June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - "Kaboom"

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring June's SOTM, "Kaboom", a set of 16 stamps.  If you have come here from Pamela'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 bloggers can be found here.  

This month we have approximately 50 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and fabulous Close To My Heart products on their blogs. Just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one!

The stamp set looks like this: 

I chose to create a card with some of the stamps in this set. The card is actually a birthday card but that sentiment is inside the card. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: Lollydoodle Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Sunset Cardstock, White Daisy Die-Cut Cards and Envelopes

Stamps: Kaboom

Inks: Pigment Inks: Juniper, Sunset, Pear, Cotton Candy

Accessories: Flamingo Dots, Aqua Dots, Foam Tape

 Now "hop" on over to Jill'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 June SOTM is only available until the last day of June! 

Click here to see how you can get this stamp set for 

just $5 this month!

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Mini-Album Complete - Goodbye to Our Choir Director :(

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our beloved choir director at church is retiring this June. I have completed the mini-album for him... I just wish I had more time to put into this project but I also have to do a complete 12x12 album in the next 2 weeks for a minister who is also leaving! 

So, with that in mind, I did this album using the Pro Player Paper Pack and some co-ordinating embellishments. There is no stamping but I did use my Cricut a fair bit. Each page is shown, including the cover. I used two Cricut cartridges in addition to the CTMH cartridges for some musical images. Those cartridges are identified in my supply list in case you are looking for the details. 

The front cover is shown first, followed by each of the facing pages in the album. 

I hope he enjoys this album of memories from the choir. He has certainly made a huge impact on each of the members who has worked under him. We will miss him dearly. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Pro Player Paper Pack, Black Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Ruby Cardstock, Pacifica Cardstock, Slate Cardstock, Whisper Cardstock
Stamps: None
Inks: Black, Ruby, Pacifica
Accessories: Cricut Cartridges - Art Philosophy, Artbooking, Musical Notes (not CTMH), Quarter Note (not CTMH), Tiny Type Epoxy Alphabet, Baker's Twine - Red and Blue (not CTMH), Kraft 3-Ring Album, Music Notes Embossing Folder (not CTMH), Black Journaling Pen, Corner Rounder, Ruby Mini-Medley Collection, Black Mini-Medley Collection, Base and Bling Black Jewels, Pro Player Assortment, Slate Mini-Medley Collection (ret.), Cork Colour-Ready Alphabet (ret.), Irresistible Dots Colour-Ready Alphabet (ret.)  

Enjoy, 
Alyson

The Start of a Gift Album

The Lead Minister at church spoke to me last week regarding the creation of an album for a minister of ours who is departing. When he gave me the timeline, I almost fell on the floor... just three weeks away! I also have the gift album for our choir director to complete as well... but such is life, so I guess I will be awfully busy for the next while! 

So, with that in mind, my focus on what to do first has changed! This minister's focus is on the children and youth program, so right now, I only have a handful of photos, but more are promised to be coming my way early next week! Here is the first layout I have completed. I am trying to keep it simple (but that is not my usual style for anyone who knows me...) I used a pattern from "Make It from the Heart - Volume 1" as my guide. 

Since there were so many colours in the photos, the Skylark paper pack worked well for this - the Desert Sand helped to ground the photos and the soft greens, turquoise and touches of yellow added the right touches of colour. 

The first photo shows the two page layout and the following photos show each page individually. I am going to leave the journaling spots open on all the layouts for the recipient to write in on her own, so she can personalize them so they mean more to her. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Skylark Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock, Sweet Leaf Cardstock, Desert Sand Cardstock

Stamps: None

Inks: None

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Skylark Assortment, Sarita Assortment, Baker's Twine - Neutral Assortment (ret.), Colour-Ready Evergreen Shapes (ret.), Colour-Ready Cork Alphabet (ret.), Arbour Wooden Shapes, (ret.), Floral Wooden Shapes (ret.) Wooden Bird (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Thank You Card for Organist/Pianist

Here is another end of season thank you card - this time for the organist/pianist who accompanies our choir at my church. He is an amazing musician and he goes way above and beyond what is expected of him. Aside from that, he has a fabulous sense of humour as well. I just adore him. 

So, our choir always presents him with a thank you card and gift at the end of each season. This card will be signed with a message from each of us. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Timberline Paper Pack, Bamboo Cardstock, Twilight Cardstock, Black Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Goldrush Cardstock
Stamps: A Little Thanks (ret.)
Inks: Black Pigment Ink, Twilight Pigment Ink, Versamark Ink
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Clear Detail Embossing Powder (ret.), Baker's Twine - Harvest Assortment, Cricut - individual images - piano, music notes (not CTMH), Black fine tip marker (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Thank You Card for Special Choir Director

The Choir Director at my church is retiring at  the end of June and it will be very hard to see him leave. He has done amazing things with our choir but it is time for him and his wife to move to Nova Scotia so he can spend time with his family and his grand kids. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him and I know the rest of the choir and the congregation feels the same way! 

His last day is June 29 and that is also the day after the Close To My Heart Convention, which I am attending. I was scheduled to fly home that day but since I booked my flight so long ago, I had the foresight to take out full insurance on my flight and I was lucky enough to be able to change it... I am now returning on the evening of the 28th of June - on a red-eye flight. I have never been able to sleep on a plane. I get back to Toronto at 6am on the 29th and will be home just in time to get to the Sunday service to be able to participate in his final service. Our choir is singing an amazing piece of music for him (I have loved working on it already) and there will be a farewell ceremony as well. I don't want to miss that. I will end up missing the very end of the Convention activities on the Saturday evening as I have to leave by 7pm to get to the Los Angeles airport by 10pm but I have a Nexus/GOES card so at least I can bypass customs so I don't have to be there 3 hours in advance! If all goes well, everything should work out OK. I know I will be exhausted when I get back, but that's alright... I expect it.

So, here is the card for the choir to sign. It has an entire 5x7 card inside to allow for more signing space that you cannot see. I am also working on a scrapbook for him as well. I will post that when I am finished. 

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

Paper: Jubilee Paper Pack, Cocoa Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock, Topiary Cardstock, Indian Corn Blue Cardstock

Stamps: For a Friend

Inks: Topiary Pigment Ink, Indian Corn Blue

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Dimensional Elements - 12x9 Awards, Topiary Mini Chevron Ribbon, Baker's Twine - Harvest Assortment, Green and Blue Epoxy Bubbles, Clear Embossing Powder (ret.), Cricut Music Notes Cartridge (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 

Alyson

May SOTM Bloghop - You've Got a Friend

   

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring May's SOTM, "You've Got a Friend", a set of 5 stamps.  If you have come here from Vicki'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 bloggers can be found here.  

This month we have approximately 55 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and fabulous Close To My Heart products on their blogs. Just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one!

The stamp set looks like this: 

I chose to create 2 cards for this month's hop. Since May is National Scrapbooking Month and Close To My Heart has an awesome campaign with a new paper pack called Free to Be Me (see my Constant Campaign Link above for more details), I decided to use that to create my cards. 

The first card uses the teal coloured paper in the kit. 

 I also cut a background from the Artbooking cartridge and sprayed over it, using Smoothie reinker and water mixed with some rubbing alcohol. 

The second card uses all papers from the new kit and for the stamp, I cut out the sentiment inside so I could stamp it in a different colour. I used Smoothie and Honey inks to best match the papers. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper:Free To Be Me Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Cotton Candy Cardstock

Stamps: You've Got a Friend

Inks: Smoothie, Honey, Cotton Candy, Lagoon

Accessories: Artbooking Cartridge, Scallop Border Punch, Lagoon Zipper Lace, Baker's Twine - Paradise Assortment, Foam Tape, Aqua Dots, Ivy Lane Assortment

 Now "hop" on over to Katy'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 May SOTM is only available until the last day of May! 

Click here to see how you can get this stamp set for 

just $5 this month!

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Tri-Shutter Birthday Card - Skylark

Another friend of mine has a birthday coming up and I wanted to create a special card for her. She is a very talented lady - very theatrical and entertaining, to say the least! Her card needed FLAIR ~~~ and this 

seemed perfect for her! 

 

I added some lace to each side and lots of gems and ribbon to dress it up. The "Swirls Around"stamp set was perfect for the top and bottom of the card and although it is hard to see here, it is embossed so it is shiny and stands out on the card. 

Products are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Skylark Paper Pack, Sweet Leaf Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Desert Sand Cardstock

Stamps: Swirls Around, Perfect Fit - Frames, Perfect Fit - Birthday, Distressed Backgrounds

Inks: Lagoon, Sweet Leaf, Lagoon Pigment Ink

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, 11/4 inch Circle Punch, Baker's Twine - Paradise Assortment, Skylark Assortment, Lagoon Zipper Lace, Clear Detail Embossing Powder (ret.), Foam Tape, White Lace (not CTMH), Green Ribbon (not CTMH), Base & Bling Teal Jewels

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Mother's Day Card

My wonderful mom is so special to me. She is 86 and she is still independent and doing quite well. I only wish that I was able to visit her more often than I can. She lives almost 5 hours away from me and with a difficult schedule, it makes it hard to schedule meaningful visits at times. 

For her Mothers' Day Card, I wanted to do something original this year. I recently read the latest edition of Card Maker magazine and they had several ideas for pop-up cards and this was one of them. I liked the fact that it still fits in a standard envelope, so I decided to use this design. The Lollydoodle paper was a good colour fit for what I had in mind. I wanted flowers, but not too many, along with a Happy Mother's Day sentiment. 

The Artiste Cricut Cartridge was perfect! It had the flower and leaves I was looking for, and the perfect sentiment as well. A little size adjustment on my Cricut Explore and all was easily done! 

The card is shown from 3 angles - left, right and straight-on, so you can see the detail from each view.

  

Supplies used are all Close To My Heart:

Paper: Lollydoodle Paper Pack, Cotton Candy Cardstock, Pear Cardstock

Stamps: None

Inks: None

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Sparkles Clear Flourishes - Small, Sparkles - Clear Assortment, Pear Alcohol Marker

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Changes to My Creative Space

I have been working on some changes to improve my space where I create. Since moving to my new place, I had the opportunity to paint my creative spot turquoise (no big surprise for anyone who knows me...) but I have always wanted to completely free up my desk area for the opportunity to be able to use the full space for creating. 

I recently found some gorgeous little hanging bags on Pinterest and I really wanted to create them but the link didn't lead anywhere. By accident, I stumbled on the instructions on another site as to how to create them! I made 5 of them and that has allowed me to get my rotating carousel off my desk and hang all my supplies now. Now, nothing is on the area where I work. My Cricut machine is on the other side of my desk as it has to be hooked up to my computer. I have a table on the opposite side of my space as well and all my storage is behind me. I will photograph that at anther time.  

I also made a memo board to hang on my wall. It was so easy to do... just a canvas board with some quilt batting and a piece of fabric... some ribbon and buttons and it was done! I love it as well! 

Here are some photos so you can see what I did. I apologize for the cord running down my wall - I have to have lighting under my shelf and the cord runs through a hole in my desk - otherwise it has to run along my wall and way to the other side of the room to reach an outlet!

These are the bags I made... not being advanced with a sewing machine, I ripped out a lot of stitching on the first bag until I got the hang of what I was doing... By the fifth one, it was pretty easy!The hanging rods are from IKEA.

The next photo shows the inside of one of the bags. I put a plastic needlepoint piece inside the base of each bag, just to give it a firmer base. 6 inch embroidery hoops are really hard to find - I had to special order mine through a fabric store!

This is the memo board that I made! It looks crooked because I had to photograph it on my wall and I can't get a straight-on picture... 

If you want more information on where I found my instructions, let me know via a comment here or email me directly (see my Contact Me page at the top) and I would be happy to send you the information! 

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