Spinner Card with Camper Crazy and Lollydoodle

Spinner cards are a lot of fun. I have seen several variations of these on Pinterest and just had to give it a try. I didn't have any pennies handy, so I used some flat buttons. Not sure if they worked quite as well since this is my first try with this technique. Any opinions from the voice of experience out there in the internet land of crafting?

Anyway I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I can't seem to get enough of the Camper Crazy stamp set and Lollydoodle paper. The base is a sheet from our Paper Fundamentals Basics Assortment. One side has tone on tone glossy embossed images and the opposite side is matte with a contrasting pattern. Very versatile.

I covered the chipboard banner (from one of our Cricut Collections) with a scrap piece of Lollydoodle, then trimmed close (but not too close) to the edge of the shape then filed with my paper file. This give a much more finished look than cutting the shape the exact size before you glue your patterned paper to your chipboard.

This series of three photos should give you some sense of the motion of the campers as they chase each other in a circle.

Hope you are having a grand summer!
Melissa

Artbooking Made Easy: Togetherness

This video features some great ideas on using the Togetherness key on the Artbooking cartridge. There are also some great tips on making rolled flowers.

Skylark Mini Photo Album Card

I turned this birthday card for a friend into a mini-photo album with our Skylark dimensional elements and paper. Just love the colors in this kit. It also features one of my favorite items in the current catalog the teal shimmer trim (it's kind of like glitter ribbon with adhesive backing - too cool!).

Hope you are inspired!

Melissa

Birthday Card In A Box

Have you tried the Card in a Box craze yet? I have been going crazy with making these. They really are a lot of fun. Here is one I made for the birthday of my mom's cousin who loves polka dots. It features popular paper from past Close to My Heart National Scrapbooking Month Specials - Dotty for You & Dream Pop. Stamped images are cut with our Cricut Artiste cartridge and stamped with the stamps that come in that collection. The embellishments are a combination of things from my stash and new items. The different colored blue epoxy dots are current - Aqua Dots - I love them!

I thought I had taken pictures of my mom's Mother's Day card, but I can't find them. I'll have to have her pull it out next time I visit so I take pictures to show you. There was really little stamping involved with that card. I mostly used some chipboard dimensional elements I had left from one of our scrapbooking kits. Just shows how versatile this design concept is.

Enjoy - Melissa

15 Years with Close To My Heart and an Anniversary Sale

This year Jeannette Lynton, the creator and founder of Close to My Heart celebrates 30 years in the scrapbooking industry and I celebrate 15 years as a Close To My Heart Consultant. It seems just like yesterday that I picked up a rubber stamp for the first time.

The other day I received this in the mail to celebrate my 15th year anniversary with Close to My Heart! Isn't it pretty? Sad to say I didn't even receive verbal recognition at my day job this year when I hit the 15 year mark. Close to My Heart really does take great care of their consultant's.

To celebrate I'm offering a special sale to my customers through June 30th - - 15% of any order* (off of the full retail total of your order). You can order from my retail site at https://melissaharris.ctmh.com or if you don't feel comfortable ordering online drop me an email or give me a call and I'll get a traditional order together for you. Take this opportunity to celebrate with me and save a little money :-). Be sure to check my website for all the details of Celebrate 30 promotion from Close to My Heart this month that is also offering some great deals.

Speaking of deals, don't forget to check the While Supplies Last and Retiring Items sections on my website. These items are only available for a limited time.


*This is a personal discount I am offering, not a corporate promotion from Close to My Heart, so orders on my online shopping site will receive a 15% refund in the mail from me.

Card In A Box featuring Lollydoodle, Camper Crazy and Balloon Talk

I tried to make an infographic style collage for this card in LightRoom, but I didn't quite figure out how to add text correctly, so just to sum up it is a card in a box - - such a fun technique that I am sure to be featuring in a future workshop - I think I might be addicted. ;-) Lollydoodle is another new paper set that I'm wild about. I'm sure you haven't seen the last of the Camper Crazy stamp set either. Isn't it so cute? Believe it or not this is a standard size 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card, when open the elements just pop out. So much fun. I love creating it so much I had to share right away. I'll add more details later.

Happy Crafting!
Melissa

Close to My Heart Balloon Ride Cards - Technique Paper Piecing

I love all the new paper packs in the new catalog, but this one I think is unique and one of my favorites - although I can't say that next week I won't have a new favorite and so on until all the paper packs have been covered for this book.

Paper piecing is a technique I saw around the internet last fall and have been wanting to try. I decided the stamp set that coordinates with the Balloon Ride paper (D1581 Give a Lift) would work perfectly for this technique.

To start you stamp your image on cardstock and then multiple times on several different patterned papers (you chose depending on your image). You could either pick a portion of the image to highlight or pick patterns to cover the entire image.

You will then trim out the pieces of your image that you want to use from the patterned paper. You may also want to trim out your image from the cardstock depending on your project. Since my paper was two sided I stamped each image twice on the patterned paper and then mixed and matched until I was happy with my combinations. One tip for "fussy cutting" as some people call cutting images by hand, move the paper as you cut around the image not your scissors. You will have more precise cuts this way.

Then just grab a little glue and start attaching your pieces. I found that a liquid glue like our Bonding Memories adhesive was nice because it gave me a little wiggle room as far as moving a piece before it dries if I don't get the placement just right.

I tried taking a wide shot of all the cards, but my "assistant" was determined to stay in the shot. He seems to have a sixth sense on when his assistance will be needed. ;-)

I did the coloring on the basket and flowers with watercolor pencils and a blending pen.

I forgot to take a picture of the inside of this card, but it uses the phrase "Friend you lift me up" from the stamp set. 

For the base of this card I used one of our white daisy die cut cards. There is a card on one of our Cricut cartridges (Artiste I think) that mimics this pretty closely, but rather than figure the cut out in Cricut Craft room, I just traced around the edge and cut it out by hand. As much as I love my Cricut, I will have to say that cutting something by hand can sometimes be easier if it is something small and you are only doing one or two.

One thing with this technique you need to watch is the placement of your stamping on the patterned paper. On one of the balloons I ended up re-stamping one of the center medallions on the opposite less "busy" part of the paper as I could not differentiate between the pattern of the paper and the pattern of the stamped design on the "busier" side of the paper. Just something to keep in mind.

Hope you enjoyed the cards as well as the new technique. If you give it a try, email me a picture and I'll post it on the blog.

Happy "krafting"!

Melissa