2017 Mini Desk Calendar

Every year I host a Mini Desk Calendar Workshop. I try to alter the design from each year. This year my design was simple and would easily fold flat to mail as a gift if you wanted. My paper choice on this calendar was also very simple to coordinate. I chose to use the Adventure Fundamentals and just a bit of the Basics Fundamentals. This way the colors and patterns all blended perfectly. The class participants could choose from a variety of colors. Here are just a few in a green, pink and blue.

These lay flat and can be mailed in a standard envelope. (overall calendar measures 4.25 x 5.5)

Imagine how easily and quickly you could make these calendars as Christmas gifts. Plus, with the Fundamentals Bundle Special right now you can save lots of money making this project very cost effective!

Shop online to see all the purchasing options.

All the Fun!

Who doesn't love saving money? Enjoy month long savings on Fundamental crafting products!

During November, save on crafting essentials like paper, ribbon, die cuts and stickers during our Just for FUN sale! Save 40% on bundles of coordinating Fundamentals products, or save 30% on individual items!

You can get the above bundles for right around $22! Wow! Imagine all the crafting you can do with those coordinating supplies! However, if you don't feel you need an entire bundle, you can always purchase individual items. See all of the options available this month online. I wish you all the FUN!

Holiday Crafting with Close To My Heart

Through the Year

For November, CTMH has a great, versatile Stamp of the Month. It's called Through the Year. This stamp will allow you year-round stamping possibilities. It would be perfect for documenting scrapbook pages and especially useful for those who journal daily. This month it is available for the discounted price of only $5, with qualifying purchase.

I think the above layout would be awesome as a wrap-up of your favorite moments of 2017! Simply recap your special photos for the back of your scrapbook.

I'll clue you in on a little secret!! You may want to purchase this set at the discounted price this month, because it will coordinate with the special in December! Just saying!!

There is another big special happening this month. I'll tell you all about it soon!

New in October

I hope everyone is enjoying the newest Holiday Expressions Idea Book and you are being inspired to start creating for the holidays. This month will have you thinking about holiday songs with the Stamp of the Month, but it will also have you thinking about gifting for a good cause!

First, let's share a smile!

With the purchase of every Punny Pals stamp set, Close To My Heart donates $7 USD of the proceeds to Operation Smile™, an organization that provides surgeries to repair cleft lips and palates for children around the world. To bring these stamp images to life, CTMH made a coordinating set of Thin Cuts dies and an exclusive card kit! The card kit includes the dies, card bases, envelopes, paper, and step-by-step instructions for creating 32 cards, and it is available at a discounted price! Create these delightful cards and use them to share smiles all around!

The Share a Smile card kit can be yours for FREE when you become a Consultant in October or when you host a qualifying party.

Please log into my website to see the purchase options.

Those are so punny and cute!

Next, I have the Stamp of the Month called Christmas Tunes. I bet your going to get them stuck in your head as you read them!!

I love how the lyrics live within the shape of the Christmas symbols. This stamp set can be purchased for only $5 with a qualifying order. Think of all the lovely cards you could be creating, while singing the songs!

The Stamp of the Month and the Share a Smile monthly special can all be found on my website. Happy crafting!

Feel So Blessed

Every once in awhile a Stamp of the Month comes along that I really, really like. The September stamp set Feel So Blessed (S1709) was definitely one of those! This discounted stamp set will be leaving soon though. If you want to have hours of playing in your craft room and creating gorgeous cards with it, order it now! Let me inspire you with two last creations~

First card was made out of finding inspiration for it in the strangest place! I'm a big fan of the home scents of Bath & Body Works. The Leaves scent has been a favorite of mine every since its introduction. Every year they tend to mix up their designs and make you hunt around the store finding the scent you love. This years design on the room spray was fairly clean and had an eye appealing combination of color and pattern. One day it all of a sudden hit me that I could use the design in a card using the Feel So Blessed stamp of the month. It worked pretty well!

I realize that on the spray bottle there was brown leaves, but I had to use that awesome feather from the stamp set. The sentiment was stamped in white daisy on black cardstock making it really pop!

Finally, I also found inspiration on Instagram this week for another card. I was reunited with the retired Prickly Pear papers. With some more watercoloring I was able to make this simple, open sentiment become the focus of my card. I love the colors with black lining, how soft, yet striking!

You really don't want this one to pass you by! You can purchase this stamp set online here. Now

Tough People Last

I shared a 8 card workshop with you earlier using the charitable Stronger Together stamp set. I created another card just for fun, because I love the sentiment. This time I used the Basics Fundamentals paper again, but with a nice, calm blue complimenting color.

I hope you are able to support the relief efforts by purchasing this stamp set. I think you'll enjoy creating cards with this set and the recipient will be lifted with these encouraging & empowering phrases. Shop online here.

Stronger Together

Close To My Heart is offering a beautiful sentiments stamp set that will help those affected by the recent hurricanes. It's called Stronger Together and has great sayings like; We're in this together, Keep calm & fight on and {my personal favorite}Tough times don't last, Tough people do! Proceeds from the sales of this stamp set will go the the Red Cross in their relief efforts of the recent disasters.  I created an eight card workshop to showcase each sentiment. Check it out~

This card workshop comes from the Wishes cardmaking program. Participants will use the floral pattern paper from the basics fundamentals paper and then choose one accent color from the enchantment collection. (eggplant, fern, peacock, pomegranate or saffron) I used an assortment of colors from the Enchantment collection to show the potential of what the cards can look like.

I think that once you create cards using these sentiments you will want to purchase the entire set. It is super versatile and will work for a variety of occasions.

Please go to my website for more information on this set and the opportunity to give to a great cause!

Falling for You Card Workshop

What better way to kick off a new Holiday book then with a fall themed card workshop. These cards will inspire with the new Falling for You papers, a fall Stamp of the Month and some Cricut cuts of leaves and wreaths.

We will be using stamps, thin cuts, cricut cuts and water colors to create these beautiful cards. The stamp of the month, Feel So Blessed is very versatile and a lot of fun to create with. It is only available for the month of September and can be purchased for only $5 with qualifying order.

New in September

In August the new Annual Inspiration Idea Book was released. With so many new goodies its hard to imagine even more awe inspiring products and artwork to inspire. However, today is the first day of the Holiday Expressions Idea Book. Be well prepared for the upcoming Holidays with an assortment of new papers and embellishments perfect for Halloween, Autumn/Thanksgiving and Winter/Christmas. You will find a stamp of the month that will also lend itself for your Fall greetings and scrapbooking projects. Plus, its National Stamping Month and you better bet that there is a beautiful special to celebrate!

Holiday Expression 2017

These are just a sampling of the 4 new paper collections with layout ideas and cards offered in the workshops. Now take a look at the Stamp of the Month, Feel So Blessed.

This stamp set can be purchased for only $5 with qualifying purchase!

Finally, it's National Stamping Month and Close To My Heart is offering a beautiful special.

The exclusive From the Heart card kit gives you all the materials you need for creating 12 interactive cards, including an E-size stamp set with heartfelt sentiments and stamps you can layer together for exquisitely artistic cards.

Available only during September, this card kit is a must have that will help you create elevated artwork from the heart.

When you log into my website you will see the buying options for this kit. Get the best value by purchasing the kit as pictured above. This option is a 20% savings. Or....

The From the Heart card kit can be yours for FREE when you become a Consultant in September or when you host a qualifying party.All the details can be found on my website .

As always I invite you to come visit this Blog soon to see more new products and be inspired!

Christmas in the Warehouse!

It's Tuesday! That means its time for another warehouse sale. This week the bundles will have you prepared for all of your Holiday crafting needs. Be sure to check out all of the items at a deep discount online.

Only one more Tuesday this month. Don't let these deals pass you by!

Favorite Stamp Set

In my previous post I shared with you some of my favorite products from the new Annual Idea Book. Of course its far too difficult to choose only one, especially when it comes to the stamp sets. However, I did find a couple of sets that are beautiful and very clever! These are the Beautiful You and Thoughtful Bird stamps. They are found on pages 76 and 77 of the book. They have a three step process that adds gorgeous layers and depth of color. Plus, they come with coordinating thin cuts making the entire stamping and cutting process super simple! Here is a card I made with the Beautiful You stamp.

Oh goodness! Aren't those flowers gorgeous! I paired them with the Basics Fundamentals papers and some gold embellishments. The pink colors include the new Bashful, Pixie and Raspberry. Here is the stamp and some more artwork from the Idea Book.

The other stamp set features a bird that can be stamped in a variety of colors. It contains some everyday, heartfelt sentiments.

The bird looks beautiful in blue, but can you imagine him in other colors, perhaps reds and yellows!?
These are just a few stamps that really caught my attention and I'm certain you will find many that capture your eye as well! These are available to order now, shop online anytime!

Picking a Favorite Product

Perhaps you've had the chance to either look at the new Annual Idea Book in person or virtually flip through the pages online. Once you covered every page, does just one product stand out or have you chosen several favorites? Today, I would like to share just a few of my faves....of course I can't pick just one thing, its a big book!

I'm always excited to see what new Cricut cartridges we will get and this year is no disappointment. However, I'm a big fan of How-to Books and when I saw that we had a new one I was super excited. It's called Make it from Your Heart Volume 3. Yes, I already have the first 2 that were published and use them often for inspiration. This book is a little different than the other two as you can insert the 3 hole punched volume into your choice of Everyday Life Album. You can choose the classy black and white striped album or the new Bashful Album which happens to replace Sea Glass as the color of the year! I chose the pretty new pink!

The new Bashful color is also available in ink, re-inker, cardstock, glitter paper and pearls!

This publication includes 36 two-page layout patterns for standard photo sizes, plus it will give ideas for adding more photo's using the pocket scrapbooking cards and memory protectors. The index in the front is laid out so that you can choose a layout based on how many photographs you want to include. I love that each pattern gives you 2 different ideas of artwork with a variety of papers and embellishments. If you love having a guide to kick start your creativity, you are going to love this program. 

Here is the pattern in the book that I chose and my layout.

You may notice that I used some older embellishments on this layout, however that paper is brand new. Okay, Okay, another favorite product from the new Idea Book. Close To My Heart has updated all the colors in the Basics collection. I was immediately intrigued by them and having some fun getting to know all the new colors. I chose a few of the fantastic patterns from the fundamentals collection to complete this layout.

The names of the new colors are pretty clever, they are: charcoal, pewter, pebble, linen, mink, heather, espresso, nutmeg, toffee and almond. Did I mention that the cardstock is updated as well? A fun new feature of these lovely papers is that now you will find a slightly lighter shade of the true color on the reverse side. This will allow for easier color coordination on your projects.

Take another look at this fun layout with so many newly added products and inspired by the incredible Make it from Your Heart How-to Book.

You can shop all these new items online today! Oh yeah! Did I tell you which stamp set is my favorite in the new book? Oh no, well maybe next time!!

Hello August!

It's a new month, new Idea Book and new specials. Many students will be heading back to school and the Stamp of the Month will be perfect for capturing those memories.

How do you feel about a sale? Throughout the month of August you can find a Warehouse sale online every week. You won't believe these deals! Check it out now and don't forget to take a look through the new Annual Idea Book and the newest products. shop online here