April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Hi!  Thanks for "hopping" by!  If you have just come from Melissa's blog, you are in the right place.  For my creation this month, I wanted to try Color Blocking, and this is just the stamp set to use.  Here's a look at my card:

To make this card, I attached the stamps backward to my blocks--so that the image was stuck to the block, and I was stamping with the flat backside of the stamp.  I went with neutral ink colors--Saddle, Champagne, and Cashmere.  A word of warning, if you try this--don't hate your colors when you first stamp them!  They will dry much lighter.  The leaf stamp is from the Jubilee Workshop on the Go stamp set.  All of these products are available on my secure website HERE.  And here's a look at the stamp set:

Now, hop on over to Kathi's blog and check out what she made.  Leave me some love in the comments, and have fun hopping!

March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Hi, crafty friends!  Welcome to the March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  If you're hopping with us, you have just come from Keeley's blog.  Wasn't her artwork just fantastic???!!!  Today I am sharing a simple layout with you.  I used paper from the Jubilee paper pack because I thought the colors represent the traditional colors of the adorable Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls) in this month's SOTM.  Here's a look at the stamp set:

Did anyone catch the segment about Matryoshka dolls during the Olympic coverage?  It was very interesting!  Most are handmade in businesses that have been in the same families for years.  I love those little dolls and all the cute sentiments in this set!  I decided I wanted to use the "like mother/like daughter" sentiment with this photo of my bestie and her mom:

This was an amazingly simple layout to create because of our wonderful CTMH paper.  The red background paper (from Jubilee) is already printed with the doily, ticket, and strips of paper/tape that you can barely see behind the Matryoshka dolls.  It also already has the distressing along the edges and the flourishes in the top right corner.  You could totally plop a photo or two on this paper and call it quits (and have a stunning layout), but I added the diamonds and damask with paint, ink, and stencils.  The blue and yellow paper strips are more Jubilee papers; tags are from my stash.  And of course the stamps--don't you love them???!!!  These dolls are fun to color and easy to cut out when you want to use them as an embellishment as I did here.  You can order all of these products on my secure website HERE.  If you like what you see, leave me some love in the comments, please!  To continue on the hop, your next stop is Karen's blog.  Have fun hopping!