Calling all card makers (and want to be card makers)! Our new Craft with Heart™ cardmaking kit is out and ready to ship to your door! This DIY subscription box is bursting with beautiful pre-printed card bases, die-cuts, and stickers, as well as silver star-shaped confetti, shaker window foam and acetate pieces, a stamp block, a mini ink pad, and an exclusive My Acrylix® stamp set! ~Swoon!~
The January–April 2020 subscription box comes with all of the materials you need to create a set of 24 gorgeous handmade cards, 2 each of the 12 unique designs shown below. An inspirational guide included in this crafty box not only shows you how to assemble each of the cards but also offers ideas on which stamp sentiments to use with each card.
If you’re a busy seasoned card maker or someone who’s been hesitant to give this personalized craft a try, the Craft with Heart program is especially wonderful because anyone who puts just a teensy bit of effort can successfully create stunning artwork quickly and with ease.
Keep up with all the occasions life brings your way with one of our Craft with Heart™ subscriptions. You choose whether you’d like your subscription to renew every 4 months or, for a better value, once a year. For a closer look at all of our Craft with Heart™ options, visit our website, HERE. Remember, this cardmaking subscription box is only available through the end of April. A new box, with a new set of cards and designs, will be available beginning May 1st!
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!
Today is Chocolate Day, so why not treat yourself to, say, a triple chocolate cream pie? 😀
The only thing sweeter than indulging in some decadent chocolate is sharing it with someone you care about, and thanks to our Cricut® Artiste collection, you can do it in style! With some simple assembly, you can make an adorable container like this one that’s perfect for transporting a delicious piece of pie!
Just like chocolate, crafting makes everything better, so why not combine the two? Grab yourself a delicious chocolate pie (cake will do the trick, too!), try your hand at making this cute container by following the recipe below, and then share some chocolatey and papercrafty goodness with a friend.
If that’s not a recipe for a perfect day, we don’t know what is!
Recipe
Pie Container
D1647 My Acylix® Document Moments, X7209B Magical Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2013 Sequins Silver Assortment, Z3216 White Twine, Z3090 Red Faceted Gems, Z3130 Silver Foil Tape, Z3170 Cricut® Artiste Collection
All these products are available through one of our Independent Consultants. To find a Consultant near you, visit closetomyheart.com and click on “Find a Consultant” in the top right corner of the page. Leave a comment
Here at the Home Office, we love the Fourth of July. It’s a holiday dedicated to spending time with family, creating lasting memories, and most of all, remembering the men and women who have served this country.
Since this holiday is only a week away, we wanted to share with you a beautiful Fourth of July shadow box you can create for your home. We hope that as you make this page, you take a moment to feel gratitude for all those who have fought for our freedoms.
For this page, we took inspiration from none other than Old Glory herself. Strips of fringed paper form the stripes, and some 3-D stars in the top left corner allude to the 50 states.
Quick tip—To create each star, simply cut four identical star shapes. Then fold them in half and attached the halves together to create a sort of accordion.
In addition to this shadow box, we want to share with you some classic Fourth of July layouts.
Creating a faded watercolor title, which looks distressed, is perfect for a holiday all about tradition and history. We also made sure some fireworks found their way onto the page, compliments of the My Acrylix® Fireworks Fun stamp set—again, it’s all about the tradition!
If there was ever a perfect paper packet for the Fourth of July, it’s the Magical paper packet. The colors, the star and stripe designs—they’re just the thing for evoking feelings of July and preserving these warm summer memories.
Any of these layout pages would look wonderful in one of our shadow boxes too, and now is the perfect time to get your hands on some shadow boxes because you can purchase a 2-pack and save through our Flash Sale. The sale has been extended through June 30, so make sure to get in on the action before it’s over!
We want to hear about your Fourth of July traditions. Share your plans with us in the comments below!
12″ × 12″ Liberty Layout Make It from Your Heart™ Vol. 2: Pattern 3 (with alterations)
X7209B Magical Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z1829 Black & Grey Glitter Paper, Z3075 Red Glitter Paper, X7209C Magical Complements, Z3214 Magical Sequins, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection
All these products are available through one of our Independent Consultants. To find a Consultant near you, visit closetomyheart.com and click on “Find a Consultant” in the top right corner of the page.
What would make your summer vacations even better? How about coming home and having a crafting staycation to make those memories last?
We’ve got a couple of ideas to help make this dream a reality!
First up is this fun chalkboard:
Arranging your photos on a magnetic chalkboard is such a quick and easy way for you and your family to remember all the good memories from your trip, and you can easily change out the pictures all year long. We used the Cricut® Artbooking collection to cut out the “family” and “vacation” sentiments—and just think, you can easily transfer the pictures and accents from this chalkboard onto a scrapbook page when you’re ready for something new.
One cute idea we want to point out is that you can decorate magnets with embellishments. Here, we attached gold embellishments to magnets for a customized look.
If you want to create an actual scrapbook page about your vacation, you can still put it up for display using our Colonial White shadow box.
Simply open up the back of the shadow box (and we MEAN simply—it has a magnetic closure!), and slide in your scrapbook page. Then, when you want to display a different page, it’s a cinch to take it out and add it to your scrapbook.
And since no project is complete without a little stamping, we put our fun roller stamps to work on this artwork, too.
Ready to prep for your crafting staycation? Well it gets even better because during the month of June, we’ll be having flash sales EVERY weekend! Simply go to your Consultant’s online business address (aka OBA) each Friday at 3:00 pm (MDT), and check out the discounted bundles of Close To My Heart product under the Flash Sale menu.
Today’s samples were made using a few Flash Sale bundles that are available right now—check these bundles out to save on the products we featured:
All these products are available through one of our Independent Consultants. To find a Consultant near you, visit closetomyheart.com and click on “Find a Consultant” in the top right corner of the page.
When you’re having a gloomy day, a great way to cheer yourself up is to do something nice for someone else—but sometimes it’s hard to know what to do! How about mailing someone a box of sunshine? 🙂
Papers from Penelope, Kaleidoscope, and our Fundamentals transform this ordinary box into something really special, as does the gold glitter paper—you can never go wrong with glitter! We’ve filled our sunshine box with all things bright and yellow—including fun accordion-folded strips of Honey cardstock as filler—but you could certainly put any goodies you’d like inside.
Thanks to our handy-dandy Cricut® collections, making this box is really easy. Simply follow the recipes below to cut your sentiment, sun, and card!
We used our Cricut® Artfully Sent collection to cut this lyrical card. There’s nothing that brightens someone’s day quite like a handmade card with a handwritten message.
J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, said, “Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” Remember that each time you create something with paper, you are spreading sunshine to others and filling your own life with sunshine—so keep on crafting! 🙂
What do you like to do to brighten someone’s day? Tell us in the comments below!
Recipes
Sunshine Box
X7202B Kaleidoscope Paper Packet, X7207B Penelope Paper Packet, Z3125 Paper Fundamentals Adventure, X5668 Honey Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, Z3076 Gold Glitter Paper, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Thread
5 ½” x 4″ Here Comes the Sun Card
1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3076 Gold Glitter Paper, X5668 Honey Cardstock, Z3168 Cricut® Artfully Sent Collection
Cricut® Shape*: Artfully Sent
5 ½” Sentiment <u> (p. 17)
*Real Dial Size
All these products are available through one of our Independent Consultants. To find a Consultant near you, visit closetomyheart.com and click on “Find a Consultant” in the top right corner of the page.
Handmade gifts, crafted with tender love and care, can be the most meaningful gifts to give—you can customize them specifically for the individuals you are giving them to, while also adding unique touches that can only come from you. With some time to spare before Christmas, make your loved ones something that’s one of a kind—just like them! We’ve got three amazing gift ideas you can try out this holiday season. You’ll definitely want to check this list twice!
1. Masculine Shadow Box
We sure love feminine artwork (the hearts, the flowers, THE GLITTER!), but papercrafting can certainly cater to the men in your life, too! And is it just us, or are they also some of the hardest people to shop for? Look at this shadow box that’s “reel” perfect for your husband, father, son, or brother to hang in their favorite space. ☺The Urban paper packet and its coordinating Complements make “masculine” papercrafting a breeze. If your guy is the outdoorsy type, try using fun accents, like this deer head, from the Cricut® Artistry collection.
2. Calendar
With a new year right around the corner, Christmas is the perfect time to give someone a handmade calendar—and everyone needs a calendar, right? Our My Creations™ calendar gives you the chance to create a gift that is useful, personalized, and absolutely stunning!
In our example above, we filled the top section with a beautiful quote (stamped with the My Acrylix® Handwritten Print stamp set), and surrounded it with some beautiful stamped flowers. You could also fill this 12″ x 12″ space with photos, papers, embellishments, and any artistic decorations you want in order to give a gift with a truly personal touch. Stamping definitely comes in handy when filling out the calendar portion, both for creating monthly titles and for stamping the numbers in the boxes. That’s what’s great about this calendar—it’s a blank canvas, and you’re the artist extraordinaire!
3. Monogram Stationery
We all know someone—a mother, grandmother, or friend—who doesn’t need a special occasion to send thoughtful letters to others. Wouldn’t this person love to have beautiful personalized stationery to do just that? With some simple stamping, gold glitter paper, and our My Creations™ journaling cards box, you can create a beautiful stash of stationary for the letter writer in your life.
Which gift idea are you most excited about? Tell us below! Your loved ones deserve the best, so turn on the Christmas music, and put on your Santa hat: It’s time to become a crafting elf!
Recipes
12″ x 12″ You Are A Great Catch Shadow Box
Reflections: Main Frame—Tied Together™
C1584 My Acrylix® Feathers, B1482 My Acrylix® My Story, X7204B Urban Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5642 Cocoa Cardstock, X5775 Sapphire Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, Z2123 Goldrush Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2651 Saffron Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2114 Cocoa Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7204C Urban Complements, Z3164 Fundamental Stickers Enchantment Pack, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen
April Calendar Spread
B1484 My Acrylix® Jennifer’s Hand, D1663 My Acrylix® Floral Banners, D1665 My Acrylix® Blossoming Expressions, E1030 My Acrylix® Handwritten Print, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2650 Fern Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2653 Pomegranate Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2652 Poppy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2505 Enchantment Exclusive Inks™ Mini Pigment Pads Set, Z3184 My Creations™ Calendar, Z2463 ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Sap Green
Monogram Stationery
E1033 My Acrylix® Inked Alphabet, D1636 My Acrylix® I Do, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5780 Pomegranate Cardstock, Z3076 Gold Glitter Paper, Z2648 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2653 Pomegranate Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2170 Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2650 Fern Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z1752 Sparkles Clear Assortment, Z1953 My Creations™ Journaling Cards Box, X254 White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack
All these products are available through one of our Independent Consultants. To find a Consultant near you, visitclosetomyheart.comand click on “Find a Consultant” in the top right corner of the page.
Don’t you love this festive time of year? Christmas seems to give us the most beautiful creations in every category, and papercrafting is no exception. For example, check out this adorable shadow box!
Wouldn’t you love to decorate your home with something like this? We can’t decide what we like best about it: the holly berry gems, glittery lettering, or dainty snowflakes. And you’re probably dying to put your favorite family picture inside the frame!
We have the lovely Michelle Snyder to thank for this beautiful piece of artwork—some of our readers will recognize it from Convention, where she donated it to our Operation Smile™ auction.
It’s no surprise that Michelle’s shadow box sold for a generous price. What did surprise Michelle was how many people asked her how she’d made it. In response to all these requests, Michelle graciously put together some instructions for the project and shared them on our Convention Facebook page. Many of our Consultants have since taken advantage of this and created shadow boxes of their own. Here are just a few of them:
A photo posted by Tina Jeselnik Sutton (@missgingerdots) on
Look how great they turned out! Don’t you want your own now? Well, you’re in luck—Michelle wants as many people as possible to have access to her instructions, so with her permission and blessing, we’re sharing them right here on the blog! This will give all of you the chance to make this Christmas masterpiece in time for the holiday season.
We’re so grateful for Michelle’s inspiring artwork and giving spirit. Thank you, Michelle! 🙂 Now check out her instructions at the link below, and merry crafting!
P.S. Before you start work on your shadow box, you’ll also need the White Pines paper packet. It’s only available for another month, so make sure to order it right away! For more White Pines artwork inspiration, search #ctmhwhitepines on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.
Help the kids get ready for the downpour of warm fuzzies from their friends this Valentine’s Day with a trendy valentine box! Every piece of this adorable box is simple enough for a child to recreate it. Of course, with the creativity of the kids on board, the two of you will probably be able to come up with something uniquely your own. Put your heads together to build your note catcher.
First, pull out a Designer Creations cupcake box. It’s made of designed kraft paper and has a clear plastic window for quick and easy monitoring of the love note stash. Make your box even more irresistible by trying a few of these artistic techniques:
• Cut a 3″ long slot in the top panel of the box, making it just the right size for receiving notes from other kids.
• Use your Cricut® machine to cut out hearts to stamp on. Many of your heart stamps will coordinate with shapes on your Close To My Heart Cricut® cartridges. See the stamp carrier sheet to find info on which cartridge to use and at what size to cut out your heart in order to match your stamp.
• Get creative when decorating your hearts. Check out the look we achieved using the Brushstrokes stamp set for a background and the XOXO stamp set for a sentiment on one of our large hearts! Those small hearts you see were stamped on scrap cardstock and trimmed out.
• Draw fun borders on your hearts with a journaling pen.
• Use Shimmer Trim to create glimmering bows to top off your project.
These 3″ x 3″ cards are also a lot of fun to make with the kids—and so very simple. The little ones will love to help with the stamping, and they’ll end up with cute valentines to share with their friends. It’s also a great way to use up your extra supplies!
Once you’re feelin’ the love, it’s time to turn your thoughts to teacher. This same cupcake box is also ideal for tucking away treats, so you could place a mouthwatering cupcake in the round base insert and let your child deliver the sweet!
Deck out your box to match the sugary delight inside by using some of these ideas:
• Trim cardstock pieces on which to stamp sentiments. You could use your Cricut® machine for this step, but it also provides a great opportunity for your young helpers who are good with scissors!
• Make the trimming even easier by finding a printed heart shape you can trim out and stamp on. This one came from a Picture My Life™ Heartstrings scrapbooking program card.
• Stamp sentiments on your cardstock shapes. Here we’ve used the alphabet stamp set from the Cricut® Artfully Sent collection to spell the word “Teacher.”
• Add a few embellishments of your choice. We love the look of the Heartstrings Complements combined with the pink glitter gems!
• Once again, use your journaling pen to create unique borders on your heart.
• Use Shimmer Trim to complete your look
You’re sure to melt a few hearts this Valentine’s Day with these lovely creations. We hope you have a heartwarming time making papercrafts and memories together!
Recipes
3-D Valentine Card Box
C1608 My Acrylix® Brushstrokes, C1604 My Acrylix® Forever in My Heart, M1054 My Acrylix® XOXO, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5773 Pixie Cardstock, X5927 Ruby Cardstock, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2170 Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2644 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2049 Designer Creations Cupcake Box, Z1848 Red Shimmer Trim, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z1686 Cricut® Art Philosophy Collection
Cricut® Shapes:
Art Philosophy
1 ½”, 2″ Shift (p. 26)
3″ x 3″ White Daisy Happy Valentine’s Day Card
C1608 My Acrylix® Brushstrokes, M1052 My Acrylix® Mini Valentine, C1604 My Acrylix® Forever in My Heart, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2193 Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2170 Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Pad
3″ x 3″ Pixie Happy Valentine’s Day Card
C1604 My Acrylix® Forever in My Heart, C1608 My Acrylix® Brushstrokes, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5927 Ruby Cardstock, X5773 Pixie Cardstock, Z2193 Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2170 Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Pad
3-D Valentine Teacher Box
M1052 My Acrylix® Mini Valentine, C1608 My Acrylix® Brushstrokes, B1476 My Acrylix® My Fave, Z3046 Picture My Life™ Heartstrings Scrapbooking Program, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2193 Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2049 Designer Creations Cupcake Box, X7193C Heartstrings Complements, Z1807 Pink Glitter Gems, Z3024 White Shimmer Trim, Z3017 Cricut® Artfully Sent Collection (stamp set)