SOTM Blog Hop - May You've Got a Friend

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring May's SOTM, which is You've Got a Friend, a set of 5 stamps.  If you have come here from Michelle John'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!

Products used:

Damask Embossing Folder

Sky Ink

Outdoor Denim CS

White Daisy CS

Sweet Leaf CS

Cotton Candy CS

Sweet Leaf Ribbon(retired)

Ariana Zip Strip

Now "Hop" on over to Lori Brown'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! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!

My Heart is a Flutter with AHSC

This week marks the first sketch in our Second Year of running Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  We've had some amazing designers on our Design Team and we've had over a thousand entries for our First year. We couldn't have done it without all of you. So Thank You!  It makes me very happy to know that you all enjoy my sketches so much.

Here is the sketch for this week:

I decided to rotate my card as my original card disappeared before I could take a photo of it(actually it was a retirement card, and my husband ended up sealing it before I could get a photo taken). 

Here is my card:

I used the Damask Embossing Folder and added a piece of retired ribbon.  I then stamped out a butterfly, cutting it out and layering it over the ribbon using 3D adhesive.  The sentiment comes from the same stamp set, and is stamped in Black in aswell, and popped with 3D adhesive.  Just a clean and simple card, but I'm happy with the final look.

Now I hope you will pop on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge not only to see our design teams creations, but to find out who our Top 3 entrants were from last weeks sketch, and the winner of the Prize Package.  Is it you?

Happy Birthday Balloon : AHSC #52 ( 1 year anniversary)

Wow, 52 weeks of sketches!

That is fantastic, and as of now we have over 1060 pieces of artwork in posted on my pinterest board. You can go there and be totally inspired by all the amazing artwork.

Here is my card, and I flipped the sketch and played around with the pieces to make it work with the cut outs.

I used the Quatrefoil Embossing folder, and actually used the reserve side, which makes this Sorbet Cardstock look quilted.  I used the Stamp Set Lifting Spirits(C1570).  I hand cut all the images and layered them for this card. They are colored with Alcohol Markers, Blending Pens and Chocolate Ink Pad.  I hand wrote the sentiment.

Here is the sketch:

Hope you make the time to stop by Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to check out the amazing artwork created by our Fabulous Design Team.

Easter Cards( a little late posting)

I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter Weekend.  I was a little under the weather and didn't get to post some of the cards I had created to give to my family and friends.  So I'm sharing them with you today.

These are just a few of my latest creations. The first 2 photos are creations that I made using cards from our current catalog for inspiration.  I used the the Quatrefoil and Chevron Embossing folders and sanded the embossed area to reveal the white core.

This second card I used the Tone on Tone technique to stamp the vine to create my own background.  For the background of the sentiment, I swiped the cardstock right over the top of my ink pads to add color.  I used the Alcohol Markers and Alcohol Blending Pen to color the flowers.

 These cards were so much fun to color.  I absolutely love the Some Bunny Stamp set.  For the cards on the left and bottom I used an overlay found on the newest Cricut Collection, Artbooking.  The other card is made using the Lollydoodle paper and the Quatrefoil Embossing folder for some texture.

Happiness and Sunshine AHSC #51

Wow, we are 1 week away from our Anniverary. Currently we have over 1040 creations made from the 50 sketches already posted, and they are fabulous.  You can find all the creations here, and all the sketches can be found here.

Next week all our entrants will be put in for a chance to win a prize package valued at $50.

Here is this weeks sketch:

Here is my card:

Supplies Used:

Sorbet Cardstock
Sorbet Ink Pad
Give a Lift StampSet
Artbooking Cricut Cartridge
Saddle Ink Pad
Bling (non CTMH)

I hope you will pop over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and see the amazingly talented Design Team and the creations that they have slaved over to inspire you to get creating with our sketches.

My Favourite Things Blog Hop

Team Brae-er introduces "My Favourite Things Blog Hop"

If you came here from Brae's Blog then you are in the right spot.

Today we are featuring our favorite CTMH "Things".....hmmm where do I start?

I have so many favourite things, but if you want to know what my favourite thing to do with my CTMH products is to color.

What I will do is stamp out a whole sheet full of images and just start coloring. I love to color, it is very relaxing, and it just washes my troubles away. 

My products of choice for these projects are:

Archival Black Ink
Micro-tip Non-stick Scissors
Exclusive Alcohol Markers
Blending Pen
Alcohol Blending Pen
Ink Pads
White Daisy Cardstock
Balloon Ride Paper Pack
Embossing Folders
Scallop Border Punch
Sanding kit

Your next stop on this hop is Lucy, so keep hopping along and continue to be inspired.

Cross Canada Blog Hop - Artbooking in April

Welcome to our April Blog Hop featuring creations made with our latest Cricut Cartridge, Artbooking.  To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop! 

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop.  I am also the first stop on your hop across Canada, we hop from East Coast to West Coast, so I hope you will hop along with us. There are 15 participating in this month's hop. If you came from Candra's Blog Paper Dragon Fleur then you are in the right place! 

This layout is super super cute and easy and with a change of colors will fit a boy or girls birthday.  All the cuts were found on page 87 of the Artbooking handbook. Just 5 simple cuts,and add your photos and BAM, layout complete.  You can choose to embellish it further or leave it plain. What is great about this cartridge is that once you set you dimensions to 11" all cuts will cut to coordinate for that page. How awesome is that, this cartridge takes all the guess work out of figuring the sizes.  My pattern paper is from the Balloon Ride paper pack, and all my colors were chosen from the colors in this paper package.

For this cute Easter card, I used a Photo mat found from the same page to add a border.  This just goes to show that the Artbooking cartridge can be used for everything from layouts, to embellishments, borders and tags.....I could keep going on....but I think you get the idea. So continue to hop along and get more inspiring ideas from the creations from our Creative Canadian Consultants.

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Nicky of Timeless Cottage.

 If you get lost along the way, you can head back here to my blog, as I have provided the complete list of our participants.

1. Michelle ~My Creations With Michelle
2. Nicky ~ Timeless Cottage
3. Arlene ~ Arlene's Creative Space
4. Krista ~Simply Creating





Sheri  ~ Sheri's Crafty Classroom
Carol ~ Crafty Carol's Place
Lynette ~C1Make1
Brandy ~Canadian Scrappers
Terry Ann~ Terry Ann Diack
Janet ~Jan's Works of Heart
Kathy ~It's a Girl Thing!
Chantal ~It's a Hoot PaperCrafts
Nancy ~ Nancy Klein
Karen ~ Karen's Clearly Precious Impression
Candra ~ Paper Dragon Fleur

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring Home Decor projects.  So mark May 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.

Mother's Day Cards for Sketch #50 @ AHSC

I've been asked to design some Mother's Day cards by some of my friends, so I really need to get rolling. What better way than to use my own sketches to create these cards. Here is this weeks sketch:

It's a pretty basic card, but there is so much you can do with this sketch.  I chose to keep it pretty simple.

Here is my card:

Supplies:

Embossed Ruby Cardstock

Black Cardstock

Silver Shimmer Trim

Scallop Border Punch

Square Bling

Ruby and Black Ink

Cuts from Artiste

1 1/4" Circle Punch

Holiday Tags(D1560)

Perfect Fit - Frames 2(D1536)

I hope you will now head over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and check out the amazing creations from our very talented Design Team.

My daughter's creation for Sketch #49

Over the weekend my oldest daughter and I had a chance to craft together.  I was working on my card for this week's sketch and she wanted to try her hand at making the sketch too.

I wasn't happy with how my card turned out, so I'm showcasing my daughter's card today. She actually did a great job putting this together.

Jaymee started with a Hollyhock base and added a layer of Blush Cardstock for a two-tone pink.  She carried that on with the flowers. After cutting out the flowers to place on the stem, she used the cut out as a stencil and drew flowers right on the card.  Then she stamped the sentiment in Black Ink.

I hope this shows you that even a 10 year old can create amazing cards, we hope that this card inspires you to try your hand at this week's sketch.

Now head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and see what our Design Team has created to inspire you.