I Did It!

serendipity
I entered Close to My Heart's "Heart of Winter Serendipity" contest! (You can click on the picture to get a larger one.) I have been anguishing over this for more than a month now. The basic layout came fairly easily, that is the swirls (which follow the stitching lines printed on the paper) and the circle with dots (which is an enlargement of the ones on the paper). The hard part was figuring out how to embellish the flowers.

The paper pack came with some textured cardstock and three extra pieces that were die cut with flowers in three sizes, one sheet each of Dutch Blue, Bamboo and Chocolate. The neat thing about CTMH's textured cardstock that I hadn't realized until this set is that each piece has a lighter color on the back. So the Bamboo is Colonial White on the back (the middle flower), and on the back of the Dutch Blue is a lighter blue (both blue flowers). This set also came with a stamp set, sized to match the flower petals. The middle and lower flowers are stamped with elements from that set.
The light blue flower is stamped with a flourish from Playful Petals (I wanted a stamp that would be pretty but still let the light blue color shine through) in Dutch Blue. The center of that flower is a small die-cut flower (reverse of Bamboo) and the circle is punched from a different piece of Serendipity paper. The ring of dots is also from the stamp set. The middle flower is layered with the three sizes of die-cut Bamboo textured flowers, alternated sides to alternate colors, and stamped with Chocolate ink. The center flower is stamped on the back and cut out to show the other side and finished with a Chocolate Bigger Brad. The last blue flower is also a light blue one stamped with a Serendipity stamp in Dutch Blue. The center is the reverse of a Bamboo circle, then a light blue circle stamped with a center design, again from Serendipity. The ring of dots is a different-sized one from Serendipity (boy, I'm getting good at typing that word), stamped in VersaMark and embossed with white powder, then inked again with VersaMark, chalked with Star-Spangled Blue chalk (a shade of Dutch Blue), and that rubbed away with a tissue to leave just a hint of color (the white was too stark).

Thank you to Jeanne for suggesting the title. It's stamped in Chocolate with the Tiny Typewriter set. The "stitching" is Simple Stitches in Dutch Blue, Bamboo and Chocolate. I used the Chocolate marker for the journaling.

I've ignored my laundry for too long, the kitchen is still a mess and the usual gang is coming over to play "Magic: the Gathering" tonight (a collectible card game that keeps us up 'til 2am most of the time). In short, I've wasted too much time on the computer today. But I did want to post my gutsy success!

A Couple of Cards

This first card is one I made for my sister's son's first birthday. He's the first nephew I've had the privilege to know, as some bad circumstances resulted in the loss of life and custody of my other two (my husband's brother's sons). In short, it's weird to write "Aunt Becky" and "nephew" since I'm just not used it!

The card uses ink colors of Buttercup, Sweet Leaf, Twilight and Chocolate (a combo found in the new catalog) and cardstock of the first three colors. The stamp sets are Happy Birthday, Sweet Occasions (retired) and Solos 1, S and T (the combined "st" in the Solos 1 set was too small). The inside with his name is the E-set Boutique. (As a side note, I love that they just released a number set to match!)

This last card is one I made for my friend and new CTMH consultant (as my previous one has recently quit the company). In fact, if I remember correctly, her birthday is today! Happy Birthday Felicia! The stamp sets are: the special release of Serendipity (flower petals and center) and the leaves are from last January's special release, Promise of Spring, and Happy Birthday. Colors are Twilight (again), Garden Green, Orchid Bouquet and Vanilla Cream (another combo found in CTMH's Idea Book and Catalog). The larger middle circle is a second-generation stamped circle because the cardstock just didn't match the ink color, in my opinion. The brads are from my stash and are not CTMH, but I can't remember where I found them. It may have been eyeletoutlet.com, because they are different from the Spare Parts brads I usually get at Hobby Lobby.

Christmas Thank You Cards

These are two cards I made to send as thank-you notes. They are "scraplifted" from Kathi Carlson's blog of mid-December. She says that she got the design from a magazine. The first card is the "original" design, although I didn't have wire for the "hangers" so it's drawn with a silver pen instead. The second card is a variation of the first, since I ran out of the larger CTMH spiral clips and only had somebody else's smaller ones. I kind of like it better because there are five (the designer-friendly odd number) ornaments instead of four. It also left more room at the bottom, so I could stretch the sentiment all the way across instead of cram it in at the bottom. Looking at it again, it seems I put that long "thank you" on crooked! Oh, well! The perfectionist in me is crying out in horror, but the mailman can't fix it for me.