Sonoma Star Calendar

At the beginning of the year I made my mother and mother-in-law star calendars using the Sonoma paper packet.  The bases are made from just one and a half sheets of 12 by 12 smokey plum cardstock and they are covered with different sheets of the background and texture paper.  I printed out small monthly calendars from the internet and added snapshots of the girls.  

The front cover has chipboard numbers that I embossed with cocoa embossing powder and an olive ribbon is wrapped around the front so it can be tied.  

This makes it versatile enough that it can be tied closed and put in their purse and used as a brag book or displayed on a desk or mantle at home.    

It is a great and easy gift that can be personalized with any paper or any pictures.  This could include pictures of family, beloved pets or even pictures from a fun trip, the possibilities are endless!  My mother and mother-in-law really loved them and they are so easy to make that I will definitely be making more of these!

Rock the Block

Close to My Heart has a great special going on through the end of January that includes an exclusive E sized stamp set and My Creations collage cubes, which is a new product in the spring/summer 2012 catalog.  For more details about the special click on the photo below.

There are many great things you can do with the collage cubes but I decided to make my daughters a number game.  On one of the sides of the cubes I put the circle from the E size stamp in groupings of one to nine.

On the back of the blocks I stamped the number words out for more of a challenge.  I used the alphabet A Typeface.  It is a great alphabet for only $6.95!

On the tray the blocks sit in I stamped the numbers one to nine so that they could be matched with the correct number of circles or the number word on the block depending on skill level.

The stamp set comes with two great background stamps that I stamped on cardstock and adhered to the sides of the blocks.  I wanted to add something else educational to the blocks so I made them nine different colors, so they could also be used to learn colors.  

The block set went together very quickly and my daughters love them.  There are so many different possibilities for the My Creations collage cubes and the amazing E sized stamped set.  You can easily make something special for someone you love today!  

Catherine's Birthday Invite

Catherine is really big into Hello Kitty and wanted a Hello Kitty birthday party.  I didn't really want to buy Hello Kitty invites or scrapbooking paper for invites.  I wasn't sure where I would even find enough without having to order it online, so I started searching for a stamp.  Let me tell you it was hard to find.  I finally found one that was 1 inch by 1 inch.  Due to the size I decided to make my own patterned paper.  I used the Hello Kitty stamp and then used some little hearts, star and spiral stamps to fill in around that.  I used black, gypsy, cotton candy and baby pink ink from Close to My Heart.

I used the Close to My Heart exclusive Cricut cartridge to cut out the number six in baby pink and the scalloped circle in gypsy.  I used some of the glitz glitter gel in silver to add some shine without adding too much bulk so they would be easier and cheaper to mail!

I am very pleased how they turned out and Catherine loved them as well.  It is always important to remember if you can't find paper to go with your project you can easily make you own with a few stamps and ink.