Colour Dare #349 - A Very Busy Swing Easel Card

Welcome to Colour Dare Challenge #349! 

I LOVE this week's colour choices... some of my favourite colours are in the palette this week!

Check it out below. 

Please note that Black and White along with other neutrals ARE allowed in this challenge. 

I wanted to do something different this week - something new to me. I went looking around on Pinterest - my first source for inspiration - and found some interesting ideas there. One of those ideas was a Swing Easel Card. There were several websites with instructions but most of them had metric measurements... that can be difficult sometimes to translate to Imperial. I have to say that as a Canadian, I do EVERYTHING in metric except paper crafting... driving, cooking, temperatures, other measurements - everything in my world is in metric except paper crafting.

The size of my card is 5.5 x 5.5 (inches) - it is a square card. There were templates that showed how to do this to make a standard size card but I felt I needed a larger card for my purpose. 

For the background, I used the Mix-In Paper Pack from CTMH - and the edge is a zip strip that fit perfectly. I used a coordinating stamp and die set as I needed both greenery and flowers. This type of card works really well if you want to create a scene as the main scene can go on the inside section and other elements can be placed along the outside edge to make them stand up. I placed some greenery along the outside edge and then added flowers there. I then decorated the inside section. I think most people would do it in reverse but I found it easier doing it from the outside and working toward the inside. I just added elements as I worked, filling in empty spaces. 

The "hello" die makes the card stand in position. It was cut 5 times and stacked. I used Stick-It adhesive on the back before cutting so it would be easier to adhere them together as it is a pretty thin die. The top of the card can be opened to reveal a place to write a message. 

One of the wonderful things about this card is that it folds flat for mailing - LOVE THAT! 

Although this took a long time to create, I think making a second one would be a lot easier now that I have a better idea of what to do! 

Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you use the colour palette shown at the top of this post. You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: Mix-in Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Clover Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock (all CTMH)

Stamps: Sentiment Collection (Penny Black), First Frost (SU)

Inks: Pansy, Lilac, Raspberry, Willow, Clover (all CTMH)

Accessories: Frosted Bouquet Thinlets, Silver Metallic Thread (both SU), Hello Die (Pretty Pink Posh), Touch Markers, Stamp Press

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 322 - Grid Lines Abound!

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #322! 

This week's sketch is all about a grid... how you use that grid is your choice. 

I chose to create my grid using Cricut Design Space because I wanted my spaces to be exactly even. I ended up with eight openings and placed a sheet of patterned paper behind the open grid. That is just one way to do this - there are certainly others. 

I took a few colours from the patterned paper and also using Design Space, I created a poppy using co-ordinating cardstock. The leaves were die cut and a white pearl was coloured with a Sharpie marker and set inside the centre of the poppy. I stamped the sentiment and placed another coloured pearl right at the end of that as well. 

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. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Products used are as follows: 

Paper: Painted Seasons DSP, Calypso Coral Cardstock, Petal Pink Cardstock (all SU), Clover Cardstock (CTMH)

Stamps: Leaf Canopy (Altenew)

Inks: Clover, Smoothie, Peach (all CTMH)

Accessories: Flower Market Cricut Cartridge, White Pearls, Stitched Flower Thin Cuts (all CTMH), Cricut Basic Shapes, Sharpie Marker

Enjoy,

Alyson

H2H - Craft On!

Welcome to this week's Heart 2 Heart challenge! 

It's all about crafting... well, isn't it ALWAYS about crafting? This week at Heart 2 Heart, the theme is CRAFT ON! That's right - we are celebrating the timeless theme of crafting. 

Close To My Heart happens to have a paper pack called Craft On - you can use that, or you can come up with your own project to celebrate crafting. There are SO many ways to interpret this challenge. 

I chose to use the CTMH paper pack... 

There are so many interesting designs in this paper pack but one that I really liked was a busy floral paper. I wanted to do something that would show up on that paper so I opted for a very large white daisy that would be the focal point of my card. I used Emerald cardstock for the leaves and embossed and inked them. Everything was adhered with foam tape. The sentiment was stamped and then lightly inked along the edges. I tied some twine around the card and added a flower shaped button under the bow. 

Come and show us how you interpret this crafty challenge at Heart 2 Heart. 

You have until the end of June to enter this or any of the other June challenges. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

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

Paper: Craft On Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Emerald Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock

Stamps: Friendly Wishes

Inks: Carolina, Lemon, Emerald

Accessories: Flower Market Cricut Cartridge, Artiste Cricut Cartridge, Piercing Tool, White Twine, Pink Button, Foam Tape, Bitty Sparkles, Blue Sharpie Marker

Enjoy,

Alyson

Colour Dare #347 - Singin' the Blues

Welcome to this week's Colour Dare challenge! 

This week, we are singing the blues... creatively, of course. It's all about the blue hues for this week's challenge, so dig out those blues and get to work. 

I chose to create a shaker card using two shades of Close To My Heart blues - Sapphire (a current colour) and Crystal Blue (a retired colour). The driving force behind my choice of colours came down to the colours of sequins that I had :) Some of them inside the shaker look silver but that is due to the lighting as they are actually grey, white, and the two shades of blue. 

I wanted to use a new stamp that I have called Leaf Canopy by Altenew. I stamped the Sapphire cardstock background using second generation Sapphire ink. I then began working on the leaves, stamping the outline first in Pewter ink and then I purposely went for the mottled look on the leaves by stamping in Crystal Blue first and then using a tissue, I added Sapphire ink at the edges of the leaves. By the time I had done that, the ink was starting to settle and that was exactly what I wanted as it gave that kind of mottled appearance. I huffed on the stamp to give it some moisture and the appearance was perfect - not a solid look, but one with just enough ink coverage. 

The shaker background was blended using the two ink colours and then the sentiment was placed on top. That was brushed with the Clear Shimmer Brush for a little more emphasis and can be seen in the close-up below. 

Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you sing the blues! 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Sapphire Cardstock, Pewter Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Leaf Canopy (Altenew)

Inks: Sapphire, Crystal Blue, Pewter

Accessories: Shaker Circle Dies, Shaker Acetate and Foam Tape, Clear Shimmer Brush, Leaf Canopy Dies (Altenew), Friend Die (Pretty Pink Posh), Sequins (miscellaneous)

Enjoy,

Alyson

Another Year of Happiness Shaker

A special friend is celebrating a birthday in the next week and I wanted to create a shaker card for her. 

I based my card on a beautiful card that I saw on Pinterest by Kay Miller. I looked through Kay's blog at length but I was not able to find her post with the card that I saw and the Pinterest link didn't open in her blog either so all I can provide is a link to her overall blog (and she does gorgeous artwork!) 

The shaker component is a blend of two ink colours - Mint and Lagoon. That was filled with a mix of sequins that matched the colours I used to colour the other elements on this card. I stamped and coloured images from a few different stamp sets and placed them around the shaker. A few teal sequins were added afterward. The sentiment was stamped and popped up using foam dots to accommodate the twine running underneath. I did brush some of the flowers with a shimmer brush but that isn't visible in the photo. 

Products used are as follows:: 

Paper: Craft On Paper Pack, Goldrush Fundamental Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock (all CTMH),  Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Chelsea Gardens Cardmaking, Falling for You Cardmaking, Falling for You Scrapbooking (all CTMH), Well Written (SU)

Inks: Intense Black, Mint, Lagoon, Clover (all CTMH)

Accessories: Shaker Thin Cuts, Chelsea Gardens Cardmaking Thin Cuts, Falling for You Cardmaking Thin Cuts, Falling for You Scrapbooking Thin Cuts, Acetate and Foam Squares, Teal Sequins, Clear Shimmer Brush, Thin Foam Tape (all CTMH), ShinHan Markers (various), Sharpie Markers (various), Orange Twine (unknown), Stitched Circle Dies (Gina Marie Designs), Sequins (various) 

Enjoy,

Alyson

AH 320 - Friendly Spring Flowers

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch #320!

Although this sketch is shown in horizontal format, I flipped it 90 degrees and created my card in a vertical format instead. Everything remained the same except I eliminated the three dots in the top right corner as I chose a very busy background paper. They would have ended up lost on the paper...

Other than that, I stayed true to the sketch, substituting flowers for the butterfly image shown at the top. That image is just there as a marker - feel free to use whatever image you want. The flowers I used were cut from the Flower Market Cricut cartridge. I used a border punch to cut the borders and then backed them with Canary cardstock so a consistent colour would show through for the background. The die was cut using that same cardstock and a yellow gem was used for the letter "I". I brushed the lighter cardstock on the flowers and the sentiment using a clear shimmer brush - those close-up photos are shown below as you can’t see that in the main photograph. 

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 as follows: 

Paper: Echo Park Paper Pad, Canary Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock (CTMH), Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: none

Inks: none

Accessories: Flower Marker Cricut Cartridge, Clear Shimmer Brush, Yellow Gems (all CTMH), Ribbon Border Punch (unknown), Friends Die (Pretty Pink Posh), Thin Foam Tape 

Enjoy,

Alyson

H2H - Geometric Design with Texture Paste

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

It's all about geometric shapes this week - and there are so many of them! Circles, squares and triangles are the three most obvious but there are so many more! Hexagons, pentagons, decagons... all of the "gons" plus all sorts of other shapes like honeycombs, scallops... the list is almost endless.

I chose to use a pattern that is found on the Artbooking Cricut cartridge and I cut it into a stencil. I used that stencil and mixed some texture paste and Willow re-inker to create my background. The flowers were stamped and cut out and then placed on a bed of stamped leaves. I love the sentiment on this card - it's such a motivating message!

Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us how you use geometrics on your project.

You have until the end of June to link up your project.

We can't wait to see what you create!

Products used are CTMH unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: I Heart Us Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Stamps: Love So Sweet, Breathe (Kaisercraft)

Inks: Thistle, Pixie, Willow, Willow Re-inker

Accessories: Artbooking Cricut Cartridge, Stencil Sheets, Ranger Texture Paste, Texture Tools, Clear Sparkles Assortment, Pink Stitched Ribbon (SU), Yellow Sharpie Marker, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape 

Enjoy,

Alyson