You're a Hoot!

     My friend, Melissa Fulgham, and I will have a booth at the Angola Craft Show on Saturday, July 17th, so I’ve been working on some new cards.    Helen Onulak (http://www.hookedonstamping.com/), another Close To My Heart consultant, had this really sweet card that incorporated a scalloped edge in one of its layers, so I just had to play with scallops. I almost bought a scalloped Nestibles set when I realized, duh! You have a Making Memories Slice die cutter! I’ll bet you have scallops there! One thing lead to another when I found my scallops on the Making Memories Slice Basics 1 Card and decided to play with a window card treatment. This is a result! 1 4 ½” square card with a matching envelop (20-lb bond copy paper) which I made using my Crafters Companion Enveloper.

I’ll be posting complete instructions on my http://ourcraftroomcreations.blogspot.com in a couple of days. In the meantime, here's a sneek peak at the products I used to create this simple little card:

Products Used:
      White Daisy CTMH Cardstock
      My Acrylix Stamp C1362 You’re a Hoot
      Key Lime Exclusive Inks Marker Z2331
      Parchment Exclusive Inks Marker Z2342
      Black Exclusive Inks Marker Z2305
      Sunflower Exclusive Inks Marker Z2350
      Cocoa and Topiary Exclusive Inks
      Liquid Glass

Tools Used:
      Making Memories Slice Basics Card 1
      My Acrylix Blocks 1” x 1 ½” (Y1001)
      My Acrylix Blocks 2” x 2” (Y1003)
      Sponge Dauber (Z726)
      Crafter’s Companion Enveloper (Email me at dcookwrites@cookworkshop on how to order)

Heart 2 Heart Color Challenge 01

I'm excited about our new Close to My Heart challenge. And the great part is that it's for everyone! You are, however, required to use Close To My Heart products. That said, here's my first effort. I just started playing around with some punches and suddenly, this layout presented itself to me. Well, it did take a little fiddling here and a little fiddling there, but it seems to have worked out. I find myself wanting to add more bling, but I have it on some authority that it's fine the way it is. So, I suppose I'll stop now and go fix dinner.

Operation Welcome Home

These 4 ½” x 5” cards are for: Operation Welcome Home Maryland. This organization includes handcrafted cards in their "welcome home" packages for servicemen and women returning from overseas assignments. Operating of BWI, they greeted 42,088 returning servicemembers in 2009. My personal goal is to make a minimum of 25 cards per month. 
      While not all cardmakers like to include an inside sentiment, I do. I also like to stamp the matching envelopes. Operation Welcome Home Maryland doesn't require envelopes. The first card reflects both the card cover and the inside message. I normal stamp the inside before building the card.
      I made 24 of these cars using CTMH products. I used Cocoa cardstock (X5642) on a white card base and Desert Sand (1273) for the helmut base. Much to my disappointment, I ran out of my cocoa cardstock . . . and I didn’t even have any chocolate on hand to substitute! I also CTMH Exclusive Inks Cocoa (Z2114), Vanilla Cream (Z2169) and New England Ivy (Z2135).

     I used the following CTMH Stamps:

• Welcome Home (D1370) 
• Around the Block (D1377)
• For Every Occasion (D1187)
• Hero’s Pride (C1315)
• Just Like You (C1300)
• Dainty Thoughts (C1350)

     I used my stippling tool from our Texture Tools set (Z1298) for my background on the second card.

 

You Rock Cards

You Rock is featured in the Close to My Heart Spring catalog.

It's a Beautiful Day is a 6.5” x 5”card using CTMH You Rock Workshop on the Go kit. I made several versions of this kit you different backgrounds papers which were left over after I finished two 2-page scrapbook layouts. I also used our D1415 Springtime stamp set. I routinely stamp matching envelopes which, in this case includes on boot on the front and two on the back flap. I stippled the white daisy cardstock with Outdoor Denim Exclusive Inks.

Just Be You is a 4.25” x 5.25”card using CTMH You Rock Workshop on the Go kit. I used the stamp that comes with the kit and added a little Clear Sparkle bling.

Check out my ctmh website (http://dianecook.myctmh.com) for more details about Close to My Heart.