Happy Everything Operation Smile Blog Hop

Welcome to our Australasian Operation Smile Blog Hop. Welcome to those that arrived from Lauren Moore- CTMH Craftings or those that came from another place, please continue to follow along to see all the blogs in the loop until you get back to where you started.

Close To My Heart is partnered with Operation Smile^®, a private, Not-for-profit organization that provides free, life-changing surgery that repairs smiles and reshapes lives, one child at a time.
 
Today we will be sharing some inspiration using the C sized stamp set which is featured on the back page of our Seasonal Expressions 2 Idea Book called Happy Everything. By purchasing this set at full retail price of $27 you can help change the life of a child as CTMH will donate $US3 from your purchase to Operation smile from now until 31st August 2015. 
 

  

I absolutely LOVE this stamp set. I've made a selection of cards because I just got so many ideas with this set. I couldn't stop, its the perfect card making stamp set (although its a perfect scrapbooking stamp set too). To start with I made the card on the back of the Catalogue.

You can see on the back page of the catalogue that its slightly different because I didn't have the Stitch Guide but I loved how this turned out with the Blossom Paper Packet,

12" X 12" Flaxen Cardstock Flaxen Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, 12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock,

12" X 12" Sunset Cardstock,

3-D Foam Tape,
& Chalk It Up Assortment, 

I used a Sponge Dauber to colour in the balloon with Lagoon Ink and my Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors to cut out the balloon.

Next I made the 2 cute cards using some small scraps from a retired paper packet. This Happy Everything card turned out really well, I thought.

I took some 12" X 12" Hollyhock Cardstock 

and stamped the long arrows on it from the Happy Everything set with the generational stamping technique. Then I used Hollyhock Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad to stamp the "Happy Every thing". The Green square is from the retired Heartstrings paper packet but you can still order the paper in Picture My Life™ Heartstrings Scrapbooking Program. Then I finished the card with Black Shimmer Trim and Bubbly Enamel Shapes 

and put it on the 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" Colonial White Cards & Envelopes, from the Value Pack.

Next I made this "Happy as a Bee in A Hive Card". I had some scraps of half inch strips and I put them onto the bottom of the card to make like a wall. I had strips of Pixie Cardstock 

and Heartstrings paper (Picture My Life™ Heartstrings Scrapbooking Program).

I stamped the sentiments, the bees and the buzzy line for the bee in Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and then coloured in their little buzzy behinds with the ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Golden Yellow Marker. 
So quick, so simple and it uses half inch scraps. 

The last thing I made was for my consultant Fun Day for my swap day. We make a ten fold swap each month, we make 10 (I made 12 this time) of each item and then swap with others who make 10 items so we come home with hopefully 10 different items, so we get a variety of cards.

I made this card using the June Stamp of the Month Ice Cream Dream – June 2015 Stamp of the Month (available this month only!) with the cute little doggy with the Happy Birthday from the Happy Everything stamp set. I coloured in the dogs a variety of colours using the Watercolor Pencils. The paper pack was the Blossom Paper Packet and I ran the edges over the Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad to distress the edges in a rustic manner. I did that to the squares of 12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock, with the doggies on them too. To finish it off I put the bows using the Glacier Extra Thick Twine and glued them on using small dobs of Liquid Glass.

Recently our VP Monica Wihongi went on a mission with Operation Smile to support the children with live changing operations. On the same trip with Monica was Kate Walsh (from Private Practice and Greys Anatomy) and I think thats cool. Check out the CTMH Blog with photos of Monica's trip. http://blog.closetomyheart.com/2015/05/04/mission-to-mexico-monicas-journey-with-operation-smile/

 

It only takes $275 (AUS dollars) to pay for 1 child to have their surgery. Go to the Operation Smile Australia website for further details. The difference in the lives of these children and their families is amazing. I am happy to support this charity through my Close to My Heart Business and I am very happy that we can all give a small part by buying and using this Happy Everything stamp set. 

The stamp set "Happy Everything" is available from your CTMH consultant and $3USD from every purchase will go directly to Operation Smile until the end of August. You can also choose to make a donation of any size directly to your consultant, donations over $2 are tax deductable. 

Make sure you leave a comment and then continue your journey, hop over to see what Shaunna at Passionate about Page has created. 

Ice Cream Dream – June 2015 Stamp of the Month Australiasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. We have all been creating with "Ice Cream Dream – June 2015 Stamp of the Month" Stamp set. If you have arrived here from Georgia O'Shea - Georgia Creates 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 to where you started.

Today I would like to share with you my card which features the Ice Cream Dream – June 2015 Stamp of the Month available exclusively throughout June for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75. This is a very "sweet" stamp set. 

I am a Type 2 diabetic so I don't have lots of photos of me eating ice-creams cause that's on my "do not eat" list but I LOVED the saying on the stamp set "You are my Happy" so I decided to make an anniversary card for my husband a little bit early (our 15th Wedding Anniversary is in July so I'm prepared early!!). I know the other Blog Hop consultants will have lots of ice-cream cuteness for you so you'll have lots of sweet ideas for the rest of the stamp set! I know someone who had an ice-cream truck come to their wedding reception so this stamp set would be PERFECT for those photos.

 

To make my card I cut a 12" X 12" Colonial White Cardstock in half so I made a 6x6 sized card. I cut a section of Blossom Paper and then backed it in Kraft Cardstock.

I loaded the title stamp You are My Happy from the Ice Cream Dream – June 2015 Stamp of the Month with Cocoa Exclusive Ink™ then I wiped off the scroll edges because they were too long for my pennant title and stamped it on my peice of Colonial White Cardstock. 

I also matted that with the Kraft Cardstock.

  

 The You're Pretty Awesome tag stamp came from the Limited Edition Host Rewards Stamp from the Seasonal Expression Catalogue 2, its called "Tagged with Love" code C1614. Its not available for sale so I can't tag it. You can only earn it by hosting a gathering. You can view the Seasonal Expressions Catalogue online here. This stamp set is featured on page 4. 

I stamped two tags one in Lagoon Exclusive Inks™  and one in Pear Exclusive Inks™ 

then the "You're pretty Awesome" in Cocoa Exclusive Inks™ to match the You are My Happy title. The tag parts are seperate pieces so your tags can really be any size you wish. I then fussy cut them out with my Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors because I made it while I was on camp and didn't want to go to the other room to cut the tags out. After I cut them out I then layered them on the Kraft cardstock and fussy cut them out too. I poked a hole through with my scissors for the Kraft Cardstock tie (it was just a narrow slice of kraft cardstock that I tied). Then I layered the two tags together and adhered them with some Thin 3-D Foam Tape to the card.

I'm very happy with how it turned out. I may cut a Cricut number 15 out and adhere to the Blossom paper under the title before I give it to him for our anniversary but thats the only change I might make. 

The size of the 6x6 inch completed card is perfect to write a big long love letter to my husband (just don't tell him I told you that!). It would also make a great birthday card to a close friend as well. When its done I will pop it in one of my 6” X 6” Colonial White Envelopes.

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

Thanks so much for dropping by to check out my latest page, I hope you get to make a page 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  Designs by Marguerite.

  Come back to see me again soon.

 

Taste Of Summer - National Scrapbooking Month 2015

May is a great month because its a whole month of celebrations with a special May only Paper Pack and Stamp set called "Taste of Summer". All month long the Close to My Heart Facebook Page, Instagram and Pinterest accounts are all being bombarded with ideas using the Taste of Summer ideas and you can search using the hashtag #CTMHTOS in all the social media arenas. 

May is NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING MONTH!!!

To celebrate National Scrapbooking Month I attended a 2 night camp at Swanleigh in the Swan Valley with a group of consultants and a whole bunch of our customers. I had a great weekend and spent a lot of time organising my stamps and papers and labelling EVERYTHING... Yes I think I was the only person who went to scrapbooking camp with my label maker but I felt happier having things all organised. I also made a lot of other ideas for future blog posts.

The taste of summer paper pack I have used in my last blog post (Click here for the link)

After I got organised I completed a lot of ideas that I had not finished. The above picture - was a page that my upline had cut for us at our last consultant training day but I had not got around to finishing it. So camp was the perfect opportunity to complete it for us. This used the orange paper from the using the Taste of Summer Paper Pack. The Orange Stamp from the the Taste of Summer Stamp set. The oranges are Goldrush Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and Sunset Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad (some are double stamped to get that lighter shade) and the vines with Topiary Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad. 
I'm pretty sure the paper is 12" X 12" Sunset Cardstock and I think the green is 12" X 12" Topiary Cardstock - I'm saying "I think" because I didn't cut out the card it was cut for me. 12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock was cut to go on top. 

This is one of my cards I made using the Taste of Summer Paper Pack. With the Taste of Summer Stamp set. How cute is that strawberry. I used the Hollyhock Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad for the strawberries with Topiary Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad for the leaves and sentiment. I cut the Silver Shimmer Trim in half on my SureCut™ Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer using Washi tape to secure it. I used the heart cut with the Cricut® Artiste Collection and 12" X 12" Pixie Cardstock.

It is great value for a paper pack for only $12.95. Go to my website to order your pack and you can get it delivered directly to your door.

Just Sayin’ – May 2015 Stamp of the Month Australiasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. We have all been creating with "Just Sayin' – May 2015 Stamp of the Month" Stamp set. If you have arrived here from  Jenny Gilbert The Creative 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 to where you started.


Today I would like to share with you my Page which features the Just Sayin' – May 2015 Stamp of the Month available exclusively throughout May for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75. This is an awesome Stamp set for enhancing your scrapbook pages.

 

Close to my Heart are so good to release the Just Sayin' set especially for National Scrapbooking Month, its perfect! When I looked at this set I knew I had to make a page for this special month. I decided to use the special National Scrapbooking Month paper pack Taste of Summer Paper Packet which is available this month only. See your consultant or my website for more information about the Taste of Summer Paper Packet and the Taste of Summer Stamp Set which are limited edition for May only (like a bonus Stamp of the Month). 

So the first thing I did when I decided to make a page was to look for inspiration from our Ideas book Reflections™ Scrapbook Program (soft cover). I found a page I really liked called Front and Centre Trio on page 70. 

From Reflections Scrapbook Program pg 70.

Firstly I set out all the matching papers and inks. I picked my favourite two papers. The pink and purple. The geometric shapes on the paper really suit this Just Sayin' – May 2015 Stamp of the Month.

 

 I started out thinking I would make some random stamping paper using the Just Sayin' – May 2015 Stamp of the Month in place of the bubbles in the example page. I had seen another consultant in our team using this stamp set in a similar way, so I set to work stamping on my
12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock. I arranged the three geometric shapes onto my 3" X 3" My Acrylix® Block and stamped them in a random way by rotating each time I stamped.

After completing my random stamped paper with Hollyhock Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad I decided it was too busy and too dark. If I had more time I would have done second generation stamping or used a lighter coloured ink like Cotton Candy or Pixie for my random stamping so it was more a lighter background but I had finished the page I didn't want to waste it.

I cut the purple piece at 6 inches x 12 inches and laid it over my white background paper. I then cut three 5 inches x 3.5 inches in the pink from the Taste of Summer Paper Packet.

I wasn't 100% happy with this so after going away for 24 hours I came back to the page and decided if I used the random stamping paper for the title then it wouldn't be as busy, so I took a section of the stamping and made my title with it. Using Handwritten Print Acrylic stamps. I did "DREAM" first and then added "WORLD" afterwards because the R and the D were in both words. To get my title straight I lined up the Handwritten Print letters using the front of my Versamat™ .

When I framed the title on the completed page, I used the Zip Strip - which is the half inch off the top of the 12x12 purple paper from the Taste of Summer Paper Packet.

Note: All these papers have zip strips and all our Background and Texture (or B&T) paper has a Zip Strip.

I stamped all the titles using Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad and then fussy cut them out with my Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors.

I grabbed three photos from my stash of 3x4 photos from our holiday to the Gold Coast last year that I had printed with Studio J. They fitted perfectly with a break at the bottom for the Date stamp. We went to Dreamworld on 3 seperate days while we were on the Gold Coast so I wanted this page to represent that. I haven't written the exact dates in yet because I have to check my camera settings to work out which date which photos were taken. I picked a title bar/arrow that seemed most appropriate for each photo and stuck it above using 3L® E-Z Dots® Adhesive.

Remember this great stamp set Just Sayin' – May 2015 Stamp of the Month is only available throughout National Scrapbooking Month of May from your Close to My Heart Consultant. 
Thanks so much for dropping by to check out my latest page, I hope you get to make a page 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  Designs by Marguerite or head back to the begining of the blog hop at Shaunna Richards Passionate About Pages.

  Come back to see me again soon.