So glad you are joining us today because we are having a paper party All. Month. Long. What does that mean? It means that this is the time to stock up on your favorite patterned papers and coordinating cardstocks because they are allon sale! When you buy any one of our patterned paper packets or coordinating cardstock packs you can get a second one, of equal or lesser value, at 50% off! The best part, you can mix and match your packets to get exactly what you want. Visit our website, here, for a closer look at our beautiful papers and to get additional details on this party worthy event!
As a party favor, we are giving you a free scrapbook pattern for you to download and take home with you!
With our pattern papers and cardstock, you can achieve effortless color coordination in all of your crafting. The patterns featured in each paper collections are designed using the same exclusive color palette as our two-toned cardstock, ensuring that each paper element in your projects comes together for a flawless match.
We take pride in providing the most comprehensive patterns for scrapbook layouts. When you download this pattern, you will notice that it also comes with cutting diagrams to make it even easier to create these pages!
Download this free scrapbooking pattern, and have yourself a paper scrappin’ party!
For even more scrapbook patterns, check out our Make It from Your Heart™ pattern books. If you love the free patterns on the blog, you’re sure to be blown away by all the patterns in our how-to books!
Each Close To My Heart Cricut® collection has hundreds of shapes that you can adapt for any project. We’ve shown you some ways you can use Design Space to cut shapes for your scrapbook pages, and today we have another tutorial to expand your creative options with your Cricut® images by changing images from cut to DRAW. This allows you to use the same fonts and shapes to draw a title, journaling, or a background!
Switching an image from cut to draw in Design Space is very simple. You just click on your shape and change Cut to Draw in the Edit bar above your canvas. Today we are going to walk you through how to make the multicolor triangle background that you see in the page above by using the tools in Design Space to draw, rather than cut, this design.
Keep in mind, to use the same image we did, you must own the You Are Here Cricut® collection. You will also need a Cricut® machine that is Design Space compatible (any of the Explore or the new Maker machines) and allows you to draw with pens. The steps below show you how to work in Design Space from a desktop or laptop computer. If you use the app on a mobile device, the buttons and tools will be located in slightly different places on your screen, but the same features are available on any device.
1. Sign in to Cricut Design Space™ at design.cricut.com.
Log in with your Cricut ID and password, and then select the green New Project button in the top right corner.
2. Insert and resize a basic square shape. Then color the square.
To make the base for the design, you will first insert a square by clicking on Shapes on the left side of your screen. Then add a square to your canvas. You can easily resize this square to 11 by adjusting the width. Make sure to leave the lock icon locked so that the height automatically resizes when you change the width.
In the Edit bar, next to Linetype, select the colored square and change the material color to white. We decided to work with white since we know we’re going to use White Daisy cardstock as the base for the design, and it makes the pattern easier to see as you build it on your canvas.
3. Insert and ungroup the triangle flag. Then delete the extra shape.
The background uses a triangle flag shape from the You Are Here collection. Click Images to add new image to the canvas. Search for the image using #M282C66F and add it to your canvas. Then click on the flag and select UnGroup in the Layers panel on the right. Once you have separated the shape into two images, you can delete the purple flag. We’re only going to use the triangle shape.
4. Resize, duplicate, and flip the triangle.
Resize both the width and height of the triangle to 1. Make sure to unlock the image size so that Design Space lets you modify both. Just click on the lock above the measurements. Then select the triangle and then click Duplicate in the Layers panel. To flip the shape, select the second triangle, and under Flip in the Edit bar, select Flip Vertically.
5. Arrange and group both triangles together.
Now that you have two triangles. Line them up vertically, with a small space in between. Then click the first triangle, hold down the shift key on your keyboard, and click the second triangle. Then select Group in the Layers panel.
6. Duplicate the triangles and arrange in a row, centering horizontally.
Duplicate the grouped triangles five times and arrange them in a row. You can center these shapes by first selecting all five set of triangles. Just like in step 6, you can do this by holding down the shift key on your keyboard. Then select Center Horizontally under Align in the Edit bar.
7. Duplicate the triangle row eight times.
When you have one row of triangles, duplicate the row and arrange as shown above. You’ll need eight rows, with a small amount of space in between each one.
8. Even out the top and bottom rows of triangles.
Once you have your rows arranged, you might notice that part of the design isn’t going to fit on the white square. To fix this, you’ll use the UnGroup button in the Layers panel to separate the bottom set of triangles, and move the last triangle from the bottom of the design to the top. This will give you straight edges along the top and bottom, just like you see in the screenshot above.
9. Change cut to draw and add pen color.
With your first set of triangles ready to go, you can now change the Linetype in the Edit bar from Cut to Draw. Then click on the box next to Draw. This is where you can choose the pen size and color.
We used the Cricut® Sorbet fine point pen set for this project. The pen color for the triangles in the first two rows is Cactus Pink. The third row is Adobe. The fourth row is Yellow. The fifth and sixth rows are Light Green, and the seventh and eighth are Light Turquoise. We’ve found that it’s easiest to use Cricut® pens since they are designed to work especially with their machines.
10. Group nine rows of colored triangles together and duplicate.
To make the remaining half of the background, all you have to do now is click and drag your cursor over the rows. Then group the rows together and duplicate. Just move this new group of triangles next to the first one, keeping them evenly spaced.
11. Group all rows of colored triangles together. Then align and attach to the white square.
Make sure to group all the triangles together, and then select both the grouped triangles and the white square. Under Align, click Center. This will center the triangles on the square. Then select Attach at the bottom of the Layers panel. This ensures the shapes will draw exactly as you’ve arranged them on the square.
12. Cut AND draw your project!
When you’re ready to draw the design and cut the White Daisy cardstock, click the green Make It button in the top right corner and follow the prompts. You’ll need to load the correct pen color in Clamp A of your machine. Design Space will tell you which pen to use first, and then as your machine draws the design, it will prompt you to switch to the next color. When you’re done, you’ll have a bright multicolor background for your page.
Changing your Close To My Heart shapes from cut to draw will give your scrapbook pages a different look and feel then using cut shapes. You could even use this concept to draw a background or write a personalized sentiment on a card. Take some time to try this out with your favorite Close To My Heart Cricut® collections. The possibilities are endless!
On October 11, 2018, a few of our Close To My Heart Consultants embarked on what was to become an experience of a lifetime. They traveled for 20+ hours to arrive in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where they were immediately given instructions and put to work. After many long days in hot, humid, and very humbling conditions, all of these women, who are our Upline, Downline, Team members, friends, and family, would gladly do it all over again!
For over a decade, Close To My Heart has partnered with and supported the work of Operation Smile™, an international medical charity that provides free surgeries to children and young adults in developing countries born with cleft lip, cleft palate or other dental and facial conditions.
In an effort to increase our support for this cause, Close To My Heart hosted the Share a Smile Challenge last year. The winners of the contest would earn a spot as a non-medical volunteer in the Santa Cruz, Bolivia Operation Smile™ international medical mission, from October 11 through the 19. Announced in our North American Convention, the prize winners were none other than the generous and tender-hearted Avis Latimer, Holly Veselenak, and Brenda Rose. Canadian Consultant Jennifer Smith was awarded a fourth spot on the mission due to the extraordinary amount of donations brought in by her artwork donation at our Convention. (To read more about the Share a Smile Challenge and its winners, visit Operation Smile™ for the Win!)
We’ve reached out to all of our medical mission volunteers and collected their thoughts and insights into what it was like to be part of something so awe-inspiring. Here are their experiences:
Avis Latimer (Glenn Dale, Maryland)
“I’ve always wanted to do a mission trip but figured it would happen once I retired. I wasn’t sure what kind of trip it would be, I just knew that I wanted to help others and broaden my personal perspective. Now, I know my skill set and wasn’t sure how I’d find a fit, but, as always, when you let go and let God take over, amazing things happen—like earning an Operation Smile mission trip to Bolivia! I wasn’t prepared for the wave of emotions that would overwhelm me…”continue reading
Holly Veselenak (Macomb, Michigan)
“It blows my mind, still to this day, that I went on a life changing mission for Operation Smile to help little babies, young toddlers, young teens/tweens and even adults, when in actuality, my life was changed. I’ll never forget landing in Santa Cruz with my mission buddies, Avis Latimer, Brenda Rose, and Jennifer Smith. We had no idea what we were about to embark on and we were all so humbled and blessed to have been the ones chosen to go…”continue reading
Brenda Rose (East Bethel, Minnesota)
“Some time back, Bill and Kathy Magee spoke at our Convention. I fell in love with Operation Smile, and I respect every little thing the organization and volunteers do to help children and adults that so desperately need it. It has been a dream for me to go on an Operation Smile mission…”continue reading
One of the great things about this cause is that we don’t all have to leave our house and fly around the world to help these beautiful children. All they need from us is to make donations to make the medical missions possible. Close To My Heart is fully committed to helping Operation Smile™ receive these donations. Did you know that it takes as little as $240 to perform one of these life changing surgeries?
“Operations Smile changes lives. We can help by simply rounding up our order or buying a t-shirt or stamp set. So simple, yet it allows Operation Smile the ability to continue the very important work they do!” Brenda Rose
With each donation from you, whether from rounding up your order or by purchasing the Operation Smile stamp set, My Acrylix® Your Best Self, you are making a difference in someone’s life.
You may never get to meet or see them, but these children will never forget your generous heart. To learn more about how you can help Operation Smile™, talk to your Consultant today or find one in your area by visiting closetomyheart.com and clicking Find a Consultant under the What We Do tab.
“If you’re looking for a charity to rally behind and support, this is it. You are impacting not only one life, but the lives of those who surround this person. We are making a difference one smile at a time.” Holly Veselenak
Thank you for helping us make a difference! And a special thank you to Avis Latimer, Holly Veselenak, Brenda Rose, and Jennifer Smith for your continued support and extraordinary commitment to Operation Smile™!
“In the end, it’s about having faith, hope, love and doing what we are each led to do in order to improve the life of another.” Avis Latimer
(Due to scheduling conflicts, Jennifer Smith was unavailable to contribute to this post.)
Happy New Year everyone! To start things off in true Close To My Heart style, we’re ringing in 2019 with some flare of our own—a new Seasonal Expressions 1 catalog, filled with exceptional products, contemporary designs, and innovative ideas for all of your scrapbooking and cardmaking creative needs! We’ve rounded up just 10 of our favorite products below to give you a small sampling of the excitement we’ve got in store for the upcoming year as we celebrate 35 years of creativity in the papercrafting business. If you like what you see here, make sure to talk with your Consultant (or visit our site here) to feast on the contents of this commemorative catalog from cover to cover. We promise, you will not be disappointed! 😉
Cut-apart Sheets
Included in every one of our new suite paper packets will be two cut-apart sheets. One side will have a customary 12″x 12″ design while the other side will feature a variety of shapes and sentiments that coordinate with the specific paper collection it belongs to. As the name implies, you cut these shapes and sentiments apart with scissors and use them as titles and accent pieces for your pages and cards.
Kit Coordinated Picture My Life™ Cards
Also new to each paper collection is a coordinating set of Picture My Life™ cards. In the past, a new catalog came with two sets of Picture My Life™ cards whose color schemes would match two of the catalog’s paper suites. This time around, we are doing things a little bit differently. Instead of offering two sets of pocket cards in our new catalog, there are FOUR sets of Picture My Life™ cards. Each set corresponding to one of the paper collections not just in color but in theme as well. Including additional photos to your layouts and albums with our pocket Memory Protectors™ just got easier!
Embossing Folders
They’re baaack! We just can’t help playing with paper, and what a fun and easy way to do so with an embossing folder! Embossing folders make adding depth and texture to any of our papers a cinch! For your crafting arsenal, we have two new embossing folders, the Playful Scallops and Swiss Dot. Create some lasting impressions, as you get crafty with these new patterns!
The Stitched Square Frames and Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts are an easy way to mat photos, journaling, and anything else you want to highlight in your art. Each of the dies included in the sets cuts two shapes: one stitched frame piece and a ½” smaller inside shape with stitching around its border. The Stitched Quilt Shapes Thin Cuts were designed to add stitched patterns and cut solid shapes that nestle perfectly inside the frames for effortless paper quilting!
Watercolor Die-cuts
The Feels Like Home watercolor die-cuts are floral designs that come printed on two 6″ x 6″ watercolor papers. Add color using your favorite watercolor paints or pencils and then punch them out to embellish your artwork. These die-cuts coordinate with the Feels Like Home collection but, as you can see, they are customizable to other color schemes and your liking!
Story by Stacy™ Stories I Love
The Stories I Love workshop kit provides a place to gather the photos that mean the most to you and document the stories that go along with them! The included instructional workbook explains how to explore the memories behind the photos you treasure and then write a detailed story to capture all of the elements of that moment!
My Acrylix® Word Search Highlights
We can’t wrap this list up without showcasing at least a couple standalone stamp sets. The My Acrylix® Word Search Highlights stamp set is one of the many in the Seasonal Expressions 1 catalog that will brighten someone’s day. With a fun word search hiding sentiments for all sorts of occasions, you can quickly and easily create a fun and meaningful card.
My Acrylix® Love in Bloom
Another stamp set that is sure to catch your eye is the My Acrylix® Love in Bloom stamp set. The six stamps in the set are designed to layer on top of each other and form a single, beautiful image.
Designer Travel Shoulder Tote
Take all of your crafting supplies on the go with the newest member of our Designer Travel line, the stylish and durable Shoulder Tote! It features a zippered main compartment, one small interior pocket, and one large exterior zipper pocket.
Like we said at the very beginning of this post, these are just a few of the many products worth taking a look at in our new Seasonal Expressions 1 catalog. Make sure to contact your Consultant, or visit us here, to see what else 2019 holds in store!
