As we approach the close of 2021, we do one of the most human things possible and turn our thoughts to the future. We plan, prepare, and hope for things that are to come. Are you prepared, or are you preparing, for a successful new year?
As you consider the possibilities that a new year brings, we would like to share several products to help organize your time, set goals, plan, and prioritize events.
The exclusive Remember Today products are available in several kit options, one as a layout kit for creating 13 12″ x 12″ single-page scrapbook layouts, and two kit options using those same single-page layouts to create a 12-month calendar.
With the Remember Today stamp set, we can keep track of special dates, set goals, and even set reminders—and we can do it all in style with the beautiful designs included!
Whether you use the layouts to build a calendar or a scrapbook album (or both!—scrapbook your calendar pages at the end of each month!), the Remember Today pages and stamp set are a stunning way to plan for, make, and preserve wonderful memories in the year ahead!
Sometimes we need to look at the bigger picture, and a perpetual calendar is a great way to do it!
This last year, we rolled out a series of stamps dedicated to each month, aptly named Months of the Year 😉. Each stamp set is full of sentiments, borders, and icons for creating seasonally specific artwork all through the year. Pair these stamp sets with the Perpetual Calendar to design and create its pages!
Because Close To My Heart serves a global market, we’ve created two stamp sets for each month—one for crafters in the northern hemisphere, and another for artists in the southern hemisphere, to reflect the difference in seasons!
Each month is available as a downloadable SVG file. Once you download the file, you can manipulate the images in a design software, like Cricut Design Space™. Resize it, remove layers—whatever you want, the file is yours! (Each different color shown in the artwork indicates different layers that can be edited and cut individually with your chosen software and personal cutting machine.)
There you have it, several great resources to help you get ready for the coming year—or to celebrate the year that we’re bringing to a close! 🙃
There’s something to love about each month and season, so we’re rolling out an entire years’ worth of stamping fun with a Months of the Year stamp series! With sentiments, icons, and borders for a variety of crafting projects, the stamp sets in the Months of the Year series provide a way to create beautiful artwork for any time of year. Today, we’re going to show off a few of the ways that the January and February sets can be used, and we have a feeling that once you’ve seen these two, you won’t be able to wait for the rest!
With every new set comes new opportunities to craft calendar pages, layouts, and so much more! Each Months of the Year set comes with a variety of different stamps to aid you as you create seasonally specific artwork all though the year. Throughout 2021, these stamps sets will be released, two at a time, with each of our bi-monthly catalogs, so you can look forward to the release of new sets through the end of the year!
Because Close To My Heart serves a global market, we’ve created two stamp sets for each month—one for crafters in the northern hemisphere, and another for artists in the southern hemisphere!
(🤓Fun Fact: Seasons are reversed between the northern and southern hemispheres! When someone in the US might be sledding or skiing, it would be a great time to hit the beach in Australia!)
These stamp sets are not only great to use individually but can also be used to create your own series of artwork along a theme! One of the most challenging parts of memory keeping can trying to decide which stories to tell, and where they should be placed. With a separate set designed for each month of the year, it’s easy to put together monthly scrapbook pages and in no time, you’ll have an entire album telling the story of the past year! This adorable Valentine layout is a wonderful example of how the stamps from the February stamp set can be used as perfect accents for the page design.
In this example, it’s easy to see how well the stamps and the paper we used complement each other, even though they weren’t specifically designed to coordinate with each other. Each Months of the Year set is easy to integrate into your artwork and includes enough variety to mix well with all our paper collections!
In addition to scrapbook layouts, the Months of the Year stamp sets are also a great tool to use when creating calendar pages! As you can see here, we’ve used these stamps to add decoration to full-size calendars and smaller perpetual calendars as well!
The Months of the Year stamp sets will all be available through the end of 2021, so you can order them at a time that works for you, pick and choose your favorites from the series, or get them regularly as they’re released. No matter when or where you use these stamps, we know you’ll love the beautiful designs and gorgeous artwork you can create with them! Did you have a favorite stamp or an idea of how you’d use the Months of the Year stamp sets? Leave a comment below and let us know!
As we draw close to the end of 2020, many of us find ourselves looking forward to a new year. 2020 has been a year like no other and despite the difficulties we’ve faced, we’ve all made some unforgettable memories that deserve to be documented. Today, we’re going to give you a closer look at our Moments like These special, available through December 31 (while supplies last), and how you can use it to preserve your favorite 2020 memories!
These 12″ x 12″ pages come together in minutes and make an excellent project for crafters of all types, experience levels, and ages. The Cut Above® layout kit comes with preprinted base pages and pre-cut loose pieces and die-cuts, making it incredibly easy to assemble each page.
Many of the base pages even come with pre-printed designs or titles, so the only things you’ll need to complete this project are some adhesive, a journaling pen, and a handful of your favorite photos!
These materials allow you to create a calendar that not only serves its practical function but helps you remember exactly what was going on each month in 2020. Each page fits perfectly with the Base Calendar, and once a month passes, you can carefully remove the page from your calendar and slip it into a Memory Protector™ and into your album.
The My Acrylix® Moments like These stamp set includes a variety of fun icons, words, and swashes so you can mark holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, and activities on your calendar, making it truly unique to you!
The Moments like These special is just what you need to welcome in a new year while preserving some of your happy memories from 2020. 2020 has been an unforgettable year, and amidst all the challenges and hard things, we know that new good memories, and maybe even new traditions, have been made. Some of the best memories can be made in the most troubling times, and even in the midst of difficulties, we know that bright spots can be found. The Moments like These special provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and remember them all!
Which memories will you choose to document with Moments like These? Leave a comment below and tell us all about it!
There are so many reasons to love September. A favorite of ours is the release of our new annual Core Products Catalog! It makes us giddy just thinking about all of the new and exciting products that we’ve been preparing to share with all of you!
Unlike with our seasonal bimonthly catalogs, the contents of our Core Products Catalog are available for an entire year, from September through the following year’s August. This year’s Core Products Catalog is especially full of new products and ideas. We are as committed as ever to our promise of being there to show you how, including providing the right tools and products, whatever your crafting goals.
We have FIVE new paper kits themed and designed for year-round use!
Lovely: If you find beauty in life’s simple pleasures, then you’ll love celebrating them with the soft colors and versatile patterns of the Lovely paper collection.
Party Time: Unwrap the ultimate paper packet for any party, featuring bright colors and a patterns that will guarantee you and your quests a good time!
(Both, the Lovely and Party Time papers, come with an optional coordinating sticker sheet, as well as coordinating cardstock!)
Wood Grain: Add the natural texture of wood to your papercrafting palette with this collection of realistic patterned papers.
Gold Foil Patterns: Add rich gold foil accents to any artwork using the Gold Foil Patterns paper packet, featuring six beautiful patterns in gold foil.
Silver Foil Patterns: Make your artwork shine with the Silver Foil Patterns paper packet, featuring six classic patterns in shining silver foil.
THIN CUTS
If die-cutting is your thing, then you will be pleasantly surprised by what we’ve got in store in the Core Products Catalog! We’ve got bows, leaves, dimensional flowers, card front designs, sentiments, and tons more! For space reasons, we’re only showing you two of our favorites here, but make sure to browse through the catalog to see them all.
While the dies and stamps work perfectly as a team, they can also be used independently from one another, providing endless possibilities for titles, accents, and more!
Waterfall:
Create an interactive sliding element with the Waterfall Thin Cuts! The set comes with six dies, including several that are intended for your personal customization of the “waterfall.”
PERPETUAL CALENDAR
Keep track of all your important dates year after year with this Perpetual Calendar! It comes with 14 loose printed sheets and one wood base for you to design and create your own pages.
EMBELLISHMENTS
No crafting project is complete without a few finishing touches, like gems, ribbons, and acrylic shapes (to list but a few). Here’s a small sampling of what you’ll find in our Core Products Catalog:
Deep Blends TriBlend™ Markers: For those who have been with this us since last year, you’ll recall that last September we introduced the essential blends TriBlend™ markers from Spectrum Noir™. This year we are taking our color options up a notch (or three) with 24 new deep blends markers!
Metallic Markers:Also from Spectrum Noir™, we are now offering three sets of six dual-tip metallic markers with quality, archival, water-based ink: Antique Elements, Rare Minerals, and Precious Metals!
MIXED MEDIA
Stickles™ Glitter Gels: The assorted sizes and shapes of glitters in these gels make crafts truly sparkle! They spread easily and work great when applied through a stencil or directly onto a surface. (Moon Dust, Nebula, Solar Flare, Asteroid.)
Gloss Sprays: Available in six colors, these are an opaque acrylic spray that dry to a glossy finish. The ink is water-soluble when wet, and permanent when dry.
Distress Oxide™ Ink Pads: An exciting newcomer are the Distress Oxide™ ink pads. These pads feature a water-reactive dye and pigment ink fusion that create an oxidized effect when sprayed with water! Use with stamps, stencils, or rub the pad directly on a paper surface.
Z3882 Stencil Pack 1
Z3883 Stencil Pack 2
Z3884 Stencil Pack 3
Stencils: We couldn’t give you all those pretty art supplies to use with stencils without providing you with a few options of our own! So, we designed nine 12″ x 12″ stencils, available in three separate packs of three, for use with a variety of mixed media and art techniques! These are made from reusable clear plastic stencil sheets, each cut in a unique design.
DIGITAL ART
We’ve added 11 new digital, downloadable SVG files, to our collection as well as three new Heat Transfer vinyl colors (Red, Light Pink, and Pale Blue)! View all of these new digital art designs, here.
8″ x 12″ FLIP FLAPS™
Add more photos and other pieces of memorabilia to your scrapbook pages with Flip Flaps™ Memory Protectors™! Use the adhesive strip to stick the additional pocket directly to your page or on top of the Memory Protectors. The new, 8″ x 12″ Flip Flaps™, are a great size for including certificates and other large-scale items! (Attaches vertically or horizontally.)
NEW COLORS
We’ve added several new colors to our exclusive color palette this month! Our favorite, and Color of the Year, is this beautiful blue hue aptly named, Blue Belle! Keep a sharp eye out for it throughout the coming year, and you’ll find hints of Blue Belle in a wide variety of our new products. (To see what other new colors we have in store, talk to your Consultant or take a look at our exclusive color palette in our Core Products Catalog.)
CRAFT WITH HEART™ CARDMAKING KIT
It’s September, and that means there’s a new Craft with Heart™ cardmaking kit available, now and through the end of December!
Each kit includes materials to create a set of 24 beautiful, handmade cards, that 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 a stamping block and mini ink pad, 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!
Dear friends, this is truly just the tip of the iceberg here. There are many, many more new products that you don’t want to miss out on. Make sure to visit with your Close to My Heart Consultant to see all that we have in store, or explore our Core Products Catalog online, here.
It’s not too early to begin planning for the holidays! To get your Christmas season off to a delightful start, we’ve created an advent calendar papercrafting project using images from our new Cricut® collection, Season of Joy.Make an advent calendar just like this one for your home, office, or wherever your crafting takes you, using this advent calendar workshop guide and our Cricut Design Space™ project files included right in the instructions! In this guide, we walk you through each step of the process to make sure you successfully complete this beautiful project just in time for the holidays.
First, you cut all of the pieces on your Cricut® machine using the Design Space project files provided. Then, you assemble the outer and inner boxes. This part is pretty repetitive with lots of folding and gluing for all 25 outer boxes and 25 inner boxes. That means during this step you can break out some Christmas music or a favorite holiday movie to have in the background as you work. Next, you stamp the paper embellishments using the My Acrylix® Snug Backgrounds stamp set, for a little extra color and texture. Then, attach your paper embellishments to each box. Finish off the project with some clear sparkles and a New England Ivy burlap ribbon bow on top. And there you have it! A calendar counting down to one of the most celebrated times of the year, measuring 16½” tall (not including the bow) with a 14″ wide base.
There are a few places where you will need to pay closer attention, especially when you’re using Design Space to cut and score your paper and cardstock. These tips are noted in the instructions, but we wanted to point them out again so you can keep them in mind as you’re creating your calendar.
We’ve made one project file to cut the outer boxes in New England Ivy cardsock. Design Space will display an alert that the project is larger than 11.5″ in height and requires a larger mat, like you see below. Click “OK” and cut the outer boxes using the cardstock on your 12″ x 12″ mat. It will cut close to the edges of your paper, but this way you only use 12 sheets of cardstock with two boxes on each sheet.
You might wonder why the Outer Boxes project file only cuts 24 boxes. It is not a mistake! You will still end up cutting 25 outer boxes, promise. The 25th box, however, is cut from the Advent Calendar – Boxes and Embellishments (New England Ivy) project file. This way just saves you some paper. 🙂
There are individual project files to cut the paper embellishments for the box fronts and the last few inner boxes. They look something like this one below that uses the Candy Apple cardstock. Notice that some of the numbers are backwards. This lets you cut with the light side of the cardstock facing up, and then you flip the numbers over to use the dark side of the cardstock on the box fronts.
Cut all your paper, put everything together, and add some embellishments, and you’ll have a lovely home décor piece to accent your holiday. After you’ve finished your own advent calendar, all you need to do is fill each box with a special treat for every day leading up to Christmas. There are many, many ways you can fill the boxes. Here are just a few ideas:
Candy or chocolate (of-course!)
Activity ideas (like going to see Christmas lights, making hot chocolate, or reading a Christmas book)
Christmas ornaments
Little girl “pretties” (hair accessories, nail polish, lip balm)
Small toys (Lego® figures, cars, marbles)
Ideas for random acts of kindness
Scripture verses
So, what do you think? Are you ready to make your own advent calendar? To keep things easy, we put together a bundle of all the paper and cardstock you will need to cut this project (click here). You will also need a few additional items, including the Cricut® Season of Joy collection and the My Acrylix® Snug Backgrounds stamp set. For a complete list of additional required and optional products needed, as well as step-by-step instructions, make sure you download or print the Advent Calendar Workshop guide, here.
Do you know how you will be filling your advent calendar this year? Let’s share ideas in the comments below!
Want to know what we love about September?? It’s National Stamping Month! To get in the mood to celebrate all things stamping, we have two new exclusive stamp sets as part of our National Stamping month special, Memories in the Making.
The Memories in the Making special, and National Stamping Month for that matter, is all about highlighting the ways you can use stamping in your papercrafting and memory keeping. This year is no exception! 🙂
As you can see, these stamp sets can be a fun addition to a variety of projects. Memories in the Making—Months comes with all twelve months of the year in a lovely, scripted font, making it easy to add a large title to any layout. Memories in the Making—Days gives you a variety of smaller images to stamp numbers, lists, words, and other icons on your projects. Can you spot all of the ways we’ve used this stamp set on this birthday scrapbook page, anniversary card, and frame?
If you aren’t already sold on how you can use these exclusive stamp sets, we’re sure you can guess the other way we are using them this month—in a handmade calendar!!
As part of National Stamping month, we’ve created a Cut Above® layout kit that coordinates with these Memories in the Making stamp sets! The Memories in the Making Cut Above® layout kit comes with pre-printed base pages, pre-cut paper, die-cuts, stickers, and instructions to create 13 single-page layouts. Combine this kit with a My Creations™ calendar, your Memories in the Making—Days and Memories in the Making—Months stamp sets, and a few other basic supplies to turn these single pages into a beautiful personalized calendar for the upcoming year.
Once the year is over, trim the pages off the calendar and slip them into Memory Protectors™ to preserve. The great thing about this Cut Above® kit, is that you can choose to just skip the calendar all together and make the individual pages straight for your scrapbook album! (To see all 13 completed pages, click here.)
These exclusive stamp sets, the layout kit, and several discounted bundle options, are only available during September, while supplies last. Make sure you get yours soon and join us as we celebrate National Stamping Month all month long with Memories in the Making!
As 2017 comes to a close, we have a holiday treat designed to last you through the coming year and more!
This Through the Year customizable photo calendar comes wrapped together in a kit containing everything you need to make one of your very own!
Easy-to-follow instructions included in the kit will guide you in creating each of the 12 beautiful calendar pages you see below.
Calendars make great gifts, so in addition to making one for yourself, consider making a second one to give as a gift, or even giving the kit to someone you know who will love the chance to be crafty! Whatever you choose to do with this kit, you will not be disappointed with the result!
Take a closer look at some of the beautiful details you’ll add to your pages using the custom gold glitter die-cuts, glitter gems, Complements, and papers included in this unique kit.
Our November Stamp of the Month, Through the Year, makes the perfect companion for this project, too.
If you didn’t get this limited-time stamp set last month, you can still get it by choosing the calendar kit that includes it! And, in case you did get the November Stamp of the Month, we also have this kit available without the stamp set.
What makes the Through the Year calendar extra special is that the pages are designed to be cut at the spiral binding and then put into Memory Protectors™ inside an album. This way, when you’re through with the calendar, the beautiful pages you’ve relied on through the year will last through the years to come!
What a beautiful way to put some of your most favorite memories on display and later preserve them! Make one of these Through the Year calendars for yourself or as a gift this Christmas!
In the true spirit of Christmas, today on the blog we are excited to share this darling 12 days of service advent calendar using our handy dandy Flip Flaps™!
The “windows” are designed to flip open and reveal previously decided upon acts of service to perform for a family member, friend, or someone in your community during the 12 days leading up to Christmas. (If you need help coming up with ideas for these acts, check out the list we came up with last month in 15 Ways to Share a Smile).
The Flip Flaps were attached to the 12″ x 12″ paper first then the acts of service were attached underneath them, covering the adhesive strip of the Flip flap. Each act of service is printed on paper the size of its corresponding Flip Flap, so it can remain under wraps until it’s time to reveal it.
We kept it simple and made the little tags on each window using the smallest die from the basic tags Thin Cuts. They were stamped with a Splash of Color to add the subtle Pebble background behind the Cranberry numbers from the Pen Pal Alphabet stamp set. The finished tag was then attached to the outside of the Flip Flaps and topped off with a knotted piece of twine.
And, because this calendar was created in a 12″ x 12″ format, it can be transferred from its frame into a scrapbook once you’re done using it! Not only that, you’ve got built in spaces right inside those Flip Flaps to add photos of the activities you participated in, turning this Christmas service countdown into a beautiful scrapbook layout.
But how is it that those Flip Flaps are still flapping even though they are inside Memory Protectors™? Simple! We just used a craft knife to cut sections of the protectors out! This part can get tricky, because you don’t want to accidently cut your artwork—so here’s how to do it:
First—put your page inside the Memory Protector.
Second—with a pen, mark the four corners of each Flip Flap (about 1/8″ bigger for easy movement when cut).
Third—remove your layout from the Memory Protector.
Fourth—connect the dots with your knife, using enough pressure to cut the front of the protector but not the back. To play it safe, put some scrap paper in your protector while cutting.
Make your Christmas a little extra special this year with a service advent calendar! Promoting the true spirit of the season, make this cherished holiday tradition one of your own.
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!
Make an advent calendar just like this one for your home, office, or wherever your crafting takes you, using this 
