Happy Birthday Atlantic Coast Hearts!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge is celebrating its first anniversary with this sketch:

I found myself thinking about using a butterfly for the shape and Close to My Heart's Skylark paper with its garden feel and what do you know?  One of the April Heart 2 Heart Challenges is to use Lagoon and Sweet Leaf and guess what two of the main colors in Skylark happen to be.  I love it when challenges co-ordinate!  

To stamp this version of the butterfly from the Find Your Style set, I started by using sponge daubers to apply Lagoon and Saddle ink to the stamp.  After stamping it and cutting it out, I sponged the wings' edges with some more Saddle to give them definition.  Lastly I sponged more Lagoon in the upper middle and Sweet Leaf in the area between the Lagoon and Saddle.  This softened the image to complement the background. Now cutting out the butterfly means an antennae-ectomy, so how did I get the antennae on the card?  I stamped them by covering the butterfly's body with Post It Notes, inking the antennae with Saddle, removing the Post It Notes (critical step), and then stamping on the background. Finally, I positioned the cut out butterfly to line up with the antennae and used Liquid Glass to attach the body only.   The corner was stamped with Saddle and the dragonfly with second generation Chocolate.

With stamping done, it was time to embellish.  I used a sponge dauber to color the flourish from the Wooden Mini-Medley Saddle, attached it with Liquid Glass, and then accented it with some Green Sparkles (retired).  I used Brown Opaques for the butterfly's body and ribbon from a long retired Sweet Leaf Mini-Medley to create the crossing layer.

Here is the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper:  Skylark, Sweet Leaf, and White Daisy

Ink:  Lagoon, Sweet Leaf, Saddle, Chocolate

Stamps:  Find Your Style (retired), Petite Perks, Joyful Birthday, Believe in Yourself

Embellishments:  Wooden Mini-Medley, Sweet Leaf Mini-Medley (retired), Brown Opaques (retired), Green Sparkles (retired)

Color My Heart With Skylark

This week's Color Dare showcases Close to My Heart's new Skylark paper which features Juniper, Lagoon, Sweet Leaf, and Skylark Yellow.  If you do not this paper pack you can still play by using the closest colors you have plus any neutrals.  I will have to admit that I totally cased  this card by Elisha Smith.  I think of Skylark as a feminine paper, but as you can see, it can be masculine.  Here is the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Now please go check out some other creations using Skylark at the Color My Heart Color Dare, or better yet, create something of your own and enter it.  You have until 9:00 p.m. central time to enter.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Skylark, Lagoon, Kraft and White Daisy cardstock
Ink:  Cocoa
Stamp:  Holiday Tags
Embellishments:  Durables Triangle Studs

A Freshly Made Blue Lotus

I am so in need of spring, so y'all may be seeing more flowers from me until the real ones finally come up.  This one adorns a card inspired by this Freshly Made Sketch:

 

I will be back later to tell y'all all about it.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Something Old, Something New

Marie Flayer AKA the NJ Stamping Queen posted this card on her blog for the Try Stampin' on Tuesday Challenge, a new challenge for me, and I not only loved the card, I was intrigued by the sketch and decided to play along.

This was my first chance to play with Close to My Heart's new paperpack, Skylark.  I decided the left hand long panel needed a bit of brown, so I used this season's petite perk stamp set to add the dragonfly.  While I was at it, I stamped him in second generation ink in the lower left corner.  The panels are all sponged in Chocolate ink which is not one of the colors in the pack, but I prefer it to Desert Sand when it comes to sponging.  A bird from the Skylark Assortment and a few Aqua Dots provided the finishing touches. 

With that card finished, I decided to try a vertical variation using a very old pack, Bliss:

Everything about this card is old and retired.  I cut the butterfly out of the B&T sheet and attached only the body so his wings could pop up.  The other embellishment is a piece of ribbon from the Crème Brulee Ribbon Assortment held in place with a Colonial White Brad which was colored with a Sorbet Alcohol marker (the only non retired item I used) and a Filigree Charm.  The panels were sponged with Grey Flannel.

So there you have it:  Two cards, one made with virtually all new products and one made with retired items.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:

First card:
Paper:  Skylark, Colonial White, Juniper and Kraft cardstock
Ink:  Chocolate
Stamps:  Sincere Expressions, Petite Perks
Embellishments:  Skylark Assortment, Aqua Dots

Second card:
Paper:  Bliss (retired), Colonial White and Grey Flannel (retired) cardstock
Ink:  Grey Flannel ink (retired), Sorbet alcohol marker
Embellishments:  Filigree Charm (retired), Colonial White Brad (retired), Crème Brulee Ribbon Assortment (retired), Brown Opaques (retired)

One More Spotlight on CTMH's White Core Cardstock

This is one more post spotlighting the white core of Close to My Heart's cardstock for the Heart 2 Heart "In the Spotlight" challenge.  To add even more texture to your embossing you can use a sanding block lightly over the embossing to expose the white core.  This card also provides a sneak peak at the Skylark paper and embellishments from the Spring catalogue that goes live tomorrow.  Outdoor Denim is not one of the colors in the pack, but I like how it goes with the Skylark colors.  I sponged the circle with Sweet Leaf and embellished the sentiment with some Blue and Green Sparkles which were retired last season.

The layout is this sketch from Mojo Monday:

They are trying something new this year.  In the past the last challenge of the month was a choice of a circle or square card.  This year it will be a tall thin card.  Thank you, for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Skylark, Outdoor Denim, Sweet Leaf, and White Daisy cardstock
Ink:  Outdoor Denim and Sweet Leaf
Stamp:  Be Stll
Embellishments:  Skylark Assortment, Blue and Green Sparkles (retired)
Other:  Leafy Branch embossing folder from Cuddlebug