July SOTM Blog Hop - Live Out Loud

Welcome to our July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring S1207 Live Out Loud, a set of 8 beautiful stamps that speak out!  The images are below and you can click to see details:

If you have come here from Helen Onulak's Blog, you are on the right path!  You can find a list of all the participant's in case you get lost here: http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/p/sotm-blog-hop-list.html

This month we have almost 60 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. Blog 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!

Now "Hop" on over to Beth Naumann's blog to see her beautiful eye candy! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the SOTM is only available until July 31st!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for $5!

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Below is one of the ways I decided to use this stamp set by making a Standard size card (4.5 x 5.25).  You can click photo to see better detail:

Below are pictures of more detail showing the greeting piece and butterfly cut from the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge:

Supplies:

Papers: Florentine WOTG papers;  Cocoa, Colonial White and Twilight cardstock

Stamps: S1207 Live Out Loud
Ink:  Cocoa, Twilight Exclusive Ink

Embellishments:  z1333 Mocha Opaques Adhesive Gems; Prisma Glitter; Colonial White Designer Ribbons Collection (ret.)

Other:  Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge by CTMH; Sizzix embossing folder

Now hop on over to Beth's Blog by clicking the block below:

Elegant sponged cards

I really love some of the beautiful bulky cards I see people make but I always wonder how they are going to mail those cards.  Today, I am presenting some elegant single layer sponged cards.  The first time I saw these all I could say was WOW!  I saw them on Melinda Everette's blog and she saw them on Heather Telford's blog.  My rendition of those cards are below.  I did 8 card combinations (because this was my monthly workshop).  I wanted everyone to have colors to choose from and wanted to give everyone a variety of images to work from.  If you are like me, I always want to make what I see!  Attendees got to make 6 of the 8 cards.  It was a customer appreciation workshop!

CTMH colors used:  Sunflower, Sunset and Cranberry

CTMH colors used:  Blush, Petal and Gypsy

CTMH colors used:  Creme Brulee, Desert Sand, Chocolate

CTMH colors used:  Sweet Leaf, Topiary, Moonstruck

CTMH colors used:  Heavenly Blue, Sky, Dutch Blue

CTMH colors used:  Sunny Yellow, Sunflower, Orange (retired)

CTMH colors used:  Grey Flannel, Grey Wool, Black

CTMH colors used:  Sunny Yellow, Pear, Lagoon

Every time I finished one of these cards, I kept thinking "This is my favorite color combo."  "No, this is my favorite color combo."  But I just love all of them for two reasons:  they look elegant and can be easily mailed!

2012 Teacher Gifts

My two granddaughters, Mikayla and Hannah, have been blessed with some amazing teachers. So, we decided that some teacher gifts were in order to tell them how much they are/were appreciated!  The first photo shows the gift bag, bottled water (says "Thank You for quenching my thirst for knowledge" with crystal light holder, box of 9 Hershey chocolate nuggets and a thank you card:

Next photo is a close up of the Thank You card which was featured here before for the February Stamp of the Month:

Below the inside of the card where my granddaughter's wrote their own heartfelt message to their teachers.  Oh and also shown is the pen that goes with the gift set:

Next, not shown previously in any of the pictures is the popcorn package with poem:

Next is a close up of the bottled water displaying the Crystal Light holder:

Here is a close up of the Nugget Box containing 9 Hershey Nuggets in a 3x3 configuration:

Last is a photo close up of the gift bag:

All instructions for everything except the bag (because it all depends on the size you select) can be found on an earlier post here.  I added a pen.  The see-thru pen is by Pentel RSVP.  I used a piece of decorative paper 1/2" x 3 and rolled it tightly around the ink well and then pushed it into the pen (not an easy task).

The featured papers were from the Lucy Workshop on the Go (WOTG) using Grey Wool, Hollyhock, and colonial white cardstocks.