July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: Circus Alphabet

The July CTMH stamp of the month is the adorable Circus Alphabet!  Please check out all the fabulous inspiration you'll find here on our monthly stamp of the month blog hop.  If you're already hopping then you've arrived from my Heart 2 Heart Challenge's "partner in crime," Katy Taylor's blog.  You will visit the fabulous Fancy Melissa next.

I had my heart set on making a "sampler" type of card, and here are two versions that I made.  Both use the Skylark paper pack.  The top one is a standard-size card, but the bottom one is 5"x7".  With the larger card, I wanted to show how you could add a color to your paper pack to stretch it further.  In this case, I used Sorbet.  (Smoothie & Cotton Candy look great too!)

Now here's a quick photo tutorial so that you can easily copy this idea.

1.  Lay out your stamps on your desk pad until you get the look you want.  The stamps will lightly stick to the paper, and the grid lines will help you get them straight.

2.  Lay your block on top of the stamps and push a little.  The stamps should naturally stick to the block and come up easily off the paper.
3.  Ink up your sampler and stamp it on scrap paper.
4.  Remove the I, O, & U from the large block.

5.  Place the (cleaned and dried) I & U on top of their stamped images.
6.  Pick them up with a block.
7.  Now you have two different blocks, one as your sampler base and the other to stamp the I & U in a contrasting color.
8.  Cut a 3/4" or 1" Cricut heart to cover the empty O.  (Due to the style of this alphabet, I cut a smaller white heart to mimic the open style of this alphabet.)  Adhere the heart.

Here's a Sweet 16 card that I made for my daughter using the Circus Alphabet...

...and a bracket frame for our library/office loft.

There will be more creations to come this month, so please stop back by!

If you get lost along the way or find a missing/broken link, come back here to click on this blog badge to be taken to the complete list of hoppers.

Complete Hop List HERE

Thanks for hopping by.  Check out the rest of the circus by going to see what the wickedly talented Fancy Melissa has created!

H2H Challenges Thanks & Outlander Crosspost

Okay, that is a super crazy title, but you'll see how all of this ties together!  Today on the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog, we are saying good-bye to three of our team members.  While I hate to see them go, that also means that we will have some fresh faces and new inspiration for you over there, so be sure to check it out.  If you're an H2H fan, but sure to hop over there to tell our retirees farewell.

This card was actually made for a friend to thank her for selling me her extra copy of the new release of my (current) favorite book series, Outlander: Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon.  (You can read more about this book and the series at Amazon and at Shelfari.  The first book is being made into a television series on Starz to premier in August.  I can't wait!)  This card hopefully looks a bit Scottish to you (with the plaid, right?), because the hero of the series is Scottish and several of the first books are set in Scotland.  (I don't want to give away too much!)

Today I am also thankful for returning home safely from a great beach getaway prior to my cousin's wedding Saturday.  We had such a great time!  I'd love to know what you're especially thankful for today.  Leave me a comment, okay?

On This Day Wedding Card

My cousin is getting married today, and we are excited to be with them as they begin their journey as husband and wife!

 This card uses the Ariana paper pack and some extra White Daisy card stock.  I knew that I wanted a 5"x7" card, and I thought that this dark Ariana gray was very handsome.  I currently don't have any wedding stamps, so I started looking through my CTMH/Cricut Artbooking cartridge.  I found several cuts that I thought put together would make a great wedding card!  All four of them come from different pages.  I just remember to use my real dial size button to scale them to the size that I wanted.  To dress up the card, I added a piece of Silver shimmer trim, the last of my gorgeous slate polka dot ribbon, a slate twist tie, sparkles, and a sparkle flourish.

The together banner that I cut was too busy for the card front, so I stuck it on the inside.  I also added a White Daisy panel so that I will be able to write our well wishes inside.  A piece of zip strip and a little more shimmer trim really finishes off the card nicely.  Can you believe that I didn't use any ink anywhere on this card?  Crazy, I know!

Best wishes to the new Mr. & Mrs.!

Kaboom Starburst Card

Starburst cards and projects have been the rage for a while now, and I think it is the perfect design for the June stamp of the month, Kaboom!

This design is a fabulous way to use up scraps.  All you need are rectangles that you cut on the diagonal.  You can keep your rays together (touching and/or overlapping each other) or you can space them out a bit like I did here to show off the background color.

All of my papers are from the Jubilee paper pack.  The sentiment was cut with the CTMH/Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge.

You're the bomb for stopping by and leaving me a little loving!  If you haven't gotten this set yet, remember that it's only around until the end of the month.  Hurry before it's gone!

Celebrate Your Birthday (Card)

At my recent card class, we played around with color theory, including mixing and matching our paper packs.  This card uses both the Balloon Ride and Ariana paper packs.

We had lots of fun playing with the CTMH/Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge and the stamp sets that come with the cartridge.  To make our yummy cupcake, I cut it out twice: once on White Daisy card stock and once on the Ariana green paper.  Then we also stamped it twice: in Outdoor Denim on the green and Smoothie on the white.  After you cut off the white frosting, adhere it to the green cupcake.  Scrumdillyicious!

While my card was based on a Make It From Heart Heart sketch, it is a great match for the current Atlantic Hearts Sketch challenge #61 so I have to link up.  Thanks for celebrating with me!

{Updated 7/2/14: Thank AHS for selecting me to your Top 3 for this card!}

H2H Challenges: The Great Outdoors

The final June Heart 2 Heart Challenge is the great outdoors.  That means a lot of things to a lot of people!  Right now, my version of the great outdoors is my back yard.

Because the lake is in my backyard, I knew I wanted the blues and greens of the Timberline paper pack.  I found a sketch from Imagine that I thought would work perfectly with my photos, cut the pieces according to the guide, and then assembled.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

I was planning to stamp my title, but I found exactly what I wanted in my CTMH/Cricut Artbooking cartridge.  I also cut the cute postage stamp square from it too.  I did stamp the Summer '14 with the July stamp of the month, Circus Alphabet.  I used a few pieces of the Timberline assortment and some hemp baker's twine to embellish my layout.

We'd love to see your version of the great outdoors, so head on over to H2H for inspiration and then to link up!

More Father's Day Fun

Because my parents were volunteering at the local Scottish Festival, we put off celebrating Father's Day with them (which actually made it extra special because longtime friends were in town visiting).

Since I certainly inherited my love of camping from my parents, I knew I wanted to use my Happy Camper stamp set and the Timberline paper pack for his card. (We traveled out west in '89 in a silver airstream, so I had to make this camper with Whisper card stock.)  I paper pieced the camper onto the barn wood piece and colored it with White Daisy, Lagoon, Ponderosa Pine, and Whisper markers.  The "happy Father's day" sentiment and circle are from the Holiday Tags stamp set, cut with the Artiste CTMH/Cricut cartridge.  I embellished the sentiments with triangle Durables studs.

Love you, Dad!

Our younger daughter made this cute card for her Dad using the same basic supplies that I did.

Aren't they cute?

I'm entering both cards in the Heart 2 Heart Challenges "So Studly" challenge!  I'm sure you can see why!

Happy 16th Birthday!

Sixteen years ago (this past Saturday), I gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl!  She has been the light of our life and such a blessing to us from the moment she was born.

This card was really fun to make!  I started with a 5"x7" White Daisy card stock base and then added layers of the Lollydoodle paper pack.  The cupcake was cut with the CTMH/Cricut Artiste cartridge and stamped with one of the sets that comes with the cartridge.  The "sweet 16" uses the July stamp of the month, Circus Alphabet.  I added a few Flamingo dots for a pop of pink color.

Did you know that you can color our Silver shimmer trim with our alcohol markers?  You now have trim in all 40 of our colors!  Woohoo!

This week, I have been walking down memory lane trying to get a mountain of layouts into albums, so here are some photos of this precious angel through the years (taken directly from her scrapbooks!).

With my mom the day she was born

age 3

1st day of kindergarten

6 years old

5th grade

earlier this year sporting her new glasses

Thanks for letting me share my "baby" with you!

Technique Blog Hop: Picture My Life

This month's Technique Blog Hop challenge is to use Picture My Life cards on anything but a scrapbook layout.  (If you're already hopping, then you should have arrived here from Michelle's blog.  You'll go to Terry's blog next!)  Since I have been working with the Avonlea Picture My Life kit to scrapbook our home remodel, I picked out two cards to use on a (timely) Father's Day card.

To jazz up my card, I added a 2" strip of Twilight card stock to the 4"x6" PML card and then adhered some Gold Polka Dot washi tape.  Before I layered the sentiment card, I swiped the edges in Twilight ink, punched a hole in the top to make it look like a tag, and threaded some (retired) Sorbet ribbon through the top.  I decided to attach this to a 5"x7" Twilight card stock base with a piece of (retired) Avonlea paper from my stash.  I also distressed the card front with Twilight ink.  To finish it off, I added a Teal base & bling resin flower and three Aqua dots.  I hope my husband likes it!

Since it's Father's Day (and yesterday was our daughter's 16th birthday), here's a picture of us the day we became parents...

 ...and Easter this year!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me show off my family!  Once you get a set (or two) of the Picture My Life collections, you're going to love all the possibilities of these pretty cards!  Now go see what Terry has created!

Get Them Before They're Gone!

Close To My Heart just published its Spring/Summer 2014 Retiring List, and some favorites are being retired...  Out with the old to make room for the new (Aug. 1)!  Click HERE to download your own PDF version of the list if you'd like to see what is on its way out.

The following ink colors (and their card stock, markers, etc.) are retiring:
Blush
Twilight
Sky
Buttercup
Creme Brulee

(Hmmm, are we getting a new pink, blue, and/or a new yellow?  These are all such pretty colors, but I feel confident that CTMH has something FaBuLoUs in store for us with the Autumn/Winter 2014 Idea Book, available 8/1/14.)

All of our markers and textiles are retiring too!

ALL of our paper packs, their Complements, and accessories are going too, so stock up now!  Babycakes, Sarita, Laughing Lola, ProPlayer, Ivy Lane, Ariana, Skylark, Balloon Ride, Jubilee, Timberline, and Lollydoodle are all retiring.  WOW!  (I for one can't wait to see what's coming soon.)

If you'd like to order anything (retiring list or not), click HERE.  If you order directly from my website, be sure to check out the "While Supplies Last" section.  You can score some great deals there!  I have a card class on Sunday, 6/22, at 2 PM, and I'd love for you to join us.

You're the Bomb Card

The June stamp of the month, Kaboom!, is great fun!  Here's a card I made with this set and the Jubilee paper pack.  I hope you'll take the time to click on the photo to see some of the details up close.

How about those Cranberry sticks of dynamite behind the sentiment?  (The focal sentiment was cut with the CTMH Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge.)  I did a lot of tone-on-tone stamping on this card.  Do you want to know a trick for the background?  Arrange your un-inked stamps on your project.  Lay a block on top of the stamps to pick them up while keeping them positioned where you want them.

Then you can ink them up and stamp away!  For this background, I used Desert Sand ink on the Kraft background.  I am loving our Kraft card stock!

Who wouldn't want to know that they're da bomb dot com?!?  Brighten someone's day today!

H2H Challenges: Rhapsody in Blue

This week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is called Rhapsody in Blue.  How many of you know Gershwin's famous piece?  I remember about a million pianos playing it at the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in LA in 1984 when I was just a little girl. :)  (It was actually 84 pianos, and here's a video link if you're interested.)  It remains a favorite piece of mine, so I had planned to have a musical theme to this week's creation.

As you can see, that didn't happen (but I love how this card turned out).  It is a standard A2 side-fold card with a Crystal Blue card stock base.  I decided to use the pretty color scheme of Crystal Blue, Twilight, and Outdoor Denim.  I pulled a few scraps from the Ariana paper pack and some extra Twilight and White Daisy card stock, and I was off!  I first stamped the clouds from the Lifting Spirits stamp set in Crystal Blue on the top portion of the card front.  I went back and colored them in with my (retired) White Daisy marker to give them that cool chalky effect.  The card sketch is from Make It From Your Heart, Vol. 2, so I just followed the instructions for the other pieces.  (I did sand the Twilight strip to soften it just a bit.)

Before I got started with the focal image, I sponged a little Crystal Blue ink onto the stark White Daisy card stock to make it look a little more like the sky.  Then, I stamped the hot air balloon in Outdoor Denim twice: once on the White Daisy rectangle and again on a scrap from the Balloon Ride paper pack.  I used a variety of old & new markers (all 3 blues plus Buttercup and Sorbet) to color the balloon.  The top portion was cut out and paper pieced onto the rectangle.

To finish the card, I stamped the banner in Twilight and the sentiment in Outdoor Denim then cut out.  I scissor-distressed both the main image and its Outdoor Denim mat.  The finishing touches are the three epoxy bubbles.

This card is going to a very special friend who lost a cousin recently.  Thanks for leaving me a comment before you check out all of the H2H Design Team's Rhapsody in Blue inspiration for you.