Red, White & Blue--Color My Heart #49

 Hello crafty friends! 

We have a long weekend coming up, here in Canada, as we celebrate Canada's birthday on July 1st. 146 years young...    And July 4th is just around the corner, too.

The color dare at Color My Heart this week is, appropriately, to use 

CRANBERRY, WHITE DAISY and PACIFICA 

to create a project: patriotic, celebratory, or just whatever strikes your fancy.

I made a couple of cards: one for July 4th (in memory of many celebrations while living in the US) and one for July 1st. 

The firecracker card uses a retired CTMH stamp, Snap, Crackle and Pop. This is a fun one, as the body and "fillings" for the crackers are separate stamps. I added maple leaves (shout-out to the Great White North) to the cracker on the right, from the stamp set Vintage Canada.

The background is a Lil'Inker Design stitched rectangle mats die. The CELEBRATE banner uses a die from Simon Says Stamp, called Tilted Banner.

The explosives were stamped in Versamark ink, and heat-embossed with some sparkle powder I bought at Michaels, plus a little Glitz glitter gel in red.

This card uses my FAVORITE stamp from the retired Super Powers stamp set, the cityscape.  We have these fantastic gothic Parliament buildings in Ottawa, with the Peace Tower in the middle of the Central block, from which the flag always flies. You can join thousands of other proud Canadians on the evening of July 1st, right on the lawns in front of Parliament, to watch a fireworks and laser show. Only in Canada, eh?

Anyway, back to the cityscape.You can see another card using it HERE. The skyline already has shading built in, but adding a little more with grey alcohol markers is pretty effective. And I have news for you, if you're drooling over that stamp, saying "I wish it wasn't retired." Well, Close to My Heart will have a new stamp set, appropriately titled "Cityscape," available August 1st!  Woot! 

I stamped those bursting fireworks from the new patriotic stamp set:  Strong and Free and heat-embossed using both red and sparkle powder this time.  Then another of my fave techniques, sponging on colour, in this case PACIFICA, to create the night sky.

Alrighty, then. Jump on over to Color My Heart to see some more goodies with the RED,  WHITE  and BLUE theme. Get inky, and link your creation up by 9 p.m. CST, Thursday, July 4th! Can't wait to see your take on the color dare.
Happy celebrations, this week!

Happy Crafting,

Caroline

CTMH Supplies:

Cardstock in White Daisy, Outdoor Denim, and Cranberry

Inks: Versamark, Black, Pacifica, Cranberry

Alcohol marker in Whisper grey

Glitz glitter gel in red

Stamp sets: D1575 Strong and Free
D1295 Vintage Canada
C1485 Super Powers
B1192 Snap Crackle Pop
D1459 Canadian Celebration

Other Supplies:

Embossing powder: Recollections Sparkle Embossing Powder in Opaque Bling; Tim Holtz Distress Powder in Fired Brick

Lil'Inker Designs: rectangle stitched mats die

Simon Says Stamp: tilted banner die

Signo Uniball white gel pen

Ac-cen-tu-ate the Negative...Dynamically!

"What the ????," I hear you all saying.

That is my attempt at combining two challenges into one title.

Keep it Simple!:

and the color combination at Dynamic Duos challenge #58:

I wanted to try using this fabulous die from Paper Smooches (Get Well Phrase) as a negative space. I taped the die to two layers of paper, in order to cut them at one time; when I glanced at it, the washi tape at each end of the die reminded me of band-aids...so I went with that idea.  Here's the result:

The two colours are CTMH's BARN RED and SUNSET. I stamped a pill image in Sunset ink all over the lower section, and mounted the two coloured panels with foam tape, to get the requisite shadowing for the negative space.  The two band-aids are another stamp from the First Aid Kit (Paper Smooches).

And a little message in the same two colours of ink on the inside.

Not a bad way to spend a rainy weekend!  Hope we get sunshine for the holiday next week.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

You Add Colour...

My first time playing with a new CANADIAN sketch challenge, Atlantic Hearts. This challenge blog was created earlier this year by a couple of East Coast CTMH women, and features a new sketch every week.
Here's this week's doozy of a sketch:

Loved that chevron background and wanted to incorporate my present fave colour combo, inspired by the skirt on the far left (this image is a blog-header from my favorite women's running apparel website, Running Skirts).

(to see another card inspired by these colours, see link HERE).

I had lots of fun making my own puddle pad!  I know you can just use a folded baby wipe, but I had seen Jennifer MacGuire use the Ranger Inkssentials Cut-n-Dry stamp foam pad to create a custom ink pad. My dear crafty sister had sent me a pack of this in a care package, so I broke it open.

I cut a piece of the foam pad to the size of my stamp and added drops of CTMH re-inkers in COTTON CANDY, SKY, HONEY, LAGOON and SUNSET. They melded together wonderfully!
I used a couple of different Paper Smooches stamp sets, Geo-graphics and I {Heart} Art. I started by masking off the space for the multi-coloured sentiment and stamped the rest with a series of blah-and-increasingly weathered grey chevrons. Then I added the sentiment, paint splotch and the paint-brush.

This card kind of mirrored my day: grey grizzled weather in the nation's capital with a few bright spots: attending a Jazzfest concert and seeing my nephew drumming; eating Alabama pulled pork while downtown at Ribfest (short lines b/c of the rain); finishing the day with a family barbecue, singing along to the Beatles Rock Band on the Wii....

Here's da card:

Love that splotch!

Now go check out the goings on "north of the border" at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge! I believe the current sketch ends this Sunday (June 23rd) but there'll be another sketch to try every Monday.

Happy crafting,
Caroline

What's the Scoop? Color My Heart # 48 with Smoothie and Topiary

Blog alert! Photo-heavy post today...

This week's challenge colours at Color My Heart are
SMOOTHIE a juicy pink and
TOPIARY an intense green.
I believe these are complementary colours, so perhaps that is why they look so vivid together.
I used shades of brown (Chocolate--of course! Desert Sand, Champagne & White Daisy) so as not to compete with the focus colours.

I am still trying to get caught up on last year's summer photos, and these colours fit right in with the following image:

This poster was prominently displayed at our favorite ice-cream store, COWS, in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Bad flash on my part, the glared-out words are "can buy."  Notice the pink and green lettering, the different sized fonts and the little row of ice-cream cones at the bottom...

I started with a sketch by Cheryl Even. She used to provide regular sketch inspiration for the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog, which is where I "met" her.

She still posts sketches on her own blog,   Even More Scrapping!, which are great because they include the paper-cutting dimensions, and usually include room for several photos. This is her lay-out for June.

I'm going to focus on a couple of design features and then show you the whole dang lay-out.

First up, those little ice-cream cones. The stamp and die set for this come from There She Goes Clear Stamps. You can find the link for them HERE and HERE.  I had fun stamping the cones with a waffle pattern and creating different "flavours" of ice-cream for a couple of border strips.

The Title. I just finished an online course from Big Picture Classes called "Textuality" with TONS of great ideas for using text on your layouts. Titles, fonts, journalling, etc.  So I knew I wanted to use a mixture of colours and fonts for my title expression.  The skinny letters are a Sizzix font called Cherish.   The hazy letters are another Sizzix font, Round Table, this time cut from vellum, to look, well...hazy.

The "crazy" letters are CTMH Irresistibles, which I inked with Smoothie pigment ink. The white embossed areas resist the colour, adding some interest and texture.

For "summer," my first idea was to do more die-cutting using the CTMH burlap ribbon, but that idea was short-lived. I tried backing the ribbon with adhesive tape before cutting, to create letter stickers, but the dies wouldn't cut through the plastic backing--too thick. So I decided to stamp my letters to mimic fabric texture. I used the Artiste Cricut cartridge for the font and CTMH's Distressed Backgrounds stamp, for a linen-look.

Here are the rejects:  just inking the edges of the letters wasn't interesting enough.

Here's a bigger look at the stamp set.

Another lesson from the Textuality course was to have the subjects of the photos contribute to the journalling. So one of my journaling blocks includes everyone's favorite flavour of last summer, recorded for posterity.  You can see this close up in the first photo.

Notice I used no patterned paper here? Some repeated stamped images, some texture and the photos themselves add enough visual interest.

Here's the left-side of the lay-out.

Here's the right-side. Notice how none of my family smiles for the camera any more...

Here's the whole thing:  sorry for the hazy shot--when I crop the picture in iPhoto it loses definition...need to work on that.

So! What do pink and green make you think of??? Check out some more inspiring creations from the Design Team at Color My Heart. Then link up your creation for a chance to be our Color Dare Diamond! You have until Thursday, June 27th to get inky.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

One more photo of my cutie HB, enjoying his ice-cream cone!

CTMH Supplies Used:

Card stock in Champagne, White Daisy, Kraft, Smoothie and Topiary.

Vellum

Inks in Smoothie, Desert Sand, Champagne, Chocolate

Stamp: Distressed Backgrounds D1544

Irresistibles Eclectic Alphabet chipboard shapes

Cricut Artiste cartridge for "summer" font, word-bubble shape.

Other supplies:

Sizzix chevron embossing folder

Sizzix Sizzlets alphabet dies:  Round Table, Cherish

There She Goes Clear Stamps set: Enjoy Life

There She Goes Clear Stamps die set: Enjoy Life

The Twinery's baker's twine in Strawberry.

Signo Uniball White pen

Slick Writer in brown.

Freshly Made...Buttons

New-to-me challenge to try today,

Freshly Made Sketches, with this inspiration:

The idea behind this particular challenge blog is clean-but-not-necessarily simple. So clean edges, lots of white space, but not adverse to some embellishment.  I personally find that some of my best creations come from following constraints. For instance, only two colours, only ten minutes, incorporating a sketch or a particular design element. I'm also still trying to "find my style, Mr. Monk" so trying out different approaches to card-making, like trying on clothes, is a way to see what fits.

Enough philosophizing!

This card is actually my second take on this sketch. I used an embossing folder to add some interest to the white space, and the dots on that along with the scalloped border made me think of buttons. I used a great little stamp set from Close to My Heart called Buttoned Together-B1361. The buttons happened to fit my circle punches, so this was easy put together.

I used a sentiment from the same set, but didn't want to bring in another colour, so stamped it in black on vellum. Then I decided it needed another something on the left side, so added another small button stamp, placing it on top of one of the dots. What do you think? Do I need another couple of small somethings? Rule of three and all that?

Anyway, successful experiment. I almost want to whip up another couple to send to friends far away. Those buttons were fun to play with!

Go check out the Freshly Made Sketches blog. You have until Monday, June 24th to be inspired by the current sketch and link up your project. They also have a whole gallery of previous sketches, if you're stumped for ideas.

Happy crafting, 

Caroline

Supplies Used:
CTMH inks: Sunset, Sky, Lagoon, Honey, Bubblegum, Cranberry and Black
Card stock in White Daisy and Slate
Buttoned Together stamp set B1361
Cuttlebug embossing folder

Sweet as Honey...Color My Heart Dare #47

This week's color dare from Color My Heart features a single yummy color:

HONEY

It is a rich shade of yellow; kind of sunny.

As I had been doing some gardening this past week, I thought I'd stick with that motif.

And I admit, I totally CASEd this card design and the sentiment from a new Paper Smooches stamp set, Green Thumb (see what I mean HERE).

But I used all Close to My Heart products:
Keyboard Kraft Alphabet (sentiment)
Keyboard Upper-case stamp set (seed packet)
Floral stamps sets:
Claire Workshop
Girls Rock
and the pièce de résistance, that black glitter paper.
I bought a packet (comes with three different colours) of that stuff a couple of months ago, but as I'm not the most sparkly person, I hadn't used it yet. It was PERFECT for this project! Cuts beautifully with a simple border die, easy to glue down, and that texture and shine! Looks like rich soil.

Sow, pop on over to the Color My Heart blog for more seeds of creativity by the rest of the Design Team. Then grab your paper and ink and make a project (card, lay-out, 3D item) to share with us. If you don't have HONEY, use the closest colour plus your choice of neutrals (check the blog for details). We love to see what sprouts from your imagination!

Happy Crafting,

Caroline

Supplies Used:

Card stock in White Daisy, Colonial White and Kraft

Black & Grey Glitter Paper (Z1829)

Ink in Honey, Champagne and Desert Sand

black pen

Keyboard Kraft Alphabet stickers (Z1825)

Keyboard Uppercase stamp set (B1416)

Claire Workshop stamp set (G1056)

Girls Rock (C1538)

Border 1 die set from Paper Smooches

Finish'er...10-minute Craft Dash #19

Time for another attempt at a personal best in the 10-minute Craft Dash!

The challenge colours this fortnight are:

Now here's the back-story to this card:  my husband and I are endeavoring to complete a half-marathon in every Canadian province and territory before we're 65 or our knees give out, whichever comes first. Four down, nine to go...

This past month, we ran the Blue Nose Marathon in the historic city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. What a beautiful place to tour, while dashing from one end to the other--down by the water-front, past the Citadel, up the slopes of Point Pleasant Park... The motto of this run is "Just finish'er" (add East Coast accent HERE).

Also, since January (NY Resolution month), the whole fan-damily has been hitting the gym and working with trainers. My son wants to survive boot-camp this summer and hubby and I are trying to stave off inevitable aging.

Anyway, back to the run. I knocked FOUR minutes off my time from last fall's half, all the while running up and down hill. So this card is to thank my trainer for helping to fix my posture, strengthen my legs and generally motivate me.

Here's the PRE picture of the crafty space. All supplies gathered and a pretty good idea of the card design in my head. Thanks to Lyndal Higgins for the tip of grouping all similar jobs at once (do all stamping, then all die-cutting, etc.).

Here's the card--I used CTMH ink, paper and card-stock in Cranberry, Crystal Blue and Buttercup. And the time???

Ta-dah!

Lost a few seconds with the hand-written font, but stamping or computer journalling would have left me way over-time.

Don't you love the PACE BUNNY? A Paper Smooches image--I've used him for a ton of cards this spring. He's commemorating my PB.

So make tracks (get it?) to the 10-Minute Craft Dash to check out some more winning cards with this colour palette. You have until next Saturday, June 15th, to join in the mad dash.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Sunny Summer Colours...Color My Heart #46

Hello, crafty friends!

The challenge at Color My Heart this week leaves you lots of choice to play with your favorite shades of these three colours:

YELLOW

ORANGE &

PINK.

I think this is called an "analogous triad" but I'll let Sarah explain the colour theory!  I chose my favorite yellow, BUTTERCUP, and paired it with HOLLYHOCK and SORBET, mostly because they match the buttons I planned to use.

I used the sewing machine image from CTMH's Puns of Praise stamp set and coloured that with alcohol markers and a gold pen for some metallic sparkle.

That gorgeous stitched background comes from Lil'Inker Designs. So classic!  I had to pair all that stitched goodness with some more sewing-box items like a button assortment and Color-ready Seam Binding ribbon. I used a tip from fellow DT member, Pam Korte, for "dying" the ribbon--just ran it between some plastic packaging and my Buttercup dye ink-pad. Quick and mess-free. However, beware it takes A LONG TIME TO DRY. Do not place it anywhere near your carefully prepared project until no colour comes off when you handle it...

And there you have a sunny, punny thank-you card.

Now make tracks for the Color My Heart blog, for some inspiration by the Design Team members, then break out YOUR favorite shades of YELLOW, ORANGE & PINK and share your work with us! We LOVE to see your creations. You have until midnight, Thursday, June 13th, to link up your project.

Happy crafting, as always,

Caroline

Supplies Used:

CTMH Card stock in White Daisy, Hollyhock and Sorbet

CTMH Buttercup ink-pad

Memento Rich Cocoa ink-pad

Alcohol markers by CTMH and Copic

Sakura gold metallic pen

Creative Memories circle cutter

Lil'Inker Designs "Circles and Diamonds Stitched Pattern" die

Color-read seam binding ribbon (CTMH)

Buttons--assorted 

Foam tape

Glue dots

What's up?...aka...how does your garden grow?

What's up in your neck of the woods?

I'm playing along with two fun challenges this week:

Keep it simple #15: where you must use a black background:

and the colour combo from the Dynamic Duos #55 which includes:

These seemed made for each other, especially when I added a cute little die-cut called "Vegetable Border" from Poppystamps (which I bought at my LSS, Heather's Stamping Haven. I think she should call it "stamping HEAVEN.") Anway, here's the result of my own "fusion."

Here's the deets: I used black lightly textured cardstock from Wausau papers. Ran that through my Big Shot with the die. Backed the openings with two Close to My Heart colours, Spring Iris (retired) and Ruby, leaving some space with foam tape, so the veggies look more dimensional. Heat-embossed the punny sentiment from Paper Smooches' Good Gab stamp set with white detail powder. And finally, added a scrap of black glitter paper (CTMH) to the bottom, to ground the image (get it?).

Very satisfactory! Almost as much fun as digging in the real thing, although there'll be no veggies growing in my garden for awhile yet...

Check out these two blogs for more inspiration:

Keep it Simple 

Dynamic Duos.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

So flippin' happy...

...it's finally SUMMER!

This quick little card was made to celebrate Lil'Inker Design's Sunny Days challenge.

The inspiration is this photo montage:

I chose to focus on the blue skies, bucket of flip flops and the pin-wheel.

I created the sunshine/pinwheel with a circle of flip-flops in yellow and orange craft foam. The flip flop die works so well with this material--you can really see the signature stitched detail.

They are one of my favorite little die sets--so many ways to combine the elements for fun embellishments!

I glued them to a daisy-shaped flower, using baker's twine from The Twinery for the centre.

The background sky is a rubber stamp from Hero Arts.

Some torn kraft paper forms the beach, with the greeting pieced together from two Lil'Inker stamp sets, Darling Diamonds and Flip-flop Sentiment set.

Bring on those sunny skies! And check back to the Lil'Inker blog for a new release of must-have goodies, later this month.

Happy crafting! Also planting, mowing, cycling and all the other great things summer brings!

Caroline