April SOTM Blog Hop - Typed Note

Welcome to April's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "Typed Note" - a set of 19 stamps. There is an antique typewriter, a hand and a pile of sentiments in this stamp set for a wide variety of occasions and many uses for this set as the bloggers along this blog hop will show you, so sit back and enjoy the tour. You should have arrived here from Maria Myers' 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 the brand new Jackson Paper Pack. This paper is available in the new Seasonal Expressions 2 Catalogue. 

The sequins are actually NOT the new ones in the catalogue - they are the silver sequins that are in the Annual Expressions catalogue but I coloured them using the ShinHan Turquoise Blue marker so they would match the Glacier paper on the card. 

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

You can get this 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 April 30th! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Jackson Paper Pack, Cocoa Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Barn Red Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock

Stamps: Typed Note

Inks: Cocoa Pigment Ink, Barn Red Pigment Ink

Accessories: Silver Sequins, Foam Tape, White Shimmer Trim, Glacier Extra Thick Twine, Boardwalk Washi Tape Pack, Turquoise Blue ShinHan Marker

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts - Sketch 101

I always look forward to creating for Atlantic Hearts because I love using sketches - and theirs are so flexible. This one was no exception although I stayed fairly true to the sketch itself. 

This sketch gave me a chance to play with some brand new products from Close To My Heart! The new Seasonal Expressions 2 catalogue goes live on April 1st and one of the new paper packs is called Blossom. I am IN LOVE :) This paper pack is based around Lagoon (my favourite colour in our colour palette!), Glacier (my next favourite colour), Sunset, White Daisy and some Pear (another favourite as well)! It doesn't get much better than that! But wait! There are some AWESOME stamp sets that work fabulously with this paper pack and Wavy Blooms is one of them! That's the one I used here! It has beautiful flowers that can be shaded in any way you want plus terrific sentiments. There are so many products I just can't wait to play with...  This card showcases just a couple of them. 

Why not get your sketch on this week and join us at Atlantic Hearts to show off your creative project! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: Blossom Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock

Stamps: Wavy Blooms

Inks: Sunset, Black Pigment Ink

Accessories: Corner Rounder, ShinHan Markers, Copic Markers (not CTMH), Paradise Baker's Twine (ret.), Teal Shimmer Trim, Teal Base and Bling Gems (ret.), Clear Sparkles, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Love You (Mika) Layout - Blossom

With some extra time this afternoon, I decided to use a recent photo of my precious Mika along with my favourite paper pack and create a layout. I seem to do very little scrapbooking lately - far more card making, so this was a nice change from my normal crafty activities. 

The Cricut cartridges came in very handy for this layout. And yes, the top pieces are purposely offset! After over 8 years with Close To My Heart, the Blossom Paper Pack is, I think, my favourite paper pack of all time. I love the colours, the patterns, the accessories and the stamp sets that go with this pack. Absolutely awesome :) 

Products used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: Blossom Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock
Stamps: Shower Flowers
Inks: Lagoon, Glacier, Sunset, Pear
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Blossom Assortment, Oceanside Sequins, Bitty Sparkles, ShinHan Marker (Turquoise Blue), Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

H2H Challenge - How Cute!

This week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart is "How Cute!" I knew right away that I wanted to use the Australian stamp set "Cute Koalas" for this challenge as I think it has the most adorable koala images, plus I just love those little bears :) The image of the koala in the tree is my favourite so I decided to focus on that one. (If you didn't know, you can order the Australian stamp sets through my OBA by searching Australian stamp sets and they will come up for you that way.)

The sentiment was taken from the "A Little Note" stamp set. I used ShinHan markers for colouring and I have picked up some additional colours other than the ones sold by Close To My Heart to match some of our other colours. 

Won't you join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us How Cute! your creations can be? Remember, you have until the end of March to enter any of the March challenges!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: Pathfinding Paper Pack, Colonial White Cardstock, Chocolate Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock
Stamps: Cute Koalas, A Little Note
Inks: Cocoa Pigment Ink, Olive
Accessories: ShinHan Markers, White Enamels Stars, 1 1/4 inch Circle Punch (ret.), Chocolate Reinker, Spray Pen, Satin Green Ribbon (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Man Card... Thanks - You're Appreciated

I had occasion recently to create a masculine thank you card. So, you get a sneak peek at some new papers coming up in the soon to be released Seasonal Expressions 2 Catalogue (April 1st). 

These papers are from a new paper pack called Jackson. They are perfect for masculine layouts and cards. It didn't take me long to put this card together, especially considering that I used a pattern from Make It From Your Heart - Volume 2 (p.44 - Pattern 23). A few quick cuts, some embellishments and it was complete. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Jackson Paper Pack, Cocoa Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock, Juniper Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock
Stamps: Cricut Collection from Art Philosophy
Inks: Cocoa
Accessories: Cocoa Striped Grosgrain Ribbon (ret.), Juniper Decorative Ribbon (ret.), Artesian Studs, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #99

This week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts is awesome! I loved it the moment I saw it because I immediately thought of the leftover Lagoon flowers I have in my stash and how perfect they would be for this sketch! I needed a great background paper and the Sorbet pattern from the Seaside paper pack was just right. 

I decided to add a sentiment at the bottom so I can send this to a friend. I also scalloped the edges of the dividing piece and because I couldn't create a reasonable bow with the shimmer trim, I used some ribbon instead. 

I love how this simple card turned out - perfect for an all occasion card. 

Get your sketch on this week and join us at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: Seaside Paper Pack, Colonial White Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock
Stamps: A Friend Like You (ret.)
Inks: Lagoon
Accessories: Teal Shimmer Trim, Teal Ribbon (not CTMH), Paradise Paper Flowers (ret.), Off White Flowers (not CTMH), Sparkles Clear Assortment, Scallop Border Punch

Enjoy, 
Alyson

H2H Challenge - Use Your Favourite CTMH Sketch!

This week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is right up my alley! I LOVE sketches and this week's challenge is to use your favourite Close To My Heart sketch! Rather than doing a card, I thought I would create a scrapbook page BUT I had a definite photo in mind and I couldn't find a sketch that I liked so I decided to change it up a bit and use a CARD sketch for my scrapbook layout! 

My layout is below and some of the details are difficult to see in the photography. I spritzed the background with a Glacier mix and the hexagons are all embossed as well. The stitching is all done by hand. The only non-CTMH items are the embroidery floss and the sentiment which I purchased from Cricut because it fit so perfectly and I knew it would take me forever to try to weld together my own letters to try to get the same effect. 

The sketch is from the Make It From Your Heart - Volume 1 book and is shown below the layout. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Black Cardstock
Stamps: Honeycomb
Inks: Lagoon Pigment Ink, Crystal Blue Pigment Ink, Glacier Pigment Ink
Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, White Shimmer Trim, Scallop Border Punch, Paradise Baker's Twine (ret.), Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Stitch Guide and Foam Mat, Honeycomb Embossing Folder, Glacier Reinker, Spray Pen, Cricut Font Purchase (not CTMH), White Embroidery Floss (not CTMH), Turquoise Embroidery Floss (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #97

The sketch this week at Atlantic Hearts looks simple and straight forward. I decided to try a different colour combination. One of my favourite papers from Chantilly is this bright pink pattern and if you look closely, it has a bluish tone to it. That is likely Twilight since it is one of the colours in the paper pack. However, Twilight is retired, so I decided to pair this paper with Glacier instead. It turned out to be a perfect match! 

A retired Hostess stamp set called Friends gave me the perfect sentiment for my card. A couple of Cricut cuts to mount that and then a few strategically placed cuts to slide the ribbon through and that was it.

Be sure to join us this week and show off your skills by showing us your interpretation of the above sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: Chantilly Paper Pack (ret.), White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock
Stamps: A Friend (ret.)
Inks: Cotton Candy, Glacier
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Foam Tape, Pink Ribbon (not CTMH), Bitty Sparkles, Pink Copic Marker (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson