Congratulations to Sara and Rob

We are so happy that Sara and Rob have announced their engagement. Plans for a Fall 2010 wedding are being made. We couldn't be happier and wish them all the love and happiness of a lifetime.

Fall Leaves

Falling leaves, swirling in the wind is what this card reminds me of. Stamped the leaves from Autumn Splendor stamp set in Autumn Terracotta then colored them with watercolor pencils, stamped over the colored leaves with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder to protect the colored leaves. With our wonderful clear stamps you are able to stamp over an image easily by looking thru the clear block and stamp to line up the images. Then using direct to paper technique just smeared on brown bag, a little desert sand and a touch of cocoa in the corners. Stamped Playful Flourishes in brown bag randomly over the background for that swirly effect and a hint of cocoa flourishes in corner. Mounted on olive then on Goldrush to complete the card. Want to learn some cool techniques give me a call. Free instructions are always provided.

Happy Fall

I love the Fall best of all. The cool temperatures the beautiful colors and the tastes of apple cider and pumpkin pie. This first card was done with a brayered background of Honey, Autumn Terracotta, and Chocolate Inks on a white background. I had stamped the words Happy Fall in Versamark, then embossed with clear embossing powder to protect the white words. Stamped the trees in black over my brayered background, sponged black in the corners and wipped off the white words. Mounted on layers of olive cardstock then Honey card. Hope you enjoy it, fun, fast and so so Fall.

Merry Pursuits

Yep, I'm already working on Christmas cards. I know it's early, but
I have so many terrific ideas that if I don't start now I won't get them
done. This one combines my love of Cuttlebug embossing folders,
Nestabitlies and stamping. This little guy and 3 of his friends make
Merry Pursuits B1313 a wonderful stamp set for young and old. Get your little ones involved in your cards this year and stamp up the images and let them do the coloring, then together you can assemble the cards and make it truly a family card. Whether you color these with crayon, colored pencils or markers like my elf, it's fun and easy.

As always to order any of the great Close To My Heart products that you see, just click on the link to be taken to my consultant website. While you are there, take a look around, you will be able to view all the current catalogs with the click of your mouse at the Products tab, view other artwork I've done at My Art, check out specials in the center section, view the current Stamp of the Month and additional artwork for these special stamps by clicking on the box for Stamp of the Month on the right side. In addition you will be able to watch webisodes of stamping techniques at the CTMH TV link and order all your favorite products at Shop Online. Scrapbookers and cardmakers should check out the Workshops on the Go link to view layouts using the Level 2 My Reflections papers with directions on how to create the featured artwork. There is something for everyone and I'd love to hear from you to let me know what you found helpful. I've been having some problems updating My calendar, but check back often as I will be posting upcoming workshops for Christmas cards and techniques.

Happiness Cards

Two very different cards, both using unique techniques, with the Happiness stamp set C 1310. The circle card was made top opening and cut using a coluzzle circle, placing the template just below the top of a top fold card and cutting both front and back at the same time, leaving the hinge area intack. Again one of the favorite colors purple pansy is used, this time dry embossed and lightly sanded for the embossed lines to stand out. The flower is pop dotted for dimension.

A copy of probably my favorite of all swap cards I have received. I received the original card from Nancy Brown, a very talented CTMH consultant, at the Orlando Convention in 2008. Duplicate as nearly as possible, I couldn't find a thing I didn't just love about it. Lots of techniques, including using a cuttlebug embossing template Swiss Dots, sanding the dry embossed lines, random stamping the background, embossing the center images in white daisy on Ocean cardstock then cutting them out. Her very clever way of arranging the cardstocks and you'll want to click on the image to enlarge it so you can see the faux brads, which are actually just small hole punches that are filled with liquid glass. How cool is that? This was one of the cards my ladies learned to make at my last Hostess Club meeting along with 2 of Treasures cards below. If you want to learn how you too can join my Hostess Club just give me a call. Maybe you know a few friends that would like to learn great new techniques every month, I would love to start a new hostess club just for you.

Treasures

Treasures the September Stamp of the Month was so much fun. Here are some ways that we used this stamp set for cards. I don't know anyone who sees a fluff and doesn't want to just blow it to the winds. Enjoy, I hope these make you smile like I did when I created them.

Dark cardstock in this case Purple Pansy embossed with White Daisy embossing powder makes this fluff just jump off the paper and the little fluffs seem to fly across the card. Then a spritz of homemade (call me for the recipe, you won't believe how easy this is and cheap) glimmery misty spray in white sparkles in the background. I don't know if this will show up in the photo, but the mist really does glimmer. The purple pansy panel was then adhered to a standard white daisy card with just a touch of purple pansy ink distressing the edges. Inside (not pictured) little purple pansy 2nd generation stamped fluffs are randomed stamped to give the inside some extra punch.

Two more fun cards, showing some of the other great images on this stamp set. The yellow You are my Sunshine card also uses Nestabilities for the shapes and Liquid Applique for the puffed dimension on the fluff.

Halloween Votive Candle Holder

A fun and different paper project, one that can be adapted to any season. Here is a votive candle holder showing a Halloween theme. One 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock folded and cut with one sheet of vellum for the windows, makes this project inexpensive and unique. Battery operated votive candles from the Dollar Store light up the windows to make an eyecatching centerpiece for mantle or table. Stamps and paper are Close To My Heart. Visit my website for more examples and to contact me for instructions.

Check out the special Thanks- a- bration

Limited time August 3 thru August 17th. Spend $100 on any of our great CTMH products and receive a current My Reflections Level 2 paper packet along with the August Stamp of the Month for Free ( a total $35.90). CTMH is waiving the shipping and handling and tax on the free items as well. Offer good on My CTMH orders, individual or gathering orders. One free paper packet per qualifying order.

Cuttlebug meets CTMH

Here are some cards I did last month playing with my Cuttlebug folders and CTMH papers and stamps. I love the look of dry embossing and enjoy creating using some advanced techniques to get the embossing just where I want it and leaving blank unembossed areas for stamping. Give me a call and we can set a date for some one on one free classes if you're interested.

The blush card above shows how wonderful the dry embossing stands out when lightly sanded to make the images pop.

Simple sometimes says it best. This beautiful font teamed with dry embossing on a white card with just a hint of sparkle sets off the scalloped edge on the blue liner.

Swiss dots and a border folder combine with blush cardstock and ribbon

to make a sweet thank you card. I just love these two folders used together.

Can you tell I'm loving the color blush, must be thinking about my girls as Shannon just had a birthday and Sara has one coming up. Can there be anything more feminine than swiss dots? Teamed up with a border punch from Fiskers, this is simple, quick and just makes you smile.

Entering the 21st century

Wow it has been a long time since I've been here, mainly because I got so frustrated trying to add things to my blog using dial up service that I just quit. Now that we have finally entered the 21st century at our house and have high speed internet, we're going to give this another try and see if we can keep up with the times.

I'm still creating almost every day and loving "Doing It With Ink". We have so many new and exciting happenings that will be taking place in the next few months that I know I'll be busy trying to update my website http://www.janeo.myctmh.com/ to reflex all the news. I haven't been able to add art or update my calendar since CTMH upgraded our websites and left the old dial up users behind. I'll be working on finding pictures of some of my recent cards and layouts to add to the website and here to show you what I've been creating.

A couple of weeks ago I did my first quilt/blanket for my littlest grandsons, Jackson and Joshua.

Embroidered by machine onto black fleece squares and then made into a quilt with yellow and red fleece in true Disney colors. Such fun, and I've definetly been bitten by the machine embroidery bug.Working on some surprises which I can't tell you about right now. Larry is experimenting with some embroidery patches I'm doing for him for his regalia. Damien was over a couple of weeks ago when he got back from a trip to Nebraska and Wyoming and we set to work creating him a couple of shirts.

Watch for exciting news from CTMH. New catalogs will be arriving and will go live on Sept. 1. Exciting digital scrapbooking later in the fall, then retirement of some products and lots more new again in January. I've already made my reservations for convention in D.C. for July 2011 and if any of you other CTMH consultants want to join me, we will have a blast.