Celebrate National Stamping Month!

To celebrate National Stamping Month in September, Close to my Heart is offering a new double stamp set! You can get the exclusive It’s Your Day double stamp set for just $5 when you place a minimum order of $35 in full retail products from August 15 through September 30. You’ll love this double set—two D-size sets in one envelope—with trendy images that capture the flavor of your day-to-day activities, errands,
and musings—the little things that make up who you are and are worth remembering and sharing! With a retail value of $35.90, this set drastically increases the value of your qualifying purchase. Have twice the fun stamping during National Stamping Month with our new It’s Your Day double stamp set!

As I was scrapbooking this past week, I found a perfect opportunity to use this stamp set so I thought I might share a little artwork with you so that you can better see what you can do with some of the great images on this stamp set!  I used the Stella paper pack as well as shapes from the new Cricut Artiste cartridge...some of the images from the stamp set fit perfectly with the shapes from the new cartridge!  The font of the title you see here is also on the new Artiste cartridge.

 If you would like to place an order, head on over to my website and click on the "Happy Birthday to me" gathering at the bottom right hand side of the main page - for every $50 order placed, customers will be entered into a raffle for $25 in free product!  It is my birthday month but I am passing the gifts onto you!  This offer is only available through my website and that gathering link.  The raffle offer ends August 31st.


National Stamping month offer available August 15–September 30, 2012.
Tax and shipping/handling charges apply.
Limit one promotional item per qualifying order.

Items for sale have been listed!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have listed many items for sale under the tab "CTMH items for sale".  The majority of those items are no longer available and all are being offered at reduced priced!  All you have to do is email me  (GrigsterN@yahoo.com)  if you are interested in any of the items and we'll take it from there!

Thanks for looking!

New Fall/Winter Idea Book is here!

Here it is, August already....time to start thinking about back to schoo....wait a second, before that happens, it's time for a brand spanking new Close to my Heart Idea Book!

The Fall/Winter 2012 book is here and it is amazing! As always, CTMH has outdone themselves again!  There is a brand new Cricut Cartridge, Artiste.  $99 gets you the cartridge, 3 exclusive D-size stamp sets and 3 sheets of 9x12 chipboard shapes, one of which is an adorable mini album!

I ordered mine and it is on the way but I have seen some really cute things made with it - I can't wait to get mine and play!  

There are sooo many other great new products, new paper packs, stamp sets, 6 new ink/cardstock colors, new alcohol markers, pigment stamp pads, embellishments...too many to list!

If you would like a copy of the new Idea Book, please comment here with your email address, or feel free to email (GrigsterN at yahoo.com) or call me to secure one.

There is also a great promotion going on this month WHILE SUPPLIES LAST - If you join my team, which is one of the top 25 teams in the company, then you will receive an awesome damask bag with your kit for free!

They have even switched up the consultant kits so that you can decide what level you want to work your business right from the start!  The Essentials Kit is $49 and the Master Kit is $99. Both levels would include the free bag.

Essentials Kit

Master Kit - also includes everything in Essentials Kit

So while the rest of the world is focusing on back to school, you can be focusing shopping for some of the great new things from Close to my Heart and thinking about joining a winning team!

July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  Things at my house have been crazy so I am very lucky to have found some time to create a project for the hop!  The stamp set featured this month is S1207 Live Out Loud. This month we have 56 wonderful consultants participating and showing off their creations. 

If you have come from Carol's Blog then you are on the right track!

 This month's stamp set is great for cards and scrapbook layouts alike.  I am not much of a card maker so I again made a layout using this stamp set.  I now have 2 wonderful girls that I am fostering and this layout showcases us and our personalities....this was the perfect stamp set!  The first shows the layout without photos, the second with.  I still have to add the journaling.

Products used (all CTMH except where noted):

S1207 Live Out Loud Stamp Set
Pennant Alphabet Stamp Set
Dotty for You Paper pack
Gypsy and Colonial White Cardstock 
Smoothie, Lagoon, Sunset, and Gypsy Inks
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge
Just Blooms Paradise Paper Flowers
Sunset, Lagoon, Smoothie, and Colonial White Mini Medley assortments
Hemp - Natural
Dimensional Elements Letters

Now it's time to hop on over to Terry's Blog to check out her beautiful artwork for this month!

 If you get lost along the way you can go to Helen's Blog to see the complete list of all the participants this month. 

Be sure to visit all the consultants at their blogs to get some other great ideas! Remember, the July SOTM is only available until July 31st!  Contact me (GrigsterN at yahoo.com) or click here to see how you can earn this stamp set for just $5!

June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  It's so nice to be back on the hop!  The stamp set featured this month is S1206 Life is Tweet. This month we have 55 wonderful consultants participating and showing off their creations. 

If you have come from Judy's Blog then you are on the right track!

 This month's stamp set is great for cards and scrapbook layouts for events that are sweet like birthdays and anniversaries or just any tweet day!  I used this months stamp set to complete a layout featuring my first foster child and how "tweet" one woman was to give me many, many outfits and blankets and other things for her. 

Products used (all CTMH except where noted):

S1206 Life is Tweet Stamp Set
Bohemian Alphabet Stamp Set
Lucy Paper pack
Cotton Candy, Creme Brulee and Colonial White Cardstock 
Cotton Candy, Creme Brulee, Blush, and Pear Inks
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge
Bitty Sparkles
Pink Button Assortment

Grey Wool Marker

This is the end of the hop but you can get back to the beginning by hopping on over to Kathleen's Blog to check out her beautiful artwork for this month!

 If you get lost along the way you can go to Helen's Blog to see the complete list of all the participants this month. 

Be sure to visit all the consultants at their blogs to get some other great ideas! Remember, the June SOTM is only available until June 30th!  Contact me (GrigsterN at yahoo.com) or click here to see how you can earn this stamp set for just $5!

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to wish mothers of all types out there a Happy Mother's Day!  I myself get to partake in this holiday this year as well as does my sister-in-law and the new grandmom!  These are the cards that I made for the "moms" in my life.  Enjoy and have a wonderful day!  Also, these cards fit the challenge for the week over at the Heart 2 Heart challenges blog and it has been a while since I participated so I will link to that as well.

Just some crafty info for you:  The first and last cards were made with the Dotty for You paper pack promotion for this month.  Don't forget that if you place a $35 order you can add Dotty for You to your order for just $5!  The other cards use Roxy and Stella.

Dotty for You projects

I have been seeing so much artwork using Close to my Heart's Dotty for You paper pack and so even though I have been very busy with my new foster child I was inspired to clear some time while she was sleeping to make some projects with Dotty!  First up is a name banner that I made for her room, I had just enough mini-banner panels left from making a name banner for my nephew so it was perfect!

The second item is a welcome banner that now hangs on my from door.  I made this using CTMH's Mix and Mingle album.  Some of you may remember the one I did with Wonderland.  Well, since it isn't winter anymore I needed a nice bright springy one!

If you like these projects and want to get your own Dotty for You collection, you have until the end of May.  Simply place a $35 minimum order on my website and then add Dotty for just $5!  It's a great value that includes 24 double sided sheets of bright spring patterned papers!

Happy Easter! Dotty for You!

I had wanted to post pictures of these adorable milk cartons that I made for my cousins for Easter before the holiday occurred but well, better late than never I suppose!

They also fit the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog challenge for last week.

 

I used the CTMH spray pen to spray one in Crystal Blue and the other in Hollyhock.  I then used the My Peeps stamp set to stamp the bunnies and the eggs.  I colored the eggs with the water color pencils and tied a white ribbon around the middle to finish it off.  I would like to give credit to Lisa Stenz for this idea, I saw it on her blog a bit ago and thought they would be the perfect gift for my cousins!  They were filled with chocolate dipped peeps to match!

In keeping with this spring theme - Dotty for You is coming!  Starting Monday April 17th through the end of May, when you spend $35 in CTMH products from our Spring/Summer Idea book, you will be able to add the Dotty for You paper pack to your order for just $5!!  You get 24 sheets of yummy 2 sided papers - 12 designs, 2 of each, in our new cardstock weight.   These patterns are so bright, cheery and colorful you won't be able to resist! 

Check out my new website to get yours!

Last 2 days to get 75% your favorite CTMH products!

Time is running out to grab this incredible deal!!  Until Saturday March 31st, you can get over $400 in CTMH goodies for just $99!  How, you ask.....sign up as a Close to my Heart Consultant!

I love what I do, helping people gain their creative confidence and get those juices flowing!  I have so much fun and I get to choose how and when I work!  What could be better?!
 
Not only do you receive all of these products …


But the Cricut Art Philosophy Bundle or $100 in FREE PRODUCTS can be yours as well!

That’s well over $400 for a $99 investment and you can decide if you want to grow with it or just NAB the DEAL!  I am here to help you in whatever capacity you need and would love to have you on my growing team!  You can sign up online HERE.

I know there are a few more of you waiting to go for it on receive this AMAZING DEAL!  I know that I would do it if I could, I can't but YOU CAN!!

Crop this weekend and artwork to share

I will be vending at the Scrap 'N Support this Saturday at the Assumption Academy in Emerson, NJ and I just wanted to share the make and take layouts I will be offering for the croppers (in case you are one of them!)  The "classes" will be $10 for each 2 page layout.

The first one features Cruisin' and the cute little bottle caps and clips that add dimension to this layout.

 The second layout features Lucy and our new "springs"  I love how they give the layout a little extra "pop"!

The third layout features Florentine and is my personal favorite!

Maybe I'll see you Saturday - if not, happy crafting!

H2H color challenge (March 4th)

The challenge for last week over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog was a fun color challenge!  I love these kinds of challenges and somehow they always have a way of working very well with projects I need to complete.  Seeing that I recently became an aunt to my adorable nephew, Nathan, the colors of Sunkiss Yellow, Sky, and Sweet Leaf were perfect to do some pages for his book!

I dug out some old paper packs to get some patterned papers in Sky (Fanfare) and Sweet Leaf (Emporium).  I also used Sunkiss Yellow cardstock.  There is even a little pocket on the right hand page to hold the newspaper clipping from the day he was born.

Even though I am a couple days behind with this challenge, I hope you head on over to the H2H Blog to check out the other creations or to submit one of your own!

H2H Challenges 1-2-3 and Sketch

I am going to admit to not keeping current with my creation of items for the H2H Challenges but I just don't always get the time I want to sit down and make something.  I actually had that opportunity over the weekend and was kind of in a creative slump, I wanted to craft but had no direction whatsoever.  So I checked in with the challenges knowing I had liked several but not made anything.  I decided to further challenge myself to combine the challenges.  I managed to come up with a 2 page layout, one page that fits the 1-2-3 challenge (Feb 13th) to use 1 stamp, 2 patterned papers, and 3 embellishments, and a second that is my version of the sketch week challenge (Feb 20th).

Here is the first, the 1-2-3 layout of my adorable nephew, Nathan, who is already 1 month old!  I used the retired paper, Miracle to make this layout because the colors worked perfectly!

 

The second page is my scrapbook layout version of the sketch.  I thought that the vertical bar would be perfect for 2 tall photos. I added a little cluster of embellies in the corner and one additional photo to fill the empty space.  I like how it turned out.

 

And finally, these are the 2 pages together.  Pardon the glare on the photo, I recently relocated my crafting space and need to find a new photo spot.

 I invite you to head on over to the H2H Challenges blog and get your February entries in before the end of this week and check out all the other inspirational artwork that has been posted!

Studio J - Five for free in February!

I am so excited to announce that I am an aunt!!  My brother and sister-in-law had a new baby boy on January 27th!   What's even better - I not only got to see him that day, but when I came home, I uploaded the pictures and used Studio J to create the first 3 layouts that will go in his scrapbook.  Still better - it only took me 2 hours to make those layouts and I was able to get 2 sets, one for his book, and one for mine! Easy Peasy!  And Close to my Heart is having a great Studio J special this month, read about it below.  Check out how adorable he is!

DOUBLE YOUR LAYOUTS with our Five for Free promotion! For each Studio J® 5-pack (SJ5P) you purchase this February, you’ll get one free 5-pack. That means you get 10 layouts for just $55—that’s just $2.75 per page, with free shipping! Even if you’re already taking advantage of Studio J’s incredibly low members-only pricing, you’ll save even more when you purchase 5-packs through this special February deal!
Studio J 5-packs include everything you need to have 5 two-page layouts (that’s 10 scrapbook pages!) shipped to your door ready for your scrapbook album. Each 5-pack can be redeemed for up to:
• 5 two-page layouts
• 5 Memory Protectors®
• Free shipping and handling
Whether you’re looking for an affordable gift or a way to save money on your own layouts, Studio J 5-packs offer you convenience and savings. Keep one for yourself and give one as a gift!

Visit Studio J on my website and start creating your own beautiful layouts, starting February 1, 2012 (9 am MST).

Dates: Offer valid February 1, 2012–February 29, 2012.

 Feel free to contact me (GrigsterN at yahoo.com) if you need help getting started or would like to order your 5-packs!

February Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the February Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  This hop marks the first stamp of the month set from our Spring/Summer Idea book!  The stamp set featured this month is S1202 Thoughtful Tidings. This month we have 60 wonderful consultants participating and showing off their creations. 

If you have come from Carol's Blog, then you are on the right track!

 This month's stamp set is great for cards of all types.  There are great sentiments that could be used for a great number of occasions.   I made a card using this stamp set, the Footloose papers as well as some help from my handy dandy Art Philosophy Cartridge!  I even got my spray pen out and had some fun with White spritz! This card is 4.5" by 4.5".

Products used (all CTMH except where noted):

S1202Thoughtful Tidings Stamp Set
Footloose paper packs 
Pear and White Daisy Cardstock 
Smoothie and Pear Inks
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge
Durables Studs Round

Spritz in White Daisy (spray pen and white daisy reinker)

Now "hop" on over to Allisa's Blog and check out her beautiful artwork for this month!

 If you get lost along the way you can go to Helen's Blog to see the complete list of all the participants this month. 

Be sure to visit all the consultants at their blogs to get some other great ideas! Remember, the February SOTM is only available until February 29th!  Contact me (GrigsterN at yahoo.com) or click here to see how you can earn this stamp set for just $5!

Spring Summer 2012 Idea Book New Product Blog Hop!

Welcome to the New Product Spring/Summer Idea Book Blog Hop!  This hop marks the introduction of a brand new Idea book and allows you a sneak peak at all the fabulous new things you will be able to order come February 1st!!  This hop has 27 wonderful consultants participating and showing off their creations. 

If you have come from Jean's Blog, then you are on the right track!

 

For this hop I decided to make a couple of scrapbook pages because some of the new paper packs coordinated so nicely with the pictures I had!  The first layout features the Crusin' paper pack along with the silver foil stickease complements that match.  I also borrowed the layout idea from the Victory Workshop on the Go!

The second layout features the Footloose paper pack and the matching chipboard complements.  This pack is perfect for beach photos!

Products used (all CTMH except where noted):

Footloose paper pack
Footloose  complements dimensional elements chipboard shapes
Keepsake felt alphabet
Just Chillin' stamp set
Smoothie, Pear, Lagoon, Creme Brulee, New England Ivy and Sweet leaf ink pads
Crusin' paper pack
Crusin' complements silver foil images
Bottle Caps
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge

Now "hop" on over to Jen's Blog and check out her beautiful artwork for this special hop!

Be sure to visit all the consultants at their blogs to get some other great ideas! Remember, the new products will be available starting February 1st!  Contact me (GrigsterN at yahoo.com) to place an order or shop on my website!

Heart 2 Heart Color Challenge

Since it is a little harder now for me to find time to get crafty, I have decided that I will challenge myself to participate in the H2H challenges more often.  This will force me to make crafty time!  I got to spend some time crafting this evening actually and I came up with this cute little box/purse in the colors of Amethyst and Crystal Blue for the Heart 2 Heart Challenge for this week.  I also took the plus challenge and added some glitter!  I got this idea from the new Spring/Summer Idea book which will be available to everyone on February 1st.  It is fantastic!

I used paper from the Wonderland paper pack as well as Amethyst cardstock.  The CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge was a huge help in making the little bag cutout as well as the snowflake and the tag.  I incorporated the stamp set from this months special, Rock the Block to create the border and the saying on the tag.  If you look closely you'll even see 2 brand new CTMH products that I used!
Thanks for looking and be sure to stop on over to the H2H Challenges Blog and check out all the other artwork!

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - NEW!

I haven't yet shared this adorable piece of home decor I made.  I needed something wintery to hang on my front door after all the Christmas decorations had been taken down so I found a mix and mingle album that had not yet been used and got to work!  I love the Wonderland paper pack but seeing that we haven't had any snow (and this is not me hoping for any...)  I haven't had a use for the paper but wanted to use it so badly, so it just seemed fitting to put the 2 together.  This project also fits the H2H challenge for this week to find a stamp set that you haven't used yet or used in a long time and make something with it.  The stamp set I used, Winter Joy, was one that I ordered in the summer right after the CTMH convention and didn't use until this project, just the other day!

I love how this turned out and I now love returning home at the end of the day just to see it shimmering on my front door!    I also added some of the Icing Top Coats and bling for a little something extra.  I hope you enjoyed my project and be sure to check out all the other entries this week over at the H2H Challenge Blog.

Thanks for stopping by!