Hoppin' with Dream Pop--Color My Heart Dare #45

The assignment at Color My Heart this week was to use materials from the special "Dream Pop" paper pack. These yummy papers come from Close to My Heart, in celebration of National Scrap-booking Month.  The collection includes 12 sheets of double-sided patterned paper (2 each of six designs), and 12 sheets of solid color card-stock (2 each of 6 colours) with glossy embossed designs. Visual and tactile appeal, and colours with luscious names like Strawberry, Tangerine and Mint. Yum!

 You can visit my CTMH website HERE for a more complete look at the set, and you can still purchase it for $10, with a $35 purchase, through midnight tonight, May 31st.

Anyway, I was struggling with my design; how best to showcase the patterns and colours, until I decided to let the patterned paper speak for itself.

I covered the card front with one of the design papers, and used RASPBERRY glossy CS and a photo-frame die from Lil'Inker Designs to high-light one of the funky doodled elements. I made a couple more flowers using some old dies (if in doubt, scout your stash!) from Sizzix and Cuttlebug, using the GREY and BANANA glossy CS.

Then I went to town with my collection of Liquid Pearls, adding dots and globs to emphasize those doodles. The little sentiments were stamped using another Lil'Inker product, the Notebook Doodle stamp set.

I added some more doodles on the inside, stamped in coordinating colours (Bubblegum, Slate and Honey), and some more paper and washi tape, just for fun.

Et voilà, a very fun and funky card.

Now POP on over and take a look at what the other gals on the Color My Heart DT have come up with. No shortage of inspiration!  Then break out your Dream Pop paper, or similar colors and show us what you can do!

You have until June 5th to link up your project. We love to see your creations!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

P.S.: I'm linking up this card with Sunday Stamp's challenge #51, Summer Lovin', which happens to feature these same lovely colours.

Supplies Used:

CTMH Dream Pop paper pack (featured colours Banana, Raspberry and Grey)

White Daisy card stock

Inks in Honey, Bubblegum and Slate

Slate Washi Tape

Grey Flannel baker's twine

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Lil'Inker Designs Instant Camera die

Lil'Inker Designs Notebook Doodle stamps

Sizzix dies

Cuttlebug flower die

Pink craft foam

Liquid Pearls in Buttercup, Fuschia and Grey

What a Honey of a Challenge...Color My Heart Dare #44

Greetings, friends! I am out on the East Coast of Canada this week, posting long-distance for the weekly Color My Heart Dare.

CREME BRULEE &

JUNIPER

is the colour combo for this week.

One of our tasks while opening up our cottage was to stock up on honey from the HoneyDew Apiaries, just down the road in Canoe Cove.  Gotta love the Island, so many road-side stands selling potatoes, blueberries, honey and so on, where you pick up your produce and leave your payment, on the honour system.

The road-side stand at Honeydew Apiaries.

Stocking up with yummy honey.

Love the shelving!

Close to My Heart does have paper and ink in "Honey," but Creme Brulee is also a sweet colour. 

Hexagons are a huge trend right now, and while I don't have any six-sided stamps, I did dig out an old Creative Memories punch with two sizes of hexagons. I used it to make a bunch of hexagons from CTMH patterned paper (Elemental and Buzz'n Bumble) in Creme Brulee, and set them into a floral pattern onto some Saddle paper.

The background is Juniper patterned paper from an old paper pack, with some subtle flourishes. I stamped the Quick Cards--Bumble Bee image in Cocoa. I stamped the bee again on White Daisy paper with Cocoa ink. 

Colour was added by picking up some pigment from water-colour pencils with a water-brush. I added some glitz to the bee's body and Liquid Glass to his wings, then cut him out and mounted him with foam tape to the card base. A few chocolate-coloured floral buttons, with some Bronze glitz finish the card.

So buzz on over to the Color My Heart blog to see some other pretty projects using Creme Brulee and Juniper, by the design-team queens. We'd love for you to join the hive this week. If you don't have the exact challenge colours, use as close as you can. Neutrals like brown, tan, black, white, grey and kraft are also allowed. Can't wait to see what you create!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Primarily speaking...Color My Heart Dare #43

Here's my happy little card for this week's Color Dare, using some bold primary colours:

CRANBERRY

HONEY

OUTDOOR DENIM

Those happen to be the colours of CTMH's paper pack Tommy which has some neat nautical images. I used one piece of the Tommy paper for my "sky" and Outdoor Denim for my "sea." Some border dies and Paper Smooches' Wicked Nauticool stamp set completed the tool kit.

 CTMH's card stock has a white core, so the white is revealed when you sand the paper. This is what I did to get some "white-caps" on the edge of my "waves." The different layers are foam-taped on top of each other to give the effect of a choppy sea. 

I stamped the life preserver on kraft paper and added some shading with markers. The little gull is also coloured with markers. The speech bubble was cut with the Cricut Artiste cartridge.

I used the maritime signal flags to decorate the inside of the card.

I gave this thank-you card to a co-worker earlier this week, who helped me out with some French translation (I can speak the language but writing in it is a whole 'nother matter...She came to my aid!)

I'm heading out to the East Coast this weekend to open up our cottage, so this wavy scene was also most appropriate.

*****

Sail on over to the Color My Heart blog to see some other great ideas with our primary colours. You have one week to post your project. If you don't have CTMH colours its okay, just sub in similar colours. But remember, just those colours PLUS neutrals (black, white, grey, browns and kraft) are ship-shape for our colour challenges.

Happy sailing!

Caroline

Supplies:

Card stock in White Daisy, Outdoor Denim and kraft

Tommy paper pack

Inks in White Daisy, Cranberry, Outdoor Denim, Honey and Cocoa

Copic markers

Hemp twine

Foam tape

The MAD 10-Min Craft Dash strikes again...

The urge to craft in RIDICULOUS time (Woot if you're a fan of "Space Balls") struck again. The color palette at the 10-minute craft dash this time was particularly appealing:

Soft shades of sand, sea-foam green and coral. I subbed in the CTMH colours Cashmere, Lagoon, Smoothie and Desert Sand. I also had some washi tape that was JUST the right colour.
Here's my desk before the timer started:

I have a bunch of flower shapes pre-cut with the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge, and I store them with the coordinating stamp set. So that was a bit of a time-saver. I also had my card base and piece of kraft paper pre-cut. A rainbow of Liquid Pearls had just been delivered to my door this week, and I knew I wanted to use some of those.

As you can see above, I JUST made it again this time. The kicker was applying all those dots and dashes of Liquid Pearls--you HAVE to take your time or it just all globs together.
Here's the final product:

The greeting comes from Paper Smooches Good Gab. A very versatile stamp set. They released a new one this month that is a scream! called Slang Gang. I hope to play with that one again, soon.

Anyway, off to link up to Paulina's blog.  Its quite inspiring to see what other crafters can accomplish in just 10 minutes!

Happy Crafting,
Caroline

Supplies Used:
CTMH inks in Desert Sand, Cashmere, Lagoon and Smoothie
Colonial White card stock and kraft paper
Washi tape
Girls Rock stamp set (CTMH C1538)
Good Gab (Paper Smooches)
Ranger Liquid Pearls in Rouge, Flamingo and Platinum Pearl

In The Pink! Color My Heart Dare #42

Color My Heart has a pretty pack of pinks for you to play with this week:

BLUSH

COTTON CANDY &

HOLLYHOCK

I've been meaning to try out a technique I first saw by Kristina Werner, for Simon Says Stamp. She heat-embossed an outline floral image on vellum, then coloured it from the back side, with alcohol markers.  Here's her card:

So soft and pretty! (I LOVE the strip of lace and the gold-embossed mesh, too.).

 I saw another example just last week, on Dawn Griffith's blog, where the image was embossed in white:

Another great look. I thought the CTMH Love Blooms (C1511) stamp set would work really well for this effect.  I embossed the image in VersaMark ink, and used White Daisy embossing powder to heat-set it. I didn't have alcohol markers in all the requisite colours, so I inked a couple of the flowers with shades of BLUSH and a couple with HOLLYHOCK and COTTON CANDY, using the older dye-based CTMH markers. I have to say, the alcohol ones work better for blending and they don't saturate the vellum so it doesn't wrinkle. The dye-based markers do lend more of a water-color look, however.

Here's my version:  I used the COTTON CANDY print from the Chantilly paper pack, and embossed some White Daisy card stock with a Sizzix folder.  Those yummy die-cut flourishes are by Paper Smooches. The sentiment is also from Paper Smooches, from their set Good Gab stamp set.  Pink Glitter Gems finish the inside of the flowers (Z1807).

The translucency of the vellum allows you to see through to the images and colours below.

Here's a look at the inside:

I had a bloom and a flourish left over, so decided to add them, too.

So, are you feeling "in the PINK?" Head on over to Color My Heart to see the lovely pink creations by the other Design Team members. You have until Thursday, May 16th to link up YOUR pink project. Please join us! We love to see your work ;)

Happy Crafting, 

Caroline

Fly...

My baby turned 18 today.

Seriously, where did that time go?

I can still picture him at one year old--a tow-headed cherub with big blue eyes, eyelashes to-die-for, and a perpetual smile. Here he is today:

The boys have been playing a new video-game recently, Bio-Shock-3, which has a real Steam-Punk look--a floating city, circa 1920, powered by steam with lots of mechanical stuff. So here's his card:

All products from Paper Wishes Steam-Punk line--see link HERE. Except the cute cloud stamp (silver-embossed) from the Chantilly Workshop-on-the-go, by Close to My Heart. 

Love that silver linen paper, and the 3D papier tole balloon. My son will be joining the Canadian military for engineering school this summer, so all the gears and metal seemed just right.

Here's a shot of "my three sons," at the celebratory dinner:

Proud (but also sad and excited) mama tonight!

Fueled with Caffeine and Cocoa! Color My Heart #41

Color My Heart has a most delicious challenge for you this week. 

Use TWO shades of brown, and ONE OTHER COLOUR of your choice (plus white if you so desire). The browns are

SADDLE (a nice mocha) 

and COCOA (a deep, dark brown).

Fellow DT member Becca made a scrumptious cup-cake, HERE, which led me to thoughts of a nice café latte...

For the feature colour, I used TANGERINE, from the new Dream Pop paper pack, available this month at Close To My Heart. There are six fabulous patterned papers and six gorgeous food-inspired solid colours, with fun glossy embossed patterns.

The coffee stamp set and dies are  from The Stamps of Life; see the full set HERE.

I paper-pieced the cup, lid and sleeve. The sleeve, cut from Saddle, was also run through a chevron embossing folder to give the look of corrugated kraft paper. I used Sunset ink, a close match to Tangerine, and some coordinating baker's twine.

This was so much fun to piece together that I made a couple of other examples. My card-making group will be creating their own versions of these, later this week.

Here's a closer look at the MINT:

and STRAWBERRY examples:

So! break out your browns and join in the fun at Color My Heart! You have until midnight next Thursday May 9th to link up your creation.  Close to My Heart colors are not necessary--use close colours from your stash. What do these browns make you think of?

Have a great week!

Caroline

CTMH Supplies Used:

Saddle, Cocoa, White Daisy card-stock; Dream Pop colours: Tangerine, Strawberry and Mint.

Inks: Cocoa, Sunset, Lagoon.

Other Supplies:

Embossing folder, Sizzix

Twine from the Twinery in Mandarin, Caribbean and Cappucino

Coffee4two stamp set and dies from The Stamps of Life.

Spectrum Noir markers