June 2012 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the June 2012 CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop, featuring Life is Tweet, a set of 15 Stamps.  If you've just arrived here from {Gina's} blog, you are on the right path.  If you are just starting here, just jump in and enjoy our circular hop, which has over 50 participants this month.  When you reach the end of a post, click on the link at the end to go to the next post in the hop.

For my card, I broke out my CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the card shape.  I cut it out twice (once in cardstock, once in patterned paper), cut the patterned card at the fold, and glued them together.  The sentiment was stamped on the reverse side of the patterned paper, and the image was stamped on cardstock and trimmed.  A cute bow for the front, a couple flowers stamped inside, and I have a "tweet" birthday card for a friend.

Papers: CTMH cardstock in Sweet Leaf, CTMH Dotty for You
Inks: CTMH Lagoon and Sorbet
Tools and Techniques: CTMH ribbon,Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, Liquid Glass
Stamp Sets: CTMH Life is Tweet

Remember, Life is Tweet is only available 1-30 June 2012.  Contact your Close To My Heart consultant, or click here, to find out how to get your own.

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

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

November 2011 CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the November 2011 CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop, featuring Cherish the Day, a set of 44 Stamps.  If you've just arrived here from {Nicole's} blog, you are on the right path.  If you are just starting here, just jump in and enjoy our circular hop, which has over 50 participants this month.  When you reach the end of a post, click on the link at the end to go to the next post in the hop.

My project is a birthday card for a December birthday.  I used the super-cute Roxie paper pack, which is even better in person than it appears in the Idea Book!  My card was loosely patterned after one of the cards on page 143 in the Idea Book.  And I'm LOVIN' the layers!  Six layers of scrumptious colors and patterns!  These papers are so great, and I can see them being used for all sorts of occasions (even Christmas).

The Filagree Charm was sponged with Timber Brown Staz-on ink, and the Desert Sand cardstock was sponged with Smoothie ink.  The Smoothie cardstock was cut with the Nestabilities Labels One and sponged with Smoothie ink while still in the die.  The tag was stamped in Tulip ink on Vanilla Cream cardstock and cut with a slight border.  The sentiment was then stamped on the tag in Cocoa ink.  The December tag was stamped in Tulip ink on Vanilla Cream cardstock and trimmed with a slight border.  The pieces were all mounted, and the shaped portion was mounted using 3-D Mounting Foam. 

Papers: CTMH Desert Sand, Smoothie, and Vanilla Cream cardstock, CTMH Roxie
Inks: CTMH Cocoa, Smoothie, and Tulip, Staz-on Timber Brown

Tools and Techniques: Nestabilities Labels One, CTMH Opaques Mocha, CTMH Filagree Charms, 3-D Mounting Foam, sponging
Stamp Sets: CTMH Cherish the Day, Happy Birthday, and Tender Tags


Remember, Cherish the Day is only available November 1-30, 2011.  Contact your consultant, or click here, to find out how to get yours.

Now hop on over to {Carla's} blog to see what she has created. 

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

August 2011 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our Close To My Heart consultant Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring the August SOTM, which is Wicked, a set of 9 stamps. If you have come here from {Georgia's} blog, you are on the right path! If this is your first stop, you can hop right in and enjoy our round-robin hop.

I went a bit outside the box and used this set to make a birthday card for a friend.  I stamped the witch image, and then cut it out (cutting the bird away entirely).   I had the Eagles' Witchy Woman going through my head while making this card.  LOL.  I was pretty excited because I used a paper pack (Olivia) and two colors (Pear and Smoothie) that I had never used before (I haven't been scrapping much this year, owing to my work, school, and volunteer schedule).  The Today's Date image was stamped on Bamboo cardstock, and cut out using a Coluzzle circle.  I circled the "1" with Barn Red marker (my friend's birthday is the 1st), and the "Happy Birthday" sentiment was stamped in Chocolate ink.  I had pulled out all sorts of embellishments to use, but as I started assembling the card, embellishments just seemed like too much for this card.  I guess that's an advantage to using such busy (and I don't mean that in a bad way!) paper. 

Papers: CTMH Bamboo and Smoothie cardstock, CTMH Olivia
Inks: CTMH Barn Red, Chocolate,  and Olive, CTMH Barn Red Market

Tools and Techniques: Fiskars Threading Water punch, Coluzzle Circle,
Stamp Sets: CTMH Wicked, Card Chatter-Birthday, and Today's Date

Remember, Wicked is only available August 1-31, 2011.  Contact your consultant, or click here, to find out how to get yours.

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

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

March 2011 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the October 2010 CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop, featuring Sensational Season, a set of 10 Stamps.  If you've just bounced here from {Brae's} blog, you are on the right track.  If you are just starting here, just jump in and enjoy our circular hop, which has over 60 participants this month.  When you reach the end of a post, click on the link at the end to hop to the next post.

I couldn't resist all of the hoppy references with the cute little rabbits in this stamp set!  I also decided to bend the rules a bit and made a birthday card instead of an Easter card.  I made this card following Mojo Monday sketch 179.  The adorable little hare was colored using Copics, and I paper-pieced his jacket.  Since I'd stamped him on White Daisy paper to color him, and WD was too bright to look good with the other colors, I sponged around him to make it blend better.  I used Nestabilities Classic Oval Large for the oval.  Martha Stewart punch was used for the lacy border, which was then DTP distressed with Twilight ink.  3D Mounting Foam was used to mount the square, Xyron Create-a-Sticker was used for the ribbon, and glue dots were used for the buttons.  The paper pack is Felicity, which was a promotional paper pack last year.

And hare's a close-up of the bunny (before sponging).

Now hop on over to {Tammy Lea's} blog to see her sensational work.  Remember, Sensational Season is only available March 1-31, 2011.  Contact your CTMH consultant, or click here, to find out how to get yours for a discount or even for FREE!

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

Perfect 10

This is the card I made for my son for his tenth birthday.  Of course, me and my postal issues didn't get it in the mail in time to arrive for his birthday.   This card used two previous Stamps of the Month (March and July 2010).

Papers: CTMH Stardust

Inks: CTMH Chocolate, Moonstruck, and Topiary, CTMH markers in Black, Chocolate (accents in hedgie's scruff), Crystal Blue, and Topiary, Versamark

Tools and Techniques: Heat embossing, CTMH gold embossing powder, crosshatching, direct-to-paper edge distressing, CTMH Watercolor Pencils, Waterbrush, 3-D Mounting Foam, Bella's Baubles
Stamp Sets: CTMH Happy Forever, CTMH A Little Everything

Another card from my scrap day

This is the card I started while my friends were still here scrapping with me.  No sketch, just winged it.  I wanted to use lots of flowers, and I had the piece of patterned paper already cut out with the Nesty, so I wanted to put that piece to use.

Papers: CTMH Chocolate cardstock, CTMH That's Amore

Inks: Versamark

Tools and Techniques: CTMH flowers, CTMH ribbon (Blush collection), CTMH Tulip Brads, Nestabilities Labels Eight, Cuttlebug, CTMH White embossing powder
Stamp Sets: CTMH Happy Birthday

Birthday card from my scrap day...

...sorta.  I had some friends over to scrap last weekend, but I didn't get much scrapping done while they were here (but had some good conversation and some yummy snacks!!).  I made this card after everyone left (instead of putting all of my supplies away, and they are STILL down on the dining room table). 

I made this card following OCC Sketch Challenge 7, using some adorable paper I bought at CKC Pasadena last year.  Other challenges include Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #75 (Spring Has Sprung), Pixie Dust Studio Pixie Challenge #12 (Buttons and Flowers), Crafty Calendar Challenge #6 (Flower Power), and Creative Card Crew Challenge (It's A Celebration). 

Papers: CTMH Chocolate, Clover Meadow and Twilight cardstock, Doodlebug Designs Dragonfly Stripe and Seedlings

Inks: CTMH Chocolate and Twilight

Tools and Techniques: CTMH Buttons, Prima Flowers, CTMH Chocolate Brads, 3-D Mounting Foam, Marvy Uchida circle punch, Marvy Uchida scalloped oval punch
Stamp Sets: CTMH From Me to You

Shaped Birthday Card

I lovelovelove my Silhouette.  I don't use it nearly enough (but then again, I don't scrap nearly enough either).  I signed up for the membership where I get unlimited downloads of digital images, so I have a lot of really cool files that I can cut out.  This card template (both the whole card and the striped piece) is one of my Silhouette files.  So I can make a really neat shaped card with very little effort (and no scissor-frustration).

I followed a few challenges for this birthday card:  Pile It On Challenge #10 (pastel colors),  Paper Cutz Challenge #32 (anything goes), Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #74 (also anything goes),  Treehouse Thursday Challenge #40 (clean and simple), and Cute Card Thursday Challenge #103 (Celebrations).

Papers: CTMH White Daisy cardstock, Making Memories
Inks: CTMH Breeze (retired) and Grey Wool, Copic Markers

Tools and Techniques: CTMH Rhinestone Flowers, direct-to-paper edge distressing
Stamp Sets: CTMH A Little Everything and Card Sentiments (inside), Stamping Bella

Pretty in Pink Mojo Birthday Card

I made this card following Mojo 129 sketch.  This is actually the second card I made today (after doing 12 digital scrapbook pages--Studio J is going to be FANTASTIC!!!), and this one I'm actually EARLY for.  Pretty simple, with lots of paper layers (7 layers at the center, which doesn't include the card base.).

Papers: CTMH Blush, Sweet Leaf, and White Daisy cardstock, Making Memories Brooke Narrow Stripe and Brook Paisley
Inks: CTMH Blush and Sweet Leaf

Tools and Techniques: CTMH Half Pearls, direct-to-paper edge distressing cross-hatching, CTMH ribbon
Stamp Sets: CTMH True Friends, Say It In Style,  and and Card Sentiments (inside)

Felicity Birthday Card for an Old Friend

I made this card for my oldest friend, who I met in 4th grade (we won't discuss just how many years ago that is).  First, let me say that I am a horrible friend when it comes to writing, getting cards out on time, calling, even e-mailing.  So A and I don't talk much, mostly just the occasional posts on Facebook.  Last summer my husband, son and I went home to Florida for our vacation and tried to see all of our friends.  The night we went out with A and her family was great.  I think a good indicator of friendship is how easily you can pick right back up as though no time had passed.  We had a great dinner, and then went back to her house where we hung out for hours talking as though we hadn't been away for nearly nine years.  In the meantime, other than Christmas cards I have sent NO notes/letters/emails since we got back to California.  With her birthday being at the beginning of the month, I am pretty much ALWAYS late getting her card in the mail, and this year is no exception (I may have got it out on time last year.   Maybe.).  If I'd finished two hours sooner, it might have made today's mail, and she might have received it on her birthday.  Now, it will go out the day before her birthday and hopefully only be one day late.

I used the CTMH Felicity Collection (man, I wish those papers were still available), and the sketch for this 8 X 3 1/2" card is from Wishes by Jeanette Lynton. 

Papers: CTMH Chocolate, Cocoa, Colonial White, and White Daisy cardstock, CTMH Felicity
Inks: CTMH Bamboo, Chocolate, and Twilight (inside)

Tools and Techniques: CTMH Half Pearls, sewing machine, second-generation stamping, direct-to-paper edge distressing cross-hatching, sponging
Stamp Sets: CTMH Felicity, Say It In Style,  and and Card Sentiments (inside)

Spring-y Mojo Birthday Card

I'm on a roll today.  I have to say, I really enjoy spending my entire Sunday in my pajamas.  I'm glad I was able to get my roses trimmed yesterday, so I didn't have to get dressed today.  So, this is card number two for today, made following Mojo Monday 126.  Other challenges include Crafty Creations Challenge #55 (stitching), Pile It On challenge (flowers), and Your Next Stamp (Spring Colours).  I'd also come across a challenge with plaid, but I can't seem to find it again.

 

Papers: CTMH White Daisy cardstock, Bazzill Cardstock, Basic Grey Lemonade
Inks: Copic Markers, CTMH Twilight

Tools and Techniques: Prima flowers Basic Grey Opaline Half Pearls, Nestabilities Petite Oval Large and Petite Scalloped Oval Large, Fiskars Threading Water border Punch, unknown ribbon, sewing machine, 3-D Mounting Foam
Stamp Sets: Hero Arts Sweet Wonderful You, CTMH Happy Birthday and Card Sentiments (inside)

Cute and Spring-y Birthday Card

I'm still getting over the crud that has been going around, and I woke up with a headache, so I decided to scrap for a bit before hitting the gym (and DH hired a cleaning company that started two days ago and will come bi-weekly, so I don't feel obligated to be cleaning something right now).  A few weeks ago I stopped at the Stampin' Post on my way home and bought the cutest little girl stamp set by Hero Arts.  Which meant I needed more Copics to color them with.  So I ordered 19 more from The Merri Artist (bringing my current total of Copic markers to 30), and was excited to get to break-in both of my new purchases.  Friday evening I started coloring a few of the largest girl image, and today I am making cards with them.  This is the first card, made for an upcoming birthday.  This card was made following CPS sketch 154.  Other challenges were OCC Something Old That's New, Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge (I LOVE using up stuff from my stash, and the paper, flowers and baubles have been in my stash for AGES), Pile it On (flowers), and Fun With Shapes and More challenge #41 (Spotted).

Papers: CTMH Orange and White Daisy cardstock, Sassafrass Sunshine Lollipops
Inks: Copic Markers

Tools and Techniques: Unknown flowers (whoever makes the monthly flowers, these are January Carnation and March Daffodil), Bella's Baubles
Stamp Sets: Hero A rts Sweet Wonderful You, CTMH Card Sentiments (inside)

Bright Mojo Birthday card with a cut-out

I followed this week's Mojo Monday sketch to make a birthday card for another karate mom.  I was inspired to use a white hibiscus with a pink center, as that is her profile photo on Facebook.   Using the flower was also how this card meets the Pile It On challenge (Let us see flowers!).  I chose Watermelon to be the shade of pink I used, and I used the CTMH Color Combo site to come up with the coordinating colors.  Two bright cards in a row for me (although they won't be posted in order), and I like it!!  I guess I'm feeling ready for summer.  I know I'm ready to be over this nasty winter cold.

 

Papers: CTMH Sunkiss Yellow and White Daisy cardstock, CTMH Watermelon and White Daisy Textured Cardstock, CTMH Emporium
Inks: CTMH Garden Green and Watermelon

Tools and Techniques: Silhouette Machine (flower), Cuttlebug, Happy Birthday embossing folder (which I rubbed the Watermelon ink pad over the front part of the folder before putting the paper in and running through the machine), Wright's ribbon, 3-D Mounting Foam, sponging.
Stamp Sets: CTMH Happy Birthday and  True Friends 


Close To My Heart has the Textured Cardstock combo packages buy one get one free for the month of February, PLUS they will donate $2 to Operation Smile's Haiti relief efforts from each offer purchased.  Visit my website for more details, or to place an order.  Buy one get one free AND helping a good cause, you can't beat that!!!!

Cheer-y birthday card

I made a birthday card for my friend J, which I of course failed to get in the mail in time for her birthday. And to make matters even better, I forgot to sign it (which I realized right as I dropped it in the mailbox). There should be no doubt in anyone's mind about whether or not I am a true blonde...

This card followed the sketch from Mojo Turns 100 Day 6. There was another challenge for decorating the inside of your card, but I seem to have misplaced that. The circle of Emporium patterned paper on the inside of the card is the scrap leftover from this Thank You card I made for the September SOTM blog hop. I hate when pretty paper goes to waste, so I was quite glad to be able to put that scrap to use.






Papers: CTMH Emporium, CTMH cardstock
Inks: CTMH, Copic markers, CTMH markers
Ribbon: CTMH Cocoa grosgrain Stamps: Stamping Bella (image received in swap), CTMH Ring in the Year, CTMH Card Sentiments (retired) Tools and Techniques: Fiskars Threading Water punch, Nestabilities Circle and Scalloped Circle, sponging, direct-to-paper ink distressing, 3-D Foam mounting squares

Birthday Card for MIL

So yesterday I realized that (holy cow!) September is nearly half over. Where has this year gone? I also realized that my MIL's birthday is coming up next week (nice of my husband to remind me--NOT) and I needed to make a card. I combined two challenges for this card, Mojo Monday 103 sketch and Cute Card Thursday Challenge 77 (color challenge-use pink and green). Actually, I had come across a third challenge that was to decorate the inside of your card, but I seem to have misplaced that one.



Papers: Basic Grey Eva, Bazzil cardstock
Inks: CTMH
Ribbon: CTMH
Stamps: CTMH Gracious Greetings
Tools and Techniques: Nestabilities Label , sponging, 3-D Foam mounting squares, Prima Flower

I also made some Christmas cards that will be in another post. I'm trying to complete as many cards as I can before I get back into having to do school work.

Birthday card for my baby...

...who turned 9 today. I can't believe how the time flies. It is hard to believe that he will be starting 4th grade next month. Soon, he will be a teenager...ugh. Let's not think about that right now. This is supposed to be a happy day.


I made this last night, and attached it to his bedroom door in a clear envelope so he would find it when he woke up this morning (I had to leave for work WAY before he woke up).





I used the Tinkerin' paper pack, with Sunflower, Twilight and Clover Meadow cardstock. Stamps used were Happy Birthday and Solo 9. The nine I actually reverse stamped and cut out on the Twilight cardstock, then decided to color it with the Twilight ink (the only ink I used) anyway. Did you know that you can reverse a stamp image by inking a stamp, rolling a brayer over it and the rolling the brayer on a sheet of paper?? Voila, your image is now backwards! This was my first time doing that technique, and it turned out to be unnecessary. But it was VERY easy to do, and is a technique I am sure to use again. The Clover Meadow cardstock was ink distressed with Twilight, and the star brad came from my stash. And, of course, the 9 was mounted with 3-D Mounting Foam. I had intended to use a sketch to make his card, then I started flipping through Wishes Card Confidence Program and saw a card I thought would work and used it as a sketch instead of following the details exactly. I'm really excited to get time to go through Wishes and make some of the cards, but I don't think I will have much scrap time until the end of August.

Back to reality...

So my vacation to Florida is over, and now it is time to get back to work, housework and algebra. But I was jonesing to do some scrapping, as it had been over two weeks since I last made a card (my previous card was made before I left for vacation, but I didn't post until the 1st because of the blog hop). Of course, when I first sat down to scrap when we got back from vacation, I realized I needed to do some organizing. Which created a larger mess than I had to start with (and gave me 84 other projects that I want to do). So I didn't end up doing any scrapping until this morning (and in case you are wondering, the organization is NOT complete).

Realizing I would soon be in need of a birthday card, I followed this week's Mojo Monday sketch to make this card. I used the new DCWV designer cardstock I bought yesterday (as if I don't have enough paper), along with CTMH cardstock in Crystal Blue, Sorbet and White Daisy. The flowers (CTMH Big Pinks) were sponged around the edges with Crystal Blue and Sorbet inks, connected together with Zots, and given a Crystal Blue CTMH button for the center. The sentiment (from CTMH Card Sentiments) was stamped in Grey Wool ink on a panel cut using Nestabilities Large Labels and then sponged with Crystal Blue ink while still in the die. Stitched ribbon is CTMH Sorbet. The sentiment panel and the flower were mounted with 3-D Mounting Foam.

Rockin' Birthday Card

This is the birthday card I made for my husband, following Card Patterns Sketch #13. I used the new CTMH Moon Doggie papers, along with Desert Sand, Chocolate, Honey and Indian Corn Blue. Stamp sets used were Happy Birthday, Star Struck, and You Rock. Inks used were Cocoa and Indian Corn Blue. The star was mounted using 3-D Foam Mounting Squares.

Spring-y Birthday Card

Today I combined this week's OCC Challenge (use your favorite color combo) and the Viva La Verve sketch April Week 5. Now, if you were to ask Sue how I answer questions about my favorite color, she would ramble on about "indecisive" and "thesis-length answers". Much like food, colors have their place, and I can appreciate almost all colors much as I can appreciate most foods (except the color orange, I just don't seem to care much for orange. Although, I really like coral, which is a shade of orange...Sue, be quiet about the thesis...). Anyway, I really like the combo of Sweet Leaf and Twilight, so I used those two colors to create a birthday card with a twist of spring. After all, what is more spring-y than a butterfly enjoying a cocktail? The image (from Stamping Bella) is one I received in a swap. I colored using CTMH Sweet Leaf marker, and watercolored with Blush and Twilight, and used Prismacolor Cool Grey for shadowing. The circle and scalloped circle were cut and embossed with Nestabilities, the scalloped circle was sponged with Twilight ink while it was still in the die. The Sweet Leaf cardstock was embossed with my Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirl embossing folder. The sentiment (from CTMH Happy Birthday) was stamped on White Daisy cardstock and adorned with a butterfly brad (Creative Impressions). White Organza ribbon is from my stash, and the baubles are Squeeze of Lime from Stamping Bella.

Color Chef Mojo Birthday Card

I combined challenges again today, using this week's Mojo Monday sketch and Color Chef Challenge 2. The colors for the challenge are White Daisy, Sorbet and Tulip. This was actually a pretty tough color combination for me, I watched a 2+ hour movie while working on this, and the movie ended before the card was finished (it was P.S. I Love You, by the way). I decided to make a birthday card for a friend who has a birthday next month. I used all CTMH products on this card. Paper used was cardstock in White Daisy, Sorbet, and Tulip, and Background & Texture papers from Key To My Heart (sadly, no longer available) and Perfect Day. Stamp sets used were Bird Basics and For Every Occasion. Scalloped edge was cut with Threading Water punch. Sentiment was stamped in Tulip ink. The bird was stamped on the B&T paper in Versamark then heat embossed with clear embossing powder and cut out. The wing and tail were stamped in Tulip ink on Sorbet cardstock. The tail was mounted with 3D Foam Mounting Squares for added dimension, and the eye is a Bitty Brad in black.