What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday #385

This week has been a busy one for me - between getting stuff done around the house and running errands, I feel like I haven't had much time to just sit down and make art. I have stolen moments here and there though... this is what my desk looks like this morning:

I'm still having fun creating holiday cards, but I've moved on from the kits and into doing my own thing this week. I've gotten to play with some new Close To My Heart dies and stamps and broke out my trusty watercolor palette. And see, not so tidy when it's not all laid out for me. 😉 Creative chaos reigns. 

If you're curious to know more about What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, head on over to Julia's Stamping Ground to learn all about it and to check out other desks from around the world  

Oh Deer!

Yesterday I gave a peek at my desk as I was just getting started on a new workshop from our Seasonal Expressions catalog called Oh Deer!  This workshop was so fun to do that I finished it yesterday evening between cleaning house and cooking dinner.

I don't have many pictures at all from last winter, so these layouts are going to have to wait to be filled with pics from the coming season.  I'm sure that with a new home and a new place there will be more than plenty of pictures taken!  I'll update the pictures on the blog as I complete the layouts - but here they are sans pictures.

The Oh Deer! Workshop kit comes with all the paper and embellishments you need to complete three two-page layouts and two-page pocket layout (not shown).  If you add the card bases and envelopes, there's more than enough paper to also do eight cards!  The layouts don't require any stamping, but the cards do.  The stamp set they recommend for this project is Season of Magic and I second that wholeheartedly! This set is so pretty! I've already got ideas for several other cards that will be coming shortly with this stamp set and paper combination.

Season of Magic My Acrylix Stamp Set

The workshop's all finished!

The cards

I love the simplicity of this one... and the pinecones on the paper are perfect.

My favorite! I deviated a little from the directions and added red berries.

These stars are actually made of wood!!

Available Products:

Item # - Item Name (and link)

G1116 - Workshops Your Way Oh Deer! Scrapbooking Kit

C1655 - Season of Magic My Acrylix Stamp Set

Z2811 - Chocolate Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2850 - Fern Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2816 - Cranberry Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

X254 - White Cards and Envelopes Value Pack

1512 - Broad Tip Bonding Memories Glue Pen

Z2060 - Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Z1836 - Non-Stick Micro-tip Scissors

Z1783 - SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer

Y1501 - My Acrylix Block Starter Kit

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

This is my first time posting for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, something I've been hearing  my mom tell me about for ages now.  I decided I was tired of hearing about all the fun instead of participating in it! If you're interested in learning more, visit Stamping Ground to get all the details.

Welcome to my desk, WOYWWers! My name is Heather (aka: Waywardgypsy) and I'm Vickie (aka: Okienurse)'s daughter.  We recently moved to San Jose, California and I have finally gotten my space all organized and set up... felt like forever (even though it was only 3 months).  You can see more pics on the blog I posted last week.  I'll post the pics of my desk now, and then there's a bit of an introduction for those interested after!

I'm getting ready for the holidays already and starting my Close To My Heart Christmas workshop and party crafting.  I love to give stuff away, so it helps to have loads done ahead of time so I don't stress during the holiday season. You can see the workshop cutting guide on my laptop, and I've already started cutting.  There's some pretty stuff hidden under those papers too!

Just starting a scrapbooking workshop

One of my favorite parts of CTMH paper - the "zip" strips

The papers in the workshop kit

The pretties under the paper - die cuts, stickers, wooden stars and trees, and sparkly twine

As a bit of an introduction, I'm a Close To My Heart consultant and an avid crafter/artist.  I have a degree in painting and drawing from the University of Oklahoma and I'm looking forward to getting a masters in either Fine Arts or Art Education so I can teach. There's nothing I love more than sharing my excitement and passion for art.  I have been married for 10 years to Michael, the sweetest and most supportive man alive (he puts up with me and my artist temperament, not sure he shouldn't be canonized).   We have one African Grey Parrot, Nyassa.  He is almost 21 years old, and is a lot of fun... getting him to shut up is the hard part most of the time.  We've got two kitties, both of which are rescues, and both American short hairs.  Horace is a piebald stray we picked up in Pennsylvania and Inara is part Siamese and we couldn't resist her sassy personality.

We also have three dogs, who are our babies.  Mocha is a black lab mix and is about 4 years old.  She threw herself at our door one night and told us "Hey, I live here now!"  She is a diva and very much daddy's girl.  We got Wesley, a lab/pitbull/mutt, from a rescue when he was 4 months old.  He's my sweet boy, and loves to cuddle up on the couch and chill.  Leo is the baby of the family, a yellow lab mix, and only 10 months old.  We rescued him at 6 weeks old when he was left with his siblings outside of a PetSmart in the middle of winter.  He's goofy and lovable, and I can't wait until he calms down a bit!

And now for pics!

Hey look, it's me! 

Michael - my love

Aren't we cute together? 

Nyassa

Horace

Inara

Mocha

Wesley

Leo

Me and my mom... my favorite person in the world.

That's a lot, I know! Hopefully if you made it this far, you'll come back next week to see what's cookin' at Wayward Gypsy Studios.

Just to Say...

I'm a big fan of having a variety of cards available at all times.  This means that I keep a stock of Thank you, Birthday, Congratulations, Thinking of You, and Sympathy cards at all times.

There's a little bit of everything in there.  Some new, some older.

Sometimes these cards are completely custom and I've made judicious use of our Annual Inspirations and Seasonal Expressions for inspiration.  You can also find great ideas for custom card making in our books that teach you how to be more creative and even how to balance color and shapes to make a pleasing composition.  As an artist, I really appreciate that our Originals Card Confidence Program book teaches people how to make decisions based on time-honored design principles.

This book is so useful! There are layouts and basic design education.

Today I am going to share probably my favorite card kit out of the Holiday Expressions 2016 catalog.    The Workshops Your Way Just To Say Cardmaking Kit (that's a mouthful, isn't it?!). This kit comes with a beautiful stamp set and all the paper, embellishments, and card blanks you need to craft 10 cards.

One of the things I love about this kit is the colors! It uses Sea Glass, our color of the year, which is a lovely muted turquoise color.  It also uses two of our new Adventure Color Palette hues, Blossom and Raspberry, two very lovely pink shades that coordinate beautifully with Sea Glass.  These beautiful colors are calmed a bit by Whisper, a soft warm grey.

Doesn't you just love them? The stamp set is very versatile, with sentiments for two of our most common reasons for making cards, and the adorable thought bubble and hearts.  There are three different "border" stamps that you could use over and over to add a little color or texture to various projects.

Look at that bubble! So cute!

The enamel gems are sparkly but not too much.

I think this is going to my aunt who has a birthday next month...

I love the two-step heart. You can have just an outline, or fill it in.

I'm happy to say these cards are in my stash to be sent out when I need them!

Available Products:

Item # - Item Name (and link)

G1113 - Just To Say Cardmaking Kit

Z3271 - Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2813 - Sea Glass Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2810 - Blossom Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2812 - Raspberry Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2172 - Whisper Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

1512 - Broad Tip Bonding Memories Glue Pen

Z2060 - Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Y1501 - My Acrylix Block Starter Kit

I love handmade tags!

I know that most people don't think they have time to make handmade tags for every gift they give at Christmas.  They buy big pages or rolls of unoriginal and uninspiring self-adhesive tags.  Nobody loves these tags and for those who spend the extra money for the fancier tags, I feel so bad for you.  I never realized how easy it could be to make my own handmade tags until I started making paper crafts with Close to My Heart two years ago.

There are so many options, from tags cut out using our Exclusive Cricut Cartridges, to stamping a sweet Christmas sentiment on a circle cut using one of our punches or another shape using our exclusive Thin Cuts designs.  If there's any interest, I will happily provide pictures of examples I've made previously.  There's one option that I love even more when I'm busy because I don't have to plan or cut ANYTHING.  Today's post is about another Cut Above kit that's available in the Holiday Expressions 2016 catalog (items available through December).

This Cut Above 'Tis the Season Tag Kit seemed to lack color and "umph" to me when I saw it online, but I ordered it anyway because I have faith in the designers over at CTMH headquarters.  This is not a traditional Christmas red and green tag with Santa or snowflakes.  This tag is so sophisticated and goes perfectly with the craft wrapping paper I picked up at the after Christmas sales last year!! (see pic above - bow handmade with CTMH City Sidewalks paper left over from when I made the Happy Holidays Cardmaking Kit)

 'Tis the Season Tag Kit contents

You choose one of the sentiments I mentioned in the the 'Tis the Season Card Kit  post (also listed below).  Just stamp using our Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad and start assembly.  These tags take no time at all to put together.  After they were all assembled, I decided to add the "to:" and "from:" on the back using our Perfect Presents stamp set.  I loved the textures and sparkle of this kit! The polka dotted craft cardstock and the gold glitter and foil on the other layers was stunning! Because I'm a color fiend, I elected to add some Red Enamel Gems after everything else was done.  I was so happy with how they turned out, I've already ordered two more kits for myself.

All put together!

So PRETTY! 

Available Products:

Item # - Item Name (and link)

Z4018 - Cut Above 'Tis the Season Tag Kit

Z3271 - Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

1512 - Broad Tip Bonding Memories Glue Pen

Z2060 - Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Y1003 - 2"x2" My Acrylix Block

M1155 - Merry & Bright My Acrylix Stamp

              (Mini Christmas (M1152), Happiest Holidays (M1153), or Mini Joy (M1154))

D1697 - Perfect Presents My Acrylix Stamp Set

Z3090 - Red Enamel Gems

Cards for any occasion

Made these lovely cards from the Thinking of You Cardmaking Kit today! I love how easy these new cardmaking kits are... it barely took any time to make 10 cards, and the kit had enough patterned paper and cardstock left over to make another 5 cards (if you have the extra bases and envelopes)! You can find the kit and all supplies on my website http://waywardgypsy.ctmh.com.

I did cheat and added some retired Glacier Thick Twine to the Hello card because I accidentally placed the sentiment too high.

Available Products:

G1117 - Workshops Your Way Thinking of You Cardmaking Kit

Z2809 - Tangerine Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2810 - Blossom Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2813 - Sea Glass Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2060 - Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Y1510 - My Acrylix Block Starter Kit

A little Halloween Treat

This card was made with retired papers and a retired stamp set, but I fell in love with this little guy and just HAD to use him again. These will be going out in the mail tomorrow!

Available Products:
X254 - 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes a Value Pack
Y1501 - My Acrylix Block Starter Kit
44751 - Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
Z2468 - ShinHan Touch Twin Warm Grey 7 Marker
Z2453 - ShinHan Touch Twin Lavender Marker
Z2457 - ShinHan Touch Twin Marigold Marker
Z2454 - ShinHan Touch Twin Leaf Green Marker
Z2452 - ShinHan Touch Twin Golden Yellow Marker

I've gotta brag a bit...

I've got my craft room all set up!! I'm looking forward to being creative in this space...

Wow that was FAST!

Okay, so yesterday I told you about the Happy Holidays Cardmaking Kit and how FAST you can make handmade Christmas cards. Today I feel I have to share an even faster kit we have at Close To My Heart.  I present to you the Cut Above 'Tis the Season Card Kit!  

This kit comes with all the paper pieces you need to make ten cards, precut and ready to assemble.  All you need to do is stamp with a sentiment and get to gluing!  These use a nice pre-printed cardstock base, heavy glitter paper, and a gold foiled sentiment block. 

Gorgeous, aren't they?! I kid you not, these 10 cards took me less than 30 minutes from start to finishing cleanup.  You can put the card kits together as you wish, which is great for those who are a little more creative (or have a little more time to plan).  I didn't even feel the need to bling these up any - and I'm a sparkle fiend.

Available Products:
Z4018 - Cut Above 'Tis the Season Card Kit
Z3271 - Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
1512 - Broad Tip Glue Pen
Z2060 - Thin 3-D Foam Tape
Y1003 - 2"x2" My Acrylix Block
M1155 - Merry & Bright My Acrylix Stamp
                   (or choose Mini Christmas (M1152), Happiest Holidays (M1153), or Mini Joy (M1154))