Blue Belle

 Hi! 

I am writing a short post tonight. I just want to quickly share the card I made to submit to the Heart 2 Heart Challenge this week.  I was inspired by the parameters given on Friday night's Mary Gunn Funn Craft Roulette.  This is a gate fold and opens to the sentiment inside.

The blue panels were dry embossed with snowflakes while the focal snowflake was heat embossed with silver detail powder and colored with a Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend marker.

I finished several layouts this week.  I will share when I get the photos ready.  It is looking more and more like we will be, or at least should be, staying at home.  I am glad I have my paper crafting to help fight the blues.

Take care and stay safe.

Sue

Back to School

 Here is another submission to the Heart 2 Heart Anything Goes challenge. (Look at the older posts to see the first).  The inspiration came from a Scrapbook and Crafts Today class I am enrolled in.  The Cricut files came from SCT  All the cardstock and embellishments are from Close to My Heart.  The patterned paper is from my stash...pretty sure it came from Michaels, but several years ago. I think these layouts may be a little busy, but aren't they fun?

Just wondering...how are your littles doing school?  These kids are doing remote school.  Their parents have set up individual areas for each of them, and so far it is going well.  They are missing their friends though. 

For more projects from Heart 2 Heart, click here

Take care...talk with you soon.

Sue

Party time!

 I love the new Party Time paper suite from the Close to My Heart core catalog.  Here is a layout I created to celebrate my granddaughter's 18th birthday.  As with so many things this year, there was no party, so I had to be content with stopping by with flowers and a gift.

I will be submitting this layout to the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Anything Goes category. Click here to see more great projects.

I hope you are finding ways to celebrate with your family.

Sue

Something to Smile About!

 I am participating in the Heart 2 Heart challenge again this week.  That in itself is something to smile about,but my entry is even more reason.  I am plugging along with my 2019 vacation scrapbook and decided to create a layout to submit to this challenge. There is not much that can make me smile more than a European vacation, art and beautiful music.  I hit the jackpot here in Kovacica, Serbia!

Everything here is Close to My Heart.  The design credit goes to Allison Davis.  I will say that the piecing, stamping, and just trying to figure out my embellishments made this a time consuming project, but I think it was worth it!  

For more projects that will make you smile, please visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.  

Talk with you soon...Sue

Just Add Water!

I was not sure where to go with this Heart 2 Heart theme, "Just Add Water" and then I remembered the wonderful water show we saw on our last night in Bucharest last September.  So I used some really old CTMH paper called Laughing Lola as well as Black cardstock and Gold Glitter Paper to create this easy and quick layout. All the pictures are 3 x 4 and double matted. The title was cut on the Cricut.

To see more water inspired projects, please visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

With all due caution, we have been doing a little travel...first to Colorado to assist my husband's sister with a move and now in Wisconsin, enjoying a fishing trip with family.  Therefore I have been absent from my blog, but I promise more posts in the near future.

Hope you are finding time to be creative,
Sue

Family!

 This week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is "Family Time".  For my submission, I created  a  layout for the youngest family member's May birthday.  We were sad that we were not able to be there because of the sheltering, but we Facetimed and these pictures were shared

This was inspired by Allison Davis and is one of the layouts in the "6 x 6" class I am virtually taking from her.  The idea is to use papers from 6 x 6 paper pads.  Not having many of those, I try to choose small patterns to keep things in scale.  Often, I can use scraps and that always makes me happy.  For this layout, everything is Close to My Heart.  The paper pack is So Much Happy.  The zip strips were from I Heart Us and the title was cut on the Cricut with the Artisite font and Smoothie cardstock.

All the photos are 4 x 6 inches.  The two on the bottom are matted with 4 1/8 x 6 1/8 inch White Daisy card. I will say that placing pictures edge to edge with no mats or white space is way out of comfort zone, but I think I am getting the hang of it!

Now that we are in Phase 4 (at least in Illinois), I hope you are able to spend time with your family and those you love.  Just be safe!

For more Family projects, please visit  Heart 2 Heart Challenges

Adventure Abounds!

We have been fortunate to do a good deal of traveling, so adventure is sort of a theme with us.  this layout documents climbing the rocks at the Belogradchik in Bulgaria.  There were even more steps beyond what what can be seen, some without hand rails.  It was definitely a challenge for this Senior, but the views were worth it.

There is not a lot to say about the layout.  The design credit goes to Allison Davis.  The products were all from Close to My Heart. The patterned paper and the accents are from the "Into the Wild" suite and I also used White Daisy, New England Ivy, Sapphire and Heather cardstock. The title was cut on the Cricut with a downloaded font called Miss Poppy.

I hope you are inspired to scrap your latest adventure...no matter if it took place faraway like this one or just in your own backyard. To see more projects, please visit Heart 2 Heart.

May all your adventures be memorable ones!
Sue

Tickled Pink

The Heart 2 Heart theme this week is "Tickled Pink" and nothing has tickled me more than the birth of my grandchildren.  Here is a layout I just did for my granddaughter.  She recently graduated from high school and I am working to finish her scrapbooks as a present. This will be the cover layout for one of the books.

I used a variety of products on this layout and was delighted how well they all went together.  The Pixie and Glacier papers are recent papers from Close to My Heart while the background print was from my stash.  Knowing I have little girls to scrap for, a good friend shared the "Shoes" background paper.  It worked perfectly! The green is Sweet Leaf, a longtime CTMH favorite. The title was cut twice on the Cricut with an Artiste cut file.  I trimmed off the words "It's a" from the Glacier paper and glued them on top of the White Daisy. The scalloped circle and the white circle were cut from CTMH dies. 

 Because I wanted to show more pictures, I put this page in a page protector and then added four more photos with Flip Flaps from CTMH and hid the adhesive strips with Shimmer Trim.  Sorry this picture is not very good.

Thanks for stopping by today.  For more "Tickled Pink" projects, be sure to visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

Sue

In Stitches!

I am enjoying getting back to submitting projects to some challenge sites.  This week, I was inspired by a great sketch from Allison Davis.  While she used star cutouts on the left side, I decided to go with squares.  It seemed that they were easier to evenly space and also pleasantly coordinated with the right side.

The challenge at Heart 2 Heart was In Stitches.  I utilized my Stitched Square Thin Cuts from Close to My Heart to created layers on some of the squares.  All the cardstock is CTMH while the printed papers are from my stash.  This is my granddaughter's last year in FFA, so I am trying to use up those papers

You may view more "stitched" projects art Heart 2 Heart Challenges.  I hope you will soon check back with me to see what else I have been up to.

Happy Crafting!

Sue 

Heart 2 Heart

There were two categories in the Heart 2 Heart Challenges that interested me this month.  However they need to be submitted by the last day of the month.  That's right...that is today.  So instead of an individual blog post for each, I will include my two projects on this post.

For the National Scrapbooking Month challenge, I created a layout with a kit from the "The World is Yours Workshop"  that I think came out last year.  (Yes, I am trying to catch up!)  It is one of the four layouts included in the workshop.  I love the colors and all the techniques included.

This layout being posted at Heart 2 Heart Challenges National Scrapbooking Month

The second project is a card for the Somewhere Over the Rainbow challenge.  This stamp set by the same name is also retired...like ten years ago, but I hope you are inspired by the layout and the colors.  This is being posted at Heart 2 Heart Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

I trust you are all doing well.  It is such a scary world we live in right now.  I am finding that my paper crafting keeps my mind off things for a little while...hoping it does the same for you,

Talk with you soon,

Sue

Anything Goes..Holiday Style

I mentioned in my Dec 2 post that I created several different cards in multiples of six this year.  Well, this one takes the prize for taking the most patience and time. 

I cut this with a file from Complete Creativity, the newest Close to My Heart Digital Cricut Cartridge.  The file has all the components included.  You just need to cut everything out and assemble. I will warn you that the card size is 5 x 7.  Assembly was a little challenging.  I did find that a product called Dry Bond helped with the sentiment and Joseph and Mary.  I found it at Dick Blick the last time I bought it, but that was a few years ago.

So this is the last Heart to Heart Challenge of the year and a good time to tell you that I have decided to leave the team, at least for awhile.  However, I intend to keep this blog going, so please do check back now and then to see what I have been doing.  You may may even see me linking up to H2H and maybe some other challenges.

Thanks for being with me--

Merry Christmas,
Sue

Evergreen!

Evergreen is one of my favorite new colors in the Close to My Heart Exclusive Color Palette. I love the richness of this green and decided to feature it in this week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge, Evergreen.

Design Inspiration is Pattern 15 in Make it from Your Heart Vol.4

To create the card, I used Evergreen, Clover, Candy Apple, and White Daisy cardstock, patterned paper from the Every Little Thing paper packet and White Glitter Paper (hard to see in the picture. the sentiment is stamped with a stamp from Holiday Trimmings C1810. The holly was cut on the Cricut with a file from the City Sidewalks cartridge from CTMH.
This year, in order to use up some papers and to try new designs, I created Christmas cards in multiples of six .  I think this design is my very favorite of all I made.  But then, my favorite color is green, so there you go.

I hope you enjoy this card...thanks for joining me today.  Please visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges to see what the design team has to show you!

Sue

An Attitude of Gratitude

An Attitude of Gratitude...a good policy all year long, but especially now at Thanksgiving.  I don't know about you, but I am tiring of the autumn leaves that we have all been using for our Fall creations.  So I decided to use one of the Sep-Oct Mix-In papers and the November Stamp of the Month to create this nontraditional Thanksgiving card.  I also used the Stitched Hearts Thin Cuts and the Heart Patterns stamp set which is found in the 2019-2020 core catalog. I was inspired by a technique from Chris Robertson to create this 3-D heart.  What fun!

Thanks for joining me today.  For more inspiration, please visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sue

Full Circle!

It is always easy and fun to create with circles.  I chose to use the Every Little Thing paper pack to create this card.  The Wisteria polka dot and the grid papers are from the Sep-Oct mix-in pack. The stamps are from Family Time--November Stamp of the Month.  I think the flower is probably intended to be a sunflower, but I think it looks wonderful stamped with Wisteria!

Inspired by Page Maps October 2018

Thank you for visiting my blog today.  I hope this gets you thinking about using your stamps in ways beyond their original intention.  For more inspiration, please visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

Talk with you soon,

Sue

Pumpkin Spice!

Heart 2 Heart is celebrating Pumpkin Spice this week.  To create my pumpkin inspired design team project, I chose to use both sides of the beautiful Paprika cardstock (X6033) from Close to My Heart.  I used the Multi Square Windows Thin Cut (Z4023) for the frame.  I embossed the pumpkins and leaves with gold embossing powder. Sorry, but the stamps and the "clip" embellishment were from a September special.  There are other options though.  Look through your stamps for small designs that will work in a 1" square or use the die to cut patterned papers and fill the windows.  For the embellishment, choose a shape and size that pleases you and substitute it for the "clip".

Inspiration from Gina Brandstetter

Thank you for joining me today.  For more inspiration, please visit the Heart 2 Heart Pumpkin Spice Challenge.

Happy fall crafting,

Sue

Fall

The hardest thing about creating this Fall project was coming up with something at least a little bit original.  It seems that this topic is popular among paper crafters...just take a look at Pinterest...you will  see what I mean.

I found my inspiration in Pattern 17 in the instruction book Make it from Your Heart, Volume 4.  It is dedicated to card making and has easy to create patterns to make beautiful cards.  I used patterned paper from the Hawthorn packet which is available until the end of October and Sapphire, Paprika, Saffron and White Daisy cardstock.

Assembly is pretty straight forward.  I did use the stitched circle Thin Cuts and did emboss the pumpkin cardstock.  Gold Glitter Gems provide the bling and the twine is from my stash.

For more Fall inspiration, be sure to visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.  We will love it if you link your project there.  Just remember to use at least one Close to My Heart product

Happy Fall crafting,

Sue

All About Cricut!

This week at Heart 2 Heart we are challenging you to use your Cricut to create a paper crafting project.  With our smallest grandchildren heading back to school, I turned to the Close to My Heart Artbooking Cricut Collection for my First Day project. 

Design credit goes to Lisa Hidy

So while I sort of went with the primary color theme often seen with school layouts, I added some twists.  I like to mix prints; I like a little texture;  and I am ecstatic when I can use up scraps.  So here you can see the prints...the background paper and the Julep print from the Mix-In pack from the new Sept-Oct catalog and the Cranberry print from a long retired Fundamentals pack.  For texture, I embossed the retired Honey with the Word Find embossing folder (hard to see in the picture).  The blue Cricut cuts were cut from Sapphire cardstock.

I am waiting for my son to send me pictures and then I will have to decide which cutie will be featured on this layout!

Close to My Heart has created a new partnership with Provo Craft Cricut.  You are now able to purchase Cricut files and supplies through my website.  If you have Design Space/Cricut Access, all the CTMH cutting files except the newest collection being released this month, are already there!  If this interests you, please contact me and I will walk you through the process.

As you read this, I will just have arrived home from an Eastern European trip!  Oh, the scrapping I will have ahead of me!  Can't wait!

Please check out Heart 2 Heart Challenges for more Cricut inspiration.

Til next time,

Sue

Mixed Fonts!

There are so many ways to mix your fonts on your projects.  You can choose sentiment stamps that utilize different fonts or use alphabet stamps to completely mix things up.  You may want to use your computer to create a title or journaling with different fonts or how about cutting varied fonts on you Cricut or other cutting machine.

For me...when I opened my Hawthorne paper and Complements package and saw the "Awesome" sticker with the fonts already mixed up, I knew what I wanted to create.  Here is a layout celebrating my granddaughter's FFA State Degree.  I utilized the 4-3-2 method and added a journaling block and some banners. For my simple embellishments, I resurrected some Colonial White brads.  They worked perfectly with the French Vanilla, the new off-white from Close to My Heart. These papers from the Hawthorne pack blended with the blue and gold of the FFA jackets

I have been a little frustrated lately, trying to reinvent the wheel with new layout designs.  Actually, this layout is my style...very linear and "clean and classy." While I will still attempt to challenge myself, I think you will be seeing more layouts like this.

For more inspiration, please visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

Happy crafting and have fun mixing your fonts!

Sue

From Me to You...

There are so many ways to say "From Me to You" with your paper crafting.  You may choose to make a card, a gift bag or box or maybe (and this is ambitious), an album.  The possibilities are endless!

I chose to create a birthday card and used the Craft On one more time before it is retired at the end of the month.  The cardstocks are Carolina and White Daisy. The design sketch is from Mojo Monday.

The sentiment and hearts were stamped with From Me to You S1908, the August Stamp of the Month.  The shading behind the sentiment was stamped with Timeless Textures, D1852.

The Seasonal Expressions 2 catalog will retire on August 31st.  To order from it, please visit my website or contact me. Be watching for news of big changes at Close to My Heart coming on September 1!

For more inspiration, please visit Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

From Me to You,

Sue

Adventure Awaits!

Oh boy...I love this heart 2 Heart Challenge!  In a little over a month, another couple and my hubby and myself will be embarking on an Eastern Euopean riverboat cruise preceded by three days in Vienna.  What an adventure! We booked this trip a year ago last spring and I can't believe the time has almost come!

As "Adventure Awaits" is this week's theme, I decided to create the cover page for my trip album.    I scanned the two guide books I have purchased and downloaded the map of our cruise itinerary. I added a September calendar with the trip dates circled.  The title was cut on the Cricut from a CTMH file and the sentiments were stamped with the Escape to Paradise stamp set (D1847).

What adventures do you still have planned for this summer or what adventures have you already participated in?  I hope you will create a project, be it a layout or a card and link it Heart 2 Heart.  You will have until the end of August to do so...just remember to use at least one CTMH product.

For more inspiration, please visit us at Heart 2 Heart!

May all your adventures bring you joy!

Sue