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

A Year of Card Techniques ~ December Blog Hop ~ Stamp Your Background!

Welcome to the

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique. We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas. This month we’re going to stamp our own background for a unique customized look.  Hopefully, we’ll inspire you to try one yourself.  If you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:

• January-Shaving Cream Marbleizing
• February-So Sketchy
• March-no hop this month
• April-Stamp Set Showdown
• May-World of Watercolor
• June-Basic Card Folds
• July-Bleaching Your Card
• August-World of Watercolor
• September-Inlaid & Lifted Die Cuts
• October-Waterfall Cards
• November-Masking Magic

Our amazing sponsor this month is Claudia Henderson of Close to My Heart. Yes, this is me :-)

Please take a moment to check out her store here.

And the awesome prize this month is:

We really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today.  Since this is our last A Year Of Card Techniques hop and the holiday season is just around the corner, we are going to give you some extra time to hop!  The winner will be announced on Saturday, December 30, 2017 on A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to check her blog on Sunday. The winner will have until January 6, 2018 to claim their prize.  If you would like to be notified by email, please leave your email address in the comments.

This is the beginning of this months blog hop, so if you happen to start here first welcome.  To increase your chances of winning make sure to hop along and comment on each blog.

Creating your own background papers. How much fun is this? I don't know about you, but I often run into the problem that I need a background paper with design and can't find a matching one or one that I like. So what do I do? Yes, I make my own design paper ;-)

It really is not that difficult to do. I cut my cardstock down to size and pick one or multiple stamps that will work with my card designs. You can go simple or bold, just don't over complicate it. The beauty of having Close to My Heart cardstock on hand is that I also have the matching ink colors to go with the papers.....really simple, right?

Let's start with my candy cane card. I couldn't find the right striped papers or anything that I liked, so instead I cut my "Ruby" cardstock to size, picked a few snowflake stamps and little circles and arranged them on a clear block. In this case I when with our white pigment ink and stamped all images at the same time. Important for a random look, let your stamp go over the edges, make sure to rotate the block with ever imprint and have fun. Ones the ink was dry (pigment does take a bit longer to dry) I added my phrase, a vellum heart and some good old candy canes to the card.

The background to my second card was even easier to make. I have some pretty big background stamps and sometimes you can't really use them for smaller projects, but they are awesome for backgrounds. So I used a music sheet stamp and inked it in "Whisper" grey. I sized my whisper cardstock and stamped the image on top. No worries if the impression is not perfect. I like it this way so it looks more like a random piece. We added our little reindeer to it and then, there was still something not right. Yeap, the background needed some sparkle and maybe some snowflakes. Out came the stickles glitter glue "Star dust" and on I went to place little drops all over the card.

Again, this time I used some really really simple stamps to create my background. And yes, you can get fancy and use multiple stamps and different colors etc, but sometimes easy is the way to go. I hope you give your stamps a second look and see what kind of background you can create. Always remember, if you can't find a matching design or paper, just create your own.

I hope you enjoyed our little excursion through the world of card techniques.

Now you’re off to visit with the talented Debbie. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by.

Claudia

Always remember:

"Art comes from the heart.

So there is never a right way or a wrong way;

there is only Your Way."

Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost:

Claudia
Debbie
Wilma
Amanda
Jodie

A Year of Card Techniques ~ November Blog Hop ~ Masking Magic!

Welcome to

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique. We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas.

This month we’re going to explore masking techniques.  There are so many variations of masking, it would be difficult to list them all here.  But, since pictures speak louder than words, we’ll let our team show you the masking techniques they opted to try.  Hopefully, we’ll inspire you to try one yourself.  If you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:

• January-Shaving Cream Marbleizing
• February-So Sketchy
• March-no hop this month
• April-Stamp Set Showdown
• May-World of Watercolor
• June-Basic Card Folds
• July-Bleaching Your Card
• August-World of Watercolor
• September-Inlaid & Lifted Die Cuts
• October-Waterfall Cards

Our amazing sponsor this month is Jodie Park of Close to My Heart

Please take a moment to check out her store here.

And the awesome prize this month is:

We really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today.  The winner will be announced on Sunday, November 26, 2017, on A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to check her blog on Sunday. The winner will have until December 14, 2017, to claim their prize.

You should have arrived here from the lovely Debbie.  If you're visiting here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing and increase your chances of winning by commenting on each blog.

While the year is slowly coming to an end I have to say it was so much fun working every month on these wonderful techniques. I hope you enjoyed every moment as much as I did.

 But let's get back to this months challenge. We all have dies at home right? Some come with matching stamps and others are on there own. Well this month we were trying to find a way to get more out of our dies. So what else can you do with them?

I settled on a pair of snowflakes I found in my stack of things. First order of the challenge, I ran them through my BigShot and put them on my desk. 

Looking at the cut-outs and the negative space they left I thought about creating two cards by using both "cut-outs".

I stared with the snowflake die-cuts. I put some removable adhesive on the back of them and adhered them temporary to a piece of white cardstock. I used a sponge daubber and some distress inks in different hues of blue to cover the white cardstock completely. Then I had the great idea to use some of my shimmer paint to add little sprinkles to the piece....well.... instead of sprinkles I emptied the whole container over my cardstock.....yikes! But as I always say, there are not mistakes ;-) I grabbed a piece of kitchen paper and soaked up the excess....which left me with a beautiful shimmer on my cardstock. It looks up-close like the milky-way. I then removed the snowflakes which left me with two beautiful white impressions.

 For my second card I used the negative space of the die-cuts as a template. I started with the smaller flake and three different hues of blue. I randomly laid the template down and sponged the colors on. Last I used the big flake and some really light blue distress ink to fill in the empty space. As you can see really soft so overlapping the colors wasn't a problem.

 When you try this with your negative cuts, just make sure you hold the template well in place and be careful sponging in between the fine cutouts. 

You can use removable adhesive to hold it down too, but it works with out if you are careful applying the inks.

 From my first example I created the card seen on the left here. I matted it with some silver foiled cardstock. I also cut the big snowflake from silver paper and offset it on the white . A few rhinestones and a little greeting finishing this card up.

I do love how the colors blend in from light to dark which makes the white snowflakes really stand out. And my shimmer paint accident made a real special effect...have to remember that!

For my second sample I used some mat silver cardstock as the matting part of the card. Since the blues were a bit strong for my taste, I layered a piece of vellum on top to tune it down just a bit.

Another silver snowflake and a few rhinestone complete this card to.

So when you look through your dies, always remember to think outside the box and used them in a few other ways than planed. I hope you enjoyed this months hop and I will have more detailed information about both of these cards on my Friday follow-ups on the blog here. So make sure to check back often and don't forget to leave a comment below and on the way.

Now this is the end for this months blog hop. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by.  See you next month with another great technique!

Claudia

Always remember:

"Art comes from the heart.

So there is never a right way or a wrong way;

there is only Your Way."

Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost along the way:

Sharon
Kim
Wilma
Amanda
Jodie
Debbie
Claudia