The New Seasonal Expressions catalog is here! Happy New Year!

The new Seasonal Expressions catalog is here, and with it come fresh papers, stamps, coordinating die-cuts, embellishments, complements, new organizational tools and a welcome breath of spring! (Something we could all use right now on these cold days) Check out this gorgeous cover art!

With every new catalog comes new papers: Let me make the introductions,

Chelsea Gardens - a pretty floral in soft greens and blues, perfect for those spring projects.

Making Waves - bright purple and teal with a mermaid theme

Stargazer - another bright theme, this time in blue and red.

Gimme Some Sugar - A fun theme in pinks and mints. 

All of these papers are available in paper packs, and Workshops for both scrapbooking and cardmaking. There are coordinating complements and ribbons as well as sequins or cork shapes or acrylic dots (depending on the kit). See the "Kits" section for more information.

In addition to the new kits and paper packs, Close to My Heart has re-designed it's traveling organizational system. Called Designer Travel, the system is modular, which means that the set-up is easier to lift than the previous one, and because it's modular, you can purchase the pieces as you need them, or only the ones you need. Though to be honest, if you attend crops, you will want them all.

There are inserts to hold paper, inks, markers, stamp sets, stamp blocks, and tools. You can use hostess rewards towards a special bundle of the set.

Speaking of hostess rewards, hostess only stamp sets are back! Hostess rewards start when your party reaches $150, and they just go up from there.

January's Stamp of the month - Bloom and Grow - is so pretty - it pairs beautifully with the Chelsa Gardens paper:

Each month you can purchase a new D-size stamp set, available for one month only, for just $5. When you place an order of $50 or more in Close To My Heart products, you qualify for this special Stamp of the Month pricing.

You can order any of the items listed above by clicking on the links listed, or by visiting my website here. Thank you for dropping by, I hope you will visit again. 

Jeepers Creepers!

Welcome to our JCB Monthly Blog Hop!

This month there are 5 of us highlighting the “Jeepers Creepers” paper collection. This blog hop is a great big circle so you can start wherever you want and continue through to see all the fabulous artwork incorporating the Jeepers Creepers Paper collection.
If you are coming from Von's Craft Studio, you are on the right track! I chose to do a scrapbook layout. Halloween is one of the favorite holidays at our house, and with a grandkid now who is old enough to enjoy dressing up, things are really getting fun again!

The base page of this project is the dark gray print, to give it a spooky night feel overall. I used the Cricut Artbooking cartridge to cut out a Haunted House and a fence (3x, welded together), and backed the windows with orange from the striped paper. Then I cut out some of the monsters from the monster print paper to inhabit the house. Behind the fence, I layered a strip of the spooky eyes paper, I was trying for the feeling of eyes blinking through the fence in the dark. Did I get it? I added a couple of the eyeballs from the assortment on the fence as well, for some dimension. For the photo wells, I used the Pansy circle paper, cut to 4 x 4 inches, which just about takes up 4 circles each. The photos themselves will be 3.5 x 3.5 when I add them (shown here with placeholders). I added the moon, sparkly bat, SCARY and Monsters from the complements. I think the Scary plus Monsters make a fun title.

Look at all the great papers in the entire pack - I have so much more to play with! Supply List for the layout shown above: Jeepers Creepers Paper Pack - X7211B - $9.95 JeepersCreepers Complements - X7211X - $6.95 JeepersCreepers Assortment - X4009 - $3.95 (Alternatively - JeepersCreepers Workshops Your Way - G1110 - $26.95 - comes with White, Pansy and Whisper Cardstock) Black Cardstock - 1386 (24sheets) - $14.50 Cricut ArtBookingCartridge Collection - Z3169 - $99

Thanks for stopping by! Please continue onto My Little Scrap Happy Corner where you will find some additional artwork by Danielle highlighting this Theme! Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you thought of my variation and happy hopping!

Get Ready, It's Coming!

Before you know it, the new year will be here! The November Stamp of the Month, Cheers - 2016! is all about celebrating the incoming New Year. It's great for scrapbook pages, as well as for making cards for those who don't (or didn't get around to) sending out December Holiday cards. My sister has been sending New Year cards for years now. I keep saying I am going to adopt the idea, but I just love Christmas stamps... anyway... Cheers!

Some images from the Close to My Heart website:

This stamp set just screams for using some glitter paper or shimmer trim, lots of sparkle and sequins.

What a great way to send off some holiday photos to family and friends, or remember the New Year's Day Dreams you plan with your family.

Speaking of PLANNING... Stay tuned... in the next week or two, definitely before the end of the month... Close to My Heart is introducing a Planner! I'm really excited about this. I'm a little late spreading the news (it was on the CTMH Blog on November 2, 2015), but I will surely not be when it's available! It was previewed at the AustralAsia convention to rave reviews, and has been the buzz of the CTMH Facebook groups ever since. There will be a package deal to start with, so definitely mark it in your current planner to be ready to jump on this opportunity!

This month there is a fabulous special going on for scrapbookers! The Simply Fundamental Scrapbooking Bundles are available only the month of November, and will give you a great jump start on your holiday and 2016 scrapbooking. Here's all you get in a bundle ($71.80 USD):

• Album of your choice (D-ring or Post-bound)
• Paper Fundamentals Enchantment (1 pack)
• Fundamental Stickers Enchantment Pack (1 pack)
• Fundamental Assortment Peacock (1 pack)
• White Daisy Cardstock (3 sheets)
• Memory Protectors™ Value Pack (1 pack Side Load or 1 pack Top Load) 

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Today I finally opened my White Pines paper pack and made some Christmas cards. 

I recently got the "Believe in Christmas" My Acrylix Stamp Set, available in the Holiday Expressions catalog. I love all the sayings. After much staring at the paper pack, and Pinterest, I finally came up with this - which was inspired by... nothing I saw, lol. 

I laid all 3 sentiments on one block and stamped them at an angle in Chocolate ink on one edge of Colonial White cardstock, then again down the other side, offsetting them so they were next to a different saying. I used a small pine branch from another set in Fern ink to add a little color to that piece of cardstock, then I layered it onto a piece of Cranberry cardstock. 

I stamped the banner in gold pigment ink on a cut out banner and heat embossed it with antique gold embossing powder (it looks chocolate in this photo). 

I used the "Seasons" stamp set that comes with the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection to stamp the tree. I topped off one tree with a small wooden partridge (or maybe it's a dove?), and the other with a star, just for variation. And I gave one of the trees and the banner some dimension with foam tape. The banner and trees were cut out of Colonial White cardstock using my Cricut Expression and Art Philosophy and Artistry cartridges.

Finally, I doodled around the edge in black (I wish I had used brown), and added some gold sequins for ornaments on the tree.

There are other really pretty papers in this pack, and I plan to create some scrapbook pages soon. The complements that are available are so cute! White Pines set.

I feel like I won...

A quick, short update this morning. I got my Deal of the Day box last week, unpacked it, oooh and ahhhd over it, took pictures of it, and then got busy this week with babysitting and fighting a sore-throat-stuffy-nose head cold (on top of working). But, that aside, here's the picture of the lot that I promised:

Look at all those goodies! It felt like Christmas when I opened the box and started pulling little packages out. Mostly because I hadn't picked any of it, but was pleased with it all. There is a nice mix of retired and current items, I got some tools, paper, two kits, and plenty of embellishments. Some types that I had looked at in the catalog but not seriously thought about ordering. There are some groupings that I can put together, which is nice, because I can coordinate some cards, or scrapbook layouts. And my very first thought upon seeing it all laid out was, "I want to order another one"... Hahahaha. I haven't yet, and there's only a week left.

So, I'm reminding you too, if you like the looks of this (this was a $150 Grab Bag), that the April Deal of the Day is only going to last until April 30! And it is SO easy to get in on! Simply go to my Close to My Heart shopping page after 3pm Mountain Time, order ANY one item at regular price (need a new adhesive, we have that), and you will be prompted to order the deal of the day. And you can order as many Deals as you want! The deal's price is different every day.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.

My First Scrap-booking Workshop.... Blossom!

I have to say, I had forgotten how tough it can be to work on scrap-book layouts. I haven't worked on my scrap-books in... years. Yep, my photos are piling up, badly. I'm grateful for my digital camera, because now they can pile up on my external hard drive. Let's put it this way, the last time I worked diligently on my scrap-book... that popular company... you know the one I mean... was still under it's original ownership... Yeah... it's been a Lonnnnng time.

So, I've been sort of putting off doing any layouts since I joined Close to My Heart. Just working on cards, loving the My Acrylix stamps and all the gorgeous papers.  And maybe I could have bought one of the scrap-booking Workshops on the Go and dipped my toe in the water that way, or I could have tried out someone else's layout packages. But noooo, I decided to dive into the deep end, grab a paper packet, the complements for said paper pack, some coordinating sequins, my pencil, graph paper.. and go for it. And finally, I am done. I have a bit of paper left, and will probably create two more bonus pages, and maybe some cards. Soon. But here's are the three two-page layouts I have done. I'm really pleased with the way this Workshop turned out. I hope you are too.

While the white mats are meant for photos, obviously, one or more of them could also be used for journaling the story. And you could leave them off and just put the photos there if you didn't want to mat them. It was a very new concept for me to be creating a page with the paper instead of photos as my inspiration. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

Here's a list of the supplies needed, all from Close to My Heart (not including adhesive.)

My Reflections- Blossom Paper Packet #X7196B $9.95

Blossom Complements Stickers #X7196C $4.95

Coral Reef Sequin Assortment  #Z3042 $3.95

Gold Shimmer Trim #Z1985 $4.95

Marvy Uchida Journaling Pen #Z1979 $3.25

I also used a couple extra sheets of White Daisy cardstock. 24 sheets #1385 $9.50

If you don't already have a stash of this, it's well worth it to grab a pack. I promise you, you will use 

it.

I will send the instruction files and cutting guide via email to anyone who orders the workshop supplies (or any $25 order) via my CTMH Shopping site. The files include ta Welcome letter/Cover sheet, the color guide, photo suggestions, additional notes and tips to assist with the workshop completion, Color photos of each page, and the bonus layout and card instructions (that I haven't finished yet, but will photograph and include ASAP.)