Autumn Crafting Dreams Come True with Four Seasons Papers and Stamps!

Close To My Heart2022–2023 Core Products Catalog, autumn, autumn air, Autumn Blessings, cards, crafting, crisp, Crisp Air Warm Hearts, Distress Oxide™, fall, Four Seasons, Four Seasons—Autumn, It's Fall Y'all, leaf, leaf pile, leaves, Memory Keeping, mini page, Papercrafting, rock n' roll, scrapbooking, seasonal, stamping, Thankful Autumn, torn paper, video 5 Comments

You can never have too much “autumn” in your life, and at CTMH, we can definitely help with that! To fully immerse ourselves in the spirit of the autumn season, we’ll be showing off our fantastic Four Seasons—Autumn paper suite today, along with a few stamp sets from the 2022–2023 Core Products Catalog! With so much seasonal fun in store, we can’t wait to dive into this beautiful selection of patterned papers and stickers. We’ve got an awesome selection of art pieces to show you today to demonstrate all the amazing aspects of this collection, so without further ado, let’s take a look!

To start us off, we’re going to take a peek at a few first-rate cards, all of which were made with the Four Seasons—Autumn paper collection, and a few seasonal stamp sets from our 2022–2023 Core Products catalog. (Click here to view all the beautiful paper collections, stamps, and other exciting products included in this catalog!)

For our first card, we used a fun truck from the Seasonal Haul Stamp + Thin Cuts set. Along with the truck, this set also includes several adorable images to use to fill the bed of the truck. For our “Autumn Blessings” truck card, we chose a pile of pumpkins for the cargo, while also adding a fun “Happy Day!” sign in the front window. To add a splash of delicate color to our truck, its load of gourds, and the “Happy Day!” sign, we’ve used a light touch with our Watercolor Pencils. To preserve a more rustic feel, we chose not to use a waterbrush to activate the watercolor effect, leaving the slightly coarser penciled effect instead.

On the layer behind the truck, we’ve used patterned papers from the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet to create a festive background and base for our card; in addition, we’ve also utilized a piece of White Daisy cardstock and added some subtle detailing by adding a dashed line with a Sepia LePen™. Once your card background has been established, we created some additional detail elements with a simple leaf stamp from the Seasonal Haul Stamp + Thin Cuts set, decorated with a bit of Copper Stickles™ Glitter Glue, plus a few pieces from the Orange & Yellow Dots collection.

To finish everything off, we’ve created our title piece with the Thankful Autumn stamp set. The sentiment was stamped on a dovetailed piece of White Daisy cardstock with Black and Toffee Exclusive Inks^™ stamp pads. Using two different colors of ink made it possible for us to layer the “blessings” image over the top of “Autumn,” for a unique, layered look. As a final touch, we gently sponged the edges of our dovetailed title piece with Toffee ink to increase dimension. We love our Autumn Blessings card, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg as we continue to delve into the creative possibilities available through the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet!

Our next two cards really get into the autumnal spirit with their very own vibrant leaf piles! Both cards were constructed using our Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts, and the My Acrylix^®Thankful Autumn and Seasonal Haul stamp sets. Using this stellar combination, we were able to coordinate seamlessly with the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet to create a gorgeous patchwork of patterns to form our background, clustered leaf accent in the mid-ground, and a polished title on top of our leaf pile cluster!

The leaves on these cards showcase a combination of two techniques—basic solid stamping, and rock n’ roll stamping for subtle color change within a single stamped image. This pairing allows for a nice variation between the leaves while using a relatively small number of stamps!

Moving right along, our next piece on display today is a 6” x 6” mini scrapbook page! We absolutely love this smaller memory keeping piece, and its size lends itself particularly well to the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet and the Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts set, both of which were used to create this striking mini page. For our base page, we trimmed a 6” x 6” section from a dark wood grain patterned paper. On top of that, we layered a handful of other patterned paper and coordinating cardstock pieces from the Four Seasons—Autumn collection to further build this page.

From there, we used a variety of leaves from our Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts set and the Thankful Autumn stamp set to create some slight layering around the corners and bottom edge of our photo. Tucking the leaves beneath layers is a beautiful way to embellish the page with our very own leaf pile clusters without becoming too busy or cluttered.

This same layered leaf pile effect can also be seen at the bottom edge of our next piece, a 12” x 12” “Autumn Blessings” single page! This page started out with leaf patterned paper as the base, with a piece of dark wood-grain paper on top of that. We then used a few smaller pieces of patterned paper to frame the central photo. Calling back to an earlier favorite, we kicked things into gear with another fantastic fall truck! With a precious cargo of pumpkins, this classic pickup provides a colorful focal point, its rustic color coming from a light hand with our Watercolor Pencils. This truck also boasts a wood guard rail that is another fun way to customize your stamped truck accents.

Beneath our pickup harvest truck, we’ve finished things off with the leaf pile, made up of a handful of pieces from our Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts. This pile forms a great embellishment cluster for our title at the bottom edge of the page. The stamped leaves fit right in with the leaf pattern on the base page, with the end result being a lush layer of leafy goodness!

Our final piece is a 2-page 12” x 12” “Autumn” layout. A standout feature of this layout is the artistically torn section of Four Seasons—Autumn papers, sweeping from the top left corner across the upper edge of the page. This element serves to draw the eye across the page, making sure that the photos, title, and journaling sections are at the forefront of the viewer’s attention. Further visual interest is generated by sponged sections behind the photo sections on both pages. This pop of color near the photo mats allows for additional emphasis to be placed on the photo in a relatively simple fashion, without overwhelming the design. For some extra fun, we’ve also added just a spritz of Gilt Gloss Spray over the sponged ink, adding a bit of shine!

These sponged accents were created using Vintage Photo and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide^™ inks for a vibrant and seamlessly blended effect. Along with these sponged sections, we used a handful of stickers from the Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, and a few stamps from the Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts set to further spice up the aesthetic of these pages. One amazing thing about the leaves in this stamp set is that they look fabulous whether they’re used with the accompanying Thin Cuts dies, or stamped directly on your base page!

To keep the party going, we utilized many of the fun patterns available through the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet to create a layered effect that further serves to break up the stark background of our White Daisy cardstock base.

A final feature of this Autumn layout is the title section, created with the Thankful Autumn stamp set, with the letters carefully trimmed from the cardstock it was stamped on. This title utilizes an ombre blend of Distress Oxide^™ and Exclusive Inks^™ for a beautiful gradient color effect. By gently sponging Paprika ink at the base of the stamp, and gradually layering Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide^™ ink up the length of the stamp, it’s quick and easy to achieve this polished look!
As you can see, there’s a wealth of creative opportunities available when you craft with the Four Seasons—Autumn paper collection and the autumn-inspired stamps featured in our 2022–2023 Core Products Catalog! To see even more of this creative power in action, check out this video, featuring the artwork we’ve showcased in this post!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look into what can be accomplished with our autumn-inspired papers and stamps, and we can’t wait to hear what you plan to create with them! Leave a comment below to tell us about your autumnal crafting vision for 2022 and beyond!

Recipes:

12″ x 12″ Autumn Layout
Z4670 Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts, A1290 My Acrylix^® Thankful Autumn Stamp Set, X8036S Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Paper, Z6536 Honey Buter Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks^™Stamp Pad, Z3829 Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z4522 Vintage Photo Distress Oxide^™Ink Pad, Z5009 Gilt Gloss Spray, Z3886 Mini Ink Blending Tool, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Thread

12″ x 12″ Autumn Single Page
Z4670 Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts, A1290 My Acrylix^®Thankful Autumn Stamp Set, X8036S Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X6059 Shortbread Cardstock, X5950 Toffee Cardstock, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6526 Scarlet Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6530 Shortbread Exclusive Inks^™Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z4189 Intense Black Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z3630 Watercolor Pencils, Z3224 Small Round Waterbrush, Z4632 Orange & Yellow Dots, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

6″ x 6″ Crisp Air Page
Z4670 Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts, X8036S Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X6046 French Vanilla Cardstock, X6066 Honey Butter Cardstock, X6059 Shortbread Cardstock, Z2829 Espresso Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6536 Honey Butter Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z3787 Platinum Stickles^™ Glitter Glue, Z4575 Black LePen^™, Z4632 Orange & Yellow Dots, Z1985 Gold Shimmer Trim, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4¼” x 5½” Autumn Blessings Card (Horizontal)
Z4655 Season Haul Stamp + Thin Cuts, A1290 My Acrylix^®Thankful Autumn Stamp Set, X8036B Four Seasons—Fall Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks^™Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2805 Black Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z4604 Copper Stickles^™ Glitter Glue, Z3515 Black Journaling Pen (.01), Z3630 Watercolor Pencils, Z4632 Orange & Yellow Dots, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

4¼” x 5½” It’s Fall Y’all Card (Vertical)
X8036S Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6526 Scarlet Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6530 Shortbread Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks^™Stamp Pad, Z3837 Pumice Stone Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z2517 Burnt Orange TriBlend^™ Marker, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z4572 Blending Brushes, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

4¼” x 5½” Crisp Air Card (Vertical)
Z4670 Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts, X8036S Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks^™Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks^™Stamp Pad, Z6526 Scarlet Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6530 Shortbread Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2519 Gold Yellow TriBlend^™ Marker, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine, String

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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 58 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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October 5, 2022Create, Inspiration, Memory Keeping

Creating Multiple Windows on a Scrapbook Page + FREE Cricut Design Space™ File!

Close To My Heartback to school, bubbles, christmas, Christmas story, cricut, Cricut Design Space, Cricut Design Space™, Design Space, free, free design space file, Halloween costumes, Holiday, Memory Keeping, Merry Christmas, new year's eve photos, October–December catalog, peekaboo, scrapbooking, shaker, shaker window, tropcial holiday, underwater pictures, window 12 Comments

We are down to the final months of the year, and that means we have some major holidays just around the corner! There is so much to celebrate, and with all of the memories you are bound to make, you’re going to need somewhere to preserve them. Follow along to learn how to recreate this beautiful scrapbook page, featured on the cover of our new October–December catalog, so you can use it for your memory keeping this coming season!

Cricut Design Space™ File:

To kick things off, click here for the free Design Space^™ file that will cut the circle shapes out of a 12″ x 12″ sheet of patterned paper to create the top layer of the base of the page. Since circles are part of Cricut’s “basic shapes,” you do not need to own any Close To My Heart collections to use the free download!

Materials Needed:

Our main focus today will be on creating and filling the multiple circle window spaces. Here’s what you’ll need:

· a 12″ x 12″ patterned paper sheet (for the cutout layer)
· a 12″ x 12″ base page, one that will hold all of the window elements in place (we used a sheet of White Daisy cardstock)
· 3-D foam tape
· small circle shaker window foam + acetate
· coordinating shaker window fillers (we used gold star confetti)
· glitter paper
· coordinating cardstock
· additional, coordinating patterned papers

Tip: The glitter paper, cardstock, and patterned papers will be used for the background of the circles, so it’s a great way to use up some of your scraps!

· coordinating embellishments (die-cuts, acrylic shapes, stickers, etc.)

(If you’d like to duplicate our page, exactly, see the recipe at the end of this post for a complete list of products that you will need.)

Instructions:

1. Pair the Design Space file provided above with the 12″ x 12″ patterned paper and cut the top layer for the base.

2. Place the cutout layer on top of the 12″ x 12″ White Daisy cardstock, or whatever you’re using for the base page, and with a pencil lightly trace all of the circles onto it. Remove the cut layer and now, with the marked up base page, you’re ready to start building the individual windows!

3. We will start with the “hardest” windows (they’re really not that hard), and those are the shaker windows. We chose to incorporate two shakers on our page, one at the top of the page and one at the bottom. Both bases for these shakers are 2″ circles, one cut from patterned paper and the other from cardstock.

Using the technique we shared a couple of months ago in A New Approach to Shaker Cards, Step-by-Step, we assembled the shaker windows on the back side of the cutout layer (rather than on top of it). On the back side of the cutout patterned paper, you will attach the acetate, then attach the circle foam tape, then add the filling, and finish by attaching the base.

Tip: For more detailed instructions on how to assemble these shakers from the back, visit the post mentioned in the step.

4. On the solid base page, cover the penciled circles that will not be shaker windows with patterned paper, cardstock, or glitter paper. You can cover all of them or leave a few blank. What you cover or don’t cover is what will show through on your final page.

Tips: You do not have to stay inside the lines. In fact, we encourage you to go over a bit, just outside the lines, so the edges of the circles won’t be visible when the top layer is attached later. You are also not confined to using circles to create these background spaces. All that matters is that you cover the spaces that were drawn on the base page in their entirety. As you cut your paper pieces, refer to the image below to know the size of each circle, if necessary.

5. Add more dimension to the page by embellishing a few of these circle spaces even further using acrylic shapes, die-cuts, stickers, stamped images, etc. You’ll notice that two of the circles on our page are embellished with acrylic stars and heart die-cuts. Unlike the confetti in our shaker windows, these stars and hearts were attached to the prepared base page because there will not be acetate keeping them from falling off the page. Plus, we preferred a more organized look for these spaces 🙂.

6. Once all of your circles are prepared, it’s time to do some additional prep work to attach the two base pieces together! Here’s where you pull out the trusty 3-D foam tape! Depending on where you chose to place your shaker windows and other three-dimensional embellishments is where you will need to add 3-D foam tape to your base page. There are some of us out there that will want to add foam tape all around the perimeter of the page and each of the circles, and possibly a few additional places. If that is you, by all means, go for it! If you’re in the camp of being more frugal with your use of foam tape, then add it where you see that the page will not be supported up by the parts that have already been prepared, including the four corners of the page.

7. With your base page prepared with foam tape, line up the cutout layer with the base, focusing on the edges and corners, and attach!

Tip: Add some regular adhesive to the backs of those shaker windows for a firmer grip in those areas.

And there you have it! It may seem like a lot of steps, but the idea behind this page is simple enough that you will find it comes together easier than you might think!

Mat a photo and add it to the page, along with a few more embellishments and journaling, and you’ve got a gorgeous page worthy of any scrapbook!

Whether you’re backlogged on memories that need a home or are wanting to get a leg up on what you know is to come in these next few months, this type of scrapbook page is versatile enough that it can be used for a variety of themes, not just Christmas. The circles on this page could be used to make constellations and planets for beautiful pictures that come with a night sky, bubbles for those adorable bath time photos or for underwater pictures from a tropical holiday. This type of effect could form the background for flashier New Year’s Eve photos, Halloween costumes, back to school, or any other theme you can think of!

However you decide to use this page, we hope you enjoy this time of year to the fullest and preserve the beautiful moments you are creating!

Recipe:

12″ x 12″ Merry Christmas Page
Z8009 Admit One Stamp + Thin Cuts, X7286S Christmas Story Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X7287S Cherish Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X9044 Mix-in Paper Packet, X6047 Black Cardstock, X6060 Mocha Cardstock, X6045 Sage Cardstock, X6059 Shortbread Cardstock, X5950 Toffee Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z4611 Seabrook Glitter Paper, Z3239 Silver Glitter Paper, Z6523 Avocado Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z4575 Black LePen^™, Z5010 White Gloss Spray, X7286E Christmas Story Embellishments, Z4626 Red Dots, Z3677 Gold Star Confetti, Z6047 White Acrylic Stars, Z6044 Woodgrain Die-cut Hearts, Z8052 Merry Christmas Layers Thin Cuts , Z4620 Small Circle Window Thin Cuts, Z4569 Small Circle Shaker Window Foam + Acetate, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z2089 Glue Dots^® Micro Dots, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine, Cricut^® Basic Shapes

Cricut^® Shapes:
Basic Shapes
#M2AAB3EFD
#M5C38547
#M5C3851C

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September 28, 2022Create, Inspiration, Learn

Scrapbooking + Stencils = Sensational!

Close To My Heart2022–2023 Core Products Catalog, acetate, acrylic shapes, aspen, blending, blending brushes, borders, cardstock, continents, distress oxide ink, Distress Oxide™, Explore, floral, forest, ink pads, layered, layered stencils, live, love, love you, Memory Keeping, mountains, nature, photo mats, scrapbooking, sparkles, sponge, stencil, stencil pack 1, stencil pack 2, stenciling, stencils, sunrise, sunshine, texture paste, travel, treeline, trees, Urban 7 Comments

Your artwork is one-of-a-kind, and that makes it priceless. Each of your creations represents a part of your own vision and an expression of your artistic self, and this is something to be celebrated! With this in mind, we’re here to show you how you can use one of our favorite stencil packs in your own artwork pieces, and how these seemingly static tools can be utilized for superb customization as you put your creative identity on the page! The stencils used in our showcased art today are from Stencil Pack 1, available in our 2022–2023 Core Products Catalog. Each of these stencils is used to great effect with an array of Distress Oxide^™ ink pads, which can be applied in a variety of ways to beautify your artwork!

For those of you who may not be familiar with our stencils, let’s take a moment to go over some of the basics of what makes them great! To accommodate a wide variety of crafting interests, we create stencils in a variety of sizes, ranging from sizes to fit a standard card all the way up to 12” x 12” scrapbooking stencils! We manufacture all our stencils out of clear acetate material to ensure maximum visibility and control as you use them to apply colors and patterns to your artwork. With no guesswork involved, our transparent stencils are precise and easy to use, too! Stencils can be used not only to apply patterns, colors, or words over a large area, but they can be used to create smaller borders as well, which is a standout feature of our showcase artwork today.

We love to see all the amazing ways stencils can be used, and we’re excited to share a few of the incredible things stencils can do! One very specific detail we’ll be focused on today is how to layer stencils to achieve unbelievable effects! Let’s jump in and check it out!

Our first piece is a single 12” x 12” scrapbook page with a woodsy, exploration theme. One very unique aspect of this page is that all the details added to the background, borders, accents, and photo mats were done using stencils and Distress Oxide^™and Exclusive Inks^™ ink pads. This page doesn’t use any stamps, stickers, and with the exception of one small tab at the top left corner of the page, there are no die-cuts, either! Each detail is unique and can easily be achieved with just a few applications of color through a couple of layered stencils.

To start off, we’ll take a look at the simpler elements of this “Explore” page. At either side, you’ll see a row of bold stacked arrows forming strong borders on either side. These borders help to frame the page and create a great foundation to build the page on. Moving in, we see that two photos form a major focal point of the page. One thing that really helps these photos stand out prominently from the background is the detailing on the photo mats behind the pictures.

These photos are mounted on Mink cardstock, and a wood grain pattern has been applied using one of the single layer stencils in Stencil Pack 1. This detail is subtle enough to not overwhelm the photos, but it still catches the eye and draws attention to the pictures. Just below the photos is a small section of stars applied using Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg Distress Oxide^™ ink pads. We love how this small and simple inclusion has helped to further offset our photos and round out this page.

In addition to these more simple elements, our “Explore” page plays host to a variety of more involved stenciling techniques; the first one we’ll pick apart is the line of aspen trees behind our main title (more on the title in just a minute!).

To create this incredibly lifelike background element, we applied our base layer of color with a Pewter Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad and our selection of Blending Brushes. Once this layer has dried, we’ve taken our secondary layering stencil and applied additional detailing with Charcoal ink. With this element, the transparent quality of our stencils comes in clutch, as the ability to see where the base layer is in relation to our secondary detailing layer allows for more precise alignment and a more polished end result!

Just in front of our treeline, we’ve got a gorgeous color-tiered “Explore” title, which is another primary focal point of the page! To create this title, we used a total of four layering stencils and ink pads to create this awesome effect! To start off, we applied the treeline you see along the bottom of the title, then layered in the rest of the title, using first the full letter stencil, then the half letter one, and finally the quarter letter stencil. Each layer was applied using a slightly darker color of ink to achieve the ultimate tiered look! To avoid smudging your artwork in progress, make sure to wait until each individual color layer has fully dried before applying your next layer.

The final standout feature we want to zero in on from the “Explore” page is the sunrise accent positioned along the right edge of the page. This piece was created using a single stencil, but rather than layering stenciled images, we’ve layered our colors using the masking technique. For this particular example, we used our 1” Masking Tape to block of ½” sections of color to prevent ink colors from bleeding into each other. Using this technique allows for a striped effect and a standout accent to finish this scrapbook page off! By combining so many beautiful stenciled elements, our “Explore” page is a great example of how a simple tool can be used to stunning effect!

Our second piece to review today is another travel-themed two-page layout, though this one is for more urban adventures!

Like our previous page, the photo mats on these pages have been detailed with stencil work, this time with a city-grid map pattern.

These photo mats were initially cut from Shortbread cardstock, with the pink coloration added by sponging Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide^™ ink across the cardstock through the stencil. This stencil allows for a great deal of color to be applied through it, leaving thin lines of the original color to peek through. Once again, this unique appearance is a wonderful way to help draw attention to the photos without overpowering them.

As with our “Explore” page discussed above, this layout also incorporates a layered stencil border at the bottom edge of the pages, this time adding a city skyline to the page! To create this effect, we applied a light layer of Sapphire ink, and then used the two layers of the cityscape stencil with a combination of Pewter and Charcoal Exclusive Inks^™ stamp pads. With this combination, we are left with a well-defined, dimensional skyline border to tie the pages together.

In the spaces above and around the photos, we applied a handful of stenciled stars and bursts, along with a few dots of Silver Liquid Pearls^™ to break up the open space. (While the Liquid Pearls were not applied with the stencils, they still add a cool dimensional effect to the page!)

The final stand-out features of this layout are the suitcase accent, the ”Live, Love, Travel” title, and the 3-D continent feature, all of which were created using various stencils.

For our well-traveled suitcase, we applied a base layer of color with our grid stencil, then added our tags and corner-pin accents with other layered pieces of our stencil set. Once we finished applying our color and accents, we carefully trimmed the suitcase from the larger White Daisy cardstock piece to create an accent we could add wherever it suited us! The presence of this piece is a great way to reinforce the theme of the layout and provides a playful touch to these pages.

For our 3-D continent feature, we selected the corresponding stencil and placed it over our base page, attaching it temporarily with washi tape to keep it in place. Once we secured our stencil, we turned to an old friend, Opaque Matte Texture Paste.

To apply the paste to our base page, we picked up small amounts with a palette knife and applied it to the base page, through the continents section of our stencil, which leaves us with a section of raised continents. We left the stencil in place until the paste had dried, after which we revisited it to add color over the top with a Shortbread ink pad and a sponge. This technique allows you to easily build and vary the color throughout for an even more unique experience!

The “Live, Love, Travel” title was created with a combination of texture paste and cardstock, with the addition of black ink sponged over the texture paste, and Shortbread ink applied to the cardstock lettering. Just like the continent feature, we applied our texture paste lettering through our selected title stencil, allowed it to dry, and then applied color with a Black Soot Distress Oxide™ ink pad to help it stand out. For additional flair, we then used our stencil and a pencil to lightly trace “TRAVEL” onto a piece of White Daisy cardstock, cut out the letters, and sponged Shortbread ink over them for a light color. (You could also trim the letters out of Shortbread cardstock for a similar effect.)

Once we had finished preparations for our cardstock letters, we placed them over the texture paste letters, placing them just off-center to give them a drop shadow effect. With all of these effects combined, the “Live, Love, Travel” layout becomes an unforgettable addition to this art piece!
Hungry for even more artwork examples featuring stencils? Check out another stencil technique on page 87 of our Core Products Catalog, with this vibrant 2-page “Love You” layout:

The bulk of this layout was detailed using a floral stencil option from Stencil Pack 2. By sponging and blending color from multiple Distress Oxide™ ink pads, we achieved a delicate ombre effect across both pages. Thanks to this ornate background, we were able to keep the remainder of this layout fairly simple, with just a few other pieces of layered cardstock and a handful of acrylic shapes, die-cuts, and clear sparkles making up the rest of this layout’s design. With the stenciled section covering such a large area, the “Love You” layout is another beautiful and unique example of what stenciling can do.

Whether you layer them, apply them to large areas, or use them to create small accents, stencils are a truly sensational way to add out-of-this-world detail to your artwork. We’re always excited to see all the amazing things crafters do with our stencils! Which stencil detail from today’s post was your favorite? Leave a comment below and tell us all about it!

Recipes:

12″ x 12″ Explore Page
X5968 Lagoon Cardstock, X5946 Linen Cardstock, X5947 Mink Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2831 Charcoal Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2832 Pewter Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z3834 Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z3833 Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z4598 Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z8014 Speckled Egg Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z3726 Tags & Tabs Thin Cuts, Z4575 Black LePen^™, Z4673 Journaling Strip Stickers, Z6091 Stencil Pack 1, Z4572 Blending Brushes, Z534 Micro-tip Scissors, Z4606 1″ Masking Tape, Z3372 Adhesive Runner, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

12″ x 12″ Live, Love, Travel Layout
B1813 My Acrylix^® Shooting Stars Stamp Set, X6046 French Vanilla Cardstock, X6062 Harbour Cardstock, X6063 Papaya Cardstock, Z2831 Charcoal Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6537 Periwinkle Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z2832 Pewter Exclusive Inks^™Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z6530 Shortbread Exclusive Inks^™ Stamp Pad, Z3825 Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z3838 Black Soot Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z8018 Silver Pearl Liquid Pearls^™, Z4245 Opaque Matte Texture Paste, Z4575 Black LePen^™, Z4578 Metallic Gel Pens, Z6091 Stencil Pack 1, Z4520 Palette Knives, Z4572 Blending Brushes, Z534 Micro-tip Scissors, Z3372 Adhesive Runner, Z3440 Dual-tip Permanent Glue Pen

12″ x 12″ Love You Layout
X6036 Ballerina Cardstock, X6047 Black Cardstock, X6038 Candy Apple Cardstock, X6063 Papaya Cardstock, X6044 Peach Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z3825 Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z3826 Candied Apple Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z4599 Kitsch Flamingo Distress Oxide^™ Ink Pad, Z3274 Clear Sparkles, Z6035 White Acrylic Flowers, Z6042 Black Die-cut Hearts, Z4572 Blending Brushes, Z6092 Stencil Pack 2, Z341 Glue Dots^® Micro Dots

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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 31, 2022Celebrate, Create, Memory Keeping

Get Into the Halloween Spirit with Fa-BOO-lous Crafting!

Close To My Heartbat, candy, cat, coordinating cardstock, die-cuts, Fa-BOO-lous, Fa-BOO-lous Workshop Kit, ghost, Halloween, halloween 2022, Melon Dots, Memory Keeping, Papercrafting, patterned paper, scrapbooking, skeleton, spider, spiderweb, spirit, spooky, Thin Cuts, treat holders, trick-or-treat, workshop kit Leave a comment

From the sweet to the spooky, Halloween is hands down one of our favorite times of year! And what’s not to love!? Free candy, imaginative costumes, and some good old-fashioned scares to get our hearts racing are a winning combination and create some prime subjects for memory keeping and papercrafting magic!

When wonderful memories and adorable photos come together, you need a selection of top-notch materials to create your scrapbook pages, and this year we’ve got a real treat in store with the Fa-BOO-lous paper suite! To show it off, we’ll be having some fun with a handful of scrapbook pages and an adorable selection of treat holders even sweeter than the candy inside!To start off, though, let’s take a closer look at the Fa-BOO-lous collection itself. This whimsically spooky suite lives up to its name with a variety of fun patterns, Halloween characters, and icons to bring more than a little spirit to your artwork. Right at the heart of this collection is the Fa-BOO-lous Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet.

The distinguishing patterns, characters, and icons that set Fa-BOO-lous apart are all reflected in the papers, while the sticker sheet brings some additional options and titles to the crafting table. The individual icons and images present in the patterned papers can even be snipped from the pages to create standalone accents if you like. When taken all together, the Fa-BOO-lous Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet creates a one-of-a-kind foundation for your Halloween scrapbook pages and crafts!
To help maximize your crafting ability when using Fa-BOO-lous, this collection also has a coordinating cardstock pack, with six colors to help you create beautiful designs and smooth transitions between patterned papers and solid colors. For the Fa-BOO-lous Coordinating Cardstock pack, we’ve included our Color of the Year, Melon, accompanied by Black, Linen, Paprika, Peach, and Seabrook cardstock sheets; these same colors can also be seen in the Fa-BOO-lous Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, so coordination between the cardstock and Fa-BOO-lous patterned papers is flawless every time! It is this whimsical color scheme that helps the Fa-BOO-lous collection capture just the right amount of playfulness for the Halloween holiday.

Cardstock is a staple in any sort of memory keeping or papercrafting project, and it not only makes an appearance in the scrapbook pages we’ll show you today, but is also used in the selection of treat holders we’ll be looking at later in the post. Whenever you craft with Fa-BOO-lous, it’s always a good idea to make sure you’ve got the Fa-BOO-lous Coordinating Cardstock pack close at hand! Along with the exclusive papers and stickers, Fa-BOO-lous also includes its own selection of Melon Dots! These dots are a great way to add a touch of pizazz to your pieces.

They have a slight shine on their finish to attract the eye, and each dot comes with adhesive already applied to the back, making it a simple matter to apply them to your artwork for an eye-catching accent every time! Whether you’re placing a single dot, or creating a cluster using varying sizes, the Fa-BOO-lous Melon Dots are an incredible addition to this collection!
Rounding out the Fa-BOO-lous collection is the exclusive Stamp + Thin Cuts set! These stamps and Thin Cuts metal dies are designed specifically to coordinate with the patterns and themes included in the sticker sheet and patterned papers. With an adorable cadre of ghosts, cats, skeletons, spiders, and bats, the Fa-BOO-lous Stamp + Thin Cuts set is a must-have for your 2022 Halloween crafting projects! This too-cute troop is joined by a jack-o-lantern with options for three different faces, a spider web corner accent, and a couple of title and accent options. As with all our Stamp + Thin Cuts sets, the Fa-BOO-lous stamps are accompanied by coordinating metal dies to effortlessly cut out your stamped images!

These stamps can also be used to create cute background accents, which you will see in a few places on the Fa-BOO-lous scrapbook pages. You’ll also notice that the Fa-BOO-lous Thin Cuts have been used to create central accent pieces for the treat holders. Regardless of where they are used, the stamps and metal dies of the Fa-BOO-lous Stamp + Thin Cuts sets are an invaluable asset as you craft with Fa-BOO-lous!

Now that we’ve given you a better introduction to the Fa-BOO-lous collection, it’s time to get a better view of what can be done with this incredible suite! Along with the awesome array of new Fa-BOO-lous products, the Fa-BOO-lous special includes an exclusive workshop with instructions for scrapbook pages and Halloween treat holders! These projects are a great way to get into the Halloween spirit and have some great crafting fun while you’re at it! (As an added perk, this workshop kit is available at a discount during the Fa-BOO-lous special, allowing crafters to save 20% on this bundle of exclusive Fa-BOO-lous products!)

The Fa-BOO-lous Workshop Kit includes instructions and materials to help you create a single 12” x 12” scrapbook page, two 2-page scrapbook layouts, and a dozen treat holders. Each scrapbook page includes multiple options for photos and journaling. Having a good balance between photos and journaling is a key aspect to consider when creating or designing your own scrapbook pages, and the pre-designed pages featured in the Fa-BOO-lous Workshop Kit do this well.

For example, let’s look at this single “Halloween Cutie” scrapbook page. It includes spots for seven photos and a central journaling section, putting your stories right at the center of this crafting project and allowing you to surround it with your favorite pictures to complement the experiences and memories you record.

By placing the journaling piece in the center and clustering photos around it, it not only draws the viewer’s eyes to the written story but allows for photos close at hand to fill in the context of your story. This page is an excellent example of an effective storytelling device, and with so much memory keeping potential in just one page, it’s easy to see that big things are in store with Fa-BOO-lous!

Like the single page, our other scrapbook layouts also have excellent options for showcasing your treasured photos and favorite fun moments. Another great example of this potential in action is this 2-page “Spooky” layout, with spaces for eight photos and another ample journaling section! Along with the fun photos displayed on this layout, the pages were designed to incorporate many of the stickers, Thin Cuts die-cuts, and stamps, layered onto the already vibrant patterned papers used for this pair of pages. Many of these accent pieces were attached with Thin 3-D Foam Tape for added dimension. This step is an easy one and can be incorporated into almost any project!

In this scrapbook layout, we see a more linear design at play, with the photos arranged more in rows than in the clusters we saw in the previous page. This approach allows for plenty of photos to still be used, but also presents a more straightforward design and places a greater emphasis on your pictures, as the journaling section sits at the bottom left corner. With the journaling in this area, the story flows naturally from left to right in both words and pictures. A design like this allows you to maximize your storytelling capacity while still incorporating a variety of fun stickers, die-cuts, stamps, and patterned papers for eye-catching embellishments and background accents.

The last scrapbook layout we’ll be looking at today focuses more on the photo inclusion, but still gives place for journaling. With four 3” x 4” photo spaces, and two 4” x 6” ones, this “Boo-tiful” layout is a great way to make your pictures the focus of the pages, and after all, a picture is worth 1,000 words! Another aspect of note when considering this layout is the relative simplicity of the base page design. The foundation of this layout begins with two Black cardstock pages, and additional patterns and colors are layered on with seven vertical strips of patterned paper. To cap things off at the top and bottom edges, zip strips from the edges of the Fa-BOO-lous Paper Packet have been added as tidy borders.

Once the patterned paper and zip strips have been adhered to the base pages, you’ve got a wonderful canvas ready to complete with additional stickers, Fa-BOO-lous Melon Dots, photo mats, and, of course, your selection of photos! With all these elements combined, your “Boo-tiful” layout, along with the “Spooky” layout and “Halloween Cutie” single page, are sure to be pieces you will look back on fondly for years to come!
We’ve loved showing off these Fa-BOO-lous scrapbook pages, but we’re not done yet! As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, the Fa-BOO-lous Workshop Kit also includes instructions and materials to create a selection of adorable treat holders for even more crafting fun! These treat holders are created with a few simple folds and a touch of adhesive to form a pocket, and are embellished with a handful of stickers and stamped die-cuts from the Fa-BOO-lous Stamp + Thin Cuts set.

A few of these treat holder designs even include simple inserts, allowing die-cut Halloween characters to peek out over the edge of the pocket. Each treat holder measures 2” x 3” when complete, allowing enough space for a fun size candy bar, or a handful of smaller goodies.

The pre-designed Fa-BOO-lous Workshop Kit contents supply you with the materials to create twelve treat holders—3 each of 4 designs. Thanks to their simple design and the step-by-step instructions in the workshop guide, it’s quick and easy to create these treat holders en masse for Halloween parties, small and festive gifts for friends, or to add a unique touch to your trick-or-treat offering!

We are in love with the Fa-BOO-lous collection and all the crafting potential it offers! This incredible suite and its accompanying workshop kit are available through October 31, so you can craft with it right up to the Halloween holiday itself! The instruction guide for the Fa-BOO-lous Workshop Kit is available for download on our website; click here to access it!

No matter how you choose to utilize the Fa-BOO-lous paper suite and workshop kit, this whimsical collection is the perfect way both to celebrate Halloween 2022 and commemorate those celebrations with stunning scrapbook pages and papercrafts. It’s an all-around winner of a collection, and we’re excited to see how the members of our amazing crafting community put it to use this autumn! What’s your favorite part of this collection, and how do you plan to use it in your own Halloween crafts? Leave a comment below and let us know! We can’t wait to hear from you!

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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 5 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 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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June 29, 2022Inspiration

Making Your Mark on Memory Keeping

Close To My Heartart, artwork, make your mark, Memory Keeping, scrapbooking, stamping, stamps, Thin Cuts, unique 1 Comment

One of the great things about stamping is the way it lends itself to all types of crafting projects, from cardmaking and décor pieces to scrapbook pages and more! When it comes to memory keeping, there are certain elements where stamping can be especially useful. That’s why we design a range of stamp sets specifically with scrapbooking in mind. These stamps typically feature larger stamps than other sets to better fit the larger canvas of a 12″ x 12″ scrapbook page, and also include phrases and icons that come in handy as you create titles, accents, or journaling pieces.

Let’s take a closer look at a few examples that show different ways you can use stamping on your scrapbook pages.

One stamping technique that is especially effective on scrapbook pages is repeating a stamp image to create your own custom pattern or border. As you can see on the vibrant summertime layout above, we used a longer border piece and stamped it repeatedly, creating a refreshing background to provide a fun focal point for this layout!

You can see this technique used in a similar way with a single icon stamp on the fun roller derby page, pictured below. We’ve used a winged roller skate stamp to create a one-of-a-kind border and completed the look by coloring the skates with our watercolor pencils!

You can also use stamping on your base page to create intricate patterns, like this leafy tropical page. By switching up ink colors and layering stamped images, we created a lush jungle backdrop for these vacation photos.

Another way our stamps stand out is when they are used with our Thin Cuts metal dies. By using Thin Cuts shapes to create your own die-cuts, you can elevate your artwork with added dimension, making the stamped image pop! Many of our stamp sets have these dies designed to coordinate with them and using them together can save time and effort spent fussy cutting. Just send it through your die-cutting machine and you’re left with a perfect dimensional canvas for your stamped image!

Group stamped Thin Cuts images together to create clustered accents like the lemonade jar embellishment pictured above. By using these individual elements together, we were able to create a lemonade jar that looks so good you can almost taste it! Not only is it an adorable accent on its own, when it’s put into a scrapbook layout, it draws the page together and is an excellent addition to your photos and journaling!

On this next layout, you’ll see another great example of larger stamp images designed specifically for scrapbook pages:

The large library card accent provides a natural place for telling the story behind the pictures, making it an excellent addition to all kinds of pages.. Because the card is included as one single stamp, you only have to ink it once to get the entire library card effect.

However, if you want to take things up a notch, you can stamp your image partially on one color of paper and then complete it on another color for a two-toned accent piece. While we’ve shown off two-toned images with different ink colors, it’s more rare to see a dual-toned stamp accent where the two shades come from differences in paper color. This makes this particular technique stand out even more and helps the stamp to really shine.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stamping techniques that can be employed on your scrapbook pages! But, no matter which stamping techniques you choose to employ, incorporating them into your scrapbook pages is a wonderful way to make your own mark on your memory keeping projects! Do you have a favorite way to use our stamps in your scrapbook creations? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Recipes
12″ x 12″ Summer Love Layout
S2206 My Acrylix® I Heart Summer Stamp Set, X9040 Mix-in Paper Packet, X6036 Ballerina Cardstock, X6040 Clover Cardstock, X6031 Green Apple Cardstock, X6043 Nectarine Cardstock, X6033 Paprika Cardstock, X6051 Sundance Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6520 Flamingo Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4189 Intense Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3516 Black Journaling Pen (.03), Z3630 Watercolor Pencils, Z5016 Clover Shimmer Trim, Z3312 Gold Glitter Gems, Z679 Liquid Glass, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape

12″ x 12″ Down and Derby Layout
D2089 My Acrylix® Skate like a Girl Stamp Set, X7280B Fresh Paint Paper Packet, X9040 Mix-in Paper Packet, X6037 Bluebird Cardstock, X6030 Evergreen Cardstock, X6035 Lemonade Cardstock, X6042 Mint Cardstock, X6044 Peach Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z4189 Intense Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3515 Black Journaling Pen (.01), Z3132 Watercolor Paints, Z4191 Silver Glitter Gems, Z3225 Medium Round Waterbrush, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

12″ x 12″ Tahiti Page
Z4447 Palm Fronds Stamp + Thin Cuts, B1799 My Acrylix® Brush Strokes Stamp Set, X9040 Mix-in Paper Packet, X6053 Avocado Cardstock, X6046 French Vanilla Cardstock, X6062 Harbour Cardstock, X5959 New England Ivy Cardstock, X6051 Sundance Cardstock, Z6523 Avocado Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6533 Harbour Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6503 Mint Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2835 New England Ivy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6504 Sage Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3515 Black Journaling Pen (.01), Z6025 White Acrylic Flowers, Z4235 Gold Loose Sequins, Z4334 Slim Alphabet Thin Cuts, Z2089 Glue Dots® Micro Dots, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

6″ x 8″ More Sunshine Layout with Pocket Scrapbooking
Z4446 Front Porch Sippin’ Stamp + Thin Cuts, X9040 Mix-in Paper Packet, X6053 Avocado Cardstock, X6062 Harbour Cardstock, X6035 Lemonade Cardstock, X6045 Sage Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6533 Harbour Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6517 Lemonade Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4189 Intense Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2524 Aqua Blue TriBlend™ Marker, Z2482 Citrus TriBlend™ Marker, Z2483 Light Yellow TriBlend™ Marker, Z3515 Black Journaling Pen (.01), Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z3191 6″ x 8″ Memory Protectors™ Design 2, Z5038 Die-cutting & Embossing Machine

12″ x 12″ School Is Out Layout
Z3991 Date Stamp Stamp + Thin Cuts, X8022S Smarty Pants Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, X8024B Love Story Paper Packet (Toffee), X8022C Smarty Pants Coordinating Cardstock, X6053 Avocado Cardstock, X6038 Candy Apple Cardstock, X5978 Glacier Cardstock, X6044 Peach Cardstock, X6051 Sundance Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z4525 Primary Sprinkles, Z6015 Wood Stars, Hostess Rewards Acrylic Alphabet, Z3234 3″ x 3″ Flip Flaps™ Memory Protectors™, Z2482 Citrus TriBlend™ Marker, Z2518 Coral Shades TriBlend™ Marker, Z2526 True Blue Shades TriBlend™ Marker, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Typewriter

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Make It from Your Heart

Tag Archives: Memory Keeping

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Scrapbooking + Stencils = Sensational!

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Get Into the Halloween Spirit with Fa-BOO-lous Crafting!

Creating Interactive Pull Tab Cards the Easy Way!

Cut Above®—An Ideal Starting Point for Any Crafter

Making Your Mark on Memory Keeping

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