Celebrating Friendship with Heart2Heart

One of the great things about the army life is that you make lots of friends who then scatter in lots of different directions. It makes the country feel smaller when you have a friend in every corner. Keeping up with them all takes some effort, so I love that Heart2Heart chose "Friendship" as the theme for this week's challenge. I decided to use some old, some current, and some really old CTMH products for this card:

Another great thing about the army life is that it forces me to look through every stamp and paper pack I own every few years as it gets boxed up on one end and unloaded on the other. I get a refresher on why I loved the products enough to purchase them in the first place, which encourages me to pull them out and use them again. The teacup is a fairly recent product - a Stamp of the Month in March 2017. The tag and steam stamps are wood-mounted, so I think that means they are around fifteen years old. The paper is Ariana from the Spring/Summer 2014 catalog. The sentiments are both current and come from two different sets: "Sweet" is from the Artbooking companion stamps, and "memories" comes from "Finding the Words" (the whole stamp says "the memories" so I masked off the first word).

I stamped the tea cup three times: once on the vellum tag, once on the floral pattern side of the paper, and once on the green background. I did a lot of fussy cutting then glued the separate pieces to the vellum. After coloring the back side of the vellum to get the blue inner rim, I also added some shading with grey markers. The strings are Flaxen Thick Twine held in place by Liquid Glass.

I stamped everything in Outdoor Denim so, to create my double line border on the background matte of Ariana, I simply hand drew the lines with a blue ball-point pen.

The inside of the card says, "Good times are even better when shared," and comes from the same Tea-riffic stamp set as the teacup.

Off to bury myself in the writing office. Big, humongous, fiery deadline breathing down my neck.

Until next time,
Becca

Wedding Card for Color My Heart

One of my dearest friends is going to be a mother-in-law in a couple of weeks, so I asked her what the color scheme was. Gray and Lt. Blue...which worked perfectly with this week's Color My Heart challenge.

I used one of my favorite techniques for watercoloring when its comes to meeting color challenges. I squeezed my dye ink pads to get some ink in the lids then used a wet paint brush to fill in the images. I started by inking Blooming Heart in Black Momento ink, stamping it on scratch paper once before stamping it on watercolor paper. I used Glacier alone on a few of the larger flowers and a combination of Glacier and Slate on the others. I then accented with Tangerine, Poppy, and Willow. I added the touch of gold with the bow.

I cut my heart and background mat using My Favorite Things stitched square die cuts, backed them with Slate cardstock, then assembled everything on my card base.

Now off to the writing cave. Deadline in a week!!! Oh...don't forget to enter the GoodReads give-away of The Promise Bride. It ends on July 25th.

Until next time,
Becca

Blog Hops with Heart goes Red, White, and Anything but Blue

Well...the big move from Alaska to South Carolina is now complete. Whew! I wasn't sure if my craft area and photo light box would be done in time for this blog hop, so I completed this card before the movers in Alaska boxed up my craft area. I have to say it's one of my favorite cards of the year.

I used various shades of red, white, and then some green instead of blue to fulfill the theme. Yes, that's technically pink, but pink is just red with white added in, so...yeah, it works!

I used CTMH inks in Pixie, Poppy, Ruby, Fern, and Topiary as well as Baby Pink Gingham paper (retired). The stamp set used for the flowers is called "Lifetime of Happiness" (also retired) and the sentiment comes from "Happy to be Friends" which I think retires soon. The Ruby dots in center of the center flower of this close-up shot was done by touching the end of quilling tool into Ruby ink and then "stamping" multiple times.

The Fern vines in background are from Lifetime of Happiness and the long retired, wood-mounted Balloon String stamp. The sequins accents are from a mix of Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and anywhere else offering a 40% discount. :)

You might be wondering what's with all the retired CTMH product. Remember last month's Blog Hops with Heart theme? It was "Use It or Lose It." I created both my cards at the same time, which happened to be just before the movers showed up. I was trying to be ruthless about purging things, but in reality, I just find reasons why I bought the stamps and supplies I have so I can feel okay about moving them from place to place.

If you are a Blog Hops with Heart veteran, you know that we always have a circle. You probably came from Jayma's blog and now will hop on over to Amie's blog. Amie has a complete list of everyone participating in the hop, in case you need it. These ladies really know how to put on a show, so don't miss a single entry.

You probably won't see me for a few more weeks as I finish up two more writing deadlines. Then I'm going to spend some quality time in my craft area before we pack everything up and move again in a few more months. Ah, army life!

If you'd like to win a copy of The Promise Bride (releasing in about a month), here's a link to Goodreads. The giveaway ends July 25, 2017, so you might want to head there now and then finish the blog hop.

Until next time,
Becca

Another Goodreads Giveaway

The release of The Promise Bride is just around the corner, and our publisher is going all out to help spread the word. From now until July 25, 2017, you can enter to win a copy through a Goodreads giveaway before the August 29, 2017 release.

Romantic Times gave it four stars, and Kirkus Review said this:

Co-authors Welborn and Whitham launch a new series, Montana Brides, with a dauntless, winning heroine, a complex hero, an engaging supporting cast, and a light message of faith...Sweet and appealing, this historical inspirational romance hits a nice tone as it touches on a variety of themes.

Gina and I are feverishly working to complete the second book of this series, so off to the writing cave I go...

Until next time,

Becca

H2H In Stitches

Oh, how I have missed crafting...not to mention I'm behind on sending a few cards for birthdays, anniversaries, and the like. But then I found out that a writing colleague was diagnosed with breast cancer. Before I could get a "Praying for You" card done, she had a biopsy and was told her lump was benign. Halleluiah, amen!!

I wanted to send her a card to let her know I was thinking of her anyway, so I decided to use the cheerful dots from the Little Dreamer paper pack with a fun sentiment from the Flower Market coordinating stamps to make this card for the H2H In Stitches Challenge this week:

I'm complying with the "stitches" theme in several ways...surgery stitches, laughter that has you in stitches, and the cross-stitch pattern on the banner from the Whimsy Fundamentals paper pack To get the sentiment to stand out, I used pigment ink (Emerald). I really wanted to use my sewing machine to stitch a border all the way around my polka dot piece before mounting it to the card base with foam tape, but my sewing machine is still in a box. 

The assembly guy comes on Monday to put my craft cabinet together, and then I can get it loaded up and be back in business. Yes, it's a lot of work for only five months, but it's necessary to my mental health.

I hope you will come join us at H2H this week and give us your best "in stitches" project.

Until next time,
Becca

No Worries

I've been sitting on this news for quite a while now, and I can finally tell you that I'm joining the talented group of ladies on the design team at the Heart2Heart Challenge Blog featuring Close to My Heart products. This week the challenge is to use the No Worries paper. Please excuse the weird photography. I was trying to be artsy and, well...yeah. To get the color and brightness right on the card, it totally whacked out the jar with the green marbles in it. I figured the card was more important.

I cut a white card base and then an extra piece of white cardstock measuring 4 x 5.25. I then trimmed out a one inch border using my Fiskars Paper Trimmer. I stamped the sentiment (from the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge companion stamps) leaving off the "happy" part. I die cut the "HAPPY" using a retired Thin Cut four times--three in white paper and one from the No Worries paper. I glued the four die cuts together to give it strength and depth. I then glued a piece of No Worries paper to the card base, mounted the trimmed out and stamped frame piece over top using foam tape, and glued the "HAPPY" in place.

I'm so excited to be part of this design team! Heart2Heart always has fun challenges.

On a personal note, this card was made while the hubs and I are on the road traveling from Alaska to South Carolina. You can read some previous posts and see pictures of our travels. We're almost done. A few more days on the road, and then we'll be in our new home...for six months before we move again. Ah...army life! And some time between now and September 1, I need to finish two stories. Ah...the life of an author. So crazy!! But I wouldn't change a thing.

Until next time,
Becca

More Pictures from our Move

We've made it to Colorado. Here are a few more pictures to show you where we've been.

 

Mt. Hood at Sunset

 

Mt. Shasta

 

Lake Shasta

 

Morgan, UT

 

Western Wyoming

 

South Western Nebraska 

 

Me snapping pictures out the window

 

NE Colorado

 And don't forget to enter the GoodReads giveaway of The Promise Bride. Here's the link to enter: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/242890-the-promise-bride

Until next time,
Becca