Celebrating America 12x12 scrapbook home decor - CTMH American Celebration July SOTM

Welcome to the Close to my Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring July's SOTM called "American Celebration".  For those of you in Canada, there is a special Candian version for you that will be featured on Canadian consultant's sites called "Canadian Celebration".  If you have come here from Doreen's Blog, you are on the right path! There are over 60 Close to my Heart consultants participating this month and I'm excited to see all the wonderful projects my fellow consultants created with this fun stamp set!

I have a small chest of drawers in my front room to which I've been wanting to add some kind of display.  When I started playing around with this month's stamp, I got the idea to do a seasonal 12x12 layout and put it into one of the scrapbook page frames you can get at your local craft store.  This way I can change out my layout on a monthly or seasonal basis and have a fresh look throughout the year.  As I pull them out I can store the old pages in page protectors until the holiday comes back around!  At the end of this post I'll put photos of the individual squares if you are interested in making you own copy of this fun project.  The great thing about a project like this is that you can use just about any accessories you have on hand as long as they work with the color combination!

 Materials Used (all CTMH unless noted):
Paper:  Fanfare Level 2
Stamps:  American Celebration (July SOTM), Simple Stitches (retired)
Inks:  Versamark, Cranberry, Pacifica
Other:  White Daisy Embossing Powder, Gold Embossing Powder, White Daisy Brads, Zig Embossing Pen (to get the gold rim on the stars), White Daisy Grosgrain, Cranberry Grosgrain, Cranberry Brads, Blue Assortment Buttons, White Waxy Flax, Border Punch (EK Success), White Daisy Mini Medley, Holiday Mini Medley (retired), Star Nestability

Now "Hop" on over to Sarita'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 July SOTM is only available until the 31st.  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!  Keep scrolling down for the close ups of each square if you'd like to make a copy of this project!

CTMH Fourth of July Interactive Layouts featuring Flip Flaps, 9x9 Page Protectors, CTMH Blue Ribbon, July Word Puzzle

Here is a two page layout I made last night using some tips shared by a fellow CTMH sister to get more photos on to your layouts. On the first layout I used our new product "Flip Flaps" that hold 4x6" photos or journaling to get a couple of additional photos on the layout. What I really like about these pockets is they are made out of a really heavy duty material so they will stand up to being handled in your scrapbooks. They come with a strong self-adhesive strip that you pull and then attach either directly to your item OR you can attach them on top of the page protector as shown here so there is no cutting a slit in your protector to access the interactive element. You can even stack these little holders to make a stand alone mini book!

The right hand page (the second layout) features a 9x9" page protector laid on its side with the section with holes that you normally put through your posts simply folded over and then attached to the back of the main 12x12 layout. Here I've created layouts using our 9x9 Reflections Program (they don't show it in the current Idea Book but I hope they put it and our 6x6 layouts brochure in a new book because I LOVE these programs!). You could easily use Simply Snapshots if they match your paper OR use the dimensions from a Simply Snapshot to create the 9x9 layouts to put on top of your main layout. I only had a handful of photos from the 4th taken by my sweet neighbor Becca - thank you SO MUCH Becca for these photos! Sometimes I'm so busy doing the event I forget to break out my camera to take photos!

The fun and funky Celebrate block on the second layout was made by layering Cranberry and Outdoor Denim on a piece of Colonial White Cardstock using a plastic baggie. I embossed using Silver, Gold and White Daisy and then rubbed Cranberry and Outdoor Denim on the cardstock with my finger inside a baggie for a tie-dye effect. My son Spencer loves his tie-dye shirts. Its about time for me to place an order for more dye and make him a new batch!

Materials:
Paper: Blue Ribbon
Stamps: With Love (fireworks), July Word Puzzle, Cupcake Sprinkles (for Celebrate), Giggle Lowercase (for numbers), Rustic Alphabet
Inks: Cranberry, Indian Corn Blue, Outdoor Denim
Other: Flip Flaps, 9x9 page protectors, Embossing Powder - Silver, Gold, White Daisy and Clear Detail, Outdoor Denim Designer Ribbon Round (mine is retired but this one is new), Gold My Accents Tube (retired), Prisma Glitter (mixed with Clear Detail powder on the stars inside the 9x9 page protector)

Question: What do you use to take a picture of my son?

Answer: A "ham"-era!
(Spencer came up with the joke. This kid totally cracks me up!)

Happy 4th of July! CTMH With Love, 4th of July Card

Here's to a safe and happy 4th of July!

Remember to keep a bucket of water on hand for the kids to dip their spent sparklers in! Sparklers burn hot enough to melt gold and they aren't fun to step on (yes, this is from personal experience!).

This oldie was lifted from a fellow CTMH consultant (lifting is when you copy a card pretty much exactly). I made it a while ago so I don't remember who I lifted from but it is a GREAT 4th of July card!

Materials Used:

• Paper: Dutch Blue cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock
• Stamp Set: With Love
• Ink: Cranberry, Dutch Blue
• Other: Liquid Glass