December Stamp of the Month: Cutie Pie

Hey there, cupcake!  It's time for the December stamp of the month blog hop!  (If you arrived from Stefani's blog then you're hopping right along.  You'll visit Alyson next.)  As much as I absolutely love Christmas, it's fun to work on something a little different this time of year too.

To create this fun card, I started with the Confetti Wishes paper pack and a Make It From Your Heart sketch.  I stamped my focal images with Slate ink using the masking technique so that the cupcake is sitting on the cake stand.  I then colored the images with my blending pen and Pear, Crystal Blue, Canary, and Slate inks.  (Since I had recently had a green frosted cupcake, I thought that would be fun, but I am not totally in love with the colored green frosting. I'm sure Kermit or the Grinch would love it though!)  I stamped the background cupcakes in Lagoon, Pacifica, and Thistle.

I used two fun techniques on my focal image: I colored a white enamel star with the Peony Shin Han Touch Twin marker.  Then, so "sit" the cake stand on the "table" I used my craft knife to cut the base of the pedestal and then slid the checkerboard B&T paper up behind it.  I think that turned out really cool, if I do say so myself!

Then, I made two more cards with more of a holiday theme for my upcoming card workshop on 12/14.  These are two of my "six-from-one/one sheet wonder" class using the Snowhaven paper pack.

Both cards use red shimmer trim and silver sequins or a sparkle that I colored red with our alcohol markers.

I had to break up "the sweetest" to make it fit.  I just inked up sweetest, stamped, cleaned, inked up the, stamped, and cleaned again.

Thanks for stopping by for a non-fat, sugar-free cupcake!  Now go check out Alyson's sweet treat!

Click HERE for the complete hop list.

Happy Trails Retirement Party

Our longtime RV park managers are retiring at the end of this season, and we recently held a retirement party for them.  Here is the card that I made (using the Happy Camper stamp set with pieces of Seaside, Pathfinding, and Snowhaven).

The sentiments are all from the CTMH/Cricut Artfully Sent stamp set collection.

I also decorated this cutting board for the party guests to sign.  I stamped the camper with Staz-On ink and then colored it with a few of our Shin Han Touch Twin markers.  (I did use a thin black Sharpie to outline the LNRV.)  I think that they loved their party!

 Here's a favorite picture from the evening: my sister-in-law, my mom, my sister, and me!

Yes, I did make the Happy Fall banner in the background too!

H2H Challenges: No Rules NO-vember

It is time for our final NO-vember Heart 2 Heart challenge, and this one is a super fun, easy one: NO RULES!  That's right, ANYTHING goes, as long as you use something from Close To My Heart in your creation.  Today I am sharing two versions of the same layout.  The first one uses the November stamp of the month, It's the Little Things, and the Confetti Wishes paper pack.

 This sketch is a new one that you will find in December in our upcoming Seasonal Expressions.  I used the Confetti Wishes paper pack and the November stamp of the month.  I stamped the top left and the bottom right of the two-page layout.

 The kids (my nephews and their cousin, my unofficial great niece) crack me up!!!!  I embellished my page with purple gems and a flower from the Brushed assortment.

 Purple shimmer trim is a fun addition!

Now here is the pink version (using the Brushed paper pack):

 Aren't the pink shimmer trim and flaming dots a perfect complement?

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to break all the rules (except the CTMH one) with us to finish off November at H2H!

Anniversary Canvas

My brother saw a great idea and wanted to create something for his beautiful bride for their one-year anniversary.  Here is what he made (with only a very little bit of help from me):

Yes, he stamped meaning words and phrases onto a 16"x20" canvas all by himself!  I showed him what to do, he caught on very quickly, and created this beautiful piece of art.

Sorry, ladies, he's taken!  Did I mention it was for his one-year wedding anniversary?  Faith is one lucky lady!  Here's a sweet picture of them from their reception. We wish them many, many, many fantastic years together.  Love you guys!

H2H Challenges: No Ink

Welcome back to another NO-vember installment of Heart 2 Heart Challenges!  This week's challenge is NO INK!  With our awesome $5 Studio J special this month, I couldn't resist posting one of my recent Studio J layouts.

This layout is one of the Studio J "Express Collections" that are already ready for you to add your photos.  (This one is one of the School Days layouts.)  You have to see the original version to appreciate the changes that I made.  Here's the original:

To begin, I changed the green to Gypsy and the tan to Slate.  This color change fit my pictures so much better!  I next changed the title and then removed the red triangle accents.  I ended up adding the "2014" portion and the flower stitching elements.

Don't be afraid to try changing things up in Studio J.  If you don't like your changes, "undo" is your BFF!  Another great feature of Studio J is that you can order as many copies of your layouts as you would like.  I'll be getting two of these, one for each girl.

Thanks for checking out my H2H NO INK layout.  Be sure to check out what all of the H2H designers have created for you this week.

Artfully Sent CTMH/Cricut Blog Hop

Have you seen the gorgeous new CTMH/Cricut cartridge, Artfully Sent?  It is such a beautiful addition to the CTMH/Cricut family, and any card maker is going to love it so so much!  A group of us CTMH consultants love it so much that we wanted to share it with you in this special blog hop.  You're going to find so many great ideas for things you can make with this fabulous cartridge!  (If you're already hopping, then you should have arrived from Jean's blog.  After visiting here, you'll go to Lilian's blog next.)

For my project, I decided to show how the Artfully Sent cartridge isn't limited to cards.  I cut this Eiffel Tower panel at 11-1/2" on Slate card stock (the largest size it will cut).  I stamped my title with the Vogue Alphabet in Black ink.  The sidebar uses the cool Basics embossed card stock in Slate, with Juniper ink sponging.  My embellishments include black and silver shimmer trim, silver washi tape, black sparkle flourishes, and black sparkles.

Now go see Lilian's lovely project!

(If you happen to get lost somewhere along the way, you can find all the hoppers HERE.)

H2H NOvember Scrapbook Challenge: NO B&T!

Over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges, the month of NO-vember will be bringing us some tricky challenges where certain items or products are prohibited.  Our scrapbook challenge is NO B&T, and that is a true challenge not to use all of our pretty patterned papers!  I decided that the pictures of my girls and their Converse high tops would be the perfect photos to use with this challenge.  Here's what I came up with:

 My layout is based on 12x12 Sketch #94 from the 4x6 Photo Sketch Blog.

To get started, I stamped the checkerboard stamp from the Geometric Backgrounds in Black across the top and bottom of my two White Daisy 12"x12" page bases.  I then attached the Black card stock and Slate strips, followed by the two White Daisy rectangles.

 I decided to stamp my title directly onto the right White Daisy piece in Black with the Frameworks Alphabet and then color in with a Cranberry marker.  Both the Pacifica star and the Reel Life circle were cut with the CTMH/Art Philosophy cartridge.  I used the Reel Life stamp set and black and Pacifica inks for my stamping.  I am so glad that I wrote my journaling on a separate card stock rectangle, because it took a few tries to get it right! ;)

To embellishments my layout, I piled on blue & green and black &; gray epoxy bubbles; puffy stickers from the Chalk It Up assortment; arrow washi tape; and square stickers from the base & bling Free Thinker style sheet.

This layout ended up being plenty "busy" enough with my stamped background and card stock.  You should give the H2H No-vember NO B&T scrapbooking challenge a try!  Be sure to see what all of our designers have created.