When life is tough, sometime the only thing you can do is “just keep swimming”. Find out below how you can get the stamp set I used for this card for just $5 and get a kit to make this card for free!
I just sent this card to my daughter who is working so hard in college despite the chaos caused by moving to online courses and sheltering in place. I’m proud of her and thought she might need a little reminder to just keep moving forward. I’m sure you know someone is also facing challenging circumstances due to the Coronavirus outbreak and needs some encouragement.
I absolutely love the April Stamp of the Month, O-Fish-ally Awesome! It has all kinds of sea life: fish, star fish, crab, coral and sea grass. Plus you get the aquarium, bubbles, sign, sand and more! The sentiments are filled with under water “puns”.
This fun stamp set is only available to purchase in April 2020. It is a “size D” (AKA large) stamp set and regularly priced at $18.95. However, when you have $50 in your cart, you can add it for just $5!
FREE CARD KIT
When you purchase the O-Fish-ally Awesome Stamp Set on my Close To My Heart website (at full or discounted price), I’ll send you a kit to make this shaker card! If you have not tried our our shaker window tools, you will love learning how to do this. I did a tutorial in my Creative Friends facebook group last week. You are invited to join the group and check it out!
To finish the kit, you’ll need some ink, markers (or colored pencils) and adhesive. On the sea floor and sea life, I used Mink, Smoothie, Sage and Intense Black ink and for the sentiment, Sapphire ink. The fish and shells were colored with various TriBlend markers.
If you’d like one of these kits, simply place an order on my Close To My Heart website that includes the O-fish-ally Awesome stamp set.Start shopping now>>
While sheltering in place last weekend, I hosted a virtual crop with my Close To My Heart team. Aren’t they beautiful? We had a fun time catching up, laughing and at times just working in silence — together. It was so much fun, we have scheduled another one for next weekend!
We had originally planned to get together for a team day crop that Saturday, so we tried to make this as close as possible to an in-person crop. To to this, each of us tried to clear our schedule as much as possible just like we would if we were leaving home to spend a weekend with our crafting buds.
Just like a face-to-face crop, we achieved three things 1) we escaped for a few hours from our daily stress and responsibilities, 2) we were productively creative and 3) we enjoyed the community with each other.
Personally, I have neglected my personal projects for a long time so spent some time prior to the crop dusting off some projects. All together I finished 21 pages! The layouts below are from the 2018 Close To My Heart trip to Thailand. Most of these pages are from an album that CTMH gifted to each of us who earned the trip. I had “built” the pages prior to the trip but they have been waiting for photos for over 2 years. I’m so happy to finally have them done!
The last three pages are from a live aboard dive trip to the Similan Islands that Eric and I added on after we said good-bye to our Close To My Heart friends. The pictures on the last layout were taken by fellow diver and photo journalist Lorenzo Moscia who generously shared his gorgeous photos with us.
Other layouts from my Thailand album were posted on August 17, 2018, August 24, 2018, and September 2, 2018. I’ve got a couple more layouts still to go…maybe I’ll get them done during the next virtual crop.
I hope by sharing these layouts, I’ve encouraged you to set aside some time to get away from the day-to-day struggles plus the more-than-normal trials that you may be going through. In addition, to cropping with my team virtually, I have also hosted virtual crops on my “Crafty Friends” facebookgroup for my VIP customers and friends. You are invited to join the funin that group!
Whether with us, other friends or not, I hope you are able to carve out some time to create this weekend. Please share your projects with me! In the comments below, tell me what you are working on. If you can, post a link to photos! Can’t wait to hear all about it.
Are you looking for a new supplies for your next creative project? You don’t want to miss this sale! I’ve dug through the inventory left over from the CKC Convention and have slashed prices on lots of retired products!!!
The sale is tomorrow at 10 am on my “Creative Friends” Facebook group. You are invited to join the fun and get some great deals! Join group now>>
Yesterday, I finished going through my boxes and deciding what to put in the sale. I found some good stuff and have marked it way down so that it can leave my house!
Check out these discounts:
Embellishments $.75 – $1
Embossing Folders $5
Paper 30 – 40% off
Stamps 50% off
Thin Cuts 25 – 70% off
Scrapbooking Workshops 25% off
Sale starts Saturday morning at 10 am. I’ll be showing you all the products through a series of live videos in my Creative Friends Facebook group. In the message for each video, I’ll post a link to a document for your reference showing all the products & prices, as well as how many of that item are available. You don’t have to wait for me to show a product if you see something on the list that you want!
Everything will be sold on a first come basis. If you see something you want, comment the product name and item number. When calling “dibs” on something, be sure that you comment on the video for that shows that product. If you want multiples, be sure to say that too. Many of the items are “onsies” — there is just one available. I will go by the time stamp on the comment to determine who gets it.
Each time you “win” something, it will go on a tally. Shipping is a flat $8.50 no matter how much you purchase. If you’d rather pick up on my porch, just let me know. Once the sale has ended, I’ll send invoices via Facebook messenger (and email if I have it). BONUS: I’ll include a new May/June catalog in each order!
Remember you must be in my Facebook group to participate in the sale! Join now!
Can’t wait to show you everything. Have fun shopping!!
Yesterday, I posted about the amazing Stamptacular Sale that is happening on my Close To My Heart website. With all of our stamp sets currently on sale, it is a good time to talk about organizing our stamp sets. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I use Evernote and in this post, I’ll give you some tips for getting started and also give you a free notebook to get started!
What is Evernote?
Evernote is an app you can use to create libraries of information. Within Evernote, you can create notebooks which are made up of a collection of notes. Each note has a) a title, b) a body where you can add text, images and links and c) tags.
To show you how it works, I created a notebook with a note for each of the stamp sets that was brought out of retirement for the Stamptacular Sale. You can view and copy it by clicking on the link below. When you open the notebook, you will be prompted to create an account or log into Evernote. Go ahead and click the link now….I’ll wait for you!
Once you click on the link and sign into your Evernote account, you will be asked how you want to view the notebook. You should click “Join Notebook”. This will allow you to view and copy my notebook. Continue reading to understand how the notebook is organized and then I’ll tell you how to create your personal notebook so you can customize it to meet your needs.
Closer look at a Stamp Notebook
When you open a stamp’s note, you’ll find several pieces of information including:
A – Item number and name
B – Tags of keywords (shapes, design elements, themes, holidays, Cricut or Thin Cut images, …)
C – Link to the stamp image
D – Text that appears on the stamp set
The data listed above and circled in red help you explore a stamp set without having to locate the physical stamp set. You can look at the tags to get an idea of the theme and features of the stamp set on your phone or other device! You can even search for specific words in the sentiments or type in a tag to see all sets with a specific theme or image. Finally, click on the link to see the actual set. This is all on your screen without having to actually locate the physical stamp set.
However, when you are ready to use the stamp set, the item number is the key. Since I started using Evernote to organize my stamps, all of my actual physical stamp sets are stored alpha-numerically by Item number. I actually still had Hooray Bouquet from when it was live many, many years ago. I was easily able to locate it when it was announce it was coming back by going to my box that has my D stamp sets! Easy Peasy!
Organizing physical stamp sets
The magic of this organization system is that you can now store your stamps simply in alpha-numeric order by item number. One common method to organize stamps is to sorted by “theme”. You could have sections in your stamp boxes for Christmas, Easter, Birthday and other special days. Then there could be separate files for animals, outdoor, floral, etc.
Let’s take a look at Hooray Bouquet stamp set. If you are organizing your stamps by theme, you may put this with “nature” since it has flowers. Or maybe you’d put it with your other stamp sets that coordinate with the Art Philosophy Cricut collection. Or maybe you group it with other card-making stamp sets (although this one is also great for layouts). My point is that every stamp set could fit several themes.
Let’s say that you put this in your box with other Cricut stamp sets. If you are looking for floral stamp sets, will you find it? Only if you look in every box! You will also miss out of the opportunity to use these great words of encouragement on your next card.
With Evernote, you don’t have to decide which category the stamp set falls under. Instead, you can add a tag for each theme, category and images in the set. When you use Evernote, all of your stamp sets are in the same organizational system. So the stamp set above will not be lost. You will find it if you are looking for Art Philosophy stamps. You’ll also find it if you are looking for flowers or backgrounds or the word “smile”!
Create Your Own Evernote Notebook
Now that you have seen how powerful a stamps notebook can be, you may be ready to create your own. Although Evernote has apps for your phone, computer and on the internet, to create your notebook, you will need to download and open the COMPUTER (PC or Mac) app from Evernote.com. Once you open the app, you should see the Stamptacular notebook if you joined it earlier.
Your next step is to create a new notebook and then you’ll be able to copy these five notes into your own. This video gives more detail on these steps:
Make it Personal
Once you create your own personal stamps notebook (either by creating notes yourself or copying mine), you are ready to personalize it to suit your needs. This is where the magic happens! You can add information to a stamp’s note by typing text, adding photos or adding tags.
Here’s a few ideas:
Create a tag “OWN” for all the stamps in your collection
Create a tag “WISH” for stamps on your wish list
Add notes about projects you are planning to make with the stamp sets
Add photos inspiring projects you find on CTMH website and elsewhere. (Include notes about who made it so you can give credit if you scraplift)
Add a “RETIRED” tag to stamps as they go away
Consultants: Add “inventory” tag for stamps you have purchased to sell*
*I tag my stamps in inventory. Using the app on my phone, I have sold stamps at an event that are buried at home in my inventory closet! If someone asks if I have a stamp with koala, I don’t have to say “I’ll have to check later” and then spend an evening digging through my boxes. I can search on the phone app and know what I have and where it is!
Adding Stamps to your Notebook
You can add more stamps to your personal notebook by creating a new note for each stamp you want to include. You can even expand to include non-Close To My Heart stamps or other products like Thin Cuts, Cricut Collections, etc. (You can also use it for non-crafty collections like DVDs, Books,.etc.)
To add a stamp set, click on “New Note”. Type the item number and stamp name in the Title box, add a link (or copy image) and type sentiments in the body, and add tags. Do this for each stamp that you want to include.
If you’d like a shortcut, subscribe to get my stamp notebooks! I send a new notebook out for each catalog. The cost is a $60 order from my Close To My Heart website each year. If you are not a consultant, join my team to get the notebooks for free! Then click the button below to order.
If you’d like to have older stamps in your collection, I have notebooks with all stamps dating back to Sept 2015. You can get the entire archive by placing an order of $120 (or joining my team).
In 2018, we had a another huge stamp sale called “Stampaganza” and I created a notebook with just the special stamps from that sale. You can access this free notebook on my blog.
I hope this was helpful and you have some new ideas for how to use Evernote to organize your stamps and maybe other things as well. Please let me know if you have questions. I’d love to help you get started!
There is just over a week left in February, which means our Stamptacular Sale will be coming to an end soon. Shop not to lock in your savings!
All Stamp Sets are on Sale!
During this sale, all stamp sets are on sale! All of the stamps in the Annual Core Catalog and January/February Supplement, plus several that have carried over from prior catalogs, are on sale. This includes some of my favorites like the Sentiments by Melissa Esplin or the Spruced Up Scrapbooking Stamp sets.
Refer to the chart below to see the discounted pricing for all stamp set sizes.
Back from Retirement
To give us even more choices, Close To My Heart brought five favorite retired stamp sets back for the sale.
Stamp + Thin Cut Sets Too!
This sale has been extended to include all of our current Stamp + Thin Cut sets too! There are so many to pick from, but here are a couple.
Even though I’ve shown you several great stamp sets, I’ve barely scratched the surface. There are over 150 stamps or stamp + Thin Cut sets to choose from! To see more, hop over to my Close To My Heart website.
Before you check out, don’t forget to check out the other specials under the promotions tab.
February 14 has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean you need to hide away your hearts! We still have three adorable kits that are perfect for Valentine’s Day or to celebrate love any time of year!
Be Mine Banner
The wooden heart banner in the Be Mine special is a great way to add some perennial décor to your home! These adorable wooden banners are easy to personalize, allowing you to really make it your own. Whether you’re going to keep it in your own home or give it as a gift, you’re sure to please with this too-cute banner!
The Be Mine Heart Banner comes with five wood heart shapes and a digital art file that you can download to customize your project. The digital art file includes a handful of sentiments as well as a heart shape that will make it a cinch to decorate the hearts on your banner exactly how you like it!
All Around Creativity Wreaths
The All Around Creativity special features five gorgeous wreath kits that are only available from Close To My Heart. Each wreath kit includes a 16″ wooden wreath base with die-cut flowers, leaves, bow, and four different options of patterned backing paper. Get more than one wreath and try out different embellishment looks. You’ll love having multiple wreaths as interchangeable pieces of your décor throughout the year!
Oh My Heart Layouts and Cards
The Oh My Heart collection is sure to capture your heart, with adorable sentiments and designs to help you celebrate love anytime of year! The workshop kit includes the exclusive Oh My Heart stamp set, paper pack + sticker sheet, 16 sheets of cardstock, Silve Stickles Glitter Gel and 40 pink envelopes (3.25 x 4.5). Download the free Guide to create one two-page layout, one single page, and 40 cards.
All three of these kits are only available until February 29, while supplies last, so be sure to order yours before they’re all gone!
The February Craft with Heart scrapbooking layouts are bright and cheerful! It’s just what I need on this cold winter day. These coordinate with the happy Celebrate Today paper collections and working with them helps me dream of the warmer days ahead.
The February Craft With Heart box includes the two 2-page layouts shown above. With titles “Creating Happiness” and “time to Party” these pages will help you scrapbook a recent happy celebration.
Not only are the February Craft With Heart layouts beautiful, they are also super fast to assemble. Thanks to pretty printed base pages, punch apart die-cut pieces and stickers, you’ll have completed pages in minutes.
There is NO cutting, NO stamping, NO big decisions!
These layouts are ONLY AVAILABLE available through our subscription program. If you’d like to create these beautiful, easy layouts, it’s as easy as 1…2…3…
1) DECIDE: How often would you like to receive your Craft With Heart deliveries? Below is information about the options to help you choose the perfect one for you
2) DELIVER: Close To My Heart will send your creative projects to your door on the schedule you choose.
3) DONE: Completing your Craft With Heart projects is a snap — you’ll be done in no time!
In case you missed it, in addition to the 10% or 20% discount on the kit with the 4 or 12 month options, there is significant savings on shipping and handling when you choose the 4-month or 12-month options. Under the 4-month option, you only receive (and pay postage for) a shipment every 4 months. In total, you will save over $93 each year when you select the 4-month option.
Note that for the 12-month option, you will still receive a box every 4 months. However, there is NO SHIPPING and handling charge! In total you save over $138 per year when you choose the annual plan. You also get a coupon for free photo printing in each box under the annual plan! It really is the best deal. Regardless of which plan you choose, you can cancel or change your subscription at any time.
Also when you choose the 4-month or 12-month, your subscription is retroactive to January and your first shipment will include all four of the kits from January through April. That’s 4 kits, 8 layouts or 16 pages depending on how you count it.
You can see the January layouts in this post. Note that the March and April layouts below give you a hint at the paper collections that will be in the March/April catalog!
Do you have what it takes to Escape to the Craft Room? Only the die-hardest creators will be able to cut, stamp and glue their way into the craft room and view the coveted new Idea Book!
Join me for a fun night of puzzles, prizes, projects and new products!
I’m having fun planning this Crafty Girls Night Out event. Guests will work as a team to uncover clues and solve puzzles to unlock the secrets found in the new March/April 2020 Idea Book.
This amazing new catalog has two new paper suites which will provide the theme for the two rounds of games. Want some clues?
Suite #1: What’s old is new again.
Suite #2: You’ll have to wait and Sea!
I can’t wait to show you more!
Along with completing these quests, you will make a couple fun projects, get some free samples and have a chance to win prizes!
Did you have a nice Valentine’s Day? Whether you had a fun evening out or enjoyed a cozy night at home, I hope you made some great memories and remembered to take pictures.
In case you have not yet saved a copy, I just wanted to remind you of the free workshop guide for the Oh My Heart special paper suite. This guide has cutting and assembly directions for the the a two page layout and a single page with room for all your Valentine’s Day photos.
In addition to the scrapbook layouts, the workshop also has directions for making 40 mini (3″ x 4″) Valentine’s Day cards — it’s too late for this year, but you could have them all ready to go for 2021!! If you opt to not make the cards, you’ll have plenty of paper left over for additional scrapbook pages or other projects.
To make all of these projects exactly as shown, you’ll want to order the Oh My Heart workshop kit. This bundle includes paper, stickers, stamp set, stickles cards and envelopes needed for these projects. The Oh My Heart items are also available to order separately.
Feeling Lucky? Flash Sale on my Close To My Heart website starts at 4 pm (CST) this afternoon. Great ready for some great deals!
While I don’t find out all the Flash Sale contents and prices ahead of time,a preview showed exclusive stamp set to celebrate our next fun holiday: St. Patrick’s Day!
This set will be available alone or in a bundle that includes a RAINBOW of cardstock colors and GOLD foil paper. Can’t wait to see what projects you dream up with that collection of supplies.
We were also told that there will be some good deals on neutral cardstock colors. Also, if you use strap albums, you’ll be happy to hear that the memory protectors for these will be discounted! One last item that was mentioned is our 6″ x 8″ albums. In the last Flash Sale the mini albums sold out 15 minutes into the sale!
As always, there is a limited number of each item at the discounted price, so you’ll want to be sure to get your order in early if you don’t want to miss out on the best deals.
To make this sale even sweeter, one or more lucky shoppers will earn the free product based on the orders placed during the event!
When orders reach $150, one person wins $20 credit on a CTMH order!
When orders reach $250, another person wins $20 credit on a CTMH order!
For every additional $100 in sales, another person wins $20 credit on a CTMH order!
Each drawing will include everyone who has placed an order that contributed to that amount. You will get one ticket into the drawing for each $25 you order. Winning tickets will be removed from future drawing. However, if you win and your name is on multiple tickets, your other tickets could be drawing later. This means that those that order in the first $150 will have the most chances of winning and could even win more than once!
Start Shopping>>
To participate in the Mystery Hostess drawing, be sure to join the Lucky In Love Flash Sale Gathering before you check out.
Once the sale starts, you’ll be able to find it on my Close To My Heart website under the Promotions tab. Before you check out, be sure to review the other specials and the Stamp of the Month. Anything you order, whether part of the Flash Sale, other specials or regular price will count toward the Mystery Hostess Drawing.
