January Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Little Reminder

Happy New Year and welcome to our Stamp of the Month blog hop. This month the stamp set, Little Reminders, is a cute calendar inspired beauty. It is perfect for birthdays, new babies, calendars reminders and more. If you have come from Lori's blog, you are on the right path, didn't you love her tutorial!!

Starting in January I am offering a 365 Faithbooking project. It will be a mini-album created using the Roxie My Reflections paper packet. Little Reminders is the perfect stamp set for this project.

I created the pages using the criss-cross card pattern. The pages are two 6x12 sheets, folded in half. On the right side, the right upper corner is brought down to meet in the middle section.

The left side, the upper left hand corner is pulled down and folded over towards the center.

Adhere the two sheets together. If using different paper, as shown here, decide which pattern you want to show.

Each flip flap page will hold 15 to 16 tags.. Each tag is ready for a verse of the day. At the end of the month (or year) these tags may be laminated to protect them.

I love the circle month stamp image and decided to use that on each page - the marking of the month, I am still thinking about.

The project will be completed by using a ring hook to hold each set of verse tags and using my Zutters Bind It All, the whole book will be put together with a chipboard front and back cover.

Remember, the Stamp of the Month is only $5 with a $50 purchase. If you don't have a consultant and would love to pick up this stamp set, click here.

I would love for you to leave me a comment and then hop on over to Sheila's blog for more great Little Reminders artwork.

A Time of Reflection

Wishing you a wonderful and safe New Year's celebration.!!!

I received a box in the mail from a dear friend. She sent to me some things she thought I would love to have. In the last bag of cards, I found my very first card swap card. Oh my the memories flooded back.

I was not sure what a swap was or what constituted good artwork, all I knew was I wanted to try my hand at this swap thing. I got out my card base, did a little swervy cut. I used the scrap piece of card base as a mask before I started my random stamping. I did two random stamped patterns, one on the outside of the card and a different one on the inside of the card base.

I matted my sentiment and using the stitch stamp image, I created faux stitches along two of the edges of the senitment and along the swervy edge of the card base. To create a more realistic stitch look, I used my piercing tool and pierced holes along the stamped stitch image on the swervy edge of the front of the card.

I finished the card using markers. I drew a line along the inside of the card following the swervy edge to add depth on the inside to the inside of the card. And finally, I added little dots as part of the random stamped card base.

Did I think it was the cat's meow? You know I did.

That was almost 6 years ago. My artwork has come a long way and, thanks to my many Close To My Heart friends, I am still running my own business -- I TRULY THANK THEM and all the wonderful CTMH addicts, like me! (If you aren't one yet, click here)


Random Stamping

Supplies:
Stamp set of your choice
Up to 3 coordinating ink colors
Cardstock

Directions:

1. Choose your largest image and first ink color. Load your stamped image with ink (tap, tap, rub, rub, tap, tap) and starting in one corner stamp your image.
2. Continue to reink and stamp your image creating a triangle between the stamped images.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 using the medium size image and finish using the smallest image. You may wish to overlap images, it is your choice.   

12th Day of Christmas

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

11th Day of Christmas - Let It Snow

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Today is Christmas Eve Eve, are you dreaming of a white Christmas? Okay, maybe not this year.

I hope my little project adds a little snow spirit into your Christmas season. Here is a little tutorial on the use of Liquid Applique.

Liquid Applique is a unique paint that when heated puffs like pop-corn after it has popped. If you heat it immediately, you get a more popcorn texture; however, if you let it dry 24 hours, it will puff smoother.

I am using Wonderland My Reflections Paper Packet, the paper packet of the month, Twilight ink, Crystal Blue reinker, a trimmer and scoring blade, sanding block or paper, White Daisy, Gray Flannel, and Twilight cardstock, the Wonderland stamp set (have I mentioned, it is one of my favorites), glue dots, 3-D foam, silver glitz glitter gel, Wishes recipe, craft heater.

Start with a 7" x 8" piece of White Daisy cardstock for the base, folded in half on the 7" side, creating a card base 3 1/2" x 8".

Cut a 3 1/4" x 7 3/4" piece of Twilight and using your trimmer, place this piece at an angle under the timmer arm and with the scoring blade (or stylus or bone folder) score diagonally lines. To create a more snow like look, use different pressures as you score, even skipping small sections. Do not press too hard as you may tear the paper.

Turn the Twilight cardstock piece over with the ridges facing up and sand lightly until your paper looks like streaks of snow.

Next use the Liquid Applique to create snowflakes. I found I got the best little ball of snow by holding the tip of the Liquid Applique applicator close to the paper, in fact, almost touching.

And for a more textured loo k, I heated right away.

Next, squeeze a little Liquid Applique onto a paper plate or paint palette, add a few drops of reinker and mix using a toothpick or paint mixing tool. Mix until it is smooth. Take your stamp image and load it with this Liquid Applique mixture and stamp it onto your project cardstock. I used a scrap piece of White Daisy cardstock, as I was cutting the image out. Using your craft heater, heat the stamped image. You will see texture appearing. It will be more subtle and have a softer look than if you used the Liquid Applique full strength.

To add a little more texture, I added the Liquid Applique directly to the top of the mitten image to mimic fluffy faux fur mitten tops and then I added some silver glitz glitter cause I love bling.

I cut each mitten out (I am making 5 cards for a swap), and began to assemble my cards. I stamped the sentiment to the left of the top Gray Flannel piece and placed the mittens below and added a little Chocolate waxy flax as the ribbon that holds the mittens together. I also changed the card recipe by moving the collage paper pieces to the top of the card instead of at the bottom as shown on page 57 of the Wishes book. Remember, a recipe is only a guide, you are welcome to add your own flair.

Now my cards are complete and off in the mail to be swapped!

10th Day of Christmas - Name that Blog and Win

A good friend, Debi, is leading a group of fellow CTMH consultants to create a wonderful new challenge blog in February.  Our plan is to offer you up some great scrapbooking and paper crafting techniques and then challenge you to create and share your artwork using these techniques......there will be prizes and awards offered to add some fun to the blog each month as well as great artwork and inspiration for your projects.

Our first challenge for you - "Name that Blog". We're looking for something catchy, easy to remember and unique.......we will choose a name from all the entries and the winner will receive $25 of free product from the soon to be released Spring/Summer 2012 Close To My Heart Ideabook.  Entry deadline is January 10, 2012....So put your thinking caps on and leave your name idea in the comment box.....

Leave your comment here and good luck!!

On the 9th Day of Christmas

Are you ready? I hear the excitement in the children's voices. It is a beautiful 9th day and today is another Christmas spent with my wonderful friends at the Performing Art Center.

When I started my scrapbooking business, this was the first place I hosted a crop and, I am so happy to say, we are still cropping there today.

Here a few photos of some of the ladies who have joined me at this great crop.

Enjoy your friends today and have a crafty fun time.

8th Day of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas, I am so happy for the small world I have found through papercrafting. Recently, Mom and I drove by one of my high school friend's childhood home and I thought, I wonder where she is now.

Fast forward a few weeks and at a recent crop, one of my croppin' buds, Stacy, said she had been cropping with someone who remembered me from high school. I asked her name and, Stacy said Joy but Stacy did not know Joy's maiden name only her married name. So, I did a little research and, low and behold, it was Joy, whom I had graduated with me.

Here is a link to her blog -- she is awesomely talented!

Rock the Block Blog Hop - 7th Day of Christmas

On the 7th day of Christmas, I am able to share another reason I love Close To My Heart -- the awesome alterable products.

A few of my Close To My Heart consultant friends are participating in a Join the Craze -- Rock the Block blog hop. If you have hopped from  CC's blog, you are on the right track and this is a round, so if you start here and end here, you have seen them all!!




In anticipation of National Papercrafting Month (January), Close To My Heart is offering a sneak peek at a new product from the 2012 Spring/Summer Idea Book. The new idea book will be available February 1st.

Rock the Block special contains a great My Creation Cube Collage (White Daisy covered chipboard which will retail for $14.95). Cute little cubes, which come in there own little tray and the best part of this special, the Rock the Block stamp set (exclusive to this special, so don't miss out) -- it truly ROCKS!!! A $25 qualifying order (any product in the 2011 Autumn/Winter Idea Book) and the My Creations Cube Collage and the Rock the Block stamp are yours for only $15!!!

The Rock the Block stamp set is an 'E' (retails for $34.95) size stamp set with block oriented images, swirls, paisleys, circles and the cutest little sentiments ever!! I see this stamp as one of my favorites.

The project I created was to share the men and boys in my life. I have the most wonderful son-in-law and two of the cutest little grandsons!! I wanted the cube collage to showcase how much I love them.

Each cube can be altered (do you see baby blocks for a shower gift), in my creation I attached three of the cubes in a row so I can easily flip - I stayed with a black and white theme.

A 4"x6" photo fits perfectly along six of the blocks, and I think one of my favorite images is the diamond mesh (it really looks just like a chain link fence, do I see some cute projects in the future using this image as a background.

As you can see attaching the blocks will let me flip them easily, be sure and check what outside edges will show, so you can be sure and alter them accordingly.

I also altered the tray using the great circle border.

I hope you enjoy my project (comments are greatly appreciated). If you don't have your own consultant, I would love for you to shop on my website. 



Now to continue on the hop, check out Helen's creation

5th and 6th Days of Christmas

This weekend I am so thankful for my 'Memory Keeper', formerly knows as 'scrapbooker', friends. I am blessed to spend the third Saturday of each month with a great group of ladies.




We make cards, share our lives, laugh and cut-up. Food abounds and this month was even better as we had our cookie swap and 'dress up a cookie' contest. Not only did each lady bring cookies, some came with up to 5 different kinds.

May you have a blessed and beautiful weekend spent with good friends and/or family!

4th Day of Christmas - Memories of Christmas' Past

On the 4th Day of Christmas, I wanted to share a trip down memory lane with a little yuletide food fun. This is the season for sharing those delightful family favorites - the cookie recipe handed down the generations and the fun memories of decorating cookies with my family and sometimes friends.

I have memories of the old simple cookie cutters (we still have these stored in a box in the pantry) used by my Grandmother and then by my mother. The sugar cookies made using Grandma Bean's Betty Crocker cookbook.

Mom would whip up a batch and our job would be to roll them out and begin cutting out as many as we could. There would be stars, bells, Santa with his gift pack, Christmas trees and more. The cookies would be placed on the cookie sheets, and we would pick up the scraps of dough and re-roll until there was not enough left for a cookie cutter. The last scraps would be rolled into a ball and pressed down with the bottom of a glass that had been dipped in sugar.

The cookies would be ever so golden brown around the edges and soft in the middle and carefully placed on the cooling rack or Mom's old formica dinette table top, which could cool a cookie in no time.

We would gather with the bowls of green and red icing made with confectionary sugar and milk. We had red and green and yellow sprinkles and the little white pearl candies, and many other toppings. And each of us would begin to decorate. If a cookie was broken, we would have to eat it, which would also cause Mom to often check to see who was eating more than could possibly have been broken.

Finally plates of decorated cookies would be ready to wrap and be delivered to friends and family throughout the holiday season.

These memories are so vivid one can smell the cookies cooling in the kitchen or hear the sounds of children's laughter.

I believe this is why I scrapbook, the memories I want to share for myself and for generations to come.

Technique Blog Hop - 3rd Day of Christmas

In keeping with my Days of Christmas theme, this the 3rd day, I am thankful for the wonderfully creative friends I have made through Close To My Heart. A few of my crafty friends love to share techniques found in the Idea Book. I am pleased to welcome you to our December Close To My Heart Technique Blog Hop! The hop is continuous. If this is the first stop, when you get back here, you  have seen them all.

If you have come from Judy's blog you are on the right path.

I think of December as the month of glitter and glitz, bright lights and tinsel, reds, greens, silver, gold all the trimmings of the season. I love that our technique for December is Glitter Glitz, shown on page 35 of the 2011 Autumn/Winter Idea Book.

My first creations are the Dreamin' Workshop on the Go bonus project cards. These 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" round cards were fun to make. Adding the Bronze Glitter Gel gives the cards that little glittery pop.

Glitz Glitter gel reminds me of tube icing and is applied in a similar manner.

If adding it in a line, holding the bottle above the project about a 1/4" of an inch or so and squeeze the bottle gently, try to keep the flow even. If you encounter an air bubble, stop and restart at the point you left off.

Creating the stems, I slowly twisted the bottle creating a thin ending to line.

The Glitz glitter gel dries slowly so carefully handle the project. You may want to have a drying area ready. A craft heater may be used to speed up the drying time. When dried with the craft heater, you will see a slighty different  effect.

The next is a sneak peek at my upcoming swap card embellishment -- look for more after the 20th when our swap cards are revealed!! Silver Glitter Glitz Gel adds a little more dimension to the Wonderland Workshop on the Go mitten stamp image (I love this stamp set).

Thank you for visiting. I would love for you to tell me what you thought of my use of the Glitz Glitter gel, please leave a comment. And if you do not have a consultant and would like to purchase any of the products you have seen, please go to my website and contact me.

Now on to Tonya's blog.

2nd Day of Christmas

Christmas day is fast approaching, have you found the crowds beginning to grow and, unfortunately, the patience beginning to dwindle. It amazed me that in the post office parking lot someone would honk because I wasn't driving fast enough.

Today my Christmas cheer wish is that we may all be able to stop, just for a moment, and enjoy our lives, stop and 'smell the roses' as the saying goes.  My little flower was created using some stash embellishments as a preparation for my 'Use It or Lose It', New Year's resolution.

Mom and I are going to go out for lunch at a local museum where they are hosting their first luncheon. It will be a special lunch, just Mom and I. The camera will be on the ready and tomorrow I will share our 'smell the roses' moment.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

1st Day of Christmas

I am excited to share over the next 12 days leading up to the big day -- Christmas, my 12 Days of Christmas cheer.

Today, on the 1st Day of Christmas, I want to share the joy of friends. Last week we had our first PAC Croppers Christmas brunch and I was amazed at how close this hobby brings people. Throughout the year, we each share our family, our dreams, our everyday, ourselves with each other through our layouts. Coming together to share our joy of this magical season topped off a great year.

Here is one of the beautiful place settings at Teena's home, she was gracious to open her home for this celebration.

Merry Christmas!

National Papercrafting Month Special - Sneak Peek

I am too excited about this great special coming December 19th and running through January.

I received my Rock the Block stamp set and the My Creations Collage Cubes and am looking forward to sharing my artwork with you soon.  On December 19th, I will be participating in a Rock the Block blog hop. You don't want to miss the awesome artwork shared by our talented hoppers.

Enjoy this little sneak peek video!



Remember, between December 19, 2011 and January 31, 2012, you can get two new products for just $15: the My Creations® Collage Cubes (a Spring/Summer 2012 sneak-peek product!) and the exclusive My Acrylix® Rock the Block E-size stamp set (available only during this promotion). That’s a retail savings of almost $30!

Mark your calendars for December 19th!

New Adventures in 2012

In the upcoming New Year, there are new adventures for me and one of these adventures is to vendor at a scrapbook retreat for the first time. Studio29eleven scrapbook retreat to be held in February will be my first and I am toooo excited.

Here is a sneak peek at my class project, a mini album, and please, contact Dena or Sandy,  if you would love to join us.

Tags, Tags, and More Tags

I am so excited about an upcoming tag swap I am participating in. My previous post gave a sneak peek at the tag I created to swap.

Here is a great tutorial for tags created with the Arts Philosophy Cricut cartridge. Enjoy