It's National Stamping Month!

Can we call it International Stamping Month?

Welcome to the Australasian Blog Hop for September's very special limited edition stamp sets. There are three special stamp sets to choose from this month, all available from your Close to My Heart Consultant with no additional purchase necessary. Check with your consultant for your local price, but here in New Zealand the cost is $25 a set. Buy one or two or all! When you purchase all three sets for $64, you will save $11.
If you have arrived here from Maz Wood's Blog, Inky Fingers, then you are in the right place. The hop is one big loop, so just continue clicking around till you come back to where you started. With three stamp sets to feature, you are sure to see all sorts of ideas for the different packs.

My favourite set was the cardmaking one, and since I have been having a play with the watercolour paints this week I decided to combine the stamps with my new CTMH paintbox. I absolutely love this style of font. It's funky and fresh, and goes so well with the organic style of unpredictable watercolours running wherever they want to!
My three cards also feature some embossing. This combines really well with the watercolour technique, as the embossed wording resists the colour and remains bold, shiny and legible.

I tried out three different techniques with each of the three cards.

Card #1 - Hello

1. Stamp the sentiment on watercolour paper with black archival ink.
2. Sprinkle with black embossing powder, shake off excess and heat set.
3. Paint background with watercolour paints. Use a lot of water so that the colours run into each other.
4. Allow to dry.
5. Back with Cranberry cardstock and set on a Colonial White card.

Card #2: Oh Hey Thanks

1. Mask a piece of watercolour paper with painters tape.
2. Wet paper and paint with watercolour paints, right up to the painters tape.
3. Allow to dry fully.
4. Stamp with white pigment ink. Emboss with white powder.

Card #3: Honeycomb

1. Paint entire watercolour paper with watercolour paints. Allow lots of spreading.
2. Cut honeycomb card from Artfully Sent and Pacifica cardstock.
3. Stamp "hello" sentiment in Pacifica ink on White Daisy speech bubble.
4. Put the card together by adhering watercolour paper to the back of the honeycombed cover, and raise speech bubble up on foam tape.

Please leave a comment before you head off to the next blog on our hop, which is Mez's Craftroom.

September's Stamp of the Month



Welcome to the Close to My Heart Australasian Blog Hop for September. If you have arrived here from Tracey's Blog then you are in the right place! The link for the next blog will be at the bottom of this post. Our Stamp of the Month is a very sweet set called "Paper Garden". It co-ordinates with images you can cut on your Cricut with the Artiste cartridge.



Paper Garden Stamp of the Month September, $10 / $33

I have seen so many wonderful things done with this set, and I'm sure that the other girls on the blog hop will showcase some very creative projects, but I have chosen to keep mine very very simple.

When I sell my cards at fairs and markets I am often asked for sympathy cards, which I rarely have many of. This stamp set however really appealed to me as the central image for a sympathy card.
I used the colour trio of Juniper, Glacier and Thistle for my cards, but any colour combo would work.

My cards are 4x4", so the base is a Juniper piece 8x4", scored and folded in half.
The next layer is Glacier measuring 3.75x3.75", and the top layer is White Daisy, 3.5x3.5".
I used the "rock n roll" technique for stamping the flower image, first using Glacier and then rolling just the outside edges in the Juniper.
I stamped the sentiment with Thistle.
I tied the ribbon / twine to the White Daisy and Glacier layers before adhering them to the Juniper base.

Look to the Light, Set of 5, $18

For my sentiment, I chose the beautiful sayings from the "Look to the Light" set, which are so appropriate and supportive. However, if you want a less religious feel to the cards, I would recommend "Big Hug", which again is perfect for sympathy cards.



Big Hug Set of 10, $33

Thank you so much for hopping by! Please leave a comment before you head on over to the next blog, which is Leah Cameron's Corner.