Art Philosophy Blog Hop!

Welcome to our July Art Philosophy Blog Hop! Each month we will showcase a feature of the amazing Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge which can be purchased exclusively through a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant.

We're so excited to be doing this hop and we have a fabulous lineup with some very talented ladies. There will be lots of fun projects AND some blog candy!!!

Lucy Kelleher, our hostess and fellow CTMH Consultant, will be giving away a stamp set! She is giving away a prior Stamp of the Month set that can no longer be purchased called "You Are ...". (This stamp set has a $17.95 retail value). You will find a picture of the stamp set on her blog. To enter to win, you will need to leave a comment on her blog and on every stop of the blog hop. If you also become a follower of Lucy's blog, she will give you another entry .

This month we will be showcasing the "Card" feature of the cartridge. Did you know there are 100 different card shapes you can make with this cartridge? You heard me correctly -- 100!!! Now we won't be able to show you ALL 100 card options, but we will show you as many as we can.

If you just happened to come to this blog, you should start at the beginning at Lucy's blog - http://www.love2createitall.com.

My project is a card turned into a gift card holder and card in one! I used the Tag Card on Pg. 60 with NO shift. You will cut 2 of these at 4 3/4".

You will them cut a slit in one of them big enough to insert your gift card into. Next you will glue them together to make your pocket card for the gift certificate. MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE AND LEAVE ENOUGH ROOM FOR THE GIFT CARD TO SLIDE INTO!!!!  You will also fold down the two corners as shown in the pictures below.

In the middle of the card you will want to decorate it with a To: and From: on it for the person receiving this special gift. Next you can make a "belly band" to wrap around the card to keep it closed.  I just used a zip strip from the Pear and Partridge line that you can order through me from Close to My Heart. I simply LOVE this kit for Christmas!

Once you have this done you are done with the actual card, but I went a step further and made a holder for it because I wanted to add some candy to it. I used the Door Hanger from Art Philosophy pg.25 at 10"  which holds a candy bar or in this case bag of M&Ms perfectly to finish off this gift. I decorated the box with the stamp set from the Workshop on the Go from Pear and Partridge line again. This whole project actually uses the one workshop package where you will have plenty of paper left for more or other projects.  

I thought I was a genius when I made this project but then I came across this blog:http://cre8nmemories.blogspot.com/2011/10/gift-card-holders-on-parade-6.html  where she had made the same exact thing. My bubble was bursted :(  But even though my bubble was bursted I wanted to go ahead and share with you all just in case you had not seen this before. Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to reading your comments. The next stop on your blog hop fun is  Eva's Blog  Here is the list of all the talented consultants who are participating in this months blog hop:

1. Lucy ~ http://www.love2createitall.com
2. Darla ~ http://www.stampingunderdoctorsorders.blogspot.com/
3. Gloria Shirr - http://purpleglocreations.blogspot.com
4. Laura Wolff- http://scrappinsweetiesescape.blogspot.com
5. Eva-http://loveofcreating.blogspot.com
6.  Danielle ~ http://littlebitofscrap.blogspot.com/---card:
7. Connie ~ http://conniescraftycloset.blogspot.com
8. Wendy ~ http://myscrapbookingblog.com
9. Joanne - http://josiesjoy.blogspot.com
10. Laura Charko -  http://koladesigns.wordpress.com/ 
11. Carolyn Heniges - http://www.nuts4scrappin.blogspot.com/
12. Kindred Hearts (Penny) - http://itmakestotalcents.blogspot.com/
13. Stephanie Feist- http://www.quiltedscrapper.blogspot.com
14. Julia Hammond http://youcancreatectmh.blogspot.com/