It's a Pajama Party

Join Stacey Julian as she creates this beautiful layout using Close to My Heart's newest cricut cartridge - Artbooking. 

This is a free scrapbooking class that starts in about 20 minutes.  Don't worry if you can't make it tonight - you can always look back on later but it's always more fun with friends!

Click here now to register and participate!

Thank you cards Plus a storage idea...

OK, so here are the last of the thank you cards that I made for my husband.


This one was made with our retired Aspen papers. Very simple. I just did a color block pattern using our Originals Card Idea Book (love that book).  Quick side note - the Originals Card Idea Book (#9030) and our other beautiful Idea Books have been retired but are being brought back beginning August 1st!!! WOOHOO!!  They will be a more affordable soft cover and spiral bound book.  These books are AWESOME!!!  Sketches of cards and layouts from the wonderful founder of Close to My Heart, Jeanette Lynton. These sketches are the foundation to the layouts and cards I make.   Ok back to the card :). I added a simple tag with the word Thanks stamped inside and "hung" a couple pieces of scrap ribbon from the tag. Buttons completed the card for a little more accent and pop.

 This second card was used with our Buzz and Bumble papers. I love these papers. I recently completed an entire heritage album with these papers!  The colors lend themselves for a heritage look but also with a pop of color from Sunset making it absolutely beautiful! Here on this card I just added two strips of B&T paper (patterned paper) going down the card with a zip strip between the papers. On top of the Zip strip I added a piece of colonial white zig-zag ribbon.  For a change, I took my square sentiment box and turned it at an angle and stamped my sentiment inside. The flower is a stamped image from the Buzz & Bumble Workshop on the Go stamp set, colored in with our Sunset Alcohol markers and a few Basic Opaque Pearl Gems inside.  To complete the card I added two cocoa ribbon pieces at the bottom of the card with Colonial White buttons and our Baker's Twine Harvest Assortment stitched in the buttons.

This card was made very simple as I knew there was one or two people in his office who don't like "all the extras". I used some of our older and retired papers and cut a the sentiment box from our Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  Added a piece of Coca ribbon, a 3D Foam piece behind the sentiment box and walla - done!  Easy- Peasy!

This last card was created using one of our retired clear cards.  I love these cards but it is hard to show what I did through the picture.  I will do my best to explain. The card itself is completely clear so you have to build the card out knowing you are going to see all sides of the card.  I love our B&T papers for this because their is a pattern on both sides so their is never a boring side to see :).  On this card I used our For Always papers as the base. I used the paper on the inside base of the card with a zip-strip (the little strip at the top of our B&T papers that has a pattern to use for a border on one side and the other side has the name of the paper pack and colors in the pack used) at the bottom of the B&T paper. Then a piece of sky cardstock at the very bottom of the inside base. On the sky cardstock I stamped the thank-you sentiment.   This repeated thank you and the other thank you sentiments on the other cards were stamped using the Thank you stamped set.  On the top flap of the card I just cut out a 3x3 white daisy sentiment box and backed it with some sky cardstock.  I stamped out the world Thank with our alphabet stamps - I love that they are clear and I can see exactly where I stamp the letters for perfect alignment.   For the "u" I used one of our dimensional element u's and rubbed it in our sky inkpad and attached it with our liquid glass adhesive - love that stuff too!  Best adhesive ever!!!   Then I just added a little black ribbon and sparkle button for a final touch at the top of the sentiment box.  Directly under the sentiment box on the inside of the card, I added a white daisy journaling square to write a small note to the recipient.  Even though the card is clear,  because I put it directly under the sentiment box on the top of the card, you can't see the journaling box until you open the card.

Our clear cards came with clear acetate envelopes too so I just added another small piece of the zip strip to the envelope flap to tie it all together.

So, there are all the cards I made for my husbands Ukrainian trip. I hope you liked them!

Before I say goodbye though, I wanted to show you this wonderful idea that was share with me recently by another consultant - Tina Sutton.  I don't know about you but I attend a lot of crops and retreats and like to take with me as much as I can for my events so I never feel like I am needing something that I have at home but don't have it with me.  Close to My Heart carries these fabulous stackable plastic organizers to keep everything together and I love them!  

Here is a picture of our large organizer:
 You can fit up to 40 stamp set in it for quick pick up and go and great storage.  Here is the medium storage organizer:




This holds our ink pads, embellishments, and so much more.  The dividers are removable for larger openings inside for even great versatility.  OK, so I love these but what makes them even better is our Exclusive Inks Storage Case.

This case can actually hold one large organizer or our medium and our small organizer together for quick and easy carrying to crops and retreats.
 



Love this!!!  So quick and easy to go.  However, these cases are retired and will sell out quickly so if you like this idea for quick packing and easy carrying - get yours now!

Thank you cards take 2

Here are a couple more cards that I created for the sponsor of my husband's mission trip to the Ukraine.

This first card, I have have shown before but I made a few changes to it.  If you remember this is our Avonlea papers that are currently available.  This card was made using one simple cut from the Artiste Cricut Cartridge.  It folds up in half allowing a note or gift card to be tucked inside.  To make this card a little different, instead of using silver shimmer trip, I used our soon to be released bronze shimmer trim and an Antique Copper Designer Brad in the center of the flower at the top where the card closes. To embellish the envelope, I simple added a strip of paper to the bottom of the closer and added an adhesive backed badge button from the Wrangler assortment.

This second card was used with our retired Cherry-O papers and embellishments.  I made the Chocolate and Ruby cardstock scalloped borders with our corner rounder by taking off the guide and putting the paper flat in the punch instead the corner. We have a new corner rounder punch and a new scalloped border punch coming out in our new Fall and Winter Catalog on August 1st so check back soon to see them.  The new corner rounder will make a more wavy look while the scallop punch will give you more of the look shown here.  If you already have a corner rounder, give this a technique a try in the mean time.  The Thanks a Bunch was stamped using our Thank You stamp set.

This final card I will show you today was made with our current Chantilly papers. I cut two small strips of paper and dove-tailed the ends to make them look like ribbon. I again stamped the sentiment using the Thank You stamp set.  For embellishments, I used a butterfly from our Just Bloom Flutter Paper Shapes.  I love these because you can sponge ink on them for a soft subtle look, rub them in ink for a much brighter look or leave them as they are and they are simple and beautiful too.   I rubbed a little cotton candy ink on the corners of my butterfly to help it stand out a little and put a 3D foam  under it too for added dimension..  Below the butterfly I cut off a small flourish to give a little sparkle and have it look like the trail of the flying butterfly. As a final touch, I added sparkles and Pink Glitter Gems to give the card a final pop.

I hope you liked the cards.  In the next couple days I will post the final cards I made so keep checking back.

Thank You Cards

In my last post I told you that my husband traveled to the Ukraine for a missions trip.  We were asked and he left for Ukraine all in the time frame of only one month!  Because this wasn't something we had anticipated we had to raise support for his trip.   This trip meant so much to us and we really wanted to show everyone our appreciation. I didn't feel like a simple store bought card was enough so I went to work on some handmade cards.  I keep a box of left over scraps of papers from all my workshops to make cards from.  Needless to say, I don't get to make many cards due to time constraints so my box was overflowing and gave me plenty of options :).  Many of these papers are retired, some are not, but I think they all turned out well.  What do you think?

This first card, I made with just a simple white card base from our value pack and stamped the chevron pattern from the In the Background stamp set with Honey ink three times in the middle of the card. I then placed a simple lagoon strip of cardstock in the middle with a large White Daisy Paper Flower in the center. In the middle of the flower, I used one of our Irresistible flowers, colored with honey.  I love our Irresistibles because there is always a resist pattern on them that will not allow the color to be picked up giving you a dimensional look that was easy-peasy.   On top of that, I added a lagoon flower from the For Always Accents.  The sentiment "Sincere Thanks" was stamped using the Card Chatter - Sympathy stamp set.

I also wanted to dress up the envelope so I simply added another Chevron stamp, this time stamped in lagoon.  You can see the envelope peaking through behind the card.

 If you like the look of the Irresistibles, watch this video that Close to My Heart recently made, showing you some other wonderful things that can be done with them.



During the next couple days, I will give you a close up view of the other cards as well.  Keep checking back!

Close to My Heart Textiles in Ukraine?

Last month as I was preparing for convention in Disney, my daughter made some cute Mickey ears for me to wear for one of the events.  I showed the picture of the ears in a earlier post but the use of the Mickey ears did not end in FL. My husband recently went on a missions trip to the Ukraine with Mercy's Hope to do a summer camp with children from the local orphanages.  They were having a Disney themed night so we sent our Mickey ears with him to be used somehow. 

While he was there he totally connected with two sweet girls.  Here is Sonja with the Mickey ears. 

She reminded him of our youngest daughter  - smile, heart and fiestiness and all!   She was so excited to get and keep the mickey ears and he was so happy to be able to bless her with them!  It's nice to see how something so simple that we create with our scraps can come to bless others all over the world.

 

You Are Welcome Here!!!

Give Close to My Heart a try if you haven't already.  Check out my website to see all our great items or to sign up to join my team! 

Just a quick card

I thought I would share with you this  quick card I made with our retired Miracle papers.  I don't know about you but I always have some paper left over from my layouts and I like to try and use them for quick cards.  I am needing a lot of cards these next few weeks so expect to see some postings of them.  :-) 

This card will be for a dear friend who just lost her best friend.  Sometimes we don't understand but God is always there.   I would love to see some of your card creations too!

One of my favorite gifts

I thought I would show off one of my favorite gifts that I received at  convention  this year -this cute handmade wall hanging.  My roommate, Gina Brandstetter, made this for me.  I absolutely love it!

She used a spare  page from our retired mix-n-mingle kit, but you could easily create it from a page in the My Creations Bookmark Album (z1740).  She  covered the chipboard page with a sheet of b&t paper from the For Always paper pack and stamped random words on a piece of black cardstock with our White Daisy pigment ink, stamping twice a little off balance the second times to create a dimensional look.  For the bottom part, she used our For Always textiles (z1820) and did a simple hand stitch through the fabric so it would gather.  She adhered it to the chipboard with Liquid Glass (z679) - I love this stuff. At the top, she used some simple Black Tulle Ribbon (z1798) to created a hanger and added some Filigree Charms (z1269) as decoration.   It's absolutely beautiful and so simple to do.  In fact, using all the pages in a My Creations Bookmark Album would make several quick gifts. 

She will be greatly missed!

Yesterday the world lost a wonderful, hilarious, strong, spunky, always going woman - Barbara Stephens.  Barbara had been fighting cancer but was doing great.  She recently went to California to spend some time with her daughter and collapsed.  We still aren't exactly sure what happened but we do know that she left this earth for a much more wonderful place - heaven!

Barbara, who always kept us laughing (ok - really rolling) at all our events and retreats, will be greatly missed.  Especially by her best friend of 40 years, Cynthia.  Affectionately referred to as Thelma and Louise, Thelma will miss her Louise greatly.

Louise (aka Barbara) in the pink and Thelma (aka Cynthia) in the black

We will miss Barbara but know that we will see her one day soon. Until then, the angels will be busy with her. :)

Please pray for Barbara's family as well as Cynthia's family as they journey forward without her.

Happy Independence Day!

I hope you have had a wonderful July 4th, celebrating with friends and family our independence.   We have been busy readying my husband for a missions trip to the Ukraine which has definitely made us think of our freedoms a little more often.

From our home to yours - Happy Independence Day!

  

Last Day of Convention!

Whew!  What a long and exciting week.  It is so hard to believe that convention is over but I feel like I need a week long nap.  Not going to happen of course.   

Convention really was amazing!  On our last day, we had all morning creative sessions and then a Q&A with Jeannette herself.  During the creative sessions we were given supplies to make 10 super cute cards and our new Base & Bling workshop kit to create some new wearable art jewelry.  Now, I know this doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with scrapbooking or cardmaking but we make these beautiful embellishments for our cards and layouts, so why not carry them over and use them on some jewelry or gift giving items!  We had so much fun creating and it really is cute, inexpensive and fun to do.  I may even have a workshop to do more with all of you.  E-mail me if your interested.

We were also given a special paper pack and stamp set to commemorate the convention.  We usually get a stamp set but this was the first year we have ever received a matching paper pack – how fun!  Remember how I said our theme was Viva!, well, I thought they carried the theme well over to the papers and stamps.  Here is what we received.  I can’t wait to get my pictures developed and show you how the layouts looked in the end – cccuuuuutte.

During the Q&A, it was so wonderful to hear her talk about her love of Close to My Heart and her love for God.  She was quick to point out that her Heavenly Father is the most important person to her and because of that, how he has blessed her through CTMH.  You don’t hear CEO’s say that very often anymore but how refreshing when they do.  It reconfirmed that I am definitely at the right company.  I love Close To My Heart!!! 

That’s all for now but I can’t wait to tell you all about our brand new Cricut cartridge that will totally revolutionize the way you scrapbook.  It is amazing!!!  Keep checking back for more details coming soon!