December Close to My Heart Product Spotlight Blog Hop

Welcome to the Close to My Heart December Spotlight Blog Hop!  If you have found yourself here from Helen Onulak's Blog then you are in the right place.  This month we are spotlighting our marvelous Opaques and Sparkles.  I shared in a previous post that when I went to our Close to My Heart Convention that I wanted colored bling and pearls and was hoping to find them in our Autumn/Winter Catalog.  How overjoyed I was to see both the blue and green sparkles and the red, purple and pink sparkles.  I was ready to jump for joy when I saw that not only did we get the traditional white pearls, but that we had them also in Mocha and Licorice.  I just love embellishments.  They are inexpensive and give a whole lot of punch for just a small price.  For me, they are the difference between plain and WOWZA!

For those of you who know me, you will be shocked to find that I did not use the Sparkles on my card.  I decided to go with the Opaques.  I participate in a swap with some of my downline and we had already decided to do a "challenge" for our cards.  Our challenge was to use just one stamp set on our card for the main images.  We could use whatever sentiments we wanted, but the majority of the stamping had to be done with this one stamp set.  The problem was that they had me choose it.  LOL  Off the top of my head I chose D1370 Welcome Home.  I did not realize how hard it was to use only this stamp set.  So here is my card.

I had an idea what I wanted to do, but had a designer's block as to which paper pack to use.  I was hopping around some of my favorite blogs and I found on www.JeanetteLynton.com the Color Me Monday "Challenge".  The colors used were Cocoa, Barn Red, Garden Green and Olive  Our elegant paper pack, Passages, worked perfectly.  Then I needed a card pattern.  I was jazzed to see that Mojo Monday last week featured this card pattern: 

Wow!  It worked with the idea I had in my head and had places for our wonderful Opaques!  I used the Mocha Opaques and you can see them below the main image on the pattern paper, as the drawer handle near the adorable puppy, and as the lamp pull.  Don't you just love them?  So adorable and adds such dimension and quaintness to my card.  The flower is in place of the bow on the sketch.  It started off as a white Just Bloom from the Big Pinks collection.  I mixed Barn Red Reinker with Rubbing Alcohol and sprayed my flower.  I was dismayed to see it turn brown - kind of a milky brown which did not go with my card.  So I added a few drops of Cranberry Reinker and sprayed again and I now had Barn Red.  The small flower in the flower pot was sprayed with Creme Brulee Reinker mixed with Rubbing Alcohol.  I just love that I can spray my flowers instead of dunking them and that they retain their form.

I also finished the inside of my card.

I love the way that I could use this stamp set to stamp a scene.  The dog bed is actually the cushions from the couch.  I am so in love with this card.  Hope you have enjoyed it as well.

Products Used

• Stamps:  Welcome Home (D1370) and Home Sweet Home WOTG Stamp Set (B1334)
• Paper:  My Relections Passages Level 2 Paper Pack (X7126B)
• Inks:   Cocoa (Z2114) Brown Bag (Z2108), Garden Green (Z2120), Barn Red (Z2104), Creme Brulee (Z2167), Olive (Z2137) and Black (Z2105)
• Embellishments:  Mocha Opaques (Z1333), Bitty Brads (Z1051), Twill Ribbon (Z1099), Just Blooms (Z1033), and Booksmart Dimensional Elements (Z1223)
• Other Products:  Bonding Memories Glue Pen (Z533), Piercing Tool Kit (Z114). Adhesive and Sponge Dauber (Z726)

 If you are ready to move on, then head on over to Luisa's Blog.