July SOTM Blog Hop -

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring July's SOTM, which is Happy Forever, a set of 9 stamps. If you have come here from Carla Ironside's blog, you are on the right path!

This month we have more than 60 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!


Now "Hop" on over to Pamela O'Connor'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 SOTM is only available until July 31, 2010! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!

Final Day - Jackpot June - GOODIE BOX

It's the final offer for Jackpot June, and it's a biggie! Receive products with a retail value of $300 for only $125! You can be sure it will be filled to the brim with high-quality, beautiful Close To My Heart products. CTMH will surprise you with the selection -- it will be like Christmas in July!

Ordering is easy -- just go to my website and click "Add to cart." Couldn't be simpler! Then sit back and wait for the big brown truck to pull up to your house with your white box FILLED with goodies! The offer is available until 8:00 a.m. CDT on Thursday, July 1.

I Pledge Allegiance . . .

I'm all about patriotism, so when the Heart 2 Heart challenge turned out to be to make something patriotic, I knew I had to participate! The only requirements were to include stars and stripes. I combined this challenge with the Mojo Monday sketch to create this card:

I used one of the CTMH clear acrylic cards, cardstock, and the "A Twinkle" stamp set (only $7.95!). The inside stars were made by laying Star Spangled Blue cardstock over chipboard stars. I gently ran a stylus around each star to emboss it, then sanded lightly to reveal some of the white core in the cardstock. So easy! The little white star in the center is one of the chipboard stars, painted with Glitz Glitter Glue for some sparkle.

Heart 2 Heart Color Challenge & Mojo Monday 144

I combined two challenges again this week: Heart 2 Heart's color challenge using Buttercup, Black, and Tulip, and the Mojo Monday Sketch 144. Scroll down past the colors and the sketch to see a list of the items I used to make this card.

Items used:

• D1373 - Childhood Portrait
• D1347 - Confidential
• C1366 - Fringed Phrases
• D1401 - Authentic
• That's Amore Level 2 Paper Packet
• Designer Ribbon Rounds Black Collection
• Basic Brad Assortment
• Inks & cardstock: Black; White Daisy; Tulip; Buttercup

Scrapping with Studio J

I never thought I would like digital scrapbooking. I mean, playing with paper, stamps, and embellishments is half (or most!) the fun of scrapbooking for me. But when Close To My Heart rolled out Studio J and I saw these darling Easter papers (exclusive to Studio J), I had to give it a try. LOVE the result! Traditional scrapbooking remains my first love, but there's room in my heart for Studio J, too. It truly does make scrapbooking faster, simpler, and easier with lovely results!

In case you're wondering, there is not one physical embellishment on the page. It was all created with the free software available at Studio J. Go try it out by clicking here -- the software is completely free; you only pay when you order the pages. Be sure to let me know what you think! I'll be posting more Studio J creations from time to time.

Heart 2 Heart Challenge

We're getting scrappy again this week with the Heart 2 Heart challenge, but this time the challenge was to make a card for Father's Day using scraps and/or found items. I pulled out one of my favorites -- Back Country -- and made this fun Father's Day card using the Mojo Monday Sketch 142 from last week.
I didn't have a punch bigger than the one I used to cut out the round image from the June Stamp of the Month "Wonderful Friend," so I cut a circle free-hand and distressed the edges, turning them up a little around the stamped image.

Of course, the inside needed to be fixed up a little, too. I used a former Stamp of the Month for the greeting (crossing my fingers that it makes it into a future Idea Book -- LOVE that set!). The tree is a Stickease from the Back Country set.

Swap Cards for Convention - Card 1

In just a few weeks, I'll be at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center just outside of Washington, DC with a couple thousand other consultants for the annual Close To My Heart convention. It is always such an exciting time, and one of the most fun parts is swapping cards with other consultants. You'll see women huddled together, madly trading handmade cards. I always come home with so many great ideas and so much inspiration!

I realized this week that I'd better get crackin' or I was going to miss out on the swapping fun! I came up with this card to swap and am almost finished making 50 to swap. I get bored easily, so rather than make 100 or 200 of one card, I try to come up with 3 or 4 different cards and make multiples of those. Now, back to my scraproom to start assembling these babies.

What did I use to make this card?

• D1361 - Thank You
• D1254 - Soul Mates
• D1212 - Playful Flourishes
• Notebook Level 2 Paper Packet
• Just Blooms Big Pinks Paper Flowers
• Designer Ribbon Rounds - Hollyhock collection
• Wishes Card Confidence Program - Sentiment Secured (p. 78)
• Cocoa ink and cardstock

Mojo Monday Sketch 142

I've been missing the Mojo Monday challenges, so I wanted to get off to a good start in June. I love, love, LOVE the Cherry-O papers, stamps, and Opaques stickers and decided this sketch would work perfectly with them.

The stamp set is from the Cherry-O Workshop on the Go. You can purchase the WOTG on my website. I used three techniques on the cherries: masking, second-generation stamping, and stamp rolling.

• Masking - To make some of the cherries appear to be in front of others, I stamped one cherry on a Post-It note (close to the top of the note), then cut it out. I stamped a cherry on my paper, then placed the Post-It note mask over the stamped image before stamping another overlapping cherry. When I pulled up the mask, it looked like the first cherry was in front of the other one.
• Second-generation stamping - No, this isn't stamping with your mama (although that can be fun, too!). To get a lighter image, stamp once onto scrap paper before stamping onto your paper without reinking.
• Stamp rolling (or rock & roll) - I loaded the cherry stamp with ink, then stamped off onto scrap paper (second generation). Before putting it on the paper, though, I just rolled the edges of the stamp on the Tulip ink then stamped onto my cardstock. It makes the image lighter in the middle. You can also do this with different colored inks (think fall leaves!). The key here is to start with the lightest color first and always clean the stamp before inking up again.
  

Another shout out for the Cherry-O Opaques stickers -- they are GORGEOUS and so easy to use! They look like little colored pearls. My fingers are crossed for additions to this product line in the Autumn/Winter Idea Book.

Might as well make the inside pretty, too. I think it's always a little disappointing to open a beautiful card to find a plain ol' inside. It's hard to see in this photo, but there are leaves and a stem on the cherry, too, all in second generation ink.

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Scrapbook Page

This week, the girls at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog challenged us to get scrappy! I realized that it has been quite a while since I made a regular old scrapbook page. It seems like my focus has been cards lately, so it was time to take the challenge.



I haven't used the Splendor paper packet very much because, honestly, it is not one of my favorites. But like every other CTMH paepr, I grow to appreciate it once I use it. The paper seemed to fit the photo of my husband and me taken at a recent game played by our local minor league baseball team, the Normal Cornbelters. You'll have to excuse my wild hairdo -- we sat in drizzly rain for quite a while; then, since it is central Illinois, the wind picked up.



Items used:

• Splendor Level 2 Paper Packet
• Splendor Designer Brads
• Colonial White Waxy Flax
• Twill ribbon
• Color-Ready Irresistibles Lots of Dots
• Irresistibles Pizzazz Chipboard Die Cuts
• 1 1/4" Circle Punch
• Inks: Topiary, Moonstruck, Heavenly Blue

Jackpot June - $60 Mystery Box!

Today is a goodie box day! Get a box filled with popular products at 50% or more off of retail value. Plus, you'll get a deal on shipping & handling. Purchase this goodie box for only $60 through my website so you don't miss out! This offer is good only while supplies last and will be snatched up quickly.

Enjoy your goodie box!

Heart 2 Heart Challenge 9 - Sketch

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge was another sketch. I looked at it for quite a while before I began to picture a gatefold card. I pulled out the paper packet "It's a Guy Thing" and the June Stamp of the Month (Wonderful Friend) and came up with the pictured Father's Day card. A fun technique I used is leathering (on the mats under the "Hero" saying and inside). I started with Desert Sand cardstock and rubbed the Desert Sand ink pad in a circular motion until the piece was entirely covered. It really looks a little like leather! Enjoy!

Jackpot June: Acrylic album

One of the products listed below is the mystery jackpot item for today. If you order the mystery jackpot item, we'll send you the My Creations™ Acrylic Mini Album (retail value of $14.95 US/ $17.50 CAN) for FREE! Order one of each to guarantee that you will hit the jackpot! Click {here} to view an acrylic album I made recently.

• My Reflections Boom Di Ada Paper Packet - $10
• My Reflections Daydream Paper Packet - $10
• My Reflections Emporium Paper Packet - $10
• My Reflections Game On Paper Packet - $10
• My Reflections Perfect Day Paper Packet - $10

Click here to take you to my website to order! This is such a great deal on paper -- 24 sheets for $10!