July SOTM Blog Hop ~ Live Out Loud

Hello and welcome back for another SOTM blog hop.

If you have arrived here from Michelle Loncar's blog then you are on the right track. 

 This is the last SOTM set in our current Spring/Summer Idea book.

 Are you as excited as I am to see the new Idea Book?

July's set is called Live Out Loud and its a fabulous set of 8 awesome sentiments. 

This month my assigned paper pack was Crusin'. And since I was making these cards just before Father's Day knew I wanted to make some "man cards". I decided to also use the car image from the Cruisin' WOTG kit. I just love that classic car and it stamps so beautifully.

So here is the card I made

I wanted the car to look like it was driving along a road so I stitched the white lines with white embroidery floss, using our awesome clear ruler to poke the holes for perfect spacing. I then stamped the image and accented it with our new durables in the corners to make it look like a billboard. Finally, I cut small triangle flags from the decorative border of one of the Cruisin' papers to make the checkered flags.

Products Used

July SOTM Set Live Out Loud

Cruisin' Paper Pack

Cruisin' WOTG Stamp Set

Exclusive Inks in Twilight and Cranberry

Durables Studs

Embroidery Floss Neutral Assortment

Clear Ruler

Piercing Tool Kit

And here are the cards made by the rest of my team. 

I think it is funny how I was the only one out of my group who did not use the

 butterfly SOAR image but all of the cards are still so different. 

Now hop on over to see what wonderful things Brae Montgomery has done with this set. 

Love Birds...

Once upon a time my daughter had a room mate. I'll call her Jessica, (because that's her name). Jessica finished her college education and took a job in a tiny town for the summer. In that tiny town there was a boy. I'll call him Jacob or Jake for short.  Despite the fact that  Jessica was only in the tiny town for a short while, Jessica and Jacob fell in love and decided to get married. Since my daughter is one of Jessica's bestest buddies she offered to help with the wedding. And in the process of offering her own skills in cake making, decorating and other friendly wedding duties somehow I got volunteered to "help" make the invitations.

Jessica wasn't sure exactly what she wanted but she wanted to somehow incorporate trees. I went to my favorite place for inspiration...PINTEREST. I found and pinned lots of ideas for Jessica as a place to start. This is the pin she liked best. It is from an Etsy shop and can be found HERE.

I thought, "I can do that" and starting thinking of stamp sets and colors that I could use to recreate if for Jessica and Jake. I made a few samples using different color combinations. And met with Jessica to make some decisions.

This is the prototype we came up with.

 Then I waited for the numbers, how many were they going to need? Jessica waited for the lists to come in from both families but she thought they would need about 150 invites.

"I can do that", I told her (wondering what it was really going to take to hand stamp 150 invites). When the final numbers finally came in it was 250 invites. I can honesty say I thought to myself, "What did I get myself into.". We had decided on the colors (Chocolate, Sweet Leaf, Smoothie and Colonial White) so I ordered the cardstock and we planned a weekend to get the girls together to make them.

I cut all of the pieces ahead of time and my daughter and I started stamping.   First came the trees, I used the CTMH stamp set Grown With Love (retired). Jessica really liked the "carved" heart that was on the original one we saw so we had to figure out how to carve a heart out of our tree. We decided to cut small hearts out of sticker paper using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to mask out a heart shape on the tree trunk. Instead of completely removing the mask before stamping which would leave a white heart we left the stickers on the stamp and inked it with Chocolate and then stamped. Because the sticker paper absorbs the ink instead of sitting on top we got a brown heart with a different texture than the rest of the tree with a nice outline that just happened (I love happy accidents). .

Next come the leaves, stamped in Sweet Leaf.

  

Each invitation has 14 stamped leaf groups. 

 

And then come the birds stamped with Smoothie. 

The birds came from the CTMH Childhood Portrait stamp set 

and luckily there are two birds in that set, one facing each direction. 

We added the initials inside the heart with a Chocolate marker. 

When we were done our stack looked like this.

For a bit of perspective here is our stack compared to the height of three stamp pads. 

Pretty impressive if I do say so myself!

Now that all of the stamping was done we were ready for an assembly party.

I gathered all of the supplies (and a stash of chocolate and Diet Coke)

 and the bride and her friends showed up to help. 

Left to right ~ Lauren, Ashleigh and Jessica (the bride)

Angie and Lauren work on assembling. 

 And here is the stack of 250 finished invites. 

We add a photo of the cute couple (sorry for the blurry phone pic)

 and tie it off with a hemp bow and they are ready for the mail.

Ashton and Lauren line up the envelopes. 

WE DID IT!!

Congratulations Jessica and Jake, glad to be a part of your special day. 

And also glad to know that I CAN make 250 hand stamped wedding invites...who's next?

June SOTM Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to the June SOTM Blog Hop. If you came from Kami Welter's blog you are on the right track. We have more than 50 fabulous consultants showing their awesome artwork using this set so enjoy the ride!

This month our set is called Life is Tweet, isn't it SO cute!

I had so much fun with this set. One day my friend and I just decided to sit down and make cards. I had just gotten this set and the Dotty for You paper pack and so we went to town. I also had the  paper pack assigned for my swap group so I had lots of ideas flowing.

This first card is the one I did for my swap. I paper pieced the bird with the dotty for you paper. I just love how you can mix papers from different packs and they always match perfectly.

And here are the pics from my swap groups. 

These next ones are the some of the ones my friend and I did using the Dotty for You papers.

 We had a great time with this set, and I am sure you will too so get yours today.

Supply list

June SOTM  - Life is Tweet

Footloose Paper Paper Pack

Dotty For You Paper Pack

Bitty Brads 

CTMH Exclusive Inks in various colors

Sweet Leaf Stitched ribbon (retired)

Seam binding ribbon

Now hop on over to Adeline Brill's Blog to see what she has created.

 Thanks for stopping by.

May SOTM Blog Hop ~ Friendship Bouquet

Hello and welcome to the May SOTM blog hop. 

If you have come here from Tamera Pope's blog then you are on the right track, 

it is one great big loop of creative inspiration. 

This month's set Friendship Bouquet is such a beautiful set. 

I love sunflowers and gerbera daisies and this set can easily be colored to be either. Since my assigned paper pack for this month is Lucy I decided that I would be making pink daisies. 

Here is my card

And here is another view with the band removed so you can see how it opens.

 I love these die cut cards, they are so cute!!

I was recently giving sewing lessons to the teenage daughter of a friend and we were working with grey and pink and I just loved those colors together. So, since I still had pink thread in my sewing machine I thought why not sew on some Grey Wool cardstock as an accent for my card. 

Here is a close up of the sewing on the band closure of the card.

I love how the pink just pops off of the grey wool. I need to do more sewing on my projects!

I also knew that I wanted to use the daisy to make a layered 3 dimensional flower.

 I love the technique of cutting only part of the flower for each layer 

and then stacking them for a 3D effect.

 This set is perfect for that technique.

Here is a close up of the 3D flower. 

I think this set might be getting lots of ink this spring and summer! 

Don't forget that you can only get it throughout the month of May

Supplies Used:

Friendship Bouquet May SOTM Set

Lucy paper pack

Exclusive Inks in  Grey Wool, Creme Brulee, Blush

Stardust Glitter Glitz gel

Watercolor Pencils

Blender Pen

Colonial White Die Cut cards

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

Now hop on over to Jen Rubio's blog to see what she has created.

For My Peeps

I don't know if you have tried Pinterest yet, but if not you really should. I will however, tell you in advance that it is highly addictive. I have pinned more cards, scrapbook pages, recipes, sewing/ DIY projects than I will ever have time to try if I live to be 100 years old,,,and I keep pinning!

It was on Pinterest that I saw originally saw the idea for peep s'mores.

 Here is the link to the original pin. 

 And here is another version I pinned for a printable bag topper available on Etsy.

As soon as I saw it I know I wanted to make my own version using CTMH's new My Peeps stamp set.

So I gathered my supplies

And went to work.

 Here is what I came up with.

(sorry about the blurry pic)

And here is a closer (and clearer) pic of my cute bag topper

 I used sponge daubers to dab different colors of ink on the eggs and the grass behind the bunnies,

 such a fun way to get multiple colors on a single stamp.

And since I had a few extra bunnies already cut out I made this card too. 

Happy Easter to all my Peeps!

 CTMH Supplies Used:

 My Peeps Stamp Set

Inks in Pear, Smoothie, Gypsy, Hollyhock, Honey, Lagoon, Cotton Candy

Cardstock in White Daisy, Chocolate, Pear, Cotton Candy, Lagoon, Sunny Yellow, Gypsy

Dotty For You paper pack (on card)

White Daisy die cut card

Stripe paper is from my stash (Doodlebug Designs)

Peeps bunnies

Snack Size Hershey bars

Graham crackers

zipper sandwich bags

April SOTM Blog Hop - You Are...

Happy Spring! Welcome to the April SOTM Blog Hop. if you have arrived here from

Angela Tutton's Blog

then you are on the right track. It is one big circle so you start anywhere and hop your way through some amazing artwork and awesome ideas on how to use this fantastic set,

You Are... is an awesome set of 15 stamps.

Aren't they fun? You can use these to describe a person or an  event. You can use them on scrapbook pages, cards or even home decor. As usual with our SOTM sets the possibilities are endless.

Here is what I created using this set.

 I used the Cocoa, Sunset, Tulip and Lagoon colors from the Stella paper pack and created my own stamped background. I love the way the different colors and fonts combine to create a fun background. The medallion, the tag and the banners were cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. I don't think there is much that I create these days that I don't use that cartridge, it lives in my Cricut full time.

Here is a close up of the medallion, its so easy to cut those intricate cuts when you use the Cricut. Can you even imagine trying to do that (multiple times) with a craft knife?

Supplies used:

Stella level 1 paper pack

Exclusive inks in Cocoa, Tulip, Sunset and Lagoon

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

Tulip Mini Medley (button)

Antique Copper Bitty Brads

Chocolate Waxy Flax

You Are - April SOTM Set

 

Here are some other great ways to use this set from my swap groups.

Now make like a bunny and hop on over to
 Tamytha Jenkins' blog
and see her awesome artwork!

March SOTM Blog Hop- Potential

Hello, and welcome to this month’s SOTM Blog Hop.

 If you arrived here from Gina Brandstetter's Blog

then you are on the right track, just keep on hopping 

‘cause it’s one great big circle of awesome artwork using the March SOTM set Potential. 

This gorgeous set is going to be a new favorite I am sure. 

I just love the bold flourishes and can see myself using them on both cards and scrapbook pages. 

And I just LOVE the sentiments, there is so much love and encouragement in those seven words. 

As many of you may already know,

 I do my monthly SOTM projects 

based on a paper pack assignment

 from my consultants group. 

This month my assigned paper pack was Florentine,

 which I think compliments this set beautifully.

Here is the card I made 

The card is cut using one of the card shapes available on the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. 

The shaped window is perfectly centered and cut right out of the card, easy peasy! 

With the card closed you can only see the word Anything through the window.

But in this image I stood the card up a little more open 

so you can see the entire message stamped on the inside. 

For the front I used the back side of the paper that looks like a persian rug. I always have a hard time cutting those beautiful full page designs but I really loved this design on the back side. It is one of the reasons I usually buy two paper packs, I usually like BOTH sides of the paper!

I was working on these cards at Archivers when they were demoing a new product from We R Memory Keepers called Sew Ribbon (you can find out about it here).

 It is a fun new tool that you can use to punch slits anywhere on your paper and weave your ribbon through.

 It was so much fun and I loved the results so I just had to buy one.

 Here is a closer look at the ribbon weaving.

Supplies Used -

(All supplies are from CTMH unless otherwise noted)

S1203 -March SOTM Stamp Set - Potential

X7153B Florentine Level 2 Paper Pack

Z2111 Chocolate Exclusive Ink

Z2160 Twilight Exclusive Ink

Z1336 Pearl Opaque Adhesive Gems

Cocoa Bulk Ribbon 

Z1686 Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge

Z726 Sponge Daubers

Sew Ribbon Tool by We R Memory Keepers

Now hop on over to Sarita Shraeder's Blog

to see what beautiful creation she has come up with. 

As always remember that the Potential stamp set is only available throughout the month of March. 

Contact me to get yours now!