National Stamping Month Blog Hop

Good morning and welcome to our National Stamping Month Blog Hop. At Close to My Heart, we want to celebrate the everyday moments in our lives. Close to My Heart is doing that by offering an amazing exclusive double-stamp set called “It’s Your Day”. This is two D-size stamp sets in one!!

This amazing set has nearly 50 images designed to inspire you to capture your life one day at a time. There are trendy chevron backgrounds, classic images as well as versatile phrases. You can get your own stamp set for only $5 with a qualifying order of $35. This stamp set has a value of $35.90!

We also are happy to announce that one of our consultants, Maria Woodworth, of Maria's Paper Craft Place is offering blog candy. To be eligible to win, please be sure to leave a comment on each blog post and become a follower of her blog. Thanks so much Maria!

We're so excited to be doing this hop and we have a fabulous lineup with some very talented ladies. There will be lots of fun projects.

If you just happened to come to this blog, you should start at the beginning at Lucy's blog - http://www.love2createitall.com

My project is something I had to whip up quickly since it's Friday night and I'm just getting it ready for you to see my creation (a little late, but still before the posting deadline - whew!!)!  I used some daisy white card stock, my Hollyhock Exclusive Inks pad and my new Whisper Exclusive Inks pad, some daubers, bittys (reds assortment), and liquid glass.  And of course the National Stamping Month stamp set.  I chose the zig-zag pattern to have an anchor piece, then I played with the hearts for the message, "I <heart> this life <heart XOXO>"  and added a little embellishment to the front by using my Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to make perfectly matched at 2" and 1.25" hearts  <heart1>.  I also have gotten into making backgrounds with stamps so for this one I used the small plain heart stamp from the stamp set and used the Hollyhock and Whisper stamps in first, second and third impressions (ink once, stamp multiple times) to get some fading effects.

A couple of other techniques I've not tried before that I chose to try here was to use the liquid glass to highlight the first edition of the hearts and also in the message.  I like how it lifts those hearts right up off the cardstock but also learned when you're in a hurry, it's not a great time to try it!  It needs to dry fully between applications so you can build it up fairly thick...  Now the next step is to learn how to use liquid glass to antique it (but that's for another day!)...  Then I tied it all off with a small piece of red bakers twine both across the zig-zag, but also to tie the two Cricut hearts together as the embellishment!  I also used foam tape to pop the message up a bit from the base page...

The other technique I have been trying to master is the 'edge distresser' - I typically use the daubers to make my cardstock look distressed, but trusted myself less just doing it on my own...  but with the CTMH edge distresser - it was a breeze.  Just run the paper through the edge distresser and voila'!!!  Looks like it's been a little used and abused!!  Check out the pic below of the hearts and see how nifty that works!

I like how it turned out - "I think..."  So you'll have to leave me a message or post and tell me if you like it!  I'm still trying to let it grow on me as I learn more and more how to use and demo the Close To My Heart products.  I do hope you enjoy it tho...  It is true that, "I LOVE THIS LIFE" - As a Close To My Heart Consultant!!


The next stop on your blog hop fun is with Bethany who does 'Stamping At Home".  You can click Bethany's name and be on your way to continue the hop.

Here's the entire blog hop lineup in case you get lost along the way:

1.  Lucy ~ http://www.love2createitall.com

2.  Darla ~ http://www.stampingunderdoctorsorders.blogspot.com/

3.  Lori B ~ http://savingmine.blogspot.com/

4.  Amie Kiger ~ http://www.mimimyselfandibykigz.blogspot.com/

5.  Deanne J ~ http://deannestamps.blogspot.com

6.  Jennifer Kramer ~ http://4heartsscrapbooking.blogspot.com/

7.  Carolyn ~ http://www.nuts4scrappin.blogspot.com <-- YOU ARE HERE

8.  Bethany ~ http://stampingathome.blogspot.com <-- Next stop

9.  Eva Friesen ~ http://loveofcreating.blogspot.com

10.  Maria Woodworth ~ http://mariawoodworth.blogspot.com

11.  Julia Hammond ~ http://youcancreatectmh.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope you have enjoyed all of our projects!