Sunday, December 26, 2021

Happy Boxing Day!


December 26th is Boxing Day in Canada & Britain.   Originally, servants would receive a box of gifts and the day off from their masters so they could celebrate Christmas with their own families.   Now it's almost as exciting as Black Friday as retailers clear out boxes in their warehouse with fantastic sales.   

With Close To My Heart in Canada,  Japan,  Australia & New Zealand as well as the US, they're happy to share this tradition with Americans.   

Happy Shopping! 



But the American "Bigger Is Better,"  theme is taken seriously at CTMH.   They will be celebrating with DAILY sales thru 12/31.  

So every night at Midnight MST new items will be part of the Boxing Day sale.   


Don't forget,  you'll receive a free kit from me when you get the Stamp of the Month for a discount!   AND... you'll also be offered a complimentary copy of the next catalog.  Be sure to add it during checkout! 


Monday, December 6, 2021

FREE Pre-cut Project Kits in December!

Happy December Crafty Friends!  

It's a new month and I'm kicking off the new year a little early with a new rewards program!  

Each month you can earn a pre-cut card kit when you earn the Stamp of the Month for $5 or FREE!  

Here's this month's card kit featuring the Owls from Owl Love You Forever S2112, the December Stamp of the Month.


This month's Stamp of the Month is this adorable Owl set.  It has ONE lovey dovey sentiment that will get you inspired for Valentine's Day,*** but that's it.  
*** We're crafters and we need a couple months to get ready right?  
This way the big V-Day won't catch you off guard, you'll have 1 card at the ready. ***



You'll be shipped your kit a the end of the month or in early January.  
Be sure that you have Sapphire, Papaya and Sundance Inks and these 3 Tri-Blend Markers, Coral Blend, True Blue Blend & Gold Yellow Blend if you want to recreate these cards in the same colors.  

🧡🧡🧡

Speaking of Valentine's and getting your supplies in advance, today Close to My Heart launched Smitten. 


I'm really pleased how adorable this stamp set is.  AND VERSATILE!  
That Koala stamp set is so completely adorable.  I see stamp surgery in its future to make room inside the balloon for all kinds of other sentiments.  


While you're shopping be sure to check out the newest CTMH promotions, workshops, and  the  BRAND NEWEST IDEABOOK!!



At check out, make sure you add this and the current Nov-December Idea Book to your cart.  The first copy is free!  

Merry Making Ornaments 


Make merry this holiday season with delightful DIY wooden ornaments in four unique styles, including one shaker style!  

Deck the Palms



Add a tropical flair to your holiday celebrations with an exclusive collection of versatile products!

Remember Today


Plan ahead for 2022 with this innovative calendar project featuring beautiful Cut Above® layouts for each month of the year ahead!  This is also available as a scrapbook kit. See it here.

January Album Retreat


Get ready for our next virtual Album Retreat and treat yourself to three days of incredible creativity and artwork!

Don't forget to become a VIP!  
This is how Very Intelligent Papercrafters earn the Stamp of the Month for free and 15% back in rewards on every purchase!  

And there's exclusive VIP kits created just for you!

VIP Flower Shop Card Box



Treat yourself to this one-of-a-kind card kit available only to our VIP Customers and Close To My Heart Makers!  These make wonderful gifts!  There's no limit on the number of kits you can purchase.  See more info here.

Hip Hip Hooray Workshop


We’re celebrating the first complete year of our VIP Customer program with an exclusive workshop featuring papers, stickers, and stamps designed JUST for you!  I'll send you the instructions to the CTMH workshop when you purchase it.  And you can view a recording of the Virtual Workshop via the CTMH official workshop Facebook Group.  
  

I've also created a slimline card workshop with this kit.  I'll send you the instructions when you purchase it from me.  See this blog post for more info!  

With joy in my heart and coffee in my cup, have a wonderful day!



Friday, November 5, 2021

Hip Hip Hooray Slimline Card Workshop

 


Hip Hip Hooray, it's a slimline card workshop!  

Close to My Heart designed this beautiful kit of papers, stickers and stamps with an exclusive scrapbook & card workshop just for VIP members.  

However, I'm primarily a cardmaker so I created my own workshop of 20 slimline cards from a half of a pack of the Hip Hip Hooray paper!  That means, with an extra sheet of Ballerina & Carolina Cardstock and a 20 more cardbases, you can create a total of 40 cards from this kit!  That's something to shout about!  

What you'll need to make the 20 cards shown (2 ea of 10 different designs)

You'll need to be a VIP or Very Intelligent Papercrafter member or a CTMH Maker to purchase this kit.  Not one?  That's easy to fix!  For $35/year, you'll start with a $15 credit and receive 15% product credit for all purchases.  Purchasing this kit brings you over halfway to paying for your membership!  You'll earn $8.69 on this kit and earn the stamp of the month for free!  

Supply List:

Item #

Description

VIP106

VIP Hip Hip Hooray Workshop Kit

X257

Slimline Cards & Envelopes

Z1513

White Gel Pens

Z3516

Black Journaling Pen (.03)

Z6527

Wild Berry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Z6521

Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Z6508

Bluebird Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Z6505

Carolina Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Z4189

Intense Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Z2060

Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Z341

Glue Dots® Mini Dots

Z3326

Tombow® Permanent Adhesive

Here’s what the original kit looks like: 

 



My workshop guide is all cards.  You’ll need to add 12 card bases if you want to create 20 cards with half of the kit or 32 cards to make 40 cards. 

Wouldn’t this be a fun night with girlfriends? 

I intend to make some fun fold cards with the second half of my kit.  Check my FB page for live videos or watch replays on my YouTube channel. 

 

The VIP program rewards


15% shopping credit with every purchase to be used on regular catalog items

Free Stamp of the Month with a $50 purchase.  A $18.95 value!

Access to Exclusive kits and workshops like this one! 

Start with $15 of VIP credit when you sign up!  


The Flower Shop Card Box



15 cards, a stamp set, mini block and mini ink pad.  Everything but adhesive is included. 

The Flower Shop Card Box is only available until November 30, 2021.  

They would make fabulous Christmas Gifts.  Order yours today!


Hip Hip Hooray Guide for Makers!

Do you love this kit and are a CTMH Maker and want to share it with your own customers?

You can purchase the Workshop Guides from me for $10 USD. This will allow you to share the guides with your VIP customers who purchase the Hip Hip Hooray workshop.   

The guides will be emailed within 24 hours of your purchased.  (This is not an automatic download)



Monday, May 24, 2021

May special: You Are Enough

 National Scrapbooking Day has expanded to cover the whole month of May!  You Are Enough is Close to My Heart's outstanding collection for 2021.  It features rose gold accents on the cardstock, sticker sheet and a bit of the patterned paper.  


Shop now  

We have a Card Workshop designed for this paper too!  It makes 24 cards!  

A 12 x 12 scrapbooking workshop

Butterfly Thin Cut dies.  

Stamp with coordinating Thin Cut dies.

This special is set for May 2021 and can sell out in the next two weeks.  






Sunday, March 21, 2021

CTMH Stamp Sizes & More!

Close To My Heart categorizes their stamps based on size.   

Stamp

Carrier Sheet Size

M

2x2”

A

3x3”

B

4x4”

C

4x6”

D & S

6x6”

E

Two 6x6 sheets


Many of our stamps are now sold with coordinating Thin Cut dies. We bundle our dies with the stamp so don't buy both!  Order the bundle and you'll get everything you need and save.  

When you place an order on my website, you can add a free catalog to your order.  Nearly all of our stamps are featured at full size in our catalogs so you can see exactly what you're getting.  

BUT don't forget to check my website.  Stamps are available for 12 month, minimum.  Not everything is listed in the current catalog.  There's probably 4 to 6 times as many stamps on the website as what you see in a single catalog!  

Happy crafting!  

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Blossom is back!

 Blossom:  A beautiful Aqua and Turquoise floral paper pack with delightful punches of orange, green and pinks makes for a fun, lively and versatile paper!  


And the best thing about it is that it's back!  This paper was introduced in the spring of 2015 and I loved it then too!  

Here's some new and old projects from Blossom:


The new projects:  

I used the Happiness Lives Here Cardmaking Workshop Your Way to create these cards from Blossom.  I took a few creative liberties with the paper I had, swapping in some cardstock and scraps in place of stamping.  You can see that our Cardmaking Workshop Cutting Diagrams are so versatile.  They can be used for more than just the paper that comes with them.  P.S. you can download and print the cutting diagram before you purchase the kit.  

I also used a couple sentiments from the current Craft With Heart Cardmaking Stamp set.  





Now for some projects from the vault


This bird cage is from the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge from Close to My Heart.  It's still available on Cricut.com.  The flower and leaves are from Art Philosophy.  The sentiment & embellishments are retired.  

These cards were created from the original sticker pack from Blossom in 2015.

2015 was the year I wrapped up a year of Seasonal Samplers!  



One of my top 10 favorite cards ever.  You can't buy happiness but you can buy ice cream coffee & that's kind of the same thing.  I masked the word ice cream and added coffee with some cute alpha stamps we used to carry.  This was my first submission to the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  

The Blossom pack will only be available thru February 2021 


An updated Blossom Paper
Here's the new sticker sheet included in the paper pack.  


An all-new stamp set with Thin Cuts.  Cherished Blossoms.  The Blue outline indicates the stamps that have coordinating dies.  


Shower Flowers is back too!  




Friday, February 5, 2021

Recent Artwork from January and late last year

 My January artwork was lacking because I threw out my back in late December.  Sitting upright wasn't happening.  Luckily I had most of the Serenity Card Workshop Your Way already cut out and I added some new stamps and colors.  As of right now, that kit is still available. (while supplies last)

This card and the next have sentiments from Make It Happen E1061 a goal oriented stamp set.  I used Pale Pink Shades Tri-Blend marker on the flowers.  


This card was colored with Dull Green Tri-Blend Marker and Antique Pink TriBlend™ Marker.  


After the chaos at the Capitol, I created this card with our Happiness Lives Here papers and an older, but still available stamp Angel Hugs.  I used Texture Paste & a heart stencil on the card base it's pretty hard to see in this photo.  

This card was really fun to make, but one that sat on my desk unfinished for quite a while.  I diecut the front of this card in Desert Rose Glitter paper & White Daisy Cardstock.  The front is just the lacy panel.  I sandwiched them together and attached the back panel that's solid.  


This is a fairly simple card that uses leftovers of the Serenity Card Workshop, the Serenity Cardmaking Stamp & Thin Cuts Z3905 and the 3D Flower Thin Cuts Z3691 with Blue Belle Glitter Paper Z3442 and Blue Belle Glitter Gems Z7001.  Our cardstock is double sided with a lighter side on the back.  That flower is cut 2x from the same sheet of cardstock.  Blue Belle is the CTMH Color of the Year!  


This last card is has the December Stamp of the Month, but features Sundance--our new Gold-yellow in the cardstock and the shimmer brush used on the flowers as well as Cinnamon Cardstock and ink.  The bow is our Small Bow Thin Cut which makes a blow that's just over 3.5" wide.  We also have a Large Bow that makes a bow that's 7" wide.  I'll stick with the small one that's perfect for cardmaking.  


These cards featured the December Stamp of the Month but they deserve a mention because there's some from fun techniques.  


I colored the gold glitter gems red with our Dark Red Shades Tri-blend marker.  The wood heart is colored with my Candy Apple Shimmer Brush.  


I stamped the sentiment on our Fancy Bracket Dies in Cinnamon and then stamped the flowers in 2nd generation Cinnamon.  That's where you ink up the stamp.  Stamp it one time on a scrap of paper to remove most of the ink then on your project for a lighter image.  The heart border created these cute litte heart pieces that I embellished the label with.  


I diecut the front of the card base on a diagonal with our "cloud" border die.  Then again with a strip of BlueBelle Glitter paper.  The light blue paper is attached to the inside of the cardbase. 


This card idea was taken straight from the catalog!  This is half of a 4" square cut on the diagonal.  So it's very paper efficient.  I splattered the cardbase with Sapphire Shimmer Brush before adhering the pieces.  These Gold Glitter Gems was colored with one of the purple Tri-Blend markers.  

Okay, that's all for today!  I hope this gives you some inspiration and happy eye candy!  






Wednesday, February 3, 2021

February Specials

 We have tons of specials in February!  

Here's a glimpse of each one.  Click on the image for more details.  If the link doesn't work, that means the special is over.  

Blossom--A beautiful paper comes back with coordinating stamps with Thin Cuts!  



In this Together--A brand new paper & stamp collection making the best of this crazy years of the pandemic.



Perfect Match--Not just for Valentines



Hello World--Celebrate your new little ones milestones


Home Sweet Home--a fun interchangeable home decor piece that the whole family can create


We Are Good Together--A Kit for VIP Customers!  A workshop created just for you.

This kit of scrapbook layouts and cards with an exclusive sticker sheet and stamp set is available only to purchase by VIP customers.  If you would like to know more about being a VIP, click here.

Stamp of the Month -- Doodle Borders
$5 with a $50 purchase or FREE for VIP members with a $50 purchase

 


If any of these specials interest you, or you have a project that you need help with, please let me know.  I'm here to help!