May SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! I am so excited! this month is my very first SOTM BLOG HOP!  I hope you all enjoy ourhard work here.

We will be featuring May's SOTM, which is "Chairs to You", a set of 14 stamps. If you have come here from Traci Pasqualone'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 over 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!
I love looking at everyone's idea's on the bulletin boards, and of course in the Spring Idea Book too.  May's Stamp Of The Month Set was a great one to get the creativity going. 

I used "Chairs to You" to make a house warming card for a dear familly member that just bought their first new home, I can't wait to see it!

I went with a simple "Juniper" and "Cocoa" color theme. The background's scallop edge is done with a simple corner rounder that CTMH sells, I love tools that have a double purpose.  I also distressed the edges of the "Colonial White" cardstock with our cute little distressing tool.  I bought it because it was cute, and find myself using it for most of my projects...so handy.  I used my little sponge daubers to add some ink to the edges for a more "polished" look.  I also stamped the comfy chair onto the "Juniper" and cut it out to make it pop, but the buttons were just calling out for me to use the tiny opaque pearls on them, so I caved they were just the right size!  I added a little pre-pleated "Juniper" ribbon from the "Wings" workshop on the go, and some "Cocoa" ribbon on top and a fun and easy card is done!  If you need a list of materials to make this card, just scroll down to the end of this entry.

Thanks for taking a look at my project.  I hope you liked them feel free to leave a comment below, and of course I could always use more followers to help keep me motivated.

Now "Hop" on over to Paige Dolecki'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 May SOTM is only available until May 31st! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!


Product List:
CTMH Cards and Envelopes, Colonial White- X1410
CTMH Designer Ribbons, Cocoa Collection- Z1316
CTMH Opaques Adhesive Gems, Mocha- Z1333
CTMH Wings Level 2 Assortment-Z1398
CTMH Edge Distresser-Z1297
CTMH Corner Rounder-Z578
CTMH Micro-Tip Scissors-Z534
CTMH Bonding Memories Glue-1512
CTMH Colonial White Cardstock- 1388
CTMH Juniper Cardstock-X5752
CTMH Exclusive Inks, Cocoa-Z2114
CTMH Exclusive Inks, Juniper- Z2165

May is National Scrapbooking Month!

Close To My Heart has really terrific specials starting May 1 for National Scrapbooking Month!

The You and Me Scrapbooking Kit!

I've got to say this is one of the best kits I've seen in a while, the papers are absolutely gorgeous, and the Stamp set has practically everything you could possibly want! Pennants, tickets, jounaling box, florishes...everything all in 1 Kit! And of course it also contains 2 separate fabulous layout patterns with step by step instructions and cutting guides.  They even include the embellies for you...Opaques, Ribbon, and Irresistable Demontional Elements. A Great Kit for a Great Price!

I couldn't wait to open it up and create something beautiful with it.  I made some great masculine layouts of my son, and then took the feminine papers to do a layout of four generations of women in my family.  I just love to play with old black and whites.

To top it off, I still have some paper left over for a couple of other projects, YAY!

WHEN YOU PLACE A MINIMUM ORDER OF $50 IN CLOSE TO MY HEART PRODUCTS* IN May, you can get the exclusive You & Me scrapbooking kit for the discount price of just $15—that’s more than half off the retail value! You’ll create two fully embellished two-page layouts using the new cardstock-weight B&T Duos® papers, D-size stamp set, accessories, and instructions. You can also purchase the kit at full retail for $34.95 with no minimum purchase required. Become a Close To My Heart Consultant during May and we’ll include a You & Me kit for free* as part of your New Consultant Kit. Contact me today to get the celebration started.

To check this out, go to my online shoping page anytime between May 1- May 31 and either order it right from there, or contact me to host a party so you can earn some free product as well.

Chairs to You!~One of a Kind Friend

I know I'm posting this early, but I wanted to give everyone a little sneak preview for the May Stamp of the Month.  I hope you enjoy.
This is a card I made for a "One of a Kind Friend" I used Bamboo on the Colonial White background to do some random stamping, and give the card some depth.  I really love the random stamping to bring the whole project together.  I also used the Bliss paper pack to frame it, as well as for the fabric on the "fancy" chair. The row of chairs is done in Chocolate ink, but to set the fancy chair apart, I embossed it with Cocoa embossing powder (fyi-CTMH is one of the few companies to make a brown embossing powder-something I learned when I had a scrapping emergency last year, it's not something you can pick up at your local AC Moore or Michael's...lol)

If your interested, here is the product list, make sure to ask me how you can get the stamp of the month on sale or even free, or click here to find out, and purchase it online during the month of May.

Product List:
CTMH  Chairs To You! stamp set -D1456
CTMH Exclusive Inks, Bamboo -Z2103
CTMH Exclusive Inks, Chocolate -Z2111
CTMH Colonial White Cardstock -1388
CTMH Embossing Powders, Cocoa -Z1246
CTMH Bliss Level 2 Paper Packet -X7132B

Unique Baby Shower Invitation

I loved doing these adorable invitations for my sister. My mom and gram got in on the fun too.

I got to use the adorable new baby love stamp set, and for the sentiment, this months SOTM, blessed.  I got the idea the saying "We are so blessed" because this is the fourth baby boy for my sister and her husband.  This little surprise in due in June which will make the eighth grandson for my parents!  Aren't we all Blessed!

I used the Miracle paper set, for these, and just went to town, with all the papers coordinating together, it made everthing super easy.  My sister's not into all the pastely colors, (good thing with all those boys) and this paper pack has just the right touch to it to make her happy! that combined with the cocoa background, and ink gave it just the right boyish charm.

Fixing photos in Studio J

As much as I love working with the textures of paper, there is nothing as easy as Studio J.  They make it so easy to make scrapbook pages, and now you can fix photos right in the Studio J program, this video show you how.

Cropping Weekend

The winner of the basket in the last blog was.....Carol Davis!

Thanks to all the ladies who participated!

So this weekend I had lots of fun and met so many new wonderful friends!  I was helping out a lot, so I probably didn't get as much done as I should have on my own scrapbooking, but I did get a couple of layouts done.  This first one is of my son when he was younger, just playing in the back yard.

I used the new Lucky paper pack on it because I just love all the bicycles in the artwork.  I also used some pinwheels in it, something I've never tried before, but loved how they turned out.  The Miracle workshop kit has some great stamps in it for making pinwheels.  I did use lots of brads, and a few buttons as well.  The layout that I used is from the Imagine Book we sell at CTMH,  I love how easy it is to make a layout with these, they tell you all the measurements to use...it was even pretty easy to flip the layout to fit my pictures.  This was the "Shadow" layout found in there.  I also used the journaling block from the new You & Me kit that's exclusively available next month for National Scrapbooking month, just to give everyone a little taste of what you will see next month :0)

 This second layout is of my son ages ago... I love that I'm finally getting caught up on some pages!  This is of him with my parents...they are Proud as a Peacock of their first grandson!

This one was super easy because I used the Level 1 Magnifique paper pack on one side, and the gorgeous level 2 Magnifique on the other.  All I had to add was a couple stamped images (using my favorite rock and roll technique on the feather) a couple of stickers from My Stickease, and LOTS OF BLING.  I love the sparkles and opaques....as if you can't tell from all the bling!  Enjoy for now, I can't wait to share the pages I made with next months You & Me kit...maybe next time.

Scrapbooking Weekend!

Who's Going to Win this Gift Basket?
So YAY! tomorrow, directly after work, I get to go to Montrose Bible Conference to help with the scrapbooking weekend!  I can hardly wait....Which explains why I'm still up packing....

I was originally going to go just for the fun, but at the last minute (2days ago) one of the other demonstrators had to back out, so here I go.  I made this gift basket for the drawing, as well as some other little goodies that I can't wait to share with everyone. I better get some rest now though...Goodnight.

Magnifique with Rock n Roll technique

Hi everybody, getting ready for a creative weekend!  I want to plan out the baby shower invitation for my sister's baby which is sneeking up fast on me.  But before I did that, I thought I'd share this quick card.  I used the Magnifique paper and the gorgeous stamp set, Circle of Love.  To get the multitones on the peacock is actually pretty simple, I used what's called the rock n roll technique.  Basically you get the stamp all inked up with the lighter color (lagoon) first.  Then you quickly move to your darker color (pacifica) and just kinda rock the stamp in the ink on just the edges, and roll it around without touching the middle part of the stamp, so the lighter color is still showing.  Very simple, and fast.  That's why I like it.  It works especially well if you're doing a fall layout to make the leaves multicolored.

December Calendar Page

YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!   THE FINAL PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the birthday month page, so instead of focusing on Christmas, I went with Birthday with a special little cupcake.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but I embossed the cupcake wrapper and candle with heat embossing, using clear detail, and silver pearl on the candle.  Super easy with CTMH embossing powder.  I also added tons of pearls to this page to bring out the flowers.  But the most fun I had was with the frosting on the cupcake.  I used liquid applique on this.  Once you let it dry, you use the craft heater on it and it puffs up wonderfully, and actually looks like frosting.  It's a white substance, so I used the sponge dauber to give it a blush color to it.  I also used the sponge dauber on all of the different papers to give it a more cohesive look.

Product list:

Sophia level 1 paper pack..........X7131B.......$12.95

Sophia level 2 paper pack..........X7131A..........9.95

Sophia level 2 My Stickease......X7131C..........4.95

Cupcake Sprinkles stampset......D1336...........22.95

Chocolate alphabet large.............E1010..........34.95

Exclusive inks stamp pad, hollyhock....Z2128.....5.25

Exclusive inks stamp pad, blush...........Z2106.....5.25
Exclusive inks stamp pad, pear............Z2197.....5.25
Exclusive inks stamp pad, goldrush......Z2123.....5.25
Embossing powder, clear detail...........Z821........3.95
Embossing powder, silver pearl............Z678......3.95
Sponge daubers...................................Z726......3.95
Liquid Applique...................................Z308.......3.95
Craft Heater........................................Z555......29.95
Opaques adhesive gems, pearl.............Z1336.....2.95









November Calendar Page

Hi all, well, the calendar is ALMOST DONE!

I got to use lots of pearls on this page, as well as some buttons and just blooms, which by the way get them while you can.  The JUST BLOOMS™ BIG PINKS PAPER FLOWERS that were $5.95 are now 33% off, only $4.00 while supplies last.  Just click here to go to My CTMH website, and order them quick for lots of summer scrapbooking.  And since I'm on the subject make sure you check out the special for the My CTMH website....Lovin' Level 1...when you buy $100.00 on the website between April 1 to April 30, 2011 you get a free Level 1 pack.  another win win situation...Lovin' Level 1 (especially when it's free!).  Well I used lots of different things on this page so here's the list.

Product List

Just Blooms, pink..............................Z1033.......$4.00

Sophia level 1 paper pack.................X7131A.....9.95

Sophia Level 2 paper pack...............X7131B....12.95

Sophia level 2 My Stickease..............X7131C....4.95

Baby Love stamp set.........................B1368.....13.95

Chocolate Alphabet Large.................E1010......34.95

A Flitter stamp set.............................A1108.......7.95

Opaques adhesive gems, mocha........Z1333.......2.95

2" Scallop circle punch......................Z1392.....14.95

Hollyhock dash ribbon.......................retired

Exclusive inks stamp pad, hollyhock...Z2128......5.25

Exclusive inks stamp pad, chocolate...Z2111......5.25
Exclusive inks stamp pad, goldrush....Z2123......5.25
Exclusive inks stamp pad, blush.........Z2106......5.25
Buttons, basic assortment.................Z1358......5.95