Season to Sparkle

Join us in our monthly Technique Blog Hop during the Season to Sparkle! Go from blog to blog by following the links to see all the shiny art we have to share...


You've arrived from
Alyson Mayo's blog. If you get lost, Rudolph will light the way (or you can find a list on Melissa's blog).





This theme was hard for me because it's more along the creativity line, which is NOT my forte! At first, I wanted to use EVERY sparkly, shiny, glittery product we have; but I was able to refrain myself.

I looked at some of our fabulous How To books then I went to the CTMH Cricut Collections. Now that ALL of them are available to purchase, I had thousands of image choices!  So, which collection claims this image? One of the limited edition Christmas selections? No. A card from Artfully Sent? Nope. It's actually a page from Artbooking!!






I selected our White Glitter Paper for this layer. If you haven't tried it, there's no problem cutting it on the Cricut. I leave my machine on cardstock and use a standard mat, but not a new mat; it's like White Daisy Cardstock. If you cut a lot of glitter paper at one time, clean out your blade housing. I noticed this a few years ago when I cut pages of snowflakes.






I must have been making too many shaker cards lately because that's what I saw with the "window" in this image. I hid the holes in the page with the contour tool in design space. I had planned to mount the image on a card base so I sized it 1/4" smaller. But I didn't like the fancy corners on top of the square corners. I looked for a card shape to coordinate but didn't find one, so, I made one! I resized the image to card front size, duplicated the image, hid the window contours, and welded two together.

When I was picking out the sequin colors I kept going back and forth between silver and gold. I couldn't decide on a base color with either of these and the White Glitter Paper, so I added a backing to the window with Silver Foil Paper.

My card is finished off with White & Gold Skinny Ribbon. I decided to add it after the card was assembled so I used my ribbon trick: Whenever I want to save ribbon or when I need ribbon tied about a piece of paper, I tie it around a My Acrylix block first. That gives me a firm object to work with and I can snip the loop off center if the bow isn't going to be in the middle. I suggest using a block that's about twice the size of the paper (this was actually too big, but the one I had nearby). Keep the other end attached to the roll until you're finished also helps when making bows or tying knots.
Thanks for stopping by!!
Please leave a comment before you hop to Katy Taylor's blog.

Products Used:

• White Glitter Paper
• Silver Foil Paper
• Sapphire Cardstock
• 3-D Foam tape
• Gold Sequins
• White and Gold Skinny Ribbon
• CTMH Artbooking Collection
• Anti-Static Pouch
• acetate or similar

Paper-Layering

Welcome once again to our monthly Technique Blog Hop. You may have arrived from Cat Scrapbooking. Be sure to check out all the posts by hopping to the next blogger until you get back to where you started. I'm sure you'll be inspired by the creativity, amazed by the artwork and/or learn something new.

If you get lost, a list of participants can be found here.


This month we are focusing on Paper Layering. This made me think of Cricut project with our fabulous collections. Did you know...ALL of the CTMH Collections are available for purchase?! This includes the two Christmas Collections:  City Sidewalks and Season of Joy.

I selection our newest collection, Complete Creativity, for my sample. I picked an 8.5x11 single page layout and adapted it to make a standard size card. Even though I know the math, it is easy to forget that the two sizes are in the same proportions. That means when you shrink an 8.5x11 down to 4.25x5.5, it's the same, just smaller!

There were a few elements of the layout I didn't need for a card, so I hid the photo mats and journaling boxes. I also switched the red to green and then swapped the bottom layer that appears as borders with the top mat layer.



Is is hard for you to image artwork in different colors?? It is for me! I selected the color palette from one of our new Paper Suites, Cedar and Pine. Did you know that the color swatches are in the catalog? I always find them helpful.




Here are the layers of the card when I assembled them. The very bottom is a blank card base. The trees are also layered! They cut as half circles and then are folded accordion style. These look great with our Two-Tone Cardstock!

After WAAAYYYY too many attempts to cut the sentiment in various sizes, I decided the best idea was to stamp the front of the card. (The part that says "tis the" is very fine.)  Ink can be a layer too!!

I actually found a stamp with a similar style! It's from the Holly Jolly - Cardmaking set.











I finished the card by accenting the stars with the Gold Shimmer Brush.  I wonder if I could make a layout from a card?? Do you re-size things in Design Space? Give it a try! Here is my DS file in case you're in a hurry.








One more word about the Close To My Heart Cricut products:  When shopping, always use your consultant's LINK to go to the Cricut web page. This is the ONLY way to find Complete Creativity. To find their link scroll all the way to the bottom of their web page where you'll find icons for various social media platforms. Click on the little green "C" square. If you don't have a consultant, I'd be happy to help you!

Please leave a comment below before checking out what Michelle Loncar has to share.