June birthday cards/ ATT Birthday Club

i belong to the birthday club over at the All thnigsTim yahoo group for 2013. There are 42 of us signed up and we just have to make a card and send to everyone involved during the month of their birthdays. Quite simple and it keeps me creating as I never seem to have time but have to get some made for this. June was a heavy hitter month so I made them all the same and mailed them off yesterday with the last two of the month going out tomorrow. I enjoyed making these. I started out with white cardstock and clear embossed a background stamp from hero arts on it. Die cut them with one of Tim's dies. use a blending tool with my Gathered twigs inkpad and wiped off the excess with a baby wipe over the embossed area. Used pitch black distress on a blending tool around the edges. stamped the frame from the Silouhettes set onto cream and fussy cut around them . Die cut the movers and shapers silhouette on black cardstock. Ran my cards through the vagabond in the fleur-de-lis embossing folder with just the card fronts insde it. Direct to paper with Gathered twigs over the raised parts and the edges. Tied some twine onto them and just glued all the layers together. Reminded me of old wall-paper and a picture hanging on it. Hope the y all like them.

May CTMH gathering

Judy was the hostess this month for our stamp club so we all piled into my car and drove down together. It was a terrible stormy drive with tons of rain. Three inches in my gauge in the morning! But we made the most of it and had a great time stamping. Here are the three cards I demonstrated for them and the pinwheel one was our make and take. We used the fabulous Dream-Pop parer collection for it. I picked up some straws at Dunkin' Donuts to use on it as well. When I saw the bright orange straws with pink stripes, I thought of this paper pack and had to have them.Turned out so cute. I also changed the sentiment on the honeycomb one to the one from the set that says You're So Sweet at the party. I got this idea on another CTMH consultant's blog and really liked the shaped card so I imitated it here. On the Father's Day card, I added some brads to the reddish brown panel to bling it up.

My visitors

I finally have broke down and bought a new oriole feeder that holds the orange slices and jelly and put it out yesterday. Within an hour, I had feathered friends. They usually have had to just use my hummingbird feeders but after watching this guy struggle to balance on it, I decided it was time to spend the money and get one designed for them. They are so beautiful!

Tim's Twelve tags of 2013- May

i finally have sat down and made this month's tag. Can't believe half the month is gone already. Iwent with a bird theme on my tag. I didn't have the enamel things, so used an old Kunkins square piece and glossy paper behind it for the alcohol ink. Then glossy accents to hold together, the rub-ons, and black paint dabber to dress up the edges. I had fun making this one this morning.

Twelve Tags of 2013- April

Still nine days of the month left, and I have finished my tag for this month. Actually, I couldn't quit at one so I made four background tags and finished two of them off to this month's tag. I didn't have the stamp that Tim used, so I improvised with a couple of his butterfly stamps from other sets. Of course I couldn't find my Clearly For Art film, so really did a lot of organizing while on the hunt, but alas, I found all three colors!!! Yeah. Couldn't find the Distress Paints either except the metallic because I just got those last week, but finally surfaced them after much digging and cussing. My room is such a shame! Who can come over and straighten it up for me so that everything has a place??? Anyone???? I really like how these came out and had a good time making them.

Close To My Heart- April gathering

Wow, this coming Wednesday night is the gathering for this month and I have just now gotten around to getting my projects made. I visitted a bloghop early this month and found tons of inspiration there from other consultants. What eye candy! Anyway, here are the three projects Iwill be making for the hostess that night and demoing them for the group. The one with the doily and bird stamp will be the one that they will all be creating as their make and take that night. I always make three projects and then have all of the gals make one themselves afterwards while I take the orders and they nibble on refreshments. It is a really enjoyable evening and they all seem to love it. We have seven regular gals and a couple that attend most of the time. I am loving it! Sure am having a ball bonding with my much ignored until recently Cricut Expressions machine and playing with the two wonderful cartridges exclusive to CTMH. Used it a ton on these cards. Fun, fun stuff on them both!

April's Tip-In Pages

Fran was my partner this month for the InkyRangers tip-in page swap and her theme is Christmas. Her page size is quite lage so I alsways have to seam them together to get her size. Here's what I came up with for her this time. I sure hope she likes it.

Another card from this month's CTMH club

Just realized that I never added the third card from last week's Close To My Heart stamp club for March. It was soooo easy. I simply used the instructions found in the booklet of the exclusive Cricut cartridge Art Philosophy. I need to get these out and play with them more. There are some really cool shapes on both of the cartidges offered only at CTMH. Check it out on my site and contact me to order your own or order it from my website.

March Tag- 2013

Just under the wire, i am sneaking in with Tim's tag from March. Tomorrow morning he will be posting his april tag and I just now finished my March tag. I had to make the grass from my Martha Stewart scissors as I got my die a couple days ago and when I went to cut it in my Vagabond, it locked up and the motor was dead in mid-stream. An hour and a half later of tears and swearing, I repeatedly powered down and back on and ran a hair at a time until I got it backed out. Last week I ruined my brand new matchbook die in there along with the cutting pads and crease pas and still don't know if they are sending me a new one or not. I sent pictures after talking to them on the phone, but haven't heard a word back. Now this! I don't think I will be replacing my Vagabond and it actually has had very little use as it is over in the corner so my Big Shot is just handier to use. I also made my own flowers instead of using the metal foliage ones. Had to use a Simon Says banner die as my tattered banners has gone missing as well. Just not my month I guess!

Tattered Floral Challenge

Don't know if you've seen Tim's challenge on his blog to win a bunch of Tim goodness or not, but you should check it out if you haven't. It goes until the 22nd of March and then Mario will send some lucky winner the goodies. I was hurrying to get Savanna's (my youngest daughter) birthday card and gift card holder done anddecided to use the tattered florals I made up on them. I used some denim, burlap, shelf liner, and patterned paper for them.I wanted to use my new matchbook die and pillowbox die to make them, but discovered I don't have the pillowbox one. What! How did that happen!!! Anyway, I found one on my Cricut Cartridge art Philosophy rom Close to My Heart. (you can order from me if you want, mini commercial, lol) When I tried to cut the matchbook one, the blades eparated from the die and are now stuck to my cutting plate with the paper stuck in there as well. Emailed Sizzix, now have to wait to hear from them. So, I did it the old-fashioned way, cut to size, and scored and after monkeying a bit, got it right. Ran the front and flap through an embossing folder, and highlighted it with walnut stain DI. Used an ink blending tool and highlighted the edges and seams with frayed burlap and the tiny attacher to staple it. On the pillowbox cut with my Cricut, I stamped a doily image in white ink, then overstaped with Tim's background stamps in several distress colors and a couple of Archival colors, then added the tattered florals and some leaves I cut while I had the cartidge in the machine. Had to have some green on it since she is a St. Patrick's Day baby(22)now. Need to get it in gear as we are taking her and her new beau out to dinner to celebrate and we haven't met him yet.

using scraps

Here's one I made up using scraps that were laying around the table. One more March birthday to send to so might be the one for her.

CTMH

Playing with a few ideas for this month's stamping club on the 26th. Here's some of them I came up with.