February Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Why do the months fly by so much faster than they did when we were kids? It's blog hop time again! I hope you put us on your internet travels today. You can "hop" from blog to blog and see how the most talented Close to my Heart consultants turn a piece of plastic into a work of art! If you've arrived here from Deb's Blog, you're on the right track.

You're going to love this new Piece of Cake stamp set, it's just the right stamp set to have on hand for birthday, wedding and anniversary cards. I decided to make a postcard for my entry into the hop. I bought these ruffled edge postcards a few months back and just fell in love with them. The first thing you will want to do (if you like the look) is to distress with your sponge tool and some sorbet ink.

Caboodle is my new favorite paper kit. The colors just brighten my day. The colors are buttercup, sorbet, crystal blue and sweet leaf. They couldn't be better for a birthday card. Cut one of the pattern papers from this set 5" by 3 3/4" and round the edges with a corner rounder. Distress with the sorbet ink too.

My friend, Holly, has been asking me to make more complicated card so I thought I'd use a tile-like background for the sentiment from the stamp set. I had a punch that punches squares just under 1/2" by 1/2". Punch out about 25-30 using all four cardstock colors.

It helps to line up your squares if you don't force them into a pre-cut piece of paper. I put mine on an extra large piece of colonial white cardstock so I could trim to fit later. Distress and add your squares making sure to really vary them so there's no real pattern (or make a pattern, it's your card)!

Use a scallop punch if you have one that runs about 1 1/4" in diameter. To make it a little more fancy use a 1/16th inch hole punch to make it look like eyelet lace. Distress with sorbet.

Trim your large square to fit the small ones.

Cut a strip of the crystal blue cardstock 1/2" by 5", distress and glue it to the bottom of the pattern paper about 1/4" up from bottom.


If you have Magic Mesh, use a sorbet color and attach down 1" from right edge of the card. Cut it to only fit the pattern paper, not go up over the ruffled card front. Mat your "squares" piece with a 2 1/4" by 2 1/4" (or thereabouts) piece of sweet leaf cardstock.

Stamp the tallest cake on the stamp set in sorbet ink on some colonial white cardstock.

Color it in using a blender pen and the ink from the four different colors in the set. Remember to not go over and over the paper or it will get wet and ruin your look, use a light touch.

If you like you can use a piece of magic mesh to add texture to a piece of sweet leaf cardstock before attaching the cake. Just lay the mesh down and use your sponge tool and some crystal blue ink to make an interesting background. The cardstock should measure 3 1/2" by 1 3/4" and you can round the corners and distress.

Cut out the cake and glue to green piece, attach to right hand side of card 1/4" to the right of the "squares" piece.

If you have a larger scallop punch, use it to cut out some sorbet cardstock. If you don't have punches use a circle cutter. Glue Make a Wish circle to the center and attach both to the center of your "squares." Add a Close to my Heart window charm to the center and you're done. Have fun at the hop and check out Jamia Bankhead's Blog next. If you get lost on the hop, check out the list here.

Funny video about our acrylic stamps

New Layouts!

Over this past weekend I attended a great crop in Shipshewana, Indiana that my friend, Linda Hicks, threw for us. We had a wonderful time in an excellent hotel and it was so fun to step into the Amish community too. I made 28 cards and these layouts. The cards I'll show tomorrow but here are some pages I did with pictures from our recent trip to Los Angeles this past July. None of them are using Close to my Heart paper as I'm trying to really use up my stock of other papers so I can really concentrate on just using my (very large) stock of Close to my Heart supplies.

My kids loved Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, a place where my husband went frequently when he was young. The boys are "inside" an aquarium which is why the pictures look obscured.

Before checking out the aquarium there, we had a picnic outside. My mother in law brought all the food. They were so happy to visit with their grandchildren whom they hadn't seen in a couple of years.

My husband is big on beach time and we spent one morning there but it didn't go well, there were black flies everywhere and my son had to sort of be rescued by a lifeguard.

At the Cabrillo Beach aquarium they had costumes depicting sea creatures and my boys loved trying them on with their cousins.

My favorite singer, Daryl Hall, recommended Irv's Burgers in L.A. on his show, Live from Daryl's House and so I had to check it out. It was wonderful, the lady who owned the outside diner was more than happy to tell me about Hall and Oates visiting there often. She actually writes little notes on the paper plates your hamburger and fries come on for each customer and they are all personalized! Hope you enjoy a sneak peek into some of my pages.

Birthday card from You Rock paper

My nephew, Zack's, birthday is tomorrow. I sent this card out to him the other day. The card went through a couple of renovations on the way, the circles below were dropped but the paper should be cut as follows, all of it is from the You Rock new paper set:

5 1/2" by 8 1/2" white cardstock for the card base, fold in half and attach card front once it's finished
5 1/2" by 4 1/4" outdoor denim cardstock
5 1/4" by 4" goldrush cardstock
2" by 4 1/4" pattern paper
2" by 4 1/4" pattern paper (different than other)
1" by 4 1/4" goldrush cardstock
Three 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" goldrush cardstock squares
Ignore the circles! Distress everything with outdoor denim ink.

The photos I took of steps 2 and 3 didn't come out so I'll just describe. Take your goldrush large rectangle and emboss 1" lines with your trimmer and dry embosser. Instead of sanding this time take your outdoor denim ink pad and run it across the lines. Messy is okay. Attach that piece to your large outdoor denim card front. Next add the first pattern paper 2" strip to the top of the card flush with top and sides as shown.

Tear along the bottom of the second strip of pattern paper and then attach that flush with the other pattern paper with torn side down.

Add goldrush cardstock strip right down the center of the two pattern papers.

Using the You Rock stamp set, stamp it in outdoor denim ink on white paper and cut out. Attach to the lower left of the card as shown. Add the three squares, turn them diagonally and overlap.

Stamp Rock On at the right hand side of the goldrush strip in outdoor denim.

To balance it all out, attach two outdoor denim brads on the right hand lower side of the card about an inch and at two inches from the bottom of the card.

Stamp some musical notes from the set in outdoor denim ink on each of the goldrush squares. Glue the whole card front to the card base with the fold at the left and you're done!

The New Art and Soul is up!

Come see some free chipboard and Valentine's ideas! Art and Soul!

Invitations using You Rock paper

I have a great party coming up with a wonderful hostess and I wanted to make some invitations that would really reflect her personality. Having Close to my Heart parties is all about friendships and so this card uses the wild colors of You Rock but the sweet friendship title and butterflies from Friendship's Flight. I made a lot of cards (21) at once so you'll see most of these cards in groupings.

Cut your papers as follows:

White cardstock - 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" card base, folded in half and attach card front to it when finished
Cardstock color of your choice from You Rock pack (Indian corn blue, outdoor denim, goldrush) - 5 1/2" by 4 1/4"
Pattern paper - 2" by 4 1/4"
Cardstock of same color as above - 1 3/4" by 4 1/4"
White cardstock - 2" by 2"
Outdoor denim pattern paper - 1 3/4" by 1 3/4"

Distress all with outdoor denim ink and a sponge tool.

Round the two corners on the right hand side of the card front with a corner rounder.

Using your trimmer's groove and a dry embossing tool, emboss two lines 1/2" apart from side and from each other around all four outer edges as shown. Sand with sandpaper block.

Glue pattern paper strip under the second embossed line from the top.

Emboss cardstock strip with four lines and sand. These can be random lines. Attach cardstock strip directly in the middle of the pattern paper strip.

Using goldrush ink and a butterfly base stamp (two step stamping used here), stamp it on the white square.

Stamp the outline of the butterfly in outdoor denim ink. Use a wiry brush tool to dab little specks of outdoor denim ink all over the piece.

Attach butterfly piece 3/4" from left side and top of the card.
In the rectangle made by the embossed lines, stamp the "Life is nothing without Friendship" phrase in outdoor denim ink on the lighter colored papers, in white daisy on darker paper. Glue your card front to the card base with the fold on the left. Remember to always line up your card with the fold first because the other sides can be trimmed (folds can't). Now wasn't that easy?

Telling about your favorite embellishments can win you a prize!

Check out Close to my Heart's National Papercrafting Month blog and let them know what your favorite embellishments are today and be entered to win the wonderful Felicity paper and stamp kit!

My favorite embellishments are brads, I love the colors, the sizes, and the ability to go with anything!

Caboodle Birthday Card

I'm absolutely in love with this new Caboodle paper, there are just so many possibilities with it. Tomorrow is my niece, Carmen's, birthday. She'll be six years old and she's the youngest member of my extended family and very loved. I wanted to make a birthday card for her and she's very early and loves sparkly things so I knew this paper and a bit of prisma glitter would be perfect. Cut your paper like this:

Vanilla cream cardstock - 8 1/2" by 5 1/2", fold in half for card base
Sweet leaf cardstock - 5 1/2" by 4 1/4", this is your card front
Sorbet cardstock - 5 1/4" by 4"
Sweet leaf pattern paper - 2 1/2" by 4 1/4"
Sweet leaf cardstock - 2 1/2" by 2 1/2"
Buttercup cardstock - 3 - 1/2" by 1/2" squares
Scrap vanilla cream for stamping
Distress everything with cocoa ink and a sponge tool.

Round the corners of the large sorbet and square sweet leaf cardstock pieces.

Using your trimmer's groove and a dry embossing stylus make embossed lines about 1/2" apart vertically on your large sorbet paper.

Sand so the white core shows.

Glue to large sweet leaf card front.

Attach sweet leaf pattern paper about 1" down from top of card.

Do dry embossing lines 1/4" across both horizontally and vertically then sand. Attach about and inch and a half from bottom of the card, 1/4" from the left side.

Glue down two of the buttercup squares 1/2" and 1 1/2" from right side of the card, about 3/4" from the top. Glue the third 3/4" from bottom of the card, 1" from the left hand side.

Stamp butterfly from Friendship's Flight in buttercup ink and the outline in cocoa ink.

Cut it out and glue it to the lower right of the card as shown.

Add a sorbet brad in the center of each one of the squares. Use a glue pen to glue all lines and spots that you want to hold glitter on the butterfly.


Glue down sheer ribbon under the buttercup squares. Tie a knot in a short piece of the ribbon and glue it down to the left hand side. Inside the card stamp a birthday sentiment from your favorite set (not shown). You're finished and have an adorable card to make someone's birthday very special.

Follow, follow, follow, follow.....

Hello everyone! My good friend and downline, Susan Colby, has just put up her very first blog and I would love to see her get some brand new followers. She's very talented and I can't wait to see what she'll be posting in 2010. If you could take a moment and stop in and sign up as her follower, I would really apprectiate it. Also, if you haven't signed up to follow my blog, the follow list is on the right hand side of the page here, thanks! Here's Sue's Blog: http://susansfunpage.blogspot.com/

Same pattern, different card

Close to my Heart's Wishes and Originals book are wonderful. They provide patterns to make cards so I'm never at a loss for an idea. The card yesterday and today were both based on a basic pattern I found in these books. For this card I used Veranda paper instead of Caboodle but I still started with a 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 ruffled pre-cut card I bought at the store. You don't have to though, just cut your paper the same way and ruffling it is up to you.

These ruffles especially take well to a sponge tool and a little cocoa ink. Distressing the edges of your paper is so easy and makes a big difference.

Is this paper not gorgeous? Cut a piece of the juniper cardstock 5" by 3 3/4". Attach it to the ruffled card front. Now cut your Veranda pattern paper 4 3/4" BY 3 1/2" and attach it to the center of the juniper cardstock.

Cut another piece of the pattern paper (for contrast) 4 3/4" by 2" and glue it up one half inch from the bottom of the card's bottom. See how the distressing makes the papers stand out from each other?

Cut a piece of colonial white cardstock 2" by 2" and a piece of juniper cardstock 2 1/4" by 2 1/4" and attach them to each other and then add to the upper left of the card about a half inch from top and left side. I used the brand new A Posey set, with it's new lower price! Stamp the words Best Wishes on a piece of colonial white cardstock cut 2" by 1/2" in juniper ink and glue on lower right side of card as shown.

Using the posey from the set, stamp it in juniper ink on a separate piece of white cardstock. Stamp the center with creme brulee ink. Cut it out and distress the edges in cocoa.

Stamp two leaves in garden green ink, cut them out and distress in cocoa ink.

Glue the leaves to the bottom of the flower then add to the card as shown. Remember yesterday I didn't add extra embellishments so as to make it easy to write on the back of this postcard. This type of postcard goes in an envelope so that the artwork stays intact. You can see the beautiful Veranda paper adds so much to this card. Enjoy!