Sneak Peeks & Teases!

Well it's summertime and I haven't blogged for a while.  

Shame!

Shame on me!

But being summer it also means that I've attended another Close To My Heart convention and I'm full of news about the upcoming catalog & great new ideas!  

But I can't tell you. 

Why?  

Because the catalog doesn't go live until September 1, 2018. 

If that seems like a long way off, I agree, but that time will fly by -trust me!  In the mean time I'm going to show you a little peek of a project we made at convention.  This is a brand new product that teams up Close To My Heart with Stacy Julian! 

{{{SQUEAL!}}}

I was so lucky to be asked to help with her presentation at convention so was able, with a handful of other consultants, to be coached by her in a Facebook Live session.  How do I express how exciting that was?  

Okay - here is your sneak peek

View #1

View #2

What do you think the amazing team of Close To My Heart and Stacy Julian has brought us now?

Stay tuned because I will tease show you more in the "between" time.  In the meantime, my website is still open for business and we have some awesome specials!  This month is Stampaganza! Buy two stamp sets at the retail value and get a third set of equal or lesser value for free ...and we brought back our fun "solos" stamp sets just for this event!  Check it all out on my web site. 

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Betsy's Paper Boutique or join my VIP Group Betsy's Paper Craft Room

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Happy New Year and welcome to 2018. Did 2017 just fly by or what? 

Here in Kentucky the mercury dropped to -3 degrees last night.  That's Fahrenheit! Brrrr!! I haven't dared venture outside but the temp and the little bits of snow we have left have inspired my contribution for the Design Team in this week's sketch challenge. 

I had a lot of fun with this card.  I went back to the old days of random stamping for the background. Sometimes I forget how much fun those "old" techniques are!  

I tilted the grid that is the focal point because - well, snowflake!

I love my thin cuts and particularly this snowflake done with glitter paper.  You may remember it from my last post.  

I also used my tiny 1/16th inch hole punch and made use of my glitter paper scraps. I just hate not using every bit of my glitter paper!  You can see I scattered them around on the stamped snowflakes to add a glint of sparkle to the back ground. 

Here is the Atlantic Hearts Sketch for this week.  I'd love to see how it inspires you.  Go to the AHSC blog for full details. 

I feel I need to apologize for the quality of my photos. It's much harder to get good lighting in the winter and unfortunately Santa did not bring me the light box I pinned for him to see.  I guess I have to work harder at being good!

Christmassy Sketch Challenge

I've been playing around with some of my older Christmas papers and came up with this card for my Sketch Challenge Design. 

AHSC #241

What I love about these older papers is the Sea Glass color in the background paper and the glitter papers. One of my favorite colors.  

But I couldn't decide which background paper to use, so I did three cards. You tell me which one is your favorite?

Are you participating in this weeks challenge?  Check it out here and please add your artwork to the pot!  

The Sketch:

Poinsettia Love

I won't lie and tell you that Poinsettias are my favorite flowers. They are not. Yet I do love my Poinsettias at Christmas time!

This little card is made with Poinsettias from the Close to my Heart Flower Market Cricut Cartridge. This is my offering for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

Poinsettia Love

This was very fun to make using shimmer trim for the stripes on the left side. Here is the sketch:

AHSC Week of 11-6

I hope you'll play along with us and share the art this sketch has inspired in you.  Find the directions the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog.  Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to see your art soon!

Cats & Bats Shaker Card

It's Halloween at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge - for me anyway.   

Here is the sketch we are designing with this week:

I love this one!  You can get all the details of how to play along on the AHSC blog here.  The design team creations will be posted Wednesday so you can check out what we've all done! 

As mentioned, I decided on a Halloween themed card.  I thought the sketch lent itself to a shaker card, so that's what I did.

Close to my Heart - Cats & Bats

Apparently I decided to give up all my confetti a while back so I created my own with my Cricut. 

I created another card with this sketch using a fall theme:

Close to my Heart
Happy Day Card Making Kit

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you will play along with the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenges.

Bashfully Sympathetic

Bringing you some inspiration with our new Color of the Year, Bashful.  This card is inspired by the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #231.  Here is the sketch.

A friend mine just lost her husband to cancer and I wanted to send her something with soft muted colors.

Sympathy Card

When I was done with the card I wasn't happy with so much white around the focal point so I used a small rose stamp from the set and created a soft lacy effect all around the edges. 

Lacy Border Effect 

Now go, find your inspiration on the AHSC blog and play along!  It's so much fun!

All products by Close to my Heart:

Z3375 - For You Darling - Acrylix stamps w/ Thin Cuts
Z3369 - Bashful Pearls
X5941 - Bashful Dual Sided Cardstock
Z2819 - Bashful Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z2832 - Pewter Exclusive Inks stamp pad
X254 - White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack

A Spooky Boo!

Time for another episode of Atlantic Heart Sketch Challenge.  Here is the Sketch for this week, September 11th.

Check out how to play along and be inspired on the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog.  You can add your creation through Sunday so you still have lots of time to create.

I pretty much followed the sketch very literally this week.  I created two cards to share with you.  The first is Halloween inspired.

Cats & Bats

Cats & Bats inside

I wasn't able to adequately photo the paper behind the spider.  The web is lightly sponged then brushed with a clear shimmer pen and the web accentuated with liquid glass. It's quite fabulous in person. 😁 I stamped a big BOOO! for the inside and colored in with my ShinHan markers for a nice monochromatic card.

Falling for You

My Thank You card was stamped in Nutmeg and colored in with my ShinHan markers. I chose an assortment of fall colors and added coordinating sequins in a solid line. I love how that turned out as I usually only scatter sequins.  It's fun to try "new" things and change it up. 

Thanks for stopping by!