The New Annual Inspirations is HERE!

It's here! It's here! Close To My Heart's new Annual Inspirations catalog is here! And guess what, there are a TON of new products in there that you are going to LOVE!

First of all, how gorgeous is that cover? It's a sneak peak into the new Cricut Flower Market Collection! And, one of my favorite things CTMH thought of is that you can now purchase it two different ways...by physical cartridge or through an online code (saving you $20!). This brand new Cricut collections features blooms and blossoms for every season of life, two gorgeous fonts and themed shapes perfect for holidays, cardmaking and scrapbooking...a total of 700 images!

Don't you just love CTMH's themed My Reflections papers? Me, too! But, guess what, they aren't in this catalog. Now, before you go freaking out, don't worry, they'll be plenty of those themed collections in all of our supplemental Holiday and Seasonal Expressions catalogs. So, CTMH  instead created three Fundamental Creative Collections and another four Basics Fundamentals Creative Collections. Each of the Fundamental Creative Collections (Whimsy, Adventure and Enchantment...to coordinate with our exclusive color palette) contain 24 - 12x12 sheets (2 of each 12 double-sided designs). They coordinate beautifully with ribbon and themed Complements that make completing cohesive projects easier than ever. You can use these paper collections to create layouts that coordinate with all of your photos and memory keeping projects!

Adventure Fundamentals Layout

Okay, I can't give away all of the Annual Inspirations secrets in one blog post. But, there's one more I just must share. It's the new Color of the Year...SEA GLASS! You're going to want to include this trendy color in all of your layouts this year. Luckily, you can get Sea Glass in a stamp pad, re-inker, cardstock, mini pigment pad and my favorite, glitter paper!

Check back often on my blog for artwork and information on specials and more new products!

October SOTM Blog Hop - Twinkle

Welcome to the Twinkle Blog Hop! Thanks for coming from Michelle Battitori's blog.

This set of 15 stamps is a must have for your holiday collection. And, that star circle border, hand drawn doodle and frame will be useful for lots of cards and layouts. Our blog hop is a big circle of 47 consultants. Enjoy the artwork as you hop around!

Supplies used:

• White Pines Paper Packet, X7200B
• Gold Glitter Paper, Z3076
• Glacier Fundamentals Assortment, Z3102
• Glacier Ink, Z2641
• Cranberry Ink, Z2116
• Champagne Ink, Z2174
• CTMH Cricut Artiste Cartridge, Z3170

Now head over to Maureen OSullivan's blog to see her creativity with Twinkle!

Fall Plate

I love making vinyl decorated plates to celebrate the seasons and holidays. I made this one for my lovely mom for her entryway. So quick and simple to do using my Cricut Expression!

With Deepest Sympathy Card and Video

When we need a sympathy card, we often don't have time to run to the store or feel like creating a card when we're sad. I like to keep several sympathy cards on hand for those reasons.

Here's a quick, but sweet, card you can create using the CTMH Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge and a few other supplies.

I made a quick video to show how to use our ShinHan Touch Twin Markers to create the "Monet-like" flowers.

Black "With Deepest Sympathy" sentiment card cut at 4.25" pressing the Sentiment, Shift, and "T" key. I trimmed it to 4" long and left it at 5.5" wide. I added a piece of 8.5" x 5.5" Hollyhock cardstock, scored down the middle for the card base (sorry, I think I said Sorbet in the video, but it's Hollyhock!).

You can choose how large and how "muddled" to make your circles.

Inside sentiment

Supplies used:

• CTMH Cricut Artfully Sent Cartridge, Z3168
• Hollyhock Cardstock, 1246
• Black Cardstock, 1386
• Scrap of White Cardstock, 1385
• ShinHan Touch Twin Markers, in:
• P282, Peony Purple, Z2462
• RP198, Tender Pink, Z2464
• R5, Cherry Pink, Z2450
• Colorless Blender Marker, Z2469
• Sincere Expressions Stamp Set, A1146
• Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad in Black, Z2105

Cricut Artistry Blog Hop

It's time for the latest CTMH Cricut cartridge reveal! Welcome to the Cricut Artistry Blog Hop, where you'll be inspired with all of the amazing projects you can create with the brand new Artistry Collection, exclusively from Close To My Heart!

Thanks for coming from the talented Jen Rubio's blog.

The Cricut Artistry Collection now comes with the Enchantment Cardstock Combo Pack (with seven new colors!) and three coordinating My Acrylix D-size Stamp Sets. All for just $99! Better still, you can get it half off by hosting a qualifying Gathering where you'll share CTMH's great products with your family and friends.

Last week, I was on the amazing island of Key Largo, vacationing with my family and friends. We had a blast! This photo of my sweet husband and I out at dinner one evening shows just how relaxed we felt.

To make this layout yourself, my Cricut Artistry cuts were:

• Background triangles in Whisper are Background on the <p> key, cut at 11.5" high (p. 20 of the booklet).
• Black cardstock background of "the Good Life" is Shape on the <y> key, cut at 2.6" high (p. 16 of the booklet).
• White Daisy cardstock "the Good Life" is Shift, Shape on the <Y> key, cut at 2.4" high (p. 16 of the booklet).
• Black cardstock background on the diamond title shapes is Shape on the <Father> key, cut at 1.94" high (p. 40 of the booklet).
• White Daisy cardstock diamond title shape is Layer on the <Father> key, cut at 1.73" high (p. 40 of the booklet).
• Pear font "key largo" was cut at a height of 0.93".

And, here's a list of all materials used:

• Cricut Artistry Collection, Z3167
• Zoe Paper Packet, X7197B
• White Daisy Cardstock, 1385
• Whisper Cardstock, X5929
• Black Cardstock, 1386
• Pear Cardstock, X5764
• Black Shimmer Trim, Z1809
• Zoe Assortment, Z3082
• Baker's Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment, Z1921 
• Aqua Dots, Z1853

Head on over to Lauren Moore's blog to see her fantastic Cricut Artistry creation!

CTMH Cricut Artfully Sent Blog Hop

Welcome to the Close To My Heart Artfully Sent Blog Hop. Thank you for hopping over from Wendy's Blog. If you get lost along the way, click here for a complete list of participants.

CTMH's latest Cricut cartridge, Artfully Sent, is full of 700 images that when combined, allow you to make 400 projects. You'll never get bored with this cartridge! This cart is made for card makers with pop-ups, scenes, sentiments, sleeves and pocket card styles. But, you can also change the sizes to make cute additions to your layouts. Oh, and did I mention an alphabet and envelope making abilities? Yep, you gotta put this on your Christmas list!

I wanted to show that you can make a gift card holder in five minutes. The B&T paper is from Wanderful and I used some scraps of White Daisy and Cotton Candy Cardstock. The sentiment comes from one of the coordinating stamp sets that you get with this cartridge and is stamped in Crystal Blue Ink. I just added a little bling with Flamingo Dots, Gold Shimmer Trim and Pink Shimmer Trim.

Be sure to visit all of the blogs on this hop for some creative inspiration. Next up is Beth's Blog.

Remember, you can only get the Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge from your Close To My Heart Independent Consultant. Click here for more information or to buy it now!

November Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - It's the Little Things

Welcome to the Close To My Heart November Stamp of the Month, It's the Little Things, Blog  Hop. I appreciate you hopping over from Lela's Blog. For a complete list of hoppers, go here.


I made a little gift bag using my awesome Cricut Artiste cartridge. Then, I put my stamping and scissors to work with the little flowers. I layered the Thin 3-D Foam Tape to create different layers of dimension to the flowers, added some washi tape and sparkles and voila! Simple and cute homemade gift bag.

Side view to show dimension

Supplies Used (all CTMH)

• CTMH Artiste cartridge, Z1790 (Select 3D Object, <Noel>,
  Fit to Page) page 79 of the Artiste book
• Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape, Z2004
• Chalk It Up Paper Packet, X7184B
• Lagoon Ink, Z2195
• Flaxen Ink, Z2642
• Sorbet Ink, Z2164
• Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Z2060
• Mini Clothes Pin, Z1815
• Sparkles Clear Flourishes - Small, Z1812
• Bitty Sparkles, Z1263

This It's the Little Things Stamp Set is going to get so much use with it's whimsical flowers and sentiments.  Remember, you can only get this set in November and it's just $5 with your $50 purchase on my CTMH website.

Be sure to visit all of the blogs on this hop for some creative inspiration. Next up is Nancy's Blog.

October Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Home for the Holidays

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring October's SOTM,  Home for the Holidays, a set of seven stamps.  If you have come here from Traci Godbee's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog: http://ifyoublingit.blogspot.com/p/stamp-of-month-blog-hop-list.html.

This month we have 73 (73!) Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one.

I made this simple card after seeing something similar on Pinterest. I love the combination of spray pen technique and washi tape. It creates such a simple, but fun, card. Home for the Holidays coordinates with the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, which makes cutting out the postage stamp so easy.

Now "Hop" on over to Krista Ritskes's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the October SOTM is only available until the 31st!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount!

CTMH Cricut Artfully Sent Collection

Congratulations! You've made it through the summer! Perhaps you have a little more time for YOU now...time to meet friends for lunch, to workout, to catch up on correspondence and to reach out to friends and family you've been missing.

Close To My Heart has a fantastic new product to help you with that last endeavor...the Cricut Artfully Sent Collection! This fabulous collection will be coming in early to mid September and only from your Close To My Heart Independent Consultant (that's me!). Like all of our Cricut Collections, you'll get three stamp sets that coordinate with the Cricut cartridge.

CTMH Cricut Artfully Sent Collection

Here's a sneak peak at a few cards I made at CTMH Convention this June, using the new Cricut Artfully Sent Collection.

Outside of Card

Inside of Beautiful Day Card

With just a few embellishments and simple stamping, you can create stunning cards in just minutes. Contact me today so I can let you know as soon as this cartridge becomes available to order!

Timberline Scouting Layouts

My two Cub Scouts have just crossed over to Bear and Webelo II. We have an endless supply of photos from camping, Blue & Gold Banquets, Crossover events and multiple other Cub Scout activities to scrap. Yes, the photos are mostly still on my computer, but I hope to get them printed and added to these layouts soon, per the Cub Scout motto: Do Your Best.

I wish I could easily list all of the stamp sets I used, but I used about seven old CTMH ones that are now retired (but still favorites to this mom of two outdoorsy boys!). Current stamps and supplies I used include:

• Do Your Best, C1573
• Hopscotch Alphabet, E1028
• Flight of the Arrows, D1578
• Timberline Paper Packet, X7182B
• Timberline Complements, X7182C
• Timberline Assortment, Z3005
• Cricut Artiste, Z1790

April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Balloon Talk

Welcome to the April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring Close To My Heart's Balloon Talk stamp set. Thanks for visiting from Krista's blog. Balloon Talk is a set of 24 stamps with cute expressions and talking balloons you can use on a variety of layouts, cards or projects.

I was recently a vendor at a crop and made these cards for all of the crafters. Beate Johns' card (found on Pinterest) was my inspiration. The croppers loved their gift from me!

Products I used to complete the card (all Close To My Heart)

• Artiste Cricut Cartridge, Z1790 to cut the balloon at 1 1/2" Accent 2 <b> 
• Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Z1686 to cut the Kraft tag at 3 3/4" <Tag 4>
• Balloon Talk Stamp Set, only available in April 2014! S1404
• White Cards, X254
• Kraft Cardstock, Z1375
• White Daisy Cardstock, 1385
• Baker's Twine Paradise Assortment, Z1702
• Archival Black Ink (a must for crisp stamping!), 44751
• Flamingo Dots, Z1934
• Sparkles Clear Assortment, Z1752
• Washi Tape: 
• Lagoon Houndstooth, Z1950
• Honey Triangles, Z1931
• Smoothie Striped, Z1923
• Black Journaling Pen, Z1979
• Ruler, Z1471

Head on over to Michelle Johns' blog to see what crafty creation she's come up with! If you get lost along the way, click here for a complete list of participants.

ProPlayer Scrapbooking

Two active boys means lots of red, blue and black colors zipping around my house. I'd love to scrapbook pink, frilly things, but that's just not my life, and I'm pretty lucky so I'll deal!

ProPlayer is Close To My Heart's answer to my needs for boy paper. While these photos don't do the paper justice (my good camera's in the shop!), you can see how boy oriented, gamer, and fun these patterned papers are!

The first two layouts are part of the ProPlayer Workshop on the Go. The third layout is one I put together using the Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 pattern book inspired by Jeanette Lynton. I used Pattern 02. I just love CTMH's "How To" series of layouts and card patterns!

Artbooking - Star Happy Birthday Card

The new Artbooking cartridge from Close To My Heart is going to be my new go-to Cricut cartridge this fall.  I can't wait to try some of the amazing layouts they have ALREADY PROGRAMMED in for me (yes, they did is just for moi).

With major renovations going on in my house, it's been hard to find time for crafting.  But, with my dad's birthday a week in the past and a visit coming this weekend, I grabbed my Artbooking cartridge and spent five minutes (that's it, promise) cutting out a few things from the "happy" key to create this cute and simple card:

Scraps and a little Chevron ribbon (it comes in Cranberry now, too!), voila!  Card complete!

Six Weeks of Halloween, Week Four: Witch's Hat

What screams (or howls, cackles or growls) Halloween like a WITCH'S HAT?  To create this trendy hat this witch wouldn't mind wearing, I covered a premade craft paper witch's hat with Close To My Heart's Moonlight paper, added some Tulle Ribbon and a sparkly Cricut Art Philosophy flower.

 

 

I used the black and purple B&T Duo from the Moonlight Paper Packet (X7161B) and cut it into a circle using the Art Philosophy Cartridge (Z1686), at 10 1/4 inches.  I then cut out the interior of the circle by centering my Cricut blade over the middle of the circle and cut again at 4 3/4 inches.  Voila!  I had the perfect bottom of my witch's hat, which I adhered using Bonding Memories Glue (1512).  Then, I took another piece of the same paper and trimmed and swirled it around the cone of the hat.  There was a little bit of a gap between the two pieces, but that's what Tulle Ribbon is for!

Here's the messy part that I still haven't quite figured out.  The Black Tulle Ribbon (Z1798) kept slipping up the cone of the hat.  I tried Liquid Glass, Glue Dots and finally settled on hot glue to keep the tulle in place.  However, I held it too tightly while it dried in a few places, leaving a messy white glue mark (but it's in the back so you'd never know if I hadn't told you!).

Finally, I used the CAP Cartridge again to cut out that fabulous flower.  I think my all time favorite piece of paper is that black and white stripe from the Moonlight Paper Packet!  I used the Font key and cut out at 7 inches.  Then, I used another new favorite, the Quilling Tool (Z1795).  If you don't have one of these, they're a must! That flower took seconds to create!  A spray of adhesive (I used 3M) and then a sprinkle of Prisma Glitter (Z134) blinged it out!  A little Liquid Glass (Z679) held it perfectly in place.

If you like this project, join me next Wednesday for another Halloween creation!  And, I'd love to have you like my page on facebook. Everyone who likes my Scrappy Hour page before October 31st will be entered into a drawing for this Halloween mini album!

Art Philosophy Cricut® Collection

Close To My Heart read my mind and then went beyond anything I could imagine. They've added the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection to their repertoire of essentials in papercrafting. This amazing cartridge comes with 700 images and pairs with our clear acrylix stamps and chipboard die-cuts, a first in the industry! Simply plug the cartridge into your Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter machine and you can start creating everything from tags and borders, lace and 3-D flowers. Oh, and it can cut shaped cards and gift boxes, too. It's really phenomenal!

The Cricul Art Philosophy Collection will be available August 1st for $99. Here's what you get:

• Cricut Art Philosophy Collection cartridge
• instruction booklet
• three My Acrylix Stamp Sets that coordinate with the cartridge
• three sets of Dimensional Elements that also coordinate

Want to get the cartridge at a discount? Place an order of $150 or more and CTMH now offers you Hostess Rewards. Just add a few other items and earn $25 in rewards. Or, host a show with at least $250 in sales and you'll get the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection cartridge half off and earn $40 in rewards! Or, do what I do! Become a consultant and purchase it at a discount.

I'd love to talk with you more about the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection. Better yet, stop by for a demonstration and to play with it yourself!

Check out this video from CTMH to see what it's all about: