Close to My Heart is offering different deals every day all week long. Every day, between 3:00pm (MST) and 2:59pm (MST) the next day, a number of items will be 50% off. It's a mix of retired and current items, some bundles. All great deals.

What's the catch, you ask? No catch, only one caveat - you must submit your order before 2:59 (MST) the day of the deal or the discount will no longer apply.

Check back every day to see what new deals await!

Also available this month:
  New 2017 Planner pages, with special bundles.
  Mini Album Bundles - two sizes for so many memory keeping options.
  And don't forget the Stamp of the Month - Thoughtful Flowers

Last but not least - Saturday, December 31st, is the last day to order from the Holiday Expressions mini catalog.  Don't miss these wonderful papers and holiday stamp sets.

Live Your Day - Good Advice

Happy New Year!~
I'm not usually one for resolutions, because like most people, after January, they get harder and harder to keep as every day life catches up. I don't think many of us make resolutions anymore, they are too finite. Instead, we set goals. They're in the same ball park as resolutions, but softer, more manageable, I think.

I have a few goals this year, and they are manageable. One of them is to be on top of getting birthday and anniversary cards in the mail on time. I feel so awful when I log into Facebook and the pop up comes up saying "Today is your nephew's birthday, send him a message!". Well darn it! I would rather have sent him a card!

I know, I hear you - there's an app for that. The thing is, I am not tethered to my computer, phone or tablet 24/7. I like a paper calendar, have used an appointment book or planner for years. Imagine how excited I was when Close to My Heart debuted theirs.

The planner line is called Everyday Life™ and I have been having fun, yes FUN, putting mine together. I've just gotten started with the birthday and anniversary stickers that came with the planner pages. It's going to really get fun when I start adding photos and memories.

That stamp in the corner is so fun! It has several different messages from To Do, and Shopping List to Birthday, Memo and Vacation. Twelve different options, one stamp, lots of different fonts. All designed to fit on the sticker banners that are in the coordinated planner set. Brilliant. Another brilliant thing is that this planner set is affordable and versatile. You say you don't need a planner, but miss our My Crush® books? Then get the My Crush® pages along with the cover set and some photo protectors and have fun! You can see the whole Everyday Life™ selection here. Happy New year, and happy goal planning!

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January is National Papercrafting Month
This year's theme for National Papercrafting month is "Live Your Day", and Close to My Heart has come up with a beautiful pack of Picture My Life™ cards to help celebrate it! These cards coordinate wonderfully with the planner pages or the My Crush Everyday Life™ pages. They are available THIS MONTH ONLY, and they are only $8.95. Like all our Picture My Life cards, they feature the same image front and back, except that one side is vertical, and one side is horizontal, to better suit your needs. They fit in page protectors for the Everyday Life™ planner as well as the regular memory protectors.

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Our Stamp of the Month program is alive and well in 2016, and this month's set is SO beautiful!
It's called Beloved Bouquet, and as always, it's available for $17.95 or only $5 with a $50 purchase

While this set has a Valentine's sentiment, it can be used for birthday cards, and that simple "Thinking of you" is good for those 'wish we didn't need them' sympathy cards. The blooms are nice and big, perfect for using on your photo pages as well.

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Remember what I said back at the beginning about goal setting? I wish you all the best with any goals YOU are setting for 2016!

If you'd like more information about any of the products I've mentioned in this post, you can find out on my Close to My Heart shopping site here, or you can drop me a comment here, and I will be happy to answer you.

Creative Live Broadcast

I have a really quick share today - Close to My Heart is doing a HUGE broadcast on CreativeLive. It was live on Nov 20-21, but they are re-broadcasting it, and it's free to watch, just sign up.

If you haven't heard about CreativeLIve (I hadn't before this), it's an online learning platform that broadcasts live classes (and also rebroadcasts them). Everything from how to set up a blog, to how to sew a dress, step by step, to many other things. I won't go into it all now, because this post is about Close to My Heart, not CreativeLive, lol.

So here's the link to CreativeLive, create an account, then look for this broadcast: Scrapbooking Paper Crafts Stamping and More. I promise you, you will learn SO much about Close to My Heart, more than I have been able to share with you in the short time I have been blogging, but that I have wished I could. This is the excitement I have about the products, the process.

Enjoy! Then contact me and let me know your thoughts!

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.