August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: Baroque Borders

August is such an exciting month at Close To My Heart!  The Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book is now available, so that means tons of new products!  (Let me know if you don't have your complimentary copy so that I can get one to you.)  Of course we have a beautiful stamp of the month, Baroque Borders, a set of 5 stamps.  If you'd like to see lots of artwork and new products, be sure to hop along from one blog to the next.  (You can start here or anywhere along the hop because it makes a circle.  If you've already started, then you should have arrived here from Sarita's blog.  You'll visit Sheila Bennett's blog next by clicking this link or the one at the bottom of my post.)

Both my cards began with the romantic NEW La Belle Vie paper pack and black ink.  (As a former French teacher, how could I not love paper with such belle French flair?)  I added the NEW Monograms stamp in my initial, H.  (They are only $2.95 and would make such a great gift!)  Of course the Monogram stamp fits perfectly in our 1-1/4" circle punch.  I also used the 2" scallop circle to accent the monogram.  Don't you love the NEW black sparkles?  For the first card, I cut around the edge of the stamped image and used a zip strip for the bottom.  (I did use a scrap of Colonial White cardstock for my monogram.)

For this card, I used our NEW black tulle ribbon and chose the smoky gray sparkles from the black collection. 

At my card class on 8/18, we'll be using this stamp set (and several others), along with lots of NEW goodies, to create several beautiful cards.  Let me know if you'd like more info!

Before you go to Sheila's blog, I'd love to know what you think about all these exciting new products and the beautiful August stamp of the month.  Thanks for hopping by!