National Stamping Month - You are My Happy

September is National Stamping Month, and we're kicking off the party with a blog hop and the You Are My Happy stamp set trio! If you have come from Jean McNulty's blog, you're in the right place. 

The You Are My Happy stamp sets arrive on three D-size carrier sheets in two envelopes and are stylistically designed so all images coordinate to help you celebrate your happy times all year!

I'm not ready for summer to be over yet, so I was very drawn to the sunshine and coordinating sentiment. I chose a color palette that was bright and sunny as well.

Here's what I used to create my card. All products are Close to My Heart:

You Are My Happy stamp set trio

X7171B Sarita paper packet

1385 White Daisy cardstock

X5754 Creme Brulee cardstock

X5758 Sunset cardstock

Goldrush Exclusive Inks

Creme Brulee Exclusive Inks

Chocolate Exclusive Inks

Z1849 Bronze Shimmer Tape

Z1853 Aqua Dots

When you place an order of $50 or more you qualify for this whimsical triple stamp set of cheerful sentiments, images, and an alphabet to complement life’s silly, sweet, and serendipitous moments. Visit my Online Business Address today to get your own You Are My Happy stamp set trio for just $10 — a savings of $37.90 over retail value! Offer valid September 1–30, 2013.

It's time to hop on over to Krista Hershberger's blog to see her delightful artwork!

Fall/Winter 2013 New Product Hop

Have you seen the fun and exciting new products in the Fall/Winter edition of the Close to My Heart Idea Book? Whether or not you have, our New Product Blog Hop is a terrific way to see a lot of that new product used in many different ways.

The hop features more than 30 independent Close to My Heart consultants and some of their latest work. If you have come here from Karen Fullam‘s blog, you’re in the right place!

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Off we go!

I frequently try to kill two birds with one stone when making a project for this hop. With each new catalog our local group of consultants holds what we call a Shoebox Swap. Each participant creates just one card and then cuts as many pieces as are needed for all of the participants to duplicate that card. We use some sort of container to hold all of the ink pads, stamps (already on blocks), card bases, embellishments, and all other pieces needed for our card. When we get together to swap, we pass our box to the left and then keep passing until we’ve all created each other’s cards. This last time we each came home with 10 new cards plus our own for a total of 11.

I took inspiration from one of the cards I’d noticed in the new Idea Book and decided to design my card without any patterned paper. I did, however, choose to use the color palette from the new Sarita paper pack. It includes Cotton Candy, Goldrush, Gypsy, Outdoor Denim, and Lagoon. I combined this with the fun new One-Way Borders stamp set, as well as one of the stamp sets from the new Cricut Artbooking cartridge to come up with this colorful and playful card.

To finish the card off I added a couple of the Pink Glitter Gems and a piece of the Sarita Textiles rather than using ribbon. I also added a couple pieces of our new Washi Tape.

I’m actually sharing a second project this time, which is the Designed Décor Frame Kit. I recently attended an overnight crop with my CTMH sisters and put this kit together using photos from my family’s recent trip to California.

I love this kit, but I also love that you can buy the frame separately and then use our Cricut cartridges to cut out more photo frames and banner pieces to create a whole new piece of artwork!

Now “Hop” on over to Haley Dyer’s blog to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s blog to get some great crafting inspiration and other unique ideas! The current Idea Book is good through January 31, 2014.