CTMH October Stamp-of-the-Month Blog Hop is Christmas Magic

Welcome to another blog hop!  We've got lots of fabulous consultants participating again and I'm positive that you'll find some amazing talent and inspiring ideas this month.  If you came from Mary Eisen's blog, you're on the right track.

This month's stamp set, called Sharing the Magic, is all about Christmas.  You'll have plenty of time to get those cards made in time to send to friends and family.  It's a pretty cute set, with lots of creative possibilities.  Now, I'm not a huge fan of outline stamps.  I'm one of those people who doesn't particularly enjoy colouring in images.  I find it takes too much of my time and my time is quite precious right now.  But there are lots of things you can do to get around colouring in these sweet images.  Here's what I did with this set:

I stamped the tree on patterned paper from Mistletoe Level 2, then cut it out.  I also stamped it on my Colonial White paper so the little extra lines would still be there.  Then I popped the image with 3-D Foam Tape and added some red sparkles (love the new bling!).  I also sponged around the edges of the papers with Cocoa ink.  The ribbon is from the Mistletoe Creative Basics kit and this pattern came from Wishes.

Here's a close-up so you can see the layers a bit better.

I hope you appreciate the simplicity of this card.  Might be one you could make many multiples of, even.  Hmmm.... maybe I should use it for my personal cards.

The next stop on the hop is the very talented Antoinette Herrin.

Happy Creating!

Playing with Chipboard

Today is a special day.  It's my son's 3rd birthday.  He's quite funny about the whole thing.  He doesn't want to grow up, doesn't want candles.  He says, "I want to stay two!" with his sweet little pout.  I think he'll enjoy the ice cream cake, gifts and all the family coming over, though.  He started preschool last week and didn't really want to go until I showed him his new backpack just before we left.  Now he loves it, even getting upset this morning because it wasn't his day to go.  Here he is on his first day.

Nathaniel is our little dramatic boy.  He's got the best facial expressions and loves to be silly.  He took his time entering our family (22 hours labour!) but we're so glad he's here.  He brings us lots of laughter and keeps us on our toes as the people in our church nursery can attest to.  He loves climbing on everything.  He has a real mind of his own most of the time, although he can take his time to make a decision.  I love that I get to spend time at home just with him.  He can still be a snuggler sometimes.  He's so quick to say, "I love you, Mommy," and gives us lots of hugs.  Nathaniel loves Mighty Machines, Bob the Builder, cars, trucks, trains... you get the picture.  He points out the Mighty Machines wherever we go.  If we see any actually working he calls it a "Mighty Machine Day!"  It's so fun listening to him talk.  Okay, enough about Nathaniel.

I want to share a layout I did with my team.  We spent our creative time learning about the different things you can do with chipboard.  There are too many techniques on this page to list here, but my favourite is on my heart journaling spot.  I scored the lines with a scoring blade on my trimmer and then inked it up with a brayer.  I used Twitterpated  Level 2, chipboard from lots of different packages and Chocolate ink.

Here are a couple close-ups of the photos of Nathaniel:

I just love my big boy, who doesn't want to be called a big boy.  You're a sweetie, Nathaniel.  Happy Birthday!

Open House Winner!

We had a fabulous time at my Open House/New Idea Book Kick-off on Saturday.  The attendees were entered into a draw for a Miracle Kit.  The winning number is 603905.  If that's you, email or call me today!  And congratulations.

Blog Candy Winner!

Thank you for your comments on my 100th post.  I've randomly drawn a name from those who commented and
Julie, you win!

Julie said...

Congrats Krista! I've been reading your blog for a while but wasn't a follower, but I am now. What a great giveaway.

Julie, email me at simplycreating@myctmh.com with your mailing address and I'll get these two stamp sets to you.

I'm still trying to get to 100 followers, only 9 to go!  I'll be handing out more blog candy when I reach that milestone.  I'll let you know soon what goodies you can look forward to.

Gotta go.  My family will be arriving any minute to celebrate my nephew's birthday.  He's 8 already!  

Happy Creating!

September SOTM Blog Hop: It's a Thriller!

Here we are at the beginning of another month and a brand new Idea Book.  I'm sure you're going to see some amazing artwork on the blog hop this month, with lots of new product.  If this is your first stop, just keep clicking the links on each blog until you get back here. If you arrived here from Sylvia's blog, you're on the right track.  If you want or need to see the whole list, you can find it on Kathleen's blog.
Here is what September's SOTM looks like:

Thriller is perfect for all your Halloween projects and I figured lots of people would be using it for just that.  I'm not a huge fan of skulls and cross-bones or vampires and such, and I also figured some of you wouldn't be either.  Keeping that in mind, I challenged myself to use this set in a non-Halloween way.  I don't often "think outside the box" when I'm using stamp sets, so it was very good for me to do so this time.

Here are the cards I made.

This first card is a little one, 2 1/2 x 3.  I used the new purple ink, Gypsy, to stamp the skull image and the sentiment (from Say it in Style).  I brayered the top flower in that colour as well.  The stitches (from Togetherness) and the second flower are done in Black.

This 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 card was done with Lagoon and Black.  I stamped this image on a scrap piece and then created two masks for the inside and outside of the frame.  I stamped flowers from Treasure Life in first and second generation inside the frame and then stamped the frame.  I edged the image piece with the direct-to-paper technique in Lagoon.  

This last card is a 3 x 6.  I used Sunset to stamp the images and sponged Black on the edges.  Then, to add a little flair, I cut the tops of the middle flourish with my craft knife and lifted them off the paper a bit.  This next photo shows that detail.

I hope you're enjoying the blog hop!  It's time to click on over to Georgia's blog and see the wonderful artwork she's created.  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Creating!

Celebrating 100 posts with some Blog Candy!

Wow, this is my 100th post!  I can't believe I've hit that milestone.  I'm going to celebrate!  You have a chance to win some blog candy.  How?  Just post a comment and become a follower, if you're not already.  Get two entries if you post about this blog candy on your blog.  Be sure to let me know by posting a link in the comments below.
What will you receive?  These two brand new, sweet stamp sets are worth $26.95 CAN each.  Chillin' is perfect for those Christmas cards that I'm sure you'll be working on soon.  Use Summertime for all those seasonal photos you've just taken.

Help me reach my goal of 100 followers (I'm only 15 away!) and I may just give away more goodies!

This post will stay at the top until August 31 and I will draw a name on September 3rd.  Scroll down for more Christmas Cards!

Happy Creating!

Christmas Cards, the 6th and Final

This is it, my last Christmas Card to post, at least in this series.  I've saved a pretty cute one for the last.  It's made with Jingle and one of my favourite snowman stamp sets, All Decked Out.  It's made up of all the parts to build a snowman on paper!  For this card, I just used the circle for the head, a face and a top hat, masking the circle so it wouldn't show in the hat.

I did some dry embossing with my trimmer and a scoring blade on the base to create the lines.  I also added some Glitz Glitter Glue to the dots in the paper, a White Daisy grosgrain knot and some more sparkles.  The green on the top hat was paper pieced.  I stamped it on the same Olive paper in the background and then cut out just that portion.

I hope you've enjoyed these 6 cards and that they gave you some inspiration for your own Christmas cards this year.

Don't forget about the blog candy.  Make sure you leave a comment on that post in order to enter.  Scroll up to see it.

Happy Creating!