February Blog Hop: 2 page layout

Welcome to our February Blog Hop featuring a 2 page layout. This is the first Blog Hop for us where we have featured just scrapbook layouts. We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop! 
If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning and join Michelle at mycreationswithmichelle.blogspot.ca. If you came from Heather of Creative Coconut then you are in the right place!

For my layout I used the new Later Sk8ter paper pack. I love this paper and we did a Sesame Street themed birthday party for my girl's first birthday and I thought the colors worked well... Cookie Monster blue and Oscar the Grouch green. Right? 

I used the Later Sk8ter workshop guide to do this layout. Using the Art Philosophy cricut cartridge, exclusive to CTMH, I cut out the pennants at 1 1/4", then stamped the title using the glamour lowercase alphabet in Outdoor Denim. I joined the pennants with the green/blue sparkle mix. I also added a few Lagoon colored flowers and a few more sparkles to make the page a little more girly! The base page is Sunny yellow (retired) and the photo mats are Holiday red (retired) to bring in all the sesame street colors. I saved the confetti from the decorations and added them to the pages as well. I just love how this turned out, and I'm so excited I got to use "boy" paper in my little girl's album!

 
Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Cheryl of Scrapbooking with CTMH.
 If you get lost along the way, you can head to Michelle S Blog, as she has the complete blog list. 
Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to create your own scrapbook layouts using some of the designs and paper seen along the way. Join us again in March when we will be featuring our new 5x7 Hinged Display Tray.

Flower girl headbands

So a friend of mine is getting married at the end of March and asked me to make some headbands for her flower girls. These came together quite quickly and I am very happy with how they turned out. I went to Micheals craft store and purchased some lace to layer the flower for some dimension. Taking some embroidery floss I "sewed" one end of the ribbon together. I pulled it as tight as I wanted and then formed the flower. Doing this with each layer of lace I then stacked the flowers and glued them onto one another.I hot glued a pearl into the center of the completed flower for the finishing touch. I then went to Claire's and bought a couple lace headbands and glued the flowers to the headbands.
Very simple and yet very pretty. My friend was so pleased with them and I'm just happy I could help make her wedding special for her!

Layouts

I want to share with you a few layouts that I have done recently of my daughter. The first is just a one page spread featuring some photos taken at her 1 year photo shoot.

This layout is from the new how to book, Make it from your Heart. The purple owls and the bright pink flowers are vinyl from a local lady who has made this her business. Her blog is called Cut Your Way, check it out and get some of your own vinyl to add to your pages. It is so fun to play with! The paper used for this is Flirty, and will only be available until the end of January! So shop now to get this awesome pack!

This 2 page spread is made with the retired Sophia paper pack. We were able to catch a ride to Alberta back in October to visit my folks. Natalie doesn't get to spend much time with my family, so this was a special time for us! She was helping Papa vaccuum and then the next few minutes were spent pulling all the plastic bags out of the box and making a supreme mess to clean up! Oh well, Gramma and Papa just enjoyed having her home. Again, the title and the flourish are from Cut Your Way vinyl. The butterflies are "dusty attic" that I had purchased at a local craft store.

This last layout is probably one of my favorites. One morning when I came into her room she was caught in her crib. So, like a good mom, I went and grabbed my camera before helping her out! The paper used for this layout is the retired pack, Roxy. The title is stamped using Poster board Alphabet and Cocktail Alphabet. The paw prints are actually a punch, I used the negative of the punch as a stencil and inked it with the pigment ink so it stood out more on the page.

These are just a few of the layouts I completed during a fabulous scrapbook retreat weekend.

National Papercrafting Month

Whooo’s Your Valentine
Spend $35 and get the exclusive Whooo’s Your Valentine kit for only $10!

Celebrate National Papercrafting Month with an
incredible deal—our Whooo’s Your Valentine kit
(CC1022) for only $10! Combine your love of
papercrafting with the contents of this kit to create
personalized valentines—perfect for classrooms and
other group settings. This darling kit, which retails for
$40, can be yours for only $10 when you spend $35 or
more in Close To My Heart product from the Autumn/
Winter 2012 Idea Book. You’ll receive 12 die-cut boxes,
3 cardstock sheets, 1 sheet of silver glitter paper,
12 treat tubes, and an exclusive D-size stamp set
created specifically for the kit. This kit offers you a
sneak peek at two new Spring/Summer 2013 products:
the treat tubes and the silver glitter paper! Decorate
the die-cut boxes with the stamp images, cardstock,
and glitter paper. Then attach the clear tube and fill
with treats for valentines in a cinch!


Shipping/handling may apply. Offer valid December 13, 2012—
January 31, 2013. Maximum of one Whooo’s Your Valentine kit per qualifying order.
Visit my CTMH website to shop now!

December Stamp of the Month

December Stamp of the Month, "Year-Round Cheer" is a versatile stamp that can be used throughout the entire year.

With a purchase of $50 or more in CTMH product, you can purchase this stamp set for just $5. It can also be purchased at full retail price of $17.95. Shop now, this set is only available from December 1-31, 2012!

Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Welcome to our second of 2 Blog Hops happening this month. In this Hop you will find that each consultant has created a calendar, we've used different materials and created our own take on advent calendars!  Close To My Heart has an Advent Calendar WOTG kit that you can purchase from your local consultant, or you can purchase from me here. http://teresariglin.ctmh.com 

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning and join Darla in Nova Scotia at http://stampingunderdoctorsorders.blogspot.ca If you came from Michelle M. of "Twirl n' Time"  then you are in the right place!

I used the Close to my Heart Cubby to make a traditional advent calendar but I made my own design on each box.

The Close to my Heart exclusive Cricut Artiste cartridge was used to cut the boxes and numbers and a few of the images. I used several CTMH Christmas stamp sets, including:

 Flakey Friends, 

A Sip, 

Captured Moments, 

Bundled Buddies, 

Love Life,
Merry Pursuits,

and Holiday Trinkets

to stamp my designs and cut out. I then used sparkles and red and silver glitz glitter gel to add some bling!


Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Darla of  "Stamping under Doctors Orders ".

You can find a complete list of our blog hop on Michelle's blog if you get lost along the way.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to create your own Advent Calendar using some of the designs and products seen along the way. Join us again on December 15th when we showcase a 3D Christmas themed project from the New Artiste Cartridge.

Burlap flower headband

Close to my Heart has this awesome burlap ribbon that can be used for so many different things! I love hats and headbands, and like it even better when they are cheap and cute! Haha. So taking about 3 ft of the burlap ribbon, I threaded through the "bottom" of the ribbon. Once I had threaded through the entire 3 ft, I pulled the thread tight, cinching up the one side. Be sure to hold the end of the thread so it just doesn't pull through. Once I had the ribbon as tight as I wanted I curled it to look like a flower and tied the two ends of the ribbon together. I placed a few dots of glue from the glue gun around the flower to kind of hold the shape. Then glued down a button in the middle.

So cute. I had an old T-shirt kicking around that didn't fit anymore, so I took out my scissors and cut a headband out of the middle of the shirt. I then glued the flower to where the seam on the T-shirt was so as to cover it up.

I've had lots of comments on the headband and even a few requests to make more! They are so simple, give it a try!