Make It From Your Heart Winner! (and loser)

Close To My Heart has a consultant contest called Make It From Your Heart each time a new catalog is released. They have a ton of categories to enter, so you think I would try to enter as many as possible to win... Instead I lost track of time and only entered two... But half of them won!

This is my winning card:

I used the Believe paper packet and a whole lot of patience! Here is a detail shot:

I became very comfortable with my Xacto knife after this tree! I stamped the outline image first, then cut out the windows, and then cut little paper pieces to fit. I painted the new Dimensional Elements Shapes stars and the edges of all the dark green with Pearl Paint. I stitched floss through the ribbon so I could tie on my circle tag. Insane amount of work? Yes! But I won!

This one is my loser... but I still like it:

I used the Wonderland paper packet and a lot of sparkles:

It is hard to see in the picture, but I stamped the Dimensional Elements snowflake with a design before sponging and painting it. I have always loved this card pattern! It is just so clean and elegant; perfect for an icy blue and sparkly winter card!

Thanks for looking! If you want to see more or know my exact recipes, they are all  HERE at Close To My Heart's site.

THANK YOU!!!

Holy Cow!!! I never thought I would ever get any comments, let alone another follower! You Heart 2 Heart girls are so nice! I will definitely be playing along with the challenges more often now! Here is a card to everyone who visited my blog lately:

Archivers had an extremely similar card for a make-and-take a few weeks back. I loved it and recreated (ok, copied) it with products that I had on hand. Yes, the little bird is quilled! My daughter really loved the whole quilling experience at Archivers and asked for an instruction book for her birthday. Of course I looked through it myself... so expect to see a few more quilled things coming soon! 

Thanks again to everyone for looking!

H2H Challenge

There is a Close To My Heart challenge blog that posts challenges every Monday. This is my first time ever playing along! This weeks challenge is to create something using cardstock ONLY; no patterned paper. I just happened to be working on a card that fit the criteria perfectly:

Before you think I am cheating, let me say that the green polka-dot was created with white cardstock and a circle punch! No patterned paper! This is also my favorite color combo of the moment. If you want to know what my baby's nursery looks like, this card is a good clue!

Happy (late) Grandparents Day!

I was early making all the cards, on time delivering most of them, and apparently late posting anything. So here is what at least 4 sets of grandparents saw yesterday:

If you own the Close To My Heart card book "Wishes", this card may look a tad familiar! I loved the colors and the layout, so it's pretty much a copy using different stamps and a flower punch. Hope yesterday was a great day for all the grandparents out there!

This is my brain...

If something is going to get done, it has to be on the fridge. That's just how it is. So each month I make a calendar front and center to keep track of life: 

Here is September's all pretty and blank. 30 days from now this poor page will be covered in my horrible handwriting and smudged with fingerprints. I promised myself when I started the calendar thing that I would not "sensor" the end product. When the calendar gets a little beat up it just shows posterity what life was truly like around here. Then at the end of the year I make a matching page with a few photos and ta-da! Instant 2011 scrapbook!