Exciting Changes coming to your Craft with Heart Subscription

 

I am so excited to tell you about some of the amazing changes CTMH is making to their Scrapbooking and Cardmaking Subscription programs called Craft with Heart. If you have never heard of their Craft with Heart program, let me tell you a little about it. 

A few years ago, Close to My Heart came out with a subscription program with beautiful layouts and/or card kits that had everything included for you to create, including full-color instructions, die cuts, base pages, etc. All you need is adhesive and a journaling pen. Each kit is beautiful and looks intricate while actually being super simple to put together (layouts take an average of 30 minutes to complete and cards 5 minutes each to complete).  You had the option of receiving a box monthly or every 4 months and they gave you the option of signing up for a month, every 4 months or annual payments.  With each tier there were incentives to help save money - the 4-month kit and annual payment plan were discounted, as well as, the annual subscribers received FREE shipping and 30 FREE prints at Persnickety Prints per shipment. 

 Here is a sampling of the current Craft with Heart kits.

Scrapbooking: receive 2 layouts for each month, or 8 layouts per each 4-month shipment

 

Cardmaking:Receive 24 cards (2 of each design) in each 4-month shipment.

CTMH has seen such an amazing response to customers purchasing the 4-month and annual subscriptions that they have decided to discontinue the monthly subscription, because, really, who wants to pay full price when you can get the kits at a discount and are now offering even more perks to those participating in the annual subscription.

Beginning September 1st when you sign up for a annual subscription or renew your subscription for either the Scrapbooking or Cardmaking Craft with Heart program you will now receive a FREE stamp with your subscription box.  

The scrapbooking stamp set is perfect for sayings to highlight your pictures and help tell your story of the events in the pictures. 

The Cardmaking stamp  set is a perfect addition to stamp your envelopes or the back of your cards. 

PLUS: 

• Now when you sign up or renew your subscription you EARN V.I.P. Credit on your subscription. Credits can not be used towards your subscription but they do earn you credits - that is 15% of the cost of your subscription to be used on future Close to My Heart orders!!!
• The amount paid for a Craft with Heart™ subscription on each order counts toward earning the Stamp of the Month at a discount or free for VIP's

If you haven't tried the Craft with Heart subscription programs, I highly encourage you to.  They super cute and a fun way to receive quality scrapbooking or cardmaking supplies at your door  3 times a year that will help you preserve your memories, faster, simpler and easier then ever before.  Head on over to my website to see the next layouts being shipped in the September subscription box.  And as always -

Happy Scrappin',

Heather

Scrapbooking to the 50’s

What do you do when you never get to scrapbook, you finally decide you are going to start and complete a layout, you pick the pictures and then realize that you don’t have a clue what paper you can use to create the layout?  You panic, set the pictures aside and say I guess I won’t be scrapbooking these this time.  Actually, I hope that’s not what you do. The correct answer is... get creative.

About this time last year, my two oldest children attended their homeschool formal - you know it’s time to scrapbook the event when the next one is almost here. It was such a fun theme and I couldn’t wait to scrapbook the pictures accept life kept coming and my scrapbook time seemed to get shorter and shorter. Two weeks ago I finally decided it was time. Time to take some time for me. Time to have some fun and scrapbook. Time to tackle over 100 pictures and try to keep those pictures to one to two double page layouts. Scrapbookers are infamous for taking way more pictures then we will ever be able to use but we don’t want to miss a thing (I’m proud to be a scrapbooker 😁).

The theme of the formal was Shake, Rattle and Roll. Lots of 50’s themed items were brought in, including a couple cars and trucks. I admit I spent quite a bit of time looking through my stash of papers looking for 50’s themed paper but came up empty. Then I changed my mindset and thought if I could find just one piece of patterned paper that looked like it was from that era then I could supplement the rest with card stock.  I was excited to find one piece of argyle paper with colors that would work from our Cruisin’ My Reflections paper pack from 2012! See, this is why it is so important that we have a stash of paper to go through for our layouts. You have my permission to tell your husbands I said so.  Please feel free to give him access to my website so he can buy you more paper but make sure you don’t give him my phone number to call and complain about the size of your stash😃.

I had to be creative with my embellishments, cardstock, cricut but ended up pleased with my final layout. So after all that yappin’, let me show you what I came up with.

On the left page, you can see where I added a Pocket Plus page  in order to add more photos to the layout. I would normally tell you to separate pictures with a journaling card or embellishment piece in the Pocket Plus page but I had too little paper and too many pictures to follow the “rules”.

Here’s the layout with the Pocket plus page turned over and a white frame overlay added to my middle picture. Again, just another way to break up the constant look of pictures and add interest and definition.

Here I add a piece of paper from our retired Basics Paper Fundamental pack.  To add in more pink to the layout and match my daughter's dress, I highlighted the words "love life" with the Watercolor Paints and this years color of the year color - Bashful. The cardstock colors and Crusin' papers are a little dark so to lighten them up and help draw out my daughter in the photos I added small accents of bashful throughout the layout.

If you look closely below the watercolored words you can see where I took some old, retired page protectors from our 4x4 mini albums and created a small mini album of sorts on my layout. If I had our 4x4 flip flaps in arms reach I would have used them instead but this was a great way for me to use up some of my retired items so I just went with it.

 I used some of our large, retired brads to hold all the pages together. By doing this I was able to add even more pictures without overwhelming the whole layout.

Other then cardstock everything, including my stamps were from my scraps or retired items. I love that I was able to put this layout together with items I already had (which incidentally helps me make room for more, new supplies- yay!)

I hope you are able to craft this week and remember to get creative, not frustrated!

Happy Scrappin'!

Making it Magical

Hello from Orlando Florida!  I am hear enjoying the beautiful sunshine and getting ready for Close to My Heart's Annual Convention.  Life has been pretty stressful lately so I am so excited to be here and enjoy a little down time.

However, I wanted to show off the new Magical Workshop layouts.  If you haven't seen this paper yet, you are going to LOVE it!  It is such a FUN paper pack and extremely versatile.

Here's a layout with could be used for any occasions that brought BIG smiles!  Aren't all the little cameras soooo cute!?!

This 2nd layout is a fun layout that could be used for truly anything but with 4 kids, I am always behind on birthday layouts.  These pictures were taken in 2005!!!!  See it doesn't matter if you are behind it just means you have more options to choose from when you scrapbooking :)

The stamped titles I used are from several different stamp sets. Can you figure out which ones? Hint: I hope you've been reading my newsletters for one of them. Tell me which stamp sets I got these titles from on my Facebook Group page and win a free gift!  :)

This last layout is the one we all think of when we think of Magical - Disney of course, right?!?  Again, these pictures are from 2009 but for some reason scrapbooking my Disney pictures intimidates me.  I think it is the shear number of pictures we take at Disney. I hate not to tell the whole story!  This paper is perfect for Disney.  I'm sure you will be see several more layouts I create to finish my Disney trips.

My workshop date for Magical has passed but you can still purchase these layouts.  Just click the link on the right.  I am happy to ship this kit to you for only $6 more or if you are local, I would be happy to meet up with you or save it for our next crop.

Happy Scrappin'!

Good Bye, Hello Life

October is almost here. It is so hard to believe that we are already in fall but everything pumpkin spice helps me to get into the mood very quickly! :)

With the end of September almost here, we prepare to say goodbye to this months special - our Hello Life stamp set special. There are 3 different stamp sets, each one created with a special theme in mind - Scrapbooking, Card Making and our Picture My Life line.  You can use these stamp sets just for those purposes or use them together in all your projects.

At our Paper Fundamentals Workshop on Saturday we created two fun layouts - one layout used the Hello Life - Picture My Life stamp set for our title:



I created this card during our Watercolor workshop last week using colors chosen by Lori J. and our Hello Life - Scrapbooking Stamp Set:



Here is a layout shown on today's Close to My Heart blog post that again used Watercolors and used all three stamp sets in it's title.

I love how versatile these stamp sets are and I know you will too!  Check out all the details on my website and get your Hello Life stamps before they are gone!

Free To Be Me Workshop layout

I am loving our National Scrapbooking Month special - the Free To Be Me paper kit for only $5 with a $50 purchase.  To make this an even better deal,  I am offering a special workshop on June 14 to anyone who makes a purchase on my website and receives their own Free To Be Me paper kit.

The papers are bright, bold and beautiful!  Take a look!

Here is one of the layouts I will be creating with you during the workshop:

 The funny thing about that layout - The pictures were taken 6 years ago!  Can you believe it!  And to make it hit home even more, last night I went to the same Mother's Day Out as these were taken to celebrate my nephews graduation.   Wow, how time flies!

To create this layout and the other fun projects for my workshop, you will need some Aqua Dots (Z1853) and Triangle Studs (Z1928) which you can add to your order to help you reach the $50 needed to receive this kit for only $5.  $50 worth of product you need, an exclusive National Scrapbooking Month paper kit and a Workshop all in one - now that's a great deal!  Place your order here now.

 Also, don't forget that you will qualify for this month's stamp of the month too - the adorable You've Got a Friend stamp set - a value of $17.95 for only $5!  And let me tell you, this stamp sets works perfectly with our Free to Be Me paper kit!  What a great combo!

Two Weeks, Two Complete Albums!!!!

Yep, can you believe it!?!  Going to the Album Retreat a couple weeks back, we created an entire album in only 3 days!  It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to share with you all that we created but I am still waiting for some of my pictures for the layouts to come in so I will post those layouts as soon as I can. 
However, can you believe then in  two evenings, less then 6 hours I had my album completely finished from our trip to Cancun!?!  I decided the best way for me to remember everything and be able to get it all down in my album was for me to scrapbook it quickly which meant digitally – using Studio J.  Now for those of you who are a true, traditional scrapbooker – let me tell you – so am  I!  I love using the papers, ribbons, stamps, cutters and whooo don’t forget the bling – love the bling!!!!  But, sometimes I want to get an event done before the time passes and I forget many of  the special memories or funny little tidbits that made us laugh.  With kids, homeschooling, church and lots of other events, my life is usually in high speed so it’s hard for me to scrapbook events during the same month, or sometimes same year, as they happened.  I’m sure that never happens to you – LOL! 
So – here is a peak into out trip to Cancun:






Beautiful wasn’t it.  I honestly have to brag on Studio J with these layouts. Last year Close to My Heart came out with Express Collections in Studio J.  These collections are theme related and make scrapbooking as easy as it can get.  It is pretty much a drag and drop option to scrapbooking where the layouts are completely created for you and you drop your pictures in, add your journaling and Viola – you are done.  You can add additional embellishments, journaling blocks, change titles, colors, and more if you want but you don’t feel like you have to because the layouts are completely gorgeous already.  You can pick one layout from the express collections or use the whole album.  I created my layouts from a few different albums, whatever I needed to get the look I wanted.
If you like the idea of digital scrapbooking but you want to make it completely yours, without the layout completely created for you already, Studio J still has their original line, with more and more papers and layouts added throughout the year.  These layouts give you maximum flexibility letting you choose what papers, layouts, colors, embellishments, font, etc. – everything to create your own layout but completely from your computer.  AND no matter what option you choose, the double-page layouts are only $6.95!!!  Now – that definitely can’t be beat!  Check out Studio J  for yourself.  Happy Creating!!!

Memories with La Bella Vie

Wow!  What a crazy week this past week or so has been.We are back to school, I'm teaching at our homeschool coop, helping at the church and just trying to be a good mom and wife.  So it was nice to get together with some friends and have another All Day Crop last Saturday.  I usually just bring scrap papers to my all day crops, hoping to get a few cards made but also leaving lots of time to socialize with everyone and peruse their great artwork as well. 

However, this crop I came with the new La Bella Vie papers and had an idea in mind.  My husband and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary earlier this year and just recently I came across some pictures that we had taken on our honeymoon.  I thought these pictures fit perfectly with the theme of the papers and wanted to "play" a bit with them. 

Well...  What do you think?  we sure have changed a bit during the last 15 years and I am sure we will change a bit more during the next 15 years but I am so blessed to be married to my best friend. 

Well, I still had quite a bit of paper left and decided to create this layout with the pictures I found in my tote bag.  These beautiful pictures were taken by a sweet friend of mine who is a photographer in Franklin, TN - Captured Images by Andrea.   TinkerBell was so excited to have her pictures taken and Andrea did such a good job capturing the personality of my girl.

 

If you like these layouts and would like to create them yourself, join me on September 28th from 6 - 9pm as we, laugh, scrap and have a little girl time.  There are several workshop options to choose from so take a look to the left side and choose the best option that works for you.  Would love to have you join us!

Workshop changes and Footloose and Fancy Free

Last night was my Footloose workshop.  It was so much fun to get together and have some fun girl time.  I truly look forward to my workshop every month and am so excited to announce some major changes coming soon.  Thanks to those on my newsletter list who filled out my survey, I now have a better understanding of what you would like to see in my upcoming workshops.

To find out all the details for the workshop changes and to see all the new products being released August 1st, join me:

August 18th

11am to 1pm

Fall Catalog and Open House

  At 12pm, I will talk about the changes coming to my workshops and how I will be making them available for everyone!  If you have ever attended a workshop in the past or have wanted too, you will not want to miss informational Open House, as well as, a chance to see many new products and win some too!!!

I already showed you the picture of the layout for the Workshop on the Go project but please enjoy these pictures of the other layout that were created last night.

Lisa is always busy, out creating all of us at our workshops and crops.  True to form, she was busy working on this layout while we talked about the new catalog:

Plan to join us next month, on August 24th,  as we work with our new Scholastic paper packs.  But don't forget to first come to the open house on August 18th. Hope to see you there!!!

Crusin' with the family

Last Friday night was my monthly workshop where we created with the Cruisin' papers from Close to My Heart.  I thought I would show you what we did.

Above is my layout from the Workshop on the Go guide.  I love  how it turned out!  The angles add so much to your pictures!

Here was the other layout we created.  The cruisin' paper is great for scrapbooking your travels, new vehicle or just a manly page to play around with it. One the layout shown above, there wasn't much room for journaling so I took the OHIO piece and made it a fold with hidden journaling inside.  Easy Peasy. If you like these papers and want to re-create these layouts on your own, simply visit my website and order your the Crusin' Workshop on the Go kit.  Have fun!

Next month we will be using our Footloose papers!  Keep your eyes out for the details.  Would love to have you there!



Pemberley Plus

I was so excited to get together with everyone on Friday night for our Pemberley workshop.  Due to a death in the family I had to cancel my workshop in March so I was definitely ready to get together and have some fun girl time.

Here is the layout we created. I had seen a similar layout created by another talented Close to My Heart consultant and just had to recreate it.  It took us a little bit of time but I think everyone liked how the final product came out.  The brown space on the right page is waiting for me to take my time and journal or could be used for another photo mat.  Hope you like it!

Positively Pemberley

My workshop this month is with our Pemberley papers which features blue and yellows as the prominent colors.  Here is the Workshop on the Go layout that I created and will be teaching at the workshop on the 27th.  The pictures are definitely the main focus, so if you are signed up to attend, please make sure you have pictures with you. 

I will be creating and teaching another layout for our workshop, to be shown soon.

Since I was highlighting Pemberley this post, I thought I would show you this cool video corporate created that uses Pemberley and Studio J.

Try Studio J for yourself by clicking here.

Stella Layouts for workshop

I have been having so much fun with our new Stella papers.  I have already created three double page layouts with the paper and plan on making at least one more plus some cards.  Here are two of the three double-page layouts that I created (the other one is still waiting on a few pictures I need to print :-).  ) These are the two layouts  that we will create at my workshop that was rescheduled for April 6th.

A "Grand" Weekend

This past weekend was our annual scrapbook weekend retreat.  This time we tried a new destination, Grand Oaks Retreat in Scottsboro, AL.  I have to say that this house is amazing!!!  There was plenty of room for us to spread out and scrapbook in comfort, the scenery was amazing, the food outstanding and even a movie room for some down time.  I have come to really enjoy these weekends.  It is one time I can get a way, relax and rest without having to "be in charge" the entire time.  This year was no exception.  This was definitely a weekend to remember.  I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the pictures that were taken from our weekend.  The layouts shown were the ones created from our annual paper swap workshop.  I love how this "workshop" required everyone to get out of their box a bit and create with some papers that they might not choose on a regular basis.  Everyone did an amazing job!

Plan on joining us next year. The dates have already been set - November 15th - 18th. If you can't come on Thursday, you can come down on Friday for a reduced rate. Believe me though, being there Thursday really helped us each relax and enjoy the weekend that much more. Do yourself a favor, plan on coming Thursday for the most relaxation possible. Contact me at HeatherHicksCTMH@gmail.com if you are interested and I will keep you in the loop through out the year for deposit, deadlines and all the retreat information.

It's all about the "Elemental"

Happy Labor Day to you all!  I hope you were able to relax a bit - is that an oxymoron Labor Day/relax a bit ? :)  I don't know but I do know that we needed a bit of time to relax and though I didn't get to do it as much as I would have liked but I'm thankful for the time that I got.

I wanted to post some pictures of the last weekends workshop using the new Elemental papers.  This workshops uses the new Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge for the base and for the beautiful roses that "pop" out. Now, I promises that I wont have the amazing Art Philosophy Cartridge in all of my layouts or posts but the beauty of what it can do is absolutely awesome!!!

Here is the first layout (and actually the only layout we created due to time), the Workshop on the Go.

It is hard to see all the detail in the pictures but I honestly have to say it is beautiful.  The roses were stunning and a great addition, however, they do lend to your layout not laying flat in your album very well.

We moistened them with a spray bottle of water and bent the edges down with our tweezers to help them lay a little "flatter" but they are probably more appropriate for a home decor item or gift.  I have also seen an amazing topiary plant created with these.   Give it a try and email it to me at HeatherHicksCTMH@gmail.com and I will have a gift for you.   

Here is the second layout I created.  I used the new Elemental Dimensional Elements and Magic book for the layout. I love how CTMH has changed their old stickease to now not just stickease for each kit but sometimes dimensional elements, linen sheets, rub-ons and so much more. Don't over look them in the book - there are so many options now. Also, one really cool feature about the Elemental paper is that each color/B&T paper piece will coordinate with one of the other new paper packs from the Fall/Winter Idea book.  This makes the Elemental paper a great pack to have on hand to add another "pop" of color to you other layouts.



Having Fun in Florida

This past weekend I was able to go to a special corporate sponsored event in Navarre, FL. The beach was less than a mile away from where we stayed and was absolutely beautiful! Several of the Senior Executive Staff from Close to My Heart were there as they, and my fabulous up, up, up-line, Tina Sutton, put on a special event called Leadershare.

Tina did an amazing job making everything fabulous and fun to inspire and teach new ideas and techniques to her downline. During the event, a silent auction was held to benefit Operation Smile, Close to My Heart's choice non-profit. There were so many amazing items created by CTMH consultants and the art department specifically for the auction. I was asked to create a layout, so using the Mayberry papers and an Easter theme, this is what I came up with.

Tina was so sweet to honor those of us who create items for the silent auction by giving us these sweet gifts. It is a decorated gift tin with a cute blue bracelet inside with the letters ART on it.

Here are some other items that were created - aren't they gorgeous!!!

We were able to raise over $1300 to go towards Operation Smile - that's almost 7 surgeries. Also, just as a reminder, every time you purchase a stamp set from CTMH, a portion of the sales go to benefit Operation Smile. You can find out more about Operation Smile by going to their website at http://www.operationsmile.org/.

Flyin' with Wings!

Last Friday night was my monthly workshop with a local group an we got to play with Close to My Heart's newest paper release - Wings! This paper is very unique and versatile. We also had fun with our new spray pen. For those of you who weren't able to make the workshop, Close to My Heart created this fabulous tutorial to show you all about it.

Now, I have to say I load my pen a little different to help with the paper curling. Instead of adding water I add 50% rubbing alcohol. If you use the 70% the paint will curdle and clog the pen so make sure you use the 50%. By using the alcohol, the mixture will dry very quickly and the paper wont curl near as much. Give it a try and show me what you create - I would love to see it!

Here is what we created in our workshop.

Now for those of you who are behind in your scrapbooking - this layout proves that it is o.k.. These pictures are from last July when I was in Washington DC for our annual convention. The theme of the convention was Picture This with butterflies everywhere. The style couldn't have been more perfect. Of course, I still need to add my journaling but.... it's coming :)

This was the main workshop layout from our Workshop on the Go brochure.

I also created another layout from this paper but that layout is top secret. I am taking a group of ladies on a scrapbook retreat at the end of the month for a time of rest, relaxation and scrapbooking. My other layout is to help us commemorate the event. So... for now, you will have to wait to see it. :)