Live Out Loud with Close to My Heart July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. You probably found yourself here from Traci Godbee's Blog. We have 57 Close to My Heart Consultants participating in this month’s Stamp of the Month Blog Hop.
                                                                                                                        The July Stamp of the Month is entitled Live Out Loud (Set of 8). Love all of the different fonts in this stamp set as well as the energy it gives off.  I see lots of cards and scrapbooking pages in my future!

                                                                                                                      Well first of all, I want to admit that I have a new addiction or maybe I should just call it a simple pleasure.  I love Pinterest.  I limit my time on it, but love to look at all the different designs, cards, and whatever strikes my eye on this site.  A few weeks ago I saw this cool looking pin on Pinterest and I repinned it to one of my boards for future consideration to CASE.  This month’s stamp set was perfect to use for this purpose.  Here is the piece of art that I CASE’d.
                                                                                                                    And here is the card that I made using Close to My Heart’s July Stamp of the Month called Live Out Loud.

This card is decidedly outside my comfort zone.  I don’t normally do “freestyle””.  My cards usually have a pattern that I adhere to.  The hardest part of the entire card was the four buttons and how I wanted to embellish them.  I told me husband once I finished it that it was either really good or a big hot mess.  I am really liking it now and will try to not stick in such a rut anymore with my artwork.
                                                                                                                        In addition to the July Stamp of the Month I used a variety of other stamp sets, some just parts of to give it a grungy kind of look.  The stickease borders on the right side are from the Florentine My Stickease package.
                                                                                                                        I want to thank you for visiting my blog. The next stop on the blog hop is Tamytha Jenkin's Blog.
                                                                                                                    This stamp set can be purchased or you can even get it for only $5 Between July 1 – July 31, 2012. If you do not have a Close to My Heart Consultant, you can purchase this stamp set on my website.

Replacing Stitching with Faux Stitching

I have been wanting to try out this cool “stitching” technique called faux stitching ever since I saw it on Lisa Stenz’s blog here.  There is no gel pen involved.  Instead you use Close to My Heart white cored cardstock, our dry embossing tool,  a sanding block, our awesome ruler, and our paper piercing tool.

I took this sweet card pictured on page 74 of Close to My Heart’s 2012 Spring/Summer Idea Book.

Isn’t the machine stitching pretty?  The patterned paper used is from the Lucy paper pack.

Well I took the same design and stamp set and came up with this card replacing the machine stitching with the faux stitching technique.  Here is my card.

Same card pattern, same colors.  I had to replace the patterned paper with cardstock so that I could sand it for this technique, but pretty much everything else is the same.

Check back over the weekend for a tutorial for faux stitching.

Footloose and Mojo Monday 247

Wow, do I love the Mojo Monday 247 sketch this week!  I immediately knew how I wanted to use it.  Here is the pattern that the very talented Julee Tilman designed for this week:

I love both the round and the square versions but I really wanted to use the square version.  Using Close to My Heart products, here is what I came up with.

I apologize for the bad pictures, but I was in a hurry to send this special card to a special person.  
Ok, Imagine sitting on a warm beach with the sun shining down on you.  You are relaxed with no cell phone connection.  What are you doing?  You are Just Chillin! 
I just love the CTMH Footloose Paper Pack.   I cannot believe that it is going to be retired on August 1st.  Man am I hoarding this paper pack!  Do you notice the Glitz Glitter Gel on the sun from the patterned paper?  This card pattern perfectly shows off the sun on the patterned paper.  Here is another view of my card.

I used the Close to My Heart stamp set, C1495 Just Chillin’.  How do you like my pretty blue and green beach chairs that  I paper pieced?  Makes you want to just sit down and soak up some rays, doesn’t it?  I don’t know if you can see it , but I added some liquid glass to the polka dots on the beach umbrella just to give it a little more oomph!
Just a reminder, you have 2 more days to take advantage of Stampaganza at Close to My Heart.  But 2 stamp sets, get 1 free.

Are you new to stamping?  Or maybe you love stamping and want more stamp sets to play with.  Well this is the time to increase your stamp collection.
From June 1  – June 30 purchase any two My Acrylix^®  Stamp Sets (sizes A, B, C, D, or E) at full retail price and receive a third stamp set of your choice FREE (of equal or lesser value)—a savings of up to $29.95!
Stamp sets available for FREE include A, B, C, D, and E-size sets only.
Customers may select stamp sets that are included in the Spring/Summer 2012 Idea Book or the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book.
Ready to order?  You can order on my website and have your order shipped directly to you.  Click here to begin shopping.

Check Out My Second CTMH Studio J Layout

Just checking in to show you my second Studio J Layout that I created for the Close to My Heart Convention in Dallas.

Isn’t this layout just so adorable?  What is extra special about it is that this paper kit started out at the black and orange colors of our retired Halloween Paper Kit called Mischief.  With Studio J, I can change the colors and turn it into a girly, feminine pink and blue paper.  Not so scary now, is it?

Here are the techniques I learned creating this layout:

• Altering the look by changing the colors of B&T papers
• Rotating a page
• Using a vellum text box to lighten a color
• Converting a photo well to a text box
• Creating your own embellishments

Ready to try Studio J yourself?  Did I mention that Studio J is entirely FREE to use?  You pay nothing until you are ready to purchase the finished layouts.  Click here to try out Studio J Online Scrapbooking.

My First CTMH Studio J Layout

In three more weeks I will be in Dallas, super excited awaiting the first day of Close to My Heart Convention’s Leadership session.  Can’t wait!  I absolutely love everything that is Close to My Heart.  Well almost everything.  I must admit that I have been slow to work with Studio J, our version of digital scrapbooking.   I have played around it, but never completed and purchased a layout. Shame on me, huh?

So imagine my surprise when I receive an email from Corporate with a create and take assignment making five 2 page layouts using Studio J.  Not one, but five.  Well I was game to try and I found out that Studio J is F-U-N to use and E-A-S-Y and so, so C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E!  I am sold on Studio J and cannot wait to get caught up on my years of pictures that I have not scrapbooked.

Here is my first Studio J layout.  Ta da!

This layout is my sweet granddaughter, Kaitlyn, on her first birthday.  I love the colors and learned so much while making this layout.  The techniques I learned were:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • Deleting unneeded photo wells
• Using text boxes to cover up portions of the pattern
• Cropping My Stickease® borders to make ribbon streamers

I will be sharing my second layout tomorrow.

Cleaning Out My Stamp Set Collection

Wow!  I have over 500 stamp sets and no room for anymore.  So what am I going to do?     
                                                                                                                  
I have spent all day posting the stamp sets I can on eBay.  I still had quite a few new and used stamp sets that as a Close to My Heart Consultant, I am not allowed to place on eBay.  So I have posted them on my blog’s “For Sale” page.


Take a look at the top of my page for the “For Sale” tab and see if I have your favorite stamp set for sale.  As I have time I will be adding more stamp sets to this page.

Close to My Heart My Acrylix® Stamps: Did You Know?

My Acrylix^® stamps are clearly the best in the stamping industry, giving you incredible creative freedom loaded with possibilities. Now is a great time for a refresher on our stamps with the beginning of June’s Stampaganza campaign—it’s buy two stamps, get one free.

Did you know?

• My Acrylix stamps are ready to use right out of the package—no cutting out, mounting, or applying stickers required. Just place the stamp on your block, apply ink, and you’re set!
• My Acrylix stamps and blocks are clear, making it easy to stamp in exactly the right spot.

My Acrylix stamps can be used to create a variety of popular looks, including:

• base and shade stamping

• creating your own patterned paper

• sponging on multiple inks for single-impression, multi-color images

• Many My Acrylix stamps coordinate with Cricut^® Art Philosophy cartridge shapes, giving you lots of creative possibilities. Cut the shape on your Cricut^® machine, stamp the image on the shape, and attach to your project! In the Idea Book, the images outlined in red coordinate with Cricut^® shapes.

• My Acrylix stamps are super easy to maintain, store, and transport.

From June 1  – June 30 purchase any two My Acrylix^®  Stamp Sets (sizes A, B, C, D, or E) at full retail price and receive a third stamp set of your choice FREE (of equal or lesser value)—a savings of up to $29.95!

Stamp sets available for FREE include A, B, C, D, and E-size sets only.
You may select stamp sets that are included in the Spring/Summer 2012 Idea Book or the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book.
Ready to order?  You can order on my website and have your order shipped directly to you.  Click here to begin shopping. OR you can email me your order and pick it up at one of my workshops.

More Close to My Heart Sponged Butterfly Cards

Here are the rest of the sponged Butterfly cards that I CASEd from this gorgeous card that Heather Telford made.  Here is the tutorial I made for this card in case you missed it.

CTMH Colors used:  Sweet Leaf, Topiary and Dutch Blue.

CTMH Colors used: Sunny Yellow and Sunflower.

CTMH Colors used: Sunny Yellow, Sunflower and Sunset.

CTMH Colors used:  Sweet Leaf and Topiary.

CTMH Colors used: Sky and Dutch Blue.

CTMH Colors used: Blush, Petal  and Gypsy.

Butterfly CASE CTMH Style and Tutorial

Remember that butterfly notecard set I donated for a raffle basket?  Well I actually donated two notecard sets.  Today I am going to show you the second set.
I CASE’d a gorgeous card made by  Heather Telford.  She is ultra talented and I love all of the cool techniques that she uses.  Here is Heather’s card.  And here is mine.

My card looks almost exactly the same as Heather’s but mine was done with Close to My Heart Stamps while Heather’s was done with stamps from a different company.                                                                                      
                                                                                                                        Let me show you how I made this card.  The first step was to mask off my design area.  I used Judikins Eclipse Tape to mask off my design area.  So much easier than post-it notes!  Then I clear embossed the two “white” butterflies using the retired Close to My Heart Stamp Set Butterflies (B1034).

Then I sponged Close to My Heart Sunflower Ink over the entire design area.

I stamped a few butterflies with the Sunflower Ink.

And then sponged some Sunset Ink around the edges of the sponged area and towards the middle, leaving some of the Sunflower Ink showing.

Then I stamped some more butterflies in Sunset Ink. I sponged Cranberry Ink just around the edges.  See the words stamped over the sponged area?  It is from the Close to My Heart Stamp Set called Universal Backgrounds (D1477).  It is stamped in Cranberry Ink that has been “stamped off” lightly before stamped onto the design area (Second generation). 

Now I am ready to finish my card.  I pull off the tape and stamp another butterfly.  The butterfly has been inked in Sunset Ink, “stamped off” (second generation) and then I rolled the outside of the stamp in Cranberry Ink and stamped the butterfly at the top of the card. (Rock and Roll)

Now all I need is a sentiment.

Tomorrow I will show you the other cards in this set.  
TFL,

A Butterfly Stamp and a Mask

I took a butterfly stamp set (B1400 Beautiful Friendship) from our Close to My Heart Spring/Summer Idea Book, white card stock, and black ink and look what I came up with.


I made a package of 6 notecards with different sayings on them to put in a basket for a raffle. The stamp is actually “piece of pie shaped” and after masking off the area that I did not want to stamp on, I loaded the stamp with black ink and stamped, then loaded it again and rotated the stamp and stamped.  I kept doing this until the area was covered without overlap and then removed the post-it notes I used to mask off the area.

Here is another card.

The pictures do not do them justice.  They were very elegant in person.  I applied our glitter glitz gel over the butterfly wings to bling it up.  Here is a 
closeup.



And here are the rest of the cards.





This is one of the many stamp sets that you can get free this month during  Stampaganza has just at Close to My Heart.
                                                                                                                        From June 1  – June 30 purchase any two My Acrylix^®  Stamp Sets (sizes A, B, C, D, or E) at full retail price and receive a third stamp set of your choice FREE (of equal or lesser value)—a savings of up to $29.95! 
                                                                                                                         Ready to order?  You can order on my website and have your order shipped directly to you.  Click here to begin shopping.  OR you can email me your order and pick it up at one of my workshops.

Stampaganza!

My favorite time of the year is here. Stampaganza!



Are you new to stamping?  Or maybe you love stamping and want more stamp sets to play with.  Well this is the time to increase your stamp collection. 

From June 1  – June 30 purchase any two My Acrylix^®  Stamp Sets (sizes A, B, C, D, or E) at full retail price and receive a third stamp set of your choice FREE (of equal or lesser value)—a savings of up to $29.95! 

Stamp sets available for FREE include A, B, C, D, and E-size sets only.

Customers may select stamp sets that are included in the Spring/Summer 2012 Idea Book or the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book.

For example, Customer A would like six sets:

1 A-size
2 B-size
2 D-size
1 E-size

They will receive the A-size and one of the B-size stamp sets for free. These are the two lowest priced stamp sets on the entire order.

Customer B would like the following six sets of stamps:

1 A-size
1 B-size
1 D-size
3 E-size

They will receive the A-size and B-size stamp sets for free. Note that even though they ordered three E-size stamp sets, they still will receive the A-size and B-size sets for free because these are the two lowest priced stamp sets on the entire order.

Ready to order?  You can order on my website and have your order shipped directly to you.  Click here to begin shopping.  OR you can email me your order and pick it up at one of my workshops.


Fine Print:  Customizable (K), Workshops on the Go™, Cricut^® collection, and Stamp of the Month are not available as free sets.  Stamp sets that count toward the qualifying purchase include full-priced A, B, C, D, and E sets only. Stamps that do not count toward a qualifying purchase include customizable (K), Workshops on the Go™, Cricut^® collection, and Stamp of the Month sets (both discounted and full-priced).2012 Idea Book or the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book.