Saturday, November 17, 2012

Just For Fun - Part 2

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so I thought that the next batch of projects I showed you from my Annual Open House should be the Fall-themed ones. Some of these would make perfect gifts or take-home favors for your Thanksgiving-day guests. Let's start with a simple, yet elegant wine bottle wrap:

Simply wrap the bottle in Desert Sand or Cocoa cardstock, secure a length of Cocoa ribbon around that, then stamp two leaves and the acorn from the "Fall Harvest" stamp set in Desert Sand or Cocoa ink on Colonial White cardstock. The images were cut out, but were sponged with various fall colors before doing so. Use Glue Dots or hot glue to adhere the leaves & acorn to the ribbon. What a nice way to dress-up a bottle of wine for the dinner host or hostess.

Here's a cute, little centerpiece cut with the Cricut Artiste cartridge and stamped using the "Harvest Happiness" stamp set. All of the pieces were cut with the Cricut, so it's just stamp & glue - no scissors required!

I love this adorable little gift box, also created with the Cricut Artiste cartridge. The pinwheel on top was made using the "Flirty" paper pack, and the pumpkin and sentiment came from the "Abundance" stamp set. What cute favors these would make - and could double as place cards if you replace the sentiment with your guest's names!

Here's another item which uses the "Flirty" paper pack and the same sentiment from the "Abundance" stamp set. The "trees" are actually wooden leaf & stem shapes from the Color-Ready Accents - Arbor Wooden Shapes pack. Since I didn't have a marker available, I colored my leaf pieces by pressing them into and running them over my Topiary ink pad. They take the ink really well!

Ask me how much I LOVE the Cricut Artiste cartridge! This is yet another example of a project cut from that cartridge - a beautiful card & matching envelope. The image is called "Quick Cards - Bountiful Season", and it is a single stamp with both the image and sentiment. I sponged the leaf as I did with the wine bottle leaves, then added some extra dimension by adding another piece from the Color-Ready Accents - Arbor Wooden Shapes pack. Very cute!

This last really pretty card was cut with - you guessed it - the Cricut Artiste cartridge. It also uses the "Abundance" stamp set and our brand, new alcohol-based markers. I must admit, when I first saw/used the new markers, I didn't think I'd like them - but I was SO wrong! I love coloring with these super-smooth markers! I can't wait until all of the colors are available so I can get every set.

Well, that's the end of the autumn segment of my artwork. The next installment will be winter/Christmas! Until then - Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Card & Envelopes with Cricut Artiste!

Oh boy - this is your lucky day! Another video from my favorite gal Kristine from Close To My Heart! Check out the incredible cards and coordinating envelopes you can create using the new Cricut Artiste cartridge - available exclusively from CTMH!

Stamp Kissing!

Don't worry - you don't have to use your lips for this cool technique! Just watch Kristine & Monica in the newest episode of "Clearly The Best", and soon you'll be a kissing expert!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Choosing Joy

Hello there!

I hope everyone had a safe & fun Halloween. I just wanted to take a moment to share something that I just received in my email inbox from Close To My Heart. It comes from their "Weekly Wisdom", and the title is "Did You Choose Joy?" This particular article really "spoke" to me, and I think it will be especially important and worthwhile to think about now that the chaos of the holiday season is upon us. So let's all make a pact to "choose joy" today - and who knows - it may even carry over to tomorrow! Enjoy!


"Positive Results from Your Choice
“Did you remember to choose joy today? You know, after you picked up the kids from practice and stopped at the grocery store, did you choose joy? … Susan Iida-Pederson…says that, “When you feel good about yourself, you take action and when you act from a place of excitement and joy, your results are positive.” The key word in the phrase, “Did you choose joy?” is choose. Joy isn’t something that happens to us, it’s a choice. We can wake up every morning and be angry that we ran out of coffee, or that we were stopped by every red light on our way to our daily tasks. Or we can choose joy. We can choose joy at having another day to wake up to. Joy that we have a car with working brakes to stop at the stoplights. …With the latter attitude, …others will feel your joy. It’s infectious. …

Put it in Practice
Sit down right now and write down ten things that give you joy. Your children, your pets, your spouse, whatever. Then write down ten things that frustrate you. Look at that list and then make one last list changing those ten frustrating things into ten things that could be joyful – and then throw away the list of the frustrations. Spend a minute every morning for a week reading out loud the list of things that give you joy. When we make joy a conscious effort rather than sitting around waiting for the joy to come, we see the joy more prevalent in our lives – and so will others."