H2H - Hip to be Square

The last challenge of August at Heart 2 Heart is "Hip to be Square". The focus of this challenge is to create a square project or to use a square somewhere on your project. 

I decided to use a few squares on my card - the card itself is a 6x6 card so that's a square and then there are 4 squares within the card - 2 of them are open squares and the sentiment and the mat are also squares. So that's 5 squares in total. You can't see the inside of the card but the writing mat inside the card is also a square, so technically, there are 6 squares... 

This card is for a friend of mine who is retiring shortly. It has been long overdue for her and she is so looking forward to it! I know she will need reminders to "enjoy the little things" and not think about the clients that she has spent so much time assisting... 

I coloured over every other flower using the Shimmer Pen but that just does not show up in photographs. I tried taking pictures from various angles but I can't get that shimmery appearance to show in a photo - it makes the card look so much prettier in real life... 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart with your "square" creation. This challenge has been extended until September 3. All other August challenges end on August 31st so be sure to get your entries in before the end of the month! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Sorbet Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Sweet Leaf Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Whimsy Fundamentals

Stamps: Little Things (ret.)

Inks: Sorbet

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Shimmer Pen, Bitty Sparkles

Enjoy,

Alyson

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Atlantic Hearts Sketch 174 - Basics Fundamentals Celebrate Card

For this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts, I wanted to use some of the Basics Fundamentals from the Annual Inspirations Catalog as they are among my favourite new papers. They are just so versatile, lending themselves to both feminine and masculine cards, layouts and just about any type of projects imaginable! 

Keeping with that, I also wanted to incorporate gold into this masculine card. There is a birthday sentiment stamped inside the card, although I didn't photograph that. 

I used strips from the white and gold cardstock piece to create the gold background for the main piece and also for the gold backgrounds for the ribbon pieces. The small black circles were sponged using a die cut from Artbooking - purposely darker in some areas and lighter in others. 

Join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us your interpretation of the sketch shown above. You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Gold Glitter Paper, Uptown Fundamentals

Stamps: Balloon Wishes

Inks: Versamark, Black

Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Artistry Cartridge, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Sponge, Black and Gold Ribbon, White and Gold Ribbon, Gold Sequins

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - My Precious Mother Layout

The challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart is "For the Girls". I chose to create a very special layout as a tribute to my precious mother. She means the world to me and I love this photograph of her from her youth. 

I purposely used a sepia based photograph because the original photo was black and white so it didn't detract at all from the original and I was also able to use many of the new Basic Fundamental products from Close To My Heart. 

There is journaling on the reverse side of the photo as I used a 4x4 Flip Flap. That message is shown below the layout. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart this week and show us your interpretation of "For the Girls". Be sure to use some Close To My Heart products in your project. You have until the end of August to link up your creation. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Desert Sand Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock, Rustic Home Fundamentals, Memo Fundamentals, Uptown Fundamentals, Gold Glitter Paper

Stamps: Ink Blot, Dictionary (not CTMH)

Inks: Desert Sand, Black, Brown Staz-On

Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Artistry Cartridge, Gold Shimmer Trim, Gold Sequins, Wood Slats Embossing Folder, 4x4 Flip Flaps, Rustic Home Ribbon Pack, Uptown Ribbon Pack, Shimmer Brush - Clear, Thin Foam Tape, Black Thread and Sewing Machine (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

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Fall Transparency Card

With summer still so incredibly hot in my region, it's hard to think about autumn - however, there have already been a few leaves falling with the latest rain storm and that is a sure sign that autumn is coming. I couldn't imagine living in a place where the four seasons weren't as pronounced as they are here. We have such a distinct summer, autumn, winter and spring. I would miss all four of them - even the dead cold of winter - because they each have their own beauty about them. 

Autumn is probably my favourite season of all. The gorgeous colours of the leaves as they change on the trees is a sight that can't be matched. We get visitors here from as far away as Japan - seriously! They come to see the the leaves on the trees in their glory - usually around the end of September and into the first week of October - just before our Thanksgiving holiday. 

So, in anticipation of that, here is my first fall-themed card. It is a transparency card - but it is so hard to photograph these due to the shadows... the shadows show through the open section... 

I masked the top section and everything is embossed except the sentiment. I have added to my ShinHan marker collection with some additional colours to match some of the CTMH ink pads. 

Products used are CTMH unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Tangerine Cardstock, Transparency (not CTMH)

Stamps: Marker Alphabet, Lovely Leaves, Sending Smiles (from Flower Market Cricut Collection), Little Leaves, Owls (ret.)

Inks: Coca Pigment Ink, Tangerine Pigment Ink, Ruby

Accessories: Poppy Twine, Fern Twine, ShinHan Markers (some not CTMH), Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Cross-Canada Blog Hop - Favourite New Product from Ann. Insp. Catalog

Welcome to our August Blog Hop featuring our favourite new products from the NEW Annual Inspirations catalog. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order. 

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our visitors... whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that you would like to learn how to do... By leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like and what you want to see. Thanks - now on to the hop! 

If you have just hopped on to my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop but if you want to follow us across Canada, then please start at the beginning and visit Michelle Stewart's blog. If you came from Michelle Hughes' blog, then you are in the right place! 

I have many favourite products from the new Annual Inspirations Catalog but one that is right at the top of my list is the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge - and I am sure I am not alone!I  have been waiting for something like this for ages. This cartridge has dozens of flowers (flat and three dimensional) plus wreaths (one of my favourite crafting items!) and all sorts of items in which to place flowers like containers, baskets, even boots and more! And there are a ton of other images on there as well! 

I had need to create a birthday card for a special friend so I decided to use the Flower Market cartridge as well as another of my favourite products - the Rustic Home Fundamentals. The flowers on my card needed to be reasonably flat for mailing purposes but one great thing about the Flower Market collection is the the stamps that come with the cartridge include two background stamp sets (so 8 different design) plus one set of sentiments. I stamped the flower pieces with one of those background images to give them some depth. The sentiment that I used is from the third stamp set. The sparkles were coloured to complement the flowers before adhering them to the centres. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Whisper Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Fern Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Rustic Home Fundamentals
Stamps: Playful Patterns (from Cricut Bundle), Sending Smiles (from Cricut Bundle)
Inks: Raspberry Pigment Ink, Blossom Pigment Ink
Accessories: Flower Market Cricut Cartridge, Artistry Cricut Cartridge, Clear Sparkles, ShinHan Marker, Enchantment Ribbon Pack, Thin Foam Tape

Your next stop on the Cross Canada hop is Donna Digby's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can head to Michelle's blog as she has the entire list posted there. 

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. Please join us again next month when we will be featuring projects with a Back to School theme. Mark your calendars for September 15th and hop along with us once again. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Captured Moment Layout

I collect a lot of photos on Pinterest - photos that inspire me for various reasons. Many of them are of animals and recently, I found the one that I used for the layout below. I absolutely LOVE this photograph. The colours are exquisite and it captures the bird in a perfect position, looking backwards at something. I don't do a lot of scrapbooking any longer as I don't have children of my own and I don't tend to take many photographs myself. 

Many of the pieces on this page are cut from Close To My Heart's new Cricut cartridge, Flower Market. I had a hard time with the editing of the colours on this layout... The background paper has light blue stripes but they show up more grey in the pictures. And that Shimmer Pen... it just doesn't want to show up for me at all! I covered all the flowers with it and there is no sign of it in the photos... It is absolutely there in real life, though! 

This photos shows the details on the left side. The vellum piece has diagonal lines on it but they are hard to see with the lines on the background paper. 

The final photo shows the detail of the flowers above the photo (even though the Shimmer Pen doesn't show up on any of the flowers...) 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Whimsy Fundamentals (Crystal Blue Lines), Adventure Fundamentals (Willow Arrows), Basic Fundamentals (Diagonal Vellum), White Daisy Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Eggplant Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Desert Sand Cardstock
Stamps: Ink Blot, Capture This
Inks: Pansy Pigment Ink, Crystal Blue, Lagoon
Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, White Doily (not CTMH), Sponge, Blue Circle Enamel and Glitter Gems, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Mini Stapler, Shimmer Pen

Enjoy, 
Alyson

In the Mood for... a Flower Card!

With the incredibly dry conditions here, there have been no flowers blooming anywhere. Everything has dried up as we haven't had rain for weeks on end. I miss the flowers... I am not a gardener myself but I miss walking down the street and seeing the gardens with the blooming flowers and greenery that is nowhere to be found right now. We haven't had a summer like this in many, many years...

So, I decided to create a flower card to bring some blooms back! This card is CASEd from Pinterest because I loved the idea so much! It was created using the stamp set "What I Love" from Stampin' Up. The flower stamp is a triple stamp set, designed to be stamped over top of each subsequent image three times. I loved the idea of using the "over images" as backgrounds... 

The idea for this card was originally created by Tracy May. I love the way this turned out - so clean and simple. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: What I Love (not CTMH), Happy Birthday (ret.)
Inks: Pacifica, Lagoon, Crystal Blue, Glacier, Fern
Accessories: Foam Tape, Florence Sequins, Twine (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 172 - Sympathy Card

I stayed true to the sketch at Atlantic Hearts this week - and I was in need of a sympathy card pretty quickly. Those are the types of cards that I never seem to keep around! 

The new Flower Market cartridge is awesome! There are SO MANY flowers from which to choose! The one on this card happens to be a flat flower but there are all sorts of three dimensional flowers that can be created as well as containers in which to place the flowers and all sorts of other great images. I chose to stay with a blue-green colour scheme to match the flowers, so I used Glacier, Crystal Blue and Lagoon. The papers are varying designs from the new Adventure and Whimsy Fundamental papers. 

Come and join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us your interpretation of this week's sketch! You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Adventure Fundamentals, Whimsy Fundamentals

Stamps: Heartfelt Thoughts

Inks: New England Ivy

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Glacier Twine (ret.)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Annual Inspirations - New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to the Annual Inspirations 2016/2017 New Product Blog Hop! This is a chance to see many of the new products from the brand new catalog used in a variety of ways. The blog hop goes around in a complete circle 

If you get lost, a full list of participants on this blog hop can be found on Melinda's blog.

You should have arrived here from Maureen's blog.

I chose to create two cards for this blog hop.

My two favourite items in the new Idea Book are the Adventure Fundamentals (because I LOVE the bold and bright new colours) and the Flower Market Cricut cartridge. I have had very little time to play with the cartridge as much of my month of July was spent in the hospital and recovering from cancer surgery but this is what I came up with for my first card:

Unfortunately, the use of the new Shimmer Pen doesn't show up in this photo. I covered the Raspberry (dark pink) cardstock with it and I also touched the ends of the Emerald (green) cardstock with it but it just doesn't show well in the photo.

The second card makes use of the new Basic Fundamental Gold Overlays - I can't wait to use more of these on projects. I realized after I had sewn this down that I forgot to peel off the protective layer that is on the backside... NOTE - There IS a protective layer on these and it does make it clearer when that layer is removed!
Also, the back side is silver and they can be used that way if desired, which is a wonderful idea for versatility with these overlays so you are not just limited to gold!

Now, hop on over to Sheila's blog. I am sure she has something wonderful to share with you from the new Annual Inspirations Catalog! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Desert Sand Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock, Emerald Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock, Adventure Fundamentals,  Basic Fundamentals Gold Overlays

Stamps: Sending Smiles (from Flower Market Cricut Bundle)

Inks: Black

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Artistry Cartridge, Uptown Ribbon Pack, Clear Shimmer Pen, Clear Sparkles, Corner Rounder, White Embroidery Floss (extra) 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - Florence

The challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart is to use the Florence Paper Pack or the same colours that are in that paper pack - so Peacock, Poppy, Ruby, Flaxen and Saffron. It's an interesting colour combination, for sure, but the paper pack contains some gorgeous papers. 

I chose to try a brand new technique for me - something that I was shown at the Close To My Heart Annual Convention. It is a watercolour technique where the paper is covered with water first and then dots of colour are added. A sheet of cling wrap is placed on top while the paint is wet (and you have to do this very quickly as the paint dries fast) and simply moved around to sort of blend the colours and create somewhat of a pattern. It is left on the paper until the paint is almost dry and then removed. The pattern on the front of my card is what I ended up with. I am NOT an artist and was afraid to try adding to the pattern so I left it as it turned out. I tried to match the paint colours of Poppy, Ruby and Peacock but they all ended up smooshed together so it's hard to tell that they once were the actual colours... 

I saw this gorgeous card design on Pinterest but the artist's blog has not been updated since 2011 so unfortunately, there is no link to provide for reference.

The black floral stamp is from a very old stamp set - the Flirty Workshop on the Go.. I LOVE that image and have held onto that stamp set just for that image! 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us how you use the Florence Paper Pack or the Florence colour scheme on your project. You have the entire month of August to enter this challenge or any of the upcoming challenges this month. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Florence Paper Pack, Watercolour Paper, Poppy Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock (base) 

Stamps: Flirty Workshop on the Go Stamp (ret.), Finding the Words 

Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Poppy

Accessories: Watercolour Paints, Paintbrush Set, Peacock Fundamental Embellishments (ret.), Florence Sequins, Damask Embossing Folder (ret.), Cling Wrap

Enjoy, 

Alyson