Christmas Package Tags

With Christmas just around the corner I have begun to crank out Christmas crafts to make our holidays a little brighter.  Today I am sharing some VERY quick and VERY easy Christmas tags. 
Do I even need to tell you that I used the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to create these tags?  Probably not, huh?  I have to say that Art Philosophy, in my opinion, is one of the all time best cricut cartridges! 

In addition to Art Philosophy, I used the Close to my Heart stamp set, December 25.  I have used this stamp set on a number of projects already this fall and I still have seven and half weeks till Christmas!!   I am hoping to make all of our to/from package tags this year so this stamps set is a godsend!

The Happy Holidays tag above was cut in two parts.  I created little cards by welding two of the tag shapes together.  I stamped the tag tops in a dark color.  I then cut a second piece, the inner section of the tag.  I stamped the smaller, inner tag shape with CTMH red ink.  I then glued the red inner tag over the darker backgound tags.

My second tag is even easier.  I cut the circular tag card shape and a scalloped edge circle in red cardstock.  I then cut the smaller white circles.  I stamped the winter wishes stamp in red on the white circles.  The pieces were glued together and assorted ribbons were added.  I added I-Rock gems to the snowflakes just to bling the tags a bit.

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Today I wanted to do a post showing off the November stamp of the month, Cherish the Day! This cartridge coordinates with the Art Philosophy cartridge (which is still available in the bundle for $99). Just like last month, this stamp set is only available in the month of November, it retails for $17.95, but if you spend $50 you get it for only $5!

When you place a minimum order of $25 in My Acrylix® stamp set November 1 - November 30th you can purchase a new D-size Holiday Wishes stamp set for only $5! That’s significant savings off the full retail value of $17.95 US / $19.95 CAN. And here’s a bonus: many of the images in the set coordinate with our Cricut® Art Philosophy cartridge for added cutting and stamping fun!

So to break it down,
-If you spend $50 you get the November stamp of the month (retails price of $17.95) for $5.
-If you spend $25 in stamps, you get the Holidays Wishes stamp set (retail price $17.95) for $5!
-These two offers can be combined. For example, if you spend $25 in stamps and an additional $25 on anything else in the catalog you will get both stamp sets for a total of $10 ($5 per set).

For those who still have not ordered the Art Philosophy set, I am sharing another view of the set. 

Special Treats for my Favorite Little Neighbors

Happy All Saints Day!  I am currently coming down from my Halloween sugar high and wanted to share a few things with you.  First, I am blessed with the most amazing neighbors!  Seriously, I could not begin to tell you how wonderful they are - from the retired minister next door to the family with little kids across the street.  Well, I have to confess that each Halloween I have a few favorite neighborhood goblins!

The three children across the street, the children two doors down, and my neighbor Deanna's granddaughter.  Every year I try to come up with something special for my special kids - something other than the fun size milky ways (note - I refuse to admit how many I ate!) that all of the trick or treater receive.  This year I found the cutest candy necklace kits at JoAnn's.  The kits are individually sealed and contain the material to make fun and spooky candy necklaces!

I also found giant candy corn pops for the kids!  What makes these two treats especially great is that one of my little ghouls has an egg allergy, but he can have both of these two treats!!

I tied a thick glossy black ribbon around the candy corn pops to make them a bit more special and I whipped up some quick Cricut bag toppers for the candy necklace kits.   And I will tell you that my kids and their parents liked their special treats - and their milky ways!

Above is a photo from the necklace box showing the completed project.  Below is a photo of my sassy daughter, dressed as an 80's rocker, passing out candy.  She dressed as a 40's movie star for an event last week and decided she liked the "beauty mark".  She then reminded me of all of the 80's rocker girls with beauty marks.

I grabbed a quick photo of two of my favorite neighbors - Christy and Sarah Grace!  Aren't they just adorable?  Christy's mom did a great job on her face make up!  WOW.  And Sarah Grace is the cutest kitty ever!

Remember that I have blog candy up for grabs! To register for the my blog candy give away, please leave a message under yesterday's post and be a blog follower.

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And now for a little Close to my Heart fabulousness!  Don't you just love this fabulous stamp set pictured below?  Wouldn't you love to use this stamp to create your Christmas cards? 

Our new limited time only stamp set, Holiday Wishes, can be yours for $5.00 with a $25.00 acrylic stamp purchase.  That's right, for EVERY $25.00 in stamps you purchase, you can purchase Holiday Wishes for only $5.00*.  

To begin shopping for your acrylic stamps, visit my Close to my Heart on-line store. 

*Do not try to add the new set to your shopping cart, you will be prompted during check out to add the bonus purchase. 

Quick Cards with October Stamp of the Month

Are you working on your Christmas cards yet?  Christmas is only nine weeks away and that means you should be ready to mail in about seven weeks!  I have some of my cards finished, but I still have a lot of cards to make.  Thank goodness for Close to My Heart's October Stamp of the Month - Winter Magic.  

Using the Winter Magic stamp set and the Art Philosophy cartridge I was able to whip out a few more cards for my Christmas card yesterday afternoon!  For the card above I chose the snowflake print stocking with the words topper.  I also used the "Greetings" stamp, stamping the word over and over to create a Greetings ribbon for the bottom edge of the card.

I also chose one of the Christmas tree stamps from the set - the music, damask and snowflake print tree.  I gave the tree a green trunk to match the green in the print cardstock.  I trimmed out the tree with red gemstones.

I added snowflakes to both cards and tiny diamond gems.  It is for moments like these that I love my I-Rock.  The tiny gems heat super quickly and stay adhered to the card so much better than the adhesive backed gems.

As I have already stated, both of the cards above were created using the October Stamp of the Month - Holiday Magic.  Holiday Magic is available until OCTOBER 31st only. The stamp set retails for $17.95, however you can get this set for only $5.00 when you

order your Art Philosophy set!

Have you purchased your Close to my Heart Art Philosophy cartridge set yet?  I would love to help you start enjoying this great cartridge.  The price is $99.00 and may be ordered at my CTMH Store.

The Art Philosophy set includes:

CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge (retail $59.95)

Three coordinating stamp sets (retail $17.95 each)

Three chipboard sets (retail $4.95 each)

This is $128.69 value all for $99!!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I took a day off and missed a post yesterday, but don't worry,

I will be back with another layout tomorrow!

Winter Wonderland Layout with Art Philosophy

I really liked the single page layout I shared last Saturday on Everyday Cricut.  In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to use my favorite cartridge -  CTMH's Art Philosophy Cartridge - along with Close to My Heart's  Snowflakes (D1480) stamp set and take the layout a bit further!

I know that I have previously shared this but I want to share again - the CTMH stamp sets that coordinate with Art Philosophy make finding the correct cut size a breeze.  The size of the cut is printed beside each stamp on the acetate overlay!  How cool is that?  This large snow flakes were cut according to the overlay instructions at 3.25 inches.  I used a light, light blue and stamped the snowflake - the topper layers and the base layers.  In some cases I glued both stamped layers together and in other cases I used them individually on the layout.

 Above is a photo of the stamping process; below the final results.

I cut the background of the smaller snowflakes and stamped over them with the "leafy" snowflake stamp.

 All of the cuts on the is layout were cut with Art Philosophy.  This cartridge has quickly risen to be my favorite cartridge.  It has so many great cuts that cover a plethora of themes.

There are several banner cuts on A.P.  For this layout I chose to use the rounded bottom banner shapes.  I used the A.P. font to add the word SNOW.

The background plaid cardstock was cut with my trimmer to 12"x5" and used across the page.  The tab was stamped with the Winter Wonderland phrase and a small snowflake.

 The left page has places for three 3.5 x 4 inch photos.  I used the micro snowflakes from the stamp set to stamp the background white cardstock.  This really added a nice finishing touch.

 The right page has one 6 x4 inch photo spot. The journaling tag at the bottom can be computer printed prior to cutting, hand written, or covered with a vellum.  The tag is laced with a .75 inch wide gingham ribbon (by CTMH). 

I finished the layout by attaching clear gem stones to the center of the cut out snowflakes.  Below is one more peek at both pages.

Recipe:  To create this simple layout you will need the Close to my Heart Art Philosophy cartridge set. The price is $99.00 and may be ordered at my CTMH Store. 

The Art Philosophy set includes:

CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge (retail $59.95)

Three coordinating stamp sets (retail $17.95 each)

Three chipboard sets (retail $4.95 each)

This is $128.69 value all for $99!!

You will also need (D1480) Snowflakes, a $17.95 all-purpose winter stamp set.

 Also available until OCTOBER 31st only, the October Stamp of the Month, Holiday Magic. You may purchase this $17.95 stamp set for only $5.00 when you order your Art Philosophy set!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will be back with a new project to share tomorrow!

Who's a New Close to My Heart Consultant?

Yes that would be ME!

 I am so pleased to announce that I am now a CLOSE TO MY HEART consultant!

I am sooo loving the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge and stamp set, as well as the seventeen other stamp sets which coordinate with the Art Philosophy cartridge that becoming a consultant was the next natural step for me. Melanie of Courtney Lane Designs and Everyday Cricut recruited me. Although I am a cardmaker, my true passion has always been scrapbooking. One of the things I love most about Close to my Heart is that the company embraces scrapping as well as card making. I love that the stamps work so well on scrapbook layouts!

Today's layout, "Live, Laugh, Love" was created with the Art Philosophy cartridge and CTMH stamp set (D1482) LOVE LIFE, one of the Art Philosophy coordinating sets.   I wanted to show you a Super-Quick and Super-Easy layout, that easily converts to masculine or feminine.  I had these great photos that I took of my son Ian in the backyard.  I thought you might like to see how simple it is to put together this "guyish" page.

I started with CTMH's Kraft Cardstock. Using black ink I stamped the swirl/flourish image on the left side of the page, close to the middle.  I used the tiny star stamp along with red ink and add star highlights.

I cut an 8 inch scalloped black circle and a 7 inch maroon circle from Art Philosophy.  I affixed the two layers together and attached them to the page.

I cut five stars from my Art Philosophy cartridge and stamped those with the flourish patterned star.  I placed the stars on the page.

Using the phrase "simple pleasures" from the stamp set, I placed the stamp at an arch on my acrylic block and stamped beside Ian's guitar photo.

Finally, again using cuts from Art Philosophy, I stamped the title phrase, "Live. Laugh. Love." and attached it to the lower right corner of the page.  I trimmed one of the star cuts and added it to the corner of the title tag.
How easy was that?  Super-quick and super-easy!


If I may assist you with any of your Close to my Heart needs please let me know. Also, for your convenience, I have placed a linking blinkie on the top right of this blog which will take you to my CTMH web store.

To create this simple layout you will need the Close to my Heart Art Philosophy cartridge set.  The price is $99.00.  This includes:

CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge (retail $59.95)

Three coordinating stamp sets (retail $17.95 each)

Three chipboard sets (retail $4.95 each)

This is $128.69 value all for $99!! 

Also available until OCTOBER 31st only, the October Stamp of the Month, Holiday Magic.  You  may purchase this $17.95 stamp set for only $5.00 when you order your Art Philosophy set!

And finally, if any of you are interested in the Kraft Cardstock I used on today's layout, it is sold in packages of 24 12x12 sheets for $9.50.

Thank you for stopping by today, I will be back tomorrow with another project to share!

HOLLY CHRISTMAS CARD WITH CTMH

It's  Close to my Heart Wednesday here at Busy with the Cricky and this week I am sharing a Christmas card project created with the Art Philosophy cartridge and CTMH's A Holiday, #A1115, stamp set .   A Holiday, as I mentioned last Wednesday, is one of the seventeen additional stamp sets that coordinate with the Art Philosophy cartridge. 

The most difficult aspect of this card was selecting cardstock.  Seriously, I had a difficult time deciding which paper to use.  It is a rainy day here in South Carolina and by the way my day is going it should have been a Monday!  I have only managed to accomplish two things today - a bit of cleaning and this card.  Oh wait, I DID make one of my favorite comfort food dinners, Chicken and Dumplings, made with some of the leftovers from yesterday's roaster chicken.  Even that is not as good a usual.  Which of course makes no sense as I always make it the same way.  So yes, I am having an off day and selecting paper was a challenge today!

I finally remembered that I had this fabulous Teresa Collins holly print cardstock, along with other TC holiday/Christmas prints!  Thank you, Teresa, for being a life saver!  Between TC and other prints from my stash, I was finally able to move forward with the card.

Finally I cut my card elements - the holly at 2 1/4 inches and 1 3/4 inches each.  The tag shapes were also from Art Philosophy as were the background shaped mats.   I used Just Because Cards to cut the base card.

I used Avocado Green Stampin' Up ink to stamp the holly leaves and the Merry Christmas greeting.

I used the same ink and generic Christmas sentiment stamp for the inside of my card.  I also stamped the CTMH holly stamps again on the inside. And I still have plenty of space for a personal note.

For more information on the Art Philosophy cartridge visit Melanie's CTMH website.  Be sure to check out this additional stamp set, A Holiday, while you are at Melanie's site.  This little stamp set is a steal at $6.95!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will be back tomorrow with a new Christmas project to share.  I will be using a new technique for the first time.  Be sure to stop back and see how I do.