Thursday, September 30, 2010

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring October's SOTM called Share the Magic, a set of 12 stamps.

If you have come here from Jean's Blog, you are on the right path! If this is your first stop, you may want to go back to Helen's Blog and start from the beginning!
This month we have over 70 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!


This is a sweet standard sized card with a nice faux ribbon wrap. I stamped the candy canes and lights with Desert Sand Ink and colored them in using my water brush and lots of inks: Sunflower, Dutch Blue, Cranberry, and Topiary. I added second generation stars on the background and on the faux flap. Finally I highlighted each light with a bit of Glitz Glitter Gel - my favorite fun affordable embellishment right now!
 
 
Now "Hop" on over to Toni's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the October SOTM is only available until the last day of the October! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Split the layout!

So I was playing in Studio J last night, and was staring at this beautiful picture of my sister and her family. It's the only picture I have of them like this, so how can I use it in a layout. I mean - one pic, two pages...seriously? Then I got to thinking - I could split the layout!

I put a few pics we took on a day trip to Santa Cruz that I've never gotten around to scrapping. I altered the papers and embellies enough that the pages are matching anymore, and I can add them to my LO wherever I like.

I added buttonhole stitches along the digital ribbon to create a custom ribbon effect on the right side of the LO. So fast and easy - even still the entire layout took me about 20 minutes once I realized I didn't have to use the same pics on each page! What a great way to get all my random non-special theme pics scrapped! I am so catching up this year!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Max stands!

One of the things I love about Studio J is the search feature for Layouts with a specific number of photos. When Max started standing up I ran to grab my camera. I got 4 shots that were adorable - but I'm not usually a 4 shot layout girl, and none were really amazing to blow up huge. Studio J to the rescue!

I went out and searched for 4 photo layouts in the Sarsaparilla kit, since I knew that it would match his adorable cowboy outfit. There were a number of choices, but I loved this one, since I knew I'd be too lazy to make a brad circle like that right now. Took me about 20 minutes to finish the layout and pull a pic for the blog here, including deleting the pre-selected embellishments from CTMH to add my brad circle, ribbons, and ribbon stitch details. Giddyup!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Keep on trying!

Howdy Stampers 'n Scrappers! I was too tired to actually stamp my Mojo card this week with my temporary single parent status, so I decided to whip out a new Layout in Studio J. This took me about 15 minutes - woo hoo!

 Now that I've got my awesome new Membership, there's even more reasons to love Studio J! In this layout I used one of the new exclusive Members only kits, along with a Members only layout. I LOVE details like the big double swoop on the left there, but it can be a pain to cut those out. You can change the pattern or paper used for the embellishment with just the click of a mouse! And an awesome new feature is that you can take any of the patterns in your kit and change it to a monochromatic matching color with just a button click. My purple Gypsy stripe paper is actually a yellow notebook print. I even rotated the direction of the lines inside the swoopy area to add a little more texture.

Can't wait to share this layout with the boys in the morning. I think we'll be having another day of click beetle races!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Thriller....the sequel!

Another visit to my September SOTM Thriller Set - this time using the skull and crown images to create my own stamped background. If you'd asked me, I'd have been pretty certain I have no need of a skull stamp in my life, but this may be one of the girliest skull/tattoo type stamp sets ever. The background was easy to do after preloading my clear block with the images - just nest in each image to fill in the space. Then I pierced additional holes to give more dimension by letting the black CS peek through.

I used the double sided textured CS (Alas, how I will miss you, CTMH textured CS. Hope y'all stocked up!) to add a pop of color to the bottom of my card. I embossed a line around the bottom and inked it up with my black ink to define the edge. I put a strip of the opposite side under my button.hemp embellishment combo. Then I started layering some buttons - fun! I have one of our new super huge clear craft buttons under a hemp bow topped with a Holiday green craft button tied with more hemp. This just "thrills" my lumpy-bumpy heart!

BTW - it says TRICK on the front of the card, with the "OR TREAT" stamped on the inside, to be finished off with a little paper covered hershey bar. Probably best NOT to mail this one - but it does come with chocolate!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

September SOTM: Thriller

Here's a fun September SOTM card using Thriller. You know I'm not a huge fan of Halloween stamps. I have a hard time shelling out bucks for a stamp set that I see as a uni-tasker ala Alton Brown. It seems to be a halloween specific thing - I buy Christmas stamps and Thanksgiving stamps, and heart sets for Valentine's Day, but my Halloween stamp box is rattling around with a few cobwebs in it.  This year, though, I've got Thriller to fill my Haloween needs, plus the adorable new monster set that goes with my Hooligans papers... finally Halloween is getting some respect!

For this Card I stamped the adorable vampire (not a common phrase in my everyday life...) onto White Daisy Cardstock, then again onto a post it. I fussy cut him out of the post it and applied the post it to my stamped vampire element. Then I sponged all kinds of golds and oranges across the background. Stamped the vampire image one more time on some of that yummy purple dot paper from the You Rock kit and trimmed out the center of the frame this time. I dry embossed a line border around the edge of the purple and inked that with Black Ink before popping the frame up over the stamped Vampire, lining him up inside the frame per the original image.  In case that wasn't enough, then I stamped the white background repeatedly with the Trick or Treat sentiment so it looks like patterned paper. But I have a Halloween card I love - now who should I send it to?

Friday, September 3, 2010

One More Magnifique!

This was my entry for the CTMH Make It From Your Heart contest. I did a level 2 layout, meaning just paper and stickease, no stamping. That was out of my box a bit! I used the Magnifique StickEase - the big chocolate swirl border and the Love tag, plus more of those flower butterflies that are my new favorite thing!

I added The huge Glittler Brads and Sparkles for the butterfly bodies, plus an addition to the title with the Oxford Color Ready Alphabets. These are fast becoming one of my favorite products. We've carried the alphabets for a while, but I have all the stamping fonts so I tend to think I don't need stickers. It's so nice to be able to decorate, ink, and stamp the alphabets and just stick them on without having to cut them out!

In any case, I'm moving on to Hooligans papers here this weekend. Check back for lots of silly, bright artwork soon!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Mojo Monday 154

I've been watching the Mojo Monday sketch challenges for a long time. Every now and then I'll whip up a card using the sketch, but by the time I get done, I feel like it's too late to post it!

This week I used My StickEase to get my Mojo Card done so fast and simply. Being such a harcore stamper, sometimes I forget how much fun stickers can be! I trimmed a couple of petals off a big flower sticker to create a butterfly. Then I added the body with my NEW blue and green Sparkles - hooray!

I chopped up a couple of parentheses to create the swirl behind the butterfly. Then I pieced the scalloped rectangle out of a 12" scalloped border sticker.

Finally, I rolled up some left over scrap sticker (Like pieces of the Sticker Edging) to create an impromptu 3-D foam square so could prop up the back tow wings of the butterfly for more dimension. The sentiment stamps are from this month's club kit stamp set...as is the papers. I just LOVE this Magnifique paper!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

More Magnifique!

This is a level 2 page I made using the Magnifique StickEase. Gabe is super into Bling, so I made a "belt" across the page with everything in my arsenal - brads, Sparkles, Liquid Glass, Opaque Mocha Pearls, Designer printed brads from the Chocolate Collection - and a little Lagoon Polka Dot paper ruffle going along the studded belt.
 
Gabe loved the new BIG sparkly brads. I love glitter, but these were a little much for me at first sight in the catalog. I was a little leery - I mean, these are some big ol' brads! But once I got them on the pages, I was feeling a lot better. I love them as a background element like in the last two pages here - butterflies alighting on glittery spheres adorned with bitty flowers...what's not to like! And Gabe went nutty for them, so I had to use a lot of them on his page. These pics were taken at his Mother's Day Tea at preschool. It was so much fun to get to be in his classroom and get a glimpse of how he is with his teachers. My oldest boy certainly marches to the beat of his own drummer - and we love him for that!

This page was designed to match my stamplift of the page on the cover of the CTMH Fall catalog. That page was so beautiful I HAD to make my version of it. I loved putting together this little clusters of glittery brads with butterflies made from floral stamps and sparkles - so much fun! I made little studded borders on the page using the teeniest of the Mocha Pearl Opaques too - I like to move around the itty bitties using the tip of my Piercing tool instead of tweezers.

Finally, The stamplifted cover page. I simplified the pleating detail on the right side of the page. Instead of doing the scoring and folding, I cut 3/4" strips of paper and layered them to look like pleating instead.

Also, on these two pages I used the Oxford Color Ready Alphabets. You just sponge or daub color onto the letters you need, leaving the rest of the alphabet blank to be decorated for other pages! I added some polka dot stamping detail down the sides of the letters after I sponged the colors onto the individual letters. I also swiped the edges lightly with Pacifica Ink before applying to the page - and I've got most of an adorable alphabet left for other projects.

I think I'm going to turn these two pages into wall hangings instead of putting them into my book. I have been wanting to scrap some hangings for these clear frames I got an an expo many moons ago - these would look lovely in my stamp room!

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