Heart Warming Winter Cards

It's January and a dear friend is having a birthday. Or a neighbor brought you over some homemade cookies and you want to give them a thank you card. Do you reach for your flower or summery stamps? No way! Use a winter theme for your cards since it's winter! Or fall themes if the occasion is in the fall...you get the idea. Not all birthday cards have to have balloons! Ha! Ha! I love to make "seasonal" cards for your every day thank yous, get wells, and birthdays. That's why I reached for my "winter" stamps and the beautiful Wonderland paper to create these special cards. Check out how the pin clips are used to create "steam" rising from the hot chocolate mug. So fun! So use the seasons the next time you are creating and break away from the standard "balloons are for birthdays" mold!

Happy creating!

Beautiful Badge Buttons

I love our canvas badge buttons! They are adhesive backed making them easy to attach. Plus, you can stamp on them, sponge ink of them, and create cool objects with them! On this Mayberry card, I used a canvas badge button to create an apple! Here’s how:

Supplies:

Mayberry paper packet

Mayberry Workshop on the Go stamp set

Olive and Smoothie ink pads

Chocolate waxy flax

Directions:

Ink a stamp that is larger than the badge button with Smoothie ink (or use olive ink if you want a green apple!). The stamp can have any pattern desired. I used the pear stamp included in the set because I loved the pattern on it! Now stamp on the button, rolling down around the edges (the edges are curved on the button so if you don’t roll down around the edge you accidentally only stamp on the center of the button). Now take a sponge and add some extra sponged ink around the edges to make them look darker and more dimensional. To complete the apple, stamp some leaves and cut out. To make the stem, take 4 shorts pieces of chocolate waxy flax and twist them together. Attach onto the card with a glue dot. Just peel off the adhesive paper-backing and attach! It’s that easy!

Spray Pen Unplugged

Close to My Heart has a fabulous new product called the Spray Pen. It's so much fun to use! Check out this video created by Close to My Heart's very own art department on how to use it! Get ready to have fun!

Card Organizer

Where do you store all of your card projects? I am always looking for different ways to store my cards…shoe boxes, drawers…anything! Then I found the idea of using Close to My Heart’s acrylics storage boxes. They are perfect! Here is a fun one I made using the Notebook paper. It was so easy! Here’s how:

1. 1. Attach 2” wide strips of pattern paper around the box with strong adhesive, starting from the back.
2. Stamp the word “CARDS” to the saying piece. Add brads and ribbon and attach in the front, covering the ends of the strips. Add a flower and a button to the front.
3. Tie ribbon to the handle as desired. You’re done!