Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year & Welcome to 2016 - wishing you a year full of love, laughter and lots of create fun!... today I am super excited to announce the release of our brand new Seasonal Expressions catalogue.

It is available for you to view right now on my website just click here. It contains a gorgeous array of new ideas and product to kick start your creativity in 2016!... especially our 3 new "Workshop Your Way Kits" - you will love this innovative concept... with just 1 kit you can complete 3 Double Page Layouts, 2 Picture My Life/Pocket Page Layouts and approx. 8-9 cards all with cutting guides and instructions. Best of all if you can't attend my workshops or prefer to scrap in the comfort of your own home?... you can follow a step by step video such as this one featuring the new Charlotte range.

 

Pictured below is the new Regatta Workshops Your Way Kit that I have been busily creating a variety of summer fun and pretty floral projects with. It is such a versatile kit...it contains a great nautical theme, a cheerful colour palette and a lovely selection of flowers that includes stickers and die-cuts.

 

 

The cover of the new Seasonal Expressions catalogue was my inspiration for this card that also uses some of the Regatta Complements featured above.

 

 

The pocket and leaf shapes were cut from the Artistry Cricut® Cartridge while the 3 larger flowers and Glacier coloured leaves were created from our brand new die-cutting system...yes! another exciting newcomer to our range called Thin Cuts -  metal dies that can be used with your favourite die cutting machine to cut shapes that co-ordinate perfectly with the My Acrylix®  stamp sets. There are 4 to choose from and the one I have used here is called Springtime Wishes it has 11 different shapes of flowers and leaves and works alongside the Springtime Wishes stamp set. The stamped flowers and leaves were then complimented with the die-cut and stickers included in the Regatta Complements Pack. The "Thanks" sentiment can be found in one of the new stamp sets found in the Seasonal Expressions called Friendly Wishes - a great value set of 9 sentiments for $10.00! I also used  Glacier Extra Thick Twine,

Enamel Blue Dots and Red Enamel Gems to embellish this card.

 

Although today is release day you can SHOP NOW from our New Seasonal Expressions catalogue, everything is available in my online shop and can be delivered right to your doorstep - perfect timing for those of you spending your Summer Holidays crafting up a storm - Enjoy!

 

 

Hostess Rewards Stamp Sets

Today I am sharing 2 cards featuring stamp sets from Close To My Heart's Hostess Rewards Program combined with the wonderful new Jackson Paper Pack.

As a Close To My Heart Hostess you can earn fabulous products/stamp sets for free or at a spectacular saving. Each of the three stamp sets shown on these cards would normally retail for $21 however, as a Hostess you can purchase these sets for only $11!!

The Paper Bird stamp set includes 8 images - a bird, heart and butterfly along with 5 sentiments. For those that attended my last workshop event you will notice that this card is based on the "card topper" idea that was presented. However, I chose to give this card a touch of grunge with some distressing of Cocoa Ink ( using a sponge ) around the outside edges of my paper/cardstock pieces.

This 2nd card combines two Hostess Rewards Stamp Sets - A Thing Well Done featured in the retired Seasonal Expressions #1 and Tagged with Love which is currently available in the Seasonal Expressions #2 Idea Book/Catalogue. Tagged with Love contains 9 images including 6 sentiments - such as the "You're Pretty Awesome" sentiment. These stamp sets are all exclusive and available to Hostesses only!...they are ever changing and offer great value and plenty of crafting variety.

The card bases for both card were taken from the Daisy White Value Pack and Colonial White Value Packs - 50 x  5 1/2" X 4 1/4" cards for $20....not only are they exceptional value but they are a great time saver for card makers.

If you would like to host a card making gathering (either at home or online) and add these stamp sets to your collection please send me a message at lotfam@iinet.net.au  - I'd love to help you earn discounted craft goodies!

 

Friday Friend Feature #17

My lovely crafting friend and team member Alicia has been working her magic once again... she has created these cards entirely from the left-over pieces and scraps from her other paper craft projects and they are awesome! They really show how far you can stretch your crafting budget.

This card has been pieced together from the design cards in the Picture My Life™ Chantilly Scrapbooking Program. Alicia has teamed them with a sentiment from the Happy to Be Friends stamp set, some Flamingo Dots and Pixie Extra Thick Twine. (...and just to let you in on a little secret, there will be more colours in this thick twine range being released soon - Woo Hoo!)

...and while you may have thought the Yuletide Carol paper pack was only something you used with Christmas projects - think again! Alicia has used some of her scraps from this paper pack to create the background for this lovely card. The paper pieced tree was made using Kraft Cardstock and a small piece of green and white spotted paper from the Brushed Paper Pack ... and again the sentiment comes from the Happy to Be Friends stamp set.



Have a great crafty weekend and thanks for stopping by today....

National Papercrafting Month - Blog Hop

Welcome to our National Papercrafting Month Blog Hop!
 

We are featuring the exclusive collection of Close To My Heart products released for National Papercrafting Month - bundled into a pack called  Year >> Noted...it includes 6 sheets of paper/cardstock, a sheet of gold foil stickers and a stamp set.  If you have come here from  Pam Trostle's  blog... you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here... with me and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog - simply click here.

We have over 20 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations featuring this awesome and value packed Year >> Noted Collection combined with lots of other wonderful Close To My Heart products. Be sure to check out all the fabulous art work everyone has to share - just click on the link at the end of this post to begin the journey!

This pack has been designed to co-ordinate with the My Creations Kraft Mini Album to help you create a little time capsule booklet - where you can record your experiences, goals and achievements. However, if this is not your thing, don't despair... this is a fabulous pack for any scrapbooker or cardmaker!

I teamed the collection with one of my favourite stamp sets - Lovely Birthday and some Kraft Cardstock along with a new sketch to create this trio of cards.

I really love the pastel colour palette of the papers ...it makes very pretty cards. I used the 1/2 circle shaped stamps in the Year >> Noted Stamp Set to create the scallop edge and the arrow images to embellish this card using Desert Sand Ink. It was trimmed with a thin sliver of Gold Shimmer Trim and finished off with some Gold Sequins and Aqua Dots in the centre of the flowers.

I used the sketch again to create this variation of the same card just substituting the paper patterns and using the gold foil stickers from the Year >> Noted Paper Pack instead of the stamp set. Gold Foil is very trendy in the papercraft world at the present moment and there are almost 100 individual gold foil stickers in this pack - while that in itself is amazing!!....you can even stamp on these stickers - how cool is that?

 

This next photo/card really illustrates the glistening sheen that gold foil can give to your projects. I even cut a small portion of the sticker carrier sheet into a thin strip to add a little extra shine.

 

Thank you for visiting my blog and taking a "peek" at my card projects.....and if you haven't been there?? - now is the time to "Hop" on over to Vicki Price's  blog and see the art work she has created for you... don't forget to visit all the other Consultants at their blogs too and view some great crafting inspiration & more fun ideas! Remember, the Year >> Noted Paper Pack is only available until the 31st of January!  Contact your Close To My Heart Consultant (or click here ) to find out how you can add this pack to your crafting collection.

November Stamp of the Month - It's the Little Things

It's the first day of a new month and with it comes a brand new Stamp of the Month to showcase. While today's project maybe all pink & pretty it still follows on from the Christmas themed posts of the past few weeks...how? you ask?...well, this time around I'm not creating Christmas cards or decorations but making personalised gifts for the special people in my life....and what could be better than unique "one of a kind" Mini Albums. Close To My Heart's Hip Pic Albums are raw kraft chipboard style albums with 16 blank pocket pages... perfect for customising to suit the personality of the recipient....and this month's Stamp of the Month has an array of floral images, ideal for decorating these type of projects.

This was such a fun stamp set to "play" with...I simply chose my favourite Ink Colours and randomly stamped the floral images over sheets of White Daisy Cardstock Then one at a time I cut out each image. I did this while sitting back watching a movie with my husband...love my telly time but I can't sit idle. Although some of the images are quite small, my Micro-Tip Scissors make the job so easy and allow me to cut in and around all those intricate little areas. Next I added embellishments to the centre of each flower...choosing a mixture of Flamingo Dots, Black Epoxy Bubbles and Bitty Sparkles and then layered some of the smaller images onto the larger ones. The leaf images were also hand cut and then layered onto some other leaves cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection. I cut these leaves from Sweet Leaf Cardstock and then randomly stamped Pear Ink all over the top using the rose image from the Pick a Posey stamp...this added some depth & texture. This rose image is a fantastic way to add background texture to small areas. After everything was cut and layered it was just a matter of arranging the stamped images onto the cover of my album. I thought this album would be a great little book to place those one-off candid snap shots that don't have a home in larger album projects.

Here is a little peek at some of the pages...I have decided to follow the same pink & black colour scheme throughout the whole album... and embellish each page with more floral images found in November's Stamp of the Month...I'm a fan of consistency LOL! I have also added some of the metal charms from the Wanderful Assortment - these charms have great captions such as "snap-shots", "laugh" and "explore"...and sort of became the "icing on my cake"!

When you place an order of $75 or more in Close To My Heart products here in my Online Shop you can purchase this D-size stamp It's the Little Things set valued at $27 for just $5 — that’s over 70% off retail! ( available for one month only ) and with 15 images that is amazing value for money!

If you have stopped by blog today to follow my art work or simply stumbled here by accident I would so "love" you to leave a comment...it would really make my day!

Father's Day Card

I'm not so good at creating "boy" cards...possibly something to do with the fact that I am such a pink flowery girl LOL! and I have been procrastinating over making my Dad a Fathers Day card for days - should it be blue? what themed stamps should I use?? would Dad prefer cars, boats, or something generic? etc etc. Then this morning, panic set in and I realised if I didn't come up with something soon - it just wouldn't be happening!

One of my favourite stamp sets from the Annual Inspirations Idea Book is the Seaside Greetings, it is not gender specific, therefore I thought it would be a perfect set to use for my card. Before stamping my lighthouse image I created a background using a dry paint brush and Glacier Reinker...then to add some colour variation  I mixed in a small amount of Flaxen Reinker and sponged some Desert Sand Exclusive Ink over the top - not sure I achieved the look I wanted, but it certainly took away the harshness of a flat white background. I was however, very pleased with how well the Christmas themed Snowhaven Paper Pack worked with my card design...once again proving how versatile the Close To My Heart product collection is!

The "postage stamp" style mat was cut from the Cricut Artbooking Cartridge, it was then adhered to the card with some 3D Foam Tape adding a touch of dimension....and phew! the card was finished, just in time for my lunchtime visit with Dad....and of course being my Dad, he loved it!!

Today was a lovely warm Spring day and we spent the day together taking a drive over to the Strathbogie Ranges for afternoon tea. I hope you had an enjoyable day celebrating Fathers Day too.

 

Friday Friend Feature

In my last post, I mentioned that Spring brings with it a time of excitement and renewal...and today, I bring that to you... with a brand new segment on my blog called the Friday Friend Feature - each and every Friday I will be featuring art work designed by my Crafty Friends using Close To My Heart products. This art work will be created by consultants in my team, paper craft designer friends and others from my circle of scrapping & cardmaking buddies - all have amazing talents and I know they will inspire you to use these wonderful products in ways you never would have imagined.

Today, I am introducing you to a long time crafting friend and consultant in my team - Veronica Wuthrich who has created two gorgeous cards using the Happy Birds stamp set...both are based on card sketches from the Make It From Your Heart idea books. The vibrant & fun colour palette Veronica has chosen, simply oozes happiness!

This card is a great example of the use of embossing - Versamark Ink and White Super Fine Embossing Powder really make the white floral images "pop"...a little more dimension was added by using the Hollyhock coloured cardstock from the Adventure Fundamentals Paper Pack and some 3D Foam Tape behind the images that Veronica coloured in with the ShinHan Touch Twin Markers.

....and I love how Veronica has paper pieced and highlighted the versatility of the Happy Birds stamp set on her 2nd card - how cool to use the feather image as a leaf - very clever!...and as you can see she is a great fan of dimensional elements in her art work. The frame embellishment was covered with Topiary Striped Washi Tape and comes from the dimensional elements included in the Artbooking Cricut Collection. The cardstock was stamped using the tone on tone technique with arrow images from the One Way Borders stamp set and the yellow and green printed papers come from the pretty Brushed Paper Pack.

....in celebration of Spring and my new blog feature, one lucky person will receive the Happy Birds stamp set for FREE - all you have to do is place an order in my Online Store or with me personally for a chance to win.

I hope you have enjoyed my new Friday Friend Feature and Veronica's lovely cards...I'd love it if you could leave a message or comment for Veronica below and I look forward to sharing some more inspiring art work with you next Friday!

September Stamp of the Month

Today is the first day of Spring and my all time favourite time of the year. I can't really explain the feeling, but I get a real sense of excitement, renewal and passion when my calendar clicks over to the 1st of September. This month is particularly exciting in my Close To My Heart world too - it is that time of the year when we celebrate National Stamping Month and to honour our founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton’s 30-year anniversary in the scrapbooking and stamping industry...I have an exclusive stamp set to offer you. It features 30 mini images/sentiments perfectly suited to 30 days of stamping happiness - something for every occasion! Spend $30 on any current retail-priced stamps during the month of September with me or in my Online Shop and you qualify to receive the exclusive stamp set for FREE!!

This purchase also counts towards your qualifying order for this month's sweet Stamp of the Month set - Family is Forever -   simply place a $75 order and you can add both sets to your craft collection for just $5 -  absolutely amazing value for money!!

This is a delightful stamp set with nice large images and titles, perfect for your scrapbook projects and card projects alike. I especially love the heartfelt shape of the tree and it was this image that I chose to highlight in the card I am sharing with you today.

I decided to stamp the image using cocoa Pigment Ink - pigment inks are a little more intense in colour, making them ideal for page titles, sentiments or images that you really want to pop. I then embellished the heart features of the tree with some paper piecing... using the blue & white dotted paper design from the Wanderful Paper Pack and some little Red Enamel Hearts. I thought the red and blue colour combination gave my card a warm cottage feel and I selected an assortment of other papers in our product range to further enhance this theme. The red floral paper was a left-over card from my Picture My Life - Pear & Partridge Scrapbooking Kit and the newspaper style print came from the My Crush In the Pink Book - I am totally addicted to using the My Crush Books as a paper source! The cocoa paper is from the Basics Fundamental Assortment it comes with 20 double-sided 12" × 12" sheets (2 each of 10 designs) -  same design on both sides, one side with a glossy resist pattern and the other a matt surface. I used a combination of both sides for this card. I also used the Scallop Border Punch to add a subtle border and contrast to the card design.

If you have any questions about this month's Stamp of the Month or the 30 Years of Happy stamp set, please feel free to message me at lotfam@iinet.net.au or if you would like to see more art work using the stamp sets click here.

 

Playing with Pinwheels

 

How cute is that little Miss "Stitched with Love" ???.....she arrived in my order yesterday and I couldn't wait to stamp her up and colour her in. She is from Founder & CEO of Close To My Heart Jeanette Lynton's archive of hand drawn images  - it is a stamp that just makes smile :) I coloured her with a handful of Copic Markers E000, E00, E11, R21, R22, R24, B91, B93 & B95 and co-ordinated these colours with a blend of Close To My Heart's Exclusive Ink Markers - the best thing about the exclusive markers is they are a perfect match for the Close To My Heart paper range and as you can see in this card - I used a mixture of papers from the For Always, Chantilly and Tommy My Reflections range. I have been playing with pinwheels this week too. This month's Stamp of the Month is a fabulous set of 10 stamps featuring pinwheel shapes as well as great sentiments and you can add this to you collection for only $5 with a purchase of $75 or more from my Online Shop. I decided to use one of the smaller pinwheels and the "You make my World go 'round" sentiment on the card with my little Miss. The wonderful thing about clear stamps & blocks is that you can easily line images up and mix and match different sets together. My little Miss actually looks like she is holding onto the pinwheel stick all because I could see through the block and could line my stamped image up perfectly with her hand.

 

The other great thing about My Acrylix stamps is how flexible they are. I was particularly thrilled with the result when I stamped over my layered paper border in the "Let's Celebrate" card below... no smudging or bleeding at all and my ink even stamped up beautifully on top of the Red Shimmer Trim (it was cut with the Scallop Border Punch). I added some other fun embellishments to this card too - some Crème Brule Bakers Twine, Ruby Buttons and I coloured some clear Sparkles in with my Cranberry Exclusive Marker - be sure to check out the wonderful range of Close To My Heart embellishments here in my online shop - you will find all sorts of goodies there to add sparkle and shine to your projects.

I continued my pinwheel playtime with a deviation from my usual square shaped cards and tried my hand at a rectangle shape. I was rather pleased with the result maybe I should experiment a bit more with different shape cards??

 

I hope you have been enjoying my weekly posts and they inspire you to try your hand at stamping or even help you decide on what goodies you need to add to your craft room collection. Don't forget I would love to hear your feedback on the projects I share - let me know if there is something you really liked or if you would like to learn more about the techniques and products used. I am more than happy to schedule time with you and your friends to show you the Close To My Heart product range. For those that are attending my "Come Create with Chris" events throughout Australia feel free to leave comments and suggestions on what you would like to see when I attend an event in your area... be sure to check back next week when I share my latest home décor creations ;) 

 

Pretty Florals

After spending last weekend on the sunny & very warm Central Coast the cold weather here at home has come as a bit of a shock! Today I was dressed again in winter woollies but my garden is showing signs of spring with beautiful blossoms and pretty flowers appearing everywhere. The colours are so pretty and they certainly inspired my card making playtime today. These cards were made using exclusive stamp sets from Close To My Heart's fabulous rewards programmes. If you love discounted and/or free products contact me today to schedule a Gathering in your home or mine OR if you prefer shopping online - you and your friends can shop from the comfort of your lounge chair and computer here. I "know" you will want to add these stamps to your collection and September is the time to do it.

Pink and Green are my "go to" colours whenever I start creating and I love all the different  "pink & green"colour variations Close To My Heart have in their ink and cardstock range. Today my favourites came from the Whimsy Colour Family - blush, sweet leaf, smoothie - just perfect for pretty florals. This card was inspired by something I saw made with washi tape on Pinterest and I am very pleased with how my interpretation came together with the Washi Wonder stamp set. I'm a bit partial to the use of washi tape on my projects and I love that these stamps mean I can co-ordinate my washi tape to any of my Close To My Heart papers and embellishments. They are also fun to make decorative papers with and this is how I created the border on the 2nd card - I also added a little bit of Gypsy Ink to the colour palette of card no.2 just for a bit of contrast.

How great is the sentiment on this card "good times are even better when they are shared" so appropriate for my papercraft friends and gathering groups! The funky cheerful flowers were made using images from the "You Are My Happy" stamp set and shapes from the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection - check out the details below and you could be adding these fun embellishments to your projects too.

The" You Are My Happy"  stamp set trio was released in celebration of National Stamping Month and has also become a favourite - it truly makes  me "happy". During the month of September, when you make a purchase of $75 or more, you qualify for this  stamp set trio for only $15 ( full retail value is $64 ). You'll love the whimsical alphabet, light-hearted sentiments, and fanciful images for a variety of occasions - don't miss out on a chance to own a set of your very own - contact me soon!

A Chocolate Affair

....is the name of this month's "Stamp of the Month" from Close To My Heart. Today I have had the sweetest time creating all sorts of goodies with it....I feel like I have had a real chocolate affair LOL!! It is the perfect stamp set for gift making because..... who doesn't like receiving chocolate gifts - right?!!

A jar full of chocolate treats looks very yummy and creating a simple tag to tie around the top really dresses it up and makes it the ideal gift giving solution for any occasion - Birthdays, Mother/ Father's Day or just a gesture of friendship. A great idea for School and Church fetes too!

Bag toppers are also fun and simple to make - the scallop tag on this little goody bag was made using the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection and I added a single white chocolate raspberry into the cellophane bag of fruit and nut mix... just to add a little more fun & humour to the project.

My playtime continued with this little gift card that I made for a friend who is going through a tough time at the moment. My plan is to attach it to a box of her favourite chocolates in the hope that it adds a smile to her day.

...and lastly before I had to leave my craft room for the day, I "whipped" up this card. I used one of my new favourite tools the Scallop Border Punch to trim the strip of images and added a little piece of bunting underneath using the banner/flag stamps from the Chantilly Cardmaking Workshop set - C1554

When you place an order of $75 or more during August, you will receive the Close To My Heart - Stamp of the Month set -"A Chocolate Affair " - S1308A for FREE!
This stamp set has... a retail value of $24 - it includes 16 images and sentiments that will add a "yummy" look to scrapbook layouts, cards and more - visit my online store before August 31st and give yourself a treat....OR join my team in the next 7 days and I will be sure to add this delightful set to your new Consultant Kit....contact me for all the details....Enjoy!

P.S. - I just noticed on my product listing that I incorrectly added the name of the stamp set as "My Chocolate Affair" instead of "A Chocolate Affair" - but in truth any chocolate in this house belongs to ME!! :)

Rediscover Happy

...is the current tag line from Close To My Heart and it made me think of the things that make me happy, especially when times are tough..... and you guessed it, I am the happiest I can possibly be, when I am tucked away in my scrapping space ( aptly called the Happy Room ). I enjoy nothing more than working on my memory albums, creating personalised cards and getting my hands dirty with ink, adhesive and a touch of glitter. Papercraft is literally my happy place and if I go too long without crafting, I go through withdrawls.....can you relate to that? If so, why don't you consider joining my Close To My Heart team and we can be Happy together. As a Close To My Heart Consultant you will enjoy something that is often elusive in the working world - flexibility! - besides being paid for doing what you love, you are your own boss. You can set your own hours, work around your priorities and share innovative new products unparalleled in the papercraft industry. You also receive discounts on the products you personally love and have an amazing opportunity to touch hearts and change lives through your joy of scrapbooking and stamping. If you have ever considered owning your own home-based business then now may be just the perfect time... Close To My Heart is a new and exciting company to reach Australian shores and has a catalogue full of the most amazing array of papercraft products. Joining my team will also allow you to have exclusive access to my monthly page sketches and my Consultant Card Club where I will send you handmade cards along with the instructions to use in your events.

Two of my newest card designs are pictured below and if you are attending one of the Idea Extravaganza events over the next few months you will get to view these cards in real life - along with plenty of other page and card ideas that were designed to inspire your own creative journey - for more information on the Idea Extravaganza events be sure to check out my Facebook page and if you would like to purchase any of the products used to create these cards my Online Shop is always open for your shopping pleasure.

...oh and if you have popped across to visit my blog via facebook - I'd love to hear your comments :)

...and so it Begins!!

Today I have commenced my new creative journey as a Close To My Heart consultant. Please feel free to check out my website  - it is "now" ready for your online shopping pleasure :) - you can even join and become a consultant in my team ....if you enjoy sharing your paper craft passion with others, then this is a great opportunity to jumpstart yourself into a brand new ground floor Australian business. I am looking forward to sharing some of my fun new paper projects with you soon ♥  In the  meantime I thought I would share with you my first little play with a tiny, tiny sample of the Close To My Heart product range ( and it is huge! )....along with my trademark sketches to help inspire you to explore your own creativity :) 

 

I hope you enjoyed that little peek - don't forget to stop by my blog again as I will regularly update it with new ideas and samples of my creations. If you want to find out more about the Close To My Heart product range - click on the link in my sidebar or send me a message - always happy to help.