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

 
 

How to Thin Cut

January 1st kicked off our newest Seasonal Expressions catalog and the introduction of our newest line - Thin Cuts.  These little beauties are metal die cuts that can be used with your own die cutting machine (I use the Cuttlebug) and work perfectly with a coordinating stamp set.

Here are the Spring Wishes Thin Cuts and coordinating Spring Wishes stamp set.  Notice the blue outline around some of the stamps.  Those lines let you know there is a coordinating Thin Cut set for this stamp set.  Pretty awesome, huh!

I've been playing with these Thin Cuts these last few weeks as I created the cards in our Charlotte Workshop Your Way kit.  I wanted to show you some of the things I have learned.

When using Thin Cuts in your die cutting machine you need a special plate or shimmy to create enough pressure as it runs through the machine.  I can only speak to the Cuttlebug as that is the machine I have, so let me tell you what I know.

To cut with the machine, you need a special C plate and unfortunately these plates are hard to find.  After much searching, I was finally able to order a rubber mat that is used as a C plate from Amazon.  See picture below.  Another trick would be to use an old non-CTMH embossing folder ;) instead of a C plate.  This would make the thickness what you need to press/cut the paper with the thin cuts.


In the picture you can see how to assemble the plates:
1. Plate A is the thickest mat and is a self healing mat. This will accept any cuts you make and help protect the other plates.
2. Place your paper on top of  Plate A and then the Thin Cut turned with the raised edge down onto the paper.
2. Next the C plate or rubber C mat
3. 2 B plates or 1 B plate, embossing folder, and another B plate. (If using a C plate or Rubber mat you don't need the embossing folder between the 2 B plates - this is an either/or).

While making the cards from the kit, I was reminded of the best way to create using watercolors and stamps and now the thin cuts and I thought I would share with you.

Originally I sat down and cut out all the images I would need.  I then stamped the coordinating images and finished with our watercolor paints. I noticed that the images weren't super clear and then remembered how much better the stamped images look when I stamp them after I watercolor. The watercolor makes the stamped ink bolder and brighter.

To make things easier on me, I decided to watercolor a strip of paper and then cut out the images I need:

I love creating streaked style instead of trying to make it super blended. This helps it look more natural and variegated instead of using simple, flat cardstock.


Here is a sampling of of the cut and stamped images.  The set on the left was water-colored first and then stamped.  See how clear the images are!  The set on the right were stamped first and then water-colored.  Big difference, huh!

Here are the completed cards.  Do you see the difference now?!

Watercolors How To...

I just found this great video by Jill at our home office showing off our new watercolors, watercolor papers and giving a quick how to.

Take a look:

Hello Sunshine!

If you remember, a few weeks back I held a Girl's Night Out Workshop where the focus was on our new watercolors.  If you haven't had a chance to play with them yet - you need to!  They can add so much color to dark papers and a soft touch of color light paper with a little extra water.

Here are some of the cards I made previous to class to show some VERY simple techniques.

 Hello cut the Artistry Cricut Cartridge. The same cut used for the Zoe Workshop, just enlarged. I did the cards (above and below) with only two colors on both cards but image what they would look like  with the Ombre' technique.

My favorite card out of the three.  A simple card cut using the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge.  It looks so bright and cheerful and will definitely lift anyone's mood.

I love this layout Close to My Heart recently showed on their blog:

Though we only made cards, this beautiful layout shows that watercolor paints can be used for all sorts of craft projects.  LOVE THAT!

Good Bye, Hello Life

October is almost here. It is so hard to believe that we are already in fall but everything pumpkin spice helps me to get into the mood very quickly! :)

With the end of September almost here, we prepare to say goodbye to this months special - our Hello Life stamp set special. There are 3 different stamp sets, each one created with a special theme in mind - Scrapbooking, Card Making and our Picture My Life line.  You can use these stamp sets just for those purposes or use them together in all your projects.

At our Paper Fundamentals Workshop on Saturday we created two fun layouts - one layout used the Hello Life - Picture My Life stamp set for our title:



I created this card during our Watercolor workshop last week using colors chosen by Lori J. and our Hello Life - Scrapbooking Stamp Set:



Here is a layout shown on today's Close to My Heart blog post that again used Watercolors and used all three stamp sets in it's title.

I love how versatile these stamp sets are and I know you will too!  Check out all the details on my website and get your Hello Life stamps before they are gone!