October SOTM Blog Hop, "Sharing the Magic"

Welcome to the holiday season! Yep, that's right, it is time to showcase Close to my Hearts October Stamp of the Month "Sharing the Magic" with it's cute whimsical Santa, snowman, reindeer, Christmas tree and presents.

If you have come here from Kimberly Smiths Blog, you are on the right track. This is circle hop, so when you are finished here, just click on the link at the bottom of my post and keep on hopping till you eventually will see all the artwork. There are lot's of participants again this month, so grab your favorite beverage and your sketch pad and have fun...

I went traditional with my first card. I used two of the B & T papers from the "Mistletoe" paper pack and the Santa, sentiment and string of Christmas light images from the "Sharing the Magic" SOTM. Liquid applique or Santa's suit and fun flock for his beard, eyebrows and mustache. Watercolor pencils to color and I also used some soft chalks to try and add some "glimmer" from the string of lights. Oh and don't forget the new red bling!





The next card is totally different, but I love how it turned out. I used four of our new colors, Lagoon, Pear, Gypsy and Cotton Candy. I used the "Flurry" dimensional elements, clear embossing on the sentiment from "Sharing the Magic" and several sizes of gems to "pretty" it up a little. I cut out a "peek-a-boo" for the sentiment and stamped it in Lagoon on Pear.




Time to head on over to Tammy's Blog to see some more holiday "Magic"
Should you need anything to get going on your holiday crafting, make sure you give me a call or head to my website for 24/7 shopping in the comfort of PJ's and slippers! Have fun....

Some Custom Creations...

Hello again and be careful not to faint since I have actually posted something before the month is up!

A friend of mine, Lucie has requested a couple of custom creations and here is what I came up with.... First, she needed a birthday card for her sister. This birthday is a BIG one so she and her sister are heading to Italy next year to celebrate. She found a card she liked in the "Originals" idea book and I took it from there. I used a downloaded picture of Italy and gold embossed one of the frames from the exclusive convention stamp set around it. This took a lot of masking as I didn't have a frame large enough to fit around the picture. I used chocolate ink to stamp flourishes around two corners of the card front and then used my craft blade to create a cut out frame to see the map that was inside. I really liked the look. Next I created two small tags to include the sentiment and attached them with gold embroidry floss.

Next she needed a wedding card. While she picked out another card from "Originals", I didn't have the ring stamp set, so I bought a ring set in the bridal section at Michaels. I used the Card Commentary stamp set stamped in Pansy Purple and then a piece of the dimesional elements borders and some dry embossing and I think a quite elegant card was finished.

Hope she likes them and I plan to be back soon with the baby cards she requested as well.