April SOTM Blog Hop! CTMH Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

Hey there!  Welcome to Close To My Heart's April "Stamp of the Month" Blog Hop!  Did you get here from Lori's blog?  If not, just keep hoppin' and you'll come around to it full circle. 

For those of you that live in the frozen tundra, you will love this stamp set, as it's a peek into spring!  When I saw this window scene, I just knew I had to make a little awning to shade the view!

The name of the April Stamp of the Month is "Flower Pot", and there are lots of little flower pots, window boxes, and different species of flowers to color!  Fun, fun, fun!  I used Topstitch papers and CTMH markers for the card.

This set also makes perfect little note cards. I used CTMH glitter rub-ons on the second card - obviously, I chose the red glitter sheet, although these rub-ons allow you to choose silver or gold as well!


Contact your CTMH independent consultant to purchase this stamp set only in April, or get it free with purchase!  If you don't have a consultant, you can get it now on my site.  Now hop on over (like a little Easter bunny!) to my friend Katy's blog for more flowery goodness!

Deb

Veranda Chipboard Album CTMH Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

Happy weekend!  Where have I been?  Well, sorta down in the dumps.  Unfortunately, I had to use all three of those sympathy cards (from my last post) in one week.

I was expecting to use one, and the second was a possibility but I was hoping not, but the third......so sad.  The 18-yo son of a workmate was killed in a one-car accident, just a block or two from home.  So now his dad  has to drive by the site every day.  It's unimaginable and so so sad.  It really puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

So my mojo has been down in the dumps.  I just haven't had the desire to start anything new, but give me time....I'll get to it!

In the meantime, I'm thinking about following my friend Kathi's lead by doing a little blog maintenance.  My friend Amelia is having a new blog headers designed for me as a birthday gift - how awesome is that!  So I'm looking forward to a clean, fresh look!

So I thought I would share my "most favorite" project thus far.  I created this album for my mom for Mother's Day this year from CTMH's Veranda paper pack, our chipboard album and a few accessories (remember those filigree charms I love?  They're in there!).  This is also one of the projects that I e-mailed to Spellbinders when I applied to the Design Team. 

These are the inside pages - you can click on the images to enlarge them.  I believe I used four different stamp sets, but you could certainly improvise (but why would you want to?  wink).

Thanks for stopping by and listening to my ramblings.  Be sure to stop by Thursday for our April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - it will be a little taste of spring!

Deb

Three challenges, one theme, one paper and a broken booby! Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

I finally plopped down in my studio last night and created three simple sympathy cards from one paper pack - DCWV's La Creme - one of my favorites that isn't CTMH.  To make it even simpler, I searched my bookmarked sites for three sketch challenges.  The result is three cards in less than an hour and a half - probably a record for me...ha!

First I used Jen's SFYTT (Sketch For You To Try).


RECIPE:

Paper:  DCWV La Creme, CTMH Black Cardstock
Stamp: Flourishes
Ink:  Versafine Black
Accessories: CTMH FLower, DCWV La Creme Flower







Next I used Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch this week - Mojo130.  I probably should have put something behind the pearl (in the center of the flower)....may go back and do that.


RECIPE:

Paper:  DCWV La Creme, CTMH Black Cardstock
Stamp: Verve
Ink:  Versafine Black
Accessories:  CTMH Flower, CDWV La Creme Paisley
Tools: Fiskars Scallop Punch


Notice a theme here?  I'm using the same supplies, just mixing them up a bit.  


Then I had to search a little more and came up with a sketch from a site that is new to me - SkippingStonesDesign.

I really love the sketch, and I just changed it up a tiny bit by placing my ribbon horizontally rather than vertically.  This was not a design choice, but necessitated by my poor stamping at the bottom of the panel!  You can probably see where I messed up my leaves (covered by the bow and charm) if you click on the image.


RECIPE:

Paper;  DCWV La Creme, CTMH Black Cardstock
Stamps: Verve
Ink:  Versafine Black
Accessories: CTMH Ribbon, Dollar Store Charm
Tools: Fiskars Scallop Punch


Now.  About the broken booby.  I am a klutz and always in a hurry, not watching where I am going...you get the idea.  So I fell, good and hard!  Bruised knees, forearms, trunk, ego......and for the first time, bruised booby!  Yep, it is so big (the bruise - tee hee) that it looks like someone threw a cantaloupe a my chest at 50 mph.  Oh, the agony!  Oh, the pain!  Oh, the humiliation!!!  The worst part is that I can't show anyone, so you have to take my word for it!!!

Good grief.  

Deb

 

Too pooped to post! Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

Oh, Lord.  I cannot begin to tell you what my amazing son did for me yesterday.  A grueling end to an equally grueling week!

I have been packing and trashing 16 years worth of 'stuff' from my office preparing for Thursday's move.  Note to self:  No need to show up at 7am again on Friday......since the movers packed up my office at 4:30 Thursday.  Second note to self:  No need to drive to the new office Thursday evening and wait a coupla more hours for your 'stuff' to arrive, as the raging storms and tornado warnings should have indicated you'd have to wait till Friday anyway.

So yes, I showed up at 7am again on Friday, as did the movers, so my stuff was there!  Of course they had come and gone so there was no one to help me move my furniture into place until the IT guys showed up.  Sigh.  Will I ever learn????

So my baby came home Friday night, left Saturday night.  All I needed was for him to bring home my sofa, as my new office is about 1/3 the size of my old one (probably less).  So here's what he did, in about six hours (with just a tiny bit of help from me):

1. Removed old toilet and threw it in the back of Hughie's truck.
2. Went to Home Depot for part missing from box containing new toilet.
3. Installed new toilet (push button flush for water saving - who knew flushing could be such fun!!!).
4. Hauled old sofa to Hughie's truck.
5. Tossed old toilet and old sofa into the landfill.
6. Went to mattress store and purchased new mattress (soft, YUM!).
7. Hauled new mattress to master bathroom.
8. Hauled old mattress to back of Hughie's truck.
9. Tossed old mattress in mattress store's dumpster.
10. Hauled new sofa and two scrapbooking tables from my office into the back of Hughie's truck.
11. Wrestled new sofa into the family room.
12. Placed two scrapbooking tables into garage.
13. Moved new mattress from master bathroom to bed.

Incredible, right????? Then we did a Wendy's drive-thru, went to spend a couple of hours with Grammy (my mom), where Alan took a nap while Grammy and I watched the Magic.

At midnight he drove back to Gainesville - three hours on the road.

Is he amazing or what?  All I wanted was the sofa moved, and I would have been fine even without that.  God love my baby!

So I have been too tired to create, much less post.

Maybe I'll get the hop back in my step in a couple of days!

Deb

HAGS? HAS? tee heee CTMH Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

Hey y'all!  My back is aching.  I am packing my office to move.  We received boxes today and must be ready when we leave work Wednesday.  Needless to say....since I have been working here for nearly 16 years, I have a TON of stuff to toss.  So I have been tossing and shredding and boxing.  Ugh.  So I was even happier than usual to be home this evening!

Here's a quick post.  I was invited by my friend Nancy to join CTMH's Humble Artists' Swap.  Now, Nancy's e-mail (correct me if I am wrong, Nancy) said "Humble Artists' Group Swap".  So of course I called it the HAGS swap.  LOL!!!!  It's the HAS swap......not HAGS!!!  But I will forever think of it as HAGS.  Mwah ha haaaa!

I said this was going to be quick - but here I go - blah blah blah!  I took a snapshot of the card here before I sent it off to the other four ladies in my swap group.  Well....Nancy received hers about three weeks late.  Turns out my card was traveling the country, making snow angels along her merry way!  Actually traveling the continent, as I am in Florida and Nancy is in Canada!  My card arrived wet and crumpled with all the stamping washed out.  Good grief!  Thankfully I snapped this photo.

I mailed my next HAGS HAS swap card last week - we'll see how it fares!  Will post it towards the end of April - but let me just say that I loooove it!!!

Thank you for sticking with me and all of my ramblings.  And thank you for your sweet comments....I just love my cyber friends!!!

Deb

My last Artful Inkables post Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

The new Artful Inkables Design Team takes over on March 15, so this will be my last 'official' post.  Congratulations to the ladies on the new team, and farewell to the rest of us!  I so appreciate Kristin's confidence in me.  This was my first design team stint, and it was so much fun!  I hope the rest of you throw your hat in the ring and give it a try....there are a lot of DT calls out there!

I used the super-cute stamp set, Any Birdy Home? yet again....I can't seem to put it down.  The curvy paper is from CTMH's special "Felicity", as is the paper used to paper-piece the bird house.  I used my second-favorite Nestabilities, Labels Four.  Labels Five is currently my favorite, but I suspect that will change when I pick up some of the newer die templates.

I kept my nasty coloring to a minimum - ha.  But good news - there is hope!  I am going to be able to take a Copic certification course in April after the Spellbinders(TM) Design Team retreat.  How cool is that!  Lord knows I need it.  Just something else to get my stomach tied up in knots - tee hee!

Are you still freezing?  We are.  Good grief!  We have had a high of 60 here in Florida far too many days lately.  Even the kitties are sleeping with their noses buried in their little paws.  Brrrrr! 

I'll be back to show you the card I created for the Humble Artists' swap, and a story about its journey as a snow angel.

Smiles,

Deb

Mojo Monday Friendship card - Black, White and Grey CTMH Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

Sometimes I discover that the sketches that appear to be challenging....turn out to be the easiest and quickest for me!

Yesterday's Think Ink Tuesday Challenge took me about 20 minutes (as opposed to my usual hour or longer) to whip out.

The same goes for this Mojo Monday sketch!  Those little rectangular elements threatened to stump me...but victory is mine!    mwaahhhaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa!!

I used nearly all CTMH textured cardstock for this lovely sketch. The black cardstock is actually grey on the backside, so I only used a piece of textured black and some regular white daisy.  

I really love this new stamp set - One of a Kind.  There are several botanical leaves, flowers and stems. Perfect for tiny 3x3 cards-I'm working on some of those right now.  I used my small and large circle Nestabilities die templates - I'll be using a lot more of those now that I'm on the Spellbinders(TM) Design Team!  woooHHOO!!  And I snuck in another one of those super-cute prima gems at the end of the white strip punched with a Martha punch.  No ribbon - no buttons - no flowers - that's pretty clean and simple for me!

Update on the pizza story - Alan said it was not so good.  He tried making a second batch of dough and it was a little better. I forsee a bread-making lesson when he's home for spring break!

Happy hump day!

Deb

Think Ink Tuesday - Smooch! Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

Today's Artful Inkables Think Ink Tuesday challenge is a sketch challenge, brought to you by Holly!

This is actually our last challenge for this Design Team.  We'll be moving on as a new Artful Inkables Design Team comes on board.  I can't believe how the time has flown by!


Here's Holly's sketch.  Does it look challenging?  Well, that's why it's called a challenge!  I was a bit intimidated at first, but I was surprised at how quickly my card came together!

And here's my interpretation using the new stamp set "Sexy and Sweet".  I used the front and back side of some Amethyst Textured Cardstock - one side is darker, the other is lighter.  Threw in some Smokey Plum and a pop of Holiday Red ink.  Don't you just love that smooch!  

Here's a closeup (you can always click on the image to enlarge it):

So why don't you play along?

* You are not required to use AI stamps, but if you have them, we'd love to see you use them! **IF YOU USE AI STAMPS, YOU GET 2 ENTRIES FOR YOUR CREATION! JUST ENTER YOUR NAME/LINK TWICE ON MR. LINKY!!!

* You have until Monday, March 15, 2010, midnight Pacific Standard Time to link your creation to this post. A winner will be chosen Tuesday, March 16, 2010 to win a GRAB BAG of AI STAMPS!

* When posting your link, please post the link directly to your creation- so if it's on your blog, please link it directly to the specific post with your creation.

* If uploading to SCS or PCP, please add the keyword AIC15

Can't wait to see what you come up with! Tell your friends!

Deb