October 10, 2017Celebrate, Create, Inspiration, Memory Keeping

Christmas Album Inspiration

Close To My Heartalbum, christmas, Holidays, inspiration, layout, scrapbook 6 Comments

The hustle and bustle of the holidays is just around the corner, with Christmas only a little over two months away! To help you get your holiday cheer going (if it isn’t already!), we are sharing a Christmas album with you made entirely from patterns featured in our new how-to book, Make It from Your Heart™, Vol. 3.

Use the images below as inspiration to make your own layouts. If you’d like to replicate them exactly, look to our supply list at the end of this post. You’ll see that you only need a handful of products, including one of each of the items in our Beary Christmas suite: one paper packet, one set of coordinating cardstock, one set of Complements, one set of dots, and one silver shimmer trim.

Make It from Your Heart™, Vol. 3: Pattern 17 (p. 38)

Christmas Album Inspiration #ctmh #closetomyheart #scrapbooking #Christmas #album #holiday #family #merry #ornament #reindeer #jolly #tree #wreath #holynight #presents #gifts #bearychristmas

Add stamped accents like this one to your pages with the October Stamp of the Month, Christmas Tunes

Make It from Your Heart ™, Vol. 3: Pattern 1 (p. 6)

Make It from Your Heart™, Vol. 3: Pattern 4 (p. 12)

Make It from Your Heart™, Vol. 3: Pattern 5 (p. 14)

Make It from Your Heart™, Vol. 3: Pattern 8 (p. 20)

Prepare now to preserve all of the wonderful memories the holidays have to offer.

If you plan on making this album, but maybe not until after the craziness of the season, make sure you grab your supplies while they are available! The October Stamp of the Month, featured in several of these pages, is available this month only, while the Beary Christmas suite is only available through December 31, while supplies last.

Keep up with us on the blog all season long to see all the fun things we have in store for you! We are going to do our darndest to make sure you are ready for the holidays this year!

Supply List:

S1710 My Acrylix^® Christmas Tunes Stamp Set—only available October 1–31!
X7225B Beary Christmas Paper Packet
X7225D Beary Christmas Coordinating Cardstock
1385 White Daisy Cardstock (4 sheets)
Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Z2850 Fern Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Z2816 Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
X7225C Beary Christmas Complements
Z4038 Beary Christmas Dots
Z1799 Silver Shimmer Trim
9043 Make It from Your Heart™ Volume 3

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May 25, 2017Create, Memory Keeping

Free Scrapbook Pattern for National Scrapbooking Month

Close To My Heartbeautifully, doggie, free, layout, live, Month, moon, National, pattern, scrapbook, scrapbooking 11 Comments

What better way to wrap up National Scrapbooking Month than to give our readers a free scrapbook pattern? 🙂

This pattern originally debuted with our Moon Doggie papers, but we decided to pair it with our National Scrapbooking Month Live Beautifully paper packet and stamp set—and we love the finished look! It goes to show how scrapbook patterns are truly timeless.

Download Pattern

Download the pattern above, and then create your own layout. Though the photo sizes on this pattern are not standard, you could easily replace the 5 ½” x 8″ photo on the left page with a matted 5″ x 7″. For the 4″ x 2 ½” photos on the right page, it is easy to trim ½” off of a 4″ x 3″ to fit the space.

Remember, our Live Beautifully paper packet and stamp set are only available until the end of the month, so grab them while you can!

For even more timeless patterns, check out our collection of affordable how-to pattern books, many of which are only available until the end of July. We know you’ll love them!

Recipe

12″ x 12″ Dream Layout
Moon Doggie Pattern
CC1212C My Acrylix® Live Beautifully Stamp Set, CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2805 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2844 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2835 New England Ivy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z3095 Whisper Thick Twine, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

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April 11, 2017Memory Keeping

Some Kinda Wonderful—Two Ways!

Close To My Heartbest, boy, brother, complements, friend, girl, inspiration, Kinda, layout, packet, paper, scrapbook, Some, wonderful 16 Comments

Some Kinda Wonderful paper collection #closetomyheart #ctmh #somekindawonderful #bestfriends #scrapbooking #inspiration

Some Kinda Wonderful Paper Packet

Some Kinda Wonderful Complements

Some Kinda Wonderful is a whimsical, playful paper collection with bright colors and unique designs. Though you may initially look at it and think “little girl,” these papers and embellishments can be paired with all sorts of other photos as well! It really is some kinda wonderful! 😉

Some Kinda Wonderful paper collection #closetomyheart #ctmh #somekindawonderful #bestfriends #scrapbooking #inspiration

Here we have photos of college besties getting together to surprise their friend on her birthday. It’d also be super cute to use this collection with photos from any girls trip, like a trip to the spa or the mall.

Some Kinda Wonderful paper collection #closetomyheart #ctmh #somekindawonderful #bestfriends #brothers #boy #scrapbooking #inspiration

On the flip side, this collection also has colors that work well for photos of boys at any age—including black glitter die-cuts.

All we can say is, there’s a whole lotta potential in this one paper collection!

Which of the two layouts is your favorite? Tell us in the comments below!

Recipes

12″ x 12″ Hello Friends Layout
X7217B Some Kinda Wonderful Paper Packet, X7217C Some Kinda Wonderful Complements, Z3314 Black & White Dots

12″ x 12″ Happy Today Layout
X7217B Some Kinda Wonderful Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X7217C Some Kinda Wonderful Complements, Z3314 Black & White Dots, Z3216 White Twine

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January 24, 2017Create

Beginner Crafting Kits

Close To My Heartbaby, beginner, bridal, crafting, gift, ideas, kits, layout, newlywed, nursery, paper, projects, scrapbooking, succulent, wedding, wreath 5 Comments

If you’d love to craft but think you’re just not the “crafting type,” think again! There are so many resources that make learning to craft easy, including online tutorials and Consultants that can walk you through projects right in your own home!

Among these great resources are beginner crafting kits, like our limited-time Welcome Home wreath kit or our new Cut Above™ scrapbooking layout kits.

The Welcome Home wreath kit helps you create a beautiful paper succulent wreath. With pre-cut pieces you simply punch out, curl, layer, and attach, this is a wonderful place for beginners to start if they’re interested in trying out DIY home décor.

It’s a great project for your first home as a married couple—or give it as a unique bridal shower or wedding present to a friend! The new bride is sure to love creating something herself for her new home—especially with her new last name 😉 !

Our Cut Above™ Forever & Always layout kit is also a great beginner crafting kit for the bride. Those first few years together go by lightning fast, so start the habit of preserving your love story by doing something with all those wedding photos! Trust us, you won’t want to forget those sweet newlywed moments.

This affordable kit comes with pre-cut pieces and instructions for assembling the two pages you see in this album, as well as Memory Protectors™ to keep your pages safe.

It also comes with pocket cards and two divided Memory Protectors™ to create even more pages, which fit in between your main pages for preserving additional pictures and moments from your special day!

We also have a beginner Cut Above™ scrapbooking layout kit for baby photos—it’s called Little One, and it’s totally gender neutral.

The birth of your first child is definitely the time to start thinking about preserving memories—if you haven’t already (and not in that black hole of a phone or computer, either!).

In addition to being affordable (which is a must with a new babe around!), all the pages in this kit come together in less than 15 minutes—really! So complete your kit, and then take a nice long nap with all that time you save. 🙂 Get a feel for how easily these kits come together by watching this quick video:

And while you’re at it…

Why not add a Welcome Home wreath to baby’s nursery? Once again, this is a super affordable and unique baby shower gift, perfect for a new mama who will be nesting like crazy soon. 😉

Whether you’re a newlywed, young mom, or a friend looking for a unique shower gift, the Welcome Home wreath kit and the Cut Above™ layout kits are the perfect go-to projects for beginners. With affordable price tags and easy-to-follow instructions, these kits are sure to light a smile on anyone’s face as she discovers she can craft and make something beautiful for her family.

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September 12, 2016Memory Keeping

Paper for All Seasons

Close To My HeartCreepers, fall, Family, girl, idea, Jeepers, layout, little, paper, season, spring 4 Comments

Our brand new Holiday Expressions idea book has now been live for almost two weeks, and we’re thrilled you finally get to see all the beautiful seasonal papers we’ve worked so hard on getting just right. 🙂 Part of making sure our papers are absolutely perfect includes balancing themed patterns with non-themed patterns so you have as much versatility as possible when you sit down to create.

Take this artwork, for example. It uses our Jeepers Creepers paper packet, which is Halloween themed, but you would never guess that it came from a Halloween paper packet, right?

The fun lightening bolts are just the pattern for pairing with this spunky little girl. They’d also be adorable with pictures of a little boy.

Now how about this one? Does it remind you of Halloween?

Who would have thought that this paper packet could be paired with spring photos? And yet it totally works! We paired some ribbon from our Whimsy ribbon pack with the purple Jeepers Creepers paper to give it a feminine touch.

Switching seasons, Jeepers Creepers also has colors that are perfect for your fall photos, like these family pictures:

Whenever you pull out our papers to create something, you can count on beautiful themed patterns and also patterns that will work year-round. When it comes to preserving your memories, we want you to get papers with the best value that will also allow you to get as creative as you’d like!

Recipes

12″ x 12″ So Sweet Layout
E1034 My Acrylix® Marker Alphabet, X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3146 Watercolor Paper, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3287 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set

12″ x 12″ Love This Layout
E1034 My Acrylix® Marker Alphabet, X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3287 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set

12″ x 12″ Here & Now Layout
E1034 My Acrylix® Marker Alphabet, X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3287 Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set
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July 21, 2016Learn, Memory Keeping

The Magical Pocket Card

Close To My Heartcard, layout, magical, pocket, scrapbooking, summer, tips, tricks 10 Comments

You’ve probably tried your hand at pocket scrapbooking before, but have you ever tried using pocket cards on your traditional scrapbook layouts? Just like with pocket scrapbooking, these cards can help you put together a beautiful layout in a flash.

Each of our paper packets comes with two 12″ x 12″ sheets of pocket cards that you can cut apart and use in a variety of ways. We used a bunch of these cards from the Magical paper packet to make this adorable layout. Can you spot them all?

First up, there’s the “Love This” card. Our cut-apart pocket cards always include a title card that you can use as your main sentiment.

Next, we have the journaling card. Here, we used one of the decorative cards for our journaling by adding a few lines with a ruler and pen, but you’ll also find cards with pre-printed lines in our cut-apart cards, too. Either way, pocket cards make adding journaling to your pages a piece of cake!

Then we have the Honey photo mat on the right page—it’s a pocket card, too! Because our pocket cards come in both 4″ x 6″ and 3″ x 4″ sizes, they make great photo mats.

If you’re looking for a fresh scrapbook pattern, try cutting apart some pocket cards and arranging them on your layouts in different patterns until something strikes your fancy. On this layout, we simply layered three pocket cards in a sort of fan pattern. By adding a stamped tag from our July Stamp of the Month and some Magical Complements, we ended up with a look we love. 🙂

This layout shows what happens when you get creative with your pocket cards! Rather than cutting into a 12″ x 12″ sheet of paper to create paper accents, you can use pocket cards, which offer additional patterns not found in your larger papers. Take a look at the “Love today” title, for example. The circles come from the “Love This” card, and the word “today” was stamped on a trimmed down piece of another pocket card.

Whether you’re looking to put together a layout quickly or you’re just looking for some fresh ideas, pocket cards have your back. Try them out for yourself—they will change the way you scrapbook!

p.s. Remember our Magical Convention contest? Now is the perfect time to try using the Magical pocket cards to create a layout with your Convention photos! Share your layout on social media using the hashtag #magicalconvention for a chance to win one of our brand new My Legacy™ scrapbooking albums! Be sure to post your picture by July 25, because on July 28, we’ll randomly select five winners and announce them on the blog.

Recipes

12″ x 12″ Love This Layout
S1607 My Acrylix® From the Notebook, X7209B Magical Paper Packet, Z2816 Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7209C Magical Complements

12″ x 12″ Love Today Layout
S1607 My Acrylix® From the Notebook, B1484 My Acrylix® Jennifer’s Hand, X7209B Magical Paper Packet, Z2816 Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2805 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2862 Honey Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7209C Magical Complements, Z3216 White Twine

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July 14, 2016Learn, Memory Keeping

The Triangle Rule

Close To My Heartcamping, hacks, layout, magical, rule, scrapbooking, tips, triangle, tricks 6 Comments

Remember how your math teacher said you’d use math every day for the rest of your life? Well, as a scrapbooker, you definitely do! You measure, you count, and if you try out today’s tip, you’ll apply your math skills even more!

It’s time to take a trip back to geometry class, because we’re going to talk about what we call the triangle rule. In a nutshell, here it is: After you finish a pattern and you’re ready to add some accents, arrange them so they form a triangle.

If you follow our Instagram account, you may remember how we showed the triangle rule on a single scrapbook page.

Today's pro tip: The triangle rule! Cluster your embellishments so they create an isosceles triangle on your page or layouts. This helps balance the page and draw the eye to the photo.

A post shared by Close To My Heart (@ctmhofficial) on May 24, 2016 at 11:54am PDT

When creating a layout, you do the exact same thing, but rather than creating a triangle on each single page, you create a triangle across the two pages.

Here’s a layout featuring our Magical paper packet. Can you spot the triangle? 🙂

Here it is!

See how the deer, oars, and punched circles create a triangle? The little flags above the three circles also help form that corner of the triangle.

The triangle rule is great because it helps you balance your pages by giving you guidance for where to place your embellishment clusters, while also leaving you lots of different options to play with. If all of your layouts were perfectly symmetrical, they’d look nice, but there wouldn’t be much room for creativity. By creating triangles, which can be all sorts of different sizes and dimensions, you are still creating a layout that’s pleasing to the eye, but you get a lot more variety!

We hope this makes adding accents to your scrapbook pages a little bit easier. Try the triangle rule out for yourself, and tell us what you think in the comments below!

Recipe

12″ x 12″ Camping Layout

C1611 My Acrylix® Campfire Lifestyle, X7209B Magical Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5762 Lagoon Cardstock, X5775 Sapphire Cardstock, 1272 Cranberry Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, Z2870 Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2816 Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2895 Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Pacifica Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2818 Desert Sand Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7209C Magical Complements, Z3216 White Twine, Z3090 Red Enamel Gems, Z1999 1″ Circle Punch, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

All these products are available through one of our Independent Consultants. To find a Consultant near you, visit closetomyheart.com and click on “Find a Consultant” in the top right corner of the page.

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June 28, 2016Celebrate, Memory Keeping

Fourth of July

Close To My Heartbox, firework, Fourth, Holiday, July, layout, magical, of, page, scrapbook, shadow 1 Comment

Here at the Home Office, we love the Fourth of July. It’s a holiday dedicated to spending time with family, creating lasting memories, and most of all, remembering the men and women who have served this country.

Since this holiday is only a week away, we wanted to share with you a beautiful Fourth of July shadow box you can create for your home. We hope that as you make this page, you take a moment to feel gratitude for all those who have fought for our freedoms.

For this page, we took inspiration from none other than Old Glory herself. Strips of fringed paper form the stripes, and some 3-D stars in the top left corner allude to the 50 states.

Quick tip—To create each star, simply cut four identical star shapes. Then fold them in half and attached the halves together to create a sort of accordion.

In addition to this shadow box, we want to share with you some classic Fourth of July layouts.

Creating a faded watercolor title, which looks distressed, is perfect for a holiday all about tradition and history. We also made sure some fireworks found their way onto the page, compliments of the My Acrylix® Fireworks Fun stamp set—again, it’s all about the tradition!

If there was ever a perfect paper packet for the Fourth of July, it’s the Magical paper packet. The colors, the star and stripe designs—they’re just the thing for evoking feelings of July and preserving these warm summer memories.

Any of these layout pages would look wonderful in one of our shadow boxes too, and now is the perfect time to get your hands on some shadow boxes because you can purchase a 2-pack and save through our Flash Sale. The sale has been extended through June 30, so make sure to get in on the action before it’s over!

We want to hear about your Fourth of July traditions. Share your plans with us in the comments below!

Recipes

12″ × 12″ Celebrate Shadow Box
X7209B Magical Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 1272 Cranberry Cardstock,Z1829 Black & Grey Glitter Paper, Z1799 Silver Shimmer Trim, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection

Cricut® Shapes*:
Artistry
1 ¼”, 1 ¾”, ¾” <NewYears> (p. 50)
1 ½” Title <k> (p. 65)

12″ × 12″ Liberty Layout
D1689 My Acrylix® Firework Fun, X7209B Magical Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 1272 Cranberry Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2013 Sequins Silver Assortment, Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z3188 Paintbrush Set, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection

Cricut® Shapes*:
Artbooking
2 ½” Title <j> (p. 64)
2″, 2 ¼” Shift+Border <J> (p. 64)

Artistry
1″ <font> “July 4”

12″ × 12″ Liberty Layout
Make It from Your Heart™ Vol. 2: Pattern 3 (with alterations)
X7209B Magical Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z1829 Black & Grey Glitter Paper, Z3075 Red Glitter Paper, X7209C Magical Complements, Z3214 Magical Sequins, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection

Cricut® Shapes*:
Artbooking
1 ¼” <font> Happy th of July”
1 ½” <font> “4”

*Real Dial Size

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June 14, 2016Memory Keeping

Crazy for Calypso

Close To My Heartcalypso, crazy, layout, scrapbooking, summer 5 Comments

Ready to be whisked away to scrapbooking paradise? The Calypso paper packet is colorful and happy, with cute designs like flamingos and pineapples that have us dreaming of slipping off to a tropical oasis. In the “relaxation sensation” of Calypso, today we just want to inspire you with fresh ideas for using Calypso in your scrapbooking.

Just like the beautiful beach in these photos, this Calypso layout feels calm and serene. A pocket scrapbooking card, which comes with the paper packet, made for easy, breezy journaling, and a beautiful way to tell the story of the photos.

Love the flamingos on this page? You can get your own flock of flamingos for your scrapbook pages with the Tickled Pink stamp set and the coordinating Thin Cuts dies, which make cutting precise shapes for stamping almost effortless.

Now we want to see YOUR Calypso layouts! Share them with us by using the hashtag #ctmhcalypso when sharing your artwork on social media.

Recipes

12″ x 12″ Aloha Layout
B1527 My Acrylix® Hawaiian Hibiscus stamp set, X7210B Calypso Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5772 Canary Cardstock, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2644 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7210C Calypso Complements, Z3215 Calypso Sequins, Z3216 White Twine, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
¾” Shift <Font> “SUNSHINE”

12″ X 12″ Pineapple Layout
C1651 My Acrylix® Tickled Pink, X7210B Calypso Paper Packet, X5772 Canary Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2844 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2193 Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7210C Calypso Complements, Z3215 Calypso Sequins, Z3228 Tickled Pink Thin Cuts, Z3167 Cricut® Artistry Collection

Cricut® Shape:
Artistry
7″ Icon-2 <z> (p. 31)

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