May... National Scrapbooking Month, Dads, Vacations, Here Comes Summer!

We all pretty much see May as the herald of Summer. For many of us the weather has already turned warm, though here in the northeast, it feels more like spring. I'm a little behind in presenting the offerings from Close to My Heart, and I apologize. Family stuff.

But speaking of family, and upcoming vacations, get ready to show off those photos in the most flattering light! CTMH has got a set up for you! Just for National Scrapbooking Month; Postcard Perfect! And it IS perfectly summery. The Postcard Perfect Bundle includes a paper pack, stamp set, complements, coordinating paper, vellum, and 12" x 12" memory protectors. 

Just look at those tropical patterns, the colors, the flowers. I am so looking forward to working with this set!

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For those special scrapbook pages and cards to honor your dad, granddad, or father to be, there is the "Dad is Rad" workshop. The workshop kit contains a special stamp set, cardstock, embellishments and instructions to create three scrapbook pages and four cards.

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And as always, don't forget our Stamp of the Month! May's SotM is called Classic Summer Bash  and features all the refreshment that a jar of citrus punch or lemonade can offer. Ink up your next BBQ invites with this tasty set. Click the link above for all the details.

If you are interested in any of these sets, please click a link to order, or click here to visit my website to contact me for more information about becoming a consultant or hosting a gathering (not to order, I cannot accept direct orders). Thank you for visiting, you are a blessing to me.

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. 

Falling for Fall

OK... yeah, I know, the title souns a bit cliche... but Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I love the colors changing in the trees, the crispness in the air, changing over the wardrobe. I love the seasons of change in general. It feels like an opportunity to make changes. Clean out rooms, closets, drawers.

This year will be a little different, there won't be as many leaves in our backyard to watch change and fall... we had most of our "woods" cleared out behind our house this summer. It was always very mushy back there, and a few larger trees were uncomfortably close to the house. We felt this would give an opportunity for the ground to dry out and us to let a few of the smaller trees fill out, plus clear off the big ones that were hanging over the deck. Downside, not as much color this fall.

I'll have to make my own color with my lovely inks. On the upside, I won't have to rake all that up and burn, mulch, or bag it.

September also brings Back to School, kids starting new schools, plans for upcoming holidays and the new Close to My Heart Holiday Expressions mini catalog.

Inside you will find all beautiful papers and stamps and embellishments to help make your holiday crafting easy and amazing!

Here's a peek at some of the fun papers!

Falling for you

Cats and Bats

Beary Christm

Silver and Gold

It's also National Stamping Month and there's a very special Stamp and Card making kit you can buy just this month. The kit creates twelve foil framed, interactive cards, that are stamped with multi layered stamps. You can also buy the stamp set and the card bases separately, but if you buy the kit, you will save 20%, and you can buy more card bases to make more cards when you finish your first kit. Don't be fooled, there are a LOT of stamps in this set!

You can order this lovely kit, or any of the papers above, along with complementary stamps and embellishments, on my Personal Business Site. You can also use this site to contact me and leave me a message with any questions or comments you have.

Dreamin' of Spring

Here in the Northeast, it feels like winter has been arriving a little bit later the last few years. As in, really kicking around mid-January. This winter has been no exception, we got some major snow-fall at the end of January and in the beginning of February.

I love the snow, especially sitting and watching it quietly snow and snow, on days when I can stay home from work, snug and warm. However, getting so many storms, so close together, tends to wear out its welcome very fast, and start many of us thinking about the spring thaw all too soon. (Which we won't see until late March)

With that in mind, I started playing with one of the paper packs from the latest Close to My Heart Seasonal Expressions mini-catalog. It's called "Dreamin' Big" and it's really cute. I'm not done with the whole layout yet, so I'm only going to give you a little peek. The rest will come later this week.

Happy New Year! (Close to My Heart Style)

I can't believe it's AUGUST already! 

On one hand, I have been looking forward to it, because I have family visiting in a couple weeks (YAY!), and this is a relatively slow time at work. AND, the new Close to My Heart Annual Inspirations catalog is released! (squeals of joy are heard around the world!)

The new Fundamentals Paper packs are wonderful, the colors (look at the Adventure Combo) are so vibrant, well, I run out of superlatives when I try to describe the changes. I'll be showing these things in posts to come.

On the other hand... summer is practically over, back to school sales have already started, the last of the summer tourists have poured into Maine, and there's only one month left to the Spring/Summer Seasonal Expressions mini catalog.

This little booklet is filled with some amazing paper packs and stamp sets. I will be sorry to see them go (and glad I have them in my stash to use later - might be hoarding the paper for a while though, lol).

I've been itching to create with the Florence paper pack. This is a vibrant, boho sort of theme. Floral, rich tones, I just love it! So far, I have created 6 scrapbook pages, and 5 cards. I still have TONS of paper and most of the PML cards left, and still not sure what all I will do with it. Probably more cards, I love cards. So here are the pictures:

I experimented with wavy line doodles around my photo place holders. I don't think I will do that again. :) They do not seem to photograph well. (The straight line doodles look nicer in general and more consistent.)

The "Brilliant" and the little rose gold embossed heart (hard to see the metallic embossing in this photo), are from the Florence Complements Assortment. It's also hard to see in this photo the pretty Rose Gold foil tape. All the embellishments I used come in the Florence Workshops Your Way Kit.

"Genuine", another word from the Complements Assortment. You can also see a couple of the Florence Sequins up in the corner, they are in really rich tones for sequins!

More of the Complements package, Little flowers, and word pointers, There are those sequins again!

I hear you - Enough with the peeks already! Let's see the full pages!

The picture does not do the color justice - I have GOT to get a better spot to take photos, I apologize. But at least you get a look at the layout scheme. The layout itself is from one of Close to My Heart's wonderful pattern books. "Make if From Your Heart" Volumes 1 & 2 offer some great scrapbook layout and card patterns guide you into using their papers and embellishments. With all the measurements, and photos of finished page options as well.

Another layout from one of the Make it From Your Heart books. On both of the above layouts, I have altered the original layout pattern to add more photos, more journaling boxes. I haven't finished adding embellishments from the Florence Complements Assortment,sometimes I find that hard to do without the photos in place first.

I'll post the cards and third layout in a week or two. We are smack in the middle of repainting/reflooring part of our house, and doing all the furniture moving and DIY work while working full time etc, etc... well - we put it off only due to a humidity wave, but with family visit impending, it can no longer wait (the guest room is filled with furnishings).

The Products I used in my layouts (some not shown yet):
Workshops Your Way Florence Scrapbooking Kit - G1107 - $26.95
Whisper Cardstock, 2 sheets - X5929 - $14.50 (24 sheets) (always good to have on hand)
                                            - or X5933 Basics Combo $14.50  (2 sheets each color)


Future projects will also include:
White Daisy Cards & Envelopes Value Pack - X254 - $14.50 (50 Cards/Envelopes)

If you would like to order these or other products, please visit my Close to My Heart Online Business Address (OBA). Be sure you log in, or create an account, your shopping will be much easier, and you can save your shopping cart if you need to come back later and finish your order. You will also get the monthly email newsletter from Close to My Heart (if you choose to).

Lastly for today, the Stamp of the Month! Can't forget that. August's SoTM is SO cute! It's aimed at Halloween, but I'm already seeing other ways to use it. It's called "Purr-fect Halloween." And yes, it's cat themed.

The Stamp of the Month is an Exclusive D-sized set, available Only this month. You can purchase it for $17.95 (usd), or you can get it for $5 with a purchase of $50 in other Close to My Heart products.

If you've read this far, thank you for your time and support! I appreciate it and am blessed by you.