Holiday Happenings Mini Kraft Album

You saw my chalkboard using the Holiday Happening assortment and as promised I have a mini album to share with you today using more of the cards and badge buttons.

My base is the new My Creations Kraft Mini book found in the Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea Book. I decorated the entire front with some older gold dotted vellum. I then layered some papers from the Yuletide collection, cards from the Holiday assortment, gold sequin, Cricut cut holly leaves and some glittery red bling for the holly berries! Oh yeah, and a Christmas title from the sticker sheet in the Holiday assortment!!

Here is a look inside just a few of the pages. I will be able to dress them up more once I have some photo's to add.

Do you see how versatile this assortment is?! Plus, those cute little badge buttons are also available in the new Hopscotch and Heartstrings collection in the Seasonal Expressions book. You will be seeing those used on future projects! ;)

Believe Chalkboard Decor

Take a look into my house, specifically my dining nook! Here I created a little display on a wall shelf using some handmade items. A believe banner, some ball jar snow globes and a decorated chalkboard.

While the banner and snow globes are super cute, I really want to share this festive chalkboard with you! To decorate it I used pieces from the My Crush Holiday Happenings assortment and badge buttons. I mixed some of our family pictures with the big cards, small cards and envelopes. I even turned the badge buttons into magnets as this board is not only for chalk, but magnetic as well!

Making the magnets was ridiculously easy! The adorable buttons already have adhesive on the back. I simply stuck them to these magnets that I picked at Walmart. I was a little leery of the adhesive and thought it might need reinforcement, but so far so good! No lost buttons lying on the floor beneath the shelf!

Here is a close up of the snowflake button with a large card, a small card and a picture of two cutie pies!

My Crush Holiday Happenings assortment and badge buttons do not need to be used as suggested in the Idea Book. Use them on a chalkboard, a scrapbooking page, incorporate them to make a banner or cards! Next, I will show you how I incorporated them in a brand new mini Kraft book available in the new Seasonal Expressions 1 book!

Make it Merry

I like to challenge myself to think outside of the Christmas box from time to time when creating my Christmas cards. Every once in awhile I come back to traditions though. The cards I am showing today are exactly that, traditional red and green! They are merry and a little bit bright with some shimmery fundamental papers!

Warm & Cozy with Snowhaven

The Snowhaven papers were one of those collections that I wasn't sure of right away. It was a unique color and pattern combination and had a lot of black. However, once I started working with it I really started loving it. My first experience was creating cards for my first Crate Card Club where I mixed some ideas together from the card kit to make something just a little different. You can see the card here. Then I decided to create a scrapbook layout with the papers and complements. I was very happy with the results of the color and pattern combinations after all! Plus, a little glitter, because winter says sparkly to me!

A sparkly red reindeer nose, glitzy glitter letters and fuzzy mittens. This layout is ready for some fun winter photo's, bring on the hot cocoa and warm knitted sweaters!

New Totes To Go!

This rolling tote is amazing! Not only is it incredibly functional, but it's super cute inside and out! The shoulder tote is a great addition to the collection or just use it as a personal tote to take along everywhere you travel!

You can order the new totes and awesome organizers online here or contact me to place your order!

Yuletide Vintage Christmas Cards

While at my annual Christmas card exchange the ladies wanted to create some cards I had on display last month. I guided them through a few of the cards and encouraged them to try different paper and complement combinations. Not every card was exactly the same. We had lots of fun mixing other papers, vellum and embellishments into the cards. We also decided that the Yuletide papers and images on the complements gave the cards a beautiful vintage Christmas feel.

2014 Christmas Card Exchange

Yesterday I held my annual Christmas card exchange. This year I had a total of 7 participants including myself. We exchanged our creative cards, ate some yummy food and played with some paper while laughing and exchanging stories. As always I was delighted with all the talent and creativity that this group of ladies brings every year!

The card I created this year was inspired by one that I saw on Pinterest. I had no instructions though and needed to incorporate products exclusively from Close To My Heart. I loved the idea of creating a Christmas scene within a cozy home setting. Not only did I pull out some older non-Christmas stamps, but I also dug out some older retired textiles!

I used my Cricut to make a variety of cuts from a couple of the cartridges. I also borrowed my daughters sewing machine to sew the fabric curtains on the window!

Do you recognize those old sassy strands wrapped around the Christmas tree? I even created a snowy scene behind the vellum framed window!

Here are the cards from the ladies~

Aren't they all amazing!!

I also made a small gift for them as a sincere thank you for their participation and hanging out with me for some creative fun!

Inside of these adorable little burlap bags were a couple of my favorite types of tea. I hope that when they are relaxing at home, enjoying their tea, that they will think of me and our fun creative times we shared throughout the whole year. I really, truly have the best customers and friends!

In my next post I will share with you what these wonderful ladies were up to at our get-together! Hmmm....I wonder what they could be making?

You're the Bomb Mini's

One of the first items on my wish list from the brand new Seasonal Expressions book was the You're the Bomb stamp set. This stamp set has the cutest little images and some great phrases in a fun hand written font. What really makes this stamp set cool though is that a portion of the proceeds is being donated to Operation Smile. You get an awesome stamp set while a child gets confidence through their smile for a lifetime! That is pretty cool!

I inked up a few of the images and phrases to create some mini 3x3 cards for my customers. With any purchase they get to choose a set of cards and wouldn't you know that I didn't have a single set of these left over!!

Did you see some new papers in there? how about that glitter paper? don't you just love the gold sequin and those new puffies?

Tomorrow is my annual Christmas card exchange. Instead of mini 3x3 cards for my customers I have a little something extra for them. It is the season of giving after all! Come back soon to see what goodies I have to share and to see the Christmas cards designed by myself and my talented customers!

Christmas Yuletide Shadow Box

I created this shadow box last month to display at my Holiday Open House. The frame is on page 163 of the Annual Inspirations Idea Book. It comes in a Black finish or as I chose for my project a Colonial White finish. I chose to use almost one solid sheet of the Yuletide paper for the entire page, however I trimmed just a little bit on all the edges to adhere it to a dark green base. That way it really stands out in the frame. The photo I chose is actually from last year, but one of my favorite pictures of me with my almost grown kids!? I added some grosgrain ribbon, complements, zip strips and lots of gold glittery sparkles.

The Details~

 

a close up~

I decided to display my shadow box on the fire mantle this year.

 

Check out Santa-man chillaxing in his sleigh!! I "believe" in throwing in some whimsical fun into a classy and elegant display!!

The shadow box and Yuletide papers truly are gorgeous any way you display it. Close To My Heart makes it easy for you to make your Holiday homemade!

Deals in December

Close To My Heart has some wonderful deals for you this month. Be sure to take advantage of these specials and get your hands on some new merchandise also.

First is the Deal of the Decade!

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Close To My Heart’s revolutionary My Acrylix^® clear polymer stamps—and we can’t wait for you to celebrate with us! With a qualifying purchase of $50 during the month of December, you will be eligible to purchase ANY C- or D-size stamps from the Annual Inspirations 2014–2015 idea book for only $10. That’s up to $7.95 USD / $9.75 CAD of savings on a single stamp set! Plus, once you achieve the qualifying order total, there is no limit to the number of eligible stamp sets you can purchase at this discounted price. Remember, a purchase of $50 will also qualify you to receive the December Stamp of the Month for only $5, so if you purchase both the discounted Stamp of the Month and additional stamps at this special campaign pricing your savings will compound! It is truly the deal of the decade.

How cute is that Cutie Pie Stamp of the Month? Take a look~

You can see an image of the stamp set on the "Current Specials" tab at the top of this page. If you follow me on Pinterest you will find several pins of artwork using this adorable stamp! It's only $5 with a qualifying order.

It's also time to order from the brand new Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea Book. This book contains the sweetest paper collections, gorgeous new stamps, awesome embellishments and the cutest PML cards! Right now you can leave a comment telling what your favorite product is on the Make It from Your Heart Blog to win prizes. Hurry though, winners will be announced on December 8th!