Cultivate Kindness - Double Diamond Fold

I saw this card fold a while ago and thought it was simply gorgeous! A friend of mine made one and she was kind enough to share the instructions on her blog. Please visit Susan Fogel's Paper Menagerie for complete and awesome detailed instructions for how to create this beautiful card! 

I used the Boutique collection to create this one. I have to say that I loved the card that Susan created so much that I actually recreated the same one that she did as well. I also loved the layering that she did on the front of her card that I replicated that on mine. It was such a beautiful way of using the new Fancy Tags and the Decorative Borders.

I did add a little bit of detail on the bottom of the Decorative Border piece and that is shown below. Those borders are so cool - you can add extra detail without actually cutting through the paper! 

My butterfly was coloured using ShinHan markers and then I used three shimmer brushes on top of the colours - Bashful, Sugarplum and Mint. 

Here is the other card that I created - the same one that Susan did originally - isn't it gorgeous?

I am entering my first card into the Three Amigos fun folds challenge this month.

Products used are all Close To My Heart (products listed for first card only) 

Paper: Boutique Paper Pack, Peacock Cardstock, Sugarplum Cardstock, Saffron Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Ballerina Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock

Stamps: Thanks & Giving, Grateful Heart - Cardmaking, Boutique - Cardmaking

Inks: Peacock, Glacier

Accessories: Bashful Shimmer Brush (ret.), Sugarplum Shimmer Brush, Mint Shimmer Brush, ShinHan Markers, White and Gold Skinny Ribbon, Foam Tape, Decorative Borders Thin Cuts, Fancy Tags Thin Cuts

Enjoy,

Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - Shaking with Comfort and Joy!

It's another Heart 2 Heart challenge and it's Sweet Treat time! That's the theme of this week's challenge and it is also the final challenge in the month of September. 

Sweet Treats just happens to be the title of Close To My Heart's September Stamp of the Month and it is a fabulous stamp set - 4 terrific sentiments for the autumn season plus little stamps that can be added to cards or scrapbook pages for embellishments. But that's certainly not the only option for this challenge. Sweet treats can be interpreted in other ways and if you have another way, be sure to show that to us as we would LOVE to see your creations! 

I chose to use the September SOTM to create my card and I made a shaker card. I also used the Oh What Fun Cardmaking stamp set to stamp the trees. The tiny trees inside the shaker are from the Sweet Treats stamp set and I love how they add some extra interest. I coloured the sparkles with Sharpie markers and wrapped some silver cord under the trees. My shaker is set within the card and not on top as many people like to do. This way is a little more difficult but I like that it sits flat with the front of the card. 

Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us how you interpret Sweet Treats. You have until the end of the month to enter this or any of the other September challenges. Remember to use some Close To My Heart products in your project!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Oh What Fun Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock

Stamps: Sweet Treats, Oh What Fun Cardmaking

Inks: Clover, Lagoon

Accessories: Silver Cord (not CTMH), Sharpie Markers (not CTMH), Clear Sparkles, Foam Tape, Raspberry Twine, Mint Shimmer Brush, Shaker Window and Confetti Thin Cuts, Shaker Window Foam and Acetate, Loose Sequins - Silver

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 282 - O Holy Night

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch 282! 

I stayed true to the sketch this time - I liked the design and I also wanted to create a Christmas card - among my first this season, so I am WAY behind. 

Non-traditional colours for Christmas are my preference and blue is one of my favourites so I decided to cut the wreath and sentiment using shades of blue. A grey background along with silver glitter worked well. The photos don't show this card nearly as pretty as it looks in real life. It sparkles so much. 

The wreath and attached stars are from a new CTMH Cricut cartridge called Season of Joy - there are so many great images on that cartridge! 

Come and join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us how you interpret 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, Charcoal Cardstock, Pebble Cardstock, Carolina Cardstock, Sapphire Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Silver Glitter Paper

Stamps: Woodland Wishes (ret.)

Inks: Lemon

Accessories: Season of Joy Cartridge, Basic Stars Thin Cuts (ret.), Silver Foil Tape (ret.), Clear Shimmer Brush

Enjoy,

Alyson

HE New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to the Holiday Expressions New Product Blog Hop. This blog hop features the new products that are available in the Holiday Expressions catalog that was released on September 1st. There is so much goodness available - five exciting new paper collections, new colours plus all sorts of stamp sets as well as some other new and exciting products.
I am sure that as you cruise through this blog hop, you will see a wide variety of projects that highlight the many new products that are available, and hopefully it will stimulate your creative spirit to get going to create your own awesome projects! 

You should have arrived here from Gina Brandstetter's blog.

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

One of the new products available is texture paste. I was very hesitant to start playing with this as it was completely new to me. However, once you start using it, there are SO many things that can be done with it! It can be used alone as a white paste, it can be coloured using a variety of mediums (ink, markers, reinkers and even the shimmer brushes), and since there are three type of it available, they create varying effects as well. 

I used the opaque matte texture paste here - and I created my stencil by cutting it on my Cricut from a pattern found on the Artbooking Cricut cartridge. I mixed the texture paste using 3 reinkers - Saffron, Fern and New England Ivy (each separately). I kind of blended them together down the stencil, going from lightest to darkest in colour. 

The wreath and pieces are cut from the Flower Market and Artistry Cricut cartridges. They are simply layered multiple times on top of each other. The sentiment is brushed with the Gold Shimmer Brush. 

A couple of extra pieces were inserted at the bottom and a ribbon with a bow was added.  

Although I did cut most of the wreath pieces from patterned paper from the Grateful Heart paper pack, that's hard to see. It looks like the only patterned paper used on this card is the zip strip at the bottom.

The next blog on the hop is Haley Dyer's blog.

I am sure she will show you more terrific new products in her fabulous project! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Grateful Heart Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Goldrush Cardstock, Saffron Cardstock, Pomegranate Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock

Stamps: none

Inks: Saffron Reinker, Fern Reinker, New England Ivy Reinker

Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Artistry Cartridge, Flower Market Cartridge, Stencil Sheets, Opaque Matte Texture Paste, Palette Knives, White and Gold Ribbon, Foam Tape, Gold Shimmer Brush 

Enjoy,

Alyson

H2H - Banner Day

Welcome to this week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart! 

The theme this week is Banner Day. That can be interpreted in a couple of ways - a great day or you can chose to add some sort of banner(s) to your project. Then again, there may be something that we haven't considered that fits this challenge. 

I chose to use banners on my card - and I did that in two different ways. I used the obvious banners for my sentiment but I also used rounded banners to create the background for my card. They extend from the top of my card base to almost the bottom where they have been rounded to ft exactly beside each other. 

The floral grouping was stamped, coloured and fussy cut. I brushed the flowers with the gold and clear shimmer brushes. These papers are from the Boutique collection but they are probably the lesser used papers so I wanted to do something with what I think of as the secondary colour scheme within that paper pack. 

Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us how you interpret "Banner Day". 

You have until the end of September to link up with this or any of the other September challenges. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: Boutique Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Linen Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock, Gold Foil Paper

Stamps: Bunches of Love

Inks: Intense Black

Accessories: Oval Stitched Dies (Gina Marie Designs), ShinHan Markers, Sugarplum Glitter Gems, Gold Pearls, Glacier and Gold Ribbon (ret.), Scallop Border Punch (ret.), Corner Rounder, Clear Shimmer Brush, Gold Shimmer Brush, Foam Tape

Enjoy,

Alyson

Birdy Splattered Birthday card

A good friend of mine has a birthday coming up shortly - and it calls for a masculine birthday card. I struggle so much with masculine cards... 

I decided to pull out the Thoughtful Bird stamp set. I love that the bird is triple stamped as it provides so much dimension. I used Smoothie ink for the first layer, Pomegranate ink for the second layer and Nutmeg ink for the top layer. In the end, Pomegranate is the most dominant colour which is really what I wanted for the colour scheme as I used papers from the Grateful Heart collection. 

Using a waterbrush and two ink pad colours just pressed down on my splatter mat, I picked up some of the ink (separately) and tapped on the brush to create the splatters in the background.

The card pattern is taken from Make It From Your Heart - Vol. 4 and came together so easily. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Grateful Heart Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Pomegranate Cardstock, White Daisy Card Base and Envelope

Stamps: Thoughtful Bird (ret.), Short and Sweet (ret.)

Inks: Toffee, Sapphire, New England Ivy, Smoothie, Pomegranate, Nutmeg (ret.)

Accessories: Thoughtful Bird Thin Cut (ret.), Waterbrush, Oval Thin Cuts, Stitched Oval Thin Cuts, Thin Foam Tape, Pomegranate Burlap Ribbon

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 280 - Amazing Day with Texture Paste

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #280! 

I deiced to turn the sketch sideways and consequently turn around some of the elements with it. 

Close To My Heart has a brand new catalog out as of September 1st and one of the new products available is texture paste. This is new medium for me and this was my first attempt with it. I actually didn't use a stencil but a metal die instead. That gave a lot of depth as a result but that's not a bad thing - just different. When the paste had dried, I inked the entire paper with Glacier ink and then I used a small makeup brush to edge the leaves with Peacock ink. I spritzed it all with a bit of water and then did the same thing again. I love how it turned out. The hardest part was cutting the sheet as the paste dries so hard. I had to go to an old trimmer with a super thick blade and even then, it took multiple tries to cut through the paper. 

The patterned paper is from the new Boutique collection and the leaf dies are from various sources. 

Come and 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 Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Boutique Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock

Stamps: Boutique Cardmaking

Inks: Glacier, Peacock

Accessories: Leaf Stem Die (Melissa Frances), Rose Garden Thinlets (SU), Flourish Thinlets (SU), Open Leaves Die (Gina Marie Designs), Sponges, Lagoon Ribbon (ret.), Button (ret.), Thread (not CTMH), Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Opaque Matte Texture Paste, Palette Knives

Enjoy,

Alyson

September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to September's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "Just Treats" - a set of 22 stamps. This stamp set features 4 main stamps that highlight the main celebrations during the autumn and winter months, along with a friendship stamp. There are also lots of little images to go along with those celebrations. The bloggers along this blog hop will certainly show you many ways to use this stamp set, so sit back and enjoy the tour. 

You should have arrived here from Vickie O'Dell's blog. 

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

The stamp set looks like this.

I really wanted to use the new Shaker Thin Cuts to make a shaker card. I LOVE the new Boutique papers so combining the two seemed like a perfect idea. 
I also wanted the shaker part of the card to be inserted within the card rather than having it sit on top, so I cut the circle into the card front. That way, the shaker is actually part of the card itself. The package containing the circular adhesive pieces and acetate sheets make it SO EASY to create these cards now! And you even get a bunch of leftover adhesive pieces to use on other projects... I masked the sentiment so I could stamp it in both Peacock and Sugarplum. 
I added a few too many sequins inside my card so they don't shake quite as nicely as I would like - it has been a while since I have made one of these so I know for next time! 

I hope you enjoyed my card. 

The next blog on this hop is Michelle Loncar's blog. 
I am sure she has something wonderful to share with you. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart: 

Paper: Boutique Paper Pack, Glacier Cardstock, Sugarplum Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock
Stamps: Just Treats
Inks: Peacock, Sugarplum
Accessories: Thin Cuts - Shaker Window and Confetti, Shaker Window Foam and Acetate, Mink Twine, Silver Shimmer Trim, Basic Hearts Thin Cuts, Stitched Hearts Thin Cuts, Clear Shimmer Brush, Loose Sequins - Silver, Sugarplum Glitter Gems, Scallop Border Thin Cuts (ret.), Foam Tape

Enjoy,

Alyson