Mojo Monday 194

Hello, stampers! I'm back on the Mojo Monday resolution. I lost track of weekly stamping time what with moving into the new house, but this week's sketch was just what I needed to inspire me to get my Mojo back. Click on the sketch to go check out to Mojo fun!

What I was really needing this week was a cute but not too girlie card for my niece's birthday. I used the blue circle print from the Lucky Paper Packet - I love the fading in-and-out circles. I built the card on our new Kraft Cardstock, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite CS choices.

I added some of the (Lucky) Alphabet print on the monochromatic backside to lighten up the Outdoor denim color scheme, and crossed that with Outdoor Denim Organdy and some (retired) adorable flower print grosgrain. I love printed grosgrain ribbon!

I stamped my starburst "scallops" and the flower center pieces with stamps from the June Stamp of the Month, Jubilation. It's such a versatile little set - I remade this card with alternate images for Father's Day and my other Niece's graduation...three birds with one stone! On the Father's Day version I did do a paper ruffle instead of the flower though.

Speaking of my Flower embellishment, it's actually 2 of the medium sized Big Blooms folded in half to create more depth. It made a nice shape to adhere over the knots in my ribbon without 3-D foam tape too! this one Starts "Hip Hip Hooray..." on the outside, and "It's your birthday!" on the inside - still loving that new Card Chatter- birthday set!

You & Me: Stronger Together – Disaster Relief

This is exactly why I LOVE Close To My Heart & Jeanette Lynton so much! Look at what we can do together to help the victims of the recent tornadoes and flooding in the midwestern and southeastern United States!


News Release from Close To My Heart Corporate Office…

Many of you have asked us if there is something we could do to support those affected by recent severe weather in the US, and we’ve also had requests to extend the availability of the You & Me scrapbooking kit offered during the month of May. We’ve combined those two aims into a single campaign called You & Me: Stronger Together, to raise funds for the survivors of the severe storms that have pummeled the Midwest and Southern states.
During the month of June, order a You & Me kit for only $15 US/ $16.50 CAN (a retail value of $34.95/$38.95), and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross 2011 Floods and Tornadoes relief operations. Simply use item number CC1012B to place your order for this sensational kit and help those in need at the same time. The You & Me: Stronger Together campaign will continue until June 30 at 11:59 pm (MDT) or while supplies last.
Offer valid June 2–30, 2011, or while supplies last. No qualifying purchase required. Tax and shipping/handling charges apply. The placement of the donations is prioritized by the American Red Cross, with all money earmarked for disaster relief from the tornadoes and flooding in the midwestern and southeastern United States.

Click Here to Shop Online Now for the You & Me: Stronger Together Kit or Contact Me to place your outside order.
Even if you’ve already purchased a You & Me Kit in May…couldn’t you use one or two more to give away as gifts!?! It’s a GREAT price for an amazing cause!

June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

Welcome to our CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring June's SOTM Jubilation, which is a super versatile set of 24 stamps. This is a stamp set loaded with possibilities!


If you have come here from SHEILA'S BLOG you are on the right path. If you get lost, you may want to go back to Helen's Blog to find the entire list of blog hoppers!


This month we have over 50 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their artistic creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. 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!

Since this month's set can be used for so many special occasions, I wanted to make a simple, quick card that could be adapted for any occasion. Here I used Bamboo cardstock, dry embossed on a angle to create an elegant diamond background. I added a stripe of Bliss B&T (the floral and the stripe), plus a bit of Colonial White Crochet ribbon. Topped off with the Cake from the Jubilation set and the Celebrate fireworks sentiment (see tip below), this would be a nice birthday or Wedding card (if you chopped off the candles). I accented the dry embossed background with Opaques self adhesive pearls, and added some Glitter Glitz to the cake frosting.

One quick tip on marker masking - the sentiment I used here is the word "celebrate", but in the set that word is embedded in an image of fireworks. I simple colored just the word with my Cocoa Marker and stamped it without the fireworks background. Sometimes I feel like my Cocoa marker just isn't as dark as I'd like when doing a marker masking technique like this, so I like to dab the brush tip of the marker onto my freshly inked Cocoa Pad to make sure that my markered image will be as dark as I like it to be. You could also trim the image apart to use the word separately, but since this one is so small, marker masking seemed the way to go!

You could easily adapt this card to any of the images in that set, subbing in B&T patterns for the dry embossed CS - there are loads of possibilities, all in this quick 5 minute card!


Now "Hop" on over to LEANNE'S BLOG to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants in the hop to get some great crafty ideas for more fun projects! Remember, the June SOTM is only available until the last day of the month. Be sure to ask your CTMH Consultant how to get yours FREE (or click here) - and don't forget to order your absolutely FREE Studio J jpg file, this month only! 

June SOTM - thank you, Marry Gunn!

I have to share this super card idea from a fabulous fellow CTMH Consultant, Mary Gunn. Clever Mary used the adorable June SOTM to create this BATMAN card! I had to make one of these as soon as I saw it, of course. Gabe has flipped over this card, and I can't stop humming the theme song - thank you Mary Gunn!

To make my version of Mary's awesome idea, I cut a strip of 1 1/2" by 5 1/4" Grey Wool CS. I put that in my trimmer and made some cuts into the strip every so often, randomly spaced, but always double cutting by shifitng the paper jsut a smidge between cuts to create a bunch of tiny slits. I trimmed those off with my Micro-tip scissors and snipped the resultant "buildings" into multiple heights. To add a bit more color I used some of my hand punches to pop out "windows" in my buildings and backed those with Sunflower CS. A bit of Glitter Glitz for a starry sky and our call for superhero rescue is complete!

Come back tomorrow Wednesday for more June SOTM ideas - the Blog hop is coming!
Na Na  Na Na  Na Na  Na Na  Na Na  Na Na  NA! Blog Hop!

May Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

Welcome to our CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring May's SOTM with the adorable armchairs, called Chairs to You!

If you have come here from NANCY'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 dozens of Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their artistic creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. 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!

For May I used my stamp set to make this cute change of address card - appropriate since we're moving into our new house this weekend, finally! I stamped the comfy armchair onto the smaller floral paper from the Miracle paper packet. I'm so glad they turned that special into a full blown paper packet.

Then I made an "area rug" from a bit of the larger floral paper and some bitty pieces of the new Kraft borders. I trimmed my border apart to make the fringe on the rug. I love how versatile and easy the new borders are to work with! I inked a different border to go along the bottom of my little living room scene.

Now "Hop" on over to LISA'S BLOG to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafty ideas for more fun projects! Remember, the May SOTM is only available until the last day of the month!  Be sure to ask your CTMH Consultant how to get yours FREE (or click here) - you're gonna love it!