Monday, December 31, 2012

January Stamp of the Month Blog Hop



Happy New Year!  Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  If you've arrived here from  {Fancy Melissa's Blog}, you're in the right place!

Here'a a picture of the January Stamp of the Month - Happy Valentine's (S1301).  This beautiful stamp set is available only during the month of January.  




You can simply buy the Stamp of the Month for $17.95 or you can get it for just $5 with your $50 order.  AND you will qualify for the WHOOO'S YOUR VALENTINE kit for just $10, too!  (What is Whooo's Your Valentine?  It's a great January Special!  It only takes a $35 order to qualify for the Whooo's Your Valentine Kit.  (So if you placed a $40 regular order and added the Whooo's Your Valentine for $10, you could get the Stamp of the Month for $5!  Woooooo!  That's $97.95 in goodies for just $55!! plus tax and shipping of course...)  

You can click here to go through that totally separate Whooo's Your Valentine Blog Hop.)  But don't forget to come back to this January Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

My first thought was to use Close To My Heart's new alcohol markers on the flower.  I used black embossing powder and a Versamark pad to emboss the flower outline.  Then I colored the flowers and leaves with Cotton Candy (both light and dark) and Sweet Leaf (both light and dark) markers.  I like how the embossing powder keeps "me" between the lines while coloring.
I also tried using different color combinations...Blush, Autumn Terracotta, Cotton Candy...  I liked the all Cotton Candy version best, though.

Then I wanted to make a background of some sort using the smaller stamps.  I took the smaller flower and stamped it in Slate.  Both 1st generation (the darker flowers) and 2nd generation (inked, stamped on scratch paper and then stamped again on my project.)  I like how it turned out.


I wanted to add a little bit of color, so I took Cotton Candy with a different flower and stamped that (2nd generation) on the grey ones, filling in any empty spaces.  I liked that, too.  I think I'll use it as my card background.




I was looking at the black embossed flower and thought it might be too dark, so I tried CTMH's silver embossing powder.  For some reason CTMH's silver is the one I like best out of all of our embossing powders.  It melts nice and smooth, it's a nice fine grind; it's not lumpy.

Too bad silver doesn't show as well in the picture, but I like it better than the black.  Not as intense.  


When you're coloring with the alcohol markers, this is what the back of the paper will look like - so if you're going to color on something, don't do it on your card base - it won't look very nice on the inside.

So now I have the card base and the flower:



My problem is that now I can't see any of the pretty background!  So I tried this:



It's ok, but kind of boring.  Then I tried it with my black embossed flower.  I like it, but I still can't see the background "paper" that I made.



I thought this would look better than it did.  The words are completely lost.



I cut a Cricut oval and added the Pink Designer Ribbon (Z1384, retired) and Licorice Opaque Gems.  I like it, even though it's kind of plain.  I edged around the oval with Black ink.



I hope you like what I came up with.  

Supplies Used:
Happy Valentine's (S1301, $17.95 or $5 with your $50 purchase)
Card Stock:  Black, White Daisy, Hollyhock
Inks:  Slate, Cotton Candy, Black
Markers:  Cotton Candy, Sweet Leaf, Desert Sand
Embossing Powder:  Black or Silver
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge
Licorice Opaque Gems
Pink Designer Ribbon (Z1384, retired)
Glue Dots

If you're interested in getting any of these great supplies - click here to shop now.

Thanks so much for hopping by - now it's time to head on over to {Adeline Brill's Blog}.  She has some wonderful art for you to look at.  Thanks for stopping!

Happy New Year!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Whooo's Your Valentine Blog Hop!

Hi there!  I'm so excited about this new promotion that Close To My Heart has coming up!  It runs from December 13 through January 31 and is SOOOOO cute!

If you've arrived here from Helen's Blog, Hooked on Stamping, welcome!  You can hop around the blogs by clicking on the links and seeing what the 30+ Close To My Heart consultants have dreamed up for this super cute kit.

The kit is so fun, and so affordable!  When you place a $35 order between now and the end of January, you can get this great kit for just $10!!

The WHOOO'S YOUR VALENTINE kit comes with:
12 treat tubes (this is a sneak peek of a product being released in the February Idea Book)
12 treat tube holders (little die-cut boxes to stand the tubes upright)

1 sheet of our new sparkly silver paper (another sneak peek of product being released in February)
1 sheet of Hollyhock card stock
1 sheet of Blush card stock

And an exclusive stamp set that looks like this:



These are the cute tubes that you can make with the kit contents.  (LOVE the sparkly paper that comes in the kit.  They didn't use any here...)



I knew that I could do the "normal" lovey-thing with this stamp set - there's several pictures of examples on an insert in the kit.  "Normal" for a Valentine set also usually involves pink or red.

I wanted to make something "not normal" with the stamp set...so I went with summer-y colors...Lagoon and Pear (one of my favorite combinations).  Plus, I LOVE OWLS and PENGUINS.  


This is a 4x4 card

You can't really tell, but I stamped a 2nd generation Pear heart on the white strip - on top of the Lagoon {HEART}

The stamp set that I used for the hearts background is small - less than 2" across (it's a square).  Did I tell you lately how I LOVE the clear stamps?  I started in the corner and went across, lining up the solid hearts so that they lined up going across.  For the second row I moved the stamp over a bit, so the open (outline) heart was centered between the two open hearts above.  You can't really see them, since I covered them up with the owl.  

For the sparkly strips, I used the sparkly ribbon, since it already has adhesive on the back.  (saving my big 12x12 sheet of sparkly for a special occasion...)

For the eyeballs I used the gems that come in the Avonlea card kit.  They're round and a smokey grey color; I think clear sparkles would work well, also.  Googly eyes would also be great.


SUPPLIES USED:
Whooo's Your Valentine Kit (just $10 with your $35 purchase)
Card Stock:  Lagoon, Pear, White Daisy
Ink Colors:  Lagoon, Pear
Epoxy Charms in the Avonlea Card Making Kit (G1041, $29.95)
Silver Shimmer Trim (ribbon) (Z1799, $4.95)
Foam Mounting Tape





Here's another card that I did with this kit.  I used the retired Lagoon and Pear Mini-Medley Accents.  I also popped up the heart on the metal disk (in the lower right corner), but you can't tell.  I really like the Glamour Lowercase Alphabet (D1522) that I used on this card.  We made this card at card class this month.  I love alphabet stamp sets, but I rarely use them...

SUPPLIES USED:
Whooo's Your Valentine Kit (just $10 with your $35 purchase)
Glamour Lower Case (D1522, $17.95)
Card Stock:  Lagoon, Pear, White Daisy
Ink Colors:  Lagoon, Pear
Mini Medleys:  Pear (retired), Lagoon (retired)
Foam Mounting Tape
Sponge Daubers

If you want to buy any of these fun goodies, jump on over to my website, (plus check out the While Supplies Last items) and get some gifts for yourself today!!

Now hop on over to Madeline's blog, Inking From the Heart to see what creativity she has to share with you!