Happy Birthday - H2H favourite stamp challenge

Happy Monday!

It is time for some more artwork and this time it is not school related...YIPPPEEE!

I had some friends over the other night and I got to work on some scrapbook projects. For this weeks Heart 2 Heart challenges this week the challenge is to use your favourite stamp set on your project. This one was a bit more challenging than I had originally thought it would be; I have so many favourites!

I chose to use a couple of images from some of my favourites. From the stamp set D1506 Family Love I used the saying "Family...together we have it all." I just love that line because really without our families we are nothing. From the set D1407 Piece of Cake, I used one of the birthday cakes, I just love these dainty pretty cakes. The last stamp set I used is C1429 Party Pennants. I used this on the cute little pennants and the Happy Birthday. I love that it is a Dainty set and works so well with the sweet cake. 

Products used:

Paper:

• Card stock: Colonial White, Indian Corn Blue, and Barn Red
• Grace (retired)

Stamps

• C1429 Party Pannants (retired)
• D1407 Piece of Cake (retired)
• D1506 Family Love (retired)

Ink:

• Barn Red
• Honey
• Indian Corn Blue

What is your favourite stamp set? Let us see your work over at Heart 2 Heart challenges this week!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, happy scrapping!

Brandi

Nautical Dad - H2H Challenges

Hello and happy Monday to you! It is time for another Heart 2 Heart challenge and this week it is all about being So very Nauti(cool)! It is time to dust off your nautical themed supplies and show us what you got. 

When I thought Nautical I instantly thought of Tommy, a retired CTMH paper pack. I had a few scraps left floating around (get it, floating around?) and decided they would be perfect for this nautical theme. I decided to go with a Father's day card as my dad was in the US Navy and while his military service did not define his life, it did shape him to be the man he turned out to be and that is an awesome man, father, grandfather and he must be a pretty great husband too as he was with my mom for 30 years until she passed and just celebrated his 20th anniversary with my step mom so I will take that as evidence he must be a good husband too!

Anyways, onto the project, bring on the card, show me the card...he he he. As I mentioned, this card is made with Tommy (retired), Cranberry card stock and ink, and C1571 You're the best stamp set. I purposely turned the banners up a bit to make it look like they are flapping in the wind. A simple card but I think the colours make it rather striking. 

I really hope you will join us and play along at H2H this week (remember challenges are monthly not weekly so you do have some time to play along with all the May challenges!

Thanks for stopping by!

Brandi

Clearly the Best Monday - Dauber Dynamite!

This is one of my favourite techniques! I love the rainbow affect that is achieved when using the sponge daubers to ink a stamp. I have used this on some cards that were previously posted (I have reposted one below). 

And here is the card I made a while ago with this technique. 

The Supplies:

From CTMH:

• White card stock (green was white that was coloured with a brayer)
• Sky cardstock
• Ink - Sky and Pear

Non Close To My Heart

• Old TLC paper from a company that is no longer in business.
• Ribbon is Jaffery from Michaels

Until next time, Happy Scrapping!

Brandi

Pucker Up

I have a friend who is going through a bit of a tough time right now and so I wanted to make a card to show her how much I care about her, show her that we are thinking of her and mostly to make her laugh, even if just for a minute. I knew I had the perfect stamp set, it is one of my newest ones from Close to my Heart called Pun Fun and it has the funniest sayings and the cutest and sweetest pictures. Also the saying are a wee bit sarcastic which fits my personality perfectly, except I can be quite sarcastic!

I really hope she gets a kick out of this card, I know I had fun making it!

Supplies Used:

Paper:
- Dotty for you 
- Gray Card stock (manufacturer unknown)
- White Daisy card

Stamp:
- Pun Fun

Ink:
- Black

Other:
-Cricut Cartridge - Artiste
- Die-namics Cheveron Die (MFT - My Favorite Things)
- Water Colour pencils
- Water Colour blending pen


Until next time, Happy Scrapping....
Brandi

Clearly the Best Monday - Organize your stash!

I am super excited to get my hands on our new organizer. I have the medium and will be getting the small soon too. I absolutely love it. Brian from the Close to my Heart corporate office tells us all about this great organization tool. I hear a large one that will hold 45 stamp sets is due out after the first of the year (so hoping that the rumours are true!)




This would make an awesome Christmas, Birthday or Anniversary present for any serious crafter. If you would like more information or to order your own, just let me know. I am always here to help!

Until next time, Happy Scrapping!
Brandi

Gotcha Banner

October is a very special month for our family, it is in October that we "got" our girls through adoption. To celebrate the day that our family came together we celebrate "Gotcha" day. I wanted to make something that we could use to commemorate the day and well there are not to many "Gotcha" day decorations. I made this in fall themes and colours because we got them in the fall. I thought of doing a kid themed one but then they will outgrow it but "Gotcha" day will always be in the fall. I also happen to love the fall and all the great colours of fall so I was a bit selfish and did something I would like.

It has been one wonderful year for our family and I am looking forward to many many more "Gotcha" days over the years. 

Supplies Used:

Paper:
- Recollections paper pack from Michaels
- White Daisy Card stock

Stamp Sets:
- Hit the Spot
- Many Thanks

Ink:
- Creme Brulee
- Saddle
- Cashmere

Cricut Cartridges:
- Art Philosophy
- Mickey Font 

Embellishments:
- Fall Harvest Leaves (retired)

All Products are from Close to my Heart except the Recollections Paper Pack and the Mickey Font Cricut Cartridge.


Until next time, Happy Scrapping!
Brandi

Clearly the Best Monday - Two Tone Stamping

Clearly the best is a new video series that has been released recently by the Close to My Heart Corporate office to help showcase the great products offered by Close to my Heart through their independent consultants such as myself. I will be featuring a new video each Monday to help demonstrate our great products to you. 

Today's video features a variety of two tone stamping techniques that will take your paper crafting to a new level and you are sure to have fun with. 




If you have any questions, please do not hesitate contacting me for further assistance. 

Until next time, Happy Scrapping!
Brandi

Halloween Treat Boxes

It is Halloween time and time to start working on those Halloween treats for the little ones. This year I have 2 little ones with Halloween parties at school so I was looking for something quick and easy to throw together for them so I thought of sour cream tubes. They are super quick and easy and lots of fun for the kids. 

I decided that I did not like any of the papers out there that I found and wanted something fun and whimsical for younger kids so I used Close to my Hearts Spook Alley stamp set and started random stamping. I used various Copic Markers to colour it in and my Liquid Glass to seal them. 

Here is the paper before I began cutting it all up to make the sour cream tubes. 

Once you have your paper ready, all you need to do is cut it in half so that you have two strips that are 6 X 12. Then take each of those and cut them into 
4 X 6 rectangles. You will be able to get 6 sour cream tubes for each 12 X 12 sheet of paper. 

Next you want to make a tube, you will need a strong adhesive to hold it. I used Liquid Glass. Once you have your circular tube you will flatten each end of the tube and seal it (again with a strong adhesive). Make sure you alternate the ends to get the sour cream tube effect. You will notice that one end of mine does not appear to be sealed and that is because it is not, I have not put the goodies into it yet!

If you have a crimper, you can crimp the ends to give it more dimension and the appearance of a true sour cream tube. 

Products used:

Cardstock:
- White Daisy

Stamp Set:
- Spook Ally

Ink:
Memento Black

Copics:
- YR04
- RV93
- Y15
- V06
- B24
- BG10
- E23
- R59
- G05
- BV29

Adhesive:
Liquid Glass

* All products are Close to my Heart except the Memento Ink and the Copic Markers. 

I really hope you enjoy these cute little treat boxes!

Have a wonderful Halloween with your little ghosts and ghouls!
Brandi

Bend it, Curve it, Stamp it!

I have never been shy about saying how much I love the Close to my Heart product line and below is a video showing one of the many reasons I love the My Acrylix stamps. The are see through, you can bend, curve and do all kinds of things with them. Let your imagination run wild. 

I hope you enjoy the video below and as always, if you have any questions. You can reach me at crzy4scrapbooking@yahoo.com



Until next time, Happy Scrappin!
Brandi

Pumpkin Patch

I know I have already posted pictures of the girls carving their pumpkins, now here is the pictures of the layout from our trip to the pumpkin patch. I am not sure if this was a first for them or not, but they sure did have a blast. 

Supplies used:

Paper

- Cardstock Bazzill Bling (brown shade not sure of the exact colour)

- Cardstock Bazzill Bling (orange)

- Patterned Paper - Once again I am not 100% but I believe it is My Minds Eye,

  but do not quote me on that. I am looking for the notes or the spare piece I 

  have of this but have not been able to locate it, when I do I will update.

Stamp Set

- October Word Puzzle (retired) - Close to my Heart 

Ink

- Autumn Terracotta - Close to my Heart

Thanks for stopping by...until next time...

Happy Scrappin,

Brandi

Happy (belated) Father's Day!

Sorry for the delay in posts but I am just getting back into the swing of things after being away at a cottage for 9 glorious days with the family. It was our first official family vacation together and while it had its challenges, we had a great time and are eagerly awaiting our next holiday in the Fall!


So now it is time to get my craft on again. I am going through scrapbook withdrawals big time and have some many projects that I want to work on but time seems to just be so limited when you have 3 little ones under the age of 5 so I just need to find the time and get some me time in one way or another. 


So anyhoots, Father's Day...this is a new one to me, making Father's Day cards for my husband. This was his first Father's day and I wanted to do something special for him. He has recently taking up fishing and is loving it so I wanted to honour his new hobby along with his new status as a "daddy" and came up with this card.

Now I will be honest, I did not think up this idea, I had seen several of these before and even made a similar one for Father's Day a few years ago in orange to symbolize Home Depot vests since that is my Father in Law's all time favorite store, so this is so not an original idea, just a different take and there are many different types of vests out there if you look. My husband just loved the card and I had each of our girls colour a fish I had cut out for them to decorate and by far, those were the highlight for my husband...fisheys from his girls. 


Supplies used:
Cardstock: 
- brand unknown (sorry was in my stash and did not have a manufacturer on it but it was a light tan colour.


Ink: 
Chocolate by Close to my Heart


Stamp: 
- Worlds Greatest Day (retired) Close to my Heart
- Fishing Pole by Stampabilities
- Simple Stitches (retired) Close to my Heart


Thanks for stopping by, until next time...


Happy Scrappin...
Brandi

New Classes posted!

On August 1st the new idea book for Close to my Heart goes live and there are some AMAZING projects for this new idea book and I can not wait to share them with you. I have updated the classes & workshops page with information on the workshops for September and October. Also coming is an Advent Calendar (so cute!), Christmas cards, and many more scrapbooking layouts.

As always if there is a technique you and your friends are looking to learn, just let me know and we can put together a workshop for you!

Here is a Sneak Peak but to get the full story head on over to my classes and workshops pages:

Let me know if you have any questions....I am happy to answer them!

Happy Scrappin!
Brandi

Florentine Bookmark

If you are like me you are settling into your summer routine nicely and enjoying the great albeit warm weather. For me part of that settling into summer is finding a good book to read. There only one thing I enjoy more than sitting outside in the warm sun reading and that is scrapbooking.

This corner bookmark was created for a make & take for a crop that I was a vendor at recently. It was very easy to do, I was very happy with how quickly they came together. I do need to share credit as this is not an original idea, my inspiration was Beate Johns and here is the link to her tutorial (video included but it is so easy you will be shocked!) http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/cornerbookmark/

Supplies used:

Paper
 - Florentine by Close to my Heart
- Colonial White cardstock by Close to my Heart

Ink
- Garden Green by Close to my Heart

Stamped Images
- Believe in yourself is from the Florentine Workshop on the Go
- Dragon fly is from the Pemberly Workshop on the Go

Other tools used:
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge for the scalloped edge
Score Pal tool for scoring the folds.

I hope you are enjoying your summer reading list and hope this helps keep your place in your book beautifully!

Until next time, Happy Scrappin
Brandi

Teacher Appreciation

My oldest started Kindergarten this year so that means I am now in the business of making teacher appreciation gifts. This is a first for me and I had no idea what to do, I did not know my daughters teacher all that well to know what her hobbies were and such, so I decided to give her something I never have enough of on hand...Cards! Yes, even as a paper crafter I never seem to have enough cards on hand when I need them.

I figured the most needed cards are Thank You and Birthday cards, so I made a variety of them for her teacher. I hope you like them, I had a blast making them.

Here is a group shot of the cards:

The Thank you card

And the Birthday cards

Supplies used:

Paper: Dotty for you by Close to my Heart
Ink:
- Copic Markers
   - YG67, YR09, YR07, YR04, E23, E25, and Y15
- Memento black
Ribbon
- unknown from Michaels



I hope you enjoy the cards.

Until next time, happy scrapping!
Brandi

Stampganza! It is back!

After a 3 year hiatus (I believe it has been that long) it is back. Stampganza time is here and only for the month of June! What is Stampganza you ask. Only one of the greatest sales ever! For every 2 stamps sets, get one of equal or lesser value for free! That is it...buy 2 get 1. How cool is that? I say it is time to stock up!

Don't forget the Stamp of the month, you can get that for only $5.00 if you spend over $50.00!

What are you waiting for? Get on over to my website and start shopping, I know I am!

No fooling, it is April already!

Can you even believe that it is April 2012 already? I still remember all the fuss and panic of Y2K and now we are 12 years and 4 months later...where on earth does the time go? That is the million dollar question for sure!

April brings up a new Close to my Heart Stamp of the Month and a great new constant campaign. Lets start with the constant campaign...Dotty for You.

Close to my Heart is releasing an exclusive paper pack for National Scrapbooking month but is letting us get our hands on it in April. Dotty is just awesome, just great spring colours and fun yet simple patterns that will work with just about any project you can imagine.

There are three ways to get this exclusive Dotty for You paper packet, valued at $19.95:

• Place an order of $35 or more in products from the Spring/Summer 2012 Idea Book between April 17 and May 31, and add the Dotty for You paper packet for just $5*.
• Host a Gathering with a sales total of $400 or more (excluding tax, shipping/handling, and Operation Smile^® donations) between April 17 and May 31 and receive a Dotty for You paper packet FREE.
• Join Close To My Heart as a new Consultant between April 1 and May 31 and receive a Dotty for You paper packet FREE!

Free sounds great to me!

As always, Close to my heart features a stamp set that is only available during that month and this month it is You Are.... and this set is so versatile that it can be used for cards, layouts, 3D projects, just about anything that you can imagine. To get this great set you can purchase it for $17.95 or if you place an order of $50.00 or more (before shipping and taxes) you can get it for only $5.00, what a deal!

If you have any questions about either, just reach out to me at crzy4scrapbooking@yahoo.com

Happy Scrapping :)

Brandi

Time is running out!

I have been a Close to My Heart independent consultant since 2008 and have loved every minute of it. I did drop off as a consultant during this year due to some personal things that were keeping me busy...going through adoption classes and meetings and all that fun stuff then meeting our 3 darling adorable daughters that we are in the process of adopting. I knew I would rejoin CTMH as soon as I could, with 3 girls I would have a lot of scrapbooking inspiration. Well a friend told me of this months promotion with CTMH and I had to take it, it is a deal beyond deals.

This month, anyone signing up with CTMH gets the exclusive Close to my Heart Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, 3 exclusive D sized stamp sets and 3 sets of our Dimension elements, all of this normally retails for $99.00 but is free to all new consultants who sign up in the month of March.

Why is this deal so great? The starter kit is normally $99.00 on its own and it comes with all the business supplies and crafty supplies to get you started on your CTMH journey. The starter kit has a retail value of $288.00 and you get it all for $99.00...that is awesome if you ask me! Then add into that great offer that this month you get the Cricut Art Philosophy and all it comes with for free....a deal that can not be beat. It surely was a deal I could not pass up.

I am thrilled to be back, I was only gone for 2 short months but they were the longest months. I missed checking out all the creativity of the fellow consultants on our exclusive art work message boards and the friendship of everyone, CTMH is more like a family than a business. If you have been thinking about it now is the time, I highly recommend it, just head on over to my website and or contact me with any questions....You will not be sorry you did it!

Recipe Swap

I have been wanting to do a scrapbook of some of my favourite recipes for a while now and just have not had the time. A friend of mine suggested a bunch of us do a recipe swap and of course I jumped at the chance to participate for a couple of reasons. First one of the 2 recipes had to be a slow cooker recipe and I am always looking for more great recipes to do in my slow cooker and second, I was hoping this would jump start my own recipe scrapbook.

Recipe 1 - Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Sandwich
Paper: CTMH White Daisy and Black Cardstock and Notebook.

Recipe 2 - Lemon Cake
Paper: CTMH White Daisy Cardstock and Boom Di Ada
Stamp: Doodle Alphabet
Ink: Sweet Leaf
Ribbon: Offray