Retiring My Acrylix Stamps from Close to My Heart

Going, going, GONE!  Here is a little look at some of my favorite My Acrylix stamps that will no longer be available from Close to My Heart after July 31st.  If any of these are on your wish list, you will want to pick them up before the month is over!

Remarkable Wreath

Cityscape

The Laughing Lola Papers and Embellishments shown here are retiring too!

Words of Comfort

Glory to God

Merry and Bright

Click on any of the stamps set names under the pictures to take you to my website.  :)

Chase Those Clouds Away

Hi everyone!  Today I am sharing another card with the Martha Stewart Scallop Dot border punch that I picked up recently.  Hope it can help to brighten your Monday!  :)

I really like how easy it is to use these border punches.   I also rounded the corners on this one to match the other curves.  The sentiment is from the Card Chatter--Sympathy from Close to My Heart.

These clouds are stamped in black (first and second generation) from the Chantilly Scrapbook Workshop on the Go and cut out by hand with my micro-tip scissors.

This hot air balloon is from a retired stamp of the month.  I used a puddle pad to stamp it in a rainbow of colors!   You can see more about it HERE where I first used this little cutie.  If my friend, Shelly ever blogs hers, I can show you where I got the idea!  Hint, hint, Shelly!   :)

UPDATE!!!  OK, so Shelly blogged hers way back in April and I missed it!!!  Completely!!! HERE is the link!  :) 

See you later!  :)

Creature Feature and a Sketch

Hi everyone!  The pics keep piling up on my hard drive, so I best get posting, lol.

I made this card intending to enter it into two different contests.  The first is Heart 2 Heart's Creature Feature Challenge for May.  The second was Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #4, but I missed it over the weekend with all our business, oh well!  So many deadlines, so little time!  I still like the sketch.  :)

I used Close to My Heart's April Stamp of the Month to make the little "creature" to sit atop my sentiment.  I am really loving the whole puddle-pad craze.  I made this one way back when I was stamping those hot air balloons from the same stamp set and the pinwheels from this month's!  You can reminisce HERE for details. 

A bit of Stardust Glitter Glitz Gel on the wing gave him just a touch of sparkle.  :)  The Color Ready Seam Binding Ribbon adds a touch of softness to the hard angles in this card.  Do you like the way I matted this one?  Instead of using an entire piece of Lagoon CS, I used strips of it to line the edges of the Kraft paper!  Awesome use of scraps!  ;)

Another touch of softness that I added is this swirly frame I stamped in Lagoon from My Acrylix D1546 Frame Flair.  I ended up popping the sentiment out a bit from the framed image...

...because I didn't like how it looked all squished on the original sized space.  I cut out a tiny bit bigger rectangle for the sentiment from C1525 Words of Comfort and now I love it! 

Have you ever worked around a space issue like this?  What did you do?  I would love to hear your solutions!

Hug Somebody! Five Faves #4

Hi everyone!  I have an assignment for you today.  Think of a person you know who might be going through a rough spot with their health, work, or relationship.  Come on, I know you know someone.  Now, make them a card.  Support them and lift up their spirits.  Put a smile on their face for a moment.  You just never know when that human touch will be pivotal.  Here is a card that I sent to my mom last month.  I just so happened to use one of my Five Fave CTMH Embellies on it!

Mom has been going through some health changes lately and things have been rough to say the least.  But she is tough...she has been strong as far back as I can remember.  She had been so strong lately, in fact, that I hardly put too much thought to what she was dealing with--until she broke down on the phone with me one day.  It opened my eyes to the fact that even seemingly emotionally strong people are only so strong by themselves for so long.  I made this card to let her know I am here for her always to support her, and try to bring a smile to her face again.  It did.  :)

I love tying My Five Fave Embellie #4,  Black Tulle Ribbon on cards and other projects.  I have experimented with several ways to use it.  These frames on D1546 Frame Flair are awesome for covering it where I tie it in the middle with a small piece of twine, because it doesn't look all that pretty there.  Here is a pic of the super-versatile four-stamp set...

 I stamped this one in Cotton Candy Ink.  The Love and Hugs sentiment is found on C1524 Words of Comfort.  I like the way the black elements really contrast with the Chantilly papers. 

God won't give us more to bear than He will help us bear.  Who is God asking you to help through that time?   I'm willing to bet that you just thought of them at the beginning of my post.  ;)  Go spread some sparkle, my friends! 

Want to see other projects that I used this tulle on?  Click HERE!

Color Dare #28, Um, Whatchamacallit! ;)

Hello Color My Heart Fans!  What a great way to close out January....a crazy color scheme!  ;)  This was so much fun to try, you really need to give it a go!  Here is a rainbow list of colors to include this week:

Ruby, Cotton Candy, Goldrush, Juniper, Twilight, and Gypsy  (whew!)

What to do with a crazy color scheme?  Well, random stamping, of course!  ;)  I created an 8 x 10 shadow box framed piece of art.

I random stamped with the retired Close to My Heart Rugged Flowers My Acrylix stamps on a sheet of White Daisy Cardstock.  I could then carefully choose which section of the paper best suited the area of the shadow frame that would show around the quote I was adding.  I popped up some elements of the images and added Bitty Pearls to the centers of some of the small flowers.

I double matted this wonderful sentiment from the brand new My Acrylix, Scrapbook Sentiments--Poets.  This beautiful set is available from Close to My Heart beginning February 1st!  Alas, I was so excited while making the shadowbox, that I accidentally grabbed a sheet of Crystal Blue Cardstock instead of Twilight or Juniper!!!  Oh my....

Can you see my sparkle?  Glitter Glitz Gel added a great bit of shine to the Juniper colored flowers.

Well, since I did kind of inadvertently cheat on the first project by adding a new color to the mix, I decided to use the rest of the patterned paper to create some sympathy cards as well and play by the rules, lol.

I cut two scalloped borders from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge on Juniper cardstock. 

I wanted to give it a bit of dimension, so I stamped this flower again and cut it out to pop up with some foam tape.  The sentiment is from the beautiful Close to My Heart Words of Comfort.

Then I remembered to do what I have been wanting to do with my cards--FINALLY!  I added a little floral stamp, also from Words of Comfort, on the inside of the card, and also to the envelope flap.  I love how that simple image ties everything together.

Now it's YOUR turn to sparkle!  Go ahead and make a paper project using these colors from Close to My Heart (or similar if you don't have them) and link it up to the Color Dare over at Color My Heart.  You have to link up by Thursday the 31st before 9 pm CST.  Don't forget to add a link to the Color My Heart Blog if you enter!  You could be the next one sporting the Color Dare badge on YOUR blog!   ;)  See you soon!