I have cut the background image from the blue floral patterned paper using Accent 4 page 46 of the Artiste Cricut cartridge and used the hide/contour button to remove the centre cuts. This was then cut in half to put on both sides of the double layout. I love the combination of Kraft cardstock with the blue from the Glacier cardstock and blue patterned paper and this layout was very quick to put together. I then glued some Glacier extra thick twine along the bottom of the blue patterned paper. The ‘love’ sentiment has been cut from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge in Sorbet and then lined with Slate cardstock for a dimensional look. I had some fun stamping flowers from the Shower Flowers stamp set which I have stamped on White Daisy and Glacier cardstock for variety and also to try and tone in with the background paper. I finished off with some of the new Coral Reef sequins and a small Glacier twine bow.
This layout would be suitable for a Mother’s Day or baby layout.
This card has been based on the pattern No 29 from the Make It From Your Heart Volume 1 book. I love embossing and this Flowers for Mum stamp set just begs to be embossed. The larger lower has been stamped with Blush ink (NLA) and the smaller flowers have been stamped with Glacier ink and then I have used the coordinating stamp to emboss with silver. I actually prefer it when I haven’t quite matched the stamps as it seems to give the flowers more dimension The small flowers in the sentiment stamp have been coloured in with the ShinHan Touch Twin marker Tender Pink. I have matted the Glacier cardstock with some Blush cardstock to match the flowers. The Blush worked in well with the beautiful striped zip strip.
Finally – I have been doing more boxes and thought I would show you what I have done with some Base and Bling. I haven’t done a lot with the Base and Bling as there is a lot of people making jewellery around where I live so I thought I would do something different with it. I cut a flower from the floral paper and then layered it with another sorbet coloured flower and then glued the glass cover on it. I then attached it to the box with the Glacier extra thick twine. This would make a lovely box to put jewellery in to give as a gift.
Just a very quick post today as I really should be working on my new website for Gift Hutt, but I am now in a routine with this blog.
Here are a couple more boxes that I have made as gift baskets to sell in Gift Hutt. One of the new arrivals into the shop was this lovely bright orange bib and I instantly thought of Scaredy Cat papers and also the lovely foxes on the Artfully Sent cartridge.
The Seaside papers in combination with some Blossom papers also make a lovely baby themed box. Here I have used the gorgeous spotted papers and distressed them with some Desert sand ink to make it look aged, and I have then added a strip and ribbon from the new Blossom range to make it look like a gift box. Again I have added a tag tied with the lovely Glacier extra thick twine. The pram has been cut using a Memory Box die that I have had for some time.
Here is the box with a bib in it and I added a green car soap in later when I took it into the shop
Non CTMH – Memory Box die – Pram, Boxes from local discount store
I am so happy how these have turned out and plan to do some more boxes for Mothers Day.
All products from CTMH can be purchased from my website here. The completed boxes and contents are available for sale at Gift Hutt – a new website is still being built and I am hoping it will be live in the next week when I can get this post done!
I was reading in a blog the other day that Close to My Heart (CTMH) seemed to be more about scrapbooking than anything else and I just wanted to say that CTMH is much much more than that. Close to My Heart provides a huge range of products for all your papercrafting needs, including cardmaking, 3 dimensional projects, home decor items as well as the traditional scrapbooking. I have been papercrafting for 20+ years and I have personally found the CTMH products to be superior to anything that I have used in the past. The quality is excellent and the company are great to work for. How many companies would make page protectors to fit another company’s albums! CTMH did just that to help ease the previous Creative Memories Consultants transition from CM to CTMH. Plus they have created stamp sets specifically for the Australasian market. And they have just created a new stamp set to go with a fabulous new paper pack they are releasing next month after a suggestion from a consultant.
Since I have been with CTMH my paper crafting has gone to a whole new level and I have been able to stretch and challenge myself to do a lot more projects that I would never have thought I could do. The support and inspiration from the other CTMH consultants has been amazing as well. It really has become a big international family with consultants sharing and supporting from Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
Here are the reasons why I love CTMH
Stamps – There are over 100 different stamp sets for all sorts of different occasions. CTMH stamps are clear acrylic stamps that come in a little package for easy storage. I have always preferred clear stamps as I like to see where I am stamping. However, the ones I have used previously were good for only a couple of uses and then they warped and lost their stickiness. I loved the images but couldn’t use them! Plus the prices are excellent value for money with prices ranging from $6 to $33 (NZ$). And there is also the SOTM set which is available for just $5 when you spend $75.
Papers – the papers are gorgeous and beautiful to work with. They mix and match so well and the paper packs with coordinating cardstock are excellent value for money at just NZ$18 per packet. Enough for 2 double page layouts and lots of cards. I also love the fact that they cater for masculine themes really well as those are hard to find.
Cardstock – there are 40 different colours to choose from and you can buy them in packs of single colours or in a colour range. They work well together across the colour spectrum and I like the white core as it gives other ways to add more dimension to your projects. Plus this adds to the uniformity of colour throughout the packs. and they are easy to manipulate and roll into flowers.
Inks – there are inks to match all the cardstock colours. I have found the ink pads to be lovely and juicy and give a good impression every time. And there is NO smudging unless my hands are hot and sticky. I have used other products and have got frustrated with the smudging. I am not sure how these inks would go on other cardstock as they are designed to work with the CTMH cardstock and I no longer have other products to use to see what they would be like.
WOTG and How To Books – I am more of a cardmaker than a scrapbooker and I LOVE LOVE LOVE these WOTGs and books. These are great to get me inspired when I have a creative block and they are easy for newbies to scrapbooking and cardmaking to use. My books are well-thumbed and I have used them heaps.
Embellishments – CTMH provides a range of embellishments to match the papers, stamps and cardstock. There is a selection of ribbons, bling, sequins, washi tape, bakers twine and shimmer trims. I have found over the years that it is easy to hoard a lot of different embellishments and it is good having a smaller range that works on a wide range of products. Plus there are a lot of cheap imports coming into the country and CTMH are unable to compete with them and they should compete with them. I almost exclusively use CTMH products but occasionally I will add a non-CTMH product. I really don’t need anything else.
Designer Creations and Design Creations – there are a range of boxes, bags albums and frames for you to decorate with and make great gifts for friends and families.
Cricut Cartridges – I don’t know what I would do without my Cricut cartridges. Just about every time I sit down to craft I turn my computer on and get into Cricut Craftroom to make something for my projects. I love the fact that you can size the images to fit and you are not limited to the size of a die. Plus I was always losing my dies on my desk. I was told at the start of my CTMH journey that you will only need these cartridges and they were right. I haven’t needed to really look at any of the hundreds of other cartridges that are available as I have all that I need.
There are other products available such as the Picture Your Life and Base and Bling to add more variety to your crafting. These products can be used on their own or incorporated into your other projects such as scrapbooking and cardmaking.
Here are a couple of cards and some decorated boxes using CTMH products to show how versatile they are.
These cards have been made with the new Blossom papers from the new Seasonal Expressions 2 catalogue. These were very quick and easy to make using the beautiful papers and the coordinating stamp set Shower Flowers. I have used stamped the images and then fussy cut them out to layer them to make the flowers. Isn’t that zip strip gorgeous and just finishes off the cards so well.
With this card I have stamped the leaves with Glacier ink first on the base card and then layered the flowers on top. The sentiments are from the Happy to Be Friends stamp set from the last Seasonal Expressions catalogue. This stamp set is still available for about a year before it is retired.
And just to show that CTMH is not limited to cardmaking and scrapbooking I have decorated a couple of kraft boxes from the local discount store. I have some baby clothing for sale at Gift Hutt and thought I might make some boxes to do up to make gift boxes for baby showers or for a new arrival. A lovely aqua baby cardigan had just come in and I immediately thought of the Blossom papers and they were a perfect match.
Here is the baby gift box. I have cut the lace heart from the Artiste cartridge and used the Cricut Craftroom to manipulate the size to fit the shape of the lit. I traced the lid onto a piece of paper and then cut it out with scissors to get the base shape. The bow is cut from the Artiste cartridge.
And here is the contents – including the cardigan and a very cute handcrafted soap moulded into a baby basket. I have got cards to match this at Gift Hutt and the ribbon was purchased through Gift Hutt. This gift basket would be great to keep all the little mementos that we collect when we have babies – like the first booties, tooth, hair cut etc.
With Mother’s Day coming up I have done a gift basket for filling with lots of goodies from Gift Hutt.
As you can see there is so much more to CTMH than cardmaking and scrapbooking. Almost all the products I have used are from CTMH and can be purchased from here.
These views expressed here are my personal opinion only.
Today I have made some cards with this beautiful stamp set Flowers for Mum from the Seasonals Expressions 1 catalogue. The catalogue is now retired but the stamp sets will be available for a while on my website here. This stamp set comes with ‘Mum’ and ‘Mom’ versions which is so thoughtful of CTMH to do to cater for the two different markets. I love the flowers on this and thought I might try something different with stamping techniques.
I have stamped the base image with sorbet ink and then using the outline image I have then stamped with Ranger gold embossing powder and heat set it. I then stamped the centre again with the versamark and gold embossing powder after colouring the centre in with the Shinhan Touch Twin Golden Yellow marker. To finish I used liquid glass for a lovely shiny effect. I then fussy cut out the image. As I said I was really pleased with the outcome.
Here are some cards that I have made using these images. I have used the sorbet coloured paper from the Whimsy Paper Fundamentals pack as it worked well with the colour schemes. the photo has picked up the beautiful texture of the paper. I love these leaves from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge and use them all the time with my projects.
For this card I also did the same technique with the little blue flowers using the glacier ink, and used small strips of Blossom paper to link the blue to the card as a whole.
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I am very happy with these clean and simple cards.
I have used the Happy to Be Friends stamp set for the sentiments. I love this stamp set as it is so useful for lots of different projects. I needed to make some more general birthday cards for Gift Hutt so these were very useful.
These products are available for purchase on my website here.
Also this month CTMH has a special deal where you can buy any priced item and then purchase a mystery bag valued anywhere between $75 and $250. These bags contain twice the value of products with a mix of new and retired products. Everyday has a different deal so check in everyday to see what is new.
Hello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Mandy’s blog, Hall of Indulgence then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.
Today I would like to share with you some cards that I have made which features April Stamp of the Month Typed Note available exclusively throughout April for $33 or for just $5 when you spend $75. (New Zealand)
I have been looking forward to this stamp set for a long time as it is going to be such an asset to my ever growing stamp collection. This is great for both cardmaking and scrapbooking projects and if I had not already scrapped my old school photos this would have been perfect for my old black and white photos.
First up I have used the new Jackson papers that is available from the new Seasonals Expressions catalogue which has also been released today. This is a very masculine paper and I have cut out an envelope using the Artfully Sent cartridge and then added some trims using scraps of the same paper and Cocoa cardstock to turn this into a satchel into which I have added a fussy cut out typewriter from the stamp set with a message. And yes that is a strip of Timberline that was in the last Idea Book that I had kept just in case, as you do, and this was just perfect for the project. I just needed to trim it to fit. I have added some Licorice Opaques which unfortunately are no longer available.
Here is the inside of the card. I don’t normally put anything inside but I had put a little smudge on the edge so I decorated the edges with strips of the Jackson paper and then stamped the birthday image inside.
Next is a card that I have made with the gorgeous new Blossom papers that is also in the new catalogue. I have also used the new Shower Flowers stamp set to decorate this thank you card to make it more feminine. This stamp set is designed to go with the papers and here I have used the matching colours – Sunset, Pear, Glacier with a touch of Honey for the flowers and then fussy cut them out. I love using the new extra thick twine to finish off cards and here I have used liquid glass to adhere the twine along the sides of the beautiful zip strip. To finish I have used the new Coral Reef sequins on the small flowers.
The typewriter image goes so well with the Chalk it Up papers and here I have embossed the Flaxen cardstock with the arrows embossing folder and then sanded it to get the white core to add some dimension. I then matted various layers with the Chalk it Up B&T papers and some more Flaxen cardstock. I used some retired black twine to add some interest to the background. I stamped the typewriter image on some scrap Colonial White cardstock and fussy cut it out. Finally, I stamped the birthday sentiment with Flaxen ink on the paper.
Finally, I have used the now retired Hopscotch papers using a favourite pattern from the Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 pattern 28 and using the same techniques as before but this time as I had very hot and sticky hands the typewriter image smudged a little so I used a scrap piece of Hopscotch papers to paper piece the paper onto the typewriter. The little pointed finger was a fun element to add to the card. For the sentiment I have used Sunset ink as it seemed the only colour that would stand out.
Typed Note is only available until 30th April from your CTMH consultant. I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Lauren’s blog, CTMH Craftings
This card has been based on the pattern No 29 from the Make It From Your Heart Volume 1 book. I love embossing and this Flowers for Mum stamp set just begs to be embossed. The larger lower has been stamped with Blush ink (NLA) and the smaller flowers have been stamped with Glacier ink and then I have used the coordinating stamp to emboss with silver. I actually prefer it when I haven’t quite matched the stamps as it seems to give the flowers more dimension The small flowers in the sentiment stamp have been coloured in with the ShinHan Touch Twin marker Tender Pink. I have matted the Glacier cardstock with some Blush cardstock to match the flowers. The Blush worked in well with the beautiful striped zip strip.
