Jump on it July International Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to the Jump on it July Campaign Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Jeanie Burch you are in the right place. If you have just joined in please look out for the next place to hop to at the end of my post.

Jump on it July is a fabulous campaign. it almost feels like Xmas in July…could be if you got the Xmas stamp. All you need to do in Australia is purchase $32.50 worth or regular priced stamps and you are entitled to get either the fabulous Life is Wonderful Stamp of the month for Free or any of these host reward stamp sets for just $6.50.

Jump on it July

How exciting is it that you can get these exclusive stamp sets without hosting. Remember it is this month only and there is no time like the present to grab some of those retiring sets you have had your eye on!

I am a little hexagon happy. It is a great shape to use in scrapbooking and I love the Host reward stamp set Happy Hexagons. It goes really well with another stamp set called Honeycomb C1537 and of course the hexagon Overlay in Artbooking. I sized the hexagon overlay to match the Happy Hexagon sized stamp. (I have lost that ccr file in the switch to Cricut Explore) Here you can see I have made use of some scraps, matched up some inks and got ready to play mix and match. The stamp here is the Honeycomb – after that I have used the Host reward set Happy Hexagons.

C1537 Honeycomb stamp set coordinates well with Host rewards set Happy Hexagons.

Here is the completed artwork in my album. To achieve this I randomly sponged some ink into the hexagon overlay pieces using them as a mask. I kept some to stick down and support the hexagons I stamped as well. all of this work surrounds just one special photo.

Close up of hexagon detail. Paper here are NLA – but the concept works no matter what paper collection you use.

Completed page

In this second page, my calendar is the subject. I decided to tissue stamp in the hexagon overlay and I have used colonial white for the creamy look. I added the photo frame, the faux washi and the Happy Hexagons.

Use a tissue to sponge into the page with an overlay of hexagons

I hope you are inspired by these pages to get into hexagons and grab your Jump on it July special!

Please leave a comment before hopping along to the next stop at Wendy Coffman

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Jump on it July Australia

This offer enables you to get one of these stamps sets for $6.50 with every $32.50 worth of regular priced stamps you purchase. You can shop online at my website and join my monthly virtual gathering or contact your consultant.

Here are the stamps you can get in this special. Just type the code or part of the title into the shop search box.

S1507 My Acrylix® Life Is Wonderful C1614 My Acrylix® Tagged with Love C1613 My Acrylix® Paper Bird B1477 My Acrylix® Exotic Flower D1615 My Acrylix® Sweet As Sugar B1454 My Acrylix® Thanksgiving Wreath C1596 My Acrylix® Happy Hexagons C1587 My Acrylix® Sing Glory B1455 My Acrylix® Be Jolly C1593 My Acrylix® Hats Off A1169 My Acrylix® Well Wishes D1608 My Acrylix® Better with a Friend B1458 My Acrylix® Cuddly Salutations A1163 My Acrylix® Practical Planning

 

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Products used in these projects

C1537 Honey Comb (Retiring)

Hand Written Print Alphaset (retiring)

Exclusive Inks – Creme Brulee; Autumn Terracotta, Cocoa, Barn Red, Crystal Blue, Canary, Sorbet, Colonial White Pigment ink

Calendar – Retiring

Artbooking

 

 

Happy Everything Operation Smile

Welcome to the Happy Everything Blog Hop supporting Operation Smile. If You have arrived form Catherine Nowak you are in the right place.

Happy Everything Blog Hop

Happy Everything Operation Smile Stamp Set

There are 31 hoppers in this circle so be sure to follow the link further down in this post to keep hopping around and visit all of the artists.  $3 from every one of these stamp sets purchased generates a $3 donation from Close To My Heart towards a smile.This is a very worthy cause and I love supporting it.

Happy Everything D1653 is a stamp set that is very flexible for both card making and page layouts. I am sharing with you today a layout I have done with this stamp set. Happy Everything says it all for the title and feelings about the events depicted in the photos. (Who would not be happy taking a colonial Buggy ride in a colonial city like Merida?)

Happy Everything Operations Smile Blog Hop

Happy Everything

 

 

I have also used the stamp set D1651 Wavy Blooms to create the flowers in the wreath. I stamped these onto drawing paper that could handle watercolour and used my watercolour with ink techniques to colour the flowers. I fussy cut these out and added some of our bling gems to the centers when I stuck them on the page.

I wanted more foliage so I scruffed through my scraps of Brushed patterned B and T and fussy cut a few more foliage sprays.(I could have stamped these too with he brushed WOTG stamp)

I did the background of the right and left panels with Bokeh Effect using colours from the flowers and Canary for some yellow. My stamping of Happy Everything is in Gypsy.

To add some more colour to the page I also used up what was left of my Brushed Compliment stickers. I had a fun time creating this page and hope you will consider making this stamp one of the purchases you make during Jump On it July. If you were to purchase both Happy Everything D1653 and Wavy Blooms D1651 you would have your choice of the Free Stamp of the month or your $6.50 Hostess reward stamp set. Stay tuned for more about Jump On it July in another post!

Thanks for stopping by today. Please leave a comment before you hop along to see the artwork Kathleen Androlewicz has prepared for you.

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Close To my Heart Items used to create this project

Brushed Paper X7190B

Brushed Compliments x7190C

Happy Everything   D1563

Wavy Blooms D1651

Exclusive Inks Gypsy, Lagoon, Canary, Pixie, Thistle

Gypsy Cardstock; White Daisy Card Stock

Sponge Z697

Sponge Daubers Z726

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Happy Birthday CTMH Australia!!

Happy Birthday to The Creative Heart, The Creative Heart Team, to Close To My Heart Australaia  and all my  #ctmhaustralasia sisters!

It has been two years since I started with the awesome company Close To My Heart and I could not be happier! I am grateful Jeanette created this company with its central messages and that Brian went looking for a good company to take us into in 2013.

Would you believe two years ago I could not stamp to save myself? I even had to give myself permission to use stamping in my scrapbooking! Since then I have learned the joys of the Cricut, made flowers, and made use of my knowledge of painting and other mediums to make some pretty creative mixed media pieces and taught classes, workshops and more. I have been on trips away and found the rewards are much more than where the money is.

Most important to me is the new family I have.  I have met some awesome #ctmhsisters and had heaps of fun at conventions, retreats, crop events, my classes and launch events. Sisters are always there with help and support any time of day and my amazing Presidential Director visits our little country town during the year too! I have the Mantra ‘Everyone is welcome here’. I have grown a team of ‘sisters’ who watch out for each other and share and care for each other. I have done my best to be a good leader and while not being able to meet everyone’s needs I have done as good as I could at the time.  I could not be prouder of my team and how they have grown with me.  Just yesterday I had one very excited team member who made her first quarter work for her. I was like a proud mum. It warmed my heart to hear her excitement!

I could gush for ages about how awesome this company feels – but will let these photos do that work. Here are some snaps of where the Creative Heart Team has come over the last two years. If you would like to be part of the fun we have be sure to drop me a line. You can of course join any time right here.

 

I was just a bit excited about getting my box!

Myself and my first two team members – we get together regularly to crop and share ideas.

My goal was to fill this workshop space.

 

To infinity and beyond

If you want o know more please contact me. if you want to see more head to the video post about sticky boy!

Proud to wear the manager ribbon – it is real 🙂

Sarah Shipton our Senior Director, Sandra Boutlon and Amy Langford, members of my team and myself.

Monica is an amazing woman, a pocket rocket. She is an awesome working mum and advocate for the company. It was a pleasure to be in her company.

Be You

A mixed media page

Yay- we are reaching that goal!

 

In my home classes

 

Pink decoration, Pink Food, projects using pink and a goodie bag with the Pink Ribbon Motiff are all a feature of this event!

OMG!!! We are full!

Leaders Conference

I LOVE teaching people to craft. Did you know that? lol

The Aussie Contingent in Disneyland 2014

Disney 2014

Disney 2014

Disney 2014

convention

convention

convention

Disneyland CA 2014

 

July 2015: Life Is Wonderful Blog Hop

S1507 Life is Wonderful

Hello and welcome to our Close To My Heart international Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Kathy Burros you are in the right place. If you have just hopped in please join us full circle by clicking hop links at the end of each post. If you get lost along the way a complete list of bloggers is here. We have a fabulous SOTM for you and because Life is Wonderful we need to celebrate it:) July Stamp of the Month Life is Wonderful. is only available for JULY. It is FREE in the Jump on it July campaign! Yes…FREE! Or, you can purchase it for $5 with a $75 AU Purchase, or $27 just for the stamp alone.

During the month of July, when you purchase $32.50 AUD in current, retail priced stamps, you qualify to receive either the July Stamp of the Month, My Acrylix^® Life Is Wonderful, FREE or any one of the Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in Annual Inspirations 2014–2015 or Seasonal Expressions 2 for only $6.50 AUD!

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Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart’s July Stamp of the Month Life is Wonderful.

July SOTM Life is wonderful with Chalk It Up and Coloured Chalk Technique

To Make my elements featuring the stamp of the month I have first stamped them in White Pigment ink. I then heat set this to make sure it was all very dry. DRY Colour the white with selected colours for our Water Colour Pencil collection. This is really important. If you use wet techniques you will reactivate the with pigment ink and not end up with the desired result. Just colour in. Because we have stamped whit on Black it won’t matter if you cannot stay in the lines, but a good sharp pencil will help!

S1507 Life is Wonderful

s1507 Life is Wonderful

To finish my pieces I sanded the edges before mounting them to the page.

S1507 Life is Wonderful SOTM

I hope you are inspired to try a little chalkboard art with this stamp set. Your next step in the hop is  Catherine Nowak Please hop along and see what wonderful art she has made to share. 

This is a perfect scrapbookers stamp set. I have had a lot of fun making pages with it and hope you do too!

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Shopping list All products can be purchased by Australian readers from my online store or by contacting me directly.

S1507 Life is Wonderful

Chalk it up Paper Packet

Black Cardstock 1386

Kraft Cardstock

White Daisy Pigent Ink Z2163

Watercolor Pencils 3505

Life Is Wonderful Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from  Simone’s Blog, Scrappy Matters you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

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Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart’s July Stamp of the Month Life is Wonderful.

You can get this stamp of the Month for FREE this month in the Jump on it July campaign! Yes…FREE!

During the month of July, when you purchase $32.50 AUD in current, retail priced stamps, you qualify to receive either the July Stamp of the Month, My Acrylix^® Life Is Wonderful, FREE or any one of the Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in Annual Inspirations 2014–2015 or Seasonal Expressions 2 for only $6.50 AUD!

I do believe this is a scrapbookers stamp set. I can see some of it used in card making but I have had a lot of fun making pages with it.

SOTM July S1507 Life is Wonderful FREE with stamp purchases of $32.50 in July.

I have scraplifted this page and shared it with my weekly class group. I had the photo printed at 5 x 7 (8 x 10 can be too big). Slice it into 1 inch strips. If you wish to avoid a face start either side of the face, knowing you may leave off the two odd sized end pieces. This technique generally works super well with scenic photos but I did manage to make it work with this shot of me and my students did get good results with people photos too.

Keep Strips In Order

Use your Versamat or other grid and start placing strips from the centre. I used the Ruler and allowed 1/4 inch between strips. We found some look better with just 1/8 inch in the gap. The CTMH Ruler Z1471  was very useful for this process and helped keep things straight.

• All stamping is done using black ink.
• Stamp the square on a piece of Kraft Card stock for your journalling.Your story matters.
• Stamp and fussy cut Wonderful piece.
• Stamp life is for the top corner.
• Adhere some Black Arrow Washi to scrap white cardstock to add as embellishment on the Black Background.
• Use a fine line Back pen to add faux stitching.
• Punch the border with Chevron Border Punch and adhere a colour behind it to complement your photo.

See below for a full list of CTMH supplies.

This exclusive Life is Wonderful stamp is only available during July from your consultant. .It can be yours for just $5 with a qualifying order of $75 or for $27.00 if ordered separately from your CTMH consultant. It is also available FREE  for the Jump in July Campaign– Just order $32.50 worth of regular priced stamps. Remember many of these will retire very soon!

If you do not have a consultant please contact me or place an order here 

I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Patricia Manhire – Patricia Manhire’s Creative Corner

The following Close To My Heart products have been used.

• S1507 Life is Wonderful
• Cardstock Black 1386  and Kraft Z1375
• Exclusive ink Black Z2105 
• Trimmer Z1783 
• Ruler Z1471
• Versamat Z1279
• Non Stick Scissors Z1836
• Chevron Border Punch Z1998