CTMH Stamp-of-the-Month Blog Hop: Family is Forever

Hello and welcome to another Close To My Heart Stamp-of-the-Month (SOTM) blog hop!  If you arrived from {Carla's blog}, you're on the right track.  If you're starting here, just keep hopping until you get back to my blog.  You'll have feasted your eyes on ALL the yummy projects.

This month we are creating with a lovely stamp set called Family is Forever.

I don't know about you, but this stamp set makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  I am so grateful for the relationship I have with my family (my husband and kids) but also the extended family we enjoy. 

Thanksgiving is in October for those of us in Canada and so I decided to create a card for my mother-in-law.  She's the type of person who always mails a card to everyone for every occasion and I often neglect to return the favour.  Not this year!  She also makes THE MOST DELICIOUS apple pies and since I had a few chipboard pieces left from creating some layouts for kits, I made this 5x7 card:

Here's a close up of the tree.

I love the tree image in this set!  It was just begging for some fun treatments.  I inked the entire image with Chocolate ink, but then pulled the ink pad along the trunk section to give it (what I hope is) some bark-like texture.  Then I took a bunch of colours and, using sponge daubers, sponged them on the leaves in different areas.  I used Olive, Barn Red, Autumn Terracotta and even some Goldrush.  All this took some time, so I had to breathe on the entire image to moisten up the ink again.  (I love that you can do that with our dye inks!)

The papers are all from the Pathfinding paper pack and sponged with Chocolate ink.  Chipboard pieces are from the Pathfinding Complements and parts are popped with our new Thin 3-D Foam Tape. Then I just added a few Gold Bling Gems and I was done.

Make sure to contact your consultant to get your hands on this stamp set, because it's only available until September 30.

Now, hop on over to {Dana's blog} and check out the beautiful card she has created.  (Her stuff is always jaw-dropping gorgeous!  I love it.)

Happy Creating!