Just Crazy Blessed Team Blog Hop - Uptown & All About the Gold Fundamentals

Welcome to the Just Crazy Blessed Team Blog Hop!!! Thanks for joining us today! All of August and September, we are showing products from the new Close to My Heart Annual Inspirations catalog. I hope you enjoy this little peek at our creations.

This blog hop is a great big circle so you can start wherever you want and continue through to see all the wonderful artwork incorporating the week's theme, by clicking the next or previous buttons at the end of this post. If you are coming from XXX's Blog, you are on the right track!

This week we are highlighting  the "Uptown" and "All about the Gold" Fundamentals. 

The "All About the Gold" Fundamentals is an amazing set of 6 see-through overlays with gold foil designs. They make a great contrast to the black and white of the Uptown set. When you turn them over, they show silver through the plastic, and that makes a nice complement to either the black or the whisper side of the Uptown papers. 

The "Uptown" Fundamentals are some great basics to have in your stash. Three in black and white on one side, and Whisper and white on the other, and one in gold foil and white stripe. There are also two vellums in the pack; one with a subtle white diagonal, and the other with a gold confetti pattern (when you turn it over, it looks silver). You get two of each pattern for 12 sheets in the pack.

 I created a simple Thank You card with the Uptown paper pack using the My Acrylix "All the Thanks" stamp set. Another great basic to have on hand. Four different, simple Thank Yous, perfect for any occasion, from gifts, to thanking someone for house-sitting.

I made this card as an idea for use as a thank you after a long visit. I used the whisper side of the word background paper, then used the journaling pen to fill in two of the words, to make them stand out. It took a steady hand, and patience. :)

The products used to make this card:

White Cards and Envelopes, value pack (50) - X254 - $14.95

Black cardstock - 24 sheet pack - 1386 - $14.50

Uptown Fundamentals - Z3263 - $14.95

All the Thanks My Acrylix stamps - B1536 - $9.95

Journaling Pen - Z1979 - $3.25

Thank you for joining us on the blog hop!

If you would like to know more about the special this month at Close to My Heart, please continue to scroll down. If you would like to continue on, please use the buttons below to continue on the Just Crazy Blessed Blog Hop. I hope you enjoy what Janna has to share next!

There's only a few more days to get the Basically the Best Deal on Close to My Heart's New Fundamentals Paper Packs - 

If you take advantage of the above deal, you qualify for the Stamp of the Month, Purrfect Halloween, for only $5

Summer Time, Lemonade and Retiring Stamps... not your usual combo...

For a lot of us, July =  middle of Summer Time. The kids are out of school (well, mine are all grown, but the kids where I work are gone), the weather may have finally settled into a summery pattern of warmth for most days, and cooking outside is more usual than not. Iced tea and lemonade are drinks of choice around my house.

It's also the last month for the Close to My Heart 2015-2016 Annual Inspirations catalog. And... This time around almost all the stamps are being retired. To put it another way, it was shorter for me to post a list of the stamp sets that were Not retiring, than the ones that were, LOL.

In addition to the stamps going buh-bye, all the paper sets, except for the solid colors, are also going to be changing. So if you like the Fundamentals sets, I recommend picking some up before the end of July. 

Also, the following Close To My Heart Exclusive inks and re-inkers will be retiring: Gypsy, Topiary, Pear, Honey, Sunset, Cotton Candy, Hollyhock.

Along with most of the decor, albums, a couple of shimmer trim colors, and 3 of the Cricut cartridge sets. But I can promise, the things that are coming in August - will wow you! I can't reveal yet, but oh my, so much lovely!

Anyway, in the meantime - happy shopping the retiring items and here's the Stamp of the Month!

It's called "From the Notebook" and is available July only, for $17.95. OR, for $5.00 with a $50 or more purchase. Stop by my online page and check out the entire catalog. 

One last thing. For the Month of July, if you sign up to be a consultant, you'll have the Early Bird opportunity to get some of the incoming products free with your New-Consultant kit. For more information, click here, or contact me. I'd love to have you on my team.

Creative Live Broadcast

I have a really quick share today - Close to My Heart is doing a HUGE broadcast on CreativeLive. It was live on Nov 20-21, but they are re-broadcasting it, and it's free to watch, just sign up.

If you haven't heard about CreativeLIve (I hadn't before this), it's an online learning platform that broadcasts live classes (and also rebroadcasts them). Everything from how to set up a blog, to how to sew a dress, step by step, to many other things. I won't go into it all now, because this post is about Close to My Heart, not CreativeLive, lol.

So here's the link to CreativeLive, create an account, then look for this broadcast: Scrapbooking Paper Crafts Stamping and More. I promise you, you will learn SO much about Close to My Heart, more than I have been able to share with you in the short time I have been blogging, but that I have wished I could. This is the excitement I have about the products, the process.

Enjoy! Then contact me and let me know your thoughts!

Get Ready, It's Coming!

Before you know it, the new year will be here! The November Stamp of the Month, Cheers - 2016! is all about celebrating the incoming New Year. It's great for scrapbook pages, as well as for making cards for those who don't (or didn't get around to) sending out December Holiday cards. My sister has been sending New Year cards for years now. I keep saying I am going to adopt the idea, but I just love Christmas stamps... anyway... Cheers!

Some images from the Close to My Heart website:

This stamp set just screams for using some glitter paper or shimmer trim, lots of sparkle and sequins.

What a great way to send off some holiday photos to family and friends, or remember the New Year's Day Dreams you plan with your family.

Speaking of PLANNING... Stay tuned... in the next week or two, definitely before the end of the month... Close to My Heart is introducing a Planner! I'm really excited about this. I'm a little late spreading the news (it was on the CTMH Blog on November 2, 2015), but I will surely not be when it's available! It was previewed at the AustralAsia convention to rave reviews, and has been the buzz of the CTMH Facebook groups ever since. There will be a package deal to start with, so definitely mark it in your current planner to be ready to jump on this opportunity!

This month there is a fabulous special going on for scrapbookers! The Simply Fundamental Scrapbooking Bundles are available only the month of November, and will give you a great jump start on your holiday and 2016 scrapbooking. Here's all you get in a bundle ($71.80 USD):

• Album of your choice (D-ring or Post-bound)
• Paper Fundamentals Enchantment (1 pack)
• Fundamental Stickers Enchantment Pack (1 pack)
• Fundamental Assortment Peacock (1 pack)
• White Daisy Cardstock (3 sheets)
• Memory Protectors™ Value Pack (1 pack Side Load or 1 pack Top Load) 

------

Today I finally opened my White Pines paper pack and made some Christmas cards. 

I recently got the "Believe in Christmas" My Acrylix Stamp Set, available in the Holiday Expressions catalog. I love all the sayings. After much staring at the paper pack, and Pinterest, I finally came up with this - which was inspired by... nothing I saw, lol. 

I laid all 3 sentiments on one block and stamped them at an angle in Chocolate ink on one edge of Colonial White cardstock, then again down the other side, offsetting them so they were next to a different saying. I used a small pine branch from another set in Fern ink to add a little color to that piece of cardstock, then I layered it onto a piece of Cranberry cardstock. 

I stamped the banner in gold pigment ink on a cut out banner and heat embossed it with antique gold embossing powder (it looks chocolate in this photo). 

I used the "Seasons" stamp set that comes with the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection to stamp the tree. I topped off one tree with a small wooden partridge (or maybe it's a dove?), and the other with a star, just for variation. And I gave one of the trees and the banner some dimension with foam tape. The banner and trees were cut out of Colonial White cardstock using my Cricut Expression and Art Philosophy and Artistry cartridges.

Finally, I doodled around the edge in black (I wish I had used brown), and added some gold sequins for ornaments on the tree.

There are other really pretty papers in this pack, and I plan to create some scrapbook pages soon. The complements that are available are so cute! White Pines set.