Love Birds Freshly Made Sketch 157

I love Close to My Heart's Christmas paper, Yuletide Carol!  It is so elegant and lends itself to more than just Christmas projects.  This card, based on this Freshly Made Sketch, is the first of two romantic cards illustrating non Christmas uses.

I lightly sponged the edges of each piece with Cocoa ink to help them stand out against the planned Colonial White background.  (Actually, I started by sponging the circle with Saddle, decided it was too red, and sponged back over with it Cocoa.)  This made for a delicate card which was pretty, but I decided that the images popped more against the Kraft paper background which also gave the card a somewhat more masculine feel.  The sentiment comes from the Big Hug stamp set.  What?  You say you don't see a "Love" stamp?  That is because I committed sacrilege by trimming the "Love is All You Need" sentiment with a pair of tiny manicure scissors.  I can always put both pieces on a block and stamp the original image but, in the meantime, saved myself the hassle of trying to precisely mask off the rest of the sentiment.  I used another sentiment from the set on the inside:

I am going to put this in my stash of cards for my bird loving husband because you can never have too many "I love you" cards to give for no special occasion.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't you check out the rest of the cards inspired by this Freshly Made Sketch?  You may even be inspired to enter a card yourself.  You have until tomorrow, Monday, at 3:00 p.m. eastern to enter.  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Yuletide Carol, Colonial White cardstock, Kraft paper, Brown glitter paper

Ink:  Saddle and Ruby

Stamps:  Big Hug

Color My Heart in Shades of Blue, Yellow, and Orange

The Color My Heart Dare this week is to use Crystal Blue, Pacifica, Honey, and Goldrush which just happen to be the colors in Close to My Heart's retired Dreamin' paper pack.  This was not a particularly original idea on my part as three out of seven design team members have used this pack.  I scraplifted this from the talented Cassandra Bennett whose card you can see here.  Have you ever had a paper pack that you love so much that you have a hard time deciding which of the papers you want to use because you love them all?  Then this is the card for you!  It is also a great way to use up scraps.

The easy part was cutting .5 inch by 3.75 inch strips and sponging the edges with Saddle ink.  The fun part was weaving them together while keeping the strips parallel and evenly spaced.  It helped to work on my Versamat, but a piece of graph paper would work just as well.  Once I had everything how I wanted it, I carefully lifted the ends of the strips that were on top and  and used a dab of Bonding Memories glue to stick them to the strips below.  This helped stabilize  the piece while I applied adhesive to the back and transferred  it to the card base.  After the fact I realized that I could have used little bits of Washi tape on the front to hold everything in place, applied adhesive to the back, attached the piece to the card base and then removed the Washi tape.  

Although I used this design for a get well card, it would work well for birthday cards, etc. and be suitable for a guy.  I don't know about y'all, but I am always looking for ideas for masculine cards.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now please check out more of Cassandra's work at her blog, Cassandra's Scrappin' Bliss, and then head on over to Color My Heart and see some other creations using Crystal Blue, Pacifica, Honey, and Goldrush.  Better yet, take the dare yourself.  We would love to see your work!  As always, if you do not have a specific color, feel free to use the closest one you have and include any neutrals you like.  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Dreamin' (retired), Colonial White cardstock

Ink:  Saddle, Pacifica

Stamp:  Big Hug

Embellishments:  Brown Opaques (retired), Antiqued Copper Mini-Medley (retired)

A Beautiful Day with Heart

There are so many possibilities with this Atlantic Hearts Sketch, but since I am way behind on birthday cards, I went with Close to My Heart's new Brushed paper and "Capture the Day" stamp set.

I love the ShinHan markers with their vibrant colors.  I know some folks use special inks when stamping images that they plan on coloring, but I used regular black ink and let it set for about fifteen minutes before coloring.  Then as I colored I colored along the lines, not across them and had no problem with smearing.  By the way, these markers are not only fun to color with, they can also be used to color sparkles.  And y'all know how much I love sparkles!  Now I can have them in 24 colors.  Once I completed the center panel, I attached it with foam tape to give some added dimension.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Brushed, Pixie, Black and White Daisy cardstock
Ink:  Black dye ink with Golden Yellow, Leaf Green, Tender Pink, and Cherry Pink markers
Stamps:  Capture the Day
Embellishments:  Clear and Bitty Sparkles
Other:  Stripes embossing folder

Two Sides of Snowhaven

Here are two takes on this Atlantic Hearts Sketch:

Each one shows a different side of Close to My Heart's new Snowhaven paper pack.  First up is the bold, vibrant side:

Black, White, and Red is a high energy color combination that is only slightly lowered by the addition of Whisper and Glacier.  The tree is heat embossed and colored with the new ShinHan markers.  I also used a marker to color some clear sparkles to use as embellishments.  

Now take away the red and you get a clean, graphic effect that is calmer:

Once again I heat embossed the tree, but this time I did no coloring and used some retired blue sparkles and a snowflake brad from the old Mistletoe Mini Medley as embellishments.  To make the star motif, I used the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut the star on page 25 and then cut it across from valley to valley to get diamonds.

I personally like the second version better, but the first follows the sketch more closely, so that is the one I will enter.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Snowhaven with Black, White Daisy, Cranberry, and Glacier cardstock
Ink:  Black pigment ink with Carmine and Cerulean Blue Light ShinHan markers
Stamps:  Holiday Wishes (retired), Scandinavian Wishes (retired)
Embellishments:  Clear Sparkles, Blue Sparkles (retired), Mistletoe Mini Medley (retired), Pewter frame (retired)
Other:  Clear Detail embossing powder,  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

My Favorite Stamp

This week the folks over at Heart 2 Heart challenge us to create something using our favorite stamp or stamp set.  Now if you have been following this blog for a while, you probably know that my all time favorite stamp is the butterfly from the long retired "Find Your Style" set.  Because that stamp is so old I decided to also share my favorite stamp from the current Close to My Heart Catalogue, "Your Own Kind of Wonderful." You might think these are favorite stamps because I love butterflies, but the real reason is that I love to play with color and ink, and these stamps are a perfect way to indulge that passion.  Using this sketch from Atlantic Hearts I made a card using each set:

First up is the butterfly from "Find Your Style:"

I like to ink this up using sponge daubers.  Since I am never sure how it is going to come out, I usually make several, use the one I like best for that project, and stash the rest in the back of the envelope that the set comes in to use later.  This butterfly is one from my stash using Juniper and Sweet Leaf.  I sponged around the edges with Saddle and Chocolate and was ready to move on.  The center panel is a card from the Skylark Picture My Life set.  I got a background and sentiment with no real effort on my part.  How cool is that?  or the butterfly's antennae, I masked off the body so just the antennae were inked and stamped directly on the card.  With a premade butterfly and panel this would have been a quick card if I didn't decide to color the clear sparkle flourish with one of the new ShinHan markers.  I love how well the color took!  Since this was not going to be a quick card, I stamped the butterfly one more time in Saddle, cut out the body and used the Mahogany marker to add texture.  I also stamped a dragonfly with second generation Juniper ink in the upper left of the PML card.  I used the Butterfly stamp on the inside of the card as well:

Speaking of ShinHan markers, my next card features the stamp set "Your Own Kind of Wonderful" which is the prefect showcase for them.  

I love how vivid the colors are and how well they layer!  I heat embossed the butterfly using Black pigment ink and Clear Detail powder.  Again, I used a Picture My Life card, this time from the Laughing Lola set.  I also did some coloring on the inside:

So now you know two of my favorite stamp sets.  What's your favorite?  Thank you for stopping by!  Now head on over to Heart 2 Heart Challenges and Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to see some more creations.  Until next time, Hansi

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

Card 1:
Paper:  Juniper and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Juniper, Sweet Leaf, Saddle, and Chocolate ink, Bronze and Mahogany ShinHan markers
Stamp:  Find Your Style (retired), an old Petite Perks set (retired)
Embellishments:  Small Clear Sparkle Flourish, Green Sparkle (retired), Bronze Shimmer Trim
Other:  Skylark Picture My Life card

Card 2:
Paper:  Crystal Blue, Black, and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Black dye and pigment inks, Lavender, Cerulean Blue, Tender Pink, and Peony Purple ShinHan markers
Stamps:  Your Own Kind of Wonderful
Embellishments:  Small Black Sparkles Flourish. Black Sparkle, Purple Shimmer Trim
Other:  Laughing Lola Picture My Life card

Color My Heart in Sunset, Honey, and Red Barn

This week the Color My Heart Color Dare is to use Sunset, Honey, and Red Barn, a nice fall combination which also happens to be featured in a long retired Halloween paper, Mischief.  After I cut two pumpkins using Close to My Heart's Artbooking Cricut cartridge, I used the same technique as I did with this card to get a three dimensional effect.  I should say after I cut my second set of pumpkins because the first time I forgot to set my Cricut on real dial size and cut little half inch pumpkins. It is important to remember that when using the Artbooking cartridge the elements are cut in proportion to each other to create a page.  If you want an element to be a different size you have to set it to real dial.  The Cricut thought I was making an inch and a half sized scrapbook page and cut my pumpkins accordingly.  Here is the inside of the card:

For the layout I used this Freshly Made Sketch:

Now why don't you head on over to Color My Heart and Freshly Made Sketches to be inspired by other creations and maybe enter one (or both) of the challenges?  We would love to see your work!  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Mischief (retired), Red Barn, Bamboo, Sunset, and Colonial White cardstock

Ink:  Black, Red Barn, Sunset

Stamps:  Eek and Shriek, Wicked (retired)

Embellishments:  Black Mini-Medley Accents

Other:  Artbooking Cricut cartridge

A Big Hug in Lagoon, Sorbet, and Flaxen

I'll bet that y'all thought I had given up card making (or at least blogging about it).  It sure felt like that to me!  Life and family issues have been complicated.  This week, however, I did get a chance to make a card for the Color My Heart Color Dare to use Lagoon, Sorbet, and Flaxen.  You may notice that I substituted Bamboo because I do not have Flaxen paper yet.  To help me keep the strips of paper parallel I used washi tape to secure my card at an angle on my Versamat and then just used the grid marks to guide me

The flowers are retired Color-Ready Wooden Garden Shapes.  I used opaque pigment ink to color them because with dye inks the color of the wood shows though and affects the color of the finished product.  The lagoon flower looked almost green when I used dye ink.  Plus, the pigment ink provides a richer color.  

Now why don't you head on over Color My Heart to see some other projects using these colors, or better yet, take the dare yourself?  Remember, you can use any brand of products and if you don't have a particular color, just use the closest one you have.  We would love to see your work!  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time (which hopefully will not be another two months), Hansi

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

Paper:  Lagoon, Sorbet, Bamboo, Chocolate, and Colonial White cardstock

Ink:  Chocolate, plus Lagoon and Sorbet pigment inks

Stamps:  Big Hug

Embellishments:  Color Ready Wooden Garden Shapes (retired), Brown Opaque (retired)