CUTE "FROSTED" CARDS.

Just wanted to do a quick post to show you a couple of darling Christmas cards using the new FROSTED papers and the September Stamp of the Month,  POSTER TIDINGS.

This card uses our Slate Satin Polka Dot Ribbon. One of my favorites!

This card is made using the Colonial White Die Cut Card.

On the top card, you can see how just part of the stamp was used. I love that idea!

These cute cards were made by Gina Brandstetter, a fellow CTMH consultant, at Gina's Little Corner of Stampin Heaven. You can view the stamp set on my September 5th post, or on Gina's blog link above.  Thank you Gina for the cute ideas!  I also love how she put a "ribbon" and a "bow" on the top card where the words "ribbons and bows" were on the stamp. Oh so clever!

Many of the Close to My Heart consultants have blog hops highlighting the different new papers. If you would like to see more ideas, search for "CTMH Frosted" (for example, or any of the new papers) on google or most search engines. This is a great way to find neat ideas for projects and cards.

If you have any questions about how these cards were made, let me know and I can help you with the cuts and designs.
 

REDISCOVER CTMH - FREE SEPTEMBER DOWNLOAD.

Simply Awesome! A free download each month from Close to My Heart!  

As I posted ON MY BLOG HERE ON AUGUST 8th, each month, for the next year, Close to My Heart is going to be offering a FREE EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD .... as their way to shout it out and promote this wonderful company!  There will be specially designed, colorful gift tags, notepaper, home décor, and more!   I will post it here on my blog the first of each month.  AND DID I SAY FREE???? We love free stuff, right?

DOWNLOAD FOR SEPTEMBER:

Click HERE FOR THE SEPTEMBER DOWNLOAD which will take you to the Close to My Heart Website.  The link to the eCard is under the Rediscover blue box on the CTMH website.
 
Have a blast with this neat download! And be sure to subscribe to my blog posts (upper right at top of column) to receive notice of each new download!
 
 

YOU ARE MY HAPPY - Stamp set Video.

As promised, here is the Close to My Heart Video on the September special TRIPLE "You are My Happy" stamp set and some sweet ideas for using it:

Hope you enjoy this! As usual, you will need to go to my "real" blog to view this video. To do that, click on my "Pink Paper Cottage" name at the top of this post.

This special September TRIPLE You are My Happy stamp set can be purchased for just $10 when you purchase $50 in Close to My Heart products (during September only) from this Autumn/Winter 2013 IDEA BOOK.

Have fun!

 

FRUGAL CRAFTING IDEAS - PART 3.

Here's another fun and thrifty idea for your crafty projects. Use bits of wools, wool felt or blanket scraps.

I like to use bits of my wool felt for little flowers or cutouts like hearts, stars, birds, etc.

I used to live really close to a Pendleton Woolen Mill in Washington. I would go there and buy a big bag of wool scraps for $3.00! Then I would take it home and wash the scraps in hot water, then dry them on a really hot temperature. That would "felt" the wool so it was kind of thick and fuzzy.  

Sometimes you can find bags of wool scraps at thrift stores or yard sales. It doesn't have to be felted. You can do that yourself. 

Or how about using pieces cut off from wool blanket scraps?

 
I was THRILLED to find a bag of Pendleton wool scraps from old blankets at a thrift store for $3.00!  Any old pieces of wool blankets would work just fine.  I would NEVER cut up a full blanket, but finding the Pendleton woolen blanket scraps was like finding gold!

I made some little western tags using little bits of the Pendleton wool blanket scraps:

I used little cowboy buttons that I got at a fabric store ON SALE for $2.00!

One more thrifty thing to look for is jewelry and pearls! You can cut the pearls apart and glue them on individually... on your page layouts, cards or tags, and use the little pearls as centers for your flowers.

I found these strands of pearls for just 50 cents at a thrift store. I love the bronze tinge on some of them.

Enjoy searching for those frugal finds!

 .

CLOSE TO MY HEART SEPTEMBER SPECIALS!

OK everyone. Close to My Heart is having TWO September specials! One is the Stamp of the Month, and the other is to celebrate NATIONAL STAMPING MONTH.

First, here is the AWESOME Stamp of the Month - POSTER TIDINGS, yours for only $5.00 with your product order of $50.  RETAIL VALUE OF THIS STAMP SET IS $17.95 and it is only available in September, 2013.  Isn't this just darling? 

Of course, as always, if you just want the stamp set alone, you CAN order it on its own without purchasing anything else!

Here is the Close to My Heart video which shows you some creative ways to use this stamp set: (you will have to go to my actual "real" blog to view this video... you probably can't view it here from your email inbox).

OK....next............. drum roll please!!!!!!!!!!  Close to My Heart has another special in September! They are offering a TRIPLE stamp set (You are My Happy) for only $10 to celebrate Nat'l Stamping Month!  This is such a cute set. Full retail value is $47.90! And it is yours for only $10 with a $50 purchase from CTMH. 

Look at the cute sayings!

I know.. that's ALOT of stamp sets! But who doesn't love 'em?  I sure do.  I'll be posting a CTMH video in the next couple of days with some sweet ideas for using this You are My Happy stamp set.

And for sure, having an alphabet stamp set with upper and lower case letters for under $10, is a dream come true!

Enjoy September and these wonderful offers from Close to My Heart.

 

FUN WITH WORD ART AND SUBWAY ART.

I have so much fun making word art, also known as subway art, using my favorite words.  It seems to be all the rage right now!

The one above I made in about 10 seconds. I just started writing what I love doing! I was just experimenting.

The next one is another quick Fall word art. Wouldn't it be fun to print it out on a piece of 4x5 paper and put it on a card?

 

I would mat it with some orange or golden yellow paper. My printer is defunct right now, so I can't print this out and make a pretty card to show you!   

I played around with adding my blog URL (which you can do in the program I use), and this is what I came up with:

I

I added the frame in my photo editing program, and went to PicMonkey to add the little heart overlays and some of my own finished project photos as overlays.  I love PicMonkey! How cute would this be on the back of my business card or a poster at a vendor booth?  Or, it's a ready made scrapbook page for me to put in my book of memories.

And the next one is a pretty Fall word art that I made last year. I first made the word art using a few "Fallish" words, then went to my Print Shop program and added a border and some leaves, and done!

This would also make a pretty card front, or you could use it on a scrapbook page.

This is a blog post where I'm just having fun. I like trying different things. The program I used (after ALOT of research on free word art programs) is WORDLE.  I love it. It is easy, free and quick. When you get to the home page, go to the "Create" tab. Then type in a bunch of words. The more times you type the word, the larger it will appear. 

It took quite a bit of experimenting on my part to figure out how to get all of the words to go in one direction... and there is even a way you can change the colors of certain words. That's more involved and took some time to just play and figure it out.

You can also put a website URL at the bottom and hit "submit" and it will put words in that are pulled from the website that you entered. 

Once you have your creation, you can "randonmize" and it will give you all sorts of different variations of the words. Then you can change the colors, fonts, layout, etc. Just play around with it and have fun!

If you want to save your finished work of art, go to "Print", and then choose Adobe PDF or whichever PDF program you have on your computer, and hit print.. it will then ask you where you want to save it.  Save as a PDF.  You can then go into your PDF program and "save as" an image and save as a JPEG. I like the JPEGs because they can be edited. That's where I go in and add my border, pictures on top, etc.

Email me or comment here if you have any questions. 

HAVE FUN WITH WORD ART!

 

FRUGAL CRAFTING IDEAS - PART 2

Boy do I have a great "frugal" and thrifty idea today..... a cute technique for your cards or a scrapbook page! 

Go to your local hardware store and buy a couple of feet of WINDOW SCREEN! We're going to do some "screen printing".

Now cut yourself a little rectangle that matches the size you want for the cover of your card (or area of your scrapbook page).

 

 

In this instance, I'm making a quick little card, so I cut a piece about 5 x 5 and placed it over my piece of Colonial White cardstock.

Now get your sponge or dauber, and two or three colors of ink pads.

Tap your sponge onto the first color of ink, and press it over the screen on the left area of your screen and cardstock, about 1/3 of the way across.

Then tap your sponge (same one or a new one if you don't want to contaminate the colors on your sponge) onto the next color of ink, and sponge across the screen in the middle.  Then use the 3rd color of ink and sponge the remaining area.  Press FIRMLY onto the screen so the color will go through onto the paper.

I just used one cosmetic sponge for all three colors as I can toss it when I'm done.. or save it for another similar project using the same colors.

Remove the screen and VOILA! you have a really unique looking "designer" cardstock!  I only used two colors, Lagoon and Pear.  I then distressed the edges of the cardstock with the Lagoon ink.

This looks so pretty! I like the swirly effect. You can add to it or add more colors if you want!

Now adhere this piece to a card (I used a glitter card that I got at JoAnn's - can't beat those sales now and then!), add some ribbon and a sentiment and there you have it. Quick, fun and easy... and you will even feel artistic because you created your own designer cardstock.

I cut the flower shape with my Cricut - you could use a punch. I used the Life is Tweet (retired) stamp set and cut out the 3 little birdies.  I then stamped the little flowers over the "screen printed" design. Any cute stamp set would do. I raised up the sentiment with 3D foam dots.

 

I think I'll try this technique for Halloween, using goldrush, black and slate inks for the screen printing, our Bronze Shimmer Trim instead of ribbon, and the Creepy Creatures stamp set with the little dracula cut out, and "fangs for the memories" in a circle for the sentiment.  Then I'll stamp little black bats all over the screen printed area!  

A fun, quick and easy work of art!