Joined the Close to My Heart Family again

After a couple of years hiatus, I decided it was time to rejoin the CTMH Family.  I really do love the way this company takes the guess work out of matching paper for layouts.  Their kits come with everything you need, even the recipe page, to make sevaeral layouts that are beautifully coordinated and sooooo easy to master.  Here is a layout I created using the Stella Kit.  All materials used were included in the CTMH  Stella
kit with the exception of the flourish stamp which was something that I had in my stash, a Martha Stewart border punch and some iridescent gold glimmer mist that I used on the flowers for some added sparkle and shine. The banner was made using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge.  I love using my cricut to cut out intricate shapes and fonts.  I would never be able to cut all of that out myself with the nerve damage in my arm.  The flowers were white cotton and I used my CTMH inks to color them to coordinate with my page.  

My Reign as Winner Takes All and other ATCs

First and foremost, I need to apologize for the delay in getting this posted.  My mother has been very sick since Mother's Day.  We have finally had to place her in a Nursing Home and that in itself has been very stressful and time consuming.

I belong to an ATC Swap Group called Blissfull ATC Swaps and for the month of May, I was the recipient of the Winner Takes All ATCs.  I chose Hot Air Balloons as my theme.  There were 7 participants,  but I received 8 beautiful Hot Air Balloon ATCs and a whole bunch of sussies. The ATCs I received are pictured below:

Top Row - Left to Right:  Melanie Statnick,  Melanie is a mixed media artist and her beautiful work is showcased on this card.  I just look all the different media!!.  Peggy Jones, Peggy has a whole bunch of Balloons on this small card.  The colors are just beautiful, the picture does not do this card justice.  Debbie Ragan, Debbie sent me not one but two cards the last one of the top row and the first one on the second row.  Both are just beautiful.  I just love the "Romantic Balloon"!!! 

 Second Row - Left to Right:  Debbie Ragan, Electra, Electra send a beautiful "High Flying" Balloon that was sooo colorful and dimensional.  I think my favorite part are the birds on the wire.  Debbie Reed, Debbie's card featured a vintage photo of children watching balloons float across the horizon.  I just love the mix of pin and ink and color photos.

 This ATC came to me from Oliva Ohlson.  She used a small mini cupcake wrapper as her basket and a very three dimensional balloon.  Again, love, love all the textures and dimension.

 My last card came from Wendy K.  She send in a very beautiful ATC that had me singing the Oldie Goldie song, "Up, Up and Away, in my beautiful balloon"...  and her balloon was beautiful.  I love your background paper Wendy, very nicely done!!!

Continuing with me cards from May...  The monthly theme for the May swap over on Blissfull ATCs was Magic.  I was partnered with April Bloome.  I was blown away by April's card.  She took the Magic Theme and ran in the totally opposite direction from me.  April send a beautiful Christmas Themed card and really, what is more magical then Christmas.  I love your way of thinking April.  I also love the frosty nighttime rooftop scene.  Well done, me friend!!!  I love it!!! 

Now my magic card, I ended up doing two, because I was not very happy with my first go round.  Below is the first card.  What a disappointment this card was for me.  It's not that its ugly or horrible, it just wasn't what I was going for.  So I tried again...

 

This time I decided to try to create a magician's closet where he stores all his magical supplies.

So go ahead and open the closet door and you will be greeted with Alexandre's business poster, his top hat and rabbit, gloves and wand and his deck of cards.  I really liked this one much better.  I just hope April did also. 

 

The theme for June was "Pet Me".  We were to make an ATC depicting our pets.  I chose to use a photo of our peekapoo that was taken last Mardi Gras season while we were waiting for the parade to start.  She loves being anywhere we are, so we wouldn't think of not taking her to the parade.  As part of a Ladies Krewe, I ride in the parade and my husband usually pulls the float with our truck.  Lucy, our dog, rides on his lap and looks out the window.  People are always asking him to throw them the puppy, lol.  So here is my Mardi Gras Queen!!!  This month my partner is Dawn from England.  I hope she enjoys this Mardi Gras inspired Pet ATC!!!

Wendy K was the lucky winner of the Winner Takes All Lottery.  She asked that we all send her either Vintage or Steampunk ATC.  I chose to send Steampunk.  I hope she likes it!!!

That's all for this month.  I'll only be participating in the Winner Takes All Lottery next month because of all the summer time activities that we have planned.  The pool for WTA keeps getting smaller and smaller each month, so I'll continue to participate even though I won so that the next winner will receive a bunch of cards like I did.

Donna