Green With Envy - Heart 2 Heart Challenges

Welcome to this weeks challenge at {Heart 2 Heart}.

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day, so this weeks challenge is all about Green. I am on bed rest from my surgery so no drinks for me. Yes, you heard right, a sober Irish. 

So I finally did the Bokeh trend. It is pretty simple. I used dye inks to do the watercolor background.  Used greens and green - blues. Use the all purpose mat or a stamp block to press your pad against to get the ink. Add water to the ink. Using waterpaper, get it all wet and start adding your watercolor. Wait til it dry to do the next part, or use a heat gun if impatient.
Make circle stencils using the presentation covers and image #M458E2. You can use just cardstock, but I want something that will last. Make sure to leave a border around your circles to get clean circles.  I used 5 sizes. 

Pigment ink will look the best for this. Even if you use other colors than white. Using white pigment ink, randomly add circles. The best look is to have the larger circles be lighter and the smaller circles be more opaque. The tiniest circle is actually an eraser dipped in the ink.  Heat once done to set the ink.

I made the background but couldn't figure out how to use it. Then I remembered I had a cake that had the same colors.  This is a Sunday sweets from {cakewrecks.com}. I love the Sunday cakes. They are amazing. But I digress. Love this cake. So I took the flowers to make my card. The Flowers are from Art Philosophy #M3EB66.

I embossed the sentiment in white embossing powder on the watercolor but it did not show at all. So I water colored a strip a White Daisy then embossed. This makes it blend more with the background but doesn't have the pigment ink so the embossing actually shows up.

Join us  at {Heart 2 Heart} for the green challenge this week. You have all month to play along. You will need to use some Close To My Heart product. Place your order at {nikkageers.ctmh.com} and come back to play.

To make sure you don't miss out on any new tutorials, artwork or members only specials, as it is easy to miss posts on Facebook and I don't post to all of them, join my {Facebook group}

Subscribe to my {Youtube Channel} for updates on new Create Your Card videos.

I offer one on one classes for Cricut Design Space. Stop by for more {details}.

Recipe:

Hello Wonderful Card

Stamps -

   B1443  Hello Wonderful

Paper-

   X254  Card and Envelope 

   1385  White Daisy Cardstock 

Ink-

   Z2153  Sweet Leaf Ink Pad

   Z2165  Juniper Ink Pad

   Z2197  Pear Ink Pad

   Z2195  Lagoon Ink Pad

   Z2163  White Daisy Pigment Ink Pad

   Z891  Versamark Ink Pad

Other -

   Z2068  White Embossing Powder

   Z679  Liquid Glass

   Z1686  Art Philosophy Cartridge
   Z2045  All Purpose Mat

Seasonal Expressions 1 Retiring List

Many items in this wonderful mini will be gone April 1st. Tho, all of the stamp sets are available for a year, unless they use a Cricut cut, then they are available forever. And even some of the embellishments will be available after March as they should be showing up in the new Annual Inspirations coming out later this year. 

So what is retiring? Here is a list of everything you must buy now before they are gone.

Heartstrings paper pack X7193B

Heartstrings Complements  X7193C

Heartstrings Assortment  Z3015

Workshop On The Go Heartstrings Cardmaking Kit 

Picture My Life  Heartstrings Z3046

Hopscotch Paper Pack  X7194B

Hopscotch Complements X7194C

Hopscotch  Assortment  Z3016

Workshop On The Go Hopscotch G1091

Picture My Life Hopscotch  Z3045

You're The Bomb C1617

Cut Above Birthday Treat Bag Z2056

Cut Above Valentine Treat Bag Z2056

Junebug Puffies Z3038

Stuck On You Puffies  3037

Happy Day Mini Clothespins Z3029

Lovestruck Mini Clothespins  Z3028

Also, the Hostess Only stamp sets will retire.  You must host a gathering to get these stamp sets.

Place your order today before they are all gone at {nikkageers.ctmh.com}

I am having surgery

I am having surgery tomorrow so I will not be creating anything new for a while. I will still be doing Heart 2 Heart challenges as those have already been done, but no new artwork or tutorials until I can get back in the craft room. Which may be the end of the month. I am hoping to be able to before then, but we will see. Being cut open and gutted (I am having a hysterectomy) does put you down for a bit. Thanks for the well wishes and come back when I am able to craft again.

Choose Happy SOTM - Hip Hip Hooray

I am back with my second project using Choose Happy, this months stamp of the month.  To see my first project, visit {Choose Happy SOTM Blog Hop}.

For my second project, I wanted to use that cute wood frame. I hand cut the frame, which if you have seen some of my other posts, I hate to do. But this was simple enough so it wasn't too bad. 

This floral stamp set is not found in the current Idea Book. But it is still available. Why? Because these flowers can be cut using the Art Philosophy Cartridge.  I did not cut any of the flowers tho. It is almost a one layer card. I could have made it one layer by using a mask for the frame. Not sure why I didn't. I may have just thought of that. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

I found out that my stamp cleaner leaves a slight color after it cleans it, kinda greyish. So when I stamped the Glacier, they came out different colors. The "blue" flower in the right corner actaully looks lavender. So now I stamp off on my mat til it is clean. 

Choose Happy is only available during the month of March for $5 with qualifying purchase so place your order today at {nikkageers.ctmh.com} 

To make sure you don't miss out on any new tutorials, artwork or members only specials, as it is easy to miss posts on Facebook and I don't post to all of them, join my {Facebook group}

Subscribe to my {Youtube Channel} for updates on new Create Your Card videos.

I offer one on one classes for Cricut Design Space. Stop by for more {details}.

Recipe:

Hip Hip Hooray Card

Stamps -

   S1503  Choose Happy

   D1491  Hooray Bouquet

Paper -

   X254  Card And Envelope

   1385  White Diasy Cardstock

Ink -

   Z2105  Black Ink Pad

   Z2640  Thistle Ink Pad

   Z2128  Hollyhock Ink Pad

   Z2641  Glacier Ink Pad

   

Oh My, Did I Really Make Those?

The more you craft, the better your projects get.  Back in 2010, I made my first cards. i had been scrapbooking since the late 90s, but never ventured into card making. Unless I did some when I was a Girl Scout. We did so many art projects that I don't remember everything.

So I decided I was going to make some cards for my Gramma as a gift. This was right before I became a Close To My Heart consultant, so I didn't have many materials. Most where from free in magazines. And materials from scrapbooking in the 90's. Like mulberry paper, and eyelets. Shudder. I had a lot of paper I would have never purchased myself because it was free. Although, try to remember the paper that was available back in the 90's. It was horrible. Like this bone paper.

Lets sit and ponder this paper for a second. Bright, colorful bone shaped treats on paper. I bought it for dog layouts but thankfully I never used it. It was so horrible, the only way to use it was to make this hat for my Bonnie's 3rd birthday. 

But lets look at some of these wonderful cards I made.

The damask is actually a Christmas gift tag. Some marbled paper and organza ribbon held down by brads. This is actually one of the better cards. 

Oh, the horror of the eyelet border. This is one of those free papers. I really didn't add any sentiments to these cards. Mainly because I didn't have many stamps to do so.

Ripped paper. I don't even know what shape that is suppose to be.  Stamping and embossing "stitching" on the chipboard ampersand. I used cross stitch canvas for the background. The tag was part of a scrapbook kit and did not work with the pattern of the ampersand.  

This one is awesome. As in, I am in awe that I would even call this a card. Again, free pattern paper. For some reason I decided to use it as a whole piece of paper. The embossed frame just hanging all willy nilly on the card. It's not even highlighting a sentiment. It's just hanging there. 

Old school Cricut use here. That is some bad photography. I am ashamed. I am going to be a photographer and this looks like a 3 year old took it with their barbie camera.  Here is some major 90's style going on.  Mulberry paper people. This is the stuff you had to wet to rip. Then you got those awesome frayed edges. Eyelets in the corner, organza ribbon. At the color scheme is good. I even think the Cricut cut is vellum. 

What I don't understand is that I had these magazine where I got the free paper. Why did I not use the, for inspiration. When I first started blogging, my projects were a little better than this, unless I copied a card in a magazine. Then they were beautiful. That's because they were total case's. But you have to start somewhere.

Now lets come back to now.

{http://nikkageers.blogspot.com/2015/02/Choosehappymarchsotmbloghop.html}

 

{http://nikkageers.blogspot.com/2015/02/entwined-challenge-at-heart-2-heart.html}

So much better. The more we craft, the better we get. 

I still use inspirations, but not as many total case's. 

So how has your crafting changed over the years?

Opposites Attract- Heart 2 Heart Challenges

Welcome to this weeks challenge at {Heart 2 Heart Challenges}.

Opposites Attract this week. You can choose opposite colors, seasons, or are your family members complete opposite. We want to see your take on this, however that may be.

I had the idea of using silver and gold immediately when I heard this challenge. I even had this picture be my inspiration over on Pinterest. But making it into a working project was difficult. I knew what I wanted, but couldn't see the final project in my head. I still am not sure how I feel about this card. But it is nice for it to be done and able to work on a new project. I was going to use texture paste, but couldn't get the bold silver and gold look like a wanted. I tried embossing powders, but couldn't get a clean look to it.

So here is the troublesome project.

The hexagons are leftover parts when I made the stencil, #M45C8C. I use presentation covers you can buy at office supply stores for my stencils. They made a thicker, good quality stencil. But they aren't meant to be colored, unlike the acetate you can buy for drafting in arts supply store. So I took a nail file and roughed them up so I could color them. I used our metallic markers. I left some clear ones to use. Liquid glass holds them down. I tried to spread it out as much as possible so it wasn't as visible on the clear ones,but it's as good as it's going to get. I could have tried using my Xyron, if I knew where it was. That might have worked better, but you can't use what you don't have, or can't find. 

Mr, &, and  Mrs are cut from my Explore using our glitter paper using font from Artbooking and Art Philosophy. Believe it or not, but I used the same paper for both. It is silver glitter, and I turned mr and mrs to gold using ShinHan markers in yellow.

I hope you play along with us this week at {Heart 2 Heart}. You must use some sort of Close To My Heart product. So if you need some, go to {nikkageers.ctmh.com}, then come back to play. You have all month to play along. 

To make sure you don't miss out on any new tutorials, artwork or members only specials, as it is easy to miss posts on Facebook and I don't post to all of them, join my {Facebook group}

Subscribe to my {Youtube Channel} for updates on new Create Your Card videos.

I offer one on one classes for Cricut Design Space. Stop by for more {details}.

Recipe:

Mr & Mrs card

paper-

   Cards and Envelopes X254

   Black And Grey Glitter Paper Z1829

Ink-

   Golden Yellow ShinHan Marker Z2452

   Metallic Markers Z1768

Other-

   Liquid Glass Z679

   Artbooking Z1906

   Art Philosophy Z1686

   Presentation Covers (non ctmh)

5 Minute Tutorial - Cut Multiple Colors On Same Mat

It's Sunday so I have a new 5 minute tutorial for you. And this one even has a 5 minute card with it.

Ever wonder how to reduce your mat amounts? You have 4 cuts and each one is a different color. So that mean 4 different mats. What a pain. But if you have room, you can make all of the cuts on one mat, and still use different colors.

So here are my images. I have used balloon #M45A50 from Artiste and Happy Birthday  #M58174 from Artbooking. I welded the words to make them one cut.

Each balloon is going to be a different color and the sentiment is going to be a different color.

Using sync, drag all the images so they are the same color. This step is important. Each color will get its own mat, so to have them on the same mat, they need to be synced.

Hit go and it will bring you to the mat preview. Here is where you can place the images where you need to. You can do this on the design mat, just make sure to select all and attach, but I like moving things on this mat. It's easier to line up on this mat because of the .25 in allowance on each side of the mat. Remember this when you are placing your paper. Just because you image is an inch, if you only use an inch, it will not fit because of the allowance.

All you do here is click and drag where you want it. You have have it all grouped together or you can place in each corner. it is all up to you. Just pay attention to the grid for the location on the mat.

Here is my paper laid out. The sentiment took up a 3 x 4 section, then the balloon took an inch next to it. I cut the balloon paper 2 x 2, just make sure I was good with the allowance because they are on the corners. The green paper next to the sentiment could have been smaller because it wasn't against the edge.

And all cut out. Sorry about the pictures of the mats. I am short so it is hard to get a picture of the full mat without climbing on something.

Now that the extra is removed, you can see exactly how it is lined up, just like on the mat preview.

So here is the card I made from it.

 This card took about 5 minutes to make once it was cut. I think it took more time getting the images in Design Space and have the Explore cut them then it did actually making the card. I used our Bonding Memories glue to glue the sentiment. I find this the quickest way to glue down words like this. Make sure to use a all purpose mat or scrap paper because you are just going to swipe the glue against the cardstock and it will get over the edges. You can use either the pen or the broad tip for this. I used the current Stamp Of The Month for the balloon strings. Some washi tape masked the sentiment so the balloon strings did not get stamped on the sentiment. Some foam tape to pop the balloons up. And that is all.  All the cardstock is old retired scraps that I had.   This technique is great for using up your scraps. Tip, if you are cutting scraps that are an inch or smaller, tape them down with washi tape to make sure they don't move. I did this using 1 inch scraps of glitter paper and it worked great. You may have to change the dial to a click above what you would normally use with the washi. But I had no problem using the same setting, Washi tape is pretty thin, or at least the Close To My Heart kind I use is.

I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial. And my quicky card. 

If you would like to check out my other tutorials, visit my {tutorial page}.

To make sure you don't miss out on any new tutorials, artwork or members only specials, as it is easy to miss posts on Facebook and I don't post to all of them, join my {Facebook group}

Subscribe to my {Youtube Channel} for updates on new Create Your Card videos.

I offer one on one classes for Cricut Design Space. Stop by for more {details}.

I have used the following Close To My Heart products. You can order them at {nikkageers.ctmh.com}

Recipe:

Happy Birthday Card

Stamps -

   Choose Happy Stamp Of The Month S1503

Paper - 

   Cards and Envelopes X254

   Retired Assorted Cardstocks

    (Current cardstocks that could replace them

      Honey Cardstock X5668

      Cranberry Cardstock 1272

      Olive Cardstock 1245

      Gypsy Cardstock X5757

      Whisper Cardstock X5929)

Ink-

    Black Ink Pad Z2105

Other-

   Artiste Cartridge Z1790

   Artbooking Cartridge Z1906

   Bonding Memories Pen Z553

   3D Foam Tape Z1151