Christmas Wall Hanging

I know, it's been forever since I posted anything!  Moving and a trip to England are my excuse, along with 4 weddings.....no funeral!!  I have a few posts that I am working on though, just to share some of the things I've made lately.

This home decor item was inspired by a piece I saw a Michaels that was selling for $40. I loved it but couldn't justify spending $40 on something I was pretty sure I could duplicate with my Cricut.  It took me an afternoon (I'm relatively new to Design Space) to create the cut files needed for the different colours, but once that part was done the only time consuming thing was gluing everything down.  This became a class that I taught and the total time to make this was about 2 1/2 hours - cutting words in their colour choice!  We used CTMH glitter papers in silver, gold, red, and sea glass as well as some non-CTMH glitter and mirror papers for the blue colour scheme.

I started with a 12 x 12 piece of chipboard that I painted with acrylic paints to look like wood. I used white paint over all and then just dipped the brush into a little brown and more white to make the streaks, keeping the brushstrokes going in the same direction. Once the paint was dry, I laid all the cut words on my piece so that I could get the placement right, then started gluing everything down, beginning with the larger words in the center and working my way out.  Our CTMH ruler helped me keep the words along the sides straight.  My crop-a-dile punched the holes and set the eyelets in the top corners and sparkly twine or ribbon can be threaded through & knotted.  Here is the one that Amanda made with the blues and silvers:

I think these would make a lovely gift but I love mine so much that it is now hanging in my living room!

Merry Christmas!
Roz

August 2016 CTMH Cross Canada Blog Hop

Welcome to our August Blog Hop featuring Our Favorite New Products from the NEW Annual Inspirations catalog.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to hear from you....whether it was something that you really liked or a technique new to you 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 Michelle at mycreationswithmichelle.blogspot.ca. If you came from Michelle's blog then you are in the right place!

So, if you haven't had a chance to look through our new Annual Inspirations Idea Book yet, what are you waiting for?! There are so many fantastic new things and I really have had a difficult time choosing my favourites.  The Flower Market Cricut ® collection is amazing and our new Fundamentals paper packages are so versatile, great for every occasion! I could go on and on about all the items I love, but I will let you find your favourites as you hop along across Canada.  I've chosen one of our new word Thin Cut dies - the Z3528 "Happy" one in particular along with one of my favourite new stamp sets C1662 "Wise Guy Birthday". I have also chosen our "colour of the year" - Sea Glass cardstock.

Here is what I created with these three items, along with some other staples from my craft room:

I cut the "Happy" die out of peacock cardstock, saving the negative piece to use on the second card - waste not, want not!  These are the ink colours used to random stamp the confetti image and sentiment on the first card:

 And here is a closer look at the first card - I masked the sentiment so that on the "birthday" portion was stamped since I already had the "happy" die cut. I embellished with sequins from our "Florence" collection (retiring at the end of this month!) and some of our new Sparkles in the center of the sequins. Peacock and White Daisy cardstocks were used along with the Sea Glass - love this combinanation!!

The second card used the negative space from the die cut and I backed it with some silver shimmer tape for a little sparkle. I used our black journalling pen to doodle around the edges of the Sea Glass cardstock and the birthday banner. A few silver sequins finished off this simple card. 

So there you have it, two simple cards with one die cut! To purchase any of the items featured in this post, visit my CTMH shopping site:  rozkelly.closetomyheart.ca

So long from Nova Scotia! Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Nicky's Blog in New Brunswick!

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 on September 15th when we will be featuring projects with a Back to School theme. 

25% Off All My Legacy™ Albums

Some albums are Ruby and others Lagoon; they’re all on sale just for you!

Now through the end of May, you can save 25% on the purchase of Close To My Heart’s amazing My Legacy™ albums! That is a savings of over $10 CAD per album! Choose from our gorgeous variety of colours and patterns available in both post-bound and D-ring styles. But this offer is only available while supplies last, so place your order early to make sure you get the styles and colours you love. They’re built to last and going fast—order yours today!
Pick out your album today.

*Offer valid while supplies last. Sale ends May 31, 2016 (11:59 pm MDT). Shipping/handling is calculated based on the full retail price of the discounted items.

February Team Brae-er Valentine's Hop

Welcome to The Brae-ers CTMH team blog hop! If you arrived here from Heather's blog you are in the right place on this circular hop.

February is the month of Love.....love for a partner, child, mother, father, friend, the list goes on and on! I am celebrating my love for Close To My Heart this month! This company has provided me with so many opportunities to enrich the lives of others and in return, I have been blessed with friendships that have grown over the years. Many of these friends started off as customers and quickly found a place in my heart. Some friends have also became customers, downlines, one friend became my upline.....but the bottom line is - they are all friends. We share the same passion - recording our memories for generations to come and creating beautiful cards with Close To My Heart products.

Late last year, CTMH teamed up with Creative Live and did a two-day broadcast to share artwork and information about the company. They also created some lovely projects with the studio audience and the first card I have to show you is the card I made while watching that broadcast.

Supplies used: D1668 Charming Cascades, D1627 Your Own Kind of Wonderful, Pink and Gold glitter paper packs; White Daisy, Pomegranate,& Kraft cardstocks, Cotton Candy ink. I forgot to add a few gold sequins before snapping the photo!

The broadcast was recorded and is available to watch for free forever at Creative Live - just create an account and enjoy! Create cute cards and layouts like the ones featured on the show - I can give you cutting dimensions if you need them.

The next card I have for you is one that was brought to our shoebox swap by friend Angela - one of those gals who I mentioned above who started off as a customer and has become one of my best friends. Her original card had a red mat behind the stamped images, mine is chocolate. I love the z-fold insert and the little hearts punched out of it.

Supplies used: D1668 Charming Cascades, C1559 Always Grateful, and D1647 Documenting Moments; Lagoon, White Daisy, and Chocolate cardstock, frame die, heart punch, and Bitty Sparkles

You next stop on our hop is Nicky's blog

Happy Valentines Day,
Roz

January 2016 CTMH Cross Canada Blog Hop

Welcome to our January 2016 Cross Canada Hop featuring watercolour creations.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers. 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 My Creations With Michelle  If you came from Michelle's blog then you are in the right place!

My project is a layout that I created while attending Close To My Heart's Album Retreat in Salt Lake City, Utah! What a treat it was to spend an entire weekend creating a beautiful album. Quite a few of the layouts we did featured our watercolour paints used in a variety of ways. I will post the others here soon but for now, this is the one I'm sharing:

At first glance, you may not notice the watercolours, or how they were applied. This close up of the title reveals one instance....the title is die cut out of the 12 x 12 white daisy cardstock base and then the watercolour painted paper was placed behind the die cut opening and adhered. It's hard to see the ombre technique used with the blue watercolour paint but it's there, and then the piece was splattered with a little paint on the brush. I love this look and will definitely use this technique again.

 Paint splatters were added in a couple more location where embellishments were clustered:

 I also wanted to show you these cute little gold foil stickers....they come from our Fundamental embellishment packs, one of my new favourites.....so much goodness in one little package! Check them out!

Materials used: White daisy & whisper cardstock, watercolour cardstock, Adventure Fundamentals paper pack, watercolour paints, Charlotte paper pack, Gold shimmer trim, Grey enamel gems, PML Beautiful You cards, Gold Fundamental assortment, C1626 Hexagonal Patterns stamp set, D1686 Noted - exclusive Album Retreat stamp set. To purchase any of the above materials, click here!

Another watercolour project I did was this card, just playing around with the colours and mixing them up. There is really no right or wrong way to use the watercolour paints! Just have fun with them!

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Nicky's Simply Artistic If you get lost along the way, you can head back to Michelle S's blog, 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 feature Cardstock creations. Mark February 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.