CTMH: May Stamp-of-the-Month Blog Hop

Welcome to another Stamp-of-the-Month Blog Hop!  If you've come from Susan's blog, you're on the right track.  We've got lots of beautiful artwork ready for you to enjoy and be inspired by.

This month's stamp set is all about sunflowers.

I love the sentiments in this set and though I'm not a huge fan of this style of stamp set, I did enjoy working with it.  Here is my creation:

This is only the second easel card I've made and I think it was perfect for my basket of flowers.
If you follow my blog at all, you know I don't enjoy colouring in stamped images.  Well, this time was no different.  I used the dot sides of the new Dotty for You paper pack to stamp the flowers.  They just looked like a basket full, so that's what I made!

I made the basket by weaving paper together on my desk and then after running a cut-out basket through my Xyron, I just placed the woven papers on top, trimming them all to match the shape.  I did have to add a bit of adhesive with my glue pen to make sure all the edges were down.  Then I put a double layer of 3-D Foam Tape down the middle before attaching it to the green paper to give it a bit more dimension.  The Bitty Pearls were added to the basket to just make it look prettier.  My daughter, who is 6, suggested I do all the rows, and I think she was right.  I like it that way. The flowers are popped at varying levels.  Here's another view:

The sentiment is stamped on an image I cut from the Cricut long ago that I just didn't use.

Materials Used:
Dotty for You
Cocoa and Colonial White cardstock
Cocoa ink
Colonial White Grosgrain ribbon (retired)
sponge
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

And now you get to hop on over to fancyMelissa's fun blog for some more great artwork.  Happy Hopping!

Layout: It's All About my Family

I always have fun deciding what to make at a Home Gathering.  My hostess and I chat about what type of project she wants to do, whether it's a card or layout or little mini-album.  Then I get to play and come up with the perfect project.  This layout is one I planned for a special hostess who had hosted 2 or 3 times before.

The family photo is one I took in June.  We needed a special photo and we all just happened to wearing blue and green.  I set the timer, took two shots and voila, perfect!

Products used:

Mayberry Paper pack (retired)

Olive, Cocoa, and Colonial White cardstock

Olive, Cocoa and Honey ink

Cocoa brads

Various stamp sets (I'm sorry I can't remember which ones I used!)

Want to make something fun with your friends?  Book a gathering with me today.

Happy Creating!

Heart-2-Heart Challenge

I had so much fun with the Ribbon Carousel challenge that I had to try another one.  I may be too late to really be a part of it, but I'm posting anyway.

The Heart-2-Heart challenge this past week was a sketch.

I had a hard time with this and I'm not really sure why.  I picked the paper I wanted to use quickly, but had cut it to get a 5x7 card ready.  None of the images I was looking at seemed to fit into that bottom section.  So I trimmed it down to a standard size and pulled out one of my favourite new stamp sets, one I hadn't even used yet!  This is the card I made:

I did a mirror image of the sketch and pulled the little rectangle at the top down to bring my sentiment closer.  I love how it turned out!  This one is most definitely for my daughter, who loves dinosaurs and the colour blue.

Products used: Dotty For You paper

Lagoon and Colonial White cardstock

Roar! stamp set

Grey Wool ink pad

Mini-Medley, Lagoon (ribbon) (retired)

Milepost Shapes (star)

Now maybe I can get on top of at least 1 challenge at the beginning of this week!

Happy Creating!

Participating in My First Challenge!

I decided to take the plunge and participate in my first challenge.  It was fun working with the sketch from The Ribbon Carousel!

I have been wanting to do a challenge for a while, but just as I would be ready to sit down and create, the challenge would be over.  So since I had a crop night last night and I had to create some artwork with the new CTMH Dotty For You paper, I took the plunge and did this card:

I used my favourite sheet of paper from the pack, the stitched butterflies.  Aren't they just adorable?  I also added some ink to the butterfly and wooden flower.  When I put the ribbon on, it just seemed to disappear a bit so I ran my sponge over it, too, just a bit.  I used the new Imanginise ribbon cutter (Love it!) to cut the ribbon, perfect cut without fraying.  The flower is popped with some 3-D Foam Tape.

Products used: Dotty For You patterned paper

Lagoon cardstock

Colonial White cardstock

Lagoon ink pad

Colour-Ready Garden, wooden shapes

Just Blooms Paper Shapes, Flutter

Pearly Opaque, Licorice

Stitched, pleated ribbon from my stash

Thank you for the inspiration, Ribbon Carousel!

Happy Creating.

Using Up the Old in a Layout

I love it when I find the perfect paper for my photos.  For this layout, I really wanted the bright colours in my photos to pop, so I kept the layout very monochromatic. I added colour in the embellishments.

Here are a couple of closeups on the embellishment clusters.

The white scallop was cut with my Cricut and the Art Philosphy cartridge.

Other products used: Cherry-O paper (retired)

Crystal Blue cardstock

White Daisy cardstock

Chocolate Alphabet Small

Just Blooms Paper Shapes, Flutter

Opaques, Cherry-O (retired)

Pretty Pins (retired)

Clear Sparkles

Baker's Twine from The Twinery

Happy Creating!

Workshop: Soft and Sweet Gift Set

With the dawn of the new Close To My Heart newsletters comes a new way for me to tell you all about my events.  I don't have as much space as I used to so I'll be sharing all sorts of fun things here on my blog.  Be sure to find out about them by subscribing to my blog.  Just fill in the little box over there on the right.

In my newsletter, which you should be getting very soon, I announced my next workshop.  We'll be creating a set of 8 unique cards and a box to give them in.  This set is perfect for Mother's Day or for a birthday.

Join me on Friday, April 20, at 7pm to create this fun project.  The cost is $15 per set and feel free to order more than one!  Deadline to register is Friday, April 13.  You'll receive all the materials pre-cut along with a complete package of Pearl Opaques.

Here are the rest of the cards we'll be making:

All of these are made from one pattern sheet from the Lucy paper pack, some cardstock, pearl opaques, and one button.

Sign up today so you don't miss out.

Happy Creating!