H2H - Sketch Challenge

Heart 2 Heart's challenge this week is a sketch challenge. This is my favourite type of challenge! I find that I create best when I have a guideline and sketches are the easiest for me. 

A sketch is just that - a guideline. However, with this one, I chose to stay very true to the actual sketch, just because it worked for what I had in mind. The Perfectly Pine stamp set is what I chose to use as my focus and since it fit into the blank area so "perfectly" (I know, that's a bad pun...), I really didn't need to change anything around on the sketch. I chose to use a snowflake instead of a circle but that's about it. 

When I stamped the pine boughs, I initially did them using Sea Glass ink. They were really light so I went back and just inked the edges of the stamp with Juniper ink and stamped the edges again. It didn't matter to me whether the images were perfectly aligned or not as they are branches so that's why they may appear slightly messy - it's not an accident. Branches aren't perfect in nature either. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and share your interpretation of the sketch shown above. You have until the end of December to link up your project for this or any of the December challenges. 

I am also entering this card in the Colour Dare Challenge for the Oh Deer! colours. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart 

Paper: Oh Deer! Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Cocoa Cardstock, Sea Glass Glitter Paper
Stamps: Perfectly Pine
Inks: Sea Glass, Juniper, Cocoa
Accessories: Artistry Cartridge, Foam Tape, Uptown Ribbon Pack

Enjoy, 
Alyson

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December SOTM - Thoughtful Flowers

Welcome to December's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "Thoughtful Flowers" - a set of 14 stamps. This is a gorgeous set of stamps, filled with all sorts of flowers and beautiful sentiments, perfect for any occasion, be it card making, scrapbooking or anything else you can imagine. 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 Darlys Recker's blog. 

If you get lost, a list of all blogs can be found on Melinda Everitt's blog.

The stamp set looks like this.

I chose to create two cards for this blog hop. 

The first card is one with 5 different flowers along the right side. Since some of them didn't reach quite to the edge of the card, I placed a black panel behind and cut around the edges that didn't touch the right side of the card. I did touch some areas with the Shimmer Brush but it didn't show up very well in the photo. 

The second card is a technique that I am still spending quite a bit of time with - and at times, it is really frustrating but I wanted to post it here anyways. The flowers here are coloured using reinker picked up with the small round water brush. I decided to place the large thin cut snowflake under the flowers to add some interest to the card. The centres of the flowers were made by simply separating the twine into single pieces and it was then wrapped on a glue dot and secured with Liquid Glass at the end. 

I hope you enjoyed my projects. 

The next blog on the hop is Lauren Moore's blog.

I'm sure she has a wonderful project 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 December 31st! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, Watercolour Paper, Gold Glitter Paper

Stamps: Thoughtful Flowers

Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Poppy Reinker 

Accessories: Rustic Home Ribbon Pack, Black Shimmer Ribbon, Snowflake Thin Cuts, Small Round Waterbrush, ShinHan Markers, Shimmer Brush, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Confetti Embossing Folder

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 188 - Winter Wishes with Oh Deer!

I just love the Oh Deer! Paper Pack. The Sea Glass colour combined with the outdoor theme makes for such gorgeous papers and patterns and the Picture My Life cards in this pack help to create Christmas cards so quickly and easily.

It is from one of the PML cards that the sentiment on the chevron background is taken. There are still so many in the pack... I had a hard time deciding which one to use! The Rustic Home Ribbon Pack had the perfect grouped twine to match my card. I also found some retired Antiqued Gold triangles to add as embellishments at the top. So easy :) 

Join us at Atlantic Hearts this week 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

Paper: Oh Deer! Paper Pack, Cocoa Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock

Stamps: None

Inks: None

Accessories: Rustic Home Ribbon Pack, Durables Triangular Studs - Antiqued Gold (ret.)

Enjoy.

Alyson

Flower Market Blog Hop

Welcome to the Flower Market Blog Hop! There are several Close To My Heart consultants featuring creations using the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge and I am sure that you will see some awesome ideas along the way! So, sit back, relax and let's get started. 

You should have arrived here from Michelle Loncar's blog. 
If you get lost, a list of all blogs can be found on Melinda Everitt's blog. 

I choose to create two cards for this blog hop. Each is very different, representing two distinct seasons. 

The first is for the upcoming holiday season. I used one of the wreaths, a banner and only part of the poinsettia flower, taking just the back two petals but duplicating them in various sizes to create these gorgeous poinsettias (thanks to my friend and fellow consultant, Julie Carriere, who taught me how to make these!)  I SHOULD have cut the wreath twice, once in Fern and once in New England Ivy but instead, I matched the holly and branch images to other images on the cartridge, sized them manually and cut them separately. It wasn't until I was gluing them in place that I realized it would have been much easier to cut the wreath a second time in the two colours... lesson learned. 

My second project is a very simple spring card - I just cut the flower without the centre piece and used the Flower Market basic alphabet to cut the letters. I flipped a few of the stems for variety. This card came together so easily. 

I hope you enjoyed my projects. 

The next blog on the hop is Priscilla Gotham's blog. 

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

Products used are all Close To My Heart 

Paper: Rustic Home Fundamentals, Adventure Fundamentals, White Daisy Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock, Pomegranate Cardstock, Fern Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock  Raspberry Cardstock, Silver Glitter Paper

Stamps: none

Inks: Black, New England Ivy

Accessories: Flower Market Cricut Cartridge, Artiste Cricut Cartridge (ret.), Enchantment Ribbon Pack, Green Triangle Enamel and Glitter Duos, Red Enamel Gems, Grey Enamel Gems, ShinHan Marker, Shimmer Brush - Clear

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Skylark Birthday Card

So many birthdays coming up in November and December... 

I decided to dig deep back in my paper packs and came up with Skylark - an old favourite. This is a pretty simple card - a few Cricut cuts, some simple gems added and that is all it took to pull

this card together. The printed background on the paper brought everything together so easily. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper; With Daisy Card Base, Skylark Paper Pack, Desert Sand Cardstock, Sweet Leaf Cardstock
Stamps: Happy Birthday (ret.)
Inks: Desert Sand
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Artiste Cartridge (ret.). Brown and Tan Sparkles (ret.), Turquoise Gems (not CTMH) 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

H2H - Anything BUT a Card!

The challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week is to create anything except a card. Since I am such an avid card maker, I had to think abut this... 

I considered creating a layout, and then I thought about something that I have wanted to do for a while now. Since I struggle with depression, it is often difficult to see the positive things in my life each day. If I have something tangible to keep my mind focused on this each day, it makes it a lot easier to keep those positive things in mind. 

This box will help to serve that purpose. Each day, my goal is to add at least one thing that makes me happy. When I am feeling down or need a pick-me-up, I can look inside and see all the things I have added. That's why the title says "happy" and there are hearts because it is to represent the things that bring me joy. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your creation that is "Anything BUT a Card"! You have until the end of November to enter this or any of the November challenges. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Whimsy Fundamentals

Stamps: none

Inks: Lagoon

Accessories: Artistry Cartridge, Card Box (ret.), Teal Shimmer Trim (ret.), Good Life Complements

Enjoy, 

Alyson

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Cross Canada Blog Hop - Colour of the Year: Sea Glass

Welcome to our November Blog Hop featuring Close To My Heart's Colour of the Year - Sea Glass! To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop contact your local consultant to place an order. 

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts as we love to get feedback from our visitors. Whether it was something you liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do... by leaving a comment, we get to hear what you like and what you want to see. Now on to our hop! 

If you just hopped on to my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop. If you want to follow us from East to West across Canada, start at Michelle Stewart's blog. If you are traveling in a circle, you should have arrived from Michelle Hughes' blog. 

I chose to create a layout for this blog hop. I create a LOT of cards for design team work and other blog hops but I decided to do something a little different this time around.

Anyone who knows me knows that Mika, my doggie, is my baby. She is 3 years old and I raised her from a tiny puppy. She is a Morkie (Maltese/Yorkie cross) and she weighs in at a hefty 6.5 pounds. She is the friendliest dog imaginable. She is not a barker (thank goodness) but she might just lick you to death! She loves to play fetch and she is a snuggle puppy for sure. 

I covered the background piece with a sheet of plain vellum to tone down the words a little bit. I chose to frame her photo with flowers created from the Flower Market cartridge and "greenery" that was cut in shades of grey. The strip of Sea Glass patterned paper is from the Oh Deer! paper pack - one of my favourites! Detailed photos below the layout show a closer view of each section. 

Your next blog on the Cross Canada hop is Donna Digby's blog and I am sure she has something wonderful to share with you. If you get lost along the way, Michelle Stewart has a list of all the bloggers on the hop along with their links. 

We hope we were able to inspire you with get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques along the way. Please join us again next month when we will be featuring Traditional vs Non-Traditional creations. Mark your calendars for December 15th and hop along with us once again! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Oh Deer! Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock, Juniper Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock, Slate Cardstock, Uptown Fundamentals, Plain Vellum (not CTMH) 

Stamps: none

Inks: none

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Foam Tape, Silver Sequin Assortment, Clear Sparkles, ShinHan Markers

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Just a Note...

I haven't been doing much creating the past few weeks. My Design Team work and blog hop artwork are fortunately ahead of schedule and those are the only posts coming up on my blog for the time being. 

My mother was quite ill for a while and just under two weeks ago, she suffered a massive stroke that rendered her unable to function. My brother and I had to make the difficult decision to remove her from life support as per her wishes and she passed away last Sunday (November 13th). It is the most difficult thing I have ever experienced as she was truly my best friend.

This layout is one that I created several years ago. It is one of my favourites of my mom and me as I have so few photos of her in her later years.

I find myself reaching for the phone several times a day to call her as I am used to talking to her every day... I miss her terribly and I know that each coming day will get easier but it is so very difficult right now. 

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 186 - Masculine Birthday Wishes

The Swan Lake Paper Pack is good for more than Thanksgiving and Fall scrapbooking and card making. I used it here to create a card for a friend who has a birthday in a couple of days. Avoiding the papers with the geese on them and focusing on the red and blue patterns, this card came together easily with a couple of Cricut cuts. I added some Shimmer Trim and a few simple embellishments and that's it. 

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

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Swan Lake Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black, Cardstock
Stamps: Birthday Sparkles
Inks: Poppy, Peacock
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Artiste Cartridge (ret.), Thin Foam Tape, Black Shimmer Trim, Coral Shimmer Trim, Blue Dot Enamel and Glitter Duos

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - Non-Traditional Christmas Colours

The challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart is to create something for Christmas without using red or green.This is EXACTLY what I love! I choose to decorate my own home in non-traditional Christmas colours for the season - I don't use red and green. It's not because I don't love those colours but I would rather be different and go with something out of the ordinary. 

For this challenge, I decided to create a card using silver and purple. It is a very clean and simple card. I just cut a front panel and temporarily adhered the branch and ornaments for placement so I could stamp the hanging wires. I learned from experience that stamping needs to be done PRIOR to embossing because it is hard to stamp over raised images! After the stamping was completed, the cut images were removed and the stamped panel was run through my Cuttlebug to be embossed. Then the Circuit cut images were put back in place. So simple to do but I love the effect. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and share with us your non-traditional Christmas coloured project. You have until the end of November to link up this challenge and any other November challenge. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Slate Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock, Silver Glitter Cardstock

Stamps: Adornable (ret.)

Inks: Slate

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge (ret.), Snowflake Embossing Folder, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

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