Monday, November 5, 2012

WOTG for Cards - Pear & Partridge and Avonlea

In response to requests from their customers and consultants, Close To My Heart put together the enormous popularity of their Workshops on the Go (WOTG) and their mad card-making skills and came up with two fabulous cardmaking workshops in the Autumn 2012 Idea Book.

The first project I made after I returned from CTMH Convention in July was these cards made with the Avonlea Cardmaking Kit (G1041).

 
The kit comes with card bases, envelopes, patterned and solid cardstock, ribbon, embellishments, an exclusive stamp set, and complete directions for the cards. These cards were very easy to make and I think they are lovely. I just have to point out one detail-- on the top card, notice the stamped detail that looks like a swag of lace. That image is made with a stamp that looks like a straight piece of lace when you see it in the package. One of the wonderful characteristics of our clear acrylic stamps is that you can bend them -- giving you even greater versatility.
 
When I finished making these cards, I thought they would make a wonderful gift, so I poked around in my stash and found this unfinished chipboard purse. I'm pretty sure I picked it up in a white elephant exchange. I always liked the shape, but I wasn't sure how to use it. Since I also had the Avonlea paper pack (X7155B), I picked out a paper that coordinated with the cards and covered the box and I added one of the coordinating embellishments from the Brocade Assortment (Z1748). Isn't it pretty?
 
 

 
The second new WOTG for cards uses the Pear & Partridge paper, our Christmas design for this year. The WOTG (G1043) includes instructions, card bases and envelopes, patterned and solid cardstock, ribbon, red glitter gems, and a wonderful exclusive stamp set. 
 

I started out with this card, which has a pieced sentiment (that's how you get those red letters right in the middle of all the brown). The ribbon and the red bling really set it off.


I followed the directions to make the top card (although I did add some bitty sparkles from my stash to the top of each ornament). However, I couldn't resist using the cute birds that are also included in the stamp set, so I moved my branch down and my sentiment up.
 
 
By the time I got to the third card, I was really feeling creative, so I played around with the stamped backgrounds.
  • The top card is stamped with Merry Christmas, using second generation stamping to lighten it up a bit.
  • The second card uses the same technique, but a different stamp from the set.
  • I abandoned subtlety in the third card and used three stamps and three inks to create a colorful, bold pattern.
If you like making cards, I really recommend these cardmaking Workshops on the Go. Each kit is designed to make 15 cards (5 each of 3 patterns). The papers and embellishments are lovely and the directions are clear. You can follow them to the letter, but the stamp sets include extra images so you can change it up a bit if you're feeling adventurous and creative. Enjoy!
 

Christmas Cards - Annual Card Workshop

Wow, I could hardly believe it when I saw that my last post was in July. I apologize for the long delay. I've been making lots of projects, but I've been so dissatisfied with the quality of my photos, I could hardly bear to post them. Well, I have a new iPad-4 now, so I'll try that and see how the photos look. I'm going to post several projects today, but I'll make each one a separate post so the projects will be easier to find in the future.

Starting with the last first, here are the cards I made for our annual Christmas card workshop a couple of weeks ago. All the supplies used are from Close To My Heart.


 
 
This card uses these two stamp sets: Snowflakes (D1480) for the flowers and Christmas Love (D1492 for the sentiment. The inside is stamped MERRY CHRISTMAS. The poinsettias are made of snowflake shapes cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (Z1686 - available only from Close To My Heart). The flowers are put together using dimensional foam adhesive, and they're decorated with Glitz glitter get (red, green, and almond).

 
This card uses one of the patterned papers from the Dakota paper pack (X7157B), the tag is cut out using Art Philosophy and the stamps are Very Merry Christmas (S1210 - October Stamp of the Month) and Christmas Love (D1492). There's a bit of baker's twine tied to the tag.
 

My fellow consultants (Anne Robertson, Sally Atlas, Terri Howard) and I put on a Christmas card workshop every year in the fall, and a birthday card workshop every year in the spring. It's a great time - 8 cards from 4 designers, all done in 4 hours. Drop me a line if you'd like to be added to the notification list for these workshops or any of our others.