A crop party is a modern quilting bee. A group of friends gather to have girl friend time, sharing joys and sorrows while preserving memories and creating a special keepsake.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Freshly Made Snow





Tomorrow night we are supposed to get our first snow of the season.  (That third of an inch that melted by 10:00 in the morning we got a few weeks ago doesn't count.)  They are calling for six to eight inches which in these parts is considered serious snow, so you know where I will be tomorrow morning.




My Yankee readers can stop laughing now.  In honor of the pending snow and because I am trying to get a head start on Christmas, I used a snowflake theme for this week's Freshly Made Sketch:





I started by using Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut the snowflake (page 27), used Versamark to stamp it with the snowflake from the Frosted cardmaking workshop, and heat embossed it with clear detail powder.  Normally when I do resist embossing I use a sponge to dab on ink.  This time I used a sponge dauber to rub on Whisper and Crystal Blue inks to get a softer effect.  To complete the snowflake element I sponged the edges with Silver metallic ink by Color Box and embellished with a small circle cut from glitter paper using a hole punch and a blue sparkle.  The sentiment is from the "To You and Yours" stamp set.  Both the snowflake and the sentiment are popped up with foam tape.





I used a snowflake folder by Darice to emboss the center panel and embellished a few of the flakes with grey bitty sparkles.  My stitch guide made it easy to pierce the border evenly and in a straight line.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now I am going to finish my grocery list.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted: 
Paper:  Frosted (retired), Frosted Blue (retired) and White Daisy cardstock, Silver glitter paper
Ink:  Whisper, Crystal Blue, and Slate along with Silver metallic ink by Color Box
Stamps:  Frosted cardmaking workshop (retired), To You and Yours 
Embellishments:  Blue Sparkle (retired, but you can use a ShinHan marker to color a clear one), Grey bitty sparkles
Other:  Snowflake embossing folder by Darice, Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

Iris Folded Hearts




I can finally post my valentines!  You see, it has come to my attention that my darling husband reads my blog.  Of course I am flattered but this does make posting cards I have made for him somewhat problematic...

This week the ladies over at Heart 2 Heart want to see a Close to My Heart product that we love. Hmmmm.  What do I love most about CTMH?  The sparkles?  The ShinHan markers that allow me to have sparkles in many colors?  Thinking back to my introduction to CTMH, the thing that attracted me immediately was the paper.  I love all the layers of color and pattern.  I have been wanting to try iris folding, which is a cool technique where you place folded strips of paper across the back side of a cut out shape so that the design spirals into the center leaving an opening in the middle that is reminiscent of the iris of a camera lens.  Here is a link to a more detailed description and tutorial.  The heart pattern that I used can be found here.  First I made a practice card which my husband and I gave to our daughter:




I used a very old paper, Sweetheart, and this Sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday:




I like how the plaid pattern swirled almost looks like marble.  To finish the card I used one of the zip strips from Heartstrings which is available through the end of March.  That is another cool thing about CTMH's paper:  Each background and texture paper has a ready to go border along the edge.  I rounded the corners and had a sweet CAS card that reminds me of a Picture My Life card.  Now that I had mastered an iris fold heart it was time for the main project, my husband's valentine:




For the background I selected one of my all time favorite papers, For Always.  I love the vintage look and all the texture.  Although it has been retired as a paper, it lives on in a Picture My Life card pack, so I know I have a fall back when I use up my stash.  For the iris folding I used a metallic paper that has been in my stash for so long that I don't remember where I got it.  The roses take advantage of something else I like about CTMH's paper, the white core.  After I cut the roses out of Champagne cardstock using the Artisite Cricut cartridge (F key, accent 2), I exposed the white core by using a file to remove the color from the edges of the petals.  Then I sponged some Blush ink along the inside edge of the spiral before rolling it up using one of my favorite tools, the quilling tool.  Before I got it I used to roll flowers using a knitting needle which did not roll nearly as smoothly.







If I had been making a flower using a dark color and wanted to edge the petals in another color I could have sanded the petals to expose the white core and colored the edge with ink like I did  here:




After stamping the sentiment I used a border punch from ek success to punch one scallop's worth of the pattern on each end and then added narrow strips of the metallic paper along the edge and tan bitty opaques in the center of each flourish.  I attached a bow, sparkle flourish (because y'all know I love sparkles), and more tan opaques in the center of each flower and was almost finished.  The completed iris folding on this card was bulkier than on the first card, so the layer would not lie flat. To solve that problem I used lots of foam tape to attach it to the card.  The layout is based on this Atlantic Hearts Sketch:



I had a lot of fun with iris folding which means you will be seeing more of it from me in the future.  In the mean time, thank you for stopping by!  Now how about visiting Heart to Heart, Atlantic Hearts and Try Stamping on Tuesday for some more inspiration?  Maybe you could even enter one or more of the challenges yourself.  I would love to see your work!  Until next time, Hansi


Monday, February 9, 2015

A Freshly Made Heart





It's February, the month of Valentine's Day, so it comes as no surprise that the theme of the first Heart 2 Heart Challenge of the month is "Home is Where the Heart Is."  I have to admit that I followed this Freshly Made Sketch pretty closely, but what can I say?  I need a few Valentines to enclose in my college care packages.




I started by cutting a heart using Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and some strips from Snowhaven.  I applied adhesive to the heart, laid down the strips including a bit of black glitter paper for good measure, flipped over the heart, and cut away the excess.  I planned to add some black sparkles to the centers of the flowers except that I did not have enough, so I used a black ShinHan marker to color some clear bitty sparkles and used those instead.  I ran a sponge with black ink along the very edge of the heart and the polka dot strip with black to help them stand out.  Black hemp, red enamel hearts, and a sentiment from the Holiday Tags stamp set complete the card.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't you check out Freshly Made Sketches and Heart 2 Heart Challenges for some more inspiration?  You have until the end of the month to enter any of the February Heart 2 Heart challenges.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Snowhaven, black glitter paper, black, red, and white daisy cardsstock, black glitter paper
Ink:  Black with black ShinHan marker
Stamp:  Holiday Tags
Embellishments:  red enamel hearts, bitty sparkles, black hemp (retired)


Sunday, February 1, 2015

Heart 2 Heart Birthday Color



One last card just under the wire for the Heart 2 Heart January challenges:  For this challenge you are assigned a color based on your birth month.  My birthday is in March which means I made a card featuring Thistle, one of Close to My heart's new colors.  I need a sympathy card for a friend from my church, so it was a no brainer for me to go to the "Look to the Light" stamp set for a comforting Bible verse and my favorite stamp, the butterfly from the retired "Find Your Style" set.  I inked it up with Thistle and Whisper using sponger daubers and after cutting out the image sponged a little black along the edges of the wing.  I embellished with black sparkles and CTMH's new White shimmer trim.

I used this Freshly Made Sketch for the layout:



Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi