Home again. Home again.

What do you do first when you return home after being away for 2 months?  I'm referring to after you stop at the store for milk, bread and eggs; carry in all the luggage; order a pizza; and get 10 hours of much needed sleep.

So far today,  I have filled my birdfeeders; put away my makeup; dug my craft magazines out of the tub of mail my DH retrieved from the Post Office;  and made my Mojo Monday card.  I haven't unpacked my craft supplies that I took along to Florida.  That will come... eventually.  I just extracted what I needed and used my home stash for the remainder. 

While we were away, my BFF had one of those monumental birthdays.  I had her gift all bagged up before we left, ready to deliver when we got back.  Since the Mojo Monday sketch this week is square, I decided to make a gift card for on the bag.  I'm generally not too thrilled with those little scraps of paper that are on store purchased gift bags.

Before:

After:

 Doesn't that look much better?

(You'll need to tilt your head to compare it to the sketch below.)

Above is a closeup of the 3.5" square gift card.  I used purple cs, to match the gift bag and because it is Dawne's favorite color, covered with a layer of velum.  Going through my stash, I found this great flower sticker and mounted it on yellow cs.   I punched the purple outer scalloped circle and center yellow.  The inside orange circle frame and the glitter numbers were cricut shaped from the CTMH Artiste cartridge.  Finishing touches include, a strip of CTMH shimmer trim, a butterfly brad; white pearls colored orange; and a pink and white swiss dotted ribbon to attach the notecard to the bag.

Here's the Mojo Monday Sketch #437, that I used for this card:

 

 

Ahhh...  Now what should I do?

Baking sounds kind of homey.  

 

Owl post this one today

My craft (aka dining room) table is totally lacking in card making supplies right now.  Everything was put away in preparation for Christmas.  That's why this card was primarily made using cuts from the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, since the cricut resides in the guest room upstairs.  Luckily, I got this finished before the mailman arrived today.  Now it is on it's way to California.

I did pull out just a few CTMH stamps for the inside.

By only gluing the back to the inside along the edges, a small pocket is created.  The center heart is attached to the $ with removable tape to pull out the cash.

(I didn't want it to slip down into the pocket and go unnoticed.)

Challenges:

Just Add Ink Challenge #293 - Gift Card

Allsorts Challenge 342/343 - Anything but Christmas 

Inkspirational Challenge #98 - Bah Humbug! Anything but Christmas

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #405 - Anything Goes

 

Do What You Love - Day #30

What I love, when making cards, is finding a new fold.  Recently, I found a tutorial for a twisted card, which makes a great gift card holder for Christmas giving.  I also love fussy cutting and paper piecing.  And, I have totally loved making all 30 of the cards for Beccy's Place Month of Holiday Cards.

card front

inside showing pocket

This card is totally made with CTMH papers, stamps, and Artistry cricut cartridge for the Day # 30, Do What You Love, Month of Holiday Cards Challenge at Beccy's Place.

Day #22 and a gift card, too!

Beccy's Place Month of Holiday Cards Challenge is really cooking for Day #22.  Mixes and Mediums is the theme. For my card I decided to use a double layer of green embossing powder to color the tree instead of just using markers.  The garland is liquid pearls carefully applied with a pin.  And the tree baubles are a combination of glitter gel, red ink, and Create a Shade Paint, also applied with a pin.  The tree stand is colored with gold Wink of Stella glitter.   I, also, added 5 drops of liquid glass, which dries clear, to some of the dots on the dp for accents.  And, the strips of Christmas trees are washi tape.

inside

Additional challenges for this card include: 

A Gem of a Challenge #158 - Inspired by a Song (O Christmas Tree)

4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #273 - Inspired by a Christmas Song (O Christmas Trlsee)

Cardz 4 Gals Challenge #8 - Favorite Christmas Color Combo (red,green)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Christmas

The clock is ticking on the progressive challenges I enjoy playing.  Here is a gift card, using the Polar Fleece digi set for Deedee's Digi's November Challenge as tags.  

Inside pocket for gift card or cash.

Additional challenges for this card are: 

My Time to Craft Challenge #309 - Let It Snow

Brown Sugar Challenge #173 - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz Challenge #302 - Shades of Blue

FairyTale Challenge #131 - Christmas without red or green 

Aud Sentiments Challenge #145 - Anything Goes + sentiment

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #338 - Christmas Present

ABC Christmas Challenge - W is for Wild Thing (There might be few trained seals, but primarily they are

wild.) 

The Paper Shelter Challenge #228 - Brrr It's Cold Outside

 

CTMH Spring Extravaganza

(My challenge card is at the bottom of this post.  If you have time, I hope you'll check out the cards I made today first.)

Wow! Do I have cards to show you!  

CTMH Consultants Joyce Houck and Krista Hershberger were the hostesses of a wonderful day of card making and cropping which I attended today. 

Many of the cards featured the CTMH Taste of Summer Papers and coordinating Stamps available only for the month of May.

Not only did we have a fun day of socializing and card making, but we also had some great food.  After a week of digging in the dirt, it was a wonderful day.  And when I got home,  my DH had reduced the mound of mulch in our driveway to a small pile and the flower beds look lovely.

So, I'm guessing you'd like to see the cards I made.  Most of them are tucked into an envelope, some of which are decorated, if you see papers sticking out from underneath the cards themselves.

This is a spinner card. 

If you tuck a $20, $1, and $5 bill next to each other in this gift card holder, you get the year 2015.  Unfortunately, Joyce and Krista did not supply us with the cash, just the idea.

Don't these stamps remind you of the spirographs we used to play with?

This is a gate fold easel card, with a very messy bow.  I must retie it.

I noticed Krista walking around with a camera today.  I'm sure she'll be posting some photos on her blog, too.  You might even catch a glimpse of me and my pals being silly.  She'd love it if you'd stop by her blog to have a look see.  For some more wonderful Close to My Heart inspiration, you might like to check out the May SOTM blog hop.  And Joyce's Joyful Stars blog hop goes live on the 10th of every month.

************

Here's a birthday card I made using some flowers recently cut with the CTMH cricut cartridge.

I previously posted a card using the negative from cutting these flowers as a stencil for my background.

(CTMH sentiment stamp)

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge #78 - Anything Goes w/ twist no patterned paper

Brown Sugar Challenge #144 - Anything Goes

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #138 - Lots of Flowers

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge - Monochromatic

Gift Card Holder

A similar version of this Santa Suit gift card holder was originally featured in Better Homes and Gardens.  I discovered it on Pinterest.  The tag is this month's digital image from Digi Stamps 4 Joy Christmas Challenge.

Holder when closed

Here's where the gift card goes.

Attached tag. Colored with markers with glitter on the star.

I am submitting this to the following challenges:
Digi Stamps 4 Joy SA November Christmas Challenge - Tags
Beccy's Place A Month of Holiday Cards Day 21 - Santa Suit
Sparkles Forum Challenge #62 - The Big Guy
Christmas Cards All Year Round November Challenge - No patterned paper

Baby Gift Card

Doodle Baby Carriage by Sweet Stamps

preprinted sentiment on left; CTMH stamp on right

Using a bunch of stash stuff, 

this was a quickly made baby card with a spot to hold a gift card. 

I am going to quickly enter it in a few challenges and then get back to some chores.

Those challenges I am entering include:

Sweet n Sassy Stamps Friday Feature and Challenge #7 - Stripes or Dots (I used dotted paper)

Jo's Scrap Shack Fun-Day Friday Challenge #44 - Anything Goes

Scrapping 4 Fun Challenge #14 - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge #51 - Anything Goes

Totally Papercrafts Challenge #213 - Pastels

Savvy Inspiration Challenge - Oh Baby! Photo Inspiration (thought I'd pick up the lavender for my card)

Country View Challenge #14 - New Beginnings

Mema's April Challenge - Anything Goes

One Crazy Stamper Challenge - Anything Goes (no digis)

Treasured Times Rubber Stamps and Scrapbooking Challenge #15 - Mix it up!

4 Crafty Girls Challenge #15 - Anything Goes

Crafty Ribbons Challenge #83 - Anything Goes with Ribbon

Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge - Showers

Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge #97 - Anything Goes

Perfectly Rustic Design Challenge #19 - Baby

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes

Cards und More Challenge #103 - Let's Play Bingo (purple,pink,green)

 

The dryer is buzzing.  Gotta go.

It started out as a Tag but ....

morphed into a gift card.  I just thought this gorgeous die cut snowflake, which I won right before Christmas, needed a bit more support.  So I mounted it on CS making a gift card.  The owl stamp from Inkadinkadoo was a Christmas gift that I wanted to use before I tucked my Christmas stamps away.  It still works for a winter birthday.

The inside showing off some washi tape that just arrived in the mail yesterday.

I cut the snowflake out of some glitter paper and now have this glittery negative to use elsewhere.  

 

 

 

This card is being entered in these challenges:

Red Rubber Inspirationals #104:  Let Your Stamping Sparkle

Crafty Girls Challenge - Anything Goes

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge - Winter Snowflakes

Whimsy Stamps Inspiration Challenge #67 - Something New (The snowflake die from Whimsy Stamps )

Animal Friends January Challenge #10 - Punches/Dies

Gotta run.  Grandson has a basketball game tonight.