A card for my dad

Sometimes I feel bad that I am quite a lot closer to my mom than to my dad.  My mom and I talk about girl stuff, shopping, iphone 6 orders, and everything in between.  My mom and I even chit chat on WhatsApp.  My dad and I do video conference weekly, but, that's not a one-on-one meeting because my mom is usually sitting next to my dad when we are conferencing.  If I do the math, I feel that I spend a lot more time chatting with my mom than with my dad.

So I thought I would make a card for him to make him happy!  

It is a simple 5"x 7" card.  I used barn red as the card base, then stamped the Lawn Fawn Argyle backdrops in barn red to create that background pattern.  I cut a strip of patterned paper from the retired CTMH Dakota paper, added the frames and die cut letters from Lawn Fawn Louie's ABCs.  To balance layout I added three black button brads in the bottom right corner.

I was inspired by one of the patterns in the Originals How-To program.  Can you tell which one it is? When I use the CTMH how-to programs, I usually follow the guides very strictly but for some reason I went on to improvise the pattern this time.  I like that it is not too much deviated from the original sketch but I added my own twist! :)  I hope my dad will like it too!

My card is linking up to the following:

A Creative Romance - Anything Goes

Creative Corner - Male Challenge

Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps - For a man or boy

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

The Squirrel and the fox - For a male

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Artfully Sent is finally here!

I'm more than thrilled to share with you that the new Close to My Heart Cartridge, Artfully Sent, is finally available!

This cartridge focuses on cardmaking.  Not a cardmaker, no worries.  It offers so much more!  There are pocket cards for Project Life type of scrapbooking or you could simply enlarge or shrink images for your projects.

Check out the video below to learn more about it.  Click here to order your Artfully Sent cartridge!



This month is National Stamping Month and by placing an qualifying order of $30 or more, you'll receive the exclusive C-sized stamp set #30yearsofhappy for FREE!  These images are so versatile that you'll be reaching out to this set again and again!

Place an order to get your Artfully Sent cartridge now and enjoy the fun of crafting!

Happy Holidays

When it comes to crafting, I don't care so much about time.  I could be scrapping some really old photos one day and move on to a recent vacation the next day.  I do not scrapbook my pictures chronologically, and the same goes with my cardmaking.

So yesterday I shared a Halloween card, I am totally skipping Thanksgiving and jumping onto Christmas cards.  In fact, I try to make Christmas cards throughout the year because I'd like to beat the holiday stress!

This Christmas card/holiday card is super clean and simple:

Yet I love it!  It is one of those that's great for mass production!  I simply stamped the background stamp on the card base, then stamped the tag twice - one on red cardstock and one on white card stock.  I die cut the tag from the red cardstock, then fussy cut along the inner tag on the white card stock.  I stamped the sentiment and the penguin and colored it and stuck it onto the red tag with foam dots.  Before I put the red tag onto the card, I added some red trimmings.  Yay!  Quick and easy!  What took me the longest time was to dig up the red cardstock.  I tried a couple of shades but none made me happy until I found this one.  LOL.

My card is linking up to the following:

Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes

Ooh La La - Clean and Simple

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin' Christmas - Christmas critters

Divas by Design - Anything Goes

Kraftin Kimmie - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Monster Hugs

Hi everyone!  It's quite a while since my last post.  I am focusing on scrapbook pages and mini-albums these days as the Lau Family has decided the date for the next reunion trip.  That means I have to catch up on those!

Nevertheless I do not want to forget about cardmaking and I've recently acquired a lot of goodies! :)  I will send out quite a number of Halloween cards to kiddos and I think the stamp sets from Lawn Fawn really help me get them done easily:

When I first saw the Argyle Backdrops, I knew I had to get it.  I just love background stamps!  See how nice it has added interests to the purple card base?  I also love the Sweater Weather set and I knew I would use the label die a lot.  I like that it has an inner oval so I could put another stamped layer on top of the label, like I did here.  And who can resist the little monsters from Monster Mash?  They are too cute!  For this card I first stamped the monster onto the white oval in black, then I stamped it again, colored it and fussy cut it out.  It was popped up with foam squares and I like the shadow behind him.

My card is linking up to the following:
One Crazy Stamper - Halloween/Christmas
A Girl who Crafts - Anything Goes
Ladybug Crafts - Anything Goes
Paradise of Stamps - Anything Goes

I gotta get back to my scrapbooking.  Thanks for stopping by!

12 Tags of 2014 - August

I didn't want to play along the 12 Tags of 2014 - August on the last day of Christmas.  Unfortunately, my order just came in yesterday so I had to wait this long.

It is my first time playing texture paste and I am quite impressed!  This thing is different from embossing paste in that it dries much faster and it absorbs color rather than resisting colors.  Too bad I went too crazy with it and it covered up the stamped deer:

Let me link this up to Tim Holtz's blog then play the texture paste again to explore its properties further!

Trick or treat

How's everyone's Labor Day weekend? I'm enjoying mine so much that I almost forgot to post this card:

It was made based on the sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

I used up some scraps from an older patterned paper called Laughing Lola from Close to My Heart and I think purple is the perfect color for a Halloween card!  Oh the black hemp and brads are from my stash too.  The monsters, however, are from the latest Lawn Fawn release.  The stamp set is called Monster Mash.  The sentiment comes from another set called Spooktacular. 

As we are approaching September, I should get my Halloween cards ready!

I'm also linking it to
Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Circles

Oops.  My blog has been quiet these days.  I was still active in my craft area but instead of crafting, I spent quite some time organizing my mess.  :P

I'll share my journey of organization on another day.  Today I'll share a scrapbook layout that I am very happy with:

I like many things about this layout.  First of all, it's the circles!  I rarely use circles on my layouts.  Correction.  I doubt that I've cut my pictures into circles before.  Then, it's the colors!  It's a variety of colors against a neutral background and that's very neat.  Third, some scraps were used!  Apparently some circles were cut out from scraps.  Do you see the two butterflies in the top right circle?  I just happened to have cut extra ones for a card then I thought I could inked them up in pink and put them here.  Nice!  The words Buffet Lunch also came from a scrap piece of brown cardstock.  These scraps of patterned paper come from a Crate Paper Maggie Holmes collection.  I love the pack a lot and I think I love it more when I see them on my layout!

I haven't scrapbooked for quite a while.  This page gets me excited.  I think I should create more layouts!

Thanks for stopping by!