Wednesday, April 29, 2015

About Me

Over the years, I have posted MANY things to this blog. However, it recently occurred to me that I don't believe I've ever posted anything "about me". Many of you know exactly who I am, what I do, and why. But the vast majority of you may not have any idea. So, in the spirit of sharing, I thought a good place to start would be to share the "About Me" from my Close To My Heart website. So, here it is:


Michelle Morrissey
UXBRIDGE, MA  
Hello! My name is Michelle and I live in Uxbridge, MA with my husband of 21 years and my two beautiful children. As of April 2015, I am celebrating 13 years with Close To My Heart! I became a CTMH Consultant back in 2002 because I was a recently-new stay-at-home mom, I loved CTMH products, and I was extremely frustrated at not being able to find matching cardstocks and inks in my local craft stores. CTMH made it so easy - I wanted it all! So I joined the company, like so many others, for the discount! Thirteen years later, I have had so much fun meeting new people, going to Conventions (five of them!), holding workshops, and buying new products. Every new Idea Book release is like Christmas morning! I encourage you to experience and enjoy CTMH as much as I have!

So that's all "About Me"! Enjoy your evening!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Artfully Sent – Exploring the “W” Key – Part 2



OK. I like Pop-up cards a lot – I really do. But this next style of card from the “Artfully Sent” Cricut™ Cartridge is really incredible – the Scene card. When you see the expanse and variety of this type of card on this cartridge, you will be blown away. For this post’s purposes, however, we will be looking only at the Scene card on the “W” key.

The Scene card will have two pieces – the first will be the card base, and the second will be the “accent piece”, if you will. The Scene card on the “W” key is a tri-fold (dark aqua color in the booklet), and the accent piece is the light blue (cloud insert). I cut my base in white, but then added several other colors/pieces of cardstock to complete my “scene” (I cut the card again in green in order to make the front of the card green & not white). I actually cut the pop-up piece from last week’s card from brown cardstock and pasted it over the base-cut deer/rabbit piece – they were almost an exact fit! When the insert is adhered to the inside of the card, and it is folded up, this is what the outside looks like:
I added a little sentiment from the “Cuddly Salutations” stamp set and paper-pieced the tree branch and bird. Now the inside…
Instead of adhering the cloud accent piece to the inside of the card, I adhered it to the back of the front flap. This served two purposes – to make the card front more stable (it was pretty floppy with just the thin border to “hold it up”), and to give me more of the inside of the card for a sentiment/signature. I used a sentiment from the “You Mean The World To Me” stamp set, and the fun circles from the “Doodled Designs” stamp set.


I had a lot of fun with this card…but even more fun with the next card in the series – the Sentiment card! Tune in next week to see just how easy it is to make those designs your own!

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Artfully Sent - Series Exploring the "W" Key

First, let me introduce you to the Cricut™ "Artfully Sent" Collection from Close To My Heart:
You get the Cricut Cartridge, with up to 700 images, three D-size stamp sets, and a full pack (24 sheets) of White Daisy 12" x 12" cardstock. Just as the "Artbooking" cartridge was designed for scrapbookers, the "Artfully Sent" cartridge is a dream-come-true for card-makers. There are five different types of cards that you can create: Pop-up, Scene, Sentiment, Sleeve, and Pocket (to compliment the "Picture My Life" scrapbooking system). I'm pretty sure that I will not get to all of these cards in my lifetime!

In the following series of blog posts that I will be doing, I will be showing you the five different card types by creating the cards using just one key - the "W" (and, yes, there is a full font included as well!). You will be blown away.

I will start with the first card on the page - the Pop-up card. Here is the "W" key page in the booklet:
For the Pop-up cards, you will use the entire top row - "Pop-up" and "Icon". The suggested cutting size is located in the lower-left corner of the image - for this card it's 5". The finished card will be 7" x 5". The fantastic thing about this cartridge is that you only have to set your dial size once - each coordinating piece will then be cut to the correct size for the card - unless you hit "Real Dial Size" on your machine.

The first panel is simply the card base (shown in dark orange). The second panel will have the "pop-up" box cut into it, and, in this case, a pretty branch and bird. This panel gets glued to the card base, save the "pop-up" box. The third panel is a sentiment for the inside of the card, and the fourth panel is the icon that will "pop-up" when you attach it to the "box" inside.

Since the front of this card is completely blank, I used the branch and bird shapes that were cut out of the inside panel to embellish the front, along with some washi tape, a sentiment, and "Puffies". Here is the front of my card:
And here is the inside:
Isn't this just the cutest thing?! I always loved pop-ups when I was a kid, so I am really loving being able to make cards that do the same thing - so fun & interactive! I used the "Pathfinding" Paper Packet from the Annual Inspirations Idea Book.

OK - that was just card number one! Wait until next week when we will look at the Scene card - you're going to love it!





Sunday, April 5, 2015

Happy Easter!

It's time for a "Blast From The Past"! Here are some Easter cards from years past:





Oh my gosh - how fun!

I hope you are enjoying your Easter! Hope it is magical.