January 14, 2020Celebrate, Create, Learn

Make Your Very Own Paper Flower Unicorn Wall Décor!

Close To My Heartcricut, Decor, DIY, floral, flower, Flower Market, free, free template, girl, gorgeous, national papercrafting month, papercraft, template, unicorn, wall 19 Comments

If you haven’t gotten down and crafty yet this year, now is the perfect time to start. For our second week celebrating National Papercrafting Month, we created this beautiful, large scale, floral wall décor and are giving you our Cricut Design Space™ file, FREE, to recreate this very same project at home!

(Click on the individual images for a closer look!)

In order to keep things simple, we manipulated shapes from just one of our Cricut^® collections, Flower Market, while designing our arrangement. If you don’t own the Cricut^® Flower Market Collection, contact your Close To My Heart Consultant (or find one near you, here) to get started.

To give you an idea of the physical size of this project, the center French Vanilla flower is 20″ in diameter, both Peach flowers are 17″, the Lilac flowers are 14″, and the smaller Mint flowers are 13½” each.

When you open the file in Design Space, you will find some hexagon shapes among the petal shapes. These are your bases for each of the flowers. Attach the petals of each flower, layering them from largest to smallest, to these bases. You will also notice that the eyelashes are quite large. They are so large, in fact, that when you attempt to “make it” the program will tell you that you need a 12″ x 24″ mat. We did not use a longer mat to cut these, so there is a way around it! When the prompt comes up, all you need to do is select the image and rotate it to make it fit diagonally in the 12″ x 12″ square.

We don’t want any of our readers to feel left out, so for those of you who do not use Cricut^®, a few months ago, our very own Jill Broadbent visited Studio5 and shared how to make similar large paper flowers without a cutting machine.

Download the PDF below for a template to make large paper flowers without a cutting machine.

Paper Flower Template

Every little (and grownup) girl deserves to know just how gorgeous she is! Happy crafting!

Make sure to stop by next week to see what we’ve got in store for a boy’s space using our Urban collection!

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January 7, 2020Celebrate, Create, Learn

All Around Creativity: Adding A Splash of Color

Close To My HeartAll Around Creativity, Be Kind, Create, Decor, embossing, Exclusive Inks, floral, flower, giveaway, grateful, National, national papercrafting month, npm, Papercrafting, sponging, Stay Awhile, techniques, VersaMark™ 37 Comments

We’re jumping right into the new year and celebrating National Papercrafting Month with the All Around Creativity special, featuring four gorgeous wreath kits that are only available from Close To My Heart through the end of the month. There are so many different ways to embellish these beautiful wreaths, so we figured we’d have some fun and share with you four simple ways that we’ve added color to the plywood bases.

Adding color to wood doesn’t need to be super messy or take a huge amount of time. It can be quick, easy, and clean. To start off, we’ll take a peek at one of the easiest wood-coloration techniques. This method uses an Exclusive Inks™ stamp pad and will only take you a few minutes from application until it’s completely dry!

Simply select the ink color you’d like to use and gently swipe the stamp pad over the surface of the wood with quick, dabbing motions, going with the grain. Going with the grain helps you to emphasize the natural beauty of the wood, while also protecting your stamp pad from getting scratched up or caught on the wood. As you’ll see in the video below, we left some of the wood grain visible for a more stained look, but you can make it as light or as dark as you’d like.

To achieve a softer, mottled look, try sponging the ink onto the wood.

Cut a Round Sponge into quarters. While gripping the point of one quarter with your fingers, gently load your sponge with ink by pouncing it on your stamp pad. Because the sponge absorbs the ink, it may not look like you have a lot on there, but you’ll have more ink than you think!

Once you’ve got your sponge inked and ready to go, use the same pouncing motion you used on the stamp pad to apply the color to the plywood. The ink will dry lighter than it looks while you apply it. For a darker, richer tone, you will have to apply additional layers of ink.

This next technique uses TriBlend™ markers. When using an alcohol-based marker to color wood, you’ll want to go in the direction of the grain and use a steady hand to achieve even color throughout.

Because you have greater control over color distribution when you use this method, you also have more control over the appearance of the colored wood. For instance, if you want a softer, lighter look, use a light hand and don’t go over the same spot too many times. For darker and richer tones, add more color layers to really get the pigment into the wood.

If you’re going for a darker color, don’t jam the marker tip into the wood, as this may damage your marker. Instead, go over the same area of the wood multiple times for color layering and try using a lighter shade of your TriBlend™ marker.

The last technique we’re showcasing today adds a bit of sparkle to your art. Heat embossing! (We went there, and it’s beautiful!)

First, place your wreath over a piece of scratch paper so you can catch any excess embossing powder. Then, begin by rubbing the surface of the wreath with an anti-static pouch. Apply VersaMark™ ink to the wreath, a few sections at a time, using the same pouncing motion you saw in our first technique. While the ink is still wet, sprinkle embossing powder over it, shake off any excess powder onto your scratch paper, and heat set with a heat tool. (Use your scratch paper to easily funnel your excess embossing powder back into its container for future use.)

We absolutely love these wreaths and National Papercrafting Month, because it really gets us thinking outside the box! We can’t wait to see all the different ways you choose to add color to your wreaths.

Remember, you can only get these gorgeous wreath kits until January 31, and if you buy four or more you even get a discount! Make sure to take full advantage of the All Around Creativity special while you still can. For a few of you who may be on the fence, we are giving away four of these kits to four lucky readers! For a chance to win, you must do two things. First, make sure you are subscribed to this blog. If you are not, find the blue button on the sidebar that says “Subscribe to list” and follow the prompts once you’ve clicked it. Second, leave us a comment below telling us what types of crafts you like to work out, outside of scrapbooking and cardmaking. You have until 12 p.m. (MST) Thursday, January 9, to submit your entries. All winners will be notified by email. Good luck and happy crafting!

Recipes

Create Wreath
CC12017 Create Wreath Kit, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad

Stay Awhile Wreath
CC12019 Stay Awhile Wreath Kit, Z6512 Evergreen Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z697 Round Sponge

Grateful Wreath
CC12018 Grateful Wreath Kit, Z2478 Earth Brown TriBlend™ Marker

Be Kind Wreath
CC12016 Be Kind Wreath Kit, Z2850 Fern Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2835 New England Ivy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2844 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2812 Raspberry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, Z3293 Clear Shimmer Brush, Z4235 Gold Loose Sequins, Z697 Round Sponge, Z4249 Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder, Z4220 Anti-static Pouch, Z4252 Heat Tool

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December 31, 2019Celebrate, Community, Create, Learn

An Inside Look into Our New 2020 Catalog!

Close To My Heart2020, All Around Creativity, catalog, catalogue, february, january, New, new product, New Year, Oh My Heart 3 Comments

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! It is officially the last day of the year, can you believe it? Tomorrow not only brings with it renewed aspirations and hope in new beginnings but, also, a brand new Close To My Heart catalog filled from cover to cover with new pattern papers, stamp sets, embellishments, new and original ideas, and much, much more!

Since the products in the new January–February 2020 catalog will be available for viewing and purchasing immediately after midnight tonight, we just had to ring in the new year a little early and share! Celebrate with us and take a sneak peek into just a few of our new favorites that have us excited for what’s to come!

Holographic Paper

This new eye-catching holographic paper is a must have! We’ve got two reflective colors to choose from, Oasis (on the left) and Dreamy (on the right). Take a close look at this new product and some additional artwork examples with our Art Studio Director, Karen, in the short video below.

Card Front Spinner Thin Cuts

The Card Front Spinner Thin Cuts is a set of 3 metal dies that allows you to create an interactive spinning card front. As you spin the wheel on the side, part of a hidden message is revealed in the cutout window.

Both stamp sets shown here, My Acrylix^® Rainbow Wishes and My Acrylix^® I Chews You, coordinate seamlessly to add a fun, interactive spinner element to your cards.

Stitched Bracket Thin Cuts

The Stitched Bracket Thin Cuts are an easy way to mat photos, journaling, and anything else you may want to highlight in your art. This set is just one of MANY Thin Cuts sets available in this upcoming catalog.

Two New Shimmer Brushes

We are adding two new colors to our line of shimmer brushes, Lagoon and Raspberry! We just love adding some colorful shimmer to artwork!

All Around Creativity

Our National Papercrafting Month special is so sensational that we’ve included it in our January–February catalog just to show it off in as many places as we can! This special features exclusive wooden wreath kits. Each kit comes with a 16″ plywood base of your choice ready to embellish with paper flowers, leaves, patterned background papers, and even a paper bow!

Oh My Heart

Can you feel the love coming from this workshop made especially for Valentine’s Day? The Oh My Heart Workshop will not only guide you through creating a single-page and a two-page layout, but also in easily making 40 unique 3″ x 4″ cards! Make the cards even more special by having that special kiddo in your life participate in the assembly process. (They really do come together that easily!)

Stamp Sets

Our new catalog is brimming with great new stamp designs—here is just a small sampling:

You’re Not Old Stamp + Thin Cuts

Life in Boots Stamp + Thin Cuts

My Acrylix^® Floral Borders Stamp Set

Country Animals Bundle

For the first time ever, we have M-size stamp sets with coordinating Thin Cuts! Each of the country animal stamps seen here are available alone, with their coordinating die, or all together in the Country Animals Bundle!

Happy Birthday Shaker Window Thin Cuts

Making a birthday shaker card just got easier! This set of dies cuts a window overlay with a happy birthday banner, as seen here, and triangle confetti shapes to mix in with your sequins or use alone. To create the window, be sure to pair these dies with the Shaker Window Foam & Acetate. Don’t stop there. If cardmaking or shaker windows aren’t your thing, use the happy birthday overlay in your scrapbook pages to frame a picture of a birthday boy or girl.

Craft with Heart™—Subscription with Heart!

Be ready to preserve memories as you make them with new kits from the Craft with Heart™ scrapbooking subscription! As a subscriber, you’ll receive regular deliveries of Cut Above^® layout kits, each kit featuring two beautifully designed two-page layouts. Your layouts come together in minutes thanks to pre-printed base pages, with complementary die-cuts and stickers to help you preserve your memories in style.

And don’t forget!!! There’s a new Cut Above^® cardmaking kit coming out in January, too!

Each delivery includes materials to create a set of beautiful, handmade cards, that will come together in a snap thanks to pre-printed card bases, die-cut shapes, and more. Each delivery also includes an exclusive My Acrylix^® stamp set, complete with stamping block and mini ink pads, so you’ll have the tools you need to create your cards just the way you want them. Keep up with all the occasions in your life with a Craft with Heart™ cardmaking subscription!

There are many, many more products worth taking a look at in our new January–February 2020 catalog. Make sure to contact your Close To My Heart Consultant to see what else 2020 holds in store!

May you have a safe and happy New Year! ❤

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December 24, 2019Celebrate, Community

From Jeanette: Never Stop Dreaming!

Close To My Heartchristmas, dreaming, dreams, Japan, Jeanette, Jeanette Lynton, New Year 10 Comments

Merry Christmas! As is natural at the end of a year, I have been reflecting lately on what the year has brought to me and to this company. This has been a wonderful year of celebration for me as we have commemorated my 35 years in business milestone. I have truly enjoyed celebrating throughout the year, and especially at our Conventions in Brisbane, Australia, and in Provo, Utah! I express my appreciation to everyone who has shared in the celebrations with me this year.

In addition to the 35-year celebrations, I have also seen the realization of two dreams that I have had for a very long time. One dream that I have had since almost the very beginning of this business has been opening in Japan. I have so much love for the culture and the people there, that it has always been a goal of mine. This year, with the help of some very dedicated individuals, we finally made it happen: we have officially opened in Japan and have our very first Consultants there! This has been a dream come true not only for me, but for many people in Japan who have just been waiting for this day to come!

The second dream that I have seen become reality this year is the opening of our very own event space right in the Home Office building! We built this building over twenty years ago, and I have always thought it would be wonderful to have a space set aside that we could share with Consultants. Just last month we held our inaugural Home Office Album Retreat to officially open the space and we had Consultants from all over in attendance. We have another retreat coming up in January, with more planned for future months as well. I am so excited to be welcoming Consultants and their friends to join us for fun creative time right here at the Home Office.

As you can tell, it has been a wonderful year—another one of many wonderful years that I have had as the leader of this company. I am deeply grateful to everyone who plays a part in making Close To My Heart what it is. We have another exciting year ahead of us, and I can hardly wait to see what new dreams and successes it will bring!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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December 17, 2019Celebrate, Create

Quick Holiday Favors for a Party, the Office, or School Class!

Close To My HeartArt Philosophy, artiste, box, candy, christmas, cricut, Design Space, easy, fast, gift, gingerbread house, hat, Holiday, mouse, party favor, present, quick, Santa, school treat 7 Comments

Christmas time is officially here, and in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, most of us still have some last-minute holiday prep to take care of. Everyone wants to have the perfect Christmas; whether you’re still trying to find a gift for your neighbors, come up with favors for a Christmas party, or searching for the perfect stocking stuffer, we want to help out with a few last-minute Christmas treat ideas!

To create these fun projects, we used shapes from our Cricut^® Art Philosophy and Artiste collections. These collections include a wide variety of shapes for any project and are available for purchase through your local Consultant.

Before you start on these projects, make sure you have all the tools you need to complete them. A few of the Cricut^® shapes will require a scoring tool. If you don’t have a scoring tool, you can add your own scoring lines with a bone folder after the shape has been cut.

The first treat idea we’ll be showing you today is an adorable Christmas mouse. This treat idea is great for all ages! After all, who wouldn’t love a cute little mouse with a candy tail?

To make your very own Christmas mice, cut out an egg shape (#M4462D) for the body and two droplet shapes (#M462B8) for the ear pieces, both from our Art Philosophy Cricut^® collection. When cutting the body, be sure to include two small slits in the middle of each body piece. This allows you to easily attach and remove the candy cane tail. To form these slits, insert two small lines (#M369889) from the Basic Shapes tab to your design before cutting. (If you’re going to cut these pieces by hand, use a crafting knife to make these two cuts.)

Once you’ve got all your pieces cut, gently thread a candy cane through the slits on each mouse and attach the ears. For the finishing touch, add some black and white dots to create a nose and eyes. We colored our noses red with an alcohol marker.

With a few of these mice, you’ll have a gift or party favor that is sure to delight!

The next treat idea we have for you today is a mini gingerbread house treat box, made to hold all kinds of yummy surprises.

With white embossed “icing” on the roof and tiny stamped candies flanking the door, this gingerbread house looks good enough to eat, right along with the tasty treats inside!

Before you start making your gingerbread house, note that this particular cut includes score lines. You will need to adjust the cutting tools on your machine accordingly.

To create this too-cute gingerbread house, cut a pyramid box (#M440E0) from our Artiste collection using Kraft paper. Fold along the score lines included in the Cricut® shape and then, attach the sides of the box together with adhesive. Tie the top with some of your favorite ribbon and embellish it with layers of embossed icing and some stamped images from the My Acrylix^® From Candyland stamp set.

The last treat we have for you today is a Santa-hat inspired box. This little box packs a whole lot of cheer and makes a fun and festive party favor or stocking stuffer. Just like the gingerbread house, this treat box includes a few score lines and will require you to adjust your cutting tools to create them.

To make your own Santa hat treat box, cut out a pinwheel (#M38DAA) from our Artiste Cricut^® collection and fold along the score lines provided in the shape. Once you’ve made your folds, tuck the pinwheel arms behind each other to form the box.

Once you’ve got your treats inside and the box is fully formed, stick a pom-pom on top for a festive finishing touch. This treat box is the perfect size to slip into a stocking and cute enough to give out all on its own. No matter how you gift it, or to whom, it’s sure to be a hit! 🙂

We hope you’ve enjoyed these quick Christmas treat ideas and wish you the sweetest holidays!

Recipes:

Candy Cane Mouse
X7251B Cedar & Pine Paper Packet, X6036 Ballerina Cardstock, X6031 Green Apple Cardstock, X6044 Peach Cardstock, Z3314 Black & White Dots, Z2497 Dark Red TriBlend™ Marker, Cricut^® Art Philosophy Collection

Cricut^® Shapes:
Art Philosophy
#M4462D
#M462B8

Basic Shapes
#M369889

Gingerbread House Box
D1884 My Acrylix^® From Candyland Stamp Set, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5974 Raspberry Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Paper, Z4189 Intense Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4194 White & Gold Skinny Ribbon, Z2495 Bright Pink TriBlend™ Marker, Z2497 Dark Red TriBlend™ Marker, Z2487 Jade Green TriBlend™ Marker, Z2485 Light Green TriBlend™ Marker, Z2496 Pale Pink TriBlend™ Marker, Z3555 Christmas Red Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3563 Diamond Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3556 Green Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Cricut^® Artiste Collection

Cricut^® Shape:
Artiste Collection
#M440E0

Santa Hat Box
X6038 Candy Apple Cardstock, Z679 Liquid Glass, Cricut^® Artiste Collection, Pom-pom

Cricut^® Shape:
Artiste Collection
#M38DAA

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December 10, 2019Celebrate, Create

Free Cricut Design Space™ File for Holiday Gift Tags

Close To My Heart'Tis the Season, Cedar & Pine, Cedar and Pine, Cheers, christmas, Complete Creativity, cricut, Design Space, file, gift, give, giving, Holiday, Holly Jolly, Holy Night, Merry Christmas, No Peekin', present, tags 28 Comments

There are only 15 days between now and Christmas day…EEK! Is anyone else bursting with anticipation? By now (crossing our fingers), all if not most of the gift shopping is done and taken care of, and it’s time to start thinking of gift wrapping and accessorizing these sought after treasures into the decorative masterpieces that we’ll place under our trees or personally hand deliver.

With our love for paper, ribbon, and celebrating anything that allows us to apply both in a meaningful way, we could not help but create some beautiful gift tags using shapes from our newest Cricut^® collection, Complete Creativity.

If you’re not familiar with the Complete Creativity Cricut^® collection, this collection is divided up by whole card and scrapbook projects, providing all the shapes you need to create complete cards and scrapbook pages for a variety of themes and occasions. Each project is made up of components that can also be used independent of the layout or card they were designed for.

To illustrate the flexibility of this collection, we pulled individual icons, shapes, and sentiments from several of the projects, manipulated their orientation and size, and then grouped them to create the 15 delightful tags you see here!

All of the shapes, including the tag bases, come from separate projects in the Complete Creativity collection. As a special Christmas treat from us to you, we’re giving you our design space file so you, too, can create these little beauties and can use them in your holiday gift decorating!

To give you an idea of their size, the “Merry Christmas” tags are approximately 5¼” x 3⅛” and the “tis the season” tags are 4½” x 1¾”. If you look closely at each of the pictures above, you will see that there is a total of five tag designs created with three different sets of patterned papers and cardstock. The Design Space file provided will recreate all 15 tags, so you will see 19 different paper requests from your machine as you go through the “Make It” process. (Take a look at our “recipe” below for a complete list of the papers we used in our tags.)

In the provided file, you may also notice a green stand-alone T-shape only in the middle set of tags. This shape is the background ribbon for the small present in the tag next to it. Both, the “Merry Christmas” tag and the T-shape are cut from the same patterned paper in all three sets of tags. Since the patterned paper used for these two shapes in the middle set of tags is a plaid pattern, we wanted to cut it straight in the tag base but not in the ribbon, because we liked the effect of cutting the pattern at an angle better. Therefore, we straightened the tag shape out on the Design Space Canvas Grid and removed the T-shape from the present at the angle shown. This way, the ribbon will be cut with the pattern at the preferred angle as well.

We hope you enjoy putting this fun Christmas project together and sharing it with friends. As always, make sure you let us know if you have any questions in the comment section below! Happy Holidays!

Recipe

Complete Creativity Cricut^® Tags
D1898 My Acrylix^® No Peekin’ Stamp Set, X7251B Cedar & Pine Paper Packet, X7250B Holly Jolly Paper Packet, X9009 Mix-in Paper Packet, X6047 Black Cardstock, X6040 Clover Cardstock, X5978 Glacier Cardstock, X6031 Green Apple Cardstock, X6044 Peach Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3238 Gold Glitter Paper, Z3239 Silver Glitter Paper, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6509 Candy Apple Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6512 Evergreen Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6502 Peach Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2896 Smoothie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3549 Holly Jolly Dots, Z3568 Black Velvet Ribbon, Z4196 White Ribbon, Z4194 White & Gold Skinny Ribbon, Z4221 Mink Twine, Z3565 Holiday Loose Sequins, Z4304 Silver Loose Sequins, Z3561 Black Diamond Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3555 Christmas Red Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3563 Diamond Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z341 Glue Dots^® Mini Dots, Cricut^® Complete Creativity Collection

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December 3, 2019Celebrate, Community, Create

Hanukkah Dreidel Crafts & Decorations

Close To My HeartCelebrate, cricut, Design Space, dreidel, garland, hanukkah, Holiday, Jewish, lantern, light, mazel tov, place cards, shalom, treat box 28 Comments

From party favors and festive decorations to beautiful handmade cards, we’ve got a few dreidel-inspired crafts for you today that are sure to be a hit!

During many Hanukkah celebrations, it’s common for families and friends to gather together and share a meal. If a dinner party is on your schedule, these stunning place cards are an easy way to add a quick touch of elegance to your evening. Impress your guests by pairing The Lights of Hanukkah stamp set with some silver tinsel embossing powder, and by the end of the night they can have a meaningful memento to take home!

Simply decide on the card size, and select a few cardstock colors you’d like to layer, stamp and emboss, and voila! You’ve created a beautifully elegant piece of personalized artwork for your guests to treasure, even after the celebrations are over!

For our next two projects, we kicked things up a notch to 3-D papercrafting and created a gorgeous dreidel-inspired garland and treat box that are a great way to include some unique flair to your Hanukkah festivities! To make these two projects even easier, our talented artists put together this Cricut Design Space™ file for you to use to recreate them.

To string the cardstock dreidels into a garland, poke small holes at the base of the dreidel posts, thread a long piece of silver embellishing thread through them, and use a glue pen to hold the dreidels in place. This way, you can maintain the spacing on your dreidels and still keep it simple.

Since Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, we wanted our dreidels to act as miniature lanterns, so we covered the cut-out parts of our dreidels with vellum paper. While the light does not shine directly through the vellum, it does reflect and amplify the light that hits the small dreidel lanterns. To maximize this effect, we recommend displaying your garland with a string of lights, turning it into a truly breathtaking home décor piece.

This treat box is a fun way to delight your guests and give them a little something sweet after supper.

By creating a 3-D dreidel with a removable lid, you are left with a treat box your friends and family are sure to love! Complete the surprise by filling it with mints, chocolate, or any of your favorite candies.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look into our dreidel-inspired crafts today. To continue the celebration, we want to give away The Lights of Hanukkah stamp set to three lucky readers!

For a chance to win, subscribe to this blog and leave us a comment below telling us what your favorite holiday tradition is (for any holiday). Winners will be chosen by noon Thursday, December 5 (MST), and will be notified via email. Good luck! ❤

Recipes:

4″ x 3″ Place Cards
B1684 My Acrylix® The Lights of Hanukkah Stamp Set, X6039 Carolina Cardstock, X5957 Sapphire Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6505 Carolina Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, Z1799 Silver Shimmer Trim, Z4248 Silver Tinsel Embossing Powder, Z4220 Anti-static Pouch, Z4252 Heat Tool, Z3548 Embossing Ink Pens, Z4100 Multicolor Small Brush Pen Set

Dreidel Garland
X6039 Carolina Cardstock, X5957 Sapphire Cardstock, Z3367 Vellum Paper, Z4213 Silver Embellishing Thread, Z3440 Dual-tip Permanent Glue Pen, Z3547 Piercing Tool

Dreidel Treat Box
X6039 Carolina Cardstock, Z3366 Silver Foil Paper, Z4196 White Ribbon, Z3440 Dual-tip Permanent Glue Pen

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November 12, 2019Celebrate, Create, Memory Keeping

Photo-a-Day Album for December

Close To My Heartalbum, christmas, Days of December, December, Holidays, Holly Jolly, kit, list, Memory Keeping, mini album, photo ideas, photo prompt, photo-a-day, workshop 2 Comments

Scrapbooking is more than just a hobby. It is the preservation of memories, a way to pass on a precious legacy to all you hold dear. Even the smallest, most simple moments can turn into powerful memories that can bring joy to you and your family for years to come. Whether you put it together for yourself or as a special gift for a loved one, the Days of December album is a must-have!

To help capture all the precious memories that the month of December has to offer, we recreated last year’s popular Days of December photo-a-day album with our new Holly Jolly paper packet and Holly Jolly—Scrapbooking stamp set!

The idea behind a photo-a-day project is to go about your regular activities and to then take a photo of what you consider is the highlight of your day. This 6″ x 8″ album is simply bursting with festive cheer! Each page provides plenty of room to tell your stories through your own photos and words.

Get ready to have some fun this Christmas season as you document your most treasured holiday moments each and every day in December! In case you need a little help getting started on this beautiful Days of December album, below you’ll find a list of 31 photo prompts and ideas, one for each day. For those of you who did this with us last year, you’ll remember that we provided a similar list of photo prompts then, too. (Click here to see last year’s list.) We intentionally made this list different from last year’s so that we can have both to reference—that’s a total of 62 photo ideas to pull from!

Download printable version, here. (Here for AU/NZ.)

Use these prompts in chronological order, switch them up, or pick and choose your favorites to use in conjunction with some of your own ideas. The important thing is to enjoy the moments, capture the memories as you make them, and then preserve them to treasure for years to come. We are memory keepers, after all!

The Days of December album kit is only available through the end of November, while supplies last. Make sure to grab yours while there is still time! ❤

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October 22, 2019Celebrate, Create, Learn

Sparkle & Shine with Stickles™ Glitter Gels!

Close To My Heartembellish, glitter, glitter gel, Halloween, shine, sparkle, spooktacular, Stickles 4 Comments

One of the most exciting things about the onset of Autumn here in Utah is the first frost of the season. It’s magical to wake up to a thin layer of white, like the world’s been given a beautiful coat of shimmer! We wanted to show you a quick and easy way to capture some of that Autumnal sparkle in your projects using Stickles™ Glitter Gel!

Stickles™ Glitter Gel is easy to spread, but you can also build it on a smaller area to create a more 3-dimensional look. We carry ten different colors of gels, giving you a wide variety of hues to choose from. Each bottle of Stickles™ Glitter Gel has a fine tip so you can apply it with ease and precision.

This Halloween-themed layout features many eye-catching elements created by different applications of Stickles™ Glitter Gel. First of all, take a closer look at the cobwebs in each corner. We’ve spread the gel over the paper in a thin layer to make the spider webs glisten.

Tip: To apply a thin layer of glitter gel to your project, squeeze a small amount onto a VersaMat™ and use a flat waterbrush to spread the gel gently over the desired area. If you don’t have a waterbrush handy, quick dabs with your fingers will work, too!

We’ve used this same spreading technique to apply thin layers of glitter on the white alphabet foam stickers, the ends of the candy wrapper, and the various stars throughout the layout. These sparkle spots help draw the eye throughout the layout and help you make your project even more personal as you make the glitter gel work for you!

Stickles Glitter Gel #ctmh #closetomyheart #stickles #glittergel #spooktacular #halloween #scrapbooking #cardmaking #papercrafting

For a more 3-D feel, we’ve added multiple layers of glitter gel to build up dimension on the frog’s crown, the dog’s nose, and the bat’s wings, as well as a few dots throughout the page. If you’re hoping to capture this more 3-dimensional look, there are a couple different techniques you can try.

One is to apply it in a thick layer over a small area, as you can see with the dots throughout the layout. Stickles™ Glitter Gel will compact as it dries, so you won’t end up with the same height you had when you first applied it to your project. However, when it is applied over a smaller area, it retains more of its initial height and 3-dimensional feel.

When you want that same dimension over a larger area, you will want to apply multiple layers of the gel, keeping each layer thin, and allowing them to dry before adding a new layer. It’s important to allow the gel to fully dry before you apply another layer on top, otherwise it will take much longer to complete your project, and you may end up with smeared glitter gel.

Look at how the Stickles™ Glitter Gel really shines on this adorable Halloween card. You can see that we’ve used thicker applications on the witch owl’s hat and the crescent moon, with a thin border at the bottom of the Pebble piece.

Whether you’re using it as a 3-D element or some well-placed bling, Stickles™ Glitter Gels are a great tool for adding pizzazz to any project!

We love working with glitter gel, and we can’t wait to see how you incorporate it into your own creations! Do you have any ideas about how to use Stickles™? Comment below and tell us all about it!

Recipes:

12″ x 12″ Happy Haunting Layout
CC10192 Spooktacular Paper Packet, X6047 Black Cardstock, X6031 Green Apple Cardstock, X6035 Lemonade Cardstock, X6033 Paprika Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z4088 White Alphabet Foam Stickers, Z3561 Black Diamond Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3563 Diamond Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3560 Golden Rod Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3554 Pink Taffeta Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3562 Silver Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3515 Black Journaling Pen (.01), Z2060 3-D Foam Tape, Z2089 Glue Dots^® Micro Dots

4¼” x 5½” Happy Halloween Card (Vertical)
CC10192 Spooktacular Paper Packet, X6035 Lemonade Cardstock, X6043 Nectarine Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6517 Lemonade Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3561 Black Diamond Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3560 Golden Rod Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z3562 Silver Stickles™ Glitter Gel, Z697 Round Sponge, Z2060 3-D Foam Tape, Z2089 Glue Dots^® Micro Dots, Cricut Design Space™ Basic Shapes

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Holographic Paper

Card Front Spinner Thin Cuts

Stitched Bracket Thin Cuts

Two New Shimmer Brushes

All Around Creativity

Oh My Heart

Stamp Sets

Happy Birthday Shaker Window Thin Cuts

Craft with Heart™—Subscription with Heart!

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