Challenge: What's Old Is New

The other day I posed a challenge to myself, and I have to give credit to my children for inspiring it.  They were complaining that they were bored and there was nothing to do.  My typical response to these sorts of complaints is to tell them to go "shopping" in their own closets for toys and crafting items that they haven't used in a long time.  Hey, pot, it's me, kettle!  How many times do I overlook stamps, embellishments, Cricut images, and everything else in my own crafting stash?  Therefore, I decided to create a scrapbooking layout using something I had never used before.

Using my Artistry Cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart, I cut the floral wreath from the Background option (page 21). I have an old school Cricut with physical cartridges, so I don't know the name of this particular image for those of you with digital Cricut machines.  

I cut the wreath out of Green Apple cardstock at 10.75", and then I hoped that the little flower image on that same page would match the flowers in the wreath.  Alas, it did not, so I had to cut the wreath a second time in Peach cardstock and fussy cut them out.  

To add some dimension to the page, I cut more flowers (from the Icon-1 option) in both white cardstock and Peach cardstock.  Close To My Heart's cardstock is two-toned, so one side is a lighter shade than the other side.  My wreath flowers were cut using the lighter shade of Peach, so I made the extra flowers the darker shade.  I popped up several of the flowers with foam tape, added a bunch of sparkle with my Clear Shimmer Brush, and sewed on three heart-shaped wooden buttons.  

I am currently obsessed with the wooden buttons from Close To My Heart!  The package comes with several sizes of both circles and hearts; some of the buttons even have a stitched pattern around the perimeter.  They're amazing!

The "friend" sentiment is from an old Close To My Heart stamp set called Friendship Word Puzzle, and there is a little flower stamp on that set.  Originally I stamped three yellow flowers around the sentiment, but I didn't like them.  To cover them up, I used the little butterfly stamp from the Details I Love stamp set, which is currently available; I also used the three lines from that set to put a spot for journaling at the bottom of my page.  The butterflies are stamped using the rock n' roll technique, and I just love how they are both yellow and pink!  The final touch was splattering some sparkle from my pink Shimmer Brush.  

This challenge really made me think outside of my usual box of tricks, and I am pleased with the final result!  I've had this cartridge for many years and I've used it many times, but I've just never cut out this image (or really any of the fun background cuts) before.  Just like my children, I am delighted to find that something "old" is now new and exciting again!  

If you'd like to see this page come together, please check out my YouTube process video (linked below).  I've linked all available supplies for this project to my Close To My Heart website (hover over the names of the items to find the hyperlink).  If you decide to take on this challenge for yourself, I'd love to see it; please leave a comment or picture below!

Seas the Day: Carpe Diem Scrapbooking Style

I have to admit that I am a little late to the game when it comes to Close To My Heart's Seas the Day paper packet.  Fortunately for me, I recently had an opportunity to play with this paper and its matching sticker sheet, and now that I've fallen completely in love with it, I might have to grab some more before it's totally gone.  It's summer, and I am totally digging this collection for our family's beach scrapbook pages.  This paper collection was from the March-April catalog, but it is still available online...WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!  I am going to have to take the advice of this paper collection's name and Seas the Day!  (You've heard of dad jokes, right?  My students often tease me for what I call my teacher jokes.  This would be one of them!)

I like to scrapbook our family's pictures chronologically, and I was just about to work on a layout for a camping trip that involved a lot of beach days when this paper arrived in the mail.  It felt like a sign, so I immediately got to work.  I used a layout template from the old Close To My Heart pattern book called Imagine.  It called for more pictures than I had to use, but since I loved the paper so much, I decided to let the paper and embellishments take the place of some of the pictures. 

The white and blue water print (with the anchor sticker) on the left page and the journaling spot on the right page were actually supposed to be 3.5" x 4" pictures.  The journaling was supposed to be on strips of paper coming down the left side of the right page.  However, I just replaced one picture spot with my journaling box since those journaling strips would've covered up too much of the beautiful paper (and I was short on pictures anyway).  

This double-page layout came together very quickly, and I give all of the credit to the awesome stickers!  I really didn't have to do much to make these pages special; the stickers and the paper did all of the work for me.  Overall, I was swept away by a tide of love for this paper packet and its matching sticker sheet (yes, that's another teacher joke)!  

This paper packet taught me a lesson, and that is to take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself; if you're lucky, you might get second chances, but that's not a guarantee.  I did get really lucky that this paper collection was still available, even though it's from the previous catalog.  It's always a good idea to Seas the Day!

If you love what you see, please consider clicking on the links for the paper packet or shopping with me at jessicadipzinski.closetomyheart.com.  Thank you for creating with me!

Rock N' Roll Stamping Technique with the CTMH June Stamp of the Month

Hi, everyone!  Wow, is it really June already?  It has been a very busy spring, but here we are already in June!  Every month Close To My Heart offers a full-size stamp set as a Stamp of the Month, and the June stamp is Garden Tags.  It is gorgeous!  In these cards I played around with the rock n' roll stamping technique, stitching, and embossing.  The Heart 2 Heart blog just posted a new challenge for using stitching, so check out their blog for some additional ideas.  Follow along to see how I put these cards together! (All products are linked for easy shopping!)

I made a video that walks through how I stamped and assembled these cards, which you can watch on my YouTube channel (see the link below).  However, I'll also give you the written version!

First, I cut my cardstock, papers from the May-June mix-in paper packet, to the following dimensions: top piece (2" x 4.25"), bottom piece (3.5" x 4.25"), vellum (3" x 3"), and top strip for the vellum (0.5" x 3").  This card pattern is from page 26 of the old Close To My Heart card pattern book called Originals.  

Next, I stamped the tag using the rock n' roll stamping technique.  It gives the stamped image a really fun ombre sort of look but is very easy to do!  

First, choose several ink colors that you'd like to use for your image.  My colors were Sweet Leaf, Juniper, Twilight, and Sapphire.  Arrange them in order from lightest to darkest.  My lightest color was Sweet Leaf, so I stamped the entire image in that color.

The second step is to move on to the next lightest color and gently roll parts of your stamp over the ink pad.  Don't press the entire stamp onto the ink pad or you'll lose that first color!  I like to roll the edges of my stamp over the edges of the ink pad just so that I can control the color coverage.  Continue doing this for your other colors, but remember--move from lighter to darker colors!  Otherwise, you'll ruin your lighter ink pads.  Now STAMP!  If you took a long time getting all of the colors onto your stamp, just huff onto it before stamping; the moisture in your breath will help.  (That sounds so weird, but I promise it's a good tip!)

For this particular card I also added some clear embossing powder, a brad, and a ribbon bow.  I used some DMC embroidery thread to stitch a little vellum pocket to the front of the card, stamped a "thanks" sentiment and popped it up with foam tape, and then edge distressed the entire card with the Sweet Leaf color.  You can see that I used the same rock n' roll stamping technique to put a little something extra on the front of my envelopes, too!  

I had a lot of fun playing with the Garden Tags stamp set, which is available ONLY IN THE MONTH OF JUNE!  There are so many ways that you could create some beautiful tags, cards, and scrapbook page embellishments with this stamp set.  So beautiful!

Here's another tag that I made for a card; this one is stamped entirely in the Sapphire ink, embossed with clear powder, and then sponged with the Sweet Leaf ink.  

I hope you enjoyed this post, and perhaps you even learned something new!  If you try out the rock n' roll technique or use the June Stamp of the Month, please share pictures of your creations in the comments below!