Brae-ers Unit Blog Hop - Year Noted

The Brae-ers Unit Blog Hop is all about the National Paper Crafting Special this month. The Year Noted Paper Pack is available only in the month of January with a $50 minimum purchase. 

If you have come from Michelle's blog, you are in the right place. 

A full list of participants in the blog hop can be found on Brae's blog. 

I chose to use this kit to create cards. I promised myself that I would not add any additional paper to the kit and only use what was provided. That was a challenge, for sure. The stamp set that comes with the kit, however, presented a major challenge in terms of creating cards, and for that, I had to go to another stamp set to get sentiments, but I also wanted to challenge myself a bit, so I chose a Hostess set from the Seasonal Expressions catalog. I chose the set called "Love this Story" There are 4 banner sentiments in this set. 3 of them are usable for cards but the fourth ("So (heart) this Story") is much more appropriate for scrapbooking or mini-albums than for card making... I did use the Year Noted stamp set wherever possible and you will see that in the cards. 

I also added some select embellishments, which are listed at the bottom in my products used list.  

I ended up creating the following cards: 

One 5 x 7

Six 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 

Three 3 x 3

I finished all the insides of the cards as well. Most of the coloured cards have white insides from the leftover white cardstock. I used the leftover stickers to decorate the insides of the cards. 

A hint re wrapping twine around cards - if you want the twine to stay in place, use a small hole punch a punch a half circle where you want the twine to stay. Once the twine is wrapped around the card, the little half-hole will not show and the twine won't move. I did this on the top left card in the first photo to keep my twine where I wanted it and it works like a charm - far better than using glue dots or other adhesive to try and hold it in place! 

Now hop on over to Heather's blog to check out her fabulous creations! 

You can get your Year Noted kit (and a mini album for an extra $5) by purchasing just $50 this month. Contact me or shop online here. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart.

Paper: Year Noted Paper Pack
Stamps: Year Noted (in Year Noted Kit), Love This Story
Inks: Chocolate, Sorbet
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Bronze Shimmer Trim, Gold Shimmer Trim, White Shimmer Trim, Sunset Chevron Washi Tape, Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape, Honey Triangle Washi Tape, Gold Polka Dot Washi Tape, Baker's Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Brae'ers Team Blog Hop - New Product Focus

Welcome to the Bra-ers' Team Blog Hop. We are featuring NEW PRODUCT from the awesome new Annual Inspirations Book, which went live August 1st. There are so many terrific new products available. If you have come from Jan's Blog, you are in the right place. A list of all participants can be found on Brae's Blog.

I am choosing to feature the Brushed Paper Pack, along with three of my favourite stamp sets.The Brushed Paper Pack is my favourite paper pack in the new book and I adore the colours in the pack - I think they are so feminine and soft (just like Chantilly) and it is such a beautiful mix of colours. How can you go wrong with Pixie, Canary and Pear mixed with White Daisy? Throw in a little Hollyhock and what a gorgeous combination!

The stamps sets "Have a Happy Day" and "Lifetime of Happiness" are great collections for all-purpose crafting, particularly card making. There are excellent sentiments, small flowers and leaves and fabulous banners plus other little do-dads to spice up your creations. I happen to take one of my sentiments for my project from another stamp set called "A Budding Friendship"- yet another terrific stamp set in this Idea Book. It is a Base and Shade stamp set, meaning you can stamp an outline image in one colour and then the inside image in a totally different colour if you want. 

Now for my project:

I chose to create a three-dimensional card. I found the directions for this card on Pinterest. It wasn't difficult to make, just time consuming. 

This is the front of the card. 

 And the open card....

I took another photo of it while looking down a bit to give you a better idea of the three-dimensional effect. 

The empty spot on the left side is to write the message to the recipient. 

If you would like the instructions to create this card, leave me a message and I would be happy to send you the information with the cutting diagram. The finished card is not a standard size - it ends up being approximately 5-1/8" x 6-1/4" " (closed). 

I hope you enjoyed my project.  

Products used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: Brushed Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Pear Cardstock, Pink Glitter Paper, Paper Fundamentals Cardstock -Canary, Paper Fundamentals Cardstock - Pear
Stamps: A Budding Friendship, Lifetime of Happiness, Have a Happy Day
Inks: Canary, Pixie, Hollyhock, Pear
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Clear Sparkles, Pink Glitter Gems, Foam Tape

Now, hop on over to Heather's Blog to check out her awesome creation. 

Thanks for stopping by :)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Brae-ers Unit Blog Hop - Retiring Products

Welcome to the Brae-ers Unit Blog Hop. We are featuring retiring products this time around since a brand new catalogue is due out shortly. We are saying GOOD-BYE to the old, retiring products with this hop. There are some products that I will really miss... THANK GOODNESS Lagoon is not on the retiring list - I'm not sure what I would do if that was the case! However, there ARE some products that I am ready to see retire but there are always some each year that I want to hold onto... but change is necessary for growth in every aspect of life, right?

If you have arrived from Carol-Anne's Blog, you are in the right place. For a complete list of blogs on this hop, see Brae's Blog. 

So, for my focus in the hop, I chose to create two cards. My first card features a few retiring products - specifically the Balloon Ride Paper Pack, Burlap Ribbon (one of my all time favourite products!), the Wooden Mini-Medley Collection (specifically, the twine) and the Remarkable Wreath stamp set (another of my favourites).

The second card features the Ivy Lane Paper Pack (another of my favourites from the current catalogue) and the Just a Number stamp set.

A complete list of products used can be found below (all are Close To My Heart): 

Paper: Balloon Ride Paper Pack, Ivy Lane Paper Pack, Bamboo Cardstock, Blush Cardstock, Hollyhock Cardstock, Chocolate Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock
Stamps: Just a Number, Remarkable Wreath
Inks: Smokey Plum, Chocolate, Sorbet, Creme Brulee, Crystal Blue
Accessories, Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Red, Pink and Purple Sparkles (ret.), Mocha Opaques (ret.), Burlap Ribbon, Wooden Mini Medley Collection, Foam Tape 

Now, hop over to Tamara's Blog to see her wonderful artwork featuring retiring products. 

And be sure to get your retiring products while you still can. They are available on my shopping site but only until July 31. After that time, those products are no longer available! 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Brae-er's Unit Blog Hop - My Favourite Things

Welcome to the Brae-er's Unit Team Blog Hop. 

If you have arrived from Kimberly's blog, you are in the right spot. 

The theme for this month's hop is "My Favourite Things", inspired of course, by the words of Maria Von Trapp from The Sound of Music. I have not only seen the movie and the live production dozens of times, but I have acted in it, played in the pit orchestra many times and directed it twice as well! 

My favourite thing (colour) is TURQUOISE so I decided to capitalize on that for this theme. I recently had my photo taken for my church's directory and decided to change it to black and white for the purpose of this layout. I found the design I wanted to use on Pinterest and tweaked it a bit. I loved all the layers. It took a little bit of hunting to find all the paper that I needed - I do have more turquoise paper but I wanted to use as much CTMH paper as possible!

So, with some added embellishments, some bling and a few other touches, I am pretty happy with the final product!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Skylark Paper Pack, Dotty For You Paper Pack (ret.), Stella Paper Pack (ret.), Lagoon Cardstock, Black Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Turquoise Glitter Paper (not CTMH), Other patterned paper (not CTMH)

Stamps: Hello Blooms, Believe in Yourself

Inks: Lagoon, Black

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Cricut Image (not CTMH), Aqua Dots, Lagoon Zipper Lace, Teal Shimmer Trim, Paradise Baker's Twine, Sparkles Flourishes, Sparkles Flourishes - Small, Foam Tape, Blue and Green Sparkles (ret.) 

The next stop on the hop is Heather's blog. Hop on over there to see her wonderful creation. Thanks for stopping by :) 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Unit Blog Hop - Spring Card Box

Welcome to the Brae-er's Team Blog Hop! If you have arrived from Lucy's blog, you are in the right spot. 

I have seen more and more of these card boxes popping up and I really wanted to try one out for myself. They are fiddly to create but I like the way mine turned out. 

The first photo is a view of the front of the card, 

looking down at it. 

The next two photos are taken from the two sides so you can see some of the details on each side as well. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart: 

Paper: Lollydoodle Paper Pack, Juniper Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Cotton Candy Cardstock, Sorbet Cardstock, Pear Cardstock
Stamps: None
Inks: None
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Base and Bling Floral Accents (ret.), Skylark Assortment, Ivy Lane Assortment, Ariana Assortment, Base and Bling Pink Jewels, Rosewood Mini-Medley Accents Collection, Baker's Twine - Neutral Metallic Assortment, Corner Rounder

Now hop on over to Michelle's blog to see the wonderful creation she has made for you. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Unit Blog Hop - Ivy Lane Easel Card

Welcome to the Brae-er's Unit Blog Hop! If you are coming from Tamara's Blog, you are in the right place. 

The new product I chose to show is the Ivy Lane Paper Pack. I loved this paper the moment I saw it. The deep purple mixed with the green is just gorgeous! 

I chose to create an easel card using this paper. Easel cards are not difficult to make, but you need to have an idea before you begin as to what you want to put on the top portion so as to create the correct size. They can be made into circles, rectangles - just about any shape you want. I chose to keep this one simple and just use a square. 

Since I wanted to colour the image, I didn't want a deeply coloured base so I chose to spritz the base instead, using Blush reinker and rubbing alcohol. That way, it was a little lighter than the Blush cardstock would have been. 

I have shown the card from the front view and from both sides. The dark purple flower looks black but it really is dark purple.

All products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: Ivy Lane Paper Pack, Hollyhock Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Blush Cardstock
Stamps: Hope
Inks: Smokey Plum Pigment Ink, Sweet Leaf Alcohol Marker, Ruby Alcohol Marker, Hollyhock Alcohol Marker, Blush Alcohol Marker, Copic Markers (not CTMH)
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Ivy Lane Assortment, Clear Sparkles, Baker's Twine - Metallic Neutral Assortment, Foam Tape, Quilling Tool, Blush Reinker, Spray Pen, Rubbing Alcohol (not CTMH) 

Now, hop on over to Sheri's Blog and see what she has created for you. 

Enjoy, 
Alyson
 

Unit Blog Hop - Featuring New Products!

For the Brae-er's Unit Blog Hop, we are all presenting something using the new products from the Fall/Winter 2013 Idea Book. You should have arrived here from Michelle's site. 

Since I had the good fortune this summer to teach at Close To My Heart's annual Convention as an Extravaganza presenter, the paper pack that I worked with was Huntington. I love the autumn season so this was right up my alley. 

My choice for this blog hop is one of the new decor pieces. It is the Colonial White chicken wire frame. When I arrived at Convention, I saw several of these frames and not one of them was totally covered like mine... it just never even occurred to me NOT to cover the wire but there are so many possible uses for this frame that I have already ordered another one! 

This photo shows you the entire frame. I used a lot of different techniques. The background paper is from the Huntington Paper Pack and the stamp I used is the new Happy Autumn stamp set. The textiles are the Goldrush from the new Sarita collection but the olive green fabric is from the For Always textile collection. I filled some spray pens with rubbing alcohol, water and reinker and sprayed the white polka dotted fabric until it was the right colour for my project. The far left side is very carefully pleated and taped down. You can see that better in the detailed photo below. 

 Then I taped a piece of the sprayed textile around itself until I had a flat edge and no rough edges were showing as I needed to cover the pleats of the Sarita textiles. After that came the stamped images and the pine cones and sticks - all attached with hot glue.

 The great thing about this frame is that I can exchange pictures whenever I want. I have about 6 different autumn photos, all mounted on the same size of cardstock and all I have to do is carefully loosen the clips, slide out the original photo and slide the new one in. You could add several photos to a layout like this if you wanted. This is just one other photo that I have to use in this frame...

The products I used are as follows: 

Paper: Huntington Paper Pack, Olive Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock
Stamps: Happy Autumn
Inks: Pigment Inks: Barn Red, Autumn Terracotta, Olive, New England Ivy, Olive Reinker
Accessories: Designed Decor Colonial White Frame, Hook Clips, Sarita Textiles, For Always Textiles, Spray Pens, Rubbing Alcohol, Water, Pinking Shears, Needle and Thread, Foam Tape, Hot Glue Gun, Glue Dots, Pine Cones, Sticks 

The next Consultant's site to visit is Heather S's site. I'm sure she has something awesome planned for you to see as usual! If you started here, be sure to check out the rest of our team's awesome creations as you travel around the full circle! 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Brae-er's Team Blog Hop - Kraft Containers and Muslin Bags

Welcome to our Team Blog Hop featuring products and techniques. We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers, whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn to do. By leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like and what you want to see. Now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you get lost, you can find your way by going to Brae's blog at http://thebrae-er.blogspot.ca/ for a full list of participants. If you came from  Heather's blog at 

http://pagesbyheatherd.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-team-blog-hop-techniques-my.html  

then you are in the right place!

I chose to use the Kraft Containers and Muslin Bags as the basis for my projects for this hop.The Dream Pop papers were also my choice of paper and that is the upcoming promotion for the month of May. The paper pack is GORGEOUS! The colours are so bright and cheerful and I paired them with some black and white accessories. 
On the Kraft Containers, I simply cut out parts of the Dream Pop paper and wrapped it around the containers and then added some accessories to add some interest. I love turquoise (anyone who knows me knows that about half my wardrobe is turquoise!) and so I took advantage of that colour from the paper pack! 
 
On the Muslin Bags, the fabric is from the For Always Textiles and is simply pleated on one of the bags using Liquid Glass. The word "Friend" was stamped with Black Pigment Ink but it came out looking more brown than black... maybe something to do with the pink background. 

 To make the flower on another bag, I just cut three circles of the fabric and then hand-sewed a running stitch about halfway inside of each circle and gathered up the thread to create the ruffle, then tied the loose ends together and layered them. 

 Pigment ink was used on the bags and I did use a Sharpie Marker to colour my sparkles as I found that our Alcohol markers just didn't give me a deep enough colour.

The products I used were Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated and are listed below: 

For the Kraft Containers:

Paper:Dream Pop Paper Pack, Slate Cardstock

Stamps:None

Inks: Black

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge, Black Sharpie Marker (not CTMH, Turquoise Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Kraft Containers, Petals Paper Flowers (ret.), Flutter Paper Shapes, Washi Tape, Clear Sparkles, Antiqued Gold Mini-Medley, For Always Textiles, Needle and Thread (not CTMH)

For the Muslin Bags:
Paper: None
Stamps: Thanks, For a Friend, Life is Tweet (ret.)
Inks: Slate Pigment Ink, Honey Pigment Ink, Lagoon Pigment Ink, Black Pigment Ink
Accessories: Muslin Bags, Spray Pen, Cotton Candy Re-inker, For Always Textiles, Needle and Thread (not CTMH),  Turquoise Sharpie Marker (not CTMH). Pink Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Bitty Sparkles, Clear Sparkles, Liquid Glass, Honey Alcohol Marker, Lagoon Alcohol Marker, Cotton Candy Alcohol Marker, Licorice Opaque Adhesive Gems

Your next stop on the hop is Lucy's blog at 
http://lucyscreativeexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrapping-with-for-always-fabric_23.html

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to create your own projects using some of the designs and paper seen along the way. Join us again next month when we will be featuring inspirational ideas from Pinterest. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Brae-er Team Blog Hop - Happy Spring Flower Pots

Welcome to our Blog Hop featuring products from the current Idea Book. We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers, whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn to do, etc. By leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like and what you want to see. Thanks! Now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you get lost, you can find your way by going to Brae's blog at http://thebrae-er.blogspot.ca/ for a full list of participants. If you came from  

Lucy's blog at 

 http://lucyscreativeexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/03/chantilly-wonderful-fabulous-you.html 

then you are in the right place!

I chose to do a simple project for our first hop. It is a project made primarily from the Cricut Artiste Cartridge - 2 Flower Pots (filled with mints) with accordion flowers that read "Happy Spring". They would be perfect to give away as little gifts, or just to place on your coffee table, although you may have to keep filling them up with mints to keep the flowers standing upright ... 

Incidentally, I check the Facebook Eye Candy board about every 3 weeks and there was a project almost identical to this one on there right around the time I did this - I guess great minds think alike! 

The products I used were all Close To My Heart and are listed below: 

Paper: Chantilly Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Cotton Candy Cardstock, Blush Cardstock, Silver Glitter Paper

Stamps: None

Inks: None

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge, Pink Button Collection, Colonial White Waxy Flax, Pink Glitter Gems, Bamboo Skewers (not CTMH), Mints (not CTMH)

Your next stop on the hop is Roz's blog at 

http://inmyscrappinroom.blogspot.com/2013/03/come-hop-with-us.html

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to create your own projects using some of the designs and paper seen along the way. Join us again next month when we will be featuring specific products and techniques from the current Idea Book. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson