National Stamping Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop celebrating National Stamping Month. You may have just come
from Michele Rowley's blog. To see the entire list of participants, visit Melinda Everitt's post.

You can purchase the From the Heart card kit which includes card bases, envelopes, and an E-sized stamp set for a 20% discount this month only. You can also buy just the stamp set or just the card bases. I wanted to show you how the beautiful gold framed card bases can be used for any kind of card, so I made a Christmas card using one of the pocket scrapbooking panels from the new CTMH Beary Christmas paper pack and the Christmas stamp, First Noel. After I made it I knew I wanted to buy extra card bases for more unique interactive cards!

I had already put one card together to see what to fold and what to adhere. I didn't want to risk getting ink on the gold border after it was adhered so I chose to stamp the inside first. To be sure I stamped within the space available, here are the steps I followed:

1. Before folding or adhering anything, fold the gold frame over the inside, lifting the middle panel.

2. Lightly mark the side and top edges of the stampable area with a pencil.

3. Be sure the sentiment stamp you choose fits inside that area.

 4. Line up your stamps inside with the gold frame down, then stamp. Don't forget to erase the light pencil marks.

5. Finish folding and adhering the card sides and top according to the step-by-step assembly directions that are included in the entire kit as well as in the packet of extra card bases and envelopes.

To make the front:
I chose the 4" x 3" pocket card that is mostly white with a few evergreen trees and some glacier sky with snowflakes on top. I cut a house silhouette from Toffee cardstock using Cricut You Are Here, cutting off the chimney. To fit the space I allowed, I sized it 1.5" wide x 1.75" high. The "O" manger scene from the word NOEL was stamped with black on Glacier cardstock. I restamped the star with Versamark and gold embossed it with the medium sized star in the stamp set. I punched it out with a one inch circle punch. The pocket card is slightly smaller than the front panel card that comes with this card pack, so I gold embossed the star border that comes with the stamp set on each side. I tied the gold ribbon from the Basics ribbon pack. I replaced the small bottom strip that supports the front of the card with a strip of Glacier cardstock 5/8" x 3.75" and adhered the front according to directions. 

When you pull up the inside white panel the card front pops up . . .

 revealing the inside sentiment.

The card front stays standing. How cool is that!?!

Thank you for visiting! Now you're ready to move on to Miss Carrie's Creations to see her lovely artwork.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps #152 - Christmas
A Snowflake's Promise Challenge #44 - anything goes
Heartful Stamping Challenge Sept.10-17 - anything goes with stamping
The Holly and Ivy Challenge #14 - anything Christmas goes

National Stamping Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop highlighting all the special parts of the special from Close To My Heart for National Stamping Month, Create Kindness. If you arrived here from Brenda Lapp's blog.  you're on the right path. You can find the entire list on Melinda Everitt's blog.  You can find all the contents of this kit here, where you can also buy each piece individually.  I used 8 of the cards to make the smaller 3" x 3" cards that are great to make as a gift enclosure or place on someone's pillow or desk. You can see those I posted on September 1st.

Today I'm sharing a few of the 5.5" x 4.25" cards I made using the card pieces. I wanted to also use up the small envelopes so I included them inside to make these cards for giving cash or gift cards.


The first three use the stamps from the set: I cut off 1/2" from the paper used on front to help decorate  the gift card envelope inside. I also used the cricut shapes I included with the set I posted September 1st and papers from the Adventure Fundamentals papers that coordinate with the papers in the kit.  On each of them, I placed ribbon or another element over the scored line for folding the 6" x 3" card base I used to decorate the front.

Because I especially need gift card holders for Christmas, I'm showing two of the ones I decorated using different stamps.

Thanks for visiting.  Now you're ready to visit  Jennifer Dykstra's creation!

National Stamping Month - Create Kindness Kit

Welcome to September! This has been designated as National Stamping Month, something I love each year.

This year Close To My Heart is offering an amazing special that has become my favorite. It's called Create Kindness and how kind it will be to share the cards it makes with those around us. The kit is especially good for someone who has limited supplies or a novice, just beginning to stamp. I purchased the entire kit but parts of it can also be purchased individually. You can see the contents here.

The kit makes 24 cards that are 3" x 3." I had fun making 8 of those cards that I'm showing you here below. That size is perfect to add to gifts or to set on someone's desk at work.  I've also used the kit to make larger cards. Come back on August 7th to see our blog hop and my gift card holders made with the kit contents. Here are the first 8 that I created by adding some small circular mats cut out using the Cricut.

The kit includes 6 each of the four card background designs in the Adventure colors. It comes inside an organizer for the small M-sized stamps and includes the 1.75" circles, the envelopes, and four different flower stamps, four inside sentiment stamps, along with a 2" acrylic block and a mini stamp pad of Archival Black. I colored the images and sentiments using ShinHan Touch Twin markers in coordinating colors. The background mats are 2" scalloped circles (from our previous punch) and a variety of 2.5" circular shapes from our various Cricut cartridges. If you have the Cricut Explore you are welcome to use my cut file here. Our new Cricut cartridge, Flower Market, has so many wreath shapes, I wanted to try using some on these cards. I cut 3 of everything using Adventure cardstocks so I could also use them on my larger cards.

Here are some close ups:

This kit is only available in the month of September and only as supplies last, so don't wait long to get it if you're interested. Here are the kit contents and links:

Create Kindness Card Kit

The Create Kindness card kit (CC1145) includes 24 pre-printed card bases with envelopes, 8 exclusive M-size stamp sets, a 2″ × 2″ My Acrylix^® block, and an Archival Black mini pigment ink pad, all packed snugly in the My Acrylix^® Mini Stamp Organizer.

$46.95

The inside sentiment stamps:

You can also purchase individual ingredients here.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this gave you a few good ideas. May God bless your creating and your little acts of kindness that encourage and lift the spirits of someone today!.

Mojo Monday 413 for National Stamping Month

One of my grandsons will be 11 this month. I stayed with him and his three siblings this summer while they were out of school. Almost every day I took them to the nearby community center to play basketball, then to swim.  In the evenings, the soon-to-be-11-year-old played baseball. He became a pitcher this year and his team was undefeated. Before the summer was over, his 13-year-old brother began soccer practice for his junior high school team. Interestingly, the coach also let this younger brother practice with the team even though he was only going into 5th grade. This has happened every year with every sport because he's one of those kids that's truly athletically gifted in any sport he plays. I hope this card will remind him of all the sports fun we had this summer!

That became my inspiration for my Mojo Monday card this week. The color dare at Color My Heart this week was perfect for these sports images: Kraft, Pacifica, Sweet Lear, Black, and Colonial White.

 

 The Mojo Monday card is for a tall and skinny card. I rotated the design 90 degrees. I also used a little math to make my card with the same proportions as theirs, but longer - 6 1/2 " x 4 1/8" so it would fit in my longer envelopes.

I used the same Pacifica paper* for the background from a retired CTMH Adventure Fundamentals paper pack, but I cut it into two strips and used the mat printed side on the bottom and the glossy side on top. I've highlighted the glossy pattern on top so you can see it.

I stamped the sentiment with Black and Pacifica inks. I love the bold handwritten look of the word "Happy." Details about the stamp sets are below. (The stars are recently retired CTMH.) The grass and each of the balls were cut using the Cricut CTMH Artbooking cartridge.  I sponged a little "grass stain" on the baseball with Sweet Leaf so it would show up better against the Colonial White panel behind it. Here's the Design Space cut file if you're interested:

 https://us.cricut.com/design/#/canvas/30899839

 I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Color My Heart Color Dare #157
Craftin' Desert Divas Linky Party - Just for Kids
Deep Ocean Challenge #111 - For the Boys
Mojo Monday #413 sketch 
The Cheerful Stamp Pad #119- Remembering Summer


Because this is National Stamping Month, CTMH has a three stamp special, designed for scrapbooking, cardmaking, or pocket scrapbooking. My sentiment came from the first two stamp sets on the left:

Available only during the month of September, these exclusive C-size My Acrylix^® Hello, Life! stamp sets can be purchased for $13.95 USD each! Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase all three for only $34.95 USD—a savings of $6.90 USD! 

You can find these and other Close to My Heart products HERE on my website.

* Pacifica paper from Adventure Fundamentals is now available with a different pattern than the one shown.
 
 Thank you for visiting! May God bless your crafting and giving so you may bless others!

Cricut Art Philosophy Card Shapes

When I saw that there were 2 different card shapes for every key on this cartridge, I knew I needed to try out as many different shapes as I could. Using up my old paper packs to "experiment" with the diffeent sizes and to make matching envelopes was also my goal. Here are my first examples:

 I also used the double stamp set available for National Stamping Month-- Pair-a-Phrase stamp set.

This last card I intended to be a "guy card." It was almost finished when I accidentally smudged it with black ink on the colonial white. I always tell my friends there are no mistakes, just opportunities to be creative. So, I intentionally added sponging with black ink. My friends said they liked it better. I'm not sure, what do you think? It's still a guy card!

So many shapes, so little time! There are two envelope shapes on the cartridge, square and rectangle, both so quick and easy!!