Artbooking Made Easy (S01E05): Halloween Mini Albums

Close To My Heart will bring your projects back to life with the Cricut® Artbooking cartridge. Watch this video to learn how to use it while making your own fun Halloween mini albums.

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E04): Spooky Halloween Layouts

It's easy to add some creative spook to your projects with the Cricut® Artbooking collection from Close To My Heart. View a few creepy creations and learn how to make your own in this video.

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: December - Year-Round Cheer

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This time we're featuring the December set Year-Round Cheer, a set of 12 stamps.

 

 

If you have come here from Karen Fullam’s blog, you’re in the right place! There are more than 50 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their artwork made using the Stamp of the Month and other great CTMH products. Hopping is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one. The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way, you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here.

Here we go!

 

I was really happy that my assigned paper pack for this swap was La Belle Vie. Why? Because I thought the purples and the black would make a great Halloween card. I knew immediately that I wanted to use the cat.

 

 

I cut the stamp set apart to make it easier to treat the image and the sentiment differently. The cat is heat embossed and the “trick-or-treat” is stamped in Slate ink. I also used Slate to sponge the edges of the Whisper card base and squares. All the other pieces are edge distressed with scissors.

Supply list:

S1212 Year Round Cheer stamp set

X7158B La Belle Vie Level 2 Paper Packet

X5929 Whisper cardstock

Z2173 Slate Exclusive Inks stamp pad

Z2503 Exclusive Inks Mini Pigment Pad Set (Black)

Z821 Clear Detail Embossing Powder

Z1781 Black Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Z1799 Silver Shimmer Trim

Z1741 Haunted Assortment

I made this card a month ago, and as I sit here looking at it again, I realize how much I love the design. I’m inspired to make a whole set of cards with this stamp set!

 

Here are the rest of the cards from the swap. The Price of Paper Group:

 

 

The Monumental Moments Group:

 

 

 

Now "Hop" on over to Jean McNulty’s blog to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant's blog to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas! Don't forget, this exclusive stamp set is only available thru December 31st. Contact me to get yours today!

 

Happy Halloween!

I'm so excited! My favorite holiday is here! I made this banner last year, but I love it so much that I had to post it again. It's truly one of the best things I've ever made. Those little Hooligans monsters were so adorable, and this project wouldn't have been the same without them.

I'm looking forward to dressing up later to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids. It's something I do every year. Generally I wear my renaissance costume, but I thought I'd do something different today. I spent a small amount of money to get a fun wig, a witch's hat, and some false eyelashes. I'm going to pull some things from my closet and be my own kind of witch. Who cares if I look like a traditional witch as long as I get to be someone else for a few hours?

I will share pictures from today's festivities later in the week. Happy Halloween!

Which Came First?

What inspires you when creating a new layout? Do you take a must-scrap photo of your kids and choose paper to go with it? Do you find paper that you fall madly in love with and then find photos to go with it? Maybe you see a layout in a design book or magazine that you really like and want to recreate it? I think I've used all of these as inspiration. I've also "staged" photos to go along with a paper pack!


I think I'm going to be guilty of the latter again soon. You see, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I find it so much less stressful than other holidays, and I certainly think it's more fun. I'm one of those silly grown-ups who loves to dress up, and I do - every year. But what I love most is helping my son find just the right costume. Now normally I leave it completely up to him, and I'm always happy to invest in his costume because I know he'll wear it again and again until it either falls apart or no longer fits. This year, though, is an exception. The moment I saw Close to My Heart's new Mischief papers, I knew I wanted him to dress as a pirate. Sure, if you look at the layouts in the Idea Book you'll see vampires and seemingly scarier things than pirates, but I saw my son the pirate on those pages. So, when it came time to start deciding on a costume, I had to break out my best mom-negotiating skills. The first thing he said he wanted to be was a gangster because the catalog we were looking at had a costume with a toy machine gun, and he wanted that gun. (Boys!) Not so fast! "I think you should be a pirate," I told him. He wasn't convinced, but this is where my negotiating skills kicked in. "How about I'll only buy you that machine gun if you dress as a pirate." (Okay, maybe this wasn't actually negotiating. Perhaps it was more like blackmail or extortion, but we moms have to do what we have to do, right?) And you guessed it, he's going to be a pirate.


Halloween is pretty much the only thing that has me excited about it being fall. I can't wait to snap those pictures on All Hallow's Eve and then get them on my layout. (That should probably say "layouts" because I love the Mischief paper so much that I'll have to do at least two.) I'm definitely going to use the Mischief Workshop on the Go (below) for one of them. Happy Haunting!