January SOTM Meets AHSC #248

Hello again, crafty friends!  I hope the beginning of 2018 is finding you happy, crafty and above all, healthy.  Luckily, I have been healthy but my tough-guy husband was sick for nearly 2 weeks so while I have been feeling creative, I haven't actually been able to spend much time actually crafting.  Between nursing my husband back to health, the bitter cold and the snowy weather we have been experiencing in the Midwest, it was a lovely change of pace to work with some light colors and floral-themed products for this week's sketch at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

details:  I started with a 7 x 5" base of Heather cardstock and topped that with a 6.75 x 4.75" layer of Bashful which I embossed with the rose embossing folder and lightly sponged Heather ink onto.  I then  used Fern and Bashful inks with this image from the January 2018 SOTM "Bloom & Grow".  I used multiple layers of stamping with the same inks to create these roses and leaves using the Beautiful You stamp set and coordinating Thin Cut dies.  Of course, no project is really complete without a little sparkle or bling so I added some gold glitter gems to the center of the flowers and the lower right corner, a gold ribbon and bow cut from gold glitter paper using the Thin Cuts ribbon border, and this lovely gray and gold ribbon from the Basics ribbon pack.  I thought it still needed a little something so I filled in the word "planted" with the new Bashful shimmer brush.  I will be submitting this card for the Fern-Heather-Bashful theme at the Color My Heart Color Dare #275 and the "tool time: Bashful shimmer brush" theme at the Heart2Heart challenge blog. 

Of course, this project started with the sketch from AHSC challenge blog.  We would love to see your take on this sketch too so if you find yourself with some crafty time on your hands this week, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central to link your projects HERE.  I hope you also take a minute or two to check out the fabulous creations brought to you this week by the rest of the design team. 

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Quilted Congrats

Hello again, crafty friends!  I hope you are all having as much fun this weekend as I am, which is in the middle of an annual 3-day crop, probably the biggest scrapbook event I attend all year.  So much crafting fun going on, and so much inspiration!

 So here is something I've been wanting to do forever and it was so much fun to put together!  I will be entering it in the Heart2Heart "something new" challenge as well as the Color My Heart challenge blog for their Bashful, Glacier, and Charcoal theme.  The beautiful quilted die cuts are from MFT Stamps, the sentiments are from retired CTMH sets "Cute Koalas" and "Expecting."  Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend!  ~~  Annette

Valentine's Card for AHSC #246

Happy 2018 to all my crafty friends!  I don't know about you but every year the only resolution I  truly try to stick to is to get more organized, especially my craft area, and I am proud to say I have already made progress this year.  Yay!  So I'm happy to report this Valentine's card came together much more quickly and easily than usual since I could more readily access the supplies I was looking for.

I started with this week's sketch at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  I used a base of Lagoon cardstock layered with this lovely small hearts-patterned paper from the retired CTMH "Heartstrings" kit.  I knew I would have to change the proportions of the horizontal stripes element somewhat, but I really wanted to incorporate this "love" stitching pattern for this one.  To do this, I used the We R Memory Keepers stitching tool and some Cranberry colored embroidery floss I bought ages ago, as that shade of red is one of the featured colors in this kit.  For the arrow-patterned horizontal stripes, I used the Heartstrings zip strips set on Whisper cardstock with a very narrow border.  I used the retired Thin Cuts hearts die on the patterned red paper (also from Heartstrings) and again on Bashful glitter paper, adhered both pieces on white cardstock for better stability and then fussy cut around them.  The "truly, madly" banner is a sticker that was available with this kit.  I thought I was done but then I felt there was just a little too much empty white space at the bottom so I added a couple of the negative-space hearts cut from another piece of Bashful glitter paper using the Thin Cuts hearts border.

And that's all there is to this one!  I'm not sure who I will give it to but I do know I had a lot of fun creating it.  I hope you will find some time to create a project with this week's sketch, and we would love to see it if you do!  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 1/14/18, to link your project HERE.  And don't forget to check out what the rest of your design team has created with this week's sketch, they are sure to inspire you!  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting in the new year!  ~~  Annette