Close To My – I Heart Us Paper Suite: Australasian Blog Hop

A Happy Hello and welcome aboard our I Heart Us Paper Suite, Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Nell Ward then you are in the right place.
If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart’s Featured collection I Heart Us Paper Suite

 

This fun vibrant paper suite has a bit of something for all occasions, there are stripes, geometric patterns, spots & tiny hearts on the paper & there are rainbows, flowers & butterflies in the cut apart sheet & compliments.

It truely is a happy paper suite & I really have enjoyed creating with it.

My first share with you is a scrapbook Layout that I created with the I Heart Us Paper Suite.

 

First I designed a flower boarder using the Cricut® Flower Market Digital Collection. I welded & sliced until  I got the design I wanted & cut on white cardstok. I backed the flowers with the papers from the  Heart Us Paper Suite, bar one which is a yellow from the Something Fierce.

I created some water colour in different greens & yellows. I also added in some transparent texture paste taht you cannot really see till you are close up. This was all done onto white daisy that I cut smaller to mat with the lighter side of Lagoon cardstock. I placed this cut out flower boarder onto the water colour . This formed my decorative element to my layout.

I matted the photos & added extra paper strips at the top, created a label for a little subtitle & stamped a saying from one of the stamp sets you get from the Cricut® You Are Here Collection to form my title. 

Finally I added embellishments using the I Heart Us Compliments & sequins. 

While there are no flowers in my photos, I was originally going to add flower photos, I thought it didn’t really matter as the photos had a lot of greenery so it was more about nature.

My second creation is a card combining the  I Heart Us Paper Suite and the exclusive Love Blossoms stamp set.

I cut the yellow striped paper at an angle & added a strip of patten lagoon. I coloured the Love Blossom image with Shin Han Markers & fussy cut out & added some I Heart Us Compliments to finish off.

I hope you liked what I created & it inspires you to try out some of these ideas.

If you love this featured collection I Heart Us Paper Suite then contact your CTMH consultant to place an order.

If you do not have a consultant, I would love for you to place an order with me on my website

I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Doreen Watkins.

Enjoy the hop & thanks so much for taking the time to check out these ideas with this month’s feature on I Heart Us.

Til next time, see you soon & keep creating!
Maz

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Close To My – Something Fierce Paper Suite: Australasian Blog Hop

A Happy Hello and welcome aboard our Something Fierce Paper Suite, Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Nell Ward – Nelliebligh then you are in the right place.
If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart’s Featured collection Something Fierce Paper Suite

You may or may not have notice something a bit different about the paper packs in the new Seasonal Expressions 1?

The paper packs no longer include a cut apart Picture My Life pocket card sheet. They now have a cut apart embellishment sheet that has a pattern printed on one side & the cut apart embellishment print on the other.

So you can use the Dinosaur themed paper & the cut apart embellishments along with the Complements to make a very Dinosaur themed paper craft item or just use the generic patterns of the paper & pull out the non themed embellishments to create something different.

This allows you to have so many more options – but what about the pocket scrapbookers?

Well they do not miss out there are fab complimenting Picture My Life™ Cards perfect for the pocket scrapbooker or if you like to make cards out these – then you love that you will not have to cut them up – unless you really want to.

Anyway I love the what Close To My Heart is now offering with the paper suites & today I want to share this scrapbook layout I created with Something Fierce, which doesn’t have any dinosaurs in sight.

I pulled out some ideas that I learnt from the Close To My Heart Album Retreat I went to in Sep 2018 & used some of the papers & embellishments from both the cut apart paper & the Complements of the Something Fierce Paper Suite to create a focus on my cute little Grand Niece.

I even used some stamps from the Card Captions – January Stamp of the Month as they worked well with the layout. I used the Sending sunshine and rainbows & the dotted border stamp.

The layout also features a number of techniques including the use of one of the decorate border thin cuts at the top & bottom, some fussy cutting pink scallops out of pattern paper, stamping and a Ballerina & clear shimmer ink wash behind the word Kid.

I raised the photo up on 3D Foam tape to allow a hidden journal block & created a pull tab with the small pink printed star cut apart embellishment.

I used a mix of Alphabet Stamps to create my title, Solid Classroom & Simply Said.

By the way, Alphabet Stamps are 35% off this month!

This is a great layout to use scraps as your strips of paper , you do not have to go across completely behind  the photo, if they are too small cut them in half & only have what you need pocking out of each side of the photo. I did this with a couple of the washi like sticker strips & one of the cut apart printed paper strips.

I had fun creating this layout & been dying to share it since early Jan when I created it.

If you love this featured collection Something Fierce Paper Suite then contact your CTMH consultant to place an order.

If you do not have a consultant, I would love for you to place an order with me on my website

I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Lauren Moore.

Enjoy the hop & thanks so much for taking the time to check out these ideas with this month’s feature on Something Fierce

Til next time, see you soon & keep creating!
Maz

Shabby Chic with Close To My Heart Products

Hello to all my crafty friends

Welcome to 2019 & hopefully a fun creative year. To kick start the creativity I thought I would share some ways to create a Shabby Chic look with Close To My Heart products.

The Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea book started a couple of days ago & one of the new product ranges is the Feels Like Home collection, this collection has a shabby chic feel to it already so it makes it super simple to create the look.

For my first card not only did I use Feels Like Home, I also used some of the weathered pink paper from the Something Fierce Paper collection as it too had a nice shabby chic feel.

Combined with some textured paste and the the Budding Peony Stamp + Thin Cuts and a butterfly from the Butterfly Friendship Stamp + Thin Cuts, well I say the whole combination has a nice modern shabby chic feel.

I used one of the White Cards from the White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack then cut my paper to size. Once that was done I used a distress edger, you can use scissors to achieve the same look.

I cut out the Hexagon Grid Overlay from the Cricut® Artbooking Collection onto Stencil Sheets & used Opaque Matte Texture Paste onto the pink Something Fierce Paper using a pallet knife.

While the texture paste was drying I cut out the fringe border that is in the Decorative Borders thin cuts from Charcoal cardstock and stamped both the Budding Peony and the Butterfly onto white daisy cardstock in Charcola ink & coloured in with ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ markers to lighten the colour on the butterfly I used the Colorless Blender Marker which actually removes colour not really blends.

It was all put together with some white ribbon – I think it turned out to be a very pretty shabby chic card.
I hope you enjoyed what I created, as much as I enjoyed creating it and thanks so much for taking the time to check it out.

See you soon
Maz

Overstamping: Permission to be imperfect with your stamping

Overstamping is where you layer stamped images to create the illusion of depth. You can mix different colours – no masking involved or even add embossed images. One of the great things about overstamping is it doesn’t matter if you didn’t ink up the stamp correctly or accidentally rocked the stamp , this is because you will overstamp some of these areas & it will all look intentional.

In this card example I randomly stamped images from the Wonder of the Season stamp set. I started with the pine cone image first around the edge in Toffee Exclusive Ink then added the fir tree leaves with Sage Exclusive Ink using a mix of first & second generation around the pine cones.

It didn’t matter if they slightly over stamped. I added the holly berries in Candy Apple Exclusive Ink and the holly leaves in Clover Exclusive Ink and well I thought I needed more red so I used some berries from the exclusive October stamp Love with All the Trimmings.

To finish it off I added more pinecones with pigment ink & embossed with Ranger™ Copper Tinsel Embossing Powder. You can see I again over stamped some areas where I had stamped before but it works for these types of images.

 

Fun Stamping Technique: Retiform Stamping Technique

This Stamping technique, which takes “masking & sponging” to a whole new level. This technique has been around for a while, you normally see it as a background that is a focus of the card front.

I have created a card with this technique, but I created a different look then what you normally see.

What you need
– A couple of Stamp images. I used the Bunches of Love (D1815) stamp as my main feature.
– Two or more coordinating colours of Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pads
– Either the Round Sponge or a couple of a Sponge Daubers for each colour you will use.
– Close To My Heart Cardstock
– Sticky notes of varying sizes.

Technique Process
Stick down your sticky notes to form a grid pattern. With a pice of the Round Sponge or with one of the Sponge Daubers sponge on the lighter shade of colour onto the unmasked area. Once sponged with the lighter add the darker shade ink. While the space is still masked stamp your images either in a contrasting or darker shade of ink.

Remove your sticky notes masks & mask off the the section you have sponged & stamped & continue to do another section. Keep masking sponging, stamping until you have covered the card or where you like the technique to appear.

I hope you enjoyed this fun Retiform Stamping Technique and I hope you give it a try.

Till next time Maz

10 ways to change up your Thin Cuts

So many Possibilities with your dies here are just a few

1. Dry emboss – try with embossing folder!
2. Heat emboss.
3. Background stamp.
4. Stitch (with smaller layer).
5. Vellum stitch (with same size layer).
6. Add gems/ sparkles/ embellishments.
7. Edge distress.
8. Cut on patterned paper.
9. Use the negative & create a second shape.
10. Cut on glitter paper.

Have you tried any of these techniques?
If so what is your favourite?

Remember, now through the end of March, get your favourite Thin Cuts at 25-30% off!

Have fun die cutting – Till Next Time
Maz

1 March 2018 (12:01 am AEDT) – 31 March 2018 (11:59 pm AEDT) or while supplies last