H2H - Dog-Gone Awesome

Welcome to this week's Heart 2 Heart challenge! 

It's all about pets - the love of pets, to be exact. So many people own pets of some sort - dogs, cats, something else. I know my dog is my life - I don't know what I would do without her. She just seems to know when I am happy and also when I need her to be there just to cuddle when I am not doing so well. Pets are remarkably in tune with their owners and I believe they are FAR more intelligent than we will ever really know. There are stories out there that just make your head spin about the things that pets have done to and for their owners and others - simply remarkable.

However, it's time for the artwork! I chose a stamp by My Favourite Things called Lucky Dog. It has a variety of dog images plus some fabulous sentiments. I created a shaker card using three of the dog images. The new Sweet Girl paper from CTMH was a great background for my card and gold embellishments worked perfectly to add some extra interest to my card. 

Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your love of pets for this challenge! 

You have until the end of May to link up with this or any of the other May challenges. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: Sweet Girl Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Fern Cardstock (all CTMH), Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Lucky Dog (MFT)

Inks: Intense Black, Peach (both CTMH)

Accessories: Gold Embellishing Thread, Loose Gold Sequins, Basic Circle Thin Cuts, Stitched Circle Thin Cuts (all CTMH), Touch Markers, Sharpie Markers, Foam Tape, Acetate

Enjoy,

Alyson

CD 343 - Glitter Flower Oval

Welcome to Colour Dare Challenge #343! 

Take a close look at the colour grid shown above - it's an interesting one... blues and greens with one pink/purple colour. There is linen which is a sightly off-white colour, plus silver. 

Neutrals this week include back, white and greys but NOT browns or other neutrals! 

I chose to use Sage (green), Sugarplum (a pink/purple) and Linen plus Silver and avoid the blues completely. I really like colour schemes with limited colours.

The flowers were definitely going to be Sugarplum and the leaves were going to be Sage - but since the flowers were open, I ran into a problem almost immediately as I needed somewhere to hide the leaves. I had to back the flowers with something and that's where silver came into the picture. I didn't want to use white, especially with linen already planned for the background of my card. The front was embossed with a basket weave pattern and I set the flowers and leaves back after die cutting an oval into the embossed card front. A large silver scalloped oval surrounds the floral display and then a few details provide room for the sentiment and a few other embellishments. 

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

You have 2 weeks to enter your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Products used are all follows: 

Paper: True Love Paper Pack, Linen Cardstock, Sugarplum Cardstock, Sage Cardstock, Silver Glitter Paper (all CTMH)

Stamps: Artistic Impressions (SU)

Inks: Sage, Charcoal, Sugarplum, Versamark (all CTMH)

Accessories: Silver Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Sugarplum Glitter Gems (all CTMH), Springtime Impressions Thinlets , Frosted Bouquet Thinlets, Basket Weave Embossing Folder, Pink Ribbon (SU), Nestabilities Ovals, Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals (Spellbinders), Silver Ribbon (unknown), Foam Tape

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 316 - Lots of Flowers!

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch #316! 

I stayed absolutely true to this week's sketch - I wanted to use a floral background and that made everything really easy since that is the focus of my card. 

I did hand stitch around the floral paper, just to add some interest but the rest of the elements are exactly as they are seen on the sketch - the three layers across and the two circles - although those can be whatever shapes you want them to be. I chose to leave them as circles because I wanted my inner circle to be a stitched circle. I added a few white pearls for interest. 

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 as follows: 

Paper: Petal Promenade DSP (SU), White Daisy Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Lilac Cardstock, Sweet Leaf Cardstock (all CTMH)

Stamps: A Bunch of Love (CTMH)

Inks: New England Ivy (CTMH)

Accessories: Basic Circle Thin Cuts, Stitched Circle Thin Cuts, White Pearls, Bitty Pearls, Thin Foam Tape (all CTMH), White Embroidery Thread, Needle 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Love the Wreath Builder!

A very special friend of mine is celebrating her birthday early next week and a while ago, she spent some time playing around with my Wreath Builder stamp set along with a stamp press. Now, she is not a crafter - far from it - but she LOVED the fact that she was able to create a beautiful card without much skill or effort. She went home and showed her card to everyone she knew - she was SO proud of what she had created! It was awesome :) 

So, knowing how much she loved working with that set, I decided to use it to create her birthday card. After creating a 4 inch wreath, I simply cut mine in half and placed some patterned paper between the two halves along with some shimmer trim. I stamped one of the sentiments from the original Wreath Builder stamp set in an oval frame using the rock and roll technique to get two colours for the image and then added a few embellishments. Such a simple card with great impact. 

I KNOW she will love this - mainly because she will recognize how it was created! 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: I Heart Us Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Mint Cardstock (all CTMH), Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Wreath Builder, Autumn Wreath Builder (both Gina K Designs)

Inks: Lagoon, Mint, Lemon, Thistle, Pixie, Raspberry (all CTMH)

Accessories: Bitty Sparkles, Purple Glitter Gems, Aqua Shimmer Trim (all CTMH), Touch Markers, Sharpie Markers, Foam Tape, Oval Dies, Oval Scalloped Dies (both Nestabilities) 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Eclipse Birthday Card

A friend of mine is celebrating a birthday shortly and  I know how much he enjoys my cards... so it was time to create one for him. 

Masculine cards are so often a struggle for me - for this one, I decided to pull out a Kaisercraft stamp with a leaf image and create an eclipse card. 

I had to create the background first. That was done using three yellow ink pads and and one yellow/orange ink pad and blending them together from light to dark. After my hand was worn out from that process, I stamped the leaf image in black, masking it as needed to cover the bottom third of the card. I then die cut the letters from the background - spacing as needed 

as I only had one letter P. 

The word Birthday was stamped and mounted at the bottom. I tried embossing it using yellow pigment ink but it wasn't visible enough on the black cardstock, so I had to go the opposite route and use yellow cardstock with black ink instead. 

The letters are popped up quite high - much higher than they appear in the photo. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Lemon Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Saffron Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock

Stamps: Breathe (Kaisercraft), Well Said (Stampin Up)

Inks: Lemon, Canary, Saffron, Goldrush, Black

Accessories: Block Alphabet Thin Cuts, Foam Tape 

Enjoy,

Alyson

CD 341 - Watercolour Smooshing card

Welcome to this week's Colour Dare challenge! 

It's an inspiration photo... and one that is full of bold and bright colours. 

I chose to take some of the colours from the photo to develop my card. This ended up being interesting...

Using water-colour paints, I made sure that I had the correct colours to start - the right shades of the following colours: red, pink, purple, green and yellow. 

Based on the background of my design and the way the paint colours moved around once I applied the plastic wrap and mixed some of the colours, you would not even know that pink was used - and the shade of purple that I so painstakingly made sure was a match to the blanket colour looks more like a lighter shade of purple than what I started with, as does the green that I also mixed so carefully... So much for great ideas. I decided to leave it, though, because I like the way the background looked in the end. 

I added some red, yellow and green cardstock and a few embellishments to pull some of the colours from the background. The butterfly is also brushed with a shimmer brush. 

Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you interpret the inspiration photo shown above. You have two weeks to enter your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Candy Apple Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Clover Cardstock, Watercolour Paper (unknown), Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Butterfly Friendship, Barn Door (SU)

Inks: Intense Black, Clover

Accessories: Red Pearls, Watercolour Paints, Brushes, Butterfly Friendship Thin Cuts, Clear Shimmer Brush, Black Shimmer Brush, Touch Markers (various), Yellow Twine (unknown), Foam Tape, Plastic Wrap

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 314 - Layered Rose along the Lines

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch #314! 

I simply love this sketch - it can be very simple or it can be taken to a much more detailed level depending on how it is interpreted. I can’t wait to see the design team members' interpretations as well as the participants' interpretations of this one! 

I chose to flip the sketch 180 degrees but I wanted to maintain the three skinny lines because I really liked how that kept some form of continuity on the card design that I had in mind. I considered using a different type of line like a chevron border but it would have been too busy. I used glitter paper for those lines, though, to add some extra interest. 

I used a layered rose die for the flower and three shades of purple. The leaves have two bright shades of green and I stamped the sentiment using one of those shades of green and embossed it so it would really stand out. I dry embossed the background with a rose embossing folder to provide a detailed background for the entire card. I added some silver embellishing thread behind the flower as well. The whole card is raised with foam tape. 

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. 

We can't wait to see what you create!
I am also linking up my card with the Double Trouble - SomeThing, AnyThing and EveryThing challenge. 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Clover Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Lilac Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Purple Glitter Paper (all CTMH), Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Sending and Wishing (SSS)

Inks: Clover Pigment Ink (CTMH)

Accessories: Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Rose Embossing Folder, Silver Embellishing Thread (all CTMH), Layered Rose Die (Kaisercraft), Foam Tape

Enjoy,

Alyson

H2H - Bright Blooms Shaker Card

Welcome to the last post of April at Heart 2 Heart! 

However, this challenge is being reposted to actually be the FIRST challenge of May since there are just a couple of days left in April! 

Since May is right around the corner, we are challenging you to create a project that focuses on flowers. 

I love creating with flowers. I have so many floral stamps and they are usually the ones I turn to first, especially when I am in a non-creative mood. I find they make it easier for me to create because they almost always lift my spirits. 

For this card, I chose to use a CTMH stamp set with coordinating dies and make a shaker card with them. I wanted to use bold and bright colours so I stamped all of the images on cardstock first and then coloured them with coordinating markers. They were then die cut. 

Inside the shaker, I used a second stamp set - this one from Kaisercraft. I love the sentiment. I masked that to stamp it in two colours and surrounded it with images from the same CTMH stamp set, stamping the images in the same coordinating colours as the outside images. I added sequins in some of the same colours as the stamped images.

The base and circle were die cut using stitched dies and then I placed the stamped images around the outside. A few bitty sparkles were added here and there. I used some of the leftover pieces to decorate the inside of the card as well. A photo below shows the shimmer on the flowers as it doesn't show in the larger photo. 

The inside of the card using some of the leftover die cuts 

Close up of the shimmer on a couple of flowers 

Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your floral projects! 

You have until the end of April to link up your creation. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 
I am also entering my card in the Double Trouble - SomeThing, AnyThing, EveryThing challenge. 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Candy Apple Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Willow Cardstock (all CTMH), Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Budding Peony (CTMH), Breathe (Kaisercraft)

Inks: Intense Black, Candy Apple, Lagoon (all CTMH)

Accessories: Budding Peony Thin Cuts, Clear Shimmer Brush, Bitty Sparkles, Shaker Window Thin Cuts, Shaker Window Acetate and Foam (all CTMH), Touch Markers, Sequins, Foam Tape (Misc.), Stitched Rectangles (GMD) 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Umbrella Girl

It's time for a card for the Double Trouble challenge once again!

They have an interesting challenge for the end of April... and one that involves several components.

Part 1 is to use something that shows water or something water-related. 

That was done with my raindrops. 

Part 2 is to use an umbrella - and that is completed.

Part 3 is to use the Joy of Sets grid. That part is also completed as I actually matched both the bottom row and the middle column. The top layer of the umbrella is vellum although it sort of looks like grey in the photo. I used micro glue dots to adhere it down and placed pearls on top of the adhesive so the glue dots wouldn't show. The sentiment is embossed in white as well.

The main images on my card were die cut from images on Cricut cartridges. The grass, ovals  and rectangles are all dies cut with my Big Shot. I have included a close up of the white embossed sentiment as it is pretty small...

Interesting challenge and I had to really think about how to include everything!

Products used are as follows:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Black Cardstock (all CTMH), Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Vellum (unknown)

Stamps: Sunshine and Showers (SCT)

Inks: Intense Black, Versamark

Accessories: Artistry Cartridge, You Are Here Cartridge, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Decorative Border Thin Cuts, Liquid Glass, Oval Thin Cuts, Stitched Oval Thin Cuts, White Pearls (all CTMH), Stitched Rectangle Dies (SSS)

Enjoy,

Alyson

H2H - Rainbow Friendship Fancy Fold Card

Welcome to Heart 2 Heart's weekly challenge! 

This week, it's all about Happy Times! 

Some of my happiest moments are times spent with friends so I wanted to create a card to honour some of those special friendships. 

I chose to use a Double Z Joy Fold Card for this purpose. This card is so easy to create and there are instructions all over the Internet if you search for that title (or just joy fold card). 

The I Heart Us paper pack with the rainbow paper was a perfect background and I chose Thistle and Lagoon for my background cardstock. I used the coordinating stamp set "I Heart Us - Cardmaking" for the two sentiments. The first sentiment was carefully masked to get the word BEAUTIFUL in a different colour. I decided to use a completely different stamp for the flowers. "Know That I Care" had watercolour-type flowers and that is what I was looking for - something whimsical in nature. I stamped flowers all around each of the two sentiments and then in the centre panel, I stamped just the single bouquet of flowers there. 

Using a water brush and four ink pads, I coloured the flowers and leaves. I went back and brushed over the white part of the word BEAUTIFUL and the word Thanks using a clear shimmer brush. I also added trios of dots among the flowers using a Turquoise fine tip marker. No embellishments were added so this card will lay flat in an envelope for mailing purposes. 

This photo shows the card completely open. 

The centre panel...

The back panel...

Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your HAPPY TIMES!

You have until the end of April to link up with this or any of the other April challenges. 

We can’t wait to see what you create! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: I Heart Us Paper Pack, Thistle Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock

Stamps: I Heart Us Cardmaking, Know That I Care

Inks: Intense Black, Thistle, Lagoon, Ballerina, Mint

Accessories: Waterbrush, Clear Shimmer Brush, Turquoise Sharpie Marker 

Enjoy,

Alyson