It's Your Day

September is National Stamping Month and to celebrate Close to My Heart has a great campaign going on right now.  If you spend $35 dollars you can buy the stamp set below for only $5.  It is 2 D  sized stamps in one envelope and its retail value is $35.90.  This stamp set has lots of great images and saying and it is truly a awesome deal!

I have been able to play with the stamp set a little bit and the card I made was inspired by a card on Pintrest.  I used the polk-a-dot stamp with Slate pigment ink on top of black card stock and I have to say that pigment ink is really a great product.  

I will definitely be using this stamp set on more projects since I have only used a few of the 50 imagines available.  This stamp set is only available through September 30th so make sure to visit my website if you are interested.

Halloween Layout

At the annual Close to My Heart convention we had a wonderful keynote speaker named Stacy Julian, she has online classes called Big Picture Classes.  One of the most important lessons I took away from her was to do this for ME!  Scrapbooks don't have to be done in order and not every event needs to be scrap-booked, scrap-booking is about the MEMORIES!  Here are some of the memories that I remembered while putting this layout together. Sophia was a little over a week old and her sisters where so excited hold her for the pictures (Hint: look at Maddie's face when she is NOT the one holding her and then when she is!) and it really reminds me of that sweet newborn stage mostly since Sophia is crawling and walking around the furniture now!

I scrapbook because I enjoy it and I've been enjoying it even more since I took the pressure off of myself that I don't have every picture and every event scrap-booked.  I encourage you to take the pressure off yourself and let's scrapbook MEMORIES!    

Clementine Layout #2

In my previous post I had a layout made with the Clementine paper pack and pictures from a birthday party at a horse farm, well here is another layout made with the same papers and more pictures from the party.  There are also some new embellishments such as canvas shapes, which can be ink or stamped on and paper flowers.    

I'm on a mission to get layouts made and pictures on those layouts, so in future I hope to post more of those layouts.  Some of them may be from retired product or even a mix of new and old, but I'm trying to do my best and use the supplies I have because it isn't about the products used it is about the memories that are put into scrapbooks!

Clementine Layout

During convention we get supplies to make layouts and cards and I am finally getting some of it completed.  The layout below was one of those layouts and it worked perfectly with pictures I have from the summer of 2010.

The girls were invited to a friend's birthday party that was at a horse farm.  Since convention was in Dallas this year we received a stamp set that had western gear and what better use for pictures at a horse farm!

We spent the day with friends and the girls got to feed the horses carrots.  Maddie really enjoyed feeding them and wasn't afraid at all.

Next week I will be sharing another layout we got a convention and it also uses the Clementine paper pack and I was able to use more of the pictures from the party.

Moonlight Bracket Frame and 1st Day of School!

I have another piece of artwork featuring the Moonlight paper pack and the Artiste Cricut cartridge, even though the paper pack geared towards Halloween and fall it can certainly be used for other things.  I made this frame for my sister-in-law's birthday. 

 I covered the new chipboard bracket frame with B&T paper and inked the edges with Close to My Heart's new pigment ink.  The 3-d flowers were cut with the new Artiste Cricut cartridge.  I have enjoyed playing with the Moonlight paper pack and I know I will get lots more use out of it as we start entering fall.  One of the signs that fall is right around the corner, school started today.  This means Catherine is officially a First Grader!  I thought I would share a couple of pictures from this morning.

  

It is tradition to take pictures of Catherine on the first day of school on our front steps.  As I was loading pictures on my computer, I was comparing the pictures from her 1st day of Kindergarten and this morning, and she has grown up so much in one year!

The last picture I have to share is one of the three girls.  Now that the kids are back in school it is the perfect time to pull out all those fall pictures and get them scrapbooked!

Artiste Coffin

Since Halloween will be here before we know it I decided to make a fun 3-D coffin with the Artiste Cricut cartridge.  This coffin would be a great party favor for a Halloween party or a perfect treat for co-workers, teachers or friends when filled with candy.  I cut it out of Slate cardstock and it assembles very easily.  

I stamped the lid of the coffin with a cobweb stamp and then embossed the image with white embossing powder.  I sponged the middle of the cobweb with Slate ink and then using our spray pen, I lightly sprayed over the the top of the image with a mixture of black re-inker and rubbing alcohol.  I added one of our CUTE skull brads and put bitty sparkles in place of his eyes.

I cut out a skeleton from the Artiste Cricut cartridge and attached him to the bottom of the coffin, that way when the coffin was filled candy there would be a fun surprise inside!

Now I just need to plan a Halloween party so I can cut out a bunch more of these coffins to gives as cute and easy favors!

Fall Gift Card Holder

In mid-July I attended Close to My Heart's annual convention and it is always a great time to see the new fall/winter Idea Book, new product and spend time with friends.  One of the most exciting new products that was debuted was a new Cricut cartridge.  It is called the Artiste Cricut cartridge and it is once again exclusive to Close to My Heart.  The Artiste Cricut cartridge has 700 images but this time there are many 3-D items.  Over the next couple of posts I will be showing you items I have made with the new cartridge and new product.  The first item I have to share is a gift card holder using the Moonlight paper pack.  This is a great paper pack that can be used for fall, Halloween or even everyday cards and scrapbook pages. 

As an accent I used a leaf from the new Arbor Wooden Shapes and I sponged it with ink, then I covered it with Liquid Glass.  I added some black hemp and an embellishment from the Haunted Assortment with coordinates with the Moonlight paper pack.

In the next couple of days I will be sharing more items I have made with the Moonlight paper pack!

Baroque Borders Card

Today I'm featuring a card I stamped with the August stamp of the month Barque Borders.  I used one of the stamps on a piece of background and texture paper from the Florentine paper pack.  The paper has a small pattern and using the same color ink with a larger stamp gives the paper a whole new look.    

Cruisin' Swap Card

For the month of July I used the Cruisin' paper packet for my swap card.  I love the blue's in the argyle paper. 

I cut the flowers out of cranberry cardstock with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and add a glitter button with a black brad in the middle.  The black tulle that is tucked behind the flower is actually in our new Idea Book which is out today.  You can view the new Idea Book on my Close to My Heart website by clicking here.

I will be sharing more new products in the coming days, so be sure to check back often!