It's a Smooshing Happy Day!

That's right - smooshing! It's the term for mixing watercolours using plastic wrap. And that is exactly what I did for the main part of this card. 

I had a lot of fun creating this card. The colours are bold and bright and the technique is tons of fun to do. It's so easy as well. This is what you do: 

Simply use a piece of watercolour paper (regular cardstock will get too wet and will bend and pill) and have your selected paint colours wet and ready. Cover the paper with water using a paintbrush. then drop two or three paint colour randomly on the paper in splotches wherever you wish. Don't mix them but they should barely touch at the edges only. DO THIS QUICKLY because the paint will dry fast. If needed, you can add a touch of water to the paint. Then cover the paint with a piece of plastic large enough to cover the entire piece of paper and more (I use plastic wrap). Scrunch it a bit before putting it down so you have some room to move it around. You don't want to move it around too much or the colours will all blend together into one muddy colour. Move it around slightly to blend the colours and create interesting patterns. Then LEAVE it on the paper to dry. Depending how wet your paper was to start with, it should take about 15 minutes or so. Once it is dry or almost dry, remove the plastic and let the paper finish drying. Then you can trim the paper and use it for your project. 

SO, this is what I came up with for my card. I used three shades of paint - pink, green and blue. Surprisingly, there was NO purple although the blending of colours resulted in some purple sections! You never know what you will get! 

I chose to create a 6x6 card as I wanted to use a 4x4 gold overlay. The photo below shows a better view of the "smooshed" part with the overlays. 

It is SO difficult to photograph anything gold and silver without getting shadows... 

Try out this technique for yourself - it is a lot of fun and there are so many combinations of colours that can lead to such interesting variations! The edges don't have to be cut, either. Just a smoosh on a scrapbook page or card in itself is awesome! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Emerald Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock, Watercolour Paper, Uptown Fundamentals

Stamps: none

Inks: none

Accessories: Life Overlays - Gold, Picture My Life Overlays - Gold and Silver, Pink Enamel Gems, Watercolour Paints, Paintbrush Set, White Shimmer Trim, Gold Foil Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 192 - Hello with Bright Flowers

Such a simple sketch at Atlantic Hearts this week... 

I decided to pull out the Enchantment Fundamentals - not my go to combination of colours, for sure. I thought it was time to work with some of these colours in combination and see what I could do with them. The large patterns present a real challenge for me. I love Peacock and know that it goes very well with yellow so Saffron was my choice of a second colour. I wanted to add something to the ends of the strips in the sketch so flowers seemed like a good idea. Plus there was a large circular pattern along with a small polka-dotted pattern that would work well together. Perfect! 

After making those choices, the card came together pretty quickly. The flowers ended up a little more orange than I wanted but that's ok. They still fit the colour scheme overall.

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

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Enchantment Fundamentals, White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: Hi Friend, Love This (ret.)
Inks: Peacock
Accessories: ShinHan Markers, Clear Sparkles, Thin Foam Tape, Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Mika's Santa Dress

It's almost Christmas and Mika has a Santa dress that she wants to show off! 

The City Sidewalks Paper Pack provided the perfect colour scheme to match the photos of her in her dress. A few white glitter snowflakes along with some brightly colour poinsettia flowers with the added touch of the shimmer brush made this layout nice and bold. 

The snowflake background was created using a die-cut from the digital City Sidewalks Cricut Cartridge. I just adhered it with temporary adhesive in a few places and inked the paper using Willow ink - darker in places and lighter in other sections. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: City Sidewalks Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Cranberry Cardstock, Willow Cardstock, White Glitter Paper
Stamps: None
Inks: Willow, Cranberry
Accessories: City Sidewalks Digital Cartridge, Flower Market Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Snowflake Thin Cuts, Red Enamel Gems, Grey Enamel Gems, Clear Shimmer Brush, Foam Tape, Black Journaling Pen

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Cricut Card - It's Your Day

With some time to play around, I decided to create a card using some of the Basic Fundamental papers and some floral images from the Flower Market Cartridge. I tried various wreaths before I finally settled on the one that you see on the card. It just looked like the best one that fit.

The colour scheme was one that I really had to think about carefully. The flowers are cherry blossoms so I did want to keep them to a pink colour scheme. For the background, I wanted to use the embossed woodgrain paper from the Basic collection. I didn't want to add a lot of additional colours so that meant choosing one other colour. Sea Glass also had the option of glitter paper so with that in mind, I decided to cut the wreath using the glitter paper to add some additional interest to my card. Since the vellum was the background, it had to be set on a coloured background to show the pattern. 

So, here is the final product. With a lot of birthdays coming up in January, this will be used for one of them for sure. 

Since the shimmer pen doesn't show up very well in photographs, here is close up to show that it IS indeed used on the flowers! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Basic Fundamentals - Uptown, Basic Fundamentals - Rustic Home, Sea Glass Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock, Blossom Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Sea Glass Glitter Paper

Stamps: Flower Market Cricut Collection

Inks: Juniper

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Clear Sparkles Assortment (ret.), Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Clear Shimmer Pen, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 190 - Hi Friend

The sketch this week at Atlantic Hearts is one with which I took quite a bit of liberty... The original sketch is horizontal and I chose to do a vertical card. I also chose not to use the circles within the sketch but to create a single circle within the centre and my border along the side is in layers. That is somewhat difficult to see as there are a lot of patterns happening but that was my intention as I wanted the wreath to be the focus. A sketch is a springboard for interpretation - and the last several weeks, I have been following the sketches very closely. This week, I decided to step out of the norm and do something kind of different. 

Also, with Christmas so close, my cards are finished so I wanted to create a card that was not Christmas-related. A lot of people would argue that the Oh Deer! paper pack is for Christmas. I disagree. I think this paper pack is perfect for MANY occasions and I love 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 project. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: Oh Deer! Paper Pack, What Daisy Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock

Stamps: Wreath, Hi Friend

Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Juniper

Accessories: Wreath Thin Cuts, Oh Deer! Assortment, White and Gold Twine, Foam Tape, ShinHan Markers

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Sending Sunshine Card

I have had some time to play in recent days... 

It feels so good to be back in my creative room once again! 

This card is from an old sketch that I really liked and wanted to try. I pulled out an old stamp set - Card Word Puzzle - and combined it with a recently retired stamp set - Springtime Wishes - to create the flowers and leaves for this card. I coloured those images using ShinHan markers. The markers on the leaves didn't blend very well and left a kind of mottled look but I rather like it as it has a kind of water coloured effect. The Emerald green stems are cut from Flower Market, as is the sentiment. Once again, it is very hard to see the shimmer on the flowers but it is there - really! 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Sea Glass Cardstock, Emerald Cardstock, Cranberry Cardstock, Pomegranate Cardstock, Gold Glitter Paper
Stamps: Card Word Puzzle (ret.), Springtime Wishes (ret.)
Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink
Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Springtime Wishes Thin Cuts (ret.), ShinHan Markers, Gold Glitter Gems (ret.), Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Clear Shimmer Brush

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - Oh Deer!

The final challenge for Heart 2 Heart for 2016 happens to be my favourite current paper pack - it's Oh Deer! 

Create whatever you wish using this gorgeous pack of paper. I have been away for a while and chose to create a simple card using various strips of the patterned paper and zip strips. Since all my Christmas cards were finished quite a while ago, I decided to make my card into a birthday card. This paper is SO VERSATILE. It can be used for many purposes - certainly not just Christmas. I have stocked up on it and intend to use it for a variety of upcoming projects. 

So, here is my final project for the current season of Heart 2 Heart. 

I wish you and your family all the best this Christmas season. 

May you find joy in all that the season has to offer. 

Be sure to link up your final project with Heart 2 Heart. 

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, Sea Glass Cardstock

Stamps: Birthday Sparkles

Inks: Juniper

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Aqua Dots (ret.), Gold Shimmer Trim, White and Gold Ribbon

Enjoy, 

Alyson

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Skylark Squares Birthday Card

Another Skylark birthday card... For this one, I brought out some pretty ancient embellishments... ones that go back at least 4 or 5 years. The stick pins were coloured on the ends as they come with white tops. I just used Sharpie markers to colour the ends to co-ordinate with the card. The turquoise gems are from the original Base and Bling line put out by Close To My Heart several years ago - there were multiple colours available but I loved the turquoise ones and stocked up on them! The white flower is from the Brushed accessory collection - that is a paper pack that I still have because it is just so gorgeous! 

So, here is the final card - I hope my friend likes it as much as I had fun making it for her!

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

Paper: White Daisy Card Base, Skylark Paper Pack, Sweet Leaf Cardstock
Stamps: Happy Birthday (ret.)
Inks: Desert Sand
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Stick Pins (ret.), Base and Bling Turquoise Gems (ret.), Brushed Accessory Pack (ret.), Thin Foam Tape, Sharpie Markers (not CTMH) 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Sweet Memory Layout

On November 13, I lost my precious mother to a massive stroke. It has been extremely difficult for me the last few weeks and I find myself reaching for the phone more often than I care to think about as I am used to speaking with her on a daily basis. That habit will be very difficult to break for me. 

Last week, I visited a friend in the US and it was a welcome change to get away for a while. That trip had been planned prior to my mom's passing and I hesitated going but I am so glad that I went after all as it was such a nice break to get away from the stresses here at home. A three day scrapbook retreat was part of that trip and it gave me a chance to create the layout below. It was hard for me to do and it took a lot of time but it is something that I believe has helped in my healing process. 

The photo was taken when my mom was a teenager and she was a bridesmaid for one of her older sisters. I love the picture as I think she is just gorgeous. I chose the retired paper pack Happy Times. The pattern on the blue paper did not show up as that is what was used except for the outside piece. The journaling stamp came from a lady at the retreat and I can't recall the name of the stamp... My intention was to keep this layout relatively simple. 

There are a couple of detailed photos underneath to show some close up views. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Happy Times Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Glacier Cardstock, Gold Cardstock (not CTMH) 
Stamps: Happy Times, Unknown (journal box) 
Inks: Canary, Glacier, Whisper
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Sharpie Marker (not CTMH), Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape, Florence Sequins (ret.) 

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Layered Peacock Birthday Card

This birthday card is for a very special friend... I created it a while ago but I KNOW she reads my blog so I couldn't schedule the post until after her birthday. Her birthday was yesterday, December 5th but I had a Design Team challenge post that had to go live yesterday so this card needed to be delayed one day... Ah, such is life. 

These papers were actually picked up when I was out shopping with her back in June. I have no idea if she even remembers them or not. I know that the peacock paper tweaked her interest at the time. None of the Close To My Heart inks matched with these papers so I decided to use Silver embossing powder for the sentiment. Juniper was the closest match and the sentiment inside was stamped using that colour. I know she loves to create with many layers and there are 11 layers on this card! 

I hope she had an awesome birthday! 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated:

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock (base), Miscellaneous
Stamps: Card Chatter Birthday
Inks: Versamark, Juniper (inside card and edge distressing)
Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Artbooking Cartridge, Silver Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Thin Foam Tape, Sparkles Assortment

Enjoy, 
Alyson

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