LAST CHANCE FOR VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS STAMP SET!

Tomorrow, October 31st, is your last chance to get the Very Merry Christmas stamp set! Just wanted to let you know. If you've been thinking of ordering from Close to My Heart to get some beautiful Fall and Christmas supplies, now is the time to do it! This Very Merry Christmas stamp set is ONLY available in October, no other time of the year! I love it! 

Darling! and the stamps with red lineS around them match the CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge and 3-stamp collection. If you have a Cricut dye cutting machine, then these stamp shapes can be cut from this Artiste cartridge.

You can add this stamp set to your collection with a $50 purchase..... and this gorgeous stamp set is only $5!!!  YOU CAN ONLY PURCHASE THIS STAMP SET THROUGH OCTOBER 31st and then it is gone!  

Maybe you'd like the Pear & Partridge Cardmaking Kit which includes another exclusive C-sized stamp set and assorted embellishments.  And how about some Festive Velvet Rub-ons to decorate your cards.... and while you're at it, the Glitz Glitter Gels in green and red to add some pizzaz to your cards!

DON'T DELAY!

AWESOME NOVEMBER SPECIAL - COMING SOON!

Just wanted to let you know... the November Close to My Heart special is AWESOME! I'll be posting it in the next couple of days so check back. I've also made some neat cards that I'll be posting. I hope you've ordered some product in October to take advantage of the October stamp of the month, Very Merry Christmas, for only $5 with your $50 order.

I'll be back....
 
  

SPICY MUFFIN RECIPE FOR FALL.

Hi all, 

With this gorgeous Fall weather, I've been in the mood for a yummy spicy snack and came up with a healthy (and yummy) muffin. I have to eat gluten free (GF) and awhile back, when I was having some stomach problems, I cut out all dairy, eggs and sugar also, and this is what I came up with. Boy is it good and just perfect for this time of year!  Here it is:   read more.........

FUN WITH COLLAGES.

I've had so much fun yesterday and today playing with collages! I discovered PicMonkey  where you can EASILY (and I mean VERY EASY!) make neat collages and edit photos.  I use lots of other programs too, but this one is so super fast and easy.  Here's a little collage I made which only took a couple of minutes:

I took these pictures the other day as I walked at McGregor Point in La Pine State Park (in Oregon) and boy was that a gorgeous trail!  I took over 100 pictures!

You can also change the color of the divider, the size, shape, and use a dropper to pick up any color in your photos for your collage dividers!  So cool!  I suppose this is only exciting for those who love playing with photos and taking pictures (which as you can tell, I do).

Here are some more:

My sister and me with her most DARLING Italian Greyhound "Zoie".... what a doll!  I used the dropper and picked up the color from the blanket so that the borders match it. 

There are all sorts of layouts... I chose these with 4 pictures as I'm thinking of doing some photo cards using these cute little collages.  I took these pictures from an old carousel that is located up in Bickleton, WA.  It was moved there from the old Oaks Park in Portland, Oregon many years ago and is preserved and in use to this day!

I like the "photo strip" collage.  I'm going to use these on some CTMH Die-cut Cards for another type of photo collage card.  These are flowers from my friend's garden from a couple of years ago. 

 Well... maybe you'll find a new "toy" in PicMonkey! I sure did and I'm having a blast making collages for Christmas gifts which I'll frame and maybe do some stamping and adding to.  I found another neat "toy" too, which I'll share with you soon!  I did actually get some cards made that I promised to share here, which I'll post in the next day or so.

HAPPY COLLAGING!

DARLING LITTLE FAVOR BOXES!

Hi all! Just wanted to show you what I've been working on with my sister. Her son is getting married on Nov. 2nd and we are in the process of making 125 favor boxes! And bless her heart, she ordered most of the stuff for the boxes through my CTMH website!  She got her idea for the favor boxes from pg. 117 of the Fall/Winter 2012 Idea Book (shown here) and we did alot of changing since I don't yet have the Cricut die cutting machine.

My oh my - so pretty!

She did get the boxes online - they are 2" x 2" little glossy boxes and we are putting black and green M&M's in a little bag inside, tied with black ribbon.  She also got the M&M's imprinted with her son and his fiance's picture, plus their wedding date and their names!  Don't have those to show you but are they ever cute!

Here are a couple of more photos:

We used the August Stamp of the Month, Baroque Borders to stamp the scrolly designs on all sides of the box. Since these boxes are glossy, only the Staz-On ink would work without smeering.

We used black and mint green silky ribbons around the box, using the Tombo adhesive.  We also used the CTMH Sparkles - Clear Assortment (Z1752) around the sides and one bitty one on the top!

Since we had to use what we had, I found a couple of heart stamps (NOT CTMY!) to use on the top of the box. We didn't have time to order some CTMH stamps with the heart designs and I didn't have any that were the right size.  She also used little "Thank You" and "Love" stickers to seal the box which she got online.

The things we both LOVE about our design, are the little flowers on the front.  We used the CTMH Petals Paper Flowers that are black and white, and distressed the edges of them with black ink, and then put CTMH Green Glitz Glitter Gel on the edges and surface of the flowers.  We layered the flowers with several different sizes of flowers, and we died some of them black using the black ink and a sponge (see first box above on right). The glitter added so much pizzaz!

Inside the box lid, we put a little oval tag with a sweet saying, which is from the My Acrylix Sweet Moments stamp set. We used the little saying "It's moments like this we want to hold in our hearts forever", and stamped in black on an oval piece of Colonial White cardstock, also using one of the pretty borders from this same stamp set. Then we put green glitter around the edges and topped with a tiny ribbon knot. And of course, we had to add a sparkley! Are these cute or what?

We still have about 50 more to make!  If you have any questions about these cute little boxes, feel free to email me or post a comment.

HAPPY CRAFTING!

I'M IN LOVE WITH OCTOBER STAMP OF THE MONTH!

I can't believe it's October already! I've been so busy unpacking that I haven't posted on my blog for awhile.... but........ I can't let October stamp of the month (Very Merry Christmas S1210) go by unnoticed! I JUST LOVE IT! I want it and I will have it! Besides this darling stamp set, I'm also in LOVE with the Pear & Partridge paper pack, and I can hardly wait to put the two together!

Aren't these as darling as all get-out??  The stamps outlined in RED mean you can cut the shapes from the Close to My Heart "Artiste" Collection and cartridge (see below for details). I can just picture stamping in our cranberry ink!

Here are some sample uses of the October Stamp of the Month. Just imagine the Pear & Partridge papers here!

Below are a couple of cards shown in the Idea Book, on page 63.  These use the Pear & Partridge papers and this gives you an idea of how cute your cards will be with the P & P papers and the October Stamp of the Month.  These cards shown use the Merry & Bright stamp set which is also darling, but you could substitute stamps from the October Very Merry Christmas stamp set.  

These cards use the Pear & Partridge papers and Merry & Bright My Acrylix Stamp set (C1510).

And LOOK AT these DARLING Christmas trees using the P & P papers, Festive Velvet Rub-Ons (Z1743) and Dimensional Elements in Color-Holiday (Z1771).

These trees are made using the Cricut Artiste cartridge from Close to My Heart (Z1790). I don't have a Cricut cutting machine yet, but I am getting one soon, very soon!  And of course I just HAVE to have this Artiste cartridge!

When you purchase the Artiste collection you also receive THREE My Acrylix stamp sets and THREE 12" x 9" Dimensional Elements in coordinating shapes!

HAVE SOME CHRISTMAS FUN IN OCTOBER!