Origami Cats & Bats

Close To My HeartDecor, Halloween, Halloween Decoration, mobile, origami 1 Comment

Trend alert! From runways to street wear, to wall art, jewelry, food, and even children’s toys—origami designs are everywhere! And since “origami” literally means the art of folding paper, we knew we had to get on board! If you’ve taken a look at our Cats & Bats collection, you’ll see that we’ve captured this style for your scrapbooking, cardmaking, and papercrafting project needs!

Cats & Bats Collection #cats&bats #catsandbats #ctmh #cats #bats #owls #origami #halloween

Origami crafting paper #cats&bats #catsandbats #ctmh #cats #bats #owls #origami #halloween

To help you embrace this trend even further, we made some Halloween origami art to encourage you to create something for your own space during this spooktacular time of year!

Cats & Bats Origami #ctmh #origami #trend #mobile #bats #cats&bats #papercrafting #walldecor

Inspired by our own paper designs, we found an origami bat tutorial that we just had to try! We started out with square pieces of paper and, true to the art of origami, didn’t use any cuts or adhesive.

Cats & Bats Origami #ctmh #origami #trend #mobile #bats #cats&bats #papercrafting #walldecor
We made six of these batty pieces and attached them to a spray-painted branch with some string. Then we added a few bows made from ribbon and suspended the branch with more string—and that’s it!

Don’t miss out on this exciting craze! It’s fun and crafty and right up our alley! (Who doesn’t love playing with paper?)

Fold away and craft on!

Recipe

Bat Mobile
X7224B Cats & Bats Paper Packet, Z3362 Adventure Ribbon Pack, Z3216 White Twine, Black Spray Paint, Branch

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September 12, 2017Celebrate, Create, Learn

Cards from YOUR Heart

Close To My Heartcardmaking, From the Heart, National Stamping Month, stamping, unique Leave a comment

Cardmaking is a craft from the heart. You do it because you want to send the message to the recipient that they are worth the extra sentiment that comes from something handmade by you.

By now, we’re sure you’ve seen several examples of the elegant cards you can make using our From the Heart card kit. As we continue celebrating stamping this month, we want to show you just how versatile this kit, and the gorgeous stamp set it comes with, really is.

Layered Stamping #CTHM #fromtheheart #cardmaking #goldfoil #gold #thinkingofyou #thankyou #specialthoughts #sendingwishes #happyforyou #stamping #flowers #layeredstamping #layeredstamps
When you are working with stamps, you have so much flexibility to design something that is truly your own. Allow your creative juices to flow and experiment with different color combinations, as well as image (and sentiment) placement.

Monochromatic Layered Stamping #CTHM #fromtheheart #monochromatic #cardmaking #goldfoil #gold #thinkingofyou #thankyou #specialthoughts #sendingwishes #happyforyou #stamping #flowers #layeredstamping #layeredstamps
With the entire Close To My Heart exclusive color palette at your disposal, you can attempt a variety of monochromatic schemes, like you see here. Stay within one color family, or try using all warm or cool colors. Don’t be afraid to switch up your colors based on the sentiment you’re using, the recipient of the card, or even the time of year.

Amped up Layered Stamping #CTHM #fromtheheart #cardmaking #goldfoil #gold #thinkingofyou #thankyou #specialthoughts #sendingwishes #happyforyou #stamping #flowers #layeredstamping #layeredstamps
Challenge yourself to take your artwork up another notch! This kit is intentionally made to create a more chic and sophisticated card. Emboss your sentiments (like we did in the cards above) or try your hand at embossing other stamped elements. Add embellishments, like pearls, sparkles, and gems. Switch up the floral arrangements, or incorporate a different stamp set altogether!

There are no rules here, so unleash your creativity! Every creative decision you make customizes your card even more and gives it your unique flair. Remember, you are the artist.

Since cards are a beautiful way of expressing the deepest sentiments from the heart, it’s only fitting that you make them exactly how you feel.

May all of your handmade cards be from your heart.

Recipes

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September 7, 2017Celebrate, Create, Learn

Split Stamping Technique

Close To My Heartbaby, card, cardmaking, floral, flower, how, idea, split, spring, stamp, stamping, technique, to 20 Comments

In honor of National Stamping Month, we thought it’d be fun to share with you some stamping techniques on the blog—because no crafter can ever have too many stamping tricks up her sleeve, right? 😉

Today’s post is going to teach you what we call the Split Stamping technique.

This technique is exactly what it sounds like: You split your stamp image. There are a few different ways to do this.

One of the easiest ways is to stamp an image onto a piece of cardstock and then cut it into pieces, like the elephant below.

Cutting up an image and reassembling it on your artwork is a unique way to draw more attention to your stamping.

Another way you can “split” your stamp is with masking. Not sure what we mean by “masking”? Masking is when you cover up part of your stamp or paper before stamping an image.

Here, we attached a strip of cardstock across the center of our card with just a little bit of adhesive so it wouldn’t slide around. Next, we stamped our flowers along the top and bottom of the card, overlapping them slightly with the strip. We then carefully peeled off the cardstock strip, removed any leftover adhesive with our Rub & Remove™ eraser, painted our flowers, and then stamped our sentiment.

For a more advanced spin on this technique, try incorporating the piece of cardstock you use for the masking!

For this card, we cut both pieces of White Daisy cardstock, attached the smaller piece to the center of the larger piece with a little bit of adhesive, and then stamped our flowers over both pieces. Next, we carefully separated the smaller piece of cardstock from the larger one, painted our flowers, and popped the piece up on Bashful cardstock with 3-D foam tape. To add even more dimension, we also stamped some of the blossoms on scrap paper, painted them, trimmed them out, and then attached them over the matching blossoms with 3-D foam tape.

What do you think of the Split Stamping technique? Tell us in the comments below! And be sure to follow the blog all month long to see even more stamping techniques! 🙂

Recipes

4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ Congrats Card (Vertical)
D1726 My Acrylix® Sweet Baby Stamp Set, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5941 Bashful Cardstock, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z3361 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ Best Wishes Card (Horizontal)
D1747 My Acrylix® Happily Ever After Stamp Set, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4014 White & Gold Twine, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set

4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ So Happy for You Card (Vertical)
C1693 My Acrylix® Many Congratulations Stamp Set, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5941 Bashful Cardstock, X5953 Charcoal Cardstock, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set

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August 31, 2017Celebrate, Create

Usher in a New Season

Close To My Heartart, autumn, Decor, DIY, door, fall, inspiration, leaf, seasonal, wreath 12 Comments

Earlier this year we showed you how to use the Cricut^® Flower Market Collection for a springtime monogram. Today we have some artwork that just goes to show that this truly is a collection for all seasons! Take a look at this beautiful wreath celebrating the upcoming fall!

Papercrafting Wreath #papercrafting #cricut #flowermarket #diy #CTHM #closetomyheart #fall #autumn #wreath #paperwreath

Starting with a simple grapevine wreath, we decorated our piece with paper flowers and leaves in stunning fall colors. (Picking our colors was easy—we just turned to our brand new fall-themed paper packets from the Holiday Expressions idea book, which is available for purchase as of September 1.)

Cricut Leaf #cricut #leaf #wreath #flowermarket #youarehere #fall #autumn #ctmh #closetomyheart

Cricut Flower #cricut #flower #ctmh #closetomyheart #diy #button #wreath #fall #autumn

fall leaves #ctmh #closetomyheart #diy #flowermarket #cricut #wreath #fall #autumn

When working with Cricut^® shapes in your décor, add dimension and life by curling and bending petals and leaves. Add embellishments, like buttons and ribbons, for more textures, details, and volume.

With its changing leaves in rich hues of reds, oranges, and yellows, fall is by far the most colorful season of the year to draw inspiration from. Bring some of those glowing vibrant tones into your home by creating some of your own décor pieces—it’s all about where your creativity takes you!

Recipe

Fall Wreath
Z4041 Falling for You—Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7223B Falling for You Paper Packet, X7224B Cats & Bats Paper Packet, X5949 Almond Cardstock, X5951 Espresso Cardstock, X5952 Nutmeg Cardstock, X5965 Ruby Cardstock, Z2832 Pewter Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7223C Falling for You Complements, Z3323 White Burlap Ribbon, Z3385 Cricut^® Flower Market Collection, Z3389 Cricut^® You Are Here Collection, 18″ Grapevine Wreath, Hot Glue Gun

Cricut^® Shapes:
Flower Market
3″ Shift + Icon <J> (cut 8, p. 27, #MD6F435)
4½” <Chrsnthm> (cut 2, p. 47, #MFADEB0)

You Are Here
2½” Icon-4 <a> (cut 18, p. 21, #M27629BD)
2½” Shift + Icon-4 <A> (cut 18, p. 21, #M27629BD)

Numbers starting with #M specify the image number in Cricut Design Space™

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July 11, 2017Celebrate, Community

Celebrating All Things Canadian!

Close To My Heartcanada, Canada150, Canadian, Celebrate, celebration, cricut, mapleleaf, provinces, travel 9 Comments

In light of Canada’s 150^th anniversary, Close To My Heart is celebrating all things Canadian this month! We’ve even put together a Canadian Celebration Bundle (CC1311), at 20% off its retail value, to show our friends in the Great White North just how much we love being south of the border neighbors! Celebrate Canada #CTHM #Closetomyheart #canada150 #canada #canadian #mapleleaf #icehockey #pondhockey #cricut #scrapbooking #scrapping #scrapbook
The Canadian Celebration Bundle comes with an exclusive My Acrylix® Canada 150 stamp set (A1214), with the official Canada 150 logo! Composed of a series of diamonds representing the 13 Canadian provinces and territories in the shape of the iconic maple leaf, we have been granted permission to use this design to create an evocative stamp that fosters feelings of pride and celebration. (Add beautiful color and dimension to your stamped image with your watercolors or pencil crayons!) Canadian Cricut Collection #CTHM #Closetomyheart #canada150 #canada #canadian #Quebec #Britishcolumbia #OhCanada #OCanada #cricut #scrapbooking #scrapping #scrapbook #provinces #territories
Also included in this bundle—our new Cricut® Hello Canada Digital Collection (Z3391)! Featuring 20 layered images, this collection has shapes, overlays, and names for all Canadian provinces and territories. Planning on a game of pond hockey? There’s a cut for that! Paying a visit to Parliament Hill? There’s a cut for that, too! We’ve got you covered from sea to sea, Canada!
All Things Canadian #CTHM #Closetomyheart #canada150 #canadian #canada #mapleleaf #icehockey #pondhockey #cricut #scrapbooking #scrapping #scrapbook And to round out the bundle, we’ve selected 12 sheets of cardstock just for you, including 2 Cranberry and 3 White Daisy, of course!

Whether you’re a native, visitor, or an admirer of all things maple, avoid a kerfuffle and take advantage of the Canadian Celebration Bundle while it’s available—July only! AND, as if this bundle isn’t a beauty already (yeah right, eh?) we are saving you a few loonies and offering it at 20% off retail value!

In the comments below, share what you love most about this bundle and why!

Happy birthday Canada!

Definition of Canadian colloquial terms:

Great White North—nickname for Canada
Pencil crayons—colored pencils
Pond hockey—informal variety of ice hockey
From sea to sea—Canada’s national motto
Kerfuffle—commotion
Beauty—something done well
Yeah right, eh?—don’t you think?
Loonie—a dollar

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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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December 1, 2016Celebrate, Memory Keeping

15 Photos You MUST Take This Holiday Season

Close To My Heartchristmas, hack, help, Holiday, how, keeping, memories, memory, photo, photographer, photography, scrapbook, scrapbooking, tip, trick, tutorial, winter 5 Comments

It’s officially the holiday season! This magical time of year always has us pulling out our cameras and taking photos, but there are some special holiday moments you might not normally think to photograph! Here is a list of 15 things to be sure to capture with your camera this winter:

1. Picking out the perfect tree

2. Opening your daily advent calendar3. Little ones eating sticky candy canes

4. Kiddos writing letters to Santa

5. Decorating the Christmas tree (and putting on the star!)

6. Each kid’s favorite Christmas ornament (after all, your photo can last forever, though the ornament may not!)

7. Family story or Bible time

8. Fur babies in their Christmas gear

9. Christmas shopping

10. Little hands helping with holiday baking

11. Kids wrapping presents all by themselves

12. Setting out Santa’s cookies

13. Blowing or throwing snow in the air

14. Warming up by the fire

15. Hot chocolate mustaches

Also, be sure to check out our video on how to take high-quality photos with renowned photographer, Wendy Whitacre, of Blue Lily Photography.

What unique Christmas photos do YOU like to take? Tell us in the comments below!

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November 29, 2016Celebrate, Create

Tags, Cards, and Advent Calendars—Oh My!

Close To My Heartabove, advent, bottle, calendar, christmas, cut, Holiday, inspiration, kit, soda Leave a comment

Gift-giving is about more than just getting the perfect gift for someone. It’s about showing someone you care. That’s why we’re big fans of pairing gifts with handmade cards or tags—they show those you love that you took time to make their gift extra special.

We know the holiday season can get busy, so we’ve made handmade easy with our Cut Above™ card and tag kits. These kits require no measuring or cutting. You simply stamp on a holiday sentiment of your choice and then follow instructions for attaching the pieces together.

Of course, like any of our kits, you can also take the artwork in any direction you like! Here we typed a “punny” message to play off of our gift. We also added some grey stars and sparkles to personalize it even more!

And since our Art Studio is just brimming with creativity, they had a lot of fun creating this advent calendar using some leftover card and tag pieces.

To create the calendar, the artists added the card and tag pieces to envelopes that were cut using our Cricut® Artbooking collection.

Using our My Acrylix® Inked Alphabet stamp set, they added numbers to the gold foil accent pieces. Isn’t it amazing what some scraps of paper and a little creativity can create? This advent calendar really shows how truly beautiful the patterns, shapes, and textures of the Cut Above™ holiday kits are, but of course you could create it with any holiday paper scraps you have.

Make this holiday special by adding your own personal touch with our Cut Above™ holiday card and tag kits. We know you’ll love giving something handmade!

Recipes

Soda Gift Tag
D1701 My Acrylix® Plan On It Stamp Set, Z4025 Cut Above™ ‘Tis the Season Tag Kit, Z2872 Whisper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4014 White & Gold Twine, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles

Advent Calendar
E1033 My Acrylix® Inked Alphabet Stamp Set, Z4018 Cut Above™ ‘Tis the Season Card Kit (qty. 2), Z4025 ‘Tis the Season Tag Kit, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3090 Red Enamel Gems, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Hole Punch, Cork Board

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
6″ Shift+Photo Mat 2 (cut 12, p. 43)
6″ Shift+Photo Mat 2 (cut 12, p. 44)

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November 17, 2016Celebrate

Free Thanksgiving Printables!

Close To My Heartcard, dinner, download, free, name, party, place, print, printables, setting, thanksgiving 2 Comments

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, but it’s certainly not too late to add some personal touches to your dinner plans.

Last year we created three free printables for you to use at your Thanksgiving feast:

Dinner Party Thank You Card
Dinner Party Children Conversation Starters
Dinner Party Adult Conversation Starters

These printables are generic enough to use year-round, but they’re also really fun for your Thanksgiving dinner.

You can see a fun way to use the conversation starters in the paper pumpkin above. To create the pumpkin itself, we cut 12 pumpkin shapes from our Cricut® Artistry collection, folded them in half, and attached them together to create an accordion effect. Then we looped some Fern ribbon together, tied it together with Fern twine, and attached it to the top with glue.

We also have this dinner party thank you card. Again, it’s generic enough to use for any formal dinner party, but it adds a beautiful, personal touch to your Thanksgiving place settings.

We hope these printables make your Thanksgiving one to remember! Click on the links below to download and print these free printables!

Download Dinner Party Adult Conversation Starters
Download Dinner Party Children Conversation Starters
Download Dinner Party Thank You Card

Tell us in the comments below how you like to personalize your place settings. The more ideas we share with each other, the better!

Recipes

3″ 3-D Pumpkin
X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, X7212B Swan Lake Paper Packet, X5777 Fern Cardstock, Z3288 Enchantment Ribbon Pack, Z3247 Simple Chevron Embossing Folder, Z3190 Cricut® Artistry Collection, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection, Embossing Machine, Calligraphy Pen

Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
3 1/2″ Icon-2 <Hlloween> (cut 12, p. 43)

Flower Market
1 1/2″ Shift+Flower-2 <O> (cut 2, p. 19)

Thank You Card
X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, X7212B Swan Lake Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 1243 Goldrush Cardstock, Z3288 Enchantment Ribbon Pack, Z2445 ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Barely Beige Marker, Z2452 ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Golden Yellow Marker, Z2467 ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Warm Grey 4 Marker, Z2457 ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Marigold Marker, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Calligraphy Pen, Hole Punch

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
2″ Icon <b> (p. 72)
2″ Shift+Icon <B> (p. 72)
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Make It from Your Heart

Category Archives: Celebrate

Origami Cats & Bats

Cards from YOUR Heart

Split Stamping Technique

Usher in a New Season

Celebrating All Things Canadian!

This Unicorn Party Takes the Cake!