For this entire month of April, we’re celebrating our love for stamping with a Stamptacular sale! This unbelievable sale includes over 225 stamps sets and over 125 Stamp + Thin Cuts bundles! With savings up to 50%-off, we know you won’t want to miss out on the incredible opportunity to save big on your favorite Close To My Heart stamps and Thin Cuts metal dies!
If you’re already familiar with our top-quality stamps, then the Stamptacular sale is the perfect time to build off of what you already have and expand your creative options even further! If you’re a new crafter, or have yet to explore the wonderful world of stamps, this is an excellent opportunity to start off your journey with the best-quality stamps on the market at unbeatable prices!
At Close To My Heart, stamping is a huge part of who we are, and it’s been that way right from the beginning. Over our 35+ years in the crafting industry, we’ve become a forerunner in the world of stamping and pioneered the use of clear stamps and transparent, reusable stamping blocks. All of our stamps are made with a clear material that is flexible, yet sturdy, allowing for easy transfer from the carrier sheet they come on to one of our acrylic blocks. They are unmounted, which gives crafters more freedom to make our stamps work for them, as well as reducing the storage accommodations required for traditional mounted stamps.
Because our stamps and stamping blocks are completely transparent, it’s easier to achieve greater accuracy when it comes to stamp placement. Whether you’re adding stamped accents to a larger project, like the sections of a 12″ x 12″ scrapbook page you see above, or a smaller section like the accent shown below, having a clearer perspective on what your stamped image will look like is an excellent way to gain greater control over your creativity and produce more polished artwork!
Along with an amazing variety of stamps, many of our sets also come with specially designed Thin Cuts metal dies, which are coordinated with their respective sets to yield a perfect outline for your stamped image without the need for hand trimming. These Thin Cuts are super-slim and fit inside the envelope that our stamp sets come in, so storage is a breeze!
It’s easy to see why we’re so excited to share the all the incredible savings in the Stamptacular sale with you! To sweeten the deal even more, we’ve also brought back five exclusive stamp sets from the past, just for this sale! These five sets—Let’s Stay Home, The Great Indoors, On Repeat, Through Thick and Thin, and Forever Grateful— feature fun sentiments, icons, and accents to help you create all sorts of artwork, from fun and whimsical pieces to more elegant, polished designs.
In addition to these five exclusive sets, we’d also recommend that you check out the exclusive Everyday Heroes SVG file, which was featured on one of our blog posts last April! Click here to visit that post and download this adorable SVG file, free!
These exclusive stamp sets, along with the Everyday Heroes SVG file, are specifically designed to inspire reflection on the events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and help you document all the memorable moments—both happy and challenging—you’ve experienced over the past year. These exclusive stamp sets will only be available through April 30, 2021, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to get these too-cute sets for yourself!
We love anything and everything to do with stamping, and we want to hear about your experiences with this versatile medium! Do you have a favorite stamping memory? What about your favorite way to craft using Close To My Heart stamps? Leave a comment below to let us know!
It’s no secret that we love color at Close To My Heart. Color breathes life and feeling into the world around us. With an unspoken language all its own, color has the power to calm, to energize, and to inspire. As spring slowly creeps its way into this year, the world is brightening up its color palette bringing with it a rejuvenation we all could use right about now—and we are all for it!
We are starting today’s color celebration with our Love of Color how-to series. Through its pages, the exclusive Close To My Heart color palette, made up of 44 unique colors, comes to life. Breathtaking artwork illustrates how to create perfectly balanced color combinations without any guesswork. Each spread in these volumes starts out with one exclusive color that is then combined with two, three, and four other exclusive colors, shown in beautifully crafted inspirational artwork.
Since we hope for sunny days in the upcoming season, let’s take a closer look at the color combinations offered for Sundance, one of our newer colors, in Love of Color Vol. 2, pages 26 and 27.
In this example, Sundance was paired with Avocado and Glacier. Sundance is the dominant color, and the others were used to complement it and to create accents throughout. (White is a neutral and doesn’t really count, so feel free to include as much or as little as you’d like!)
This perfectly spring-themed card was created by following another color combination featured in the guide, combining Sundance with Cinnamon, Blue Belle, New England Ivy, and Charcoal.
The third color mashup for Sundance in our Love of Color Vol. 2 includes pairing it with Peach, Desert Rose, and Peacock.
These inspirational color guides really make it so simple to combine colors that some of us probably wouldn’t even consider. Its pages explore the unique qualities of each color and help you see their beauty and versatility.
We’ve also talked about color theory on this blog, before. If you’re interested in creating your own color combinations, we encourage you to revisit those posts for a quick refresher on techniques for pairing colors. (Find links below.) Once you’ve got those basic rules down, we also encourage you to break them as you see fit!
To continue this colorful celebration, we’ve updated our Close To My Heart color wheel by removing the colors that retired from our palette just a few short months ago and adding the new colors that were introduced.
Download the updated Close To My Heart color wheel, here.
***Keep in mind that our exclusive colors are made up of much more complex tones, shades, and hues than how they are categorized on the simplified color wheel offered above. As you reference and use this source, know that it is not 100% confining. Especially as you become more familiar with what makes colors work together visually, you’ll find that this color wheel is very flexible.***
Lastly, we have a couple of bonus downloads for you today! Working with our amazing art studio, we put together two watercolor guides featuring techniques, tips, and all-around useful information—one for watercolor paints and another for watercolor pencils. In these guides you will find how to blend our exclusive colors using watercolor paints, the variety of ways a watercolor pencil can be used, and so much more! Enjoy exploring these watercolor guides, below!
One of our all-time favorite humans is celebrating her birthday this month, and we simply cannot let the occasion pass without inviting you to celebrate her along with us! We are talking about none other than our dear founder, CEO, and, most especially, lovely friend Jeanette Lynton!
Through her exemplary work and dedication for over 35 years, Jeanette has taught us the importance of memory keeping, where we celebrate our lives and relationships through beautiful stamps, papers, and inks.
If you’ve been following this blog, you know that memory keeping is at the heart of everything we do. We’ve made it our mission to help others realize the importance of preserving memories and celebrating relationships—and to show them how to do it in a fun and fulfilling way!
The Party Time paper collection in our current Core Products Catalog, featuring bright and festive colors and designs, helps us do just that! And, because it is Jeanette’s birthday, we are keeping the party going by giving some of it away!
We are giving away five bundles of product here on the blog, another five on our Facebook page, and another five on Instagram! (Follow us on those other platforms to learn how to increase your chances to win!)
To qualify for the drawing on the blog, it’s an easy two-step entry. First, make sure you are subscribed! If you are not, simply push the blue “Subscribe to list” button found on the sidebar, if you’re on a computer, or at the very bottom of this post, if you’re on a phone or tablet. Second, and this is a must and just as important, leave a comment below with a birthday message for Jeanette. That’s it! All entries must be submitted by 5 p.m. tomorrow, March 25, MDT (that’s 10:00 a.m., 26 March, AEDT for our Aussie friends). Blog winners will be notified via the e-mail address connected to their subscriptions.
All of you that are part of our crafting community, you mean so much to us and especially to Jeanette. We are so grateful for the years of friendship we’ve all shared and the many years of friendship to come, and we love celebrating our relationship! Today, please join us in celebrating Jeanette and leave her a birthday message below! Happy birthday Jeanette!!
Are you the kind of person who loves taking photos? If you already know that you have more photos than you know what to do with for a traditional scrapbook layout (most of us are this person), take a look at these surprisingly easy ways to include all of them in your albums and tell your whole story!
Sometimes we have too many photos for one particular layout but, for whatever the reason—not enough time, not enough variety, not enough paper (heaven forbid!)—we can’t make a second layout from what we do have. If you’re anything like many of us, the thought of tossing any of these “extra” photos makes you cringe—😱! This is where we can help!
Pocket Plus protectors are exactly what they sound like—additional pockets to add to a layout, creating space for more photos, journaling, mementos, etc. You fill the pockets of these protectors with your memories, then slip them right into your layouts!
They’re fast and simple and add a fun interactive element to your layouts!
Pocket Plus is a great solution for adding those stowed away photos to your already existing albums. If you’re planning ahead, however, you can take your designing a step further and purposefully create your layouts so that the Pocket Plus protectors lay on top of the 12″ x 12″ pages in such a way that titles, photos, or other elements of the page aren’t partially covered.
Pocket Plus Memory Protectors come in two widths, 6″ and 4″. So, for instance, if you are planning on using a 6″ wide protector on top of your 12″ x 12″ page, design your base page with this in mind. Create a visual line at the 6″ mark that none of your photos, sentiments, journaling, or titles can straddle.
If you are planning on using a 4″ wide protector on top of your 12″ x 12″ page, design the base page with a visual line at 4″ from the inside margin.
This way, your Pocket Plus is working with the visual elements of your layout rather than interrupting them.
If you’ve only got a few additional photos or need just a small amount of extra room for some journaling, or whatever, then Flip Flaps™ are the way to go!
Flip Flaps are individual protective pockets that you attach to a page and flip to reveal additional photos, sentiments, or designs—and they’re something you can only get with Close To My Heart! Available in eight different size options, Flip Flaps can be attached to pretty much any size or style of scrapbook page!
If you haven’t already, today is also a good day to discover the simplicity of scrapbooking in pockets. Using Memory Protectors with multiple pockets is another great way to display all of those photos you have of that one birthday party, camping trip, or girls’ night out in a trendy blocked style. (See all of our different style and size options, here.)
Looking to fill those none-photo pockets? Picture My Life™ pocket cards are beautifully and purposefully designed for you to use for exactly that, and they effortlessly coordinate with our paper collections and products.
We are especially excited about two brand-new sets of Picture My Life pocket cards, Lovely and Party Time. These two sets were recently designed to coordinate with the Lovely and Party Time paper collections in our 2020–2021 Core Products Catalog, and are only available until March 31, while supplies last. (Snag these gorgeous cards for yourself, while you still can!)
With a wide assortment of pocket protectors and pocket cards at your disposal, you always have that extra space for all of your photos, journaling, and memories! Do you use any of these types of pockets in your scrapbooking? If so, please share with us how you do in the comments below!
Cardstock is a crafting essential for any avid crafter, and at Close To My Heart, we’re pretty proud of the cardstock selection we have to offer! Join us as we show you all the ways our cardstock stands apart and share some exciting offers from our new Cardstock Carnival sale!
Whether you’re making a scrapbook layout, a card, or another papercrafting project, cardstock is likely one of the first things you’ll reach for to make sure your artwork not only looks beautiful but stands the test of time. With a higher weight (or thickness) than paper, cardstock is often more durable than regular paper and can add a more professional and expert look to your crafts.
Our cardstock is designed along the exclusive Close To My Heart color palette, which means that each and every sheet coordinates precisely with all our inks, patterned paper collections, and quite a few of our embellishments as well! With this perfect coordination, you never have to spend time fussing over color matches, and you can count on our cardstock to integrate seamlessly into any project, as you can see with this card!
Along with perfect color coordination, each sheet of our cardstock also has a unique white core. This core allows for greater color saturation and more accurate matches. It also provides a striking contrast when you artistically tear or distress your cardstock!
(Tip: To distress cardstock, you can run a pair of scissors along the edges or gently rub the surface with some sandpaper. Make sure to start out with a light hand so you don’t rub away too much color all at once!)
For greater versatility, each sheet is also two-toned, with the true exclusive color on one side and a lighter version on the other, as you can see here with this two-tone scrapbook page.
This dual-tone effect allows you to maximize your cardstock usage while also expanding your range of colors. When you craft with two-toned cardstock, it’s like having two sheets in one!
There’s a TON to love about Close To My Heart cardstock, and during the month of March we are sharing that love through our Cardstock Carnival sale.
Dark Red
Red
Pink
Purple
Blue
Green-blue
Green
Yellow-green
Yellow-orange
Brown
Neutrals
Grey
During this awesome month-long sale, save 15% on all individual color cardstock packs, 20% on exclusive color combo packs (shown above), and 30% on the exclusive Cardstock Carnival Bundle, made up of one each of the cardstock color bundles—that’s 288 cardstock sheets of white core, two-toned goodness!
This Cardstock Carnival is only available until the the end of March. Get in on the savings and don’t miss the opportunity to stock up on this essential crafting staple at a great deal!
We have an early Valentine for all our loyal readers—a free card pattern! Celebrate along with us and share the love this Valentine’s Day, and anytime, with a personalized handmade card!
Making its original debut in our Blossom Workshops on the Go® cardmaking guide years ago, we paired this timeless pattern with our lovely Perfect Match collection to create four cards, two that are romantic themed and two that are not.
This classic pattern can be used for every celebration and occasion with the right combination of papers, embellishments, and sentiments. If you’re not sure how to mix and match these products, we’ve taken the guesswork out of the equation for you! For effortless coordination, simply choose any one of our creative collections and stick to just those products within the suite. Another option is to pick a color combination from either of our Love of Color volumes, and to strictly work with products within that color palette. (Making cards can be that easy! 🥳)
The flower card above was made using one of the Ballerina color combinations: Ballerina, Pewter, Carolina, and Sugarplum. If you look closely, you’ll notice that even though we picked this combination, we left Sugarplum (one of our retired colors) off and added White Daisy. It still works!
The Hello card on the right was made from one of the Candy Apple combination options: Candy Apple, White Daisy, Lagoon, Sapphire, and Black.
Download the free pattern below and share some love this Valentine’s Day, and beyond, with a handmade card from the heart. ❤️
Happy 2021 and National Papercrafting Month! At the start of this new year, many of us find ourselves with a burst of creative energy and are looking for ways to make some positive changes in our lives and homes. For an easy way to fulfill this need, celebrate all month long with us and our Home Sweet Home special!
Our Home Sweet Home special features a frame kit that comes with everything you need to make a gorgeous 13¾” x 13¾” framed “HOME” with a wide variety of interchangeable accents for year-round celebration!
The seasonal accents fit perfectly over the “O” in “HOME” and are made using the punch-out die-cuts included in the frame kit. Many of the accents have multiple layers for a beautiful, three-dimensional look, and each one features bright, vibrant colors to really make them stand out.
Altogether, this kit includes 27 different accent options! The Home Sweet Home frame kit comes with 14 wood circles, but each component of the kit is also available individually, including additional circles and magnets if you’d like to make all 27!
As you can see, there are accent options for every season to keep your frame updated throughout the year!
There are also options for many different holidays, incorporating a touch of festive décor for every occasion!
Is there an athlete in your life? Celebrate game day with a personalized accent just for them!
If you want to add a little more personalization to your Home Sweet Home frame, design your own accents using the wood circles and parts of the provided die-cuts. Whether you want to create an accent for a special holiday, family tradition, or any other accent with personal meaning, it’s easy to do with the various components in the Home Sweet Home frame kit!
Along with the easy punch-out die-cuts for the interchangeable accents, each kit comes with beautiful overlays and backgrounds for the frame itself. These can be easily applied to the wood frame to create a polished, classic look. If you favor the natural wood, however, you can easily add color to the wood itself using a TriBlend™ marker, an Exclusive Inks™ stamp pad or re-inker, or even embossing powder!
There’s so much to love about the Home Sweet Home special, and for five lucky readers this week, there will be even more to love! We are ringing in the new year today by giving away FIVE Home Sweet Home frame kits!
For a chance to win one of these beautiful kits, you must be subscribed to this blog AND leave a comment below letting us know what your creative aspirations are for 2021. All entries must be submitted by 3 p.m. tomorrow, January 6 (MST) (that’s 8 a.m. January 7 AEST for our Aussies). The five lucky winners will be notified via e-mail later this week. (We use the e-mail address you are subscribed with, so make sure it is up to date in order to not miss out!)
We have so many exciting things lined up for 2021! Keep up with all of our projects, designs, products, ideas, and more by continuing to follow us here, as well as on Facebook and Instagram (@cmthofficial).
Now it’s your turn: what creative things are you up to this year? Tell us below!
There are so many great stories that happen around the holidays that deserve to be written down, cherished, and shared. In November, we released a new workshop kit from the Story by Stacy™ line called Holiday Stories I Love. Using this new workshop kit, a few of our Home Office employees, including our beloved founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton, explored the memories behind photos they treasure most, documented them with detailed stories, and shared them with us below!
Dolls have always played such a significant part of my life. I love them for their beauty and their representation of many fond childhood memories.
My love of dolls began before I can even remember. I cherish this photo of me with my mother on my very first Christmas. Our lovely tree, and my mother and me dressed in our Sunday best. My mother always said she thought of me as her little doll. She loved to dress me up in beautiful clothes with all the little details, just so. She said I even looked like a little dolly with my porcelain skin, big blue eyes and pretty pink lips. She called me her doll and I loved it. It made me feel so special.
By my second Christmas, dolls were my happy place. I took dolls with me everywhere I went. I played with them, gave them each a name, and fussed with their clothes and hair to make them look oh-so pretty. On my third Christmas, I went to see Santa. My mother recalls that when I sat upon his lap, the only gift I requested was more dolls! Dolls were such a happy part of my childhood and even now, bring such a feeling of nostalgia of a time where life was carefree and magical.
As a mother myself, I call my children and grandchildren my little dolls, just like my mom called me. It is a term of endearment that has carried on because it shows such love for these special and beautiful people who fill my heart and home.
Even today as a grown woman, I still find joy in collecting dolls. I’ve created quite a compilation over the years of beautiful dolls, each representing something special. I have dolls of every ethnicity, hair style, period of history, etc. They bring me a sense of comfort and joy to see their splendor and exquisite detail. I hope to one day pass these cherished dolls down to my daughters and granddaughters, that they might know of my love for dolls, but more importantly, my love for them. — Jeanette
A tradition that goes back as long as I can remember is a Christmas nativity that we act out ourselves. I did this as a child with my own family. I’m so happy we have carried it on with my own children and now grandchildren. The year we took this particular photo was December 2018. We had just moved to Lindon and went to our local ward (church) Christmas party. We were about to leave but Ariana insisted we take this photo. Even though I was tired from working all day I did it for the family. I’m so grateful I did. It truly represents all the nativities we have done as a family with better costumes! Lol. We usually use towels, sheets, and toys. No matter how hard, crazy, busy Christmas seems to be, our homemade nativity always brings the true Christmas spirit into our home. We are a forever family because of our Savior. — Monica
I think I was 11 years old and in the 6th grade. We lived in Littleton, CO, and my dad had quit his job at Metropolitan State University a few months before. He had been asked to do some dishonest things and wasn’t willing to compromise his integrity. Money was very tight and even though I knew that, I still asked for a 10-speed bike.
My bedroom was in the basement, and so was my dad’s workshop. My parents told me that Christmas was going to be hidden in the workshop and asked me not to peek. I just couldn’t help myself. A week before Christmas I looked inside. I saw a very old, very beat up, white 10-speed bike.
I remember being so disappointed. My idea of a cool bike was a brand new bike in a pretty color with all the bells and whistles. I remember thinking, “I shouldn’t feel this way! I know Dad is out of work, money is really tight, and this is probably all he could afford.” I remember for the rest of the week leading up to Christmas feeling so guilty for peeking and trying to psych myself up to act grateful, surprised, and excited on Christmas.
Christmas morning came and into the living room we went. There, next to the tree, sat a brand new, bright yellow 10-speed bike. It had all the bells and whistles and it was just for me. I truly was surprised and so excited! It was not the bike I had seen when I peeked. It wasn’t until years later that I found out my dad had been so sad to give me an old bike that he asked around and found out about a police auction. He went and was able to find that new bike for an amount he felt he could pay.
Every time I think of that bike, even today, I get all choked up. It was so much more than a bike. It was a symbol of the lengths my dad was willing to go to make his little girl happy, and showed me just how much he loves me. — Karen
This photo was taken on Dec. 14, 2017. I have no idea who took it, or how this moment was captured, but I am so very glad it was. This photo represents a special tradition we have of getting a new Christmas book for our collection & reading by the tree before bedtime. The lights of the tree make it all the more magical.
The particular title isn’t a storyline I recall, but there is one Christmas book that has meant the most to this little boy. In 2012, the year he was born, President Thomas S. Monson’s book, “The Christmas Train,” was the one we added to our collection. As soon as Owen was old enough to understand it, it quickly became his favorite & we read it multiple times during the holiday season.
The story is about President Monson as a young boy, wanting desperately to have an electric train. I think the train topic definitely added to Owen’s infatuation with the book, yet I also know that the story itself has had an impact on him as well.
The story details the importance of sharing, & sometimes sacrificing, to see the joy it brings to others. Owen is one to pray each day for the homeless—that they can find food & shelter. He wants to donate to the Food Bank & worries about those he sees on the side of the road. He will often comment hours after passing someone, still thinking about their situation or what they might need. He has a very soft heart & a desire to love those less fortunate.
As much as we may try to instill these selfless traits in our children, I do firmly believe that Owen came to Earth this way. His special spirit is filled with compassion & caring. It is a gift especially given to him.
This photo will always be the perfect reminder to me that Owen embodies the characteristics of a prophet as a young boy—wanting so much for himself (Owen’s wish list is always exceptionally long!) yet, he acts on a stronger desire to give. —Jill
Each year a few weeks before Christmas my mom would use a staple gun to stick two long burlap banners to wood beams dividing the dining and living rooms in our home. Both of these were decorated with felt poinsettias and holly leaves hand-cut and hot-glued. To these we would pin the Christmas cards we received. I remember thinking as a teenager that they were looking a bit worn, but that I was ok with that. I liked Mom’s handmade holiday touches.
Geoff and I spend our first Christmases together in Chicago, and I was determined to make our little apartment homey. We purchased a pint sized artificial tree and I wanted ornaments, but other than the very breakable glass balls, these were expensive. I decided that I would clip coupons from the Sunday paper and that however much I saved on groceries I could purchase and paint at Michaels. Some were as much as .59 cents each, but the gingerbread men were only .29 cents. While Geoff studied every evening, I painted ornaments that have hung on our tree ever since.
By the time we built our current home—in 2006—I had fallen in love with bright, happy colors and with the help of fuzzy ball ornaments from IKEA, I created a bright and playful vision that included painted hat boxes and leather stockings in orange, pink, turquoise and green. The point of this story is that I LOVE to decorate for the holidays—just like my mom—with a mix of handmade and thoughtfully acquired things, and that while my style is very different, and a bit childish, it is magical and 100% me! — Stacy
All of our Story by Stacy™ products are intended to help recall and retell memories in a beautiful way, as you can see by our true-life examples, above. We wish you all a lovely holiday season, full of beautiful new memories for you to cherish, recall, and share for years to come!
Hopefully we’ve all made it onto the “Nice” list this year, because we’ve put together a list of products for you to share with whomever will be filling your stockings and laying presents under your tree this Christmas! That’s right. We are making it easier for the people who love you to get you a gift that you may actually want!
Take a look at the list below, then share the link to this post with your “Santa” and let them know which numbers on the list you are interested in. By clicking on the item, they will be navigated to our website where they will be able to add the product to their “bag” (cart). (Make sure to give your “Santa” a little extra guidance where necessary by specifying colors and quantities. 🙂 )
For those Santa’s who would like additional product details, click on the linked items to take a peek at our product descriptions and photos—purchase is not required (but you may end up with some unhappy elves 😉 ).
