August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring August's SOTM, which is called What a Hoot, a set of 17 stamps featuring the most adorable owls!  If you have come here from BETH'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. 

This month we have 67 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products (with lots of sneak peeks of the new catalog goodies going live tomorrow I'm sure). 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'm sharing the first two of six pages (yes, MMC gals, these are your pages) done with the new Pathfinding Kit that I'll be sharing over the course of this weekend. I've been playing a lot with paper piecing the owls from this stamp set for cards, and I knew I needed to incorporate these cuties into my pages for sure.

For this little guy I colored his main coat with one of our new ShinHan markers in Turquoise Blue. They color so smoothly and evenly! I pieced his little belly out of the Pathfinding paper, and his eye area is covered with the new Lagoon Hearts washi tape. Ah, washi! Can you ever really have too much washi? I couldn't resist popping on some wiggly eyes...I really think they make his outfit!

For my second little dude I reversed the paper piecing, coloring his eye area and piecing his coat from the Pathfinding paper. The simple shape of this owl is really conducive to easy paper piecing. Plus since our stamps are clear, it's easy to line up the patterned paper to put the cutest bits into the area you are piecing. 

Now "Hop" on over to CARLA'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, this What a Hoot SOTM is only available until the end of August!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to get your stamp set for just $5!

Here are some more projects I have made using this Stamp of the Month...

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Card with Quick Color Tutorial

Team Card Times Three (I heart variations!)

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 66

I've got another adorable August SOTM owl for you today, Stampin' Friends! This time I'm creating with Sketch 66 for the Atlantic Hearts sketch Challenge. I'm also linking up to the Cute Card Thursday For the Birds Challenge. I wanted to play with my new ShinHan Alcohol Markers, and I knew that adorable pumpkin would be just too much fun to color!

For the card colors I turned to the new Pathfinder papers to be released August 1st. I stamped the blue cardstock background with the floral spray in Saddle Ink. I added that pop of new orange arrow washi tape and adhered it all to a sanded Saddle cardstock base.

The adorable owl is paper pieced again, but this time he got a little friend. I did a bit of a no-no for the pumpkin coloring, in that I used a dye based ink pad (CTMH's Saddle) for the stamping instead of Archival Black or Memento inks. I wanted a softer look to the pumpkin, so I was ok with the markers smudging my stamping a bit. Here's how I did it (and fixed up the smudged dye based ink!):

I went ahead and made ten of these guys because it was so much fun (and I am bound and determined to be ON TIME with my swap cards this month)!

I couldn't resist finishing off my sentiment banner with the new mini stapler coming in August. I mean, honestly, could these teensy staples BE any cuter? I guess I carried on my alcohol marker rebellion by coloring over the Saddle ink here as well. Feel free to flick sequins at me! 

I hope you're feeling inspired to hop over to Atlantic Hearts and check out all the adorable cards made from this simple and clean sketch. Thanks for stopping by...it's been a hoot! 

Monday Motivations Team Card Times Three

My team and I will be doing our second video chat meeting tomorrow and our first video card project! 

I knew I wanted to use the August Stamp of the month, because this owl is the cutest thing! I based my cards on the MUSE challenge...and I say cards because I made three. For the first one I grabbed the new Confetti Wishes papers for a sweet and simple birthday card. I colored his tummy with our new Shin Han alcohol markers. The hat and sentiment I stamped onto B&T and popped those up with foam tape. A bit of glitter and wiggly eyes finished off my embellies. I cannot resist wiggly eyes with these guys!

Then I looked around and saw the scraps from my Jubilee pages waiting to be put away...so I made a second card just the same but with the Jubilee papers. I added stamping to the background cardstock base, and highlighted the "what a" part of the sentiment with my sparkly gelly roll pen.

Finally I wanted a more girly version, so I grabbed the new Blushed papers and made a little pink and yellow owl with no coloring...but extra glitter. I know I made three cards almost the same, but I could have kept on making them all day! It was so much fun to piece this sweet owl and put him together in different ways. Great inspiration card, MUSE! I hope my team likes this at our meeting Monday night as much as I did!

Scrapping Our Stash Christmas in July Hop

Brrrr! I think the weather here in Spokane knew that we were doing Christmas in July this month, because today was overcast and chilly. Made me think of Oregon winter! This month the Practical Scrappers team searched our stashes for Holiday goodies. You should be arriving here awed by Jennifer's crafty goodness. 

So I just got a bunch of new Christmas stamps at Convention in June...and it's almost the end of July and they were still uninked, so I figured it wasn't toooooo much of a stretch to include them in my stash. I snatched up Merry, Merry Holiday from the pile...then realized that it was a perfect fit for the RetroSketches challenge this week. Sweet! I was going to holiday-scrap-paper it up, but then I saw the gorgeous White Christmas Photo Challenge over at Festive Friday, so I grabbed my White Scrap Bin and the Woodgrain embossing folder I won at Convention instead. I embossed the wreath in White Detail powder onto some Vellum from my scrap bins. Then I embossed the wreath details over top of the white embossing using some super old Mirror Platinum powder (I'm talking like I bought it in 2004, so that ought to make up for fudging and using one of my new-but-one-month-old goodies, right?). I used my Slate mini pigment pad to stamp and emboss the sentiment. All the paper for my card came from my scrap bins. I always feel virtuous when I actually use the scrap bins, like every time a card is made from scrap paper, an angel gets her wings (or something...). Most of the time I'm good about putting the scraps in the bin when I'm done crafting but too lazy to get up and grab a piece of scrap from across the room when the wall of cardstock is just right there behind where I sit. 

I added some metal flower brads that I got from the $1 bin at the scrapbook expo back in April, and gobs of mini white Bitty Pearls left over from a CTMH promotion from a few years back. That is a bit of the new grey skinny stripe ribbon in that double bow with some skinny organdy from who-knows-where, but I've had it a month! Unopened! The glitter snowflake is a sticker leftover from a pack I got a Target last Christmas. I had three left over from the project, so they've been just hanging out waiting to find a loving home here on this card. So I made 3 of them (of course). And now I have no more of those cute grey flower brads. Curses! Them's the breaks of actually using up the pretties...guess I'll just need to get a few more embellies in August, right? Back me up here, Stampin' Friends!

To continue the holiday fun, head over to Marcia's Blog or hit up Practical Scrappers for the full list of hoppers.

Only 6 days left for Jubilee Pages!

Oh my goodness, time flies when you're having fun! Here's the 6 pages my Monthly Memories gals are doing with these happy Jubilee papers. I can't believe in 6 more days it's all retired and g.o.n.e. I put the "Bring List" for the workshop at the bottom of this post - if you want to make these you still have a wee bit o' time to order your kit!

Each month we make 6 pages using a specific paper packet from the CTMH Idea Book. 

There's a Basic kit to be had for about $15, and an I Want It All kit of $25+ with more embellies. Occasionally the I Want It All kit requires you to add in a piece or two of neutral cardstock. I like layers...what can I say!

I work up lovely full color instructions complete with cutting guides and lots of pictures to help you finish your pages at home. I am mailing the pre-stamped "Hello" title out to each scrapper this month.

Of course, stamplifting is always welcome, but if you want my complete instructions for these pages for a faster, simpler, and easier go of it, just pop out to my order website and Join the Monthly Memories Club Gathering to order your preferred supply kit. There's no monthly commitment and the instructions will come via email (and if you are a consultant friend, please check out the new Monthly Memories details on my Consultant Kits page!).

Basic Kit:

X7181B Jubilee Papers

X7181B Jubilee Complements

I Want It All Kit:

X7181B Jubilee Papers

X7181B Jubilee Complements

Z3004 Jubilee Assortment

Z1929 Topiary Mini Chevron Ribbon

Other Materials Used:

2 sheets of Cardstock (any color is fine, you won't see them)

Sanding Kit

Chocolate Distress Ink

3-D Foam Tape

Liquid Glass

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 65

I've been a little off the radar this month, which is nutty because I've got a ton of stuff to share with y'all! I thought I'd get some posting done this weekend when we were hanging at the KOA with the boys. They go to sleep by 8 p.m., so every evening at the KOA is very, very long hanging out by the ten with the sleeping boys...more so when the WIFI gives out the first night and ruins all your gotta-catch-up-on-my-blog plans. I have to admit, hanging by the river quietly was kind of nice too!

I'm so far off topic now...I'm super excited to share with you that I'm joining the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team. My sweet Canadian friend Candra from Paper Dragon Fleur is already a member of this fabulously talented group of ladies, and she wrangled me an invite to play!

I'm jumping in with Sketch #65, and as soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to do. I used two of the new CTMH embossing folders (which won't be released until August 1st, but I won mine at Convention - squee!). The CTMH folders make nice deep impressions (and are 5x7 instead of A2), so I embossed with both the new floral background and the honeycomb. I trimmed out the honeycomb in place of the oval from the sketch. Then I layered all my yummy inked and sanded embossed layers with a bit of Timberline woodgrain B&T (retiring at the ed of this month - sob!). All the cardstock here is either Whisper or Slate, so nice and basic. The stamps I used are from an adorable set called Have a Happy Day, which we got at Convention!

I cut some simple 6 petal flowers out of Colonial White CS using the Artiste cartridge. I broke down the fibers in the paper flowers using a stylus and foam mat (from the piercing tool kit). Each flower was spritzed with some Color Shine and inked around the edges with the new Thistle color (coming in August!). I topped them with either basic Sparkles or globs of Silver glitter gel topped with micro beads for the teensy tiny ones. A bit of Liquid Glass to pop them onto the card base and I was done! 

Here's the original sketch. Pop on over to Atlantic Hearts to check out more fun ideas for this sketch and to play along!

July Creative Kit: Brite White Cards

Join me for a Stamping Rules Creative Kit Workshop, either here in my home in beautiful Spokane, WA, or with a pre-cut To-Go kit shipped right to you! This month's offering is the Brite White Card Workshop, a collection of 10 clean and colorful cards to fill your card stash. 

You can even earn this workshop FREE with your July Stamp of the Month purchase!

July Creative Kit 

Brite White Card Workshop - 

Just $20 or FREE with your July SOTM Purchase!

There are three ways to get your workshop kit for this fun set of cards.

1. Order your In Person kit to attend this workshop in Spokane on August 9th from 10 a.m. to noon.

2. Or order up a TO-Go kit if you just want the pre-cut, pre-stamped card kit mailed to you, ready for assembly.

3. To get your Brite White card kit for FREE, just pop over to my order website and place your order for your July Stamp of the Month on the CREATIVE KIT FREE WORKSHOP ORDERS gathering and you can either attend the Spokane workshop OR I'll prep and mail out your workshop kit to you!

For the Spokane Workshop or To Go Kits shipped right to your home Order Here.

Brite White Workshop In Person $20.00 USD (2) Brite White Workshop In Person $35.00 USD (1) Brite White Card Kit TO GO $25.00 USD (2) Brite White Card Kits TO GO $40.00 USD

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 for the new and improved Stamping Rules Consultant Kit info!

You are the heart of my business - thanks for stopping by!  

Star Spangled Pin Wreath

Happy Independence Day, Stamping Friends! Having moved to an area with actual seasons, we've recently discovered the joys of having a storm door...like the fact that you can't really hang a wreath off a storm door very successfully. Luckily there was a hook hanging to the side of our door, all ready for projects just like this one!

I built another Clothespin wreath! These are my favorite quick home decor projects lately. This time I painted the pins with metallic acrylic paints, and then smoothed on a layer of transparent glitter gel over each painted pin. It really catches the light and sparkles! I staggered the placement of the pins on the wreath form and held them in place with copious amounts of hot glue. 

I added some Star Chipboard from my stash painted with silver acrylic paint, then coated with Liquid Glass and sprinkled liberally with glitter. I did the glitter in two layers. First I added as much of this huge chunky silver hex glitter I scored from the kids craft section at my local craft store. Then I sprinkled the still wet stars with super fine micro glitter to fill in any spaces. Finally I added a bunch of teensy star shaped nail gems for extra sparkle. 

We are lucky enough to be spending today with family from California. Here's wishing y'all a happy fourth, with lots of love, gratitude, and BBQ goodness! 

Consultant Kits Update

Good morning! I've been busily updating my Consultant Kits page to reflect the newest Stamping Rules kits available (and some new pricing!). I'm super excited about the new Brite White Card workshop (customer details will be posted this week) and that sweet Ariana Frame workshop. I can't believe that beautiful paper is going to be retired this month!  Thanks for taking a peek, Consultant Friends, and I'll be getting the Creative Club page updated in the next day or so, Stampin' Friends!