Cross Stitch Wishes SOTM Blog hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring January's SOTM, which is called Cross Stitch wishes, a sweet set of 13 stamps.  This month we have dozens of talented Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM (and other great CTMH products) on their blogs. If you have come here from ELIZABETH'S BLOG, you are on the right path! Hopping 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 have two sweet and simple projects for you. The first is this adorable sewing kit card. I embossed the background with my favorite embossing folder. Then I added a strip of Babycakes matted with heavily sanded Garden Green cardstock. I stamped all around the edges with Stitch Wonder in Cashmere ink, a great coordinating stamp set. I stamp the sentiment twice in Dutch Blue and Ruby, then trimmed and layered the final sentiment, which I popped up with 3-D foam tape to make a pocket for my little sewing kit.I topped off my sewing kit pocket with a couple of Keyboard Kraft alpha letters.

Speaking of that tiny sewing kit, how cute is that? I got it from Minimus for just a few cents! I based my card on the Pals Paper Arts Sketch with my color inspiration coming from the CASE Study Challenge. 

For my second card I wanted to do something super quick. I only had a few minutes to whip them up waiting for my team to arrive for our meeting last night. So I laid out my materials (Baby Pink cardstock, Cross Stitch wishes, Bakers Twine, Slate and Ruby Ink, Liquid Glass, plus my favorite glitter pen) so I could do a ten minute Craft Dash! I stamped the sentiment in the bottom corner of the panel and then the heart on some Artiste baby pink hearts I cut on the cricut, which I mounted on top of the stamped sentiment. Then I stamped the needle off to the upper right. I drew in a curly-q with Liquid Glass, then knotted my twine and formed it to follow the Liquid Glass trail.

I colored my needle with my favorite favorite glitter pen. I trimmed the twine flush to the edge of the card and mounted the panel onto my card base. I was able to whip out the sample in 5 minutes 20 seconds, and create 12 duplicates (minus Liquid Glass drying time) in about 20 minutes. Sew sweet!

Now "Hop" on over to KATY'S BLOG to see her creative work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants Blogs to soak in the great crafting and SOTM ideas! Remember, this SOTM will only be available in January!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for just $5!

Stamp Nation Anything Goes

Here's a peek at a festive New Year's Card I did for Stamp Nation. What's Stamp Nation? It's a world-wide community of passionate paper crafters! It is for members only, so I can only share a snippet here, but you can learn more about joining Stamp Nation here!

Emergency Spongebob

This last weekend we were getting ready to leave for a birthday party...and I realized that I did not have a single birthday card in my stash, never mind one appropriate for a kiddo. Add to that my eldest son's insistence that it HAD to be a Spongebob card, and I was about ready to panic and head for Target to buy a card. I haven't bought a card in, well, I can't remember the last time I bought an actual card. I told Gabe to chill, 'cause in this house we make cards, dude.

A quick google search got me a picture of Spongebob, and then I felt much better. He's all circles and simplicity! The hardest part was drawing on his little eyelashes and smile. Gabe was thrilled with his 5 minute Spongebob card. 

Getting Holly Jolly with Stamp Nation

Oh my gosh - how did a whole week go by without a post? I'm busily working too many projects right now...redo-ing the trim paint in our home, chalkboard painting my old, sad, almond fridge (a post is coming on that!), baking GF holiday goodies for the boys' bazillion holiday parties, and finishing touches on Frosted pages while trying to stay warm and cozy. Last night I enlisted my hubby to help me rearrange the living room furniture, which involved moving our fully decorated tree...twice. He was probably happy to see my disappear up to the Stamp Pad to work on this bit of holiday cheer. You can find the full project over at Stamp Nation, where the Sistahs are exploring holiday carol themed cards this week. Too much fun!

My Crafty Christmas List

Oooh, it's the most wonderful time of year. The lovely Stasha over at Northwest Mommy is asking for a Listicle with our top ten Christmas wish list items. I've been checking off my little guys lists, or at least helping them to write their lists, but I haven't given any thought at all to what I might like to receive. So now I'm making a Wish List(icle)...hopefully John will check it twice!

My Top Ten Non-CTMH Crafty Christmas Wishes

1. Sizzix Big Shot - I am mostly a Cricut girl, but I do own a very heavy, old school red Sizzix machine and that's what I use to emboss with my Cuttlebug folders and a bit of spellbinders die cutting. I know it's not the newest coolest thing anymore, but I really want to upgrade to a Big Shot...because I can't emboss with the new bigger folders.

2. Big Embossing Folders - I drool over the Tim Holtz bubble and Honeycomb set...but like many of the newer folders, it's too big to fit into my little red old school machine.

3. Sparkly Sequins - These are all over pinterest and Mo over at Stamp Nation just made the ca-utest CAS card with a band of sequins on it. I needs me some sequins...in a rainbow of colors!

4. Glitter! Ok, I know. I need more glitter like I need a hole in the head. But what crafter doesn't want a rainbow pack of 24 colors of micro glitter? Seriously?

5. Washi Tape Dispenser - Totally unnecessary but I super want one. I pick it up...I put it back. Rinse and repeat. I have a cute glass jar where my Washi lives. I like to tear it by hand. But I can totally see myself spinning the tray to peruse my washi tapes. whoosh....

6. Say Cheese Kit - I need more paper like I need more glitter...but this Disney-fied collection from Simple Stories is just so golly gee adorable!

7. Spica Glitter Pens - These are supposed to be amazing, just the kind of thing that I know I'd fall in love with but won't let myself buy because I can get a two pack of Stardust gelly roll pens for $5.

8.Copic Sketch Markers - I cannot imagine actually collecting Copics. They are so expensive...but in my dreams, just owning Copics would make me much better at coloring. This is a tiny 6 marker starter set, just to dip a toe into the Copic waters. I'm sure I won't get hooked.

9. Photo Light Box - because I'm positive that if I had a really real light box that my card photos would be really real better than with my current science fair cardboard stand DIY set up. But I'm too frugal to buy a box for myself.

10.Inexpensive Flat Iron - 'cause I like my real flat iron too much to bring it to my craft room, but I wanna be like Susan Gardner Williams and have nice crisp ribbons and curled baker's twine!

Of course, I don't really NEED anything crafty or at all this holiday season. I already have a ton of craft stash, and not enough time to make half the stuff I want to make. So while the daydreaming has been fun, I'm just happy to be a lucky crafter with a happy, healthy, loving family.

But if those Spica glitter pens arrive under the tree, I won't send 'em back. Just saying. 

Have an ice day with Stamp Nation!

Hi, ladies! Today I'm sharing this little teaser of an exclusive project I did for Stamp Nation this week. To learn more, check out Stamp Nation on Catherine's blog!

Be Merry and Bright

Good morning, Stampin' Friends! Today I'm sharing this lumpy bumpy and super sparkly snowflake card. I grabbed the sweet sketch over at Mojo Monday. I loved the new ColourQ challenge, so my colors are Breeze, Lagoon, Cranberry, Pear, and White Daisy. The Breeze CS is embossed with a cuttlebug Snowflakes Embossing Folder, then sanded lightly to bring out the flakey goodness. The whole card front is built on some fabulously sparkly iridescent white glitter cardstock!

I used silver glitter glitz on my snowflake diecut, along with lots of sparkles pretty much everywhere, including highlighting that fancy ampersand as inspired by Laurie Willison over at Muse Card Club. I painted the frame for my label diecut with Red Shimmer polish after swiping it with Cranberry ink to make sure I would be getting the right tone of red. I used the same shimmer polish to add red highlights to the gems on my sparkly snowflake. I wish I was better at photography, because the photos do not capture the true sparkle of this card!

I'm also linking this project up to the Festive Friday Final Challenge (for the Element challenge of adding a snowflake) and the Paper Issues Christmas Linky party!

H2H You've Been Framed!

I'm honored to be helping out as a guest DT member over at Heart 2 Heart in December. The first challenge is called You've Been Framed. So I grabbed a frame from my stash and glitzed it up with some Sparkle and Shine papers, red shimmer tape, and some glittery flowers and snowflakes. I don't actually have my prints yet from our fabulous Apple Blossom Photography shoot, so this is just a printout from my computer until the prints arrive. 

I used the centers from the snowflakes I cut for this project all stacked up to create my flower centers. The swirls are Bamboo CS covered in washi tape BEFORE I cut them on the cricut - so cool! I did a liberal sprinkling of sparkles over my frame and scrappy photo background. And yes, those are some of the sparkly Rudolph noses that I made for the craft fair in our photo. Adorable!

I hope you'll pop over to Heart 2 Heart to play along!

Seasons Tweetings Card

Today I'm sharing the card I made for my team's holiday card swap. We're having a team dinner at Outback Steakhouse tomorrow night, where we'll exchange secret santa gifts and holiday cards. I can't wait to go hang with my Stampin' Ladies! 

I embossed the White Daisy background with this Cuttlebug Snowflakes Embossing Folder, then sponged the embossed cardstock with Saddle ink. The card design is based on a Stamp Nation Sketch challenge and the Color Throwdown color combo. I added a kraft snowflake cut on Artiste and sponged with White Daisy Ink. I cut the upper layer of the snowflake with silver glitter paper and topped it all off with a bird and sentiment from the Holiday Guide. For the striped on the sketch I used Silver Washi tape, 1/4" strips of Green glitter paper, and a bit of green fiber from my stash.  I'm also linking up to the Festive Friday Final Challenge, using the Element Challenge to incorporate a snowflake into my design. 

Hope your day is tweet!