CTMH Australasian Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - August 2014 - What a Hoot

Hello and welcome aboard our Close to My Heart Australasian Stamp of the month Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Jenny's Blog, Jen's Creative Classroom, then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you this special birthday card which features the August Stamp of the Month - What a Hoot, available exclusively throughout August for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75.

At first glance, you would think this is very much a "Halloween" stamp set, but I beg to differ. Owls of all shapes and sizes have been in style in crafting for a while now, and I for one am a little obsessed :-). When I saw the line drawn owls on this set, with options for eyes and hats, I knew I wanted to do a little paper piecing.

I took colour inspiration from my first favourite paper set out of the new Annual Inspirations book, called "Brushed". I absolutely love these prints and colour combination.

I stamped the standing owl onto the B&T paper, using the more subtle pattern for the body and the large print for the belly. Then I stamped the wings and the party hat onto a small piece of Olive cardstock. I stamped all the images in black ink to emphasise the paper piecing.

I used the Cricut Artbooking cartridge to cut the branch and the title. The images are actually from a Nursery layout (p.84), and the title says "Look Whoos here" but I trimmed off the last word by hand, so I could add the numbers for the age birthday. The titles are cut from Cranberry cardstock.

I love that all the Cricut cartridges from Close to My Heart are so versatile, with over 700 images on each, that be used in so many different ways.

Both the branch and the tree on the left side of the card were embossed with the new Woodgrain embossing folder, using colonial white cardstock as the base. Then I swiped Chocolate ink over the top of the embossed lines, and filled in with the Chocolate ink and a sponge dauber.

The base of the card is Champagne cardstock. I stamped some light clouds in the background from the C1570 Lifting Spirits set, with Glacier ink. Most of the card was assembled with flat adhesive, but for the 40 and the party hat I used a bit of foam tape to give the card some dimension. A little bit of sequins and sparkles finished the card - you always need a little bling, right?

I had tons of fun making this card, and hope the recipient likes it as well. 40 is the new 30, apparently lol

S1408 What a Hoot is only available until 31 August 2014 from your CTMH consultant.

I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop,  Lauren Moore's Blog, CTMH Craftings.

Yours in Craft,
Monika