Welcome to our September Guest DT Amy!

Before our new month starts, I want to thank Lori for joining us in August as our Guest DT and welcome Amy as September's Guest! Let's learn a little about Amy:

"My name is Amy Edwards. I live in Northern Illinois with my family. I have 3 girls, Danielle, Savannah & Maizie. I have always loved art. I started coloring and drawing as a young girl and then my aunt taught me how to paint, Rosemalling and folk art stuff. I started my college carrer majoring in Art...and then the kids came. I switched to finger piants and crayons. I always took tons of photos and was introduced to scrapbooking right after I had my second daughter in 1995 and shortly after that I started stamping. The rest is papercrafting history! I currently try to balance my love for scrapbooking and the quick ease that I find making cards. I love to make mini-albums and have recently fallen in love with my Cricut.

 

When I am not doing papercrafts you can find me hanging out with the family. I also love to read, watch movies, and explore the world around me".

 

 

Stop by and leave a welcome for Amy at her blog, Paisleys Playhouse. We're looking forward to seeing Amy's creations! Don't forget, you have until Saturday at 10 pm EST to enter any of our August challenges and you could be our next Guest DT! See you Monday for a brand new month of inspiration and challenges!

Back to School!

Wow, can’t believe it’s that time of year again, back to school!  Take some time out from this busy time of year to use your creativity and show us a great back to school project for teachers or students.

This challenge can be any type of crafty project using some of your favorite Close To My Heart goodies.  It can be a layout, card or a paper craft!   You'll have until Saturday, Sept. 1st at 10 pm ESTto join us on any of our August challenges and be eligible for our Top Ten! At H2H, we love to see what YOU create, so let's go!

Here is Team B's inspiration for you this week, starting with our guest designer Lori. Don't forget to check out our Design Teams' blogs by clicking on their names each week. They have lots of inspiration for you every day! 

 
created by: Lori

 created by: Cheryl

 created by: Dania 

created by: Angel 

 created by: Haley 

  

 created by: Nancy 

created by: Dorothy

Here's how to join in this week's challenge:

1. Use mostly Close To My Heart products, though it doesn't have to be 100%.
2. Create your Back to School Project.
3. Post your project to your blog or other online gallery.
4. Come back here and directly link to your blog post, not your blog home page. 
5. Mention Heart 2 Heart somewhere in your blog post indicating that you are playing along with us and link to our site. 
6. Consider adding the H2H badge to your blog. We'd love to spread the word and see more crafters participating.

Happy crafting,
Dorothy

Colour us Crafty!

This week it's all about colour! We're challenging you to come up with a project that uses the Lagoon, Pear and Sunset colours from the Close To My Heart colour palette. We don't know about you, but we LOVE to stretch our crafty imaginations by coming up with new colour combinations to try. Have a look through all the wonderful new products we're sure you've got from the new catalogue and use anything you'd like in your project. Just be sure to use Lagoon, Pear and Sunset (or colours that are really close!) as your main colour focus!

We here at H2H love to see what YOU create so come on and share your art with us. You have all month to play along with any of our August challenges, so show your crafty self off. You could be chosen as one of our Top Ten for this month or maybe even as Guest Designer for next month!

Now to get things started here, let's see what our wonderful guest designer this month, Lori, has created:

Next up is the talented Team A's inspiration for you this week. Don't forget to check out our Design Teams' blogs by clicking on their names each week. They have lots of inspiration for you every day! Caroline starts us off this week:

Erin:

Shirley:

Kelly:

and Madeline:

 

Are you inspired? We sure hope so. Now it's your turn!  Remember to use some CTMH products and Lagoon, Pear and Sunset as the colours in your creation and upload your project to your blog or an online gallery (use the keyword H2H.AugustColour). Please consider turning off word verification for comments. We love to leave comments on your blogs but it can be difficult to get around to everyone when we have to guess at those tricky words and numbers! If you're concerned about spam, try using comment moderation for your blog.

Here are just a few things to remember when playing along:

1. Use mostly Close To My Heart products, though it doesn't have to be 100%.
2. Create your colourful project.
3. Post your project to your blog or other online gallery.
4. Come back here and link directly to your blog post and to not to your blog home page.
5. Mention Heart 2 Heart somewhere in your blog post showing that you're playing along with us and make sure to link to our site.
6. Why not grab an H2H badge to add to your blog? We'd love to spread the word and see more crafters participating!

Have fun and we can't WAIT to see what you've shared with us!
Erin

Scrapbook Sketch Break

Cheryl, our resident scrapbook sketch artist, is taking August off while her family is enjoying some vacation time. While she's gone, check out her blog for some fabulous layouts she has posted there and I'm sure you'll find plenty of inspiration. We'll have a new scrapbook sketch for you in September so get those photos ready! 

The Dog Days of Summer...

We hope you are enjoying the "Dog Days of Summer". So why don't you join us with our animal theme for your entry and as an extra challenge, include a dog in it!

This challenge can be any type of crafty project using some of your favorite Close To My Heart goodies.  It can be a layout, card or a paper craft!   You'll have all month to join us and be eligible for our Top Ten! At H2H, we love to see what YOU create, so let's go! 

First up, artwork from our Guest DT, Lori!

So cute! Thanks Lori!

created by: Cheryl Cuddie

created by: Dorothy Seiler

created by: Dania Boise

created by: Angel Shifflett

created by: Haley Dyer

created by: Nancy Ball

Here's how to join in this week's challenge:

1. Use mostly Close To My Heart products, though it doesn't have to be 100%. 
2. Create your "Dog Days of Summer" project. 
3. Post your project to your blog or other online gallery.
4. Come back here and directly link to your blog post, not your blog home page. 
5. Mention Heart 2 Heart somewhere in your blog post indicating that you are playing along with us and link to our site. 
6. Consider adding the H2H  badge to your blog. We'd love to spread the word and see more crafters participating.

 Thank you for barking along,

Nancy

July's Top Ten!

The new DT members have all submitted their choices for July's Top Ten and after compiling all of the information, I have the reslts to share with you all. Congrats to the following creators:

Patriotic challenge:

Amy E

Jen

Line, Line, Circle, Square challenge:

Jody

Wendy

 

Sketch challenge:

Kim

Lubna

Erin

Sarah

Water Fun challenge:

Amy M

Scraps challenge:

Brenda

And the "top chick" honors goes to .....

Brenda!!! Congratulations - you all inspire us!!

Thank you to everyone who plays along with our challenges - we enjoy checking out your artwork and we love your creativity! Keep it coming! A new challenge comes Monday!

With Deepest Sympathy...

Happy August, Everyone!

While for some, this signals the start of school and "back-to-the-grind," for others it is the start of vacation. Whatever you are doing this month, make sure to schedule in some crafty time. We will have several different projects for you to try, and if you participate in all of them, you can proudly display this cute blog badge!

Our first challenge this month is to create a sympathy card. This can be a difficult thing to make, as by definition, it acknowledges someone's loss; it can be hard to find just the right words. However, your heart-felt, hand-made creation is a wonderful way to convey your compassion. 

You can extend your sympathy for other occasions, too. I came across a card recently which commiserated on a job-loss, with the cutest image of a vacuum cleaner, and the words "that sucks!"

So, gear up your creativity and show us your artwork! You have all month to participate. 

Here's some inspiration from the Design Team, starting with our new Guest Designer, Lori.

Lori

Kelly

Caroline

Madeline

Shirley

Erin

Mary

Here's how to join in this week's challenge:

1. Use mostly Close To My Heart products, though it doesn't have to be 100%. 
2. Create your sympathy card. 
3. Post your project to your blog or other online gallery.
4. Come back here and directly link to your blog post, not your blog home page. 
5. Mention Heart 2 Heart somewhere in your blog post indicating that you are playing along with us and link to our site. 
6. Consider adding the H2H  badge to your blog. We'd love to spread the word and see more crafters participating.

Happy crafting,
Caroline

Welcome to our August Guest DT!

A new month is here and a with that brings a new Guest DT to Heart 2 Heart Challenges! One last goodbye to July's Guest, Marg - thanks for joining us!

Now meet Lori, who will be starting with us on the next challenge coming up!

"I'm a 41-year-young mom of three, and although I live in the far reaches of Chicagoland now, I am still a small-town farm girl from Walnut, Illinois at heart! I've been crafty for as long as I can remember, with countless hours spent on my 4-H Arts & Crafts projects. I picked up my first stamp over 20 years ago, and was introduced to scrapbooking by a coworker about 17 years ago. Once I caught the scrapbooking bug, I was unstoppable. I quickly progressed beyond the simple style popular at the time, but it was difficult to find fun, attractive, and quality supplies. In my quest for the perfect scrapbook album, I found a lady on a computer bulletin board (yes, it really was THAT long ago) who sold D.O.T.S. and she told me they had new albums that sounded exactly like what I wanted. Of course I loved them, and everything else in the catalog. As luck would have it, that consultant lived only 45 minutes from me and eventually, ten years ago June, she became my upline when I joined Close To My Heart! I still get excited with every new Idea Book, and Close To My Heart still sells my favorite products. I am so excited to be a guest DT member for August, and can't wait to start sharing my creations with you all!"

You can pop over and leave a welcome for Lori at her blog Saving My...
 
Don't forget - the deadline to enter all of the July challenges is this Saturday at 10:00 pm EST!
See you again soon!