Deep Roots Blog Hop

 

Welcome to this months Blog Hop featuring the Strong Roots Stamp set.  If you've been following the blog hop train, you are coming here from Krista's blog.  We are happy to have you join us on this journey to see some beautiful creations from several Close to My Heart Makers.

If you're not familiar with the Stamp of the Month, each month Close to My Heart releases a special stamp that when you spend $50 you can receive for ONLY $5!  BUT if you are a VIP customer, when you spend that $50 you receive 15% credit in your account for future purchases AND the stamp of the month for FREE. Our VIP's get the royal treatment at Close to My Heart. Click here to find out more about our VIP program. 

Now on to this months Stamp of the Month - Strong Roots. 

 

The watercolor bug has bitten and as soon as I saw this stamp set I knew I was going to get to play. I grabbed my basic supplies and then a few extras:

Of course: 

• White Cards & Envelope Value Pack X254
• Strong Roots Stamp Set S2107 
• Watercolor Paints Z3132 
• Small Round Waterbrush Z3224 

And then I saw some new items from our July-August Catalog that I knew would complement this stamp set so well:

• July-August Mix-In Paper Pack X9030
• Stitched Scallop Bracket Thin Cuts Z3688   
• Wander-Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts Z3959 for the pond with Glacier Cardstock
• New Isabella Cricut collection for the leaves 
• Espresso Ink and Cardstock and New England Ivy Cardstock

Here is my creation:

I feel like this would be a great Grandparents Day card which is coming up September 12th, Father's Day or birthday card. I tried to keep it fairly simple with not much embellishment so it wouldn't overwhelm the men in my life - you know how they are with glitter; it's like cooties to them - haha!

The watercolor made this stamp set feel so tranquil and soft.  Have you played with our watercolors yet?  The Close to My Heart home office did a whole series on YouTube showing different watercoloring techniques.  You can check them out here.

Now hop on over to Lauren's CTMH Craftings for more artwork using this rustic and heritage inspired stamp set. 

 Happy Scrappin'!

    ~Heather

 
 

Creativity in Motion Blog Hop

Welcome to our National Stamping Month,  Creativity in Motion Blog Hop!   If you have come here from Kristine's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog:  http://ifyoublingit.blogspot.com/p/stamp-of-month-blog-hop-list.html.

This month we have <number, over or approximately...> Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

 

Here I used our new paper, Lovely,  from our brand new annual core catalog and our new Stitched Fancy Brackets to frame my dragonfly.  I love the movement the dragonfly gives with the Animation Sheets. 

On this card, I used the faux braiding technique to create the card and our Lovely papers.  The paper is so beautiful I didn't think I needed to add anything to the front other than a little ribbon. I also wanted to keep it simple outside because the inside has a lot of fun going on. 

Here I used Close to My Hear's Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge to cut the frame in our Gold Glitter paper and then stamped the butterfly in Evergreen behind the Animation sheet. 

The Creativity in Motion set is so fun to play with and adds so much life to your cards!  Close to My Heart has a bundle set on sale during the month of September or purchase individual items of your choosing.  

 

Now "Hop" on over to Cat's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the Creativity in Motion Special is only available until last day of the month!  Order yours now before it is too late!

 Happy Scrappin' 

Let's Stay Home Blog Hop

Welcome to the Legendary Father's Day/Let's Stay Home Blog Hop. If you have come from Melissa Robinson's blog you are in the right place. This month we are focusing on some of the special stamps Close to My Heart created for such a time as this.

This month I am using the Blue Skies papers and the Story By Stacy StoryTeller to tell this crazy story we have all been living through - the Corona Story. If you are like me, you are ready for this whole Covid craziness to be over, but as a scrapbooker I feel it is so important to tell the story of what has been happening so our future families can understand what we went through - the good and the hard.

Here are a couple pages I have created using the On Repeat stamp set:

To make the virus stamp look like the spikey virus we have all seen in pictures, I stamped it in Charcoal and colored it in with our Dark Ice Gray Tri-Blend Marker and then used the Christmas Red Stickles to add dimension and the "spikes".

Here on the last page of the workshop I used several stamps from the Let's Stay Home Stamp and the On Repeat stamp set. 

As you can see I added more red stickles to the hearts and dots around the saying and then used a black shimmer brush to the puppy's nose to make it look wet. I love the special touch just a little swipe of the shimmer brush gives.  Using our watercolor pencils I drew some spots and dots to the puppy to resemble our little Bailey pup.

Finally, to make our White Alphabet Foam Stickers stick out a bit more on the white daisy paper, I added a layer of Diamond Stickles.  I love the extra pop it gives it.

I hope you enjoyed these ideas for telling your Covid story.  These last few months will definitely be in all the history books but will your children and grandchildren know how it affected you?  Consider taking some time and putting your story together.  Also, feel free to join me on my Scrappin' with Heather Hicks Facebook group on June 8th at 6:30pm as we create these layouts and more, together.

Now go see what Darlys created and if you get lost, you can always head to Melinda Everitt's blog to see a full list of those participating in this blog hop.

Love Blossoms Blog Hop

Welcome to our Love Blossoms Blog Hop. This hop features our continued special - Love Blossom and the beautiful double stamp set. If you came from Brenda Lapp's blog you are on the right track. If you are just starting the hop, it is a big circle so when you get back to me, you will know you finished the hop. You will find the next blog to hop to at the bottom of my post. 

On my card, I chose to highlight the Color of the Year - Sugar Plum and our new Watercolor Pencils. I stamped the sentiment and flower on our watercolor paper using Intense Black because it is permanent and will not run or smudge when painting over it.  The stamp set comes with an "inside" image for the flowers so I stamped them in Sugarplum and went over the outside edges with our Sugarplum Shimmer pen. For the leaves, I used our watercolor pencils and but not in the traditional way.  When using watercolor pencils on dry paper the pencil tends to be very muted but dampen the paper with a little water and the color takes on a much brighter tone. OR you can do like I did and used my watercolor pen and brushed it over the lead of the pencil and then brushed it on my leaves.  So easy!!!  I love all the uses and different variances we can get out of these simple but dynamic pencils.  I framed the stamped front in our silver foil paper and layered that on top of our Sugarplum cardstock.  I finished my card with a few little Sugarplum Glitter Gems. I hope you like it. 

Product Used:

White cards and Envelopes - X254

Love Blossoms stamp set - CC2199

Sugarplum Cardstock - X5989

Watercolor Paper Pad - Z4243

Sugarplum stamp pad - Z6500

Watercolor Pencils - Z4242

Silver Foil Paper - Z3366

Sugarplum Glitter Gems - Z4192

Intense Black Ink Pad - Z4189

                                                      Sugarplum Shimmer Brush - z4210

Now it's time to hop over to Krista Hershberger's blog to see what she has created with the Love Blossom stamp set. 

It's a Stampaganza Blog Hop!

Hello friends!

I can't believe how long it has been since I wrote to you all last.  This year has been one of many ups and downs with lots of crazy turns along the way but I am so excited to be back and stamping and scrapbooking again.

July is Stampaganza at Close to My Heart which means now is the perfect time to order all those stamp sets you fell in love with when you were looking through the catalog!  Only during July, purchase any two stamp sets and get the third set of equal or lesser value free!  That is an incredible deal!  Also, remember when you spend $50 you get our Storybook Alphabet set, our July Stamp of the Month, for only $5!

So... What stamp set is your favorite from our current catalogs?  Right now, mine is the No Worries - Scrapbooking set. My family was extremely blessed to be able to take a cruise in May.  This was our first family vacation in several years so to say that I took several photos would be an understatement.  As I begin to go through the photos, I am also beginning to create my layouts for those photos.  Here is the first of many layouts I will create to help document our wonderful journey.

This is a simple layout so that my photos can take center stage as they should.  I did pop-up several of the stamped images to add depth to the layout.

Items used to create the layout were:

No Worries Paper Packet - X7220B

No Worries - Scrapbooking stamp set - D1718

Lagoon Ink - Z2895

Whisper Ink - Z2872

Gold Shimmer Trim - Z1985

Cricut Artbooking Collection - Z3169

Bitty Sparkles - Z1263

To see more stamp sets and their beautiful artwork, click here to go to Ellen Jarvis's blog. or to start at the beginning go to Tina's blog.