A few odd jobs...Color My Heart #32

OUTDOOR DENIM

PEAR

LAGOON

Those are fresh, summery colours, don't ya think?

Last week, the crew at Color My Heart were wishing for spring with a trio of sun-shiny colours. This week's challenge features the colours of the new Close to My Heart paper pack "Later Sk8ter." The patterned papers feature lots of gears, distressing and paint splashes and work really well for masculine projects.

I hadn't done a lay-out yet for a Design Team assignment at Color My Heart, plus I'm trying to finish up my 2012 scrapbook album. I had completed everything EXCEPT our summer vacation (which, let's face it! tends to include as many photos as the whole rest of the year!) during my annual scrapbook retreat in January... So here is a lay-out featuring my sons and husband doing some maintenance/chores at our beloved cottage in PEI.

 I don't actually have the Later Sk8tr paper pack, so used solid-color card-stock in the challenge colours and cut up my CTMH 6x6 samples for little accents.  I used Slate as the background, another colour featured in Later Sk8ter, with White Daisy and Whisper, a lighter grey. All stamping was done in Outdoor Denim, which works well as a neutral.

The title uses the new Kraft Keyboard alphabet stickers, and the Superhero alphabet stamps (SUCH a great set, and only available through the end of the current catalogue--grab it while you can!). The paint brush is a Paper Smooches stamp, as is the drippy paint. I used Dazzle stickers from Paper Wishes for the screwdriver, wrench and little gears.

I cut Slate washi tape into little arrows to direct your attention to the photo of the finished (re-painted) deck. Journalling was done around the edge of the pages, with a white Uniball pen, a great idea I first saw on my blogging friend, Miriam Prantner's blog.

The boys were not crazy about this Tom Sawyer-ish task, partly because it took the better part of a week, although they did a thorough and excellent job. Their personalities were reflected in their different painting styles, so each was labeled with a famous painter's name...

As for the GIANT ERECTOR SET... the name says it all!

I had fun revisiting our summer vacation. Hope it brought you thoughts of warm breezes and blue skies!

How do the challenge colours inspire you?  Head over to the Color My Heart blog to link up your project.  All the details are there, as well as some AWESOME creations by the design team.

Happy crafting, 

Caroline

CTMH Supplies Used:

Card-stock in Outdoor Denim, Lagoon, Pear, Slate, White Daisy and Whisper

Ink: Outdoor Denim and Versamark

White embossing powder

Kraft Keyboard alphabet stickers: Z1825

Superhero stamp set: E1022

Other Supplies:

I {heart} Art stamp set from Paper Smooches

Masculine Dazzles stickers from Paper Wishes

Picket fence die from Sizzix

Grass die from My Favorite Things

Signo Uniball white gel pen

Hello, Sunshine! Color My Heart #31

I don't know about you, or how winter's going where you live, but we're getting a little tired of the constant snow up here.  I know, I know, I was blogging earlier this winter about how much I love it, and I do, but the constant shoveling, scraping windshields, wearing boots is wearing us down...
So, I was happy with this week's assignment at Color My Heart, a trio of SUN-SHINY colours:

BUTTERCUP

HONEY

& SUNSET

I was inspired to try some sunflower-esque blooms. 

First, I tried a technique demonstrated on the Gina K "Stamp TV" blog: link HERE.  She white-embossed a  floral image and coloured it with alcohol markers. I used an older CTMH stamp, "Blessed" which includes a big flower outline, then used the CTMH alcohol markers in Honey and Sunset. They made it easy to add gradations of colour.

I added an antiqued copper brad for the flower centre, 

and my new favorite alphabet stamp set, "Keyboard Uppercase" for the sentiment. Here's the whole card:

CASE-ing some of the dimensional flowers I've seen on the internet lately, I made a second card, using the images from "Rustic Flowers" to stamp a random background in Buttercup, Honey, Sunset, and Chocolate. I added a big gerbera  daisy by cutting out the biggest flower, stamped twice, in Buttercup and Honey and layering and curling the petals. A big button and some waxy flax were used for the centre on this one.

Hope they have brightened your winter day!

Now head over to the Color My Heart blog to see what the other gals have concocted with these three bright colours. You have until next Thursday, Feb. 28th to upload your creation using Buttercup, Honey and Sunset (or the closest colours in your stash). I do believe there is a prize for this week's winning entry! Play along and help us spread the word about this fun color challenge.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies Used-CTMH:

Card-stock in Buttercup, Sunset, Chocolate and White Daisy

Inks: Buttercup, Honey, Sunset, Chocolate, and Versamark

White embossing powder and heat tool

Alcohol Markers in Honey, Sunset and Chocolate

Stamp sets: Keyboard Uppercase B1416; Card Word Puzzle C1494; Rustic Flowers, Blessed (retired)

Antiqued Copper Brads Z1410; Dark Chocolate Striped Grosgrain ribbon Z1617; Waxy Flax in Colonial White Z108; Basic Button assortment Z1358

Other Supplies:

Curly mesh ribbon, Paper Wishes

Black and Blue all over...Dynamic Duos #40

The challenge at Dynamic Duos this week is a "Black Tie" event:  use these two colours,

with a "dessert option" of CLOUDS.

Dynamic Duos' "black and another colour" combination happens every four weeks. I seem to find it easier than some of the other monthly challenges, like the subtle and monochromatic ones.

As it happens, I was just using my cloud template the other day. My boys were up in the cra(p)ft room (their term for my crafty space!) making Valentine's cards for their sweethearts, and I demonstrated how to do a cloudy background. They declared the technique "worthy of Bob Ross." A compliment, indeed!

I got my technique from a tutorial by Wendy Ramlakhan, link HERE. It is surprisingly easy to do, with magical results. I created my cloud template from a piece of heavy-weight card-stock, but  quilting template plastic would work, too.

The idea for the card came from a project by Julie Ebersole in the most recent On-Line Card Classes, Clean & Simple #2 (BTW, she is the funnest presenter! So talented and such an infectious chuckle. She even writes like she talks on her blog). She showed techniques for layering a city-scape and used a paper-airplane stamp. Now, I don't have an airplane stamp, so I had to make a tiny paper airplane.

I know it looks kinda King Kong size against the sky-line, but it's sending LOTS of love...
I stamped the cityscape 1+1/2 times in black and added shading with some Copic markers in warm grey (an allowable neutral). Amazingly dimensional for a one-layer card, eh? The sentiment stamp was curved to describe the airplane's pathway.

Maybe one day I will send some love from New York City?!  For now, enjoying the nice sunny, blue-sky winter day here in Ottawa.

What is your take on "Black-and-Blue?" Link up your creation to Dynamic Duos, HERE. This challenge closes Thursday, Feb. 21st at 11:59 p.m.

Happy crafting,
Caroline

Supplies Used:
White Daisy card-stock
Black and Sky inks (CTMH)
Copic Markers W1 and W3
Super Powers C1485 and Say it in Style D1283 stamp sets (CTMH)
1.5" square printer paper, for the airplane

Complementary Colors meet Girls Rock--Color My Heart #30

Here's the Dare at Color My Heart this week:  

Use the complementary colors

SORBET &

PACIFICA

A couple of things influenced the above project. My fellow DT members at Color My Heart always manage to use their Cricuts to advantage, showcasing shapes and 3D objects. So I thought I'd try out one of the fancy items on the "Artiste" cartridge.  Hence the cute little petal pouch, above.

CTMH's double sided papers lend themselves really well to these projects.  This particular paper, "Elemental," had both required colours, one on each side.The pouch is actually just one piece of paper, cut and folded back on itself. I just inked the edges for a little extra definition.

These two colours reminded me of my childhood bedroom, which (I was born in the 60's; the room was decorated in 1972...can you guess?) was painted in a shade very similar to SORBET. Orange was my favorite colour. Another aspect of my old bedroom was an amazing orange gingham bedspread, lovingly sewed by my mom. It had large funky flowers and lots of white rick-rack (and bobble-trim in blue, orange and yellow--I tell ya, I was stylin'!). THAT reminded me of the wonderful new stamp set, "Girls Rock." Those psychedelic flowers... 

 So the pouch opens up to reveal:

Some 4" circular notecards.  

I added the neutral shade Cashmere, which went really well with some Kraft paper die-cut zig-zags (rick-rack). Some faux stitching, and voila.

A closer look at one of the cards:

So there you go, a little stroll down memory lane. How do these colours inspire you? Show us your stuff at Color My Heart this week--details for linking up and more inspiration by the design team available on the blog HERE.

Happy crafting!

Caroline

Close to My Heart Supplies:

Cardstock:  Pacifica, Colonial White, Kraft

Inks: Cashmere, Sorbet, Pacifica

Paper:  Elemental

Stamp set:  Girls Rock C1538, catalogue page 41.

Colonial White circle note-cards, no longer available, but you can cut them with the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge

Other Supplies:

Signo Uniball white pen

Foam tape

Chinese New Year

Celebrate:  The Year of the Snake

My blog friend Emily Liephart has organized a fun-filled Chinese New Year Blog Hop.

What a great way to showcase Chinese culture and brighten up a winter weekend! There are seven other talented designers participating on the hop, as well as seven craft sponsors. There's fabulous artwork, free digis, chances to win five great prizes from the sponsors for commenting, plus an opportunity to join the celebration and play along! The festival runs until Feb. 15th, 2013. 

Lots of time to check it all out!

*********

We celebrated my eldest son's birthday this past weekend. He was born in Vancouver, Canada, where we soaked up quite a bit of Asian culture, thanks to friends from Hong Kong and Taiwan. I hadn't made a birthday card yet but was inspired by all the red and gold on the hop.

I think these are really dragons, not snakes!

I thought I had some Chinese motif rubber stamps somewhere in my stash, but turned up some Celtic ones instead. Some of the motifs looked kinda snake-like so I just went with those--stamped in Versa-mark on red and heat-embossed with gold. I used a CTMH stamp for the greetings. Chinese lanterns are hand-cut, and the streamers drawn with a metallic gold pen.

Tradition at Chinese New Year involves giving gifts of cash in red envelopes, so the inside of the card includes a red pouch for some nice new RED Canadian bills...

My son was very happy with his gift and card, and went out to celebrate with his friends!

Head on over to the hop, and get inspired!

Bunches of "Balentines"--Color My Heart #29

Happy Balentine's Day!

(That's what my boys used to call them when they were young and cute (now they're really tall and cute and can pronounce the letter "V"!)


Just in time for Valentine's Day, the monochromatic challenge at Color My Heart this week involves:

BLUSH &

CRANBERRY

 My simple card features an embossed panel in Blush, a Dimensional Element heart covered in Cranberry card-stock (with a little bling) and some little heart thought-bubbles stamped in Cranberry ink, from the Whoo's Your Valentine kit.  My husband will be out of town for Valentine's Day, so I'll tuck this into his suitcase, along with some Hershey kisses (in a ziplock bag).
I heat-embossed the sentiment in white, using stamps from this very versatile set:

D1187--For Every Occasion

This is one of the first CTMH stamp sets I bought, and you can see its had plenty of use!

So, head on over to the Color My Heart blog for some more inspiration from the Design Team, then post and share some of your hand-made Valentine's! You needn't use strictly Close to My Heart products, but the colors should be similar. And there is now a monthly prize, in addition to an awesome blog badge for the weekly winners. Lots of reasons to play along!

CTMH Supplies used:
Cranberry, Blush, White Daisy card-stock
Cranberry and Versamark inks
White super-fine embossing powder
Whoo's Your Valentine and For Every Occasion stamp sets
Dimension Elements: Hearts
Cranberry gems (from Pear & Partridge WOTG)
Other Supplies:
Cuttlebug embossing folder

* * * * * 

I took some craft supplies into the Rehab Centre where I work this week, so the clients could make Valentine cards.  Here's some samples:

The current black-board craze. Hearts painted with Smooch ink

You've seen this card on a previous post, but I loved it so much! Some tricky cutting--not such a good project for those with manual dexterity challenges... Live and learn...

And finally,

Treat tubes from the "Whooo's Your Valentine" workshop.  People got so creative with this one! It was such fun to see them getting excited about decorating and planning to give their creations to loved ones.

Hope you find time for some crafting this week--lots of snow predicted here, so a good weekend to stay inside...

Happy crafting!

Caroline