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If you {heart} Close To My Heart, then this challenge blog is for you! Please read our revised rules, above.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Changing of the Guard and our Challenge

We have a new challenge for you this week that is always a favorite - it's a color challenge! But before we get to that, a few announcements.

This is the last week that we will be enjoying artwork and posts from some of our Design Team members. Leaving us after this week will be Lorrinda, Debbie, Karen, Melinda and Jessica. I am sad to see these ladies go as they have been, not only creatively inspirational but I have also gotten to consider each of them as a special friend in my life. I wish them all the best and hope they will be playing with us in future challenges.

Starting July 4th, there will be 4 new team members joining Haley and Jody, who will be staying on the team until the end of the year. There will also be 2 new sponsors coming in July, a new Guest DT and a new team member for our H2H Scrapbook page! YAY!! Watch for all of their introductions throuh out the week this week and be sure to give them a warm howdy-do!

So on to our challenge. This is the last week to enter June challenges in order to be in the drawing for the prizes from this month's sponsors, Romaine and Michelle.

Our color challenge this week features the following colors:
A little patriotic but definitely can be used in a variety of ways. Let's see what the Design Team created with this color combo - first up, our Guest DT who is wrapping up her month with us, Jena:

Great layout Jena! Thanks for playing along with us this month!!










So what can you create with these colors? We can't wait to see! Be sure to have your link in place by Saturday at 10:00 pm EST (for this any any of the challenges from June) in order to be eligible to win one of the prizes from the month!

And be sure to check back through the week to meet the new team members!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

B-I-N-G-O!!

Welcome to another week of Heart 2 Heart Challenges. We loved seeing all of your great backgrounds! And now it's time to get to a new challenge. But before we do that, I just want to remind you that today is the last day to apply for the Design Team!

Ok so here we go. This week's challenge comes with a Bingo card. Maybe you will think it looks like a Tic-Tac-Toe board and that's ok too. Either way, the idea is the same. Take a look:


Here is the challenge. Using the board above, you will choose three things to use on your project so that, when finished and crossed off on the board, creates a Bingo (or Tic-Tac-Toe). In other words, in a straight line. For example you might choose to use Ribbon, a Border Punch and Brads. When these are crossed off you would have a straight line connecting the boxes in the middle of the board horizontally. Or you might choose Ribbon with Gems and a Doily, crossing off all of the boxes vertically in the left column. Make sense? Let's see what the DT came up with starting with our Guest DT, Jena:

Jena used Gems, Buttons and Rub-ons on her card so her crossed out Bingo card would look like this:


Ok on to the rest of the team! To find out what three items these gals used, head to their blog for the details (and leave 'em some love while you're there  - they deserve it!)







So what do you think? Are you up to the challenge? OF COURSE, you are!! Be sure to tell us in your blog post what three things you used to create your Bingo! Have fun!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Last few days to apply for DT!

The last day to apply for the next round of the Heart 2 Heart DT is June 20th so get your application in soon! For all the details, see this post.

Monday, June 13, 2011

From Our Heart to Yours

This week, we are bringing you another From Our Heart to Yours challenge - this time, sharing various ways to create backgrounds using ink. From there, we took our creative background papers and turned them into cards for Dad! So this week's challenge is to create your own background paper (using stamping/ink) and then making a card for Father's Day.

Before we get to the sample artwork, I have a little random stamping tutorial to share with you. If you have never done random stamping, or struggle with it, this might be helpful.

If you follow a triangle stamping  pattern, you will actually have a more balanced look to your random stamping. This is easiest to learn with three different stamps and three different ink colors. Try this patterned stamping on scrap paper first. Assign one stamp to one color of ink. Do the same with a second stamp/inkpad and a third stamp/inkpad. Begin by inking up the first stamp and stamping your image in the center of your cardstock piece.

Grab your second image and second color - ink up your stamp and stamp close to the first image.

Ink up your third stamp and stamp the image so you create a triangle between all three images.
(My apologies - these are old photos and not in very good focus.)

Now choose two of the three images you already have stamped. If you look at the sample above, I am going to choose the pink and the purple flower. If we want to repeat a three image triangle, the "missing" color is yellow. So we ink up the yellow and stamp so this image becomes part of a triangle with the pink and purple (see below).
Continue to repeat making "triangles" across your cardstock.

The images can be closer or father apart as you work just keep the pattern consistant and in a triangle format and you won't go wrong!

For more on random stamping, be sure to check out the post from CTMH CEO Jeanette Lynton HERE.

Now on to our fabulous samples from the always creative Design Team:







Yep, these gals know how to create a background! Now it's your turn. Create a background with stamping/ink and then transform it into a card for dear old Dad. Then post to your blog, or other public online gallery and come back to leave us a link. We are looking forward to checking out your creations and remember, we have 2 fabulous prizes up for grabs this month from our sponsors, Romaine and Michelle.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

DT Call REMINDER

Don't forget about our Design Team call - all of the details are HERE. Please send in your application today!!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Here comes the bride....

It is time to get to this week's challenge but first, if you haven't seen May's Top Ten picks, be sure to scroll to the post below this one and check out all the goodness~~

So this week's challenge is all about weddings. We want to see what you can create with a wedding theme. One of our wonderful sponsors, Romaine, is playing along with us so let's get right to the sample artwork:
Beautiful work, Romaine! Thanks for sponsoring one of our prizes this month!









Such a wedding wonderland! Fabulous work, team!!

Now it's your turn. Maybe you want to create something old, new, borrowed or blue for our wedding week? Or something for the groom? It's up to you but we want to see it so be sure to leave a link below to your artwork! And be sure you use CTMH products or your link will be removed (sorry!)

You have all month to play along with our challenges so we hope you'll join in the fun~

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Our May Top Ten!

It was hard narrowing down our choices for the Top Ten for May but here we are, ready to announce our results. To see the entire project from each of these talented peeps, click the picture.

From the Mother's Day challenge:

From the Buttons challenge week:

From Technique week:

And our last week for the month, the ABC challenge:

And at the top of the heap, the top chick of the month is.........Connie!

Congratulations to you all! Your blog badge will be sent to you by email. Thanks for playing along and we hope you continue to join us every week!

See you all on Monday!