiral kind just un-hook the ends of the spiral and twist it out. I go to the left and it seems to be just a little more smooth coming out.

(you can always just rip all the pages out. I just don't like the mess it makes)

One of these spirals will make 3 mini clipboards.

Cut off the spiral part of all the pages.

Cover the binder clip with matching paper. I used tombow and it works fine.

Attach the binder clip and fold down the back side of the clip.

Decorate as desired.