Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Blush and Gold Birthday Wishes for AHSC #240









Hello again, crafty friends!  Michelle Stewart has brought us another fabulous sketch to work with this week at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, which I used for inspiration for a birthday card for my daughter.  Before I get into the details, I want to encourage everyone to share their take on this week's sketch by linking your projects HERE by 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 12/3/17.  You can also view the rest of the design team's creations by following THIS link. 

My daughter's 23rd birthday was this week and I wanted to make her a card that was both a little more grown up than the cards I've made her thus far.  She has several blouses that are either pale pink or white with gold accents and they have become the favorites in her wardrobe, so that was the inspiration for this card's color scheme.


details:  All products are from CTMH.  In order to size the banner and medallion elements the way I wanted, I had to upscale to a 5 x 7" card base.  I used gold foil paper for the base layer and then I used my Cricut and the retired Art Philosophy cartridge to cut this scalloped rectangle from Bashful glitter paper.  The white paper with gold foil hearts is from the current Silver and Gold kit and the balloons were cut from white and gold glitter paper at 1.5" using the retired Artiste cartridge, tied together with white and gold twine, and popped up with thin 3-D foam tape.  The other half of the triangle was a little trickier:  I started with the lighter side of the Bashful cardstock and over that I layered this clear, gold dotted acetate "paper" from the All About the Gold fundamental papers from the 2016-17 Idea Book.  Since it's clear acetate, I ran the piece through my large Xyron so there was a fairly consistent, widespread adhesive coverage.  For the banner, I used Versamark and gold embossing powder to heat emboss this sentiment from the retired Card Chatter - Birthday stamp set on white cardstock, backed on another piece of gold foil paper.  The base of the medallion was punched from gold foil paper using the retired 2" scallop punch.  The smaller scallop was cut on the lighter shade of Bashful cardstock, again using the retired Art Philosophy cartridge, at 1.5" and a duplicate medallion (with a 1.32" circle sliced from it) was cut from gold glitter paper.  I decided at the last minute, once I had my Cricut put away, that the medallion needed another layer so I cut one from white cardstock using my Cuttlebug and the smallest die from the basic circles Thin Cuts set.  The numbers were cut from gold foil paper at 0.658" with the alpha from the retired Artbooking cartridge.

For the inside, I used Pixie ink to stamp another sentiment from the same Card Chatter - Birthday set.  I used Bashful glitter paper and gold foil paper with the retired gift Thin Cut die to create the present in the left corner, and Bashful glitter paper with the smallest of the retired hearts Thin Cuts dies (the thin heart is from the actual die shape and smaller, "solid" heart is the "negative space" piece that was left over).  And that's all there is to this one... except for the mess I made and now have to clean up, LOL.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Warm Winter Wishes for AHSC #238

Hello there, crafty friends!  Once again, Michelle Stewart has brought us another fabulous sketch to work with this week at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and our design team has come up with a great variety of projects to share with you.  For my project, I went "old school" and broke out mostly retired products for a snowman themed holiday card.  Let's get started!






details:  I have always loved this Wonderland paper kit and have been hoarding my last pieces.  However, one of my dearest friends is fond of snowmen and this was the prettiest snow-themed paper I had in my  stash.  The main colors for this kit were Crystal Blue, Spring Iris, Heavenly Blue, and Twilight so I tried to incorporate those colors as much as possible, starting with a base of Spring Iris CS.  I created the snowman from the Flakey Friends stamp set, starting with Slate ink on White Daisy CS.  I stamped the image twice so I could fussy cut, color, and layer parts of the image.  I sponged Spring Iris ink onto the scarf and hat sets and then used the same colored ink marker to darken some of the areas.  I used the Mahogany ShinHan alcohol marker for the arms and the Light Orange for the carrot nose.  I stamped the sentiment from last year's Cozy Christmas set in Crystal Blue and the banner in Spring Iris using this spring's Hello Lovely cardmaking set.  I used the smaller of the 2-piece snowflakes Thin Cuts set and white glitter paper for the large snowflake and the largest of the 4-piece basic ovals Thin Cuts to cut a piece out of the top layer of paper and another from a coordinating piece to inset.  For the smaller flakes in the lower left corner and framing the snowman, I used a mini snowflake punch from an off-brand called Studio G which I picked several years ago at Wal-Mart.  I punched some of the snowflakes from white glitter paper and last year's Sea Glass glitter paper.  Then I sponged and blended Crystal Blue, Heavenly Blue, and Spring Iris onto the slick white back of an off-brand silver foil paper, which I have done before as it gives an almost-pearlescent finish when inked, and punched some more mini snowflakes at random from those blended colors, which I also added to the sentiment banner.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the design team's creations and we'd love to see your take on this week's sketch too!  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central time on Sunday, 11/19/17, to link your projects HERE.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette



Thursday, November 2, 2017

Navy, White & Gold for AHSC #236

Hello again, crafty friends!  Once again, Michelle Stewart has brought us another fabulous sketch to work with this week over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was time to challenge myself to something I'd been thinking about for some time.  Let's get started!

The holidays can be difficult for many of us, particularly after the loss of a loved one.  Some very dear friends have lost not one but two sons in recent years to a rare disease, Epidermolysis Bullosa or EB for short, and the children born with this condition are often referred to as "butterfly children."  So I've been trying to come up with butterfly themed cards to send them every now and then to let them know I'm thinking of them, and lately I've been thinking about how to best create an image of two butterflies flying out of a jar, and this week's AHSC sketch lent itself perfectly with what I had in mind.


details:  I needed some space to play with for this one so the white card base is 5 x 7" and the Sapphire blue paper with white lines (from last year's Enchantment fundamentals by CTMH) is 4.75 x 6.75."  I used the retired Art Philosophy cartridge for the butterfly images, using the gold-flower imprinted paper from the Live Beautifully kit for the base and gold glitter paper for the top layer.  I used another paper from the Live Beautifully kit (white with small gold dots) and a scallop border punch for the 3 horizontal stipes.  I chose white cardstock and gold foil paper with another cut from the AP cartridge to frame this sentiment from the retired "Say It All" set, which was stamped with sapphire ink.  I used the Flower Market cartridge and white vellum to create the jar, which was embellished with white and gold ribbon.  BTW, choosing an adhesive that looks good under vellum can be tricky but I liked the way the look I got after I ran the die cut through my Xyron adhesive applicator; it gave a uniform coverage that I thought made the vellum look even  more like a glass jar where it secured to the paper.
Bonus: for those that have both the Art Philosophy and Flower Market cartridges and want to create their own versions of this card:  https://design.cricut.com/#/landing/user-project/72796141

So that's all there is to this one.  We would love to see your take on this sketch too!  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 11/6/17, to link your projects HERE.  You can also check out the rest of the design team's projects as well the top 3 from last week's sketch by following THIS link.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette