July SOTM Blog Hop - Life is Wonderful

Welcome to the July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! 

                                                 

                                                      

This month I am following {Michelle Stewart's Blog.}   We have 47 Close to My Heart Consultants participating in this month’s Stamp of the Month Blog Hop.   If you lose your place while traveling through our blog hop, the complete list of participants can be found here.      

The July Stamp of the Month is entitled Life is Wonderful (S1508) (Set of 8).   Here is a picture of this stamp set:

I am working on a scrapbook for a young man and his fiancée.  He has not yet given me a picture for this page but he really wanted this quote to be on it.  This will be the title page of his albu,

Do you like the patterned paper with the hearts?  That is from our Paper Fundamentals line.  One side has the white hearts and the other side has the red on red embossed hearts.  The black on black chevron is another patterned paper from the Paper Fundamentals.

Also on this page is some Black Glitter Paper, and some Ruby buttons from our Ruby Mini Medley.  The frame and the big flower is cut from the Close to My Heart Cricut Artiste cartridge.  The small flower in the middle of the big flower and the font used in the writing is cut from the Close to My Heart Artbooking cartridge.

I want to show you how I made my flower.  I cut the flowers at 3.5", 3.2", 3" and 2.7".  The Ruby flowers are all edged in Black Ink.  The White Daisy Flowers are edged with Ruby Ink and after assembly are lightly edged in a tiny bit of Black Ink to give them some definition.

Then I spray them liberally with water.  Sitting the cut flowers on my Close to My Heart All-Purpose mat keeps the water off of my table and allows the flowers to soak up all of the water.

Then I crumple the damp flowers, one at a time, in my hand.

I open up the flower carefully.

And then stack each flower on top of each other, offsetting them slightly as shown below.

Then all I do is let them dry a little and place a dab of Liquid Glass in the middle of each flower and place them on top of each other.  Once dry, I take my paper piercer and shape the flower petal over the piercer to make them look more realistic.  When the flower is dry, it becomes hardened and won't lose its shape.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I would love for you to show me a little love by leaving me a comment and then please go to our next artist, {Melissa Robinson's Blog} and see what she has made with this adorable stamp set.

Our June Promotion is called Jump on It July.  During the month of July, when you purchase $25 in current, retail priced stamps, you qualify to receive either the July Stamp of the Month (Life is Wonderful) FREE or any one of the Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in Annual Inspirations 2014–2015 or Seasonal Expressions 2 for only $5!

The Hostess Rewards stamp sets have previously only been available as part of the Hostess Rewards program, which means now is the perfect opportunity to get those special stamp sets you’ve had your eye on! To get your FREE stamp set or your $5 Hostess Rewards stamp set, simply place an order for $25 of any current, retail priced stamps. This offer is available only during the month of July and applies only to the July Stamp of the Month and current Hostess rewards stamp sets, so spring into action and jump on this deal before it’s gone!

You can purchase this stamp set as well as any of the supplies listed below on my website. 

Supplies Used
(Coming soon)

Going Fishing

The end of June is a busy cardmaking time for me.  We have 4 birthdays in 2 days.  Today is my hubby's birthday.  I lucked out the other night and instead of cardmaking I unpacked a ton of boxes from our move 2 1/2 years ago.  They had been living in a closet since we moved and it was time to purge.

Score!!!  I found some unfinished card fronts.  And these were not just any card fronts.  These were brayered card fronts.  I found the perfect card front for my husband's birthday card and wanted to share the finished card with you.

The stamp set used is a retired stamp set that is still in my possession.  It is called Relax (C1237). That stamps are designed to be a distressed look.  I wanted it to look like a silhouette so I colored the two fisherman and the boat in with my Black Shin Han Marker.

The background was made using a brayer, which is a roller that looks like a paint roller.  You roll the roller part in ink and then roll it onto the paper.  You keep adding different colors of ink and really soak the paper.  I love the look of it and it really makes a special card for a special man.

My Crush Angel Necklace

The My Crush Assortments are lots of fun to use in your My Crush albums.  They add some pizzaz and personality to your album.  But you can also use them to make other things as well.

I took this small card from the Holiday Assortment.

Isn't she adorable?  This is what I made.

A beautiful necklace.  My angel now looks like a Victorian little girl. I added a CTMH rose charm and I now have a vintage necklace.

You can do so much with the Base and Bling line.  Just adhere your picture to a base of your choice with CTMH Liquid Glass, add some more Liquid Glass to the top, and drop the Base and Bling crystal on top.  Once it settles, push down a bit to remove any bubbles, and then wipe any extra Liquid Glass off with a baby wipe.

It dries pretty quickly and then you can thread it onto a chain and add charms.  This makes an adorable gift or keep it for yourself.

I am entering this project in the Craft my Life Anything But a Card Challenge.

Supplies Used

My Crush Holiday Happenings Assortment	Base and Bling Oval Glass Covers	Base and Bling Oval Pendant Faux Antiqued Gold	Base and Bling Free Thinker Charms
Base and Bling Chain Faux Antiqued Gold	Liquid Glass

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Butterfly Sympathy

I only make Sympathy cards when I need them and they are made with the person in mind who I am sending it to.

I belong to a group who symbol is the butterfly.  A group friend recently lost her fiance.  I felt so badly for her and wanted to send her a special card.  I found a beautiful piece of paper in the My Crush Wildwood Album and added some butterflies.

I have never made a card this size.  It is 4 1/4" x 9 1/4".  This size accommodated the paper from the My Crush album and I did not want to cut any of the pussy willows off this paper.  I added some butterflies cut with the Close to My Heart Cricut Artbooking cartridge along with some glitter paper.  Can you see the "hatching" pattern on the paper?  I second generation stamped this pattern using the net stamp from the Seaside Workshop on the Go.  The butterflies are from the Your Own Kind of Wonderful Stamp Sets.

Remember that our June Promotion is: buy one of the featured My Crush Albums + their assortments and receive the coordinating stamp set free.  Check out the promotion here.

Supplies Used

My Crush Wildwood Book	12" X 12" Pacifica Cardstock	Teal Glitter Paper	Your Own Kind of Wonderful
Workshops on the Go Seaside Scrapbooking Kit	Mini-Medley Accents Rosewood Collection	Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Cocoa Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
Chocolate Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Cricut Artbooking Collection	Thin 3-D Foam Tape	Sponge Daubers Value Pack (12)

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Tumbling Blocks

I have a special card to show you today.  Before I discovered the wonderful things you could make with paper, I was a quilter and I made wonderful things with fabric.  Every once in awhile the two passions collide.

There is a quilting pattern called Tumbling Blocks.  When I saw the stamp set, Jumping Geometrics, I saw Tumbling Blocks in one of the stamps.  I had a little free time and was in the mood to color with my ShinHan alcohol markers.  Here is what I made.

This card is a sympathy card.  I like the sentiment, Treasured Memories, because when we lose a loved one, we still have the memories we made with them.  The background paper is a stamped image that I colored with my ShinHan markers.  The kids had a long dentist appointment so  I had plenty of time to color it while waiting for them.

This stamp only stamped a third of the panel at a time and I did not have a big enough acrylic block to give me a good visual to line it up when I stamped the second time.  Being a Close to My Heart Consultant, I must confess that I do have a block big enough, but it was hiding.  After a 10 minute search, I did the next best thing.  I went into "MacGyver mode".  This is what I came up with and it worked!

Not the best acrylic block in the world, but with a little care the Cuttlebug B plate worked.  I think that I lined the stamped images up pretty well and the coloring hid any boo boos.

The vine comes from the Close to My Heart Artbooking Cricut Collection and the Butterfly comes from the Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cartridge.

Supplies Used

Treasured Friendship	Jumping Geometrics	12" X 12" Slate Cardstock	12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock
12" X 12" Smoothie Cardstock	12" X 12" Sweet Leaf Cardstock	12" X 12" Pacifica Cardstock	Black Shimmer Trim
Teal Glitter Paper	Black & Grey Glitter Paper	Sparkles Black & Grey Assortment	Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
ShinHan Touch Twin Turquoise Blue Marker	ShinHan Touch Twin Cerulean Blue Light Marker	ShinHan Touch Twin Peacock Green Marker	Bonding Memories Glue Pen
Thin 3-D Foam Tape	Damask Embossing Folder

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