Announcing...Tints!--Color My Heart Dare #58

This week's Color Dare features a trio of soft pastels:

SKY

SWEET LEAF

and BUTTERCUP

I believe Sarah will have a little color-theory lesson for you, on the blog, regarding TINTS.

We have a couple of young friends who are expecting, so these soft colours made me think of baby quilts.

I used the "Trip Around the World" pattern, cutting some papers from the Chantilly paper pack into 1/2 inch squares. 

I glued them to a base of scrap paper, and added a thin border in white. The centre square features a sweet little heart stamp from the retired set Happy Occasions. The faux stitching was done with a white pen.

The lacy ruffle at the top was punched with a Martha Stewart edger on thin computer paper, scrunched and then smoothed out again.

I had fun embellishing the little tag, which features another stamp from the Happy Occasions set. 

I used my Cropodile to round the corners. I gathered some stitched Sweet leaf ribbon by pulling on the stitching along one edge. Some Color Ready Seam-binding and some of the new Aqua Enamel dots complete the look.

Now I may just start a REAL quilt for one of those new babies...the paper one was such fun!

Now trip over to check out the Design Team's creations at the Color My Heart blog. 

How do these TINTS inspire you? Link up your creation to share with us; you have until Thursday noon, September 5th to get inky. Remember, if you don't have the exact Close to My Heart colors, use what you have. We love to see what you create! And there are new Jewel-tone winner badges up for grabs!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies Used:

Chantilly paper pack-X7163B

Sky and White Daisy cardstock

Sky and Buttercup ink

Sweet-leaf stitched ribbon

Color-ready Seam-binding

Aqua Enamel dots-Z1853

Happy Occasions stamp set-B1136 (retired)

Martha Steward border punch

Crop-o-dile corner-rounder

White printer paper

A Happy HELLO--Atlantic Hearts Sketch #17

Hello folks! Here's another fun sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

I am still away from home, so making do with the limited crafting supplies at hand! Sometimes limits can work to your advantage; not sure if it did the trick this time... I would have liked more card-stock choices.

My card, above, features some lovely Chiyogami papers my husband brought back for me, from a recent business trip to Japan. I stuck with the hexagons pretty closely, turning the biggest one into a six-petaled flower. The sentiment is a Papertrey Ink stamp set my sister, Morag, brought with her to PEI.

Just to show how freely you can play with a sketch, here's her take on the same design. We sat down together this morning. Same supplies and tools; totally different card!

Don't you love how she frayed the edge of her rug? 

Morag has not posted anything on her blog in a long time!!! So I'm hoping this kick-starts her habit again...once she's back home, with more crafting goodies at her disposal.

********

Off you go, to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog, to see some more creations with this week's sketch. Our design team rocks, just sayin'...  You have until Sunday August 25th to link up for challenge #17; check back the following Wednesday for the winners.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

What {goes} up? Color My Heart Dare #56

Good morning, crafty friends. What's up with you this weekend?

I'm still on vacay--so limited internet. Just popping in to post this week's color dare at Color My Heart:

LAGOON, PEAR and BUTTERCUP.

Such bright cheery colours!

I used a new stamp from Close to My Heart, One Way Borders, C1561, and a new die from Paper Smooches, the Bam Bubble die, to create this card.

The border die gives such a great effect of movement! I actually measured placement for stamping this time, with pencil marks that I erased afterwards (I usually just eyeball these things!). The Bam die was cut with both BUTTERCUP and PEAR. The sentiment is from the Paper Smooches set Good Gab (another very useful stamp set!), heat-embossed in white. The final addition is some new Aqua Enamel Dots from Close to My Heart.

Here's the inside:

So what is up on your crafting table? Drop by Color My Heart to see what the other Design Team gals have been up to, then get inky and link up with your creation. We love to see your take on the color dare! This week's challenge is open until Thursday, August 22nd at noon.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies Used:

Card stock in White Daisy, Buttercup and Pear

Ink in Pear, Buttercup, Lagoon, Versamark.

White embossing powder

Aqua enamel dots

Foam tape

Paper Smooches: Bam Bubble die and Good Gab stamp set

Washi tape

Sweet Summer! Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #15

Hello from vacation-land! I am enjoying a few weeks by the ocean in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Beautiful, peaceful, and NO TV OR INTERNET.

A blessing and a curse!  

Makes it hard to keep up with my blogging friends and design team duties, but that's what vacation is for, right?

Here's the new sketch challenge, over at Atlantic Hearts.

Another very versatile sketch.  I chose to interpret those ovals in the background as slices of citrus, using The Stamps of Life set, Lemonade2drink.

I stamped using some sweet colours from Close to My Heart: Pear, Buttercup and Sunset.

 The focal image was stamped then high-lighted using a Honey alcohol marker (also CTMH). 

Stitched border mats from Lil'Inker Designs.

A little ribbon in Sorbet.

 Close-up of the citrus slices. I stamped the outline in dye-ink, then filled in the segments with second-generation stamping (stamping off once onto scrap paper, for a lighter shade).

So there you have a sweet summer card!

Here's how it works at Atlantic Hearts:

• the new sketch is posted today (Monday); 
• design inspirations are posted Wednesday, so you have some time to digest the sketch; 
• dead-line for linking up is Sunday night; 
• top three chosen and posted the following Wednesday.
• Hope you will play along, as you enjoy the summer weather.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Color My Heart...Ruby! Challenge #54

Care for a little chocolate, anyone?

This week's challenge at Color My Heart is a fun one:

Use the assigned neutrals, Cashmere and Champagne, and add a colour of your choice.

I added a further neutral, CHOCOLATE, so I could use the sa-weet Stamp of the Month Set, "A Chocolate Affair." My colour is RUBY, a juicy red, inspired by the chocolate-covered strawberry which is part of the stamp set.

The 3x8 card design comes from the CTMH How-to book, Originals.

Here's a close-up of those yummy chocolate treats:

masked off  portions of each stamp to get the different colours

I finished the inside of this card, adding a white panel for writing (on the Cashmere card base), and hiding the raw edge of the delicious chocolate-striped grosgrain ribbon with yet more chocolates...

The best part about this post? The "Chocolate Affair" stamp set is FREE this month, with a $50 order to your favorite CTMH consultant! No excuse not to get inky, or chocolate-y...

*****

Off you go, to the Color My Heart blog to see some more colorful creations with Cashmere and Champagne. Then, add your own colour to this combo and link up your project. You have all week to play (link closes at noon, August 8th). We love to see your take on the colour challenge!

Keep close tabs on the Color My Heart blog over the next week--new design team members and new winner badges to be revealed...

Happy crafting!

Caroline

Supplies Used:

Card stock in Cashmere, Champagne, Ruby, and Colonial White

Inks: Cashmere, Champagne, Chocolate, and Ruby

Originals Card Confidence Program: 9036

2" scallop punch

Dark Chocolate Striped Grosgrain Ribbon Z1617

Close to My Heart NEW PAPER PACK Blog Hop!

Some of the gals from the K&W Ottawa Area CTMH group are hopping today, to show you the new paper packs from the Close to My Heart Autumn/Winter catalogue which debuts today, August 1st.
You should have come from Tracy Holmes, blog, featuring Laughing Lola.

I chose to feature Pro-Player, which has primary reds, blues, plus greys and black and lots of pixilated, wi-fi, gaming images and sentiments. I have three big boys who are avid gamers, so I was SURE I'd have a use for the papers, stamps and embellishments...

I am showing half of a two-page lay-out featuring photos from Mother's Day this year. The boys gave me breakfast in bed, a t-shirt from one of our favorite Sci-Fi shows--Firefly, and tickets to... COMICON!

What an INTERESTING event...excellent question-and-answer session with two of the actors from FireFly, then touring the Star Wars costumes, working Daleks from Dr. Who, role-playing board games and LOTS of peep dressed as their favorite character, just WAITING to be asked if they'd mind having their photo taken... Lots of spandex and make-up, and that was just the men... We got one family shot with the actor Ross Mullen from Game of Thrones (above), and he signed a face-shot from the show for me.

For the layout, I used one of the fabulous page over-lays from the new "ArtBooking" Cricut cartridge. It is intended for Memorial Day or July 4th, but the stars and gears worked great for this event, too. I cut the overlay in Ruby, layered over Slate cardstock.  Lots of left-over circles and stars for the rest of the lay-out! The photo-mat, also part of the "ArtBooking" layout, is cut from one of the Pro-Player double-sided papers.

The title is cut using the "Artiste" cartridge, in Pacifica, high-lighted with a silver pen.

Close-up of the overlay, with some of the ProPlayer embellishment pack goodies (coloured corrugated shapes and metal gems). These come with the Workshop-on-the-Go Pro-Player package.

To create a pocket for the journalling, I cut a slit into the background paper, and added a sleeve behind it with some scrap-paper. I added the Slate twist-ties to the journalling tag, as pulls.

Now, head off to the next blog, to see a close-up of the beautiful "Sarita" papers:
Diana Saunders: Sarita

Here's the rest of the blog hop list:
Tracy Holmes: Laughing Lola
Shelley Byers:  Huntington   Check out Shelley's more recent posts, for some more FAB creations!
Heather MacIsaac Hunt: Frosted
Diana Saunders:  Babycakes
And remember, all these goodies are available for order, starting today. Use the Shop-with-Me link at the right, if you are in Canada, or contact your own CTMH consultant in the US.

Happy crafting,
Caroline

Supplies Used:
Pro Player Paper Pack  X7172B
Pro Player Assortment Z1879
Cricut Artbooking Collection Z1906
Card stock in Slate, Whisper, Black, Ruby and Pacifica
Silver Metallic Marker  Z1768
Foam tape

Adorable...Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #14

Monday means SKETCH CHALLENGE TIME over at the Atlantic Hearts blog.  This week's design is particularly versatile and would work for many different-occasion cards.

There is always room for some flexibility with a sketch challenge, but this time I definitely wanted to take advantage of that large flower silhouette, by making a big fat flower, playing with some Noor! Design dies sent to me by my Dutch crafting friend, Corina.

Floral Flourishes Dies

I started out cutting the nested flower shapes from some double-sided CTMH paper. Then spritzed them with water, then played with a "smooshing" tool and my McGill foam mat.  After they had taken on the shape I was looking for, I set them aside to dry while I assembled the rest of the card.

The colour scheme comes from the current 10-Minute Craft Dash palette, 

but there was no way I was going to get this baby done in ten minutes...! But I did like the blue and coral colours paired with kraft paper.

The background is embossed with a large dots Cuttlebug folder; the focal mat is textured cardstock cut with a Nestabilities die.

Flourishes, cut with a Paper Smooches die, add some whimsy. The sentiment comes from Paper Smooches' "Good Gab" stamp set, heat-embossed onto a Simon Says Stamp tilted banner die. Notice the new bling from CTMH!

Lots of dimension, eh? Not exactly mail-able, but this one will be hand-delivered to hubby for his birthday this week.

So! I'm sending you off to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog, to see the new sketch up close. Creations by the other DT members will be posted on Wednesday of this week, and you have until midnight, Sunday, August 4th to link up YOUR take on the sketch.

How will you interpret it?
Can't wait to see your creation!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

CTMH Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Kraft, White Daisy, Smoothie, Pacifica

Patterned Paper: Elemental (retired)

Ink: Versamark, Pacifica dye ink

White detail embossing powder

Bling: Base & Bling Floral accents Z1883; Bitty sparkles Z1263

Other Supplies:
Nestabilities: Labels #2 dies
Joy Craft/Noor! Design: Floral Flourishes dies
Paper Smooches: Flourishes #1 die set
Simon Says Stamp: Tilted Banners die set
Cuttlebug: embossing folder (large dots)
Paper Smooches: "Good Gab" stamp set.