Shimmer, Sparkle, and Shine ~ Stampers With An Attitude (Blog Hop)

This month, the "Stampers With An Attitude" blog hop participants are going to Shimmer, Sparkle, and Shine!        

If you have come here from Pamela's 'Reflections of My Art & Soul' blog, you are on the right path!  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!

If you miss someone's birthday, adding some "Shimmer, Sparkle, and Shine" to a belated card should make up for the oversight.  A fun animal print from the Laughing Lola kit is used as a background for a sentiment from the Belated Birthday stamp set.  A piece of Black Glitter Paper is used to mat the sentiment and new Purple Shimmer Trim  adds a pop of color.  For even more shine, a Black Sparkles Flourish was added along with purple sparkles on the sentiment tag.   

The inside is finished with a strip from Laughing Lola and a sincere sentiment from the Belated Birthday set. 

Now "Hop" on over to 'Barbi's Paper Creations' to see how she "simmers, sparkles, and shines." 

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Happiness and Sunshine

Today's card was created following the sketch on the Mojo Monday blog (MOJO331), along with a 'love' theme for the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog. 

Patterned papers and cardstock are from the Laughing Lola kit, with a sentiment from the Give a Lift stamp set.  The arrows image in the background is in the new Flight of the Arrows, which is a great stamp set for adding interest to your stamped creations.  To add a bit of pizazz, some hearts were cut from Glitter Paper using the Art Philosophy cartridge and a piece of Teal Shimmer Trim follows the path of the arrows.  

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Create & Share ~ Paper Flowers

Completed the fourth lesson in the Create & Share Cardmaking workshop offered at Big Picture Classes.  The challenge for this week is to create "thinking of you" or sympathy cards.  In this lesson, we also learned how to create flowers using paper scraps.     

For this card, the sentiment is from the 4 My Friend stamp set and the papers are in the Huntington kit.  Hearts were cut using the Artiste cartridge.  There are two of each heart; one is flat on the card and the other was folded in half before attaching so that there is a bit of dimension.  The 'straight stitch' image is from the Stitch Wonder stamp set.  It was used in the center of the hearts, and then placed on the clear block with a slight curve to create the flower stem.  

Love the color combo of this card using papers from the Laughing Lola kit.  The flower petals were created using a 2" scallop circle punch.  Each circle was folded into fourths and then adhered to the card, giving the flower some dimension.  A two-part sentiment from the Card Chatter-Sympathy stamp set was used with the "coming your way" finishing line on the inside of the card.  Normally I do not like 'naked' buttons and always thread some twine through the holes or cover with a Sparkle, but this button looked best just plain.  

Used papers from the Laughing Lola kit again for this card.  D'vine Swirl embossing folder was used to add texture to the bottom of the card and two bird images were cut using the Artiste cartridge and then layered on the card.  This sentiment is also included in the Card Chatter-Sympathy stamp set.  

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Album Retreat ~ Capture the Details

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, then you saw lots of photos posted last month when I attended Close To My Heart's Album Retreat in Salt Lake City.  It was a wonderful weekend spent with friends, creating fabulous scrapbook pages designed by CTMH featuring the Artbooking Cricut cartridge.  

As they did with the Album Retreat in March (see my completed pages), CTMH sent a "homework" assignment a few weeks prior with specific themes and sizes for photos and journaling on each page.  For this event, they even printed the photos and journaling for us.  Completing the "homework" included uploading photos into Studio J and placing them into a specially-designed template so that all photos were automatically sized to the correct proportions.  Using the 'No Limits' pattern in Studio J is a great way to print photos of any size since you can create an entire two-page layout of just different size photo wells.  Since each two-page layout is only $6.95, this is a very economical way to print non-standard size photos.  

Each of the pages that we created is very detailed and includes multiple cuts from the Artbooking cartridge as well as papers from different paper packets with a mixture of embellishments and stamp sets. 

For the cover page, a black & white 5¼" x 4" photo was suggested.  Texture was added to the Colonial White background by spritzing a mixture of Slate reinker and water using a Spray Pen.  Stamp sets used for this page include All the Details, along with both the Take Note and My Life stamp sets which are included in the Artbooking Circuit Bundle.  Patterned papers are from the Laughing Lola and Frosted kits.  Click on the photo for an enlarged view.      

Be sure to follow my blog to see all of the completed pages.  In addition to the cover page, there are ten 2-page layouts which I will be sharing throughout the month. 

• Capture the Details (cover page)
• Hello World
• The Sweet Life
• Real Life Story
• Just Chillin'
• Today is a Good Day
• Looking for Adventure
• Hello
• 10 Things I Love
• On This Day
• My Happy Place

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Illuminate (November SOTM Blog Hop)

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop which features the Illuminate stamp set from Close To My Heart.   When you place a minimum order of $50 during November, you will have the opportunity to purchase the Stamp-of-the-Month, Illuminate, for only $5!  This stamp set contains 15 images:  a light pole, several lanterns, a candle, 'glow rings' around the candle flame, and some nice sentiments.  

For some inspiration, I found the RetroSketches blog and used "retrosketches #87" as the template for this card.  It also qualifies for the "Lots of Layers" challenge on the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog this month. 

If you have come here from Jen's Roxybonds blog, you are on the right path!  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!  

Laughing Lola papers were used for this card, but the papers are completely different than the plaid and purple colors used for the Scandinavian Wishes and Poster Tidings cards created for the two previous SOTM stamp sets with the Laughing Lola papers.  The Laughing Lola paper pack has been very versatile for different projects.

The lamp post and lanterns from the Illuminate stamp set are fun stamps to play with.  A stamp from the Swirls Around set is used to add a bit of texture to the Gold cardstock strip.  In order to simulate the feeling of sparkling lights, some Glitter Paper in both tan and black are used as layers on the card.

A row of lights was stamped on the inside of the card and on the envelope flap to complete the "illuminate" theme.

Now "Hop" on over to Wanda's 'Creating With Inks, Paper, Stamps and Bling!!!' blog to see her work.  Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas.  

For a complete list of Blog Hop participants for this month, visit Melinda's 'If You Bling It' blog.  

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355

Scandinavian Wishes (October SOTM Blog Hop)

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop which features the Scandinavian Wishes stamp set from Close To My Heart.   When you place a minimum order of $50 during October, you will have the opportunity to purchase the Stamp-of-the-Month, Scandinavian Wishes, for only $5!  This stamp set contains 12 images, including 4 shapes which are shown with a red outline which indicates that they can be cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge.    

If you have come here from Michelle's 'Scrappy Hour' blog, you are on the right path!  With over 50 creative Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their projects, you will see a variety of uses for this stamp set.  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!

For the September SOTM, I created a Holiday card with very non-traditional colors using the Laughing Lola paper kit and did the same with this October SOTM.  The house image was cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge and then stamped using Scandinavian Wishes.  The layout of the card is taken from the new Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 which features 16 2-page layout patterns, 2 single-page patterns, as well as 12 different card patterns - all for only $7.95.  As a finishing touch, some Sparkles were added to the stamped images.

To complete the interior of the card, a piece of Laughing Lola Gold was stamped with the sentiment from Scandinavian Wishes along with the border stamp.

Now "Hop" on over to Mary's '..... me stamp 2 .....' blog to see her work!  Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas!  

For a complete list of Blog Hop participants for this month, visit Kathleen's Life's Like a Bowl of Stamps blog.  

All papers and stamps are from Close To My Heart (CTMH).

	Sheila Bennett Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (913) 485-4355