National Stamping Month—Hello, Life!

During the month of September, you can purchase any one of the exclusive C-size My Acrylix® Hello, Life! stamp sets for $13.95 USD / $16.50 CAD / $21 AUD / $25 NZD each! Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase all three for only $34.95 USD / 41.50 CAD / $53 AUD / $64 NZD!

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - March: Choose Happy

Welcome to the March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month’s set is Choose Happy, a set of 14 stamps.

If you have come here from {Carol Taggio’s blog}, you’re in the right place! There are more than 65 independent Close to My Heart consultants participating. Click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move through the Hop.

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Let’s begin!

 The Brushed paper packet has a LOT of pink in it. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I am not personally a huge fan of pink. Therefore, when designing my card I wanted to go with less of the pink, or in this case, Pixie. That being said, I chose to focus more on the Canary or yellow. I love this new color. It’s bright, but not too bright.

I ended up choosing a card pattern with a lot of pieces, which allowed me to use a number of different papers and textures. I used tiny pieces of one of the zip strips in the packet, and I added texture to the White Daisy by embossing it with the Diamond Embossing Folder.

This particular stamp set isn’t specifically designed to be used with one of our Cricut cartridges, but I knew we had a shape similar to the frame I wanted to use, so I played around with it until I got the right size. I like how there is plenty of white space around the stamped frame. It helps the Flaxen color of the frame stand out.

I find that it is best to adhere dry embossed pieces with either foam tape or Glue Dots, and as I wrapped the embossed piece with the Extra Thick Twine, the foam tape was most appropriate in this instance.

Here is what I used. All products are Close to My Heart:

S1503 Choose Happy stamp set

X7190B Brushed Paper Packet

Z2642 Flaxen Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Z2165 Juniper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Z3036 Flaxen Extra Thick Twine

Z1807 Pink Glitter Gems

Z1151 3-D Foam Tape

Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Z3020 Diamond Embossing Folder

Z1836 Non-Stick Micro-tip Scissors

9042 Make It from Your Heart™ Volume 2 (#29)

Z1906 Cricut® Artbooking Collection

Now “Hop” on over to {Michelle Jones’ blog} to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s site to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas! Don’t forget, this exclusive stamp set is only available through March 31st. Click here to order yours today!

Special Edition Blog Hop: Artfully Sent

Welcome to a special edition Blog Hop! 

We’re celebrating the release of Close to My Heart’s new Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge! Just like all of our other Cricut cartridges it features over 700 images, comes with 3 exclusive My Acrylix Stamp Sets, and also comes with a pack of 12x12" White Daisy Cardstock which is perfect for card bases or using to stamp sentiments on.

If you have come here from {Priscilla Gotham’s blog}, you’re in the right place! There are more than 40 independent Close to My Heart consultants participating. Click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move through the Hop.

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Let's get started!

Artfully Sent certainly includes many designs to help you quickly and easily create a beautiful card, but to be honest, it was the stamp sets that I was most excited about! One of them is nothing but sentiments, and I can always use a new sentiment set. Another one has elegant border frames. I chose to feature these two stamp sets rather than one of the new card patterns. 

My card still came together pretty fast even though I decided to create the frame for the sentiment by embossing it in gold. I thought the gold was perfect for a Christmas card and the Yuletide Carol papers.

Here is what I used. All products are Close to My Heart:

Z3017 Cricut® Artfully Sent Collection
X7187B Yuletide Carol Paper Packet
Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad
Z2066 Ranger™ Princess Gold Embossing Powder
Z2170 Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Z1848 Red Shimmer Trim
Z1985 Gold Shimmer Trim
Z2023 Bling Gems Gold Assortment



Now “Hop” on over to {Dana Kessler’s blog} to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s site to get a glimpse into the many things you can do with this new cartridge! Click here to order yours today!

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - November: It's the Little Things

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month we’re featuring the November set It’s the Little Things, a set of 15 stamps. 

If you have come here from {Katy Taylor’s blog}, you’re in the right place! There are more than 60 independent Close to My Heart consultants participating. Click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move through the Hop.

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Off we go!

Attending a Close to My Heart event is always very inspiring, and my team’s Thriving 30 Celebration in Boise in September was no exception. One of the projects we did while I was there included creating our own background paper. I know how to do this, and I’ve done it in the past, but it had been a while.

When I pulled out this month’s stamp set to start thinking about what I wanted to create, I immediately saw a great opportunity for creating my own background paper. There are plenty of colors in the Pathfinding palette to make a vibrant and interesting pattern.

I wanted a lot of the stamped paper to show so I chose a card pattern that would let it be seen. This let me use smaller pieces of the patterned paper from the kit, but you can see them well, too. I had originally used a plain piece of Barn Red cardstock for contrast, but then I changed it to a piece of the Barn Red from Paper Fundamentals, and I liked that better. If you look closely you can see the embossed design.

The flowers did require a bit of what we like to call “fussy cutting,” but I didn’t mind because the results were worth it. A little piece of 3-D Foam Tape to pop up the center and a few Sparkles were all I needed to finish it off.

Here is what I used. All products are Close to My Heart:

S1411 It’s the Little Things stamp set
X7186B Pathfinding Paper Packet
Z2031 Paper Fundamentals Enchantment Assortment
Z2104 Barn Red Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z2174 Champagne Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z2101 Autumn Terracotta Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z2137 Olive Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z2123 Goldrush Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z2195 Lagoon Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z2641 Glacier Exclusive Inks stamp pad
Z1753 Sparkles Brown & Tan Assortment
Z1151 3-D Foam Tape
Z1836 Non-Stick Micro-tip Scissors

Now “Hop” on over to {Melissa Laverty’s blog} to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s site to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas! Don’t forget, this exclusive stamp set is only available through November 30th. Click here to order yours today!

National Stamping Month: 30 Years of Happy!

Welcome to a special edition Blog Hop! 

September is National Stamping Month, and Close To My Heart is ready to celebrate all month long! 

If you have come here from {Carol-Anne Grenier’s blog}, you’re in the right place! There are more than 35 independent Close to My Heart consultants participating. Click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move through the Hop.

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Not only is it National Stamping Month, Close to My Heart is also celebrating its 30th Anniversary by offering this exclusive C-size stamp set. The possibilities are endless with all the fun shapes and designs!

I kept it really simple when designing my artwork. I random-stamped tone-on-tone flowers to create a fun background, stamped a sentiment, tied on a piece of Baker’s Twine, and the Canary card was done. I love the star patterned paper in the Chalk It Up set, so it was perfect for the Rock Star sentiment in the stamps. It also gave me an opportunity to use our new Enamel Stars. Finally, I used a 1-inch circle punch and a piece of the Paper Fundamentals to make a circle pendant from our Base & Bling line. I stamped the camera image in Archival Black Ink, heat set it with a craft heater, and then it sit for a bit. I applied some Liquid Glass over the image and set in the glass cover. A couple of charms finished it off.

Here is what I used. All products are Close to My Heart:

X5772 Canary Cardstock
1385 White Daisy Cardstock
X7184B Chalk It Up Paper Packet
Z2033 Paper Fundamentals Whimsy Assortment
Z2643 Canary Exclusive Inks™ stamp pad
Z2173 Slate Exclusive Inks™ stamp pad
Z2195 Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ stamp pad
Z2010 White Enamel Stars
Z1921 Baker's Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment
Z1964 Base & Bling Circle Pendant—Faux Antiqued Silver
Z1966 Base & Bling Circle Glass Covers
Z1940 Base & Bling Chain—Faux Antiqued Silver
Z679 Liquid Glass
Z1999 1" Circle Punch

Now “Hop” on over to {Maria Myers’s blog} to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s site to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas! Don’t forget, this exclusive stamp set is only available through September 30th! Click here to order yours today!

*September is National Stamping Month, and Close To My Heart is ready to celebrate all month long! When you spend $30 on any current retail-priced stamps during the month of September, you qualify to receive the exclusive C-sized stamp set #30yearsofhappy for FREE! This special offer is part of our celebration of National Stamping Month and in honor of our on-going celebration of our founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton’s 30-year anniversary in the scrapbooking and stamping industry. The exclusive stamp set features 30 mini images and sentiments perfectly suited for 30 days of happy stamping! Plus, make sure you check out Close To My Heart’s Facebook page and Instagram during September to follow all the ways we’re celebrating #30yearsofhappy for a full 30 days!

National Papercrafting Month - You'll Be on Cloud Nine!

Welcome! January is National Papercrafting Month and that means Close to My Heart has a fabulous special for you, and we have another Blog Hop, too! This year we’re offering the Cloud Nine cardmaking kit, which features a sneak peek at some of the products in the upcoming Spring/Summer Idea Book!

The Hop features more than 20 independent Close to My Heart consultants and some of their latest work. If you have come here from Maureen O’Sullivan’s blog, you’re in the right place!

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Off we go!

While the Cloud Nine cardmaking kit makes cute and versatile cards, I thought I’d try to use it for something else. My first thought was to make different cards than those in the kit, but I wanted to go a little further than that. Using one of the Cricut cartridges to make a 3-D item was what I was looking for.

 

Fast, simple, and easy is what I came up with. I cut the box from the Artiste cartridge, wrapped a thin strip of Honey cardstock around it followed by a strip of the new Teal Shimmer Trim, and topped it off with the “Just Because” image stamped in Sunset and popped up with 3-D Foam Tape. The final touch was 3 of the new Durables Triangle Studs in Antiqued Gold.

Here are the details on the promotion:

You can get an exclusive Cloud Nine cardmaking kit for $15 (retail value $46) with a qualifying purchase of $35 or more (excluding tax and shipping) in celebration of National Papercrafting Month during January. Make 10 adorable cards (2 each of 5 designs) with funky messages to put any recipient on cloud nine! You can add one cardmaking kit for every $35 in your order. New Consultants who enroll in January will receive a FREE Cloud Nine cardmaking kit when they have submitted total personal sales of $300 or more.

Now “Hop” on over to Michelle Jones’ blog to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s blog to get some great crafting inspiration and other unique ideas! The Cloud Nine cardmaking kit is available through January 31, 2014 or while supplies last. Click here to get yours now!

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - November: Illuminate

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month we’re featuring the November set Illuminate, a set of 15 stamps. If you have come here from Haley Dyer’s blog, you’re in the right place! There are more than 50 independent Close to My Heart consultants sharing artwork made using the Stamp of the Month and other great Close to My Heart products. Hopping is simple to do – just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one.

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Off we go!

I really wasn’t sure how I felt about this set when I first saw it. It’s not my typical style, and so I thought about what I was going to do for the Blog Hop for a while - nothing solid, just ideas bouncing around in my head.

When I actually sat down to work on my card, I decided I should look at papers again. I had originally thought I’d pair Illuminate with the Sparkle & Shine paper (which happens to be the assigned paper pack for the person using the Stamp of the Month for my team’s Display Board Swap), but I wasn’t sure. I went through my paper samples a couple times and realized that this particular pattern from Laughing Lola was speaking to me. The paisleys look to be made of gold and sort of twinkling like lights! (The color is actually called Laughing Lola Gold, but if you see the coordinating cardstock it’s also got a slight green hue to it.)

I think I ended up with another simple, yet elegant result.

Here is what I used. All products are Close to My Heart:

S1311 Illuminate stamp set

X7170B Laughing Lola paper packet

1388 Colonial White cardstock

44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks stamp pad

Z2162 Honey Exclusive Inks stamp pad

Z2167 Crème Brulee Exclusive Inks stamp pad

Z1862 Black Mini-Medley Assortment

Z1335 Opaques Licorice Adhesive Gems

Z1809 Black Shimmer Trim

Now “Hop” on over to Krista Hershberger‘s blog to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s blog to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas! Don’t forget, this exclusive stamp set is only available through November 30^th! Click here to order yours today!

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E01): Getting Started with Cricut Artbooking

Close To My Heart's revolutionary Cricut® Artbooking collection will take your papercrafting to a new level! Learn how to use the new collection to turn your themed layouts and mini scrapbooks into beautiful works of art.

Join us each week for the Artbooking Made Easy series from September 2013 through April 2014. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, bookmark Jeanette Lynton's blog, and follow us on Facebook to stay in-the-know!

National Stamping Month - You are My Happy

September is National Stamping Month, and we're kicking off the party with a blog hop and the You Are My Happy stamp set trio! If you have come from Jean McNulty's blog, you're in the right place. 

The You Are My Happy stamp sets arrive on three D-size carrier sheets in two envelopes and are stylistically designed so all images coordinate to help you celebrate your happy times all year!

I'm not ready for summer to be over yet, so I was very drawn to the sunshine and coordinating sentiment. I chose a color palette that was bright and sunny as well.

Here's what I used to create my card. All products are Close to My Heart:

You Are My Happy stamp set trio

X7171B Sarita paper packet

1385 White Daisy cardstock

X5754 Creme Brulee cardstock

X5758 Sunset cardstock

Goldrush Exclusive Inks

Creme Brulee Exclusive Inks

Chocolate Exclusive Inks

Z1849 Bronze Shimmer Tape

Z1853 Aqua Dots

When you place an order of $50 or more you qualify for this whimsical triple stamp set of cheerful sentiments, images, and an alphabet to complement life’s silly, sweet, and serendipitous moments. Visit my Online Business Address today to get your own You Are My Happy stamp set trio for just $10 — a savings of $37.90 over retail value! Offer valid September 1–30, 2013.

It's time to hop on over to Krista Hershberger's blog to see her delightful artwork!

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - September: Poster Tidings

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month we’re featuring the August set Poster Tidings, a set of 2 stamps. If you have come here from Maria Myers‘ blog, you’re in the right place! There are more than 50 independent Close to My Heart consultants sharing artwork made using the Stamp of the Month and other great Close to My Heart products. Hopping is simple to do – just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one.

The Blog Hop is a great big circle. Start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way you’ll find a complete list of participating consultants here. You can use this list to pick up where you left off.

Off we go!

After much thought about what I wanted to do for this month’s hop, I decided that I wanted to basically deconstruct one of the stamped images. I chose 5 colors from the Huntington color palette and stamped my selected image onto Colonial White cardstock in each of the colors (Autumn Terracotta, Olive, Barn Red, Cashmere, and Slate). Once I did that I set about cutting these word puzzles into strips.

My next step was to play with the pieces until I figured out how I wanted them to look. When I had my basic layout I switched out words in different colors to come up with the final design. I attached all the strips to the gorgeous Barn Red pattern from the Huntington paper packet and added some embellishments to finish the card.

Here’s what I used. All products are Close to My Heart:

S1309 Poster Tidings stamp set

X7174B Huntington paper packet

1388 Colonial White cardstock

Z1375 Kraft cardstock

Z2101 Autumn Terracotta Exclusive Inks

Z2137 Olive Exclusive Inks

Z2104 Barn Red Exclusive Inks

Z2175 Cashmere Exclusive Inks

Z2173 Slate Exclusive Inks

 Z1874 Trinkets Wooden Shapes

Z1837 Wooden Mini-Medley Accents

Now “Hop” on over to JudyBurger‘s blog to see her work, and be sure to visit each consultant’s blog to get some great crafting inspiration and other fun ideas! Don’t forget, this exclusive stamp set is only available through September 30^th! Click here to order yours today!