Heart 2 Heart - Inspiring Quote

This week at Heart 2 Heart, we are opening the floodgates and giving you all the options in the world because the challenge is "Anything Goes, CTMH Style"! As long as you use some Close To My Heart products in your project, anything is fair game. 

I went back to one of my favourite stamp sets for this challenge. It is a stamp that is retiring in just a few days and I will miss it terribly but that doesn't mean I can't still use it! I only means that it won't be available to purchase after August 31st, so if you want it, make sure you get it before that time! That's the floral set that I used. The sentiment is from a brand new stamp called Inspire and I love that one as well! 

This card design is one I found on Pinterest but I didn't save the card and I couldn't find the pin again so unfortunately, I can't credit the original artist withe the design. I love the double window but it took some very careful measuring to make sure that it was placed exactly in the right spot. 

I did brush the flowers with the Clear Shimmer Brush - those details can be seen in the photo below. 

Join us at Heart 2 Heart and show us how you use ANY of the Close To My Heart products. This is the week to do just that as this challenge is open to any use of CTMH products. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock
Stamps: Keep Dreaming, Inspire
Inks: Willow, Tuxedo Black Memento Ink
Accessories: ShinHan Markers, Clear Shimmer Brush, Foam Tape, White Pearls

Enjoy, 
Alyson



SaveSave

AH 226 - No Beauty Shines Brighter...

Another awesome sketch at Atlantic Hearts this week... wait - EVERY WEEK is a terrific sketch at Atlantic Hearts! 

I chose to use Close To My Heart's new gold foil sheet to emboss a gorgeous design for my background. There is a brand new rose embossing folder and I love it! The foil paper is nice and thick so it embosses very well as you can see. The sentiment is from a new stamp set called "Inspire" and contains 4 wonderful sayings, great for inspiring anyone! 

The flowers and leaves are from a Simon Says Stamp collection that I have had for a while and decided to pull out just for this card. I brushed the flowers with the Gold Shimmer Brush but it doesn't show up in the photo.

Come and join us at Atlantic Hearts and show us how you interpret the sketch shown above. You have until Sunday evening to link up your project. 

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Pansy Cardstock, Emerald Cardstock, Gold Foil Paper
Stamps: Inspire, Spring Flowers (not CTMH)
Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Pansy
Accessories: Rose Embossing Folder, Spring Flowers Dies (not CTMH), ShinHan Markers, Thin Foam Tape, Whimsy Ribbon Collection, Gold Shimmer Brush

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Colour Dare 257 - Smiling Roses Card

I love the colour challenge this week at Colour Dare - soft and feminine colours - at least, that's the way I interpreted this colour scheme. Others may have thought completely opposite. 

I based my card on one that I found recently on Pinterest with part of the oval cut out and the sentiment stamped behind a raised card front and then surrounded with flowers. I chose to use the new stamp set, Beautiful You, for the flowers. The sentiment is from one of the stamps that comes with the Artistry Cricut Collection - Perfect Picture. I added the faux stitching around the edge using a piercing tool.

Join us at Colour Dare and show us how you use the colour combination shown above (silver is optional). Use all and only the colours shown. You have until Thursday at 10pm EST to link up your project. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: Beautiful You, Perfect Picture
Inks: Slate, Pansy, Blossom, Lagoon
Accessories: Basic Ovals Thin Cuts, Beautiful You Thin Cuts, Little Dreamer Glitter Gems, Clear Shimmer Brush, Piercing Tool, Foam Tape, Thin Foam Tape

Enjoy, 
Alyson

Annual Inspirations New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to the Annual Inspirations New Product Blog Hop. This blog hop features new products from the brand new Annual Inspirations catalog that went live on August 1st. There are some terrific new products available and I am sure that as you move through this blog hop, you will see various new products used in all sorts of ways. 

You should have arrived here from Haley Dyer's blog.

If you get lost, a complete list of hoppers on this blog hop can be found on Melinda Everitt's blog. 

I chose to create a card with a bird's nest on it... it sounded like a good idea until I got a little further into it. This took quite a bit of time. The nest itself is a combination of three of our twines - Whisper Twine, White Twine and the new Juniper coloured twine from the Whimsy Ribbon collection. All have been unravelled and then sort of gathered and rewound to form the nest and kind of glued together - kind of... 
The background was created by stamping the M-size stamp "Delicate Flower" multiple times and then colouring it with ShinHan markers. The background pieces for the nest were cut from the Flower Market Cricut cartridge.

I hope you enjoyed my project. 

The next blog on this hop is Wendy Coffman's blog.

I am sure she has a fabulous project to share with you. 

Products used are Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Pixie Cardstock, Juniper Cardstock, Charcoal Cardstock, Lemon Cardstock, Whimsy Fundamentals
Stamps: Delicate Flower, Sending Smiles

Inks: Black Pigment Ink, Juniper

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Artiste Cartridge (ret.), ShinHan Markers, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, White and Gold Ribbon, Whisper Twine, White Twine, Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Clear Shimmer Brush, Foam Tape

Enjoy,
Alyson

Cross Canada Blog Hop - Annual Inspirations New Product Showcase

Welcome to our August Blog Hop featuring artwork created from products found in the 2017-2018 Annual Inspirations Catalog. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, 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 viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at Michelle S' blog. If you have come from 
Michelle H's blog, then you are in the right place! 

I chose to create a card based primarily on the the Hello Canada digital Cricut cartridge. 

Each province has a flower associated with it and the Ontario flower is the trillium. I love this flower and it grows in abundance in my area. The white trillium is by far the most common but red trilliums are also found, although they are far less common. I based my card on one I found on Pinterest made by Mary Fish. The background panels are embossed with the new Rose embossing folder. 

Products used are all Close To My Heart

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Mink Cardstock, Canary Cardstock, Willow Cardstock

Stamps: none

Inks: none

Accessories: Hello Canada Digital Cartridge, Flower Market Cartridge, Whisper Thick Twine, White Pearls, Rose Embossing Folder, Foam Tape, Corner Rounder

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Janet's blog.

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

If you get lost along the way, you can head to Michelle S's blog.

Thanks for joining us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. 

We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring projects inspired from the new products from the new Holiday Expressions catalog. 

So mark September 15th on your calendars and join us again at that time.

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Heart 2 Heart - Sketch Challenge

This week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart is a sketch challenge - my favourite kind of challenge. I have always loved working with sketches as I find they give me a starting point. Whether you choose to create a card, a layout or something else, as long as we can see the sketch design in your project, that is what matters. You can rotate it, flip it, use a different shape, etc. Just make sure the basic sketch is visible. 

I chose to stay pretty true to the original design. I did want to leave the ends of my card open, though, and that took some extra time to do. I love this new floral pattern in the brand new Adventure Fundamentals - and I did add some shimmer with the Clear Shimmer Brush in a few places but it is hard to see. 

Come and join us and show us how you interpret the sketch shown above at Heart 2 Heart. You have the rest of August to enter this or any of the other August challenges.

Products used are Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated: 

Paper: Adventure Fundamentals, White Daisy Cardstock, Raspberry Cardstock
Stamps: Sending Smiles
Inks: Raspberry
Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Foam Tape, Clear Shimmer Brush, Acetate (not CTMH), Sequins (not CTMH), Sticky Tape (not CTMH)

Enjoy, 
Alyson


SaveSave

AH 224 - Mason Jar Birthday

This week's Atlantic Hearts sketch is a very straightforward sketch - but those sketches lately seem to be drawing a lot of participants, which is terrific! They can be interpreted in SO many different ways. You can turn them over and around and even upside down. You don't need to follow the sketch exactly - just make sure that we can identify the sketch within your project. 

I chose in my card to stay very close to the actual sketch as it worked for what I had in mind. I liked the side panels for the bold colours and the centre section for the main image - in this case, a jar of flowers that were stamped and fussy cut. I added shimmer to the flowers for emphasis. 

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: Prickly Pear Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Gold Foil Paper

Stamps: Keep Dreaming, Banner Wishes (ret.)

Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Emerald

Accessories: Flower Market Cartridge, Gold Shimmer Trim, Gold Glitter Gems, ShinHan Markers, Clear Shimmer Brush, Thin Foam Tape, Adventure Ribbon Pack

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Colour Dare 255 - Bear Birthday Wishes

We are into colour combinations with the Jack paper pack as a basis at Colour Dare for the month of August. Challenge 255 invites you (if you wish) to use some of the papers from the Jack paper pack (like Ruby, Slate, Black and White Daisy) but to add Willow and Sapphire - and Silver is optional.

Since I have a masculine birthday coming up, I decided to pull out the bear stamp set and use that for my card for this challenge. The Willow and Sapphire colours are used minimally - in the mug and hat plus in the sentiment at the bottom. The patterned paper is from the Jack paper pack. 

Join us at Colour Dare and show us how you use the colour palette shown above. Use all and only the colours shown (silver is optional). If you don't have the exact colours shown, use whatever you have that is closest. 

You have until Thursday at 10pm EST to link up your project. 

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

Paper: Jack Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Slate Cardstock

Inks: Black, Willow, Sapphire

Stamps: Jack Cardmaking, Sending Smiles

Accessories: Art Philosophy Cartridge (ret.), Silver Shimmer Trim, Silver Sequins (ret.), Jack Cardmaking Thin Cuts, Sewing Machine and Black Thread (not CTMH), Thin Foam Tape

Enjoy, 

Alyson