Happy New Year! Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

How exciting!  A new year to celebrate with both a stamp set and more new Close to My Heart products!

If you have been hopping with us, then you have arrived from Tamytha's blog here and view her beautiful layout.  We have many consultants participating each month in this SOTM blog hop and you can certainly find inspiration for this stamp set by hopping along with us!  Do not worry, if you get lost along the way, then you can always find your way back to Melinda's  list here.

I love Valentine's Day!  I love candy and anything that has 'love' attached to it. SO it is no surprise that I love this new stamp set!

The best part is we also have a colorful paper packet designed especially for Valentine's Day called Heartstrings.  But if you are not a HUGE Valentine fan, then you can also use this stamp set in many other ways.

How about a mini-album for your favorite girl?

Or gift bags for your co-workers?

I created a layout for my upcoming workshop and I knew it would be perfect to add additional images from the stamp set.  The paper pack is from the NEW Seasonal Expressions I and is called Heartstrings.  You can find all of the information for this set in the Seasonal Expressions Blog Hop post here.

Now it is time to hop off to Melissa's blog here and check out her beautiful artwork.

Welcome another new year of Close to My Heart!

Seasonal Expression I Blog Hop

Welcome!  Life is sure exciting the entire month of December, isn't it?  So seriously, who is thinking about Valentine's Day?  I am!

Our brand new Seasonal Expression I supplement went live on December 1st and so it is time for a blog hop!  The very talented group of Stamp of the Month Bog Hop consultants is sponsoring this hop and we have over 30 consultants participating in this hop.

If you have been hopping with us, then you have arrived from Melissa's blog here.  Don't worry, if you get lost along the way, you can always find the list on Melinda's blog here.

My Valentine's Day layout inspiration came from Scrapbooking Generation's new Create e-magazine from February 2014 here.  I layed out my design in the Cricut Design Space program to give me an idea of colors and cuts.  Here is my sketch idea...

You can find the free downloads for this layout and the others here.

Next I started to work with the Heartstrings paper pack and accessories.

Love this paper pack!

Heartstrings Complements and Assortments

Then I accented the layout with stamped images from the C1604 Forever in My Heart stamp set.

The red outlines are the cut files from the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.  You can find my Cricut Design Space file here.

If you do not have an Explore, here are the cut sizes.

Art Philosophy - page 26

Large Heart - 2"

Small Heart -  1 1/2"

Art Philosophy - page 35
Label - 1 1/2"

Finally here is the layout that I have been working on!

Now it is off to Sheila's blog here for her Parisian tour...  

Thank you for joining us on this Seasonal Expressions I Blog Hop!

H2H Scrapbooking Challenge for December

It's time to celebrate! ...I am talking about your favorite holiday!  While I am sure that many of you love Christmas, that is not one of my favorite holidays! Actually it is Halloween but I decided to scrapbook Thanksgiving for this post because this holiday is rapidly becoming one of my most favorite holidays!

I love cooking for my small family and celebrating all that is blessed and wonderful about our life.  I am thrilled that I am able to finish a scrapbook layout before the 1st of December.  Thanks to the Close to My Heart November special, I was able to print a few layouts for only $5.00!

Here is my layout using the Studio J Pathfinding paper pack.  This paper pack is a brand new addition to Studio J and I am so grateful they decided to add several of the new paper packs to the program.

As you can see the Brill family includes a son and daughter-in-law plus two dogs!  My husband, and 'kids' had a relaxing weekend while I worked at the Bernina Sewing Center in Tampa, Fl.  Not to worry - I have several days off while they are at work!

Please join us and scrapbook your favorite holiday!  Add your linky here so we can all share your memories as well!