October Creatively Redeeming Treasures Blog Hop

Hi! Welcome to this month's edition of the Creatively Redeeming Treasures Blog Hop. I'm so glad you are here! If you are coming from Helen's blog, you are in the right place.

This month, we are featuring things from the Holiday Gift Guide. This guide has so many great Christmas things in it, as well as a lot of fun stamps and supplies for every day crafting. If you order $100 in products from the guide, you get any of the 'star' items for free! And with all the great crafting products, it's so easy to get to $100!

 I used the Sparkle and Shine Workshop On The Go to make this cute little photo album. The album itself I picked up at Michael's on clearance. I made a cover for it using the Sparkle and Shine paper, the 'Merry and Bright' stamp and Sparkle Flourishes from the workshop, and silver Shimmer Trim. I also made a cover for the binding and the back cover. To adhere the paper covers to the album I used some of the Base and Bling Adhesive Strips. This is my new favorite adhesive for projects when I know I need long-lasting hold. It's amazing.

  

So there you have it. Simple, easy project. That's it for today! Thanks for stopping by. Now hop on over to Elizabeth's blog to see what she's cooked up for us.

Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Hi! Welcome to the October edition of the Joyful Stars Blog Hop. If you are coming from Helen's blog, you are in the right place! Let's get started.

Its craft show season, so I've been working overtime to get myself ready for all my shows. I thought I'd share a little project I made for them using the Huntington paper pack. I absolutely love this pack. The colors and patterns are right up my alley, and I love that it can be great for fall or Christmas.

I've been seeing these cute little chocolate square holders all over pinterest, and I thought they would be a perfect little impulse buy to have at the shows. I didn't love any of the patterns, though. They all seemed too time intensive, too much scoring and folding and gluing. Then I remembered that somewhere I'd seen this idea. I can't remember where, (and if you know, please let me know so I can give credit) but I love the simplicity of it.

You use a 6x6 piece of cardstock, folded in half along the diagonal, sides folded in, then folded in half again to make two pockets. Punch a hole in the top, add some ribbon, and you are done! The only glue on this project is holding the patterned paper onto the base. It's so easy! They are the perfect size for a little chocolate square on one side and a small note on the other. They would make great stocking stuffers, be lovely in a bunch of flowers as a thank you for a hostess, a cute treat for all the members of your book club, and more. I really love how these turned out, and I'm excited to make more in more patterns and colors!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now hop on over to Angelina's blog to see what she's made for us this month!

Be Crafty!

Meredith

Sarita Blog Hop

Hi! Welcome to the September edition of the Creatively Redeeming Treasures Blog Hop. If you are arriving from Elizabeth's blog, you are in the right place! This month, we are featuring the fantastic Sarita paper pack from Close To My Heart. I really love this paper. It's so trendy and modern, I love the navy and the orange, and the ikat pattern is one of my all time favorites. But as much as I love the paper, I wasn't feeling super creative with it. I kept pulling it out, looking at it, trying different combinations, and then putting it away again. I had no clue what to do with it. Then I talked to my best friend who just moved all the way across the country to live with her baby and her inlaws while her husband is going to school. She sounded so sad and lonely, and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. As soon as I knew I wanted to make her something, I knew EXACTLY what to do with this paper pack and this card was born.

I used the ikat patterned paper on an Outdoor Denim background. I used the fantastic Geometric Backgrounds stamp in the ikat pattern to stamp the navy cardstock in navy ink to give it a little bit more depth. I am a huge fan of background stamps, but these are probably my favorite. They are specifically designed to fit together so you can stamp seamless backgrounds with ease. It's so easy and adds such a great touch to your project.

The sentiment and the butterfly and flower stamps are from this month's exclusive You Are My Happy set, in celebration of National Scrapbooking Month. This is such a fantastic set. It comes with a complete uppercase and lowercase alphabet, a sheet of sentiments, and a sheet of adorable animals and shapes, and it only costs $10 if you purchase $50 or more in qualifying product!

  

The inside of the card has a delightful quote from Dr. Seuss and some more happy animals. I'm really happy with how this turned out and I think my friend is going to love it, too. To find out more about Close To My Heart or to purchase any of the products featured in this hop, contact your Close To My Heart consultant or follow any of the links in this post. Now hop on over to Kara's blog to see what she has for you. Thanks for stopping by!

Be Crafty!
Meredith

Joyful Stars Blog Hop

Welcome to this month's Joyful Stars blog hop. If you are coming from Elizabeth's blog, you are in the right spot.  If you get lost at any point, there's a list on Joyce's blog. Lets get started!

The last couple of days here have been cold and rainy. I've been wearing scarves and cardigans and feeling like fall. I also just got this super adorable turkey stamp, and so this card was born.

I used Barn Red card stock and one piece of patterned paper from the Huntington pack. I cut the patterned paper into a 1/2 in x 12 in strip and then cut it into three 4-inch pieces. The turkey I cut with my cricut using the Artiste cartridge. The 'Happy Thanksgiving' and the flourish are from that set, as well as the 'Thank You' stamped on the bottom grey piece. Some little gold sparkles were the finishing touch! Quick, easy thank you card for a thanksgiving hostess! Now hop on to  Lori's blog to see what else we have for you. Thanks for stopping by!

August Creatively Redeeming Treasures Blog Hop

Hi! Welcome to the August edition of the Creatively Redeeming Treasures Blog Hop. I'm so glad you are here. If you are coming from Angelina's blog, you are in the right place. If you are starting here at my blog, keep hopping through and when you end up back here, you know you are in the right place. Let's get started, shall we?

This month, the theme is the brand new paper pack from Close To My Heart called 'Babycakes'. This paper pack is so cute. It is gender neutral, full of trendy greys, browns, and oranges, polka dots, stripes, and adorable giraffes, and would make fantastic baby pages or projects. When I first saw it, I completely wrote it off, because I don't have babies, and clearly this paper is only for baby projects, right? WRONG! The giraffe paper is probably best for babies, but the neutral color palette, the polkadots, stripes, and solids make it a fantastic choice for many different projects. To show you how versatile this paper is, I made a very classy Thank You card that has nothing to do with babies.

I used one of the brand new Spin Cards, as well as the mini Thank You stamp. And can I just talk about the mini stamps for a minute. How cute are they? They are adorable, the perfect size for a quick card to someone, and at only $2.95 each, you can buy all of them! Great, huh? They also fit perfectly on the spinner part of these cards, so the combo makes it fantastic for a quick and easy card. I used the brand new Scallop Punch on the edges of my strips of paper, layered them on the bottom of the card, and topped it off with some Bronze Shimmer Trim. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know how much I love shimmer trim. If this is your first visit, let me just say that if I could only pick one crafting product to keep with me on a desert island, it would be shimmer trim. This stuff is amazing. You need shimmer trim.

I sponged the edges of the spinner and the cut-out with Sunset ink to make them stand out a little bit more. 

On the opposite side of the spinner I just adhered a grey circle. I might do something with this later before I give the card away, or I might not. I haven't decided for sure yet. But I like that I have options.

That's all I have for you today! Hop on over to Helen's blog to see what else we have for you with this beautiful paper.

Be Crafty!

Meredith

July Creatively Redeeming Treasures Blog Hop

Hi! Welcome to this month's Creatively Redeeming Treasures Blog Hop! If you are coming from Elizabeth's blog, you are in the right place! If you are just stopping by, feel free to follow the links and hop the whole way through and see everyone's artwork. This month's theme is 'Anything Goes', which is my favorite theme. :) I thought I'd show you a project I made for my team last month at convention. I recently learned how to do Coptic binding, which is a way to bind books so that they open flat at any page. If you would like to learn how to do this, there is an excellent tutorial here. I used a small notebook for the inside pages and plain, cream-colored cardstock for the outside covers. I used brown, waxed thread, although embroidery floss also works well. 

I forgot to take pictures before they flew in a plane, so it's a little beat up. I layered Chocolate and Sweet Leaf cardstock. On the brown cardstock, I stamped some flourishes around the edge in Chocolate, and on the green paper, I stamped the scallop dots from this stamp set. (By the way, this is one of my favorite stamps ever. I use it so often to make a subtle pattern on paper and it is so versatile. If you like making patterned paper with stamps and plain cardstock, this set is definitely a must have)

I layered a strip of the Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon on the green piece. The stamp is from 'For a Friend', and I cut an oval out on my Cricut that fits perfectly.

That's it for today! Thanks for stopping by. Now hop on over to Dolores' blog to see what she's made for us this month!

Be Crafty!

Meredith

Quick update

If you are here looking for this week's party kit, it's not here today. Please check out the blog hop I'm participating in today in the post below, and check back tomorrow when hopefully my camera is fixed for this week's party kit. It might be my favorite! Flowers and pastels and lace, oh my!