February 2015 Customer Special!

This month we're featuring our brand-new, coated canvas Albums! And when you buy one at full price you can get a second one half price! That's a big savings and means you can indulge yourself if you can't chose between the Lagoon or Ruby designs. Just head over to my website HERE to order them. And when you join my February 14th Gathering there you'll be entered to win Hostess  - Rewards! What a great Special for Valentines Day - let me know in the comments which is your favourite Album Cover.

We also have our fabulous new Rolling Totes back in stock, as well as our Shoulder Totes, which make packing for Crops and Classes SO much easier! Check them out:

Exclusive to Close To My Heart! Enjoy indulging yourself in a little Valentine's Love this month!

I'm Back!

Dear friends,

I've been ill for a few months and had unexpected surgery so I'm now trying to get out of recovery mode and in to Christmas mode!  Thanks for stopping by here and there to check in on me.

Close To My Heart has a number of great new things in store just in time for the Holidays!

• Our brand new SEASONAL EXPRESSIONS Idea Book, which complements our ANNUAL EXPRESSIONS is here! From December 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, you can order these lovely papers, exclusive stamp sets, and new embellishments from this additional catalogue! With every order you place in December through my website you will receive a copy of BOTH the Annual and Seasonal Expressions to enjoy.

          You can browse through this book in .pdf version on my website HERE.

• They've brought back exclusive Rolling Totes and Shoulder Totes! The Rolling Totes will hold up to two large Organizers and two Medium Organizers, or any combination of our large, medium, or small Organizers you have...as well as lots of room in the side pockets for tools, papers, and supplies. The Rolling Totes are $164.95 and they qualify for 50% OFF  Hostess Rewards too!!!  They are currently sold out but another shipment is expected before Christmas so stay tuned!  And the gorgeous Shoulder Tote will hold plenty of paper, supplies, and embellishments for a quick trip to your girlfriends for a friendly day of crafting together! They are only $29.95!
• Stay tuned here and I'll let you know as soon as you can order your Rolling Tote! And if you want it 50% OFF - then let's have a Gathering Online or in Person in January!

• And last but certainly NOT least - the DEAL OF THE DECADE!  We're celebrating the 10th Anniversary of being the FIRST company to bring you "My Acrylix" clear stamps. For every $50 order you may buy either a C or D-sized Stamp Set of your choice for just $10!!!!  That's a savings of $7.95 to $9.95 per set! When you place your order on my website you will be prompted to add your stamp set once your order reaches $50.00.  What a fantastic deal!!! It's only good till December 31st, and only from the Annual Expressions Idea Book...so hurry to order that set you've been eyeing as a stocking stuffer for yourself!

My Christmas tree isn't up yet and my Christmas cards are only half done so I hope you're a lot farther along with your Christmas season than I am!  Here's to a wonderful, happy, and healthy Christmas holiday for everyone!

CRICUT "ARTFULLY SENT" CARD-MAKING CARTRIDGE IS FINALLY HERE!

This fabulous Cricut cartridge is finally available to order! Contact me to place your order and save on shipping...just in time for Christmas card making!

HERE'S THE DEAL WITH OUR "PICTURE MY LIFE'"PROGRAM...

There's just one more week in August to grab the special on Close To My Heart's "Picture My Life" scrapbooking program, so I thought I'd share a few pages I made for our 2014 Family Album. I've never scrapbooked this way before so decided, with all the time constraints I've got this year that this would be a great way to "keep up" with those key events you want to have a memory record of during a year. 

We have 13 different choices to cover any event, school, vacations, babies, boys or girls, or generic albums. Each set gives you 44 - 4"x6" cards (2 each of 22 designs), 78 - 3"x4" cards (3 each of 26 designs), 1 - 12"x12" Designed Cover page, and 10 - 12"x 12" Memory Protectors of various designs. (more below)

I decided to use the family oriented Avonlea set and began my album with the worst winter in Winnipeg Manitoba in 116 years:

Sorry about the flash - I couldn't get it turned off! These pages are the Design 4 pages (Z1951) with 4 pockets for 4"x 6" pictures or you can use one of the 4"x 6" cards, and 4 pockets for 3" x 4" pictures or cards. I discovered when I ran off my pictures that I don't take any vertical shots so will have to rectify that to give the album some variety!

Each set comes with a 12"x 12" designed cover page, as I mentioned, and this gives me space for a 5" x7" family picture I plan on matting and jazzing up the page with some embellishments.

So, what's the August Special? Buy any one of our 13 sets and for just $3.00 more, you can get an extra set of 10 pocket page Memory Protectors in 8 different choices:

Z1324 Design 1       6 vertical 4" x 6" pockets
  4113 Design 2       6 horizontal 4" x6" pockets
Z1950 Design 3       4 vertical 4"x 6" pockets + 4 horizontal 3"x4"                                    pockets
Z1951 Design 4        4 horizontal 4"x 6" pockets + 4 vertical                                             3"x4" pockets
Z1952 Design 5        3 vertical 6"x 4" pockets + 6 horizontal
                                3"x 4" pockets
  4110 Top Load       12" x 12" page
Z1968 Side Load      12" x 12" page
Z3026 Variety Pack  4 each of Designs 3, 4, and 5

So, for your second set of pocket pages for $3.00, you can order any of the above to mix and match the original set. The Z3026 Variety Pack is what comes with the Kit.

You can find all 13 "Picture My Life" Kits on page 127 of the Annual Inspirations Book when you go HERE. Click on the Annual Inspirations Book and check them out! You can also scroll down that page and save a .pdf version of the book to your computer. All of the 8 Designs for the Memory Protectors are on page 185, so you can decide which one(s) you want to add to your Kit. 

We'll be doing a two page class for $5.00 at our September "Scrapalicious" Crop in Winnipeg. Please contact me if you'd like to join us to crop all day or do the class. Bring a selection of vertical oriented, and horizontally oriented photos and choose your journaling cards from the sets available. Fast, easy, and enduring memory keeping!

CLOSE TO MY HEART'S NEW SHINHAN TWIN TOUCH MARKERS

I'm having a great time learning to blend and colour with our new ShinHan Twin Touch Markers. CTMH is now carrying 24 different colours that match up with our most popular colours in our 40 colour palette.

I made this card to try some bright combinations and to enter in this weeks Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

I'm hoping to get some more subtle shading in with some floral stamps as well. We'll be making two cards for $5.00 at my September 20th crop. Contact me above for more details on that workshop if you'd like to join us.

Thanks for stopping by!

VERTICAL PAPER BAG MINI ALBUM

This is my first mini album and it's not original to me - the "hidden hinge" for the binding is Kathy Orta's design, and using envelopes for the pages (vertically) is by "My Sisters Scrapper" - you can find either of them on YouTube and check out the "how to's".

I wanted to make this mini album for my daughter's birthday today as a way to keep her pics of her new cat which she got for her birthday, as well as the actual pics of her party with family, and then the sweet event she's going to with her Aunt and cousin next weekend. 

This post is picture heavy but I wanted to show the versatility of it. I used two paper packs - "Confetti Wishes" our new birthday paper, and last years "Dream Pop" which matched perfectly. I love how our papers are inter-changeable and you're never caught short!

Here's what the "hidden hinges" looked like before I finished the cover:

The pages are "Celebration" brand paper bags from Michaels, which I cut down to 8.5" tall. The cover is chipboard covered with CTMH black cardstock.

I used Dream Pop to cover it along with some retired Base & Bling jewels from the fall book. I also used the "Confetti Wishes" Complements for some fast and easy decorating.

The bottom of the paper bag makes a nice pocket for journaling tags or memorabilia. Each page has a flap over it which opens for more room for pictures:

On the back  cover I made a "waterfall" of seven 4" flaps for smaller pictures or whatever she'd like to add to them.

The tops of the paper bags are left open and most people add another piece of decorated cardstock to slide in there for more pictures, however, I left them empty because my daughter loves to save her birthday cards. I'm going to trim them down to fit so she can read her birthday wishes over and over again.

Finally, here was her BIG birthday present - her new cat Sprite! Sprites' pictures will be included in this mini album.

I'm now hooked on mini albums and am all set to try the gatefold style to make one for our latest puppy addition to the family. Let me know if you want to join me and try one out too!

As usual, thanks for stopping by!

AUGUST IS ALL ABOUT "PICTURE MY LIFE"!!!

Looking for an inexpensive, fast, and fun way to keep your summer memories alive forever? We now have 13 "Picture My Life" scrapbooking programs! I love every one of them!

Each set gives you:

44 - 4"x6" Cards (2 each of 22 designs)

78 - 3"x4" (3 each of 26 designs)

1 - 12"x12" Designed Cover Page (front and back)

10 Pocket Memory Protectors

All this for just $27.50 Cdn or $24.95 U.S.!

And for the month of AUGUST when you buy one program you can buy an additional package of 10 Memory Protectors for just $3.00!!!!!!!

You can check out these wonderful programs on page 146-149 of the new "Annual Inspirations" Idea Book on my website here. Just click on "Products" on the top and then "Idea Book" to view them.

These full colour cardstock weight cards feature journaling spaces, sentiments, and a variety of icons to supplement your fabulous pictures. You decide how much journaling or decorating you want to do, put your photos in the pockets, and you're done!

Interested in having a workshop on them so you can show your friends how easy and fun it is to fill up your pages with "Picture My Life"? Just contact me for my available dates and we'll go from there - and you can earn your set for free with your Hostess Rewards!