H2H - Christmas in July

Welcome to Christmas in July with Heart 2 Heart! 

Yes, we are celebrating Christmas this week at Heart 2 Heart! Time to roll out those Christmas papers, stamps, dies and all your other holiday themed supplies and join us for this super fun challenge! 

And even better, Heart 2 Heart is pairing up with Double Trouble - another great challenge - and they have added some additional factors to add to the scheme of things. 

I AM doing the Double Trouble challenge as well as creating for Heart 2 Heart. 

The Double Trouble challenge requires three components (well... two and an optional third):

• Thing 1 - Christmas (sentiment or journaling)
• Thing 2 - link up to Heart 2 Heart (since this is originally created for H2H, got that one covered)
• Thing 3 - Fancy Fold something or other... 

I saw a gorgeous card similar to this on Pinterest and decided to try one for myself. It is called a Twisted Easel Card. The creator of the card on which I based mine can be found here.

My first challenge was finding a die that would fit. The only one I had that was large enough was the one I used here - it is a Memory Box die. Since many different flowers are now used for Christmas, it could be turned into a Christmas card pretty easily. I cut the die FOUR times - twice in Ruby and twice in New England Ivy. I cut the leaves off the two Ruby die cuts. Then I painstakingly glued the dies together to provide strength. The Joy piece was Cricut cut and anchored with foam tape and Liquid Glass as adhering to glitter paper is difficult. I brushed the flowers with the Gold Shimmer Brush. The card base is simply a 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 piece, folded in half and then half is scored diagonally. It folds down flat to no larger than a standard card size for mailing purposes. 

I photographed the card from the back side to show how the die sits and also shown a close up of the flowers and leaves to show the gold shimmer as well as the detail on the leaves that is hard to see in the original picture. 

I hope you will join us at Heart 2 Heart to celebrate Christmas in July! 

There are SO many possibilities of projects to create and we would love to see yours. 

You have until the end of July to enter this or any of the other July challenges. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: Ruby Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Gold Glitter Paper

Stamps: none

Inks: none

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Artbooking Cartridge, Red Enamel Gems, Gold Shimmer Pen, English Rose Bouquet Die (Memory Box), Foam Tape, Liquid Glass 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Cross Canada Blog Hop - Central Park

Welcome to the Cross Canada Blog Hop! 

If you have arrived here from Brae Montgomery's blog, you are on the right path. If you want to start at the beginning of the blog hop, then start at Michelle Stewart's blog. 
This blog hop runs from East to West across Canada! 

This month, we are featuring the Central Park Paper Pack. This is a paper pack that is focused on primary colours - red, green, yellow and blue. It also has shades of white and grey and even our Colour of the Year, Bashful. 

I want to show two very different sides of this paper pack for this blog hop. I have not use this paper pack much at all because in all honesty, it is my least favourite paper pack of the ones that are currently available. However, I have used up almost all of just two papers in it - and had just enough of those two paper left to do this first card. It is certainly not what most people would think of when they see the papers in this paper pack. The papers of Central Park are bold and bright and this card is not that style at all. 

For the flowers, I used the Beautiful You stamp set - a triple stamping set. I cut one of the zip strips in half for the border and used Mink cardstock for my card base. The dots are from the Documented Dots collection as they matched perfectly. The flowers and leaf stems were brushed with the Clear Shimmer Brush - a close up is shown under the card photo. 

My second card is more like the typical Central Park papers - bold and bright. I tried everything to get the twine to lie flat but finally let it go where it wanted... 

I hope these two cards show you that the Central Park Paper Pack has two distinct personalities. 

The next blog on this hop is Brandi Robinson's blog. 

I am sure she has something wonderful to share with you. 

Please join us next month when we will feature projects using the Documented Paper Pack. 

Note: the date will be August 10th instead of the 15th. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Central Park Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Mink Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Bashful Glitter Paper, Pacifica Cardstock, Poppy Cardstock

Stamps: Beautiful You, Birthday Sparkles

Inks: Willow, Raspberry, Blossom, Bashful

Accessories: Documented Dots, Clear Shimmer Brush, Beautiful You Thin Cuts, Oval Thin Cuts, Stitched Oval Thin Cuts, Corner Rounder, Central Park Sequins, Sapphire Burlap Ribbon

Enjoy,

Alyson

Colour Dare 301 - Interactive Tea Card

Welcome to Challenge #301 at Colour Dare!

Our colour combination this week is a pretty basic one - essentially red, green and yellow (Poppy, Willow and Lemon) plus optional Gold. In the Close To My Heart palette, those colours are bright ones - so I went to the Adventure Fundamentals for my papers, as well as some cardstock. 

I wanted to use the Beautiful Friendship - Cardmaking stamp set, which is all about tea, to make my card and I had an idea in mind. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do and I also didn't want to use an existing template. Figuring out things like this takes me a LONG time because I have always been "spatially challenged". Thinking in terms of three dimensional items (although this is not really 3-D) has never been a strength for me. This is my own design and I really had to think about how to make this work. 

There are several views shown so you get the entire picture of how this card is put together. The front is a partial panel. It is attached with a hook and loop dot and opens sideways to reveal the second part of the card.

Inside the second part, I embossed the teapot and cups using gold embossing powder and coloured the flowers using Sharpie markers. I didn't want the left side to be left blank so I stamped a white sheet using the teapot interior and coloured all of those tiny flowers (talk about having googly eyes afterwards because that is very detailed work...) 

I have also shown a closeup of the embossed teapot so you can see the detail of the gold embossed teapot and the colouring of the tiny flowers.

The last part of the card flips entirely upwards to reveal a place to hold two teabags and a spot to write a message. 

The last photo shows the card sitting closed (but without the hook and loop dot closed) to show you how it is put together. 

Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you use the colour palette shown below. 

You have two weeks to enter your project. 

I am also linking this card into the Three Amigos challenge as their 

challenge this month is embossing. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Adventure Fundamentals, Poppy Fundamental Paper (ret.), White Daisy Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Poppy Cardstock

Stamps: Beautiful Friendship - Cardmaking

Inks: Poppy, Willow, Black, Versamark

Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Gold Glitter Gems, Sharpie Markers (not CTMH), Rectangular Stitched Dies (not CTMH), Circle Stitched Dies (not CTMH), Scallop Border Dies (ret.),  Hook and Loop Dots, Black Journaling Pen, Tea Bags (not CTMH)

Enjoy,

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 272 - Simple Flowers card

Welcome to Challenge #272 at Atlantic Hearts! 

This challenge card is being posted a little early because Atlantic Hearts has paired up with the Double Trouble challenge. However, you cannot actually enter the Atlantic Hearts #272 challenge until Monday when this particular sketch goes live. As a design team member, I have access to it in advance, which is why I am posting it now - it is also shown on the Double Trouble site and their challenge with Atlantic Hearts is running for a two week period. 

The challenge at Double Trouble is threefold:

Thing #1 challenges you to a 3-2-1 Recipe

1. use THREE colours

2. use a TWO WORD sentiment

3. use ONE stamped or digital image

Thing #2 challenges you to link up to the Atlantic Hearts challenge 

(#271 or #272)

Thing #3 challenges you to use embossing 

- either dry or wet embossing

My card meets ALL of the challenges listed above. 

I added a piece of twine to the top of my card as there really was something missing at the top and that filled in the gap. The flowers were coloured using ShinHan markers and brushed with the Clear Shimmer Brush. I also stamped the Bashful paper using the Bashful ink pad, just to add some interest. 

I am also entering this card into the Three Amigos challenge as their challenge 

this month is embossing. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Bashful Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Seaglass Cardstock (ret.)

Stamps: Petal Palette (SU), Beautiful Inside (Altenew)

Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Bashful, Raspberry

Accessories: Foam Tape, Rose Embossing Folder, Pink Gems (ret.), Turquoise Twine (unknown), Clear Shimmer Brush, ShinHan Markers

Enjoy,

Alyson

H2H - Super Girl Card

Welcome to this week’s Heart 2 Heart challenge! 

This week, super heroes reign! There are two terrific super hero stamps made by Close To My Heart - one for boys and another for girls. These are certainly not the only super hero stamps out there but they are awesome stamps for this challenge! 

I chose to use the Super Girl stamp - because so many girls need recognition of a job well done and this is just one card for that purpose. 

I used the Central Park paper pack along with a couple of dies. A open diamond die was used to cut Bashful Glitter Paper and that was layered on top of some patterned paper from the Central Park paper pack. The oval stitched die was cut and layered on top of White Daisy Cardstock. The super girl image was stamped and fussy cut (as I don’t have the matching dies), then coloured and mounted with foam tape. 

Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your super hero projects. You have until the end of July to link up with this challenge. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: Central Park Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Bashful Glitter Paper
Stamps: Super Girl (ret.)
Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Pacifica
Accessories: Central Park Sequins, Diamond Die (Gina Marie Designs), Oval Stitched Dies (Gina Marie Designs), ShinHan Markers, Foam Tape

Enjoy,
Alyson 

July SOTM Blog Hop - Highlight Reel

Welcome to July's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "Highlight Reel" - a set of 23 stamps. This stamp set highlights so many possible things - a first home, car, concert, pet, holiday, date, birthday, vacation, etc. And it doesn't have to be a FIRST - it can be an any occasion stamp set! The bloggers along this blog hop will certainly show you many ways to use this stamp set, so sit back and enjoy the tour. 

You should have arrived here from Haley Dyer's blog. 

If you get lost, a list of all participating bloggers can be found on Melinda Everitt's blog.

The stamp set looks like this.

I chose to create a layout with this stamp set plus a few other stamps to help me out. 
I found this layout on Pinterest and I loved the design. I think the artist may be Connie Prince but I am not sure.
My little dog, Mika, loves to watch me from my bedroom as I get ready for bed at night. She won't leave but just watches my every move - perhaps to make sure I won't leave her. 
I used a triadic colour scheme for my layout (three colours equally spaced apart on the colour wheel). It is amazing how this really works! The Tangerine and Peacock cardstock pieces were stamped with patterns. I masked the image between the words of the title as I wanted to place a paw print there instead. The chevrons were sliced and manipulated in Design Space (much work) to get them to fit beside each other. 

I hope you enjoyed my project. 

The next blog on this hop is Lauren Moore's blog.
I am sure she has something wonderful to share with you. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Central Park Paper Pack, Adventure Fundamentals, Bashful Glitter Paper, White Daisy Cardstock, Tangerine Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock
Stamps: Highlight Reel, Paws, Flower Market Cricut Stamps, Beautiful Friendship Cardmaking
Inks: Peacock, Lagoon, Tangerine, Raspberry
Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Basic Hearts Thin Cuts, Stitched Hearts Thin Cuts, Grey and White Enamel Gems, Sharpie Marker (not CTMH)

Enjoy,

Alyson

Colour Dare 299 - Friend Wreath

Welcome to this week's Colour Dare Challenge! 

It's another Tic Tac Toe board!

These are so much fun because we don't limit you to to using just a line... you can use one line, two lines, the entire board or just a selection of colours if you want. The only thing you cannot do is add colours that are not on the board. So, GO FOR IT! 

I wanted to use the Fresh Air paper pack, and it is that paper pack on which this tic tac toe board is based, so my choice of lines is the top one and the diagonal line going down to the right. 

The stamp sets I used with the exception of the sentiments are (surprisingly) Christmas stamps. The wreath and all the trimmings are indeed from Christmas stamps but I purposely avoided the berries as they would really need to be stamped in a red colour and that obviously wouldn't fit the colour scheme here. I suppose I could have done them using Nutmeg but it just wasn't quite the same.

The wreath itself is barely visible as I stamped it in Glacier but with all the extras on top, it is almost completely covered. Leaves, branches and flowers were added. I hand cut the flowers but everything else was stamped directly onto the wreath. 

The New England Ivy Burlap Twine was cut into individual pieces (it comes flat with 6 pieces that can be cut apart to make individual stands). An old button was threaded with Juniper twine for a finishing touch. 

Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you use this awesome Tic Tac Toe board. You have two weeks to link up your project. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: Fresh Air Paper Pack, Linen Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Nutmeg Cardstock

Stamps: White Pines Cardmaking Workshop (ret.), Season of Magic (ret.), Extra Special (Altenew)

Inks: New England Ivy, Glacier, Juniper, Nutmeg

Accessories: New England Ivy Burlap Ribbon, Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Button (ret.), Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Scallop Border Punch (ret.), ShinHan Marker

Enjoy,

Alyson

Glitter Friend Card

With some extra time on my hands today, I decided to create a card for the challenge at Tuesday Morning Sketches. It has been a LONG time since I have submitted a card to this challenge but I do follow their sketches each week. 

Colouring flowers red is always a challenge because they often end up looking like they belong on Christmas cards... I wanted to do something that wouldn't be like that so that was my challenge to myself as I worked on this card. I chose a background that was glittery but not a Christmas pattern. I had a hard time deciding on the flourishes - nothing seemed to work (either too big or too small). I really didn't want to resort to my Cricut but it ended up being the best option. The paper between the front and the cardstock base is vellum. I did cut the front piece with a stitched die but it is very hard to see in the photograph. 

I am not an expert in colouring by any means - I am a mere beginner and am self-taught. Anything I have learned has been from the few videos I have watched. I really need a lot of help in this area :) 

Check out the glitter on the background piece of this card! It's hard to see in the large photograph. 

Here is the sketch on which I based my card for this challenge. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock, Vellum, Silver Foil Paper, Blue/Green Glitter Paper (unknown)

Stamps: Wild Rose (Pretty Pink Posh), Beautiful Friendship (ret.)

Inks: Black Pigment Ink, Versamark

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Clear Sparkles, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Wild Rose Dies (Pretty Pink Posh), ShinHan Markers, Rectangle Stitched Dies (GMD)

Enjoy,

Alyson

Wishing You Smiles Splatter Ink Butterfly

I have been wanting to get another card together for the Double Trouble Challenge - and also try something I haven't done for a while at the same time. 

This card took me a long time to create but it also made me think carefully about how I wanted to do this for a few reasons. First - there is a restriction of colours with this challenge. You can only use three specific colours (plus black and white if desired, but since Nutmeg is one of the colours, black really doesn't fit). Second, I need to have a form of string. Finally, I also want to link up with the Three Amigos challenge and that requires a form of die cutting. 

So - I started with my largest block and three ink pads - Glacier, Sorbet and Nutmeg. I inked up the block, spritzed it with water once and turned it upside down on watercolour paper. It took me three attempts before I had something that looked like it was usable. 

Next was on to my Cricut machine to find a decent butterfly. That was sliced on a larger piece of white cardstock than required and then run through my Big Shot with a stitched die to form the outline. The butterfly still had the outer border around it but it worked for my purpose. The wishing die was cut four times and adhered on top of each other. 

The butterfly and background were foam taped to the inked background with many tiny pieces that took forever! The sentiment was added and then the twine formed the body of the butterfly. A couple of the inked pieces were added to the inside of the card. 

Double Trouble Thing 1 - specific colours - done 

Double Trouble Thing 2 - string things - done

Double Trouble Thing 3 - link up to Colour Dare challenge - done

Three Amigos Challenge - use die cutting in project - done 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock Nutmeg Cardstock, Watercolour Paper

Stamps: Sending and Wishing (SSS)

Inks: Glacier, Sorbet, Nutmeg

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Stitched Rectangles (GM Designs), Wishing Die (SSS), Foam Tape, Glacier Twine (ret.)

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 270 - Happy Times Friend Card

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #270! 

I love this week's sketch - for that matter, I love most of the Atlantic Hearts sketches! There are always so many possibilities with the sketches. This week, though, I chose to stay very true to the sketch because I had something in mind as soon as I saw it. 

Right away, it reminded me of the Happy Times stamp set that I used on my card. I also love the sentiment stamp that I used as well. There are terrific sentiments in that particular stamp collection and I have cut so many of them to fit on various cards but this one was perfect for this card.  Quite a while ago, I saw a card on Pinterest that used the sequins along the bottom but I don't know who did it - I wish I did, so I knew who to credit with that fabulous idea! I placed a thin strip of gold paper behind the ribbon, just to set it off a little bit. The sequins are actually white but were coloured with a marker. 

Come and join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us how you interpret the sketch shown above. You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Happy Times Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock

Stamps: Happy Times (ret.), A Friend Like You (ret.)

Inks: Fern, Raspberry, Tangerine, Canary

Accessories: Thin Foam Tape, White Sequins (ret.), ShinHan Marker, Whimsy Ribbon Collection

Enjoy,

Alyson