December's Stamp of the Month set: Thoughtful Flowers

It's December! Can you believe it? The last month of 2016, where does the time go? I found a few moments to finish up some art for December's stamp of the month set, Thoughtful Flowers, in between all the holiday preparations. This set of 14 is filled with artistic, hand-drawn flowers and several coordinating sentiments - so pretty! It was a nice break from everything, hopefully I can find more time for crafty projects. :-) 

I started out pretty simple, random stamping the background with one color Cashmere. Then I stamped the sentiment on a mini banner in Cocoa, and added two Cocoa strips on top.



This next card is playing around with some bright colors for the background, finished off with a strip of Green Shimmer Trim.



Using Swan Lake papers, this card has a few paper pieced flowers with the polka dot ribbon from the Rustic Home Ribbon pack as accents along with Silver Sequins.



Then I decided it was time to play around with coloring in the flowers! I made some quick masks out of paper, so I could stamp a few flowers together in one cluster on Kraft cardstock. Then I carefully colored in the flowers and used papers from the Enchanted Fundamentals paper pack.



And, last but not least, keeping in the holiday spirit, I made a Christmas card. Using masks again, I created a cluster of poinsettas and carefully colored them in. Using another ribbon from the Rustic Home Ribbon pack with another paper from the Enchanted Fundamentals paper pack. For a pop of color, I put a small strip of Cranberry cardstock behind the ribbon and made a quick tag for the sentiment.



I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and may we all find time for some craftiness amidst all the holiday craziness.

Enjoy!
Dani
 

November's Stamp of the Month set: New Year's Cheer

As quickly as it seems October went by, it's easier to think that the New Year will be here before we know it. November's Stamp of the Month set, New Year's Cheer, is all ready to help you celebrate. The set has 13 stamps with delightful images and sentiments perfect for your end of the year festivities. Here are a few cards to share:

This first card is using a pattern from Rustic Home Fundamentals as the background.  The color scheme is using a few of the new colors: Blossom, Emerald, and Lemon with a little bit of Cocoa ink as well. The new colors pop off the page, so pretty against the background. I also used markers to color the Clear Sparkles to match (alcohol-based markers).



The new ink pads are so easy to use and open; I can't wait until you try them out. If you missed checking them out at the Open House or didn't notice them in the new Idea Book -- the new stamp pads come with improved magnetic closures. So easy to open and use! I know you will love them.



This next card is using a pattern from the Oh Deer! collection. The stamping was done with Slate and Sea Glass (our new Color of the Year). I love how those colors look together, so pretty. I even "rimmed" the glass with some salt or sugar by cutting a thin strip of our White Shimmer trim and added to the top of the glass. Too cute!



I love the new Color of the Year feature in our Idea Book. Sea Glass is our first new trendy color, available for this Idea Book only. It is a fabulous color, make sure to check it out and get it while you can.  It is available in stamp pads, re-inkers, cardstock, mini pigment pads, and glitter paper.



For the last card, I used yet another print from the Oh Deer collection going with a Raspberry, Whisper and Black color scheme. If you paid close attention, I even added some "beverages" inside the glasses with markers on all the cards. For this one, I had to be careful to adjust the liquid inside on the tilted glass.



I think I am always ready for the New Year. It means all the holiday hoopla and craziness associated with Christmas is done and over, and it is just time to play some games and have fun with family.

Enjoy!
Dani

 

October's Stamp of the Month set: Yuletide Joy

I know that it can be hard to think of it now, but let's try to get in a festive mood and think of the upcoming holidays. October's Stamp of the Month set, Yuletide Joy, is perfect for helping us with our holiday projects. This set has 7 stamps, with adorable doodle-like designs of a stocking, gift, star and bell with coordinating sentiments. I have a few cards to share!

The first card is using a patterns from the Oh Deer! collection. The star was stamped in Slate ink, with the sentiments stamped in Saffron and Desert Sand. The flower in the star and stars on the border strip were colored in with markers and a few sequins added to finish off the card.



This next card is using a pattern from the City Sidewalks collection. The bell was stamped in Archival Black ink and colored with the smallest paintbrush and our Watercolor paints. When it was dry, I added some shimmer with the Shimmer brush. I love that thing, can you tell? I attached some of the Black & Gold ribbon as accents, with the sentiment "happy holidays" from the Short & Sweet set.



Here is a close-up of the shimmer accents.



This next card is using a pattern from the City Sidewalks collection again as well as a pattern from the Oh Deer collection. The stocking was stamped in Ruby ink on Ruby cardstock, with parts colored in with marker and the paper pieced top stamped on White Daisy.  The sentiment "Merry Christmas" was also stamped in Ruby ink under the banner with several sequins added along with some stitching for accents.



For this last card, I decided that while the gift could obviously be used with holiday designs, it can also easily be used for other present giving occasions. A diagonal-striped design in Saffron was used from the Enchantment collection with Cranberry and Cocoa cardstock. I stamped the gift and the sentiment "happy" in Cocoa ink with "birthday" in Cranberry ink from the Happy to Be Friends set. The stars and confetti were from the Happy for You set, stamped in Saffron.  Then I colored in parts of the gift and confetti with markers.



Enjoy!
Dani

 

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

Happy World Cardmaking Day, everyone! Here is some artwork to share in honor of the day. These were cards that I had out for the Open House.

This first card is using the new Swan Lake collection, featured in the Holiday Expressions. The flower and jar cut-out are from the new Cricut Flower Market Collection. I love the layered flowers that are available shown here, one push of the button and it cuts out all your layers. The leaf pattern on the bottom, is from one of the sets in the Flower Market Collection as well. The sentiment is from the Finding the Words set.  I added a sequin as the center of the flower.



This next is a pattern from the new Rustic Home Fundamentals, with the fish and sentiment from the Hooked on You set. The fish and water was colored with markers, and then I added some strategic sparkles with the new Shimmer Brush. It's hard to take a good photograph of it, so I took a close-up to hopefully see it better. Then I sponged the edges of the top to give it a distressed look.





This is a sweet little card using another flower from the new Cricut Flower Market Collection using the colors Flaxen, Fern and Saffron with White Daisy for the flower petals. The background was stamped with the mini set Dandy with the sentiment from one of the sets included with the Flower Market Collection. The ribbon is from the new Rustic Home Ribbon Pack.  



Think festive holidays with this next card. This is another layered flower from the new Cricut Flower Market Collection with prints from the new City Sidewalks collection. The sentiment on the tag was stamped from the Short & Sweet set.  



Gold and Black, two colors that always look good together.  The polka dot vellum on the bottom is from Uptown Fundamentals. The gold vellum die-cut message bubble is from the Good Life Complements.  



Yet another cute flower from the new Cricut Flower Market Collection using a print from the new Adventure Fundamentals. The smiley face was from the Emojis set with a sentiment from the So Many Smiles set.  Cute and simple!



I stamped the Wreath first, with a sentiment inside from one of the sets included in the Cricut Artistry collection, then carefully cut out the left side as shown. The stamping was done with Flaxen, and all the leaves where colored by marker. The wood print is another from the Rustic Home Fundamentals.



More festive holidays! A variety of prints from City Sidewalks were used with the Framework Alphabet set for the "joy" sentiment.  Finishing it off with shimmer trim in Red, Green and Black.  



How about cute, adorable monsters? This card is using patterns from Jeepers Creepers, with a smiley face and small sentiments from the Emojis set as well as a sentiment from a set included with the Cricut Flower Market collection.



Yet another layered flower from the new Cricut Flower Market Collection using a print from the new Memo Fundamentals. The sentiment is from a set included with the Cricut Flower Market collection with a ribbon from the Rustic Home Ribbon pack.



Here's a graduation card to share! Using a print from the new Adventure Fundamentals with stamps from Diploma Day and Woodland Critters.  I colored the owl in a bit with markers and added some sequins as a final touch.



And last, but not least, here's a little "just because" card. I stamped the leaves from the Lovely Leaves set in Chocolate ink on Kraft cardstock for the background. The leaves were then colored in with markers. The sentiment is from the Happy to Be Friends set.  



Enjoy World Card Making Day!
 Dani
 

What To Make After You've Put Your Create Kindness Cards Together!

Just for a few more days, you can take advantage of Close To My Heart's fantastic special: Create Kindness.





It is a phenomenal special with everything you need to create 24 beautiful, handmade cards: 24 pre-printed card bases with envelopes, die-cut circles for sentiments, 8 exclusive M-size stamp sets, a 2"x2" acrylic block, an Archival Black mini pigment ink pad -- all packed in a My Acrylix Mini Stamp Organizer.

Some of you already ordered it at the Open House, but I wanted to give one more reminder for everyone else to have a chance to get the kit before it is gone. And... I wanted to share some ideas for what to do AFTER you've made all your cards from the kit. The stamp sets included are delightful and easily adaptable to standard size cards.

For the cards, I also used prints from some of our new fundamentals creative papers: Whimsy, Adventure, and Enchantment on most of the cards. So gorgeous and easy to use!

For this card, I lightly sketched a line to help me stamp the floral bouquet stamp across evenly and easily. Then I simply colored in the flowers, attached the paper overlaying the love sentiment, and adhered the White Shimmer trim. Next I stamped the "love you" sentiment from the Happy To Be Friends set.



With this card, I cut out a message bubble from the Artistry collection. I stamped the "you are special to me" sentiment inside. I colored the word special and added a few heart punches as accents.



I attached the diagonal striped pattern on the bottom of the card, and added a few black "stripes" with cardstock. Then I stamped the "kindness changes everything" sentiment in the top left, colored in the word changes and adhered a few sequins as accents.



With this card, I used the Wreath stamp as a frame. Then I stamped the floral hello stamp inside the wreath, and notched the end like a banner. I carefully colored everything in, then added a lovely shimmer with our new Shimmer Brush. Love it!!! Finally finishing off the card with some White & Gold ribbon.



It's really hard to see the shimmer in the full shot, so here is a close-up. Hopefully it can be seen better here.



This card is using a few of our new colors: Tangerine, Pansy and Willow. I stamped "thank you" from the Short & Sweet set inside the circles on the patterned paper. Then I stamped a leaves background, using one of the stamp sets included with the new Flower Market collection on the Willow cardstock strip. I masked the "smile" sentiment and stamped only the flowers on the circle, colored everything in, then attached the colored circle to a scalloped circle. The colors turned out so bright and pretty -- much better IRL. I had a hard time trying to get the colors right in the photo.



Using the top of the card as a guide, I stamped the daisy-like flower sentiment across the top, colored in a few areas in the flowers, and attached a strip of the polka dot paper just covering the "friend" sentiment. Next I stamped "enjoy the little things" in the bottom right corner, colored the word things, and attached a few Sparkles to finish everything off. I used two of the sets from the kit on this card!



Last but not least, I overlapped two matching circle papers, aligning the circles exactly for the background. Then I stamped "be your kind of beautiful" over a circle and colored in the word kind. Using the So Many Smiles set, I randomly stamped a variety of circle designs in the remaining circles and attached some sequins throughout as accents.



You definitely don't want to miss out on the lovely sets included in this month's special. Make sure to get your order in today!

Enjoy!
~Dani

 

September's Stamp of the Month: Blessed Beyond Measure & Create Kindness Special

How can it be September already?  That is just crazy!

I have a few cards to share with this month's stamp of the month set: Blessed Beyond Measure. This set has 19 stamps, with fall-themed images and coordinating sentiments. I also used some new papers from the latest Annual Inspirations (Aug 2016 - July 2017).

This first card is using a Saffron colored print from our new versatile Enchantment Fundamentals. I used the Cricut Artbooking Collection to cut the leaves and stamped with Saddle and Ruby Ink on -- alternating the ink colors with the cardstock. Add a few gold sequins and voila!



The next card has a random stamped background with the branches/leaves and branches/berries stamped in Cocoa and Poppy ink on Kraft cardstock. The sentiment is stamped on Poppy cardstock with a ribbon from the new Rustic Home Ribbon pack for decoration.



And this last card is using a print from our new Rustic Home Fundamentals for the background. The pumpkin is also cut with the Cricut cartridge and stamped on the new Tangerine cardstock in Tangerine ink with the stem stamped in Slate ink. The two smaller leaves are again cut out with the Artbooking cartridge and stamped again with Slate ink on Desert Sand and Fern cardstock. I wrapped each of the ribbons from the Rustic Home Ribbon Pack around the bottom and attached the stamped pumpkin and leaves.



The new paper collections are just spectacular!  I've been hard at work creating artwork for the upcoming Open House.  I can't wait for you guys to see everything.  Check your calendar and make sure to keep some time available on Saturday, September 17th from 9am to 1pm.

Also to celebrate National Stamping Month, Close To My Heart has a fantastic special: Create Kindness.





It is a phenomenal special with everything you need to create 24 beautiful, handmade cards: 24 pre-printed card bases with envelopes, die-cut circles for sentiments, 8 exclusive M-size stamp sets, a 2"x2" acrylic block, an Archival Black mini pigment ink pad -- all packed in a My Acrylix Mini Stamp Organizer.

I decided to kick my cards up a notch. I simply used a few extra supplies: black cardstock, white cardstock, markers and watercolors. Since there are 8 sentiment stamps, I used each one 3 times. Here are my cards:









It is a lovely kit; the stamp sets are spectacular.  You are definitely not going to want to miss out on this special, make sure to get your order in today!

If you haven't picked up your new Annual Inspirations or Holiday Expressions yet, contact me to pick up a copy or you can get yours at the Open House on Saturday, September 17th from 9am to 1pm.
I can't wait!

 Dani
 

August's Stamp of the Month: Purr-fect Halloween

So hard to believe that school has started back up again, my "little" kids are now in their last year of high school and last year of middle school.  How in the world did that happen?  

I was able to get some more craft time to make a few samples with this month's adorable stamp of the month set: Purr-fect Halloween.  This fun set has 17 stamps, with delightful images and several coordinating sentiments.  I also got to use some of the new paper sets from the upcoming Holiday Expressions!!!  For this first card, I used the new Jeepers Creepers collection as well as some of the new colors: Tangerine, Willow and Pansy.  All the stamping was done in Black ink, with the images paper pieced.  Too cute!



This next card is also using some paper from the new Jeepers Creepers collection.  The ink colors used were Whisper, Slate and Black.



With this last card, I used yet another new paper collection: Swan Lake.  I created the background with 1" squares of all but one of the patterns.  I attached the squares slightly askew on a 6" cardstock piece, then trimmed off all the overlapping edges.  Then I used my sewing machine to randomly stitch all the pieces down.  Then I paper pieced the rest, with all the stamping done in Slate ink.



I have the new Annual Inspirations here along with the upcoming new Holiday Expressions.  If you haven't got your copy yet, get in touch with me to pick yours up.  And mark your calendar for Saturday, September 17 for an Open House showcasing artwork from both publications from 9am to 1pm.  Enjoy!

Dani