12 Days of Christmas Cards

On the 12th day of cards, I bring you a lovely card that I have received this year from my super talented friend, Lindeen Graw.  Her cards are always so beautiful and this one is no exception.  I just had to share her talent with you.

Isn't that pretty?  Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and all the best in 2015! 

12 Days of Christmas Cards

We're coming to the end of my cards but I have saved what I think is one of the nicest cards for today.  This was made with our newest Cricut cartidge - "Artfully Sent" (Z3017), which has 50 pop up cards, 50 scene cards, 50 sentiment cards, 50 pocket cards, 50 sleeve cards, plus all the icons and a font to go with them!!!  The bundle also comes with a pkg of 24 sheets of white daisy cardstock and three coordinating stamp sets - all you need to create stunning cards.

The stamped images come from B1259 Bethlehem, an older set from CTMH that I recently purchased from another consultant.  It was perfect for this pop-up card.   I used a Spellbinder die to cut the labels on the front of the card, one in Colonial White and the larger in black.  I used an embossing folder on the shimmer paper underneath the labels, and it's all tied up with some red twine.  I used a little bit of gold paper that I had bought years ago (for $3.50 a sheet!) in back of the cut out star to add a little shimmer.  Artfully Sent cut the popped out pieces along with the base card with the star burst and slits to make the pop outs.  LOVE this new cartridge!

12 Days of Christmas Cards

Day 10 and I have a cute one for you today!

I love snowmen!  This guy is from C1506 Flakey Friends and he just makes me smile.  He was stamped with Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder to give him a little shine, as was the sentiment from our Artfully Sent Cricut collection stamps(Z3017).  I coloured him in with our Shinhan markers, then matted with black cardstock and adhered with our 3-D foam tape.  The white daisy cardstock was embossed with my snowflake folder and Cuttlebug and was layered on top of paper from the Wonderland paper collection  - yes, it's been around awhile too!  Some fun twine and a snowflake finish this card off!

12 Days of Christmas Cards

This is my offering for the 9th day of Christmas cards:

Can you spot some more Christmas paper from Roz's paper archives....LOL  This paper is from Partridge & Pear and I hated to part with it....(shhhh...I still have some left).  Scallop edged punch was used on the Cranberry cardstock with a little bling added to each space.  The ornament strings were stamped on Colonial White cardstock with D1366 Holiday Trinkets and New England Ivy ink, the sentiment from A Very Merry Christmas with Cranberry ink.  Aren't those 3-D ornaments cute?  They were created using our Artiste Cricut cartridge (Z1790) and  B1357 "All The Best" My Acrylix stamp set.  I cut the ornaments three times for each, then stamped the cut out shapes three times for each colour, folded them in half and glued them together, then adhered to the card.  Finished with some of our retired colour-ready seam binding ribbon tied in a bow. 

12 Days of Christmas Cards

On the 8th day of Christmas......oh wait, I can't sing...LOL  Here is the next card:

I just love this die from Memory Box and I am ashamed to say that this is the first time I've used it!  It's been in my drawer for two years.  I finally used it to cut this tree with Ponderosa Pine cardstock.  I stamped the sentiment from "A Timber" on White Daisy cardstock, then embossed it with my Swiss Dots embossing folder.  I punched flowers with Ruby cardstock, pierced them with my CTMH piercing tool and used mini brads to adhere the die to the card. I found it easier than trying to glue that delicate die cut.  Layered with Ruby and Ponderosa Pine cardstocks and it's done!

12 Days of Christmas Cards

Day 7 and I have a card that was CASed from one of our past Idea Books and features a past Hostess Rewards set - Warm Winter Wishes.   Now I have to admit, I originally wasn't going to use this set.  I had purchased a cute penguin set that came with a die to cut them out with at Michaels.  However, I could not get ink to adhere to that stamp, the more I tried, the worse it was.  Needless to say, it went back to Michaels and I have vowed to not purchase any more from the company that made it.  Nothing beats the quality of CTMH stamps - period!  So here he is:

The background was random stamped with the snowflake from this set, then topped with an overlay cut from our Artbooking Cricut cartridge (Z1906).  The red striped ribbon is from May Arts.  Stamped that cute little penguin in black ink, then fussy cut him out and added him to the top of my sentiment.  I had been hoarding some of our retired waxy flax (I really miss that stuff!) but decided to share it with the ladies for this card - it's tied on the white glitter button.  A little bit of Stickles and we're done!

12 Days of Christmas Cards

Half way there!  This is the 6th card I have to show you:

Sparkle & Shine paper from last year was the base for this card - sometimes I buy a lot of paper and then have it for several years before I use it all up.  This year, I made a conscious attempt to use up some of my papers from the last couple of years, instead of buying a bunch of new paper!  My scrapping room is overflowing with paper, so I REALLY needed to do this!  The sentiment comes from another hostess rewards set - B1455 Be Jolly - and was stamped with Versamark, embossed with silver embossing powder.  A little Juniper cardstock for colour to mat the sentiment, trimming the chevron at the bottom.  I had to add some of our Silver Shimmer Tape (Z1799) to bring out the silver shimmer is these papers, which you can't see in the photo.  A little red twine and two white brads completed the card. 

12 Days of Christmas Cards

OK, I think I am on day 5....this one was CASed from our Annual Expressions Idea Book with only a couple of minor changes. 

C1587 Sing Glory is one of our Hostess Rewards sets, not available for purchase.  The only way to get this one is by having a home or online gathering!  I adore this angel, the whole set really.  She is stamped with Glacier ink, then over top of her, the sentiment was stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with our silver embossing powder.  I stamped the sentiment again with Ruby ink and fussy cut out the "glory to the newborn" and adhered to the card.  Matted with Ruby cardstock, then place on a piece of patterned paper from Frosted - our Christmas paper from last year.  I added a few red sequins and some sparkles to finish it off. 

If you'd like to host a gathering to earn this lovely stamp set, let me know!

12 Days of Christmas Cards

Day 4 of 12 featuring Christmas cards!  I love our Polar Bear Holiday stamp set (C1557) and our Snowhaven paper pack (X7188B), both used to create this card.  I random stamped the snowflake stamp on the Glacier card base.  Added the striped patterned paper from Snowhaven and trimmed with a bit of velvet ribbon I had picked up last year.  Image and sentiment were stamped with black ink, then coloured with our Shinhan alcohol markers - LOVE them!  More snowflakes stamped with Glacier ink, then  matted with black cardstock, then popped up with our thin 3-D foam tape (Z2060), added a couple of sparkles and voila! The inside of the card says " Wishing you joy to last the whole year through".

Another one tomorrow! :-)

12 Days of Christmas Cards

Day 3!  This card was one that was inspired by Judy May on Pinterest....every time I searched for Christmas Card ideas, hers showed up!  It's another great card that uses up scraps and gets those circle punches in use again.  The trickiest part of this card was to get the circles to fill in all the spaces in the shape of the tree.  My ladies did this one at the card day, in both colours.....most of us prefer the blue.  What do you think?

I love all the shimmer and foil papers we used for these cards, very sparkly but not overpowering.  Sentiment and ribbon were all I needed to add.

12 Days of Christmas Cards

Day 2 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards featuring another card we made at my annual card day:

 

This one was pretty simple to make but it is one of my favourite cards this year.  White Daisy cardstock was cut with a Poppy Stamps die, Merry Christmas was heat embossed with Versamark and White Daisy embossing powder on blue shimmer paper.  Added a strip of silver Shimmer Trim and some sparkles, both from CTMH - done!  I always say, less is more sometimes. :-)

12 Days of Cards!

It's a chilly Sunday morning with overcast skies, a perfect day to get my Christmas cards written out!  Then I realized I hadn't photographed some of them, or posted them here, so here we go.  Day 1 of twelve days of Christmas cards: 

I first saw this card when a friend of mine, Bonnie Robar, was making it during our cottage weekend.  Then I saw it again on Pinterest but both versions did not have the twine and the button - I felt my card needed something in that space and the twine kept with the "rustic" feel of the card.  Just like making a scrap quilt, this card is great for using up scraps of paper.  This was one of the cards I did my the ladies who attended my annual Christmas Card Day and we did it in both colours.

Christmas Layout for lots of photos!

Are you like me and take tons of photos at Christmas?  I usually have to sort through them to choose the best few for my layout, or I end up doing multiple layouts to get more photos in my album.  This layout will help you scrapbook more photos on one double page layout.  Z1325 Flip Flaps are the secret!  My hostess club ladies created this last night - my Christmas Gift to them!  I was inspired by a layout done by Mary Jo Abel using this paper pack, Yuletide Carol Z7187B - but I have changed mine up quite a bit to make it work for me! Here we go:

Anyone recognize the title?  It is actually from an old paper collection called Notebook, we trimmed the pink border off and it was perfect for this layout! Don't even ask why I had 7 of these title stickers hanging around after all these years.....can you say hoarder!! lol  I also gave each gal a colonial white embellishment package (retired) that contained the ribbon and brads, also some metal tags and buttons that they can add to the layout later, once they've attached their photos.   We stamped  images from Yuletide Greetings which goes with the classic feel of this layout perfectly.

Hope you like this one, maybe I've inspired you to give our 12" Flip Flaps a try!

The Brae-er's Team Blog Hop - So Happy with CTMH

 If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you get lost you can find your way by going to Brae's blog for a full list of participants. If you came from Julie's blog, then you are in the right place!

I am "so happy" to be participating in our team blog hop this month.  My life has been a little crazy lately and I wasn't sure that I'd have time to get a post together.  I did have a hard time trying to decide what to post about since everything about Close To My Heart makes me happy.  I love our product, I love the friendships I've made through CTMH, and I love sharing my passion with others.  I love the income, the free product, and the incentives we can earn - I truly have the best job I could possibly have.  I hope each of you reading this can say the same thing, if not, you need to get in touch with me and I will help you!!

So I finally decided to post some cards because they feature some fun techniques, and that makes me happy.  This first one was "lifted" right off the pages of Annual Inspirations and I love the two-tone stamping:

I did change the sentiment and added an acrylic leaf from my stash that is not CTMH.  Stamps used are D1604 Season of Thanks and B1449 Oodles of Doodles and D1616 Have a Happy Day.  The next card is is one of my favourite cards - I love that it looks like a room divider and our Pathfinding paper is one of my favourite collections!  I used the September Stamp of the Month "Family is Forever" and A1146 Sincere Expressions:

And last but not least is this one that features "stamping" with painters tape to create the background, so easy and a great way to create an interesting background:

The stamp set I used for this one is DD1550 Happy Autumn.  Hope you've enjoyed the cards and thanks for sharing the love of Close To My Heart by stopping in for a visit!

    We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do. To purchase any of the items featured in our blog hop, kindly contact your local consultant.

Your next stop on the hop is Darcel's blog  .....

And of course, I had to share this!!!



Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Roz

Pathfinding layout - Hostess Club

I have a great group of ladies who get together once a month, taking turns earning hostess benefits.  This was the layout they created for free this month!

Inspired by Liz Ann Designs, this layout features the gorgeous Close to My Heart - Pathfinding paper pack. Rich fall hues and patterns, perfect for family photos taken at Thanksgiving, etc. This layout is from CTMH "Magic" how-to book - love the way the paper is on an angle. 

I've lost track of how many layouts and cards I've posted so far this year.....any ideas?

Happy Labour Day!

I am so thankful for the holiday today, and I have spent most of the day getting caught up on some little jobs around the house, but I did take some time to craft this morning with my friend Kelly and her daughter Alia! I am looking forward to getting back into the routine that fall brings but I'm also not quite ready to let go of summer! 

Here are a few cards that I've done in class lately, hope you like them! They've all be "lifted" and I've given credit where I can.....

Doodlebug Designs Inc. blog inspired!  CTMH except striped paper which is Echo Park.

Inspired by Jody Gustafson

CASed from Hansi Brittain

CASed from Veronica Wuthrich

Enjoy these last few days of summer! I'll be back again soon!

Where have I been, you ask?

Despite my great intentions, it's been a few weeks since my last post.  Lots of reasons why, but the main one is this:

Had a little accident while rafting in Shubenacadie on the 12th, broke my ring finger on my right hand, leaving me totally useless!  Who knew that simple things could be so difficult when you have to use your left hand when you're right handed......seriously, just try going to the bathroom. Enough said!  Had this cast on for 6 days and then got "upgraded" to this, thank goodness:

Still puts a damper on the creativity, but life is a little easier with this. Hopefully the finger will heal quickly but just so you know, we had so much fun on the rafting excursion - I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

Cheers!

It's Finally Here!

I am so excited to let you know that our highly anticipated Annual Inspirations Idea Book is now available - view it online here:  www.rozkelly.ctmh.com

I can't even begin to tell you about all the new products featured in this catalogue, it really is a MUST see for yourself!  Go ahead, grab a beverage, visit my website and click the products tab to find the Idea book, and start making your list!  Happy shopping and enjoy the weekend!!

CTMH Cross Canada Blog Hop - Summer Albums

Welcome to our July Blog Hop featuring summer album creations.  To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop! 

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning and join Deanne at http://deannejacobs.blogspot.ca. If you came from Michelle of mycreationswithmichelle then you are in the right place!

Vacations are so much fun and most of us take TONS of pictures while we are having fun in the sun.  How many of you actually print the pictures and scrapbook them?  If you are like me, you are still working on photos from a couple of years ago, or older!  My husband and I took this cruise in February of THIS YEAR and I wanted to document the fun we had without the pressure of creating a full album of layouts.  Picture My Life is absolutely perfect for quick and easy scrapbooks....in fact I did most of this in an afternoon!  You will notice that I still have some journalling and embellishing to do, but you will get the overall idea.

 Here are a few close ups of the embellishing I've done so far, keeping in mind that this is meant to be simple and quick, so minimal embellishing is required:

And, I also used some of the spaces to insert tickets and memorabilia!

So, this is my "summer" album, I hope you will be inspired to create one for yourself!  Supplies used:  Picture My Life Scrapbook kits - Surf's Up, Balloon Ride; Aqua Dots, Bakers Twine, Triangle Durables, Brown & Teal Shimmer tape, adhesive. 

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Nicola of  http://www.timelesscottage.ca  If you get lost along the way, you can head to Michelle S Blog, http://mycreationswithmichelle.blogspot.ca, as she has the complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring alternative uses for Picture My Life cards.   So mark August 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.

Surviving in a cottage during a hurricane and other fun stuff!

I spent this past weekend at a cottage on a lake with two lovely scrapbooking buddies!  Probably not the best weekend for us to go as we were expecting a storm on Saturday.  The forcast indicated that the storm would be down graded to a post tropical storm....wind and some rain but nothing significant.  The forcast was wrong....we had winds that topped 140 kms and lasted for hours.  We lost power mid-afternoon on Saturday and it was still out when we left Sunday evening.  We ate potato chips for supper and washed it down with a little wine.  We had lanterns as well so all was good.  The drive home Sunday was like going through a war zone....trees down on power lines and across the road, branches and leaves littering yards and roads.  Such a destructive storm, but the three of us hunkered down and weathered it together.  Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of scrapbooking done, but some!  And we had a blast!

This layout is the layout my hostess club did last month.  We were using Jubilee paper and I hated to cover up the patterns so I chose to use the one pattern and cut out the center. When I was finished you couldn't even see the seam where I started to cut, nor could the girls!  We used some old-school tools like a paper crimper and we embossed the craft paper with the Dots embossing folder from CTMH.  Minimal stamping on this layout but we all loved it!

Hope you are enjoying your summer!

It's Been a Little While....

It's been a little while since I've posted.....as my husband would say, "I was OBE......overtaken by events"  hahaha.  Spring is always crazy busy for me at work, and I have had lots going on with Close To My Heart as well.  One highlight was attending our Regional Celebrations in Halifax!  It was so much fun getting together with my CTMH sisters and getting our craft on!  Another highlight was my annual all-day card play day.....and the cards I am showing you today are from that event.  We always have a great day, and this year was no different....here are a couple of the cards we created:

 This was a fun technique the combines random stamping with layering that I CASed from another CTMH consultant - I changed the colours slightly and stamped a small image to fill in the spaces.

This baby card was an idea that was shared at one of our shoebox card gatherings by Tanya French. I love the diaper envelope for this card, cut by hand from a template.  Switch up the patterned paper for a boy or girl card, or use green/yellow for a more generic one if the gender is not known yet.


I am back on track now, so watch for more posts coming soon. I have lots of new artwork to share. :-)

Clearance Items Available!

I have some clearance items posted on my business Facebook page.  Have a look:

Roz's Facebook business page

Happy shopping, let me know if there is anything you would like.  Shipping is extra.

Kraft Hockeyville!

This video clip is from Hockey Night in Canada last night, featuring our little town's bid to be Kraft Hockeyville.  Our community has worked so hard to become one of two finalists and like Wayne says, whether we win or not, we ARE hockeyville!!

Card Class - see what you are missing!

Hi there! These are the three cards we created this month in my card class....had a brand new "student" who went home very pleased with herself that she was able to create these on her first time out.  You can do it too.....I will show you how!  These were created with the beautiful Ivy Lane paper pack that is available HERE.  We used our new Damask and Quatrefoil embossing folders as well - I am so happy that we have these as part of our product line....opens up a whole new world of creativity to us!  So here they are:

And a closer look at each one:

So, perhaps you'll join us this month as we create three more beautiful cards with another of our great CTMH paper packs - Balloon Ride.  See you soon!