September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Family is Forever with Technique Tutorial

Welcome to our September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  

We will be featuring September's SOTM, Family is Forever.  If you have come here from  Kristine's post, 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, click HERE to find the complete blog hop list!

Here is my creation using our Yuletide Carol paper,  Shinhan  Touch Twin markers, Gold Glitter Gems and some Base and Bling charms.

See the end of my post for a quick tutorial on how to get a bark look for the trunk and get clear colors for your marker colored hearts!

 Base and Bling charms work great on your cards too!  Just thread some ribbon through the jump ring and you have a fun embellishment!

Now "Hop" on over to Jessica'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 September SOTM is only available until the 30th and you can get it for just $5 with a $50 order!  Contact your CTMH Consultant or visit my shopping site at www.Paige.CTMH.com to get yours!

Tutorial:  Creating a bark look for your stamped trees and selectively de-inking your stamp to get clear marker colors.

I love this tree stamp but wanted to give it more texture and also color the leaves and hearts using my new Shinhan Twin Touch markers (new love!).  When I tried to color over the Desert Sand ink with my Cherry Pink marker, the colors were muted and yucky so here is how I solved the problem.

1.  Drag your stamp over the surface of your ink pad from trunk to leaves to get the textured bark look when stamping.

2.  While the ink is still wet, grab an eraser and literally wipe away the ink from the hearts.  You can see in the picture below that I've done the big heart and am working on the smaller heart above it.

3.  Huff on the stamp with your breath to re-moisten the ink and then stamp it on your paper.

Now when you stamp your image, the areas you wiped off will be very light and you can go in with the marker to add a different color.  If you wanted to get the areas really clean you can wrap a piece of paper towel around the eraser for controlled selective de-inking.

The Sap Green marker covered the Desert Sand inked leaves perfectly so I didn't need to wipe those but the Cherry Pink hearts really needed to be selectively de-inked before coloring!

 

Thanks for stopping by today!  Happy stamping!

Paige

First week of college Good Luck cards - WSU themed!

My darling girl has been off at college doing the WSU "Week of Welcome".  They have activities and events all week long to welcome the new kids on to campus and give them opportunities to learn how to get around, make friends and get settled in before classes actually start.  I think its an AWESOME program!  While I've missed my girl terribly (okay, I totally moped around the house for a good 5 days) she has been off having a blast, learning how to navigate at college on her own and making lots of friends.  Her roomie is such a sweetie and they hit it off right away so I know its going to be a good year for those two fabulous girls.

Since they've been there for a week but are just starting classes on Monday, I thought it would be a good time to send them some happy mail to wish them luck with their first academic week at school. I whipped up these two cards using the WSU colors (crimson and gray) and my Create a Critter 2 cartridge (one of the few non-CTMH carts that I use).  

I used our new Shinhan Twin Touch marker in Vivid Green to color in the clover on this plain Cricut cut.  Then I topped it with some Liquid Glass to set it apart a bit.  Can you tell I was impatient and took pictures before it had totally dried - LOL!

Can't wait to bring a smile to their faces by sending actual real snail mail to them.  Snail mail with googly eyes is good for 10 extra smiles!  E-mail, text and FaceChat are awesome but there is still something so special about seeing an envelope in your mail box that isn't junk mail or a bill!

Thanks for stopping by today!  And yeah, my kids don't read my blog so I'm safe posting this before I mail it tomorrow!

Paige

WHY did it take me so long.... You are my Happy card with Chalk it Up

Have you ever had something in your crafting stash that you've meant to use but somehow just never got around to it?  This week I decided to use our Circle Spin Cards for one of my Chalk it Up samples.  All I can say is WHY did I wait so long to use these?!?!?!  

The spinning element is such a fun surprise for the receiver but on top of that, these cards are SUPER DUPER thick and luxurious.  This card feels like something you paid big bucks for because the base is so stable and heavy to keep the spinner going without ripping and it has a generous 5x7" size all for a whopping $.89 each!  Cheaper than the cheapest Hallmark!

I made this one with my daughter in mind.  She's off to college soon so I'm bulking up on my "just because" cards to send her happy mail each week.  Its going to be hard being apart from my girl - she's an awesome daughter and we pal around a lot - but I'm incredibly proud of her being one of only 200 incoming Freshmen in the WSU Honors College.  She's sweet, smart and beautiful all rolled into one and I'm going to miss her terribly!

The stamp is our new M sized My Happy stamp - just $2.95!  I used Chalk it Up paper, some Teal and Silver Shimmer Trim, a little bit of the versatile Slate Striped ribbon and on the inside, some of our Lagoon Heart Washi tape. I know she's going to love this one when she pulls it out of the envelope and it spins around telling her how happy she makes me!

I hope you'll give our Circle Spin cards a try - I think you'll be as impressed as I am with the fabulous quality and the fun interactive element is sure to delight!

New Product - Chalk It Up Birthday Card

Whoo-hoo!  Loving the new Annual Inspirations book and all the gorgeous new paper in it!  This one is called Chalk it Up - the paper has neutral patterns and the stickease has a back to school theme.  Love the subtle black chalkboard paper included in the kit (black middle stripe) and the fun lagoon polka dot paper 'cause who doesn't love happy little polka dots?  BONUS TIME - there is even a new Picture My Life Kit for this paper theme!

I used our awesome Chevron embossing folder for the white piece and snuck some of the new narrow Slate Striped Ribbon (new fav!) on this card.  The sentiment is from our Joyful Birthday set and I paper pieced the present from our cutie-patootie M sized (read - super cheap $2.95 stamp) A Little Gift.  Almost forgot the lagoon colored enamel dots called Aqua Dots - the perfect little accent!

Today is the last day for entries into the NEW Product linky party so enjoy the HUGE amount of inspiration we've rounded up for you! 

August CTMH Special - Buy ANY Picture My Life Kit and get extra Page Protectors for $3

Our August Special is a GREAT time to check out our wonderful line of Picture My Life journaling cards.  For those of you who are new to this style of memory keeping, its a great way to inexpensively and quickly preserve your memories!  Simply slip the cards into the pockets of the page protectors, add your photos, add as much or as little journaling on the cards as you'd like and you are DONE!

Each one of our themed kits comes with:

44 - 4x6" Cards (2 each of 22 designs)

78 - 3x4" Cards (3 each of 26 designs)

1- 12x12" Designed Cover Sheet (front and back)

10-12x12" Memory Protectors

all for just $24.95!

Click HERE to order:  www.Paige.CTMH.com

While you are ordering, pick up these great accessories to go with your Picture My Life Kits (click on the line to see):

1.  Medium organizer - holds multiple sets PLUS tools and photos!

2.  Corner Rounder - match your photos to your cards

3.  Journaling Pen - add as much or as little of your story to your photos

TOP 10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT PICTURE MY LIFE MEMORY KEEPING:

1.  Flexibility!  You can use these on all sorts of projects from cards to memory keeping, home decor, gift tags, mini books and more!

2.  Lots of designs with low repetition of cards!

3.  Unique 12x12" cover page gives you more of an album feel.

4.  Endless mix and match possibilites with multiple kits

5.  Use the cards as a base and add bling, washi tape, stamped images or other embellishments to make it uniquely yours

6.  Let the deigns speak for themselves and leave them plain for a simple flat design

7.  Variety of designs in the page protectors gives you multiple looks (you get three each of 3 different types of journal card pages and one full 12x12" for the cover sheet)

8.  You can store them in our Medium Organizer - multiple sets fit for easy, organized and on-the-go memory keeping

9.  We have a new corner rounder that matches the corners of the cards!

10.  Themed kits!  13 different themes to choose from but each kit contains plenty of generic patterns to give you lots of flexibility.

New Annual Inspirations Book is Here!

Close to my Heart's NEW Annual Inspirations book is now live! 

 CLICK HERE to view it Online or Download the PDF!

How can you get a FREE hard copy?

- Join my 6 month budget club!

- Host a party!

-Order one online and I'll send you a free gift!

- Local customers can purchase one during class events!

Check out the adorable August Stamp of the Month that you can get for just $5 with a $50 order - wouldn't this make cutie-patootie birthday cards too?

You can order directly online OR give me a call! 

Paige Dolecki, CTMH Consultant and Stampologist

425-260-6965 (Cell/Text)

www.Paige.CTMH.com

NEW Idea Book - Brushed Hugs Card

The new Brushed paper pack has lots of bright beautiful colors that pop wonderfully against black.  Don't you just love the fun Polka Dot alphabet stamp with these papers?  I was inspired by the polka dot butterfly stamp in the Brushed WOTG kit to dig up this alphabet.  

While Thistle isn't a color in the set, the new skinny Thistle ribbon was the perfect mini accent on this card taken from our Make it From Your Heart 2 pattern book!

The stamping is done in our beautiful new Pixie pink color and edged with our new Canary yellow ink!

For more inspiration, visit the links on the thumbnails below to see other hoppers playing with new CTMH product!  New projects are added daily through August 7th so be sure to stop by each day!

NEW Idea Book Hop - Brushed Thinking of You Card

Welcome to my first post celebrating the NEW Close to my Heart 2014 Idea Book!  This new annual book is jam packed with 9 new paper packs, lots of new accessories, new tools and fabulous artwork by the Close to my Heart art department to inspire us all!

This card was made with our new Brushed paper pack and features stamping from our A1146 Sincere Expressions set as well as one of our new Gold Bling Gems - love these!

For even more inspiration to use the new CTMH products, click on the thumbnail links below to visit the Blog Hop participants!  New items will be added daily through August 7th so be sure to check back daily!