Heart2Heart Challenges: Keepin' it Neutral

Whew--its been some time since I last posted. We were away for 5 days, then catching up at work and with laundry and groceries at home. Last weekend I attended an all-day workshop on how to use Copic alcohol markers, at Heather's Stamping Haven.  Some great ideas which I hope to feature here.

But! Now back in the krafting saddle, which brings me to this week's challenge at Heart2Heart!

The assignment this week is to create a card using one or more neutral shades: black, white, off-white, grey, kraft.  Close to My Heart completely revamped their neutral/basic colour family this past summer, coming up with such new shades as Whisper, Slate, Cashmere, Champagne and Saddle.

I chose to stick with a more sepia-toned palette, of Colonial White, Desert Sand and the natural shades of burlap. The subdued colour scheme meant the texture of the fabric, stitching and lace takes visual precedence. The card design was inspired by Andrea Ewen's post for CASE Study Challenge #107.

A closer look at the burlap hearts: I created templates/patterns for them from cardstock, using shapes on the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. I was afraid attempting to cut them directly with on the Cricut cutting mat would end in stringy disaster. The burlap does cut cleanly & easily with Sizzix dies, however. The lighter shade is CTMH's burlap ribbon. The darker shade I bought at my local fabric store. You can colour the burlap ribbon with alcohol markers, too, for a different shade.
The lace was also purchased at the fabric store, but the bling button and embroidery floss are CTMH.
"Thanks" is from the stamp set "For Every Occasion" D1187, currently available, which has a ton of sentiments for, you guessed it! every occasion.

Here is another version, intended as a wedding card. I used the stitched mat dies from Lil'Inker instead of machine-stitching on this one.

Head on over to the Heart2Heart site to see the beautiful creations by the rest of the DT.You have until Nov. 3rd to link up projects for any of the challenges this month (October).

Happy crafting and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Christmas in October...

The crew at Heart2Heart Challenges is helping you get a jump-start on your holiday preparations. 

My take on a Pear & Partridge WOTG card

This marks the second week that the Design Team has been asked to create a Christmas project. I had intended to start designing gift tags (one of my favorite things to do {see some of my December 2011 posts}, but I am in PEI, Canada this weekend (Oct 12th-14th) to run a half marathon, so this post had to be written before I left.  

Earlier this fall, I ordered the "Pear & Partridge" Christmas-card workshop-on-the-go (Idea book, page 62). Enough supplies and embellishments to make five each of three card designs. I got everything cut out, and made one of each card, then got bored... Don't get me wrong, the CTMH designs are great, and the instructions to cut everything out at once, batch-style, save lots of time and calculating. But the featured cards didn't even use all the stamps on the enclosed stamp set; I started to get ideas. I was also inspired by fellow CTMH consultant, Alyson Mayo, who posted a whole set of variations on the CTMH website. Here's a look at some of her cards:

Alyson Mayo's card designs

 I'm posting a couple of my "takes" on the original designs. So the paper elements and layouts are the same but the stamping and embellishing are mine. I added some bulk cranberry ribbon, hemp, the wooden arbor shapes (LOVE these! you can colour them with your ink pads, stamp on them, layer them). On the first card, I used the stamps (branches and words) to create my background paper.  The snowflake stamp is included in the Pear&Partridge WOTG scrapbooking kit.

On this card, I used a new (non-CTMH) "toy," the stitched mats from Lil' Inker Designs. These are a set of nesting dies, starting with the largest, which embosses this simple stitched detail on an A2 (4.25"x5.5") card base.  A subtle but beautiful addition of texture. I'll have fun using these on my eventual Christmas gift tags. I also stamped and inked the edges of the wooden shape.

So, wish me luck on the run (its supposed to rain!). Catch you on the next post,

Happy Crafting,

Caroline

Thankful for World Card-Making Day

This weekend marks the first anniversary of my blog!

I remember posting about World Card-Making Day, which I had just found out about. Imagine, a day dedicated to creating things which give joy to other people!
Some similar joy this past week, when I ran two card-making workshops. One was for clients at the Rehab Centre where I work, and one was for friends of my sister-in-law. In both cases, the true enjoyment was watching people get excited about the creative process. I love it best when the projects I've provided only serve as a departure point for further inventiveness, when people make their own variations or take off in an entirely new direction.

It is also Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada.  All in all, lots for which to be thankful.

Here's a selection of some of the cards we made this week:

 The two thank-you cards feature the CTMH stamp set "A Little Thanks." The clean-and-simple card design is from my friend Kristin.
The DP in the left side shows both designs on the double-sided "Flirty" paper from CTMH.
A little shading of Sizzix die-cut leaves, some seasonal ribbon and voila.

This "turkey2stamp" is another fun set from The Stamps of Life. The turkey outline, body and feathers are all stamped separately, so you can choose your own colour and pattern combination.

This particular card design was CASEd from Emily Niehaus, one of the design-team members from the Stamps of Life. She is a very versatile stamper and can do whimsical, as is the case here, elegant, shabby-chic...worth checking out her blog.

I added a little Flower Soft for the turkey to scratch upon.

The newbie stampers had a lot of fun with this guy!

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian pals, and to the American ones, its never too early in the season to enjoy some roast turkey!

Happy crafting, 

Caroline

Rollin', rollin', rollin'...

October, already!

 Welcome to another month of challenges at Heart2Heart! 

The first assignment for Team A was to use the "rolling" technique (also known as "rock'n roll") on a card. This is where you ink your stamp with one colour, then before applying it to the paper, carefully roll the edges of the stamp in another  ink colour, resulting in a two-tone stamped image. It gives an extra look of  dimension. Fellow DT member, Haley reminded us that you can also use the technique with just a single colour: stamp off the image for a lighter, "second generation" tone, then roll the edges again in the same colour of ink, which is what I chose to do for my project.. Shirley, another DT member, produced yet another variation on this technique by rolling off her edges, on her gorgeous Christmas card, seen HERE.

I shamelessly CASEd THIS card, by Amy Wanford (Aimes) in the UK. Great colour combination (see ink-pads above) and wonderful autumn image of fallen leaves. LOVE cruising the web for inspiration...

Here's a close up of the leaves. I used the stamp set "Harvest Happiness," which has a variety of funky leaf shapes (which you can also cut out with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge!), and stamped them in Smoky Plum, Sunset, Creme Brulee and Cashmere. 

The piece de resistance (not sure how to put an accent on the E in piece for the proper French pronunciation...) was stamping onto the wooden maple leaf shape (Arbor Wooden Shapes) with two colours of ink. The ink soaked really well into the wood, without running or smearing, so the flourish detail is still visible. A brown button and a hemp-twine bow finish it off.

So, ROLL up your sleeves, start humming "Rawhide" and get to work! You have all month to participate in this challenge. Remember to use SOME Close to My Heart product (doesn't have to be 100%), get inky, then link up your card at Heart2Heart Challenges. We all love to see your creations!

Happy Crafting!

Caroline

Happy Birthday, DUDE!

Here is a detail from a card I made earlier this summer for my brother-in-law. He can do/make ANYTHING (build a dock, finish a rec-room, create cartoons) so this image from CTMH's "Rugged Dude" stamp set seemed most appropriate. The denim pocket and stitching are separate clear stamps, so you can customize as you wish.

I also used new "rugged" barn-wood paper and some brass studs.

Inside of the card features those awesome grommet stamps! I used the small "genuine" and "brand" stamps to hide a smear...

The only sad thing is, this card got misplaced during summer travel! (I took it on vacation so the family could all sign it, and it went MIA). So virtual wishes for my B.I.L this year...(we also phoned and sang the birthday song).

Hope it was happy, dude!

Happy Crafting,

Caroline

CTMH:

B1405 Rugged Dude stamp set

Dakota paper pack

Burlap ribbon

Durables studs

Other:

PaperTreyInk birthday stamp set

Loving the LOBSTER...TSG173

For the past three months, I have been the very lucky recipient of the new-release stamp sets from There She Goes Clear Stamps (I was the big prize winner at this year's "Mother of All Blog-Hops"). It is a package to drool over every month--so many fun images, clever sentiments and even coordinating dies last month. Jessica Knutsen is a generous lady!  So far, I have definitely NOT done justice to those stamps on my blog. I had the opportunity recently to start to fix THAT situation.

We enjoyed another wonderful family vacation on Prince Edward Island this past August. I brought back gifts of goats-milk soap to my co-workers (it is wonderful stuff--feels so good on your ski--and smells delicious). Lobsters are a big thing on PEI, so I used the smaller lobster image from the Beach Bums stamp set to create gift tags for the bars of soap.
I stamped the little guy in Archival Black ink (CTMH) and used Spectrum Noir and Copic markers to colour in the image. The "for you from" sentiment is from The Stamps of Life penguins4Christmas set. I stamped "PEI" with the small Friendship alphabet from Close to My Heart. The tag was made with an older Sizzix die, "Bread Tags."
Here's a look at the soap all packaged up:

 I just wrapped the bars in tissue paper then secured with some maraschino twine from The Twinery, clipping the bread tag onto the twine.

The whole bunch!

Such a fun little evening's work, and definitely cuter thanks to There She Goes Clear Stamps!

I am entering the gift tags to this week's TSG challenge #173, making a project with a present/gift-giving theme. Perfect, don't you think?

Happy crafting,
Caroline

Stretch the Sketch...H2H Challenge

The assignment at the Heart2Heart Challenge blog this week was to use this sketch:

I thought the framed rectangle on the sketch looked like a perfect "photo-well" so I decided to create a lay-out vs. a card this time. It is sized at 8"x10" inches, to fit into a standard photo-frame.

Details, details:  I had just received my CTMH "Avonlea" paper pack, and used that to create a patchwork of fish-tail banners as the diagonal element. Those papers look so textural, almost like fabric, which suggested the idea of adding some machine-stitching. I had a variegated green/brown thread already on the machine, from my latest quilting project (which WILL get completed and posted here ONE of these days...) which matched the paper very nicely.  Also added a few cross-stitches with embroidery floss. Here is a close up of some of the stitching:

My husband and I both had big, round-number birthdays this year, as well as celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary (the photo was taken at his birthday dinner), so the "congratulation" stamp with the big C (initial of both our names) seemed appropriate. It also nicely echoed the rosette design on the Avonlea paper. I added some pleated black tulle ribbon and a lace flower and button, in keeping with the vintage look of the paper, to fulfill the circle element of the sketch. I didn't have an ink pad which perfectly matched the colours of the background paper, so I inked my stamp with Juniper ink, then lightly touched it to the Slate ink, to "grey" down the colour, before stamping.

This sketch challenge is open to all paper-crafters, and runs through the end of September, plenty of time to dream up a card, lay-out or other item. Simply include some Close to My Heart product amongst your supplies, and link up your creation to: Heart2Heart Challenges. Can't wait to see your projects!

Happy crafting,
Caroline

CTMH Supplies:
Avonlea paper pack
Chocolate, Avonlea White and Slate card-stock
Chocolate, Juniper and Slate ink-pads
2" scallop circle punch
Bohemian assortment (lace flower and silver button)
Black tulle ribbon
Piercing tools

Other supplies:
Signo white gel pen
Organdy ribbon, JoAnn's
Sewing machine and King Tut variegated thread
DSM embroidery floss