Pages

▼

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Life Is Wonderful July 2015 SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the Life Is Wonderful July 2015 SOTM Blog Hop. There are just shy of 50 bloggers participating in this hop. If you are new to blog hopping, it is just a circle. Click on the link (typically near the bottom of the post) to visit the next blogger.


The SOTM for July 2015, Life Is Wonderful, is a D-size set of 8 stamps that is FREE with a qualifying purchase of $25 in current, retail priced stamps. The stamps in the Life Is Wonderful set are:


You should have arrived here from ***Jennifer Dykstra's "jd designs"***. If you get lost along the way, a complete list of participants is always listed at Melinda Everitt's If You Bling It.

I finally got brave and cut one of my stamps. I have been hearing people talk about cutting their stamps apart for a long time, but I was not brave enough to try it until now. I have to admit, I inked my stamp with a color I know leaves a bit of stain on the stamp and I moved to bright sunlight when I cut the stamp using the Micro-tip Scissors (Z534).


On my card front I used the technique that Dianne Wood used on the card posted on the Make It From Your Heart (CTMH) blog post "Blissfully Drifting through an Ice Cream Dream" on June 11. After heat setting my white embossing powder I colored it with my ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Markers using Golden Yellow, Turquoise Blue and Peony Purple.


On the inside of my card, to create the glass of lemonade, I used the technique Paige Dolecki - Stampologist shared on her Seasonal Expressions 2 Blog Hop post on April 6.

Before you visit ***Beth Naumann's "Beth's Creative Block"***, the supplies I used to create my project are listed below.

All supplies are from Close To My Heart:
If you are not already working with a CTMH Independent Consultant, you may purchase all of the supplies I used at my Online Business Address.

If you have a moment, please leave me a comment. I love to hear what people think of my crafts. So you do not have to scroll up, the next stop on the hop is ***Beth Naumann's "Beth's Creative Block"***. Thank you for visiting today.
at 4 comments:

CTMH July 2015 Stamp of the Month: Life Is Wonderful

The Close To My Heart July 2015 Stamp of the Month is Life Is Wonderful


Life Is Wonderful (S1507) is an exclusive D-size stamp set of 8 stamps that you can only purchase during the month of July 2015. The stamp set can be yours for FREE when you place an order of $25 or more in current, retail priced stamps. Alternatively you are able to purchase it for $17.95. Recommended CTMH My Acrylix® Blocks are: 2" x 2" (Y1003), 2" x 3½" (Y1009), 2" x 6½" (Y1010) and 4" x 5" (Y1012).

Items created with the stamp set by CTMH Corporate artists are this layout and card:



If you would like a list of the products used to create the above items, you will find the information in the Recipes (clicking the link will open a PDF in a new tab), a booklet that works hand-in-hand with the Idea Book to provide details to re-create any projects at home. Also check my Pinterest Board CTMH 2015 07 Jul SOTM Life Is Wonderful for additional ideas using this stamp set.

Please stop back tomorrow for the Life Is Wonderful Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. My post will be here.

July 2015 also brings us Jump On It July


During the month of July when you purchase $25 or more in current, retail priced stamps you can choose to receive the Stamp of the Month, Life Is Wonderful, for free or any one of the Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in Annual Inspirations 2014–2015 or Seasonal Expressions 2 for only $5.

The Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 are shown on pages 5 through 10. The Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in Seasonal Expressions 2 are on pages 4 to 5. If you do not have a paper copy, you will find the Idea Books here. The qualifying Hostess Rewards stamp sets are:
  • C1614 My Acrylix® Tagged with Love - Seasonal Expressions 2 page 4
  • C1613 My Acrylix® Paper Bird - Seasonal Expressions 2 page 5
  • B1477 My Acrylix® Exotic Flower - Seasonal Expressions 2 page 5
  • D1615 My Acrylix® Sweet As Sugar - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 5
  • B1454 My Acrylix® Thanksgiving Wreath - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 6
  • C1596 My Acrylix® Happy Hexagons - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 6
  • C1587 My Acrylix® Sing Glory - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 7
  • B1455 My Acrylix® Be Jolly - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 7
  • C1593 My Acrylix® Hats Off - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 8
  • A1169 My Acrylix® Well Wishes - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 8
  • D1608 My Acrylix® Better with a Friend - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 9
  • B1458 My Acrylix® Cuddly Salutations - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 10
  • A1163 My Acrylix® Practical Planning - Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 page 10
You may qualify for one free SOTM and a second SOTM for $5 when you spend $50 at least $25 in current, retail priced stamps. Also, each customer may qualify for a free July Stamp of the Month or a single $5 Hostess Rewards stamp set for every $25 they spend on current, retail priced stamps.

Please stop back on July 16 for the Jump On It July Blog Hop. My post will be here.

Operation Smile Happy Everything


Also during July I will be participating in the Happy Everything Blog Hop. It is based on the My Acrylix® Happy Everything stamp set (D1653). When the Happy Everything stamp set is purchased at full retail price, $17.95, Close To My Heart will donate $3 of the proceeds to Operation Smile. If you are unfamiliar with Operation Smile, it is an organization of volunteers that repair childhood facial deformities while building public and private partnerships that advocate for sustainable healthcare systems for children and families.

Please stop back on July 7 for the Operation Smile Blog Hop. My post will be here.

Update: Find items created with Happy Everything on Pinterest by searching for #D1653HappyEverything.

Retiring Products

The list of retiring products has been released. You will find all retiring products in the special Retiring Items section on my OBA. Items on the retiring list are now available while supplies last. Once CTMH runs out of inventory of the retiring products, they will no longer be available to order. My OBA runs on "real time" inventory so if you see an item there it is available to order.

While Supplies Last

Finally, additional items have been added to the While Supplies Last section of my OBA. In addition to being available while CTMH has stock in the warehouse, most of the items are at a reduced price.

If you are ready to place an order or would like to research any product, the Shop Now button will take you there.


If you have any product or promotion questions, do not hesitate to email me. You will also find me on Facebook at Brenda's Paper Crafts.
at 2 comments:

Monday, June 29, 2015

Graduation Card 2015

Here in New York State many high schools had their graduation ceremonies this past weekend. In the district I live in graduation is held on Friday night and then the graduates are whisked off for an all-night celebration, therefore graduation parties often take place the following weekends.

This is a card we created for a young man getting ready for the next chapter of his life.


The card front was created using Cricut Design Space®.

The card pop-up is from an SVG I found at Extreme Cards and Papercrafting. It is their Graduation Cap Pop Up Card and they posted a wonderful tutorial for assembling the card.


Rather than a paper button to hold the tassel, I used a brad. I set it on the left side of the graduation cap (as you would normally see the tassel after graduation), but the location is mostly so the brad would not interfere with closing the card.


If you decide to use a brad, I would suggest you add it prior to attaching the cap to the card base. I learned the hard way.

Supplies used to create this card:

I am a Close To My Heart Independent Consultant and CTMH linked products above may be ordered from my Online Business Address. The list of other products and links to them (if any) are for your convenience only; they are products I have been happy using. I am not an affiliate of any other retail outlet. If the craft projects I share inspire you and you would like to use Close To My Heart products to create them, I would appreciate it if you placed an order on my OBA.

I bet the recent grad will like their gift more than the card, but I really hope they look at the card long enough to know it was hand crafted for them. Thanks for visiting today.
at No comments:

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Retirement Celebration Card and Gift

Someone who works on the same floor as I do is retiring this month. She is also a talented seamstress. I created this card and little gift for her in celebration of her retirement. The Iris Fold Pincushion Card and Sew Craft Wall Decor are from the Sew Crafty collection available from SVG Cuts.

This is the front of the card I created for her. The buttons were created with a Sizzix die I won on a blog hop, cardstock and Liquid Glass. Most of the papers I used were sewing themed or reminded me of sewing or a sewing product.


And this is card inside. I really wish her the best of everything so I combined the CTMH Operation Smile Happy Everything stamp set with the word "retirement" I created using the Tiny Typewriter Alphabet stamp set. I attached the banner using the Mini Stapler so both sentiments show.


I could not resist reminding her that I created the card and I thought since one of her hobbies inspired the card that the sentiment was perfect.


And this is the gift I created for her:


In addition to Close To My Heart products, I used supplies from my stash to create these items; I listed where I purchased it in case you want to try to find anything that might still be available:
  • Colonial White Cardstock (1388)
  • My Acrylix™ Happy Everything Operation Smile Stamp Set (D1653)
  • My Acrylix™ Tiny Typewriter Alphabet Stamp Set (D1222) - retired
  • Bamboo Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad (Z2103)
  • Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad (Z2193)
  • Sponge Daubers (Z726) or Value Pack of 12 (Z1938)
  • 3-D Foam Tape (Z1151)
  • Flamingo Dots (Z1934)
  • Mini Stapler (Z2027)
  • Liquid Glass (Z679)
  • Scallops (item #SD14010) from Summer Days designed by Bella Road for Echo Park Paper Co. - Crop Chocolate (store closed)
  • Trim Marks (item #CB-SL25004) & Pretty Pattern (CB-SL25002) in Sew Lovely Collection Kit (item #636068) by Carina Gardner for Carta Bella - Hobby Lobby
  • Chloe's Closet (Making Memories) - Tuesday Morning - at least I think it is Chloe's Closet as the paper was not packaged with the full product name or manufacturer information
  • DIY Shop Paper Pad from Crate Paper - Tuesday Morning
  • Bo-Bunny's Back To Basics: Decaf Dot (#I2DD58I), Harvest Dot (#I2HD710), Dark Denim Dot (#I2DDD604) - Crop Chocolate
  • Craft and Light Blue Cardstock - unsure
  • One Of A Kind stamp (C1120) from Stampabilities - Hobby Lobby
  • various ribbons - Hobby Lobby
  • Basic Grey Designer Half Pearls Opaline - Crop Chocolate
  • Studio His & Hers Gemstones - Hobby Lobby
  • Scrapp'n Supplies Self Adhesive Rhinestones - unsure
  • Teresa Collins Signature Essentials Enamel Shapes - Jo-Ann Fabrics
  • Sew Crafty SVG Kit from SVG Cuts
  • Cricut® Design Space and Cricut® Explore
  • Sizzle Sizzling Buttons #5 (item 654430)
  • Cuttlebug
  • Dritz 100 Glass Head Pins - Jo-Ann Fabrics
  • DMC Embroidery Floss #347 and Ecru - unsure
  • Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive
I am a Close To My Heart Independent Consultant and most of the linked products above may be ordered from my Online Business Address. The list of other products and links to them (if any) are for your convenience only; they are products I have been happy using. I am not an affiliate of any other retail outlet. If the craft projects I share inspire you and you would like to use Close To My Heart products to create them I would be grateful if you placed an order on my OBA.

I really hope the recent retiree likes the items I created for her. Thanks for visiting today.
at 1 comment:

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Happy Father's Day

I created this card for my father who, for as long as I can remember, has been a fan of cars. I was inspired by the card posted on the What to Do for Father’s Day? post on the Close To My Heart Make It From Your Heart Blog.

I cut the car four times, one each from Black, Saddle, Slate and Olive, and then I did some by hand trimming on the Black, Slate and Olive cars with a craft knife, metal-edged ruler and glass mat. This photo shows the manual cuts I did. You will notice that my Flaxen rectangle for the windows is not perfect - as long as it looks good from the front it will work. I used a scrap leftover from the center of a wreath when creating this Christmas card. I throw the small scraps in the Resealable Bags (Z329) I store my cardstock in so I do not have to cut into a larger piece of cardstock.

If you are familiar with the Slice feature in Cricut® Design Space, you could eliminate the need for manual cuts on the Black and Olive cardstock. Where the cuts will be hidden by other layers, the cuts do not have to be perfect.


I wish I had taken more photos during the assembly of this card; this is what I did to crate this card: I layered the Colonial White frame on the Glacier frame. I attached the Saddle card to the frame that supports the pop up and then I placed the Slate "stripe" and the Black "door handle" in the "grooves" left from the cutting. Then I attached the Black wheels.After attaching the wheels, I added the Slate fenders and running board. Then I layered the Flaxen windows behind the Olive roof then attached them to the Saddle card. Then I did my doodling with the journaling pen.

Before I added anything to the inside of my card, I decorated the front, so I would have a flat surface to work on.


I used some Jackson Picture My Life cards. I cut one of the cards approximately in half, used the corner rounder on each half and rotated one of the halves.

I kept the card inside fairly true to the card on the Close To My Heart Make It From Your Heart Blog. I flipped the car because I could see less of the white core of the cardstock from the reverse (and I started inking the edges and was not happy with my work).


I primarily used Close To My Heart products to create my card:


If you are not already working with a CTMH Independent Consultant, you may purchase all of the supplies I used at my Online Business Address.

Thank you for visiting today.
at 1 comment:

Monday, June 15, 2015

CTMH Products Retiring on August 31



On August 31, 2015 several products are retiring.



There are several stamp sets that are retiring. Please compare your wish list to the retiring stamps sets below to be certain you do not miss any that interest you.

The retiring product (stamp sets are listed below) are:

Z1682 Dimensional Elements Mixed Shapes
A1139 Congrats Graduate
A1141 Be Still
A1154 Friendly Thoughts - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
A1156 Flower Confetti - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
B1418 Love Doily
B1423 Hoppy Easter
B1439 Dreamer
B1440 Fancy Fair
B1441 Buggy Love
B1444 Greatest Love
B1445 Happy Hive - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
B1450 Owls
C1571 You're the Best
C1573 Do Your Best
C1574 Believe in Yourself
C1577 Mother's Day
C1579 Coming Up Roses - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
C1583 Robot Family
D1547 Paper Doll
D1579 Windy Day
M1035 Newlyweds
M1036 Perfect Polka-Dot Day
M1037 Balloons
M1038 Shooting Star
M1039 Good Job Stencil
M1040 Parasol
M1041 Hi
M1042 Colored Egg

The retiring stamp sets are:

A1124 A Tree
A1139 Congrats Graduate
A1141 Be Still
A1154 Friendly Thoughts - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
A1156 Flower Confetti - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
B1418 Love Doily
B1423 Hoppy Easter
B1439 Dreamer
B1440 Fancy Fair
B1441 Buggy Love
B1444 Greatest Love
B1445 Happy Hive - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
B1450 Owls
C1571 You're the Best
C1573 Do Your Best
C1574 Believe in Yourself
C1577 Mother's Day
C1579 Coming Up Roses - Jeanette's Stamp Archive
C1583 Robot Family
D1547 Paper Doll
D1579 Windy Day
M1035 Newlyweds
M1036 Perfect Polka-Dot Day
M1037 Balloons
M1038 Shooting Star
M1039 Good Job Stencil
M1040 Parasol
M1041 Hi
M1042 Colored Egg
All of the retiring stamps are pinned to CTMH Retiring January 31, 2015. Until the end of the month they are also shown on my OBA under Retiring Items.

There still is some time to squeak in a quick EZ-Invite/Online Gathering with a goal of earning extra hostess rewards. Additional details are on my OBA; please contact me ASAP if you would like to host an Online Gathering.


January 31 is the last day that you can order from my OBA and add a free copy of Annual Inspirations to your shipment. This offer was limited to one free book per customer so if you already took advantage of this offer you will not see the prompt at checkout. The book will continue to be available for viewing at my Online Business Address (OBA) at http://brendalapp.ctmh.com/ under Products > Idea Book and you can download a printable PDF (clicking the link will open PDF in a new tab) for viewing offline. As I have done in the past, if you live local to me and order $25 from my OBA, I will provide you with a free copy of Annual Inspirations and any current Seasonal Expressions idea book.

Only one week remains to take advantage of any of the above offers; once the clock strikes 11:59pm Mountain time on January 31, 2015 they will no longer be available.


This offer was schedule to end on January 31, but will continue for the remainder of the idea book's lifespan (until March 31, 2015). When you place an order on my OBA you will have an opportunity to add a free copy of Seasonal Expressions 1 to your order (this is limited to one free book per customer). This book is also available for viewing at my Online Business Address (OBA) at http://brendalapp.ctmh.com/ under Products > Idea Book and you can download a printable PDF (clicking the link will open PDF in a new tab) for viewing offline. As I have done in the past, if you live local to me and order $25 from my OBA, I will provide you with a free copy of Annual Inspiration and Seasonal Expressions 1.

Thanks for sticking with me this far. Finally, I posted a little information about the February promotion, Album Allure, on my Monthly Special page.

If you would like to make a purchase, the Shop Now button will take you to my Online Business Address. Your purchases provides me the time and encouragement to continue to create samples and cheat sheets.


If you have any product or promotion questions, do not hesitate to email me. You will also find me on Facebook at Brenda's Paper Crafts.
at No comments: