Merry Little Christmas

Today I felt like it was time to work on my Christmas stash! I got this cute merry die from Hero Arts and wanted to use it somehow. I decided to use the sketch only from Fusion after I was inspired by the design team gallery (but I missed the linkup) and add a sentiment to go along with my die to link up with the "add a sentiment" challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. I was excited to add these sweet little snowflakes from Taylored Expressions to my card. It's fun to have new Christmas stuff to play with!

Paper - Jack paper collection; Black cardstock; White glitter paper (CTMH); 

Stamps & Dies - Merry Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts); Snowflake Confetti (Taylored Expressions).

Celebrate 300

Today I created a wedding card to celebrate the 300th sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches!

Paper - Wedding Bliss (Echo Park); Black, Cotton Candy, Ivory cardstock (SSS); Vellum paper (CTMH);

Stamps - Floral Bliss (SSS); Embossing Powder - Princess Gold (CTMH);

Dies - Stitched Rectangles, Stitched Ovals (Memory Box);

Embellishments - Antiqued Gold mini-medley (CTMH); Matte Black Gumdrops (YNS).

*New* Catalogue Live

Today is the day our newest catalogue at Close To My Heart goes live!

Visit my site to see all of the amazing new products.

Mason Jar Pin Cushions

As soon as I saw this post about Mason Jar Pin Cushions from my talented Auntie Karen earlier this year I knew I wanted to try them out! I am not a very confident sewer, but I thought this was something I could handle :). I found the cutest fabric from our local quilting store, Sugar Town Quilt Company, and knew just the special person I wanted to make this project for!

I couldn't resist getting a bit extra of this fabric, so I decided to make up some little cocktail napkins as well. Inside of the jars I had lots of fun picking out some funky buttons for one, and then some thread, sewing machine themed kleenex, and clips for the other - so many fun options!

Huckleberry Jam

Do you have special things that you get or are given and you save them to use for just that right special occasion; however, you're so busy measuring whether the occasion truly is special enough to bring out the special thing that you never end up using it? Well, that is me with huckleberries. This unique, rare berry is my absolute favourite! I savour them so much I often leave them in my freezer when I can finally get them because I can't bear the thought of "wasting" them. This summer I'm on a mission to change that. This year I got the berries fresh and am determined to use them up BEFORE I even have the chance to put them in the freezer - it's hard to part with them (even though I'm the one eating a lot of them :) ).

One way to do this was to make jam. I decided to put the jam in small jars this year so that I also wouldn't get in the habit of opening a larger one and thinking ok well I shouldn't eat the jam again today because I want it to last and then months go by and it is still sitting there unused. I also cringe at the amounts of sugar we need to dump into jam that is already sweetened naturally by fruit, so I used a berry jam recipe that I tried last year that uses honey.

Seeing Stars Birthday

Here is a card I made for our nephew's birthday using the Jack paper collection (his name happens to be Jack, too!) from Close To My Heart. I also included another little new product sneak peak in there as well (available August 1)! I used the sketch over at Fusion and incorporated some gold script. I added as much stitching as my dies could handle to play along with the "in stitches" challenge over at Heart2Heart. Finally, I used some star dies to cut out some cute plaid stars to add to my card to link up with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge of "seeing stars".

Paper - Jack; Juniper cardstock; Gold Foil *new* (CTMH);

Stamps - Belated Birthday (CTMH); Ink - Black (CTMH);

Dies - Stitched Rectangles (Memory Box); Happy, Basic Stars (CTMH).

I decided to make a little bag to go along with the card out of the same paper collection.

Let The Bliss Begin

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary :). The word 'bliss' has become a special sign to me throughout the past few months as it combines two very special names dear to my heart and I took it as a sign to get this stamp set when it popped up at Simon Says Stamp.

Paper - Kraft (CTMH); Stamps - Floral Bliss (SSS);

Ink - White Shimmer (Delicata) *embossed; 

Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide; Mowed Lawn, Antique Linen Distress Ink (Tim Holtz).

I look forward to this next year of ours and hope that our storms have finally passed.