SSW #164 Rugged Dude

The new products from Close To My Heart go live August 1st and this is a peak at some of the fun new things.  When I saw the sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday, I knew right away I wanted that pocket to be the center panel.  It took a bit of playing with colors to get the jeans just right - some rock 'n roll technique and distressing helped.  After cutting the star, I turned it over and used my embossing stylus to create the points, and then put double foam to keep the dimension.  The new burlap ribbon is going to be out a lot on my next projects - just love the texture!  I cut off the binding on each side and pulled a few threads.  I hand cut the paisley paper for the handkerchief.
Inside, repeated some papers, and added the message.
Products: CTMH Dakota Paper Collection;
                                                                                        Burlap ribbon; "Rugged Dude"stamp set.

ISSC #26 Back To School

Love the sketch at I Spy this week - and I used some brand new stamps. They are from Close To My Heart School is Here set, which will be offered starting August 1st.  Even that is a bit early to think about school for me!  I stay in denial until August 15th at least. 

For the panel I stamped the crayon in Cranberry, Topiary, Sunny Yellow and Outdoor Denim. The apple was stamped in cranberry and given some shine with Liquid Glass. The matt is Cranberry card stock.

CASology Week 3 - Fruit

I've been making fruit cards all evening using my favorite sets...peaches, blueberries, melons, and strawberries all over the work table! 
Now I can't decide between these two.  The grapes card was the first one I made, and is my personal favorite.  I like the softness and distressing on the small piece. It has a vintage feel without a lot of layers or embellishments.
The cherries card is crisp and clean...but I feel unsure about it. Clean & simple is tough to get right because there's so little there.

I'm really enjoying the CASology theme challenges, and was sorry I didn't get to play last week. Check out this blog if you want to be inspired to try clean & simple. http://casology.blogspot.ca/

* all products used are Close To My Heart, Bon Appetite and Bowl of Cherries, retired sets

Try Stampin' On Tuesday #76

This week's challenge sketch at Try Stampin' On Tuesday caught my eye. I decided to keep it a CAS card and try some images instead of the ribbons or pennants. 
Stamps: Close To My Heart Paper Lanterns
Inks: CTMH Cotton Candy, Creme Brulee, Sunset, Black

I Spy Sketch #25 Thanks a Latte

I adore clear stamps...but have saved so many of my wood stamps because they are like old friends. We don't have much in common anymore, but we started out on this crafting adventure together so long ago...and there are happy memories...Hopefully, someone out there can relate :-)    Now, one of the reasons to love clear stamps is that they are easy to position.  So I have no idea why I went directly to this tiny  wood cup just when I needed to line things up.  But it was what I 'saw' for the sketch.  I rock n' rolled it in Crystal and Indian Corn Blue.  Matted on some chocolate color dotted paper- it was an orphan scrap....Sentiment also a wood stamp purchased at my very first stamp expo trip (about 15 years back). I hand drew the 'steam' and one red heart. This whole card is my trip down memory lane!
Thank you I Spy for another fun sketch.

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #163

Love this versatile sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday.  My card for this challenge uses the Mistletoe image from Digi Stamp Boutique. You can see their collection of lovely digital images here.
I colored the bow and berries with Cranberry, and the leaves with New England Ivy ink. I gave the berries a dab of Stickles for some shine, which doesn't show well in my photo.  The papers are Close To My Heart, a retired collection called, appropriately, Mistletoe. Card stock and ribbon are CTMH in New England Ivy. The grommets came with my Crop-o-Dile.  My first Christmas card for 2012!

Monday Again

My, the week flew by! I have been busy planting shrubs, preparing for my son's visit from Japan and yesterday's big family party to welcome him. I did manage to have a break - it was marvelous to go to the Scrapbook Expo last Friday - great inspiration and new projects!
This card uses a Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch that I will be using again in my next post.  The image in this one is a Designed 2 Delight digital colored with Olive and Buttercup inks and I outlined some of the leaf veins with Liquid Glass.  The papers are all Close To My Heart (Olive and Buttercup), the sparkles are Studio 18, ribbon from my collection.  D2D digitals are marvelous - they have a bit of everything.

You are Wonderful

A card for challenges:   Clean & Simple  FTL 199  (sketch)
                                       Less Is More  (3 of anything- I used three colors, three flowers, three words)

When I was teaching Language Arts, there was an elaboration curriculum for writing that encouraged the use of "Magic Three," and I have found in stamping the same rule often applies. 
All the stamps for this card come from Close To My Heart Card Word Puzzle set.  The colors I used were Black, Smoothie, and Pear.  I put a tiny dab of yellow glitz in the center.

Clean&Simple FTL 199

Less Is More

                   

Two Cards today!

Both of my cards use Close To My Heart Footloose Workshop - that is the Footloose paper collection and the special stamp set to accompany.  The sketches were both quite challenging with circle elements, but I had a great deal of fun putting them together. First ink on this lovely set for me, and I will have a difficult time putting it away....
First is  for the challenge at Sweet Sketch Wednesday #162

and

another for I Spy Sketches  ISSC 24
Sea horse was inked with rock+roll technique and then set with some foam tape to float him. I replaced three of the button embellishments with sand dollar punched, bent and popped up my sentiment a little, and distressed everything.
Rock + rolled, raffia, circles.....and a sea horse on both.

Thanks a bunch!

Earlier this week I made this card based on a Just Us Girls sketch, but  never got it posted. I used some embellishments I was saving up....why do we do that?   Well, my brand new Close To My Heart catalogs came today!!  Time for new things, so I'd better use some of the old and make room.

Today was really busy celebrating mother-in-law's 88th birthday.  We spent a few hours at the beach in Steilacoom.  We saw fish - like dolphins, bald eagles, and listened to the peaceful quiet. Then came home and made salmon and an ice cream cake with her favorite flavor.  Summer is lovely.

ISSC 23 Beautiful Friendship

Down to the wire with I Spy's latest sketch.  Summer for me means no 4:30 AM alarm, no grading papers, less time lesson planning, no late meetings....more craft time! It also means time to complete those bigger house projects, time to read books, plant flowers, organize recipes, take walks by the water....So much competition for this precious extra time.  I feel so grateful that I have so many things I love to do and friends I can connect with during school break.
This card uses the Close To My Heart Beautiful Friendship stamp set, Cocoa ink stamped on Colonial White,  water brushed with Hollyhock, Garden Green and Buttercup inks.  Card base is Cocoa card stock with Hollyhock and Garden Green mattes. I added a small Buttercup butterfly punched and decorated with three tiny brown opaques.

CASology SUN

Found a new blog challenge called CASology, and got to play with some old and some new stamps.  Old retired Close to My Heart set In the Month of August provided the sentiment, and the new Just Chillin' the sunshine.  I put some Lagoon card stock through the Cuttlebug and sanded it, punched out some starfish....and am looking forward to a day at the beach myself!

There are lots of lovely cards posted at CASology. Check them out. They will post a new challenge every Tuesday. Clean and simply fun!

Sweet... Stamp Fairy Birthday

These darling little monsters from Stamp Fairy have been in my digi file for a while, so it was a good match for this week's sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday, and paper piecing challenge at Sweet Stampin'.  I printed the digis on yellow, white and green patterned paper, did a bit of coloring and cutting. The monsters are popped with a bit of foam tape, and stamped the sentiment on an arrow sticker.  Love this retired Close To My Heart paper collection called Tinkerin - perfect for little aliens. 

Summer Here...

Digging, digging...landscaping the front of the house is a big project.  We are almost done with the digging up...and I look forward to shopping for bushes/plants tomorrow. 

I made this card a few days ago...just wanting to experiment with making some paper look like old barn wood.  It's not very flashy, but it gives me a happy feeling remembering summer days long ago...in Rhode Island, Cape Cod, and New Hampshire.  I love the warm/cool of Pacific Northwest, but there are times when I feel so homesick for the east coast...
Paper, stamps, twine are all Close To My Heart products. 

Happy Day Retro Sketches #18

This sketch from Retro Sketches looked like fun and I had to practice aligning stamps. It took a few tries without a placement thingy....I hand cut the curves. The stamps come from a now retired Close To My Heart set called Bowl of Cherries, White Daisy and Cranberry card stock, Baker's twine, and BoBunny design paper.

ISSC #22 Thinking of You

 I Spy challenge sketch ... I used a retired Close To My Heart paper collection and a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment comes from CTMH Card Chatter-Sympathy set.  The chipboard butterfly, paper bloom, and ribbon are from the stash of hoarded items.  Now that I look at the gorgeous DT cards on the site, I am feeling like I really need to be more courageous with colors...and well, everything!  I'll post this and try again.

Frosted Sketch #22 is Sweet Stampin'

The Dotty for You papers from Close To My Heart just make me happy! Love those colors, and want to use them for everything right now.  This card used a stamp from CTMH Art Philosophy set, and I cut the scallop circles using my Cricut. The colors used are Grey Flannel, Lagoon and Sweet Leaf; faux stitching with the trusty gel pen.

Two challenges here: Frosted sketch and Sweet Stampin' challenge to use scallops.

Unscripted Sketches #165

Enjoyed working in my craft room into the wee hours last night, and have a few challenge cards today. The first is from Unscripted Sketches and uses the Close To My Heart Pemberly paper collection.  It is my last piece, and so you know it was a favorite. The stamped flower image is from the Card Word Puzzle set, and I used the water brush to pull color out of the outline.  The flower and sentiment were stamped with Outdoor Denim.

LIM Week 74 ~ Inspiration

Using the Less Is More header as inspiration for this week's challenge.  This seems only right since I get so much inspiration from this site.  I've used three Close To My Heart stamp sets: Potential(sentiment,) and The Best Things (flourish), and Universal Backgrounds (music), a little bling and a Martha Stewart corner punch....

Birthday Wishes...

Up early this morning to talk with my son in Japan - eight hours ahead makes calling a challenge.  We spoke for quite awhile planning his visit to the states later this month. And then somehow I managed to miscalculate the time for Frosted's Sketch Tuesday #21 challenge  :-(  Missed by an hour. But I was happy with the card I made using the sketch.  I got to try out making a border with one of the petal stamps and corner rounder.

All Close To My Heart - and available my clicking 'Shop with Me'
Stamp set: Just for You (B1398) and Card Chatter-Birthday (D1475)
Paper: Stella (X7147B)
Inks: Cocoa, Olive, Sunset, Tulip
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Cocoa ribbon; foam tape; corner rounder