CTMH September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

Wow, it is September already! I am excited this month for many reasons, one is this blog hop. This is my first time participating in any kind of blog hop but I love them and I love stamping & scrapbooking so I thought it was time to join in on the fun! This hop will have over 60 participants and will have a continuous loop with each blog directing you to the next blog but if for any reason you click a link that doesn’t work, you can go to Jena De Vries blog and see the entire list.


This month’s stamp of the month set is called Treasures and it has some gorgeous and unique images as you will see if you follow this blog hop! I plan to give the card I made to my daughter who has some difficult & complicated decisions ahead of her so, the verse “Trust your heart” was perfect for the card I wanted to send to her.

When you are ready to move on, the next blogger in the blog hop is Donni Alvarenga so head on over to Donni’s blog for some creative therapy!

My “Trust Your Heart” Card:

Card Recipe:
Papers: Twitterpated (X7118B
Stamp Set: Treasures (D1375)
Inks: Chocolate, Tulip & Sweet Leaf
Embellishments: Pewter Mini Medley (Z1243), Chocolate Waxy Flax (Z1088), Metal Brad Assortment (pewter bitty brads) (ZZ1217)
Template: Enchanting Enclosure (pg. 31) from Wishes (9033)

Recap of Bloghop Links:

     You are here:  Keepsakes with Heart 
     Next Blogger:  Donni's Creative Therapy 
     Previous Blogger:  Awesome Memories
     Entire Blog Hop List:  Live Love Laugh Scrapbook

All a Twitterpated!

Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love the cooler temperatures and nature's vivid display of color so, CTMH's new Twitterpated paper packet was my first purchase from the new catalog. Instead of the traditional orange, golds and browns for fall, this paper has a fun color palette using sorbet, Crystal Blue and Sweet Leaf with Chocoloate. What I love most about the paper packet is that the papers can be used for a variety of layouts other than fall layouts and it will work well in a classy or whimsical way. Got to love that kind of versatility!


Speaking of versatility, I am excited about the change in Close To My Heart’s Workshops on the Go! Beginning with the new catalog, you will be able to purchase a Workshop on the Go kit that includes papers, an exclusive stamp set and some other items to make the project. The kit will also come with a colorful guide to show you how to make the project all at a price discounted below the retail value if items were purchased separately!  Also, because you will be receiving a complete paper packet, you will have enough papers to do both the card and layout project.  There are two kits, a "Basic" kit and a "Best" kit.  The "Best" kit allows you to purchase additional accessory items to "bling up" your project. 

Here’s pictures of the Twitterpated Scrapbook & Card Workshops on the Go. The images on the cards were stamps from the stamp set that is only available in the Twitterpated WOTG kit (order # for Basic Kit is G1000).

Now, for more twitterpated art, here’s a card I made using papers from the Twitterpated paper packet and the Flourished Blessings stamp set.

The recipe for this card:

Papers:  Twitterpated Paper Packet

Inks:  Chocolate & Sorbet

Stamps:  Flourished Blessings

Embellishments:  Chocolate Ribbon

It's A Zoo

This card was just plain fun to make! Gotta love all the zoo critters in the "It's A Zoo" stamp set!



Recipe for card:

Papers: Moon Doggie & Bella
Stamps: It's A Zoo, It's Your Day, Birthday Script
Inks: Orange, Honey, Grey Wool, Brown Bag & Chocolate
Embellishments: Foundry Bookplates and Garden Green Waxy Flax
Card Template: All Squared Up (6x6 version) found in Wishes p. 101

It's Your Day

I really love the colorful papers in Close To My Heart's Moon Doggie Paper Packet. Several weeks ago I used it to create some layouts that I will share at another time because I still haven't put the photos on them yet! I thought the papers would make a great background for a birthday card so I paired them up with this month's stamp of the month set and made this birthday card.



Recipe for the card:

Papers: Moon Doggie
Stamp Set: It's Your Day
Inks: Indian Corn Blue, Honey, Cranberry & Garden Green
Embellishments: Pewter Mini Medley spirals and brads
Card Template: Celebration Card Workshop #5 from the Wishes Book

Yesterday's Surprise Ending

Have you ever had one of those days, when something surprising happened that you never would have dreamed of when you awoke that morning? Well that's what happened to me yesterday. When I started the day yesterday, I didn't have a clue, that it would be ending with this ....



Isn't she sweet? She's a 6 week old Australian Shepherd! Yesterday I had my day all planned out, I was going to get my hair cut and colored in the am, go to the grocery, work on some graphic designs, then maybe sneak in a little scrapbooking. Well, I got the hair cut and made it to the grocery store but the rest of the day went a bit different as you can see! It's my hairdresser's fault ... she has (or had)8 of these beautiful babies. We had a hard time deciding on which one because they were all so adorable but I think we are pretty happy with our choice. I expected to be kept awake all last night with a crying puppy but my sons didn't give her a chance because they took turns sneaking her into bed with them last night so she was never left alone. Now our cat Bailey, she's quite miffed with us about right now and she's not ready to get close to the puppy.

Here's a better view of her.

Ms. Gardener

This is another card created for a card challenge. Life is always so busy so I love doing card challenges because the template is already created and I don't have to spend a great deal of time thinking about what I want to do! I chose to use stamps from the CTMH Ms. Gardener set for this card and the papers are from the Perfect Day paper packet ... such gorgeous colors in that packet! When I saw the stamp set, it reminded me of my husband's aunt who would rather work in her gardens than eat! She has the most amazing place where you want to spend all your time outdoors when visiting. I know it is the result of countless backbreaking hours on her property and although I enjoy gardening, that much work for me would be pure torture, but for her, it is her tranquility and for that, all who visit are blessed.

Colors on the card are Tulip, Juniper and Creme Brulee. The water coming out of the hose was accented with liquid glass and prisma glitter.

Winter in NC

For those of you who have had enough of winter this year I'm sure this is the last thing you want to see! We don't get much snow here in NC so I really enjoy it when we do. Prior to this year, the last really big snow we had was in 2000 and I it was so much fun watching the boys play in the snow that year. They were little and experienced their first snowmen and snowball fights. This year we had another fairly significant snow but the boys are older now so were not interested in building a snowman but they couldn't resist the snowball fights ... guess boys are never to old for those! Here's a layout of them this year. I used the CTMH Aspen paper pack for this layout and I still need to add the journaling.