A card full of love

We start this card off with a regular card base of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" folded on the long side.

The pretty light rose paper for the background is from Close to My Heart and is called "Bashful". 

I used the same bashful ink for the stamping of the background. It is really very light but oh so pretty. I used a lettering stamp to cover the background randomly.

The bashful cardstock is cut at 4" x 5 1/2" and is adhered to the card front. A little edged on the top and bottom from the card base is shown.

The word "love" and the swirl both were cut from grey slate cardstock and adhered directly to the cardstock.

The flower is made from three different sized flowers in three different shades of purple. To give the flower a little bit more shape, I used a flower shaping tool and a soft mat to form them. 

 The layers are adhered together, but each is offset from the previous one. A little pearl finishes off the flower.

The hearts are also cut in three different sizes. Two large, two middle and one small size.

I arranged them so it looks like they are flying off the flower. You can adhere them flat or with foam dots to the card. Spread the remaining pearls on the card.

For the inside, I printed out a phrase I found on the internet. Sometimes it is hard to find fitting phrases or I simply don't have the stamp for it. This way you can create wonderful phrases for the inside of your cards ;-)
Just don't forget to name your source of it.

I cut two strips of the bashful paper and adhered them to the top and bottom of my quote before I placed everything inside my card.

All materials used from this card can be found on my Close to My Heart website.

Hearts and Love for Valentines Day

Making a Valentines Day card or simply a card for the one you love. Maybe for a wedding or anniversary? So many occasions you can use these elements for.

Let's start with the card base. The base is a regular 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" folded on the left side.

I cut a piece of grey "slate" cardstock at 4" x 5 1/2" for the background.

Next I used two stamps and Close to My Hearts "Daisy White" pigment ink. This ink is awesome. It is super bright on dark papers and stays white without fading. 
I stamped the lines multiple times and added the dots as fillers to it.

The strip of grey design paper is cut at 4" x 1".
I cut both hearts, the swirly and the two sizes of leaves from Close to My Heart cardstock and design paper.  For the "love" I used a light lilac metallic paper.

You can leave all parts just as they are, but I found that edging them with a little bit of grey slate ink give them more interest. I usually use a small sponge for my edging. This gives me more control were the color goes and it leaves a finer edge. (I am not good with the direct ink pad to paper technique. It always looks so messy when I do it :-))

Now it is all about how to arrange all these things. Right? 
One method I have used before, pick them all up and drop them on your card. Seriously, if you need a random look (like with sequins or other items) this is a great way to start.

Here I started with the paper strip and the swirly. I wove the strip through the swirly and attached the pair with foam dots to the card.



Next I took my two sizes of leaves and pinched the pedals just a bit with my fingers. I added the small one on the top of the strip and the bigger one on the bottom. Having the strip on foam dots makes it easier to scoop them underneath in position.

Now the hearts and finally the "love" phrase. At the end I added my three sequins to the mix. 

Again, for the inside of the card I printed out a phrase I found online and who can beat Dr.Seuss, right? I thought its a nice phrase for this card. I placed a piece of eggplant cardstock underneath it. You can also off set both pieces to make it more interesting.

I also added a little doodling to it (after I took these pictures LOL something was missing)

Well, all materials used in this card, beside the sequins and the metallic papers can be found on my Close to My Heart website.

For more information about my classes, the products or any technique/ card shown here, please feel free to contact me.

Thinking of You Card

 This card starts with a regular card base 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", folded on the long side.

The fern cardstock is cut at 4"x 5 1/4" and centered in the middle of the base front.

First I stamped the "Thinking of You" phrase in black ink to the right side of the card.

Next I stamped the branch in fern ink twice on the front.

The swirl is cut out from New England ivy cardstock and adhered flat to the lover left side.

The heart is cut from mat metallic cardstock and added with foam dots to the top of the swirl.

For the roses, they were cut with the Cricut from Close to My Heart flower design paper. They come out in a spiral with a small end on the outside of the spiral and a bigger dot in the middle. Start curling up the flower from the smaller piece towards the middle. Nice and tide. Ones you get to the middle, let carefully go of your roll so the rose can unfold a little. Don't let it get away from you ;-)
Add some glue dots to the middle and press the roll of your rose into it.

Before I adhered to roses to the card, I added little sliver metallic pedals on the side. Decorate with pearls and make some doodling on the inside. Use one of the swirls from the outside for the inside part too.

The roses are a bit 3-d and you might find it hard to sent the card through the mail. If you like to sent the card via mail, maybe place the silver pedals in the places of your roses and add the pearls in the middle of them. You can use these 3-d roses for many other projects as well. They make nice decorations for all sorts of boxes.

Check out the used materials and stamps on my website.

January Card Class Projects

Welcome to my card class project of 2018. 

Hard to believe we are already half way through January. Still trying to catch up with things and fighting with a cold, on top, my camera seems to still have some issues. My apologies for the rather dull colors. I have to figure out what's wrong with this thing. Never-the-less here are our class cards for January:


You can never have enough "Thinking of You" cards in stock right? This one used Close to My Heart fern cardstock as the background. We stamped the phrase in black ink and the green leaves in fern ink. The swirl was cut from ivy green cardstock and the heart from silver mat metallic paper. The roses are cut with the Cricut from a piece of design paper with flowers. 

Have you ever created these cute rose? The cut our is a spiral with a bigger dot at the end. You start rolling the paper from the outside to the inside dot. The tighter the roll is the better. Ones you come to the dot in the middle, let go of the roll and the rose will open just a bit. Don't let it unroll to much! Now place a glue dot or two on the dot in the middle and press your rose bundle into it. In case the inside isn't all the way secured, simply add a little bit of glue inside the rose and hold it down until the glue is settled.
The inside of the card in this case contains another swirl and some doodling around the edges.

Valentines Day is coming, so what better way than making some cards with love ;-)

All parts for this card have been cut with the Cricut and one of the Close to My Heart cartridges. The background is cut from slate grey cardstock. I stamped it with white pigment ink. The nice thing about this ink is that it shows beautiful on darker cardstock. The other parts, beside the love cut are edged with slate ink. For the inside I printed out a Dr. Seuss phrase and a piece of eggplant cardstock to go along with.







Last but not least, here is another lovely card. 

I used a piece of bashful (rose) cardstock for the background. I used a stamp with writing on it to add a little texture to it. I used bashful ink as well which is very very light, but just the right amount to give the card a nice settle background. 

The swirl and love phrase have been cut from grey cardstock. The flowers are cut from three different shades of purple. You could layer them just as they are, but to give them a little more effect I used a flower shaping tool on the pedals. Layered together and finished off with a little pearl. 

The inside of this card has another phrase included.

To see more details of each card check back here on the following Wednesdays.

If you like to know more about my classes or if you like to join them, please feel free to contact me.

Close to My Heart - Flash Sale !!!

Close to My Heart is kicking off 2018 with a 24-hour Flash Sale on our consultant websites this weekend! 

The sale will begin at 3:00pm(MST) on Friday, January 12th and end at 3:00pm on Saturday, January 13th!

To go to the Flash Sale simply click HERE.

All sales are only while supply last and from previous experiences, they don't last. Orders can only be placed directly on the website.

Happy Shopping!

The new "Seasonal Expressions Book 1" is here

Meet the new Seasonal Expressions Book 1

Close to My Heart released the new Seasonal Expressions Book 1 on January 1st. It is valid from January all the way to April 30st and it is packed with all brand new products.

Four gorgeous new paper packs, embellishments to go with, all new stamp sets and dies. There are also new organization tools and a brand new bag included. Come check it out and go to my website to see more. Click HERE to see the book online.

Let me know if you have questions about any of the items. Order online on my website or sent me an email.

Happy New Year 2018

Happy New Year 2018

Dear Blog Readers,

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a

Happy and Healthy New Year 2018.

It had been a wonderful year 2017 and I hope you enjoyed my posts through out the year. We had so much fun with our "A Year of Card Making Technique" and I hope you got inspired too. Card making classes were a success and I like to thank all of my wonderful ladies for joining them.

A big "Thank You" to

Sandy, Debbie, Nikki, Nancy, Linda, Jan, Carolyn, Karen, Ruth, Margie, Pam, Vicki, Shirley, Melanie, Maureen, Evelyn, Jackie, Linda, Jacalyn, Cheryl, Denise and Barb.

Another big "Thank You" to all my customers.

Thank you for supporting me and I hope you enjoy your products.

It has been a little quite here on the blog since we were gone over Christmas and New Year to visit my family in Germany, but now things will slowly get back to normal.

Stay tuned! My posts will be back on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays starting in February.

I hope I will see you back here often this year and please let me know if you have questions about techniques, products, cards or pages etc.

Get inspired and keep crafting. 

Sincerely

Claudia Henderson