H2H - Polka Dots & Stripes

This week at Heart 2 Heart we're playing with polka dots & stripes.  My first thought was the Dotty For You paper pack - of course!  I took a moment to look at the inspiration projects, and found the inspiration for a Mother's Day card.

This is the specific item I based my creation on: 

I liked the circles on the layout and how the title worked with it.  So I pulled out my 1.25" circle punch and used it to punch out pieces of patterned paper.  Then I had the Cricut crank out a bunch of 1.5" Colonial white circles.

I spent FOREVER laying out the circles to get them to look just the way I wanted them to.  It was a lot trickier than I expected!  Some arrangements just did *not* look right.

To embellish I used a few brads & buttons and a pair of flowers.

I really like the original inspiration layout, and might give that a try sometime, too.  At least I won't have to mess around with the circles again - Close To My Heart has them perfectly arranged and it would be easy enough just to duplicate what they did.

A little dotty, a little stripey...hope you enjoy it!

365 Cards - Day 77 White Space Challenge

I found a new challenge blog which is really ambitious - a new challenge every day!  It's 365 Cards.  The card I created is based on the White Space Challenge, which is basically to keep all decorations on one half of your card.  I've been in a "Clean and Simple" mood lately, so this appealed to me.  Here's my design:

I think I might make a bunch of these up to give as a Teacher Gift this year.  The whole design started from me playing around with Close To My Heart's 1.25" Circle Punch.  I realized you could make a cute apple.

To make the apple, punch two circles - one red (Tulip) and one green (Clover Meadow).  Then use the punch on the red circle to take the "bite" out of the apple.  Punch the green circle a second time to make the leaf.  Then cut a small strip of green to be the stem and that's it.  I mounted my apple on top of a 2" Black scallop cut-out.  

The stamped images came from the Classmate Alphabet Stamp Set.  Thanks for stopping by!

Paper Lanterns Card

This week at H2H is a sketch challenge.  This is the sketch, and my creation:

I've been itching to use the new Paper Lanterns stamp set, and decided to use this as my opportunity.  I stamped the red lantern a few times and then punched it out using the 1.25" circle punch (which was a perfect match!).  Then I stamped the back side, folded the image to find the center line, and cut slits halfway up, so I could create my "3D" lantern.

It's a little hard to tell, but I stamped the tassle on white cardstock and then cut it out.  I cut in between the fringe, so it has a little 3D touch to it, too.

The border on the top and the bottom is from the A Little Everything stamp set.  The papers and ink are Dutch Blue, Tulip, Sunflower, and Black.  You can't tell from the photo, but the cluster of three small circles is made up of Sparkles from the Red, Pink, Purple Assortment.  

Layout Recipe Challenge & Flip Flaps

This week's Lasting Memories Layout Challenge is a recipe challenge:  (1) die cut,  (2) brads, and (3) layers.  Here's my humble contribution:

You have to look closely to find the brads.  I placed them on the chipboard circle to draw attention to the photo.

On the right hand page I was able to incorporate one of my all-time favorite products...Flip Flaps!

I had a lot of pictures and didn't have the heart to leave any of them out! Flip flaps to the rescue!  I also got to use my new 1.25" circle punch. I punched circles out, folded them in half, cut along the fold, and then used them to create the border you see at the top of the layout. I really like the chipboard accents, too. I love that you can ink them up to match whatever color scheme you're using. And look at that...another layout done! I'm on a roll! :)