Halloween Scrapbooking…Made Easy!

Close To My Heartbeginner, easy, flip flap, Halloween, Holiday, kit, made, pocket plus, scrapbooking, simple Leave a comment

Halloween’s coming up fast, so if you haven’t already gotten your Halloween candy, you might want to head out and pick some up now!

But have you already given thought to what you’re going to do with those adorable pictures you are no doubt going to take of the awesome costumes, decorations, and festivities? Believe it or not, we’ve got a great solution for you there, too.🙂

Whether you’re new to scrapbooking or just playing “catch-up,” we’ve got the perfect scrapbooking kit to help you create adorable Halloween layouts in a snap. It’s called the Workshops Your Way™ Jeepers Creepers scrapbooking kit, and it comes with all the supplies you need to create three traditional scrapbooking layouts. Once you receive your kit, you can download and print instructions for these layouts on our website.

Here’s what the layouts look like:

All the accents and titles you see are stickers and pieces you can easily attach with adhesive, so the layouts come together really quickly. If you have leftover photos, you can purchase our brand new Pocket Plus™ Memory Protectors™ and slide your photos into them with some of your leftover pocket scrapbooking cards.

For those of you who are familiar with our Flip Flaps™, our Pocket Plus™ protectors provide the same exact function except you don’t attach them to your main protector. You just insert them wherever you want!

We’ve specifically designed one of the layouts in each of our Workshops Your Way scrapbooking kits to coordinate with our Pocket Plus™ protectors. You can see above how they blend in seamlessly with the layout, creating a fun, interactive way to preserve your memories.

And since you’ll still have a few pieces left over, we’ve also designed a collection of cards you can make from those leftovers and a few extra products you may already have. You certainly don’t have to make these cards when you buy the kit, but if you do, the instructions for these cards are included in the instructions for your scrapbooking layouts. It’s a great way to get the biggest bang for your buck!

So be sure while you’re out picking up Halloween candy that you’re also putting in your order for the Workshops Your Way™ Jeepers Creepers scrapbooking kit as well. The plus side is that spending a little time to make your layouts gives you the perfect opportunity for testing out your Halloween candy at the same time.🙂

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September 19, 2016Inspiration

19 Things You May Not Know About Our My Acrylix® Stamps

Close To My Heart19, about, acrylix, clear, facts, help, how-to, information, know, May, my, not, stamping, stamps, techniques, things, you 31 Comments

Think you know everything about our exclusive My Acrylix® stamps? Put your knowledge to the test by reading the list below!🙂

1. We have French and Spanish stamp sets.

2. If you see a stamp image outlined in red, that means it coordinates with one of the shapes from our Cricut® collections. If it’s outlined in blue, that means it coordinates with one of our Thin Cuts dies.

3. We put A LOT of thought and effort into making the best stamps for our customers. See the entire process in this infographic:

4. After we design each paper packet, we create two coordinating stamp sets, one for scrapbooking and one for cardmaking, to be paired with that specific paper. These two stamp sets can be found in the idea book right behind the coordinating Workshops Your Way™ scrapbooking kits.

5. Our stamps are made right here at the Home Office, in a top-secret room.

6. It takes about one hour to make one sheet of stamps from start to finish.

7. New stamps work best when you “season” them. To do so, rub the stamp across a stamp pad, and then stamp onto scrap paper until the image is even.

8. Our stamps can be used with all sorts of inks, including dye, pigment, solvent, and alcohol inks.

9. Rather than attaching your stamps to your blocks, try using your blocks to pick up your stamps from a flat surface. This way, the stamp will hold its natural shape.

10. Our My Acrylix® blocks have a small white horizontal line on them to help you with stamp placement, which is especially helpful for keeping words and borders straight.

11. Some people cut apart their stamps in order to rearrange words in a sentiment when sticking them to their blocks.

12. Our stamps are flexible! Manipulate them so they fit inside shapes and banners, or just to get a different look!

13. If some of your ink doesn’t transfer when stamping, quickly breathe over the stamp to re-moisten the remaining ink and then stamp over the image again. The missing portion usually blends into the existing image if the ink isn’t too dry. This is called the Huffing or Stamp Over Technique.

14. Because our stamps and blocks are clear, you can easily stamp over the image again to get a richer, deeper image.

15. If you’re looking to remove that stubborn pigment ink, try our Spritz Cleaner and Stamp Scrubber. It makes it easy!

16. Our stamps don’t need to tan—they like being transparent, so keep them out of the sun!

17. Our stamps come in handy envelopes, which fit into our My Acrylix® organizer. You can also use our large organizer and tabs to store even more stamps. We also have a mini organizer for those mini stamp envelopes.

18. If your stamps ever start to lose their stickiness, all you need to do is rinse them with warm water and soap, and the stickiness will come right back. You can also use StazOn™ cleaner on the smooth side of the stamp.

19. Some stamps make great friends, like our good ol’ friend, Sticky Boy!

What things did you not know? Tell us in the comments!🙂

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September 15, 2016Inspiration

31 People Who Could Use a Few Kind Words Today

Close To My Heart31, card, cardmaking, could, create, idea, inspiration, kind, kindness, people, today, use, who, words 12 Comments

Cards are about so much more than words inside pretty paper. They are a way to brighten someone’s day, to show you appreciate the way in which someone has touched your life, to acknowledge what someone does to make the world a better place. That’s what our Create Kindness card kit is all about—using cards to spread kindness, especially to those who may not expect it!

Here are some people that you may not normally think to give a card to but who would certainly appreciate some words of encouragement or an unexpected “thank you”:

Mailman
Barista
Babysitter
Housecleaner
Principal
Child’s school teacher
Your old school teacher
Church leader
Janitor
Police Officer
Fireman
Carpool driver
Crossing guard
Bus driver
Cab driver
Pilot
Hotel housekeeper
Nursing home patient
Restaurant server
Old high school friend
Nurse
Hair stylist
New mother
Soldier
Veteran
Cashier
Widow or widower
Former roommate
Gym instructor
Childhood friend
Coach

Take a moment TODAY and leave a card for someone on this list. Who knows, you could be exactly what they need to get through a rough day.

Who else would you add to this list? Tell us in the comments below!

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September 12, 2016Artwork, Inspiration

Paper for All Seasons

Close To My HeartCreepers, fall, Family, girl, idea, Jeepers, layout, little, paper, season, spring 4 Comments

Our brand new Holiday Expressions idea book has now been live for almost two weeks, and we’re thrilled you finally get to see all the beautiful seasonal papers we’ve worked so hard on getting just right.🙂 Part of making sure our papers are absolutely perfect includes balancing themed patterns with non-themed patterns so you have as much versatility as possible when you sit down to create.

Take this artwork, for example. It uses our Jeepers Creepers paper packet, which is Halloween themed, but you would never guess that it came from a Halloween paper packet, right?

The fun lightening bolts are just the pattern for pairing with this spunky little girl. They’d also be adorable with pictures of a little boy.

Now how about this one? Does it remind you of Halloween?

Who would have thought that this paper packet could be paired with spring photos? And yet it totally works! We paired some ribbon from our Whimsy ribbon pack with the purple Jeepers Creepers paper to give it a feminine touch.

Switching seasons, Jeepers Creepers also has colors that are perfect for your fall photos, like these family pictures:

Whenever you pull out our papers to create something, you can count on beautiful themed patterns and also patterns that will work year-round. When it comes to preserving your memories, we want you to get papers with the best value that will also allow you to get as creative as you’d like!

Recipes

12″ x 12″ So Sweet Layout
E1034 My Acrylix® Marker Alphabet, X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3146 Watercolor Paper, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3287 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set

12″ x 12″ Love This Layout
E1034 My Acrylix® Marker Alphabet, X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3287 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set

12″ x 12″ Here & Now Layout
E1034 My Acrylix® Marker Alphabet, X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3287 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set

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September 8, 2016Artwork, Inspiration

Creating Kindness Everywhere

Close To My Heartcard, create, home, kindness, kit, office, party, take 5 Comments

To celebrate the launch of our Create Kindness campaign, we had everyone at the Home Office gather together and create cards from our Create Kindness card kit.

There’s nothing quite like good crafting and good food to bring everyone together. We had a blast!

Create a little more kindness in the world with our Create Kindness card kit! #closetomyheart #ctmh #createkindness #actsofkindness #service #inspiration #spreadkindness

After making our cards, we wanted to put them to good use—so we asked everyone to do an act of kindness for someone else and snap a picture of it. Here’s what we’ve got so far!

Someone’s gotten a good “snicker” from leaving candy bars and cards around the office…

…and one team decorated their manager’s office to welcome her back from vacation.

The kindness has spread beyond the office as well:

A daughter found a note from mom in her lunchbox.

Grandma got a balloon and handwritten card from her granddaughter.

A card-lover got more cards to add to her stash.

Friends got surprised with sweets and an equally sweet note.

And neighbors received extra produce with a little extra thoughtfulness.

We hope these acts of kindness show you how a little kindness can make someone feel special in big ways. These little cards are the perfect reminder that no act of kindness is too small to make a difference.

Show us how you’re creating kindness by sharing your photos using the hashtag #createkindness on social media. Together we can create a whole lot of smiles!

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September 6, 2016Artwork, Inspiration

Close To My Heart on the Road

Close To My Heartartwork, banner, close, conference, flower, gift, heart, ideas, inspiration, my, on, pinners, presents, road, scrapbook, the, to 13 Comments

Over the next few months, we’ll be heading to some Pinners Conferences across the US to showcase beautiful artwork, teach crafting classes, and spread the word about our company and mission.

Since we can’t bring you all with us (though we sure wish we could!), we thought we’d bring the beautiful artwork to YOU right here on the blog! We hope it inspires you and lights a smile on your face.

Here is the artwork for one of the classes we’ll be teaching. Memory keeping is at the core of what we do, so we want to show others there are so many different ways to preserve their memories in addition to traditional scrapbooking.

Our other class will let attendees play with flowers from our Cricut® Flower Market collection, as they make these fun gift items:

In addition to our classes, we’ll also be putting tons of beautiful artwork on display for everyone to see, including unique gift ideas to show someone you care…

Close To My Heart's hitting the road to teach crafting classes at Pinners Conferences across the US. Here is the artwork we'll be showcasing! #ctmh #closetomyheart #pinnersconference2016 #craftingideas #paperalbum

Mini albums for those just getting started with memory keeping…

And, of course, traditional scrapbook pages.

To top it all off, we created a one-of-a-kind banner, which would be wonderful for a party or a nursery.

Whatever type of papercrafting you enjoy, we hope you’ve found this artwork to be inspiring. We’re sure it’ll catch more than a few eyes at the conferences we’ll be attending, but we especially hope that everyone who sees it will understand that what we do is so much more than an art form—it’s a way of building and celebrating relationships.

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September 1, 2016Artwork, Inspiration

The Perfect Starter Kit for Cardmaking

Close To My Heartbeginner, card, create, kindness, kit, Month, National, stamping, starter 2 Comments

Cardmaking is about so much more than pretty paper. It’s about creating and celebrating beautiful relationships. Take a look at this short video to see what we mean:

Don’t you love the way this video captures the spirit of cardmaking? Not only do you get to make something beautiful with your own two hands, but you also get to give those cards to others and brighten their day. Even little cards can make a huge impact on someone. That’s why we created the Create Kindness card kit.

What better way to celebrate National Stamping Month than with this mini card kit that includes everything you need to complete 24 cards!

Here’s a list of the products included in the kit:

24 – 3″ × 3″ card bases with envelopes (6 of each color)
24 –white cardstock circles
8 –mini stamp sets (4 for the front of the cards, 4 for the inside)
1 – Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ mini stamp pad
1 – 2″ × 2″ My Acrylix® block
1 – My Acrylix® mini stamp organizer

This kit isn’t just for beginners either. If you already have the block, ink, and organizer, you can also purchase the stamps and cards separately. There’s stamping happiness to be spread all around!🙂

What’s really fun about these stamps is that you get to color them with whatever you’d like! We colored these ones with ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ markers, but you could use anything you have in your crafting stash. Get creative!

We hope you join us in using handmade cards to create a little more kindness in the world. You may feel like you’re not doing much, but when we all do our part, we’ll make the world a better place.

Now get stamping!🙂

Recipe

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August 29, 2016Artwork, Inspiration

Making Impressions

Close To My Heartcard, cardmaking, embossing, folder Leave a comment

We know it’s the little things, like cards, that make all the difference in the world, and often it’s the little things that make your cards exactly the way you want. Take embossing folders for example.

Embossing folders are a great essential for cardmakers because they transform a regular piece of cardstock into something truly unique. You basically get to create your own patterned papers by mixing and matching colors and folders.

Because you give cards for all sorts of different occasions, you need a variety of embossing folders so you can get just the right look for each and every card.

For all you scrapbookers out there, embossing folders are also great for easy layering. Arrange a few pieces of embossed paper behind a photo for a quick, effortless pattern.

Also, don’t be afraid to emboss plain white cardstock. With some texture, it takes on a life all its own!

Cardmaking and scrapbooking are both all about celebrating and strengthening relationships. With our latest embossing folders, you’ll be able to show a little bit more tender love and care to your artwork and to your loved ones.

Recipes

4 ¼” × 5 ½” Good Job Card
Z3253 Adventure Fundamentals, Z3294 Memo Fundamentals, Z3265 School K-6 Complements, Z3274 Clear Sparkles, 1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z3250 Word Search Embossing Folder, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, X254 4 ¼” × 5 ½” White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack, Embossing Machine

4 ¼” × 5 ½” Hello Darling Card
D1708 My Acrylix® Sending Smiles (comes with Cricut® Flower Market), Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5789 Sea Glass Cardstock, X5763 Smoothie Cardstock, Z2066 Ranger™ Princess Gold Embossing Powder, Z4014 White & Gold Twine, Z2012 Sequins Gold Assortment, Z3249 Happy Thoughts Embossing Folder, Z3247 Simple Chevron Embossing Folder, Z555 Craft Heater, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, X254 4 ¼” × 5 ½” White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack, Embossing Machine

12″ × 12″ Today Page
Z3254 Enchantment Fundamentals, Z3253 Adventure Fundamentals, Z3262 Rustic Home Fundamentals, X5789 Sea Glass Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5783 Emerald Cardstock, Z3265 School K-6 Complements, Z3264 Good Life Complements, Z3122 Enamel & Glitter Duos Blue Dots, Z3249 Happy Thoughts Embossing Folder, Z3250 Word Search Embossing Folder, Z3248 Wood Slats Embossing Folder, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Embossing Machine, Thread

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August 25, 2016Artwork, Home Décor, Inspiration

Paper Succulents Made Easy

Close To My Heartbouquet, cricut, favor, flower, gift, market, monogram, paper, succulents, wedding 5 Comments

As you’ve probably noticed, succulents are IN! From wedding bouquets and hanging planters to wreaths and mini terrariums, these plants are popping up all over the place! The only problem is that succulents can be tricky plants to keep alive.

If you don’t have a green thumb, try your hand at paper succulents instead! With our brand new Cricut® Flower Market collection, you can create all the trendy succulent projects you see on Pinterest without any of the maintenance.

For example, here is a simple centerpiece and favor for a wedding:

By using different colors of cardstock and daubing a bit of ink around the edges of the succulents for shading, they look even more realistic.

You can also use these succulents in a wide array of home décor projects, like this cute succulent monogram.

If you love these paper succulents, you’re going to love the rest of the flowers and plants you can make with our Cricut® Flower Market collection. Here’s the 411:

The collection features 700 images, including a brand new font!
Each key of the collection contains all the cuts you’ll need for a coordinated card, scrapbook layout, or 3-D project. These cuts include layers to create a flower, a container for the flower, accents and a background, and a title piece, all of which tie into the same theme.
We’ve made layering your flowers easy! All you have to do is enter the size of the finished flower you want for each layer of the flower, and it will cut the layer accordingly (so long as you have Real Dial Size off).
When you purchase the collection, you also get the Adventure cardstock combo pack, featuring our brand new colors, and three exclusive D-size stamp sets.

We’ve designed this collection with scrapbookers and cardmakers in mind, but as you’ve seen from today’s artwork, it definitely lends itself to some wowie 3-D projects as well—just take a look at one more amazing bouquet:

Get your hands on this Cricut® collection, and have fun creating paper succulents and more for your scrapbooks, cards, and home.

Happy crafting!

Recipes

Wedding Centerpiece & Favor
B1536 My Acrylix® All the Thanks, Z3262 Rustic Home Fundamentals, Z3255 Whimsy Fundamentals, 1288 Colonial White Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, X5777 Fern Cardstock, X5639 Sweet Leaf Cardstock, X5780 Pomegranate Cardstock, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2653 Pomegranate Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2644 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3289 Uptown Ribbon Pack, Z1938 Sponge Daubers Value Pack, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection, Thread

Cricut® Shapes:
Flower Market
2″, 2 ½”, and 3″ <Succulnt> (cut multiples of each, p. 40)

Succulent Monogram
Z3255 Whimsy Fundamentals, Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, X5777 Fern Cardstock, X5639 Sweet Leaf Cardstock, X5780 Pomegranate Cardstock, Z2644 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2653 Pomegranate Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z1938 Sponge Daubers Value Pack, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
Flower Market
2″, 2 ½”, 2 ¾”, and 3″ <Succulnt> (cut multiples of each, p. 40)
2″, 2 ½”, 2 ¾”, and 3″ Shift <Succulnt> (cut multiples of each, p. 40)

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