CTMH Stampaganza Time!

June is a special month for Close To My Heart.  It is Stampaganza time.  Every so often, CTMH runs a deal that for every 2 stamps sets you purchase, you receive a 3rd of equal or lesser value for free!  Yes, for free!  This is the perfect time for this deal.  The current Idea Book will be replaced with the Fall/Winter Idea Book come August 1st.  It is so much fun anticipating the new Idea Book, but, it is possible that some of those wish list Christmas Stamp sets may be retired.  So, hop over to my website and make sure that you don't miss out on any sets that you may really want to use for all of those Holiday Cards you will be making.

Many of you may not know that I'm a design team member at Crafting By Designs.  This is a terrific community of crafty people, all of whom, have become friends while sharing their terrific creations.  Today I am hosting a sketch challenge called "Get Ready For Christmas."  I dug out some of my Christmas Stamps and created this card...

A few fun things about the "workings" of this card.  The Olive mat was first stamped with the flourish from "Adorn-able" (D1446) in New England Ivy.   I then scored it on the 1/2 inch mark, sanded and sponged the edges.  The Sentiment is from "Christmas Love" (D1492.)  If you look closely, the flourish on the star is a close match to the flourish from Adorn-able.  One of the easiest ways to make your cards look "finished" is to use repeating elements.  The flourish on the mat and the flourish on the stars create motion, interest and continuity.   By the way, the side stars were heat embossed in gold.  I merely heat embossed the sentiment twice and cut the stars out and popped them up on the card.  Oh...guess I should share the sketch...it is from Card Positioning Systems.

CTMH's Stampaganza runs through the end of the month.  Don't forget to hop over to my website to double check those wish list stamp sets.  For Now, Happy Crafting!