Snowflakes (Technique Blog Hop)

For the Technique Blog Hop this month, we are showcasing the Spray Pen from Close To My Heart.  These can be used to mist your projects with a mix of water, reinker and/or Create-a-Shade Pearl Paint.  

If you arrived from Wendy's "My Scrapbooking Blog" blog, then follow along with the link at the bottom of this post to continue the Technique Blog Hop. 

Using an overlay cut using the Artbooking Cricut cartridge is a great way to add a background to your project.  Instead of adhering the snowflake overlay to my card, I used it as a "mask" by placing it over a piece of Sky cardstock.  A few drops of Crystal Blue reinker, rubbing alcohol, and some Pearl Paint were added to a Spray Pen and then shaken to mix well.  Spritz a few times over the card with the Spray Pen and when the overlay is removed, snowflakes with a bit of sheen create a nice background.  

To finish the card, a sentiment from the Frosted Cardmaking Workshop stamp set was added with Pacifica ink along with some of the snowflakes which were removed from the overlay before using it as a mask.  Blue Sparkles add just a bit more 'shine' to the card.

Please visit Debi's "The Other Sister" blog for another entry in this month's Technique Blog Hop featuring the Spray Pen from Close To My Heart.    

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

On This Day

On This Day

'On This Day' scrapbook pages from the Close To My Heart Album Retreat showcase photos from a trip my husband and I took to San Francisco.   As with several of the other pages, a few spritzs from a Spray Pen mixed with Slate reinker and water add texture to the background.  

On This Day (left page)

To add texture to the heart banner and Pear banner on the right page, stamps from Geometric Backgrounds were used. The only other stamping is the word 'smile' from the Take Note stamp set, which is included with the Artbooking Bundle. 

On This Day (right page)

No patterned paper is used for this layout, just different colors of cardstock.  The 'word bubble' journaling piece is available in the My Crush Best Day Ever Assortment which has been used with several of the pages for this Album Retreat project.        

All of the pages for the Album Retreat were designed by the CTMH Art Department and include multiple cuts from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge as well as papers from different CTMH kits with a mixture of embellishments and stamp sets.  Even though each page is very detailed, it was fun and challenging to create each of them.  Click on any of the photos for an enlarged view. 

Be sure to follow my blog to see all of the completed pages which I will be sharing throughout the month of November. 

• Capture the Details (cover page)
• Hello World
• The Sweet Life
• Real Life Story
• Just Chillin'
• Today is a Good Day
• Looking for Adventure
• Hello
• 10 Things I Love
• On This Day
• My Happy Place

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

10 Things I Love

10 Things I Love

For the '10 Things I Love' layout at Album Retreat, the "homework" assignment was 10 small photos.  Naturally, I selected a variety of Avery photos.  

10 Things I Love (left page)

Very little stamping was needed to prepare for these pages, just the arrow from All the Details stamp set.  As with several of the pages, a patterned paper from the Sarita kit is used with some colored cardstock.  

10 Things I Love (right page)

For the background of both pages, an overlay from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge was used as a 'mask' while some Slate re-inker mixed with water was spritzed on the White Daisy cardstock using a Spray Pen.  A journaling pen was used to free-hand an outline around several of the cut pieces.  The "I Love" letters are from the My Crush Best Day Ever Assortment.        

All of the pages for the Album Retreat were designed by the CTMH Art Department and include multiple cuts from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge as well as papers from different CTMH kits with a mixture of embellishments and stamp sets.  Even though each page is very detailed, it was fun and challenging to create each of them.  Click on any of the photos for an enlarged view.

Be sure to follow my blog to see all of the completed pages which I will be sharing throughout the month of November. 

• Capture the Details (cover page)
• Hello World
• The Sweet Life
• Real Life Story
• Just Chillin'
• Today is a Good Day
• Looking for Adventure
• Hello
• 10 Things I Love
• On This Day
• My Happy Place

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Just Chillin'

Just Chillin'

When I read the "homework" assignment for the Album Retreat and saw the 'Just Chllin' title for a set of pages, I thought of "relaxing" as I selected my photos.  After realizing that it was intended as a "snow" page, I decided to still use the same photos.  So the snowflakes on the page, along with the title and the relaxed photos imply a double meaning for the word "chillin." 

Just Chillin' (left page)

Since I chose not to stamp additional snowflakes on the page, the only stamping is the border image from the One-Way Borders stamp set using Ruby ink.  Polka-dot paper from the Sparkle & Shine kit is used for the pennant photo frames which were cut using the Artbooking cartridge. 

A technique that we used several times throughout the scrapbook pages was placing the Lagoon Houndstooth Washi Tape on a piece of ½" wide White Daisy cardstock.  This creates an embellishment strip with a white opaque background instead of the muted transparent look normally seen with Washi Tape. 

Just Chillin' (right page)

Considering that the page was designed for pictures in the snow, a banner with the word 'snow' was included.  When I returned home, I searched the Artbooking Shape Index and was pleased to find the word 'sweet' in the same style banner.  So I cut it using Lagoon cardstock with a similar height to the 'snow' banner and used it for my page.  Some texture was added to the Whisper cardstock along the bottom of the page using a Spray Pen mixed with Slate reinker and water.          

All of the pages for the Album Retreat were designed by the CTMH Art Department and include multiple cuts from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge as well as papers from different CTMH kits with a mixture of embellishments and stamp sets.  Even though each page is very detailed, it was fun and challenging to create each of them.  Click on any of the photos for an enlarged view.

Be sure to follow my blog to see all of the completed pages which I will be sharing throughout the month of November. 

• Capture the Details (cover page)
• Hello World
• The Sweet Life
• Real Life Story
• Just Chillin'
• Today is a Good Day
• Looking for Adventure
• Hello
• 10 Things I Love
• On This Day
• My Happy Place

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Hello World!

Yesterday, I shared my 'Capture the Details' cover page created at the Close To My Heart Album Retreat last month.

All of the pages for the Album Retreat were designed by the CTMH Art Department and include multiple cuts from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge as well as papers from different CTMH kits with a mixture of embellishments and stamp sets.  Even though each page is very detailed, it was fun and challenging to create each of them.  Click on any of the photos for an enlarged view. 

Hello World layout

For the 'Hello World' layout, I chose four photos of my grandson.  As with the "Capture the Details" cover page, texture was added to the White Daisy cardstock base by spritzing a mixture of Slate reinker and water in a Spray Pen.    

Hello World (left page)

Several images from the One-Way Borders stamp set were used to create some borders and accents on the two pages.  A patterned paper from the Huntington kit was paired with Lagoon, Goldrush and Whisper cardstock.

Hello World (right page)

A variety of embellishments are used, including:  Bronze Shimmer Trim, Lagoon Houndstooth Washi Tape, Midtown Cork Shapes, Aqua Dots, Sparkles and Baker's Twine.  These same embellishments are used on almost all of the scrapbook pages designed for the Album Retreat.       

Be sure to follow my blog to see all of the completed pages.  In addition to the cover page, there are ten 2-page layouts which I will be sharing throughout the month. 

• Capture the Details (cover page)
• Hello World
• The Sweet Life
• Real Life Story
• Just Chillin'
• Today is a Good Day
• Looking for Adventure
• Hello
• 10 Things I Love
• On This Day
• My Happy Place

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Album Retreat ~ Capture the Details

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, then you saw lots of photos posted last month when I attended Close To My Heart's Album Retreat in Salt Lake City.  It was a wonderful weekend spent with friends, creating fabulous scrapbook pages designed by CTMH featuring the Artbooking Cricut cartridge.  

As they did with the Album Retreat in March (see my completed pages), CTMH sent a "homework" assignment a few weeks prior with specific themes and sizes for photos and journaling on each page.  For this event, they even printed the photos and journaling for us.  Completing the "homework" included uploading photos into Studio J and placing them into a specially-designed template so that all photos were automatically sized to the correct proportions.  Using the 'No Limits' pattern in Studio J is a great way to print photos of any size since you can create an entire two-page layout of just different size photo wells.  Since each two-page layout is only $6.95, this is a very economical way to print non-standard size photos.  

Each of the pages that we created is very detailed and includes multiple cuts from the Artbooking cartridge as well as papers from different paper packets with a mixture of embellishments and stamp sets. 

For the cover page, a black & white 5¼" x 4" photo was suggested.  Texture was added to the Colonial White background by spritzing a mixture of Slate reinker and water using a Spray Pen.  Stamp sets used for this page include All the Details, along with both the Take Note and My Life stamp sets which are included in the Artbooking Circuit Bundle.  Patterned papers are from the Laughing Lola and Frosted kits.  Click on the photo for an enlarged view.      

Be sure to follow my blog to see all of the completed pages.  In addition to the cover page, there are ten 2-page layouts which I will be sharing throughout the month. 

• Capture the Details (cover page)
• Hello World
• The Sweet Life
• Real Life Story
• Just Chillin'
• Today is a Good Day
• Looking for Adventure
• Hello
• 10 Things I Love
• On This Day
• My Happy Place

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355