A crop party is a modern quilting bee. A group of friends gather to have girl friend time, sharing joys and sorrows while preserving memories and creating a special keepsake.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Freshly Made Alphabet Soup With Heart



The theme of the final Heart 2 Heart challenge for September is "Alphabet Soup" for which they want you to combine two different alphabets or fonts.  I just love the font and icons in the "You are My Happy" stamp set which Close to My Heart put out to celebrate National Stamping Month.  Using Post-It Notes to mask the parts I didn't want to use before inking my stamps, I combined the "You are My Happy" sentiment from the "You are Me Happy" set with the "I didn't forget your Birthday" sentiment from Card Chatter - Birthday set.  I embossed both the sun and the sentiments and then colored the sun with CTMH's alcohol markers.  I popped up the central panel with foam tape.  The layout is this Freshly Made sketch:



Thank you for stopping by!  Now please make sure to check out the other creations at Heart 2 Heart Challenges and Freshly Made Sketches.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Sunset, Honey and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Black pigment ink, Sunset, Sorbet, and Buttercup alcohol markers
Stamps:  You are My Happy (available only in September), Card Chatter - Birthday
Embellishments:  Yellow sparkles from Michael's, Clear Detail embossing powder
Other:  Baby's Breath embossing folder from Cuddlebug



Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String



The line "Brown paper packages tied up with string" always makes me think of the packages my Godmother used to send me for Christmas and birthdays.  These lyrics also happen to be the theme of one of the Heart 2 Heart September challenges.  This sentiment from the retired "The Present" stamp set, with its play on word present, is an appropriate one for a friend whose husband is living with cancer.  I cut out one of the motifs in the Huntington paper packet to use as an accent and "tied" up my card with some old sassy strands.  After I had the card assembled, I thought it still needed something, so I added a narrow strip of brown glitter paper under the string. Did I ever have fun sliding it under and gluing it without getting glue everywhere else!  I wish the photo showed how much it sparkles.  Here is the inside:



Thank you for stopping by!  Now please head on over to Heart 2 Heart Challenges to see some more packages tied up with string.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Huntington, Colonial White cardstock, Brown Glitter paper
Ink:  Olive
Stamps:  The Present (retired), Card Chatter - Birthday
Embellishments:  Autumn Harvest Sassy Strands (retired), Brown Opaques, Antiqued Copper Designer Brad (retired)



Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A Few of My Favorite Things






This week the ladies over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges continue the "Sound of Music" theme by asking to see a few of our favorite things.  Let's see...

Cats:  I have loved them for as long as I can remember and currently have two four footed children who regularly provide design assistance.
Halloween:  I love carving pumpkins, dressing up, seeing the kids in their costumes, Snicker's Bars...   I love Halloween almost as much as Christmas.
Paper crafting and playing with new techniques.
Close to My Heart products:  Beautiful papers with lots of dimension, cool bling and stamp sets that include not only icons and sentiments, but usually graphics with lots of possibilities.

Yes, these are a few of my favorite things!

I just got the "Eek & Shriek" stamp set that includes a cat full of attitude, so of course I had to use it and I have also been wanting to try the chalkboard technique which could more accurately be described as techniques.  It seems some people are purists and stick to stamping white pigment ink on black or dark gray paper, maybe drawing a bit with a chalk pencil, and smearing some white ink or chalk on the background:


I had to stamp the cat twice with White Daisy pigment ink to get it to show up.

Next I checked out this helpful tutorial from Operation Write Home in which she embosses her stamping and then adds some chalk lines.  She also stamps over her embossing to give it a slightly dimensional effect.  I found that gave me double vision, so I stuck to double stamping the sentiment only:



 Next I tried embossing just the cat and sentiment (the background is not quite as "dusty" as it appears):



Lastly, because I love resist embossing, I tried embossing the cat with clear detail powder and rubbing on a heavier layer of ink.  I think of it as the cat who refuses to be erased:


These cards may not show off CTMH's beautiful papers, but they do show off CTMH's stamp sets.  I used bits and pieces from five different sets!  The cat and sentiment come from the aforementioned "Eek & Shriek" set, the side borders from the retired "Wicked" (August 2011 SOTM) and "Pear & Partridge Scrapbooking Workshop" sets, the flourish below the sentiment from the retired "Simple Memories" set and the corner flourish from the "Instant Memories" set, also retired.  I should mention that although CTMH carries a vinyl chalkboard paper, I used plain old black cardstock and Mischief which I bought more of on the "While Supplies Last" section, another one of my favorite things.  You never know what you will find there!

The layout was adapted from this Atlantic Hearts Sketch.  I had to swap the sentiment and icon positions to be able to use the cat.

Now the question becomes, which one do I like best?  I think I like the black cat version best because it is unexpected.  How about y'all?  I don't see a limit on entries to either challenge, so I will enter them all, even if I have to pick just one card to show on the link.  Thank you for stopping by!  Now please hop over to Heart 2 Heart and Atlantic Hearts to see some more creations.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Black and Barn Red cardstock, Mischief (retired)
Ink:  White Daisy
Stamps:  Eek & Shriek, Simple Memories (retired), Wicked (retired), Pear & Partridge Scrapbooking Workshop (retired), Instant Memories (retired)
Embellishments:  Opaque White embossing powder from Michael's, Clear Detail embossing powder

Monday, September 16, 2013

A Freshly Made Snowflake Tied Up With String

 

 
I am still playing with snowflakes and Frosted paper from Close to My Heart.  The theme of the second Heart 2 Heart challenge of the month is "Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String," so I use some of the embellishments including the tinsel laced string from the Workshops on the Go Frosted Cardmaking Kit along with this Freshly Made Sketch to make a card.
 


I layered a Martha Stewart punch over a snowflake cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and embellished it with a brad from the retired Mistletoe Assortment and some of the glitter sparkles (which are a lot more sparkly than they appear in the photo) from the WOTG before popping it up with foam tape.  I love shopping the While Supplies Last section from Close to My Heart!  I bought six packages of the Mistletoe Assortment for something like $2.50 each and have gotten a lot of use from them since.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now please head on over to Freshly Made Sketches and Heart 2 Heart to see some more cool projects.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Frosted, Champagne and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Slate
Stamp:  A Very Merry Christmas (retired)
Embellishments:  Sting and Glitter Sparkles from Workshops on the Go Frosted Cardmaking Kit, Brad from Mistletoe Assortment (retired)
Other:  Snowflakes embossing folder by Cuddlebug, Snowflake punch by Martha Stewart


Sunday, September 15, 2013

Remembering With Gratutude


 This is the fire station around the corner from me: 


Every year the firefighters put out a flag for each of their fellow firefighters up in New York who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.  This reminds me not only of the heroism on that terrible day, but that "my firefighters" are willing to put their lives on the line for us.  I used this sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to make a thank you card to accompany the pan of brownies my daughter and I made for them.


To make the stripes, I used the diagonal stripe stamp from Close to My Heart's "In the Background" set at an angle.  I distressed all the edges with Champagne.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now please go check out the other creations at Atlantic Hearts.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Colonial White and Outdoor Denim cardstock
Ink:  Outdoor Denim, Champagne
Stamps:  In the Background, Thank You (retired)
Embellishments:  Cranberry Bitty Brads (retired)
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge


Thursday, September 12, 2013

Color My Heart in Not Quite Fifty Shades of Gray



The Color My Heart dare this week is to use two shades of gray, Whisper and Slate, plus a color of your choice.  Since I have been playing with the Frosted paper pack, I chose Frosted Blue as my other color.  (I am assuming that Frosted Gray counts as a neutral.)  I stamped the fir tree with Versamark onto Frosted Blue paper and embossed it with clear detail powder.  I then sponged over it with Colonial White ink which is a pigment ink that, unlike watery dye inks, is paint like and tends to coat the embossing, so I had to wipe it off to let the image show.  I sponged the edges of the panels with Whisper and stamped the sentiment and snowflake in Slate.  The snowflake was cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge (page 27 shift at 1 inch) and popped up with foam tape.  The layout is one of my "go to" sketches from Freshly Made Sketches:

 
Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi
 
Materials used, all from Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Frosted, Frosted Blue, Whisper and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Colonial White, Slate and Whisper
Stamps: Always Grateful, Snow Flurries (retired), A Very Merry Christmas (retired)
Embellishments:  Clear Sparkle and Bitty Sparkle
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge



Sunday, September 8, 2013

A Heart 2 Heart Color Challenge for Fall


As I mentioned earlier, I had twelve whole hours of paper therapy and girlfriend time which means I have a few cards to share.  Can y'all handle one more tonight?  The challenge this week over at Heart 2 Heart is to celebrate fall by using Barn Red, Sunset, Cashmere and Gypsy in a project.  Well that is one way to make me take a break from playing with my Frosted paper!  It just so happened that I had just gotten the new Huntington paper which would be perfect for this challenge.  My first thought was to use leaves.  Now I do not know about where y'all live, but the trees here in Virginia do not turn purple, so I still needed to figure out a way to work in some Gypsy.  Hmmmm.  This card became another lesson in learning to let go of an idea.  As I flipped through my stamps, I came upon my favorite butterfly along with a new idea and away I went.  This card came together pretty easily using this week's Freshly Made Sketch



I love ow the new Bronze Shimmer Trim compliments the rich colors in the Huntington paper.  I also slipped in a little bronze glitter paper along the outside edge of the dark panel.  Thank you for stopping by!  Now please head on over to see some more creations at Heart 2 Heart and Freshly Made Sketches  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Huntington (I am assuming that the background B&T has Cashmere in it.), Gypsy, Champagne, and Colonial White cardstock, Brown glitter paper
Ink:  Gypsy, Sunset, Bard Red
Stamps:  Find Your Style (retired), Joyful Birthday
Embellishments:  Brown Opaques, Sonoma Assortment (retired)

A Freshly Made Snowflake


This snowflake is cased from the talented Allisa Chilton:



As you can see, the white snowflake has eight points and snowflakes have six.  I am not usually so picky but for some reason this bugs me, so I cut the snowflake apart and glued six of the individual points into the gaps of the blue snowflake.  Both of the embellishments are retired, and I have to tell you, I am going to be very sad when I use my last rhinestone brad.  It doesn't show well, but there is a narrow strip of glitter paper along the outside edge of the chevron panel to complement the glitter in the snowflake.  I used this layout from Freshly Made Sketches:


This is one of several cards I made at Scrapbook Day.  Thank you for stopping by!  Please go see what others have done with this sketch.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Frosted, Colonial White, Champagne, Frosted Blue, Frosted Gray cardstock, Gray Glitter Paper
Embellishments:  Mistletoe Assortment (retired), Rhinestone Designer brad (retired), Colonial White gross grain ribbon (retired)
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Snowflake embossing folder by Cuddlebug




Atlantic Hearts Onaments


 
When I saw this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch, I thought of hanging ornaments and this card by Penny Thomas that I saw on Pinterest.  After cutting ornaments on my Cricut using the Art Philosophy cartridge from Close to My Heart, I sponged the edges, embossed them using various folders and then swiped on some more ink to bring out the texture.  Of course I have to embellish them with sparkles and glitter glitz.  Now they couldn't just float in the air, so what to do to make them look like they are hanging?  I think she used a stamp for the string, but I have no such stamp.  Then I found some silver metallic embroidery floss from We R Memory Keepers.  Now the fun really began!   After determining where to place my ornaments and marking the spots, I cut very small pieces of Zips adhesive lines which are like glue dots but come in a strip, stuck them on the spots and pushed the ends of the floss into them.  I wrapped each piece of floss around to the back of the panel being careful not to wrap them too tightly or too loosely and attached them the same way.  Lastly I tied knots in small pieces and glued them on with liquid glass.
 
I actually finished this Friday but did not have time to post as I had to pack for a much needed scrapbook day.  I will post some of those cards next.  In the meantime, please go check out some of the creations others have made at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge using this sketch:
 

 
As you can see, I moved the sentiment to the top because it fit better there.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi
 
Materials used, all Close to My heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Frosted, Champagne, Frosted Blue, Blush and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Champagne, Crystal Blue, Blush and Slate
Stamp:  A Very Merry Christmas (retired SOTM)
Embellishments:  Blue and Tan Sparkles, Silver Glitter Glitz, Sew Easy Fancy Floss from We R Memory Keepers
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Musical Flourishes, Snowflakes, Floral Fantasy, Paper Lace II, and Julie's Garden border embossing folders by Cuddlebug and two border folders from Darice.  I do not know their names



Monday, September 2, 2013

Freshly Made Tree



I am still playing with Christmas card ideas and Close to My Heart's new "Frosted" paper, today with some inspiration from this Freshly Made Sketch :



I cannot help but see Christmas in the fir tree from the new "Always Grateful" stamp set.  Today I stamped it with Versamark, embossed it with Clear Detail powder, and finally sponged it with Sky and Slate inks to make the image appear.  I love the softness of resist embossing.  I embellished it a little with Silver Glitter Glitz applied here and there with a toothpick to create a subtle sparkle which is just barely visible in this close up: 

 


The tree panel is popped up with foam tape to give the card a bit of dimension.  I used sponge daubers to ink the sentiment with both Sky and State ink.  Thank you for stopping by!  Now please head on over to see the other fabulous creations at Freshly Made Sketches.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Frosted, Colonial White cardstock
Ink:   Sky, Slate
Stamps:  Always Grateful, Very Merry Christmas (retired)
Embellishments:  Silver Glitter Glitz