Workshops on the Go

Don't you love it when you discover something new? Especially when it's something new in the world of crafting? Me too, in fact it happened to me this week. What's really funny though is that what I discovered wasn't new at all. For over a year now Close to my Heart had these Workshops on the Go kits and I've bought a few but never quite put a whole one together...until last Sunday. Now, I'm in love. Each kit has an exclusive stamp set, a Level Two paper pack (that means 22 sheets of our beautiful paper, a package of matching embellishments and, the best part of all, an instruction sheet to either make layouts or cards OR BOTH!! That's, right, actual instructions on how to make some beautiful projects! That means it requires very little creativity. I know how many of you out there "claim" to have not a creative bone in your body so here's your cure! We currently have a Workshop on the Go kit for all four of the beautiful brand new papers. All you have to do to see them is to CLICK HERE! I know if you try them you'll fall in love too. If you order the Mistletoe kit and live near me in Stevensville you may come and join us on November 28th at 2:00 to put it together. These are so easy, though, that you can do them right in your own home too! So now it's your turn to discover these wonderful kits too. Email me if you have any questions! caldreamin05@comcast.net

Here's a sneak peek of the Olivia kit.

Felicity Kit - Card Two

The special for the rest of this month is this beautiful Felicity paper and stamp set. I'm busily making invitations for the parties I'm doing this month and this set is perfect. There are two color palettes in Felicity that go well together or separately. I'm going with the blues here for this particular invitation. Cut your papers as follows:

8 1/2 by 5 1/2 card base, fold in half and attach card front to it once you are finished
5 1/2 by 4 1/4 card front made from twilight cardstock
2 1/2 by 4 1/4 striped Felicity pattern paper
2 by 4 1/4 diamond Felicity pattern paper
3 1/4 by 3 1/4 cocoa cardstock
2 1/4 by 2 1/4 cocoa cardstock
3 by 3 colonial white cardstock
2 by 2 colonial white cardstock

All measurements are in inches and you can distress all with cocoa ink.

Take your paper trimmer (use the groove) and a dry embossing tool to make indented lines in the top inch and a half of your twilight card front. Sand to expose white core. Add striped pattern piece to the bottom keeping it flush with the bottom edge.

Take the diamond pattern paper and lay it flush against the striped paper and attach.

Stamp the flower from the Felicity set in twilight ink on the 2 by 2 colonial white piece. Attach it to the cocoa 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 square. Attach 3 by 3 colonial white piece to the 3 1/4 by 3 1/4 mat. Put a brad in the center of the flower BEFORE attaching it to your card. Attach larger piece first then turn the smaller flower piece to a diamond shape and glue in the center of the large 3 1/4 by 3 1/4 piece.


Use the letters in the Felicity stamp set to write the title of your choice and stamp it on your card lower right in twilight. That's it for this card, I'll show off another tomorrow.

Here's a look at the card with a cocoa cardstock card front. The circular paper around it comes in the kit, you'll love it. Email me and find out how you can get it for free.

Easy Around the Holidays card kit - Card Four

The last card in the Around the Holiday's card kit is very pretty, love blue being used for Christmas cards. Apply the ornaments stickease to the center.

Add the circle sticker at the top. Put the snowflake circle in the middle. You can distress all of these too.

Stick on the big white and brown snowflake.

Add the Happy Holidays and pop it up with some pop dots. Did you remember how to add powder to the underside to keep only the pop dots sticky? Check back to the other tutorials on this card set if you didn't.

Now add the ribbon and you have the simple version of the card.

For a different look pop up the ornament stickease.

Add and pop up your snowflake.

Add the Happy Holidays stickease in the middle.

Add the bow, put a sparkle in the center of the snowflake and use liquid glass on the Happy Holidays sticker. It dries clear, I took this picture too early so it's still a big milky.

Another way to go is to add glitter wherever you want to. Remember to let it dry well before you knock it all off and it will be a lot prettier.

Here's the glittery result.

So here are the three versions of each card. The kit is $14.95 plus the shipping and tax so much, much less than the cards you bought in the store and so much more special.

Easy Around the Holidays card kit - Card Three

The third card out of the Around the Holidays card kit is put together as easily as the first two. Apply the ornament shaped stickease first.

Add the Joyous Noel sticker and then use pop dots to put the reindeer on. Make sure you powder to remove the stickiness from the back (see Card One for how to do this).

Add a ribbon tied in the center and applied with a glue dot and you're done, or.....

Instead you could pop up the ornament stickease, powder everything but the pop dots, look how cool this is.

Now add the Noel, reindeer and ribbon. Sparkle it up with some glitter for a new look.

Another option is to pop up the ornament again but this time use liquid applique on the snowflakes on the card (see Card Two for how to do this).

Look at how those snowflakes pop out on this card, it makes it so special! It doesn't take much to make this kit into some wonderful cards.

Lots of Cards!

Have you tried bulk card-making? It's a wonderful way to create beautiful greeting cards at low cost. What you see below is a 16 card workshop (only 14 cards shown) that I made from 8 pieces of colonial white cardstock for card bases, 4 pieces of cardstock for the card fronts, and just three 12 x 12 pieces of patterned paper from the Caprice set. That's cheap folks! I even only used one stamp set, the September Word Puzzle. The Wishes book from Close to my Heart has this wonderful bulk card making pattern that took me about an hour to cut, an hour to put together and an hour to decorate, not bad for 16 cards. Even though the pattern is for 2 of eight different cards, I challenge you to see if you can tell which cards used the same pattern. Do you have three hours to make 16 beautiful handmade cards? Go for it!

Here's more cards made from this same pattern.

Key To My Heart