Watercolor Farm Scene for AHSC #214

Hello, crafty friends!  Michelle Stewart has brought us another great sketch to work with this week at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge that has multiple layers and tons of possibilities.  I played around with several different ideas with this sketch but this is the one I kept coming back to, so this is the one you get to see, lol.

First, a little backstory.  Several years ago, shortly after the death of our son, we began what has become an annual tradition of spending the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend with my stepbrother on his farm.  Fast forward a few years, I was nervous but honored to have a little bit of a hand in getting him together with his second wife.  He had two daughters and she had three, and now two of their daughters have gotten married and one has had a baby, so our annual traditions continue but have gotten a bit noisier and more crowded, which makes them even more fun.  Truly, it is a blessing to see their family so happy and enjoying their get togethers back on the farm and we love being a part of it all, and I wanted to drop them a note - or a card, in this case - to thank them for continuing to include us and give us something to look forward to in what is otherwise still a rather sad holiday for us.

details:  I have quite a mixed collection of long-retired patterned papers CTMH used to sell based on individual color, and I'm tired of these lovely papers sitting around collecting dust.  Since I knew I planned on going with a brightly colored farm scene, I decided to dig through these old B&T's for some primary colors for the base layers.  In this case, I used Outdoor Denim, Sunny Yellow and a solid piece of Cranberry.  I used Black Memento Ink to stamp this farm scene  from the Homegrown set on one piece of  watercolor paper and the fence on another, and then used my watercolor paints to bring color to the scene.  I fussy cut the fence and glued it onto the panel in place of the ribbon shown in the sketch.  I chose this sentiment from a retired stamp set called "Country Born" and layered it on this gingham-tablecloth stamped image from the "Summer Days" set which coordinated with the Mayberry paper kit from several years ago.

And that's all their is to this one.  Our design team has come up with quite a variety of projects for you based on this week's sketch, and we would love to see what you come up with too!  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 6/4/17, and you can link your project HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Patriotic Card for BTF #47B

Hello, crafty friends!  We are in the second week of our "Favorite Thing About Summer" theme at the Between The Folds Bi-Weekly Challenge Blog.  I had several ideas I was playing around with for this theme but a touching project and video were pointed out to me last week and I knew I had to share my version as well as pay tribute to the card maker and her inspiration.  Let's get started!

First off, I want to pay tribute to my inspiration for this project, Michelle Wright.  She is an SU Demonstrator and, more importantly, a Gold Star mom and I urge you to take a few minutes to watch her video all the way through.  For my Close To My Heart version, I used Sapphire and Cranberry inks with the Brushstrokes stamp set to create this flag image on White Daisy cardstock.  I then used the Stars Thin Cuts and white glitter paper to create the star.  I used a retired stamp set "A Thousand Thanks" and Sapphire ink to stamp the sentiment in the slightly darker area of the longer "stripes" where I had to overlap my stamping, which I am hoping gives a highlighted effect to the words.  So simple but very visual, and a very powerful message of thanks to the men and women who protect our country and our freedoms - and the families who sacrifice so much to support their loved ones who serve!

Summer can a very busy season, full of many of our favorite holidays and happenings.  I hope you will find time to share a project inspired by your favorite thing about summer and share it with us at BTF this week.  As always, your project needs to include some CTMH product(s) and you have until 11:59 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time/10:59 pm Central to share your project HERE.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Little Dreamer for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello and welcome back, crafty friends!  I'm so glad you could join us for this week's Close To My Heart (CTMH) Featured Products Blog Hop.  This time we are presenting projects from the new Little Dreamer paper kit, the coordinating card making stamp and die set, the scrapbooking stamp and die set, or the color palette of Black, Blossom, Glacier, Lagoon, Emerald, Lemon, Tangerine, Thistle, and White Daisy.  Not only are the colors beautifully vibrant, but the images in this kit are absolutely adorable!  If you came here from Lauren's blog you are in the right place and your next stop from here will be Corinna's blog, but hops are circular so you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the line and simply follow the links until you've made the rounds.  I have included a complete list of this week's participants in case you get lost along the way.

details:  I am not sure of the "official" name for this card pattern but it's the first step card I learned to make, and I just love using it.  Using the Little Dreamer papers, I used the Artistry cartridge to cut this Earth image and another circle at 3" height and I made sure to align the patterned lines of the blue paper with the rainbow stripes.  Once I had those layers glued together and positioned where I wanted them (making sure the Earth went off the top of the card by about 1/4"), I had to fussy cut the edges of the central part of the card so the rectangular corners weren't sticking out.

I used Blossom and Thistle inks with the Little Dreamer scrapbooking stamp and thin cuts to create the banner, and then I used the smallest heart from the Basic Hearts thin cuts with the Blossom flower-patterned paper and stamped the "you" in Thistle ink.  I stamped the "colorful" sentiment multiple times on white cardstock and fussy cut each letter out (I had planned ahead to use the C and U in white as those letters were basically reversible so once I stamped and cut them I could flip them over to use the unstamped side) and glued them along the bottom of the card.  Once the letters were in place I could position the heart and banner and add a little sparkle from the Little Dreamer glitter gems.  I plan to use this as a graduation card for a lovely young lady from our church who is graduating high school this week and is very into fashion and modeling, and whose mother scrapbooks with me.  I sure hope she likes it!

And that's all there is for this project I'm just getting started with this kit and the possibilities are endless.  Don't forget to stop by Corinna's blog to see what she has in store for you, too.  I hope you will join us again on Wednesday, 6/7/17, when we will bring you projects featuring the No Worries kit. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Complete list of this week's participants:

1.  Lauren Moore

2.  Annette Clark (here)

3.  Corinna Murphy

No Worries Card for AHSC #212

Hello again, crafty friends!  We have a super fun sketch to create with this week at the Atlantic Heart Sketch Challenge blog and I have had a ton of fun getting my fingers all inked up and breaking out new products.  So without further ado, let's get started!








details:  I decided the No Worries scrapbooking kit would be perfect to use for a birthday card for my husband's upcoming 50th birthday as he's a very laid back kind of guy who loves the water.  I also knew I wanted to use one of the PML pieces for the inside of the card so I planned this card for a 4 x 6" size to accommodate that.  For the front of the card, I used sponge daubers to blend Cashmere, Glacier, Lagoon, and Sapphire inks for a custom background to frame this panel of white-and-Cashmere colored paper.  Per the sketch, I cut and wove pieces of Blue and White Burlap Ribbon on the left side.  For the large cluster of images in the bottom left corner, I used a combination of stickers and printed pre-cut images from the No Worries complements:  the smallest heart is a preprinted sticker adhered to the back of one of the pre-cut pieces; the medium sized heart is another sticker adhered to a 1" circle of Cashmere cardstock; and the large heart is a preprinted die cut image placed on a 1 1/2" piece of Sapphire cardstock.  The sentiment is from the No Worries scrapbooking stamp set which was inked in Glacier, Lagoon, and Sapphire using the rock and roll technique.  For a little extra fun, I added 3 embellishments in the upper right corner made from the No Worries sequins combined with pieces from the gold glitter gems and blue enamel and glitter duos dots.

I am still fine tuning the inside of the card so I will share a pic of that at a later date, but I can tell you it will feature the "Good Times" PML card with the bokeh background, but I need to alter it a bit to fit my plans.  I have to say, if my husband actually watched me go to all the effort I've put into this card so far he would laugh at me, but I want this birthday to be as special as he is so it's totally worth it!

We would love to see your take on this week's AHSC sketch too!  Don't forget, our challenges are open to any type of brand of products of your choosing so long as you basically follow the sketch.  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 5/21/17, to add your project HERE.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Little Dreamer for BTF #46

Hello, crafty friends!  Have you checked out the beautiful colors in the Little Dreamer kit yet?  If not, you are in luck because that's the kit we're working with this week at the Between The Folds Bi-Weekly Challenge Blog.

I am hoping the colorful rainbow and hearts will cheer up a friend and former neighbor who is battling spinal stenosis, a medical condition that causes chronic pain and pinched nerves.  For this card, I started with a 4.25 x 5.5" card base of Lagoon cardstock and this printed hearts panel from the Little Dreamer kit.  I then used Thistle, Glacier, Lemon, and Blossom inks with the coordinating scrapbooking stamp and die cut to create the rainbow.  I cut two clouds from the same kit and flipped the first one over and sponged the entire thing with Glacier.  For the second cloud, I used Glacier to ink the edges but then stamped this sentiment within the cloud outline in Lagoon so it would really stand out, and I raised that cloud with pop up tape.

We would love to see what you're making with this adorable kit.  As always, you have until 11:55 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time/10:55 pm Central on Monday, 5/22/17, to link up your project HERE.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Live Beautifully for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello, crafty friends!  Welcome back for another edition of the Close To  My Heart (CTMH) Featured Products Blog Hop.  In honor of May being National Scrapbooking Month, CTMH has brought us this stunning beautiful Live Beautifully kit to enjoy, available only in the month of May.  There are two levels of kits to choose from as well as a coordinating stamp set, so there is truly something for everyone in this one!  As you can tell, we are really excited to share our projects with you so if you came here from Corinna's blog you are in the right place but, as always, hops are circular things so you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the way and simply make the rounds.  I have also included a complete list of this week's participants at the end of this post in case you get lost along the way.  Now on to my project:

The project I want to share with you is a layout of my in-laws very unique wedding that took place in 1939, so of course I wanted to do it justice but it is took a little longer than expected while I tinkered with preserving the original documents and newspaper clippings that go with it.  I ended up making a sleeve to hold the correspondence and memorabilia, attached that to a long strip of cardstock cut to the same width, and then cut slits in the page protector so that contents of the sleeve were still accessible.  The final touch was to decorate the sleeve so that it looked like a fancy envelope with an embossed monogram.  I still plan on doing a second page to go along with this one, but I really wanted to get this one up.


So now it's time for you to hop on over to Lauren's blog to see what loveliness she has in store for you.  We hope you will join us again in two weeks on 5/17/17 when our theme will be the new Little Dreamer kit.  Until then, happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Complete list of participants:

1.  Lauren Moore
2.  Corinna Murphy
3.  Annette Clark (here)

You Are Not Alone for AHSC #210

Hello and welcome back, crafty friends!  I couldn't resist using this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, some new paper, and a mix of old and new stamps to create a special card for a young woman in our community who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

I used an 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card base cut from Blossom cardstock and a 4 x 5 1/4" panel of this heart-patterned piece from the new Little Dreamer kit.  I cut a 1 x 5" piece of white cardstock, covered it in a strip of washi tape that is Lagoon with white hearts (retired).  I then cut a 2 3/4 x 2 1/4" piece of white cardstock and used a second generation stamping with Lagoon ink and the ribbon image from the retired Always Remember set.  On top of that, I stamped the sentiment in black Memento ink from the stamp included in the WYW Here For You kit.  For a little added dimension, I inked the edges of the center panel in Glacier and then added these two heart brads that I've had for years.

We would love to see your take on this sketch.  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central Daylight Savings Time on Sunday, 5/7/17, and you can link your projects HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette