Thursday, October 31, 2019

Heartfelt Sympathy

I don't like when it comes time to create sympathy cards... I don't usually keep any on hand because when I have to create them, I like to make sure they fit the situation.

A close friend of mine just lost her father to a stroke - and that is situation to which I can relate as I lost my mom the same way. 

This card was created using the Know That I Care stamp set. I random stamped the background and then stamped the main floral image and the sentiment on white cardstock. The stamp has fill-ins for the flowers and it is designed to look like watercoloring. I tried to colour the leaves the same way. The floral image was mounted with foam tape to accommodate the ribbon underneath. 


I hope this will help to let her know that I am so sorry for her loss...

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Sage Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock
Stamps: Know That I Care
Inks: Pewter, Thistle, Sage
Accessories: Thistle Striped Ribbon, Little Dreamer Sparkles, Neatabilites Ovals, Nestabilites Scalloped Ovals, ShinHan Marker, Foam Tape

Enjoy,
Alyson

Monday, October 28, 2019

Folding Snowflake Card

I saw a folding card like this recently and decided to try one myself. There is such a neat effect when the card is opened! 

Since winter is around the corner, along with Christmas, I decided to use a snowflake theme. I love non-traditional colours for Christmas and Lagoon is one of my favourites. 











Using a standard size long-wise oriented white card base (what a mouthful...), a ribbon was centered and wrapped around the outside of the card. The layers were then attached on the front and on the inside. A piece of Lagoon cardstock was mounted on the back, simply to cover the ribbon. The thin Lagoon piece on the inside was folded in half and then in half again to allow for the open effect. It was adhered over the layers but right to the edge of the Lagoon cardstock

The squares were sized and adhered and then I cut the snowflakes using my Cricut machine. A very old stamp set, but one of my favourites - "Snow Flurries" - was used to stamp the words "love", "hope", "peace" and "joy" at the bottom of each square. In hindsight, I would stamp BEFORE adhering the squares. I stamped afterward and was lucky I didn't run into any problems. 

The front was decorated using snowflakes and a sentiment from the same stamp set. A few gems were added to the centres of the snowflakes. I didn't add any embellishments inside as it would make the card very difficult to close. 

I can see myself making more of these for various occasions. It is not a difficult card to create but I love the effect!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Holly Jolly Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Teal Glitter Paper, White Glitter Paper
Stamps: Snow Flurries
Inks: Lagoon
Accessories: Cricut Cartridges: Art Philosophy, Artistry, Flower Market, You are Here, White Pearls, Little Dreamer Glitter Gems, Thin Foam Tape, Ribbon (unknown) 

Enjoy,
Alyson

Spooky Envelope

Welcome back to the Double Trouble Challenge!

This post is for the second week of the current challenge where I am a Guest Designer for the month of October. There are multiple parts to each challenge - Things 1, 2 and 3. Only Thing 1 is required to participate but it is always fun to try to incorporate all the elements of each section into your project. 



Thing 1 - "Don't leave. Come bat. Let's hang out!" All you have to do is choose at least three (3) of the seven (7) colours from my rainbow of All Bat Colours and create a project. In addition, black, white, gold and silver are free to use.







Thing 2 - Link up with the Crafting Happiness challenge. Watch the dates as the requirement for these challenges change each week. We are now on WEEK 2!
Oct. 21-27 - #19 - Halloween Colours - the Halloween colours don't have to be that of a Halloween project, just the colours of the event.

Oct. 28-Nov. 3 - #20 - Halloween - anything Halloween (cards, tags, treat bags, etc.) 





Thing 3 - "Thing 1 has bats in her belfry and is driving me batty!" 

Include something in your project that flies... bats, crows, butterflies, witches, batman, the raven "nevermore", or bat-ever you want. 







Since the link up with Crafting Happiness requires a Halloween card, I had to go to my Cricut as I don't have Halloween stamps. There are some great images there and I chose to create an envelope card with a card that slides out. The "envelope" part has a large cobweb on it and I adhered the word "Spooky" to that. Googly eyes and open mouths were added to each of the 
letter Os.


The inside card base was inked with 3 blue inks. I then added the Cricut images to form a frightful scene. The inside fits perfectly in the cobweb envelope. 


Come and join us at Double Trouble and show us your Halloween projects.
I am also linking up my card with Crafting Happiness as their theme this week is Halloween. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Nectarine Cardstock, Toffee Cardstock, Black Glitter Paper 
Stamps: none
Inks: Carolina, Bluebird, Glacier 
Accessories: Artbooking Cricut Cartridge, Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge, Cricut Basic Shapes, Googly Eyes (not CTMH), Journaling Pen, Black Shimmer Brush, Black Ribbon (not CTMH), Hole Punch

Enjoy,
Alyson


AH 340 - Snowflake Christmas


Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Challenge 340! 

There is A LOT going on in this sketch - borders, a sentiment, smaller images... I thought hard about what I wanted to do with a sketch that is so busy.


I chose a retired winter paper pack and used one of the Picture My Life cards as the background. I cut a snowflake border but it was hard to see on the background paper so I mounted it on Toffee cardstock and cut around it. My small images are snowflakes, cut from a CTMH Cricut cartridge. I added some gems in the centres of the snowflakes and also brushed the border with the Clear Shimmer Brush. 



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 Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Oh Deer Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Toffee Cardstock, White Glitter Paper, Neenah Solar White Cardstock 
Stamps: Christmas Love
Inks: Toffee
Accessories: Artistry Cricut Cartridge, Frosty Border (Memory Box), Clear Sparkles, Bitty Sparkles, Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Clear Shimmer Brush

Enjoy,
Alyson

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Floral Magnetic Slider Card

I found this type of card while looking around the internet and loved the idea. I decided to try one myself and the way this works is just so cool! 

There are two magnets that make the butterfly move around. There must be enough room between the layers to allow for the magnet to move freely on the underside.

I began by sponging a blue background for my card and then stamping, colouring and die cutting the flowers, greenery and the butterfly. After I had arranged the flowers and greenery where I wanted them, a couple of pieces were adhered with foam tape for dimension. I coloured some gems and added those, along with some bitty pearls to the front of the card. 

The card front was mounted on a second piece of cardstock to make it stronger. Foam tape was applied on the back of the card base, leaving an opening on the top right side for the butterfly pull tab. The foam tape had to be doubled to allow enough space for the magnet attached to the end of the pull  tab to move around freely. The second magnet is adhered directly under the butterfly and they attach together (through the cardstock) when the card is assembled.

I brushed the flowers, leaves and the butterfly with shimmer brushes to give them some sparkle. The flowers were just brushed along the definition lines - not the entire flower. 

Check out the video at the end to see how the slider works! 





Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Clover Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock 
Stamps: Floral Delivery, Butterflies for You
Inks: Intense Black, Clover, Carolina
Accessories: Floral Delivery Thin Cuts, Butterflies for You Thin Cuts, Sponges, Silver Glitter Gems, Bitty Pearls, Foam Tape, Sharpie Markers (not CTMH), Touch Markers (not CTMH), Black Shimmer Brush, Clear Shimmer Brush, Magnets (not CTMH)

Enjoy,
Alyson 

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

TSOT - Holly Jolly Holiday

Welcome to this week's Try Stampin' on Tuesday challenge! 
The optional them for this challenge is stripes. 


Christmas is coming up so fast... and I have a lot of cards to make. This was a pretty simple one to create. The patterned pieces are from the Holly Jolly paper pack and I cut the tag from a CTMH Cricut collection. The snowman was stamped and cut out and I coloured the holly and his hat. Since the tag had a hole in it, I added a piece of red twine that I doubled to create a thicker bow. The tag was adhered with foam tape.


Come and join us at TSOT and show us how you interpret the sketch shown above. 
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: Holly Jolly Paper Pack, Clover Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock 
Stamps: Whimsical Holiday 
Inks: Black
Accessories: Artiste Cricut Cartridge, White Enamel Dots, Touch Markers and Sharpie Markers (not CTMH), Red Twine (not CTMH), Bitty Sparkles, Corner Rounder 

Enjoy,
Alyson


Monday, October 21, 2019

Hello Birdies

Welcome to another Double Trouble challenge!

There are multiple parts to each of these challenges... Things 1, 2 and 3. Not all parts are required - only Thing 1 is required to participate - but it's always fun to try to incorporate all the elements into your project.



Thing 1 - "Don't leave. Come bat. Let's hang out!" All you have to do is choose at least three (3) of the seven (7) colours from my rainbow of All Bat Colours and create a project. In addition, black, white, gold and silver are free to use.





Thing 2 - Link up with the Crafting Happiness challenge. Watch the dates as the requirement for these challenges change each week. 
Oct. 21-27 - #19 - Halloween Colours - the Halloween colours don't have to be that of a Halloween project, just the colours of the event.
Oct. 28-Nov. 3 - #20 - Halloween - anything Halloween (cards, tags, treat bags, etc.) 




Thing 3 - "Thing 1 has bats in her belfry and is driving me batty!" 
Include something in your project that flies... bats, crows, butterflies, witches, batman, the raven "nevermore", or bat-ever you want. 






I chose to create a non-Halloween card using blue, yellow, orange and light brown as my colour scheme. I have also included two birds (things with wings) and I will link up my project with the Crafting Happiness challenge for the first challenge week. 

I created the background using a large stamp. I inked it in three shades of blue first and then inked it again in Versamark so I could emboss it. The birds were stamped and cut out, as was the sentiment. I outlined the birds to give them more definition and coloured a small gem in blue for each of their eyes. 


Come and join the Double Trouble challenge and show us how you use each of the Things to create your project. Don't forget to link up with Crafting Happiness as well, if your project fits their requirements. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Bluebird Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Stamps: Little Birdie, Stripe Jungle Background (SSS)
Inks: Carolina, Bluebird, Sapphire, Nectarine, Canary, Toffee, Black, Versamark
Accessories: Mini Pearls, Touch Markers (not CTMH), Sharpie Markers (not CTMH), Foam Tape, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

Enjoy,
Alyson





H2H - Fall is in the Air

Welcome to this week's Heart 2 Heart challenge!


The theme this week is Pumpkin Spice. There are a number of options with this theme, although the pumpkin spice drink is the first thing to come to mind. You can use pumpkins, spicy colours or something else that fits the theme! 

I chose to use a combination of the drink and fall colours (very "spicy" colours).

The cup was cut using a Cricut file and the leaves were stamped and fussy cut after they were coloured in a variety of fall colours. I added some twine and brushed the leaf stems with the Gold Shimmer Brush. That can be seen in the close-up photo. 


I also want to share a trick with you that has helped me out many,  many times. I use a fair amount of ribbon and twine on my cards. Twine can be difficult because sometimes it doesn't always stay where it is supposed to stay. If you look carefully at the close-up photo, you can see what I do. On the left side of the card, you will see two small indentations in the card. In this case, I decided to wrap the twine around my card twice. I used a regular hole punch and punched about 1/3 of it into the sides of the piece that I wanted to wrap. The twine sits in those tiny indented holes perfectly - you would never know they were there if I didn't tell you that. It helps the twine to stay in place. I hope that helps! 


Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your Pumpkin Spice projects.
You have until the end of October 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: Hawthorn Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Sapphire Cardstock, Sangria Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Stamps: Autumn Air
Inks: Sangria, Ruby, New England Ivy, Goldrush, Sapphire Pigment Ink
Accessories: You Are Here Cricut Cartridge, Blue Twine (unknown), Tri-Blend Markers, Blue Circle Gems, Gold Shimmer Brush, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Foam Tape

Enjoy,
Alyson


Friday, October 18, 2019

CD 365 - Colourful For You

Welcome to Colour Dare Challenge #365! 


This week, we have an inspiration photo challenge - and it appears to be all about Halloween. The colours are typical of that event. However, your project does not have to be related to Halloween.

I chose to use the Spooktacular paper pack from Close To My Heart but my card is not Halloween-based at all. I selected some of the papers with patterns that I liked (excluding the main paper, which has Halloween images on it). The only paper here that is remotely like Halloween is the Thistle pattern, which is a cobweb. 

I used a stamp set with two images that can be die cut and I stamped them in green.  I added some purple flowers and seeds. Halloween paper doesn't have to look like Halloween - there are definitely other options! 


Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you use the inspiration photo above. 
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: Spooktacular Paper Pack, Green Apple Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Stamps: Some Kind of Wonderful, Butterflies for You (Every Little Thing Card Kit)
Inks: Green Apple, Thistle
Accessories: Some Kind of Wonderful Thin Cuts, Butterflies for You Thin Cuts, Touch Markers (not CTMH), Yellow Sequins, Foam Tape

Enjoy,
Alyson

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Snowflake Tunnel Card

It's time to start preparing for Christmas and that means creating Christmas cards. 

This one is a tunnel card. The inside opens to reveal a window with something in the 
centre of the card. 

I chose to use some old patterned paper and a Mint, Lagoon and Silver colour scheme. 
The front was decorated with a sentiment and small bow and the base piece was stamped with Mint snowflakes to provide some added definition. The inside reveals another message and a stamped snowflake swirl. Both images on the inside are heat embossed. 



This card is not difficult to create and there are lots of tutorials available on the internet. It is hard to show the tunnel on the inside and my picture certainly doesn't do it justice. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Mint Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Silver Glitter Paper, Patterned Paper (unknown) 
Stamps: Merry and Bright, Snow Flurries, First Noel
Inks: Mint, Lagoon, Versamark, Lagoon Pigment Ink 
Accessories: Silver Embossing Powder, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Silver Glitter Gems, Turquoise Ribbon (unknown), Nestabilities Oval Dies

Enjoy,
Alyson



Monday, October 14, 2019

AH 338 - Holiday Cheer in Double Diamond Fold Style


Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch 338! 

This is such an interesting sketch - so many possibilities...


I wanted to focus on the centre of a non-traditional coloured fancy fold card for Christmas (wow - that's a mouthful!) I chose to create a double diamond fold card. These cards are so cool because they sit closed but open up to reveal what is on the inside. I chose to leave the inside panels blank and will fill them in with more details when I give the card away.

The front panel is based on the sketch. I used the Multi-Window Thin Cut but cut just 4 squares out of it. I stamped reindeer images in all directions and then coloured those. It was hard to find a sentiment small enough that would still stand out and I found I had to mat it or it just got lost. That led to the snowflake die that fit the rest of the front of the card. 



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 Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: Oh What Fun Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock
Stamps: Festive Trees, Santa's List (Your Next Stamp) 
Inks: Lagoon, Intense Black 
Accessories: Multi-Window Thin Cut, Frosty Border Die (Memory Box), Stitched Ovals Dies (GMD), Silver Glitter Gems, Touch Markers 

Enjoy,
Alyson

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

TSOT - Spooky, Spooky...

It's time for another Try Stampin' on Tuesday challenge! 

Here is the sketch - and the optional twist is to use green, orange and purple. 



I don't create cards for Halloween but I have a friend whose daughter loves Halloween so this card will be for her. I did use the three colours for the optional twist 
and added black and white too. 

I only have one Halloween stamp set and that is the one I used. I love the critters or goblins - whatever you want to call them. I stamped each in two colours by rocking the image in the darker ink colour. I added googly eyes to each of them so they shake around a little bit. The circle to the right was die cut and I stamped the word "eek" three times. The sentiment was stamped using two ink colours - Pansy and Willow. This card came together really quickly. 


Come and join us at Try Stampin' on Tuesday
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: Cats and Bats Paper Pack, Make Waves Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock 
Stamps: Monstrous Halloween
Inks: Pansy, Goldrush, Eggplant, Nectarine, Willow, Evergreen, Black
Accessories: Monstrous Halloween Thin Cuts, Basic Tags Thin Cuts, Stitched Circle Dies (GMD), Green Twine (unknown), Black and White Dots, Googly Eyes (unknown) 

Enjoy,
Alyson

Monday, October 7, 2019

Grateful Squares

I am honoured to be a Guest Designer for the Double Trouble Challenge Blog during the month of October. Double Trouble is one of my favourite challenge blogs - great variety for their challenges and they always get lots of participation! 

For this challenge, the requirements are as follows: 





         THING 1: Use your favourite masking technique 

         You can stop here OR choose to participate in the next two   
          components...







         THING 2: If you have created a Halloween or fall project, you can 
         link up with the Kat Scrappiness challenge. They want to see all 
         your creepy, spooky or cute Halloween or fall creations (ghosts, 
         witches, leaves, scarecrows, bats, pumpkins and skeletons are just 
         a few possibilities! 





        THING 3: Include an image you would find in a pumpkin patch. 
         This could possibly be a pumpkin, a scarecrow or even a 
         trick-or-treater! 






I chose to use the Multi-Square Windows Thin Cut to create my card. I chose several images to fill in the spaces, including a pumpkin, a scarecrow, leaves, a squirrel and a few other images. 

I masked the word GRATEFUL by stamping every second letter in one colour and the alternate letters in a second colour. I create a mask to do this, almost cutting out every second letter but leaving enough paper on top to keep them from being separated from the paper entirely. That way, I could lay out the mask and stamp on top of the letters that were showing without them being actually stamped on the paper. I then reversed the mask, stamping the second set of letters. 

I also masked the words "thankful, grateful, blessed", as well as the two small images on each side of the clip.

The colouring was done with a variety of markers, mostly Touch Markers. A thin border of Goldrush cardstock was placed behind the windows and it was all then mounted on Espresso cardstock. 


Come and join us at the Double Trouble challenge. Masking is a requirement but the other components are optional. This challenge is open for two weeks. 

I am also linking up my card at Kat Scrappiness as I have included fall images on my card (pumpkin, scarecrow, leaves, etc.)

We can’t wait to see what you create! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Espresso Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Stamps: Giving Thanks
Inks: New England Ivy, Fern, Goldrush, Espresso, Ruby
Accessories: Multi-Window Thin Cut, Binder Clip Label Thin Cut, Touch Markers, Sharpie Markers, Masking Paper, Red Shimmer Brush

Enjoy,
Alyson

H2H - Slider Card for Autumn

Welcome to this week's Heart 2 Heart challenge! 



It's all about fall this week - and in my area, the leaves are already well into changing colour. 
It is such a beautiful time of year - my favourite season. 

I recently learned how to create slider cards and they are really simple and fun to create! 

I have made a few thus far but this one is based around the autumn season, which is the perfect time to post it here. 

There is a slider on the front that opens a small card on which a message can be written. The neat thing is that the card also opens and there is an entire main section available as well. I learned after doing this a couple of times that placement of images on the slider part is VERY IMPORTANT as they can show through the slider section or not be visible at all if they are incorrectly placed. 

For this card, I used the Layered Leaves Thin Cuts and paper from the Hawthorn paper pack for the basis of my card. The smaller stamped images are from a few different stamp sets. I created a mixed coloured background using 5 ink colours and then cut the closed leaf shape. It is larger than the open leaf die so after it was adhered, I trimmed around the edges. The other leaves were created the same way - after a background was inked, they were simply cut out.

I added a couple of flowers and some sparkles that were coloured with markers. I brushed all the leaves with the Gold Shimmer Brush and that can be seen in the last photo, which is a close up. 





Come and join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your fall (autumn) creations. 
You have until the end of October to link up your project. 
We can’t wait to see what you create! 

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

Paper: Hawthorn Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Sage Cardstock, Kraft Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock
Stamps: Thanks & Giving, A Friend Like You, Grateful Hearts - Cardmaking, Blessed Beyond Measure 
Inks: New England Ivy, Fern, Ruby, Goldrush, Saffron
Accessories: Layered Leaves Thin Cuts, Stitched Flowers Thin Cuts, Silver Glitter Gems, Bitty Sparkles, Touch Markers (not CTMH), Orange Ribbon ( not CTMH), Foam Tape, Washer (not CTMH), Sponge Daubers, Gold Shimmer Brush, Clear Shimmer Brush

Enjoy,
Alyson