April SOTM Blog Hop - Blessed

Welcome to our April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!   

  If you have come here from Angel Sawyer's blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants here on Helen's Blog.

We have bunches of Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. To keep on hoppin' just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one!

Here we go!

April's SOTM, is called Blessed, and it is a beautiful set of 12 stamps,
including two part images.


Perfect for spring, Easter, weddings etc.

I have to admit that when I first saw this set I wasn't in love with it. That's OK,  I don't have to LOVE every set CTMH comes out with (in fact my budget is glad when I don't). Since I participate in both a SOTM swap and this blog hop I knew I needed to play with this set anyway. 

Here is what I made using this set.

I wanted something elegant for a wedding, so I took another look at this set and decided to play around and see what I could come up with. I love the elegance that can be created with embossing so I pulled out the heat gun. The colors of the wedding were pink and silver so I thought the Bliss paper would go well too. I added a scalloped punch flower and just a little bit of bling and ta-da!

In the end I LOVE how simple and elegant this came out.

Here is a closer image of the embossed image.

Usually I would painstakingly brush away all of the extra spots of embossing powder that stuck on the bird image, but in this case I liked the "speckled" effect it gave so I left it. 

Products Used:

April SOTM - Blessed

Bliss Level 2 Paper Pack
Grey Flannel Cardstock
Silver Embossing Powder

Exclusive Inks in Blush
Versamark Ink

Craft Heater

Sparkles - Pink/Red Assortment

  Thanks for looking. Now "Hop" on over to Melissa Laverty's, blog  to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants' blogs to see some awesome artwork and fun ideas! Share the love and leave some comments as you go.

Remember, the April SOTM is only available through the month of April! Contact me to see how you can get yours at a discount or even FREE.

SOTM Blog Hop ~ Find your Style

Welcome to our first Stamp of the Month Blog Hop of 2011!   

  If you have come here fromTamera Pope's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants here on Helen's Blog.

We have bunches of Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. To keep on hoppin' just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one!

Here we go!

January 's SOTM, which is called Find Your Style, is a beautiful set of  9 stamps. How versatile is this set? I can see so many possibilities and I absolutely love the bird, the butterfly, the dress form, the shoe and that friendship sentiment.  I can't wait to play with this one even more. 

 

Here is what I made using this set.

 

This is the front of the card unopened.

   But it has a surprise, it is a stand up easel card that I made into a desk calendar for 2011.

  Here it is shown standing up. I got the great little calendars at Stamp On This.

The roses are made with rolled ribbon. I love these, 

they are all the rage right now and they are so easy to make. 

The bottom portion has a sentiment that I think is perfect for a calendar. It says,

Yesterday is history, 

Tomorrow is a mystery,

Today is a gift. 

That's why we call it the Present.

Products Used:

Paper: Wings Level 2 Paper Pack

Inks: Olive, Juniper and Vineyard Berry 

Stamps: Find Your Style, Dreams Come True, and The Present

Accessories: Hollyhock Twill Ribbon, Pearl Opaques, Mini Medley in Black, Bitty Sparkles

 Now "Hop" on over to Jean McNulty's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants' blogs to see some awesome artwork and fun ideas! Share the love and leave some comments as you go.

Remember, the January SOTM is only available until January 31st! There are two ways to get this beautiful set for free as well as get some awesome discounts on more new products. For more information on the Inspirations promotion and how you can get this beautiful set, Find Your Style free click HERE.

Interactive Santa

 I love interactive cards, ones that "do" something and I had been looking for this book by Annie's Attic unsuccessfully for a while.

 When I was in Estes Park at my favorite Scrapbooking retreat this summer we took a field trip to a local scrapbooking store. Imagine my surprise when I found the book I had been looking for there. 

When I got back to the retreat i looked through the pages trying to decide which card I was going to attempt first. As always seems to happen at retreats it ended all too soon and I never got a chance to try one out. 

Fast forward a couple of months to October when I was working on my SOTM swap using the Share The Magic Set. I decided to try a card with a hidden pop up. 

Here is the card.

I went all out on this one.
I think this card has more techniques
on one card than I have ever done before.

Santa's suit is colored with copics. 

His beard is Liquid Applique. 

The fur on his suit is fun flocked.

His boots are and belt are covered in Liquid Glass for that shiny touch. 

His Belt buckle is embossed in silver

and his toy sack is paper pieced...

whew...and all of that is before I even get to my favorite part...the hidden surprise!

When you pull on the little tab with the snowflake 

at the bottom of the card Rudolph pops up

and wishes you Happy Holidays. 

This is by far my favorite Christmas card I have created this year. Thanks for looking!

Thanks

Every year at this time I try to pause and reflect on all the things I am thankful for. And more importantly I try to remember to say Thank You to all those in my life I appreciate.

This year Close To My Heart is helping us out with this awesome Stamp of The Month, A Little Thanks.
      

Here is the card I created for our consultant swap using this set and Magnifique.

 

 

Here is a tutorial I found online to show you how.

And here is a close up of the rose. I used a 2" x 2" square of colonial white cardstock to make these and the inked the edges with Sky ink and added a gem from the Blue/Green sparkles. I see a lot of these little beauties in my future.

Click HERE to see a slideshow of my group's creations.

Spring Has ...Win a free stamp set!

This is something I made for the April swap using our April Stamp of The Month, Flower Pot.

I love doing 3-D projects and this was a really fun one. The template came from Lauren Meader's My Time Made Easy site. If you haven't checked out Lauren's site you are missing out. I love her ideas and templates. The best part is that she offers all of her templates as .GSV files that I can cut on my cricut using my Sure Cuts Alot software. How awesome is that?? I would never take on making 10 of these if I had to cut them all by hand.

What is Sure Cuts Alot you might ask. Well I if you own a cricut is is a MUST have tool. I wrote a post about it on my old blog. If you want to read that post click here. If you want to learn more or want to purchase Sure Cuts Alot Click on my link to the left.

Here are some close up shots of the Wheel Barrow and one of all of them lined up for the swap.

I used the Veranda paper line from CTMH. The wheel barrow base is Cocoa cardstock, with Olive accents. I used the Flower Pot SOTM set and various CTMH colors for the flowers.


Would you like to win this stamp set for free??? Here's what you need to do.

1. Leave a comment on this post (be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you of you win)

2. Subscribe to this blog OR become a follower

I will choose a winner on May 15th. Good Luck!

They Say It's Your Birthday

If you are like me you usually remember it is someone's birthday a couple of days (sometimes weeks) after it has passed. I always have good intentions but life takes over and I just forget.

When I saw CTMH's February Stamp of The Month Set I decided to make something to help me remember.

Here is what I came up with. Presenting...

A Year of Birthdays Flip Book

This book is made with the Topstitch paper line from CTMH. I used theMy Creations Display Album and made a page for each month with space to write everyone's birthdays.

Here are the month pages

This was a class I offered in February. If you are interested in doing this project just let me know.