A Christmas Card of Snowy White on White

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! My heart is so happy to be able to create a card just because I want to paper-craft!!! I decided to check out some Christmas-focused challenge blogs and see what some of their current themes are. Hopefully I can mesh a few together!=

*sketch

*snow

*white on white; a neutral is allowed

other features will be slimline dimensions and some mixed media application of white paint pen, charcoal gray marker, and silver glitter paint pen along with embellishments of wood die-cut shapes, rick-rack, white foam snowflakes in 2 sizes, and clear iridescent gems

Snowy White on White Christmas card=

Didn't this turn out terrific?!?!!! The white cardstock base edges were inked in charcoal gray and so was the embossed oval. Dimensions are 3.75" deep and 9" wide. Merry Christmas was hand-written in pencil and then the white paint pen and the silver glitter paint pen were applied over the script. The wood die-cuts have charcoal gray marker with the silver glitter paint over it and then the white paint added to the cuffs and a few side partial spots as well as circles around the tiny dots on the mittens. Those tiny dots have a small tap of silver glitter. 

Note: card has been placed on printer/scanner, so the depth of the wood die-cuts and the clear gems have caused the scanner light to create shadows through the middle parts of the card

The rick-rack reminds me of little hills and valleys made in the snow by wind and/or settling. It also gives the line delineation on the sketch instead of using another paper. The white embossed cardstock oval was part of a piece that I got in a box of odds and ends sent by a junk journal online acquaintance. Bless this gal's heart for clearing off her desk that day about 2 years ago and sending me all kinds of paper goodies!!!

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Challenges linked to:

a. Christmas Kickstart Challenge blog #38; White on White theme; with 1 neutral (silver/gray)

link= https://christmaskickstartchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/09/christmas-kickstart-challenge-38-white.html

b. Christmas 24 challenge blog #18; sketch

link= https://christmas24challenge.blogspot.com/2020/09/challenge-018.html

c. Jingle Belles challenge blog; Christmas themes: Sept 25, 2020= Dashing Through the Snow

link= http://jinglebellesrock.blogspot.com/2020/09/dashing-through-snow.html 

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Sharing sites/groups linked to:

1. Slimline Cards Obsessed group in FB; cards made with slim dimensions 4" deep x 8" wide or 3.75" x 9" wide are typical slimline sizes

2. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; private group of artists and crafters who like to use mixed media

3. Mixed Media Frenzy group in FB; a private group for those who use mixed mediums to share their projects

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design Team member of A Place To Start, My Time To Craft, and Createful Heart Designs

Illinois certified teacher in FACS grades 6-12, Birth to Grade 3, and with 3 year short term approval for general science grades 5-8

MTTC Challenge Blog no 441 inspired by Harry Potter theme starts 18 Sept 2020

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! My artsy crafty heart faced another design dilemma with a topic I'm not familiar with. I've not read the books nor seen the movies; however I've seen lots of commercials. 

I wanted to have a sense of time travel, history, and inclusion of an owl. My Time To Craft challenge blog's #441 theme is to be inspired by Harry Potter. What occasion and direction will this take you?

Happy Birthday Wishing You Well card for #441=

Lots of inking and smudging of pink and black, all papers edged in either pink or black;

link to #441= http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/09/challenge-441-inspired-by-harry-potter.html

Supplies/vendors:

a. mocha brown, bold blue and pink cardstocks = Neenah

b. dark red striped patterned paper = The Paper Studio/Hobby Lobby

c. travel site/ancient history frame = ? ; it's been in stash for about 2+ years

d. sentiments stamps are from Stampin' Up and Hampton Arts

e. owl and "1860s" Raider/soldier images are free clipart online

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Card photo and/or blog posting will also be shared at these locations:

a. my personal FB profile

b. Mixed Media Creativity group in Facebook; a closed group of crafters and artists that like to do mixed media; digital, stamping, inking/edging, papers

c. SlimLine Cards Obsessed group in Facbeook; long narrow card dimensions that fits in a  business size envelope

d. Paper, Paper, Paper & Design Team Calls group in Facebook; a sharing group for crafting bloggers and for DT members

e. Seize the Birthday challenge blog; ends in 4 days; Anything Birthday Goes (is my choice); topping option is die-cuts

link= http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2020/09/seize-birthday-199-die-cuts.html

f. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends challenge blog; ends in a few hours; Anything Goes; having trouble getting the #141 current posting linked; keep getting the previous other challenge blog link

link= http://lilpatchofcraftyfriends.blogspot.com/2020/08/c-140.html

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design Team member of:

a. My Time To Craft

b. The Place To Start

c. Createful Heart Designs

First DT Project for CHD challenge blog 15 Sept 2020

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! My artsy crafty heart is nervously excited about starting a new design team (DT) venture! It is a monthly participation challenge to promote the digital designs and papers made by Mary Smith and her husband at Createful Heart Designs. 

The monthly challenges are now "Anything Goes". The Design Team will be using CHD images in their inspiration projects each month, however participants are not required to use their products. But if they do, and they are picked as a top 1st, 2nd, or 3rd pick, they can receive an additional CHD image for their prize package. Use the link that will be listed below and read all the challenge rules. There is also a FB group to help promote this small business and the blog. 

I chose Mary's 2017 image "Northern Saw-Whet Owl" to use for the September 2020 monthly challenge. It is available at their Zibbet shop: https://marketplace.zibbet.com/createful-heart-design

and the link to the image= http://createfulheartcards.blogspot.com/2020/09/hello-welcome-to-our-september.html

https://marketplace.zibbet.com/createful-heart-design/northern-saw-whet-owl-hand-drawn-digital-image

Dreams Come True--Take Good Care card=

CHD blog link for 15 September 2020 posting: [will edit in during the afternoon or evening of the 15th; my husband's having all his teeth extracted at a hospital 45+ minutes from our home & he has to register at 6 am, then be prepped and ready for surgery at 8 am!!! ]

 link= 

CHD blog link for 15 August 2020 posting:

link= http://createfulheartcards.blogspot.com/2020/08/hello-welcome-to-challenge-23-august.html

Some design process and vendor notes on creating this get well card:

a. the image was printed on a light gray cardstock (Neenah) then colored filled with a combination of colored pencils and white paint pen; 

b. besides the light gray CS, the pink and medium gray cardstocks are also from Neenah

c. black and white buffalo check paper = The Paper Studio/Hobby Lobby

d. the cut-apart square card = Webster Pages

e. all front panel papers have black ink edges to offer a very subtle edge definition

f. clear/iridescent gems for embellishment

g. the sentiment focal owl shape is a free clip-art owl outline image found online; I thought it would be great to have another owl image to enhance the CHD image but only as a general shape figure so it wouldn't compete

h. "take good care" stamp I think is Hampton Art; part of a set of small occasion sentiment stamps

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This posting and/or the card photo will also be shared at:

a. Createful Heart Design group on Facebook

b. my personal profile page on FB

c. my FB group: Mixed Media Creativity; I've mixed a combination of cardstocks, colored pencils, white paint, black ink, and clear gems; processes involve digital imagery, stamping, ink edging, coloring, and scratch-lines for border highlighting

d. Paper, Paper, Paper & Design Team Calls group on FB; a sharing site for crafty bloggers and owners/moderators of craft challenge blogs 

e. Mix It Up challenge blog; monthly challenge starting on the 5th; Anything Goes w/ option of foil or foiling technique [mine is just AG]

link= https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/09/miucb-41-anything-goes-foiling.html

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I made a 2nd card with this darling owl image. This time it is a birthday card for my husband=

The owl is colored differently and I trimmed the light gray cardstock at various angles. There is no white paint pen scratch line edging either. A few changes to the layout and no embellishments since my husband likes his cards more basic. But this image has worked very well for a get well and a masculine birthday card--THANKS to Createful Heart Design!!!

This 2nd card will be shared with=

a. my FB profile; Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; PPPDTC group in FB

b. Seize The Birthday challenge blog; still open until 22 Sept 2020; I'm not doing the 'topping' just anything goes birthday

link= http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2020/09/seize-birthday-199-die-cuts.html

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design Team commitments:

a. Createful Heart Design

b. A Place To Start

c. My Time To Craft

Children's Theme Challenge for September 2020 at APTS blog

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! This new month of September 2020 for A Place To Start blog has a broad theme of children. Crafting projects that are new showcasing images of children, children's interests like games, toys, dolls, video games, etc. can be used. I decided to create a back to school bookmark for a nephew. 

I'm sure as a high school sophomore he doesn't consider himself a child but as my youngest nephew this will work and back to school is time appropriate in the northern hemisphere as our summer season is starting to fade away. We live in the same state but several hours apart. His school is doing limited remote learning just on Mondays and he's in school the rest of the weekdays.

This week I just started subbing for a Pre-K teacher on maternity leave and her district has a different approach to the Pandemic remote or not remote learning. This district is having 3 hours of in-school learning each day with 2 hours of remote learning required in the afternoon (or it could be evening). If all goes well within the region, they are hoping to increase to 5 hours of daily instruction in October with limited remote learning options in the afternoon/evening. And then in November or hopefully no later than January to get to full days. We shall see what happens with that. OK. Enough about Covid-19!!!!

APTS blog's Children's theme challenge starts Monday September 7 at midnight 12 am EST. 

Link to the new challenge for A Place to Start blog=

September 2020 link for APTS--

https://hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com/2020/09/september-2020-challenge-create.html

two scanned cropped pics of the bookmark=

Some design process notes about making this bookmark:

a. yellow and white cardstock cut into smaller rectangle shape than the base is from My Mind's Eye

b. recycled items: (1) the bold blue print cut into a small rectangle is from gift wrap that my nephew's family had on my June birthday gift! My sister-in-law's favorite color is blue so I wasn't surprised about the color choice. I liked the graphic look of the gift wrap so I saved a large section to put in my stash. (2) the white with short blue lines paper cut into a thin rectangle came from an alignment page printout for my HP printer!!! Again, the graphic design appealed to me and it went into my stash box instead of the trash can!

c. school colors are blue and gold [several years after my siblings and I graduated from the same school, the district merged with a neighboring one, and red was added; however I tried to keep this to the blue and gold]

d. school mascot "Raider" was designed 50-51 years ago to resemble Civil War Union raiders. Our school Shiloh's name came from the township it exists in and named for the famous battle at Shiloh, TN.

e. I will personalize the bookmark with my nephew's name in the area to the left of the raider image

f. the raider image is free clip art found online; I printed it on kraft paper and then added blue acrylic paint with a dry sponge dauber to give a theatrical look of an old soldier stepping out of time and pointing to us. Colored pencils were used to add color to the soldier: wedge blue, aqua blue, gray, marigold, beige for skin, cocoa brown for his hair...

Where else will this posting be shared?

a. Mix It Up challenge blog; Anything Goes w/ option of foil/foiling technique; mine is just AG

link= https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/09/miucb-41-anything-goes-foiling.html

b. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends challenge blog; start date 9/6/2020; Anything Goes;

link= http://lilpatchofcraftyfriends.blogspot.com/2020/09/c141.html

c. Mixed Media Creativity group on Facebook; a sharing group of crafters and artists that like to mix it up; a variety of papers and cardstocks; digital clip art and word processing; cording; inking on all paper edges and the faux stitching border; 

d. Paper, Paper, Paper, and Design Team Calls group on Facebook; a sharing group of crafting bloggers to share their work, DT projects, and blog owners can post DT calls

e. my FB profile page

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MIUCB and LPCFCB badges:

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design Team member for:

a. A Place to Start challenge blog

b. My Time to Craft challenge blog

c. Createful Heart Design challenge blog and Facebook group

MTTC Blog Challenge no 440 Embossing Theme starts 4 September 2020

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! My heart is super happy to be able to combine a DT project that will also be a surprise for 2 of my nieces. The new theme for this next fortnight challenge is embossing (wet or dry). 

Embossing can be the powders and using a heat gun, however I don't have any of those products. I chose to do texture embossing that can be done with special embossing folders where cardstock or paper is inserted then the folder is placed in a press and cranked/passed through. But yet again, I go 'old school' with laying the printed sentiment/message cardstock face down onto a sheet of gems and then used a ball point pen cap tip to rub across the back side in vertical paths to get the 'embossed' texture.

Back to college bookmarks Design Team project for MTTC #440=

link to MTTC challenge blog for #440=

http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/09/challenge-440-embossing-wet-or-dry.html

A few more scanned cropped photos of the bookmarks:

Some design process notes:

a. college colors include blue, gray, and white and mascot of panthers

b. blue and white looks like paint blogs circle shapes = gift wrap recycled from the birthday gift from my brother's family this past June!!! I don't know if they will recognize it or not. My sister-in-law's favorite color is blue, so I wasn't surprised by the color choice. And it provides not only the deeper blue tones for contrast but adds that personalized touch of love and remembrance.

c. the white with blue and black marks circle shapes = recycled/repurposed printer alignment sheet that my HP printer forces me to do every time I change the cartridges! Last year I did a project where I used a printout just like this for a challenge with a recycled theme.

d. My Mind's Eye= Bohemia collection -- patterned cardstock rectangle behind the top layers of shapes and sentiment/message

e. Sentiment/message was prepared as a Google Doc and then printed on pale blue cardstock which later received the texture embossing technique described at the beginning of the post.

Where else will I share this posting besides Blogger-land?

a. my FB profile 

b. Mixed Media Creativity group on FB; a small private group that I administrate for friends and relatives that are crafters and artists to share our Mixed Media projects

c. Paper, Paper, Paper, and Design Team Calls group on FB;

d. Mix It Up challenge blog; Sept= anything goes with option of foil/foiling; mine is just for AG

link= https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/09/miucb-41-anything-goes-foiling.html

e. 

Use Your Stuff challenge blog; ends 9/4/20-9/5/20; theme=based on the mood board photo up above; my bookmarks have the faded blue-ish gray tones in the "Bohemia" collection cardstock background piece; 

link= http://useyourstuff.blogspot.com/2020/08/404-mood-board.html

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MIUCB and UYSCB sponsor badges:

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

DT commitments have been reduced to:

a. MTTC blog posting every other Friday

b. APTS blog posting monthly; first Monday of each month

c. CHD blog posting monthly; new commitment starting September 15; I thought since it's a monthly based I should be able to handle it better than the stress of weekly or bi-monthly additional commitments......

Thanks for visiting! I'd love to hear from viewers and readers: