June SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring June's SOTM, which is called Kaboom, a fun and spunky set of 16 images.  If you have come here from KAMI's Blog, you are on the right path! If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants HERE. This month we have dozens of Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. Hopping is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

For my project this month I was inspired by the MUSE Card Club Challenge. I loved the bright colors against the bold black sentiment of Cornelia's inspiration card. I rolled the fireworks in shades of Sunflower, Cotton Candy, and Pear. Then I dipped my wet water brush into a bit of Black reinker and flicked it over the card surface.

I tapped the centers of the fireworks with Stardust glitter glitz. The sentiment I stamped twice, once directly onto the stamped background, and once on scrap paper to trim out and pop up over the colorful background. I stamped a few teeny tiny stars in black. I swear this super tiny star might be my favorite image in the set, the perfect size for confetti/bling.

Now "Hop" on over to MAUREEN'S BLOG to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas. Remember, the June SOTM is only available until the end of this month! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for just $5!

More June Stamp of the Month:

Best Wishes Card
Let's Celebrate CAS(E) this Sketch card

Practical Scrappers Scrapping Our Stash Hop

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop! Each month talented designers dig into their stash of unused treasures to create fabulous new projects. You should have arrived here from Deborah's blog at Scrappin the Little Things. You can find the fill list of hoppers over at Practical Scrappers. Let's hop!

This month I'm continuing work on a series of scrappy embroidery hoop wall hangings for my new stamp room. I spritzed the background material (stolen from a holiday project that was NEVER going to be finished) with the honeycomb pattern using a template and some Heidi Swapp Color Shine. The cluster of embellies at the top of the hoop all came from a green bowl I keep on my desk. Every time I finish designing a kit I toss all my leftover bits and bobs into that bowl just in case I need a little somethin'-somethin'.

I had these REAL chipboard letters from a Paper Pumpkin kit that I got as a free gift at CKC Portland. I added letters from my favorite Keyboard Kraft Alphabet - I always have a few partially used sheets of those tiny letters in my stash. The cork bees I built from leftover "O" centers on a mostly used up sheet of cork letter stickers. I scribbled on the stripes with a sharpie pen and added wings from my scraps drawer. I swirled up the bits of wire to build the antennae, and used Liquid Glass to adhere them to the hoop.

I dug not only into my scrapping stash, but my nail polish stash too. Those chipboard letters were just plain grey, but I coated them with two coats of one of my favorite Essie nail polish colors, which is a mix of gold and silver. I painted the hoop with Essie bordeaux and then gave it a coat of krylon glitter spray. A few dabs of almond glitter glitz gel and hoop #2 is ready to hang!

Up next: The fantastic Christine at Scrapping with Christine!

Best Wishes Card

I love my team! I cannot believe that I plum forgot to whip up swap cards for our swap this month. So tonight I got out the June Stamp of the Month and got inky for my girls.

The June SOTM is a fun and spunky Fourth of July Stamp set. I love fun and spunky as much as the next gal, but something about that small fireworks image just called out, "I'm a dandelion, lady!" Then I saw the Sketchbook Saturday sketch and I was ready to make a wish! 

I stamped the "dandelions" in Saddle Ink onto Kraft Cardstock. Then I stamped it again using White Daisy Pigment ink. The small dandelion seeds are actually a fire cracker fuse. I pierced the floral stems and added some stardust glitter gel to the flower centers. I lined the inner edge of the card with chevron washi tape. The sentiment says Celebrate, but I paper pieced it to say Best Wishes to go along with my new dandelion theme. Now to actually get these sweeties into the mail tomorrow!

Balloon Ride Scrapbook Club Pages

Woot! I'm all caught up on scrapbook club pages! I never meant for moving to throw me so far off on getting my crafty on. This weekend I can finally start getting inky on stuff that I haven't promised y'all would be done in April. It must be the new haircut, lol.

Oh my goodness this paper was so light and pretty, and the chipboard pieces so sweet! I really had some fun dissecting that chipboard and adding lots of bling.

I swear these two pages are actually on the same color paper in real life, and that color is cashmere. Which, as you can see if you clicked through that link, is not either of these background colors. Those hearts are handcut - yes, you can cricut them, but I liked the handcut aspect for this homey, happy page. Our first berry picking trip of the summer will go on here. As soon as I find new u-pics up here in Spokane, which I hope is soon because the freezer is starting to look pretty bare!

I'm going to use these as a comparison page for my three boys, each of whom has a very distinct and strong personality. I'm feeling pretty blessed lately, as I unpack boxes of baby pictures and preschool projects. I love to reflect on how far we've come...and the fact that we are embarking on a new phase. Not just because we've moved, but because the boys are moving on and getting bigger. Instead of potty training we focus on phonics. Instead of sippy cups they are now fully on glass everything and doing it so responsibly! There's only one preschool left in the house, and he's pretty convinced that he's 10 (the age when all my boys seem to think they'll be "BIG"). In the middle of three-crazy-boys-chaos this helps me to reconnect with what I love about my family, and how we are shaping these little lives. This is why I love scrapbooking so much!

Here's the supply list!

Basic Kit: 

X7180B Balloon Ride Papers

X7180C Balloon Ride Complements

I Want It All Kit:

X7180B Balloon Ride Papers

X7180C Balloon Ride Complements

Z1263 Bitty Sparkles

Z1957 Free Thinker Charms

Z1959 Storyteller Charms

Other supplies used:

Inks: Saddle

Leftover Black/Grey Epoxy Bubbles from Ariana Kit

Kraft Keyboard Alphabet

2 sheets Colonial White Cardstock (cream)

Sanding Kit

 3-D Foam Tape

Brown Embroidery Floss (or pierce it and draw over with a marker)

Stitching Ruler

Order either level of this Balloon Ride kit on my website by joining the Monthly Memories Club Gathering, and you'll receive a PDF with complete step by step instructions, detailed pictures, and exact cutting guides so you too can create these sweet, fanciful Balloon Ride pages. 

While you are there, check out the $5 Scrapbooking Kit CTMH is offering for National Scrapbooking Month!

If you are a consultant and want to teach this workshop, purchase your kit (either level) and then email me to get a reprintable copy of the instructions to use at your workshop.

Timberline Scrapbook Club Pages

Thanks for helping out with testing my Feedblitz transition, Stampin' Friends! I'm pretty sure it's working again, and I believe that I've fixed the signup link to, so if you've asked to receive Stamping Rules via email and never gotten it, please try again with (hopefully) better results! I'm back again today to share 6 more pages for Monthly Memories Club, this time with the awesome new Timberline papers.

Boy, oh boy! Do I luurve me some woodgrain paper! We've got a big-for-us camping trip planned for this summer. All you awesome hardcore actual campers are gonna laugh, but we're planning to stay...at a KOA! I know, I know! Even my preteen nephew laughs at our faux camping trips, but when you are traveling with three little boys, including one with sensory issues, KOA campgrounds are a little piece of camping heaven. With bathrooms. And showers. And playgrounds. And no just-on-the-other-side-of-the-wall neighbors to freak out over how much noise three little boys can make just sitting still reading a book. We love KOA! 

Since we've finally managed to move bedtime to 8 p.m. (with a much more reasonable wake up time of between 5:30 to 6 am) we are planning an actual campfire this time. Our stargazing will probably not be done at actual night for these dudes, but we are going to see Thomas the Tank Engine that weekend too, so for us that'll be a big celebrity sighting. Peep, Peep!

I can't wait to get a big collage of my moving to Spokane Instagrams to fill up that big 8x10 area on this layout. I've been tagging them on IG with #SpokaneAdventure if you want to see some of the silly and awesome things we've been discovering in our newly adopted home. 

Club ladies (and others who want the cutting guides/instructions for this kit design), here's your Supply list!

Basic Kit: 

X7182B Timberline Papers

X7182C Timberline Complements

I Want It All Kit:

X7182B Timberline Papers

X7182C Timberline Complements

Z3005 Timberline Assortment Embellies

Z1930 Woodgrain Washi Tape

Other supplies used:

Inks: Saddle, Twilight

Keyboard Kraft Alphabet

Leftover Retired Cork Alphabet letters

Stardust glitter glitz gel

Sanding Kit

Order either level of this Timberline kit on my website by joining the Monthly Memories Club Gathering, and you'll receive a PDF with complete step by step instructions, detailed pictures, and exact cutting guides so you too can create these rustic, summer fun Timberline pages. 

Don't forget to check out the While Supplies Last area while you are hanging out over there!

If you are a consultant and want to teach this workshop, purchase your kit (either level) and then email me to get a printable copy of the instructions to use at your workshop.

Feedblitz and National Scrapbooking Month

Hi, Stamping Friends! I'm currently busy rebuilding some back end stuff on the blog after that period of neglect from moving and little boyhood. If you are signed up to follow me by email I believe that I've just successfully managed to moved everything over from the now defunct Feedburner to Feedblitz. I'd REALLY REALLY love it if anyone out there would drop me a comment below to let me know that they actually got this in email instead of on Blog Lovin' or something. Or if you aren't getting it via email, go sign up via the newly fixed (I hope) Follow Me By Email button and tell me that works again. 'Cause I'm a stamper, not a web designer. So I don't want to be all patting myself on the back and eating ice cream while the email feed still isn't working! Thanks, peeps!

Since I didn't have art to share tonight (but I will tomorrow!) I wanted to remind you about this month's $5 scrapbooking kit that CTMH is offering just for the month of May - National Scrapbooking Month! 

Free To Be Me is a super cute collection with 6 exclusive B&T Duos, 2 sheets each UV coated (resist) CS in Teal, Red, and Gold, White Feather printed Vellum, And Gold Foil Polka Dot Vellum...all for just $5! 

CTMH is also offering five awesome discounted bundles of products while supplies last. OK - enough whoo hoos for the sales this month. I'll be back tomorrow with 6 more scrapbook pages. Hugs (and I hope you can see this!)!

Ariana Scrapbook Club Kit

Oh my gosh! I cannot believe how the time is flying! I promised these scrapbook pages like a week ago...life just gets in the way of blogging and scrapping a lot lately. On the bright side, I've unpacked a bunch more boxes and found that missing sewing machine, discovered that I love a good (GF) Moscow Mule, fit in 18 pages over National Scrapbooking Day, and finally hit enough therapy sessions that my chronic neck issues are finally getting back to behaving nicely. Ooh, and I drew the winners for the Bohemian Assortment giveaway. Hooray for Amber, Cathy, and Shannon!

So as promised, here are the 6 pages for the Ariana Scrapbooking kit. Cutting guides and instructions are finishing up lickety split, my awesome scrappin' ladies, so watch those emails!

If you are not in our club but love the pages and want to get the instructions, pop over to my website and order up a kit using the Monthly Memories party open in the bottom right corner. The instructions will be emailed to you in PDF format with full color pics, detailed instructions, and cutting guides to help you create your own sweet Ariana pages! (And if you are a consultant, of course you can use those printable instructions to teach your own workshop, as with any Stamping Rules Kit.)

Oh my goodness I loved working with this paper! If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw me post how little of the chipboard embellies were left after I got done with my dissections and combinations! 

Basic Kit: 

X7179B Ariana Papers

X7179C Ariana Complements (Chipboard)

I Want It All Kit:

X7179B Ariana Papers

X7179C Ariana Complements (Chipboard)

Z1935 Black/Grey Epoxy Bubbles

Z3002 Ariana Assortment Embellies

I also used Slate Ink, Pear or Sweet Leaf Reinker, a water brush or Spray pen, a sanding kit, the quatrefoil embossing folder, and added 2 sheets of White Daisy CS to complete the project as pictured. 

Thanks a  bunch for your patience, sweet stamping ladies...Timberline and Balloon ride are coming right up!