New Spring - Summer Idea Book is here

The new SPRING - SUMMER IDEA BOOK is here...

Are you desperately waiting for the new Close To My Heart Idea Book? 

One advantage of been a Close To My Heart Consultant is, that we get to see the new Idea Book before it goes public. So let me tell you, I am holding the new Spring / Summer 2013 Catalog in my hands and it rocks. Many new products and ideas are coming your way, so keep reading for a sneak peek and what to expect on/ after February 1^st.

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• How-To-Books are back! Yeahhhhh....You will be able to get 2 of the old How-To-Book again. "Originals Card Confidence Program" and "Reflections Scrapbook Program" are back for only $14.95 and in softcover!!!
• Make It from Your Heart Volume 1 is another great book for those of you who like to create pages, cards and deco items. Small and handy with lots of ideas and instructions. Perfect for all beginners and pros $7.95 well invested  
• Card stock Combo Packs are back... you can now buy a combo pack for each of the 4 color palettes. This means two 12x12 pages per color in one palette
• 7 New Workshops-On-The-Go kits including paper packs, stamp sets, embellishments and instructions for card making or pages.
• The new paper kits are called CHANTILLY, BUZZ and BUMBLE, FOR ALWAYS, CLAIR, LATER SK8R, SURFS UP and TOMMY. I am sure everyone will find a fitting paper pack for their project.

Oh, and all you Cricut lovers, remember the two exclusive Close To My Heart Cartridges that are available…

Art Philosophy Cartridge and Cricut Artiste Cartridge,
 exclusive to Close To My Heart. 

                                               

On both cartridges you will find over 700 images, like cards, fonts, frames,, bags, boxes, shapes, a huge amount of 3-D and home décor and more. 

And the best thing with both cartridges, you find fitting stamp sets for images on the Cricut throughout the whole idea book. All fitting stamps are marked with a red outline. The stamp will have the cutting size for the Cricut on the carrier sheet , so no guess work....

Like to be part of the Close To My Heart family?  

Do you thought about joining the Close To My Heart family as an independent consultant in the past? Well there has never been a better time than now! You can order your New Consultant Starter Kit for only $49 and you will receive product worth $155…what a deal! Or if you like to start even bigger, the Master Kit is available for $99 and will contain products worth about $335 retail value! Don't be intimidated, If you love to scrap and tell other people about it, why not make a change in 2013 and join my team?  I will give you all the support you need and help you with all your questions! We are a fun team in a great family, so come and join us! Contact me for more information.

Are you ready to receive your personal copy of the new SPRING / SUMMER 2013 Idea Book? Please email me or click on the new Close To My Heart Idea Book logo on February 1^st to see the new catalog online.

A French Connection

The last two weeks I introduced you to some wonderful ideas with a certain special french touch. I hope you enjoyed these unique gift ideas and decorations.

I used only a fraction of the Close To My Heart Cricut Artiste Cartridge items and I still have so much more to try.

The "La Belle Vie" workshop kit was a wonderful inspiration for this OhLaLa experience. I can't believe how much I made and how much paper I still have left. The stamp set with the Eiffel tower, the bike and street light and those nice phrases is a great value that comes with the kit.
If you like what I showed you and you would love to purchase the kit, well you have until January 31st to get it! It will not be available after the 31st so don't think about it to long. Contact me if you like to order it or go to my website, click on the JOIN button (January Workshop) and order it online.   

You will love the kit.....OhLaLa....

Special Greetings

Again a very simple, but wonderful card. I used a white card stock base and rounded the corners on the bottom. The embossing was done with my Cuddlebug and on of their new flower folders. I left about 1 1/2" on the top of the card plain, since this part would be cover with paper.

I added a strip of patterned paper to the top and created a scalloped border from a piece of 3/4" x 5 1/2" piece of black card stock. You can create the scalloped edge either with your scalloped scissors, a machine or simply with your corner punch. Yes, you can make this border with your corner punch as well....want to know how? Contact me

I added some pink glitter glue into the middle circles of the flowers and placed a piece of ribbon across the card. The bow is attached with some glue dots to the right side, while the rest of the ribbon is attached on the left side only with the little star clamp....

Would you like a set of the January Card Class to create these cards at home? Or are you interested to join us monthly? Well, give me a call or contact me for more information....

OhLaLa ... what a surprise

 This is the last example I will show you from the La Belle Vie paper line. It is for sure one of my favorite once from the Fall/Winter Idea Book. 
With the help of the Cricut Artiste Cartridge I was able to cut out the bottom part of the box, the lip with a window cutout and and inside bottom to hold a yummy cupcake (or other goodies).

 Here you can see the open box and the inside bottom. I stamped a border around the window cutout and embossed it with clear powder.

The edge of the window was enhanced with the Close To My Heart stardust glitter glue.

A ribbon was wrapped around the box to hold the lid and bottom together. I created a little tag that could be thread on the ribbon to leave room for a little personal note.

A Girlfriend Birthday Ballon

Yeap, the same stamp we used a few days ago on another card, but this time I used it for a special Birthday card.
This time I stared with a pink card base. I added a black mat to the front in the center of the card. The image was stamped again with StazOn ink (black). You have to use a permanent ink for any kind of image that you like to color in with watercolors, otherwise you will smooch the image, since regular inks are water-based!


I colored her in with watercolor pens and added pink glitter glue to the heart on the dress. After things were dry, I rounded the corners and added the image into the center of the black piece.
I opened the card and placed it on a cutting mat, the image facing up. I used a craft knife and a metal ruler to cut around the black card stock. You only have to cut from the middle of the top, around the right side and on to the middle of the bottom part. Once the cuts are done, you take the pink frame and folded it back. The start and end cutting point are the beginning of the fold.
A ribbon is holding the flap back in place, but you could also glue it back down if you like. 

I placed a piece of design poka-dot paper on the inside and added a piece of white paper for the phrase and a note. To make sure your white paper will disappear behind the front cutout image follow this ....open your card and place the white paper writing face down onto the front cutout seen above. Now close the card by folding the back with the poka-dot paper over the white. This way you will always position it right and out of sight. 

If you like a kit of January's card workshop, please contact me for more information......Click here

A pillow box

Sometimes you need a box for those little things to give. How about a pillow box? You can create this box in different sizes depending on the gift to give. I used a black piece of card stock to create the box. (cut with the Artiste Cricut Cartridge)


La Belle Vie paper is wrapped around the middle and a tag for a little note is adhered to the top. A little flower with glitter is attached with some leaves and your gift box is done.

Cupcake or Muffin?

Give a little homemade gift and wrap it in something extra special.

These little cupcake or muffin covers are easy to make. The will give your homemade gift a special touch.

The base is cut with the Cricut and decorated with glitter, striped paper and the new silver metallic marker.

Valentine with the Girlfriends

Yes, I am back with more of those funny Girlfriend stamps....Can't get enough of them....

All you need for this card is a red card stock base, a black card stock mat and a piece of white card stock. I stamped the girlfriend image in StazOn ink (black) and the phrase in regular black ink.

I then colored our friend in with some watercolor pens and assembled the layers of card stock as seen.

For some extra fun, I stamped just the dress part on a separate piece of card stock. Colored this one in with watercolor as well and places some red glitter glue in the hearts of the dress. After the glue was dry (will take a couple of hours), I cut the dress out and placed it with foam dot's on top of the original stamped image.

Inside the card a little phrase on a piece of white paper and your Valentines Card is done....

His and Her Napkin Rings

I found these "Scherenschnitt" his and her busts on the Cricut Artiste Cartridge and thought, this is a wonderful party decoration. With these you will never run out of napkin rings. 













The frame and bust are cut out with the Cricut. I then adhered an oval paper onto the black frame. The bust was glued with foam dots onto the oval and decorated with pearls or rhinestones.

The napkin ring was made from a strip of La Belle Vie paper. I used the Close To My Heart ruler to space holes along the edges of the strip and stitch along the sides. The ring is glued together at the back and the frame with the bust is glued to the front.

A wonderful and elegant idea to make your party a very special memory for everyone attending.

So Happy Together

 We started the January card workshop with some ideas for Valentines Day and any other lovely occasion you can think of.

This card is created with a piece of black and white design paper 4"x 5 1/4" placed in the center of a white card base. I used a piece of red card stock with scalloped edges and added it with foam dot's to the base.

we stamped different hearts (two different shades of grey) onto a piece of white card stock and added the phrase in black ink. I connected the hearts with a silver pen and glued the piece in the the center of the red card stock.
A piece of black paper was stamped with white pigment ink and added to the right lower corner of the card. 
Don't you love the combination of white, black and red?

French Chocolate... OhLaLa

A little box full of delicious chocolate surprises. OhLaLa....

Again, this box was cut out with the Cricut Artiste Cartridge from Close To My Heart. This new cartridge has over 700 different boxes, embellishments, wraps, cards, etc... I can only show you a few items of a whole variety of things.

As described before, the Eiffel Tower is assembled from four different sizes and spaced with foam dots. The Eiffel Tower stamp that comes with the workshop kit fits perfectly on the cutout.

This box has a window cutout in the front and gives you a little peak on the surprise on the inside. The box is square and great for chocolate bars or any other treat you can think of. If you like to place bonbons inside, just cover the window with some transparency paper and things won't fall out.

Yummmm......

A piece of French Pie

Would you like a piece of French Pie? 
All items you can see in this project have been cut from the Cricut Artiste Cartridge from Close To My Heart.

I used a piece of the La Belle Vie double sided paper to create the lid for the cake box. The scalloped edge was distressed with some smokey plum ink.

The bottom of the box is created from Smokey plum card stock. The two flowers have been cut with the Cricut, then rolled up and glued to the base. A little bit of clear stardust glitter gives them just the right sparkle.
The leaves are edged with some olive ink and also glued to the box.

 This is how the cake box looks from the inside. Enough room for some sweet surprises, don't you think?
















Here is a close up from the flower decorations. I love these little flowers and they are so easy to make. Like to know how? Well contact me for more information.

 

Stay tuned for more ideas next week ....

French inspired Coffee Bag

I created this coffee bag from the new Cricut Artiste Cartridge. 

The Eiffel Tower was cut out with the Cricut in 4 different sizes. The Eiffel Tower stamp comes with the workshop kit and fits perfectly on the cutout. To give the Tower more dimension, I spaced each layer of the tower with foam dots.

Little rhinestones finish the top of the box.

The box itself it created from one of the double sided La Belle Vie papers. If you are interested in the workshop set or have questions regarding the box, please feel free to contact me.

The bag was a wonderful wrap for some very special coffee (beans) that I gave to my sister.

Stay tuned for more projects…

Parisian Flair on a Bottle of Wine

Welcome in 2013! I hope you all had a good start into the New Year. I would like to start this month with some memories of France…..

Here is an idea for a wonderful wrapping for a good bottle of wine. You can either use it for a table decoration or as a gift present.

I used the Close To My Heart paper La Belle Vie for this project. The workshop kit comes not only with this wonderful paper; it also contains a beautiful Parisian stamp set…. LOVE IT!

The frame part was cut with the new Cricut Artiste cartridge from Close To My Heart.

Stay tuned for more...