Mika's Christmas Greeting

With Christmas almost here, I received a very nice gift from a friend of mine. Actually, the gift wasn't for me, but for my puppy, Mika. She is just over 5 months old (and weighs 4.5 pounds now) and my friend bought her 6 beautiful outfits! Some are for indoors and some are for outside. She is getting used to wearing some clothing but things with hoods are not her favourite. However, bows in her hair have proven to be VERY difficult. Anything with a clip, she can shake out in one try... The groomer she sees gave me a bunch of dental elastic bands and suggested sewing small flowers onto those. That works better as I can wrap them around a small piece of hair several times but Mika hates it! She rolls around on the floor and paws at them, trying to get them out! For this outfit, I used a few of our Ruby Mini- Medley Collection flowers but I need to stiffen them with a fabric stiffener. I think it will just take time for her to get used to them. 

So from Mika and me, 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Alyson

Be Still Card for a Special Friend

This card is for a woman I met recently at a seminar I attended for people who are separated or divorced from their spouses and facing the holidays, most for the first time, in a completely new setting. It is a difficult process for those of you that haven't been in that situation and having someone else to rely on can really be helpful. 

It is also the first time I have done any crafting for a very long time, other than the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop, so that's a good thing for me. Maybe I will finally get my mojo back and get back into creating again. I do really miss it!

 

This card was created using the Sparkle and Shine Paper Pack and Textiles. Product details are below. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Sparkle and Shine Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Juniper Cardstock, Slate Cardstock

Stamps: Be Still

Inks: Juniper Pigment Ink, Ruby Pigment Ink

Accessories: Sparkle and Shine Textiles, Ruby Chevron Ribbon, Sparkles Flourishes, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Leftover Sparkles from Frosted Cardmaking WOTG Kit, Red Flowers (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

 

Dec SOTM Blog Hop - "Special Care"

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring December's SOTM, "Special Care", a set of 6 stamps.  If you have come here from Kami's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around. A complete list of blog hoppers can be found here if you get lost. 

This month we have approximately 55 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

Here is a picture of the images in the stamp set. 

For my card, I chose to use Baby Cakes paper.It's the first time I have used this paper for anything and I really like the Buttercup paired with the Slate. I stamped the background using 2nd generation Slate ink. The Sunset gives it a nice touch of a bold colour without being overwhelming. I think this stamp set would be awesome used on layouts with young children in particular (just my humble opinion).

Supplies used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: Baby Cakes Paper Pack, Buttercup Cardstock, Slate Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock
Stamps: Special Care
Inks: Slate, Sunset
Accessories: Baby Cakes Assortment, Silver Shimmer Tape, Scallop Border Punch, Foam Tape, Harvest Baker's Twine

Now "Hop" on over to Elizabeth's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the December SOTM is only available until the last day of December! Click here to see how you can get this stamp set for just $5 this month! 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

"Follow Your Heart" Mini Album (from Convention)

Yes, it has taken me this long to get around to finishing my projects from Convention... isn't that awful?? With no creative juices for the longest time, my projects sat partially done until now and most people don't know how sick I really was at Convention so I just barely got started on any of the projects to begin with. It felt good to get this one done. I am going to give it to a friend as a gift so there are no photos or journaling included. 

If you are debating whether to purchase the Artbooking Cartridge, this is a good reason to show you why you NEED it! I believe all the Cricut cuts for this project were done with that cartridge. I found when I got to the end that I was missing a few cuts and had to improvise a bit but like they say in the scrapping world, "There are no mistakes, just opportunities to embellish!"  

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Laughing Lola Paper Pack, Lagoon Cardstock, Topiary Cardstock, Honey Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Kraft Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock
Stamps: Geometric Backgrounds
Inks: Lagoon, Black, Topiary, Honey
Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Laughing Lola Dimensional Elements, Laughing Lola Assortment, Foam Tape, Grey Wool Baker's Twine

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Female Birthday Card

A good friend of mine has a birthday coming up shortly and when I saw this card in the new Make It From Your Heart Book, I knew it would be perfect for her. I didn't vary from the pattern at all - used everything exactly as it was, including the same stamp sets. I only used different paper. I chose to use Sarita paper as the colours are nice and bold. 

I love the way it turned out. I really need to make a stash of birthday cards so I am not scrambling at the last minute all the time! It just feels so good to want to create again!! FINALLY!!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: Sarita Paper Pack, Colonial White Cardstock, Gypsy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock

Stamps: Perfect Fit Frames 2, Holiday Tags

Inks: Outdoor Denim, Cotton Candy, Lagoon

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Turquoise Shimmer Tape (not CTMH), Foam Tape, Red, Purple and Pink Sparkles (ret.)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Frosted Cards with an Extra Twist

I loved the idea of taking the Frosted Card WOTG and changing the colours to Slate, Whisper and Twilight (Vicki Wizniuk comes up with the most amazing ideas!!) So, I took her idea and just went one step further with it. I used the cutting guide and I did not change anything else - I simple played around with the pieces of paper allotted per card along with the embellishments and saw what I could created within those limitations and this is what I came up with. The original card is shown first, followed by my four "re-creations". 

  So, just by changing some ink colours and the placement of a few simple pieces of paper, these cards can look very different. It was fun trying this out. Before anyone emails me to ask, YES, feel free to scraplift any of these ideas - anyone could have done this. It wasn't hard - just time consuming, more than anything else. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Frosted WOTG, Twilight Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock, Slate Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock

Stamp: Frosted Cardmaking WOTG

Inks: Twilight, Slate, Whisper

Accessories: (comes in the WOTG Kit - Frosted Sparkles, Glitter Hemp), Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Masculine Birthday Card

Almost everyone I know has a hard time creating cards for the men in their lives... it seems that there are always places for flowers and ruffles but it is so much more difficult to make masculine cards. I decided to use the Huntington Paper Pack - the same one I was assigned to teach at Convention - to create this male birthday card. 

I chose to add the Sarita Textiles as well to give it a lighter colour scheme with the Autumn Terracotta as I wanted to keep it to three colours. The pattern is from the Make it From Your Heart Volume 2 book. The Slate and Barn Red are very dark colours and the Autumn Terracotta brings a nice touch to the card by adding that pop of colour. I also used a flower (who says male cards can't include flowers??) from the Flirty Collection and some Rosewood Mini Medley accents. A bit of stitching, pleating of textiles and it's done!

Supplies used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: Huntington Paper Pack, Barn Red Cardstock, Autumn Terracotta Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock

Stamps: Heartfelt Birthday Wish

Inks: Barn Red Pigment Ink, Barn Red Alcohol Marker, Orange Copic Marker (not CTMH)

Accessories: Corner Rounder, Rosewood Mini-Medley Collection, Sarita Textiles, Foam Tape, Off White Embroidery Floss (not CTMH), Stitch Guide, Flirty Accessory (ret.), Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

November SOTM Blog Hop - "Illuminate"

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring November's SOTM, "Illuminate", a set of 15 stamps. There are so many possibilities, both for cards and for scrapbooking with this stamp set! I love the banner, but I didn't have a chance to use it on the card I chose to create, but that would be a terrific addition to holiday cards or summer cards! If you have come here from Kathleen's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around. A complete list of blog hoppers can be found at Melinda's Blog.

This month we have approximately 45 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

Here is a picture of the images in the stamp set. 

For my card, I chose to use Laughing Lola paper. I love the intensity of colours in this paper pack and the fact the it had gold was perfect for the candles as well. I chose to use some black hemp to dress it up a little bit and to get the hemp to lay where I wanted it, I coated it with a very thin layer of Vaseline to make it a little easier to work with. The Aqua Dots were a perfect addition to the center of the bows. For the sentiment (and it's a little difficult to see here), I used Lagoon and Black pigment inks and just altered the colours beside each other. Yes, this can dirty the lighter ink pad if you're not careful but I have multiples of each and use certain ones just for this purpose. I also used the Black pigment ink pad to stamp with as it gives so much more intensity than the regular ink pad. The candles are embossed with gold powder.

Supplies used: 

Paper: Laughing Lola Paper Pack, Black Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: Illuminate
Inks: Black Pigment Ink, Lagoon Pigment Ink, Versamark Ink
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Corner Rounder, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Black Hemp, Vaseline, Aqua Dots, Laughing Lola Assortment

Now "Hop" on over to Elizabeth's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the November SOTM is only available until the last day of November! Click here to see how you can get this stamp set for just $5 this month! 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

3 More Christmas Cards

For my Christmas Card Workshop, these are the other three cards we will be creating. 

This first card doesn't use any stamping at all but a lot of cuts from the cricut instead. I like the way the red glitter gel sets off the poinsettia flowers just that tiny little bit. I also bent up the leaves and flower ends to give them more dimension. And rather than using the typical Christmas colour of Cranberry, I chose to use Ruby instead - a darker, more intense red. 

The next card did not photograph very well, but I love the idea behind it. The paper is from Laughing Lola and our Glitter paper. Some will be made using the Gold Glitter Paper and some using the Silver Glitter Paper - depends how fast I run out of each... It's difficult when you don't have an ink match for the purple in this paper pack... so I opted for gold (and silver) instead. The sparkles are coloured using a purple Sharpie marker.

The last card design is from the Make It From Your Heart Vol.2 Collection. I love these little penguins and wanted to use them on at least one card. The hemp baker's twine was a perfect match with the Frosted Paper and a wooden button finishes off the look - simple but cute. 

 

Supplies used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper: Frosted Paper Pack, Laughing Lola Paper Pack, For Always Paper Pack, Ruby Cardstock,, White Daisy Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock, Twilight Cardstock, Gold Glitter Paper

Stamps: Merry and Bright, Wintry Wishes

Inks: Versamark, Cocoa Pigment Ink, Twilight Pigment Ink, Twilight Alcohol Marker

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Red Shimmer Trim, Reg Glitz Glitter Gel, Pearl Opaque Adhesive Gems, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Bitty Sparkles, Scalloped Punch, Corner Rounder, Purple Ribbon (not CTMH), White Ribbon (not CTMH), Hemp Baker's Twine, Wooden Button (ret.), Colonial White Brads (ret.)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Starting on Some Christmas Cards...

I have my annual Christmas Card Workshop coming up mid-November and I had to get the cards finished so my customers could see what we will be creating. I cased some of my cards from Pinterest (LOVE that resource) and some others from the new Make It From Your Heart Guide.

Below are two of the cards (we do 25 in total - 5 each of 5 designs, so it is kind of like a marathon...) that we will be creating. 

 I like the simplicity of this first card - using the Pirouette Stamp as the background and then just embossing a sheet of the same coloured paper, this could be done with any colour. I did use a retired stamp set - last October's Stamp of the Month - Very Merry Christmas. 

Before I decided to do this card, I made sure that I could get silver foil paper in bulk at a local craft store first. Usually it is purchased as part of an origami package where you get a bunch of mixed colours and I didn't want that. I also really wanted to use a Memory Box branch die and I like my customers to know that I am not 100% tied down to CTMH. The bird is cut from the Artiste Cartridge in 2 sizes for emphasis. 

Supplies used are Close To My Heart excepted where noted:

Paper: Pacifica Cardstock, Black Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, , Outdoor Denim Cardstock, Sky Cardstock, Silver Foil Paper
Stamps: Very Merry Christmas (ret.), Yuletide Greetings, Pirouette
Inks: Pacifica, Outdoor Denim
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Cuttlebug Embossing Folders (not CTMH), Clear Sparkles, Foam Tape, Bitty Opaque Pearl Adhesive Gems, Outdoor Denim Chevron Ribbon, Memory Box Branch Die (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson