April's Stamp of the Month set: Blessed

April's Stamp of the Month set, Blessed, has two wonderful sentiments along with some beautiful floral, bird and butterfly images.

I had a lot of fun playing with a couple of new products on this card. First, I used our new Kraft cardstock for the base and stamped with our White Daisy stamp pad. Then getting out our brand new Spray Pens (for the first time), I added a little bit of White Daisy reinker with some water. I lightly spritzed over the stamping, just to give a little bit of texture over the design -- trying to keep the top area with the bird design relatively spritz-free. Then for the main image, I colored the bird in with colored pencils and added some red Sparkles. The sentiment was stamped in Tulip. And to finish it off, I added one of the new Pink Collection ribbons ruffled on the bottom of the card. Sometimes I really like the "clean and simple" look: no-frills, modern and hip! :-) What do you think?

Dani

Hope for Japan

I just noticed this posting on Jeanette Lynton's blog - the founder of Close To My Heart. They are providing a wonderful way to help relief efforts with a special stamp set entitled "Hope for Japan." Our A-size stamp sets usually retail for $7.95, but this stamp set is available through April 30th for just $5.00! And, best of all, 100% of the profits will be donated to the American Red Cross to benefit relief efforts in Japan. Here is a link to her post, and here is a flyer as well as a picture of the stamp set:

Every little bit helps, and what a great way to assist Japan in this time of need and get a beautiful stamp set for yourself too!

Dani

March's Stamp of the Month set: Sensational Season

March's stamp of the month set, Sensational Season, is an adorable set of Easter images with sentiments.

I kept this card to a clean and simple design, limiting the colors to only light browns and pinks. The card base is our new Kraft cardstock, the patterned paper is from the Miracle Reflections set, and I stamped with Desert Sand ink. I chose the cute little bunny and decided to have him hold a heart. I found a small little heart in our T.L.C. stamp set. After stamping and cutting it out, I cut a small slit underneath his hands with our cutting knife. This enabled me to slide the heart just underneath his hands so it appeared he was "holding" the heart.

Using our piercing tool, I poked holes to create a frame and stitched with our Baby Pink embroidery floss. Then I simply added a few of our new Pink Buttons to finish the card off. How cute is that?

Dani

More New Art to Share and the Open House Grand Prize Winner!

It was great seeing everyone at the Open House; although, I think the snowy weather kept a few of you away. To those of you who were brave enough to withstand the elements, it was very nice to visit with you again. Our 2011 Spring/Summer Idea Book is jam packed with wonderful new products, so there was a lot of great art, projects and ideas to share. For those unable to attend, I'll share some of the art on our blog!

First, I'll start with one of the beautiful make-n-takes that everyone was able to create. I used the beautiful February Stamp of the Month, Friendship, with this card as well as the gorgeous new Wings Reflections paper.



I simply love this stamp set. The damask images also make beautiful background patterns. I also used some cute new little button brads in the new Mini-Medley Accents Black Collection.

Next I'll share our beautiful new My Reflections paper packets from this Idea Book. I'll start with the gorgeous new Wings My Reflections kit papers, since we used those with a make-n-take.



This set is filled with the deep, rich colors of Vineyard Berry, Black, Juniper and Sweet Leaf. Simply stunning! This was a card I had on display using these papers and a flower made out of the brand new coordinating pleated ribbon, Wings Level 2 Assortment. I was also using one of my favorite new sets from this book for the sentiments, Fill in the Blank. I used that set a lot, you'll see. :-)



Next, I'll go to the Sophia My Reflections papers, which were featured on the cover of this Idea book. This set features Blush, Goldrush, Hollyhock and Pear -- so yummy!



I made a fun little "We've Moved" card with these papers and the new set, Bless This Nest. And I'm using my favorite new set, Fill in the Blank, to create the arrow.



Moving on to the elegant new Bliss My Reflections papers. These set features Bamboo, Chocolate, Grey Flannel and Vanilla Cream -- you need to see these colors in person to believe how gorgeous they are!



I made a cute "I love you sew much" card with the new set Tailor-Made. Using the dress form, I folded a shirt to fit as well as made a pleated skirt. The Pearl Opaques Adhesive Gems, made perfect accents from a necklace to a skirt accent.



You may remember this new Reflections set, Miracle. This set was part of a special we had a while back, and it is just as delightful. While the colors in this set are very versatile (Bamboo, Crystal Blue, Heavenly Blue and Sweet Leaf), it does tend to really remind me of little baby boy colors -- so I made a baby boy card. :-)



I used the new Paper Lantern set with the Just for Boys set -- soft, sweet and simple.



I'm only halfway through the new paper packs! Can you believe it? Next, we have the Sweetheart Reflection papers, with colors Baby Pink, Black, Cotton Candy and Tulip.



I made a "You did it!" card with once again, the new set Fill in the Blank. I used the flower and sentiments from the set. I also added the color Sunny Yellow for a pop of color and the perfect accent for the flowers.

Come join us at Mayberry, an enchanting My Reflections kit with Cocoa, Honey, Olive and Smoothie.

Using another new stamp set, Bee Happy (which I HAD to get, as my son's school mascot is a bee), I created a "you're sweet as honey" card with once again, the Fill in the Blank stamp set (the butterflies and framed accent for the bumblebee).



Sometimes it can be a struggle to find papers for older boys, but no longer with these Lucky Reflection papers. The colors are just perfect with Desert Sand, Olive, Outdoor Denim and Sunset.

I created a "Together is the best place to be" card using the stamp set included in the Bliss Workshop Kit as well as once again, the Fill in the Blank stamp set (birds). That set is soooo versatile! The chipboard accents are from the new Villa chipboard sheet of die-cuts, with a resist pattern that shows when color is added. I used a sponge and Desert Sand to color mine.



And last, but definitely not least, are the Fanfare Reflections papers. These bright and colorful papers include the colors Cranberry, Pacifica, Sky and Sunny Yellow.

Which stamp set did I use in this card? Well if you paying attention, a safe bet to guess would be Fill in the Blank. And you would be correct! I used it for both the "you did it!" sentiment as well as the sewn star. I stamped the star and used it as my template to sew with our Cranberry embroidery floss.

This is just a sampling of all the art shared at the Open House! Hopefully you can make it next time, and if you still need your 2011 Spring/Summer Idea Book -- make sure to get in touch with me. This is a must-have Idea Book! :-)

And finally, it's that time again to unveil the grand prize winner of the 2011 Spring/Summer Open House:



(* drum roll *) And the winner is... Anne S! Congratulations, Anne! I think you are THE top winner of the Grand Prizes -- how many have you won now? Even though we've had some winners who only had one ticket in the drawing. Overall, it must help to have the maximum number of tickets in the drawing... having flashbacks to Trigonometry and Probability. YIKES! Anne, enjoy all your grand prize goodies, and everyone who won a door prize AFTER you left... your prize is in with your order!

Dani

New Batch of Retired Products Available Online!

Close To My Heart has a discounted section on our websites, "While Supplies Last" -- and right now there are a lot of really nice products on there! They are ranging from a little bit off to over 70% off, definitely some great deals are available.

Here are a few that are available as of today:

There are currently MANY other items available: several other rub-ons, a lot of other ribbon, many other embellishments, with a variety of other items.

In order to take advantage of these specials, you need to shop online at my website -- under the "While Supplies Last" section.

Hurry before they are gone! :-)

Dani

February's Stamp of the Month set: Friendship

February's stamp of the month set, Friendship, is a stunning set of damask stamps with friendship sentiments. I have always loved damask images, so I was thrilled to start playing around with this set.

I'm using White Daisy, Sunny Yellow and Chocolate colors for this card. I stamped one of the damask images for the background in Sunny Yellow. After distressing with the Edge Distresser, I sponged on some Chocolate around the edges. Then I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate, distressed the edges and sponged lightly with Chocolate again around the edges.

The flower and butterfly embellishments are from the Just Blooms Paper Flowers Spring Blossom set. Using our new spray pen, I sprayed the flower with a combination of White Daisy reinker, Create-A-Shade Pearl Paint and a bit of water. It gave the flower a beautiful white shimmer. For the butterflies, I sponged them with Sunny Yellow, stamped a pattern from the Universal Backgrounds set (writing), and used 2 Chocolate brads for the "body". The ribbon is from our Cocoa collection, while the buttons are our brand new Wooden Designer Buttons. The colors really pop together, while the flower and butterflies give the card a lot of dimension. Beautiful!

Dani

Save the Date: Saturday, February 5th!

Come join us at an Open House Celebration for the new Spring/Summer 2011 Idea Book:

Saturday, February 5th from 9 am - 2pm!



There will be:

• New product and artwork on display
• Free make-n-take projects
• Open House-only specials
• Party & sign-up specials
• Door prizes & grand prize basket
• Light snacks and refreshments

More information to come!

January SOM: Find Your Style

January's Stamp of the Month set, Find Your Style, is a gorgeous set of 9 stamps with beautiful images as well as sentiments. Make sure to check it out! I finally got some time to create some art with it, and I love it! I made a little card set of each of the main images:



This first one is using Cocoa, Sunflower and White Daisy Cardstock with Heavenly Blue, Creme Brulee, Bamboo and Cocoa Inks (as well as a Cocoa Marker for small details). I also used some paper from the Olivia Reflections Paper Packet to create a "mock ribbon" randomly pleated for decoration. Then after I added a few of our Opaques Adhesive Gems, I finished off the card. Then I stamped the butterfly again in Bamboo ink and colored over it with Watercolor Pencils to make it look as realistic as I could. I then trimmed it out and attached it with 3-D Foam Tape. I decided to use this same overall design, just mixing it up a bit, to create the other three cards.

This second one is using Sorbet, Buttercup and White Daisy Cardstock with Buttercup, Creme Brulee and Sorbet inks (as well as a Sorbet marker for small details). I also used a different patterned paper from the Olivia Reflections Paper Packet to create another "mock ribbon" as well as some more Opaques Adhesive Gems.

This third one is using Gypsy, Blush and White Daisy Cardstock with Bamboo, Gypsy and Blush inks. I used some paper from Hooligans Reflections Paper Packet for the "mock ribbon" with yet even more Opaques Adhesive Gems.



And then the fourth and final one is using Grey Wool, Smoothie and White Daisy Cardstock with Grey Flannel, Grey Wool and Smoothie inks. I used some paper from the new Reflections paper packet Sweetheart, which will be in the upcoming Spring/Summer 2011 Idea Book.

This month only, you can earn the stamp of the month in a completely different way. Instead of simply being tied to your overall subtotal -- as stamp of the months usually are -- the discount for the January Stamp of the Month is also tied to the Wings Workshop kit plus the purchase of 1 or more different items from the January Inspirations brochure.

I was figuring out the different options available to earning the January Stamp of the Month FREE with this alternative option available. You can get it with a purchase of as little as $49.80 (before shipping and tax). You have never been able to earn the stamp of the month for so little! Make sure to take advantage of this deal while you can. If you have any questions, make sure to let me know.

Off to play some more with new products!

Dani

Coming soon: January Inspirations!

There are only a few more days to take advantage of December's "Plenty for Twenty" promotion. If you haven't received your FREE D-size stamp set, make sure to get your online order of $20 or more placed on my MyCTMH website by December 31st!



Starting January, we have a spectacular promotion: January Inspirations! This is our special crossover promotion that is giving us a sneak peek at our great upcoming Spring/Summer 2011 products coming in February. If you'd like to check out the brochure, please click here. (Please be patient, it's a larger pdf than I normally post.) You can get amazing deals on new stamp sets and the January Stamp of the Month when you purchase the new Wings Workshops on the Go kit!

If you've never purchased one of our Workshops on the Go kits yet, this is the time to try them! All of our Workshops on the Go kits come with paper, accessories, and an exclusive stamp set designed specifically for the workshop projects. During the month of January, when you purchase a Wings Workshop on the Go kit, you can get:

• The stamp sets featured in the Inspirations brochure at a deep discount
• The January Stamp of the Month set at a substantial discount or even FREE!

We have a gorgeous January Stamp of the Month set:



It is important to note that the discount for the January Stamp of the Month isn't tied to your overall subtotal, as the stamp of the months normally are. The discount for the January Stamp of the Month is earned by purchasing the Wings Workshop Kit plus 1 or more different items from the January Inspirations brochure. You can earn it from 25% off up to even FREE, depending on your order. Click here for the flyer for the January Stamp of the Month set.

Each Workshop on the Go kits also come complete with a full-color How-To Guide for BOTH scrapbooking and card making projects! Here is a picture of the Wings Workshop on the Go Guide.

One side has Scrapbooking project instructions,



while the other side has the Card Making project instructions.



Also, to celebrate January being National Papercrafting Month, your purchase of the Wings Workshop on the Go kit includes an exclusive additional project instruction guide to help you make a darling My Creations banner!

This is one of my favorite new products! I can't wait to decorate up some banners of my own!

With all these fun new products, some of which you can get with amazing discounts depending on your order, the hard part will be deciding which ones to order!

Have a wonderful New Year!!!

Dani

The 12 Days of Christmas Specials!

The 12 Days of Christmas Specials started yesterday! We're going to have fun with a different special every day until Christmas Eve. You can participate in one or all of the specials, but you'll have to let me know THAT day if you want the special (via phone or email).

At the end of The 12 Days of Christmas Specials, I will total your entire order for you. If there are enough orders for Hostess Rewards, I will also draw for Hostess Goodies. If your name is drawn, you'll have until Wednesday, December 29th to let me know what you want for your goodies in order to get everyone's orders placed in a timely manner.

Don't forget to check your email (if you're not on my email list and would like to be, just let me know) or this blog to see what the daily 12 Days of Christmas Special is!!!

Today's special: Friday, December 24th - last day of specials!

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Dani

Exciting Stuff Heading Our Way!

This month's special is a really easy one that is hard to beat! With Plenty for Twenty, you only have to place an online order of $20 or more to receive a FREE D-sized stamp set! Can't beat that! Check out all the details and place your order today!

And to some exciting new changes and product heading our way...

Starting with our very next Idea Book, Close To My Heart will be switching to bi-annual catalogs! What will this mean?

• The new Idea Book release dates have changed: Spring/Summer Idea Books will be live February 1-July 31 and Autumn/Winter Idea Books will be August 1-January 31!
• With a February release date for the upcoming 2001 Spring/Summer Issue, our current Autumn/Winter Idea Book will be extended to January 31, 2011!
• We will have eight (yes, count them - eight!) new paper kits in each new Idea Book!
• We will have more advance notice on products which will retired, hopefully giving everyone plenty of time to stock up on needed products!
• We will still have a January Stamp of the Month! Here is a sneak peek:
  
  
• We're going to have an awesome promotion in honor of National Papercrafting Month, starting January 1, 2011 -- more details to come.
• The Idea Books will be filled with more art, more products, and more inspiration!

Are you as excited as I am? Here are a few more upcoming tidbits to peek at:







I can't WAIT! Can you? Also, coming back again due to popular demand: The Twelve Days of Christmas Special! Starting Monday, December 13th... more details to come!

Dani

Close To My Heart on Facebook!

Did you know that Close To My Heart has a Facebook presence? At the time of my writing this blog entry, they have 23,392 fans! I, of course, am one of those 23 thousand plus fans. :-) They also run fun contests periodically, where you can enter a comment, a picture of art, etc. and win FREE CTMH products! How neat is that? So, if you aren't a fan yet, I'd say definitely head on over to Facebook and become a fan of Close To My Heart. This contest is, "Write a blog post on your personal or business blog about your favorite Close To My Heart product." You simply need to post a link on their page by midnight tonight, and you could be randomly chosen to win $50 in Close To My Heart product. Not too shabby!

I decided that my post needed to be about something that I use ALL the time: our acrylic blocks. I know it sounds lame, but I was trying to decide what I use more than anything else! I love the fact that I can see exactly where I want to stamp. I've kept a few of my golden oldie woodie stamps because I liked the image or sentiment, and I RARELY find myself getting them out. I was making a lot of cute "bee" cards (since my son's elementary school mascot is a bee), and I pulled out some old wooden stamps with adorable bee images or sentiments. I just have to say that stamping with wood again is sooooooo tedious! I am so happy that I can use Close To My Heart's phenomenal acrylic stamps and blocks the majority of the time.

I also like to use the acrylic blocks to flatten my brads down completely, so they lay down nicely in my scrapbooks or cards. Another great way to use them is having one of the larger blocks out to temporarily store the stamps I'm not using (but will likely use again) so I don't lose them -- especially the smaller stamps. And something that you simply can NOT do with wood stamps too, is load up a variety of stamps on a larger block to make your own image and easily and quickly stamp multiple stamps at once. This can be a great time-saver! I've used non-Close To My Heart blocks before, and I can definitely say that the comfort grips on our Close To My Heart blocks make stamping so much more comfortable -- especially after a lot of stamping! I also have multiple quantities of many of our block sizes, not only to make it easier at CTMH events, but also to make it easier for my personal stamping. It's so much nicer not having to switch out an image every single time I need a 2" block, since I have several available. I just can't say enough about our acrylic blocks!

Dani

New Art to Share and the Open House Grand Prize Winner!

It was great seeing everyone at the Open House; there were a few of you I hadn't seen in quite a while! Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting! The Autumn Winter 2010 Idea Book is filled with fun new stuff, so there was a lot of great art, projects and ideas to share. I shared in an earlier post our wonderfully spooky Stamp of the Month set Thriller, and a card created with it, as well as one of our make-n-takes using that same set. Now I'll share the rest of the art on display for those of you who were unable to attend.

I'll first start with the other make-n-take that we had. I went with the upcoming holidays this time around, in addition to Halloween, we had a Christmas card.



This card was using the brand new stamp set Nature's Gift and Noted Backgrounds with the color scheme of Chocolate, Cranberry, Desert Sand and White Daisy. Simply adding some decorative punched circles on your card is a great way to use up those leftover paper scraps!

Next I'll share some cards made with the new My Reflections paper packets from this Idea Book.



This card is made with our gorgeous new Magnifique My Reflections kit papers, with two new stamp sets -- Captured Moments and Ice Crystals. It's always hard to capture in a picture, but I also used some Prisma Glitter on the letters and snowflakes. It does look so pretty, but I hate how I seem to be sparkly for the rest of the day. :-)



This card is made with our new Mistletoe My Reflection kit papers as well as our fun new Opaques embellishments -- I used the Mocha color set on this card. I also used the stamp set Captured Moments again, stamping it in Bamboo ink and then coloring over the image with our Watercolor Pencils. I didn't realize how much I used that stamp set, I guess I really liked it!



This card is made with our stunning new Olivia My Reflections kit papers as well as our fun new circle cards. The new stamp sets used are The Present, Harmony and Harvest Home. I colored the bird & bird nest with our watercolor pencils, cut them out and attached them to the card with our 3-D tape for dimension. Then I added a variety of embellishments to complete the card, including our new colored Sparkles (from the blue and green assortment) and our new Foundry Flourishes Assortment. I love the new circle cards; it's a fresh new way to make cards!



Speaking of circle cards, here's another take on them with the adorable new Hooligans kit papers. I created a silly monster card, using nothing other than the papers in the kit. I simply cut out some fun designs from the prints and paper pieced this little guy together.

Next I'll be sharing a card made with each of the upcoming new Stamp of the Month sets in the Autumn/Winter 2010 Idea Book. We've already seen some art for September's Thriller set, so I'll start with October's set. Remember, each Stamp of the Month set is only available for that month. You can purchase it at regular price or with a minimum qualifying purchase you can get it at a great discount or even FREE!



This card is made with October's Stamp of the Month, Share the Magic. It has a color scheme of Bamboo, Cranberry, Garden Green, New England Ivy & Desert Sand. I wanted to give it a more elegant feel, so I paper pieced the art with the Mistletoe patterned papers. The finishing touch was some Bitty Sparkles for some bling!

This card is made with November's Stamp of the Month, A Little Thanks. This set has 16 stamps in it, so you can eloquently show your thanks with anything you create. I kept this one really basic, but even with minimal embellishments it still looks great! I selected some scraps of patterned paper from three different My Reflection kits for the stripes on the end: Olivia, Splendor and Magnifique. I also used some sweet little buttons from our new Mini-Medley Accents Collections in three of our new colors: Lagoon, Pear & Sunset. I absolutely love the clean & graphic style, but sometimes I have a hard time pulling it off.



I've got a great little anniversary or Valentine's card for my hubby next time! This card is made with December's Stamp of the Month, Amore. I didn't even use ANY patterned papers this time. This card is all decorated with cardstock and stamping! The color scheme is a fun one with Creme Brulee, Smoothie, White Daisy, Blush and Petal. I used some leftover strips of cardstock and created my own striped paper effect, stamping with the long border of hearts. Then I embellished the card up with some stitching, ribbon, pretty pins & opaques. It's so much fun to play around with CTMH's exclusive line of colors and come up with unique color schemes.

And finally, it's time to unveil the grand prize winner of the Autumn Winter Open House:

(* drum roll *) And the winner is: Laura D!!! Congratulations, Laura! Sometimes you just never know which way the odds will roll, as Laura only had one ticket in for the drawing. :-)

If you still don't have your copy of the Autumn/Winter 2010 Idea Book, make sure to get in touch with me and get your copy.

Dani