They're Here

On September 1, Close To My Heart launched two new Idea Books.  Our Annual Inspirations, includes 6 new paper pack collections, new and continuing stamps sets, core products and more.   Our Holiday Expressions includes products for Holiday and Christmas along with Thanksgiving and Halloween.  Check out my website where you can shop from the new books as well as flip through or download them.

January Cross Canada Blog Hop - Valentine's Inspiration

Welcome to our January Blog Hop featuring Valentine’s Inspiration. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.  For my customers, or if you do not have a consultant and see something you would like, you may order from my website or contact me. 

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this hop goes from east to west and I am the geographic start.  If you started elsewhere, then you came from Kristine of Home With Studio K and you are in the right place!

I loved making handmade Valentines each year for my children to give out to their classmates.  But they are now both in junior high so my little cards with Owl Be Your Friend Forever! and You're Outta this World Valentine! are no longer cool.  I really liked the January Stamp of the Month artwork showing the Designer Creations Paper Bags used to hold cookies.  My husband and children are real cookie monsters, so I though this would be a great Valentine's project.  Here is my version.   

Supplies:

Z2036 Designer Creations Slate Paper Bags 

Z2038 Designer Creations Ruby Paper Bags

     

S1501This Moment

Z1985 Gold Shimmer Trim

Other supplies include:

Z2012 Sequins Gold Assortment

Z2013 Sequins Silver Assortment

Z2643 Canary Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2641 Glacier Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2173 Slate Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Z2170 Ruby Exclusive inks Stamp Pad

Z2448 Carmine Shin Han Touch Twin Markers 

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Michelle of My Creations With Michelle.   If you get lost along the way, Michelle also has the complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring Card Creations using our How To Books. So mark February 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.

November Cross Canada Blog Hop - Designer Creations

Welcome to our November Blog Hop featuring Designer Creations and Decor. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.  For my customers, or if you do not have a consultant and see something you would like, you may order from my website or contact me. 


We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this hop goes from east to west and I am the geographic start.  If you started elsewhere, then you came from Nancy's blog and you are in the right place!

I love the Designer Creations line as they provide great inexpensive packaging that coordinate perfectly with our other products.  As Christmas is coming up next month, I choose the Z2038 Designer Creations Ruby paper bags.  I wanted to create a card on the outside of the bag, with space inside to hold a gift made from our Base and Bling line.

I made the card from our new Cricut Artfully Sent collection .  I used the scene card on page 49 using Glacier and White Daisy cardstock, both cut at 5".  I also used the larger snowflake leftover from cutting the scene card on page 47 (also at 5").  I heat embossed the large snowflake with the versamark ink, Princess Gold embossing powder and the Craft Heater.  The top of the bag was embellished with the Gold Polka-Dot washi tape.

Inside is a pendant necklace made from our base and bling line.  To hold the necklace I used a 5"X4" of black cardstock and a 4"X3" piece a B&T paper from the Yuletide Carol Paper Packet.  I used the corner rounder on the black cardstock and placed slits to hold the necklace.  The remainder of the chain was contained with extra washi tape on the back.

The pendant necklace was made with Z1954 Faux Antiqued Gold Chain, Z1963 Faux Antiqued Gold Square Pendant, Z1967 Square Glass Cover, Z1959 Storyteller Charms and and Z1973 Storyteller Style sheet.  The glass cover was attached with Z679 Liquid Glass.


Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Michelle of My Creations with Michelle.  If you get lost along the way, Michelle also has the complete blog list. 

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring Décor for Christmas. So mark December 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.

Team Brae-er November Blog Hop - Workshop Wonders

Welcome to our November Team Brae-er Blog Hop. Each stop on our hop will show artwork featuring Workshop Ideas.  To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, kindly contact your local consultant to place an order.  For my customers, or if you do not have a consultant and see something you would like, you may order from my website or contact me. 

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow our team's blogs, then please start at the beginning and join Sheri at the Sheri Says Just Scrap It.  If you came from Tamara at Mara's Journey then you are in the right place!

Gift cards and gift certificates have become very popular for Christmas. birthday and teacher gifts.  But they tend to look boring and not very personal.  I have been creating different and unique ways to package gifts certificates and to offer them as a fun workshop for my customers.  I've seen the coffee cup gift card holders on pinterest and YouTube. These are  perfect for a gift card from your recipients favourite coffee house.  This one was inspired by my CTMH sisters Dawn Montagano and Chantal Pearson.

Some of my customers would prefer to give a gift card to their children's teachers for their favourite smoothie bar.  So I created this alternative:

And finally, I also sell premium loose leaf tea and designed this to hold a gift certificate for the recipients choice of tea.  This could be given with an infuser or other small items.

Stamp Sets:

B1404 Cup of Cheer

B1467 You Mean the World To Me

Supplies:

• B1404 Cup of Cheer
• B1467 You Mean the World To Me
• S1307 Sweet Life (retired)
• Z1995 Honeycomb Embossing Folder
• Z1994 Floral Embossing Folder
• Z1998 Chevron Border Punch
• Z1918 Teal Shimmer Trim
• 1272 Cranberry Cardstock
• X5763 Smoothie Cardstock
• 1246 Hollyhock Cardstock
• X5762 Lagoon Cardstock
• X5642 Cocoa Cardstock
• 1301 Bamboo Cardstock
• 1386 Black Cardstock
• 1385 White Daisy Cardstock
• 1388 Colonial White Cardstock
• Desert Sand Textured Cardstock (retired)
• Z2116 Cranberry Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
• Z2114 Cocoa Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
• Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
• Z2170 Ruby Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
• Z2440 Shin Touch Twin Marker - Carmine
• Z2450 Shin Touch Twin Marker - Cherry Pink 
• Z2454 Shin Touch Twin Marker - Leaf Green
• Z2456 Shin Touch Twin Marker - Mahogany
• Z2459 Shin Touch Twin Marker - Pastel Green
• Z2461 Shin Touch Twin Marker - Peacock Green
• Z2463 Shin Touch Twin Marker - Sap Green

Your next stop on the Team Brae-er Hop is Heather from Heather's Paper Playroom. If you get lost along the way, you can head to Sheri's blog at Sheri Says Just Scrap It, as she has a complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope you enjoyed seeing our workshop ideas and that we inspired fellow consultants with new ideas for their workshops.  For our customers, we hope this encourages you to create on your own or join a workshop with your local consultant.

 

October Cross Canada Blog Hop - Tricks and Treats

Welcome to our October Blog Hop featuring Tricks and Treats. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.  For my customers, or if you do not have a consultant and see something you would like, you may order from my website or contact me. 

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you... now on to our hop.

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, and I am at the beginning.  If you started elsewhere, then you came from Kristine of Home With Studio K and you are in the right place! 

I've had a lot of fun creating Halloween goodies this year.  I chose the Frightfully Fun stamp set, the Cricut Artiste Collection and Shin Han Touch Twin Markers to create my projects.  My first creation was the coffin.  

These used the 4.5" 3D Object on page 76.  The design on the coffin top was done using random stamping.  The accent is the zip strip from the Scaredy Cat paper packet.  The boxes were held together with bonding memories and liquid glass.  I also used liquid glass to make the skeleton face shiny.

My next project was pencil toppers.  For these I used 2" and 2.25" Accent 2<x>  (p. 62).  I inked the edges of the colonial white with Thistle or Sunset ink and attached the topper to the pencils with glue dots.

My third project was candy bag toppers.  They were cut with 4" Shift_Accent 4 <Give Thanks> (p.78).  The black shape was  cut from 2" Card <Halloween> (p. 77).  The white daisy is just a 1.25" circle punch.

I enjoyed making these goodies.  If you have any question please comment or contact me.

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Deanne of My Little Piece of the Puzzle.  If you get lost along the way, you can head to Michelle's Blog My Creations With Michelle as she has the complete blog list. 

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring Designer Creations.  So mark November 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.

Team Brae-er October Blog Hop - So Happy With CTMH

Welcome to our October Team Brae-er Blog Hop. This year marks our CEO Jeanette Lynton's 30th year in the scrapbook industry.  It also marks my 10th year as a Close To My Heart Consultant.  For our blog hop this month our theme is So Happy With CTMH.  Each stop on our hop will show artwork featuring new products that share what we love about Close To My Heart.  To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, kindly contact your local consultant to place an order.  For my customers, or if you do not have a consultant and see something you would like, you may order from my website or contact me. 

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we really love feedback from our blog viewers.  By leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!  

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow our team's blogs, then please start at the beginning and join Brae at the Brae-er.  If you came from Carol-Anne's blog then you are in the right place! 

For my layout this month, I decided to scrapbook my first Convention with Close To My Heart in Washington DC, 2010.  One thing I love about Close To My Heart is sharing all kinds of creativity and ideas with other consultants.  This started on our consultant bulletin board 10 years ago and now I see everyone's beautiful artwork in my newsfeed on facebook.  I decided it would be fitting to create a layout based on this daily inspiration, this one inspired by Susan William's Balloon Ride workshop from last spring.  

I used a combination of different new paper packs: Chalk It Up, Confetti Wishes and Wanderful.  I also used the silver glitter paper from the Black and Grey Glitter Paper along with Whisper, White Daisy and Black cardstock.

I really love the sun burst technique used in this layout.  Many other consultants have created artwork using this technique and I was inspired to make some cards this past summer.  I used vintage Close To My Heart paper, flowers and brads for these cards.  

Your next stop on the Team Brae-er Hop is Rosalynd from In My Scrapping Room. If you get lost along the way, you can head to Brae's blog at the Brae-er, as she has a complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope you enjoyed seeing what we love about Close To My Heart and that we inspired you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way.

 

September Studio J Blog Hop - These Are a Few of My Favourite Things

Welcome to our first Studio J Blog Hop. To learn more about Studio J Online Scrapbooking contact your local consultant. My customers (and Canadians without a consultant) can create and purchase from my website or by contacting me. 

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our blog viewers. By leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see.  Thank you… now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop.  If you came from Marianne of The Scrapbook Chick, then you are in the right place!

Close To My Heart recently launched it's new Annual Inspirations Idea Book, so several of my blog posts have referred to my favourite things. This often reminds me the song "My Favourite Things" from The Sound of Music.  I saw a local production as a child and I'm sure I've seen the movie over 30 times. 

As mentioned previously, I spent a year in Ireland with my husband and two children in 2008-2009. We took advantage of the cheap air fare and explored other parts of Europe during school breaks.  In May 2009, I planned a trip and tried to incorporate something for everyone. I really wanted to visit Salzburg and I just had to take my family on Fräulein Maria's Bicycle Tour.  It was a great tour and we were able to see a lot of the sights from the movie.  

Created in: Studio J
Kit: Lucky
Pattern: Glimpses 
Kit Mix: 5

I love watching the Love Your Layout videos From Close To My Heart.  When I saw one using the Lucky paper and My Stickese, I knew it would be perfect for my layout.  One great thing about creating in Studio J is that you can change the size of your stickese and you can also use multiples.  This is particularly great for my title, where I used them for "BICYCLE".  I also had the choice of colour for each letter.  I did make changes from the video to suit my pictures and theme.  

Your next stop on our Studio J blog hop is Heather's blog.  If you get lost along the way, you can head to Adeline's blog, as she has the complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us.  We hope that you've learned some new things to try in Studio J.  If you're new to Studio J, I hope we've inspired you to try it out.