8 Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall

Close To My HeartDecor, frame, gallery, home, how, tip, to, trick, wall Leave a comment

Gallery walls are a great way to infuse a space with colors and patterns. Not only are they a more affordable way to decorate large walls, but they give us the opportunity to showcase multiple pieces of art in one place and to express who we are and what we love!

If you’ve never created a gallery wall before or if you’re looking for ways to update your current gallery walls, here are some tips to help you create a meaningful, cohesive gallery:

Decide if you want your gallery to be just pictures and photos or if you want to include dimensional pieces, like wooden shapes, wreaths, etc.

Choose a favorite photo or piece of artwork as your starting piece, and then add to your wall by finding pieces that coordinate with your first item.

Another way to start is to choose one main color to anchor all the pieces in your gallery, and then create a color scheme around this main color.

Rather than searching for the perfect picture frames to coordinate with your artwork, try adding paper to plain picture frames. It’s an easy way to make everything match!

Hang your picture frames both horizontally and vertically for variety.

Add personal touches to your gallery, like a monogram, scrapbook page, or favorite family quote.

Use a variety of shapes and dimensions, as well as picture frame sizes, to create a well-balanced look.

Lay out your gallery on the floor before hanging it on the wall. You’ll easily be able to move around pieces until you get the look you want, and then you can take a photo to reference when hanging the gallery up on the wall. Want to be even more precise? Trace the pieces of your gallery on scrap paper, cut them out, and hang them on the wall to see how they look before attaching the actual pieces.

And maybe most of all, make sure you have fun! Gallery walls are a great way to get in touch with your creative side. Now go get crafty! 🙂

Recipes

“Xander” Gallery Wall
X7222B Jack Paper Packet, Z3262 Rustic Home Fundamentals Paper Packet, Z3294 Memo Fundamentals Paper Packet, Z3254 Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Packet, Z3263 Uptown Fundamentals Paper Packet, Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, 1386 Black Cardstock, 1388 Colonial White Cardstock, X5927 Ruby Cardstock, X7222C Jack Complements, Z3314 Black & White Dots, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection, Sewing Machine, Thread, Frames, Wooden Arrow, Letter Form

Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
2 1/2″ “XANDER”

Floral Hanger Gallery Wall
Z3254 Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Packet, Z3255 Whimsy Fundamentals Paper Packet, X7220B No Worries Paper Packet, Z3263 Uptown Fundamentals Paper Packet, X5777 Fern Cardstock, 1282 New England Ivy Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5772 Canary Cardstock, X5763 Smoothie Cardstock, Z2896 Smoothie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3295 My Crush® Artistic You Pages, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set, Z726 Sponge Daubers, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection, Frames, Letter Form, Ikea Hanger

Cricut® Shapes:
Flower Market
4 1/2″, 4″, 3 1/2″, and 3″ Shift+Icon <J> (p. 27)
1″ Shift <Hibiscus> (p. 30)
2″ <Rose> (p. 42)*
3 1/2″, 2″, and 1 1/2″ <Poppy> (p. 45)*
3 1/2″, 2″, and 1 1/2″ Shift <Poppy> (p. 45)*
1 1/2″ <Daisy> (cut 2, p. 46)*
1 1/2″ Shift <Daisy> (cut 2, p. 46)*

*Real Dial Size off

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June 22, 2017Learn, Memory Keeping

Feeling Cornered by Chronology?

Close To My Heartadvice, chronology, design, fun, ideas, Scrapbook Layouts, techniques, writing 8 Comments

Do you suffer from acute chronological scrapbook syndrome? You’re not alone.

Thousands like you have been printing photos and storing them away in shoeboxes for decades, assuring themselves that one day they’ll feel more motivated to scrapbook everything in the perfect order.

Full of good intentions, but dreading the task of organizing every photo, victims of this syndrome often find their passion tainted by a nagging voice that tells them they must start at the beginning (wherever that is) or not start at all.

It’s time to silence that voice and get back to doing what we love!

It may seem revolutionary, but scrapbooks don’t have to be done in chronological order. Remember that these memories are your stories, so you get to tell them however you wish. The only way you’re doing it “wrong” is if the method you’ve chosen feels like a task rather than a delight.

Free yourself and your creativity by trying these organizational methods of scrapbooking instead:

Life Milestones

Milestones happen at every stage of life. Create an album that showcases a variety of milestones from the lives of each family member. Pick a certain milestone and focus on that, or gather a bunch on one layout. You can include things like graduations, church ceremonies, losing teeth, getting married, the first day of a new job, or learning to walk. This is a fun way to show your family’s progress over time.

Classic Family Memories

Have a favorite memory that everyone in the family loves to talk about? Get it on paper. When your family comes over for Sunday dinner and starts to reminisce, write down the extra details they add to your story. Better yet, ask them to write their own version of the family memory. Include everyone’s version of the story as journaling on your layout. Even if you have no idea where the photos of that specific memory are, just start taking the first steps. You’ll find the photos in that notorious shoebox soon enough.

Someone You Love

Pick a person who’s important to you and create an album that’s all about them. The photos can come from any time or event. The important part is simply that they get remembered. This album will become something they will cherish for always.

Color Schemes

This artsy method is more wild and crazy, but definitely a lot of fun—and excellent for a creative boost! Choose photos and papers based on the similarity of their color schemes and then put them all on one page. Find out how fun it can be to see a collection of unrelated memories on one layout!

Random Reminiscing

Reach into that pile of photos and pull out a few. Scrapbook them any way you wish, whether that’s together on one page or each on their own layout. As you finish each layout, simply place them in your album in any order at all. This method is a lot of fun to look through afterward because you’ll always be surprised by which memory pops up next.

Purposeful Prompts

Type a list of prompts (e.g. your favorite words, themes, questions you think your posterity will ask about you), trim them into strips, and place them in a jar. Draw a new one every time you sit down to scrapbook. Whatever kind of information that prompt inspires you to document, do it!

It’s the Little Things

In addition to the big events of life, be sure to also emphasize the daily things that make you and your family who you are. Stepping outside of big events will paint a more realistic picture of your life as well as add some variety to your albums.

Likes & Dislikes

Focus on a person’s likes or dislikes, not worrying about their age or location at the time you took the photos. An overarching theme like this really helps to reveal who a person is in just a layout or two.

Favorite Activities

What activity does your family love to do? Find pictures of yourselves doing that activity across any number of years and group them together. Say you like to vacation together; make a layout just for vacations. They don’t even have to be from the same trip—just get the theme put into one place.

How do you feel now? Empowered? Liberated? Excited? The only thing to make this moment sweeter would be for us to remind you that the albums you’ll need to keep your long-awaited layouts safe in are available at a great deal this month. Take advantage of our We’ve Got You Covered! campaign, where you buy one album and get a second at 50%-off, to get your gorgeous, non-chronological layouts archived and on display. You only have a few days left to take advantage of this promotion. Your memories have waited a long time for this; now let them shine!

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June 20, 2017Learn

New Spins on Old Techniques

Close To My Heartcard, how, New, old, scrapbook, spin, technique, tip, to, trick 12 Comments

Like the world of fashion, trends in papercrafting are always changing. One day it’s all about brads and buttons and the next it’s all about sparkles and shimmer!

Just because an artistic technique or aesthetic may no longer be “on trend” doesn’t mean that you can’t still use it. You just need to freshen it up!

To show you what we mean, we dug through our archives to find artwork created with some old-school techniques. We then asked our artists to create new artwork using these same techniques…with a modern-day spin!

They’ve come up with some amazing alterations to these techniques that will make your artwork amazing!

Old Technique:

Distressing the edges of your titles with ink. Remember when we did this for everything? Distress all the things! 🙂

New Spin:

Instead of distressing your titles, try stamping them using the rock n’ roll technique. It keeps your edges clean, which is the new trend, but just like distressing, it gives your titles dimension and color variation.

Old Technique:

Ripping and inking your edges, aka, making your artwork look like it’s 100 years old. And remember how burned edges were such a thing? Ripping and inking your edges with black ink mimicked that trend, which you can see on the card below.

New Spin:

Instead of inking your ripped edges, try leaving your ripped edges un-inked and inking your clean edges instead, using a color other than black or brown! The key is subtlety! You can see we added some faint pink inking to the edges of the pink paper here. It helps to add some depth to the paper without screaming “I’m distressed!”

Old Technique:

Stippled titles. Remember this one? You’d spell out your title with stickers, make a million little dots over the stickers with a marker, and then peel off your stickers to reveal your finished title.

New Spin:

Watercolored titles. Instead of stippling over your stickers with a marker, paint over them with a wide paintbrush and some watercolor paint. We used this technique with a “hello” sticker from our Springtime Complements to create the title below.

Pretty neat, right?

Just because papercrafting trends change doesn’t mean you need to throw out your bag of tricks. All you need to do is find a way to make your old tricks feel new again!

Which spin is your favorite? Tell us in the comments below!

Recipes

4 ¼” x 5 ½” Welcome Baby Card (Horizontal)
C1668 My Acrylix® Baby Bundle Stamp Set, X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 1292 Crystal Blue Cardstock, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2895 Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3189 White & Gold Ribbon, Z3247 Simple Chevron Embossing Folder, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection, Embossing Machine

Cricut® Shapes:
Flower Market
1″ Shift+Title <?> (p. 8)
1 ½” Shift_Title <R> (cut 4, p. 14)

4 ¼” x 5 ½” Happy Birthday Card (Vertical)
B1537 My Acrylix® Birthday Sparkles Stamp Set, X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2840 Thistle Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2896 Smoothie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3189 White & Gold Ribbon, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection

Cricut® Shape:
Flower Market
2 ¼” Flower-2 <7> (p. 7)

12″ x 12″ Hello Page
CC1219 Swirly Seashells Stamp + Thin Cuts, x7221B Prickly Pear Paper Packet, Z3254 Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3146 Watercolor Paper, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3307 Springtime Complements, Z3216 White Twine, Z3089 Grey Enamel Gems, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set, 3505 Watercolor Pencils, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection, Pen

Cricut® Shape:
Flower Market
2 ½” Flower-2 <7> (p. 7)

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June 15, 2017Learn

Try This Technique for Mixing Up Your Paper Combinations!

Close To My Heartcombination, dreamer, fundamental, how, jack, little, mixing, no, packet, paper, pear, prickly, technique, tip, to, try, worries 6 Comments

If we’re going to talk about mixing and matching papers, we have to start by talking about our Fundamentals! In a nutshell, each of our color palettes has coordinating Fundamental papers, and these papers feature a variety of single-color paper designs. You can think of them the same way you think of cardstock: You have single-color patterns in each of our exclusive colors that you can use any time you are working with a given color.

We’ve created the Fundamentals so that they can be used as both stand-alone paper packets and be mixed in with themed paper packets, like those in our seasonal idea books. If the thought of trying to mix your Fundamentals with a different paper packet makes you nervous, we’re here to walk you through it, step by step!

Step One: Find the themed paper packet you want to work with. Let’s start with Little Dreamer as an example.Step Two: Look up the featured colors in this paper packet. They’re listed in a few places: on the zip strip at the very top of your papers, in the idea book, and on our website when you’re viewing the paper packet in online shopping.

Step Three: Choose which color you want to add more of to your artwork. Then it’s as simple as finding that specific color in the Fundamental paper packets, and using that paper in your artwork!

Not sure which colors are in each Fundamental paper packet? No problem! They are listed in your idea book and online, just like you can see with the Little Dreamer paper packet above!

For example, let’s say you’re working with Little Dreamer. You see that Thistle is one of the featured colors, and you would like to add more of it to your artwork.

Thistle is part of the Whimsy color palette, so you can pull out your Whimsy Fundamental paper packet, find the Thistle designs, and add them to the other papers you’re going to be using.

Can you spot the Thistle Fundamental paper on this layout?

How about now? 🙂

It matches perfectly, right? There’s also Lagoon Fundamental paper here.

Here are some other examples where we’ve mixed Fundamental papers with themed papers:

No Worries paper packet + Rustic Home Fundamentals neutral chevron paper and linen paper + Adventure Fundamentals Lagoon paper

Prickly Pear paper packet + Whimsy Fundamentals Sorbet paper + Enchantment Fundamentals Sapphire paper

Jack paper packet + Rustic Home Fundamentals neutral linen paper and wood paper+ Uptown Fundamentals black plus-sign paper + Enchantment Fundamentals Ruby paper

Now you certainly don’t have to follow these steps to mix and match papers. You can always just grab patterns and colors that look good together (our artists do it all the time!). But if you haven’t tried going free-style before, or if just the thought of it is enough to scare you, following these steps is a good place to start.

Questions? Leave them in the comments below! 🙂

Recipes

12″ x 12″ Believe In Yourself Layout
C1660 My Acrylix® Happy for You Stamp Set, X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, Z3255 Whimsy Fundamental Paper Packet, Z3253 Adventure Fundamental Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2840 Thistle Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2895 Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7219C Little Dreamer Complements, Z3321 Little Dreamer Glitter Gems, Z3188 Paintbrush Set, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

12″ x 12″ XOXO Layout
X7220B No Worries Paper Packet, Z3262 Rustic Home Fundamental Paper Packet, Z3253 Adventure Fundamental Paper Packet, Z3240 Sea Glass Glitter Paper, X7220C No Worries Complements, Z3322 No Worries Sequins, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

12″ x 12″ Enjoy Today Layout
X7221B Prickly Pear Paper Packet, Z3254 Enchantment Fundamental Paper Packet, Z3255 Whimsy Fundamental Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5775 Sapphire Cardstock, X5789 Sea Glass Cardstock, Z3240 Sea Glass Glitter Paper, X7221C Prickly Pear Complements, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

12″ x 12″ Happy Camper Layout
X7222B Jack Paper Packet, Z3254 Enchantment Fundamental Paper Packet, Z3262 Rustic Home Fundamental Paper Packet, Z3263 Uptown Fundamental Paper Packet, X7222C Jack Complements, Z3314 Black & White Dots

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June 13, 2017Learn, Memory Keeping

3 Ideas for Scrapbook Cover Pages

Close To My Heartcover, engagement, Family, graduation, idea, keeping, memory, page, scrapbook, scrapbooking, vacation, wedding 9 Comments

Every scrapbook album needs a front cover page and a back cover page…but sometimes it’s hard to know how to summarize your album! After all, you only have two pages, one at the front and one at the back, to explain what the entire album holds!

If cover pages have you stumped, don’t worry—we’ve got you covered! 😉 Here are three fail-proof ideas for creating amazing cover pages!

In Great Shape

Attach a large shape to the center of your base page. Then position your title and photos over this shape. Even if you have multiple photos (we have five here!), your page will still feel like a cover page because the large shape in the background creates a central focus. Pretty neat trick, right? 🙂

Easy As 1-2-3!

Simply attach three photos horizontally across the center of your page. Then add your title directly above or below these photos. Three is the key here! It’s a balanced number that draws the eye in.

Keep It Simple, Silly!

When all else fails, find a photo that sums up your album, and center it on your page along with a prominent title.

One fun spin on this approach is to center your photo but then place the title on the left side of your page, either vertically or horizontally!

Overall, the secret to creating a strong cover page is to draw the eye in to a central point with your pictures and title. If you keep that in mind, then you’re off to a great start!

And while you’re working on your cover pages, be sure to grab some albums because they’re on a great sale! For the month of June, you can buy one album and then get a second one at half price!

What album are you currently working on? Tell us in the comments below! 🙂

Recipes

12″ x 12″ The Woods Page
B1484 My Acrylix® Jennifer’s Hand Stamp Set, D1702 My Acrylix® Capture This Stamp Set, X7221B Prickly Pear Paper Packet, Z3254 Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5789 Sea Glass Cardstock, X5788 Raspberry Cardstock, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7221C Prickly Pear Complements, Z3324 Prickly Pear Sequins, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection, Sewing Machine, Thread

Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
1 1/4″ “Woods”

12″ x 12″ Let’s Go Back Page
B1484 My Acrylix® Jennifer’s Hand Stamp Set, X7221B Prickly Pear Paper Packet, Z3254 Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5789 Sea Glass Cardstock, X7221C Prickly Pear Complements, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
1″ “Let’s Back”

12″ x 12″ Dallin & Sarah Page
X7221 Prickly Pear Paper Packet, Z3254 Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Packet, X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5788 Raspberry Cardstock, X7221C Prickly Pear Complements, Z3314 Black & White Dots, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection, Sewing Machine, Thread

Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
1 1/4″ “Dallin & Sarah 2017”

12″ x 12″ Hello World Page
B1484 My Acrylix® Jennifer’s Hand Stamp Set, X7221B Prickly Pear Paper Packet, X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, Z3263 Uptown Fundamentals Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5788 Raspberry Cardstock, X5763 Smoothie Cardstock, X7221C Prickly Pear Complements, Z3257 Thin Cuts—Love, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection, Sewing Machine, Thread

Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, 1 1/4″, 1 1/2″, and 1 3/4″ Icon-1 <k> (cut 5 of each, p. 28)
1 1/2″ “Class of 2017”

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June 8, 2017Memory Keeping

Vacation Scrapbook Album Inspiration

Close To My Heartalbum, inspiration, island, no, scrapbook, summer, tropical, vacation, worries 12 Comments

Whether you’ve already gone on your summer vacay or you’re still counting down the days, we want to share with you some inspiration for creating a cohesive vacation scrapbook album with our No Worries paper collection.

All of the layouts below use patterns from our Cherish™ how-to book, which is super handy because the book even shows you how to cut your paper! Use the images below as inspiration for making your own layouts, or, if you want to replicate the layouts exactly, check out our supply list at the end of this post. You’ll only need a handful of products, including one of each of the items in our No Worries suite: one paper packet and coordinating cardstock, Complements, sequins, and ribbon.

Cherish: Unified Whole™ (p. 68)

Cherish: Echoes™ (p. 41, cut both I pieces as 5″ x 6 ½”)

Cherish: Balanced Blocks™ (p. 105)

Cherish: Puzzle Junkie™ (p. 113)

Cherish: Color Celebration™ (p. 30)

You’ll notice that we made a few slight alterations to some of the accent pieces, but with the patterns as an anchor, it’s easy to make a few modifications to fit your own aesthetic. That’s the joy of scrapbook patterns—you have a place to start, but you can modify anything as you go along!

We hope this artwork has inspired you to document your vacation memories. If you’re not planning on making these layouts soon, make sure to get your Cherish™ how-to book pronto because it’s only available until the end of July, while supplies last! And while you’re at it, be sure to pick up a scrapbook album, too! Remember that during June you can buy one My Legacy™ album and get a second one half off! It’s a great time to snag an album that you know you’ll fill with vacation photos!

So tell us—where are your vacay plans taking you this summer? Share in the comments below!

Supply List:

No Worries Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts
No Worries Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts
No Worries Paper Packet
No Worries Coordinating Cardstock
White Daisy Cardstock
Cashmere Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Blossom Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
VersaMark™ Ink Pad
No Worries Complements
White Burlap Ribbon
No Worries Sequins
Cherish™

Recipes

12″ x 12″ Smile Layout
Cherish: Unified™
Z3337 No Worries Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7220B No Worries Paper Packet, X7220D No Worries Coordinating Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2875 Cashmere Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2895 Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7220C No Worries Complements, Z3322 No Worries Sequins, Z3323 White Burlap Ribbon, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

12″ x 12″ Family Layout
Cherish: Echoes™
Z3337 No Worries Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, Z3336 No Worries Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7220B No Worries Paper Packet, X7220D No Worries Coordinating Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2875 Cashmere Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7220C No Worries Complements, Z3322 No Worries Sequins, Z3323 White Burlap Ribbon, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

12″ x 12″ Now the Real Fun Begins Layout
Cherish: Balanced Blocks™
Z3337 No Worries Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, Z3336 No Worries Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7220B No Worries Paper Packet, X7220D No Worries Coordinating Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2875 Cashmere Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7220C No Worries Complements, Z3322 White Burlap Ribbon, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

12″ x 12″ Together Under the Sun Layout
Cherish: Puzzle Junkie™
Z3337 No Worries Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, Z3336 No Worries Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7220B No Worries Paper Packet, X7220D No Worries Coordinating Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2875 Cashmere Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7220C No Worries Complements, Z3322 No Worries Sequins, Z3323 White Burlap Ribbon, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

12″ x 12″ Relax Layout
Cherish: Color Celebration™
Z3337 No Worries Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, Z3336 No Worries Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7220B No Worries Paper Packet, X7220D No Worries Coordinating Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2875 Cashmere Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2810 Blossom Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, X7220C No Worries Complements, Z3322 No Worries Sequins, Z3323 White Burlap Ribbon

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June 6, 2017Learn, Memory Keeping

Looking for a Great Scrapbook Album? We’ve Got You Covered!

Close To My Heartalbum, buy, divided, flaps, flip, free, get, june, legacy, memory, my, one, plus, pocket, protectors, scrapbooking, special 27 Comments

Here at Close To My Heart, we’re serious about helping you preserve your memories with style. That’s why, throughout the month of June, you can buy one My Legacy™ album and get a second one at 50% off! For those of you who are new to Close To My Heart or who would just like to learn a little bit more about our unique scrapbook albums, this is the post for you! We’re going to cover all our bases today and tell you everything about our albums—and some of the awesome products we have to go with them!

Close To My Heart scrapbook albums #ctmh #closetomyheart #scrapbook #album #memorykeeping

Post-bound Album

We have two different styles of My Legacy™ albums. The photos above show our post-bound style. This style minimizes the gap in between your pages, so your scrapbook album looks professionally bound. The ends of the posts are hidden by the binding, and they feature easy-to-use handles for twisting open the posts and adding pages.

D-ring Album

Here’s our other style: D-ring! These albums are a great fit for those who want to be able to add pages quickly and easily. Some people like to use D-ring albums for storing their pages until they finish an album’s worth, and then they move all the pages into a post-bound album for permanent storage—and with our buy-one-get-one-half-off sale, it’s a great time to try this approach!

Above are all the colors that are currently available in the post-bound style.

And here are all the colors that are currently available in the D-ring style.

Now the best part of any scrapbook album is what you keep inside, of course. 🙂 And since we know the memories you want to preserve are precious, we offer high-quality top-load and side-load Memory Protectors™ to keep them safe. We also have some specialty Memory Protectors that can add a lot of variety to your layouts.

Up first are our divided Memory Protectors for pocket scrapbooking. We have five different styles to choose from—you can check them all out here. These make great additions to your layouts, like you can see above, or you can create an entire pocket scrapbooking album. We recommend using our D-ring album style with these Memory Protectors.

While we’re on the topic of divided Memory Protectors, we have to mention our Pocket Plus™ Memory Protectors. These only cover part of a page, so they are great for adding a few additional photos to your layouts. You can see how they really enhance a traditional layout in the before and after pictures above. For more information about these protectors and for tips on how to design you layouts to incorporate them, check out this blog post.

We also have Flip Flaps™, which are little individual pockets that come with an adhesive strip. You can attach them to both your pocket or traditional scrapbooking layouts. These come in a variety of sizes and create fun, interactive elements on your pages. For more information about these protectors and for tips on how to use them, check out this blog post.

A few other noteworthy accessories….These are our spine expanders. When you have layouts with lots of dimension in a post-bound album, you can get an album that looks like this: <. That’s because the part of your protector that holds your page onto the post is thinner than your dimensional page. Placing spine expanders between the pages of your album helps to even out the space so that your album will look more like this: =. It’s a quick fix that makes a world of a difference!

For post-bound albums with fewer pages, we recommend these 1″ posts. These posts will slim down the spine and allow your pages to be held more snugly between the covers of your album.

Finally, add an identifier to the spine of your album with one of our label holders. These fit both album styles and are a great way to distinguish your albums from one another—especially if you have a lot together on a shelf!

Do you see what we mean about taking memory keeping seriously? 🙂 We want to give you lots of options for preserving your memories! If you have any more questions about our albums, please leave a comment below. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have!

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

Want to win a bunch of products to fill your albums with? Then listen up! We are giving 3 lucky winners the following:

1 Fundamentals paper packet of your choice
1 Fundamentals Complements pack of your choice
1 Fundamentals ribbon pack of your choice
1 value pack of Memory Protectors of your choice (top-load or side-load!)

How do you enter to win this awesome prize? Simply subscribe to our blog! To do so, click on the blue “Subscribe to list” button on the right-hand side of the page. That’s it! If you are already subscribed to our blog, you’re already entered to win!

The contest will run for 48 hours, and we will contact the winners via email.

Good luck! 🙂
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June 1, 2017Create

Online Flash Sale!

Close To My Heartbundles, flash, online, sale Leave a comment

If you’re a fan of crafting products and saving money, then listen up! For the next 24 hours, we’re having an online Flash Sale! You can save big on a handful of products, including some exclusive product bundles we’ve put together!

To see everything that’s on sale, head on over to your Consultant’s website or visit closetomyheart.com. And make sure to place your order quick because these products are only available while supplies last!

To give you a taste of this sale, we’re going to highlight some of the product bundles here on the blog.

Let’s do this! 🙂

Ultimate Sponge Daubers Bundle

With 60 sponge daubers, the small organizer, and a sponge dauber foam insert that fits inside the organizer, this bundle is perfect for those who want to try out sponging! One tip for using your daubers? Label each of them with the color of ink you use, so the next time you go to sponge, you know which sponge dauber to grab.

Ultimate Shimmer Trim Bundle

This bundle comes with 7 different colors of shimmer trim and the My Acrylix® mini stamp organizer. The dividers inside the organizer are just the right size for storing your shimmer trim. You can pull and cut strips of shimmer trim without even taking the spools out of the organizer—how neat is that? 🙂

Glitter Paper Bundle

Neutral glitter paper for all the things—need we say more? 🙂

Alphabet Stamps Bundle

Say goodbye to alphabet stickers and hello to your new best friend! With this bundle, you get four different alphabet stamp sets, plus a My Acrylix® organizer. The variety of styles and sizes of the alphabet stamps in this bundle mean you will always have just the aesthetic you’re looking for, and because they’re stamps instead of stickers, you can use them time and time again in a variety of colors. Stamping for the win!

Paper Tray Pack

Two of our Workspace Wonder™ paper trays in one convenient bundle—and at a price you can’t refuse! Organize that paper, girl!

Watercolor Bundle

Watercolor paper is SO important when using watercolor paints. Other types of paper will curl, bubble, and bead up when you paint a large area or use a little too much water or paint. Not only is our watercolor paper high quality, but it also comes in a convenient 12″ x 12″ size, so you can even watercolor your own base pages for scrapbooking! And if you want to match your watercolor paint colors to our exclusive color palette, we have a handy dandy PDF right here to help you do just that!

Download Watercolor Guide

You may also want to grab the All-purpose Mat, too, if you don’t already have one. It’s waterproof, so it’s great for protecting your surfaces while you paint, and—you guessed it—it’s also included in the Flash Sale!

To see everything that’s on sale, head on over to your Consultant’s website or visit closetomyheart.com. And make sure to place your order quick because this sale only runs 24 hours, and these deals are only available while supplies last!

Happy shopping, friends!

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May 30, 2017Celebrate

This Unicorn Party Takes the Cake!

Close To My Heartbirthday, cake, Decor, decorations, dreamer, girl, ideas, inspiration, little, party, unicorn 13 Comments

We’ve got an extra special treat for you today! We’ve paired up with Sunny Hintze, owner of Sunny Days Cakes and winner of Food Network’s “Cake Wars,” to bring you some inspiration for throwing a unicorn-themed birthday party!

Unicorn birthday cakes are all the rage right now, and we currently have a unicorn-themed paper collection called Little Dreamer…so it was a match made in heaven! 🙂

Sunny took inspiration from our Little Dreamer collection to create her incredible cake: The colors match our Little Dreamer color palette, the multi-colored horn looks just like the horns on our little unicorns, and she even created edible pieces that look like our Complements! See the little banners and glitter hearts and flowers? It’s amazing!

To send this cake over the moon, she used Mod Podge to add Little Dreamer papers, Complements, and gems to the board used for the base of the cake, and finished it off by wrapping the edge with our white & gold ribbon.

And if you think this cake looks magical, let us tell you, it tasted magical, too! An amazing cake is absolutely essential for any birthday party, and Sunny hit this one out of the park!

What’s another party essential? Great decorations, of course! To mix up your banner game, try layering a circle banner above a pennant banner, like we did here. This works especially well when you have a large blank wall to decorate.

Another party tip is to give your young guests something to play with that ties into the theme of the party, like these magical wands. Simply cut stars out of white glitter paper using your Cricut® machine, and then hot glue them onto long sucker sticks with some ribbons. The soft colors from our Whimsy ribbon pack make a great match for the Little Dreamer collection.

An easy way to add some accents to your party set-up is to frame our pocket cards. The Little Dreamer paper packet comes with two sheets of 3” x 4” and 4” x 6” pocket cards that you can cut apart for pocket scrapbooking. Framing a few of these cards is an easy way to add cute accents to your table, and they already perfectly match your other party décor—it’s a win-win!

Whatever goodies you choose to make available, try adding cute little tags to your jars and containers. You can label them if you have multiple foods for guests to choose from, and really, tags just make everything a bit more magical! 😊

And as one last final tip, spice up plain paper treat baggies with some patterned paper and matching Complements and gems! To make your baggies look especially polished, attach zip strips to the tops of the baggies.

What other tips do you have for throwing a stellar birthday party? Tell us in the comments below!

Sunny Hintze is located in Eagle Mountain, Utah. She is also going to launch a line of unicorn cake kits soon—how awesome is that? For more information about Sunny Days Cakes and her unicorn cake kits, visit her Facebook page.

Recipes

Circle Banner
X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Sewing Machine, Thread

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
1 3/4″ Shift+Border <TeamWork> (cut multiple, p. 83)

Pennant Banner
X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, X7219D Little Dreamer Coordinating Cardstock, Z3216 White Twine, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
4 1/2″ Photo Mat 1 <y> (cut multiple, p. 53)

Wands
Z3237 White Glitter Paper, Z3189 White & Gold Ribbon, Z3289 Uptown Ribbon Pack, Z3287 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Sucker Sticks

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
3″ Icon <m> (cut 10, p. 74)

Frame
X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, Frame

Candy Cane Jar Tag
X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X7219C Little Dreamer Complements, Z3189 White & Gold Ribbon, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
2 1/4″ Shift+Photo Mat 1 <TeamWork> (p. 83)

Treat Bags
X7219B Little Dreamer Paper Packet, X7219C Little Dreamer Complements, Z3321 Little Dreamer Glitter Gems

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Life Milestones

Classic Family Memories

Someone You Love

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Random Reminiscing

Purposeful Prompts

It’s the Little Things

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No Worries paper packet + Rustic Home Fundamentals neutral chevron paper and linen paper + Adventure Fundamentals Lagoon paper

Prickly Pear paper packet + Whimsy Fundamentals Sorbet paper + Enchantment Fundamentals Sapphire paper

Jack paper packet + Rustic Home Fundamentals neutral linen paper and wood paper+ Uptown Fundamentals black plus-sign paper + Enchantment Fundamentals Ruby paper

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In Great Shape

Easy As 1-2-3!

Keep It Simple, Silly!

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GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

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Ultimate Sponge Daubers Bundle

Ultimate Shimmer Trim Bundle

Glitter Paper Bundle

Alphabet Stamps Bundle

Paper Tray Pack

Watercolor Bundle

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