Happy Valentine's Day with Hearts and Swirls

This card started with my Grandmother who sent me a card featuring an ocean scene that had been embellished with quilling.  Knowing my hope to sell my cards at craft shows and the local farmer's market once my daughter moves into a group home, she wrote "...I'll bet you could do something like this very profitably!"  With visions of curly-cue hearts, I began my research and found The Art of Quilling website to be very helpful.  Following this Atlantic Hearts Sketch, I made a valentine for my darling husband.

Lets just say there was a bit of a learning curve...  The quilling strips you can buy in craft stores are a fairly lightweight, pliable paper, but I had cardstock so that's what I used to make my own.  My initial thought had been to quill the hearts and use a stamped sentiment.  Then inspiration kicked in and I decided to make some X's and O's.  Now Close to My Heart's paper has a white core which can itself be a design element, but that is for another card someday.  I wanted pink edges.  I probably don't have to tell you that inking the edge of a 1/8 inch wide strip of paper is not easy.  I solved this issue by inking the edge of the sheet of paper and then slicing off a 1/8 inch strip, repeating until I had all the strips I needed.  The only things to remember when doing this are to apply the glue to the white edged side of your shape and, if you care about what direction your curls go, keep that in mind when rolling your paper.  You may notice that my O's curl in opposite directions.

This being February, it goes without saying that one of the Heart 2 Heart challenges for the month is "Falling in Love," so I will be entering this card in that challenge as well.  I used a sentiment from the retired "Mad About You" stamp set inside but wrote a way too personal message for y'all to see before I photographed the card, so you will just have to take my word for it.  I also used a zip strip and some Hollyhock cardstock to embellish the inside.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  For Always (retired), White Daisy, Black and Hollyhock (retired) cardstock
Ink:  Hollyhock, Black (inside)
Stamp: Mad About You (inside)

Birthday Kitty with Balloons

My daughter's birthday was last week.  Her favorite things in the whole world are baseball and cats which she comes by honestly having inherited her love of baseball from her daddy and her love of cats from her mama.  After several years of making baseball themed birthday cards for her I decided to use this sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday to make a cat card.

I started by embossing this adorable stamp from Inkadinkado and covering the stamped balloons with ones that I cut using Close to My Heart's Artiste Cricut cartridge (page 70) and sponged with ink to give them dimension.  I popped up the Honey colored balloon with thin foam tape and the Lagoon one with regular foam tape.  The sentiment was cut using the same key and sponged.  Lastly I stitched around the edges of the panel with black upholstery thread.  The paper comes from the Cloud Nine paperpack from years ago.  Here is the inside:

Yes, my cats sign cards.  Don't yours?  Thank you for stopping by!   Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Cloud Nine (retired), Honey (retired), Lagoon, Sunset (retired), and White Daisy cardstock

Ink:  Honey (retired), Lagoon, Sunset (retired), LePen

Stamp:  from Inkadinkado

Embellishment:  Black upholstery thread bought from somewhere I can't remember

Other:  Artisite Cricut cartridge

Round and Round and Round We Go

The ladies over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges must have had a sneak peak at this Freshly Made Sketch when they selected "Round and Round" as a challenge theme:

This note card uses an old Stamp of the Month, "A Happy Hello" to showcase some of Close to My Heart's newer colors plus an oldie but goodie.  The Lemon ring was stamped directly onto the card.  The other circles were stamped onto White Daisy cardstock and cut out.  The flower is from my stash of Just Blooms paper shapes.  Here is the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  White Daisy, Lemon, Willow, Blossom, and Pansy cardstock
Ink:  Lemon, Pansy, Blossom, Willow, Lagoon
Stamp:  A Happy Hello (retired)
Embellishment:  Just Blooms paper shape

Penguin with Cold Hands, Warm Heart

If you have been following my blog for a few years you may have noticed that every January I post a card featuring a penguin, not a Christmas card mind you, but a birthday card for my nephew who has loved penguins since he was a baby.  Some kids have Teddy bears; he had a penguin named Mr. Popper.  A Penguin fits the Heart 2 Heart Cold Hands, Warm Heart challenge, so using this Atlantic Hearts sketch I made the 2017 Penguin Birthday Not Christmas Card.

Now the first thing I noticed about this sketch was the striped background.  The striped paper in the Snowhaven (retired) pack has been my go to paper for penguin themed cards.  I cut the stripes apart so I can pick and choose the pattern according what I need.  Often I select only stripes that have red, black and white for penguins as in this card.  For today's card I wanted primarily blue, black, and white to keep the background cold with just a few pops of red to provide continuity without competing with the heart shaped balloon.  I wanted that balloon to pop.  To make the balloon I stamped the outline in the Happy for You set on Cranberry cardstock, cut it out, and sponged the edge with Cranberry ink to give it some dimension.  The highlight is a sliver of White Daisy cardstock painted with a shimmer brush and glued in place.

Now about the penguin:  Whenever I am heat embossing a stamped image, I emboss a few extra and keep them in the envelope the stamp is stored in to save time on future projects.  Rather than stamping the penguin directly on the card after masking off the snowball, I fussy cut one from my Wintry Wishes (retired) stash, lopping off the snowball in the process so he could hold a balloon instead. I attached the balloon with some foam tape and drew string.

Here is the inside:

For the sentiments I made liberal use of the masking technique where you put a sticky note or washi tape over the parts of the stamp that you do not want before inking it.  The trick is to remember to remove the inky mask before stamping on your project.  Ask me how I know...  The sentiment on the front from Scandinavian Wishes (retired) is actually "Warm Wishes this holiday season" and, of course, the stamp used inside usually says "Happy" along with "Birthday"  The "on your" comes from the Happy for You set.

Now to write a check and get this in the mail.  After all, his birthday was last week!  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Snowhaven (retired), Glacier, Cranberry, and White Daisy Cardstock

Ink:  Black, Cranberry, Black pigment (penguin),Black LePen

Stamps:  Happy for You, Birthday Sparkles, Wintry Wishes (retired), Scandinavian Wishes (retired)

Embellishments:  Shimmer Pen, Clear Embossing powder

Vintage Christmas Kitten

I have loved cats all my life so how could I not buy this Christmas Kitten stamp by Stampenous?  I stamped her with Cocoa pigment ink and heat embossed her with clear detail powder.  What I love about clear embossing powder is that not only does it give you the ability to emboss in any color pigment ink you have, but unlike color powders, any stay bits don't show.  I embossed it because my original intent had been to use watercolor pencils, but as I looked at the paper I wanted to use I decided that dry pencils would echo the texture of the print, so I went to work with my Prismacolor pencils.  The one drawback was that the raised embossing makes it difficult to bring the color all the way up to the lines.  Can we just say that this adds to the vintage feel of the card?  In keeping with the vintage theme I sponged all the edges with Cocoa ink.  The sentiment from Close to My Heart's Holly Jolly Christmas is also embossed.  To accommodate the bulk of the twine I used regular foam tape to pop up the kitten and thin foam tape to pop up the white panel.

Here is the inside:

The the sentiment is also from Holly Jolly Christmas and the holly from To You and Yours.  The layout is based on this Freshly Made Sketch:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Cream and Green Holly by DCWV, Colonila White, Ruby, and Cocoa cardstock
Ink:  Cocoa pigment and dye inks, Prismacolor pencils
Stamps:  Christmas Kitten by Stampendous, Holly Jolly Chrismas, To You and Yours
Embellishments:  Clear Embossing powder by Ranger, Fern thick twine

Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful

I'm still playing with black and white, but this time with a pop of pink and this Atlantic Hearts Sketch:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Herat unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Charlotte, La Vie En Rose (both retired), Black and White Daisy cardstock
Stamps:  Your Beautiful Self, Be Your Own Kind of Wonderful (retired)
Ink:  Black, Marvy Uchida Le Pen, Tender Pink ShinHan marker
Embellishments:  Black Sparkle Flourish (retired)

Fall is Finally Here

The temperatures are in the 70's and the humidity tolerable.  Never mind that the leaves are green and I'm still wearing sandals, fall is finally here!  That means it's the season for black cats and pumpkins (and chocolate).  I made my first Halloween card of the season using Close to My Heart's Artistry Cricut cartridge and this sketch from Atlantic Heart's Sketch Challenges:

One thing to remember about cutting the cats on page 10 is that setting the dial on the same size for all of them will result in cutouts that are nowhere near the same size.  To get cats that were similar in size I cut the sitting cat at 1.75 inches, the playing cat at 1.5, and the walking cat inside at 1.25.  You may have noticed that I did not punch out the hearts.  The pumpkin can be found on page 44 and was cut at 1.25.  The paper is from the long retired Moonlight pack.  Here is the inside:

Now my husband wants me to make ten for him to give to people on his team at work!  Now why not check out some more takes on this sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenges?  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Moonlight (retired), Olive (retired), Goldrush, Saffron, Black and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Smokey Plum and Olive (both retired)
Stamps:  Holiday Tags, Eek and Shriek (both retired)
Embellishments:  Black sequins
Other:  Artistry Cricut cartridge