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!