That was fast!

Well, you ladies are quick. Looks like we have our 5 goodie recipients. I have emailed everyone except for Alyssa and Sandra. Would you two mind emailing me at lisa@myctmh.com with your mailing addresses so that I have them on file when I get ready to send you your goodies? Thanks! *Ü*

The 1st five get a goodie

I was fortunate enough to be one of the first five commenter's on Rachel's Wonderfully Whimsy goodies giveaway. Now, it's my turn to pay it forward. The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you! This offer does have a few “rules of play”:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make --- but I hope you do!
2- What I create will be just for you --- one of a kind!
3- It'll be done sometime this year (most likely it will be in the next month).
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. Well, a pretty good bet it will be made of paper!
5-The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog!

The first 5 people to leave a comment win a handmade card or gift (or both!) by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! So....who will be the first 5 people?

Even if you aren't in my first five, why not start this on your blog, too? Spread more love FASTER! Ready, set.....who will the first five be??

"With Sympathy" Birthday Card

I know my title is kind of strange. Who would send a sympathy card for someone's birthday? Unless of course you wanted to rub in the fact that they were getting older. LOL! Actually I used Papertrey's With Sympathy stamp set for the reeds and CTMH's Happy Birthday set for the sentiment, hence my title. I used CTMH's Heavenly Blue ink and cardstock with Garden Green ink for the stems. I love the color combo. I also used CTMH's Heavenly Blue stitched ribbon. I popped the main panel up with 3-D Foam Squares to give it a little dimension. What would I ever do without my 3-D Foam Squares?
This card was a quick one which is always nice. I think I will make a few extras to have on hand for future b-days. It is so funny that I love to make cards, but I almost always forget to send them. What I really should do is make a bunch of “Happy Belated Birthday” cards and keep those on hand!

Overalls Card

Deneen Treble designed the cutest overalls template here. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to use it to make a card. I loved her idea of sanding blue cardstock to make it look like jeans. I used CTMH Outdoor Denim cardstock for this card and the Sanding Block that comes in the Sanding Kit. I love that it actually looks like real denim. I also used the Outdoor Denim Marker to add some feaux stitching around the edges.

I also used some CTMH Buttons from the Holiday Collection along with some Cranberry Waxy Flax. The cute little puppy came from CTMH's So Sweet Seans stamp set. I stamped him in black and colored him in with Bamboo and Baby Pink (for his nose) Markers. I popped up the pocket with a 3-D Foam Square.
I can't wait to make more of these for baby cards and for little boy's birthday cards. Soooo fun!

Daisy Card

This simple little card was made using Heavenly Blue Cardstock, CTMH's Argyle and Happy Birthday stamp sets, some Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon, White Daisy Just Blooms Flowers, and a few CTMH Buttons. Not much to it, but in my usual simple style, this is my latest creation....

Unforgettable Boxed Card Set

I was completely inspired by Kathi Carlson's fabulous boxes here, here, and here. (Thanks Kathi!) This will be the project for my club this month. You can find the instructions to make the box here.

The cards on the inside are 3.75"x3.75" and are almost the same as the larger cards I posted below. I used the CD from the awesome Originals Book to make the envelopes. (Did you know that the Originals Book comes with a template CD? It is fabulous!) I used the 3"x3" envelope template and printed it out at 125% so my envelopes are about 4"x4". They fit perfectly in the box. I like using CTMH's B&T Duos to make envelopes because they show a different color on the inside.

Wouldn't this make a great gift?
All supplies are CTMH:
Stamps: Aspiration, Celebrate Life, Code It
Papers: Unforgettable Paper Packet
Inks: Chocolate, Sorbet
Other: Chipboard, Organdy Ribbon, Foam Tool, Pewter Designer Brads

Aspiration Boxed Cards

Papertrey Ink is having another fun contest today. We are to pick one of Dawn's color combos from this past week and create a project using those colors. I chose the peachy and brownish colors she used here. (Do you like my official color names? LOL!) Here is the project I came up with...I just got a new CTMH stamp set called Aspiration and couldn't wait to use it! I stamped this set of cards in about 15 minutes. Gotta love that! I used Papertrey's Stamper's Select white cardstock for the bases because it is so wonderfully thick. (I like to use it for my card bases when I am not doing any layering.) I used one of my other all time favorite CTMH sets called Say it with Style. Unfortunately this was a stamp of the month set last year which means that it is not currently available. Hopefully it will show up in a future CTMH catalog and become “orderable” again. (Is that even a word? LOL!) Here is a close up of one of the cards. Very simple, but you know me. I like simple.

Here is what the boxed set looks like. I used a clear box from clearbags.com. I added a thin strip of Chocolate cardstock with a piece of CTMH Sorbet ribbon on top. Then I punched a circle tag with my Cuttlebug and stamped the mini sentiment from Papertrey's Mixed Messages stamp set.

Stamps: CTMH Aspiration, Say it with Style; Papertrey Mixed Messages

Cardstock: Papertrey White Stampers Select

Inks: CTMH Chocolate, Sorbet

Other: CTMH Chocolate Cardstock, Sorbet Ribbon Rounds

You make my heart flutter...

My card was lifted from this beautiful card by Aaron Booth. (If you have never visited Aaron's blog, be sure to check it out. She is sooo talented!) I loved the simplicity of her card but of course didn't have any felt on hand so I improvised.

In addition to the CTMH Intrinsic Backgrounds stamp set, I also used the upcoming March stamp of the month called Butterfly Wings for the sentiment and the butterfly. I stamped the butterfly on the card with Chocolate ink and again on a piece of Bamboo scratch cardstock. I cut out the extra butterfly and glued the body onto the card, lifted up the wings and stuck a mini 3-D foam square underneith to give it some dimension.

Teacher's Valentines

This is what I came up with for Ryan's teachers and the office staff at his school. Since we are trying to save money these days (like everyone else) I went the inexpensive route. I found these fun little boxes of chocolate in the $1 section at Target and decided to wrap them up in cute handmade matchboxes. I used CTMH Cranberry and Baby Pink cardstock along with some patterned paper from my favorite That's Amore pack. I used the basic instructions found here for Hershey's nugget boxes and then altered them to fit my li'l boxes-o-chocolate. *Ü*
I stamped the top using CTMH's February Word Puzzle. I added a little Chocolate Grosgrain ribbon and a tag with Ryan's signed name.
Hopefully his teachers will like them and not think they are too lame. I think I will include a little slip of paper in the teacher's boxes that says why Ryan loves each of them. (He told me a few little gems earlier that I think will make them smile.)

Kid's Valentines

My little guy has 15 kids in his preschool class so I wanted to come up with something quick and easy for him to hand out on Friday for Valentine's Day. Here is what we made. They are little 3"x3" cards attached to a baggie containing conversation hearts. I used CTMH's That's Amore paper pack for the stripped paper at the bottom. I attached a strip of Vanilla Cream cardstock cut with my scallop scissors to the stripped paper and then to a 3"x6" Tulip cardstock base. I made the heart with Papertrey's Borders and Corners Heart stamp and punched it out with a Marvy Heart punch. The cute sentiments on the heart are from CTMH's Friendship Word Puzzle. I attached the heart with a 3-D Foam Square.
The inside of the card is stamped with a sentiment from CTMH's February Word Puzzle and the school-like writing lines from the Classmate Alphabet set. (We use that stamp a lot since my son likes to practice his printing.)

I am in the process of working on the teacher's gifts. I think they will be cute (and inexpensive) if I can figure out how to make what I have pictured in my head. LOL! I will post those when they are done. *Ü*

Papertrey Challenge

Those of you that know me know that I am a big Papertey Ink fan. They are having some fun new releases this month along with making some big announcements and having some great contests. The current contest is really fun. We were to download a sketch from Nichole's blog and then make a card using the sketch. One random winner will win a spool of ALL of Papertrey's ribbons! Those of you that know me also know that I am a huge ribbon hoarder. I LOVE ribbon! So...I just had to whip up a quick card to enter into the contest. I know my chances are not very good at winning because there are a million other Papertrey fans and ribbon hoarders out there, but hey, I thought it would be worth a try. So...here is my humble little card. *Ü*Stamps: Inkadinkado Birds Galore, CTMH Angel Whispers (sentiment)
Cardstock: Papertery Berry Sorbet & White
Patterned Paper: Papertrey Pink Patterns
Ribbon: CTMH Sweet Leaf Ribbon Rounds, Papertrey Berry Sorbet
Inks: StazOn Black
Other: Rectangle Nestabilities, Pebbles from Michael's Floral department, CTMH Watercolor Pencils, CTMH Blending Pen, CTMH Mini Sparkles, 3-D Foam Squares

Valentines Card

I saw a cute birthday card by Wendy Johnson on the CK website today and just had to use her ideas to make a Valentine's card. Here is my version of Wendy's card. I used all CTMH products except for the smallest heart. The heart stamp is from Papertrey's Borders & Corners (hearts) set and the punch used is the smallest scallop heart punch from Marvy. The curvy sentiment is actually a straight sentiment from CTMH's Soul Mates Word Puzzle. I just put it on the block in the curve shape. (Gotta love those acrylic stamps!) I also used some heart stamps from the same set. I stamped them on patterned paper from the Life Delights Paper Pack and then cut them out. The polka dots are stamped using the Argyle Backgrounds set. I added some blush and white ric rac and the “I love you” sentiment is a chocolate rub-on from the Love Story Rub Ons pack.

Distressed Card

I made this card a few years ago and just found it again. I thought it was a fun way to show how to distress white core cardstock with sandpaper. The card is super simple and can be made with those little cardstock scraps you have lying around. I suggest that you cut your cardstock to the size you want first and then sand it. That will give you the fun white edges. The flowers were punchesd with a Marvy punch and adhered with some CTMH retired silver flower embellishments and a brad. Easy peasy.
Stamps: CTMH Woodland Sentiments (retired)
Cardstock: White Daisy, Chocolate, Blush, Bamboo
Inks: Black
Other: Marvy Flower Punches, CTMH White Daisy My Accents (retired), Silver Brads