Heartfelt Sympathy

I had some extra stamping time this weekend so I'm playing along with my wonderful Team A over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges where our challenge this week is to create a sympathy card.

This is one of those themes that no one enjoys creating for but recipients appreciate so much. My motto when creating a sympathy card is to keep it simple and let your sincere words take center stage.

I used the Close To My Heart set Live Inspired for this card. Unfortunately, I didn't check first and I think this set is now retired :( Sorry!

I stamped the corner image onto kraft cardstock with a kraft colored ink (not CTMH) and the bird with the same ink onto cream cardstock. I die cut the opening in the front of the card and also impressed the card front using an impression plate that features music notes - if you click the picture, a larger image will pop up and you might be able to see that detail a bit better. The seam binding ribbon (from CTMH) was lightly sponged with the same kraft ink and then tied into a simple bow.  On the inside of the card, the piece with the bird is actually a complete strip of cardstock that goes from side to side. This gives a great space to write a message without writing on the kraft cardstock, which might be harder to see and read.

I hope you will take a minute to see what beautiful cards the rest of the team created for this challenge and then play along! I'll be back soon with more goodies - stay tuned!

We're celebrating Dad!

At Heart to Heart Challenges this week we are celebrating the men in our lives, mainly our Dad! Father's Day is this coming Sunday so now's the time to get a card off in the mail to your favorite Father!

A lot of the Design Team at H2H went with the super-hero look (check out their awesome artwork at the H2H blog) but I know what my hubby wants - not to have superpowers but rather to enjoy a day doing a whole lot of nothing!

I used the Pemberly paper pack and the stamp sets Say it in Style and Trees and Things to create this relaxing scene. Trees and Things is a great set because there are so many little images that you can add to the trees such as a tire swing, a squirrel, birds, a ladder, apples and more. But the hammock looked like the perfect fit for wishing Dad a wonderful Father's Day!

I hope you'll join us this week and show us what you create for Dad. Just be sure to include products from Close To My Heart (our #1 challenge "rule"). And check out the info about applying for our next Design Team while you're there (open to CTMH consultants only).

Haver a wonderful week and I'll be back again soon!

May Flowers

We are talking flowers this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges. I wanted to try something a little different by using a non-flower stamp to create a flower. The result is a little more like a stylized shape than a flower but I'm going with it! Not all flowers have to have detailed petals, right?

Here's my rainbow card:

The "flower" was created using the heart stamp in one of the sets that is in the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut bundle. I used a rainbow of inks and cardstocks as I wanted something bright and colorful and I think I was successful in that quest!

I hope you'll stop by and check out what the rest of the Design Team at H2H created (their artwork includes some really gorgeous flowers - that look like flowers! LOL) And then play along! Just be sure to use Close To My Heart products in your project!

 See you again soon!

Easter/Spring challenge

I'm a little late joining the Easter/Spring party over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges but not too late for Easter! The theme of the challenge is, of course, Easter and/or spring and I can't wait to see what you create!

REMINDER: You must use at least some Close To My Heart products in order to play along with our challenges!

I used the super cute My Peeps stamp set to create a card bound for my mother-in-law in Texas -

She recently hosted my husband on his trip to Texas so this is a double duty card - Easter and Thank you!

I stamped the egg border a few times down a piece of kraft cardstock and once on a piece of cream. Then I punched out a section so I could highlight one egg which I colored with Copics. The sentiment was stamped with an alphabet from JustRite. Simple and flat for mailing!

I hope you will join us at H2H this week. And be sure to check out my NEW CTMH website where you can now buy from the comfort of your home and get some great deals too!!!  The website is located here: http://mbryt1.ctmh.com. Be sure to check out the While Supplies Last section for some really great specials on soon to be retired items.

Be back soon with more Easter fun!

Spring is just around the corner!

Not that you can tell by the looks of things in my neck of the woods today (we finally got some snow, about 3". That's more than we had all winter, I think!) but Spring is right around the corner and we're celebrating with a pastel-y color challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week. Our colors are Sunkiss Yellow, Sky (light blue) and Sweet Leaf (medium green). If you don't have the exact colors, you can still play along - just use something close.

Here's my card for the challenge:

I sponged the three ink colors across a piece of White Daisy cardstock to create the background for the gorgeous butterfly image. All products are from Close To My Heart.

I hope you'll pop by H2H and see what the rest of the Design Team created with these colors and then play along! Just be sure to use Close To My Heart products in your artwork. Have a good Monday!

Inspiration challenge at H2H

This week at H2H, we're getting our artwork inspiration from the following photo:

Take a look - what inspires you from the photo? The colors? The tags, the crystals, the leaves? I took my cue from the tags and the cork-looking background to create a Valentine's card:

I started with a piece of a kraft cardstock and I sponged a little Brown Bag, Chocolate and White Daisy inks all over it to give the piece some "texture". I then created a couple of simple tags. The ones with the letters I and U were made by first cutting the letters using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge and then cutting the cardstock around the letters into strips that could be turned into a banner type tag. The tag in the center with the heart was a purchased tag that I simply added the heart to (also cut with Cricut - once sized at 2 1/4 in Cranberry cardstock for the mat and again at 2" in cream, which was then stamped with the heart image in Cranberry).

I added some baker's twine to the center tag and a few red sparkles finishes up my card. Easy but effective and now I have one card ready for Feb. 14th!

I hope you'll join us at Heart 2 Heart and play along with our inspiration photo. Just be sure to have Close To My Heart products on hand!

Have a good week! I'll be back again soon!

NEW H2H challenge

Heart 2 Heart Challenges is back for a year full of fun challenges and we're kicking off the year with a NEW challenge. We want you to grab one of your CTMH stamps that you haven't used before and get it inky! Here's the card I created using one of the stamp sets from the Cricut Art Philosophy bundle:

I grabbed the Dreamin' paper pack for the bottom section of the card. Love the little dot border edge! On the flip side of this is the CTMH logo and paper information but I love how Close To My Heart utilized every bit of space and gave us a fun border on the reverse to use - no waste with this paper! I also cut three stars using the Cricut AP cartridge, stamped the star image on the cut-outs and then layered them over a stamped label-type image. There is a pattern to cut out the label with the Cricut as well but this worked just perfectly for this clean and simple card.

I hope you will come join in the challenge at H2H this week. Be sure to have Close To My Heart stamps on hand in order to play along!

H2H Virtual Holiday Card Exchange

Today starts the last challenge of the year with Heart 2 Heart as we are all taking a much deserved break for the holidays. The challenge is to create and post a holiday card of any kind wishing everyone who stops at your blog a very Merry __________ (fill in the blank).

Here is my card, with warm wishes for all of my online stamping friends:

I grabbed my Bundled Buddies set and stamped the trees with White Daisy ink on kraft cardstock to create my background. The animals were stamped with brown ink onto kraft, colored with Copics and cut out. I added a couple of lines of machine stitching to the background to ground my trees and then added the cutie patootie animals with some foam tape for dimension. The simple sentiment was stamped in the lower corner and everything was mounted to a Moonstruck (or it might be Outdoor Denim) base.

I hope you will have a chance to play along with us and post a holiday card you've created using Close To My Heart products. This challenge will remain open until the end of the year and we will be back Jan. 9th with a whole new year full of challenges! Be sure to check out our DT call over at the H2H blog too!

Merry Christmas!

Sketch week at H2H

It's sketch week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges and it's a simple one to play along with! Here is my take featuring the cutie-patootie owl from the Bundled Buddies set:

I wanted something for the holidays but also wanted to keep the card somewhat rustic to go along with the owl. So I chose some paper from the Daydreamer pack that was just perfect and colored the owl's scarf to match. A little light blue velvet ribbon "fancies" the simple card up and adds that warm touch.

Wanna check out the sketch and play along? Head over to H2H and jump in. Be sure to use CTMH products and leave us your link. Have a good week and be sure to tune in later this week for more holiday cards to share!

Admit One

Good morning! Sorry I have been absent for awhile - I promise to start posting more often. I just need to find a little more time to get into the stamp room!! Helping my son with school stuff this semester has been almost a second part-time job!!

Anyhow, enough of that - let's get to some artwork!

Our challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart is all about numbers! All projects submitted must include at least one number on it. Here is my party invite:

Can you tell I am hooked on the new Cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart?? Here is how I made this little (3x4) card:

I started with the sentiment It's a Party! stamp from one of the sets that came with the Cricut bundle. I stamped it repeatedly on the diagonal on my card base in Autumn Terracotta. The tag was cut on the Cricut and stamped with one of the images in the September Stamp of the Month (ask me how you can get yours!!) in New England Ivy ink. The "ticket" was cut on the Cricut as well as the number "1". I stamped the "admit one" and hand cut it out. Finally, before assembling everything, I stamped a 2nd generation image of the packages from the set Jingle Borders. Then I layered everything together onto the tag, added a little piece of ribbon and mounted it to the card with foam tape. Lots of fun little layers! (All products from CTMH)

I hope you'll join us and create something with numbers this week. Be sure to use Close To My Heart products!!

Heading back to class

Today my son starts his 4th year of college and I know many kids are either already back in school or heading there soon, so this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges we are creating Back to School artwork.

I went a little non-traditional and created a card for a young lady just heading into college....

I used the Sophie papers because I simply loved all the words of wisdom printed on this paper. I also stamped the arrow from Fill in the Blank, cut it out and used it to point to a great saying : The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams". That's what higher education is all about! Dreaming of the future....and working toward higher goals. Anyhow, I stamped the girl from an older set, Be Yourself, and finished everything off with a clip tied with a pink ribbon.

I hope you will play along with us this week at H2H and show us your Back to School project. Be sure to use Close To My Heart products - we love CTMH at Heart 2 Heart!

Until next time - happy creating!

Hot!

Our theme this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is HOT. Anything that makes you think of hot - this can be shown in colors, images, words - it's all up to you but we want to feel the heat!

Here is my sample:

I first thought of color when I considered the word "hot" so picked out red, orange and yellow to work with. I wanted to keep the images simple and let the colors take center stage so I stamped the lanterns with black and left it at that. A little hand-drawn borders around the image pieces added a little more detail. I then layered by punched borders toward the bottom of the card, added the sentiment piece so it overhangs the side a little and finished everything off with a few black rhinestones for some sparkle.

I do think if I did this card over again the only thing I would change is to emboss the lanterns in black so they are more bold on the strong colored cardstock. Do you do that? Rethink a card after it's done? I try not to but sometimes it just seems sort of obvious how it could be improved.  Anyhow, I hope you will drop by the H2H blog and see what the rest of the team created for our HOT theme - and then play along!

Don't forget - if you need to get your hands on a new CTMH Idea Book, drop me an email and I will get one out to you!
Also don't forget to drop by other blogs and see what's new: Ridiculous Lab and Are You on the Fence? Have a creative week!

Birthdays!

This week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges we are focusing on Birthdays. But not just any Birthdays - one for kids!! We want to see what you can create for a young person's Birthday - card, layout, or other project.

Today is my son's 23rd Birthday (you can read more at Ridiculous Lab) and I did make him a Birthday card but not a CTMH one so instead, I am sharing the card I made for my teenage nephew who is celebrating a birthday this month - take a look:

Now since this is for a teenage boy I kept it pretty simple. I used the striped paper from Mayberry and covered the pink stripes with gold stripes that were cut from another paper in the Mayberry pack. The top edge of the striped paper was then border punched and added to the card front. I also stamped three stars (Fill in the Blank stamp set), cut them out and added to the card front, pop dotting the one in the center. I added a little baker's twine along the top so the stars look like their hanging and a couple of buttons to add a little extra dimension.

I hope you will join us at H2H and show us what you can create for a kid's Birthday. Have a great week and I'll be back soon!

Doilies and Lace

This week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges we are getting frilly with doilies and lace! Before we get to my sample, I want to announce the winner of my 100+ Followers drawing! It is Shelley Valentin-Filpo!! Congratulations - please contact me so I can send out your prize!

Now on to the card:

I started with the gorgeous Bliss paper pack and Fill in the Blank stamp set. I stamped the bird on to a couple different papers, cut out and paper pieced, using a pop dot to give some dimension to the wing. For the doily, I have multiple layers in order to get rows of ruffles and cover the plain center on the doily. The sentiment was die cut and added to the card front and embellished with a couple of pearls.

I hope you'll join us at H2H this week - we would love to see your artwork!  I will be back soon with more goodies to share including a special post this Friday for Unscripted Sketches!! See you then!

Stars and Swirls

Popping in for a quick H2H post today. My computer died yesterday so I am running behind but I did get a little time to put together a simple card for this week's H2H challenge which is all about color! Barn Red, Bamboo and your choice of Blue (or similar colors) are the palette we are working with - take a look:

I embossed the swirls onto the Bamboo panel with a Cuttlebug folder then added a strip of ribbon across the center of the card. On top of the ribbon are my cut out stars, stamped with images from the Wishing Star set. A couple of rhinestones finish it off! I chose not to add a sentiment as I am not sure yet what I might use this card for - might be for the 4th and it might be a graduation party coming up. Either way, I can pop on a sentiment at the last minute and I'm good to go!

Hope you'll join us at H2H this week where our current DT are wrapping up their time with us and we will be introducing new team members through out the week!

Wedding season

June seems to be the optimal wedding time of the year so to get you prepared for any upcoming weddings, Heart 2 Heart Challenges wants to see what you can create with a wedding theme.

One of my favorite color combos for weddings is white and off white together. Add a splash of color and you have a card ready to go! I love this particular card because you can easily substitute any pop of color, any floral stamps and any sentiment to customize it for the couple. I wanted to stay in a rather neutral color mode with this one so my third color is Creme Brulee which enhances the warmer tone of the cream.  I embossed the background with an impression plate from Papertrey Ink and used Nestability dies on the focal image and bottom edge.

I hope you will join us this week and show us what wedding creations you are inspired to make. And check out the challenge blog for more fabulous artwork from the rest of the H2H Design team!

Anything But a Card

Our challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is to create anything but a card. This was the perfect opportunity for me to share an 8x10 photo frame that I created for a photo that is very special to me.

This is one of the last photos I have of my granddaughter and this is both happy and sad for me. Happy in that I am so grateful to have been able to know this beautiful little girl for 20 precious days and sad that those days were so terribly short. It is also only one of a few photos with her eyes open, which she did for the first and last time on April 19th. I will treasure this photo and my memories of her always.

All products from CTMH (except the flower - created with a die from Papertrey Ink - and the ribbon- source unknown). I hope you will try a non-card project and enter our challenge this week. Have a good one - and watch for something new from me later this week~

My favorite technique - times 3

This week at H2H Challenges we want to see your favorite technique. I got a little carried away with my sample and added in three techniques:

First up, I love to paper piece. A lot of stamps are solid images so that doesn't lend itself to this technique but find me a good open line image and it's perfect for paper piecing! If you are not familiar with this technique, it's super easy. Just stamp your image on patterned paper, cut out and adhere to your focal area. I have another paper pieced card I will be showing later in the week but it doesn't have CTMH products so I'll save it for another day. You'll just have to come back and see me again later this week :)

The other two techniques are machine stitching (which isn't really a technique, is it?) and pleated ribbon which is so fun! To create my pleated ribbon, I add a length of Scor-Tape to the back of the ribbon, pleating and sticking it together from the back side, then add small anchor pieces of tape to the front side just under each pleat to keep them in place. Love!

Ok so now it's your turn to share. Create something using a technique and describe it on your blog than link up at CTMH. Be sure you use Close To My Heart products in some way in your project!

See you again soon -

Sweet Cherries

It's a new challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week where it's all about buttons!

I used a retired set, Fruitful Delight, and Cherry-O papers to create my card. Seems I can't keep up with what's new and what's retired these days! I hope you enjoy it anyhow:

This was a quick and fun card to make, substituting buttons for the cherries. The image was inked in Chocolate ink and the stem and leaves are Copic colored. A little sentiment on the front and it's ready to be mailed out.

Come join us at H2H this week and show us what you can create with buttons!

For Mom

I am back to challenges after a much needed break last week and this next H2H challenge is perfectly timed for Mother's Day (this coming Sunday, in case you forgot!)

I started with the Find Your Style stamp set and Bliss paper. I stamped the butterfly image once onto white cs that was die cut with a Nestabilities die, and once on vellum, which I then cut out and added over the 1st image to soften it and add dimension. The bottom edge of the card was border punched and some ribbon and rhinestones were added for Mom-ified bling!

I hope you will join us this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges - we would love to have you play along!
See you again soon -