The month has flown by and I realized today that I had not shared the cards I made with the March Stamp of the Month, Precious Moments. The card designs are very simple which allowed the cute animals to be the stars of the show! Who wouldn’t love to get a card with a message delivered by a sweet koala, hedgehog or kangaroo?
Here’s the supplies you’ll need to recreate these cards:
Remember this stamp set is only available in March 2023. You can pay full price or add it to your cart for just $5 with a $50 order. VIP Customers can get it for free! This is just one of the many benefits of signing to up to be one of my VIPs. You can learn all about this amazing program on my VIP page.
Here’s a look at the complete stamp set plus a couple cards made by the CTMH artists.
Trying to decide what to order so that you qualify for the discounted or free stamp set? Remember that all of our stamps — including the stamp + thin cut bundles — are on sale this month. Scroll through all the discounted stamps on the Stamptacular Sale Page.
In addition to the stamps that have been published in our catalog, there are five stamps made exclusively for this sale. Save the most by ordering the bundle that includes all five!
This month we are celebrating all the stampers with these great specials. Enjoy shopping!
Update 2/13/2020: I updated this post from 2014 because the Remarkable Wreath stamp set used for this card kit is back for a limited time! Even better, it is part of our Stamptacular sale and just $9.50! If you purchase this stamp set from my Close To My Heart website, I’ll send you a pdf cutting and assembly guide for these cards. Although the Timberline paper is retired, other papers and embellishments can be substituted and give these card designs an updated look! Hurry, this stamp set will retire again on 2/29/2020!
I’m so excited to share this new Show Me Scrapping custom card kit with you. Unfortunately, because of retiring products, this kit is only available through July 31, 2014.
This kit includes the cards, envelopes, papers and embellishments to make 12 cards, 4 each of the 3 designs shown. Scroll down for detailed pictures plus a few tips I used when creating these cards.
Timberline Card #1
Timberline Card #2
Timberline Card #3
I love how the3D Foam tape adds dimension to the trees on card #1. The trees are from page 66 of the Artbooking Cricuthandbook.
Another “trick” I used to add detail to card 2 random stamping the wreath with Cocoa ink on the outer edge of the card before layering on the pages. I like how the branch design frames the rest of the card.
The window on card #3 is also from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge. I added a header & footer using the same wood paper from the Timberline paper pack but with the grain going horizontal rather than vertical. To make it really dimensional, I attached these “boards” and the wreath with 3D foam tape.
These cards use one of my favorite stamp sets, C1473 Remarkable Wreath, which sadly will retire at the end of July.
You can order this stamp set and other supplies needed to complete your kit on my Close To My Heart website.
Addtional items needed to complete your cards My Acrylix Remarkable Wreath (C1374)
My Acrylix blocks of various sizes
Goldenrod, Cocoa and Twilight Exclusive Ink Pads
Paper Trimmer & Scissors
Sponge
Adhesives
Artbooking Cricut Cartridge (2020 update – now available through my Cricut link!)
Earlier this month, I share with you the June Special, The Best Moments are Free. In this post, I showed you the four “scrapbooking kits” that you can get free when you buy certain stamp sets this month. In this post, I’d like to rebrand these “scrapbooking kits” as “project kits” because you can make anything you want with them!
This wedding or anniversary card uses stamping, paper and embellishments from the Then & Now Kit. The sentiments were added from the June Stamp of the Month, It’s Your Day to Sparkle.
Here are the cards I made with the other three product kits plus the stamp of the month. I used a lot of the design techniques I learned from the layout projects.
Whether you are a scrapbooker, card-maker or both, these kits are a really good value. You’ll save even more when you buy them all! Add The Best Moments Are Free Bundleto your cart for just $52.95 and you’ll get all four stamp sets plus product bundles!
When you buy the bundle, your purchase is enough to qualify you to get the June Stamp of the Month for just $5! This brings your total to just $57.95 for over $125 in product!
I hope this gives you some ideas of other ways you can use the free “project kits”. Be sure to order yours before the month ends!
Do you have a BLAST making and sending cards to break the ICE and WARM someone’s heart? You can just CHILLAX because the December stamp set includes a BLIZZARD of punny images and phrase combinations that will keep you groaning until January!
This stamp set is regularly priced at $17.95, but you don’t have a MELTdown. You can get it for the $5 when you add it to a $50 order! So don’t be FLAKY. Instead, be a WINTER with this stamp set! SKATE on over to my website and order yours now!
If you like this stamp set, be sure to also check out Punny Pals (D1751).
This stamp set has even more puns, plus some really cute “pals”. Big bonus: for each Punny Palsstamp set sold, Close To My Heart makes a $7 donation to Operation Smile!
Today, I have another card using the new Uptown Fundamental collection. This card is all about the GOLD!
Check out lists of trends for 2016 and you’ll surely see over-the-top gold. One trend article I found talked about “Bold Gold” where gold moves being an accent and takes center stage. That’s the goal I had for this card. To do this, I pulled gold from several sources.
A1192 Happy Heart
First, I heat embossed the hearts and sentiments from the Happy Heart (A1192) stamp set. This stamp set is a bargain because a lot is packed on it for a size A set!
If you have never heat embossed, you are missing out on one of the coolest crafting techniques. First you stamp with Versamark and sprinkled with gold embossing powder. Then the fun step: melt the powder with the craft heater until it was beautifully shiny.
Gold Embossing Powder
The bottom half of the card is covered with the bold gold and white stripes from the new Uptown Fundamentals paper pack. This paper has literally “Bold Gold” stripes. The finishing golden touch is the gold and white ribbon from the Uptown ribbon pack.
Love the Bold Gold trend? Here’s some other creative products that will help you incorporate gold into your projects. Links to learn more about each of these are below the images.
What is more exciting that welcoming a new little one into the family? I can’t think of anything and the bright colors from the Adventure Fundamentals papers and the cheerful balloons convey that excitement.
To make the card more dimensional, I cut out the balloons and popped them up with 3D foam tape. I used both regular and thin foam tape to create a variety in height.
The twine added to the 3D effect and helped ground the balloons on the card.
If you like this card, but need to cover another occasion? That’s ok! The stamp set I used,Happy For You (C1660) stamp sethas sentiments that cover lots of special days.
Guess what? This stamp set is also available in French & Spanish!
In fact 11 of our stamp sets now can be purchased in French and Spanish. As a mom of a girl taking her fourth year of French, I love these options. How fun!
Last year, my friend Kathy gave me this adorable pop up box card.
I loved it so much that I’ve had it on my desk for the last six months! In fact, it was the inspiration for this whole workshop and will be the second project we will do. Your workshop kit will include the box card base and all of the materials needed to assemble the card.
I’m so excited that the Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge is finally available and can’t wait to have it in my hands. For now, I thought it would be helpful to share with you some details about how to make the various types of cards on this cartridge. Today, I’m going to to start with my favorite, the pop-up cards.
2019 Update: Our retired Cricut image collections are now available to purchase using my special Cricut link! The Artfully Sent Cricut collection was first released by Close To My Heart in 2014 in a physical cartridge bundle. It retired a few years later without being offered as a digital-only collection. This made all of these great images unavailable to anyone who was unfortunate enough to miss out on this cartridge while it was available.
This fall (2019), Close To My Heart began a new partnership with Cricut which allows all of our image collections, including retired collections like Artfully Sent, to be purchased using special links only available from Close To My Heart consultants! This is an exciting development because many of you missed these collection the first time around.
Note that the Artfully Sent images are also available in Cricut Access or can be purchased individually in Design Space for $1.99 for each project and $6.99 for the font. However, the best value is to purchase the full collection which includes all 700 individual images (projects plus font) for just $49.95. You can subscribe to Access or purchase the full collection on Cricut.com. (If you use the Cricut link in this post for your purchases, I’ll earn a small commission. Thank You!)
This week, I’m writing a series of posts showcasing all the types of cards available on this cartridge, plus the envelopes and font. Click the links below to learn more! I’ll update the list after the remaining posts in this series are available.
Here are thumbnails of each of the Pop-up projects on Artfully Sent.
Sizing
There are 50 of these interactive cards. Each card has multiple layers that will be grouped when you add it to your Design Space canvas. They are designed to be cut as 5″ x 7″ cards, so be sure to adjust the size for the base (10″ x 7″) before you ungroup them. Of course you can resize to get larger or smaller cards. If you want different proportions, you will need to disconnect length and width (open the padlock) to get the correct sizing.
If you are using an Expression or other cartridge-driven Cricut machine, you will set the height to 7″ and everything for the card will cut in proportion.
Layers
Each card is made up of several layers to create a fun interactive card. Let’s explore these layers for a general pop-up card. Note that each card is different and not all will have all of these layers or be created exactly the same way.
BASE
You will first cut the card base using the “pop-up” function key. These bases may have a sentiment, shape or border cut directly into them to add to the design.
LINER
For each pre-designed card, you can cut the inner lining using the “pop-up” function and the shift key. Most of these liners have images cut into them that will pop up once you score and fold them.
TIC MARKS (UPDATE: score marks for Design Space machines)
Once you cut the pieces, you will find small tic marks that indicate where to fold. I suggest that you line these up and score using the grove on your paper trimmer before folding. This insures that you have a nice, neat straight folded line.
FOLDING ORDER
It is very important that you score and fold these lines in the right order. First, score the center card crease only on the outer edges, skipping the center tab portion. Use the tic marks for accuracy.
Next, score the folds at the upper and lower edge of the tabs. These folds are where the long tab slits end as shown below.
Sharply crease the main and tab folds — the main fold will close the card and the tab folds will be the opposite direction. As you close the card, guide the center of the tab to find its natural center and sharply crease that fold as well.
Now you can attach the liner inside the card base. When you open the card, the tab should pop upwards and outwards away from the card base.
Some of the folds are more complicated, like this Christmas Tree card. In this case, the score lines for each pop-up element are not in a straight line. You will need to score each branch separately. Using the tic marks will really help you figure out where to place the folds.
PERFORATIONS
For some more intricate designs, a series of tic marks or perforations are placed close together to act as guides to make it easier to score and crease these detailed pieces. Perforations are also used when the fold is close to an edge to prevent tears.
ICONS
Most pop-up cards require four cuts: a base, liner and 2 icons. The icons will includes sentiments and images that coordinate with the base and liner. These images will not have tic marks so that you have flexibility to use it in other places on the card. However, these images may need to be scored and folded to use as intended on a pop-up card. Suggestion: cut multiples of these images to decorate the front of the card!
Here’s a video with more information about the fun pop-up cards in the Artfully Sent collection.
I hope this Pop-up card overview has been helpful. I’ll be posting information about the other types of cards on the cartridge soon.
Are you ready to get your hands (and Cricut machine) on this collection? Hop on over to Cricut using my special link to view and purchase from the Close To My Heart Cricut library!
I can’t wait to get my hands on the new Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge. An early to mid-September release is the current target. So it could happen anytime! I will keep you updated as I learn more.
Current Target: Early to Mid-September Release
While we wait, I thought I’d this picture that Close To My Heart released of three Artfully Sent cards.
2019 Update: Our retired Cricut image collections are now available to purchase using my special Cricut link! The Artfully Sent Cricut collection was first released by Close To My Heart in 2014 in a physical cartridge bundle. It retired a few years later without being offered as a digital-only collection. This made all of these great images unavailable to anyone who was unfortunate enough to miss out on this cartridge while it was available.
This fall (2019), Close To My Heart began a new partnership with Cricut which allows all of our image collections, including retired collections like Artfully Sent, to be purchased using special links only available from Close To My Heart consultants! This is an exciting development because many of you missed these collection the first time around.
Note that the Artfully Sent images are also available in Cricut Access or can be purchased individually in Design Space for $1.99 for each project and $6.99 for the font. However, the best value is to purchase the full collection which includes all 700 individual images (projects plus font) for just $49.95. You can subscribe to Access or purchase the full collection on Cricut.com. (If you use the Cricut link in this post for your purchases, I’ll earn a small commission. Thank You!)
On this cartridge, you will find lots of interactive and dynamic cards including: pop-up, swing, backdrop, build-a-scene, sentiment, border and pocket cards.
FREE Stamp Set when you reserve your copy!
Remember you can only get this cartridge from Close To My Heart Independent Consultans like me. Although it is not yet available for purchase, I can reserve a copy for you today. Simply send me an email saying that you’d like a copy and I’ll add this stamp set to your order for free!!
Beautiful Friendship (B1400) – $9.95 value
This reservation deal will DISAPPEAR once the cartridge is released. So be sure to email me now to get the free stamp set.
