May SOTM Blog Hop - Pinwheel

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring May's SOTM, which is "Pinwheel", a set of 10 stamps. If you have come here from Maureen's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around. If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants at Helen's Blog.

This month we have approximately 60 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

A picture of the stamp set is shown here: 

I chose to create two cards using the Surf's Up Paper Pack. This is not a paper pack that I use very often, especially considering that it is snowing (in April) the day that I made these cards... However, I love the turquoise and blue combination and wanted to play that up. 

The first card is 5x 7 in size and I chose to create little pinwheel flags using some of the images from the stamp set. I also used the Seam Binding in its original state as my ribbon of choice. A little bit of Baker's Twine helps to dress it up.

My second card is a standard size card and I chose to use the star image for this one. Both are cutable on the Cricut although the smaller star needs to be cut using the Art Philosophy Cartridge, not the Artiste Cartridge. I mounted the smaller stars with foam tape and added some bling for good measure. 

 I hope you enjoyed my projects. 

The supplies I used are listed below: 

Paper: Surf's Up Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock

Stamps: Pinwheel

Inks: Lagoon, Crystal Blue, Sunset

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge, Baker's Twine - Paradise Assortment, Colour Ready Seam Binding, White Flower Brads (ret.), Clear Sparkles, Foam Tape, Corner Rounder, Buttons - Red Assortment

 

Now "Hop" on over to Laurie's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the May SOTM is only available until the last day of May! Contact me or click here to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount! 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Brae-er's Team Blog Hop - Kraft Containers and Muslin Bags

Welcome to our Team Blog Hop featuring products and techniques. We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers, whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn to do. By leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like and what you want to see. Now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you get lost, you can find your way by going to Brae's blog at http://thebrae-er.blogspot.ca/ for a full list of participants. If you came from  Heather's blog at 

http://pagesbyheatherd.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-team-blog-hop-techniques-my.html  

then you are in the right place!

I chose to use the Kraft Containers and Muslin Bags as the basis for my projects for this hop.The Dream Pop papers were also my choice of paper and that is the upcoming promotion for the month of May. The paper pack is GORGEOUS! The colours are so bright and cheerful and I paired them with some black and white accessories. 
On the Kraft Containers, I simply cut out parts of the Dream Pop paper and wrapped it around the containers and then added some accessories to add some interest. I love turquoise (anyone who knows me knows that about half my wardrobe is turquoise!) and so I took advantage of that colour from the paper pack! 
 
On the Muslin Bags, the fabric is from the For Always Textiles and is simply pleated on one of the bags using Liquid Glass. The word "Friend" was stamped with Black Pigment Ink but it came out looking more brown than black... maybe something to do with the pink background. 

 To make the flower on another bag, I just cut three circles of the fabric and then hand-sewed a running stitch about halfway inside of each circle and gathered up the thread to create the ruffle, then tied the loose ends together and layered them. 

 Pigment ink was used on the bags and I did use a Sharpie Marker to colour my sparkles as I found that our Alcohol markers just didn't give me a deep enough colour.

The products I used were Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated and are listed below: 

For the Kraft Containers:

Paper:Dream Pop Paper Pack, Slate Cardstock

Stamps:None

Inks: Black

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge, Black Sharpie Marker (not CTMH, Turquoise Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Kraft Containers, Petals Paper Flowers (ret.), Flutter Paper Shapes, Washi Tape, Clear Sparkles, Antiqued Gold Mini-Medley, For Always Textiles, Needle and Thread (not CTMH)

For the Muslin Bags:
Paper: None
Stamps: Thanks, For a Friend, Life is Tweet (ret.)
Inks: Slate Pigment Ink, Honey Pigment Ink, Lagoon Pigment Ink, Black Pigment Ink
Accessories: Muslin Bags, Spray Pen, Cotton Candy Re-inker, For Always Textiles, Needle and Thread (not CTMH),  Turquoise Sharpie Marker (not CTMH). Pink Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Bitty Sparkles, Clear Sparkles, Liquid Glass, Honey Alcohol Marker, Lagoon Alcohol Marker, Cotton Candy Alcohol Marker, Licorice Opaque Adhesive Gems

Your next stop on the hop is Lucy's blog at 
http://lucyscreativeexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrapping-with-for-always-fabric_23.html

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to create your own projects using some of the designs and paper seen along the way. Join us again next month when we will be featuring inspirational ideas from Pinterest. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

The LAST Silent Auction Cards!

Finally, this is the last card for the Silent Auction (and am I ever glad that they are finished)! That makes 10 sets of cards with 8 cards in each set for a total of 80 cards (plus 10 hand-made boxes as well) that I am donating to my church. What a lot of work! 

This card is one that turned out better than I ever hoped it would! The spinners on each card work perfectly and I have a feeling that they will fetch a pretty penny because people will love the working spinners! I made sure with the single word ones to change up each card so they are all a little bit different as well. Plus they are masculine in colour so that will appeal to a lot of people, I think, as masculine cards are ALWAYS hard to find! 

I have shown two of the cards here. The sketch on which I based the cards is shown below the second card. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Dakota Paper Pack, White Daisy Card Base

Stamps: Wheel of Life

Inks: Black, Crystal Blue, Pacifica

Accessories: Spinners, Black Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Ribbon Slides (ret.)

Almost the End of the Silent Auction Cards...

Today's cards are among the last few sets that I have created for the Silent Auction at my church. After these sets, I have only one more set to go and those will be posted on Tuesday. I have actually finished them but I have yet to photograph them and get the details written out. 

These two were both made using older sketches that I have shown under each card. 

The first one is created using the Clementine Paper Pack. In the actual card box, there are 8 slightly different cards as I had to use various flowers from the accessories collection. I have shown the inside of the card as well. The stamps are retired but I really liked the sentiments on this particular set.

This second card was created using the Avonlea Paper Pack. I wanted to use up the Brocade Assortment pieces that I still had so this was a good way to do that. There are 8 cards in the set, 2 of each with the same metal pieces on them. I paired the keys with the smaller metal pieces. This card involved a LOT of cricut cutting between the frame and all the flowers.

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Clementine Card:

Paper: Clementine Paper Pack, Chocolate Cardstock, Sorbet Cardstock, White Daisy Card Base

Stamps: Thank You (ret.), Blessed (ret.) 

Inks: Chocolate, Creme Brulee

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Cuttlebug (not CTMH), Spellbinders Die (not CTMH), Blue Ribbon (not CTMH). Baker's Twine - Paradise Assortment, Cottage Assortment

Avonlea Card: 

Paper: Avonlea Paper Pack (includes cardstock that comes specifically with this paper pack), Slate Cardstock

Stamps: Say It In Style (ret.), Dreams Come True (ret.), Stitched Together

Inks: Slate, Twilight

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Brocade Assortment, Foam Tape, Artesian Studs, Licorice Opaque Adhesive Gems, Black and Grey Sparkles

The News Is In!

Well, after patiently waiting for a few weeks, I received the email from Close To My Heart that I have been waiting for... I have been selected to teach at the annual Convention again this summer! I am doubly surprised this year as only 18 Consultants were selected whereas there were 32 last year. Judging from the agenda that has been posted for Convention, it appears that there are some major changes on the way and I am really anxious to find out what those changes are but that will all come in time. I expect that the timeline this year will be really tight, though. 

However, I am up to the challenge and ready to go! I don't expect to have much of a life come mid-May through to Convention, especially since those of us who are teaching are not allowed to share ANYTHING that we are working on - that's part of the agreement. I am also really interested to find out who else has been selected to teach - I only know of two others at the present time. 

So, if you are coming to Convention, be sure to come and visit me - I would LOVE to see you! And if not, shortly after Convention, I will be posting my artwork on my blog. 

Alyson

Still More Cards for Silent Auction

When I saw this gorgeous card on Lisa Stenz's blog, I contacted her and asked her if she would mind if I scraplifted it for the purpose of my church's Silent Auction. She was so kind to say yes and I went to work. I realized after I emailed her that she used a sticker on her card for the center component and since I was making 8 of them, I had to find another option since I didn't have 8 sets of the Stickease! I ended up using the Frame Flair stamp to give me the same type of effect that she had on the the sticker, along with the retired stamps, Baroque Alphabet and Happy Birthday to make the "B Happy" sentiment. That left me some extra room. The detailed cutting for the layers also took some extra time so this ended up being a very time intensive card in the long run. 

There are two photos - the outside and the inside of the card. The entire package consists of 8 cards in a co-ordinating, decorated box, wrapped up with ribbon. I'm happy with how they turned out but they sure ended up being a lot of work :) 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies used are all Close To My Heart: 

Paper: Buzz and Bumble Paper Pack, Cocoa Cardstock, Creme Brulee Cardstock, Champagne Cardstock, Sweet Leaf Cardstock

Stamps: Frame Flair, Jardin, Baroque Alphabet (ret.), Happy Birthday (ret.) 

Inks: Cocoa, Cocoa Pigment Ink

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Buzz and Bumble Assortment, Wooden Mini-Medley Accents Collection, Artisan Studs, Sponge Dauber, Foam Tape