Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Create a Card

Today's card features Close To My Heart's Pear and Partridge papers and the stamp set is C15710 Merry and Bright.  The cut out was created using CTMH's Artiste Cricut® cartridge.


4 ¼” x 5 ½” side fold card base

4 ¼” x 5 ½” New England Ivy card stock
1 ¾” x 4 ½” New England Ivy card stock
3 ½” x 4” Pear and Partridge B and T
1 5/8” x 4 ¼” Pear and Partridge B and T
1 ½” x 4” Pear and Partridge B and T

Stamp wreath with New England Ivy and flowers & berries with Cranberry on included Bamboo piece.  Mat to included New England Ivy piece.
Attach Pear and Partridge B and T to top of New England Ivy card stock.
Attach Pear and Partridge B and T New England Ivy side up to bottom of card front.
Attach Pear and Partridge B and T to New England Ivy piece and attach to card front as shown.
Attach wreath as shown.  Add 3 pearls as shown.  Tie bow in cranberry ribbon and attach to wreath.



Last Day to Save on this Exclusive "Pre-Holiday" Savings Special from Suzastampin!

How would you like to get a jump-start on all your Close To My Heart Holiday projects with an exclusive special? Now you can!

tax


  • When you place your Close To My Heart order, I will pay your sales tax! 
  • When your order reaches $100 or more, I'll also pay your shipping!
shipping
Offer good on Standard Shipping fees only.
Hostess perks are available with sales over $150.00.
Email me your order to take advantage of this offer.
Exclusive to Suzanne Davis of Suzastampin
Offer expires at 12:01am on November 1st.


Click here to view online catalog

Place your order 

I'm also giving away one free Pear & Partridge Workshop on the Go.  Winner has choice of either the Pear & Partridge Scrapbook Workshop

             Pear  Partridge WOTG Scrap

Or the Pear & Partridge Card Kit

             Pear  Partridge card wotg

Simply place an order as described above and you will be entered to win your choice.  Winner will be announced November 1 on my blog.  Good Luck!
Happy Pre-Holiday shopping!

Suzanne Davis
Close To My Heart
Suzastampin
Shop my Website
Email Me
Suzastampin's Creation Station

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Technique Tuesday

Bend it, Curve it, Stamp it!

Discover the ease of creating new designs from stamp sets you already own. Personalize by using this new stamping technique. The versatility of clear My Acrylix® stamps makes it simple to bend, curve, and mix and match stamps to produce a completely unique design!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Magic Club

This layout is one the layouts created in the October Magic Club.


We used Close To My Heart's Moonlight papers.  The leaves were cut using the CTMH Artiste Cricut® cartridge.  They were cut from Honey, Goldrush, and Autumn Terra Cotta card stock.  Then they were scored on one side to create the veins.  I then inked them with Goldrush ink.

Here's an Exclusive "Pre-Holiday" Savings Special from Suzastampin!

How would you like to get a jump-start on all your Close To My Heart Holiday projects with an exclusive special? Now you can!

tax

  • Starting Today, when you place your Close To My Heart order, I will pay your sales tax! 
  • When your order reaches $100 or more, I'll also pay your shipping!
shipping
Offer good on Standard Shipping fees only.
Hostess perks are available with sales over $150.00.
Email me your order to take advantage of this offer.
Exclusive to Suzanne Davis of Suzastampin
Offer expires at 12:01am on November 1st.


Click here to view online catalog

Place your order 

I'm also giving away one free Pear & Partridge Workshop on the Go.  Winner has choice of either the Pear & Partridge Scrapbook Workshop

             Pear  Partridge WOTG Scrap

Or the Pear & Partridge Card Kit

             Pear  Partridge card wotg

Simply place an order as described above and you will be entered to win your choice.  Winner will be announced November 1 on my blog.  Good Luck!
Happy Pre-Holiday shopping!

Suzanne Davis
Close To My Heart
Suzastampin
Shop my Website
Email Me
Suzastampin's Creation Station

Saturday, October 27, 2012

How fun are these?

Aren't these scarves great!  Every gal on my Christmas list is getting one.  They are created using Premier's Starbella yarn.

The dark one in the middle took me three evenings to knit.  The others only one. Why?  Because instead of using straight knitting needles, I switched to circular needles.  I'm using the circular needles just like I would regular knitting needles...in other words, back and forth rather than knitting in the round.  I remembered that my mom would often knit flat pieces with the circular needles as it was easier on the shoulders.  Mom was a terrific knitter!  She could whip out a sweater for me every 1-2 weeks with all the great cables, popcorn stitches and everything!  She could knit, watch tv and read at the same time.  LOL!!   I've always preferred the metal needles, but thought maybe the bamboo would be a little less slippery.  The first scarf I used metal and found the stitches to slide off every now and then.  So, I thought I'd give the bamboo a try to see if they were less slippery.  They seem to be.  I dislike plastic needles with a passion!  Here's a link to the needles that I am using. I got mine at Joann's the other day.  I believe they are on sale again in the flyer that starts tomorrow.  If not, there's always the coupon.  :)  Since they're only 16" needles, there's nothing really in your way.

The pattern for these quick scarves is at the Premier website.  I don't remember how many stitches it calls for, but I used 8.  It seems to give a great ruffle.  Notice that the yarn itself is like a ribbon.  You open it up, as you can see close to the top of the pink scarf.  You can find a video on their website.  They also have one for crochet.  I tried to crochet the second scarf I did, but I didn't like the way it flowed and found the each row to be a little heavy.  So, I ripped it out and started again.

Don't know how to knit?  It's easy!  And now with the internet, there's so many videos and tutorials that anybody can do it.  I haven't previewed either of these resources, but, if they're no help, a little google search can bring up a bunch!  LOL!

 Learn to Knit 
You Tube

There's plenty of time for you to make a bunch of these for the holidays!  Have fun!

Friday, October 26, 2012

It's Freebie Friday!

It's Friday already (again!).  What's on on tap for your weekend?  It's looking like hurricane Sandy may be heading our way.  UGH!  After being hit by Irene last year, I'm really worrying about this storm.  With Irene we only had water in the barn and the finished basement.  It's sounding like it could be so much worse for Sandy.  So, here's my  list....
  1. Today I need to stack about a cord of wood. I got one cord done yesterday, so I'm 1/2 way there.  LOL!  This old bod can't take it like it used to.  LOL!
  2. Saturday...spend the day making sure everything is up off the floor in the basement.  I do all of my sewing in the basement, so, there's a lot to protect there. 
  3. Sew some American Girl Saratoga sweatshirts for the store.  I need to get these done to drop off to the Gallery on Monday.  
 How cute is this stamp set?!  Tell me what you have on tap for the weekend. I'll draw a winner on Monday from all those who respond.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Pre-Holiday 7 Day Sale!

 Here's a quick layout I did this morning.  Studio J now includes some Express Collections.  All you need to do is plug in your pictures.  These pages come already embellished, but you can add more embellishments if you would like.  In this layout, everything was done for me except I added a few buttons, changed the date and added a little bit of journaling in the bottom right hand corner..


You have your choice of six premade themes.  
  • All About Me
  • Little Man
  • Little Miss
  • School Days
  • Travel
  • Year in Review
Each of the groups contains 11 premade layouts.  Stop by Studio J® and give it a try.  It's a great time to catch up on your layouts, as CTMH is having a special Studio J® promotion for October.

In October, when one purchases nine Studio J® layouts, they get the 10th one FREE!  In this special promotion, you will receive a free custom-printed layout when you buy 9 custom-printed Studio J® layouts. To receive the discount, just add 10 or more layouts to your cart. You’ll see a discount reflected in your order total. And you can totally take advantage of this promotion by ordering in multiples of 10. Buy 9, get 1 free. Buy 18, get 2 free. Buy 27, get 3 free. Up to 4 free layouts! It’s a great time to use any Member Bonus layouts you may have. If you haven’t tried Studio J® yet, now is the time to start!  For more information, view the flyer.


Here's an Exclusive "Pre-Holiday" Savings Special from Suzastampin!

How would you like to get a jump-start on all your Close To My Heart Holiday projects with an exclusive special? Now you can!

tax
  • Starting Today, when you place your Close To My Heart order, I will pay your sales tax! 
  • When your order reaches $100 or more, I'll also pay your shipping!
shipping
Offer good on Standard Shipping fees only.
Hostess perks are available with sales over $150.00.
Email me your order to take advantage of this offer.
Exclusive to Suzanne Davis of Suzastampin
Offer expires at 12:01am on November 1st.


Click here to view online catalog

Place your order 

I'm also giving away one free Pear & Partridge Workshop on the Go.  Winner has choice of either the Pear & Partridge Scrapbook Workshop

             Pear  Partridge WOTG Scrap

Or the Pear & Partridge Card Kit

             Pear  Partridge card wotg

Simply place an order as described above and you will be entered to win your choice.  Winner will be announced November 1 on my blog.  Good Luck!
Happy Pre-Holiday shopping!

Suzanne Davis
Close To My Heart
Suzastampin
Shop my Website
Email Me
Suzastampin's Creation Station

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Create a Card

This is another card that we created in our Stamp a Stack club for September.  We used the C1504 Fall Harvest stamp set. I cut the leaves with the  CTMH Cricut® Artiste and Art Philosophy cartridges.


4 ¼” x 5 ½” side fold card base

4 ¼” x 5 ½” Goldrush card stock
3” x5 ¼” Passages B&T
1” x 5 ¼” Goldrush B&T
3/8” x 5 ¼” Cocoa card stock

Poke cut holes from Goldrush oval.  Stamp sentiment with Desert Sand. Attach to Cocoa oval.  Stamp leaf with Autumn Terra Cotta on Honey card stock and Bamboo card stock.  Cut out.

Attach Passages B&T to right of Goldrush card front. Attach Goldrush B&T to left side.  Attach Cocoa card stock
Wrap Baker’s Twine around card front twice and tie as shown.  Insert hemp though button holes and tie
Attach sentiment, leaves and buttons as shown.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Technique Tuesday

Swipe & Stamp

Learn how to add texture, distressing, movement, and motion to your projects by stamp swiping—a technique that will change the way you stamp.


Monday, October 22, 2012

Stamp a Stack Club

These are the cards our Stamp a Stack Club created for September.


We used CTMH stamp set C1504 Fall Harvest.  The papers used have all been retired.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

How gorgeous is this?

I just had to post a couple of photos of the amazing colors in my back yard!



I grew up in VT, so, the gorgeous color has always been a part of my life.  There's nothing like VT in the fall, but I think NY is a close second!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Guest Artist

Wait until you see these layouts!  Our Guest Artist for October is Christina Lakes.  She worked with the CTMH Moonlight Workshop on the Go kit.

This first layout is the featured layout from the Moonlight Workshop kit.


 Some close ups...















Here are some close ups.


Look how many pages Christina was able to create with this kit!




Didn't Christina do some great pages?!  Thanks so much for participating, Christina!  If you'd like to see more of Christina's artwork, stop by her blog See Christina Scrapbook.

I'd love to have YOU become a Guest Artist! 

Here's the details of the Guest Artist program.

  1. If you would like a chance to be a guest artist, please send me a link to artwork on your blog, or, if you have no blog, email me pictures of some of your art. Put Guest Artist in your subject line.
  2. On the first of every month, I will choose the guest artist for that month.
  3. Upon choosing the artists, I will send you one of Close To My Heart's Workshop on the Go kits. You will need to create the featured layout in the kit (you may jazz it up or put your own spin on it). Then, with all the products left over in the kit, you'll make as many items as you can. You may choose to do another two page layout and some cards, or a one page layout & cards, only cards, or choose something of your own to alter.You will have until the 15th of the month to get all of this done :)
  4. When you finish creating, you will send me photos of everything you've created so that I can post them on my blog. If you have a blog, you'll also post them there.
  5. You'll get high praise and recognition on my blog.
Does this sound like something you'd like to do? If so, send me your blog link or photos of your artwork. The first guest artist will be announced on 9/1.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Magic Club

This is the second layout the Magic Club did for September.


It was created using X7156B Clementine.  The flowers used are from Z1710 Paradise Paper Flowers

Monday, October 15, 2012

Add some Flair to Studio J

Even though Studio J® is fast and easy to use, it is helpful to know some great tricks that can make customizing your layouts even more exciting. Here are some Studio J tricks straight from our professional Close To My Heart artists:
1. Customize your background and texture paper. You can change the color and intensity of the background and texture paper included in whichever kit you choose. Simply select the piece of background and texture paper, change the color in the color selection tool, and increase or decrease the intensity of the color in that same popup box.
2. Crop My Stickease® quotes, titles, and tags. The cropping feature on the My Stickease images allows you to select a section of a quote, title, or tag to use as a border or other embellishment.
3. Create a customized My Stickease image. If you have a specific image in mind to use as an embellishment on your page, you can create a customized My Stickease to fit your theme perfectly. Simply add a text box, photo hanger, ribbon, ribbon slides, and Stickease to create the little suitcase! So easy! Be sure to crop or send elements behind other elements when necessary, and add several elements together for a unique look!

4. Select more than one element at a time. If you want to move several elements of your layout at once, simply click and drag your mouse around the elements you would like to select. Let’s take buttons, for example. After the buttons have been selected, you can click the icons in the popup box to choose to align the buttons vertically or horizontally if you desire.
5. Make faux washi tape with vellum text boxes. To create the look of a piece of clear washi tape, make a small rectangular text box, filled with vellum background (this is the default color for text boxes). You can make the tape strips as large or small as you want, or even layer them for more emphasis.

6. Stretch one photo across multiple photo wells. If you have fewer photos than photo wells, instead of deleting the excess wells, try scaling the picture to a larger size and then copying the picture to other photo wells and matching the photos up until they align with an almost seamless image. This trick works best with photo wells that are adjacent to each other.
7. Create ruffled ribbon. Select “Ribbons” in the drop-down menu under the Embellishments toolset. Choose ribbon tab and rotate the tab so that it is vertical on the page. Then layer several tabs on top of one another, sending every other one to the back to create a ruffled look.
 8. Create a jagged border with text boxes. You can create a jagged border simply by rotating multiple text boxes about 45 degrees and making them the same color as the background. Put these boxes on top of a long, rectangular box of another color, and you’ve got a jagged border!


9. Change the background of your layout. Sometimes you may like the photo and journal arrangement in a layout, and yet want to change the background colors. Because photos sit on top of everything else, this is easy to do. Simply pull a journaling box over the space you want for a different background and fill it with a color from the color selection tool or a patterned paper from the Papers toolset. Then, send it backwards until the photo wells are on top of your new background.
Bonus Trick! Use keyboard keys to make embellishments. Did you know that some of the best tools for creating custom embellishments are the basic keys on your keyboard? It’s as simple as typing into a journaling box with no background color. Use periods to make a polka dot pattern, angle brackets to create a trendy Chevron look, overlapping pound signs to make burlap, question marks to make rope, and so much more!

Stop by Studio J® and try your hand at some of these techniques!

In October, when one purchases nine Studio J® layouts, they get the 10th one FREE!  In this special promotion, you will receive a free custom-printed layout when you buy 9 custom-printed Studio J® layouts. To receive the discount, just add 10 or more layouts to your cart. You’ll see a discount reflected in your order total. And you can totally take advantage of this promotion by ordering in multiples of 10. Buy 9, get 1 free. Buy 18, get 2 free. Buy 27, get 3 free. Up to 4 free layouts! It’s a great time to use any Member Bonus layouts you may have. If you haven’t tried Studio J® yet, now is the time to start!  For more information, view the flyer.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Freebie Friday!

As a crafter, I am always looking for more ways to organize my supplies. I like to have everything neatly put away, so I try to get as much as I can into each storage container.  I like storage containers that are neatly stackable.  While it may be a hodge podge of items inside, it still looks neat when they are stacked and put away.

Organizing is a breeze with the new sturdy, stackable organizers and craft boxes. You’ll always know where to find your supplies—safe and sound in these portable containers!




Here's a great picture showing how the medium storage box can hold your inks and so much more.  With the removable dividers, you can custom design your box to fit your needs.  Since the lid is domed, you can put your paper cutter on top of the items in your organizer.  Click here to see the dimensions and more information about the medium organizer, or here for the small organizer.

How would you like to win one of the medium organizers?  Visit my website and place an order for your choice of either the small or medium organizer box, either of the foam inserts or the stamp organizer box. You will receive one entry for each organizer product that you purchase! Of course, if you choose to purchase some of the larger organizational items like the Exclusive Inks® organizers you will also receive entries for those based on which you purchase :)   When you get to my website, be sure to click on the Join button for Suzanne's Party to place your order. Should you decide to hostess a party of your own and receive hostess rewards, email me your information so that I can set up a party for you and your friends.  They, too, can get entries for ordering these great organizational products.  If you'd like to place an order of $150 or more, email me to place your order so that you may earn hostess rewards.

This freebie is good through October 31.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

It's a Halloween Party in a Kit!

Your ghosts and goblins will love a themed party with jack-o-lantern party bags, spider web cupcake liners, a “Boo” banner, plus more spooky fun this Halloween. Our Workshops on the Go® Spellbound Cricut® Kit makes it easy!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Create a Card

This card was created using the CTMH C1504 Fall Harvest stamp set.  The leaves were cut out using the new CTMH Cricut® Artiste cartridge and the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The papers used in this card are retired CTMH papers called Passages.


Here are the instructions so that you may recreate it.


4 ¼” x 5 ½” top fold card base

4 ¼” x 5 ½” Cocoa side B&T
4” x 5 ¼” Passages B&T
3 ½” x 4 ½” Bamboo card stock
¾” x 3” Bamboo card stock
1” x 2 ½” Bamboo card stock

Distress edges of Bamboo card stock piece.  Ink edges with Desert Sand.  Stamp Sentiment with Goldrush ink.  Stamp leaves with Autumn Terra Cotta on Bamboo, Honey and Goldrush card stock.  Cut out.
Attach Passages B&T to Cocoa B&T. Attach Bamboo card stock on angle as shown.  Insert two copper brads.  Attach two sentiment pieces.  Attach leaves as shown.  Insert hemp through button holes and tie a bow, leaving long ends.