Today is the grand opening day of Take Heart Ideas! I’m so thrilled to be a part of the new site and contributing ideas. The site is meant to share inspiration and ideas, as well as others sharing their ideas by participating in challenges. The first challenge is “Anything Goes” with the stipulation that you use at least one Close to My Heart product. If nothing else, you could always go into Studio J digital scrapbooking online software and create something, because you don’t even need any physical products! Be sure and submit your project, because we’ll select a winner. You can see the prize on the Take Heart Ideas site.

Although the first challenge is Anything Goes, we decided to coordinate our efforts by using a color palette inspiration piece from Design-Seeds.com. I love the color combos that come right from photographs!

July color inspiration from Design-Seeds.com

With that in mind, I found the perfect Close to My Heart paper pack! Honestly, I had no idea this paper pack had perfect colors for the challenge when we selected the inspiration color palette! It is the Ivy Lane selection, #X7178B It is retiring this month so grab it now if you like it! There are six sheets of patterned paper, and six sheets of coordinating card stock!

CTMH, Ivy Lane Paper Pack

I never seem to have enough birthday cards on hand, so why not use this time to make one!   The hardest part about this card is just cutting pieces of paper! Now that I’ve come up with the measurements, you’ll be good to go make of these rather quickly!

Happy Birthday Card with minimal effort!

Here’s the “recipe”:

• Cardstock for base of card: 8.5″ x 5.5″
• Patterned paper: 5.25″ x 4″  – distressed edges with black ink
• Dark card stock: 4.25″ x 3″
• Cardstock to stamp your greeting on – lighted edged with black ink
• Happy Birthday was stamped in Hollyhock CTMH ink
• Candles were strips of patterned paper 1/4″ wide and 1 3/8″ tall, perfect for scraps!
• Flames were drawn with a white Signo ink pen.
• Black faux stitching was done with a fine tip black pen.
• DONE!

I was afraid the candles were going to be a nightmare to stick down straight and fairly even, so I applied adhesive and then stuck one end on a ruler to line them up and then get them on the paper!

Stuck “candles” on a ruler to line them up!

Quick reminder, if you like the Ivy Lane paper pack, run over and get it before it’s gone! Here is a quick link to all the Ivy Lane items.

The CTMH stamp of the month is this fun Circus Alphabet set. It is $5 with a $50 order.

I have also entered this card in this challenge:

Totally Gorjuss – Pink and Green

Cards Galore – One Stamp

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper – Patterned Paper