The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

Thank you to all military personnel who serve and protect our country.


It's the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I in 1918. Until the mid-1950's, this holiday was known as Armistice Day, but the name was changed to Veterans Day in order to honor all United States veterans, not just those who served in World War I.

The ribbon image in the Always Remember stamp set from Close To My Heart can be stamped using colors representing many different causes; i.e. pink for breast cancer awareness, green for environmental awareness, blue for a traditional 'blue ribbon' winner, or any other color with a special meaning. The striped paper used for this card is from the CTMH Free Spirit paper packet.

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.

Springtime Card Workshop (June)

Finally made it down to my stamp room and created some cards for this month's workshop. The first card was copied from one shared by Susan Sprowls Smith. The With Love stamp set was used with Citrus Leaf and Black inks, and the cute little sentiment is from the new Thank You stamp set. I just love the fun, vibrant look of this card - and it is really easy to make. The centers of the flowers are highlighted using some Liquid Glass and Prisma Glitter.






To create the unique watercoloring effect of the rosebuds for this card, the 'Puddle Pad' technique was used with the Thoughts of You stamp set. This technique is one of many 'Tips & Techniques' detailed in the new Wishes card-making book available from Close To My Heart. The template for this card is titled 'Simple Expressions' and is also available in the Wishes book. The patterned paper is from the Unforgettable paper packet. And a special thanks to Michelle Loncar for the inspiration for this card.

The third card uses the adorable Treetops stamp set which has an assortment of whimsical trees that can be used in many different ways. The striped paper is available in the Tinkerin' paper packet.


Let me know if you would like to attend the workshop - it is scheduled for Friday, June 19 at 7:00 and Saturday, June 20 at both 9:00 in the morning and 1:00 in the afternoon. For more information, visit MyCTMH website.