Moving Back...Going Forward

Hi Friends,
Im currently in the process of migrating all the stamping content from this blog to my original blog home at 
Love Letters Illustrated. I invite you to visit me there.
Thanks,
--Sarah

CTMH Technique Blog Hop - In Love with Vellum

Welcome friends to the CTMH Techniques Blog Hop for February 2018 featuring all we need to know about VELLUM! 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying the inspiration found at each of the nine blogs that are participating in this Hop. Every participating consultant brings something different to the crafty venue in hopes of educating and inspiring you! 

SHOW and TELL with MICHELLE

was your previous stop on the Hop. 

I've been in love with the uses of vellum in Cardmaking and scrapbooking for many years. Incorporating vellum into your projects is pretty simple and yet timeless and fun. 

Let's get to the pictures, shall we?!

First, as always, a scrapbook page. 

I used the piece of vellum to give an offset area behind the pictures and lighten up a small portion of the patterned paper that was used as the background. 

The title is stamped directly onto the vellum using Saphire ink and I used my handwriting for the brief journaling. The title is a stamp from A New Adventure (stamp set of 9) on page 63 of the Annual Inspirations catalog. 

Two notes.

1. Everyone worries about how to secure the vellum in a way that doesn't allow the adhesive to show through. My first choice option is always to create a layer that leaves a hidden area so that the adhesive can be applied under some other element. 

2. Vellum is a fantastic medium for handwritten journaling because you can easily lay it over a sheet of lined notebook paper and write your journaling using the lines to keep everything straight and well-aligned. 

When you're done, simply slide the notebook paper out from under the vellum. 

I'm in love with stars lately and this outlined star image has been getting quiet a lot of use in my projects. It comes to us from a cute stamp set from the Stargazer product suite. 

The Stargazer Suite can 

can be seen here!

I have some young friends who will be graduating from high school in just a few months so I've started working on graduation cards. 

The "reach for the stars" sentiment is another stamp from A New Adventure. 

When using vellum on a card, sometimes the easiest way to attach it is to cut it with extra length and wrap the ends around to the back and secure there, like you probably also do when using ribbon.

I stamped the background using the Constellations stamp set--see Constellations Here. 

For the sentiment, I combined two sentiments from two sets--A New Adventure and Many Congratulations (found on page 56 of the Annual Inspiration catalog) and can be  SEEN HERE. 

For the above card, I used vellum for the card base. (Can you tell? It kinda looks like a gray cardstock.) The key to getting a crisp fold with vellum is scoring. Be sure to score before folding and crease with a bone folder. 

I used quite a few Bitty Sparkles in these projects but they are tricky to photograph. You can never go wrong with bling...am I right?! 

Vellum! There really are so many wonderful crafty qualities about it. You can shop for 12x12 sheets of vellum. RIGHT HERE. 

Thanks for hopping by. The next stop on the February Technique Blog Hop is PAPERCRAFTING WITH REBECCA. by Rebecca Coombs. Enjoy!

Until next time,

--Sarah

Big Bold Flowers

I don't know about you, but I find big bold floral stamps so happy and easy to use! Pair a bold ink color with a big flower and you have all the ingredients for a snappy set of cards. A bold flower grabs attention! 

The Chelsea Garden Scrapbooking set from Close to my Heart has a couple of big bold flowers in it and I'm loving them! I used the full flower with Glacier ink to make a few cards this week. 

Here's the Chelsea Garden Scrapbooking stamp set, available for purchase here! 

By changing up think color, this stamp set could be good for many occasions. I'm seeing it in pink and purple for Easter, red for Independence Day, and a golden yellow for fall! Lots of potential here.

Until next time,

Sarah

CTMH Stamp of the Month - Sunny Thoughts

Welcome friends to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop for February 2018 featuring the lovely Sunny Thoughts stamp set! 

I appreciate you hopping by--this is my first time to participate in the Stamp of the Month Hop. 

This is the Sunny Thoughts stamp set:

Sunny Thoughts (a set of 11 photopolymer stamps) can be yours for just $5 if you place a $50 order during the month of February at my CTMH site. GO SHOPPING HERE! 

I'm sure you enjoyed your stop at Carol Taggio's blog! 

For the Hop, I created a scrapbook page featuring the medallion from the set as the title of my page and papers from the Stargazer Collection. 

Although it's not obvious from the pictures, these photos were taken in the summer while school was out and I wanted that to be reflected in the page. The sun is made using a circle and a bunch of die cut Vs from the Block Alphabet set. There's a slight pattern on the paper from the Stargazer Collection.

These are some of those everyday kind of pictures that I really like to scrapbook. Nothing monumental or earth-shattering here...just ordinary days and little details of life I want to remember. Little boys doing little boy things with fantastic, little boy spirit. 

So your next stop on the Hop is the Blog of Priscilla Gotham. 

To see the entire list of participating blogs, go to Melinda Everitt's blog! 

Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon!

--Sarah

Scrapbooking and Stamping Podcasts

Have you discovered crafty podcasts yet? 

Do you know what a podcast is? Well if you are not quite caught up on these things called podcasts, you are in for some happy discoveries! 

A podcast is basically the modern equivalent of a radio show, without the radio. If you use an iPhone, you can listen to podcasts by clicking on the Podcast icon on your iPhone and searching for subjects that interest you. If you use a smartphone of another persuasion, you will need an app. 

I'm feverishly hunting down crafty podcasts of all types and am making a list. This project will be on-going, so you might want to make a note to check back from time to time. 

Please note that inclusion on this list will be open to podcasts that are 100% solely crafty topics as well as those that are not always on the crafty topic but make an occasional appearance in our world. When needed, I will link to direct episodes.

Scrapbooking Podcasts

The Scrap Gals

(conversations about scrapbooking, memory-keeping and other crafty topics between real-life friends, Tiffany and Tracie. Occasionally guests are interviewed.)

Stamping Podcasts

Papercrafting Podcasts

Dec 2014 Kelly Purkey was interviewed by the host of One Part Podcast Episode 21 

Crafty Podcasts

CTMH Technique Blog Hop - Blushing Backgrounds

So happy Monday to you!

I don't know how the weather is where you are but here in East Texas, people who know about such things have said we might get a few flakes of snow so things are a little crazy here! If we are blessed with snow tonight, I might get to actually use some of those many snow embellishments and papers I've been holding on to for years! That will be fun!

So welcome hoppers to the CTMH Techniques Blog Hop for January 2018. This hop's theme is *Blushing Backgrouds*. That's right. We are featuring ways to use stamps to create fabulous backgrounds. Whether you use a regular stamp or a stamp that is designed to be a background, you know you'll always have many options for creative stamping with your Close to my Heart stamps! 

The previous stop on the Hop is the fabulous work of  REBECCA COOMBS. 

Below is my contribution to the Hop. I used alphabet stamps to make a bold, statement background. This particular alphabet is MARKER ALPHABET and includes letters, numbers and punctuation. 

MARKER Alphabet Here

This is the Marker Alphabet. In my opinion, nothing say "cupcake" more solidly than Bashful Pink, so I paired the bold black and white background with the softness of Bashful Pink cardstock. Have you seen the Bashful Pink cardstock, ink, ink refill, pearls, shimmer brush, albums and glitter paper? 

SEE ALL THE BASHFUL HERE.

In the lower left, you'll notice the circle tag. This is a new item in the Seasonal Expressions catalog but we've already been told it will carry forward to next year. I'm glad because circle tags are universally usable! This tag set includes Dies in four sizes--this is the largest one. I used the cupcake from the Sweet Birthday set and the flower from Chelsea Gardens to build this tag embellishment. 

You may have noticed a little bit of patterned stamping on the lower portion of the cupcake. I used the texture pattern on the seed envelope stamp in this month's Bloom and Grow Stamp of the Month to add some delicate texture to the frosting. 

This is Bloom and Grow, which you can purchase for $5 this month, with a $50 order. 

I hope you will continue to join the Hop as you move to ANNEMARIE JULIAN'S Blog. She has fabulous artwork for you to enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by,

--Sarah

Start with the Story - January Chelsea Gardens

More than the paper, more than the pretty, more important than even the pictures, scrapbooking for me, is about the story.  In this new year, I want my stories to be the focus and it's my personal goal to do a few pages each month that feature stories I want to preserve. 

Every month, Close to my Heart consultants from around the world focus collectively on the uses of a single product suite. If you are a user of Instagram, you definitely want to go to Instagram and search for #ctmhchelseagardens to see a world of fascinating projects featuring January's Chelsea Gardens product suite. 

As you know, each product collections comes with a pack of Compliments. Complements are diecut cardstock stickers and light chipboard diecut shapes and words, all intended to be used as embellishments. The Chelsea Gardens Compliments look like this: 

I am forever looking for ways to mix up the words in the Complement packs to make them say more (they tend to be somewhat generic) but today I went with cutting out the word "portrait" and incorporating just the diecut word Family onto my page. I like this font because it's easy to read (but still scripty) and I like the color--it's a deep gray instead of the standard black. 

Here's my page--

There are quite a few gray patterns in Chelsea Gardens--I'm loving these. 

So I made a list of possible titles that can be used with the prominent words in the Chelsea Gardens Compliments...

I encourage you to look beyond the obvious with these titles and dig down to the heart of the story. Preserve that. 

Remember, the story doesn't have to be 7 superbly-written highly-detailed paragraphs. Sometimes the story is just a simple thought.

If you want to see the Chelsea Gardens Workshop Your Way pack, 

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

 Stay warm, my friends!

--Sarah