Yuletide Joy CTMH Australasian Blog Hop

Welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop. We have all been creating with "Yuletide Joy—October Stamp of the Month" Stamp set. If you have arrived here from Maz Wood- aMAZing Close to My Heart Creations then you are in the right place. If you landed here another way, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. Follow the links, check out all the amazing ideas and eventually you'll come right back here to where you started. 

This is such a pretty stamp set for Christmas. 

Today I would like to share with you my project which features the Yuletide Joy—October Stamp of the Month available exclusively throughout October 2016 for $27 or for just $7.50 when you spend $75. 

My idea for my cards in this project was to make them quick, easy and replicate them easily. I started my Christmas cards with the new Thin Cuts—Christmas and cut out on my BigShot in Black Cardstock. 

The negative cut out is just as valuable with this thin cut word (some of the other words don't easily work to do this). See below. 

I stamped the Star from the Yuletide Joy—October Stamp of the Month in Canary Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad directly on top of the 5 1/2" × 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes, Value Pack cards and did the wording in Black Memento™ Ink Pad.

I used the Shimmer Brush—Clear to paint the Thin Cuts—Christmas cutout and I laid it over the top of the three stars but decided eventually that I liked it without the Thin Cut on top of it but I've shown both to see which one you prefer. 

After I made the star card and had the Thin Cuts—Christmas cutout with all the shimmer from the  Shimmer Brush on it, I decided to make another card to use it. 

To make this card I stamped the present in Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad 

and stuck on the Thin Cuts—Christmas cutout with all the shimmer. I stamped the sentiment with Black Memento™ Ink Pad. Then I added three strips of Thin Washi Tape from the City Sidewalks Washi Pack. To complete the look of the card I added two red Red Enamel Gems as the top of the i and the full stop. Quick Christmas card complete. 

To make the third card I stamped the middle stocking in Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and then I did second generation stamping to stamp the lighter stockings (to imitate a mantle piece). I stamped the sentiment with Black Memento™ Ink Pad. Then I added two strips of Thin Washi Tape from the City Sidewalks Washi Pack. Another quick, easy and replicateable card. This would look great with red and green stockings and would be a good one for kids to do for the whole class at school because its only using ink and a little bit of washi tape and the 5 1/2" × 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes, Value Pack making this project inexpensive for kids to make for school friends or sporting teams etc.

After I had finished all of the stamp of the month cards, I still had the negative space from the Thin Cuts—Christmas cutout. I didn't want it to get ruined by going back into my scrap stash. I decided to also stick it onto one of the 5 1/2" × 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes, Value Pack.

TIP: when you are adhering these negative wording down - use a Bonding Memories™ Glue Pen to get into all the small spaces of the wording so they all stick down (see photo - I used Duck® Easy Stick™ Adhesive around the edges and the Bonding Memories around the inside). 

Now that its stuck down I can add other embellishments later or shimmer trim or bling or something but it won't get ruined or lost in my stash now. Although if I get rushed for time, I quite like it as it is. 

Remember this great stamp set  Yuletide Joy—October Stamp of the Month is only available throughout October from my website or from your Close to My Heart Consultant. 

Thanks so much for dropping by to check out my latest project, I hope you get inspired. I'm really interested to hear what you think about it, so I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop on our Australasian Blog Hop which is Georgia O'Shea - Georgia Creates

Come back to see me again soon.

Balloon Animals February 2016 Stamp of the Month Australasian Blog Hop

We have all been creating with "Balloon Animals—February 2016 Stamp of the Month " Stamp set. If you have arrived here from Wendy Hopper - Expressions of the Heart then you are in the right place. If you landed here another way, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. Follow the links, check out all the amazing ideas and eventually you'll come right back here to where you started.

Today I would like to share with you my project which features the Balloon Animals—February 2016 Stamp of the Month available exclusively throughout February 2016 for $27 or for just $7.50 when you spend $75. This is the cutest party animal stamp set!

I decided this was the perfect birthday stamp set to make a gift for a little friend who has a party this coming weekend. I pulled out a My Creations™ Mini Mix Album to decorate as a gift. I also grabbed my Green Washi tape from the Limeade Washi Pack. Then I grabbed some complementary ink colours (Crystal Blue Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Pear Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and Honey Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad).

I stamped the Elephant, Dog and Bunny (as pictured below) on 12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock, then fussy cut them out with my Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors.

I wanted to add a bit more colour to the white background so I grabbed a piece of green B&T paper from the Kaleidoscope Paper Packet. 

I cut it at 1.5 inches and then measured it out and cut the little bit off the edge of the 12x12 Kaleidoscope Paper with my scissors. 

I then stuck the Kaleidoscope Paper strip with Duck® Easy Stick™ Adhesive and the washi tape strip along the entire album (as show). So the back has the washi tape and green patterned paper on it, as well as the front. 

I placed the balloon animals I had stamped on top of the My Creations™ Mini Mix Album
to check the placement. I decided to then stamp our friends name on the little album. 

I pulled out my Hopscotch Alphabet and placed "D a n i e l" letters on the block and stamped it directly onto the My Creations™ Mini Mix Album in  Pear Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad. 

My little album is all ready for our friends gift on next weekend. I am happy with how it turned out. Don't tell him!! 

Remember this great stamp set  Balloon Animals—February 2016 Stamp of the Month is only available throughout February from my website or from your Close to My Heart Consultant. 

Thanks so much for dropping by to check out my latest project, I hope you get inspired to create something with this cute stamp set this month. I'm really interested to hear what you think about it, so I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop on our Australasian Blog Hop which is Shaunna Richards - Passionate About Pages

  Come back to see me again soon.

CTMH White Pines Australasian Blog Hop

Welcome to our Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop featuring this months feature paper pack called White Pines. We have all been creating with the White Pines Products. If you have arrived here from Patricia Manhire's Creative Corner then you are in the right place. If you landed here another way, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. Follow the links, check out all the amazing ideas and eventually you'll come right back here to where you started.

I began this creative Session with the Picture My Life™ White Pines Scrapbooking Program pack and pulled it all out to look at it and get "inspiration". I really liked all the PML (Picture My Life) cards with the dates on them and thought it would make a great Advent Calendar. 

Last week I donated two boxful's of books to a teacher for a 3yr old program from an under privileged area a few suburbs away from me. She said they had identified a need that these children were "at risk" of illiteracy problems and the way they had decided to address this was to give the children a 12 days of Christmas, a daily gift of books, so that they had books in their home that their parents could read to them. This is what my 2nd hand children's books were going to. This reminded me of the great idea that I'd seen before, probably on pinterest, to do an advent calendar of books that you can read together with your children. I decided that this would be a great idea to do this year with my kids this year and the Picture My Life™ White Pines Scrapbooking Program pack was totally PERFECT. 

Last year I purchased a whole heap of brown paper wrapping paper from Big W. The label below says they cost $2 but they were reduced when I bought them (I bought as many as I could carry because I knew I would use it!!). I have used this brown paper in other blog posts I have done on this blog, coordinating wrapping paper with Birthday cards etc, its great for stamping on also! I think the brown paper looks great with the Picture My Life™ White Pines Scrapbooking Program "Advent Tags". The December cards didn't require much if any decoration to make the presents look interesting and fun!

Next I went to my bookshelf and pulled out all the Christmas books I had, then I pulled out all the Love and Kindness books I could find to make it up to 24 books. I mixed them up and did Big book then small book (because the PML cards are big/small/big/small) and mixed up the Christmas books with the other type of books so there was a selection each day something different. ALL the Christmas books went into the pile spread out and I removed the funny shaped books because I wanted to have them presents be square/rectangle shapes. I was amazed at how many Christmas themed books we actually had. The more I looked the more I found, in all the different bookshelves around the house!
  

    

I started December 1 with The Elf on the Shelf because our Elf Sprinkles will be arriving around the 1st December so what a perfect time to read her story. 

On the outside of the very first wrapped gift/book I added an extra PML journalling box for the gift tag. A Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen and Gold Shimmer Trim finished off present Number 1. 

Each day of December (until Christmas Eve) we are going to open one of the books and read it with the kids as a family. I didn't keep a record of what I put in each present so it will be a surprise to me too!! I am very excited about this time together, reading books that the kids are almost too grown up to read but as a family we can still giggle along to "Father Christmas needs a Wee" or sing the Australian Christmas versions of stories and songs. 

It took me quite a while to wrap and to put the cards onto every package and I had to decide which side of the cards I wanted to use. The new PML cards are the same pattern on both sides but one vertical and one horizontal - which does sometimes minutely change the design of some of the cards, but because I wasn't restricted to the PML Memory Protectors™ telling me which way I need to place the cards I could choose which side I wanted to use. NB: I decided not to use the December 25 card because we're not going to read anything on Christmas day. Some of the cards with cute little animals were best suited to one way or the other because of the way the animals weren't cut off. 

When I finished I had used some of my washi tape (Boardwalk Washi Tape Pack, Sparkle & Shine Washi Tape 3-Pack and Smoothie Striped Washi Tape). These are all available in the While Stocks Last and Retired section on my website (online purchases only, not available at Gatherings). I also used lots of SHIMMER TRIM... Red & Gold mostly. Plus a bit of bling. Although I decided I didn't want to use the bling because I wanted the presents to be able to stack flat. 

Now that all my presents are wrapped for my Reading Advent Calendar and I can't wait for Christmas season to start!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Thanks so much for dropping by to check out my latest projects. I'm really interested to hear what you think about it, so I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop on our Australasian Blog Hop which is Maz: Inky Fingers.

  Come back to see me again soon.

August 2015 SOTM Blog Hop Framed

Hello and welcome to our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. We have all been creating with "Framed – August 2015 Stamp of the Month " Stamp set. If you have arrived here from Wendy Hopper then you are in the right place. If you landed here another way, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. Follow the links, check out all the amazing ideas and eventually you'll come right back here to where you started.

Today I would like to share with you my card which features the Framed – August 2015 Stamp of the Month   available exclusively throughout June for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75. This is a great all-rounder stamp set for cards and DIY embellishments or tags.  

 

 

The first thing I did when I looked at this stamp set was pick two colours that I use most often - Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad. I am running low on Birthday Cards for that short notice birthday present that we always seem to be invited to (or remember at the last minute that I need a birthday card). So I focused on the Happy Birthday Sentiment and Frame.

 

 

I stamped one of each in alternative colours to see which I liked better... I liked both, so I decided to use both!! 

 

Next I used my Big Shot to emboss some scrap White Daisy Cardstock* with the Heart Embossing Folder. After embossing I used my Round Sponge (cut into wedges) to sponge one 5.5 inch long strip with Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and one with Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad.

 

*My photos make the white daisy look like Colonial White Cardstock but its just the lighting so you can see both options with just one set of photos :) I have tried to brighten some of them to bring out the daisy white.

 

 

Then I fussy cut out the frames with my Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors 

and placed them on top to see the designs. To start with I thought I would alternate the sponged embossed hearts with the colours on the frames and then I decided to swap it around.

 

 

I pulled out my 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes, Value Pack and stuck on the embossed strips with my Duck® Easy-Stick™ Adhesive and for the black card I cut in half a 5.5inch section of Black Shimmer Trim with my Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors a bit freehand. Then I adhered the Happy Birthday Frame and added some Coral Reef Sequins (which are WSL due to retire on 1st September).

 

I did my stamping and photographed my finished products on my Versamat™.

 

 
For my pink card and something a tad different but still following my theme. I put the Cotton Candy Embossed and sponged card with my Duck® Easy-Stick™ Adhesive and then adhered Black Arrow Washi Tape (WSL also retiring 1st September). To finish it off I added some Pixie Extra Thick Twine tying it into a knot and fraying the edges. Over the top I stuck the Happy Birthday Frame. On the inside of the card I used another piece of Black Arrow Washi Tape to adhere the Twine so it didn't move.

 

 

Remember this great stamp set Framed – August 2015 Stamp of the Month  is only available throughout June from your Close to My Heart Consultant. 

 

Also August is the last month to get many items before the new catalogue is launched in September and new prices take affect. Hint: Lots of items I have used this month are going up in price next month, so make sure you are aware and buy before the price rise. Many items are WSL.

Thanks so much for dropping by to check out my latest project, I hope you get to make a card this month too. I'm really interested to hear what you think about it, so I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop on our Australasian Blog Hop which is Britt McDonald - Crafty Connections Australia. 

  Come back to see me again soon.