Father Daughter Card

The theme of one of the Heart 2 Heart challenges for August is "Boys Will Be Boys."  Yes, boys will be boys, then they grow to be men, and sometimes they become fathers.  My husband is the best father you could ask for, and I make it a point to let him know this on a regular basis.  This card is an example of thinking beyond the theme of a paper pack.  These papers, which work beautifully for a summer theme come from "Chalk It Up," Close to My Heart's back to school paper pack from last year.  The sentiment was snipped from a zip strip from last year's Seaside pack.  I popped up both the sentiment and the background panel to give the card a little bit more dimension.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Chalk It Up (retired), Seaside (retired), Chocolate and Colonial White cardstock
Embellishments:  Chalk It Up Assortment (retired)

Bath Time for Baby

A new laptop and issues loading the lateest version of Photoshop means that although I have done quite a bit of crafting this month, none of it has been posted.  Time to catch up!

The first Heart 2 Heart challenge for August is to make something featuring the Florence product line from Close to My Heart.  Florence's bright summery colors beautifully compliment these shots of my daughter giving her "baby" a bath.  Although my preferred orientation is vertical, when I started shooting I found that she was moving out of the frame, so I switched to shooting horizontally.  This meant my photos had extra space at the sides which detracted from the image, but the photos could not be cropped down to 3x4 without decapitating baby, so I had to go with square photos.  By the way, this week's challenge theme is "hip to be square," but that is for another project.  

The Rose Gold foil banner in the lower left was made by putting a strip of tape on Colonial White cardstock and then cutting the banner.  I used 1/8 inch and 1/4  punches to create the centers of the flowers.  The title comes from the retired Nursery Charms stamp set and the flourish was cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge (page 59) and then trimmed.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't you head over to the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog  to see some other ways to use Florence.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Florence (retiring August 31), Colonial White and Peacock cardstock
Ink:  Peacock, Marvy Uchida LePen journaling pen
Stamp: Nursery Charms (retired)
Embellishments:  Florence Complements (retiring August 31), Florence sequins (retiring August 31), Rose Gold foil tape, Poppy thick twine
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge (retired)

Sightseeing With Heart 2 Heart

Please excuse the quality of this photo.  I had to use my phone, the lighting is poor, and I am trying to enter this into Heart 2 Heart's sightseeing challenge just under the wire.  I will post a better picture in the morning.

My daughter was in the hospital and was given a four hour pass so that we could go on a riverboat cruise with my husband's employer.  Although we live six blocks from the James River, "our part" is full of rapids.  It was interesting to see part of the river below the Fall line.

I used Regatta paper and the Artbooking Cricut cartridge to make this layout.  I hate my handwriting, so I used my computer to print the journaling and then cut out the border from one of the PML cards in the pack and put it over my journaling.

In case you were wondering about the title, in the Navy liberty is when you have permission to leave the ship at a port of call.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Regatta, Sapphire, Pomegranate, Glacier, and White Daisy cardstock
Ink:  Le Pen
Other:  Artbooking Cricut cartridge

Throwback Thank You Card

My fabulous scrappin' friend, Susan, found an awesome place to have a crop retreat, so I needed to send her my share of the deposit.  Of course, that meant making her a thank you card.  I was inspired by Heart 2 Heart's challenge to use retired materials.  That would be just about everything on this card including the ink.  Only the Colonial White cardstock and Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge are still available, although the Art Philosophy cartridge is scheduled to be retired this Sunday.  The paper is Florentine  (not to be confused with Florence) which I sponged with Desert Sand.  Oops!  Desert Sand is still available, too.  I have had the material that I used to make the wreath for so long that I cannot remember exactly what it is or where I bought it.  I think it may be heavy duty upholstery thread.  It is much thicker than thread but not as thick as hemp and comes on a large spool.  The bird and flower are Color Ready Wooden Trinkets which I colored with Creme Brulee and Twilight ink.

Here is the inside.  I did not think and wrote the note before I photographed it.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Florentine, Olive and Colonial White cardstock

Stamp:  Thank you

Ink:  Olive, Twilight, Creme Brulee

Embellishments:  Color Ready Wooden Trinkets, Tan opaque, Black sparkle, regular thread for the stitching (Walmart), some kind of thread I don't remember what

Magical Birthday Kitty

Normally I struggle with guy cards except when I need to make a card for my brother who is owned by a black cat.  Then it's Close to My Heart's Artistry Cricut cartridge to the rescue.  I thought the Magical paper pack with its mostly primary colors would complement my black cat die cuts purrfectly and guess what one of this month's themes at Heart 2 Heart Challenges just happens to be?  That's right, Magical!  The clean crisp colors in that pack lend themselves to a CAS card which is the challenge for this week at Addicted to Stamps and More.  For the layout I used this Freshly Made Sketch:

Here is the inside of the card:

Thank you for stopping by!  It has been a while since I posted and I've missed y'all.  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Magical (to be retired August 31), Honey, Black and White Daisy cardstock

Stamps:  Holiday Tags (to be retired July 31), Love My Cat (to be retired July 31)

Ink:  Black, LePen marker

Embellishments:  Magical complements (to be retired August 31),  Red Enamel Heart (to be retired July 31)

Other:  Artiste (to be retired July 31) and Artistry Cricut cartridges 

Heart 2 Heart Party Animal Challenge

The theme of the last Heart 2 Heart challenge for February is "Party Animals," so I made this layout featuring some of the pony pictures from my daughter's aftercare program when she was little.  [And I just realized I have not included the dates on my page.  Oops!]  To understand the title and main picture it helps to know that until she was about eight, her primary means of communication was American Sign Language.  She did not know the sign for "ride" when she had her first pony picture taken, so she used the closest sign she knew which meant she told everyone that she was "driving" the pony. 

It is after midnight, so I am going to post this to meet the deadline for the challenge, get some sleep, and come back later to tell y'all more about this.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

My New Lighthouse Stamp

I have a new lighthouse stamp!  Many of y'all know of my fondness for the Cape Henry lighthouse in my hometown, Virginia Beach.  There is, however, another lighthouse that has also occupied my heart for many years.  You see, my family, all of whom (except me) live within spitting distance of both ocean and bay beaches, rents a beach house in the Outer Banks near Cape Hatteras.  Yes, we invade someone else's hometown.  Cape Hatteras is the site of the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States.  In case you are thinking the the designer of this stamp took artistic license drawing the lighthouse so close to the beach, I can assure that this is where the Cape Hatteras lighthouse stood until 1999 as concern grew that the encroaching ocean would wash it away.  In a feat of modern engineering, the lighthouse was moved 2900 feet inland where it will hopefully stand for years to come.

To break in my new stamp I made a quick sympathy card following this Freshly Made Sketch:

The lighthouse stamp, by the way, is no longer manufactured but still available.  Google "Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Stamp."  Caution:  Some sellers are asking a ridiculous amount for it.  I got mine for $7.00 plus shipping.   For the card I used Tommy paper (retired) and distressed the edges with Cocoa.    My only embellishment is a bird from the color ready Trinkets Wooden Shapes which I colored with two layers of Outdoor Denim and heat set each time with my craft heater.  The new micro dots came in handy for attaching him.  

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Tommy (retired), Outdoor Denim (retired) and Colonial White cardstock

Stamp: Look to the Light. 

Ink:  Outdoor Denim (retired), Cocoa 

Embellishment:  Bird from color ready Trinkets Wooden Shapes (retired but still available in the clearance section)