Shoes, Shoes, Shoes! (August Stamp of the Month)

Though August has come and is (long) gone, I had to wait to share this project with you because I entered it into a Close To My Heart consultant contest (but didn't win), so I'm sharing it here and linking it up to the Make It Monday blog too. Once again, I wanted to use the August stamp of the month set, Wicked, beyond its obvious Halloween intentions.

I searched online for shoe templates, and found several, like THIS ONE from Creating Keepsakes (click to download a copy for yourself). I used this slightly different version from Stacey Cohen, for my paper shoes. If you're in a shoe mood, what about these witch shoes from Skip To My Lou? They would be perfect for this time of year! Finally, why not create a pair of baby shoes?

As they say, if the shoe fits, buy a pair in every color! My pink-loving daughter has claimed these for herself, and my blue-loving daughter is hinting at the need for her own pair...

H2H Challenges: From Our Heart to Yours CASE Challenge

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is a monthly feature we like to call "From Our Heart to Yours." This week, we're sharing our style for you to CASE. What's a CASE? Why, copy and steal exactly, of course! (Usually, however, it's a CASE with a twist of your own style.)

So, which H2H Design Team Member's style is most like yours? We'd love to see who inspires you. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

As for "my" style, I really struggled with this challenge! Since I love to use sketches, I decided to make a card using the Wishes "Top Band" pattern. You can find a PDF with instructions for this card sketch right HERE if you'd like to use this sketch too.

It is probably easier for me to define who I'm not as a crafter rather than who I am. I think that I'm generally a simple gal, but that doesn't mean that I won't glam it up when the occasion calls for it. I like to stamp, but I don't like to color. I love to get inky with a little distressing or stamp rolling. Tearing is another fun, simple technique that I like.

While this card is probably busier than my usual style, it's thanks to this gorgeous CTMH Dreamin' paper. All those beautiful flowers on the front are part of the paper, not anything that I did! (The butterfly was white with the black text, but I colored it by sponging first with Bamboo to antique the white and then with a bit of Pacifica to give it dimension and to match the project better.) The Dreamin' paper pack may not be my first choice of colors (I'm not much of a yellow girl unless it's 14 karat.) but there's just something that I love about this paper. Maybe it's the hints of cool that we're starting to feel underneath all this hot Southern heat.

We hope that you'll join us once again this week at H2H for another fun challenge! You have until the end of the month to play along with any of August's challenges and to be eligible for our Top 10 and/or the prize packs. Get your game on and CASE away!

H2H Challenge: From Our Heart to Yours- Creating Backgrounds for Father's Day

This week's Heart to Heart Challenge is from our heart to yours, just in time for your Father's Day projects: creating backgrounds especially for dads! Please go to the H2H blog to check out all the fabulous creations of the other design team members, and be sure to link up your creation there too!

My faux postage background was fun to make. I started with the Postcard- Travel Series stamp set, which is perfect for my travel-loving Dad. (My parents' blog is the Traveling Bells!) You wouldn't necessarily have to use a postage stamp set to recreate this look. You could use any square or rectangular stamped stamps, or you could pierce your grid first and then stamp inside the squares.

My color combo came from CTMH founder and president, Jeanette Lynton, and her fabulous blog (that you can access HERE). She ran a "Color Me Monday" series for a long, long time, and I went back through her Color Me Monday posts until I found a combo that I liked for my Dad. (You can see her post about this combo HERE.) Aren't Cocoa, Twilight, Garden Green, and Smokey Plum a great combo?


To create the card background, I placed the un-inked stamps on my cardstock piece. Four across fit perfectly! I chose a stamp for each color and then stamped them. Since CTMH's stamps are clear, it was easy to line them up. I chose four different stamps for the next row and mixed the colors around a bit. The third row used the horizontal stamps, and then I finished with the first row repeated in a different order. My main piece was a little long, so I just trimmed it off at the bottom. To continue the look of postage, I used my paper piercer to prick holes between all the stamps. I love how that turned out!





To finish the card, I stamped the circle tag and sentiments from the Tag the Occasion stamp set. I had to pierce the tag "stitches" to coordinate with my background. A piece of jute finished off the bottom. Dad seemed to appreciate his card last night at our early Father's Day dinner. I sure do appreciate my Dad! He's the best!





Remember, you can see more artwork and learn a few new techniques at the H2H blog. If you link up your creation, you might win a prize! We've got two great sponsors this month, Michelle and Romaine, so go say hi (and tell them I sent you)! Happy (early) Father's Day!

Inspiration has Wings!

Close To My Heart has totally and completely outdone themselves for January! First, there's the beautiful stamp of the month, Find Your Style. Then, there's the gorgeous Wings collection. To top it off, if you purchase the Wings Workshop kit, you're eligible for some incredible savings! (I will be hosting a Wings workshop in February, so order your kit in January!)

Click HERE to go to the PDF of the Inspirations booklet. (This link has been revised so if you tried it before and it didn't work, please try again now. You should NOT have to log in to anything to view.)

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