Heart2Heart-Go big!

I was just playing around and looking for inspiration last night and liked the look of these letters but they were too big for the original card I had in mind so I changed a few things around to make a 6x6" card for a last minute entry in the Heart2Heart go big challenge.

details:  All materials are CTMH products.  I used Olive for the card base and the Olivia paper kit from a couple of years ago for the banners.  I used the small Chocolate alphabet (D1296) for "give" and sponged Sorbet, Sunset, and Barn Red on letters from the Bohemian alphabet (E1019) for the "thanks."  The pumpkin was from the So Grateful (B1395) set stamped in Sorbet and Barn Red again for the flourished lettering.  I love working with both of these stamp sets so much, I have a feeling they will be showing up a lot more in the next few weeks.  BTW, have I mentioned autumn is my favorite season?  :-)

Happy crafting!  Annette

my first CAS-ual Friday card

After following along for the past couple of weeks, this is my first entry into the CAS-ual Fridays blog where the challenge this week (CFC70) was black, white, and one other color of your choice.  I dearly love this cutout butterfly on the CTMH Art Philosophy and decided to go with orange in honor of the monarch butterflies; I have never seen their migration but if I were to actually make a bucket list, I believe I would have to put that on it.

I tried several plain orange papers but none of them was quite what I was looking for so I used the CTMH Backgrounds and Borders stamp set (D1463) using Sunset cardstock and ink to make my own patterned paper and was pleased with the little extra dimension that created.  Then I used the "Soar" stamp from the Live Out Loud set which was the July stamp of the month set to try a watercolor/crackle embossing technique I saw on one of Jeanette Lynton's blog posts.  I first stamped the image with Sunset ink, let it dry completely, then sponged Versamark randomly onto the same stamp, stamped that directly onto the original image, applied black embossing powder and heat set it.  Not bad for my first attempt but you can check out Jeanette's tutorial for a better example of this technique: Week of Wonder: Two-color, too beautiful

Color My Heart - Go BIG!

I have been playing around with the idea for this card for quite some time but it really came together when I was checking out all the past sketches for the 1-year anniversary of Freshly Made Sketches and saw #37.  While I didn't get this card finished early enough to enter that challenge, the Heart2Heart blog's challenge last week was "Go BIG!" and make a card larger than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" and when I sized the border to the height I wanted to use everything came together for a 6x6" card so I am entering it there, which makes me every bit as happy because all the materials for this card are CTMH products.

The patterned papers are from the retired Roxie kit which  featured Vanilla Cream, Tulip, Smoothie, Black, and Desert Sand.  I used Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the border and sentiment shape from Vanilla Cream cardstock and the hearts from the Roxie patterned paper.  I know it's hard to read the sentiment as the writing is rather small, but it's from the January 2013 stamp of the month "Happy  Valentine's" and reads, "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. ~ Emily Bronte"  I thought this was the *perfect* sentiment for this card!  I used black cardstock for the base of the Ying and Yang symbol but used the Groovy Times cartridge which is a Cricut product.  This is one of those times I don't think my photography skills do the card justice but I was happy with the results.

Happy crafting!

Annette

Blissful Mojo Monday

I am entering this card in the Mojo Monday #258 challenge.  As soon as I saw this sketch, I started thinking about some milestone anniversary cards I've been wanting to make, as I envisioned the two circles in the upper corner holding each of the couple's names and the center embellishment the anniversary sentiment and number.  I had planned on using a heart for the extra embellishment but by the time it all came together I chose the birds printed on one of the papers that came with this pack for a more cohesive look.

details:  All products used were from Close To My Heart.  I used the retired Bliss paper kit which featured the colors Chocolate, Vanilla Cream, and Grey Flannel.  I also used the Art Philosophy cartridge to cut all the circles, scallop circles, and "65th."  After I cut the birds out of one of the B&T papers I used pop up adhesive tabs to add a little dimension there.  I used the Tiny Typewriter alpha (D1222) to stamp the couples' names and the Card Word Puzzle stamp set (C1494) to finish the sentiment.  When the card was assembled it seemed just a little lacking for such an accomplishment so I liberally applied Bronze Glitz Glitter Gel to  the scallop circle and numbers and I was much happier with the results.

Happy crafting!

Annette

Heart2Heart challenge: mini cards

Well, you know how it is...  you think you're done crafting and then you just can't stop yourself and sometimes that's when your best ideas strike.  The materials for this card were leftover from a larger card I made, but I think I actually like this one better.  Since it's a 3x3" mini card, I'm entering it in this week's Heart2Heart challenge.  If you haven't visited this blog or if you haven't checked it out lately, you are really missing some inspiring art work!

http://heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com/2012/09/time-for-mini-card-challenge-h2h.html

I made this card using paper from the Wonderland kit.  I cut the snowflake using the Art Philosophy cartridge and some silver paper from TPC Studio.  The sentiment  is from the discontinued Ice Crystals stamp set.  And I have already given this card to it's recipient, when my
17 year old daughter came home from work with a smile on her face.

Happy crafting!  Annette

 







Let It Snow-Mojo #257

My last card has me thinking about snow so I pulled out the Wonderland kit from last year's autumn/winter catalog, which I really liked but somehow just never got around to using.  The featured colors are Twilight, Crystal Blue, Sping Iris, Grey Flannal, and Chocolate.  Everything on the card is a CTMH product except the snowflakes, which I cut out of some silver cardstock from TPC Studio using the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The smaller two snowflakes and the tiny diamond shapes around the edge of the circle are actually the leftover/negative space pieces--I like to use everything I can, LOL.  Then I added some sparkles to the center of the smaller snowflakes and stamped the sentiment using the discontinued "Ice Crystals" stamp set.

I'm entering this card in the Mojo Monday #257 challenge/contest.  Check out the other inspiring entries here:  http://www.mojomonday.blogspot.com/2012/09/mojo-monday-257-contest.html

Happy crafting!  Annette

Color My Heart challenge #14

I just discovered how challenging it can be to take a clear picture of a 3" card, LOL.  Still, I  got the outside done for this card so I can submit it for the Color My Heart challenge #14, to use Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue, and Crystal Blue.  I haven't quite got the inside finished but plan for the sentiment to be "and only you could melt my heart," I'm just trying to figure out how  to make a heart look like it's melting.  Any thoughts?  Check out the other fabulous entries here:  http://colormyheartcolordare.blogspot.com/2012/08/color-dare-14-outdoor-denim-indian-corn.html

I used the colors mentioned above and the Pair a Phrase stamp set, first stamping the image on Outdoor Denim using White Daisy and then stamping the image on white cardstock using Crystal Blue ink and cutting that image out, touching  it up the edges with Crystal Blue and using Indian Corn Blue  for the sentiment and the scarf and hat.

By the way, this little guy was the inspiration for my card, and after some consideration I cut back the sides of the white cardstock so that it looked like that snowman was also sitting on a block of ice.  You see, my husband's "hobby" is making ice and he is very particular about which trays he likes to use, etc.  So when I originally found this little figurine, naturally I had to get it because it makes me think of my guy.  We all got  a good  chuckle out of it and the figurine  sits on a little shelf in my kitchen year round.  That said, maybe you can guess who's getting the snowman card...

As always, thanks to Sarah and the gang at Color My Heart for another dose of inspiration!
Happy crafting,
Annette

previous project-dry erase board

This is a project I had posted on another page of my blog, before I had a better handle on blogging. At any rate, I wanted to include it here so I could use the page it had been on for other information. Anyway, this is a dry erase board made out of a photo frame (this particular one is 12x16") and they're super easy to make, not to mention lots of fun.