November 2, 2022Celebrate, Inspiration, Memory Keeping

Holiday Creations with Seas & Greetings!

Close To My Heartbeach, cardmaking, cards, christmas, creativity, dual theme, Holiday, jingle shells, Memory Keeping, paper collection, sand, sandy, scrapbook pages, scrapbooking, Seas & Greetings, seasonal, snow, snowy, tropical, video, vip, VIP Customer Program, winter, workshops 1 Comment

Whether you’re playing in snow or sand, the 2022 holiday season is set to be merry and bright! It’s always a crafting party here at Close To My Heart, and we’ve got some major fun in store for this Christmas season! For us, Christmas means a big new selection of stamps, patterned papers, and embellishments to aid us in our cardmaking and memory keeping endeavors. We’ve got an incredible paper collection to introduce you to today, and we can’t wait to show it off!

We are extremely blessed to have our crafting community extend throughout the US, into Canada, across the Pacific to Japan, and down under to Australia and New Zealand. As such, the season for Christmas celebrations varies greatly depending on where you live—some celebrate in the winter time, with snow and cold weather, while others celebrate in the height of summer, with sunshine, high temperatures, and beautiful beach weather!The Seas & Greetings paper collection is an ideal solution for Christmas crafting from either end of that spectrum, as well as any place in between! Without any further ado, let’s get into all the amazing creative options that await with Seas & Greetings!

As you can see in the short video above, this amazing collection is an incredible example of the versatility that can be achieved with paper design. We not only have some first-rate artists here at CTMH, but we’ve got some of the best graphic designers around, too, and their skill is on full display with the Seas & Greetings paper collection! Because this suite is designed for holiday celebrations in both a beachside setting or a colder winter climate, each piece of paper sports a beach theme on one side, and a snowy winter theme on the other!

While all Close To My Heart paper packets feature double-sided designs, this collection is unique, as it essentially incorporates two themes into a single paper packet and enables crafters to pursue multiple ideas within a single suite. All the patterns you see in this collection have been purposefully designed to coordinate with both themes and the included sticker sheet.

Additionally, this paper packet includes 12 sheets instead of the usual 6, giving creators double the papers to work and craft with! Whether you’re commemorating a beautiful beachside holiday or capturing fun memories from a snow day, the Seas & Greetings Paper Packet & Sticker Sheet is an ideal starting point as you bring your crafting vision into reality!

Accompanying the paper packet in the Seas & Greetings collection are a selection of stamp and Thin Cuts metal dies, available in both the Beach and Winter themes. These stamps and dies pair beautifully with the patterns, icons, and sentiments featured on the papers and stickers, making this a winning combination for any crafting project!

Another essential included in the Seas & Greetings suite is the Seas & Greetings Coordinating Cardstock pack. This variety of colored cardstock has been selected to coordinate with the colors prominently featured in the paper packet and stickers, making it incredibly easy to create polished, balanced cards and scrapbook layouts!

Crafters can also look forward to top-notch embellishment potential with the Seas & Greetings Beach and Winter Embellishments! These embellishments include a variety of blue and white acrylic pieces, all finished with a frosty sheen for subtle shine.

As with the stamp and Thin Cuts options, the Seas & Greetings embellishments include shapes suitable for both the tropical beach theme and the chilly winter theme, making them perfect for inclusion in all your Seas & Greetings crafts! With so many fun products available through the Seas & Greetings collection, it’s a cinch to preserve your fondest holiday memories and stories!

The Seas & Greetings special has much in store for crafters of all types and experience levels, but we’ve got even more creative options for members of our VIP Customer program! Seas & Greetings includes three exclusive workshop kits—two for scrapbooking and one for cardmaking—just for members of this amazing program! (For those of you who may not be familiar with the perks available through the Close To My Heart VIP Customer program, either visit our website for more information, or reach out to your Maker for additional details!)

We guarantee you won’t want to miss out on the unique Seas & Greetings workshops available to our VIP Customers, and we can’t wait to show you what’s in store with these exclusive kits!

To start off this VIP crafting experience, we’ll get into all the ins and outs of two scrapbooking workshops—one created with the beach-inspired papers, and the other with the winter ones! These two workshops are identical in design, but vary in the colors used, and, of course, in the patterns featured.

As you can see, these scrapbook pages incorporate a wide variety of fun techniques and elements to set them apart, including two-tone rock n’ roll stamping, inking paper edges to add a subtle touch of color, cardstock ripping and distressing, strategic pigment splatters, and the inclusion of acrylic shapes!

These beautiful pages are a gorgeous way to preserve your favorite holiday memories, and with identical designs for both the winter and beach themes, it’s an ideal memory-keeping solution for crafters the world over!

Along with the scrapbook kits, the Seas & Greetings paper collection brings life to a selection of adorable holiday cards, perfect for all the special people in your life! With six card designs featured, the Seas & Greetings VIP Cardmaking kit allows crafters to create an array of personal, beachy cards for family and friends with ease!

Each of these cards was constructed using the Beach patterned papers from the Seas & Greetings paper collection, and stamps and Thin Cuts from our Seas & Greetings—Beach set! This card kit also keeps things interesting with card size and orientation, as it includes options for both standard-size and slimline cards, and a mix of horizontal and vertical designs.

We’ve loved going with you on this dive into the rich wealth of possibilities available through our Seas & Greetings collection! This playful and versatile collection is a wonderful way to commemorate your fondest Christmas memories, regardless of where they were made! From memory keeping to cardmaking and more, Seas & Greetings is sure to be a favorite you’ll turn to for all sorts of projects. With so much extra fun offered in our Seas & Greetings VIP Customer Program offer, be sure to talk to your Maker and learn how you can get the VIP treatment, too! We can’t wait to welcome you to the club!

What’s on your crafting agenda with Seas & Greetings? Leave a comment below to let us know what stories you’ll tell with this amazing collection, and whether you’ll be hitting the beach or braving the winter during your holiday celebrations this year!

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October 19, 2022Community, Inspiration, Learn

Baking Memories with a Recipe Swap and Giveaway!

Close To My Heartbaking, baking memories, cake, cardmaking, christmas, cinnamon rolls, circles, cookies, cooking, crafting, Family, food, free, Freshly Baked, friends, fun, giveaway, Holiday, holiday treats, kitchen, lick the bowl, love, memories, Memory Keeping, potatoes, recipe cards, recipe swap, recipes, scrapbooking workshop, stamp, straight cut, sweet life, Thin Cuts, treats, yummy 56 Comments

Some of life’s sweetest moments take place in our very own kitchens. It is where we gather with friends and family to share stories and make memories, often while enjoying something appetizing that has been carefully plated by the host. Today, we invite you to be our guest as we combine two of our favorites—food + crafting!

Even though in scrapbooking we often find a lot of squares and straight edges, have you noticed how prevalent circles are in a kitchen? From an array of dishes to cakes and cookies, circles are everywhere!

We took that familiar basic shape and used it to make a scrapbook page with our Freshly Baked paper collection, easily creating a space for preserving a moment where friends gathered to spend quality time together and make a delicious treat.

The smaller, patterned paper circles making up the larger circle shape on the page were cut from the Freshly Baked paper packet using the Circles Thin Cuts. The additional page elements, including the title and the smaller accents scattered across the page, are either stickers from this collection or stamped images from the Freshly Baked—Scrapbooking stamp set.

This second scrapbook page also carries the circle theme, this time through the designs on the patterned papers rather than the way the papers were cut. With just a few strips of paper, and some additional straight cuts, this delectable page also comes together quickly!

One of our favorite things on this page (besides the super cute couple pictured! ❤️) is the cookie cooling rack with the cookies on top of it! The cookie shapes were easily cut with the Freshly Baked—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts and then colored in to create accents to accompany the photo. For easier attachment, and to avoid having the space behind it appear too busy through its spaces, we mounted the die-cut cooling rack on White Daisy cardstock. The white space surrounding the cookies provides our eyes with a place to rest as we visually take this delicious page in.

As you can see from these two examples, the Freshly Baked collection has all the ingredients you need to preserve memories of food, recipes, traditions, and other kitchen fun in amazing scrapbooking layouts. Next time you’re preparing a meal–whether it’s an old family favorite, something new, or a meal for a special occasion–take pictures of the process and the result (so millennial of us, but why not?!), and then add these, along with pictures of the chefs and a copy of the recipes, to your scrapbooks!

Not sure where to start? Give one of our workshop kits a taste! The Freshly Baked scrapbooking workshop is designed to create three coordinating 12″ x 12″ two-page layouts that would make a great home for any of your kitchen exploits.

Include the recipes as part of the journaling and turn your scrapbooks into an even more valuable keepsake!For even more crafting assistance with the recipe side of your cooking adventures, the Freshly Baked—Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts are designed to make actual recipe cards.

This stamp and die set can be used to make cards to add to your scrapbook pages, or to make cards that you keep in your kitchen, or even to create a combination of both ideas—just imagine the beautiful functionality of a scrapbook dedicated to recipes with pictures and stories that you keep in your kitchen! (To see how and why Karen Pedersen, our Creative Arts Manager, preserves her recipes using this yummy collection of products, check out the video at the end of this post!)

Because we love food and memory keeping, we thought it would be fun to host another recipe swap, right here on the blog! We’ve done this a few times before and with huge success. It’s so exciting to see what everyone is cooking up in their kitchens, to get to know each other through our stories, and to pick up new recipes and ideas along the way! We’ve started you off with two actual recipes in the photos above–now it’s your turn!

If you’d like to participate (and we hope you will), share a special recipe and a memory that goes along with it in the comments below. If you’re not quite sure whether or not you want to share those delicious recipes running through your mind right now, we’re sweetening the deal by adding a giveaway. Share more than one recipe, even, and increase your chances to win one of THREE Freshly Baked—Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts!

For your recipe to be counted as an entry in the drawing, you must also be subscribed to this blog. (If you are not yet a subscriber, all you have to do is push the big blue button on the sidebar that says, “Subscribe to list.”) You will have until 3 p.m. Friday, October 21 (MST) to enter. Even if you miss the deadline, share a recipe anyway! We want to hear from you! (While you’re at it, be sure to check out this video to see how Karen uses the Freshly Baked product collection to document and organize her own recipes!)

Now tell us…what kind of yummy memories are you baking up in your kitchen? 😋

Recipes:

12″ x 12″ Baking Memories Page
Z8047 Freshly Baked—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7285S Freshly Baked Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X6050 Flamingo Cardstock, X6046 French Vanilla Cardstock, X6066 Honey Butter Cardstock, X6068 Seabrook Cardstock, X5950 Toffee Cardstock, Z4189 Intense Black Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z3561 Black Diamond Stickles^™ Glitter Glue, Z3630 Watercolor Pencils, Z3224 Small Round Waterbrush, Z4575 Black LePen^™, X7285E Freshly Baked Dots, Z3943 Circles Thin Cuts, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

12″ x 12″ Lick the Bowl Page
Z8047 Freshly Baked—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7285S Freshly Baked Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X7285D Freshly Baked Picture My Life^™ Cards, X6046 French Vanilla Cardstock, X6066 Honey Butter Cardstock, X6049 Scarlet Cardstock, X6068 Seabrook Cardstock, X5950 Toffee Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3555 Christmas Red Stickles^™Glitter Glue, Z3787 Platinum Stickles^™Glitter Glue, Z3559 Waterfall Stickles^™ Glitter Glue, Z3630 Watercolor Pencils, Z4575 Black LePen^™, X7285E Freshly Baked Dots, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4″ x 6″ Creamy Cinnamon Rolls Recipe Card
Z8046 Freshly Baked—Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7285S Freshly Baked Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X6068 Seabrook Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6526 Scarlet Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2805 Black Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z1509 Sepia LePen^™, X7285E Freshly Baked Dots, Z4607 4″ Masking Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4″ x 6″ Sour Cream Cheese Potatoes Recipe Card
Z8046 Freshly Baked—Cardmaking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7285S Freshly Baked Paper Packet + Stickers, X6066 Honey Butter Cardstock, X6049 Scarlet Cardstock, X6068 Seabrook Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3839 Scarlet Glitter Paper, Z4189 Intense Black Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z4575 Black LePen^™, Z1500 Red LePen^™, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

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September 14, 2022Celebrate, Community, Create

Create To Your Heart’s Content with Card Creativity!

Close To My Heartanimals, background thin cuts, balloons, bugs, Card Creativity, cardmaking, cards, cardstock, Circle Lattice Background, clear sparkles, Cloud Background, D.O.T.S., distress oxide, Dragonfly Wishes, Floating By, guide, Hello Fabulous, Jeanette, National Stamping Month, party, sentiments, sponge, sponging, Stamp + Thin Cuts, stamping, stencils, stitched, Stitched Swirl Background, techniques, Thin Cuts, TriBlend™ markers 1 Comment

It’s time to celebrate, because National Stamping Month is officially underway! Around here, September is all about stamping! The art of stamping is one that is extremely close to our hearts. (Yes, pun INTENDED!) When Founder & CEO Jeanette Lynton first started this business under the name D.O.T.S. (Dozens of Terrific Stamps), the entire business was based on this wonderful art form. A lot has changed over the years; we’ve expanded our stamp offering, pioneered the use of transparent stamps and clear, interchangeable stamping blocks, and diversified our interests to include materials for memory keeping, cardmaking, and papercrafting projects. While we have become known as one of the premier providers of top-quality papers, cardstock, and embellishments, stamps will always be at the center of what we do. To this day, we continue to innovate and push the boundaries of stamping, whether it be in memory keeping, cardmaking, or papercrafting projects, while also building a strong presence within the worldwide crafting community.

With this in mind, it’s no wonder that National Stamping Month is one our favorite months and reasons to celebrate over the course of each year. To help us get into the stamping festivities, we have designed a brand-new selection of stamps and stamping-related projects, allowing everyone from our long-time crafting buddies to our newest friends the option to celebrate this amazing artistic medium and create along with us! You are going to love what we have to show you today, as we take you on a journey through this year’s National Stamping Month exclusive offer, Card Creativity. Let’s dive straight in!

Card Creativity is all about expressing your artistic vision through the cardmaking medium, which allows you to more readily share your creations with friends and family! With this central purpose at the heart of Card Creativity, we’ve created three stamp sets with coordinating Thin Cuts metal dies and stencils, and one set made up entirely of sentiments for the interior of your cards.

Each stamp set has its own unique feel and can be incorporated into countless designs for maximum creative output, and with so many interior sentiments to choose from, your cards are always sure to be a delight, not only for the recipients, but for you as you make them, as well!

Today, we’ll be focusing on the ins and outs of six particular designs, pictured below; all of these cards can be created by following the instructions in the Card Creativity Cardmaking Workshop Kit. (To download these instructions, click here! For our friends in Australia and New Zealand, click here!)

A hallmark of the Card Creativity cardmaking experience is the inclusion of coordinating background stencils, a method which can be seen in all six of the cards we’ll look at today. As crafters familiar with Close To My Heart will know, many of our stamp sets come with coordinating Thin Cuts metal dies, designed to cut die-cuts from plain paper that can then accommodate a stamped image from its coordinating set. Incorporating Thin Cuts into your stamp-based crafts can be a great way to bring additional dimension into your project. For Card Creativity, we’ve created three coordinating stamps and Thin Cuts, but we’ve also designed special stencils to layer in with the stamps and Thin Cuts. As you will see later on, these stencils can be used to create background patterns or to add color to accent elements more at the forefront.

Another standout feature of this cardmaking extravaganza is the inclusion of the Cloud, Stitched Swirl, and Circle Lattice Background Thin Cuts metal dies. These metal dies are each designed to fit a standard 4¼” x 5½” card, and they are a great way to create engaging backgrounds, card bases, or decorative overlays. These die-cuts are designed specifically to coordinate with our Card Creativity stamps, Thin Cuts, and stencils—to achieve some pretty impressive effects!—but they can be used as standalone Thin Cuts in a variety of other projects. The only limit is your imagination! Each one of these metal dies has been used to create the cards we’ll be looking at today, and we can’t wait to show them off!

The first two cards we’ll examine today are an adorable and light-hearted pair of birthday and greeting cards. Both cards were made using the Floating By Stamp + Thin Cuts + Stencil set (CC9225) and are a delightful blend of whimsy and good old-fashioned animal cuteness. (After all, what’s cuter than animals and colorful balloons? 🥰)

In our sweet little mouse birthday card, you can see the Cloud Background Thin Cuts (CC9228) used to great effect; not only has the main component of the metal die been used to create a simple, yet beautiful base, but the interior shapes from the initial cut have been incorporated as well. This inclusion gives the card an additional level of dimension befitting an expansive, cloudy sky for our mouse to float in. The mouse and its balloons top everything off, along with a hand-trimmed pennant for our sentiment, and a few Clear Sparkles!

For our “Floating By to Say Hi” greeting card, we begin to see how the stencils and Thin Cuts can work together for seamless coordination and application. Rather than using the Cloud Background Thin Cuts die as a base, we used the cloud stencil, Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide™ ink, and a sponge to apply light blue clouds to a plain white cardstock base. Over that, we layered a few of the interior cloud cut-outs, some strategically ripped cardstock, and of course, our animal friend and balloon! (For a fun twist, we stamped our sentiment on the balloon die-cut itself!) We’ve also added a few Clear Sparkles for a fun bit of shine, and with that, our “Floating By to Say Hi” greeting card is complete!

Our next set of cards was created with our Hello Fabulous Stamp + Thin Cuts + Stencil grouping, and we are loving the way the stencils came into play with our first card!

The “Hello Fabulous” motivational card showcases the use of not one pass with the stencil, but two! To create our multi-colored base, we sponged one color of ink with the stencil on one side, then flipped the stencil around and sponged a different color of ink onto the card base, perpendicular to the first round of color! This technique allows you to enjoy the dual-color effect while also enjoying the convenience of only needing one tool! (Just make sure to wipe the stencil off before going in for your second round of color to avoid smudging your card!)

After applying our stenciled colors to the card base, we cut an overlay piece using the Circle Lattice Background Thin Cuts metal die, and then sponged it with coordinating colors to match the stencil work we did on the card base. Once our colors were applied, we finished this card off with our stamped, die-cut sentiment, a few pieces of black and white cardstock to accent it, and a handful of our trusty clear sparkles for some subtle shine. When it all comes together, this vibrant card is a beautiful way to not only express and exercise your creativity, but is a great way to show someone special that you care!

Our other Hello Fabulous card doesn’t incorporate our background stencil, but does sport some pretty snazzy colors with blended Distress Oxide™ ink on the Circle Lattice Background die-cut piece. We love adding all sorts of bright coloring with Distress Oxide, and it’s always a treat to see what can be done with it!

For this card in particular, we used a Mini Ink Blending Tool to blend our selected ink colors into an awesome ombre effect. (For more inspiration on how to incorporate Distress Oxide inks into your own creations, check out our “Distress Oxide™ Ink Techniques and Ideas” blog post!)

The last two cards we’ll be looking at today were created with our Dragonfly Wishes Stamp + Thin Cuts + Stencil set, and we love the way these gorgeous cards came together!

With our “Thank You” card, we’ve gone for a more minimalistic approach when it comes to the base design, selecting a clean White Daisy base. To give it some extra pop, we’ve taken the Stitched Swirl Background Thin Cuts and used it to cut the distinctive stitched swirl patterns into our base. Once the base is in place, we added a 3¼” x 4″ piece of black cardstock, topped with an additional 3″ x 3¾” White Daisy piece, which has also been treated with the Stitched Swirl Background Thin Cuts die. This die is a great tool for adding subtle pattern and texture that contributes visual interest to your background without becoming too distracting. Once the base has been created, we get to the more involved, colorful parts of this creation process!

To add hues to our stamped die-cut flower patch, we went in with Blue Turquoise and Alpine Green TriBlend™ Markers and used the trio of shades in each to add some delicate color. However, it’s in our dragonfly’s wings where we really get into some coloring fun! For this elegant insect, we used our coordinating Dragonfly Wishes stencil to add color to the wings sections. This delicate blend of colors not only makes the dragonfly stand out but brings a more realistic touch to the overall aesthetic of the card. With the addition of our sentiment and a neat row of sparkles, this gorgeous dragonfly “Thank You” card is complete!

Our last piece we have to show you today is a fun dragonfly birthday card, complete with another stitched swirl background and a fun twist on the blended Distress Oxide™ ink blending techniques we’ve showcased in a few of our previous cards. Our “Wishing You a Wonderful Birthday” card starts off by running our base piece through our Die-cutting & Embossing Machine with the Stitched Swirl Background Thin Cuts. Next, we applied a pink and blue ink blend, adding a few water splatters for a watercolor effect.

Once the ink colors have been applied to our card base, we layered a small stamped image of cattails, matted with black cardstock, over the colored section and also popped our sentiment onto the card base, trimmed to a pennant shape for some additional flair. We’ve topped everything off with a pair of beautiful, iridescent dragonflies with delicately colored wings. Once again, we’ve used Distress Oxide™ ink pads and the Dragonfly Wishes stencil to achieve this appearance, and added a few Clear Sparkles to finish the look. (It’s amazing to see what a difference even a small embellishment can make!)

With so much crafting potential packed in, Card Creativity is the ultimate cardmaking experience and a great way to express your own love for stamping! We’ve loved showing you these incredible cards to give you an idea of the artwork that can be made with this amazing collection of products, and we’re looking forward to seeing all the awesome things you create with it, both for Card Creativity and beyond!

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September 7, 2022Create, Inspiration

If Your Favorite Color is “Fall”…

Close To My Heartautumn, beautiful day, cardmaking, Crisp Air, distressed cardstock, Exclusive Inks™, fall, featured colors, July–September catalog, leaves, Memory Keeping, nature, patterned paper, scrapbooking, seasonal, second-generation stamping, sponged ink, stamping, what a beautiful day, zip strip 5 Comments

It’s finally September and the highly anticipated transition of summer to autumn is under way! The splendor of nature’s colorful schemes, paired with the promise of cooler weather, inspires us to celebrate this new season and gets us in the craftiest mood!

(For those of our friends who live in a part of the world about to enter spring rather than autumn, the following information is for you, too! Let’s have an honest moment… most of us who scrapbook are not up to date in scrapbooking our memories. Whether you’re looking to future or past moments, there is a lot to be found here in the way of inspiration and technique, regardless of your geographic location! 😉)

From colors to shapes and textures, the gorgeous themes in our Crisp Air paper collection are in every way inspired by this time of year. Let us show you how we paired the Crisp Air patterned papers and the Crisp Air—Scrapbooking stamp and Thin Cuts with just the right Exclusive Inks™ and cardstock colors to create some of the artwork in our current catalog.

One thing we really enjoy being able to say is that something is a lot easier to make than it looks. That is absolutely true about this 12″ x 12″ Fall scrapbook page! For starters, the intricate patchwork base seen here is a 12″ x 12″ paper designed with this quilt-like pattern. No cutting was required! This quilt inspired paper was turned into a frame by simply layering and centering an 8½” square cut from the Paprika plaid patterned paper found in the same paper packet. The center White Daisy cardstock square is 8″. White is not only a neutral color but, in this case, it is also one of the collection’s featured colors.

Finding a list of our collections’ featured colors is quite simple. In our catalogs, it is listed at the bottom of a collection’s opening page.

The Crisp Air collection’s featured colors are:

If you don’t have access to the catalog but have a paper packet handy, you can find the featured colors listed on the back side of the zip strip (the extra ½” accent paper along the top of each patterned paper).

Looks like this:

Check these featured colors lists if you’re ever unsure of what color inks, cardstocks, or embellishments to use when you’re creating with any of our papers. Our products are designed to match, so all of the current exclusive Close To My Heart colors are available in inks, cardstock, and a variety of embellishments for seamless coordination.The ink colors that were used for the stamped elements on the Fall page we’ve been talking about are the featured colors Papaya, Peach, Pine, Sapphire, and Sundance.

These photo mats were created by stamping one of the larger flowers on White Daisy cardstock with Sundance ink. (It’s so easy to create your very own coordinating patterned papers when you know exactly what colors to use!)

With the exception of three stickers, all of the flowers and leaves on this page were stamped and die cut using the Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts. We even added some extra detail to the leaf stems by outlining their shape and drawing the leaves’ veins by hand using a black journaling pen.

The title banner was also stamped and die-cut! For our friends who prefer the word “autumn” over “fall,” we keep you in mind as we design our product. The Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts is available in two versions, one with the option to stamp “AUTUMN” as the banner instead. 😃

In this next layout, you can see how the trendy distressed texture that is often found in autumnal designs inspired our art.

Here, we’ve ripped some of our papers, exposing their white cores and edge distressed the photo mats.

We approached the “distressed” look of our photo mats in two ways. The bottom pattern paper layers are all distressed with a pair of scissors. This is when you run the blade of our scissors (very carefully!) along the edge of the paper to alter the original texture of the paper’s edge, creating a more rugged quality. The light Peach cardstock layer was sponged along the edges with Peach ink. The technique here is to cut a wedge from a round sponge, gently rub the rounded edge on the ink pad, and then rub it along the edges of the cardstock until the desired effect is achieved.

As we know, one of the most beautiful things to witness during the fall season is the changing of colors in the foliage. This is something that happens gradually, and often results in leaves and flowers of multiple colors. Fall is the perfect season to implement the second-generation and rock-and-roll stamping techniques!

The second-generation stamping technique is when you stamp an image twice, the second image being what you will use on your project. (The first image you can stamp on a piece of scratch paper, or use it elsewhere on a project.) For the rock-and-roll stamping technique you would ink your stamp in one color, then roll the edges in another color. In this layout, we combined the two techniques to create the stamped flowers you see here!

We inked our flower stamps in Paprika, then stamped them on a scratch piece of paper, and then rolled the edges of the mounted flower stamps back in the Paprika ink pad! All three flowers shown here are stamped with Paprika, but the difference in the color cardstock (Peach and Sundance, both featured colors) gives them an additional pop of color that resembles something that can be spotted in nature during this colorful time!

If you look closely, you can also see that we even cut some leaves straight out of patterned paper without stamping the coordinating stamp images on them. When you are inspired by nature, it’s fun to use that inspiration to create things that you wish existed, too!

We are going to wrap things up with a beautiful card that we created from the Crisp Air patterned papers and the scrapbooking stamp set.

Here not only can you see how we’ve paired colors together, but also that we can take what is given to us and think outside of the box! A stamp set or die that is labeled “cardmaking” or “scrapbooking” may have been designed with a specific purpose in mind, but don’t let that stop you from using them in a different and creative way!

The gorgeous color combinations nature gifts us on a regular basis are simply breathtaking! We encourage everyone to take this beautiful world in, to always keep your eyes and minds open, allowing all of its moments and themes—people, colors, shapes, textures, and everything in between—to inspire new art and ideas. We can only capture the world around us in an effective way when we are really experiencing it. 🍂

Recipes:

12″ x 12″ Fall Page
Z8028 Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7284S Crisp Air Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6534 Papaya Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6502 Peach Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6540 Pine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4575 Black LePen™, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z4054 Gold Embellishing Thread, Z2089 Glue Dots® Micro Dots, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

12″ x 12″ What a Beautiful Day Layout
Z8028 Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7284S Crisp Air Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X6043 Nectarine Cardstock, X6044 Peach Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6522 Cinnamon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6502 Peach Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6540 Pine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3792 Bisque Liquid Pearls™, X7284E Crisp Air Dots, Z3943 Circles Thin Cuts, Z697 Round Sponge, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4¼” x 5½” What a Beautiful Day Card (Vertical)
Z8028 Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7284B Crisp Air Paper Packet, X6033 Paprika Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6540 Pine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z4054 Gold Embellishing Thread, Z2089 Glue Dots® Micro Dots, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

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August 17, 2022Celebrate, Create

Creating Interactive Pull Tab Cards the Easy Way!

Close To My Heartbirthday, cardmaking, Celebrating You, core products catalog, interactive cards, jill, Memory Keeping, party, Pull Tabs Thin Cuts, scrapbooking, video, workshop guides, Workshop Wow, Workshop Wow—Celebrating You 4 Comments

There are so many new and exciting things happening around these parts! For starters, we launched our new Core Products Catalog just a couple of weeks ago, in which you will find SIX new paper collections, including the festive Celebrating You!

As soon as this collection was available, we knew we had to “party” with it, and that means getting crafty and creating scrapbook pages and cards! We designed both a scrapbooking workshop and a cardmaking workshop featuring these beautiful paper designs paired with a variety of coordinating products from the new Core Products Catalog, including unique, stand-alone stamp sets and Thin Cuts dies.

With the Celebrating You cardmaking workshop, you can create 12 interactive cards, four each of three designs, using the You Deserve It All Stamp + Thin Cuts paired with the Pull Tab Thin Cuts.

Download the step-by-step guide, here! (Here for AU/NZ)

The pull tab element adds to the already fun experience of receiving a card and, thanks to the Pull Tab Thin Cuts, they are easier to put together than you might think!

Follow along with the video below as Jill Broadbent from the Home Office demonstrates how to build a pull tab card using the Pull Tab Thin Cuts!

The instructional image below is also included with every Pull Tab Thin Cuts set and as part of the Celebrating You cardmaking workshop guide for a quick and easy reference.

(Once you build the mechanism yourself the first time, chances are you won’t need this guide for the next one—it really is that intuitive!)

As if that Cardmaking workshop wasn’t fun enough, the party keeps going with the Celebrating You scrapbooking workshop. With this workshop, you can create three coordinating 12″ x 12″ two-page layouts and one single-page layout using the new Background Elements stamp set and Square Patterns Thin Cuts, which are used to add a wide variety of geometric patterns and effects to these layouts.

Download the guide, here! (Here if you’re in AU/NZ🙂)

Workshop kits to support these projects are available through September 30 through our Workshop Wow—Celebrating You special, offering a great opportunity to try out this pull-tab technique as well as the Square Patterns Thin Cuts in some truly remarkable artwork.

Don’t delay, join the party today and Celebrate You!!

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July 27, 2022Create, Learn

A Paper Piecing Technique with a License to Grill, and So Much More!

Close To My Heartbalance, barbie, bbq, BBQ Boss, burger, cardmaking, cooking, glitter glue, grill, grilling, hotdog, Karen Pedersen, license to grill, paper piecing, picnic, sausage, smoke technique, stamp technique, stamping, technique, video, visual balance 1 Comment

We love exploring the techniques and tricks on display in the “flippin’ awesome” artwork from our different publications. A couple of especially eye-catching pieces that we’ve been getting questions about recently are the two cards that were created using the BBQ Boss Stamp + Thin Cuts, in the July–September catalog.

Several techniques went into creating these two cards, a few simpler than others. We will go through each of them, step-by-step, so you can feel confident in replicating our cards or applying these techniques to other projects.

The first thing to notice on this Thank You card is its layers. We didn’t stamp those “hot stuff” sausage links directly onto the card base, but rather on a smaller piece of White Daisy cardstock that we then attached on top of two other cardstock pieces. Covering the base with two colored cardstock pieces, one smaller than the other, creates a frame to contain all of the excitement of what is happening in the center of the card. It also helps create visual balance.

One way to tell if something is visually balanced or not is to simply look at it. In this case, the color Sapphire included in the frame, the sentiment base, and as the Exclusive Inks™ color used to stamp the sentiment, lends to this sense of balance. Had we only used Sapphire on the sentiment, the card wouldn’t look quite complete. Adding those minor additions of Sapphire, through the frame, the sentiment banner, and even the enamel star, makes it feel more complete—and since art is subjective, feelings definitely count!

A rule of thumb we have shared before is to count your elements and stick to the numbers 3 and 5. Odd numbers are just more visually satisfying when considering accents and embellishments, which is why we used Sapphire in three places: the frame, the sentiment, and the star.

Next, let’s talk about how we created our own patterned paper on that top White Daisy cardstock layer by “random” stamping the sausage image throughout. When random stamping, you don’t have to only stamp the image upright! Turn the stamp upside down, sideways, and on random angles to create an interesting and playful pattern. Stamp some of the images off the edge, even, to make the pattern look like it continues into a space you cannot see.

This “random” stamping technique, however, isn’t as random as the name implies. While you may be creating a pattern that isn’t perfectly uniform, there is still some uniformity that keeps the “random” from being just plain chaos!

For starters, at least in this case, the images are stamped with approximately the same distance between them and in the same ink color and opacity. Be consistent with your “randomness,” in order to preserve a sense of pattern. That means that if you’re stamping with different colors or in different opacities (generational stamping) or your images are overlapping, or whatever it is that you’re bringing to the table, then continue to replicate those ideas through the piece.

We’ll wrap up talking about this super cute card by focusing on all of the goodness happening around the sentiment.

As you create a card, we suggest making your different elements separately and then playing with placement to see if you really like where your creation is going before attaching anything. You may notice that something may be missing or that you have too much of another thing. It is much easier to remove or add pieces when none of the things are attached yet.

While taking this approach with this card, we noticed that it needed something more to bring the focus to the sentiment. As a result, we added two strips of cardstock (Lemonade and Nectarine) behind our sentiment banner. The cross section of these cardstock strips marks the spot of where your eyes will naturally look because of the additional visual noise they create. Your eyes will then rest on the white space surrounding the sentiment.

Next, we added a little “smokiness” to the “HOLY SMOKES” sentiment by adding a layer of Glisten Stickles™ glitter glue over the stamped image. The fire coming from the grill was colored similarly, using the Glisten and Steel glitter glues.

With your sharp eyes, you likely noticed that our fire was stamped in more than one color, too. To learn this neat stamping technique and the promised paper piecing technique, follow along with Close To My Heart’s Creative Arts Manager, Karen Pedersen, in the video below, where she recreates the gorgeous Licensed to Grill card.

Recipes:

4¼” x 5½” Holy Smokes Card (Vertical)
Z8023 BBQ Boss Stamp + Thin Cuts, X5978 Glacier Cardstock, X6035 Lemonade Cardstock, X6043 Nectarine Cardstock, X5957 Sapphire Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6509 Candy Apple Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2831 Charcoal Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6517 Lemonade Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3558 Glisten Stickles™ Glitter Glue, Z3786 Steel Stickles™ Glitter Glue, X7284E Crisp Air Dots, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4¼” x 5½” Licensed to Grill Card (Horizontal)
Z8023 BBQ Boss Stamp + Thin Cuts, X9042 Mix-in Paper Packet, X5957 Sapphire Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6509 Candy Apple Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2831 Charcoal Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2829 Espresso Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6517 Lemonade Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4223 Red Shimmer Brush, Z3558 Glisten Stickles™ Glitter Glue, Z3787 Platinum Stickles™ Glitter Glue, X7284E Crisp Air Dots, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

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July 20, 2022Inspiration

Cut Above®—An Ideal Starting Point for Any Crafter

Close To My Heartcardmaking, Craft with Heart™, crafting, Cut Above®, journaling, Memory Keeping, scrapbooking, Startup Savings 1 Comment

Regardless of how long we’ve been crafting—whether it’s 50 years or 15 minutes—having the perfect starting point for a project always helps. Fans of our Cut Above® kits already know what makes these quick-crafting solutions such a great fit, but for any of you who may be unfamiliar with Cut Above you’re in for a treat! The artwork we’re looking at today is sure to make you fall in love with these kits as we share the numerous qualities that set Cut Above—well, a cut above!

Each Cut Above kit comes with pre-designed artwork, pre-printed base pages or card bases, and pre-cut paper pieces, making Cut Above the “pre-mier” crafting solution for crafters of all types and experience levels. Since most of the heavy lifting has already been done for you by the time you open your Cut Above® kit, all you have to do is enjoy piecing it together and adding your own personal touches with meaningful photos and journaling.

To see just how easily a Cut Above kit can come together, check out the video below as we assemble the layouts in one of our past Craft with Heart™ scrapbooking kits from 2021!

The convenience of the Cut Above crafting format is embodied in our Craft with Heart™ subscription program, which allows for Cut Above scrapbooking and cardmaking kits to be delivered directly to your door! For our scrapbooking subscription boxes, crafters will receive two 2-page scrapbooking layouts for each month; cardmakers can look forward to receiving the materials for a set of season-specific cards in each box!

Craft with Heart subscriptions are available in 4-month or 12-month options, so you can be set up for easy-to-complete crafting projects for months to come! (Ask your Maker about Craft with Heart or click here to learn more about this amazing program!)

To better share our love of Cut Above and Craft with Heart, we’re currently offering a special deal on select Cut Above kits from past Craft with Heart scrapbooking and cardmaking subscriptions! During our Startup Savings special, you can buy any two kits and get a third of equal or lesser value FREE! Take a look at the amazing kits available through this offer:

Kits featured in the Startup Savings special includes a wide selection of past Craft with Heart kits, plus three Cut Above kits from past specials. The special also features a bonus offer of discounted starter kits—one for scrapbooking and one for cardmaking—that pair Cut Above cards or layouts with additional supplies like an album and adhesive to set you up for the total crafting experience.

With so many options to choose from, now is a great time to discover—or rediscover—our fabulous Cut Above kits!

What is your favorite thing about Cut Above kits? Let us know in the comments!

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July 6, 2022Inspiration

Crisp Cards for All Occasions

Close To My Heartautumn, cardmaking, catalog, Crisp Air, fall, gratitude, July–September catalog, leaves, pumpkin, seasonal, stickers 5 Comments

When you want to communicate feelings of love, gratitude, excitement, joy, or sympathy, you can never go wrong with a beautiful card. Today, we’ll be focusing on techniques we used to create the gorgeous cards that grace the cover of our July–September catalog.

Crisp Cards for All Occasions #cardmaking #autumn #fall #stamping #embellishmentcluster #pumpkin #leaves #gratitude #thanks #celebration #love #seasonal #seasons #ctmh #closetomyheart

These autumnal-themed cards feature a refreshing combination of patterned papers, stamps, Thin Cuts, and stickers from our Crisp Air collection and represent a wonderful example of how a beautiful art piece can be easier to create than it may appear on the surface. To begin, let’s discuss the initial steps we took when creating these cards.

Every card starts with a card base and a base design layer. For these cards, we selected various options from the Crisp Air paper packet to provide a starting point for our designs. With so many beautiful colors and patterns to coordinate with, this assortment of vibrant papers offers bases that accommodate multiple design directions.

Another common element across the board is the addition of a message or opening sentiment. Our cards on display today include a variety of sentiments, with some being achieved with stamped images, one with a sticker addition, and even one embossed die-cut title accent! Each of these options for adding a card sentiment comes with its own advantages—for example, using a stamp allows you to tailor the image to your liking through the use of different stamping techniques and colors.

Incorporating a sticker into the sentiment, like we see with the “Beautiful Change” card above, is a quicker and easier way to add some polished flair to your card.

While the stamped and sticker titles are fairly straightforward, the embossed die-cut title takes a more technical approach. To create this title, we used a die from our Gratitude Thin Cuts set to create two “thankful” die-cuts and glued them together for extra dimension. After gluing, we pressed our die-cut into a VersaMark™ ink pad, placed it flat on a piece of scratch paper, coated it with Princess Gold embossing powder, and gently picked it up with tweezers to shake off the excess powder.

Once the excess embossing powder was removed, we used a Heat Tool to heat-set the remaining powder while still holding the die-cut with the tweezers. This technique offers a more 3-dimensional result with an eye-catching metallic finish, making it a beautiful accent for this already gorgeous card!

After selecting your color palette, papers, and sentiment, a great way to complete your card is to select a few accents to finish off your design. For our cards today, we’ve turned primarily to our selection of Crisp Air stickers and stamps, a handful of Thin Cuts, some ribbon, and a few coordinating cardstock colors to help tie all the design elements together and make each one unique.

One of our favorite accents for these cards is the light orange ribbon used on the “Celebrate” card, pictured above. To achieve this shade, we used an orange TriBlend™ marker to color a length of white ribbon using long, steady strokes to achieve uniform color distribution. Once the ink dried on the ribbon, we cut dovetailed the ends, tied a loose knot, and attached it to the card to finish off the tag behind the title piece.

Another standout feature of these Crisp Air cards is the use of embellishment clusters. To create these embellishment clusters, we combined several individual elements into a cohesive grouping and attached it to the card as a larger accent. One of our favorite ways to do this is to gather multiple stamped die-cuts, created with a Stamp + Thin Cuts set. By using stamps and dies from the Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts set, we were able to create this vibrant embellishment cluster that matched the paper designs perfectly!

Looking for a quicker option? Like the title piece discussed in the “Beautiful Change” card above, using stickers to create embellishment clusters like the one on this “Love You” card can be done in just a couple of minutes!

To create the background behind the darker outline of our pumpkin, we traced the overlay and hand trimmed a plain background to create a stable base. We then used our Thin Cuts die to cut the shape again on a piece of Nectarine cardstock, sponged Paprika ink around the edges, and carefully inlaid the pumpkin overlay with the sponged orange pieces, resulting in a dimensional accent piece!

Once you’ve found an accent method that works for your card, you may want to add a few smaller touches to finish it all off. For this selection of cards, we’ve used Crisp Air dots, glitter gems, dabs of glitter glue, gold embellishing thread, and even a couple of detail stamps like the splatter stamp from our Crisp Air—Scrapbooking stamp set. A few well-placed features like these are the perfect finishing touches as you complete your own unique cards.

No matter what your card communicates, it can be easy to create a meaningful piece of personal artwork with just a few simple techniques and a handful of coordinating products like those in our Crisp Air collection. Remember, card creation doesn’t have to be complicated to be meaningful—when you craft from the heart, you can’t go wrong! What do you dream of creating with the Crisp Air suite? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Recipes:

4¼” x 5½” Love You Card (Vertical)
Z8028 Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, C1945 My Acrylix® Language of Flowers Stamp Set, X7284S Crisp Air Paper Packet + Sicker Sheet, X7283B Backyard Bliss Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6502 Peach Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6530 Shortbread Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3560 Golden Rod Stickles™ Glitter Glue, X7284E Crisp Air Dots, Z5017 Rose Gold Shimmer Trim, Z3886 Mini Ink Blending Tool, Z2089 Glue Dots® Micro Dots, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4¼” x 5½” Autumn Beautiful Change Card (Vertical)
Z8028 Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7284S Crisp Air Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X7283B Backyard Bliss Paper Packet, X6070 Pine Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2835 New England Ivy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7284E Crisp Air Dots, Z2089 Glue Dots® Micro Dots, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4¼” x 5½” Thankful Card (Vertical)
Z8028 Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7284S Crisp Air Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X6052 Cinnamon Cardstock, X6033 Paprika Cardstock, X6070 Pine Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, Z3560 Golden Rod Stickles™ Glitter Glue, Z2066 Princess Gold Embossing Powder, X7284E Crisp Air Dots, Z8043 Maple Leaf Thin Cuts, Z8045 Gratitude Thin Cuts, Z3886 Mini Ink Blending Tool, Z4220 Anti-static Pouch, Z4252 Heat Tool, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4¼” x 5½” Celebrate Card (Vertical)
D2108 My Acrylix® Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp Set, C1945 My Acrylix® Language of Flowers Stamp Set, X7284S Crisp Air Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X7282B Beach Party Paper Packet, X6059 Shortbread Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6522 Cinnamon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2517 Burnt Orange TriBlend™ Marker, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z3886 Mini Ink Blending Tool, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Ribbon

4¼” x 5½” Thankful for You Card (Vertical)
D2106 My Acrylix® Crisp Air—Cardmaking Stamp Set, X7284S Crisp Air Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X6052 Cinnamon Cardstock, X6043 Nectarine Cardstock, X6059 Shortbread Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6522 Cinnamon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3560 Golden Rod Stickles™ Glitter Glue, X7284E Crisp Air Dots, Z4054 Gold Embellishing Thread, Z8044 Pumpkin Thin Cuts, Z3886 Mini Ink Blending Tool, Z2089 Glue Dots® Micro Dots, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

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June 22, 2022Inspiration

School’s Out for Summer! Now What?

Close To My Heartcardmaking, free guides, school, school crafts, school days, scrapbooking, Smarty Pants, teacher appreciation, teachers, Workshop Wow, workshops Leave a comment

School bells across America are ringing, marking the end of another school year and the beginning of one of the most eagerly anticipated times in a child’s life…summer break! You’ve likely been putting those smart phones to good use and taking lots of pictures of your kiddos, watching in awe as they grew and developed this past academic year.

From first day of kindergarten photos to senior portraits, all of these pictures and memories need a place to live and thrive, as you revisit them from time-to-time, whether to reminisce on “how little they were” or to show off their accomplishments to other family members and friends (it’s okay, momma! You deserve a good pat on the back for these achievements, too! 😉).

Or, perhaps, depending on where you live in the world, your school year hasn’t quite wrapped up yet and you’re looking for just the right card to express your gratitude to those amazing people who continue to teach and watch over your children for hours every day, as if they were their own.

Whatever your crafting needs are, we’re making it easy to look like a “Smarty Pants” (in the best way…) when it comes to preserving stories and sharing moments.

In our Core Products Catalog, you will find the Smarty Pants paper collection, complete with patterned papers, a sticker sheet, pocket cards, and stamp and Thin Cuts sets, all designed to memorialize these formative school years.

And just last week we launched TWO brand-new workshops using this collection! The Smarty Pants scrapbooking workshop is designed to make three two-page 12″ x 12″ layouts and one single-page 12″ x 12″ layout, while the Smarty Pants cardmaking workshop makes 16 standard size cards (four each of four designs).

Download the free guides below!

Smarty Pants Scrapbooking Workshop (US/CA)
Smarty Pants Scrapbooking Workshop (AU/NZ)

Smarty Pants Cardmaking Workshop (US/CA)
Smarty Pants Cardmaking Workshop (AU/NZ)

The kits that we’ve assembled for these workshops are made up of products from the Smarty Pants line as well as a few additional items, including exclusive embellishments. (Smarty Pants scrapbooking workshop kit/Smarty Pants cardmaking workshop kit.) Additionally, these workshop kits are available at 20% off their retail value if you purchase the options with the stamp and Thin Cuts! (Because some of you may already own the stamp sets or dies used in these workshops, we also have kits available that don’t include these items. 😉)

Just like all of our other cardmaking workshops, the Smarty Pants workshop also features an artwork technique to help you flex those creative muscles! In this cardmaking workshop we sponge ink on backgrounds to help create focal points with color and also “ground” pieces that are layered on top (so they won’t look like they’re just “floating” there).

You might also notice that we used a journaling pen to create different borders and edges along some of the pieces of each of the cards, adding to the school days theme.

There are so many great techniques used throughout the artwork in both the Smarty Pants scrapbooking and cardmaking workshops! Take a look and let us know what you think! If you have any questions or want to know more, leave us a comment below!

Whether you’re counting down the last days of the school year (or counting down the days until the next one starts), let those teachers know just how much you appreciate them and take some time to document those school days stories to make the memories last! ❤️

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Make It from Your Heart

Tag Archives: cardmaking

Holiday Creations with Seas & Greetings!

Baking Memories with a Recipe Swap and Giveaway!

If Your Favorite Color is “Fall”…

Creating Interactive Pull Tab Cards the Easy Way!

A Paper Piecing Technique with a License to Grill, and So Much More!

Cut Above®—An Ideal Starting Point for Any Crafter

Crisp Cards for All Occasions

School’s Out for Summer! Now What?

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