Heart2Heart Challenges: Something To Smile About

 This week's Heart2Heart challenge could be interpreted in so many fun, cheerful ways!  I decided to share a layout of a really fun afternoon with friends.

The Timber collection paired very well with photos from a post-Christmas skate party in 2018.  The teens are all high school friends, and the Busses made this family skate party possible.

I embellished my layout with a New England Ivy CTMH/Cricut Christmas tree and gold stickles, shimmer trim, and glitter gems.

The title uses the Simply Said alphabet stamp set in Ruby and New England Ivy.  What do you think of my stickles stars?

Be sure to check out all of the design inspiration on the H2H challenge blog!  You have until the end of the month to join any of our August challenges.

Heart2Heart Challenges: Walk on the Wild Side

Today is my first day back at school (more on that later), so I will REALLY be taking a walk on the wild side with 20 fifth graders in class face-to-face and 3 online learners!  I'm sure my first day photos will appear on the blog later this month (or this year at the rate things are going...) 

For this week's Heart2Heart Challenges theme, I knew that I had to use the You Make Me Happy Operation Smile stamp set and the Timber collection (both only available through the end of this month).

The first card uses a simple wood grain panel, the green and blue plaid with the New England Ivy tree pattern for the scalloped circle (Thin Cuts).  That little sliver is gold shimmer trim that I cut down with my paper trimmer.  After stamping the fox with Espresso ink, I used my watercolor pencils (without water) to color it.  A few little gold glitter gems finished it off.

My second card uses the cool square window pane Thin Cuts die cut.  Because I designed this for a class and was cutting multiple window panes, I used several different patterns then pieced them together in the windows.  The sentiment is also from the You Make Me Happy stamp set.

Be sure to "walk on the wild side" with H2H until the end of the month!

Use Your Scraps Technique Blog Hop

Every paper crafter ends up with scraps, and this month the technique blog hop is highlighting ideas for using up those mismatched pieces. (If you're already hopping then you've probably arrived from Lauren's blog.  From here, you'll visit Darlys next.)

My first card is one that I made for my husband's birthday last month.  Each strip (from the Timber collection) is 3/4" wide.  I made a herringbone-esque pattern with the strips on a French Vanilla panel, stamped Happy Birthday from Say It In Style with Espresso ink, embellished with some tiny wooden arrows, and finally mounted this piece onto a Ruby cardstock card front.

This second card was actually featured on last month's technique blog hop, the Pretty of Paper-Piecing, and was made entirely from scraps.  (Read more HERE if you're interested or happened to miss that hop.)

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love a comment before you continue along the hop to the talented Darlys's blog next.

More August Stamp of the Month Cards

 The August stamp of the month, Floral Celebrations, is one of my faves!  I had fun teaching these two cards in my recent Facebook Live card class.

The first card features random stamping in the color combo of Glacier, Thistle, and Peacock.  I stamped the sentiment in black, and then added black dots with a journaling pen and a few black enamel dots.  (Thanks to Melinda Everitt's inspiration for this card!)

The second card is another copycat, this time from the CTMH Make It From Your Heart blog.  I used Saffron, black, and white.  The gold journaling marker was a great match for the flower centers!

Remember that this pretty set is only available through the end of this month.

August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: Floral Celebration

Close To My Heart has a pretty floral set for August's stamp of the month, called Floral Celebrations.  Join me and fellow consultants on this hop featuring this set.  (If you're already hopping, you've probably arrived from Colleen's blog.  From here, you'll click on her name to go to Krista's blog next.)

Since we have eight colors retiring this month, I wanted to pair some of them with this fun stamp set.  (The retiring colors are the color of the year, Julep, and Ruby, Pixie, Thistle, Eggplant, Sweet Leaf, Saffron, and Goldrush.)  All of my cards use different sketches from Make It From Your Heart, Vol. 4.

My first card features retiring Pixie, paired with Sweet Leaf (also retiring) and Pewter (as suggested in the Love of Color guidebook).  I random stamped the White Daisy panel with Pixie and fussy cut the big Pixie flower.  I added Pink Taffeta stickles and white enamel dots to finish this card.

For my second card, I random stamped the background flower in retiring Saffron and the leaves in first and second generation Fern.  For the pretty central "sunflower", I stamped and fussy cut the flower in Saffron and then stamped the flower in Espresso and then fussy cut the center only.  The patterned paper is from the current Mix In paper pack.  I used New England Ivy for the stem and leaves on the banner and then added a simple white ribbon bow to finish this card.  Not only was the color comb inspired by Love of Color, but this same sketch is featured on the Saffron pages.

The third card is a fun, funky one!  I random stamped the background with retiring Thistle, Nectarine, Peacock, and Glacier (another Love of Color combo).  I used White Daisy & Thistle card stock, the Glacier gingham from the Mix In pack, and the Nectarine stripe from the Summer Vibes collection.  A few more white enamel dots finished this off.

My final card uses the Timber collection (retiring Ruby, Sapphire, and New England Ivy).  I knew that I wanted to use that big, fun outline stamp with some of our threads (gold and Sapphire).  To help the center mat pop off the plaid background, I scissor-distressed the edges.  I added gold stickles to the flower centers.

Isn't this a pretty set?  I used most but not all of the stamps on my cards.  I'm looking forward to making lots more this month with this great set.  I hope I've been able to inspire you with my cards.  Please leave a comment before hopping on to Krista's blog next!

{Click HERE for all the hop participants and their blogs.}