Babycakes! at Color My Heart #68

The colors for this week's dare at Color My Heart come from one of the current CTMH paper packs, Babycakes.

SUNSET and 

BUTTERCUP

(with optional CHOCOLATE and SLATE)

Babycakes is an adorable set of six coordinating papers, intended for kiddy lay-outs, although the geometric shapes would work for any purpose, as the colours are not traditional pastels. As I needed to make a new-baby gift, using this paper pack was no hardship!

Yep, I made yet ANOTHER name-frame. They are just so cute, fun to embellish, and impress the heck out of the recipient.  (see my previous versions HERE and HERE; I got the idea from Amy Moore and Jayma Malme).

 

   The giraffe was cut using the Cricut Artbooking cartridge, with the addition of Liquid Pearl spots, embroidery floss tail and Memory Thread antlers.

The letters were cut with the Artbooking cartridge as well; cardstock covered with Liquid Glass then sprinkled with glitter. It gives a nice dimensional effect.

This corner was dressed up with some non-CTMH items--Lil'Inker stitched sun die; Paper Smooches cloud dies in cardstock and vellum, and a cute bird die from Memory Box. Plus Stickles!

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Your turn! 

Head on over to the Color My Heart blog to see some more amazing artwork, then get to work with your Sunset & Buttercup (or close colours) and share your project with us. You may be chosen as the weekly Color Dare Diamond, and there are monthly prizes, too!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Back later with this info...

A New Saturday Morning Routine...the Dynamic Duos Challenge!

Good morning, caffeinated friends!

Some exciting news to share: I've been invited to join the Dynamic Duos Challenge Design Team for the next six-month term. I am particularly pleased because I find the two-colour task VERY challenging; I'm hoping it will stretch my crafty skills. Plus working with a new group of talented gals is just plain fun!

On to this week's challenge:

A bright couple of colours.

 I'm still heavily into Xmas card making, so here's what I came up with:

I wanted to use a fir-tree die to do some clever negative-space cutting, but the one I have is physically attached to another die-shape. I ended up making a template from card-stock and used THAT to cut three trees from my panel with an X-acto knife (kinda pain-staking! Not sure I'll be doing this one in multiples of ten...).

A few punched silver stars, some baker's twine from the Twinery and a lovely sentiment from Lil'Inker Designs complete this card.

Here are links to the other DT gals' projects:

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Caroline Bredeson

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

 Why not give the Dynamic Duos Challenge a try? Here are the deets:

Our challenge ends on Thursdays at Noon (PDT).  We have a few rules to keep things fun and fair!

1. Any project is welcome...paper crafts, scrapbooking, digital, or crafts...
2. Please ONLY use the two colours listed for your project. Neutrals are welcome.
3. Combine us with as many other challenges as you would like, except other colour challenges.
4. Please add our graphic to your blog with a link back to us.
5. Any offensive or inappropriate posts will be deleted respectively. Thank you.
6. Happy Crafting!

Caroline

Card Recipe:
Cardstock in CTMH colours: Tulip, Lagoon and White Daisy
Silver paper-Paper Wishes
Ink: Lagoon
Dies: border die-Paper Smooches; tree die-Papertrey Ink; Fiskars star punch; Fiskars craft knife
Maraschino baker's twine-The Twinery

If its Monday morning, it must be...

Time for a FABULOUS new sketch at 

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

The is a great all-purpose sketch--lots of possibilities. However, right now, I am all about the Christmas card, so here's my take:

Rotated the sketch, used a tag for the central layer and tucked the ribbon under rather than over the tag.I had fun embossing that delicious Ho-ho-ho message, then colouring it with markers to match the papers. 

The Sparkle and Shine paper (grey) has little shiny silver polka dots--subtle but pretty.

The best accidental find was border punching the red shimmer tape. I was left with all these sparkly little circles. Some ended up on and inside this card, and others you will see in future posts. They also ended up on the carpet, in the bedroom, you name it!

Back to the sketch:  You have all week to concoct your own interpretation of this sketch. Link it up to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge by Sunday night. We love to see your creations!

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I have my own challenge for you this week:  post a project and invite a friend to the Atlantic Hearts sketch challenge. For every friend who posts, I will enter your name that number of times into a random drawing for the stamp set I used here. Mention this challenge in your post, then come back here to THIS post and tell me you linked up, and include your friend's name so I can check THEIR post. Whew! Sounds like a lot of back-and-forth but it will be fun!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies Used:

Cardstock and patterned paper, Close to My Heart: Juniper, White Daisy, Grey Flannel, Sparkle and Shine

Red Shimmer trim, Close to My Heart

Ranger Distress Markers in Festive Berry and Iced Spruce

Silver embossing powder

Red ribbon, Michaels

Blog Candy Winner!

 Yippee!

Thanks to all the folks who left kind comments on my blog make-over post HERE.
I promised a prize, drawn from amongst all those who left a little love for Jen Nelson, designer of my all-new blog header. Several commented on the Autumnal feel of the design but truly, the colours were pulled from a summer photo and the maple leaf symbolizes Canada (my home and some-what native land). Although there are great numbers of brilliant red maple leaves covering the ground in Ottawa right now!

The True Random Number generator has picked #3:   Rebecca

Rebecca, not sure where in the beautiful world you live, but send me your contact info and I'll mail out your Christmas stamp set to you!

Here's a card using an image from that set.

CASE'd from Nancy HERE

LOVE that Sizzix reindeer die (he makes an appearance every year). This year he is cut from suede paper (Paper Wishes sells it HERE).
The card is part of my card-making bonanza to benefit Caring Hearts Drive 2013. (see my original post on this effort HERE). My energetic elves will be putting together 10 more of these this week, along with 60 other cards I've got cut out and ready to go. Intrigued? Visit the link and consider joining the Caring Hearts Drive this year!

Happy crafting,
Caroline

Feeling Hallow-weeny! Color My Heart Dare #66

The challenge at Color My Heart this week involves two complementary colours:

BUTTERCUP

and

GYPSY

I'm sure your first thought was NOT Halloween! But that holiday is a big deal around this household, with one son born on Oct. 31st. Two sons are going to college in other cities this year, so their Halloween cards had to be made sooner than later.  

Credit where credit is due: this card is a CASE of one made in a card-workshop a couple of years ago by my American CTMH buddy, Kristin.

I started by stamping random bats all over a piece of GYPSY cardstock. The focal image was heat-embossed with black, and then BUTTERCUP and GYPSY inks were sponged over top. I love the  effect where the two colours merge! I added some Liquid Glass to the eye sockets for more dimension and shine.

I've been paying more attention to the insides of my cards recently (since the Online Card Classes' "Insider").

So how do this week's colours inspire you?

Check out some great examples at Color My Heart, and link up your creation to share. This challenge runs until Thursday, Oct 31st (how appropriate!) at noon.

You do not have to use Close to My Heart products to participate--use close colours of ink or paper from your stash, but please do join us for some creative fun.

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On another note, just a couple more days to enter to win some blog candy! See my POST HERE.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies used:

100% Close to My Heart this week:

Card stock in Gypsy, Black and White Daisy

Inks: Versamark, Buttercup, Gypsy, Black

Stamp sets: B1429 Eek & Shriek

(retired) D1442 Thriller 

(retired) C1462 All Hallows Eve 

Ribbon Rounds Black Collection

foam tape

Jolly in Pink & Green

The Midweek Throwndown/Color Challenge at Operation Write Home this week is  

PINK and GREEN.

They are always ahead of the game at OWH. They are already looking for cards for the NEXT seasonal holiday to send overseas to folks in the armed forces, so THEY can send them back home to their loved ones. So the idea with this colorway is really to start working on Valentine's cards.

Well, my goal this season is to use up a large portion of my stash making cards for two causes, one of which is the 2013 Caring Hearts Card Drive. I've been coming up with card designs, making card kits in multiples of 10, and inviting my friends (aka "the elves") over to help put them all together. We made 30 cards yesterday in two hours. Jolly indeed!

So here's the latest card, in pink and green:

Makes for a cheery Christmas card, eh?

Check out Ling's link to participate in this very worthwhile cause.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

CTMH stamp set: Remarkable Wreath C1473

Paper Smooches stamp set: Christmas Sampler

Lil'Inker stitched rectangles die

Simon Says Stamp tilted banner die

CTMH Card stock: in Smoothie, Olive, Desert Sand, Colonial White

The Twinery's kraft baker's twine

Jingle bell and ribbon: Michael's 
Ranger: gold Stickles and Petal Pink Liquid Pearls

Love the Name Frame!

 The name-frame has got to be one of the most satisfying gifts to make...

You can see my first attempt at it HERE (all the links to the original creators, with cutting, sizes, etc are included there). It was made for my nephew Calvin, in January. His sister's birthday was this month, so she HAD to get one, too...

I used those fabulous Thickers double-sided alphabet stickers, sprinkled with Martha Stewart glitter, an older paper pack from CTMH, lots of bits and bobs from my stash, and some cute Paper Smooches images and dies. Here are some detail shots:

Paper Smooches' "Flap Happy"

Here it is in its final frame:

Lots of babies on the horizon, amongst our friends and co-workers, so you may see another version before too long.

Happy crafting,

Caroline