Jumping July

Happy July!

The busiest part of my work year is behind me… yayyyyy (Can you picture me flailing around like a happy Kermit the Frog? Lol) Now I can enjoy a little of summer.

In my crafting world… a lot of my Close to My Heart team mates are getting ready to head off to Convention in a week out in Anaheim. I am envious. Not because they are going to California, though I would love the chance to go to Disney, but because they are going to get to see the new catalog line first!!!! I’ll get to see it soon enough, but I can’t share it with you until September…

But, meanwhile, in the present time, July, there’s a new Stamp of the Month, and of course, a new promotion. And it’s really good, I have to say. The stamp of the month is called “Life is Wonderful”. It’s kind of geared towards scrapbooking, but when I played with it, I made cards. Lol. I just didn’t feel the scrapping vibe today.

The Month-long promotion is called “Jump on it July”. And you might really want to jump on it! During the month of July, when you purchase $25 (USD & CAD) in current, retail priced stamps, you qualify to receive either the July Stamp of the Month, Life is Wonderful, FREE, or any of the Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in the Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 or Seasonal Expressions 2 for only $5 (USD & CAD)!

This is such a great time to build up your stamp library, and get hold of one of those hostess sets that you may have been longing for, but felt were out of reach.

So, on to the cards:

The first two I used the SoTM primarily, then I started branching off with the hostess stamps. I will list the supplies of each. Some things are not available however, as they were from the Deal of the Day box I got a couple months ago.

I decided to try the chalkboard look with the SotM, since I hadn't used my White Daisy Ink pad much. I chose to use a dark blue card stock that came to hand, I don’t think it’s CTMH (I recently came across a pile of office supply cardstock samples in my cupboard), but Outdoor Denim would work beautifully, I used a White Daisy card base. I used Outdoor Denim Exclusive Ink for the Wonderful, on White Daisy cardstock, and popped that out with foam dots. I had some of this curly-cue shimmer trim from some dollar-store haul that I thought would go well with the ‘Wonderful’, so I used that along the side (it did not peel off the plastic easily, I do not recommend it). Finished with three silver sequins to balance the bling on the other side. I thought this might be a good announcement card.

I made the next card using papers from the Jackson paper pack, Lagoon and Colonial White cardstock, and Lagoon, Black and Desert Sand Exclusive Inks. This is a more masculine card, so I kept embellishment to a minimum, using a metal badge button that came in my Deal of the Day. I used the Hostess set ‘A Thing Well Done’ as well as the SotM ‘Life is Wonderful’. Inside, I used the Congratulations stamp from the hostess set. A great Graduation, promotion, or even retirement card.

For this card I used the Hostess stamp, 'Exotic Flower', I just love this stamp. When I got it, I was inspired to pull out some old kaleidoscope ink pads that I had tucked away in my cupboard forever. I played around with them every which way I could think of with this stamp, creating some lovely effects (as shown by the assorted examples included in the picture).

For this card, I pulled out one of the pre-stamped ones that coordinated with Lagoon cardstock. Because of the size of the stamp, I felt it should go on a square card.  I used the curlicue corners from the SotM ‘Life is Wonderful’ as accents, and grabbed the saying from the Hostess set ‘Tagged With Love’. I popped that up with foam tape. Finally I added a crystal flower to the middle (another embellishment from the Deal of the Day box). There’s no sentiment inside, but I repeated a couple of the corner curlicues.

I hope you like these cards, please leave me a comment. You can get most of the supplies to make these cards by following the links listed, or this link to my OBA. If you have any questions, leave me a comment or send me an email and I will answer as soon as possible.

I’ll be making more cards and layouts using other Hostess sets soon, so check back again, or follow me to get notifications. Thanks for reading!

Summer’s Sweet Taste…

May has flyown by, and I had promised photo layouts with the wonderful Taste of Summer papers (which are only available for a couple more days).

Inspiration came hard. I just had the toughest time cutting into these pretty papers! I recently bought another one of Close to My Heart's wonderful How-To books, called Cherish. Oh, am I happy that I got it! It has lots of lovely layouts and includes the exact cutting guides and measurements for each page. Of course, you can change them up and rotate them and make them your own, and I did. I found a couple of layouts I liked and here are the results.

The first one uses the pretty Lemon print, the one with the purple on the other side. To coordinate, I picked Juniper cardstock from the Whimsy Combo collection.

I was in such a hurry to get this blogged, I forgot to doodle around the white cardstock photo/journal spots! I'm also pretty sure I will do a little more embellishing when I get around to finally adding photos, and a title and putting them into an album. But you get the idea.If you look closely, you can just see the shine on the lemon that I used Liquid Glass on, on the right hand page. I used it on the lemons in the upper left hand page too, but the camera didn't catch the shine as well. The lemons were stamped using the coordinating stamp set, Taste of Summer. It's also only available for a couple more days. (There's a picture of it in my last post)

I really, really, love this paper pack. I could spend all summer playing with it (if only I didn't have things like a job and housework interrupting my days). 

Here's the other set of pages I created, using the luscious strawberry and orange blossom papers from the set. I added a sheet of Sweet Leaf cardstock, also from the Whimsy Combo pack. I used Liquid Glass again, on the strawberries, which were stamped using the Taste of Summer stamp set. Again, I was rushing, so I didn't take the time to get a title on this page, but I am thinking of using my Cricut to make a "So Berry Sweet" that will stretch across the upper left page. Most of the Sweet Leaf spots are mats for photos or journal cards that I will add later, along with some other stamping and a few more embellishments.

I know these are pretty simple, and they were pretty quick to put together once I decided which layouts to use. The Cherish How To book really made it simple to follow. 

If you have been thinking of this paper, there's no more time to be on the fence about it. The promotion ends in just a couple of days and then the bright, summery paper is gone, along with the summery stamp set that was made just for it. My last post has some cute cards I made with some of the other patterns, along with a picture of the stamp set, as well as the stamp of the month.

You can order any of these items on my OBA by clicking here. If you have any questions about the above layouts, please leave me a comment. I'll answer as soon as I can. 

(Remember the Just Sayin' Stamp of the Month is only available for May. You can pick up your own for only $5 with a $50 purchase! (Or for $17.95 on it's own) Be sure to contact your Close To My Heart Independent Consultant before the end of May.  If you don't already have a consultant, I'd love to be yours.

As for the reason this is so late in getting done and posted; my younger daughter (who lives half the country away) surprised us by showing up to visit for a week! A fun time was had by all, and chaos ensued!

Are you ready for Summer?

Close to My Heart is celebrating National Scrapbooking Month by offering a special paper pack just for May. This paper pack is just so bright and summery, I love it. The zip strips are cute too, you can't see them in this picture. And it's a real value at only $8.95 for the pack.

It's one of those sets that I almost don't want to cut into, just hoard. But you can't make cards without cutting... 

There are twelve! pieces of paper in six double sided patterns in the Taste of Summer paper set. It's available only for May (National Scrapbooking Month). And there's a coordinating stamp set that is really cute (mine hasn't arrived yet). This D set of stamps is $17.95 and also only available in May.

Here are the four cards I made - so far. I wanted to use big pieces of the paper and really show off these bright gorgeous papers. I added in a sheet of Sunset, Hollyhock and Topiary cardstock for accent pieces. I cut circles, the citrus inserts (flowers), and speech bubbles with the Cricut Artiste cartridge. I doodled a little bit in the orange slices just because they looked a little bare. I like the way they turned out, don't you?

Both butterflies on this card are stamped on a piece of scrap cardstock and cut out. The multi-colored one is popped up with foam tape. I used an easy trick for the sun burst card, cutting four pieces of paper at once. Now, I have pieces to make four different sunburst style cards. I'll match the bottom strip to the piece in the middle on each one. But I am going to wait to make the rest of my cards until I have the coordinating stamp set.

Materials used in the above cards:

Taste of Summer Paper Pack - CC1038 - $8.95 (May 2015 ONLY)

Exclusive Inks - Thistle - Z2640 - $5.95

Exclusive Inks - Sorbet - Z2164 - $5.95

Exclusive Inks - Black - Z2105 - $5.95

Exclusive Cardstock - White Daisy - 1385 $9.50 (24 pk)

Exclusive Cardstock - Adventure Combo pack - X5935 $14.50 (contains Sunset, Topiary, Hollyhock plus seven other colors - 2 sheets of each color)

Silver Shimmer Trim - Z1799 - $4.95

Coral Reef Sequins - $3.95

Bright Silver Sequins (non CTMH - just some I had on hand)

Stamps used:

'You + Me' stamp from May Stamp of the Month set "Just Sayin" - S1505 - $5.00 (w/ $50.00 order*)

'Hi' speech bubble stamp from Cricut Artiste Bundle - Z1790 - $99.00

'You Mean the World to Me' stamp from set of same name - B1467 - $9.95

Butterflies and sayings on Butterfly card from "Your Own Kind of Wonderful" Set - D1627 - $17.95

You can order any of these items on my OBA by clicking here. If you have any questions about the above cards, please leave me a comment. I'll answer as soon as I can. 

*(Remember the Just Sayin' Stamp of the Month is only available for May. You can pick up your own for only $5 with a $50 purchase! (Or for $17.95 on it's own) Be sure to contact your Close To My Heart Independent Consultant before the end of May.  If you don't already have a consultant, I'd love to be yours.  You can find details on the "Stamp of the Month" by clicking on the "Stamp of the Month" at top of the page on the right or purchase your SOTM here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.)

May is National Scrapbooking Month!

May is National Scrap-booking Month.

As you know, I haven't been actively scrapping. This month’s Stamp Of The Month (Just Sayin') is designed for scrap-booking, so I felt I should create a photo layout.

 
I needed some inspiration, so I took a Blog Hop tour. If you've never been on a blog hop, they are a great way to be inspired! (the way it works is you start with one blog, and it will link you to the next one in the hop. And they are all using the same stamp or papers for that "hop"). Here’s where I usually start: If you Bling It.   

I also love to blog hop to see how others are using the stamp set. They’ll look at the same stamps in TOTALLY different ways! For example; I had never thought of flipping the stamp over and sticking it ‘design side’ to the acrylic block. (though it was a totally “duh” moment as soon as I read it). You’ll get the same shape as a stamp, without the design… a couple of the bloggers did that in their designs. BRILLIANT! And not something you can do with wood-block stamps. And of course, it only works with symmetrical stamps (like many of the shapes in this stamp set). I love new techniques!

This month's stamp set: These are not only great images for photo layouts. They are great on cards, adding a little extra to a set of pocket pages, gift bags, all those little things that we paper crafters come up with. As every month, the Stamp of the Month set is $17.95 or $5 with a $50 purchase. 

Anyway, you're probably wanting to see the full pictures of my project... and here I have been keeping you waiting. Well, I got SO much inspiration, I created a photo layout page with leftover Blossom paper from the pages I worked on before. Then I made a card, definitely getting inspiration from several of the cards I saw along the blog hop (thank you ladies!). I used my Cricut to cut out a slew of 1 inch triangles and 1 inch circles, and then stamped them up using Pear, Honey, and Smoothie Exclusive Inks. I ended up using some of the circles on the photo layout, and the triangles on the card. (I have a bunch of each left, still un-stamped, for other projects).

Once I started stamping elements to use on this layout, I really went crazy, I stamped all of them in several colors and then chose the one that I liked best. I have lots left that I can use on other projects.

Something I saw done on one layout (by Angela White of www.luvz2scrapbook.com) was to use the Liquid Glass over the stamped elements to make your own enamel look pieces for your layouts. Angela had made quite a few for her page, and it was really stunning. The other idea I saw was on jd designs blog, to use the 1 inch clear epoxy done stickers (that are meant for finishing off DIY bottlecap embellishments) on the circles to make your own "flair". Either way it's done, they look great! I recommend a to visit their blogs!

After I was done with my photo layout, I was still full of ideas from the Blog Hop, so I went ahead and made this card:

I purposely left the exact sentiment of the card blank. It could be a birthday, baby congrats, thank you, promotion, graduation, anything. I used the "This Day" stamp from the February SOTM "Choose Happy", but there are many small sayings in the catalog that would fit.

Here's a complete list of the materials used in the projects above:

Both:

May SoTM  - Just Sayin' S1505 - $17.95 (or $5 with a $50 order)

Exclusive Inks, Pear, Honey, Smoothie - $5.95 each

Daisy White Cardstock 1388 - $9.50 (24 sheet pack)

Sequin embellishments - Coral Reef- Z3042 - $3.95

Marvey Uchida Journaling Pen Z1979 - $3.25

'You & Me' Scrap-book Layout:

Blossom Paper pack - X7196 - $9.95

Kraft Cardstock Z1375 - $9.50 (24 sheet pack)

Han Shin Touch Alcohol Marker - Sap Green - Z2463 - $5.95

'This Day' Card:

Pear Cardstock - X5935 $14.50 (Adventure Paper pack - 2 ea of 10 colors)

Gold Shimmer Trim - Z1985 - $4.95

Pick up your own Stamp of the Month for only $17.95 OR get it for only $5 with a $50 purchase! Be sure to contact your Close To My Heart Independent Consultant before the end of May.  If you don't already have a consultant, I'd love to be yours.  You can find details on the "Stamp of the Month" by clicking on the "Stamp of the Month" at top of the page on the right or purchase your SOTM here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Coming up next will be The Taste of Summer papers - a very Special Paper pack only being offered by CTMH this month! They are perfect for creating layouts to memorialize those sweet summer memories. Or to create some bright and cheerful cards to send off to make someone's day!



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It's the Last Week...

Of April.      Of the Deal of the Day.      Of the Typed Note Stamp of the Month.

If you've been on the fence about these, it's time to jump off and grab them!

All it takes to get the Deal of the Day is purchasing one regular priced item. 

One.... Anything... Any... Little... Thing.

And if the Deal of the Day puts your order total over $50 you can then buy the 

Typed Note stamp set for just $5! How cool is that?

($17.95 without the $50 purchase)

Surely you could use some bright Carnival Washi tape? Some Glacier Extra Thick Twine?

A new ink pad? A journaling pen? Some My Acrylix Spritz Cleaner?

I'd love to see pics or hear about what you got in Your DotD. Please leave me a comment below.