Wedding Congrats with AHSC #174

Hello and welcome back, crafty friends!  One of the things I love most about paper crafting is being able to really customize cards or gifts for special people on their special occasions, so I took this occasion and this sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to create a card for my lovely step-niece and her groom for their upcoming wedding.  They gave chosen yellow, navy, and gray for their wedding colors, which aren't exactly traditional colors, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to find many cards to choose from in a store with this color combo so I was extra happy to be able to create something unique for the happy couple!

details:  I started with a 6 x 4" card base cut from Sapphire CS.  I then ran a 5 3/4 x 3 3/4" piece of Canary CS through my Cuttlebug using the retired Heart embossing folder and did a little sanding to make the hearts stand out.  I used some scraps from the retired Charlotte kit for the stripes on the left and the base of the sentiment panel.  I used Sapphire and Canary inks and some Canary CS scraps with the retired "The Happy Couple" stamp set for the cake and bride & groom cake topper and another retired set called "4 My Friend" for the sentiment.   I wasn't sure exactly where this one was going when I started but I'm pleased with how it turned out, and now I have to get busy designing and cutting some vinyl to adhere to a glass block they want to use for a mixed sand sculpture in place of a unity candle.  I have 5 step-nieces and this is the second one to get married, and both have asked me to create something for the wedding day, and I'm so happy and honored to do this for them and hope I will get to help when the next 3 are ready to tie the knot!

This is another fun and versatile sketch to play with, and we'd love to see your take on it.  You can find the link up HERE and you have until 10 pm Central on Sunday, 8/28, to enter.  Even if you can't play, I hope you will take the time to head on over to the AHSC challenge blog where I guarantee you will find some inspiration!  Happy crafting, Annette

AHSC #152 for a Mother's Day Card

I am always impressed by the sketches at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and this week was no exception!  In fact, it was such an intriguing sketch that I had trouble settling on a project but finally this Mother's Day card won out.  This card also gave me the chance to learn some new skills on my  Cricut Explore so I fully enjoyed creating it, and I hope you enjoy taking a peek at it.

I used Charlotte paper, a shape from the Art Philosphy cartridge which I altered a bit and the Mother's Day and A Mother's Love stamp sets in black and Sorbet inks.

I kept the inside of the card nice and simple so  there would be plenty of room for a hand-written note.Thanks for looking and please stop by the AHSC challenge blog for some fabulous inspiration.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette 

CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop - Complements

Hello again and welcome to this installment of the Close To My Heart Featured Products Blog Hop where this week we are shining the spotlight on Complements.  If you found your way here from Corinna's blog you are in the right place, but hops are circular so you are welcome to jump in from any point and continue on till you've made the rounds.  At the end of this post there is a complete list of participants in case you get lost.

I confess, I haven't bought many of the CTMH complements kits in the past just because I'm less of a sticker person and more of a stamping enthusiast.  However, the creative folks at CTMH have really taken everything to the next level of awesomeness this past year and I had a hard time choosing which set of complements to work with for this project.  In the end, though, I had to go with the Charlotte set again.  You see, my son was born with an especially severe seizure disorder; so severe that he had seizures nearly every day and it took just a couple of flashes from a camera to put him into another one.  So we had to be really careful taking photos and we only got a handful of professional portraits during his lifetime, and only these two with both him and his sister.  Naturally, these pictures are truly priceless so it seemed only fitting to use the Charlotte complements with all their lovely gold foil accents.  The only thing I added that was not from either the Charlotte paper kit, complements, or Treasured Puffies featured with this set is the stamped camera, which was from the recent Share the Love campaign.  I also used the Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the background shapes in both the pink striped patterned paper from the kit and Slate cardstock.

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share this very special project with you.  The next stop on the hop is the Lauren, and I hope you will check out the lovely and inspiring projects each of our participants have come up with.  Please join us again on Wednesday, April 6th, for our next hop when we will be featuring Fundamental Stickers.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop: Complements

1.  Lauren Moore
2.  Melissa Robinson
3.  Catherine Nowak
4.  Kim Loewen
5.  Corinna Murphy
6.  Annette Clark  (here)

Mother's Day Card for AHSC #148

I worked so hard and took a long time making my card for this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge but it was worth it, I think it's my favorite of all the cards I've made so far.  Michelle Stewart gave us a FABULOUS sketch to work with, and I can't wait to see everyone else's creations.

details:  Once again, I used the Charlotte papers, complements, and those lovely gold tone Treasured Puffies.  I used the Artiste Cricut cartridge to cut the diamond grid from black CS and 2 patterns from the Charlotte kit and pieced those along with some fussy-cut pieces from the pink zip strips.  I used my ruler (a tool I truly could not papercraft without!) and gold metallic marker to mark the diagonal lines.  Then I used my scallop border punch and black shimmer trim to  make the border.  I used a piece of retired Baby Pink cardstock and gold embossed the image from the A Day For Mother on shapes cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, and backed that with the black and gold ribbon and puffies.

For the inside, I just pieces some B&T from the Charlotte kit with one of the 3x4" pieces from the kit and stamped the sentiment from the My Mother set, and I couldn't resist adding a touch of shimmer with the more of the black and gold ribbon.


Thanks for stopping by and looking, and please take time to check out all the projects at AHSC this week.  Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Liquid Glass techniques for Between The Folds challenge

Hello again, crafty friends!  This week it is Team B's turn at Between The Folds challenge blog bring you some inspiration using Liquid Glass adhesive.  This is one versatile product and is good for far more than adhesive!  In fact, I had a really hard time deciding which one to use for today's  post.

Once again, I'm using the Charlotte paper kit.  I love all the dimension and shine in this kit's embellishments so I decided to add a little more of both by covering my letter stickers with Liquid Glass.  Since I haven't used this technique before, I wasn't sure if it would be better to apply the LG before or after I placed the stickers on the layout, so I chose after and just went slowly, applying right out of the bottle, and I had no issues at all.
Now, I have a confession:  after several years of paper crafting and almost 5 years of being a CTMH consultant, I am just now starting to scrapbook my own photos after years of making layouts from workshop kits for display or for other people, but I was inspired to create this layout for my favorite photo from my wedding. My husband and I eloped - yes, Justice of the Peace and everything - so we don't have the traditional photos taken by a professional photographer and I'm thinking this playful layout really matches our style.  Now, if I can just remember where I actually put the photo...
Be sure to check out the projects from the rest of the design team and don't forget, you have until Monday evening, 2/29.  Hope you can join us this week!  ~~  Annette

Combined Challenges for AHSC #146 & Color My Heart #179

Hello and welcome to today's project.  I am very excited as this is my first official sketch as part of the design team over at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge (AHSC) and the first time in quite a while that I've played along with the folks over at Color My Heart.
Just in case I haven't mentioned it, I am totally in love with the Charlotte paper kit (Champagne, Sorbet, Slate, Whisper, White Daisy and Black) so when I saw that these were the featured colors this week at the Color My Heart I knew I wanted to find a way to use it for this week's sketch at AHSC.

details:  This little card was inspired by the fact that the first of my daughter's friends just announced her engagement and I have offered to help with some of the decorations, etc.  As stated, I used the Charlotte paper kit; the top and bottom pieces of the card base are flip sides of the same designer paper, and I backed the arrow piece with black CS.  The "save the date" was stamped on one of the zip strips using the retired Tiny Typewriter alpha in black ink and embellished at each end of the strip with the lovely black and gold ribbon.  I used my 1-inch circle punch to cut two circles in black and one in the retired CTMH color called Baby Pink, which I heat embossed with Versamark and gold embossing powder using the retired Friendship alpha.

And that's all there is to this project.  I hope you will take time to stop by both challenge blogs for some inspiration based on AHSC's versatile sketch and the lovely colors of  the Charlotte papers over at the Color My Heart site.
Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Charlotte layout for BTF and Color My Heart challenges

Hello, crafty friends!  From what I have been seeing online for the last few weeks, I'm hardly the only one who is totally in love with CTMH's new Charlotte paper kit, so I'm submitting this for my first official project as a design team member over at the Between The Folds challenge and for consideration at the Color My Heart color challenge, both of which feature the colors from the Charlotte kit.

details:  It took me a day or two to figure out what project I wanted to do for another Charlotte project as I have already done several, but I woke up Monday thinking about "home," and from that point things came together quite quickly.  I started with one of the base layouts from the Workshops Your Way sets because this combination worked best with the various colors in the pictures I wanted to work with.  All pages, zip strips, and embellishments come from the Charlotte kit with the exception of the lacy-looking house in the upper left corner, which is actually trimmed down from the retired For Always PML kit.  And that's all there is to this one.  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out both challenge blogs for lots more inspiration!


Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop: Stunning Sequins!

Hello and welcome to another installment of the CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop, with today's spotlight on gold and silver sequins.  Once again, you should have arrived here from Corinna's blog but blog hops are circular so feel free to jump in anywhere along the line and continue to follow the links until you've made the rounds.

So, sequins:  I love these versatile embellishments and I had a really hard time deciding between too many projects that kept coming to mind, but currently I am also in love with the new Charlotte paper, which happens to be the featured paper over at the Between The Folds challenges this week, so finally I had to come up with a way to combine the two.  I added a long-retired stamp set called A Game, stamping the tic-tac-toe board in Whisper and the X's in Sorbet, backing that panel with a discontinued CS called Baby Pink - perfect match, don't you think?  I used the middle tone of the Silver Sequins to replace the O's and then fussy cut the arrows from the same Charlotte designer paper that backs the tic-tac-toe panel.  The banner is stamped in Whisper again from the current Hostess Rewards set called #makes me happy and set on another piece from the Charlotte collection, and I just had to add some more sequins to fill in what  would have otherwise been some empty space behind the banner.

And that's all there is to this one, since I am still deciding on the interior sentiment.  The next stop on the hop is the very talented Kirsten with a lovely project you won't want to miss.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop featuring Puffies!

Welcome to this installment of our exciting CTMH Featured Products blog hop where we are currently featuring Puffies! Blog hops are circular so you probably found your way here from Corinna's blog but you can jump in anywhere along the line and just keep following the links for lots of fun and inspiration.
I've found that I tend to focus on the bare bones of scrapbooking or card making, occasionally adding some bling but even then I seem to stick to the same few items despite having LOTS of unused goodies lying around.  So lately I have challenged myself to try new embellishments, especially those I get in my CTMH kits, and I'm so glad I gave these lovely little gold Treasured Puffies a try, I love them!  I got mine as part of the Workshops Your Way event CTMH held for us consultants and once I finished my layouts I had a few to spare, and I also won the Beautiful Blossoms Cut Above card kit and I thought I would try making one as shown and then add a little extra bling to another one using the puffies.

So the first picture is how the card is shown in the catalog but the bigger picture to the left is what I created using the Cut Above card base and the pieces I had left over from the complements for the new Charlotte kit and substituting a black banner.  The picture to the lower left is the inside of my card, but  I haven't quite settled on a sentiment for this one yet.

In case you are curious, I have included photos of the 3 layouts we created from the Workshops Your Way Charlotte kit.  The pictures in the catalog just can't do justice to the lovely colors and the gold Puffies, accents and ribbon, there is so much creative possibility with this kit!






Thanks for joining our hop and don't forget to head on over to see what the talented Kirsten has in store for you.
Happy crafting!  ~~ Annette