February Stamp of the Month Bloghop - A Happy Hello

Welcome to February's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "A Happy Hello" - a set of 15 stamps. There are flowers galore in this stamp set, along with stems and branches plus a happy hello sentiment, and many uses for this set as the bloggers along this tour will show you, so sit back and enjoy the tour. You should have arrived here from Donna Digby's blog. If you get lost, a list of all blogs can be found here. 

The stamp set looks like this.

I chose to create a card using this set. I used every stamp except one in the set, so 14 stamps in total. 
As soon as I pulled out this set, the colours of pink and purple called out to me! I knew that was going to be the focus of my card. 

This is a 5x7 card and I chose to layer many of the flowers. I used some of our ShinHan markers to colour in parts of some of the flowers as well. The sentiment has been stamped in pigment ink and embossed although that is hard to see in the photo. 
The centres of all the flowers are sparkles but they look darker in my photo than they do on the card itself. I also stitched around the outside of the card, just to give it some added interest and I embossed the background of the card using the Floral embossing folder. 

I hope you enjoyed my project. The next blog on the hop is Wendy Coffman's blog. I'm sure she has something wonderful to share with you! 

You can get this beautiful stamp set for just $5 this month with only a $50 purchase. Visit my shopping site here. Remember this stamp set is only available until February 28th! 

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

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Gypsy Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock

Stamps: A Happy Hello

Inks: Gypsy Pigment Ink, Gypsy, Pixie, Smokey Plum, Hollyhock, Pear

Accessories: Clear Super Fine Embossing Powder, Clear Sparkles, ShinHan Markers, Thistle Ribbon, Pink Shimmer Trim, Pixie Thick Twine, Floral Embossing Folder, Pink Floss (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Clean and Simple

This week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart is simple - just Clean and Simple. Interpret that however you like. Whenever someone says clean and simple to me, the first thing that goes through my mind is space - the need for open space on the project. So, when I thought about what I was going to do, I knew I wanted to use colour (my favourite colours) but I knew that I would need to add one layer to get the word I wanted at the bottom. 

Here is the final product... I am very happy with how it turned out. I love the simplicity but the intensity of the colour adds so much at the same time. The colours are much bolder in "real life" than they show up here. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart to enter your own artwork in our awesome challenges! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock
Stamps: A Flowering Bunch (ret.)
Inks: Black Pigment Ink
Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Shinhan Markers

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 91

This week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts is a dotty one... and one that I decided to use to create a birthday card. The next few months are full of upcoming birthdays for me so I welcome these sketch challenges to create birthday cards! 

For this one, I used Confetti Wishes. It is such a bright, bold and happy paper pack! The circles along the left side of the sketch were perfect for the squares from the Confetti Wishes Assortment to fit inside and gave it the little extra touch that it needed. The paper with all the Happy Birthdays all over it worked perfectly for my sentiment as I just cut one of those Happy Birthdays out and used that for my sentiment! 

Come and join us this week at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge with your artwork! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Confetti Wishes Paper Pack, Pacifica Cardstock, Canary Cardstock
Stamps: None
Inks: None
Accessories: Confetti Wishes Assortment, 3/4 Inch Circle Punch (not CTMH), Purple Twine (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Brae-ers Unit Blog Hop - Year Noted

The Brae-ers Unit Blog Hop is all about the National Paper Crafting Special this month. The Year Noted Paper Pack is available only in the month of January with a $50 minimum purchase. 

If you have come from Michelle's blog, you are in the right place. 

A full list of participants in the blog hop can be found on Brae's blog. 

I chose to use this kit to create cards. I promised myself that I would not add any additional paper to the kit and only use what was provided. That was a challenge, for sure. The stamp set that comes with the kit, however, presented a major challenge in terms of creating cards, and for that, I had to go to another stamp set to get sentiments, but I also wanted to challenge myself a bit, so I chose a Hostess set from the Seasonal Expressions catalog. I chose the set called "Love this Story" There are 4 banner sentiments in this set. 3 of them are usable for cards but the fourth ("So (heart) this Story") is much more appropriate for scrapbooking or mini-albums than for card making... I did use the Year Noted stamp set wherever possible and you will see that in the cards. 

I also added some select embellishments, which are listed at the bottom in my products used list.  

I ended up creating the following cards: 

One 5 x 7

Six 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 

Three 3 x 3

I finished all the insides of the cards as well. Most of the coloured cards have white insides from the leftover white cardstock. I used the leftover stickers to decorate the insides of the cards. 

A hint re wrapping twine around cards - if you want the twine to stay in place, use a small hole punch a punch a half circle where you want the twine to stay. Once the twine is wrapped around the card, the little half-hole will not show and the twine won't move. I did this on the top left card in the first photo to keep my twine where I wanted it and it works like a charm - far better than using glue dots or other adhesive to try and hold it in place! 

Now hop on over to Heather's blog to check out her fabulous creations! 

You can get your Year Noted kit (and a mini album for an extra $5) by purchasing just $50 this month. Contact me or shop online here. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart.

Paper: Year Noted Paper Pack
Stamps: Year Noted (in Year Noted Kit), Love This Story
Inks: Chocolate, Sorbet
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Bronze Shimmer Trim, Gold Shimmer Trim, White Shimmer Trim, Sunset Chevron Washi Tape, Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape, Honey Triangle Washi Tape, Gold Polka Dot Washi Tape, Baker's Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Tic-Tac-Toe

This week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart is a tic-tac-toe grid. You need to choose any three boxes in a row and use those three boxes to create your project. Here is the board:

I knew right away that I didn't want to use distressing on my project and I also didn't want to do a scrapbooking project for this challenge, so that eliminated a lot of options right away. However, I love working with sketches and I thought a Cricut-based card might be an interesting idea, so I chose the top line. 

I chose an old Cardabilities sketch and stayed very close to the sketch itself. The sketch is shown below my project. I used the new Hopscotch papers and I am happy with the way this turned out.   

Be sure to join us at Heart 2 Heart to enter you own artwork into this awesome challenge! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart: 

Paper: Hopscotch Paper Pack, Colonial White Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Smoothie Cardstock, Flaxen Cardstock, Indian Corn Blue Cardstock
Stamps: None
Inks: None
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Dot Embossing Folder, Paradise Paper Flowers (ret.), Adhesive Pearls (ret.)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 89

This week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts has the potential to be a many layered project if you so desire or it can be a simple project, like I chose to create. I needed a birthday card and I decided to use the Chalk It Up paper pack for my card. A quick visit with the Artbooking and Art Philosophy cartridges gave me the window template and the template for stamping that I required and this came together quite quickly. 

Join us at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge this week to enter your artwork in our awesome challenge!  

Products used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: Chalk It Up Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock
Stamps: Joyful Birthday, Just a Number
Inks: Black
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Aqua Dots, White Grosgrain Ribbon (ret.)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Something Old, Something New

I am honoured to have been selected to be on the Heart 2 Heart Design Team! The first challenge of the new year is Something Old, Something New. It is to use something old in a new way OR to pair something old with something new. I did a little bit of both in my artwork. 

I used the old Rhinestone Brads and the Bling Pins to dress up my card. I chose to colour both items using our new ShinHan markers, so I used each of these items with a new product. However, I also used each of them in a sort of new way as they are used a little bit differently than normal by adding colour to them. I have to say that this is the HEAVIEST card imaginable! I can't imagine putting postage on it, so I think it will given to someone local! 

Come and play with our challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart and have some fun! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: Heartstrings Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Ruby Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock
Stamps: None
Inks: None
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Foam Tape, Bling Gems, Rhinestone Brads, ShinHan Markers (Cherry Pink, Carmine, Peacock Green)

Enjoy, 
Alyson