Watercolour paints? I'm scared!!!

Welcome to our team blog hop for November - someone (i.e. NOT me) decided it would be a good idea to feature the Watercolour Paints this month. So that meant I had to get them out and use them. I'm amazed you all didn't hear me being dragged kicking and screaming towards this one. But, guess what? They're way easier to use than I thought they would be. Nothing to be scared of at all. I mean, if I can use them, then so can you!

Anyway, if you have come here from Helen's blog, Helen's Heart n Craft, then you're on the right track. The blog is a big circle, so if you do get lost just come back here and you can get on track again.

I didn't know what I should use the Watercolour Paints for - I have seen some gorgeous page layouts with them (check out Cindy's page later in the blog hop, it is amazing!), and we did get to make some cards with them at our recent convention (which I'm not sharing just yet, as they feature brand new products coming in January), so I was struggling. Then I had a brainwave! (Well, an idea anyway.) My daughter is having a high tea birthday party, and we haven't made her invitations yet, and they really should already be out by now. So, guess what I made?

I started with choosing a card from our Cricut Artiste cartridge. I wanted something cute, small, and that looked special for an almost-seven-year-old. I found this cute card with a heart front, and a matching heart belly band to hold it together.

I used some no-longer-available paper, because my daughter insisted on pink, and I had a lot of this on hand.

Once I had made the card, I looked through our other cartridges to find something tea-party related, and hit the jackpot with a cute teapot and teacup in the Artistry Cricut cartridge. This is our newest cartridge and has so many awesome things on it!

I cut out the teapot and teacup, and laid them out on newspaper to colour them with the Watercolour Paints....I can't colour within the lines, so figured I wouldn't be able to paint within the lines either :).

I then got my Paintbrush Set out, and went to town. The paints come in this cool case, and you can use the lid to mix colours to get different shades etc. - see in the picture where I've mixed a colour in the middle of the lid.

So basically, you dip your brush in water and start painting. What I've learned about watercolours (and I could just be doing this all wrong, so who knows!), is that the shade of paint on your paper depends on how much water you are using. So the effect is different shades, streaks, etc. depending on how consistent and careful you are, and what you're trying to achieve.

I painted away....you can see the different shades in the picture below.

I then assembled my card - by the way, these dry really quickly - by the time I had painted all ten teacups with the pink, they were dry enough to handle and paint the dots.

I attached some White Daisy Cardstock to the inside, and attached a teapot and teacup to that. I used the Black ShinHan Marker to make the border, and added some bling, in the form of Bitty Sparkles.

I then repeated the border and bling technique on the front of the card, and it's ready to go (well, once I write the invitation details in of course!)

So there you go - the Watercolour Paints. So much easier than they sound. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by, now head over to Wendy's blog, Paper Ink Bling and see what she has done.

Teacher Appreciation Day Cards

The last Friday in October is Teacher Appreciation Day here in Australia. With that in mind, last Thursday evening (nothing like last minute!) I whipped up some cards for Charlotte to take to her teachers.

I searched Pinterest for teacher cards using CTMH products, and came across some gorgeous cards...it was so hard to narrow it done. In the end, I chose a card created by a US Consultant called Tina Lovell, and changed it slightly to fit what I had on hand.

The card uses the following products:

• Paper Fundamentals Adventure - Lagoon and Sorbet
• Chalk It Up Paper (no longer available)
• Black Cardstock
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Teacher Appreciation My Acrylix Stamp Set
• Black Exclusive Inks
• Black Stars from the Scaredy Cat Assortment
• ShinHan Markers
• 3-D Foam Tape

I stamped the image in Black Ink and waited for it to dry. While it was drying I cut the remaining cardstock out and started to put it together. 

Once the owl image was dry I coloured it in using ShinHan Markers - the colours I used are:

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I chose the colours to match the Lagoon and Sorbet papers in the card. Once it was coloured I fussy-cut around the image.

I then used 3-D Foam Tape to stick the owl to the card:

It was very quick to do all 4 cards the same. A quick stamp on the back of the envelope to add that extra little touch, and they were all ready for my daughter to write in.

Happy Teachers Appreciation Day to all the teachers out there!!!

New Idea Book Team Blog Hop

Oh my gosh, I am so, so, SO excited. We have a brand new Annual Inspirations Ideas Book (and mini Holiday Expressions Ideas Book), with tons and tons and tons of lovely new things for everyone to play with. In honour of the new book, our team has put together a blog hop showcasing our favourite new products.

If you have come here from Kerry's blog, Kerry's Creative Collection, then you're on the right track. The blog is a big circle, so if you do get lost just come back here and you can get on track again.

So, what's my favourite new product? Well, I am absolutely in love with our brand new My Creations Calendar. I can make my own personalised calendar to hang on my wall, and I can also make some for gifts as well. The calendar is spiral bound and features a pre-printed grid, and a 12x12 white page to decorate for each month. The months aren't named, so you can start with whatever month you like.

Today I'm going to share with you the page I have done for September 2016. I had such fun putting this page together with some of the other new products we have, so you get to see some of those in action too!

Firstly, this layout came from our Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 "how-to" book (page 10). I used our brand new Kaleidoscope range - the Paper, the Complements, and the Assortment. Our brand new Complements are such great value, they include stickers, chipboard diecuts, and translucent stickers. Have a look at the cluster I put together in the bottom left hand corner to see a mix from both the Complements and Assortment pack.

It's very difficult to see in the photos, but the cool striped paper on the left hand side of the page is sparkly!!! To highlight the sparkles I cut some Chevron Borders in the purple paper and backed the cut outs with our White Shimmer Trim. I love the way it sparkles during the day and catches the light at night.

As one last little touch I used our 3-D Foam Tape to raise the title on the top left hand corner. This title came from the Complements pack.

Now, onto the calendar page.

I have used my Cricut machine and the brand new Artistry cartridge's funky font to cut out the title. Moving on from there I used the Stripe Embossing Folder to add some texture to the letters. Honestly, if I had the Chevron Embossing Folder I would have used that instead, but I think the stripes look pretty cool anyway.

In the bottom right hand corner of the grid I have added a sticker from our new Base and Bling Lovely Blooms Style Sheet. The new square shapes of the Style Sheets mean they are perfect for adding into the calendar. I am also excited to use the Jolly Holiday one in December.

For those of you who are observant, you will notice there are no numbers on my grid. That's because I've managed to misplace my Mini Calendar stamp. I felt the numbers on my alphabet stamp sets were too big to allow me to also write in the squares, but I think the numbers in the mini calendar will be just perfect.

If you want more ideas, you can always use Studio J, our digital scrapbooking program, to make your layouts (make once, print out 3 times, your Christmas shopping is done!) An amazing consultant at the US Convention earlier this year also used Studio J to do the month headings (10.5" x 3") and used the remaining 1.5" width to add in 1.5" x 1.5" photos to put in the grid. Isn't that amazing!

Those photos were taken at the US convention, and unfortunately I don't know who to give credit to. If I find out who designed these I will update here so she is recognised.

So there you go - our new My Creations Calendar. My current favourite new product. You can order this, or anything else you like, from my website, or by shooting me an email. And you can look at an online version of both of the new Ideas Books right now!

Thanks so much for stopping by, now head over to Wendy's blog, Paper Ink Bling and see what she likes!

August Team Blog Hop - mini albums

Welcome to our team's August Blog Hop! I am finally feeling like I am settling back in after our holiday, and so am getting back into the swing of things.

This month we are focusing on Mini Albums - CTMH has a whole range of different mini albums and options that we wanted to share with you all. If you came here from Julie's Papercraft Blog then you are in the right place. The blog is a big circle, so you just keep going from one to another. If you manage to get lost you can always check out the list on Alison's Scissors Paper Heart Blog.

This month I have decided to use CTMH's My Creations Kraft Mini Book (also available in black). It is such an awesome album to quickly and easily complete - it comes with 5 4x6 page protectors  and 5 page protectors which hold 2 3x4 photos. These are also perfectly sized to hold our Picture My Life cards. If you don't have PML cards, then you can easily make your own out of any paper you have - I have done that out of Wanderful.

So all you need to do is pop your photos and matching PML cards in, and the whole album is done! You can decorate the cover if you like, using matching Complements and/or Embellishments, and you have a great gift or memory album.

My children's teachers and friends have been asking to see photos of our recent holiday, so I have put together a quick little album for each of them to take and share with their classmates / day care teachers. The hardest part for me was trying to work out which photos to include, since we took so many on our holiday!

Please check back later in the week for photos - myself and the kids have been sick this week and everything has lagged behind, but I did want to share the ideas with you as soon as I could.

Also, just a quick reminder, August is the last month for the current Annual Inspirations and Seasonal Expressions 2 Ideas Books. A lot of the items in there are currently listed as Retiring and While Supplies Last to make way for our brand new Idea Book coming out on September 1. Many items have already sold out, so if there's anything you want, make sure you order it quickly! You can find the full list of Retiring Items here and While Supplies Last Items here.

Now - head on over to Wendy's Paper Ink Blink Blog and check out her awesome mini album!!!

May 2015 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Wow - our first team blog hop! And, for all of us this month, our first ever blog hop. This blog hop is featuring Close To My Heart's May Stamp of the Month. Just Sayin' is full of sayings and embellishments for you to use in a variety of ways.

If you have come here from Helen's blog you are on the right path! The blog hop is a giant circle, so no matter where you start you can work your way through all the blogs. If you get lost along the way you can find a list of all the blogs in this blog hop on Alison's blog - just click here.

I have had so much fun with this stamp set. I recently competed in Miss Muddy, and my daughter competed in the Obstacool Kids Course on the same day. While I have heaps of photos on my camera, I wanted to do something with the professional ones, and these stamps went perfectly.

I have used the BRUSHED paper pack, along with a sketch from our Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 How-To Program. I love how our How-To Programs make it so easy, with the cutting guide and layout all done for you. No thinking required :).

(And, yes, learning how to take better photos of my pages is on my to-do list!)

I used Pixie and Pear inks to match the papers in the Brushed paper pack - I love how the paper packs indicate on them which colours match, makes it so easy!

Thanks for checking out my blog and seeing what I've done with the Just Sayin' stamp. Now, why not check out Wendy's blog and see what she has done. 

Remember, this stamp set is only available until the end of May. Contact your Close To My Heart Consultant, or click here to see how you can purchase it at a great discount!

Hello!

Wow. A blog. This is scary isn't it. Sitting in front of the keyboard wondering what to write. And drawing a total blank!!!
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Ha ha - have you ever known me to be lost for words? Nope, not likely.

Welcome to my new blog. It is a bit scary, true, but it's a bit exciting as well. This blog is just another avenue to share Close To My Heart (or CTMH, to save me some typing) with my friends. (And customers, but you're all just my friends now!) I'll be sharing a whole heap of different things coming up - scrapbooking and card ideas, links to really cool things I've seen, sneak peeks of upcoming products, information about current (and future) promotions...and just all sorts of things CTMH-related really.

So, keep an eye on the blog, feel free to subscribe via one of those buttons somewhere to the right of this post (I'm assuming I'll get better at the whole blogging thing as I go along!), and let me know what you do and don't like.

In the meantime, keep an eye out next week for my first ever Blog Hop participation!

Oh - and check out the tabs above for more info about things like upcoming Events, Promotions, etc.

Michelle

*What is a Blog Hop you ask? In this case, it's basically where a group of people (bloggers) get together and create something on a theme. It could be a particular product, or stamp set, or sketch, or colour, or theme, etc. We then all post a blog post about our particular creation, and link to someone else's blog so you can click on the link once you've finished reading here and go and see what they have done. The links go round in a great big circle, so you keep going until you end up back here, and you then have heaps of ideas.