Heart Parade

 Good Morning and welcome to the new sketch for the week at

              Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge

My inspiration for you this week has rotated sketch #562 and used a banner die from Simon Says Stamp repeated along the side for the stripe elements.  The sentiment is a CZ Design die cut.  I used some red string from my stash and a few tiny heart embellishments. 

Hope you will feel inspired to create with this sketch and link up at AHSC so we can see what you make.

also linking to Tic Tac Toe Challenge- left column heart/red/die cut

Anything But Square

            Welcome to the new challenge at Allsorts which has an option this week of 

                                              Anything But Square

                  Prizes from Stampendous to be drawn at the end of the month

For my Design Team card I have made a teepee fold card decorated with a new to me ice cream cone die from Simon Says Stamp, and sentiment from Gina K Designs. This card folds flat to mail in a 5x7 envelope.

                                                 This is how it folds to go in the envelope.

January Blues

 This week at Allsorts the optional challenge is January Blues.

 With prizes from two sponsors -  Polkadoodles and Oakwood to be drawn at the end of the month.

My Design Team card uses an image from another of  Allsort's sponsors - Ruth Hamilton Designs. Sempervivum digital image.   I colored the image with Prisma pencils, used Gamsol to blend, and then fussy cut. The oval was cut and embossed with Altenew dies and embossing folder. The die cut sentiment is from Gina K Designs. They back ground was an ink bubble experiment that was just kind of blah, but once I lightly stenciled it with the Altenew's Stone Wall stencil I was thrilled at how it came out.  

I used some online Google images for color inspiration:

Try A Sketch

 

Welcome to a new sketch at Try A Sketch on Tuesday

This is my take on TSOT #639 - the challenge will run for two weeks.

I used some black and white paper from my stash and MFT yellow card left from a kit a few years back.  The flower is from Altenew's Super Striped Floral Die set, sentiment from Gina K Designs, bow from ribbon stash, and enamel dots from Spellbinders Fashion Jet.  I just always like black and white with a pop of color.

I hope you will check out the fantastic inspiration from the Design Team at TSOT

Feel Better

 

Good Morning

and welcome to another sketch challenge at

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge

As you can see I rotated the sketch.  I used lots of fun scraps from my stash for this card, and a well-loved and older Lawn Fawn stamp and die set called Treat Yourself.  I did lots of stitched die cuts with MFT squares, a SSS rectangle, and an Altenew cover plate.  This will go out to a dear friend who is feeling poorly. Chocolate + raspberry?

Hope you are staying warm and safe wherever you might be.  It's been below 20 F here for quite a few days.  Perfect crafting time, I say!

The Design Team would love to see you at the AHSC blog this week!

Make a Background

 The fun new challenge this week at Allsorts is to

     *** Create Your Own Background ***  or use the Anything Goes option

With marvelous prizes from  Polkadoodles and Oakwood  to be selected at the end of the month.

For my card, I did some clear embossing of several background stamps on the water color paper before adding color.  The great image from AALL& Create had wanted didn't show up as well as I thought it would, so I stamped it again in black and added some white splatter. The panel was cut with an Altenew die and I added a black die cut from Altenew's  Hanging Gardens set.
I hope you will check out the rest of the Design Team inspiration and join us at Allsorts this week.

Keep Moving

 

The new challenge at Allsorts is a Mood Board suggested by Lynn. Lots of inspiration here!

For my card I focused on the bicycle and stamped and fussy cut one from a old Hero Arts stamp. I made a little scene with a few stencils and stamped trees from Gina K Designs. It became an easel card with a quote from Einstein inside.  It folds flat to an A2 size card.

Prizes for Challenge #762 are from AALL and Create and Craft Stash

Double Challenge

                                                    Happy New Year!

Welcome to a new year full of fun crafting challenges. There are a few changes to TSOT -Try A Sketch on Tuesday - in the blog name and timing of challenges. But still the same awesome sketches!  New sketch challenges will be on the first and third Tuesdays.

And to celebrate the new, we are partnering with our sister challenge                            Double Trouble   Paper Crafting for this first challenge of the year. 

The Design Team just loves getting to know you and seeing your creative work - so this challenge is another way to accomplish that and inspire.

 Double Trouble is recognizing World Introvert Day using the TSOT Sketch #638. The BACKGROUND of the sketch will be affected by this semi-humorous occasion.  Whether you are introverted or extroverted, Thing 1's requirement is to create a project to show us your personality through one of the two fun background choices.  

Introvert:   calm, soft, pastel

Extrovert:  loud, bold, bright 

My inspiration for you uses a gorgeous Altenew embossing folder, Starry Patterns, and a Gina K Designs snowflake and sentiment from the Blizzard set.  The inset was cut using Altenew's Fine Frames Diamonds die, and behind it I placed a piece of navy card that I painted with some blue and silver metallic water colors. The snowflake was silver heat embossed on vellum and cut using the coordinating die. That was popped in the center also and the silver Liquid Pearls drop in the center hides the adhesive.

I'm very busy with activities full of people and I have many dear and wonderful friends, but am an introvert - I cherish my alone time reading and crafting. So my background is neutral but has lots of dimension :-)

Thank you for visiting - hope to see you at the challenges this year.

~Dena

Single Flower Birthday

 

Welcome to 2024!

My Design Team inspiration for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #558 is below. I thought this was a marvelous sketch for using small pieces of patterned paper and some ephemera from my stash. And I am in serious need of building my birthday card stash - so I made two cards with this sketch. Sentiments are from Gina K Designs.

Hoping you will play along as well. It's inspiring to me to see your creations with the sketch each week.

* Some folks who have been around Close To My Heart for a few decades may recognize the green patterned papers...craft hoarding is a real thing!  haha