Swan Lake for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello and welcome back to another installment of the Close To My Heart Featured Products Blog Hop, where this week we are bringing you projects based on the Swan Lake kit.  If you came here from Corinna's blog you are in the right spot, but as always hops are circular things so you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the line and make the rounds.  Just in case you get lost along the way, I have included a complete list of this week's participants at the end of this post.  Let's get started!

I wanted to do something a little different for this project so I started this as a custom page for my Everyday Life Planner, intending to have a section for journaling on gratitude, but I love these cute pedestal card holders I got at Micheal's at graduation time, so I might just leave this out until Thanksgiving has past.

details:  I measured a Everyday Life Planner page and cut a piece of the Swan Lake paper to size.  I then turned to my Cricut and cut this white heart at 4 1/2" using the retired Artiste cartridge.  I used the Flower Market cartridge to cut the words out at 2.33" height using Poppy and Glacier CS.  For a little added visual interest (and because I love a little touch of glitter and bling) I wove some black and gold ribbon through the edges.  I thought it still needed a little more bling so I added 3 graduated-sized hearts for the top left and bottom right corners as well as this gold embossed bow, all from the retired Gold Fundamentals Assortment.

And that's all there is to this one, your next stop on our hop is Lauren's blog.  I hope you take time to make the complete tour and that you find inspiration for your own Swan Lake projects, and please stop back on 11/2/16 when we will be working with the City Sidewalks kit.
Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Complete list of participants:

1.  Lauren Moore

2.  Janna Gray

3.  Donna Digby

4.  Corinna Murphy

5.  Annette Clark (here)

Quoth the Raven for AHSC #182

Hello, crafty friends!  I have spent a lovely autumn evening playing with this week's from the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  I had initially thought I would make a breast cancer awareness card but as I was also enjoying "The Walking Dead" marathon while I crafted, somehow I ended up with a Halloween themed card instead.

details:  All products used for this one are from CTMH and most are retired items.  I started with this set of patterned papers from the Mischief kit on a 6 x 4" base of Smokey Plum cardstock. The left edge of the orange paper is one of the zip strips from that kit and I edged it with a piece of black shimmer trim that I ran through my trimmer to get a thinner piece.  For the smaller panel, I used the Quoth the Raven stamp with Tuxedo Black ink by Memento on a piece of Colonial White CS sponged with Smokey Plum ink and backed with the Smokey  Plum piece of the earlier version of fundamental papers that  had clear embossed designs.

This was another really fun and versatile sketch to work with and I hope you are able to make time to craft this week and give this sketch a try.  As always, you have until 10 pm Central time on Sunday, 10/23/16, to link your project  over at the AHSC blog.  The more the merrier, and we'd love to see your creations!

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Swan Lake for BTF Challenge #32

Welcome, crafty friends!  This week at the Between The Folds Bi-Weekly Challenge Blog our theme is the Swan Lake paper kit or its color  palette of Black, Canary, Fern, Glacier, Goldrush, Peacock, Poppy, Slate, Whisper, and White Daisy.  Wow, that's a lot of colors!  So many that I had a really hard time deciding which ones to focus on so instead of choosing, I tried to use them all!

details:  I really love autumn and the Thanksgiving holiday, so I was in a particularly playful mood when I started putting this card together.  I used a combinations of zip strips and 1/2" wide strips of the patterned paper to make a panel of woven strips, stamped this adorable patterned pumpkin image from the new Autumn Wishes set in Goldrush and Fern inks, set it on a panel of white CS and the Peacock patterned paper, and then I brushed the pumpkin with the shimmer brush.  For the panel on the right, I broke out a retired set called Poster Tidings, which I masked several times so I could use multiple inks.  (Here's a hint:  stamp the top and bottom lines together and then mask/stamp one color at a time, using the "autumn" and "blessed" to get everything lined up.)  I topped that with strips of the retired bronze shimmer trim.

For the inside, I cut a piece of Whisper CS to the size I needed and topped that with this pocket panel featuring this pair of swans.  I used the retired scrapbooking and card making workshop stamps from last year's Pathfinding kit and added these 3-d heart and arrow pieces from the Swan Lake complements.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget that you have until Monday evening, 10/24/16, at 10:55 p.m. Central to link your Swan Lake themed project if you want to play along with us this week.  The more the merrier and we'd love to see what you come up with!

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

For the Love of Stamping for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Welcome to this installment of the CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop where our theme this
time out is For the Love of Stamping. What does that mean? It pretty much means anything
goes as long as it involves using your favorite CTMH stamps or your favorite stamping
techniques. If you found your way here from Donna's blog you are in the right place but as
always, hops are circular so you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the way and make
the rounds, and I have included a list of our participants for this hop at the bottom of this
page. Let's get started!

I have been wanting to make some version of this card for ages, but I'm so glad I waited
until now because I LOVE adding our silver shimmer trim, it looks like chrome and is the
perfect touch for this masculine card. I used the retired "Cruisin' " paper for the card base
and then I inked this motorcycle image from the retired "Born to Ride" set once time and
then kept stamping for a 2nd and 3rd generation effect which I'm hoping will lend a sense of movement to this card. The image in the top-center of the card is another stamp in this set,
which I stamped in black onto a piece of retired Sunset CS and fussy cut the image.

And that's all there is to my project today and now it's time to venture on over to
Lauren's blog to see what she has in store for you. There are so many fabulous effects
you can do with stamping, I hope you find lots of inspiration and step outside your
comfort zone this week to try something new! Happy crafting! ~~ Annette

Complete list of this week's participants:

1. Annette Clark (here)

2. Lauren Moore

3. Corinna Murphy

4. Donna Digby

50th Birthday Card for AHSC #180

Hello, crafty friends!  A lifelong friend will be turning the big 5-0 in a few days so I was so happy I could use this week's sketch at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to create a special card for the occasion.









details:  (All products used are from CTMH.)  I thought it was only fitting to add some touches of gold for a 50th birthday, and also a bit of black since I'm sure that seems to be a theme for the bigger milestone birthdays.  I started with a 4 x 6" base of Poppy CS with a 3 3/4 x 5 3/4" panel of Swan Lake.  For the panel behind the sentiment, I used the Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the numbers panel out of Glacier CS at 4" height but I had to trim the right edge by hand to make it better fit the sketch.  I used the retired "Just a Number" stamp set for the sentiment panel (cut at 2 x 3 1/4" white CS with a base of 2 1/4 x 3 1/2").  For the trim, I used the gold diagonal striped zip strip from last May's "Happy Times" kit and a bit of the gold foil tape for the bottom part of the card and the black and gold  ribbon that goes along with the Swan Lake kit in the upper corner of the sentiment panel.  I cut 2 hearts out of gold glitter paper with the Artiste cartridge at 1 and 1 1/2" and used some retired white and black embroidery thread for the string for the larger balloon.  I tried to stamp the "50" on the larger balloon but the ink didn't show up well enough, so luckily I had some stickers left from last year's version of the basics fundamentals pack.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look, and be sure to check out all the participants' entries as well as the design team members' projects.  We'd love to see your take on this sketch, too, and you can link your project HERE by 10 pm Central Time on Sunday, 10/9/16.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Creative Stamping for BTF #31

Hello and welcome back,, crafty friends!  We're all in our second week of our Creative Stamping Techniques theme at the Between The Folds Bi-Weekly Challenge Blog.  There are so many fun things you can do with CTMH's My Acrylix stamps that I had a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to do, so I went back to one of my faves, blending and shading by "rocking and rolling" a stamp in at least two colors of ink.  Here's my take for this project:

I used the new Swan Lake paper kit and the retired "Feathers" stamp set.  For the blue feathers, I used Glacier and Peacock; Whisper, Slate, and Black for the gray feahers; and Canary, Goldrush, and Poppy for the orange-red feathers.
To accomplish this, you stamp the majority of the stamp in the lighter color, "rocking" the stamp on the pad, and then layering on more ink by rocking the stamp onto another ink pad or using a sponge dauber to brush on additional in.  To get the darker edges, you simply "roll" the edges of the mounted stamp onto the darkest ink pad you are using.  It's a fun technique that makes a uniquely shaded image each time.

Don't forget to check out all the creative stamping projects by both the participants and the rest of the design team at the Between The Folds challenge.  We'd love to see what you come up with too, so if you find yourself doing some creative stamping this week you have until 11:55 pm Eastern/10:55 pm Central on Monday, 10/10/16.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette