January Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the first blog hop of the new year!  I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season with your family.  I don't know about you but I am ready to get into my creative groove again and this hop will fill me with inspiration to get started.

So here is how this works.  If you have come from Angela's blog, you are on the right track.  When you are finished viewing my artwork, you will hop on over to Justine's Blog.  The hop is one big circle so just keep going and enjoying all the art you see.

The stamp set is call This Moment and includes the ever popular arrow images with additional sentiments and graphics!  Very fun!

When I begin to create, I usually need a stepping stone for inspiration.  Sometimes it is a card pattern, sometimes a full design, and other times, I need a new color palette.  This month, I wanted to play with some new color combinations so I took the color palette from the new Heartstrings paper packet and started playing.  Here's what I made!

 I ended up focusing on just two colors with a touch of black, lagoon and cranberry red.  These are not too colors I would usually put together but I love how it turned out.  I kept the cards clean and simple...a style I am not always comfortable with but am trying to use. 

As I photographed these cards, although I like the clean and simple look, I also saw some details that could be added if I wanted.  With the first card, I used the arrown embossing folder to add a touch of detail and texture.  I also added one of our new "puffies" to the bullseye to emphasize the heart.

On the second card, I just added three black puffie arrows, again to add texture and detail.  Simple yet a different look. 

I enjoy having a new stamp set to create with each month.  You can purchase this D-size stamp set, available for one month only, for just $5 — that’s over 70% off retail! When you place an order of $50 or more in Close To My Heart products.  When you qualify for the stamp of the month special, you will also qualify for the National Paper Crafting month special, "Year Noted". 

To learn more about this stamp set and the January special, contact your  Close to My Heart consultant or me.  And don't forget, you are now on your way to hop over to Justine's Blog.

Finally, here are the products I used to create my cards. 

Happy New Year,
Michele