Close to My Heart

Quick Creation Time

 

This uses the new Zoe paper & some of the current Blossom Paper.  I’m still trying to use up scraps and sneak some crafting time in around Mom, farm, bookwork and other duties!

Zoe&Blossom_Card

I ran the centers of the flowers through using the dotty embossing folder.  (Not sure the photo shows it.   Also used the bone folder to curve the edges of the petals a little.

The sentiment is from the August SOTM Framed.  The shape is cut with the new Cricut Artistry Cartridge!

Happy Crafting!

Where to Start?!?

There is so much to be excited about this month.

Close to my Heart is releasing sneak peaks to the next Annual Inspirations!

New paper packs, colors, stamps & ARTISTRY!   yippee.

I can’t just pick one area to start,  so I’ll cheat and show the new colors & the new Cricut Cartridge.  (tee hee)

CTMH Cricut Cartridge - Artistry

CTMH Cricut Cartridge – Artistry

See the new colors in the background,  the coordinating stamp sets & A few of the images you can create.
Here’s some more details images of all the many shapes!Artistry-Background Artistry- Artistry-shapes Artistry-layers Artistry-icon Artistry-fonts Artistry-bannersYou can order this Cartridge a month before the new Annual Inspirations book is released.
There are a few more items you can order as a sneak peak,  I will list them here,  and hope to put up photos soon.  Now the tractor is calling.  (Have to make hay when the sun shines.)

Studio J - Zoe Layouts

Happy Crafting!

Gypsy Card Workshop & .gypsy files

My Mom is an amazing woman.  She has always embraced technology and was quick to use design studio with her Cricut Expression machine.  When she learned about the gypsy,  she got one of those and quickly fell in love.  I wasn’t sold on the cricut line as I sell CTMH and wanted something that would help me cut the stamped images.  I looked into the Sure Cuts A Lot and Makes the Cuts and decided there was too much grey area for my comfort and researched other cutting machines.  I ended up purchasing a machine that allowed me to scan my stamped images and it would cut that exact shape/size.  I was in heaven.

Then,  CTMH had to jump into the Cricut Cartridge wagon and I had to have a cricut.  Once I got the first CTMH cartridge Art Philosophy I was impressed with all the great things I could cut and with a little imagination I could do so many cool things!   I did think I was wasting time when I wanted to do many images at different sizes, but I worked my way around that problem too.

As we do with family,  I asked Mom to watch the kids for me so I could go to a scrap camp.  We arrived a couple days before the camp to settle in and have some fun with grandma.  I had a camp roommate project in mind and as I knew Mom had a cricut I packed my paper & tool bag ready to create some cool gifts in the evenings before camp.  This is when I fell in love with the Gypsy.  Mom is fortunate enough to have a summer place and a winter place.  She doesn’t carry all her stuff back and forth, so her cartridges were only on her gypsy and I would have to use it to create my gifts.  After very little time and a few pointers from Mom,  I was designing and cutting using the gypsy.  Now I wanted one, but the practical side of me rebelled against the price tag.   Patience paid off and I found a used gypsy with some cartridges already loaded on it for a great price.  (Part of the cost was covered by bartered crafting supplies!)

CraftingwithAmanda.com .gypsy filesJumping ahead 4 years, I use the Gypsy for all my workshops and in day to day personal crafting.  It’s so nice to have all the cuts that I made for a workshop sample layout all ready to go when the ladies are here.  We just load their paper and presto,  the cuts are exactly the same.    It also means that they will have the same amount of paper left that I did so they can create their layouts the same if they want.

Why do I share all this with you?   This winter was strange for many of my ladies.  Some were out of town taking care of  family,  other’s left us and the snow for a while and headed south,  and a couple who did stay in town were also dealing with family health issues, or the occasional snow storm prevented us from getting together.  As we were scattered to the winds,  it was hard to have everyone order the workshops at the right time.   Wanting to have a workshop with my gals,  I decided I would create one of my own using the bulk papers from one of the new paper packs.  (At that time the new seasonal book had just come out so I choose the Heartstrings paper pack.)  I got out my Wishes book and my gypsy and came up with these three cards.

CraftingwithAmanda.com Gyspy card workshop CraftingwithAmanda.com Gyspy card workshop CraftingwithAmanda.com Gyspy card workshopThe top card (card #1) is from page 53,  the middle card (card #2) p89 and the bottom card (card #3) was inspired by p 97.

Each lady would make 5 of each card and have 15 cards to take home at the end of the workshop.  The gypsy files are set up to cut for 2 sets of workshops, so if you cut all the different sheets you will have pieces to create 30 cards!   There is also an instruction file that you don’t really cut,  but I use it for instructions as there are some simple squares and rectangles that you can cut with a straight cutter.  I think I limited myself to the Artbooking Cartridge & Art Philosophy.

Here are the files.
Heartstrings Cranberry
Heartstrings Neutral CS
Heartstrings Dark CS
Heartstrings Other Cut Info

Happy Crafting

 

 

 

 

Techniques Pop Dots & Window Panes

It’s been a comfortable summer so far.  We could use a stretch of sunny dry days so the hay can be finished.   All in all,  a lot better than snow.  🙂

If you would like a copy of my technique instructions file,  leave a comment with your email and I will send it to you.

Love using Pop Dots on cards especially.  Gives some dimension to the card, but still ships without extra postage.  I’ve also been know to use pop dots to keep the wings of my butterfly away from the page and look more like they are ready to take off and fly.

craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags

craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags craftingwithAmanda.com Technique TagsOn the club night sample hopefully you can see what I mean with the butterfly wings.

craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags

Using the window pane technique is a great way to fill a little more space if your image is just a tad smaller than you would like it to be.  I’ve also found that it can make a quick stunning card too.  (I’ve taken a flower and cut it into a window pane and voila a card.)

craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags

You don’t have to back it with another color,  but it does make it easier to dry fit in the window pane part is already glued down to another paper.

craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags

Here is the club night sample.

craftingwithAmanda.com Technique Tags

Here are the stamp sets I’ve used in this example, and many of the other tags that we will be looking at in the upcoming posts:

C1605 Happy to Be Friends

D1632 Amour

I also used Seaside papers (X7192B)

Our awesome markers were also put to use throughout this process of creating the technique tags.

Contest Information:

Now you might want to know how you can earn chances to win this great prize.   There are several ways.  Write a comment on this post.  (1 entry)   Share this post link on your Facebook post and let me know on my FB page Crafting with Amanda that’s you’ve done it.  (1 entry per share).  Like my FB page.  (3 entries)  If your a pinterest person, for every technique tag you pin, you receive an entry.  (up to 35!)    At the end of the contest I will assign each entry a number and using a random number generator will pick a winner.  I will announce the winner on this blog, and then contact them to get the address where the tag book should be sent.

Happy Crafting and Good Luck!

 

Techniques Patchwork & Faux Stitching

The 4th of July celebrations were minimal around here with tractor duties and laundry.   We did manage to end the day as a family with an icy treat and fireworks.  That was nice.

I also managed to take a few more photos of the completed technique tags. (Still have some craft time in my future to finish the rest!  yay)   That means I have some more techniques to share with you.  I’ve really enjoyed being able to re-visit techniques that I have forgotten about,  or just haven’t taken the time to do them.

You may have noticed that I’ve used the same stamp sets and colors for all of the tags.  Part of that is so the completed book is prettier, but most of all it was to show the versatility of stamps when you employ different techniques as you use them.

tag_fauxstitch_ins

Faux Stitching is a fast and fun way to add some framing or interest to your project.  After I finished the “stitching” around the bicycle,  I wish I would have done it closer to the edge of the white paper,  but I do think it looks pretty real.

tag_fauxstitch_samp

I really like this patchwork for using up scraps too.  I will attach strips of left over paper to typing paper then cut it up as accent pieces on my project.

tag_patchword_instag_patchwork_samp

If you don’t want to cut out (or punch) an image,  you can always use it to fill in the negative space of a punched image.

tag_patchword_samp2

Club night samples:CraftingwithAmanda.com Patchwork Technique

CraftingwithAmanda.com  Faux Stitching

Here are the stamp sets I’ve used in this example, and many of the other tags that we will be looking at in the upcoming posts:

C1605 Happy to Be Friends

D1632 Amour

I also used Seaside papers (X7192B)

Our awesome markers were also put to use throughout this process of creating the technique tags.

Contest Information:

Now you might want to know how you can earn chances to win this great prize.   There are several ways.  Write a comment on this post.  (1 entry)   Share this post link on your Facebook post and let me know on my FB page Crafting with Amanda that’s you’ve done it.  (1 entry per share).  Like my FB page.  (3 entries)  If your a pinterest person, for every technique tag you pin, you receive an entry.  (up to 35!)    At the end of the contest I will assign each entry a number and using a random number generator will pick a winner.  I will announce the winner on this blog, and then contact them to get the address where the tag book should be sent.

If you would like a copy of my technique instructions file,  leave a comment with your email and I will send it to you.

Happy Crafting and Good Luck!