Australasian October 2014 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop S1410 Home for the Holidays

Welcome to October's Australasian Stamp of the Month Blog Hop.  We have all been creating with the Home for the Holidays stamp set.  If you arrived here from Jo's Blog you are in the right spot.  If you happened upon us accidently, WELCOME to the hop.  Once you’ve checked out my post you can click on the link at the bottom to the next blog on the tour.  Eventually you’ll end up back here.  Enjoy!



I'm looking forward to making all my Christmas gift tags with this stamp set but the one stamp that really grabbed my attention this time around is the "dreaming, believing, wishing" sentiment.  Yesterday marked the close of a year long campaign for an incentive I have been working towards.  I have been dreaming of taking my husband to Hawaii on a trip paid for by Close To My Heart.  I believed it was possible and I think we've done it.  I have to wait for official confirmation to come through so can't celebrate right this minute.



The good news is, even if I don't get the trip, I have enjoyed a year of sweet successes.  I passed many milestones and achieved PB's; I've welcomed many beautiful ladies into my team; I've helped team members grow their personal businesses and I've shown lots of people 'How To' scrapbook, stamp, make cards, use the Cricut and lots more creative stuff.

Now, lets talk about the page!  The cute little lollies on the stamp set caught my eye and went with my title.



I wanted to have some pop on this page and for my embellishments to reflect a little of what I've learnt creatively over the last year so I decided to make my sweets 3D.  The CTMH Score Board (Z1937) was my perfect tool for the job. Begin with a 1 1/2" square and score on every line of the score board.  Concertina the folds and wrap a bit of twine around the middle.  Trim ends of twine and stick the lolly on top using Liquid Glass (Z679).





Next I wanted to use the Candy Cane stamp to create a garland for the sweets to sit on.  Here's my page of experiments.



I decided on the last one but I could think of uses for the other designs on different projects.  Next up was some photo mounts.  I love the little Polar Bear stamp but he didn't fit my theme so I decided to cover him over.  I was able to keep the design of the frame (using my Cricut) and stamp in the colours of my layout.  Next, I needed journaling space.  I went with the bauble shape to match my sentiment but the stark white shape was a little too dominant on the page.  Second generation stamping provided a subtle background for my writing and I like the way the sentiment was repeated on the page.  You will notice in my final page above that the red didn't make the cut - it was too hard to see my writing on this colour.

The last thing my page needed was a title.  This layout was largely copied from one on pp30-31 of the Cherish How To Book and I loved their title so basically re-created it using my Cricut and scraps of paper.



There you go!  Christmas stamps don't have to be used for Christmas pages :)

The Home for the Holidays Stamp of the Month is only available during the month of October.  Full retail price is $27 (S1410) but why pay that much when you can get it for just $5 with an accompanying $75 order? Visit your consultant's website to place your order or write your wish list.

Feel free to leave a comment or share this blog post with friends before you hop over to Britt's Blog to see what she has created.

Happy scrappin’

Shaunna