Enabler Alert - Michael's Crafts has Martha Stewart Holiday Punches on Clearance!

This is a total enabler post but I had to share!  Today my DD and I went out to pick up a prescription and we stopped by Michael's Crafts.  I FINALLY found the Loop edge punch and Loop corner punch - and get this - the border one was just $4.79 and the corner one was $3.79!!!  These were normally $15 and $10 so I was TRHILLED to get the deal.  So much so I went back and grabbed some more of the punches.  Not every one of the holiday punches are discounted this low BUT I was also able to get the edgers Icicle, Ornaments and Snowflakes all for $4.79 a piece.  The others were around $7.99 which is a great deal but I just didn't have the funds to go that high after Christmas!  Sigh, I'm so happy right now....  I have to admit I just LOVE the Martha Stewart punches.  They are a GOOD THING and make this little paper crafter's heart happy!

So - if you get a chance to stop by Michael's see what you can get at mega clearance after the holiday!  If you want to share your scoop then post here - the hubby's just don't always understand how a punch can make a girl so happy but we'll all get it!

Paige

Thanks for the image Jamya!

A fellow CTMH consultant and cyber friend, Jamya Malme (visit her fantabulous blog here), graciously allowed me to use the ADORABLE Close to my Heart shopping cart logo that she created!  Thanks so much Jamya - its a GREAT addition to my blog!

As you might have noticed after a month or two of very frequent postings I've been on hiatus for a couple of days.  Rest assured, I am busily crafting away in my room!  I am in the process of getting ready for my Spring Fling Auction and Idea Book Celebration Party on the 8th of January.  I have SO much to do to get ready - I still have a bit of Felicity artwork to prepare, the make and takes to create, a Valentine's Card workshop to finish, build my display boards, create the Stamp Bucks for the auction (I'm super-duper excited to try this new idea with my ladies!), update my booking board, etc. etc.  While I'm feeling swamped right now I know everything will come together and we'll have an ABSOLUTE BLAST at the open house!  I always love getting together with my ladies for a night of fun but these parties are even more fun for me because I get to spoil my friends and show them how much I appreciate their support of me both personally and in my business.  I'll try and post some of the art before the show and I'll definitely have TONS to share after the 8th!

Paige

CTMH Memory Box in an Asian Theme

This is the covered CTMH Memory Box (9x9" interior size) I made for my daughter this Christmas.  The papers aren't ours - they are actually from an Asian stack my daughter bought a couple of years ago to play around with.  I knew she loved this fan girl paper so I used it for the top.  I would have used our CTMH Unforgettable paper but Eliza is NOT a pink or flowery girl but the colors actually match PERFECTLY so I was able to use some sorbet stitched ribbon and some flower Unforgettable Stickease on the front of the box. 

I painted the box with silver acrylic paint prior to putting the papers on (just on the edges I knew wouldn't be covered by paper).

The sides and back are covered with a kanji script paper.  The bottom of the box has another kanji print.

Interior shot showing the dragon paper and kanji paper liners.  The box came out very nicely and Eliza was very surprised and pleased with it!  Now I just need to make treasure boxes for the boys too.  The boys did love their mini notebooks! 

I hope all who celebrate had a wonderful peaceful Christmas day!  We had a blast playing with all our new toys yesterday and had a movie fest last night to watch a couple DVD's the kids got for Christmas - Star Trek and Harry Potter!

Materials Used:

Paper:  Asian Stack

Ink:  Cocoa, Brown Stazon

Stamps:  The Works (alphabet), Aspiration (dream)

Other:  Memory Keeper Box, Sorbet Ribbon, Foundry Metal Accessory, Pewter Brads, Silver Acrylic Paint

Altered Mini Composition Book using CTMH Back Country

This mini composition book uses CTMH Back Country paper and stickease. This one is for my outdoors-nut stocking stuffer.

Materials Used:
Paper: Back Country Level 2
Ink: Olive for distressing
Other: Back Country Stickease, Liquid Glass, Outdoor Denim Twill Ribbon, Sharpie Extra Fine Tip

Altered Mini Composition Book with CTMH Stardust Papers and Stickease

I just love making altered notebooks for presents. They are easy, useful and able to be personalized in any way imaginable! This is a mini composition book (about 3.5" long) that came in a two pack for $1 at Target. I've added the spaceship from our CTMH Stardust stickease and flooded it with Liquid Glass for that shiny effect. This one is a stocking stuffer for my space-nut boy.

Materials Used:
Paper: Stardust Level 2
Stamps: None - holey moley! That's rare for me!
Ink: Moonstruck to distress the edges
Other: Stardust Stickease, Black grosgrain ribbon, mini composition book

Snowman Christmas Card with CTMH Snow Friends, CTMH Holiday Jingle

This is another card inspired by the wonderful Kathy Carlson (see her card here).  I've had this retired blue gingham paper in my stash for about 1.5 years so I was happy to find a cute card to inspire me to USE some of my stash!  Love the combination of Heavenly Blue and Cranberry - what a cheerful pop!  My darling daughter and I had a blast making a couple of these cards for our Christmas sending this year.  She likes doing the watercolor pencil coloring for me on my cards.  I love doing projects like this with my kids - the kids have fun playing in "mommy's room" and we get some one on one chatting time while we work.  I've also been told by our neurologist that scrapbooking is good for the brain!  It helps with the planning and visual processing parts of our brains and as I've been teaching my kids - you have to use your math skills to figure out paper maximization!

Materials Used:

Paper:  Evensong Creative Basics (retired), Heavenly Blue Gingham (retired)

Stamps:  Holiday Jingle, Snow Friends

Ink:  Cranberry, Cocoa (snowmen)

Other:  Watercolor Pencils, Cranberry ribbon

Teacher Gift Hand sanitizer bottle with CTMH Rub-ons

This is the second part of the gift my youngest is giving to his teacher this year. Each day as the kids line up for lunch she gives them all a squirt of hand sanitizer before they go to eat. This is just SO nice as I know she is buying the sanitizer herself and it means SO much to me that she does it as my youngest is immuno-suppressed. Just knowing the kids are all getting nice and clean before they eat takes a little bit of the worry about germs away.

Here is a close up of the bottle decorated with our rub-ons. If you want to give this a try - one tip I can give you is to lay the bottle down flat (I started off upright and it was much more difficult). The large container of sanitizer was from Costco and the front label peeled off very easily leaving a clean surface. I got the idea for doing this from the CTMH consultant bulletin board and thought it was a fabulous idea for a teacher gift. I was very pleased with how fast it went together - my son designed what the bottle would say and I rubbed the letters on for him. This would also be fun to do on soap bottles in the bathroom or in the kitchen - I'll have to give that a try and see how they wear over time! If you give this a try let me know how yours turns out!

Happy Hanukkah Cards with CTMH Cupcake Sprinkles

I needed to make a couple of Hanukkah cards for some dear friends of mine and wanted to go with the festival of lights theme.  I used the candle stamp from Cupcake Sprinkles and turned it backwards and stamped with the backside or non-patterned side of the stamp to make a solid candle image.  I used the flame top as it was but added two layers of liquid glass to give it lots of shine and dimension.  It is a simple card but I think it does focus on the light aspect of the imagery.

Here is the card with the stamp set - you can see the striped candle towards the center of the set that I used the backside for stamping.

Materials Used:

Paper:  White Daisy CS, Moonstruck CS, Silver Metallic (unknown source - it was a gift)

Stamp sets:  Cupcake Sprinkles

Ink:  Moonstruck, Sunflower

Other:  Liquid Glass

Teacher Gift Thank you Cards with CTMH Thank You, Daydream, Easter Eggs, Let's Play Ball

These are part of the gift my youngest kiddo and I made for his teacher for Christmas.  Her classroom has a sports theme (baseball and football) which hasn't been Devin's cup of tea as we are more of a martial arts family.  When I saw the Let's Play Ball stamp set in the clearance sale I knew I HAD to get it just to make cards for his teacher!  At $6 this stamp is perfect for these cards and whenever we get invited to a sports-nut boy birthday party!  The clearance sale is over at the end of the 17th so if you haven't had a chance to order YOUR presents yet - CLICK HERE to get on over to my site and get some GREAT deals while they are still available!!

Materials Used:

Paper:  White Daisy CS, At the Game Paper (LONG ago retired)

Stamp:  C1198 Let's Play Ball (in the clearance sale NOW -gone on December 17th), D1361 Thank You

Ink:  Outdoor Denim

This is the girl version of the thank you cards.  I used our Easter Eggs stamp (former Stamp of the Month) to stamp around the punched out flower to create the pattern.  I love using that stamp set like this! 

Materials Used:
Paper:  Daydream Level 2, White Daisy CS
Stamps:  Thank You, Easter Eggs
Ink:  Spring Iris
Other:  Martha Stewart punch (edging), Flower Punch (not sure the vendor) and small .5" Marvy Uchida punch

Teenager Gift Set using CTMH Best Friends Forever, CTMH Grown with Love, CTMH Alphabet Solos M

This is a gift set my daughter and I put together for her to give to her BFF using a Level 1 Best Friends Forever kit (retired). We had a blast putting this together but I think what my daughter likes best is the knowledge that as she grows up she may never have to shop the malls and pay full retail for gifts! I do have her buy the materials that she uses to create the presents - either cash or labor payment so she gets off pretty darn cheap. Yep, I do like the fact that my kids understand that homemade means that you care enough to take the time AND you can save some money in the process! This set is just SO DARN CUTE that I know her buddy will love it!

This is a pencil cup we created by putting together five 4' coasters. I'll do a tutorial for these later on (probably January 'cause December is FLYING by if you know what I mean!). The initial is an Alphabet Solos M embossed in Cocoa.

2. An altered composition book - the tree is embossed in Cocoa, stamped leaves and then the flowers are stickease from the kit. The tree is from Grown with Love and the little bird in the branch is from our upcoming Felicity kit - you are gonna LOVE that one!

3. Mini pizza box (4" square) using the Hollyhock cardstock from the kit along with some Fancy Cut Botanicals I had laying around. There are 3 sheets of different colored flowers, stems, leaves, etc in the package so we mixed and matched and added some brads until we got the effect we were going for. I'll be doing a tutorial for these boxes later on too!

4. Inside the pizza box is a set of altered binder clips. Some have a stickease initial added to the front.

I've used lots of different products on these so just leave a comment if you have a question about one of the items. When I create for myself I tend to keep pulling out things and don't keep track of what I'm using - its like when I cook - a little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Covered Pillow Box Picture Tutorial with CTMH Holiday Trinkets and CTMH Holiday Creative Basics

I had a Creative Class the other night and the ladies in attendance each received this adorable pillow box filled with Close to my Heart presents for the holidays. The box itself is part of the present as it is completely reusable- gotta love that! I wonder who made it home before they opened their present....

Here is a quick picture tutorial for making a covered pillow box.

I bought a box of 50 pillow boxes in the Target Wedding aisle when they were on clearance (total score!).

2. Measure your pillow box. You will need a piece of paper a bit more than twice as wide (to go all the way around) and just a little longer than your box.

3. Cut your chosen paper to size.

4. Put adhesive on the FRONT of your box. Make sure you get right to the edges and then put it down in the middle of your paper.

5. Fold the sides of the paper up. Put adhesive on the back side of your box and then push the paper onto the box to adhere.

6. Cut the extra paper off the two ends of the box following along the curve.

7. Use a hole punch to cut out the divet in the end of the pillow box.

8. Fold your box ends in. The first time will be a little stiff as the paper has to fold along the boxes score line. I used a sponge dauber to add some ink to the cut edges to make them blend better.

9. Instead of buying fillers I take sheets of tissue paper, fold them up and cut them in .25" to .5" slices on my paper cutter. I fluff the pile and then use it to fill up the boxes.

10. Add a pretty ribbon around the box and tie in a bow at one end. Add some decoration to the front and you are ready to go!

Materials Used:

Paper: Holiday Creative Basics (retired but in the Clearance Sale - it comes with 8 yards of cranberry ribbon).

Stamps: Holiday Trinkets

Inks: Cranberry, Ponderosa Pine, Desert Sand

Other: Pillow Box (Target Wedding), Red Ribbon (Target), Gel Pens (Costco), Red tissue paper for filler

New Art and Soul Tutorial - Happy Highlights featuring CTMH Posterboard Alphabet

The latest CTMH produced Art and Soul episode is now live on my site - to check it out click here! This episode will show you the many uses of our outline stamps and features one of my favorite alphabet sets - Posterboard!

Here I used Posterboard alphabet to emboss in Cocoa and then I stamped on the inside of the letters using the sparkles stamp in Holiday Trinkets. A few minutes to cut the letters out and I was ready to assemble this awesome banner using our Around the Holidays card kit!

There are lots of other examples in the Art and Soul episode using this type of stamp so be sure to check it out! These free 10-15 minute classes are always full of information, inspiration and best of all a discount on the featured items!

CTMH $30 Mystery Goodie Box in Holiday Heydey Clearance Sale

Raise your hand if you usually wind up buying all your own Christmas presents. Do you want a SURPRISE under your tree this year?

I know I'm not the only Wife and Mom out there who usually winds up buying all my own presents. Lets face it, we are the ones at the stores DOING the shopping and we are the ones who know what we actually want each year. BUT (yes, a big but) sometimes its nice to get a surprise! Sometimes we NEED a surprise. Sometimes we WANT to feel the excitement of opening a box that WE didn't wrap! So I've got a SURPRISE for YOU!

In our Holiday Heydey Clearance Sale (now through December 17th!) there is a $30 Mystery Goodie Box with $100+ worth of merchandise! You'll know you are getting our top quality Close to my Heart products BUT you WON'T know WHAT you are getting at 70%+ off! There are still lots of other items up for sale at incredible prices too but there is just something about a surprise at the holidays that I wanted to share with you! Make it a great surprise by sending the link to your hubby and having HIM shop for you - when he gets the box all he'll have to do is throw some wrapping paper around it or if your hubby is seriously wrapping challenged just a bow!

Okay, here's what I got in my box yesterday! Contents will vary from box to box but ALL boxes will have $100+ in merchandise! Did you notice from the picture that they even make an effort to COORDINATE the items you get? This is one of the many reasons why I love Close to my Heart - they don't just stuff odds and ends in the box - they took the time to coordinate the items so I can actually USE what I get all together! CLICK HERE TO SHOP THE SALE FOR YOUR SURPRISE!

Cranberry Base Pages: $9.95

Whoops a Daisy Level 1: $9.95

Let's Get Together Stickease (4 pages): $8.95

Textured Cardstock (variety - 9 pages total): $5.60

D1100 Classic Caps (didn't have!): $22.95

D1130 Random Thoughts (didn't have!): $22.95

Z268 3-D Squares, Strips and Minis (I LOVE THESE!): $8.95

Sassy Strands White Daisy: $3.95

Sassy Strands Summer Carnival: $3.95

Gold My Accents Tube: $12.95

Cranberry My Accents: $3.95

Total Retail: $114.10 Retail Value!

Vintage Christmas Card using CTMH Gracious Greetings, Cuttlebug Allegro Embossing Folder, Jingle Paper

This is my favorite card this year. I just love the soft vintage look this card has! I used the Cuttlebug Embossing folder to create the background on some Sweet Leaf cardstock and then used a brayer to apply Chocolate ink on top to bring out the emobssing and distress the background. I added our Happy Holidays greeting from the Gracious Greeting set in Tulip with a bit of Jingle paper pack to frame. The snowflakes are also punched (Martha Stewart) from the polka dot Jingle paper and a couple of strips from my new Martha Stewart edge punch were added in Colonial White to help frame the whole thing. I aslo used some Bamboo ink to distress the Colonial White pieces.

Materials Used:
Paper: Sweet Leaf Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock, Jingle Level 2
Stamps: Gracious Greetings
Ink: Tulip, Chocolate, Bamboo, Tulip marker
Other: Blush Ribbon, Baby Pink Brads, Martha Stewart punches, brayer

Double Embossed Technique Lace Tree Christmas Card

This is one of those even better in real life kinds of cards. I had some metallic cardstock given to me by a friend that I put through the Cuttlebug using my new Lace Tree embossing folder. The results were nice but I have a hard time with plain cards so I needed to spruce it up a bit. I took my Versamark embossing pad and VERY LIGHTLY tapped on the top of the embossed area. I then added some of our Silver Embossing Powder and heat embossed the dry embossed areas. I loved the results - very classy and shiny!

Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Unknown origins gold metallic cardstock
Ink: Versamark
Other: Silver Embossing Powder, Cuttlebug Lace Tree embossing folder

Christmas Card with CTMH Beautiful Things and Say it in Style

This card was inspired by this one on Kathy Carlson's blog - she is one of my favorite bloggers as I just love her classy, elegant style.

Materials Used:
Paper: White Daisy Cardstock, Ponderosa Pine Gingham (retired)
Stamps: Beautiful Things, Say it in Style
Ink: Ponderosa Pine, Cocoa for distressing
Other: Pewter Designer Brads, Cranberry Grosgrain Ribbon

CTMH Holiday Trinket and December Word Puzzle Simple Stamped Card

I made a bunch of different cards this year for sending out - I'll be posting for the next week or so some of the designs. My husband and I loved the retro 50's feel of this one. Very simple but elegant and FAST to reproduce!

I'm very excited about my Holiday Heyday Clearance order. I was able to get a couple of stamps that were retired before I became a consultant and several packages of paper/stickease like Caprice that I had never gotten around to buying but always loved what people made with them. There are still lots of great things out there at the sale at 50-82% off so have fun shopping! Click HERE to see what is still there in the clearance sale!

Materials Used:

Paper: White Daisy

Inks: Blush, Olive, Tulip

Stamps: Holiday Trinkets, December Monthly Word Puzzle

Other: Sakura Stardust Jellyroll Pen

Holiday Gift Card Holders Tutorial made from CTMH Holiday Photo Greetings Card Kit and CTMH Jingle Borders

I created this post for a later release date but am posting it now because the card kit featured in this project is IN THE CLEARANCE SALE (DEC. 2-17th) FOR JUST $6.50! I love how these gift card holders came out! Any of our Level 1 paper packs or card kits or stickease work GREAT for making lightening fast cards! Everything in the sale is 50-80% off with FLAT RATE $5 shipping on orders $100+ (under $100 is $7.95). Is that a rockin' sale or what?!?!?! Click here to hit my site and get some of those deals under YOUR tree this year!



Over the summer Close to my Heart had a rockin' "mystery box" special and I was lucky enough to get a couple of boxes stuffed full of goodies including the retired Holiday Photo Greetings 6x6" card kits. I don't usually send photo cards BUT I immediately saw the potential of using these kits for other things. Each one of our card kits comes with three sheets of stickease and 12 card bases so I knew I had a lot of material to work with. I punched out the inset that was ready for removal (the place where your photo would go) and used just that part along with the stickease and some white cardstock to create these awesome gift card holders with my daughter. We had such a fun afternoon making these!

If you happen to have one of these kits (or any other CTMH card kit) here is a quick tutorial for making some of these on your own!

Gift card base: 5"x8.5" (score at 3.5" and 7")
Card front: Section of card front measuring 3.25x4.75" - we ran ours through the Cuttlebug with the snowflake emobssing folder

1. Fold up the gift card base - you'll have a 1.5" tab at the bottom.
2. Punch a half circle out of the middle of the 1.5" section to create a "pull" spot for the gift card.
3. Stamp a border across this 1.5" section and decorate (here we used one of the stamps from Jingle Borders and my daughter colored them in with our Watercolor Pencils)
4. Adhere just the sides of this section to make a pocket.
5. Adhere the card front and decorate with stickease as you desire - designing is half the fun!
6. Use pop dots and liquid glass to jazz things up!

Here is the inside view of the gift card holder with the colored border and punch out shown.

Some close up examples of the cards - we wound up making a total of 14 by cutting up one of the 6x6" photo cards (we used the back and the front pieces and pieced them together).

50-80% OFF Close to my Heart Online Clearance Sale Dec 2-17th

What: 50-80% OFF Online Clearance Sale of Close to my Heart items including paper, stamps, embellishments AND MYSTERY BOXES!

Where: paige.myctmh.com

When: Dec. 2-17th starting at 8AM Pacific Time - shop early for best selection!

Shipping: FLAT $5 for orders $100+ (under $100 is weight based so about $7.95)

Very Cool: Paper packs just $6.50, D size stamps $8, Magic Moments Year of Scrapbooking Level 1 kit $10, Mystery Box $30 for $100 in stuff, ribbon rounds for $4 AND MORE! This is one kick-butt clearance sale!