New Product Blog Hop: May-June CTMH Catalog

Welcome to the New Product Blog Hop featuring the new May-June 2020 Seasonal Catalog from Close To My Heart. You should have come from Michelle's blog, but don't worry if you started here. The hop is a circle, so just keep going until you get back to where you started. If you get lost, head to Melinda's blog for a full list of participating consultants.

This might be my favorite catalog ever. Like EVER! Combine that with #quarantinelife, and you get a lot of cards. Like A LOT!

These first two feature the Stitched Together-Cardmaking set with coordinating Thin Cuts.

I did a video with my Crafty Friends Facebook Group on color theory. I intentionally did green over red to show that "complimentary colors" are great side-by-side but create brown when you sponge one layer over the top of the other. However, I still think this makes a fun card. The colors here are Bluebird, Lemonade, Candy Apple, and Green Apple.

For this card I layered .5x3 inch strips on a scratch piece of paper, cut my "happy" with the larger die then cut the smaller one out of the bigger one. The colors here are Saffron, Thistle, Lagoon, and Paprika.

These next two cards feature the Aurora Cardmaking Workshop.

Both cards feature a cut from the Hello USA Cricut Collection.

The first card features Aurora Paper. I cut the background with Stitched Rectangular Frames Thin Cuts then cut two US maps from plain white cardstock and one from another piece of Aurora paper, glued all three together for some dimension, and then layered the banner over the top. I added the red heart with Liquid Glass and then topped it with more Liquid Glass for some shine.

The second card was done by slicing the map from a 4x5.25 rectangle on my Cricut. I cut two of them from Julep cardstock. The top one I stamped in Julep and Peacock using the Build-a-Plaid set. I then used Liquid Glass to glue a thin piece of plastic on the back. I ran it through my Stitched Rectangle Frame then adhered the second piece of Julep with the US map cut from it to the back. I added foam tape to create a shaker which I filled with Julep and White sequins and Silver Star Confetti. The banner is Peacock cardstock embossed with White Powder.

If you want to see another card using the Aurora Cardmaking Workshop, please link to my post for the Blue Skies Blog Hop.

These final four all use the A Million Little Things stamp set and the mid-sized Rectangle Stitched Thin Cut. The first three also use the Strokes of an Artist stamp set.

Colors here are Lemonade and Sweet Leaf.

The colors here are Wisteria and Sweet Leaf. I cut apart the stamp that says "Friendship isn't one big thing...it's a million little things" to make stamping the two separate images on the side and bottom easier.

These last two use sentiments from the current Stamp of the Month: Time to Celebrate.

The colors here are Ballerina and Sweet Leaf. I also have a piece of Sweet Leaf paper from the Mix-Ins Paper suite.

This card features Pebble. I white embossed the rose image on the cardstock then sponged Pebble ink at the edges to create shading. I then embossed the sentiment from Time to Celebrate. If you plan to recreate this card, I encourage you to use the Anti-static Pouch, particularly if you sponge before adding the embossing.

I added Clear Shimmer Pen over the top and then decided my sentiment was getting lost, so I used the gray pen from the Melissa Esplin Calligraphy set to shade around some of the edges. I also used the largest  Rectangular Stitched Thin Cuts to create the frame around the outside edge of the card.

Whew! I hope I didn't overwhelm you, but again...#quarantinelife + my favorite catalog!

Now you're off to Miss Carrie's blog. I can't wait to see what she and everyone else has done with these new products.

Until next time,
Becca

National Scrapbooking Month - Blue Skies Blog Hop

Welcome to the Blue Skies Blog Hop. You should have come from Lauren's blog, but if you started here just keep going. The hop is a circle so you won't miss any of the projects. If you get lost, head over to Melinda's blog for a complete list of participants.

I am going to trust my fellow consultants to give you wonderful inspiration about how to use this paper and coordinating stamp set as it was intended because I went - hm, how shall I put this? - a little sideways with my project. Actually, I stole this idea from somewhere else, and I wish I'd kept the link because whoever thought this up deserves all kinds of credit. I combined the Blue Skies Coordinating Cardstock with the Aurora Cardmaking Workshop kit (new as of May 1) to create this card...

Isn't that just fabulous?!?! Again, I totally stole the idea. I'm tempted to keep this card for myself because I giggle every time I see it and can't stop myself from shaking that sequins around.

My letters were cut with the Block Alphabet Thin Cuts. I laid them out on a 4.24 x 5.5 piece of white cardstock to figure out placement of the large circle. Once I had the circle cut out, I cut the coordinating globe from the light side of Mink cardstock. I placed my top panel over my card base, glued my globe, then carefully fit it through the hole of the top panel to adhere to the card base. I used the Shaker Window Foam & Acetate which is a bit larger than this opening, but it worked well enough. The filler is a combination of Crafty Loose Sequins and Silver Star Confetti. A stamped the banner in Pewter ink then carefully inked only "You" and stamped it on the far left of the banner. I then carefully inked just "my world" and stamped it on the far right of the banner. I then cut the banner in between the words, placed them where I wanted them to go, and re-ran my top panel with the circle die through my die cutting machine. Once all my pieces were in place, it was a matter of assembly. I decided to add a few more of the Crafty Loose Sequins to draw some of that color to the rest of the card and because, let's face it, sequins is fun!

Now you're off to Stefani's blog. Be sure to visit all the consultants who are participating in this hop so you don't miss any of their fabulous projects.

Until next time,
Becca

May SOTM Blog Hop - Time to Celebrate

Welcome to the May Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring "Time to Celebrate." You should have come from Katy's blog, but if you started here just keep going. The blog is a circle so you won't miss anything. If you get lost, you can always head to Melinda's blog for a complete list of participants.

Here's a close up of the set.

I absolutely love this font mix!! It's great for cards, but it also works great on scrapbook pages.

My son met the love of his life back in December...of 2011. The met again this past December and have commenced a whirlwind romance. They are planning their wedding already, which is fine with us and her parents because our families have been great friends for ten years. Except for one weekend, their entire romance has taken place over Skype. I started a "Love in a Time of Pandemic" scrapbook for them, and this is the title page.

I used my ink jet printer to print out maps of both Grand Rapids, MI and West Point, NY in color. I then printed out the West Point map again, this time in black and white. I cut a heart into some White Daisy cardstock then trimmed down my color maps to center their two cities inside the heart. A great deal of scotch tape was used in this process.

The banner was created by using the Draw and Cut feature on my Cricut. I used the font from Flower Market and slightly altered a banner from Artistry with Carolina paper. I tied some white crochet thread around the left side of the banner to take up some space because her name is shorter than his. Once everything was glued down, I stamped the sentiments and hand wrote "est. 2020" in the bottom right. A few silver glitter gems in the top right, and I was done.

I'm thrilled with how this turned out. I showed it to Kayla the other day, and she was thrilled too. Frankly, I don't care what my son thinks because this is my gift to his bride-to-be.

Now you're off to Jen's blog. Be sure to visit all of the stops along the way for fabulous inspiration using this great set.

Until next time,
Becca