Colour Challenge on Heart2Heart

We have an interesting colour combo of Creme Brulee, Gypsy & Black as this week's Heart2Heart challenge! 

A few of us on the design team found this a bit difficult - but the end results by everyone are incredible!  So be sure to check out all the inspiration ideas over at the blog, along with the creation by this week's guest designer, Angie Parchey.  Angie is also one of our prize sponsors for the month of March, along with Lori Brown.  I knew right away that I was going to do something floral for this week's card, so I made a few paper roses, and then realized that our Just Blooms paper flowers came in Creme Brulee, too!  After playing with my little grouping of flowers, I added a few punched ones, and then needed to somehow add some leaves and vines to round it out... but green isn't part of the challenge, and black leaves seemed a little gruesome!  So I came up with the idea to stitch a few wispy tendrils in black thread.  I sketched them out first, and then traced them with the sewing machine.  Voila!

Here's a closeup of the flowers:

and one of my little wisps:

Remember that your project (doesn't have to be a card!) should be mostly CTMH, and if you don't have the exact colours - use something close.  All supplies are CTMH: Stamp set is Gracious Greetings; Inks are Black, Creme Brulee & Gypsy; Cardstock is Black, White Daisy, Creme Brulee & Gypsy; Licorice & White Opaque Pearls.  Punches are Marvy & Martha Stewart.

Mojo Monday #179

I went with something soft for this week's Mojo sketch... with some new sei papers and a little cutting:

Patterned papers are Chick-a-dee by sei; Cardstock is White Daisy & Grey Wool - CTMH; Stamp set is Sweet Treats by Verve; Ink is Grey Wool; Licorice opaque pearls - both CTMH.

Things are a little chilly at Heart2Heart...

This week's challenge at the Heart2Heart blog is all about "cold".  Whatever that word means to you - ice & snow? cool colours? a glass of cold milk?  Since it's been snowy & blowy around here lately, I went with a snowflake theme, and used some fairly cool colours.  I decided to learn a little something new, so I learned how to do the emerging colour technique (and I learned a lot!).  I'm also keeping up with my promise to make 5 Christmas tags each month throughout the year, so that I end up with a nice stack of tags ready to go next Nov/Dec.  I'll post my little group of tags first, and then I'll show you each of the steps I took to make my background paper.  They are quite sparkly in person, but of course that doesn't show up in the photo!

Stamp sets are Snow Flurries, Simple Memories & Just for the Holidays; Cardstock is Gypsy, Spring Iris & White Daisy; Inks are Gypsy, Cotton Candy, Lilac Mist & Spring Iris; Lilac Mist & Pink Carnation Organdy & Baby Pink Gingham ribbons; Snowflake buttons - all CTMH;  Clear embossing powder; Stickles.

Using some glossy paper that I had on hand, I stamped one of the medallion images all over in Lilac Mist.

I filled in the empty spaces with a small snowflake in gypsy, and a tiny one in cotton candy.

Then using Versamark Ink, I stamped a fairly solid, large snowflake image all over the sheet of paper, and clear embossed them.

Now comes the fun part, where the white snowflakes appear.  Using Spring Iris ink, I sponged over the entire background, which filled in all of the white spaces, but anywhere that I clear embossed a snowflake - remained white, and shows some of the original snowflake images on the base.  In the picture at the right, you can see that I've sponged the right half of the sheet, showing how the snowflakes emerge.

Here's the finished product.  What did I learn?  That I liked a sporadically sponged background better, because more of the background snowflakes showed through.  I learned that clear embossing makes some colours go funky (pink especially!), and that it's hard to get a sharply stamped image on glossy paper.

Don't forget that you have until next Sunday to be entered into the random drawing for a prize pack from our two sponsors!  So head on over to the H2H blog and see what the our guest designer Aaron Brown, and the rest of the design team have made to inspire you...

A Combined Grind Challenge!

This week, the Play Date Cafe has teamed up with the CASE Study Challenge blog for a "Combined Grind" challenge... we're using the PDCC#69 colours of red/green/black... with the inspiration of the CASE muse Eva Dobilas for our design:

So I pulled out the gorgeous Mistletoe papers from Making Memories, and used one of my new Verve stamps to make this:

Patterned papers are Making Memories, Mistletoe; Black cardstock & ink is CTMH; Twine is Martha Stewart; Stamp set is Text Objects from Verve; Nestabilities die. Here's a closeup of my flower:

I won on Mojo Monday #177!!

I am so excited!!  I just checked out the Mojo Monday blog, and I was selected as one of the winners in last week's contest!  And lucky me gets to pick out a Verve stamp set for free (I can't stop smiling :o)  Here's my winning card again...

Bliss & Mojo Monday #178

Yay! I got a chance to use my new Bliss paper pack today, along with my new sentiment from Verve (love this!) for this week's Mojo sketch.  And yes, I actually cut around all of the ripply edges of the medallion, and then chalked the center and around the sentiment.

Sentiment is Verve; all other supplies are CTMH: Paper pack is Bliss; Cardstock is Chocolate & Vanilla Cream; Ink is Chocolate; Stamp sets are Simple Memories & Butterly Kisses; Grey organdy ribbon; Spring chalks.

All about Hearts at Heart2Heart this week

It's a brand new week at the Heart2Heart Challenge Blog... and we want to see your hearts!  Use a heart on your card/layout/project and link it up to the H2H blog.  As always, you should use *mostly* CTMH.  Don't forget that there will be 2 prizes randomly given out by our February sponsors Shirley and Sandra, and at the end of the month we will choose our Top Ten from all of the entries this month.  So get busy creatin' and head over to see what the rest of the design team has in store for you, along with our guest designer Aaron Brown.  For my card, I wanted to make a little heart banner, and decided to do a slightly funky colour combo (Smoothie/Creme Brulee/Blush).  For my background, I clear embossed the new Simple Memories doily-like images, and then sponged over them in smoothie ink - the camera didn't capture it to be quite as soft and smudged as it is in real life, but you get the idea.  The card is 4" x 9 1/2":

Stamp sets are Soul Mates, Charm Uppercase and Simple Memories;  Cardstock is Blush, Smoothie & Creme Brulee; Ink is Smoothie; Paper Blooms - all CTMH.  Michaels ribbon.