Dainty Thoughts - Origami Box

This cute little origami box is very easy to create. Simply stamp, score, and fold - super quick and easy. The most difficult part is tying the bow!


Actually, what took the longest time was deciding what stamps to use. I was away from home and only had a few stamp sets with me, and most of them had large images. Since this box is only 2" across, the stamp images needed to be small. I finally realized that the flowers in the Dainty Thoughts set were just the perfect size.


This 6"x6" piece has been scored and is ready for folding. One thing I really like about the little box is that the sides on the inside of the box are a continuation of the outside, so the box is decorated on the inside too. A piece of acetate is scored and cut to form the clear lid. For complete instructions, Tresa has a great video on her Fabulously Artsy blog.

Merry Monsters - silly card

Just a silly card I made using the bicycle from the Welcome Home stamp set and one of the adorable little guys from the Merry Monsters stamp set. You can interpret the "I'm Sorry" (from the Dainty Thoughts set) in many ways - I'm sorry you had a bike wreck, I'm sorry your bike was stolen, I'm sorry that monsters are invading the earth and destroying bicycles. You get the idea - the card can be used for just about anything!

And after I finished coloring the cute little monster, I realized that I used the red & yellow Kansas City Chiefs colors - so maybe the little guy is a Chiefs player. :)

Flowers & Trees Card Workshop (August)

Sorry for the late posting of this month's card workshop samples, but attending the CTMH Leadership Conference put me a bit behind. This month's workshop features flowers and trees and will be offered on Friday, August 14 at 7:00 pm; and also on Saturday, August 15 at either 9:00 am or 1:00 pm. Hope you will be able to make it to one of the classes. We always have a lot of fun - and where else can you go to enjoy a "girl's night out" for only $15 and go home with 12 cards to use.

The Tree Tops stamp set can be used for so many cute cards. This 'any occasion' card folds at the top and uses the colors Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, and Chocolate with patterned paper from the Bella kit. At the workshop, you can choose from eyelets, buttons, or brads to decorate your tree. Other sentiments can also be used in place of "Life is good." Since a portion of the tree is raised off the card, the scanned image appears a bit distorted. But "in real life" the raised tree gives the card some nice dimension.

If you've been following my blog, then you've seen this card in my Dainty Thoughts post. It's a simple card, but the brackets around the sentiment are delightful and make me smile. So, I decided to use it for this month's workshop. Colors used are Tulip, Garden Green, and White Daisy with flowers from the Dainty Thoughts stamp set and a sentiment from the Thank You set.

Something I've wanted to try to quite some time is a "clear" card. Unfortunately, the dimension created by using the clear card base is not real apparent in the scanned image. If you can imagine, the square piece with the 'thanks' sentiment is actually INSIDE the card. This card has a real "wow" factor when you see it. Stamps were used from the Aspiration set along with papers from the Bella kit. The brown spotted paper is the same as is used for the Tree Tops card, notice how different ink colors are featured which gives a very different look to the two cards. And obviously I really like that "thanks" sentiment since I used it on two of the cards this month. There will be other sentiments available for you to use to personalize your cards.

Let me know if you would like to create a dozen cards for yourself. At the workshop, you get to create four cards of each of the three designs - so you can keep a sample for yourself and still have several cards to send to friends and family.

Three Takes on One Pattern

Just spent five wonderful days in Long Beach, California for the Close To My Heart Leadership Conference, and had a fabulous time with my roommates and other fellow CTMH consultants. For the event, CTMH held a "Three Takes on One Pattern" contest. The idea for the contest was to show the versatility of the card patterns in the Wishes Card Confidence Program by creating three different and unique cards using the 'Top Band' pattern.

Even though my card entries were not selected for the top five, I had fun choosing the stamps and papers to use while maintaining the integrity of the card pattern. This first card uses the Thank You and Dainty Thoughts stamp sets with the fun Daydream papers. The crocheted flower is from the Mini-Medleys Accents Collection.

All of the animals in the Life's A Jungle stamp set are so cute. Stamping them on patterned paper gives them so much character. The papers used for this card are from the Animal Cookies kit. The card pattern was turned 'upside down' to create this card. Hopefully you can see the similarity with the first card.

The third card has a landscape orientation, and a much softer look using That's Amore papers with the Aspiration stamp set. Each of the flower centers has a Clear Sparkle, which really adds a nice finishing touch.

One pattern - three cards!

Dainty Thoughts - 1 design, 3 cards

For the past few months, I just haven't been 'in the mood' to stamp very often. So it was really nice to spend the day on Saturday at a crop with a good friend and fellow CTMH consultant. We both we able to accomplish quite a bit, so I finally have some stamping projects to share with you this week.

The first cards that I made on Saturday are very simple, but the simplicity of them is what I really like. And don't know why, but the brackets around the sentiment are just delightful and make me smile. These three cards are identical except for the colors used. It's fun to make the same card in different colors, and I always find that I pick out a favorite color for the card. My favorite for this card is the Tulip color.

Also really like the Dutch Blue - which is a color that I do not seem to use very often.

Finally, the same design using Creme Brulee.

The stamp sets used are Dainty Thoughts and Thank You, both from Close To My Heart. Also, Garden Green ink was used for the flower stems and sentiment on all three cards.

A big portion of my day was spent creating three cards for a contest to be held at the Close to My Heart Leadership conference next month. It was quite a challenge to follow the rules of the contest, and I am really pleased with what I came up with. Can't share them with you yet, but I promise to share after the conference.