I’m pleased to announce that I’m back with Heart 2 Heart Challenges as a Design Team Member.  I probably have no business taking on any other responsibilities, but there’s something about commitments and deadlines that drives me…motivates me…forces me to take the time to create. Otherwise, all of those other responsibilities take over and I push crafting to the back-burner and then the blues start to creep in.  Creativity is truly therapy for me. What about you? What do you do to keep “sane”?


Whether you create as a form of therapy or you create simply for the pleasure of it, I hope you will join us over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog for this week’s challenge. We are divided into two teams (A & B) and each team will post art work every other week. (The names of all 12 design team members, and their blog links, can be found in the side bar.) This week is team B’s turn (the team I’m on) and our challenge is called “In Stitches”.  


One of the great things about the H2H challenges is that they are almost always open to interpretation. What do you think of when you read “In Stitches”? Is it a needle and thread? What about a layout of a child who required stitches or everyone laughing? Or maybe it’s something completely different.  


Well, I recently worked on a layout that involved zig zag hand stitching. The hours working on it turned into days…literally! I estimated over 2300 holes were pierced and nearly 2000 stitches were made (not counting the under-stitch)…again, by hand. My fingers were so sore and I can’t tell you how many times I drew blood. (It was definitely one of those projects where the thought “What was I thinking?” kicks in, but only after I was so deep into it that I just couldn’t throw in the towel.) So when this challenge was presented, I thought, “I have no interest in ever stitching another piece of paper with a needle and thread. EVER!” LOL  So I chose to just create what I’ll call semi-faux stitching. I say “semi” because with our white core cardstock, you can create real faux stitching (now THAT’S an oxymoron…hee hee), by dry embossing a line, sanding the line so that the white core shows through, then piercing holes along the line, like shown here or here. With this project, I skipped the embossing and sanding and just poked the holes using our stitching ruler and piercing tool. (By the way, our ruler and our stitching guide (and foam mat) will be retiring at the end of the month, so if you want either one of these items, be sure to order yours before they’re gone.) 

The stamp set “Happy to Be Friends” and the paper pack “Rustic Home” is retiring this month also.

I love happy accidents. Because alcohol markers bleed through, I noticed that the “back” side of the flower was a lighter version of the colored side. So I chose to use the lighter side for two of the blue flowers.  As you can see above, the middle blue flower is darker than the two blue flowers on the sides. The darker blue is the side that I colored with the alcohol marker. The lighter blue flowers are the back side of the darker blue.  Fun fact: CTMH has already released the new double-sided cardstock, which was revealed at Convention. It was supposed to go live to customers on August 1st, but it’s already available online. That cardstock would allow you to skip the alcohol markers and still get this kind of color variation.

So here’s how I made my card: 

1. Cut a 4″ x 5 1/4″ White Daisy cardstock panel.
2. Cut pattern paper to 2 1/2″ x 5 1/4″. Ink the edges, if desired. 
3. Adhere the pattern paper to the top part of the White Daisy panel and round the corners.
4. Stamped the sentiment.
5. Cut nine White Daisy flowers from the Flower Market cartridge. Before removing them from the cutting mat, color the flowers using Shin Han Markers or other medium. Of course, you can always just cut colored cardstock or even pattern papers…OR the new double-sided (two-toned) cardstock!
6. Using a stylus and foam mat, shape the flowers slightly.
7. Place the flowers on the panel until you have an arrangement you like, but do not adhere down at this point.
8. Use a pencil to lightly draw lines where the “stems” are to go.
9. Using a stitching ruler, pierce holes along the pencil lines. When finished, erase the lines with a clean, white eraser.
10. Adhere the flowers to the panel, so they line up with the stitched lines, of course. Add bling to centers.
11. Fold an 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ card base in half using a bone folder and round the corners. 
12. Adhere the decorated panel to the front of the card base, using foam tape.

If you need some CTMH products to work with, you can contact your local CTMH consultant, or feel free to shop my website. 

I hope to see you over at H2H!