May 28, 2019Create, Learn, Memory Keeping

Where to Find Free Scrapbooking Patterns (and More!)

Close To My Heartdownload, free, National, national scrapbooking month, nsm, pattern, scrapbooking, sweet girl, The World Is Yours, workshop, workshops Your Way 4 Comments

We pride ourselves on our “Let Me Show You How” philosophy. That is one of the reasons we love providing free, downloadable patterns, whether that is right here, on this blog, or on Closetomyheart.com.

Whenever we offer a workshop kit for sale, the instructions are available as a free downloadable PDF file right on our website. These instructions come fully equipped with additional materials needed lists, cutting guides, featured techniques, step-by-step assembly instructions, project photos, tips, AND patterns. Without any obligations or commitments, you can visit our site, find these workshops, download the files, and use the patterns in them at your discretion.

Even though these timeless patterns are designed with specific products in mind, we stand behind their versatility and encourage you to use them time and time again. With different papers, embellishments, and subjects matters, the finished results will always be unique.

Since this month is all about scrapbooking, we took the three scrapbook layout patterns from the Workshops Your Way® Sweet Girl Scrapbooking Kit and made new pages using The World Is Yours collection.

PATTERN 1:

SWEET GIRL:

THE WORLD IS YOURS:

PATTERN 2:

SWEET GIRL:

THE WORLD IS YOURS:

PATTERN 3:

SWEET GIRL:

THE WORLD IS YOURS:(You can download the instructions and patterns for these layouts here, or on our website here.)

In each of our seasonal catalogs, you will find one scrapbooking and one cardmaking workshop for every paper collection offered. The scrapbooking workshops walk you through creating three coordinating 2-page layouts while the cardmaking workshops come with several card designs and patterns to make anywhere between 12 and 16 cards. Outside the catalogs, we also have regular monthly specials. Often, these promotions will include a workshop—this is where you will find instructions and patterns for other things as well, like mini albums and the occasional papercrafting project.

If you’re ever looking for a pattern, revisit some of your old workshops or come and visit us here or on our website. Remember, the patterns on our site are only available while the workshop kits they are featured in are, so make sure to grab them while you can!

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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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May 18, 2017Memory Keeping

Heritage Scrapbooking with Live Beautifully

Close To My Heartbeautifully, Family, genealogy, heritage, history, keeping, live, memory, Month, National, scrapbook, scrapbooking, vintage 6 Comments

At the heart of scrapbooking is the idea of preserving memories and telling stories in a meaningful way that will last. Scrapbooks are a great way to preserve your family’s history and be artistic at the same time.

Our Live Beautifully paper packet, which is only available this month as part of National Scrapbooking Month, features vintage-inspired designs that are perfect for heritage scrapbooking.

The beautiful flowers on this page were trimmed right out of one of the Live Beautifully papers. To really make them pop, we curled up the edges and attached them using 3-D foam tape. They look like they’re blooming right off the page!

This page also shows how the All About the Gold Fundamentals make a great companion to your Live Beautifully papers. They are 12″ x 12″ clear overlays with gold foil designs; on this page we used the diagonal stripes design. These overlays work really well with the gold foil accents featured in the Live Beautifully paper packet.

And while we’re talking about gold, let’s not overlook gold glitter paper! We used it to mat our photos here, and we love the results! Gold glitter paper looks really elegant with sepia or black and white photos. We finished the page off with some gold foil accents from the Springtime Complements, including the title.

Which additional products do you like to use with the Live Beautifully paper packet for your heritage scrapbooking? Tell us in the comments below!

Recipes

12″ x 12″ A Moment in Time Page
CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 1386 Black Cardstock, Z3238 Gold Glitter Paper, Z3216 White Twine, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
¾” <font> “A MOMENT IN TIME”

12″ x 12″ Grandma & Grandpa Great Page
E1035 My Acrylix® Bistro Script Stamp Set, CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z3246 All About the Gold Fundamentals, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2805 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3274 Clear Sparkles, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape

12″ x 12″ My Favorite Page
CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z3238 Gold Glitter Paper, Z3307 Springtime Complements, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape

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May 2, 2017Memory Keeping

A Closer Look at Our Cut Above® Live Beautifully Layout Kit

Close To My Heartabove, beautifully, beginner, cut, easy, fast, keeping, kit, live, May, memory, Month, National, scrapbooking 2 Comments

May is National Scrapbooking Month, and to celebrate, we’ve created a whole new Cut Above® layout kit to help you create not one, not two, but FIVE layouts!

It’s called Live Beautifully, and it is all about living a beautiful life, dreaming big, and inspiring others.

If you’re not familiar with our Cut Above layout kits, you get everything you need to assemble scrapbook layouts in one convenient kit: base pages, pre-cut pieces and die-cuts, stickers, and photo placeholders—all you need is adhesive and a journaling pen! Each of the five layouts in the Live Beautifully kit can be assembled in 15 minutes or less—they’re that easy!

Cut Above is the perfect solution for those who enjoy the art of scrapbooking but are looking for a quicker alternative. Even if you’re a die-hard decorative scrapbooker who loves to spend hours on a layout, this kit is a great way to catch up on documenting your stories without sacrificing quality.

Let’s take a closer look at the layouts this kit creates:

Gorgeous, right? You’d never guess these come together so quickly! The gold foil accents really add a special touch, and if you want, you can pop up pieces with 3-D foam tape to add dimension.

If you want to get this kit at a discount, buy the kit in a bundle with an album, adhesive, and journaling pen—that way you save 20% and you have everything you need to make and store your pages!

An amazing scrapbooking kit with pre-cut pieces and stickers! #ctmh #closetomyheart #livebeautifully #memorykeeping #scrapbooking #fast #easy #kit

Grey D-ring album bundle

Black post-bound album bundle

So what are you waiting for! Give the Cut Above Live Beautifully layout kit a try! We know you’ll love it! 🙂

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September 1, 2016Celebrate

The Perfect Starter Kit for Cardmaking

Close To My Heartbeginner, card, Create, kindness, kit, Month, National, stamping, starter 3 Comments

Cardmaking is about so much more than pretty paper. It’s about creating and celebrating beautiful relationships. Take a look at this short video to see what we mean:

Don’t you love the way this video captures the spirit of cardmaking? Not only do you get to make something beautiful with your own two hands, but you also get to give those cards to others and brighten their day. Even little cards can make a huge impact on someone. That’s why we created the Create Kindness card kit.

What better way to celebrate National Stamping Month than with this mini card kit that includes everything you need to complete 24 cards!

Here’s a list of the products included in the kit:

24 – 3″ × 3″ card bases with envelopes (6 of each color)
24 –white cardstock circles
8 –mini stamp sets (4 for the front of the cards, 4 for the inside)
1 – Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ mini stamp pad
1 – 2″ × 2″ My Acrylix® block
1 – My Acrylix® mini stamp organizer

This kit isn’t just for beginners either. If you already have the block, ink, and organizer, you can also purchase the stamps and cards separately. There’s stamping happiness to be spread all around! 🙂

What’s really fun about these stamps is that you get to color them with whatever you’d like! We colored these ones with ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ markers, but you could use anything you have in your crafting stash. Get creative!

We hope you join us in using handmade cards to create a little more kindness in the world. You may feel like you’re not doing much, but when we all do our part, we’ll make the world a better place.

Now get stamping! 🙂

Recipe

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August 9, 2016Create

National Book Lovers Day

Close To My Heartbook, bookmarks, day, DIY, gift, ideas, lovers, National, quick, reading 19 Comments

Today is National Book Lovers Day, and to celebrate, we’re sharing these adorable bookmarks with you!

Here’s how we made them. First, we cut identical rectangles out of Sea Glass, Pixie, and Glacier cardstock, as well as our All About the Gold Fundamentals overlays. Then we rounded the corners with our corner rounder. After stamping our sentiments onto pieces of White Daisy cardstock, we used a sewing machine to attach the sentiments to the bookmarks, which is what holds the overlays in place. To top it all off, we added some ribbon from our Uptown ribbon pack and glitter accents from our Baby Girl Complements.

Homemade bookmarks would be a great gift for your kids’ teachers as they head back to school, for your friends who love to read, or for your book club buddies. They’re also just a fun way to get you even more excited about the books you’re reading.

Here at Close To My Heart, we’re all about preserving stories, so it’s no surprise that we really love to read! We thought it would be fun to ask around the office to find out what everyone is reading lately. Jeanette is currently reading The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, following the same schedule as our Consultants and our Training department. Here’s what the rest of the Home Office is reading:

Fiction

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
A Nation Divided by Robert Marcum
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
The Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Riley

Fantasy

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
Mistborn: Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
The Mayfair Witches Series by Anne Rice
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Non-Fiction

Dead Wake by Erik Larson
Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Eisenberg Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts by Donna L. Poulton and Vern G. Swanson
The Buddha Walks into a Bar by Lodro Rinzler

Self-Improvement

Broadcasting Happiness: The Science of Spreading Positivity and Creating a Spiral of Success by Michelle Gielan
The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man’s Quest to Be a Better Husband by David Finch
May Cause Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein
Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success by David Maxfield, Joseph Grenny, and Kerry Patterson
Fearless by Max Lucado
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin
Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock

Creativity

Big Magic: Creative Living beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life by Pat Williams
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

National Book Lovers Day is the perfect excuse to make some cute bookmarks and then curl up with a blanket, a cup of hot tea, and your favorite book—but first, tell us what you’re reading right now by leaving a comment below!

Recipes

Fell Asleep Here Bookmark
B1484 My Acrylix® Jennifer’s Hand, Z3246 All About the Gold Fundamentals, X5789 Sea Glass Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3289 Uptown Ribbon Pack, Z3272 Baby Girl Complements, Z1912 Corner Rounder, Thread, Hole Punch

One More Chapter Bookmark
E1035 My Acrylix® Bistro Script, Z3246 All About the Gold Fundamentals, X5773 Pixie Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3289 Uptown Ribbon Pack, Z3272 Baby Girl Complements, Z1912 Corner Rounder, Thread, Hole Punch

Keep Reading Bookmark
B1484 My Acrylix® Jennifer’s Hand, Z3246 All About the Gold Fundamentals, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3289 Uptown Ribbon Pack, Z3272 Baby Girl Complements, Z1912 Corner Rounder, Thread, Hole Punch
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May 2, 2016Learn, Memory Keeping

Happy Times All Month Long!

Close To My Hearthappy, Month, National, scrapbooking, Times, tips, tricks 20 Comments

It’s May, and that means it’s one of our very favorite times of the year—National Scrapbooking Month! To celebrate, we’ve created a very special paper packet and coordinating stamp set called Happy Times. We’ve got all sorts of beautiful artwork lined up for you featuring these wonderful papers, so be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube all month long!

In honor of this very special month, we’ll be sharing tips and tricks from our Art Studio about how to create amazing scrapbook pages. Today we’ll start with how to achieve good color balance.

This first page shows an example of color overload:

This can happen so easily when we want to focus on a given color—pink in this instance. With a pink page base, pink flowers galore, pink gold foil floral paper, a pink title, pink photo mats, and pink stamping, we have officially ended up with too much of a good thing! 🙂 Besides that, by going with so many patterned papers, the page also looks super busy, so that the details of the page get lost.

Take a look at what happens on a more balanced page:

Your initial impression might be that there is no pink at all, but then a handful of pink features pop right out at you, don’t they? This is because the color pink is now in contrast with the background of the page, which is a super neutral woodgrain and a duo of minty papers, all from the Happy Times paper packet. Thanks to this contrast, you can even see the beautiful pink flowers the little girl is holding in the photo, which were almost completely lost in the previous example. You can also see the stamped flowers much better. Here are the two pages side by side so you can really see the difference:

The page on the right really lets the photos take the spotlight, which is what this scrapbook page is really all about.

So here’s today’s tip in a nutshell: When you want to highlight a specific color, start with a neutral background, limit your favorite color so it really pops, and add a complementing color for contrast. As the artwork above shows, the Happy Times paper packet includes a wide variety of colors and patterns so you have everything you need to create balanced scrapbook pages right at your fingertips.

Tell us your favorite color in the comments below, and then stay tuned for more inspirational artwork as well as more scrapbooking tips and tricks throughout the month!

Recipe

12″ x 12″ Hello World Page (more balanced)
Make It from Your Heart™ Vol. 2: Pattern 14
CC1064 My Acrylix® Happy Times, CC1063 Happy Times Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5760 Cotton Candy Cardstock, Z2193 Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2128 Hollyhock Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2650 Fern Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2012 Sequins Gold Assortment, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection

Cricut® Shape:
Artbooking
2 ½” <HeloWrld> (p. 84)

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