From The Heart for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello again, crafty friends!  Welcome back to another edition of the Close To My Heart (CTMH) Featured Products Blog Hop.  This week's hop features CTMH's From the Heart stamp set and interactive card kit, which is available only during the month of September in honor of National Stamping Month.  It has been a busy summer and we are a small group of hoppers so we took a bit of a break and this week it's just Corinna and myself, but we are back and ready to go just in time to start gearing up for the holiday season!  Let's get started:

This is the photo CTMH gave provided of the stamp set and card kit together.  As you can see, it's stunning with virtually endless stamping possibilities.

And this is what I chose to do with the stamp set:

 

It took some trial and error to find the color combos I liked and then a little bit of practice with layering the stamps but it was totally worth it.  I will post the colors I used at the end of the post, but first I want to share a couple of tips I used in making this card:

1.  I found it easier to stamp the darker color first, regardless if that was the base layer of the "effects" layer.
2.  For the darker color of ink, I used the traditional stamping technique and firmly pressed the mounted stamp onto the ink pad once or twice to ensure full coverage.  Then for the lighter layer, I used a combination of the rock & roll method and lightly patting the stamp onto the ink pad so that there was less-than-full coverage which I feel lent a more dimensional, almost watercolor look to some of the images.

I really urge you to pick up this From the Heart stamp set, and perhaps the combined stamp and card kit, before they're gone.  Not only are the flowers gorgeous, but the images will give you a fun chance to stretch your stamping abilities and there is a set of sentiments in this set that you will be able to use in your cardmaking for years to come.

Don't forget to hop on over to Corinna's blog to see what projects she has created for you, you'll be glad you did!  I hope you will join us again on October 4th for the Beary Merry Christmas hop, too.  Thanks for stopping by and happy stamping!  ~~  Annette


Purple flowers:  Eggplant & Pansy with Canary and Flaxen (for the dots) for the centers

Pink flowers:  Raspberry for both layers (I just patted or dabbed the stamp onto the ink pad for the lighter layer but you could also do a second generation stamp) and Canary for the centers

Yellow flowers:  Tangerine & Lemon

Blue Flowers:  Pacifica (first generation for the lines and second generation for the main flower) with Willow for the stems (hint:  stamp the stems first, it's much easier to line things up that way)

Leaves:  Sweet Leaf for the base (again, rock and roll it and/or tap/pat it for a lighter, variegated look) and Willow for the veins and darker half-leaf

PAPERS:  Willow for the card base, Pansy for the panel behind the sentiment, and Raspberry for the sentiment which was die cut using my Cuttlebug and the retired Hello & Thanks Thin Cut die set

Sweet Tidings for AHSC #230

Hello again, crafty friends!  I have been planning several Christmas cards but didn't intend to actually start making them for another week or two, but something about this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge just put me in a festive mood.  I tried several variations on this sketch but this is the one I kept coming back to and fine tuning, and I am finally happy with it... I think, lol.

We would love to see your take on this week's sketch, too.  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 9/24/17, to play along and you can link your project HERE.  Don't forget to check out the rest of the design team's projects too, you are sure to be inspired by what they've created for you!  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

details:  I started with the City Sidewalks papers (retired) and I chose to focus on 3 colors: Willow, Cranberry, and Glacier.  The 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" card base is on Cranberry cardstock; the 3 x 4" green patterned panel is from City Sidewalks and the diagonal striped piece is one of the zip strips from that kit.  The center panel and mini banners are cut from Cranberry, White Daisy, and Glacier cardstocks.  

All the stamped images are from a new set called Season of Sweetness.  I used Nutmeg ink to stamp the cookie images on Colonial White cardstock (retired) and then I stamped the images on White Daisy and fussy cut them - yes, even the TINY pieces of the Christmas tree cookie - and layered them onto the Colonial White pieces as I was trying to make them look like frosted sugar cookies.  I don't know how well I succeeded with that, but I can tell you I did succeed in starting a craving for sugar cookies!

Falling For You, So Blessed and AHSC #228

Hello again, crafty friends!  Autumn is my favorite season and it's fast approaching, but I couldn't wait any longer to break out some fall themed craft supplies and this week's sketch from the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge provided the perfect opportunity.  Let's get started!

details:  I started with the Falling For You paper pack and I chose to focus on three particular colors from the kit:  Fern, Goldrush, and Nutmeg.  I cut the green orange leaves from one of the patterned papers in this kit, and the green stripe and brown banner are also patterned papers from the same kit.  I used black Memento ink to stamp this feather image from the September Stamp of the Month, Feel So Blessed.  I used sponge daubers to layer Almond, Toffee, and Nutmeg inks.  To add a little more dimension to the colors, I used the Clay ShinHan marker to fill in some of the lines.  I also used the Feel So Blessed stamp set for the sentiment which was stamped in Nutmeg.  For a little shine, I used a scallop border punch and a strip of gold glitter paper for the bottom border strip, punched a heart shape out of the same paper.  I had some retired puffies sets lying around and discovered there were some tiny gold glittery leaves so I added a trio of those in the upper corner as well.  Have I mentioned that autumn is my favorite season?

Don't forget to check out the design team's projects, you are sure to be inspired!  We would love to see your take on this sketch, too!  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central to link your project, which you can do HERE.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette