Close to My Heart March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - A Little Everything

Happy March! Can you believe the first two months of 2010 are over? I  can't! I'm still stuck on time to get started with all that I hope to accomplish in 2010!

Welcome to the Close to My Heart March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. If you started at the beginning with Jena DeVries, and continued through in order, you should be arriving from Katy Donaldson's blog. From here you'll go to Danielle Chapman's blog.

This month's stamp set is one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for sentiment stamps and fonts anyway, so this one was no exception. D1408 A Little Everything is a whimsical set with not only general holiday sentiments but also some additional phrases to complete popular greeting card wishes.

I created 2 projects for this month's hop. We'll start with a standard card. I used X5807 Creative Basics Animal Cookies Collection, 1242 Sunflower cardstock, 1385 White Daisy cardstock, Z1087 Sunflower Waxy Flax, Z1214 Summer Carnival Brad Assortment (Clover Meadow 8mm), and Z2103 Black Ink. By the way, all these products are available on my website or through me.

To create the frame, I used my cuttlebug. The sunflower cardstock is layered under the frame. I love Close to My Heart cardstock because it has a white core. It's nice to choose whether I want the complimentary effect of the white or a solid color tear edge. When I saw the frame, it reminded me of a business window and I couldn't help but create a look of an open/closed sign with the waxy flax hanging from the brad.

One other fun technique I'd like to point out on this card is that the "all you do" is only part of the full phrase. Because Close to My Heart's acrylic stamps are clear, it's easy to omit words you don't wish to use by "stamping off". It's so easy to line up because you can see where you're stamping exactly. The full phrase in this stamp was "for all you do." I just simply left the "for" off and stamped the remainder of the phrase!

In keeping with my theme for this year's projects, my next sample using the stamp of the month is a gift card holder. Several years ago, I purchased these cardboard CD cases. I thought them to be perfect for a gift card holder with a little more "wrapping" if you will.

X7105B My Reflections Emporium Level 2 paper pack, Z1125 Designer Ribbon Rounds Sweet Leaf Collection, Z1220 Twinkle Brads Jolly Assortment (Twilight standard brad), Z2117 Crystal Blue ink, and Z2214 Cocoa ink are the products used in this project.

On the inside of the CD folder, there's a pull out blank piece of cardstock to write a message to the gift receiver. Opposite the message card, there's another tab pull. On this piece, I placed 4 photo corner holders to insert a gift card.

Once the receiver has removed the gift card, it would be quite easy to turn this into a mini album or photo frame for a desktop. I LOVE when things become 2 gifts in one!

I hope you've enjoyed this month's creations. If you're continuing in the blog hop, you're next stop is Danielle Chapman's blog.