H2H Birthday Color Challenge

This week at Heart to Heart Challenges we are challenging you to create with the color matched to your Birthday month.  My birthday is in October - so it was Sunset for me!!
Since my studio is STILL not unpacked (sigh) I, once again, jumped over to Studio J to create my project.

This kit mix is one of the retired paper packets that is still available in Studio J - gotta love that.  One minor issue I had - the orange color in the kit mix was Autumn Terracotta - not Sunset!  No problem....it's so easy to change the color of the paper in Studio J....just click on the paper well and find the color you want in the drop down box and "ta da" you have Sunset instead of Autumn Terracotta!!
Really - if you haven't played with Studio J you should try it!  Jump on over to my website and give it a try.  You can play as much as you want and never have to spend a penny!!

So....what is your birthday color?  Be sure to share your color challenge project with us at H2H.

debi

Something Old and Something New - Heart 2 Heart Challenges

Welcome to a brand new year of challenges at Heart to Heart Challenge blog.  I hope you are truly inspired by our design teams creations and will join us each week.  This weeks challenge is to pair Something Old and Something New.  I had an extra challenge with this one since my craft studio is still in boxes from my recent move and finding something old OR new is quite a challenge!!  Luckily I spent the weekend at my parents house and my mother has a smorgasbord of old CTMH paper packets!  Thanks Mom!

For my card I have paired the long since retired paper packet Silhouette with pieces from both the Snowhaven and Chalk It Up paper packets in our current idea book.  The black dotted paper from Silhouette worked perfectly with the dots from both the current packets. I added a tiny piece of floral paper from Silhouette to tie in the flowers from the Snowhaven Compliments.  Isn't it wonderful how the pieces from the individual packets in the Annual Inspirations catalog all work together!!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Don't forget to share your old and new creations with us at Heart to Heart!

debi

Tinsel Time

Here I am, back with our final challenge for 2014 at Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog.  It's been a great 6 months and I am excited to continue sharing my creations with you for another 6 months!!  This week we have a color challenge for you....you must use Lagoon, Black and Silver!  Lagoon and Black are a favorite color combination of mine - so this was a great challenge!  

To create my card I cut some strips from the Chalk It Up paper packet tearing the ends to resemble washi tape, then added a strip of Silver Shimmer tape for some sparkle  The stars and sentiment are stamped from a retired CTMH set,  I added a few silver sequins and some black  sparkles for extra shine.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Please share your "Tinsel Time"creation with us at H2H!

I hope everyone has a very enjoyable holiday season - see you next year!!

debi

Favorite Holiday

Welcome to another week of challenges at Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog!  This week we are scrapbooking our favorite holiday.  The challenge for me.....1st define "scrapbook" then 2nd pick a favorite holiday.  With a bit of discussion with the design team it was decided that anything with a picture on it could be deemed "scrapbooking" - #1 done!  Picking a favorite holiday was a bit more challenging for me....so many to choose from.  I have to admit, Christmas is probably not my most favorite holiday for various reasons, but it is my most favorite holiday to create and decorate for.  I have tons of holiday decorations that I've made over the years, some of which I like so much I don't ever put away when Christmas is over.  

So I'm sharing with you today my 2014 creation to add to the collection.  Here in my area of North Texas these blocks are all the rage.  I really wanted to create some and found this the perfect opportunity.  My blocks tell a story of all the Christmas pj's that my girls have had over the years (new pj's for Christmas is an annual tradition at my house).  The tags are designed to be removed from the blocks and put away....maybe I will. They are created with the Yuletide Carol paper packet from Close To My Heart as well as the stamp set that comes along with the Yuletide Carol Workshop On The Go. The stamp set has become one of my very favorites for Christmas creations - a must have in my books!!  The letters are cut from various Cricut Cartridges and "pj's" was stamped with Framework Alphabet ,one of the best alphabet stamps Close To My Heart has had in my opinion!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Please share your "Favorite Holiday" creation with us at H2H!

debi

Favorite Embellishment

This week over at H2H Challenges we are sharing with you our favorite embellishment.  This one was rather difficult for me.  I thought and thought about what IS my favorite embellishment and came to the conclusion I don't have any one particular favorite.  Actually, it appears, I have a favorite for a bit of time and use it on everything then it changes and I'll use something else consistently for a while.  So, I went through my latest projects and determined that at this point in time, my favorite embellishment to use is a sprinkling of bling.

It might be rhinestones, epoxy bubbles or now these great new sequins....or all of the above, somewhere I've been adding a sprinkling of bling to all of my projects.  I like the look of the bling randomly added to the project.  Another trend I noticed on my projects was flowers.  I had a period recently that I did flowers on everything. So my project today combines both.  These flowers were stamped with black archival ink and colored with the ShinHan Markers.  All the stamps used on my project are retired, but there are loads of them in the new Ideabook to color in this manner.

Thanks for stopping in today.  I hope you are inspired to share your favorite embellishment project with us at H2H Challenges.

debi

Favorite Technique

This week over at Heart 2 Heart challenge blog we are sharing our favorite technique.  Anyone who knows me, or follows my blog can pretty much tell you what MY favorite technique is......I'll admit it....I am a distresser!!  In my creative mind a project is not finished unless it has been distressed somewhere!!  I went all out on this weeks project!

There are several distressing techniques on my layout.  Of course tearing the paper and inking the edges is a standard distressing technique. I always ink the edges with 2 colors of ink, Our new Flaxen ink is perfect for distressing,then I edge it off with some Cocoa ink.  On some of the pieces here I added black as a third color for a bit of contrast.  One of my other favorite distressing techniques is the scrunching up of the paper edge that you see on the left side of the layout.

Have you tried this?  Just spritz the edge of your paper with some water (it needs to be good and saturated) then scrunch it up with your fingers until you get the look you are after.  You will need to go back occasionally while its drying and scrunch some more since it relaxes a bit as it dries.  For a really aged look, ink the edges of you paper before you spritz it with water.  The ink will run into the paper that way.  You can go back after it's dry and add some more ink to sharpen the color if you'd like to.



Don't you just love this piece of paper?  It just screamed "Distress me" !!  It's from the Close To My Heart Yuletide Carol collection. I will be ordering up more of this collection before it's gone....love it!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Don't forget to share your Favorite Technique with us at H2H Challenges.  You have until the end of the month to post your projects.

debi

Today's project brought to you by:
Close To My Heart
Yuletide Carol Paper Collection
Yuletide Carol Compliments
Bitty Sparkles
Sparkles Collection
Sparkles Chevron Shapes
Liquid Glass
Click on any item to get yours!!

A movie

A movie - that's what we are inspired by this week at Heart to Heart Challenges.  The theme could inspire different things for different folks.  Recently while I was cruising Pinterest I saw a layout similar to mine that the creator had shared her favorite movie on a layout - what a great idea, right?  Generations from now nobody will really know what your favorite movie was.

My layout reflects my family's all time favorite Christmas movie.  It just isn't Christmas in the household until we've all curled up together for our annual viewing of the Muppet Christmas Carol.
My layout is created with one of our newest collections at Close To My Heart - Yuletide Carol.  It is gorgeous and I can see a lot of projects from this paper in my future.  This is just one piece - wait until you see the back of it....stinkin' cute!!  I added some images from the coordination Complements and some washi tape from my Tim Holtz collection.  A sprinkling of pearls completed the look.
I'm looking forward to seeing your projects inspired by a movie - you have the entire month of August to post your creations.

Thanks for stopping by today!

debi

Inspired by....

This month at Heart To Heart Challenges we are focusing on "Inspired By" challenges.  First up is our month long scrapbook challenge - Inspired by Nature.

I thought about this layout for quite some time before I actually created it. I was laying in bed one night listening to the rain and tons of memories flooded my mind.  That's when I decided I really should make a layout about that experience.  The first challenge was to catch another day that it was raining so I could take the photo of my back patio through the window.....rain days can be few and far between here.
I dug through the scrap drawer for the bits of patterned paper on the layout.  These were from a very long since retired CTMH paper packet for winter - but they fit the layout perfectly.  The drizzled water effect at the top was created with a bit of Liquid Glass.  You can't tell really from the photo, but the entire outer edge of the base page is distressed with grey wool ink - because I distress almost everything!!!

Hope you are inspired to share your Inspired by Nature (with a bit of distressing) project now with us.  You have all month long to create and share!

Thanks for stopping by.

debi

Some like it hot!!

This weeks challenge at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is "Some Like it Hot" a theme that can be interpreted in many ways.  Here in Texas Summer means HOT (although we enjoyed very unseasonable cool weather last week). What a better time to be thinking about the holidays and much cooler weather!  Gives a person a small respite from the heat.

So for my project this week I'd like to share with you a quick little gift mailbox stuffed full of nice "hot" drinks for those cold winter nights.  This came together rather quickly and could be done in a mass production setting for all those people you'd like to give a little something to.  The mailbox is cut from our Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge using slate cardstock and cranberry cardstock for the flag.  The patterned paper is a sneak peak of another new paper packet coming in the Annual Inspirations Ideabook,, as well as the stamped sentiment image and the red bling at the bottom edge.  The pine bough is stamped from the Yuletide Greetings (D1553) stamp set in Juniper ink then colored with the last new product I'm going to tease you with today....have you guessed yet what that product is? (see this post for more information and a chance to win a great prize).  Won't you be glad when the new Ideabook goes live August 1 so I will stop teasing you and you can actually get your hands on these great new products??

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hopefully I've given you a few minutes to imagine being next to a roaring fire sipping some hot goodness and detracted you from the summer swelter!

debi

Up Up and Away!

Welcome to another week of new challenges at Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog!  This week's challenge is Up Up and Away!  Share with us any paper crafting item that features something up in the air.

My layout is created with the Balloon Ride paper packet in the current Close To My Heart ideabook.  This paper is one of my most favorite in the ideabook...sadly July is the final month you can order this so hop on over to my website and get some before it's too late!! (I will most certainly be ordering more before month's end).
I fussy cut the balloon images out of one piece of paper mounted them on thin chipboard then used a pop dot to add some depth to feature them on my layout.  The base is just a piece of cardboard I cut from a box then pulled the top layer off to get the core to show....here's a hint-spritzing the cardboard with a fine mist of water makes the tearing much easier and more distressy.  The swirls were cut from the Artiste cricut cartridge and then I added various sparkles and pearls to give my layout a shabby chic look.  The flowers came from the stash....lots of flower stash in my studio!!  This layout will find it's home in my office...I'll drop it in a shadow box for displaying but that will have to wait until next month (another new ideabook hint)
Thanks for stopping by today!

debi

Red and White

I am so excited to share with everyone that I have been appointed to the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog's design team for the rest of 2014!  It's always fun to share my creations with everyone and I'm looking forward to inspiring you with the challenges over the next 6 months!
The first challenge I'm sharing with you is our month long Scrapbook challenge.  Red and white daisy is the challenge.  This can be any scrapbooking item...layout, home decor, anything but there's a bit more....you must include some bling (sparkles, shimmer tape, rhinestones, etc) and sewing (real or faux) to your project.....you can add some blue (being July and our countries birthday) or any other neutral color.  Here's my inspiration to spark your creativity:

Several years ago the Close To My Heart convention was right here in Dallas...and of course our theme was cowboy.....we had so much fun at our team meeting taking everyone's photo with the oversized hat and mustache mask!!  Lots of sheriffs were in attendance that night!!  The patterned paper in my layout was retrieved from the scrap drawer and is from a long since retired packet.  Each star was stamped from yet another retired set then folded along the points and adhered to the page with a pop dot for a bit of depth.  For sparkle I added a single bitty sparkle in the middle of each star.  For the sewing requirement, I used some waxy flax to create the barbed wire border along the bottom by stitching it in place then tieing a tiny bit around it to create the barbs.
Now it's your turn!  Share your red and white creations with us here....be sure to tell us what products you used and any special techniques!  Can't wait to see what you create!!

debi