Sunday, June 30, 2013

July 2013 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the July 2013 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring Sweet Life, a set of 9 stamps.  Whether you've already been hopping and arrived via {Angel's blog} or you're just starting here, click on the link at the end of each post to go to the next blog in the hop.

My card is inspired by Mojo Monday sketch 299.  I originally wanted to make a recipe box with the peach stamp, but my coloring skills left a lot to be desired for the peaches.  Instead, I pulled out my Cherry-O papers to make this card.


Besides using a bunch of colors, I got to use some pretty velvet-y ribbon, several items from my distressing kit, watercolor pencils with a water brush, and of course 3-D mounting foam.  And I took the picture using my new lens.

Remember, Sweet Life is only available July 1-31st 2013.  Contact your consultant, or click here, to get one for yourself.

Now hop on over to {Wendy's blog} to check out her sweet project.

If you find any broken links along the way, Helen has the complete list of hoppers here.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

June 2013 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the CTMH Stamp of the Month blog hop.  If you just arrived from {Shirley's} blog, you are on the right path.  This month there are over 50 Close To My Heart consultants participating in our round-robin blog hop.  This month we are featuring A Flowering Bunch, a set of 10 stamps.

Summer means a new class for me, which means new books, which means NEW BOOKMARKS!!  Which is perfect, because when I looked at this stamp set, the big flower just screamed "bookmark" to me.  I chose colors from the Later Sk8r paper pack.


The first step was to cut out the shape from the Cricut Artiste cartridge, once in White Daisy and once in Pear.  Then the image was stamped on the White Daisy cardstock, sprinkled with black embossing powder and heated with the heat gun.  To do the watercolor, squeeze the lid of your stamp pad.  When you open the pad, there will be a bit of ink on the underside of the lid, which you will run the waterbrush through to load with color.  After coloring, the magnet disks were attached to the inside of each piece and then they were laminated.  Laminating after attaching the magnet disks gives an extra layer of protection to keep the magnets attached to the bookmark.  The bad thing about lamination is that regular adhesives don't adhere to it very well.


A few years ago I learned about Terrifically Tacky tape, which is AMAZING when you are working with surfaces that don't take adhesive well.  I applied the Terrifically Tacky tape to the underside of the front piece and trimmed to fit, then attached the two pieces of the bookmark together.  I squeezed them together, then decided to give the bond a little extra holding power by using my heat gun to warm the bookmark and squeezing some more.  And here is the final product in action.

Papers: CTMH Pear and White Daisy cardstock
Inks: CTMH Lagoon, Outdoor Denim, and Pear; Versamark
Tools and Techniques: CTMH Black Embossing Powder, Waterbrush, Cricut Artiste cartridge, Basic Grey magnets, Xyron lamination, Terrifically Tacky Tape  

Remember, A Flowering Bunch is only available June 1-30, 2013.  Ask your consultant, or click here, to find out how to get this stamp for yourself!

Now hop on over to {Angel's blog} to see her creation.

If you find any broken links along the way, Helen has the complete list on her blog.