CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop for July

Welcome to the Close to My Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop for July. This month we are featuring the stamp set "Live Out Loud". 

Hop along with me & a bunch of other great CTMH consultants! We've created a whole lot of artwork for you, all using the July Stamp of the Month. If you've come here from Dawn's Blog, you are on the right path. If this is your first stop on the hop, that will work too (just keep hopping till you get back here again).

To continue along the hop, just follow the link at the end of each post to go to the next site. We hope that following the hop will give you lots of inspiration and ideas for using this month's stamp set, along with the many other great CTMH products you'll see in each post!

My creation this month is a 12x12 layout featuring one of the great sentiments from this stamp set "Imagine the Possibilities". 

Layout design is sketch #81 from Sketches in Thyme.

Materials Used:
CTMH patterned paper (check pattern):  Elemental
CTMH patterned paper (stripe pattern):  Evensong (retired)
CTMH cardstock: White Daisy, Black
CTMH ink: Black
CTMH stamp set: Live Out Loud - July 2012 stamp of the month
CTMH stamp sets: Circle Arounds & Comments (both retired)
CTMH Bottle Caps
CTMH Holiday Buttons
CTMH Black Waxy Flax
Black Grosgrain Ribbon - from my stash
Border is machine stitched with black thread
Journalling boxes (circle and bracket) cut with CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

The July Stamp of the Month is available from your CTMH consultant from July 1st to 31st, 2012.    It can be purchased for $17.95 or you can get it for just $5 with your CTMH order of $50 or more during the month of July.  Check out this MUST HAVE stamp set:

If you would like to continue on this month's blog hop for more fabulous inspiration using this great stamp set - "LIVE OUT LOUD" - continue on to Krista's blog to see what she has created for you.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Christmas Gift Card Holders

I've done a few more gift card holders - with a Christmas theme this time, using my Gift Card Holder tutorial. An easy way to dress up your holiday gift cards!
All the paper here is retired (sorry) - I need to use up some scraps!  Stamps used are all currently available!

Materials Used (all Close to My Heart):
Evensong Creative Basics
Holiday/Everlasting Creative Basics
Just for the Holidays acrylic stamp set
Bitty Sparkles
Bitty Brads -  Colonial White and Cranberry
Inks: Cranberry, Ponderosa Pine
Cardstock: New England Ivy, Desert Sand

CTMH Event Calendar to get ready for the New Year!

Here is a CTMH Event Calendar that I recently made.  These are perpetual calendars you can use year after year to make note of birthdays, anniversaries and any other dates you don't want to forget.  Decorate them as you wish! 

Mine was inspired by one done by Jen Rubio.

I used all CTMH papers & stamps on this project - but there are so many different ones, I am not going to list them all here.  If you have any questions about any products I used - please just send me an email (csironside@shaw.ca). 

So happy to get back in my craft room this week now that all the festivities are over.  Feels great to be creating again.  Will have more new artwork to post soon!!

CTMH Evensong and Paper Piecing

I received the inspiration for this card from a Paper Piecing article on the Scrapbooks Etc. website.
I used this week's sketch from Card Patterns.  Love this sketch - all those straight lines are exactly my style!!
(Sorry about the poor lighting in the photo - we are getting a major snowstorm (again) today - so the sky is completely clouded over - leaving me with very little natural light)

I made the tree by cutting several different green patterned papers into strips (of different lengths and widths) and then layering them to form the tree!  Love the effect!

Materials Used (all Close to My Heart, except as noted):

• Evensong Level 2 Paper Pack
• December Word Puzzle Acrylic Stamp Set
• Holiday Craft Buttons
• Colonial White Grosgrain Ribbon
• Cardstock:  Sorbet, Cranberry, New England Ivy, Colonial White, Chocolate, Buttercup
• Ink: New England Ivy
• Foam Tape (to pop dot the star on the tree)
• Glue Dots (to attach the button ornaments)
• Other: glitter from Shimmerz

CTMH Wishes Cards for Christmas

Here are a few cards I created using designs from the CTMH book Wishes. These cards meet a few challenges for this week. First - the color challenge over at KJ's Stamp Pad which is red, white & green. They also meet the "anything Christmas" challenge over at Practical Scrappers.

This first card uses the "Sentiment Secured" design from Wishes.
Materials Used (all Close to My Heart):

• Evensong Creative Basics paper (no longer available to order)
• Evergreen Acrylic Stamp Set
• Clear Sparkles
• Bulk Card Bases with envelopes
• Cardstock: Cranberry, Colonial White
• Ink: New England Ivy, Chocolate

This card is the "All Stacked Up" design from Wishes.
Materials Used (all Close to My Heart):

• Holiday Hoopla Acrylic Stamp Set
• Simple Stitches Acrylic Stamp Set
• Cardstock: Olive, Cranberry, Colonial White
• Inks: Olive, Cranberry

And finally, this card is the "Long Layers" design.
Materials Used (all Close to My Heart):

• Evensong Creative Basics Paper (no longer available to order)
• Jingle Borders
• Holiday Trinkets
• Cranberry Grosgrain Ribbon
• Other - gold bigger brad from my stash
• Cardstock: Colonial White, Cranberry, Olive
• Ink: Olive, Cranberry

CTMH Evensong & Card Patterns #32

Here is my card for this week's sketch at Card Patterns.

Materials Used (all Close to My Heart, except as noted):

• Evensong Level 2 Paper Packet
• Wonderful Season Acrylic Stamp Set
• Gold Bitty Brads
• Cardstock: Cranberry, Colonial White
• Inks: New England Ivy, Cranberry
• Other: Stocking embellishments - Dollar Store

CTMH Holiday Creative Basics Merry & Bright Card

This is my second post for today - so be sure to scroll down!
A few challenges incorporated into this card:
1) The great sketch is from Card Patterns.
2) Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge for this week is to include something from nature on your Christmas card.
3) The Practical Scrappers challenge this week is to use stamps! Not a huge 'challenge' for me since stamps have become an addiction for me & pretty much everything I do has a stamped image of some sort on it. But one fun "stamping" thing I did on this card was to take a short & straight (2") 'flourish' image and turn it into this 'curly' border around my trees. One of the great things about using acrylic stamps is that you can curve & bend them in various ways! I just kept re-shaping my stamp on the block each time I stamped it so that it followed the shape of my cardstock piece until I had a continuous border. Easy peasy!

Materials Used (all Close to My Heart):

• Holiday Creative Basics Paper Pack
• Evensong Level 2 Paper Pack
• Tree images from Holiday Trinkets Acrylic Stamp Set
• Sentiment & gift image from December Word Puzzle Acrylic Stamp Set
• Border from the Everyday Celebration Card Kit (Promotional item available on orders between September 1st - 30th). Click Here for details!
• Window Charms Circles
• Cranberry Grosgrain Ribbon (also included in the Holiday Creative Basics kit)
• Bitty Cranberry Brad from the Brads Essential Assortment
• Cardstock: Cranberry, Desert Sand, Colonial White
• Inks: Cranberry, New England Ivy
• Other: Foam Tape

CTMH Evensong - All is Bright

Just a quick post - -we are having a beautiful week here - - so the kids and I are enjoying all of Calgary's summer activities!

Here is my Christmas card for Challenge #33 at Sparkle Creations, which was to use strips of paper.

Card design is "Lucky Layers" from the Close to My Heart Wishes Card Confidence Program.
Materials Used (all Close to My Heart):

• Evensong Level 2 Paper Pack
• Striped paper is from the Evensong Creative Basics Pack which is no longer available.
• December Word Puzzle Acrylic Stamp Set
• Jingle Borders Acrylic Stamp Set
• Clear Sparkles
• Gold Bigger Brads from the Bigger Brads Basic Collection
• Cranberry Brads
• Colonial White Brads
• Sorbet Brads from the Spring Blossom Brad Assortment
• Ink: New England Ivy
• Cardstocks: Colonial White, New England Ivy and Olive (all included in Evensong Level 2 Pack)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope it is bright & sunny where you are too!

CTMH Evensong (Again) - Isn't it July??

I missed a week of challenges when we were away last week. I really want to build my stash of Christmas cards so I went back to see what Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge was last week! And I'm so glad I did because sketches are my favourite kind of challenge! So I played along - just a week late!

Materials Used (all Close to My Heart):

• Evensong Level 2 Paper Pack
• December Word Puzzle Acrylic Stamp Set (I have to mention again - I LOVE THIS STAMP SET!!)
• Gratitude Acrylic Stamp Set
• Inks: New England Ivy, Cranberry, Sorbet
• Other: Sorbet Brad from the Spring Blossom Brad Assortment, Foam Squares, Sorbet RicRac from the Sorbet Designer Ribbon Rounds Collection

CTMH Evensong Christmas Wish Card

I played along with Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge again this week! Loving this challenge . . . wish I had known about it months ago!!

This week's challenge was another sketch and it must have been my 'style' because this card came together really quickly for me.

Materials Used (all Close to My Heart except as noted):

• Evensong Level 2 Paper Pack
• December Word Puzzle Acrylic Stamp Set
• Evergreen Acrylic Stamp Set
• Inks: New England Ivy, Cranberry, Olive
• Other: Foam Squares, Silver Bigger Brads, Star Brad (from Michaels)