Thank You Doggie Card

Mika (my small doggie) will be going to stay with some friends of mine when I go to the Close To My Heart Convention and they have a large Golden Retriever named Lily. Mika thought it would be best if she made friends by bringing a gift for Lily, so here is the card (we) created to go along with the bone that we are giving her to try and make friends... 

Funny story about the bone... It was sitting on my desk earlier today and I heard Mika whining and crying but I couldn't figure out where she was as she wasn't in any of her usually haunts. I found her on my desk chair (which has wheels on it), with her front paws on my desk, desperately trying to reach for the bone. It smelled SO GOOD and she wanted it, even though it was almost as big as she was! The chair kept sliding back on her and she just couldn't work her way on to my desk... I promptly picked up the bone and took it to a much safer location for storage until we leave! She was not very happy about that. 

Nonetheless, we both signed the card and the bone has since been wrapped and packaged and is ready to be delivered to Lily when we arrive. 

Products are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: Charlotte Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock
Stamps: I Ruff You (not CTMH),
Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, ShinHan Markers, Black Hemp (ret.)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Smiles Layout

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time with a very special friend who I don't see often. It meant long distance travel for her and for me but the day together was awesome - lots of laughter and fun. Hence the title of "Smiles". 

Notice on the right that I am holding a flamingo... one of the current Close To My Heart paper packs (Calypso) has a ton of flamingos in it and it seems that they are popping up everywhere. When we found this wooden flamingo, I HAD to have my picture taken with it! 

Here's to many more smiles together :) :) :) 

Close up of page 1 

Close up of page 2 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Gypsy Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock, Topiary Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Teal Glitter Paper, Mixed Paper Kits (not CTMH)
Stamps: None
Inks: None
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Artistry Cartridge, Misc. Cricut Cartridge (not CTMH), Thin Foam Tape, Aqua Dots

Enjoy,
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 164 - Georgie Flowers Birthday Card

I decided to play around quite a bit with the sketch at Atlantic Hearts this week. I didn't want to use a medallion so I chose to add a cluster of flowers instead and I also changed the orientation of the sketch from horizontal to vertical. Considering there was not a spot for my sentiment within the flower cluster, I added one to the bottom of my card.

Both of the stamp sets I used are retired but I love them so they are staying in my stash! 

Join us at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and show us your interpretation of the sketch shown above. You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

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

Paper: Georgie Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock, Slate Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Juniper Cardstock

Stamps: A Budding Friendship (ret.), Card Chatter - Birthday (ret.)

Inks: Black, Black Pigment Ink

Accessories: Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, ShinHan Markers, Border Punch (not CTMH), White Shimmer Trim, Magical Sequins, Chevron Embossing Folder, Sanding Kit, Thin Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Colour Dare Blessed Card

I didn't think I was going to get a chance to create anything for this week's Colour Dare Challenge but I managed to squeak out some time today to create a card. 

The colours are from the Calypso Paper Pack and, as much as I love that paper pack, I wanted to do something without using the papers from that paper pack as it makes it more of a challenge. The original ideas I had just wouldn't work as there were too many colours to work with so I had to come up with something else. After thinking about it, I decided to gather a number of images from our awesome Cricut cartridges and create a card by slicing the images into the background. This was a LOT more difficult to assemble than I expected - the word, "blessed" had a lot of little pieces left to make the word readable and adhering such small pieces onto glitter paper was quite a challenge! 

I love the black background and the base is white (just peeking out from behind), so that is where the white is incorporated. 

There is still lots of time to enter the Colour Dare challenge. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Basics Fundamental Cardstock (Black), Teal Glitter Paper, Cotton Candy Cardstock, Pear Cardstock, Honey Cardstock 

Stamps: None

Inks: None

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Bitty Sparkles, Black ShinHan Marker, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - Congratulations!

The challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week is all about congratulations! There are usually a lot of things happening around this time of the year that bring reasons to celebrate - graduation, people moving on to different locations for school or jobs, retirement... there are many more. 

I chose to use the sentiment of CELEBRATION rather than congratulations on my card. It's a little more generic and can be used for more occasions, including birthdays. 

I cut a background from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge and used that to lightly sponge a brick background on the card base. The flowers and leaves are from an old stamp set called Love Blooms. Fairly simple but I like the way it turned out. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your congratulatory creations. 

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

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Eggplant Cardstock

Stamps: Doodled Designs, Say It All, Love Blooms (ret.)

Inks: Eggplant, Pixie, Memento Black

Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Sponge Daubers, ShinHan Markers, Clear Sparkles Assortment, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Kids' Workshop - The Results

A while ago, I posted a project that I was going to do with some neighbourhood kids as an end of the year gift for their teachers. Today was that workshop.The kidlets worked on their projects, got ink ALL over (I am amazed at how 7 years olds can manage to get ink on their arms and legs when stamping at a table... but it happens!) and completed their projects in a reasonable time period, all while laughing at me and my dog who was all over them, begging for their attention! 

Here are their finished projects, which look remarkably like my original one... I only assisted with things like tying knots and bows. The did all the stamping after being shown how to use the products correctly. They also coloured and added their embellishments and ribbon. 

I would say they did a remarkable job - I think any teacher would be happy to receive a handmade gift like this. They were SO proud of their work when they were finished and that is what warms my heart most of all :)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - The Long Way Home

Welcome to June's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "The Long Way Home" - a set of 15 stamps. This stamp set is terrific for anyone going on vacation, who has been on vacation, thinking of going on vacation or even who is having a stay-at-home vacation! The bloggers along this blog hop will certainly show you many ways to use this awesome stamp set, so sit back and enjoy the tour. 

You should have arrived here from Wendy Kessler's blog.

If you get lost, a list of all blogs can be found here.

The stamp set looks like this.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this stamp set but I wanted to do something different so I decided to create a northern lights card. Talk about inky fingers as all the blending has to be done with sponges! One of the things about this technique is that the number of ink pads used doesn't really show on the final product because so many of the colours are almost completely covered or you can barely see them! 

I hope you enjoyed my project. 

The next blog on the hop is Darlys Recker's blog. 

I'm sure she has something wonderful to share with you.

You can get this stamp set for just $6 this month with a $50 purchase. 

Visit my shopping site here. 

Remember this stamp set is only available until June 30th! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock Black Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock

Stamps: The Long Way Home

Inks: Black Memento Ink, Black, Slate, Pacifica, Pear, Lagoon, Goldrush, Cotton Candy, Gypsy, Versamark

Accessories: Heat Tool, White Embossing Powder, Sponges, White Gel Pen (from my stash) 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Colour Dare Challenge - Oh My Happy Card

Wow - this is pretty amazing for me! I actually found the time to create a SECOND card for the Colour Dare challenge this week! I love the colour combination and I stumbled across a gorgeous card on Pinterest that totally grabbed me and I decided to CASE it and use the idea for this challenge. The card can be found at this blog.

Nonetheless, I love the way this turned out. I embossed the flowers in white and coloured them with ShinHan markers, then taking a Q-tip to go over the embossed parts to reveal the white again. They were all fussy cut and the sparkles were coloured with either Sharpie markers or Copic markers. There are actually three different colours - to match the flowers - but it's hard to tell the difference between the blue and the turquoise in the photo. They are purposely placed on opposite coloured flowers. 

The background is from the Happy times paper pack - as white a background as possible but still adding some dimension. I hope that doesn't disqualify me - I wanted to add something to the background without leaving it just plain white and an embossing folder didn't add quite enough. I played around with a lot of options before finally deciding to go this route...

Check out the Colour Dare site - its a terrific challenge but there isn't much time left to get your entries in for this particular colour combination! 

Products used are Close to My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Happy Times Paper Pack (ret.), White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock

Stamps: Hawaiian Hibiscus, Happy Everything (ret.)

Inks: Pear, Versamark

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, ShinHan Markers, Copic Marker (not CTMH), Sharpie Markers (not CTMH), Clear Sparkles Assortment, Green Shimmer Trim, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Colour Dare Challenge - Special Friend Card

When I saw the colour combination on the Colour Dare site last week, I knew I had to create something, regardless of my busy schedule right now. With Close To My Heart's Convention coming up shortly, I am trying to get ahead with my own design team obligations so I don't come back to having that hanging over my head the second I walk in the door... There is never enough time in the day - Can anyone else relate to that?? 

But this colour combination called to me - play, play - you have to play along.... So, at the very least, it's a simple card and one that I can use. I actually have another one in mind and may actually enter this challenge twice this week if I get time to create the second one I have sitting in the back of my mind. 

I didn't want to use any patterned paper or even a lot of coloured cardstock on this card - I wanted to focus on the inks instead. The lower right side is a blend of Lagoon and Crystal Blue and then the stems are stamped in Pear ink. The flowers are cut in Thistle and White Daisy. The sparkles have been coloured in as close a colour match as I could get - the ShinHan markers looked far too pink - even the darkest purple was more pink than purple - so I ended up using a Sharpie marker instead. 

Check out the Colour Dare challenge site for yourself - it's a terrific challenge!

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock

Stamps: A Bunch of Love, Flowering Fields (not CTMH)

Inks: Lagoon, Crystal Blue, Pear

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Foam Tape, Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Clear Sparkles Assortment, Sponges

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 162 - Happy Times - Thanks a Bunch

I have been busy this month creating all sorts of other projects that I can't post on my blog yet - gifts for people at the Close To My Heart Convention in another month, etc. You will see some of these items at a later date. 

This is one of those sketches at Atlantic Hearts - one of those that just fit what I wanted to do without having to change anything. Normally, I play around at least a little bit with the sketch design but I kept almost exactly to the sketch in this case. The Happy Times paper pack was perfect for what I wanted to do. The main floral design was the perfect paper to showcase in the centre of the card and then a small sentiment underneath embossed in gold fit perfectly. I did add a stamped flower from the Happy Times stamp set. My lighting really washed out the gold strip in the photography (even through the lights were actually turned off when the photograph was taken...)

Join is at Atlantic Hearts to show us your interpretation of the sketch shown above. You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart 

Paper: Happy Times Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock

Stamps: Happy Times, A Bunch of Thanks

Inks: Versamark, Smoothie

Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Gold Gems

Enjoy, 

Alyson