June 2012 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring June's SOTM, which is called Life is Tweet, a down right adorable set of 15 stamps.  If you have come here from TERESA'S BLOG, you are on the right path!

This month we have 50+ 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 month I used a sketch from Card Patterns to create my project. I used up a bit more of my Dotty for You stash - you got your last month, right? The clouds were just talking to me again...

I cut a little scalloped circle using Art Philosophy and stamped it with the Life is Tweet sentiment in Sunflower ink, then distressed the edges with Sunset ink and Glitter Glitz gel.

After fuzzy cutting the clouds I also detailed the inner rim of the clouds with Glitter Glitz. Kind of a silver lining sort of thing... The background Sky CS was heavily distressed with the coarsest grit on my sanding block.

I paper pieced the Mama birdie using Grey Wool Textured Cs (from my stash...still holding out hope years later that CTMH will bring that back to us someday...sigh...). The eyes on the birdies are actually normal crystal sparkles colored black with a sharpie. I added a bit of Glitter glitz to the eye sparkles too, and a drop of Liquid Glass to make sure my glitter didn't go a-wanderin'.

I'm linking this to the Heart 2 Heart distressing challenge as well...cause it's distressing me that Dotty for you is gone for all the fun distressing techniques I used (sanding, scissor distress, ink distress..)

Now "Hop" on over to NIKKA'S BLOG to see her TWEET work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants Blogs to soak in the great crafting and SOTM ideas! Remember, this SOTM will fly away at the end of June!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for just $5!


Here are some more projects I have made using this Stamp of the Month...I guess you could say I like this one!!

Triple Bird Krafty Girls Card
Mother's Day Layout
Retro Sketches Color Throwdown card (was chosen as a SHOUTout!!)
Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Card
Freshly Made Sketches Team Meeting Card
Retro Sketches #7 Sketch card (Was the ROCK STAR of the week! Woo hoo!)

Retro Sketches meets Krafty Girls

Today I have two cards for you with two totally different stamp sets. I feel like I need to get double posts done all week to catch up. Cue the Indiana Jones music - here come June, lol!!

First up is a quick but cute I CHAIRish you card done with the Stella WOTG set (wonder why that one was on my desk...). I used the sketch from RetroSketches for this card. You have until Thursday at midnight to play - go on out there and check out the amazing cards!

For the tag I used a long shape from the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge. I stamped around the edge with Black ink using the small flower from the set. I also stamped that onto the scalloped border I attached to the bottom of the card. I covered my tag in grey dots from the Dotty for You paper packet (only available one more day...my heart is breaking). The file frame on the right of my tag and the heart at the top are also Art Philosophy.

I stamped the chair in Black ink and colored it in using Tulip, Smoothie, and Grey Flannel markers. I fussy cut the chair out, then added a row of Mocha Opaques to the bottom (like nailheads) before popping it up on my card with 3-D Foam tape.

Here you can see the stitch stamp that I used in the background instead of adding another layer of paper. I just love a good stitch stamp! I w2rapped the top of my tag in Baker's Twine and added a few sparkles and Pearl Opaques to bling it up!

I also have another June SOTM card for you. This time I used the Krafty Girls Kopy Kat Challenge - the idea was to stamp lift someone else's design. There were a bunch of cute cards to choose from, but I chose the last card by Amy. Amy's card was an adorable trio of red hearts on Kraft with Pink accents.

I liked the design of her card, so I filled it in with three paper pieced birds from my current fav, June SOTM. I used the Dotty For You and Stella papers, plus black Mini Medley Ribbon and Bakers Twine.

Wiggly eyes make my heart happy. Just sayin...

Take a closer peek at the birds cute little beaks. Can you see what it is?


I used old heart eyelets from my stash for the beaks! I attached them with my Cropadile, then used 3-D foam tape to pop up the birds. I added Liquid Glass to the centers of the Eyelets and clipped their heads down to the eyelet until it dried. This may be the only time I've been in my stamp room wishing for clothespins!

Blog Hop for June SOTM starts June 1st, so I'll see ya back here then!



Ooh - if you have a sec, I'd really appreciate your vote! Go over to the left column and like me on Facebook (in case you haven't already...hi, Stamping Rules Friends!!). Then go to my page on FB - you'll find the link there to vote for my triple bird card that's in the contest from the link. I'm pretty sure you have to be on FB to vote - so I hope I'll see you there! Thanks a bunch!!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Mother's Day LO

So I'm not usually a one page kind of gal - double the pages all the way, baby! But there are just TOO many stinkin' cute one page sketches around...like THIS ONE from Bella Blvd. As soon as I saw bit I knew where I was headed....

These pictures are blurry, fuzzy, and badly lit. 2 year old Max looks like a giant compared to his 4 year old brother. The color is all wonky. And they are all I have from Mother's Day this year. In fact, these blurry sad pics are my actual sweet Mother's Day present! At 5 in the morning John and the boys made these signs and took these pictures to change up my screen saver to a rotating photo slideshow of my kiddos! The still stop weeks later to stare at their faces rotating on my screen - I love it!

This week's Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World is called Man-tastic! So I thought it was funny to use the Man-tastic theme and colors to make my Mother's Day pics warm and fuzzy...instead of just plain ol' fuzzy. Here's the trigger pic, and there's still 2 more weeks to play!

I pulled CS colors to coordinate, in this case Lagoon, Cocoa, Tulip, and some Grey Wool Textured CS I've been hoarding saving for a rainy day. I cut out this Ornaments shape using my Art Philosophy Cartridge and embossed each one with different Cuttlebug folders. I love the Herringbone pattern, but you have to run that one carefully - lots of detail there!

I distressed each ornament using different sides of the sanding block. I used the medium grit on the Grey and Tulip, since the texture was deep enough to take the grit. I used the finest side on the Swiss Dot Lagoon CS and the Cocoa Herringbone so they wouldn't get too distressed. Then I flipped the block to the coarsest side and edged all the pieces. I love the look of the distressed pattern against the crisp white background!

I laid them out in a pattern following the Bella Sketch. Instead of flowers I decided to go with my current favorite stamp - the big birdie from the June SOTM. I know - not fair I've been showing you all this fun stuff with that sweet little guy and you can't even get your inky paws on him yet...No worries! June is only a few days away!

I paper pieced him in Grey Wool textured CS distressed with a sponge and Cocoa Ink plus some of that Lagoon Dotty for You paper (only available for 2 more days...alas!!). Look at his cute beak and feet...in this case, they are petals trimmed from the new Just Blooms Paradise collection! And I just love an excuse to bring out the wiggly eyes...

I used a Tulip Marker to color my Color Ready Stickers to match, then stamped the border image from the June SOTM over top in Cocoa ink. I thought the swirly dotty border reminded me of Mendhi...along with the ornament pattern background. I loved these stickers and bought a ton recently from the While Supplies Last area...they are (sadly) gone now, but thee's a lot more goodies out there... perhaps it's time for a belated Mother's Day Shopping Spree?

I'm linking this post up to the Mother's Day Challenge over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges, too.

Thanks for stopping by - you're so TWEET!

One Awesome Layout

I love this picture! I had it printed forever ago...but it just kept knocking around unscrapped. It's of Gabe and Ben when Ben was just born. For a long time Gabe didn't really want to go anywhere near Baby Ben...then he started to creep up and leave toys scattered at the edge of Ben's blankets like tiny little offerings to the baby...and finally he was convinced to give the baby a kiss!

I used a sketch from an adorable Scrapbooking blog called Scrap Much? They actually have weekly challenges and sketches for scrapbookers - woo! Go check them out - lovely pages, great sketches!

For this page I cut a big 8" Cricut flower doily off my Art Philosophy Cartridge. I dabbed adhesive here and there lightly on the doily and laid it onto my base CS for the LO. Then I spritzed it with a combo of Creme Brule reinker and water...plus a few light puffs of glitter spray...I like-a the glitter you know!

You want to use a temporary bond adhesive on your die cut so you won't mess up your layout base...or I used regular Monoadhesive and just stuck it to my shirt before sticking it to my layout so it wouldn't be too sticky! The adhesive will give you a crisp image with the spray pen ink.

I added a row of buttons topped with Sparkles, but left off the flowers from the sketch, since these are my boys...and I didn't want to hide all of my pretty spray work in the background!

Can you see how I added glitter glitz to the stripes on that sassy Chevron print from the Dotty for You paper? I can't believe that paper will be GONE in just a couple of days...Did you get yours yet?

I'm also linking this to the Heart 2 Heart Add a Photo Challenge!

Alrighty...I've got LOTS o' posting to do this week to catch up from NOT posting so much last week...and blog hop is coming on June 1st too. See ya tomorrow!

June Warm Welcome Workshop is here!

Howdy, Summer! I am ready for flip flops, lemonade, and sunny days...it'll be here before we know it!

Give your guests a warm WELCOME with June's Creative Club kit! We'll be making this adorable Frame Wreath decor piece at the June Workshop, or you can order up a kit to go.

Not sure that Stella matches your home decor? The kit can easily be altered to fit anyone of our current paper packs! Please specify at time of RSVP or Stella will be ordered.

Finished frame size is 11 x 14.

 Sessions available at 9 am or 1 p.m, or crop all day from 9 to 4 with no additional fee.

Kick back, relax with a cool glass of lemonade, and craft your warm weather welcome with me on June 16th!

Please RSVP by JUNE 8th!

Each kit includes pre-cut papers, Frame (styles may vary, we will paint to match), and embellishments including a full package of the new Baker's Twine Assortment plus full color instructions to make everything pictured - just add adhesive! 

Please RSVP by June 8th to reserve your kit for the Warm Welcome Frame workshop. You can contact me via email, or reserve your spot via the Paypal Link below. You don't have to have a Paypal account to use this feature!

To Go kits are not limited to quantity, but the June 16th Workshop (which includes a light lunch at no extra charge) is limited to 8 attendees total per session.

P.S. Don't forget that June is STAMPAGANZA time - buy 2 get 1 free stamp sets are back!!!

Workshop and TO GO Kits

Welcome Frame Kit$25.00 USD TO GO: Welcome Frame Kits$30.00 USD

Consultant Kits available here!

Lego Thank You Cards

Two weekends ago we had a super fun Lego-Star Wars-Train birthday party for our six year old. IT was so much fun - rising mini narrow gauge trains around the park, chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow filling, and pool noodle light saber fights were enjoyed by all.

Here's the thank you cards that'll be going out this week. I used an old sketch from Card Patterns, and I tried to make the main focal point look like a lego.

I wanted to start using up some of my stash - gotta make more room for new goodies in July! The papers are an older pack called Fanfare. I used some of my chevron ribbon that I scooped up with my groupon (yea!) and built a cluster of buttons up in the corner. Now I need more blue buttons!

Here's a close up of the embellishment cluster at the top. The corners were stamped with images from the Victory WOTG - the star background in third generation Outdoor Denim and the swirls in Grey Flannel. I filled the ridges of a corrugated star with glitter glitz gel.

Now I'm off to fill them in! Thanks for a super fun party, friends. Gabe exclaimed as we drove away, "That was the best birthday ever!".

I'm linking this post to the Scrap Much May Color Challenge. Check them out - it's a fun blog is SCRAPBOOK sketches!!

I'm also linking to  the always fabulous Get Your Craft On Carnival at Today's Creative Blog.

Retro Sketches Color Throwdown!

I am so loving the June SOTM - the birds, the punny sayings, it's just so adorable!!

I made this card or the team swap at our meeting tonight. I used the color combo from Color Throwdown #92. They always have such interesting inspiration photos!

I also used the sketch from one of my favorite sketch blogs, Retro Sketches. I wanted to CASE the Happy Bee-Day card at the top of the post like immediately-yesterday-OMG-it's-too-cute! You have to buzz over and have a peek!

I used my beloved Dotty for You papers (only available this month!) matted onto Grey Wool CS. The flower I cut on my Cricut using the Art Philosophy Cartridge.  I rolled the petals all around to make it more 3-D after I stamped the flower image and spritzed them with my Spray pen and Smoothie reinker. I stamped the flower image again on White Daisy CS and trimmed out the center circle, which I backed with lots of tiny white cricut cut hearts and popped up on the flower center. I hand cut leaves from Grey Wool CS and scored the centers to make the leaf vein.

I'm linking this to the H2H Polka Dots and Stripes Challenge too!

Thanks for fluttering by!

Life is Tweet!

Oops - I had one more Moxie Fab inspired card to share tonight. This one was inpsired by this week's Tuesday Trigger (shown below). I loved the bright colors, so I grabbed my Dotty for You papers and got down to business.

I used the new sketch from Card Patterns when making this card. I subbed the big oval for the circular flower, brackets by two lovely butterflies.

The flower, the butterflies, and the heart banner were all spritzed with my awesome Spray pen. I loaded it with 20 drops on Smoothie reinker and some water, then let 'er rip! After I attached the hearts I stitched over the top of my banner with a single ply of raspberry colored thread.

Here's the inside of my card. I used the negative image from the hearts I cut on my Cricut to spray the inside of my card. Then I dressed it up with some extra Dotty For You goodness and a cute little grey bird holding a heart from the banner making in his beak. Tweet!

I'm linking this to the Moxie Fab Splatter Technique Challenge. They've got gobs of fun challenges up right now - check it out!

A little birdie told me...

Ah...what a weekend! My whole family spent Saturday at Dozer Day with the littles, watching the boys "drive" bulldozers at a quarry in Vancouver. As thrilling as that was, it was so nice to kick back on Sunday with some stamping peeps and whip out a bunch of papercrafts!

I did this card for our Team meeting on Monday night. My team will be making this sweet birdie card using the June SOTM. I used a super cute sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. I embossed the main panel with my big dots cuttlebug folder, then trimmed it into three panels. I stamped little grey flowers onto random embossed circles and topped them with Bitty pearls.

My color combo came from the ColorQ challenge (which I'm too late to enter, alas) but I loved that color combo...if anyone knows how I can get my paws on that bedding in the inspiration photo, it would be perfect for the guest bed are I'm making in my stamping studio!!

I pieced my birdie with a combo of Dotty for You paper and Stella Damask print. First I stamped him onto both prints using my Grey Flannel ink. Then I trimmed out the top only from the Polka Dot and adhered it over the Damask bird body.

Here's a closeup of the bottom border strip. I heat embossed the border image with White Embossing powder. Then I added a strip of Spring Irid CS that I pierced across the top of the border image. I topped off each junction of the border with a Bitty Pearl!

Moxie Fab has a bunch of super fun challenges going on right now. I'm adding this card to the Damask and Brocade Challenge.

Stamplifting is not a crime...

One of my favorite bloggers is Kathy Martin. Her blog is always so pretty, the projects are amazing, and the stitching!

I was a lazy stamper. I did not believe I needed to stitch...so long as I had my beloved stitch stamp to fake it! While I still love my stitch stamp, Kathy has been inspiring me to stitch on my projects more. It's not so hard (with my trusy piercing ruler by my side), and it add so much texture and interest!  Kathy noted she does most of her stitching with a single strand of thread, and it is actually easier to stitch like that!

This card is a totally inspired by an adorable heart card from Kathy's blog. She had washi tape...I had Footloose papers. She used kraft hearts...I made a school of fish. I love to take an awesome card and use it like a sketch to fill in my own crafty goodness. Thanks, Kathy, for always having an awesome card!

Here's a close up of my rainbow fish. As a mom to three littles right now (my oldest is in kinder), Rainbow Fish is a beloved in our house. I stamped the fish in Lagoon ink, then used my water brush to add spots of Creme Brule and Sunset ink to his scales and fins. Then the whole fish got a  coat of Glitter Glitz gel. Hello, rainbow fish!

The little fish in my school were inked in Creme Brule, then rolled in Sunset just along their tummies. All fish were given Bitty Pearl eyes. Hopefully that Rainbow Fish will share his shiny scales...


Thanks for swimmin' by...Best Fishes for a happy day!

Retro Sketches Victory!

Welcome back! Continuing on today in my theme of challenges completed but not posted in time, another Victory card. This time I used a sketch from Retro Sketches - I just LOVE their sketches. I'm working on this week's sketch too...we'll see if I get it done in time!

I used the scripty scroll image to stamp on the corners repeatedly in Bamboo ink - that is gonna be one of those images I want to keep on a block all the time! I stamped the star background on the front panel too - it lines up so easily when you can see through the block and stamp! I paper pieced the shield, tickets, and sentiment set (again). I'm loving how paper piecing the images cleans up this very distressed stamp set and changes the look!

Here's a close up of the paper piecing. The shield and sentiment images were stamped once in Outdoor Denim and once in Olive. I trimmed out the middle stripe of the shield from the Olive image and adhered it onto the Outdoor Denim shield. The Outdoor Denim sentiment was trimmed out and applied to the Olive sentiment. The ticket was stamped in Outdoor Denim ink twice, giving me one 1st and one 2nd generation ticket image. I trimmed out the lighter center ticket and adhered it to the Outdoor Denim ticket. The star was inked in Olive and rolled on the tips into Outdoor Denim. Lots of fussy cutting - just the thing for toting around in my Project To-Go box (which is actually my Pemberly card box - no sense leaving that lovely thing at home! It's just the right size for toting small projects around to work on while the boys are doing their thing at the play park.)

I was happy with how my Sparkles turned out. I have a lot of Sparkles - clear, self adhesive gems. But they were too pretty for this project...so I mixed some Liquid Glass with Desert Sand Reinker and dropped it onto the Sparkles (still on the liner) and let them dry for a bit. Then I added round drops of clear Liquid Glass over top and let them dry overnight - and I got these amber looking stick on gems that matched my project!

So one more fun - just-missed-the-posting-deadline challenge completed. I figure getting any stamping in last week was a victory for this busy mom. Glad you took a moment to stop by!

Mojo Monday Victory!

Oh my - last week was so super busy! Between Mother's Day, my 6 year old's train/lego birthday party, in laws visiting, and consultant kit hoopla (thanks a bunch, ladies!) my normally busy life became a whirl of activity! I got all of the consultant kits processed, and am starting shipping product components today. I did whip out a few cards too - but I never got around to posting them, so I actually missed all my challenge deadlines. Oh well - at least I got a chance to stamp!

Here's a card I did using the sketch from Mojo Monday...then didn't post in time to link it up! Good intentions....

I used paper from the Victory paper packet, and the stamp set from the Victory WOTG. I embossed the background with a Herringbone Cuttlebug folder. Then I got down to business with paper piecing.

The tickets n the background - paper pieced. The Shield on the front - paper pieced. The My Hero sentiment - paper pieced. Oh my gosh it was so much fun (says the girl who loves to fussy cut). I was worried that working with these distressed images that the piecing would be harder, but it worked out just fine.

For the hero sentiment I stamped it twice in Outdoor Denim. I trimmed a mask out of the second image (since the original sentiment is actually "built tough") and used that to shape and stamp the My Hero piece. I overstamped the My Hero portion with the star background in second generation Olive ink. Then I adhered the pieces together and trimmed it out, adding the banner trim to the end of the sentiment.

A few more of these, and I'll be all ready for Father's Day! If only the Post office wasn't such a challenge... Thanks for stopping by!

Sleeping with the fishes...

...or not! I'm up a little late this week trying to finish up some slightly overdue swap cards. I owe four designs, so you'll be seeing some fun Footloose and Victory cards from me over the next few days!

The first of my four swap cards is this little cutie fish bowl that I paper pieces using Cricut shapes. I based this card off the Card Patterns Sketch for this week. I turned the circle shape in the sketch into my fishbowl by adding some label and tag shapes to create the top and bottom of my bowl.

I embossed the top half of my Sweet Leaf card base with my Big dots Cuttlebug folder and highlighted some of the dots with Stardust glitter Glitz. I glittered up the bottom by applying Monoadhesive all over the bottom half, then dropping strips of CS and patterned paper across the card and filling in the spaces with Prisma glitter.

My fish (from the new adorable set called Under the Sea) was heat embossed with White embossing powder and White Daisy Pigment ink. I colored him in using my waterbrush by picking up ink from the lid of my ink pad: squeeze your pad and when you open it a perfect coloring puddle of ink will be waiting for you! I accented his stripes with Stardust Glitter Glitz and added a googly eye for some pop!

The sand dollar is stamped in White Daisy ink on Kraft CS. The shell was rolled in Creme Brulee and sunset inks, then misted lightly to blend before stamping. You should probably use water for that step...but I used my stamp cleaner, since it was right there on the table!

My ribbon was inspired by a bow I found in the bottom of my misting box. I have an old CTMH box that I lined with scratch paper that I use for misting papers with my spray pen. I sprayed this ribbon repeatedly with Sweet Leaf and Lagoon spray pen (20 drops reinker + water to the 2nd line form the top)...plus Tattered Angels Pearl Mist...plus a generous coating of Krylon Silver Glitter spray. So pretty and sparkly!!

Hopefully my swap cards will be so good when they are done that my swap group will forgive me my extreme lateness this time...Just a few more to glue together and I'll be mailing them off as fast as I can swim over to the post office!

Pemberly Cards

I've had a lot of requests to show all of the cards in my Pemberly Card Class we did back in March, so here's all 15 cards, for your viewing pleasure.

Don't forget - you can click on the image to see it larger! If you want the instructions, there's still a consultant kit available: CLICK HERE (until the end of this week).

I just love the stamp set we used here, C1494 Card Word Puzzle, which is just so pretty and so versatile!  Enjoy!