January Stamp of the Month Class Cards: Bear-y Cute

Tomorrow is the last day of January, so be sure to order your January stamp of the month, Frosty Friends, before they are gone for good!

After fussy cutting the bear, I used dry watercolor pencils to shade him.  Torn Pine cardstock and sponged Glacier ink provides the background.  The clouds were cut with the Cloud Background Thin Cuts, using the cut outs rather than the background.

Be sure to get your Frosty Friends before they're gone!  Shop HERE if you don't already have a CTMH Maker.  Thank you!

January Stamp of the Month Class Cards: Tree-mendous

 This slimline card was inspired by another CTMH Maker, but my apologies for not remembering who!

After flicking Green Apple shimmer brush on the card panel, I stamped the trees in Green Apple and Evergreen.  Notice how I fussy cut and popped up one of the trees.  I also added a fussy cut bird house and added some red stickles to its heart.

The sentiment is from the Floral Greetings stamp set, and I doodled a little border with a black journaling pen.

I like how calm and clean this quick card is.  Thanks for letting me share!

Dragon Card #1 (and Two Challenges)

When I saw the adorable dragon stamp set in the current CTMH January-March Idea Book (the Storytime-Scrapbooking stamp set with Thin Cuts), I knew that I had to get it to create some things for our daughter!  

My first dragon card uses inspiration from two challenge blogs, Color My Heart Color Dare #532, Shades of Blue and Purple plus One.  Here’s a quick explanation of how I created the background.

I decided I needed to add some black distress oxide inks to make the "sky" a bit darker.

It is so fun to see how this ink oxides with spritzes of water!

I also flicked on Sapphire shimmer brush ink.

Here are the markers I used to color my dragon.  (I added clear shimmer brush on the wings and Flamingo shimmer brush to make her scales sparkle.)

The dragon image easily meets the Double Trouble Paper Crafting Challenge #130, Keep Us in Stitches, using option 1, stitching, and option 2, magical or mythical creatures.

At this angle, you can see the spark a little bit better!  I forgot to mention that the sentiment is from the Spring Greetings stamp set.  Thanks for letting me share this adorable dragon with you!  (I can report that my daughter LOVES her card!)

CSI Case Inspiration 403 Meets January's Stamp of the Month, Frosty Days

My layout is pretty much a total and complete copy of the CTMH Corporate January stamp of the month artwork, and I am 100% okay with that!

I didn't have silver glitter paper, so I used silver foil paper.  I made my own polka dot paper by spritzing white gloss spray on Sapphire cardstock.  I had fun showcasing my fur babies along with the adorable critters from the January stamp of the month, Frosty Days.

Left page close up:

Right page close up:

Challenge details HERE

I think my layout fits the challenge by using some of the colors from the inspiration photo, the snow theme, and the critters.  In addition, I used stripes, house (see the bird house?),  hand lettering (AKA my poor handwriting LOL), other animals, hats, and a heart.  

Thanks for letting my share my version of this layout, my (adorable IMHO) kitties, and the January stamp of the month!  Please leave a comment sharing what you like too.

Title Page Challenge

As I am working on getting myself organized this year, I've been inspired to create more (which is a great thing) and am working on better systems to manage my creations (still a work in progress).  I have several albums started that lack title pages, so the current Lasting Memories Layout Challenge #633, to create a title page, was just the inspiration I needed.

I pulled two favorite family photos from 2021 off my bulletin board by my craft desk.  These (retired) Close To My Heart "Lovely" Picture My Life cards matched really well, so I played around with the design and mounted everything on (retired) Blue Bell cardstock.  I added Blue Bell shimmer trim and glitter gems, plus stamped the year with my (retired) Daisy alphabet.

It feels really good to get (somewhat) organized and to create a layout that immediately went into an album!  If you're also a scrapbooker, then I know you can appreciate my sense of accomplishment right now.  

As always, thanks for letting me share with you!

Storybook Christmas Layout

The new Storybook collection is probably not what you first think of for Christmas, but I thought the color palette worked well the pictures from us celebrating Christmas Day with my sweet mother-in-law.

Because I wanted to include five 4"x6" photos, I searched the 4x6 Photo Sketch Blog and found the 5 Photo Scrapbook Sketch (12x12- 201), which I think worked perfectly for my photos.

The pretty white acrylic shapes are from the (recently retired) Christmas Story embellishments.  I also added some Mist shimmer trim for some sparkle.

I stamped the trees from the January stamp of the month, Frosty Days on Sage cardstock (front and back to get the two shades).  I also added the cute little bird.  All four of the stamped images are embellished with Icicles Stickles to add more sparkle and shimmer.

Hopefully these pages have helped you see the many possibilities with paper collections.  They can be used for so much more than you might think!

Title Page Copycat Layout

As soon as I saw the new January-March Close To My Heart Idea Book, I knew that the "Are We There Yet?" collection was going to be a favorite!  I have tons of photos from an epic European adventure last year that I NEED to scrapbook!  Here is my copycat of the fabulous layout on the cover of the new/current January-March Close To My Heart Idea Book.

Here's the actual cover in case you haven't seen it to give you a frame of reference:

Obviously I copied many of the elements but also made it my own.   I thought the subtle tone-on-tone stamping (Toffee ink on Toffee paper) to make my title, Europe 2022, was a nice change.  I did not use any of the current Mix In papers (which the original used).  I did add white acrylic arrows from my stash to help highlight this page and give it a little movement/flow.

I won't ask you to comment as to which one you prefer, but I would love to hear your thoughts.  Do you have a backlog of travel photos you'd like to scrapbook?  If so, then this collection (HERE) might be just the ticket! 

Grand Canyon Layout

Yesterday, I finished putting together our USA 2021 scrapbook!  I realized that I had not yet shared this Grand Canyon layout.

I used the Four Seasons- Autumn collection with a few scraps of Scarlett patterned paper from (retired) Christmas Story.

The Grand Canyon badge is a CTMH/Cricut You Are Here cartridge cut, and the stamped hexagon is from the (retired) Aurora stamp set and Thin Cuts.  The Celebration Alphabet stamp set is also retired.

The arrows are a mix of Aurora stamps/Thin Cuts and the current wood grain arrows.  I also sprinkled gold glitter gems to accent the clusters.

You can find all of the current materials I used available HERE.  Thanks for letting me share a little of our family travels and scrapbooking with you!

January Stamp of the Month: Frosty Days Northern Lights Card

Have you had a chance to look at the cute January stamp of the month, Frosty Days?  This set of 12 stamps features adorable winter critters and assorted icons.  Of course, it's only available for purchase this month (and can be purchased at a discount or even earned free)!  

I decided to try something new- to try to create an aurora borealis background.  There is probably an actual technique somewhere, but I just played around and am pretty happy with the results.  I'd love to know what you think, so please leave a comment!  (Feel free to scroll to the bottom to comment if you're not interested in a quick tutorial.)

After looking at some pictures online, I grabbed my Mowed Lawn, Seedless Preserves, and Black Soot distress oxide inks and my new domed blending pads/mini blending tools.  Starting with the green, I created streaks and stripes on my White Daisy cardstock panel.  (WARNING: Be sure to do this on your All-Purpose Mat or you will have a really big mess!) 

Next, I spritzed the panel with water to activate the oxide inks.  (Next time I am going to skip this step to see if I like it better without the spritzing.)

The last step was to spray white gloss spray to create the stars.  Then, I stamped and fussy cut the deer after coloring with markers.  I tore a piece of White Daisy cardstock to make my snowy ground and painted it with clear shimmer brush so that the snow would sparkle.  Here's a close up:

The final steps were to embellish with Black & Grape shimmer trim, mount onto Black cardstock, and adhere to my card base.  If you've read this far, thank you!  Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my card and background technique!

Happy 2023 with Close To My Heart (and Me)!

Happy 2023!  (Are you as surprised as I am that the new year is here already?!?  Where does the time go?)  Do you set goals or resolutions in the new year?  I don't really, but it is a good time to reflect and think about ways to do and be better.  I am looking forward to getting back into a better crafting groove.  I'm really excited about the newest Close To My Heart catalog, available now until the end of March!

The new "Are We There Yet?" collection (featured on the cover) is going to be perfect to use with photos of my big trip last year!

January brings an adorable "Frosty Days" stamp of the month featuring cute wintry woodland critters and trees.

The newest special offers three different, fun collections called "It's the Little Things."  Fun 6"x6" patterned paper pairs with three different stamp sets and stickers for three different workshops: a 12"x12" scrapbooking workshop (three 2-page layouts and one single layout), a mini album workshop (twenty 6"x6" pages), and a cardmaking workshop (two each of 18 different cards).  Learn more HERE- click on the Promotions tab!

Carryover specials include Now & Forever and Workshop Wow: Four Seasons.  (Click on their names to learn more.)

I look forward to sharing more of my artwork with you and getting back to regularly scheduled, in-person classes.  You can learn more about them on my Facebook page HERE. 

Best wishes to you and yours as we begin a new year together!  Happy 2023!

Christmas Story Layouts: Downton Abbey at the Biltmore

Christmas Story is such a lovely holiday collection (that is retiring TODAY)!  It paired so well with my photos of our trip to the Biltmore Estate to see the Downton Abbey exhibit three years ago.  My mother-in-law is a huge fan, so we treated her to this visit.  (I am thankful for the memories that pop up on Facebook, which reminded me of this great day and that I had yet to scrapbook the photos.)

This first layout is for our daughter (and I made two that were very similar for each of them).  I had so many pictures (as usual) that I used a Pocket Plus Memory Protector Design 1 to be able to show them all.  Here is the left page with the front of the Pocket Plus.

And now the right page with the back of the Pocket Plus.

(Sorry for the weird alignment!)  I used the Christmas Story embellishments, gold shimmer trim, and a retired stamp set for my title.

For my album, I created three different layouts of our day.  (I told you I took a lot of pictures!)

My first one focused on the actual House.  I love adding more photos with flip flaps!  (That white stripe in the middle will disappear when I peel that label off and adhere the flip flaps in my actual album.)

My second layout highlights the various sets we saw at the Downton Abbey exhibit.  (It was so cool to feel like we had been transported to Downton!)

My third and final layout shows off some of the many costume photos I took.  (They were absolutely exquisite- and even more beautiful in person than on screen.)

I took advantage of a photo collage app (I like the free version of LiveCollage) to create two 3"x4" photos on a 4"x6" canvas to be able to include so many (smaller) photos.

Again, I used retired stamp sets, Christmas Story embellishments, and silver glitter gems and shimmer trim for this final layout.

Thank you for your support in 2022!  I am looking forward to an extra crafty, inky, and scrappy 2023!  Happy New Year to you and yours!

Two More Graduation Cards

In addition to our daughter's graduation, our niece and our "daughter #3" (AKA DD's BFF) also graduated!  Here are the cards I made using the same format as the one for our daughter.

Of course I tried to personalize the cards with school colors, so I used Sapphire and Honey Butter with gold accents on the left card and Pewter and Black with silver accents on the right card.  (If you'd like more details about how I made these cards, refer back to this post.)