Atlantic Hearts 184 - Warmest Wishes

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge has always been a favourite site of mine and being on the Design Team there is awesome! I love the sketches and it keeps me creating as well as thinking of ideas that I wouldn't normally have done on my own. 

This week's sketch is one that uses banners behind the main focal point. I LOVE the stamp set called "Season of Magic" because the wreath is so gorgeous along with all the little items that can be added to it. I decided to use that as my focus. The other products I LOVE right now are the Oh Deer! Paper Pack and our Sea Glass colour. Combining all of those on this card wasn't difficult. As you can see, I stayed very true to the sketch, just making my banner pieces a little wider. 

I think the majority of my Christmas cards this year may just be focused around the beautiful Sea Glass colour...

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 unless otherwise noted:

Paper: Oh Deer! Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Desert Sand Cardstock, Sea Glass Glitter Paper, Vellum (not CTMH)

Stamps: Season of Magic

Inks: Versamark, Desert Sand, Sea Glass, Juniper

Accessories: ShinHan Marker, Sharpie Marker, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Bitty Sparkles, Thin Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

H2H - Jeepers Creepers

The theme this week at Heart 2 Heart is Jeepers Creepers. I am not a fan of Halloween but I love this paper pack. It is full of bold and bright colours like Pansy, Willow, Emerald, Tangerine and my favourite, Lagoon! The fun patterns and the adorable creatures make it a paper pack that can be used all year round and not just at Halloween and I love that! 

I chose to use a few of my favourite patterns for the card below. There is some gold and black ribbon available and the purple hearts co-ordinate perfectly with the Pansy colour in this paper pack as well! 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your Jeepers Creepers project. You have until the end of October to link up with this challenge or any of the October challenges. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Jeepers Creepers Paper Pack, Lagoon Cardstock, Gold Glitter Paper
Stamps: none
Inks: none
Accessories: Piercing Tool, Corner Rounder, Hello & Thanks Thin Cuts, Purple Hearts Enamel and Glitter Duos, Black Shimmer Ribbon

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 182 - Count your Blessings

This week's challenge at Atlantic Hearts provided me with a challenge for a card that I had a lot of fun creating. It took some time as I used the emboss resist technique. That involved stamping images using Versamark ink and then heat embossing them using clear embossing powder. The images then resist ink or paint. I chose to use inks on mine so I could blend the colours.

Using the Lovely Leaves stamp set, I stamped various leaf images on White Daisy cardstock (I created the shape in Design Space first by welding a rectangle and a border together to get what I wanted). Then I used six colours of ink to blend together... Canary, Saffron, Sorbet, Goldrush,  Cranberry and Fern. It is hard to see all of the colours but they are all in there! 

The individual leaves are colour blended using ShinHan markers and cut out by hand as I didn't want the white edge that I would have had by using the Thin Cuts. A strip of Black Glitter paper, some sequins, a bit of ribbon, and I love the final result! Such a perfect card for the autumn season in Ontario! 

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: Enchantment Fundamentals (Pomegranate), Black Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Glitter Paper
Stamps: With You, Springtime Wishes (ret.) Lovely Leaves
Inks: Canary, Saffron, Sorbet, Goldrush, Cranberry, Fern, Pomegranate, Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Versamark
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge (ret.), Uptown Ribbon Pack, Thin Foam Tape, Foam Tape, ShinHan Markers, Magical Sequins (ret.), Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Sponge Daubers

Enjoy, 
Alyson

City Sidewalks Circut Creations Blog Hop

Welcome to the City Sidewalks Blog Hop - featuring the City Sidewalks Cricut Digital Collection. 

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

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

It was hard to decide exactly what to do as I didn't want to add stamping to my projects (but that was not a requirement for this blog hop as I am sure that other consultants DID add stamping to their projects). I wanted to do what I could without adding any additional stamping to what I created and just use the Cricut collection and some small embellishments. 

I had two cards in mind - and both turned out completely different from what I had envisioned (isn't that always the case?) 

For the first one, I ended up using the maze and simply added a few of the other images along the way to add some interest. 

The second card was a lot more challenging... I waned to create a home scene with Santa and a tree... I needed a larger space in which to work so I chose to create a 6x6 card. The editing... it keeps turning those blue background dots to grey - they REALLY are blue! So with a half a tree and Santa on the run, I have a tree with presents below and something relatively close to what I was aiming to create. 

This digital collection has some neat images on it - there are terrific backgrounds and detailed and fun holiday images as well. 

Your next stop on the blog hop is Corinna Murphy's blog.

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

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: City Sidewalks Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Cranberry Cardstock, Chocolate Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Champagne Cardstock

Stamps: none

Inks: none

Accessories: Cricut Digital Collection: City Sidewalks, Sparkles Assortment, Bitty Sparkles, Thin Foam Tape, Corner Rounder

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Cross-Canada Blog Hop - Jeepers Creepers (Halloween or Not?)

Welcome to our October Blog Hop featuring Jeepers Creepers creations. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop 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 you liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do... by leaving a comment, we get to hear what you like and what you want to see. Now on to our hop! 

If you just hopped on to my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop. If you want to follow us from East to West across Canada, start at Michelle's blog. If you are traveling in a circle, you should have arrived from Nicky's blog. 

I chose to create two cards for this blog hop. The first is a standard Halloween card since Jeepers Creepers IS a Halloween paper pack. I love the little creatures in the stamp set called Monstrous Halloween and they can be used for so many different occasions! 

The second card I created is one that uses the Jeepers Creepers paper but for a Christmas themed card. I love non-traditional colours for Christmas and focused on the Lagoon and Pansy coloured papers and used some Silver Glitter paper to cut the snowflake die cuts. I like the simplicity of this card. 

Your next blog on the Cross Canada hop is Donna's blog and I am sure she has something wonderful to share with you. If you get lost along the way, Michelle has a list of all the bloggers on the hop along with their links. 

We hope we were able to inspire you with get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques along the way. Please join us again next month when we will be featuring Close To My Heart's Colour of the Year - Sea Glass! Mark your calendars for November 15th and hop along with us once again! 

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

Paper: Jeepers Creepers Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Silver Glitter Paper

Stamps: Monstrous Halloween, Hymns of Praise

Inks: Willow, Tangerine, Pansy, Black

Accessories: Monstrous Halloween Thin Cuts, Snowflake Thin Cuts, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Rustic Home Ribbon Pack, Large and Small Googly Eyes (not CTMH), Silver Sequins 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

H2H - Perfect 10

This week at Heart 2 Heart, the theme is "Perfect 10". The thoughts that come to mind when I think of Perfect 10 are perfect routines in athletic competitions, beauty pageant contestants and something to do with mathematics and perfect number combinations. 

I decided to do a completely different "take" on this challenge. I went with a card that used 10 in two different ways: 

1. There are TEN layers on this card

2. I used TEN paper crafting techniques

My original intention was to use 10 products but that was tough to add in with the above challenges, so it didn't happen. However, there are some additional "10s" on this card as well as the ones above... 

First, let me show you the card and if you want to guess before reading below, you can have that chance. 

Ten Layers: 
1. White Daisy Cardstock
2. Whisper B&T (embossed)
3. Poppy B&T
4. Peacock B&T
5. Whisper B&T (stamping doesn't count as it doesn't add any thickness)
6. Black Cardstock wreath 
7. Saffron B&T Cricut cut leaves
8/9. Glacier B&T Cricut cut flowers (2 layers)
10. Blue Enamel Gem embellishment

Ten Techniques: 
Some of these may seem simple but for many individuals who have not created before, remember that these may be brand new to them or these may be techniques that you have completed forgotten about as time has passed! Some are things you may do daily but forget that they are actually "techniques"! I haven't ink distressed or edge distressed in ages...
1. dry embossing
2. edge distressing
3. cutting using a Cricut
4. ink distressing
5. spritzing using a spray pen and re-inker mixture
6. shadow stamping the sentiment
7. sanding to bring out the white core (on embossed piece)
8. stamping sentiment in 2 colours
9. hand shaping the flowers and leaves to add dimension
10. clustering embellishments

On the Peacock piece, on 3 sides, there are TEN points showing (I had to hide some of the bottom side so I couldn't make that work on that side...)

If you look closely, there are TEN sections of the black wreath showing (I had to work hard to make that happen!)

That's all the TENsion I can take about this card. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart this week and show us your Perfect 10 creation! You have until the end of October to enter this or any of the October challenges. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Swan Lake Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock
Stamps: Finding the Words
Inks: Poppy, Peacock, Slate
Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Confetti Embossing Folder, Sanding Kit, Blue Dot Enamel and Glitter Duos, Thin Foam Tape, Whisper Reinker, Spray Pen, Edge Distresser

Enjoy, 
Alyson




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Framed Birthday Card

A special friend has a birthday coming up and I wanted to created a card for her using a stem and flower stamp set. The stamp I had in mind is not a CTMH stamp set but everything else is from CTMH. 

I started out with a piece of White Daisy cardstock and three shades of green - Emerald, Lagoon and Sea Glass. Blending the colours, I ended up with my background. I masked the stem part of the stamp and stamped the image in black and then stamped the flower parts in Versamark ink so I could emboss them in white - at least that was the plan. After adding the embossing powder, it stuck to almost the entire piece of paper! I spent a LONG time with a fine tipped paintbrush, trying to remove the embossing powder from between the flowers and the rest of the paper, When I finally did use the heat tool and embossed the flowers, they did not turn out well at all - it looked like a blurry mess. 

Back to the drawing table to start again with my already green fingers... I inked another sheet of cardstock and this time, I decided to stamp the flowers separately and cut them out instead. Small as they are, it was a challenge but it worked out better. I stamped them in two colours and added them later. 

So, the finished card is below - with the stamped and cut out flowers with a hint of shimmer (that still doesn't show in my photograph). I love the background and the wood grain frame adds so much to the card. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper; Happy Times Paper Pack (ret.), White Daisy Cardstock, Emerald Cardstock
Stamps: Rose Wonder (SU - not CTMH), Wild About Flowers (SU - not CTMH)
Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Saffron, Lemon, Sea Glass, Lagoon, Emerald
Accessories: Artistry Cartridge, Whisper Twine, White Organdy Ribbon (ret.), Bitty Sparkles, Foam Tape, Shimmer Pen 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Marker Alphabet Card Set

I had the awesome privilege of attending Close To My Heart's Annual Convention last summer and one of the terrific things about that event is the fabulous artwork that is presented there. A consultant from Australia, Jacquie Paech, presented her amazing artwork, showcasing a variety of new products from the Annual Inspirations catalog. Some of the cards in the set below were created by her and I simply added some additional ones to hers to create a set of them. I was so impressed with Jacquie's style - she creates in a clean and simple style without a lot of extras and her artwork is just gorgeous. Take a look at her blog here. 

The 3 "Just for You" and Pansy "Sweet" cards were CASEd from her designs - colours and all, because I loved them SO much! There is a link here to a post on Jacquie's blog that shows a small photos of her presentation with these cards (scroll down to see it). The colours are the 7 new colours from the Adventure palette and I added Cranberry as red was an appropriate extra colour. 

I am hoping that the recipient of this card kit (and they are in a co-ordinating handmade box with a decorated cover and tied with ribbon) will appreciate them as much as I had fun creating them! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Tangerine Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Cranberry Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Emerald Cardstock, White Glitter Paper, Adventure Fundamentals, White Daisy Cards and Envelopes
Stamps: Marker Alphabet
Inks: Lemon, Tangerine, Blossom, Raspberry, Cranberry, Pansy, Willow, Emerald
Accessories: Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Adventure Ribbon Pack, Goldrush Baker's Twine (ret.), Cranberry Grosgrain Ribbon (ret.)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 180 - Creatures Birthday Wish!

These little creatures have the best of me! I just adore them... and here is another birthday card created using the other two of them that I didn't use last time around. The Jeepers Creepers paper pack is so colourful and perfect for card making that I can see using it all year around. 

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. 

I am also entering this card in the Color Dare Challenge this week as the colours are those from the Jeepers Creepers Paper Pack and are shown below. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

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

Stamps: Monstrous Halloween, Say it All (ret.)

Inks: Pansy, Willow, Emerald

Accessories: Adventure Ribbon Pack, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Monstrous Halloween Thin Cuts, ShinHan Marker, Jeepers Creepers Assortment

Enjoy, 

Alyson

October Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Yuletide Joy

Welcome to October's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "Yuletide Joy" - a set of 7 stamps. This set of stamps is perfect for Christmas and the approaching holiday season - with 4 great seasonal stamps including a stocking, a bell ornament, a present and a star plus three great sentiments. 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 Priscilla Gotham'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 really like non-traditional colours for Christmas (not to say that I don't like red and green as well). I chose to use the bell ornament and created two identical cards (except the sentiment) using two different colour schemes. 

For this first card, I used the "Love" ribbon from the Whimsy Ribbon Pack but I used the reverse side of the ribbon.  

I hope you enjoyed my projects. 

The next blog on the hop is Gina Brandstetter's blog.

I'm sure she has a wonderful project 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 October 31st! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Gold Glitter Paper, Pixie Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Uptown Fundamentals

Stamps: Yuletide Joy

Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Lagoon, Pansy

Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Adventure Ribbon Pack, Thin Foam Tape, ShinHan Markers, Enamel and Blue Glitter Gems, Calypso Sequins (ret.) 

Enjoy, 

Alyson