AHSC #152 for a Mother's Day Card

I am always impressed by the sketches at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and this week was no exception!  In fact, it was such an intriguing sketch that I had trouble settling on a project but finally this Mother's Day card won out.  This card also gave me the chance to learn some new skills on my  Cricut Explore so I fully enjoyed creating it, and I hope you enjoy taking a peek at it.

I used Charlotte paper, a shape from the Art Philosphy cartridge which I altered a bit and the Mother's Day and A Mother's Love stamp sets in black and Sorbet inks.

I kept the inside of the card nice and simple so  there would be plenty of room for a hand-written note.Thanks for looking and please stop by the AHSC challenge blog for some fabulous inspiration.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette 

Embossing Folders for Between The Folds Challenge

This week at the Between The Folds challenge we are featuring projects using CTMH's embossing folders.  I have loved embossing ever since my crafting mentor first showed them to me; I love the added dimension and that extra bit of polish it seems to bring to projects.  Of the 15 embossing folders CTMH currently offers, this damask one has always been my favorite, especially when paired with this image from the Perfect Fit - Frames stamp set.  I really love personalized stationery and miss sending and receiving more handwritten notes so I thought for this project I would create some blank monogram notecards, especially when I saw that monograms are this week's challenge over at the Heart2heart challenge blog.

Once I had embossed my Pixie cardstock, I sanded the raised image so that the white core would show through.  Then I used the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut this shape and stamped it in black with the Perfect Fit set mentioned above.  For the monogram, I used a punch to cut a 1 1/4" circle from the white piece from the gold glitter paper set and stamped the "A" from the retired Vogue alphabet set in black ink, and added a piece of black shimmer trim.  I love how it turned out and can't wait for an occasion to send it to someone.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out all the other projects at the BTF challenge, we would love to see your work too!  Happy crafting, Annette

CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop - Complements

Hello again and welcome to this installment of the Close To My Heart Featured Products Blog Hop where this week we are shining the spotlight on Complements.  If you found your way here from Corinna's blog you are in the right place, but hops are circular so you are welcome to jump in from any point and continue on till you've made the rounds.  At the end of this post there is a complete list of participants in case you get lost.

I confess, I haven't bought many of the CTMH complements kits in the past just because I'm less of a sticker person and more of a stamping enthusiast.  However, the creative folks at CTMH have really taken everything to the next level of awesomeness this past year and I had a hard time choosing which set of complements to work with for this project.  In the end, though, I had to go with the Charlotte set again.  You see, my son was born with an especially severe seizure disorder; so severe that he had seizures nearly every day and it took just a couple of flashes from a camera to put him into another one.  So we had to be really careful taking photos and we only got a handful of professional portraits during his lifetime, and only these two with both him and his sister.  Naturally, these pictures are truly priceless so it seemed only fitting to use the Charlotte complements with all their lovely gold foil accents.  The only thing I added that was not from either the Charlotte paper kit, complements, or Treasured Puffies featured with this set is the stamped camera, which was from the recent Share the Love campaign.  I also used the Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the background shapes in both the pink striped patterned paper from the kit and Slate cardstock.

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share this very special project with you.  The next stop on the hop is the Lauren, and I hope you will check out the lovely and inspiring projects each of our participants have come up with.  Please join us again on Wednesday, April 6th, for our next hop when we will be featuring Fundamental Stickers.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop: Complements

1.  Lauren Moore
2.  Melissa Robinson
3.  Catherine Nowak
4.  Kim Loewen
5.  Corinna Murphy
6.  Annette Clark  (here)

Welcome Baby card for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge

Hello!  I hope you are finding lots of inspiration from this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #150.  Wow, 150 sketches, how exciting is that!  I have been following this challenge blog from their beginning and I have found so much inspiration from both the design team as well as the participants each week, so I felt very honored to get to join the design team at AHSC a few weeks ago.




I admit, this sketch had me stumped for a bit but that's half the fun of challenges, to stretch your creativity.  For this card, I chose to use the paper, stamp set, and complements from the Georgie Workshop On The Go for a rather overdue "welcome baby" card for a lovely young couple who recently had their first child.  I have to admit, once I got into  the spirit of things I really had a ball figuring out the various elements to complete the sketch, it was like creating a puzzle while putting it together at the same time.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the other projects at AHSC for some sketchy inspiration!
Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Penelope for BTF Challenge

Hello!  Are you as ready for spring as I am?  If so, you will love the bright, cheerful colors in the Penelope paper pack, which is being featured at the Between The Folds Challenge this week.  This is the first project I've made with this kit and I wanted to create a simple but special thank you card for a very special person:  I have mentioned Jackie, my best friend's daughter who happens to have Downs Syndrome, several times.  Last week Jackie surprised me with a lovely picture she had colored of a butterfly and lots of flowers "just because she was missing me."  Hearing that really made my heart smile so naturally I wanted to reciprocate, and now that it's done I can't wait to give it to her and see her lovely smile!



















details:  As mentioned, I used the Penelope paper kit for this one.  I stamped and fussy cut the Frame Flare stamp set in Thistle ink and a retired Hostess Rewards stamp set called Variety of Thanks in Pixie ink.  For a little something extra I added a bow using Pixie extra thick twine.  And that's all there is to this one.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out all the lovely creations this week at BTF!
Happy crafting!  Annette

CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop: Embossing Folders

Hello and welcome to another installment of the Close To My Heart (CTMH) Featured Products blog hop,  where we will be sharing inspiration with projects featuring our embossing folders.  Blog hops are a circular kind of thing so if you found your way here from Kim's blog you are in the right place, but you are welcome to jump in anywhere and make the rounds.  There is a complete list at the end of this post in case you get lost along the way.
A few weeks ago I saw a post online talking about an area animal shelter that's getting ready to hold it's annual fundraiser and when I contacted them and explained what I do, they were eager to have some handcrafted thank you cards to send to their donors.  So with that in mind, I knew I really wanted to use the CTMH hearts embossing folder and the circle diffuser (to leave a blank space in the middle of the card) and this is what I came up with.

I used the Artistry Cricut cartridge to cut the dog and cat, the December 2015 Stamp of the Month set Candlelight Garden, to stamp the cat's sentiment, and one of the stamp sets that came with the Artistry cartridge for the dog's sentiment.  To color the individual hearts, I embossed a scrap with the same embossing folder and used my exacto knife to cut out just one heart, and used that as a mask.

And that's all there is to this one.  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out Lauren's blog where she has a fabulous project to share with you.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette






Complete hop list:
1.  Annette:  http://littlecropshop.blogspot.com/2016/03/ctmh-featured-products-blog-hop.html
2.  Lauren:  http://laurenctmhcraftings.blogspot.com/2016/03/featured-product-embossing-folders.html
3.  Melissa:  http://mlisrobinson.blogspot.com/2016/03/featured-product-blog-hop-embossing.html
4.  Catherine:  http://catscrapbooking.com/2016/03/02/technique-blog-hop-embossing-folders/
5.  Corinna:  http://corinnacraftfun.blogspot.com/2016/03/ctmh-featured-products-blog-hop.html
6.  Kim:  http://scrappinwithheart.blogspot.ca/2016/03/ctmh-featured-products-blog-hop.html