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

Complements Theme for Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello and welcome back to another installment of the Close To My Heart Featured Products Blog Hop, where this week we are bringing you projects using a variety of  our Complements.  There is a coordinating Complements set for each current paper kit in the Seasonal Idea Book as well as multiple stand alone sets with their own individual themes.  If you came here from Corinna's blog you are in the right place but as hops are circular, you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the way and simply make the rounds.  A complete list of this week's participants is included at the end of this post in case you get lost along the way.  Let's get started!

I chose the Hello Lovely paper and complements for this layout celebrating my mother.  Her life was too short and I have very few pictures of her, so naturally the ones I do have are very precious.  It has taken me several years of "playing" at scrapbooking and paper crafting to build my skills so that I feel I can finally give those photographs and the memories behind them the love and credit they deserve. Not that my work will ever be "perfect" because our art and our skills, just like our lives themselves, are ever changing and growing but I am happy with what I have created from these photos *today.*

details:  I used the Hello Lovely paper kit and coordinating Complements.  The "my beautiful" and hearts are in part of the complements (the word "family" is also included but I chose not to use it), as well as the heart stickers by the word "mother" and at the edges of the smaller photos.  The Sea Glass piece in the middle with the year on it is also one of the stickers from this kit, as is the small banner by the top picture.  I used Rose Gold foil tape along the edges of the corner pieces, and then I used Cricut Design Space and Flower Market cartridge to cut "mother" at 1.75" high in both Colonial White and Desert Sand and layered them slightly off centered for a shadow font.  The year was cut using the Cricut font.  I layered the bottom 3 photos with Fern, Sorbet, and Desert Sand and for the top photo, I fussy cut one of the 4 x 6" PML pieces from this kit so I could use it to frame the main photo.

And that's all there is to this one.  Now it's time for you to hop on over to Lauren's blog to see what she has in store for you.  We hope  to see you back in two weeks on May 3, 2017, when our theme will be the gorgeous Live Beautifully kit, a special collection of papers, stamp set, and/or Workshop Your Way kit.  Until then, thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette


Complete list of this week's participants:

1.  Corinna Murphy

2.  Annette Clark (here)

3.  Lauren Moore

Swan Lake for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello and welcome back to another installment of the Close To My Heart Featured Products Blog Hop, where this week we are bringing you projects based on the Swan Lake kit.  If you came here from Corinna's blog you are in the right spot, but as always hops are circular things so you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the line and make the rounds.  Just in case you get lost along the way, I have included a complete list of this week's participants at the end of this post.  Let's get started!

I wanted to do something a little different for this project so I started this as a custom page for my Everyday Life Planner, intending to have a section for journaling on gratitude, but I love these cute pedestal card holders I got at Micheal's at graduation time, so I might just leave this out until Thanksgiving has past.

details:  I measured a Everyday Life Planner page and cut a piece of the Swan Lake paper to size.  I then turned to my Cricut and cut this white heart at 4 1/2" using the retired Artiste cartridge.  I used the Flower Market cartridge to cut the words out at 2.33" height using Poppy and Glacier CS.  For a little added visual interest (and because I love a little touch of glitter and bling) I wove some black and gold ribbon through the edges.  I thought it still needed a little more bling so I added 3 graduated-sized hearts for the top left and bottom right corners as well as this gold embossed bow, all from the retired Gold Fundamentals Assortment.

And that's all there is to this one, your next stop on our hop is Lauren's blog.  I hope you take time to make the complete tour and that you find inspiration for your own Swan Lake projects, and please stop back on 11/2/16 when we will be working with the City Sidewalks kit.
Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Complete list of participants:

1.  Lauren Moore

2.  Janna Gray

3.  Donna Digby

4.  Corinna Murphy

5.  Annette Clark (here)