January 2013 SOTM Blog Hop

Happy New Year and Welcome to the 2013 January Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  This month the featured stamp of the month is S1301 Happy Valentine's--a set of 7 beautiful images!  Below are the images in this stamp set that is available only thru January 31st.

If you have come here from Helen Onulak's blog you are on the right path! You can find a list of all the participants (in case you get lost) here: http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/p/sotm-blog-hop-list.html  This month we have over 40 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this set. The hop is simple to follow - just click on the link provided in the post to move to the next blog!

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My item is a 4.5" round card made with the new La Belle Vie Workshop on the Go (WOTG) Papers.  This was the first papers I absolutely had to have when this Idea Book first came out and I have been dying to use these papers again! Below is my card:

Used the sketch from yesterday's MojoMonday for fun!

And here is a closer look at the dimensional items of it:

Papers: La Belle Vie WOTG papers; Sweet Leaf, Black & Colonial White cardstocks
Stamps:  S1301 Happy Valentine's; New January Incentive Whooo's Your Valentine
Ink:    Black Exclusive Inks; Blush & Sweet Leaf alcohol markers
Embellishments:  z1762 Clear Sparkles; z1616 Green Collection Ribbon; z1730 Pink Assortment of Buttons; z1089 Black Waxy Flax
Other:  Art Philosophy CTMH Cricket Cartridge; z1352 Circle Cards - 4.5"

Time to hop on over to Laurie Newton's Blog to see her beautiful eye candy! Be sure to visit all the Consultants' Blogs to get some great crafting and other fun ideas! Remember, the SOTM is only available thru January 31st! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for $5!

Happy hopping!

More Workshop Fun

Recently in my last workshop we made adorable Mini Albums with LaBelle Vie Papers.  The real purpose behind the workshop was to teach using the Cricut die cutting machine.  Several years ago, I bought a Pazzles Inspiration die cutting machine (which I LOVE).  That was before Close To My Heart came out with their own Cricut cartridges.  It took me over a year to actually not be afraid to use it (since I had never seen one used).  After CTMH came out with the new cartridge, I bought a little Cricut Create (for $74 which was being discontinued at our local Wal-mart).  Now I use both die cutting machines because I no longer have to hand cut out anything!

As a matter of fact, the super nice thing about the Close To My Heart Stamp sets is that I can scan in the printed acetate sheet the stamps are attached to and create a .pdf file.  Then I turn that into a cutting file for my Pazzles Inspirations die cutting machine.  Wow, I really never have to cut out anything again!

Now, onto the Mini Album.  I started out with these chip board (Dimensional Elements) mini  album pages Z1791 (click to see on my shopping site):

In the mini album I used the LaBelle Vie Exclusive stamp set from the Workshop on the Go:

Here is the Outside Front Cover:

Inside Front Cover and Page 1:

Page 2 & 3:

Page 4 & 5:

Page 6 & Inside Back Cover:

Back Cover:

You can find the Instructions and Cutting Guide here.  In your Cricut Artiste cartridge, all of the mini album pages are on page 60 of your book.

My Mini Album is not quite the same as the Workshop on the Go kit.  I used some old retired papers.  The great thing about the instructions is that you always have room to add your own touches.  So have fun with these instructions.