Deal of the Decade & While Supplies Last SPECIAL OFFERS

DEAL OF THE DECADE! 

Ends on December 31st! 

SO GET IN QUICK

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Close To My Heart's revolutionary My Acrylix® clear polymer stamps-and we can't wait for you to celebrate with us!

Place an order with me and with a qualifying purchase of $75 during the month of December, you will be eligible to purchase ANY C- or D-size stamps from the Annual Inspirations 2014-2015 idea book for only $10. That's up to $17 AUD of savings on a single stamp set! Plus, once you achieve the qualifying order total, there is no limit to the number of eligible stamp sets you can purchase at this discounted price. Remember, a purchase of $75 will also qualify you to receive the December Stamp of the Month for only $5, so if you purchase both the discounted Stamp of the Month and additional stamps at this special campaign pricing your savings will compound! It is truly the deal of the decade.

To take advantage of this fantastic deal go to my website www.vandra.ctmh.com.au and click on "Shop" to start shopping! Join the December Online Order.

These are some of the packs of stamps that I got for only $10 per pack with this deal and I have more on the way in my latest order!!

While Stocks Last!

There is currently a sale on While Stocks Last products that are ONLY available via my website (not available in person). There is a cute My Creations® Cubby reduced on there and I used it to make the advent calendar below that is using last years Christmas Papers Sparkle and Shine and the Sparkle and Shine complements. I raffled this off at a Seniors Fair in Carlisle in November.

Dates available for January Workshops as I'm not working on my "regular" job in January so I have much more time available. Contact me for details - email vandra@bigpond.com or via my website www.vandra.ctmh.com.au.

 

 

It's the little things S1411 - CTMH Stamp of the Month Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop (wow thats a mouthful!). We have all been creating with "It's the Little Things" Stamp set. If you have arrived here from Anne's Blog "Mummy you made this?" Then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. Follow the links, check out all the amazing ideas and eventually you'll come right back to my page.

Today I would like to share with you my page which features the November Stamp of the Month It's the Little Things – November 2014 Stamp of the Month available exclusively throughout November for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75.

I looked at this stamp set and saw the "Congratulations on your exciting news!" and thought the most obvious for that would be a new baby, an engagement, a job promotion or something like that. But my daughter told her really exciting news at school this week when she told her class that she had won 3rd prize (also referred to as the "Encouragement Award") in the Junior Arts eXhibition or JAX at the Darlington Arts Festival which is being exhibited this weekend 1st and 2nd of November in Darlington. So I just had to create a page for her all ready for the photos I'm going to take. Her artwork is called "Bug on a Leaf" so its just perfect for this stamp set.

I started with her favourite colours Pink and Blue. And pulled out the 12x12 piece of pixie pink hearts from the Paper Fundamentals Whimsy Assortment and the Crystal Blue design.

I pulled out the coordinating ink in the Whimsy Colours and set to work.

First step. Find a layout and to do that I look in the Reflections™ Scrapbook Program (soft cover)   book and I found a layout on page 17 called "Title Topper - Heading 1d". It has a base sheet 12x12, an 11x11 sized sheet and a 3x12 heading piece, plus embellishments. 

I cut a sheet of 12" X 12" Colonial White Cardstock down to 11x11 inches and then drew with pencil a 4x6 sized "photo" shape. This shape was the basis of my random stamping border.

  

I took my whimsy inks and started to randomly stamp the leaves in Juniper Exclusive Inks™ and Sweet Leaf Exclusive Inks™ . Some of the Juniper leaves I did generational stamping which made it look like the glacier blue. (NB: Generational stamping is just stamping a second time without re-inking the stamp to get a two-toned effect).  

After I had done my leaves I did some flowers in the other Whimsy Ink colours. 

To finish off the page I traced around my 3" X 3" My Acrylix® Block with pencil for the smaller photo wells so I could get my placement just right of the "Congratulations on your exciting news" stamp in Glacier Blue. I then stamped the two leaf branches on the corner of the square with Juniper and on a spare piece of colonial white cardstock I stamped the large flower and the round flower insert in Thistle, Pixie and Canary yellow inside. After I had stamped them I fussy cut them out with my Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors. I used 3-D Foam Tape to get a 3-dimentional flower. 

 After finishing the flower I printed out the title using the Handwritten Print stamps. This alphabet is one of my favourite stamp sets from the Annual Inspirations Idea Book 2014–2015 I use it on most of my pages!        

The page is now ready for the photos I will take this weekend. I will take one of her with her artwork on the wall of the exhibition, one of her onstage receiving her award and one of the artwork itself.
I'm excited and I will say to my 6yr old daughter "Congratulations on your Exciting News!!".

Remember the beautiful stamp set It's the Little Things – November 2014 Stamp of the Month is only available throughout November from your Close to My Heart Consultant.

There is also an amazing Studio J special this month to Celebrate Studio J's 5th Anniversary with 5 ways to WIN and be rewarded including the pages being only $5 per double-page 12x12 sized layout! Contact me today (or your CTMH consultant) to find out all the ways you can win with digital scrapbooking this month or go online to my website to read more.  

 

Thank you for visiting my Blog. Please leave a comment to let me know you've stopped by and what you think of the page I made. The next stop on this Month's Blog Hop is Doris Taylor Creative Inspirations. 

Make sure you hop all the way through the links until you get right back to where you started! See you again soon.

Home for the Holidays S1410A - CTMH Stamp of the Month Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Patricia Manhire, then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you this cute Christmas Cupcake Box I have created, which features Home for the Holidays – October 2014 Stamp of the Month available exclusively throughout October for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75.

 The Designer Creations Cupcake Box makes a fantastic gift for real edible cupcakes but for Christmas Gifts of clothing for children, it makes a really cute decorative way to display a "boring" item of clothing! 

 

Firstly I got onto Cricut Craftroom and using Art Philosophy Cartridge I got the October Stamp of the Month Cricut shapes (see the stamp set for page numbers) and using Artiste Cartridge I got the heart shaped cupcake Accent (from page 66). As the Designer Creations Cupcake Box comes in a set of 2, I cut two of everything on my sheet of 12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock with a couple of extra spaces to cut a few more shapes for other christmas projects. 

Next I stamped on each of the shapes for Stamp of the Month in Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad.

 

After I stamped all the shapes, I used a Sponge Dauber and coloured the hearts of the cupcake cricut cutout again using Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad. I placed the Candy Cane and Lolly from the Home for the Holidays S1410A Stamp of the Month set onto a 2" X 2" My Acrylix® Block and stamped it along the cupcake cutout, rotating it as I went.  After I took the above photo I decided I wanted the hearts darker so I went over them again with the dauber.

After completing all the stamping all that was left was the assembly. I chose to display a size 6 pair of leggings because I have one of my daughters friends in mind for her Christmas present and I had purchased these ready.

So taking YOUR item of clothing, t-shirt, pants, Christmas Nightie or PJ's (as many parents give as Christmas Eve Tradition) or in my case leggings, you fold the item up long and skinny. Then you roll it into a flower/cupcake shape. 

Top view of the cupcake with leggings

Once your item of clothing is rolled. place it in the cupcake holder and put it inside your Cupcake Box.

Side view of the cupcake with legging cupcake

Now you can place your cupcake into your Designer Creations Cupcake Box and start to decorate the outside. The Cricut Cupcake wrapper I decorated only JUST fit into the hole in the base of the Cupcake box so I had to be careful not to tip it over when I was tying my ribbon.

On the back I stuck the cute polar bear postage stamp and on the top I stuck the "Dreaming, Believing, Wishing" on the top of the box in the corner, so you could see it when the ribbon was on it. I tied the Box up with the adorable Red Chevron Ribbon which you can get FREE in October with every purchase of $65 (so if you qualify for the Stamp of the Month in October you will definitely get 1 roll of red or navy chevron ribbon for FREE what a BONUS). After I'd tied the ribbon on I threaded the little tags on, being careful to not tear the little holes at the top.

During the month of October, with each qualifying purchase of $65 AUD / $75 NZD you are eligible to receive—as a special bonus—one of two chevron ribbons FREE! Each chevron ribbon—Ruby or Outdoor Denim—has an original retail value of $9.50 AUD / $11.50 NZD. So which ribbon will you get? It’s a surprise! Quantities are limited, so place your orders as early in the month as possible. Be sure to take advantage of this fantastic offer so you can enjoy embellishing your creations with your own surprise roll of bonus ribbon!

Dates: Offer valid 1 October 2014–31 October 2014 While Stocks Last.

 

Back view

Home for the Holidays – October 2014 Stamp of the Month is only available until 31st October from your CTMH consultant and the Chevron Ribbon FREE gift is only available while stocks last in October.

Thanks for stopping by, I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, because my blog is only 1 month old and I'm still so excited to see people commenting on my ideas. The next stop on this months Blog Hop is Denise's Blog Scrap Stamp Share. See you again next month!

Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge is HERE!!

I am so excited that the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge Collection is finally here. This is an amazing collection and is now available to order. I can not wait until my collection arrives. So before I can post my own photos check out this awesome clip from the Close to My Heart YouTube channel about this fantastic cartridge. Even if you are not a card-maker there are lots of ways to enhance your scrapbooking and Picture My Life scrapbooking with this cartridge. Did I already mention I'm excited :)

Product Description

Cardmaking has never been easier or more fun! With our newest Cricut® collection, you can make handmade masterpieces in no time at all. Choose from cards with sentiments cut directly into them, or combine several cutouts to create your own pop-up scenes. Featuring more than 25 different card themes and 5 different card formats including dynamic interactive designs, this cartridge has a card for any and all occasions—even if the occasion is "just because"! Card styles include pop-ups, scenes, sentiments, sleeves, and pocket cards.
Collection includes:
1 – Cartridge (700 images: Cards and Font)
3 – My Acrylix® D-size stamp sets
1 – 12" × 12" White Daisy Cardstock Pack
Recommended blocks for included stamp sets: 1" × 1" (Y1000), 1" × 3½" (Y1002), 3" × 3" (Y1006), 2" × 3½" (Y1009).
Cricut® is a registered trademark of Provo Craft & Novelty, Inc. All rights reserved.

You can order your collection today on my consultant website for $130, click here.  Or add another $70 of product to the order to get $30 free product, contact me to arrange this. Or book an EZ invite online gathering, invite your friends to purchase online and potentially you could earn this collection for HALF PRICE Plus a heap of free products!

#30yearsofhappy National Stamping Month Stamps

September is National Stamping Month 

To celebrate Close to My Heart are launching the #30yearsofhappy Stamping incentive. With every purchase of $30 of Close to My Heart Stamps in September you get one of the #30yearsofhappy! C-sized stamp sets FREE. 

(yes I did get excited by the idea of these stamp sets being FREE).

I have made some cute little samples using the stamp set and wanted to share with you. I will probably keep making them and posting them cause I might be a little addicted to my new blog. If you'd like daily ideas using this set follow Close to My Heart on Facebook for all of September they are posting daily updates using the hashtag #30yearsofhappy.

Here is a cute card that I made using random stamping on a 2.25 inch x 5.5 inch piece of white daisy cardstock. I used Thistle, Lagoon, Gypsy and Canary Inks with Black ink being for the "Fabulous" to tie in the Black Shimmer Trim. For those following along at home remember random stamping looks better in sets of 3's, and I followed this principle with all the colours except Canary which I used an odd number of them, remembering to go over the edge.

To put the card together I used the 5.5 X 4.25 inch Colonial White Cards & Envelopes.

 I covered the card front with Kraft Cardstock cut to the same size as the card (5.5" X 4.25") stuck the white card stock onto the Kraft and then added 5.5 inch sections of black shimmer trim. 

I also made a page border using the similar random stamping technique on 2"x2" squares of white cardstock. I used the Kraft cardstock cut at 1.25" x 12". To give some dimention I used some Durables Triangle Studs

again in sets of 3's to keep that "pleasing to the eye" look.

These cute #30yearsofhappy stamp sets are so versatile and young children to teenagers to older family members would love these stamps. And... there is no limit to the number of free sets you can earn. ie. Spend $90 on CTMH Stamps and earn 3x FREE promotional stamp sets. These are so cute and would be the perfect gift for young people in your life. Team the free gift with a 1" X 1" My Acrylix® Block and Exclusive Inks® Stamp Pad to make an inexpensive stocking stuffer or birthday gift. 

Family is Forever S1409 : CTMH Stamp of the Month Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Jo Armstrong's Blog, Jo's CTMH Craftroom then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. This is my very first Blog Hop, so I am very excited. I hope you like it.

Today I would like to share with you the Page and Card I've made which features the September Stamp of the Month - Family is Forever set which is available exclusively throughout September for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75.

The main thing I wanted to share was that I have used two ink colours to create my more realistic looking tree. I used Chocolate to create the tree trunk and New England Ivy to create the leaves. Black was the other colour I used on the sentiment and hearts at the top of the page. To get the two-coloured stamping look I used a bit of the Rock & Roll Technique (click here to view a Close to My Heart YouTube Clip on the technique) and put the Chocolate on first and then the New England Ivy around the edges for the leaves. To get into the middle of the tree, I used the corner of the stamp pad, so make sure you have baby wipes handy to clean up any excess ink on your pad edges or acrylic blocks, if you are going to try this technique at home.

FYI: The page is sitting on my Versamat™ in this photo so that is the black edging around the page, it gave it a bit of distinction from my wooden table. I love my Versamat, I use it for every single thing I stamp (upside-down on the foam side) and to line up my paper on my page (on the grid side). 

The page design was inspired by the Reflections™ Scrapbook Program Basic Title Topper section. The loveheart shape was cut using scissors this time but next time I will cut it out using the Cricut® Artiste Collection because its a neater finish but if you don't have a cricut you can still use this lovely heart by hand-cutting or "fussy cutting" as we like to call it. I used some 3-D Foam Tape to give the heart some dimension.

I am totally in love with the 12" X 12" Kraft Cardstock and have been using it for matting everything at the moment! The Kraft Cardstock really goes well with the natural look of the Chocolate and New England Ivy ink. The background texture paper I used is the embossed Sweet Leaf paper that comes from the NEW Paper Fundamentals Whimsy Assortment. I love that it is subtle yet creates texture and dimension on the page.

The cute little red lovehearts go so great with this Stamp of the Month because there are already so many hearts that match with it in this Stamp set. They are the NEW Red Enamel Hearts I think they are really sweet.

The card is the same technique using a different sentiment and I added extra Red Enamel Hearts and shimmer trim (all cards need Shimmer Trim or lots of Bling, in my humble opinon!!). This was a quick little card to put together using the 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes.

 

 
Septembers Stamp of the Month - Family is Forever is only available until 30th September from your CTMH consultant. I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop on the Blog Hop, which is Georgia O'Shea's Blog.

Business Blogging - I'm a Newbie

Hi Everyone, I'm a bit excited that I've just launched my brand new blog. Its a place where I can post information about my Close to My Heart Craftroom.

I thought I'd share the latest thing I've done, using my new favourite alpha stamp set called Handwritten Print E1030. I love this alphabet stamp set and even used it tonight helping my son with his school project. I completed my page below using the Yuletide Carol Workshop on the Go G1084 and the Handwritten Print Alpha set, but I made a tiny boo boo. Can you spot the mistake? Some people have found it harder than others.

So the moral of this little story is when you are using this font beware of the "s" it looks good either way up.

I chose to leave the title the way it was instead of fixing it, to be a lesson to my fellow scrapbookers and here is my completed page. The page layout is from the Ideas Book Reflections Scrapbook Program.

Go to my website and view the latest NEW products that have only been released from 1st August. 

Also remember that the August Stamp of the Month "What a Hoot" is available for $27 or $5 with your eligible purchase of $75 or more. This is an ADORABLE Stamp set!