February 4, 2020Celebrate, Create, Inspiration

Galentines with Aimee Ferre!

Close To My HeartAimee Ferre, air mail, care package, DIY, folk-art, fries before guys, Galentine, handcraft, heart box, love, snail mail, treat box, valentine 3 Comments

Today’s post is written by the talented, handcrafted lifestyle expert, Aimee Ferre! Follow along as she shares her unique designs and style while creating a beautiful gift for a special gal in her life. <3

During the cold month of January, with cloudy and dark skies, I start feeling restless for brighter and warmer days. Just when I think I can’t take one more day of gloom, February peeks her head around the corner and offers feminine shades of pink and red for Valentine’s Day. The love and sweets that she offers act as a “hold me over” until spring returns. I do love Valentine’s Day, but I have to admit, I love Galentine’s Day even more!

One of my favorite gal pals lives several hundred miles away. Her marriage last year took her all the way to Los Angeles to finish schooling. It’s my daughter Elsa. Now as an adult, she is a favorite gal pal even though we are so far apart.

When my three daughters were little, I always had “Cupid” come and bring them valentines and sweets in handmade boxes and fabric bags. It’s become a tradition I don’t want to ever let go of, no matter how old they are. So, this year, I thought of designing a beautiful care package to ship off, and not just in a red, white, and blue Priority Box from the United States Postal Service.

I want to send something like we sing about in the My Favorite Things song, “brown paper packages tied up with strings.” That’s what I was going for, with the addition of sweet ink stampings covering the outside of the box, giving a hint of the treasures that could be inside. I couldn’t wait to begin designing Elsa’s Galentine’s package with my Close To My Heart stamp sets!

My Acrylix^® Snail Mail by Aimee Ferre:

My Acrylix^® Air Mail by Aimee Ferre:(Outlined images coordinate with Thin Cuts metal dies.)

I am drawn to the large heart candy boxes of yesteryear with the oversized satin bows. For the past several years, I’ve made variations of these candy boxes for girlfriends. Sometimes I’ve hosted a swap where we all bring items to exchange and put in the heart boxes, and some years I provide the treasures inside. This year, I loved the way I could really embellish and personalize the heart boxes, the stationery, and even the shipping boxes using the Close To My Heart stamps and Thin Cuts paired with a few other materials.

This air mail sparrow card used Mint, White, and Ballerina cardstock. I stamped the designs with Glacier, Candy Apple, and Smoothie Exclusive Inks™. I glued Julep sequins pieces inside the stamped hearts and on top of the “cloud.” The cloud was made from a small sampling of loose quilt batting that was then machine sewn on using a straight stitch all the way around the edges of the cloud. I used 3-D foam tape to stick on the air mail sparrow. The envelope was sealed with the “Sealed with a Kiss” heart that was hand trimmed and glued halfway onto the envelope flap.

I found a 12″ heart box from the local craft store made of brown paper mâché and a smaller paper mâché heart box perfect for a bag of favorite candies or small jewelry piece. (You could also recycle any commercially made heart candy box.

Using a good quality paint that has primer included in the mix, I painted 2-3 coats on each box. Hardware stores now offer sample paint containers of whatever color you want for a few dollars, so I chose a color that went well with the Close To My Heart exclusive colors I planned on using: Ballerina, Glacier, Candy Apple, and Smoothie.

On the smaller heart box, I stamped the two leaf sprig stamps from the Air Mail by Aimee Ferre set directly on the box. I love that the banner in this stamp set is left blank to hand letter a recipient’s name or a sentiment inside. I stamped the banner in Candy Apple red, used the coordinating Thin Cuts metal die to cut the shape out, and attached it to the box with 3-D foam tape.

Once my large box had a base coat, using coordinating colors, I freehand painted some simple folk-art designs on the lid. To beautify the inside, I lined the box with parchment paper.

Every Valentine’s Day, I bake my famous fortune cookies dipped in chocolate to share with friends and family. I knew Elsa would feel close to home if I baked her a few to include inside along with some favorite candies of dark chocolate truffles, peppermint white chocolate pretzels, and, her favorite, sour gummy hearts.

I painted the rims of plain white paper baking cups with watercolors and stamped the bottoms using various designs from the Air Mail by Aimee Ferre and Snail Mail by Aimee Ferre stamp sets. Some of the cups I trimmed off a half inch to create a layered tutu look when nested inside each other. I even machine stitched a couple cups together at the bottom using coordinating thread.

I nested cellophane bags of sweets in the paper baking cups. Once the box was filled, I tied it up with a red and white striped ribbon. Using the scalloped heart stamp that coordinates with one of the Thin Cuts dies, I created a gift tag and tied it to the box.

Plain white or brown shipping boxes can be decorated as well. Make opening the package part of the excitement and experience of receiving their package. Measure the rectangular box flaps on the side that you plan to put the address label on, and then cut 4 sheets of cardstock one inch smaller all the way around to mount on each of the inside box flaps. It makes opening up the package a fun surprise!

You could write personal messages, poems about friendship and love, write memories or sweet sentiments on each of the flaps. You could even include fun photographs. I used a mix of hand painted folk-art designs and hand stamped artwork from both of the Aimee Ferre stamp sets to decorate the flaps.

I love the 3 small parallelogram stamps that are used to create the “Air Mail” border. Space them out carefully. I used Candy Apple and Glacier ink as the coordinating colors to create this border.

Brown paper packages, sweet treats, and hearts can all say, “fries before guys” to those gal pals that are some of the sweetest relationships in your life. I hope you find yourself thinking of those powerful women who influence your life for the better, and then create something special for them that will keep them close to your heart.

Hugs, Aimee Ferre

Hanukkah Dreidel Crafts & Decorations

Close To My HeartCelebrate, cricut, Design Space, dreidel, garland, hanukkah, Holiday, Jewish, lantern, light, mazel tov, place cards, shalom, treat box 31 Comments

From party favors and festive decorations to beautiful handmade cards, we’ve got a few dreidel-inspired crafts for you today that are sure to be a hit!

During many Hanukkah celebrations, it’s common for families and friends to gather together and share a meal. If a dinner party is on your schedule, these stunning place cards are an easy way to add a quick touch of elegance to your evening. Impress your guests by pairing The Lights of Hanukkah stamp set with some silver tinsel embossing powder, and by the end of the night they can have a meaningful memento to take home!

Simply decide on the card size, and select a few cardstock colors you’d like to layer, stamp and emboss, and voila! You’ve created a beautifully elegant piece of personalized artwork for your guests to treasure, even after the celebrations are over!

For our next two projects, we kicked things up a notch to 3-D papercrafting and created a gorgeous dreidel-inspired garland and treat box that are a great way to include some unique flair to your Hanukkah festivities! To make these two projects even easier, our talented artists put together this Cricut Design Space™ file for you to use to recreate them.

To string the cardstock dreidels into a garland, poke small holes at the base of the dreidel posts, thread a long piece of silver embellishing thread through them, and use a glue pen to hold the dreidels in place. This way, you can maintain the spacing on your dreidels and still keep it simple.

Since Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, we wanted our dreidels to act as miniature lanterns, so we covered the cut-out parts of our dreidels with vellum paper. While the light does not shine directly through the vellum, it does reflect and amplify the light that hits the small dreidel lanterns. To maximize this effect, we recommend displaying your garland with a string of lights, turning it into a truly breathtaking home décor piece.

This treat box is a fun way to delight your guests and give them a little something sweet after supper.

By creating a 3-D dreidel with a removable lid, you are left with a treat box your friends and family are sure to love! Complete the surprise by filling it with mints, chocolate, or any of your favorite candies.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look into our dreidel-inspired crafts today. To continue the celebration, we want to give away The Lights of Hanukkah stamp set to three lucky readers!

For a chance to win, subscribe to this blog and leave us a comment below telling us what your favorite holiday tradition is (for any holiday). Winners will be chosen by noon Thursday, December 5 (MST), and will be notified via email. Good luck! <3

Recipes:

4″ x 3″ Place Cards
B1684 My Acrylix® The Lights of Hanukkah Stamp Set, X6039 Carolina Cardstock, X5957 Sapphire Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6505 Carolina Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2848 Sapphire Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, Z1799 Silver Shimmer Trim, Z4248 Silver Tinsel Embossing Powder, Z4220 Anti-static Pouch, Z4252 Heat Tool, Z3548 Embossing Ink Pens, Z4100 Multicolor Small Brush Pen Set

Dreidel Garland
X6039 Carolina Cardstock, X5957 Sapphire Cardstock, Z3367 Vellum Paper, Z4213 Silver Embellishing Thread, Z3440 Dual-tip Permanent Glue Pen, Z3547 Piercing Tool

Dreidel Treat Box
X6039 Carolina Cardstock, Z3366 Silver Foil Paper, Z4196 White Ribbon, Z3440 Dual-tip Permanent Glue Pen

Easy Ways to Dress Up Halloween Treats!

Close To My Heartgift, gift tags, Halloween, spooktacular, treat bag, treat box, treats, trick or treat 3 Comments

Halloween is creeping up on us, and if you’re not ready for it, things could get scary fast! If you still have a few treats to prepare, perhaps for your friends, coworkers, or those special kiddos in your life, we have three quick and easy ways to help you dress them up!

Let’s begin with tags.

Large tags are an easy way to turn a treat into something even more special. This spooktacular 3″ x 4″ tag is one of six tags featured in our Spooktacular Halloween workshop. These simple but adorable tags come together with just a few pieces of paper, a little bit of stamping, and some markers. For complete step-by-step instructions, click here to view the Spooktacular Workshop Guide (no purchase necessary 🙂 ).

Some of us are a bit busier than others and want something that comes together even more quickly than a handcrafted tag. How does a ready-made container from one of our incredible Cricut^® collections sound?

Boo-tiful little treat boxes, like this one, take minutes to cut, assemble, and embellish. If you’re looking for that handcrafted experience—for yourself and the recipient of the treat—then the Artiste collection is a great place to get started. (Visit Accessing All 13 Close To My Heart Cricut^® Collections for information on how to gain access to this and other great shapes.)

This last treat dress-up we have to share with you is intended for those extra-special treats that you enjoy giving out. How many of you have special little trick-or-treaters that either start their evening or end their night with a knock at your door? It’s pretty common to make something with a little bit more love for these special little ones.

Whatever it is you’re giving-out as a treat, a decorated paper giftbag can usually carry it.

If you want to keep the treat concealed to add to the element of surprise, let us show you how to make a removable lid for a paper bag of any size.

First, determine the size of giftbag your treat(s) will require. Decorate the front of your bag as much as you like, but keep in mind that the top 2″ will be covered by the lid.

To make the lid….

Measure the size of the bag’s base. The bag pictured here has a 5¼” x 3″ base.
Using a piece of paper that is large enough, measure and cut a rectangle that is 3″ wider and 3″ longer than the base of your bag. For our bag, we cut an 8¼” x 6″ piece.
With a bonefolder, score your paper 1½” from the edges. Use the following image as a guide:
Insert your paper vertically into your paper trimmer, and cut along the score lines, leaving about ¾” uncut in all inside corners.
Fold along the score lines to create the lid shape and glue the corners.
Once your lid is assembled, add any embellishments that you’d like! We kept it simple and added nothing more than a zip strip along the bottom. When you’re done, fill your giftbag and slide the lid on.