H2H - Adventure Challenge

The Adventure challenge sounds like a new adventure - and it is - of a sort. Close To My Heart's brand new overhauled colour palette is called Adventure and it is filled with my favourite colours! They are bold, bright, intense colours - Raspberry, Willow, Emerald, Tangerine, Lemon, Pansy - these are just some of the new ones. And of course, my all time favourite colour is in there - Lagoon! Any colour palette that includes Lagoon has to be a good one, as far as I am concerned :) 

The challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart is just titled Adventure. The theme is to use the colours from Adventure OR you can choose to focus on a specific adventure if you wish. I chose to use some of the colours from the Adventure palette. 

I focused on Willow, Raspberry and Blossom. They work so well together. The white background really brings out the intensity of the colours. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your adventurous spirit! If you need to check out the colours in this palette, click here to go to my OBA and look up the colours under the shopping link (under papers and Adventure Fundamentals). 

You have until the end of September to enter this or any of the Heart 2 Heart challenges this month. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Adventure Fundamentals, White Daisy Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock

Stamps: Sending Smiles (Cricut Bundle)

Inks: Raspberry

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Artistry Cartridge, Flower Market Cartridge, Silver Sequins, Scalloped Embossing Folder (ret.), Foam Tape, Whimsy Ribbon Collection, ShinHan Marker

Enjoy, 

Alyson 

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Atlantic Hearts 178 - Sunflowers Abound!

The Flower Market Cricut cartridge has me hooked! The wreaths, flowers and other images are simply awesome! The sketch at Atlantic Hearts this week was one where I took some definite liberties as you will see... but a sketch is a guideline, not something written in stone. 

I chose to use the flowers and the sentiment placement as a guide for my design and turn that into a wreath. I wanted a sky-like background and chose to use a piece of paper from the Whimsy Fundamentals with a watercolour background on it. It resembles a sky sort of look. The Sapphire Blue helps to set off the yellow tones in the sunflowers. 

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

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Desert Sand Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Saffron Cardstock, Chocolate Cardstock, Sapphire Cardstock, Sweet Leaf Cardstock, Whimsy Fundamentals (Glacier)

Stamps: Sending Smiles (Cricut Bundle Stamp Set)

Inks: Sapphire

Accessories: Flower Market cartridge, Artbooking cartridge, Blue Enamel and Glitter Gems, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, ShinHan Marker, Corner Rounder

Enjoy, 

Alyson

JOY Wreath card

Even though it is the middle of September, it is time to start thinking about Christmas cards - it is just 2 months before the time to start writing them and then sending them and they cannot all be created overnight! (How many people were a little frightened to hear that the timeline is so close??) 

I have seen so many gorgeous cards using the Stampin Up Swirly Scribbles Thinlets that I finally decided to purchase that set of dies for myself. I only got the dies and not the co-ordinating stamp set.  Some of the artwork that I have seen on Pinterest using that set of dies has been just gorgeous and the card that I used as the basis for this one was one of them. It was from Claire Daly's blog. 

I used the City Sidewalks paper pack and one of the dies from that SU set. The bird is from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge and was sliced from the branch that it was originally sitting upon to sit inside the wreath. I love how this turned out!

Products used are Close to My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: City Sidewalks Paper Pack,White Daisy Cardstock, Cranberry Cardstock, Willow Cardstock
Stamps: Very Merry
Inks: Cranberry
Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, SU Swirly Scribbles Thinlets (not CTMH), Shimmer Pen, Rustic Home Ribbon Pack, Black Sharpie Marker (not CTMH) 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Holiday Expressions New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to the Holiday Expressions New Product Blog Hop! There are SO many exciting new products in this catalog! Consultants along this blog hop have picked and chosen various products to showcase and I'm sure that you will see fabulous projects along the way. 

You should have arrived here from Priscilla Gotham's blog. 

If you get lost, a complete list of bloggers can be found on Melinda Everitt's blog. 

I chose to create 4 different Christmas cards for this blog hop. They all showcase new products from the Holiday Expressions catalog in some way. 

I love Christmas and I am a fan of non-traditional colours for the holidays. Thats not to say that I don't appreciate red and green but I really like the other colour palettes used for cards and decor at Christmas. 

The first card is a night scene - it's hard to see the base of the card as I photographed it on a white background (didn't realize that until after the fact...) 

The second card is very clean and simple - the sentiment is stamped inside the card. The branch from the Flower Market cartridge was welded together in Design Space until I had to size and shape I wanted. I like the bright pink cardstock colours as the background against the green branch. 

The third card is a red and green card... yes, it's Christmas after all! The dog is cut from the new digital Cricut cartridge, City Sidewalks. 

The last card is created using a stamp set called "Season of Magic" - I  really wanted to use Sea Glass but I only had the pigment ink as my regular ink pad hadn't arrived yet. It is very difficult to do two-step stamping with pigment inks... but it was done. 

Which of the 4 cards is your favourite? The products used on each card can be seen below. 

Your next stop on the blog hop is Gina Brandstetter's blog. I'm sure she has something wonderful in store for you!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Card 1:
Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock
Inks: Black, Crystal Blue, Lagoon, Glacier, Pacifica
Stamps: Very Merry
Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Artistry Cartridge, Woodland Wishes Thin Cuts, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Bitty Sparkles, ShinHan Marker, Shimmer Brush

Card 2:
Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock
Inks: none
Stamps: none
Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Snowflakes Embossing Folder, Silver Sequins, Bitty Sparkles, Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Foam Tape

Card 3:
Paper: City Sidewalks Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Cranberry Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock
Inks: Cranberry
Stamps: Very Merry
Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, City Sidewalks Digital Cartridge, Bitty Sparkles, Black Sharpie Marker (not CTMH)

Card 4:
Paper: Oh Deer! Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Juniper Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock, Cocoa Cardstock, Sea Glass Glitter Paper
Inks: Cocoa, Desert Sand, Juniper, Sea Glass Pigment Ink
Stamps: Season of Magic
Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Red Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Red Enamel Gems, Thin Foam Tape, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Create Kindness Cards

Close To My Heart's September campaign is simply awesome! The Create Kindness card kit contains everything that you need to create these gorgeous little 3x3 cards to spread kindness in whatever way you choose! 

Here is a sample of some of them. 

There is also a purple base but I chose to leave those ones out as I am going to do something different with those cards bases. 

Here are a few photos of some of them close up. I added the background circle and border for each of the cards, as well as the shimmer trim. They do come with the white pre-cut circle and the card base, along with the envelopes. 

They are just SO cute! There are 8 mini stamps in the kit. I also stamped images inside my cards as well. You can see the entire kit on my OBA. This special kit is available ONLY during the month of September so make sure to order yours before the end of the month! 

Spread some kindness - it is an awesome thing to do - and it makes you feel good inside as well :) 

Products used are all Close To My Heart: 

Paper: Create Kindness Kit, Lagoon Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock, Willow Cardstock

Stamps: Create Kindness Kit

Inks: Archival Black (in Create Kindness Kit)

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Pink Shimmer Trim (ret.), Teal Shimmer Trim (ret.), Green Shimmer Trim

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - Create Kindness

Heart 2 Heart is celebrating Close To My Heart's Create Kindness campaign! There is an awesome campaign going on during the month of September called Create Kindness and the nifty little kit that can be purchased contained 8 adorable M-size stamps (that means mini stamps) and they are simply the sweetest little stamps you can imagine! I chose to focus on just one of them to create my card for this week's challenge. 

The actual Create Kindness Kit has 8 of these adorable little goodies plus so much more - contact your consultant (or shop here) to find out more about this awesome campaign as it is only available during the month of September! The whole idea behind this campaign is to create more kindness in the world. 

My goal during this month is to do something nice for someone each day during the month. Sounds so simple... Today, I chose three blogs where I have never commented before and left positive comments on each of them. Tomorrow, my intention as I will be traveling is to pay for the person behind me at Tim Hortons as I will be stopping for a cup of tea before I head out on my journey. I will leave $5 with the cashier to pay for the individual behind me in line. It's the little things that go a long way...  

So, here is my project for this week's challenge (inspired by the very talented Brenda Rose). You don't have to have the Create Kindness kit to participate with us - just create something that represents kindness - and we would love to hear about a random act of kindness if you are willing to share that as well! 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and share your Create Kindness project. You have until the end of September to link up your project. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Yardstick, Blossom Yardstick, Emerald Yardstick, Adventure Fundamentals

Stamps: Create Kindness - Hello, Line it Up (Cricut Bundle)

Inks: Memento Black

Accessories: Artistry Cartridge, Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Pink Enamel Gems, ShinHan Markers (not CTMH colours), Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

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Another Birthday Card...

My mom is celebrating her 89th birthday next week. Since I see her every couple of weeks, I had to make this a little bit in advance for her. I wanted to use the red heart ribbon from Close To My Heart so when I saw this card made by Jessica Williams on Pinterest, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to create for my mom. The flourish die is one that I recently purchased from Stampin Up but everything else would work exactly as I wanted! 

The card has such nice, clean lines and came together easily and quickly. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock
Stamps: Holiday Tags (ret.), Shower Flowers, Card Word Puzzle (ret.)
Inks: Cranberry, Whisper
Accessories: Flourish Thinlets (not CTMH), Adventure Ribbon Pack, Red Enamel Gems, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Swan Lake and Brushstrokes Birthday Card

A friend of mine is celebrating his 40th birthday next week - called for a birthday card for sure. I wanted to do something relatively understated as he is not one to make a big deal of anything so I decided to use some of the blue themed paper from the Swan Lake paper pack. The Brushstrokes stamp set came as a result from a card I saw on Pinterest. 

There is a sentiment inside the card about his being "over the hill"... I just couldn't let that pass - after all, he IS turning 40! 

Products used are all Close to My Heart

Paper: Swan Lake Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock

Stamps: Brushstrokes, Birthday Sparkles

Inks: Glacier, Crystal Blue, Juniper, Peacock

Accessories: Foam Tape, Blue Enamel and Glitter Gems, Enchantment Ribbon Pack

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 176 - Jeepers Creepers Party!

Now, this has to be a first for me... a card sketch that contains flowers and leaves and I veered AWAY from that! I love creating with flowers, leaves and branches but when the time came from me to create for this sketch, I was really in the mood to try something totally different. 

I am not at all a fan of Halloween but Close To My Heart's Halloween papers this year have me smitten! I simply LOVE the collection - it is filled with bold and bright colours and it has the most adorable little characters in it - so perfect for ANY occasion with their eyes. I added googly eyes on top of the already cute eyes! I am looking forward to creating more projects with this paper pack! 

This is the card that I created for this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch. Don't you just love those eyes?

Join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us your interpretation of the sketch shown above (and it doesn't have to be flowers and leaves as I have demonstrated above...) You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

Supplies are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Jeepers Creepers Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Willow Cardstock

Stamps: Monstrous Halloween, Sending Smiles (from Flower Market Cricut Bundle) 

Inks: Black, Tangerine Pigment Ink, Willow Pigment Ink

Accessories: Monstrous Halloween Thin Cuts, Clear Details Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Black Shimmer Ribbon, Green Triangle Enamel and Glitter Gems, Googly Eyes (not CTMH) 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Sending Smiles Card

I created this card quite a while ago but couldn't post it until now as I used a stamp set from the new Holiday Expressions catalog and it wasn't live until September 1st. Ah, such is life... I found this gorgeous idea on Pinterest. 

I am loving the Rustic Home Fundamental papers with this woodgrain background - wish I could purchase just that paper in bulk quantities! I have to keep a close eye on every scrap of it so I can use it for my small pieces on different projects. 

The stamp set is called "With You" and it has various flowers, a few which co-ordinate with the new Flower Market Cricut cartridge. The sentiments are also terrific on this stamp set but I chose to use one from one of the stamps that came with the Flower Market cartridge instead as it was smaller. A bit of thin twine from my stash finished off the card. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock, Rustic Home Fundamentals
Stamps: With You, Sending Smiles (from Cricut Bundle)
Inks: Eggplant, Thistle, Sweet Leaf
Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Circle Punch (not CTMH), Clear Sparkles Assortment (ret.), Shin Han Markers, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Twine (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Blessed Beyond Measure

Welcome to September's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "Blessed Beyond Measure" - a set of 19 stamps. This set of stamps is a perfect set for the autumn season, filled with leaves, berries and wonderful sentiments related to gratitude and blessings. It is perfect for Thanksgiving and any time a grateful sentiment is required (which should be ALL the time!) The bloggers along this blog hop will certainly show you many ways to use this awesome stamp set, so sit back and enjoy the tour. 

You should have arrived here from Brenda Lapp's blog. 

If you get lost, a list of all blogs can be found on Melinda Everitt's blog. 

The stamp set looks like this.

I LOVE the autumn season - it is a time in my area where the leaves are turning to gorgeous colours and we see visitors from all over the world to view the changing of the leaves. 

I created two cards for this blog hop. 
The first one keeps the greenery green but uses fall colours for the basis of the card. I love the sentiment because gratitude is SO important. 

On my second card, I used a technique called "tissue stamping". For the leaves, I first inked them lightly with a sponge dauber, just to give them some colour (in Fern). Then I stamped the image in one colour and quickly took a tissue and rubbed it in another ink colour and dabbed it on top of part of the stamp. I did that again with a second tissue in a third ink colour. This has to be done quickly as dye inks dry quickly. Then the image was stamped onto the cardstock, resulting in a mixed coloured image. I did this three times, each with slightly different effects. I used Fern, Goldrush and Ruby. I also distressed the edges of the leaves and the flowers both with ink and by turning up the edges by bending them slightly. 

I hope you enjoyed my projects. 

The next blog on the hop is Jennifer Bennett's blog. 

I'm sure she has something wonderful to share with you.

You can get this stamp set for just $6 this month with a $50 purchase. 

Visit my shopping site here. 

Remember this stamp set is only available until September 30th! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Sorbet Cardstock, Pomegranate Cardstock, Saffron Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Black Glitter Paper, Memo Fundamentals, Uptown Fundamentals, Enchantment Fundamentals

Stamps: Blessed Beyond Measure

Inks: Cocoa Pigment Ink, Pomegranate, Goldrush, Ruby, Saffron

Accessories: Artistry Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Flower Market Cartridge, Gold Sequins, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, ShinHan Marker (Sap Green), Sponge Dauber

Enjoy, 

Alyson