Glitter and Rainbows for AHSC #196

Hello!  We're in a for a patch of gloomy, wintry weather where I'm at so I couldn't resist going for as much color and cheer as I could muster for this week's sketch at Atlantic Heart Sketch Challenge #196.  What a fun sketch to work with, right?  I was really torn between several possibilities so I may come back to this one later this evening and see what else I can some up with!

details:  I started by alternating silver foil tape between strips of red, coral, green, aqua, teal, and (retired) purple shimmer trim.  I then used Black Memento Ink with the retired "Rain or Shine" stamp set (both the image and sentiment).  I colored the rainbow in with Cherry Pink, Turquoise Blue, and Peony Purple ShinHan alcohol markers.  I used

the Memento ink to stamp the clouds onto scraps of white glitter paper and fussy cut them to add some dimension to the image.  I wanted a touch more sparkle and shine so I based the center panel on part of a shimmery silver card base I had on hand and went over the rainbow with the clear shimmer brush.  It's difficult to get a good photo when working with the foil  tape so it's hard to see the effect of the shimmer brush, but I have to say that I don't think I could have gotten any more glitter and shine onto this card if I had tried!  LOL

This really is a fun sketch to work with and we'd love to see your take on it, too!  You have until 10 pm Central on Sunday evening, 1/29/17, to play along and you can link your project at the bottom of THIS post.  Also, if you are a fan of AHSC and/or like to create based on sketches, we'd love for you to consider being on our design team.  We are taking applications for our new term which begins on February 6th, and you can find a link for more info HERE, just above the project upload link.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Flower Market Meets Love Theme for BTF

Hello, crafty friends!  The current theme at the Between The Folds Bi-Weekly challenge is "love."  I wanted to challenge myself a bit to make a masculine card that didn't use red or pink, and here's what I came up with:

details:  I started with a couple of images from the CTMH Flower Market Cricut cartridge including a heart, arrow, and the "you & me" cut.  In Cricut Design Space, I sized two of the hearts so that one was just slightly smaller than the other and then positioned a pair of arrows so that their opposite ends attached to opposite sides of the heart, and then I centered the sentiment in the center.  I used Desert Sand for the main layer of CS and ran both the base piece and the center of the heart through my Cuttlebug using the retired woodgrain embossing folder.  I used a sponge dauber and Chocolate ink to give some texture and color variation, made a frame piece from Chocolate CS, and backed it all with a piece of Champagne CS.  I was going for the look of a heart carved into a tree, and I'm not entirely sure I actually achieved it but I feel I did get a non-traditional, rustic looking Valentine that my husband will get a kick out of.

There are so many directions you can take a theme like "love," and we would love to see yours!  You have until 11:55 pm Eastern/10:55 Central on Monday, 1/30/17, to link your projects HERE.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~   Annette

Sugar Rush for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to another installment of the Close To My Heart (CTMH) Featured Products Blog Hop, where we are playing with the Sugar Rush paper kit or it's color palette of Blossom, Canary, Pomegranate, Raspberry, Sea Glass, Tangerine, Whisper, and White Daisy.  It's a short hop this week as several of our regular participants are on vacation so it's just Corinna and I, but we are certainly glad you stopped by and we hope to see you again on Wednesday, 2/1/17, when we will be featuring the fabulous Hello Lovely paper kit.  Until then, happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

details:  Once I had this sweet paper kit in hand, it didn't take me long to figure out that I wanted to make a mini album of family recipes and birthdays with some photos and journaling added in.  Also, I had this super cute stamp set called His and Hers that was one of my first purchases with CTMH but had never gotten used, and I knew it would be perfect to complete this title page.

All 3 patterned papers are from the Sugar Rush kit.  I cut the base piece (white paper with words in gray) at 8 3/8 x 6 7/8" so it would be the same size as the pages in the 2017 Everyday Life Planner Pages.  I used the love Thin Cuts die and the Pomegranate patterned piece from the kit as the starting point for the center panel, and then planned and fitted everything around that.  I used the retired Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the "made with" from additional pieces from the same kit and placed them on the gray panel cut to 4 1/8 x 4 1/2" and added a 1 x 4 1/2 strip of the donut patterned paper on both the top and bottom, gluing each piece to a piece of White Daisy cardstock and then cutting that down to size.  I cut a piece of Whisper cardstock to 6 1/4 x 4 3/4" and inked the edges with Whisper ink.  I used Cricut Design Space and the Plantin cartridge to customize the zig zag border and then went over those border pieces with the clear shimmer brush to try to give it a glazed look like the icing you might find on a donut.  I then used a second generation stamping of black Memento ink to stamp the oven image on white CS, the dish towel on the Sea Glass square-patterned paper, and the apron image on the pink striped patterned paper.  I used the fussy cut the all stamped images, colored the glass on the oven door with the Warm Grey 7 ShinHan marker, the pot on the stove with the Warm Grey 4, the stripe on the dish towel with Turquoise Blue, and the pocket and strings on the apron with Tender Pink.  This page is all I have for my album so far but I had so much fun making it, I can't wait to work on it some more!

Complete list of participants:

1.  Annette Clark (here)

2.  Corinna Murphy

Floral Friendship Card for AHSC #194

Welcome, crafty friends!  My project today is inspired by this week's 

sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  I admit, this multiple-paneled kind of sketch is the most challenging to me and over the last few days I've taken several different approaches with it before I finally found one I felt satisfied with.

details:  I tweaked the sketch size a bit to give it a 6" square rather than the rectangle shown in the sketch so that I could incorporate this stamped image in the center panel.  The two patterned papers are both from last year's La Vie En Rose kit.  The panel on the left is cut from Pixie cardstock and trimmed with decorative scissors.  I used Pomegranate ink and a dauber to touch up the edges and to stamp the sentiment, which is from the retired "Someone Special" set.

The center panel is done on watercolor paper and features the retired "Candlelight Garden" stamp set.  I used black Memento ink to stamp the flowers/stems image and a silver ink pad from ColorBox to stamp the jar, and then I used the watercolor paints set to fill in the images.  The final touch was to tie a bow around the card with a length of Pixie-colored thick twine (retired).  And that's all there is to this one!

We'd love to see your take on this sketch too!  You have until 10 pm Central time on Sunday, 1/15/17, to link your creation HERE.  We are also having a Design Team member call for the upcoming term, and you can find more information and how to apply by following the same link.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Sugar Rush Color Palette for BTF Challenge

Hello and welcome back, crafty friends!  This week's theme at Between The Folds Bi-Weekly Challenge Blog is the Sugar Rush paper kit.  Unfortunately, I didn't order my kit in time so I challenged myself to get creative with the color palette.  Since my first craft love was stitching and fabric crafts, I decided to piece a quilt block card to send warm winter wishes to a good friend.

 details:  I began by cutting a 6" square card from White Daisy cardstock and a 6" square piece from Whisper for the base.  I used the retired Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the shape at 5 1/2" from White Daisy.  When I removed the paper from the cutting mat, I used my trimmer to trim the piece down to a 5 1/2" square and adhered the negative space pieces for the base of the quilt block.  I then cut the same sized star using the layer function from Sea Glass, Canary, and Blossom cardstock.  I used the outline or frame piece from the Sea Glass and then alternated the Canary and Blossom pieces.

I used Sea Glass ink and the twisty lines stamp from the Way To Go set in each of the corners for the "quilting" and the background stamps that came with the Flower Market cartridge on the Canary and Blossom pieces using Tangerine and Pomegranate inks.  I also used the Pomegranate ink with the stitched line stamp from the retired Elemental WOTG set for the border.  To finish off my "quilt," I used Raspberry ink to stamp the center button from the retired Buttons, Bits and Bobs set, and then I went over the button with my clear shimmer brush and secured it to the card with white twine.  I love how it turned out and can't wait to give it to my friend, probably with a loaf of strawberry bread fresh from my oven.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the other fabulous projects at the BTF Challenge Blog.  I also hope you find time in your busy week for a little crafting and decide to play along with us.  As always, you have until 11 pm Central time on Monday evening (1/16/17 for this challenge) to link your project using the link you can find here.  One last note, if you love creating with Close To My Heart products, we would love for you to consider joining our design team!  If you are interested, you can find more information on our current design team call by going here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy, and crafty, new year!  ~~  Annette

Adore You for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Happy New Year to all my crafty friends!  I don't know about you, but I've got lots and lots I want to accomplish this year and I can't wait to get started, and I'm excited to share our first CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop of the year, which featured the January 2017 Stamp of the Month, the lovely "Adore You" set.  You should have arrived here from Lauren's blog but as always, hops are circular so you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the way and simply follow the links until you've made the rounds.  A complete list of this week's participants is included at the bottom of this post in case you get lost along the way.  So now let's get to my project!

details:  I chose one of my favorite retired CTMH papers for this one, called "Roxie."  I added a little extra shimmer by using my clear ruler and gold metallic marker to random lines on the plaid patterned paper.  I stamped the heart and flower image on the red panel (actually a retired shade called Tulip) with Memento black ink.  On a separate piece of lighter colored paper I stamped and heat embossed the flower portion of that image as well as the sentiment (from a retired stamp set called Big Hug).  For the inside, I stamped the larger sentiment in (retired) Tulip  ink to coordinate with the front and the XOXO in black.

Edit:  I wasn't quite happy with this card so I came back to it a day later and made some changes, which I liked a lot better, so I thought I would share it too:

 I love this set!  I am betting this one will become a real go-to in my collection for scrapbooking as well as wedding, anniversary, and those fun little personal "I love you because..." kind of notes.

And now it's time for you to visit Terrie's blog and see what she has in store for you.  We hope to see you again on 1/18/17 when we will bring you sweet inspiration based on the new Sugar Rush paper kit and it's colors.  Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Complete list of participants:
1.  Annette Clark (here)
2.  Terrie Shortsleeve
3.  Donna Digby
4.  Lauren Moore