Animal Greetings from CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello, craft friends!  I hope you are ready for a big dose of CUTE 'cause the little critters (15 in all) in the Animal Greetings stamp set are absolutely adorable.  Added bonus:  this stamp is part of Close To My Heart's ongoing Operation Smile program, which raises funds to provide life-changing cleft lips and palates for children around the world.  How awesome is that?!?!  But hurry, this stamp won't be available much longer but rest assured, something equally as awesome will take its place so that Operation Smile can continue its mission of sharing smiles with children and their families.

So, on to the hop.  As always, hops are circular so you should have found your way here from Corinna's blog but you can jump in anywhere at any point and follow the links until you've made the rounds.  I have also included a list of all our participants in case you get lost along the way.  Now it's time to share my project with you.

I've said this before but this time, I REALLY pulled out all the stops and my craft room is unbearably messy at the moment, but it was worth it because I had a blast putting it together.  This was another instance where what I had planned ended up being nowhere near what I ended up with, lol.  I used the magical paper and embellishments, cuts from the Artbooking cartridge for the photo mat and film strip, and the Art Philosophy and a tricky little bit of planning to cut out the LOVE circles as well as the black circles they are matted on.  Hopefully you can see the cute little mouse friend in the corner and the sentiment in the word bubble, which are from the Animal Greetings set.  I used multiple ShinHan alcohol markers to color in the mouse and, for a little extra fun, the word "bomb" and the actual bomb image are from a previous Operation Smile stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by and now you can hop on over to Jennifer's blog to see what she has in store for you.  Also, please stop back by on Wednesday, Aug. 10, when we will be bringing you vacation themed projects made from and featuring Close To My Heart's line of products.  Until then, stay cool and happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Complete list of blog hop participants:

1.  Annette Clark (here)
2.  Jennifer Bennett
3.  Corinna Murphy

Magical Mojo for BTF #25

Welcome!  Growing up, my brother was a big fan of "The A-Team" so we had to watch it every week and while it wasn't my favorite program, I did always like one character's saying at the end of each episode, "I love it when a plan comes together."  Well, this project is one of those times when Plan A didn't pan out and I didn't actually have a Plan B but thank goodness inspiration - or rather, inspiration from multiple sources - came together and I finally have a cute little card to share with you.

For starters, the theme this week at Between The Folds challenge is CTMH's Magical paper kit.  This is a really fun, super versatile collection of patterns and colors.  My first intention for my design team project this week was a very involved layout featuring
a trip to a nearby "red" or Farmall tractor museam for so my husband's birthday last week; it will be great when I have this project done, but considering I took 98 photos, that's not likely to happen this week.  So, back to finding a Plan B.  Luckily, as soon as I saw this week's Mojo Monday I fell in love with it and immediately pictured several variations of cards using the Magical papers.  After some dabbling, this is what I came up with.

Thanks for stopping by, and please take time to check out the other projects at BTF challenges and hopefully you can share your inspiration too (you have until Monday, 7/18, at 10:55 pm Central.  Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

details:  All products used are from CTMH.  As stated, I started with the Magical paper kit and this sketch over at Mojo Monday.  I used a piece of Crystal Blue CS cut at 4 1/8 x 3 3/8" and topped that with the large polka dotted piece measuring 4 x 3 1/4".  The yellow dotted medallion was cut with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge at 2 1/4" ( image found in p.31 of the booklet) and the center circle was cut at 2" using white CS.  I used the medium flat waterbrush and ink pressed into the lid of the Crystal Blue ink pad to create a subtle background color and then I stamped the main part of the sentiment in Sapphire ink using the Beyond Awesome stamp set.  Using the same set and Cranberry ink, I stamped and fussy cut the curved "awesome" banner and glued it onto the medallion.  The bottom banner is one of the zip strips backed by Whisper CS, both of which were just trimmed by hand until I got the look I wanted, with the patterned piece being about 2 1/4" long.   For embellishments, I chose to color a couple of the white enamel stars with the turquoise, golden yellow, and carmine ShinHan alcohol markers.

I am also entering this card into this week's Color My Heart and the 7/4/16 Heart 2 Heart dare, where the themes are also the Magical kit.

Magical Inspiration for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Hello and welcome back to another round of the Close To My Heart Featured Products Blog Hop, where this week we will be inspiring you with projects made from the Magical paper kit.  This is such a fresh, energetic kit that I dare you to work with it and not feel happy, lol.  Blog hops are circular things so you should have found your way here from Jen's blog blog but you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the way and just follow the links until you've made the rounds, but don't forget to hop on over to Corinna's blog when you're done here.

For my project this week, I chose to make a card for my husband's birthday on July 5th.  He was an only child, adopted when his parents when were turning 50 years old so they had waited a long time to welcome a child into their lives... so you can just imagine how spoiled he was!  LOL  With his birthday falling so close to the 4th of July holiday, he has always had a big celebration for his birthday and in the last few years this has evolved into a self-proclaimed "birthday season," which starts on Father's Day and lasts through his actual birthday or whatever our last big family event of the summer happens to be.  So it should be no surprise that I have already made him one birthday card, which was a fun 4th-themed one, but I decided our daughter can give that one to him and I made him this one.  My husband and I started out in the same school district, we met - and he absolutely terrified me at our kindergarten roundup - but my parents divorced and we moved to the next town/school district.  We never officially met again until shortly after we had graduated our respective high schools but we have laughed over how many times our paths must have crossed in between, with him living less than 1/2 a mile from my best friend, which in the country is pretty much next door, and I worked at a popular restaurant he can remember going to many times, so I thought it would be fun to make a card celebrating not only my husband being forever young at heart but the fun story of the first time we met.  Now I can't wait to give this to him and laugh over it together, all over again.

Happy crafting and have a fun and safe 4th of July!  ~~  Annette

Here is the complete list of blog hop participants this week:

1.  Jenifer Benner

2.  Annette Clark (here)

3.  Corinna Murphy

details:  As stated, I used the Magical paper kit.  This one features multiple bright colors so I made a point to use each one of them in this card.  I started with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card base in Sapphire and this multi-colored heart patterned paper cut at 4 x 5 1/4."  The center piece of white CS measures 2 1/4 x 3 1/4" and it is backed by a 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" piece of Crystal Blue CS.  I didn't cut the banner to any certain size but just stamped on a scrap of white CS and cut it down to size so it measures approximately 9/16 x 3" and the yellow dotted background paper is 13/16 x 3 1/4."  The "happy birthday" sentiment is stamped in Sapphire using the Banner Wishes set, and I used a long-retired stamp set called "Childhood Portrait" for the grass, tree, and boy/girl images.  I used two different small heart images from the Forever In My Heart set in Cranberry ink.  The final touch was a bow made from Whisper Thick Twine.