Heart 2 Heart - Fun Folds Challenge

It's an AWESOME challenge at Heart 2 Heart! It's all about fun folds... cards, layouts, anything with unique folds, flips, hidden treasures - anything unusual. I LOVE this kind of stuff. Most of my scrapbook pages have some form of hidden elements on them, from pull out tabs, sliding sections to reveal hidden photos, flip flaps or something as simple as hidden journaling. 

I also love to create interactive cards and that is what I chose to do for this challenge. 

This is a double gate fold card - one that I had never tried until this challenge. The basis of it is not difficult but it was trying to figure out what would fit inside and on the outside that was a little more difficult. Anything on the inside had to be flat so the card would sit flat in the wrapper. I wanted to show both views on the H2H blog, but that wasn't possible... I had to show just the inside. Here, you get to see both the closed card and the open card. 

Here is what the card looks like closed. 

And here is the full card opened with the wrapper sitting in front. 

It will fit inside a 5x7 envelope when it is all folded. The measurement of the main section is 4" x 6" but with the leaves above and the wrapper around it, the folded card size is slightly larger than 4" x 6" in total. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your fun fold creation! There are so many ways you can create projects with folds - search for ideas on the internet and there are photos and directions for everything that you can possibly imagine! You have the entire month of May to enter this or any of the challenges this month. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated

Paper: Happy Times Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Honey Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock

Stamps: A Little Note (ret.), A Bunch of Love

Inks: Lagoon Pigment Ink

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Border Punch (not CTMH), Aqua Shimmer Trim, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, ShinHan Markers, Aqua Dots, Quilling Tool

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Kids' Gift for Teachers

One of my neighbours came to me recently and asked if I would help her daughter, who is very crafty, to create something as an end of the year gift for her teacher. This little girl, who is finishing grade two, also has a few friends who want to join her. I said I would be happy to help her out. The little girl was too shy to come and talk to me by herself... I guess adults are just a little scary sometimes :) 

So, after determining that all the teachers are female and a visit to the dollar store, I found a pencil cup and decided to use that for my idea. I decorated the cup using an older stamp set called Just for You. The kids will be able to choose their own colour scheme for the design and I will simply stamp the outline of the flower for them beforehand. They will stamp the petals in a colour scheme of their choice. They will have matching twine and co-ordinating ribbon for the base of the cup. They will colour some sparkles to go on the centre of each flower (each side has a flower on it). I will cut a background for each flower in the colour of their choice beforehand as well. 

The tag will be one of three from the stamp set Tagged with Love and they can also choose which of the sentiments from that set they wish to use. They can then write their message on the back of the tag. 

I LOVE this idea and they are SO excited about it. I can't wait to do this workshop with them. They are already watching their teachers to "discover" their favourite colour - seeing what outfits they are wearing the most to school and checking out the colour of their lunch bags, etc. They are just too cute for words. 

Products are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock, Eggplant Cardstock, Gypsy Cardstock
Stamps: Just for You (ret.), Tagged with Love (ret.)
Inks: Thistle, Gypsy, Eggplant, Black
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Purple Twine (not CTMH), Purple Ribbon (not CTMH), Pencil Cup (not CTMH), Clear Sparkles Assortment, Sharpie Marker (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 160 - Pink Watercolour Flowers

Who loves pink flowers? The new Calypso paper pack has some of my favourite colours in it - Cotton Candy, Lagoon and Pear. It doesn't get much better than that! I decided to take advantage of that gorgeous colour scheme for this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts. I also turned the sketch over on a funny angle - kind of 90 degrees but not exactly... In order to get my flowers to fit, I had to alter things a little but then again, a sketch is guideline and is open for interpretation. 

My flowers and leaves were coloured in a new way for me - I used a waterbrush and reinkers. I stamped about 7 of each piece and practiced until I had one of each that I was happy with - it took some time as the technique was new to me. I learned a lot and will definitely try it again. 

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

Paper: Calypso Paper Pack, Black Cardstock, Cotton Candy Cardstock, Watercolour Paper

Stamps: Hawaiian Hibiscus, Perfect Picture Cricut Collection

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Lagoon

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Foam Tape, Bitty Sparkles, ShinHan Marker, Medium Waterbrush, Small Waterbrush, Cotton Candy Reinker, Pear Reinker,  Honey Reinker, White and Gold Ribbon, Corner Rounder

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Major Tease

My roomie for Convention knows that there is a gift coming her way when we get to the resort at Walt Disney World for the Close To My Heart Convention. That's a tradition that has been going for quite some time... I have let her know that I have been working on a couple of things for her and after this is posted, I am going to let her know that she can come and take a look to see her gift on my blog... It is actually inside the bag - really. She just won't be able to see what it is! I love teasing her - but I know she will be pleased with what I have created for her once she finally sees it at a later date. There are actually two gifts inside. I will have to collapse the bag for travel purposes so I was careful to make sure that there was nothing that would get crushed or damaged in transit. 

Happy contemplating, Laura. See you in just over a month's time :) 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Baby Love

The challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart is called Baby Love. Most people would interpret this challenge as a chance to create something to do with babies - a card or a layout featuring a baby or a young child. 

I decided to turn it around - after all, a child isn't possible without a mother and with Mother's Day having just passed here in Canada, it was the perfect opportunity for me to create a card for my mom. 

I love the new Florence paper pack that was just released in the new Seasonal Expressions 2 catalog. It is full of bold and rich colours, so I decided to use that for my card. The stamp set, "A Bunch of Love" has two beautiful bouquets of flowers that can be coloured and cut using thin cuts as well. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us your interpretation of Baby Love. You have until the end of the month to enter this or any of the challenges during the month of May. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Florence Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Peacock Cardstock, Gold Glitter Paper, Teal Glitter Paper

Stamps: A Bunch of Love, Just to Say... Cricut Collection

Inks: Memento Black Ink

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, A Bunch of Love Thin Cuts, ShinHan Markers, Florence Sequins, Gold Foil Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

National Scrapbooking Month Blog Hop - Happy Times

Welcome to the National Scrapbooking Month Blog Hop! The focus for this blog hop is the paper pack and/or the stamp set for National Scrapbooking Month. 

You should have arrived here from Melinda Everitt's blog.

A list of all participating bloggers can be found here.

The Happy Times paper pack is absolutely GORGEOUS! The papers are all so beautiful but I couldn't use all of them for this project. I had to select a handful of them and focus on just a few for this purpose. 

I chose to create a box of gift cards. The design is the same for all 8 cards and I purposely did not put a sentiment on the cards so they can be used for any occasion. There are 4 yellow-based cards and 4 orange-based cards although the orange flower cards are slightly different because of the two left strips due to the colour grade in the paper. It makes them more interesting, right? 
I did not add anything with dimension (ex. foam tape) other than the gold gems for the purpose of mailing... recipients often do not anticipate that added cost when cards are mailed even when informed of it in advance. 

I also masked a flower and leaves on each of the envelopes and inside of each card - that is shown below. 

Here is the entire card kit...

The box to hold all the cards and envelopes

The yellow card (x4)

Inside the yellow card (I did this inside each card)

The orange card (one of the two but x4 of this design)

I hope you enjoyed my project. 

Your next stop on this blog hop is Michelle Loncar's blog. I'm sure she has something wonderful in store for you. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart 

Paper: Happy Times Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Fern Cardstock, Bulk White Daisy Cards and Envelopes

Inks: Canary, Juniper, Goldrush, Fern

Stamps: Happy Times

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, White Twine, Bling Gems Gold Assortment, Scallop Border Punch

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 158 - Puzzle Piece Birthday Card

This week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts is pretty straight forward but I wanted to add some interest to it so I decided to do my square using puzzle pieces in 4 different shades of red. I used the Paper Fundamental Cardstock for those pieces and just spread them apart slightly on a white base. 

The La Vie en Rose Paper Pack has such beautiful back and white designs and I decided to use one of those for the background of my card. A few Cricut cuts, a sentiment and this card came together pretty quickly. 

Join us at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to show off 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: La Vie en Rose Paper Pack, Paper Fundamentals Cardstock Packs: Adventure (Cranberry) and Enchantment (Poppy, Pomegranate and Ruby), White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock
Stamps: Just to Say
Inks: Pomegranate
Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Artbooking Cartridge, Base and Bling Gems (ret.), Ruby Glitter Baker's Twine (ret.), ShinHan Marker

Enjoy, 
Alyson

May Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Celebrate with Cake

Welcome to May's Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month, we are featuring the stamp set "Celebrate with Cake" - a set of 17 stamps. This is a build-a-cake type of stamp set with some great sentiments so it is useable for many occasions! 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 Melinda Everitt's blog.

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

The stamp set looks like this.

I chose to create a birthday card for a friend of mine who is celebrating very shortly. 

Because my friend loves bold and bright colours, especially green, I chose to use the new Calypso paper pack for the background papers. The cake was coloured using ShinHan markers. 

I hope you enjoyed my project. 

The next blog on the hop is Marie Flayer'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 May 31st! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart 

Paper: Calypso Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Cotton Candy Cardstock, Lagoon Cardstock

Stamps: Celebrate with Cake, Bingo Alphabet (ret.)

Inks: Memento Black Ink

Accessories: Artiste Cartridge, Black and Gold Ribbon, Bling Gems Gold Assortment, ShinHan Markers

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Sangria Sympathy Card

A friend of mine recently lost her mother a couple of days ago... I think it is particularly hard for women to lose their moms. 

This card was created using the Sangria paper pack and some co-ordinating embellishments. Simple but it gets to the point. I love the sentiment because it is so true. The memories will cause tears - but they should also make you laugh as there should be so many great memories... memories of all the good times. That's what matters. I hope she can hold those memories close to her heart when she remembers her mom.

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated

Paper: Sangria Paper Pack, Cocoa Cardstock, Eggplant Cardstock, Pomegranate Cardstock
Stamps: Big Hug
Inks: Cocoa
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge, Artistry Cartridge, Purple Enamel and Glitter Hearts, Purple Ribbon (not CTMH), Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Playing Around with Other Products...

A friend of mine is here in town from Australia to visit her mother. She is an avid card maker. Since she is visiting for several weeks, she brought many of her craft supplies with her - and one of those items was a set of dies from Stampin' Up called Botanical Builder Framelits. I have seen several cards on Pinterest and loved the images so she let me borrow the dies for a few days. I decided to CASE a few cards I had pinned... they were so easy to create using just the dies as she didn't even bring the stamps with her. I love the fact that the dies allow the flowers to be kind of 3-D in nature - the centre of the petals can be raised. 

I used some CTMH sentiments for each of these cards and embossed them in white. The background paper for the first card is from La Vie en Rose. 

I don't want to return the dies to her - I might just have to order my own set...

The original designer of this card was Cindy Wilkinson of www.justspongeit.com

The original designer of this card was Susan Best at www.stampinginferno.blogspot.com

Products used are all Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated

Paper: La Vie en Rose Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Gypsy Cardstock, Sweet Leaf Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Thistle Cardstock, Pear Cardstock, Topiary Cardstock

Inks: Versamark

Stamps: Big Hug, Casual Expressions

Accessories: Botanical Builders Framelits (not CTMH), ShinHan Marker, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

Enjoy, 

Alyson