Celebrating the 200th Freshly Made Sketch

Last week was so hectic that I never did get into my craft room, but I did manage to sneak in this morning to make this card following this sketch from on of my favorite challenges, Freshly Made Sketches:

Did you notice the sketch number?  That's right!  Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating its 200 challenge.  That's almost four years of challenges!  Running a challenge blog is a lot of work and many don't last very long.  Thank you to the ladies over at Freshly Made Sketches for their continued dedication.  

Thank you for stopping by.  Until next time, Hansi

 

Happy Belated Birthday to My Sister

My sister takes the most exquisite close up pictures of flowers.  I call her the Georgia O'Keefe of photography, so there was no question that Close to My Heart's Someone Special stamp set was the one to use for her birthday card.  Nevermind that her birthday was three weeks ago...

I started with the flowers.  My original thought was to stamp the base flower with Thistle dye ink and then stamp the shade layer with Gypsy pigment ink and emboss it with Clear Detail powder.  As I was pulling out inks I decided to also try Pixie as the base for a flower or two.  The Thistle and Gypsy flower was darker than I had imagined it would be and the Pixie and Thistle combination did not have as much contrast as I liked.  On a whim I tried Gypsy on Pixie which turned out to be my favorite.  I love playing with base and shade flowers and cannot wait to show y'all the new set coming out in September!

While I was at it I embossed the sentiment as well.  Next I made the card front following this sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday:

The Background and Texture paper is from the long retired Babycakes paper pack, but Zoe would work well, too.  If you miss having a baby themed paper pack you have only a few more weeks to wait because there is an adorable baby themed pack in the new catalog. I attached the darker flower using thin foam tape and the leaves and lighter flower with regular foam tape.  To finish of the front I used a bit of Slate Diagonal Ribbon and some Purple Glitter Gems from a long retired Workshop on the Go.  If you like glitter gems, you are going to love the new embellishments.  

With the front of the card done it was time to work on the inside.  I figured embossing the inside flower would be over kill so I stamped some using regular dye based ink for both layers.  Interestingly, the Thistle layer in dye ink showed better against Pixie than the Thistle in pigment form did.

I had to modify the sentiment from the You are Loved stamp set:

This month Heart 2 Heart Challenges is throwing a Birthday Bash and the challenge over at Seize the Birthday is to use embossing of some sort, so I plan to enter this card in those challenges as well.  Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't y'all head over to Heart 2 Heart, Try Stamping on Tuesday, and Seize the Birthday to see what others have made.  There is even still time to enter the Heart 2 Heart Challenge if you are so inspired.  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Babycakes (retired), Pixie, Thistle, Whisper, and Colonial White cardstock

Ink:  Thistle, Pixie, Gypsy, Sweet Leaf, Ponderosa Pine (soon to be retired), Olive (retired), with Gypsy and Slate pigment inks

Stamps:  Someone Special, You are Loved, and Holiday Tags

Embellishments:  Purple Glitter Gems (retired), Slate Diagonal ribbon (soon to be retired), Clear Detail powder

A Lighthouse Birthday

My youngest brother and sister have birthdays two weeks apart, and of course, I have missed them both.  First up is the card for my brother based on this Freshly Made Sketch:

I used one of my favorite techniques, resist embossing, in which you emboss your stamp image using Versamark and clear detail powder and then sponge over it with ink (preferably dye based) to make the image appear.  When you finish, wiping the embossing with a sponge or paper towel will make it pop even more.  I combined the Perfect Day stamp set (retired) with Timblerline paper (retired) and added a sentiment from Holiday Tags and a couple of grey sparkles (soon to be retired).  The lighthouse panel is popped up with foam tape to give it some dimension.

On the inside I used a sentiment from Card Chatter - Birthday (retired) along with another image from Perfect Day stamped in second generation Ponderosa Pine, which will be retired the end of this month.:

I also plan to enter this card in the Seize the Birthday challenge to use embossing.

I know that I have used a lot of retired products in this card.  Stay tuned for my sister's card which features current products and a hint as to what is coming in the new Close to My Heart catalog.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Timberline (retired), Colonial White and Avolea Teal (retired) cardstock
Ink:  Twilight (retired), Ponderosa Pine (soon to be retired), Lagoon, Black
Stamps:  Perfect Day (retired), Holiday Tags, Card Chatter - Birthday (retired)
Embellishments:  Gray Sparkles (soon to be retired), Clear detail powder

Freshly Made in Black and White

When I saw this Freshly Made Sketch, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to use my new Spellbinders die cut, Medallion One.

At first I was planning to use metallic gold paper and a dark color, maybe Close to My Heart's New England Ivy or Outdoor Denim, but as it often happens I began to see things differently as I played.  Sometimes I forget how much fun it is to work in black and white which requires me to focus strictly on the graphic design.  I used a retired stamp set, Universal Backgrounds, to stamp the musical notes on the banner and a Shin Han marker to add antennae to the butterfly.  I do not know remember who made the butterfly die cut nor where I bought it.  Finally I added a bitty Black Sparkle to the center of the medallion and a larger one to form the head of the butterfly.  The sparkles are set to be retired at the end of this month, so stock up while you can.  You know I did!

For the inside of the card I used Your Own Kind of Wonderful, one of my favorite sets from the current catalog, along with a sentiment from the Artfully Sent collection:

Thank you for stopping by!  Now please check out some more designs at Freshly Made Sketches and, if you are a Close to My Heart fan, I encourage you to consider entering Freshly Made Sketch challenges as it seems to be dominated by fans of another company's products.  Let's show folks what Close to My Heart has to offer!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Black and White Daisy card stock
Ink:  Black and a Black Shin Han marker
Stamps:  Just to Say (Artfully Sent collection), Your Own Kind of Wonderful, Holiday Tags, Universal Backgrounds (retired)
Embellishments:  Black Sparkles (soon to be retired)
Die cuts:  Medallion One by Spellbinders. Unknown butterfly  die cut

An Atlantic Hearts Graduation Card

I am sorry to have disappeared off the face of the earth, but it has been a difficult time for my family.  One good thing that has happened, however, is my nephew's graduation from Virginia Tech which called for a return to my craft room.  I used Close to My Heart's Pro Player paper, A Thing Well Done stamp set, and this Atlantic Hearts sketch to make a card with an engineering theme.

I used the new thin foam tape to pop up the blue panel just enough to accommodate the bulk of the ribbon.  Then I used regular foam tape to pop up the sentiment.  Here is the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Now please check out some more cards at Atlantic Hearts.  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Pro Player (retired), White Daisy and Whisper cardstock

Stamps:  A Thing Well Done (retired)

Ink:  Ruby, Outdoor Denim, Black

Embellishments:  ribbon from Outdoor Denim Mini Medley (retired), Hanger and brad (retired)

Freshly Made Snow

Tomorrow night we are supposed to get our first snow of the season.  (That third of an inch that melted by 10:00 in the morning we got a few weeks ago doesn't count.)  They are calling for six to eight inches which in these parts is considered serious snow, so you know where I will be tomorrow morning.

My Yankee readers can stop laughing now.  In honor of the pending snow and because I am trying to get a head start on Christmas, I used a snowflake theme for this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I started by using Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut the snowflake (page 27), used Versamark to stamp it with the snowflake from the Frosted cardmaking workshop, and heat embossed it with clear detail powder.  Normally when I do resist embossing I use a sponge to dab on ink.  This time I used a sponge dauber to rub on Whisper and Crystal Blue inks to get a softer effect.  To complete the snowflake element I sponged the edges with Silver metallic ink by Color Box and embellished with a small circle cut from glitter paper using a hole punch and a blue sparkle.  The sentiment is from the "To You and Yours" stamp set.  Both the snowflake and the sentiment are popped up with foam tape.

I used a snowflake folder by Darice to emboss the center panel and embellished a few of the flakes with grey bitty sparkles.  My stitch guide made it easy to pierce the border evenly and in a straight line.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now I am going to finish my grocery list.  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Frosted (retired), Frosted Blue (retired) and White Daisy cardstock, Silver glitter paper

Ink:  Whisper, Crystal Blue, and Slate along with Silver metallic ink by Color Box

Stamps:  Frosted cardmaking workshop (retired), To You and Yours 

Embellishments:  Blue Sparkle (retired, but you can use a ShinHan marker to color a clear one), Grey bitty sparkles

Other:  Snowflake embossing folder by Darice, Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

Iris Folded Hearts

I can finally post my valentines!  You see, it has come to my attention that my darling husband reads my blog.  Of course I am flattered but this does make posting cards I have made for him somewhat problematic...

This week the ladies over at Heart 2 Heart want to see a Close to My Heart product that we love. Hmmmm.  What do I love most about CTMH?  The sparkles?  The ShinHan markers that allow me to have sparkles in many colors?  Thinking back to my introduction to CTMH, the thing that attracted me immediately was the paper.  I love all the layers of color and pattern.  I have been wanting to try iris folding, which is a cool technique where you place folded strips of paper across the back side of a cut out shape so that the design spirals into the center leaving an opening in the middle that is reminiscent of the iris of a camera lens.  Here is a link to a more detailed description and tutorial.  The heart pattern that I used can be found here.  First I made a practice card which my husband and I gave to our daughter:

I used a very old paper, Sweetheart, and this Sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday:

I like how the plaid pattern swirled almost looks like marble.  To finish the card I used one of the zip strips from Heartstrings which is available through the end of March.  That is another cool thing about CTMH's paper:  Each background and texture paper has a ready to go border along the edge.  I rounded the corners and had a sweet CAS card that reminds me of a Picture My Life card.  Now that I had mastered an iris fold heart it was time for the main project, my husband's valentine:

For the background I selected one of my all time favorite papers, For Always.  I love the vintage look and all the texture.  Although it has been retired as a paper, it lives on in a Picture My Life card pack, so I know I have a fall back when I use up my stash.  For the iris folding I used a metallic paper that has been in my stash for so long that I don't remember where I got it.  The roses take advantage of something else I like about CTMH's paper, the white core.  After I cut the roses out of Champagne cardstock using the Artisite Cricut cartridge (F key, accent 2), I exposed the white core by using a file to remove the color from the edges of the petals.  Then I sponged some Blush ink along the inside edge of the spiral before rolling it up using one of my favorite tools, the quilling tool.  Before I got it I used to roll flowers using a knitting needle which did not roll nearly as smoothly.

If I had been making a flower using a dark color and wanted to edge the petals in another color I could have sanded the petals to expose the white core and colored the edge with ink like I did  here:

After stamping the sentiment I used a border punch from ek success to punch one scallop's worth of the pattern on each end and then added narrow strips of the metallic paper along the edge and tan bitty opaques in the center of each flourish.  I attached a bow, sparkle flourish (because y'all know I love sparkles), and more tan opaques in the center of each flower and was almost finished.  The completed iris folding on this card was bulkier than on the first card, so the layer would not lie flat. To solve that problem I used lots of foam tape to attach it to the card.  The layout is based on this Atlantic Hearts Sketch:

I had a lot of fun with iris folding which means you will be seeing more of it from me in the future.  In the mean time, thank you for stopping by!  Now how about visiting Heart to Heart, Atlantic Hearts and Try Stamping on Tuesday for some more inspiration?  Maybe you could even enter one or more of the challenges yourself.  I would love to see your work!  Until next time, Hansi