Monday, April 26, 2021

Whisking You A Happy Day

I had so much fun making my card for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. Let's take a look. 


I love this little Gnome Chef. Okay, you've got me, I am very partial to Gnomes, period. (Help from the grammar police, please - do you use a period after you say period?)  I thought the sentiment would be cute if I made it look like a chalk board. I'm going for that café feel where they write the daily menu on a chalk board. Then instead of just adding the chef to the card, I wanted to make a cluster of him with his utensils.  So cute, right?  I added a bit of shimmer brush to the whisk and red liquid pearls to the heart.



Here is the sketch that inspired me. 


What does this sketch suggest to you? "Whisk" something up and add it to the challenge!  We love it when you play along! 

Here is a list of the Close To My Heart products I used making this card. Check out those Gnome stamps - they are on sale through the rest of April!  I appreciate you shopping with me! 


Z3931 - Kitchen Gnomes with Thin Cuts (D2010 without Thin Cuts)
Z3686 - Stitched Fancy Brackets Thin Cuts


X9026 - Mix-ins (Mar-Apr)
1385 - White Daisy Cardstock
X5958 - Peacock Cardstock 


Z2805 - Black Exclusive Inks Stamp pad
Z891 - VersaMark Ink Pad
Z2068 - White Super Fine Embossing Powder


Z3293 - Clear Shimmer Brush 
Z3799 - Carnation Red Liquid Pearls
Z2474 - Ice Grey TriBlend Marker
Z2476 - Fair Skin TriBlend Marker


Z2477 - Tan TriBlend Marker
Z2478 - Earth Brown TriBlend Marker
Z2488 - Green Turquoise TriBlend Marker
Z2489 - Blue Turquoise TriBlend Marker


Z3372 - Adhesive Runner
Z2060 - Thin 3-D Foam Tape
X254 - White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack 


Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Spring is for Cherry Blossoms

 Welcome to my version of Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge number 416. I hope you have been following us and playing along. Nothing inspires me more than a good sketch and viewing all the possibilities that it inspires!  

This time I am following the sketch pretty closely.  I chose one of our current stamps, Cherry Blossoms because I love everything about this stamp and the sentiments. I also chose to do a monochromatic card.  Let's take a look. 


Why don't you play along today?  Tell them Betsy sent you.  Here is the sketch:

I really like the simplicity of this sketch and the nice clean style.  However, when I made my card I kept thinking it needed something. Just a little something more, you know?  

So I thought about how when cherry blossom time rolls around it always seems to be snowing as the little flower petals break free and float away on the breeze.  

In my infinite wisdom I thought, "I know! I'll add some liquid pearls!"  And just so you know, this is how my new section called Betsy's Bloopers got it start.

So here is the same card with liquid pearls.  I dare say I went a little overboard, got carried away, used just a tad too much.  😂



Remember this old rule, kiddos?  "When you think you are done remove one thing." Okay crafters, someone tell me the correct way to remove liquid pearls, please.  Lucky for me, this was an easy card to create.  Let me show you what I used, links included to my shopping site. All linked products are available at the time of this post. 


C1889 Cherry Blossoms Stamp Set (stamps are on sale through April 30, 2021!)
Z2896 Smoothie Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
X6044 Peach Cardstock

The Peach plaid paper was from a retired Mix-ins paper pack.



Z3791 White Opal Liquid Pearls 
Z726 Sponge Daubers (Z1938 for a value pack of 12)
Z4187 Stitched Oval Thin Cuts 

I used a dauber to apply ink to my stamps. The Smoothie ink is a nice dark color but I wanted something just a little lighter, that would work with the Peach papers. Peach ink was too light. By daubering (I'm making up words now, forgive me?) on the Smoothie ink it was a lighter coverage than inking directly from the pad. Give it a try sometime when you find something just a bit too dark. 



Z3372 Adhesive Runner
Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape
X254 White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack