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.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Happy Birthday Page with Heart





For at least twenty years the only place my daughter has wanted to celebrate her birthday has been at Kabutos, a Japanese style restaurant where they cook at the table.  Until she was diagnosed with Celiac we would purchase the birthday package where they delivered, with great flourish, a decorated piece of cheesecake, sang happy birthday, and took a picture.  Now we have cake at home and ask them to take a picture with our camera, or in this case because I forgot it, my phone.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to make at least one scrapbook page a month, so using this layout by Kim Broedelet that I found on Pinterest, I made one featuring this year's Kabutos picture.  

Now one of the Heart 2 Heart challenges for January is "By the Number" which should be no big deal since we all date our scrapbook pages.  Right?  In the spirit of the challenge I decided that rather than bury the date at the end of my journaling, I would make the date and her age a little more prominent.

First of all I have to say that I absolutely love Close to My Heart's new Charlotte paper, so you may be seeing a lot of it from me.  I cut the picture mat (page 66) and numbers using the Artbooking Cricut cartridge and the ticket (page 25) and banner (page 49) with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The Artbooking cartridge is designed to cut everything on a given key in proportion to fit a specified page size, so I had to make some adjustments.  In this case, the picture mat I wanted to use is sized for a 4x6 photo on a full 12x12 page when you set the dial at 11 inches.  Because I cropped the picture to 3x4.5 (three quarters of the original size), I multiplied the specified dial size by .75 to determine what dial size (8.66) to use.  Does this make sense?  The numbers were cut using real dial size which overrides the "cut in proportion to the page" feature and cuts at the dial size you select.  Much easier, no math!

You may wonder why I did the corners like I did.  You see, my handwriting is so bad that people often tell me they can't read it which makes me so nervous as I write that I make mistakes which makes the situation even worse.  For this reason I prefer to do my journaling on a computer.  I wanted to have the journaling go around the perimeter of the page, so I needed a way to hide the seams created by the strips of paper.  I think the black of the journaling around the edges adds an extra pop to complement the B&T paper.  Here is a "before" picture for comparison.



By the way, sharp eyes may notice that two of the squares are from Nervermore, a Halloween themed paper which has way more possibilities than just that one holiday.  I used the Charlotte accompaniments to embellish the page along with some black bitty sparkles in the centers of the flowers.

My scrapbooking resolution has been met for January, although I am working on a layout for Heart 2 Heart's "One" challenge that I hope to post this weekend.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Charlotte, Nevermore (retired), Whisper, Black, and White Daisy cardstock
Ink:  Champagne and Black plus a Black ShinHan marker
Stamps:  You Mean the World to Me (retired), Cherish the Day (retired)
Embellishments:  Charlotte Accompaniments, Bitty sparkles, Whisper thick twine
Other:  Art Booking and Art Philosophy Cricut cartridges

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Frozen Heart 2 Heart Challenge




The theme of one of Heart 2 Heart's January challenges is Frozen which pretty much describes what has been on the ground around here since Friday.  The good news is that the temperature has been above freezing since Monday.  The bad news is that it takes a while to melt 15 inches of snow.  To put it in perspective, four inches brings Richmond, Virginia to a stand still, but it could be worse.  Northern Virginia got 30 inches!  In honor of all the snow I made this Christmas card featuring this adorable ice skating penguin.  Am I the only one who thinks he looks like he is pooping snowflakes?  I stamped him with black pigment ink and embossed him with clear detail powder before coloring him with a ShinHan alcohol marker.  To give him some sparkle, I added a few drops of red Stickles.  I cut strips of paper from Close to My Heart's retired Snowhaven paper to create the bottom half of the card and popped up the panel with thin foam tape so the baker's twine could pass under it without leaving a bump.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't you check out some more creations over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges?  You have until the 31st to enter any of the January challenges.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Snowhaven (retired), White Daisy and Black cardstock
Ink:  Black pigment ink, Carmine ShinHan marker
Stamps:  Warm Wishes (retired), A Very Merry Christmas (retired)
Embellishments:  Red Stickles, red baker's twine, Clear detail embossing powder

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Birthday Card for My Daughter



Yes, this is a birthday card for a girl.  My daughter has never met a sport she doesn't like, but baseball is her first love. This make her the perfect child for my husband, the sports addict.  Every year Santa Claus brings her season tickets to the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the double A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants,so the two of them spend the summer at the Diamond enjoying father daughter bonding time.  It makes perfect sense that I would made her a Squirrels themed card.  I started by printing their logo on photo paper and cutting it out.  The baseball was made with a circle punch on which I hand drew the stitching.  I made the stripes by cutting strips of Snowhaven Paper, a winter themed paper.  Never let yourself be limited by what a product is designed for!  The layout is based on this sketch from Sunday Stamps:




Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't you head over to Sunday Stamps to see what others have done with this sketch and maybe enter your self?  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Snowhaven (retired), Cranberry, Whisper, and White Daisy cardstock, glossy photo paper
Ink:  Cranberry, Carmine ShinHan marker
Stamp:  Say It in Style (retired)

Sunday, January 10, 2016

A Milestone Birthday




I made this birthday card for my husband using this Atlantic Hearts sketch:




It doesn't show well in the photo that the bubbles are gold metallic paper and the "foil" on the bottle gold embossing powder.  Here is the inside:



I will have to come back later to tell you more about this card as Downton Abbey awaits.  Until then, Hansi