What A Hoot SOTM Blog Hop - August/14

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring August's SOTM, What a Hoot, a set of 17 stamps.  This is the first hop featuring product from the newest Close To My Heart catalogue, Annual Inspirations. If you have come here from the creative Melinda'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 approximately 67 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've decided to use this stamp set to create treats for my kids classes for Halloween 'Owloween.  This fall I have 2 kids in school, and need to make twice as many goodies.  The treat tube was fun to put together, and I had some of the boxes from a previous campaign and scanned one and created my own file in Explore to cut the box out to hold the tube.  It is filled with purple and black jelly beans.  I used Black Pigment Ink to stamp all the images and heat set them before colouring.  I used the ShinHan Touch Twin Markers to colour them in.  The second treat is a bag topper, which is just a 3x5 piece of White Daisy CS scored at 2.5" and folded over and stapled to the bag.

Marker colours used:

Warm Grey WG7

Warm Grey WG4

Marigold YR24

G46 Vivid Green

P83 Lavender

Now "Hop" on over to Alyson's Blog to see her fabulously creative work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, August's SOTM is only available until the 31st!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!

Happy thoughts with AHSC #66

I've been able to get quite a bit of craft time lately and I've been playing with some new product.  Wow, are you all going to love the new Stuff in the Annual Inspirations Catalogue.

Here is this week's sketch:

It's a somewhat simply design with so many options.  This sketch is wide open to interpretation.

Here is what I've come up with:

I've used one of our new paper packs, Brushed as my base for this card, and layered 2 rows of Honey Triangle washi tape to create the strip (I think if I was to do this again, I would of applied it to white cardstock first so that it stands out more). I used A Budding Friendship (D1602) to stamp the flowers, leaves and stems. The flowers are stamped in 3 of our new colour inks, Canary, Pixie and Flaxen(the centers).  The Pixie flower is layered, and the bottom flower I created more depth by adding some shading using out new markers, Cherry Pink and Tender Pink. The leaves are Pear, and the stems I used the Markers, Sap Green and Leaf Green. The Pink flower is popped with 3D Foam Tape to add dimension, and the leafs I curled using my bone folder. See below for a close up on the pink flower.

Now head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to see all the fabulous creations made by the wonderfully crafty ladies of the Design Team.

2014-2015 Cardstock Club Kickoff

I am so happy to be able to show you the new collections for this next round of Cardstock Club.  Our catalogue is now year long, with 2 Seasonal cataolgues being released in December and April.  These 2 catalogues will have all NEW products featured inside and will run for 4 months, and will include 2 NEW paper packages.

I've gone through the paper collections and selected this round of Cardstock Club very carefully.  In the 2014-2015 Annual Inspirations Catalogue you will find 9 beautiful paper collections.  Adding 4 more with the Seasonal Expressions makes 13 paper collections in 12 months.   I decided to let you have a choice in September between Scaredy Cat and Pathfinding, (or you can choose both for $60 and get the stamp of the Month for FREE as a bonus).

Pictured below is the 9 collections that are planned out, leaving room for the collections that will come from the Seasonal Expressions(unknow at this time).

The new catalogue goes live for customers on August 1st, and current items are disappearing quickly.  Don't delay, order your favourite items now before they are gone. You can find the retiring items here.

To learn more about my Cardstock Club you can visit the tab at the top of this page, or just click here.

AHSC #65 - Congratulations

I think it's kinda funny when I get stuck on my own sketch......even with my notes wrote beside it on what I want to use, when the time comes to actually create it, it doesn't come together.

This isn't the first time this has happened either, but I didn't give up, and I managed to create a card that I'm very happy with.

Here is this week's sketch:

Here is my creation:

I started with a White Daisy cardbase, and layered a piece of pattern from Balloon Ride.  I then cut an oval from one of my cricut cartridges from a second pattern from Balloon Ride.  I choose Desert Sand as my mat and the colour for stamping my sentiment from Casual Expressions (D1525).  The flowers and leaves are from A Mother's Love a Hostess stamp.

I hope you will take the time to hop on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and check out the amazing creations from our Design Team.

Thinking of You AHSC #64

I have difficulty making masculine cards....whether it is birthday, sympathy or just a thinking of you card.  So when I sketched out this card I had a vision for it, so wrote down what I planned for it.

Here is the sketch:

This is my creation for this weeks sketch:

So I  used Autumn Terracotta Cardstock and for the 2 panels I stamped a background image in Chocolate Ink, the stamp is In The Background(D1540).  The panels are matted on White Daisy Cardstock.  I stitched a partial circle using Chocolate Embroidery Floss on the main layer.  To tie the 2 panels together I added Chocolate Brads and Autumn Terracotta Baker's Twine.  I distressed the main piece with Barn Red Ink, and the sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Ink from Casual Expressions(D1525).

Now head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to see what our talented, super creative Design Team has created using this Sketch.

Team Brae-er's Out With The Old Blog Hop

Welcome to our July Team Braer Blog Hop that focuses on Retiring Products .   You will see creations from our team that may include stamp sets,patterned paper,inks, embellishments and more so don't wait to long if you would like to purchase these as they are going to be gone after July 31st. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today,kindly contact your local consultant to place an order.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we really love feedback from our blog 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, but if you want to follow our team's blogs, then please start at the beginning with Brae . If you came from Chris' Creative Life then you are in the right place! 

For my project I used Balloon Ride paper pack because it is one of my favourites and I am sad to see it leave.  I cut 2 of the balloons out of the paper and used some clouds that I had pre-stamped.  I adhered some right to the card, and some I popped with 3D foam tape. The sentiment is from Holiday Tags(D1560) and the is stamped in Sky Ink which is also retiring and the Black Ink for the sentiment.

Your next stop on the Team Braer Hop is Kiera at Inspire Paper Crafts.

If you get lost along the way, you can head to  Brae's blog at www.brae-er.com, as she has the complete blog list. 

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. 

Cross Canada Blog Hop - Summer Mini Albums

Welcome to our July Blog Hop featuring our Summer Mini Album creations.  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, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning in Newfoundland and join Deanne at My Little Piece of the Puzzle. If you came from Julie of 12X12 Travels then you are in the right place! 

My project is still not complete as my photos for in my album were all blurry and I need to get a hold of my mother's photos from last summers vacation. But here are the pages that I have got ready, and I will post later on once I get the photos added. I've used the Kraft 3-ring Binder and Artbooking to create the pages for my Summer Mini Album.

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Rosalynd of In My Scrappin Room.

 If you get lost along the way, you can come back here, as I have listed the entire blog hop list.

1. Deanne ~ My Little Piece of the Puzzle
2. Julie ~ 12X12 Travels
3. Michelle ~My Creations With Michelle
4. Rosalynd ~ In My Scrappin' Room
5. Nicola ~ Timeless Cottage
6. Arlene ~ Arlene's Creative Space
7. Brae ~ The Brae-er
8. Michelle H ~ The Right Hughes
9. Carol ~Crafty Carols' Place
10. Kiera ~ Inspire Paper Crafts
11. Christine ~ Chris' Creative Life
12. Terry Ann~ Just a Tad Crafty

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 alternative uses for Picture My Life cards.   So mark August 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.

Love Who You Are w/AHSC #63

From the moment I sketched out this week's design, I knew what I wanted to create.  After 3 attempts to get it just right I had to get up and walk away from my craftroom.  Yesterday I spent the day reorganizing and trying to get my head wrapped around my own design.  I was in a funk.....

What do you do when you get in a creative funk, loose your mojo?

This morning, I woke up, and had a new idea in my head, so down to my craft room I went.  I dug out my embossing powders, my versamark ink, some pigment ink and my heat gun.

Here is this week's sketch:

Here is my creation:

I started with a piece of White Daisy Cardstock and used the versamark ink for the 2 sizes of swirls from the Stamp Swirls Around(D1551) and heat set it in a silver embossing powder.  The Sentiment is from a retired stamp Fashionista which is long retired. It is stamped in Outdoor Denim pigment Ink and heat set with Clear Detail Embossing powder.  I then took sponge daubers in Pacifica, Outdoor Denim and Indian Corn Blue and swiped across the whole card giving it this hazy look.  Taking some metal bling flowers to add to the swirl and tada!  Masterpiece!

Thanks for checking out my creation today, and I hope you head over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and share some love with our Design Team. 

Filled with Joy AHSC #62

It's been a pretty busy weekend for me, and I was really in a creative block even though I had a FREE Crop day here for my customers.

While they all did alot of crafting and I starting working on my organizational efforts for all my scraps.  I will show you on a later post this week what I managed to get sorted.

Here is the sketch for this week:

Here is my card:

I used Balloon Ride for my mat, and added a layer of White Daisy CS and then added a piece of Sorbet CS before adhering my image.  This stamp is coloured with the exclusive Alcohol Markers, I used Pear, Sorbet, Juniper and Honey.  After I finished colouring, I added some bling to finish off the look.  Since the stamp was a sentiment, it didn't need anything else.  

Thanks for popping by, and I hope you can head over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to see what our amazing Design Team has created to inspire you.