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!

Where is June going???

Wow! Between traveling to a family wedding and the craziness of work, this month is just Flying by!

I've barely had time to sit down, let alone paper craft. I did get some time to make some Father's Day cards upon request, but I forgot to take pictures before turning them over to their respective buyers.

Red Alert! The list of Retiring Items has been released! The current Idea Book (code name for catalog) and Seasonal Expressions (catalog add-on) are good until the end of August 2015. At that time a whole LOT of things will be retiring from the Close to My Heart line-up. Way too much to list here. But you can see it all here. Some things are already becoming unavailable, so if there is something you have been considering, I highly suggest you do not wait until the last minute! A few things I can tell you that are retiring are ALL the paper packs (and coordinating accessories), and ALL the My Crush books, and ALL the Alphabet stamp sets, and Most of the Picture My Life card sets (they coordinate with the paper packs). plus a ton of stamp sets, embellishments, and more. Go look... While you are there, check out the While Supplies Last section, more items have been added.

Before I left on my trip, I managed to make one card with the June Stamp of the Month, Ice Cream Dream. I think it might be hard to tell in this photo, but I lightly sponged the base card with Lagoon ink to give it some texture before adding the rest. I lifted the saying and the ice cream cone off the card with foam dots for dimension, and added a bit of Teal Shimmer Trim for sparkle. Overall, I wanted to keep it simple, and focus on the colors. 

The other card I made was a 'scrap card'. I was cleaning up around my stamping area and found an envelope full of paper strips left over from the January Year Noted paper pack. I loved that paper collection, and was bound to use every bit of it that I could. This was what I came up with.

What I did was took all the strips, and dove-tailed one end of each one. Then I took a card base, and starting with one of my strips, I carefully applied it to the card along the edge. Then I did the same thing to the next strip, butting the edge along the previous strip. I just filled the card up. When I was done, I still had some strips (and some of them had been extra long and had to be cut across the top), so I decided to fill in a bit more and added the shorter ones you can see along the top edge. I noticed after I was done that they all seem to be close in length, and the next time I do this, I will try making them more varied. I added a simple saying, and a few left-over gold stickers (also from the Year-Noted set), and a sweet card is finished. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Sorry to say, this paper pack is retired, but the technique can be done with any scraps.

Remember the Ice Cream Dream Stamp of the Month is only available for June. 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 June.  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.

There's also a great deal this month on the My Crush® books. Purchase any My Crush® book and its accompanying assortment pictured in Annual Inspirations 2014–2015, and you will receive the coordinating stamp set FREE! (That is a savings of at least $9.95 USD / $10.95 CAD!) There are 5 My Crush book offerings that will provide a fun and easy background for your favorite memories. This offer is only available while supplies last* and once they’re gone, these books are gone for good, so put your orders in early to get your summer romance rolling today!

*No tax will be charged on the free items. Shipping/handling is calculated based on the full retail price of the free stamp.