SWAA Nevermore Blog Hop

Welcome to September's Stampers with an Attitude Blog Hop.  Are you ready for Fall yet?  It has finally cooled down here and we are so ready to lose the 100 degree days.  Along with Fall comes one of my favorite holidays, Halloween, and Stampers with an Attitude are featuring the Close to My Heart Halloween paper pack, Nevermore.  Who is the Stampers with an Attitude?  It is the Close to My Heart team lead by my fabulous upline, Kimberly Moss. This month I am following  {Denise Elliott.}  

Our blog hop is a circular hop.  You just click on the link to the next blog at the bottom of this post and go visit the next blog.  If you get lost, I have all of the participating blogs listed at the bottom of my post.  Hope you enjoy seeing what our team has made for you.

I am enjoying all of our new Halloween Stamp Sets and embellishments as well as the  supercute Nevermore paper pack.  Look what I made!

What do you think about my card?  Yes, once again I used our new watercolors and watercolor paper, but look at the cool texture.  Can you guess how I did that?  Once I covered my paper with different colors of watercolors I threw on a ton of Kosher salt.  Then I added more water and even a little more color.  It dried overnight and I rubbed off the salt and stamped these cool Steampunk spiders.

But, there is more to this card than meets the eye.  Dontcha hate a naked inside of a card?  Me too.  So I pulled out the Close to My Heart exclusive Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge and made a superduper special Halloween card.  Now check this out.

The Happy Halloween pops out when you open the card.  I used the Nevermore patterned papers and that scary strip at the bottom is one of the zip strips from this paper pack.  I had to add a little glitter so the spider and the spider web are cut from our glitter paper.  The black glittery stars are from our new Black Paper Fundamentals embellishment assortment.

Want to make one of these and have a Cricut Explore?  I have a Design Space file to share:  https://us.cricut.com/design/#/canvas/31276493

I want to thank you for visiting my blog.  The next very talented artist for you to visit on our blog hop is {Sheila Bennett}. 

Here is the September's Stampers with an Attitude Blog Hop Nevermore Artwork Block Hop List

1. Catherine Nowak ~ http://catscrapbooking.com/2015/09/13/stampers-with-an-attitude-blog-hop-nevermore/
2. Aggie Peters~http://busyaggie.blogspot.com/2015/09/stampers-with-attitude-blog-hop.html
3. Melissa Robinson - http://mlisrobinson.blogspot.com/2015/09/stampers-with-attitude-nevermore-blog.html
4. Vickie ODell - http://heartfulstamper.blogspot.com/2015/09/nevermore-stampers-with-attitude-blog.html
5. Wendy Taylor - http://mistygirlinspirations.blogspot.com/2015/09/swaa-blog-hop-nevermore-artwork.html
6. Denise Elliott - http://inspiredbyd.blogspot.com/2015/09/art-with-attitude-blog-hop-nevermore.html
7. Melinda Everitt ~ http://ifyoublingit.blogspot.com/2015/09/swaa-nevermore-blog-hop.html
8. Sheila Bennett ~ 
   http://sheila-bennett.blogspot.com/2015/09/nevermore-stampers-with-attitude-blog_13.html

You can purchase any of the supplies listed below on my website.  

Supplies Used

Nevermore Paper Packet	Cricut Artfully Sent Collection	Steampunk Scoundrels	Halloween Greetings
Watercolor Paper	Watercolor Paints	Paintbrush Set	Fundamental Assortment Black
Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Sponge Daubers Value Pack (12)	Bonding Memories Glue Pen

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Welcome to the National Stamping Month Hello Life Blog Hop

Welcome to the Close to My Heart 
National Stamping Month Hello Life Blog Hop

This hop I am following {Carol Taggio's Blog.}   We have almost 40 Close to My Heart Consultants participating in our Close to My Heart National Stamping Month Hello Life Blog Hop.   If you lose your place while traveling through our blog hop, the complete list of participants can be found here.    Thank you for hopping through our Blog Hop.

September is National Stamping Month, and this year Close To My Heart has something to help every kind of papercrafter say a big “hello” to life! Available only during the month of September, these exclusive C-size My Acrylix® Hello, Life! stamp sets can be purchased for $13.95 each! Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase all three for only $34.95 — a savings of $6.90! 

Each stamp set is designed to fit with a specific type of papercrafting, whether that’s scrapbooking, cardmaking, or pocket scrapbooking. However, all the stamp sets coordinate with each other and can be used together to create dynamic artwork. These stamp sets also coordinate with shapes from the new Cricut® Artistry collection to help expand your artwork options even further. 

Remember, these stamp sets are available for one month only, so get your orders in for one stamp set—or all three—before these gorgeous stamps disappear! Make certain to follow Close To My Heart’s blog, Instagram, and Facebook page for artwork inspiration featuring these lively stamp sets all month long.  Available between September 1 - 30, 2015.

Here are the three sets.

I am still having so much fun with our new watercolors.  I love that I don't have to know how to paint to use them!  Look at the card I made for my grandson.

I embossed the little stars from the Cardmaking Hello Life Stamp set using silver embossing powder on our new watercolor paper. Then I painted four different blues over the embossed stars in the background.  I have learned that as the paint is drying it may pool a little, leaving an unwanted blotch on my artwork.  But if I take a dry paint brush and quickly brush over it, it seems to "seal" the paint and it even dries a little faster.

As you can see, I purchased all three stamp sets (and got a great deal) and used two of them in this card.  The Oh, Hey, Birthday, and the stars came from the Cardmaking set and the Happy came from the Scrapbooking set.

I stamped the three larger stamps with the Versamark and embossed them with the Silver embossing powder.  Then I painted them with a yellow and two different purple water colors.  I cut them out when they dried and popped them up with our thin 3D foam tape. I added some of the black glitter stars from the Fundamental Assortment - Black.  Then I added a few of the new Blue Glitter Duos.  One can never have too much glitter!

I colored the "Birthday" in with our Journaling Pen so that it would stand out.  I hope that my grandson likes his card.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

By the way, I would love for you to leave me a comment and then please go to our next artist, {Sheila Bennett's Blog.}

You can purchase any of the supplies listed below at www.melindaeveritt.ctmh.com.  

Supplies Used

Watercolor Paints	Watercolor Paper	Paintbrush Set	Fundamental Assortment Black
Enamel and Glitter Duos Blue Dots	Archival Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Marvy Uchida LePen Journaling Pen	Thin 3-D Foam Tape
12" X 12" Black Cardstock	12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock	Versamark Ink Pad	Craft Heater
Ranger Silver Super Fine Embossing Powder

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September SOTM Blog Hop - Paper Garden

Welcome to the September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! 

                                                 

                                                      

This month I am following {Wendy Kessler's Blog.}   We have approximately 40 Close to My Heart Consultants participating in this month’s Stamp of the Month Blog Hop.   If you lose your place while traveling through our blog hop, the complete list of participants can be found here.      

The September Stamp of the Month is entitled Paper Garden (S1509) (Set of 10).   Here is a picture of this stamp set:

Did you know that Close to My Heart is selling watercolors now?  And we are also selling the best watercolor paper that I have ever seen!  It is smooth instead of the textured watercolor paper that you can buy at other places.  I am in LOVE!!!

The September SOTM is such a fun stamp set to use.  I decided to take the watercolors and do a "wash" for the background.  A wash consists of putting water in your color of choice and just painting back and forth on your piece of watercolor paper.  I used two colors - magenta and dark purple.  If you add water, the color gets lighter.  A drier brush will give you a darker color. I like to watercolor on my All Purpose Mat.  It protects my table from getting wet.

and then stamp the larger stamped image in black as if it is in sillhouette.  I also decided to do something totally different and use our Halloween paper, Nevermore, and the Complements and Assortment found in this paper line.  Here is my card:

I distressed the edges of the paper with my scissors and added a little black ink around the edge.  The spider web is found in the Nevermore Complements and I adhered it to the card with Liquid Glass strategically placed behind the web and covered with the spiders.  

The Paper Garden Stamp of the Month Stamp Set can be purchased for $17.95 or if you purchase $50 in CTMH products, you can add this stamp set to your order for an additional $5.  This stamp set is only available between September 1 – September 30, 2015. 

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I would love for you to show me a little love by leaving me a comment and then please go to our next artist, {Brenda Lapp's Blog} and see what she has made with this adorable stamp set.

You can purchase this stamp set as well as any of the supplies listed below on my website. 

Supplies Used

Nevermore Paper Packet	Nevermore Complements	Nevermore Assortment	Watercolor Paints
Paintbrush Set	Watercolor Paper	Thin 3-D Foam Tape	Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors
Liquid Glass	Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Sponge Daubers Value Pack (12)

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