Seasonal Expressions 2 Product Highlights & All the Albums Promotion

I don't think there is anything I don't love in the 2016 Seasonal Expressions 2, but I must admit I'm especially partial to the flamingo themed items. They are so fun! You can check the entire book online at my online business address or email me if you'd like me to get a copy to you. The video below also gives some great highlights of what's inside. With a few exceptions the products in this book will only be available through August 31, 2016.






Close to My Heart has extended the All the Albums 25% off promotion through July 31, 2016. Get your favorite while they last!

What I've been working on . . .

Hey Crafters! I know it's been a while. Computer issues combined with life in general have kept me from posting lately.  Here are just a few cards I've made over the last five or six months.

More to come soon! Happy crafting!

Melissa

Life is worth capturing

This is the essence of the philosophy behind Close to My Heart.

Seasonal Expressions 1 Live 12/01/14

Head on over to my personal business address: https://melissaharris.ctmh.com to view our supplement to Annual Inspirations - - Seasonal Expressions 1 online. I will have physical copies available later in the week. Just contact me if you'd like one.

Studio J Layouts

Not long ago I was "stuck" waiting in a airport for an entire day (about 11 hours to be exact). I'd been flown into a certain city for a job interview. The company had paid for a rental car for me as well as a flight. To save money (I'm sure and who can blame them) they sent me back on the red-eye, but I had to have the rental back by noon or pay for an extra day. So, I spent the day scrapbooking at the airport. How, you may ask? Studio J that's how!

I had my laptop and wifi, so I was ready to go. I love how these layouts came out and just had to share! I love paper scrapping too, but these really are beautiful. I wish you could see them in person. They look even better than online. There are several of the layouts I am going to add some paper and bling elements to, but most could stand on their own. Click on each layout for a larger view. The beauty of digital scrapping is you can also get copies of your work for friends or family. No re-creating layouts or entire scrapbooks.

Studio J is also awesome for your photo printing needs. See this post I made back in March of 2014 that details how you can get custom sized prints from Studio J as well as traditional sizes. Very economical, especially for all your odd sized prints.

Hope you are inspired!
Melissa

Thirty Years of Happy - September National Stamping Month Set

September is National Stamping Month, and Close To My Heart is ready to celebrate all month long! When you spend $30 on any current retail-priced stamps during the month of September, you qualify to receive the exclusive C-sized stamp set #30yearsofhappy for FREE! This special offer is part of our celebration of National Stamping Month and in honor of our ongoing celebration of our founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton’s 30-year anniversary in the scrapbooking and stamping industry. The exclusive stamp set features 30 mini images and sentiments perfectly suited for 30 days of happy stamping! Plus, make sure you check out Close To My Heart’s Facebook page and Instagram during September to follow all the ways we’re celebrating #30yearsofhappy for a full 30 days!

This is a really fun set! Get yours this month while you can!

Spinner Card with Camper Crazy and Lollydoodle

Spinner cards are a lot of fun. I have seen several variations of these on Pinterest and just had to give it a try. I didn't have any pennies handy, so I used some flat buttons. Not sure if they worked quite as well since this is my first try with this technique. Any opinions from the voice of experience out there in the internet land of crafting?

Anyway I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I can't seem to get enough of the Camper Crazy stamp set and Lollydoodle paper. The base is a sheet from our Paper Fundamentals Basics Assortment. One side has tone on tone glossy embossed images and the opposite side is matte with a contrasting pattern. Very versatile.

I covered the chipboard banner (from one of our Cricut Collections) with a scrap piece of Lollydoodle, then trimmed close (but not too close) to the edge of the shape then filed with my paper file. This give a much more finished look than cutting the shape the exact size before you glue your patterned paper to your chipboard.

This series of three photos should give you some sense of the motion of the campers as they chase each other in a circle.

Hope you are having a grand summer!
Melissa

Artbooking Made Easy: Togetherness

This video features some great ideas on using the Togetherness key on the Artbooking cartridge. There are also some great tips on making rolled flowers.

Skylark Mini Photo Album Card

I turned this birthday card for a friend into a mini-photo album with our Skylark dimensional elements and paper. Just love the colors in this kit. It also features one of my favorite items in the current catalog the teal shimmer trim (it's kind of like glitter ribbon with adhesive backing - too cool!).

Hope you are inspired!

Melissa

Birthday Card In A Box

Have you tried the Card in a Box craze yet? I have been going crazy with making these. They really are a lot of fun. Here is one I made for the birthday of my mom's cousin who loves polka dots. It features popular paper from past Close to My Heart National Scrapbooking Month Specials - Dotty for You & Dream Pop. Stamped images are cut with our Cricut Artiste cartridge and stamped with the stamps that come in that collection. The embellishments are a combination of things from my stash and new items. The different colored blue epoxy dots are current - Aqua Dots - I love them!

I thought I had taken pictures of my mom's Mother's Day card, but I can't find them. I'll have to have her pull it out next time I visit so I take pictures to show you. There was really little stamping involved with that card. I mostly used some chipboard dimensional elements I had left from one of our scrapbooking kits. Just shows how versatile this design concept is.

Enjoy - Melissa

Card In A Box featuring Lollydoodle, Camper Crazy and Balloon Talk

I tried to make an infographic style collage for this card in LightRoom, but I didn't quite figure out how to add text correctly, so just to sum up it is a card in a box - - such a fun technique that I am sure to be featuring in a future workshop - I think I might be addicted. ;-) Lollydoodle is another new paper set that I'm wild about. I'm sure you haven't seen the last of the Camper Crazy stamp set either. Isn't it so cute? Believe it or not this is a standard size 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card, when open the elements just pop out. So much fun. I love creating it so much I had to share right away. I'll add more details later.

Happy Crafting!
Melissa

Close to My Heart Balloon Ride Cards - Technique Paper Piecing

I love all the new paper packs in the new catalog, but this one I think is unique and one of my favorites - although I can't say that next week I won't have a new favorite and so on until all the paper packs have been covered for this book.

Paper piecing is a technique I saw around the internet last fall and have been wanting to try. I decided the stamp set that coordinates with the Balloon Ride paper (D1581 Give a Lift) would work perfectly for this technique.

To start you stamp your image on cardstock and then multiple times on several different patterned papers (you chose depending on your image). You could either pick a portion of the image to highlight or pick patterns to cover the entire image.

You will then trim out the pieces of your image that you want to use from the patterned paper. You may also want to trim out your image from the cardstock depending on your project. Since my paper was two sided I stamped each image twice on the patterned paper and then mixed and matched until I was happy with my combinations. One tip for "fussy cutting" as some people call cutting images by hand, move the paper as you cut around the image not your scissors. You will have more precise cuts this way.

Then just grab a little glue and start attaching your pieces. I found that a liquid glue like our Bonding Memories adhesive was nice because it gave me a little wiggle room as far as moving a piece before it dries if I don't get the placement just right.

I tried taking a wide shot of all the cards, but my "assistant" was determined to stay in the shot. He seems to have a sixth sense on when his assistance will be needed. ;-)

I did the coloring on the basket and flowers with watercolor pencils and a blending pen.

I forgot to take a picture of the inside of this card, but it uses the phrase "Friend you lift me up" from the stamp set. 

For the base of this card I used one of our white daisy die cut cards. There is a card on one of our Cricut cartridges (Artiste I think) that mimics this pretty closely, but rather than figure the cut out in Cricut Craft room, I just traced around the edge and cut it out by hand. As much as I love my Cricut, I will have to say that cutting something by hand can sometimes be easier if it is something small and you are only doing one or two.

One thing with this technique you need to watch is the placement of your stamping on the patterned paper. On one of the balloons I ended up re-stamping one of the center medallions on the opposite less "busy" part of the paper as I could not differentiate between the pattern of the paper and the pattern of the stamped design on the "busier" side of the paper. Just something to keep in mind.

Hope you enjoyed the cards as well as the new technique. If you give it a try, email me a picture and I'll post it on the blog.

Happy "krafting"!

Melissa

Artbooking Made Easy: Trailblazing Travel Albums

With spring break coming up for many I thought this would be useful for planning ahead for when you get home and want to scrap your pictures (or is you are unlike me and super organized you can have the album premade and ready to go for when you get home).

Looking forward to spring!
Melissa

March Stamp of the Month - Happy Place

I had my reservations about this stamp set, but now that I have played around with it I'm loving it. Made this to send to my mom. You'll note that a few hexagons from a previous post made it into the inside of the card. I almost feel as if someone needed to step in and give me the "less is more" high sign as I kept adding elements to this card, but I think I managed to step away just in time LOL! The houndstooth washi tape was the final touch. If you are interested in this adoreable stamp set you have until the end of the month to snap it up, just click here for more details.

Sparkle and Shine Paper with Honeycomb

Do you ever feel as if your creative mo-jo has up and left you to never return again? I've been in a slump since Christmas. Can't really put my finger on why, but I am happy to say I was able to do a little creating this weekend - finally! Here are some fun things I've made. Hope you enjoy. :-)

I had the base of this swing card sitting around since Christmas (minus the hexagons and flower embellishment). I just couldn't decide what to do with it, but I loved these patterns from the Sparkle and Shine collection.

I ended up gluing a portion of the "swing" down in the front and making the card a half card on the front. I love the pop of the Ruby on the Juniper. I am really drawn to shades of teal, mint and aqua right now, but it seems I still need a pop of my favorite red.



 

I still had some hexagons left, so I came up with this. I utilized one of our new embossing folders - Quatrefoil on the black. Keep your eye out for those hexagons, I still had a few left after these two cards, so they might just make another appearance.

 

Happy crafting! Melissa



Retiring Items/Get Them While You Can

It is hard to believe that it is already time for me to call your attention to items that will be retiring form the current Idea Book to make way for the new items that will be available to you in February 2014, but the time has come. You can view retiring items from my retail site at this link. These items will be available on a While Supplies Last only basis, so if there is something you really want, don't wait until the end of January to order.
One item I want to call particular attention to is Z4115 12x12 50 Top Load Memory Protectors Value Pack ($22.95). This has always been a very popular item as it averages out to $.46 each for our high quality page protectors. Now, before you panic, this item is not retiring entirely, but will be undergoing a price increase (for maybe the second time in the almost 15 years I've been a consultant) in February. The 50 page value pack will not be available again at that time.  So, I'm giving you a little heads up so you can stock up now if you are like me and like to have page protectors on hand.

Sparkle & Shine and Artbooking

I recently designed this layout using our Sparkle & Shine Paper, Glitter Paper and the Artbooking Cartridge. I just love the overlays that this cartridge produces! Can't wait to take some family photos to add to this layout.

Christmas Cards Sparkle and Shine

Here are the cards we made at my recent workshop. Most of the designs I adapted from ideas I saw on Pinterest and tweaked them to utilize stamp sets from my stash and other materials I had on hand. Products featured include our Sparkle & Shine Paper, Washi Tape, Shimmer Trim and Glitter Paper. I am really loving a bit of sparkle for the holiday season. You can never have too much glitter ;-).

What are you creating for Christmas? Hope you have been inspired! If you weren't able to attend the workshop but would like to make these cards, give me a shout. I can either sell you a kit or arrange a time to do a workshop just for you.
Happy Krafting!

Melissa

November Workshops

In preparation for the holidays I have scheduled two workshops for November.

Number one is a Christmas Card Workshop. Join me Tuesday, November 12th from 7-9 and make 10 cards (2 each of 5 different designs) for $10.  Please RSVP by November 10th. A preview of the cards we're making is coming soon.

Number two is the Fabric Necklace Kit (Z1905) for $14.95 on Tuesday November 19th from 7-9. This necklace will make a great gift or a special treat for yourself.  Order the kit from my online shopping site by November the 11th to ensure that you receive it in time for the class. Join the November Orders party at the bottom right hand corner when ordering to be eligible for the November Hostess gift drawing. If you don't do online ordering or credit cards, contact me and we'll work something out.  Once you have learned the easy techniques in this class you'll have the skills to make fabric flowers for additional necklaces or other craft items, cards or scrapbook pages. They are a very versatile item.

Hope to see your for some crafty fun in November!

Artbooking Made Easy: Festive Mini Albums (S01E09)

Here are some super fun mini albums you can make with Artbooking.