Don't Be Distressed by Distressing! - CTMH Product spotlight blog hop

Hello and welcome to our monthly product spotlight blog hop! If you've arrived here from Haley's blog, or if you are just starting out, you are in the right place. This month we're featuring distressing, so whether you're a pro at pouncing or have never torn a piece of paper, take a look around and see the possibilities!

Close To My Heart offers several products to help you in your distressing endeavors, but I chose to focus on a couple of my favorites for this card.  I got the sketch from this week's Splitcoast Stampers sketch SC393.

I love to have a variety of birthday cards on hand, especially extra masculine cards since they are harder for me to whip out on a moment's notice!  The Typeset paper pack is one of my current favorites to distress.  (It's going away after July 31, so be sure to order now if you want it!)  I used the Edge Distresser on the base paper and the sentiment mat. I then inked the edges with a stamp pad.  For the pennant, I cut the pieces with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, manipulating the size of the shapes using the Cricut Gypsy.  After stamping my stitches on the main piece, I spritzed both parts with water to make them easier to crumple. (Our Spray Pen is perfect for this.) After wadding the papers into balls, I flattened them back out again.  I again used a stamp pad to ink all of the edges, as well as ink the raised parts of the "crumples".

I added some large pewter brads on the end of my banner, and tied some twine around them.

Finally, I added some embellishments using a corrugated circle from the Milepost Shapes, two canvas badge buttons that I stamped, and a pewter button/slide with twine tied on it.

Supplies used for this card:

• Typeset Paper Pack
• Kraft cardstock
• D1481, Vintage Type stamp set
• C1459, Stitched Together stamp set
• C1429, Party Pennants stamp set
• Exclusive Inks stamp pads in Cocoa, Desert Sand, Juniper, and Vineyard Berry
• Milepost Shapes
• Mini-Medley Accents Pewter Collection
• Canvas Badge Buttons
• Edge Distresser
• Spray Pen
• Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge collection

Before I go, I just want to let you know that if you love the Art Philosophy cartridge, you are also going to want our NEW Artiste cartridge collection coming August 1st!  You can see the handbook online here.  Once you know you have to have it, give me a shout - I'll be offering a special price to my customers and placing orders right away on August 1!

OK, that's it for today.  Be sure to head on over to Wendy's blog next and check out her distressed project. Thanks so much for stopping by; hope to see you again soon!