Cricut Artiste Project - Birthday Card

A friend of mine contacted me last week asking if I could make her granddaughter a birthday card. I told her I was working on some projects and wasn't sure I could get to it since I was getting a new cartrdige in to review. After I got the cartridge and stamps I called her and let her know that I could kill two birds with one stone and make her card while also making another project using the Artiste Bundle that I received from Melanie.

Supplies Used:
Cricut Artiste
Cricut George
CTMH Birthday Collection Stamps
Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls folder
Imaginisce All Kids Of Happy
Bazzil Bling
Mica Stardream cardstock
Various cardstock
5/8" satin ribbon
Various Inks
Mounting Foam
Brads

The inside sentiment is a stamp from the Close To My Heart Birthday Collection that is included in this awesome bundle. There are a few other great stamps on there as well, including the cupcake, and hopefully I will be using more soon.

I decided to add a strip of patterned paper on the inside of the card to help decorate it up a bit. Sometimes I do this and sometimes I don't, I think it just depends on my mood at the time and how ready I am to get the project done.

I wanted something decorative to frame the cupcake and found this cut on the Artiste cart. I can't even begin to tell you what all cuts on are the cart but it seems to cover most of the holidays, different occasions and still has plenty of other everyday cuts as well. I did use George to cut the circle for the middle of the decorative circle *okie can't imagine Cricut life without good ol' George*.

You can see in this picture where I used the coordinating stamp to stamp on the wrapper of the cupcake. I used a small ink pad to just ink that part of the stamp and then stamp on the cut. Since the stamps are clear it is very easy to line up on the coordinating cut.

There was some debate on the Cricut MB about which cartridge was better, the CTMH Art Philosophy or the new CTMH Artiste...personally I don't want to have to do without either!! If you are interested in ordering this bundle you can go to Melanie's CTMH website and order your's there.

Cricut Artiste Project - Name Banner

I recently received the new Close to My Heart Cricut Artiste Bundle for review from Melanie Brown who also has the website Courtney Lane Designs and claim to fame of being one of the partners at Everyday Cricut. Mel contacted me asking if I would be interested in doing a review for her and of course I agreed! The great thing is that Mel knows if I don't like a product I will be honest and give my honest review, however she must have known I was going to LOVE this one!

First off I started looking through the handbook, which I will admit I had already looked on Design Studio but seeing the handbook made things make more sense. It took me a long time to go through the handbook because there is SOOO MUCH on this cartridge!

After looking through the chipboard sheets that are included in the bundle I decided to use the mini dimensional album pieces for a project...but not for an album.

One of the great things of these bundles is that all the pieces include the size you need to choose to cut your papers, whether it be chipboard or for the stamps that come in the bundle


SUPPLIES USED:
Cricut Artiste cartridge
Basic Grey 6x6 Lemonade
Various Ribbon
Various Bling
Stickles
Hot Glue Gun
Mounting Foam
Wire

My Goddaughter Amber starts college this month and will be moving to the dorms. I asked what her colors were of her bedding and decided to make a name banner for her so she can have something to put on her walls. Since the chipboard album had 6 pieces it worked great and I just added a butterfly on the extra piece. I used some wire to make the antenna for the butterfly.




All the cuts on the name banner are from Artiste, the flowers, flourishes, letters, leaves,butterfly...yep all of them!

I added some flat back gems for the flower centers to bling it up a little. On the letters I cut two and off set them since there isn't a shadow for the font, which I do frequently with fonts that don't have included shadows. It seems to work out just as well in most cases.

The letter shadow is glued directly on the base piece. I cut the letters in some spare chipboard I had and then after gluing the patterned paper on the chipboard I used mounting foam to pop the letters up from the shadow.

I threaded some sheer ribbon through the holes that were already cut to put the name together and then I found different ribbons in coordinating colors to put on the corners, hot glue was used to attach the ribbon on the corners.

I added a dab of hot glue to the ribbon on the back of each piece to keep it from sliding around.

Since the dorms have brick walls I put two strips of mounting foam on the back of each square so she can easily place the name banner on her wall. I sent her a picture of the project when I finished and she was so excited!

If you order the bundle and wonder what to do with the chipboard mini album this is just another way to use those pieces if you don't want to make a mini album.

You can order your bundle at Melanie's CTMH website. The price is $99 and I will be honest that the price does seem high but for everything you get and all that is available on this cartridge I think it is worth every penny!

I will be making a few more projects to post in the near future!

Celebrate with a present CARD

Yep today is another day of Close to My Heart Art Philosophy bundle project! *okie thinks she should just become a rep as much as she has talked about CTMH lately*. My card stash has some how gone down over the last few months. Probably because I didn't make anything for 3 months and quite a few of my cards were taken by my friend Carmen aka ScrapperDelighted when she stopped by to pick up her dog I was dog sitting. Then some found their way as gift sets to other people, and then there were the ones I donated to Monique Griffith to auction off at her Crop for the Cure. Needless to say this bundle is coming in handy for me to replenish my stash of cards I never send out anyway! *okie cracks up laughing*.
 
Supplies Used:
Cricut Expression
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge
CTMH Celebration stamp set
Karen Foster patterned paper
Various Cardstock
Stampin Up Ink and marker
Gold Ink pad
Brads
Cat Eye Chalk Ink



I liked the swirly of the stamp for the present and thought the gold would go with the paper nicely, which it does but is hard to see in the picture. I cut the bow twice and then pop dotted the top layer to the layer that was adhered to the present. Oh on the mat that says "Celebrate" I used DS to size the same image slightly larger for the shadow since this feature was not available *okie so loves her Design Studio and still swears it does a lot that the Gypsy can't do*.

If you are wanting to order the Art Philosphy bundle you can contact Melanie at her CLOSE TO MY HEART WEBSITE.

Thank You with a star Card

I really love the little ticket stamps that are in the Frames, Tags, Borders Close to My Heart stamp set! I was trying to think of a nice man thank you card when I looked at this particular stamp. Since the stamp had stars in the corners I decided to go with that theme.

Supplies Used:
Cricut Expression
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge
CTMH Frames, Tags, Borders stamp set
Bo Bunny Printed paper
Various Cardstock
Cuttlebug
Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder
Tin pan for embossing
Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks
Janome Sew Mini
Brads
Cat Eye Chalk Ink

The school where I work gets the lunch in large tin pans and they tell us to throw them away. Well after we get quite a few I bring a stack home, wash them up and cut them apart! It makes an interesting element for cards and layouts when put through the Cuttlebug. For this project I decided to hit it with some Alcohol Inks and I think I should have left the red color out since it came out more like a pink, I think it was actually Cranberry. But overall I still like the looks of it.

When I showed my daughter this card she said "OH I like that!" and then asked "what do you know about nautical stars?" and I asked her "what do you know about them?". She looked and me and replied "Oh I was thinking of getting a tramp stamp of them across my lower back" of course at this point I said rather loudly "YOU ARE GETTING ANOTHER TATTOO??". She assured me that she wasn't getting another one, it was just one she thought about getting before *okie sighs deeply and shakes her head*. I swear that girl is gonna be the death of me yet!

If you are wanting to order the Art Philosphy bundle you can contact Melanie at her CLOSE TO MY HEART WEBSITE.

Wishing You a Wonderful... CARD

I am really diggin the Art Philosophy bundle from Close to My Heart! I am not sure whether to thank Melanie or to choke her at this point because she is going to have me addicted to CTMH products! *okie thinks she will probably just say thank you and then buy Mel a drink on the next cruise*.

I really like the sentiment on this card because you can have a few of these made and then choose what you want to use it for later on. With the colors on this particular card I think I could use it for birthday, wedding or anniversary. There is even a little line and check mark for "other" so even a "thinking of you" could be written in there if so desired *okie thinks she sounded so smart by saying "if so desired"*

Supplies used:
Cricut Expression
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge
CTMH Frames, Tags, Borders stamp set
Various printed papers and cardstock
Viva Decor Pearl Pen - Ice White
Liquid Pearls - Pastel Raspberry
3/8" Grosgrain Ribbon
Brads
Cat Eye Chalk Ink
Signo UM 153 white gel pen
Stickles - cinnamon


I wasn't sure I liked the color of the flowers for the card when I got them all cut out but I wasn't going to waste paper and do them over. I did decide I liked them a little more after adding some embellishment to them. I did pop dot the large yellow flower.

I cut the sentiment at the recommended size and then cut a base layer set at about 1/4" larger so i could have a shadow base.

If you are wanting to order the Art Philosphy bundle you can contact Melanie at her CLOSE TO MY HEART WEBSITE.

Oh and for those that know I have been sick for the past week I am finally starting to feel like I am going to live!! Thank goodness because I sure was tired of peeing my pants during all those dang coughing fits! *okie knows some folks are saying "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE SAID THAT" while others are thinking "dang it I hate it when that happens to me too!"*