February Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

It's a pretty exciting time if you are a Close To My Heart enthusiast (or consultant) because the new 2012 Spring/Summer Idea Book goes live starting February 1st. And Close To My Heart never ceases to amaze! The papers are super gorgeous, the color combinations are great, and the new embellishments will blow your mind. Okay, not to mention a few really cool alterable items like the new My Creations® Milk Carton and Bookmark Album and Mini Banner and Collage Cubes... Whew!

With a new month comes a new Stamp of the Month, of course, and February's is called "Thoughtful Tidings." You can view the images in this great stamp set in the right hand column of my blog page. This month there are exactly 60 consultants participating in the Blog Hop so you should get tons of inspiration for this stamp set.

If you are already hopping, you came here from Carla's blog. To see where to go to next, keep scrolling through my post to the end.

Here we go! Since "Thoughtful Tidings" is an all-word and phrase stamp set, I figured I needed to come up with something more than a card. I love the new My Creations® Milk Carton (you get two in a pack) and just had to make something fun for my daughter for Valentine's Day. (shhh...)

Here's what the plain white milk carton looks like...

And here's what I did with it...

You'll notice a pretty clip at the top of the carton. Two of those are included in the set as well.

Now, if you just don't have time to see how this came together (or simply don't care) then now is the time for you to scroll to the end of this post to see where to hop to next. 

If you're curious, though, I will show you...

To make the window, I punched out a 2 1/4 inch circle from scrap card stock. (or you can use your Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge to cut one) I traced the circle onto the milk carton in the position I liked.

There is a front and a back to this milk carton so it's important to trace this circle on the front if you only want one window, like mine. See the diagonal score line on the side of the carton toward the top? That's the area that will be the pour spout, so to speak. 

TIP: It's best to make some soft folds on all the score lines before you get started to get a sense of the way the carton will close.

There's really no way to cut this hole laying the milk carton flat, so I just used my Xacto knife and cut it while it was standing on its side like you see here. I wasn't concerned with it being neat because I knew I was going to cover the outside of the hole with paper.

See? First I measured the front of the carton, cut the B&T paper rectangle (this is from the new "Stella" paper pack), then traced that same circle, making sure it would line up with the window I cut in the carton, and cut it out. Again, not concerned with neatness yet. (And yes, I could have saved a step and glued the paper to the carton first, then cut the hole only once.)

I like to make templates from scraps of card stock because I am sure to make many of these milk cartons in the future and saving the templates in a baggy will be a huge time-saver later.

This template above is for the milk carton's top portion. I started with a rectangle measuring just under 3 inches (2 15/16") by 2 1/8 inches. I found the center of the long edge and made a diagonal cut down to the outer corners to make a triangle. This triangle is all I need to keep. 

I cut four of the same size rectangles from B&T paper, traced, scored and inked with Cocoa as shown above. Two of the rectangles only get one score since these will be for the sides of the upper part of the carton. 

Here you can see here where the scored pieces go. 

For the window border, I cut (Circle4) from the Art Philosophy cartridge at 2 1/2 inches. One from Cocoa card stock (Circle4 + Decorative Layer), and one from the same B&T paper I've been using (Circle4 + Layer).

Using Colonial White card stock, I cut a heart from the Art Philosophy cartridge at 2 inches. Then I stamped "We Love You" with Tulip, colored the shadow of LOVE with a Juniper marker, inked the outer edges with Cocoa and then used a watercolor marker to add a soft shading of red.

Then I came in with a blending pen and softened it up to blend out to the Cocoa edges.

To break up all the red, I cut a heart on the Cricut at 1/2 inch out of Juniper card stock and stuck it over top of the Tulip stamped one. I finished it off with a bow made from some of our new Baker's Twine from the Paradise Assortment.

On each side of the milk carton, I layered up four of our new Just Blooms Paper Shapes (Paradise) and added a mocha opaque pearl in the center to match the Cocoa ink distressing. I added a little Tulip ink over the second flower from the center with a sponge dauber so it matched my milk carton colors better. 

Here's another look at the finished milk carton. I put my daughter's favorite candy (Reese's Mini's) in a cello bag and tucked it inside so they show through the window. I was very proud of myself for only eating two of them while I put this project together. (Not as easy as it seems.)

I used the "Consider Yourself Hugged" image from the stamp of the month set on the side of the carton. Another heart at 1/2 inches out of Tulip card stock finished it off. 

Thanks for sticking with me to the end. If you're moving on through the hop, it's time to go check out what Dawn's created. 

Have a great day!