Two of my favorite superheros

This is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE layouts!  We were at McDonald's one day and Parker-man (5) was soooooooo excited to get a green lantern mask.  I was soooooo  thrilled when Avery (14) picked them up and put them on.  Mom was quick with the photos, because as a teen he doesn't allow that much these days.

I knew at that moment that I would be going right home to Studio-J these photos.  Using Superhero paper pack I could quickly change the very brightly colored papers to shades of black with the click of ONE button.  I quickly changed the cardstock and accessories to shades of green, added a few stickers and BAMMMM!  I was done.  Its THAT simple!

Happy Halloween

I just wanted to send out a Happy Halloween from the my crew of little Goblins!  Take time to craft with your kids (or grandkids).  I guarantee you'll get as much joy out of it as they will.

Happy Haunting from Sara Beth, Parker, and Kennedy!

Get your Buy 9 Get 1 Free Studio J orders in!

Just finished my last Studio J order of the month!  I got 60 layouts total.  I saved $41.60 this month when I received 6 free layouts....yeah!!!!!!  It was like getting paid for doing something I was going to do anyways!!!!!!!!!!!!   Love this months special remember to get your orders posted by tomorrow.

More samples from the 10/15 Blog Hop

As promised here is the project I made out of the left overs from my fall leaves cupcake liner rings on October 15th blog hop.  To create this candle ring I took TWO each of the same size cupcake liners and hooked them together using the precut tabs and holes (gotta love how easy the Cricut Artiste makes this for you).  Then repeated the directions from the full tree on the 15th's post.

Reminder to sign up for 11/06 workshop

Reminder today is the last day to register for your seat at the November 6th workshop.  I have some great things planned for this month's workshop that you won't want to miss.  If you are an out of towner or just can't pull yourself away this month from the Election Night madness today is also the last day to order a class kit!

Celebrate my 10th anniversary with me

This weekend is my 10th Wedding Anniversary, and I don't want to celebrate it alone.  Join my Octoberfest gathering at heatherplotzke.ctmh.com and receive a free ink pad of your choice with a purchase of $25 or more.

Hurry this offer lasts only only through the weekend!

Happy Anniversary Gordon!

October Layouts from my Workshop

I wanted to showcase Halloween papers and how they don't HAVE to be used for just Halloween.  I took very Halloween papers (retired papers - Mischief) and transitioned them into elegant Fall photo ready pages.  These will easily hold my Birthday photos next month when I hit the Big 4-0! or homecoming pictures.  I am  love with our new glitter tape and CTMH black tulle ribbon.  The Tulle is a great weight and holds shape really well.

The second layout (using the same papers) used the same style hand-scored paper medallions that I made my Spooky banner out of (featured last week).  Pumpkin patch photos or playing in the leaves will be easily mounted on them.

Both of these layouts started out with the patterns from the Mischief WOTG and Jeannette's Magic pattern book.

This week's Close To My Heart Clearly the Best WebTV video

I love this week's tips on masking ideas. 

For everyone that was at my October Workshop, check out the paper medallions on their layout...a lot like ours.  So if you love their layout you already know how to duplicate that process:)

October 2012 Love Your Layout by Studio J

You know I love me some Studio J!!!!!!!!!!! Here is the latest installment of Love Your Layout.  And remember to get the most out of the video, have the video open in one tab AND have your Studio J account open in another tab.

Also remember during October Buy 9 layouts Get 1 Free!!!!!!!!

Cricut Artiste by Close To My Heart Paper Medallion decorations

For October's workshop we made these bonus project wall hangings featuring the Cricut Artiste Paper Medallions and Spiders.  For the hanger I used our Black CTMH Tulle cut lengh-wise in half for a thinner look.  These took all of about 5 minutes to make and would be great in a smaller size made into pins for a shower, decorating table center pieces and place settings, hooked onto longer ribbons to mmake a banner.  The possibilities are endless.  Hope you enjoy.  I look forwarding to hearing what YOU  make with this idea.

Revamp decorations to give them a new Wow factor

I wanted to share this fun and easy Halloween project using your Cricut cutting system.  This table top tree was a gift to my parents about 15 yrs ago and each fall would just plainly sit on my Mom's table.  With 2 pieces of cardstock and about $0.50 worth of ribbon I repurposed this into a bright and fun Halloween tree.

After cutting images, I Sponged each piece tone on tone (with the same color ink as the paper).  To hook the images onto the tree I added jewelry jump rings to each piece.  Super quick and easy and I love the results!

DeLuz Housing Fall Event

SORRY EVERYONE -- RAINED OUT!  At least my table is!

  DeLuz Family Housing 108 Marine Drive Oceanside, CA 92058

Close To My Heart Clearly the Best TV - Alcohol Markers

For some great tips on our brand new Alcohol Markers tune into to this great video.  I am in love with the Tree on the 1st card, can't wait to scraplift it!

Halloween medallion wall hanging.

My good friend Corina Mitchel became the queen of paper medallion making last year, and thankfully she showed me how.  Here is the wall hanging I did using Close To My Heart papers.

To get the different size medallions use different heights of paper strips.  Example the large corner piece at the bottom right (with the spider) was  4" tall before scoring, so when done it makes a 8" circle.

 I laid the medallions out on top of the corrugated cardboard I was going to use as backing to get a feel for where each one would go.  This is a great way to make sure you have the shape, coloring, etc where you want it. The starting with the top corner I glued down using hot glue.    The picture doesn't show it but there is a black tuelle hanging ribbon that can be used from the top or hidden behind for table stand displaying

Cricut Artiste p 78 (turkey key) Blog Hop

Welcome to the Paper Cupcake's Cricut Artiste p 78 (turkey key)  Blog Hop!  If you came from Bren Yule's blog~http://closetomycricut.com/, you are in the right place.

So one of the unique items on the Cricut Artiste is the large selection of cupcake holders.  As soon as I saw the leaf cupcake holder, I knew, KNEW I wanted to make a tree out of it.  I wanted to show you 1st what I started with above.  

Now lets see where I took it!

I cut 17 holders starting at 5" and decreasing by 1/4" at a time all the way down to the last ring at the top at 1".  It took 5 sheets of cardstock to reach the final height of 7".  I used 10 sheets, cutting 2 of each Cricut page in different colors and then putting every other ring a different color, to make 2 trees.  The colors I used were Garden Green and Olive cardstock.

After cutting all the pieces with my Cricut I curled the leaves up to the ring with the end of my Cricut spatula before I hooked it into a ring with the slit/tab that the cut gives me. On the small rings I used the stylist from my Cricut to do the curling.  I applied a small amount of glue in between the levels for stability.  Then to give it the finishing POW I went back to each leaf and quickly applied Glitz Stardust Glitter Gel Z1313 (easiest way ever to glitter).  Stop back over the next few weeks to see what else I made with my extra play cuts of the holders.

For now though hop on over to the amazing LindaTaylor'S page to see more creative ideas using the Cricut Artiste Collection. If you get lost, just hop on back to Bren's  for the full hop list.  You won't want to miss any of our teams amazing projects.  Hope you hop back my way soon :)

Local SoCal friends - Beaumont Elementary School Vendor Fair

Hi everyone I wanted to let you know that I will be having a Scrapping good time at:

 Beaumont Elementary School Vendor Fair tomorrow

550 Beaumont Dr , Vista, California 92084

 Saturday 10/13 from 11a-2pm!!!!!!!! 

I hope all my SoCal friends in the Vista area tomorrow will stop by.  I will have lots of cash and carry products on sale (Stamp sets 2 for $20 limited to what's on hand) and lots of new samples to show.  I hope you can stop by and see me. 

Free scrap-bling  for anyone who comes out and mentions they stopped out because of my blog post!

Halloween art by CTMH Art Team

Close To My Heart's amazing art team has worked its magic again.  Check out some of their Spooky creations showcasing Halloween.

 This shadow box featuring Moonlight papers and complements is sure to put the HAPPY back into your Happy Haunting projects.

This special Spellbound Halloween Party Workshop On The Go to create using Cricut Artiste is Spooktacular!!!!!!!!!!

To get creating your very own versions of these projects and more, head on over to my website heatherplotzke.ctmh.com

Clearly the Best: Coordinating with Cricut

Whatcha working on today!?!?

So after spending time with my creative genius buddies Thursday and Saturday I have been crazy crafting inspired.  I have been making 3D art projects, working on designing workshop projects, and Studio J-ing like crazy!

Fall is such a great pressure free time to craft, Christmas stress hasn't started yet; weather is cool enough to start dreaming of it though.

So tell me what are YOU working on right now??????

Victory layout with Studio J

Here is a layout I made using Victory papers and Studio J this summer for convention 2012 when we were given a special 5 pack to play with.  I am not sure about everyone but Victory papers is one of the paper packs I use more than any other.  I think its perfect for outdoor photos, family photos, guy pics, and especially military photos.  Here is a layout I made from photos of my husband and youngest son right before my husband deployed last spring.  I thought they went perfectly together.

Notice how I layered and changed sizes of the scrolly-leaf My Stickease.  Another important thing I want you to take note of is the pleated ribbon on the right-hand page.  Do make this I took ribbon tabs and layered them.  Now that's easier than it may seem I only had to place a few and then highlight/copy & paste.  To line them all up evenly I highlighted them all and used the easy tools to evenly spread them both vertically and horizontally. I also covered the tops of the ribbon tabs with a border My Stickease for a finished look.

Remember all October, when you BUY 9 layouts you get your 10th one FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am all over taking advantage of that deal.

Remember to look past the initial theme of the paperpacks

Can anyone guess what paper packet this layout I made of my Avery's Orchestra Concert?  Hmmmm any guesses????  It might surprise you....a lot of people saw it as a travel paper, I saw it as a rich, classical papers that fit every occassion from travel to heritage to musical and everything in between.

A couple of tips that I want you to note.  The decoration for the title on the right side was My Stickease tags that I lined up and "sent backwards" behind the title well.  I also added ribbon to edge it with.  To make it narrow just use the crop tools to shrink it down.  Super easy but a great finishing touch.

I was thrilled with how well Studio J's photo editing tools work with no effort.  If you look at the photos again on the right page carefully you'll see that the two closeup photos were taken from the same distance.  The closeups were just zoomed in to focus on my kiddo..  So super easy.

Clearly the Best: Dauber Magic

What a great video about stamping using daubers to ink your images.  These videos are tip jam packed and are only 4-5 mins each week.  Be sure to stay tuned every Wednesday.