Heather's Paper Playroom

The Dream Pop paper pack was a special from Close to my Heart for National Scrapbooking month in May 2013.  I've had this paper since then and really hadn't used it.  I think the main reason that I didn't use it was because of the amount of pink in it.  I love the paper but as the mother of two little boys I don't have a lot of uses for pink and flowery paper.  I kept pulling it out and then putting it back so I finally decided that I would just go ahead and put together some layouts with it.  Here is part one of my layouts.   I found the inspiration for this layout here .  It was a lot of fun to work with these bright colours.  I realize as I post this that I did intend to stitch the hearts on the sides but I forgot.   Of course I used the CTMH cricut cartridges for the title and the hearts.   I also added pink glitter gems to give it some sparkle.  They matched so nicely.   This layout just came ...

I had this little box around for a while but I wasn't using it anymore.  I had it sitting in my craft room waiting for me to do something with it.   I decided it would make a nice hostess gift to take to a friends house over the holidays.  I covered the top with some retired Florentine paper and found a sentiment stamp that I liked.     I used the CTMH Cricut cartridges to cut out the flowers, the leaves and the frame for the sentiment.  I really enjoy making the flowers even thought they take a little bit of time.    I decide that the flowers needed a little something so I added Bling Gems to the centres.  When it was all done I filled the box with some yummy Lindor chocolates and tied it with a simple gold ribbon.   I'd love to hear what you think.  Have you ever altered something like this?  Does it seem like fun or just too much effort? 

Extra! Extra! Hostess Rewards During the month of January, all Gatherings that reach $350 or higher will be eligible to receive up to 50% more Hostess Rewards! This means an additional $30, giving you the opportunity to earn up to $230 or more in select free products. This offer is only available during January and is the ideal pairing for your National Papercrafting Month Gatherings, so join in the celebration and watch your earnings grow! Dates: Offer valid January 1, 2015–January 31, 2015. Contact me now to book a date for your gathering.  It's a great way to get free and discounted products while getting together with friends.  Everyone in attendance gets to create a handmade project to take home.

I made this card for a special friend to let her know I was thinking of her.  I used Heidi Swapp Hello Today paper and embellishments.  I followed along with Heidi's tutorial to make this unique card and matching envelope.     I love these little acrylic butterflies.  They are so cute and fun to use.    This photo shows the card beside the envelope.  I love how the card just slides into the slot on the envelope so that you can still see most of the embellishments.   These colour shine cards are super cute and I have a stack of them that I am hoping to add into page layouts and who knows what else. 

Welcome to our monthly team Brae-er Blog Hop featuring YEAR >> NOTED from Close to my Heart. If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you get lost you can find your way by going to Brae's blog at http://wp.me/p4htXJ-C2 for a full list of participants. If you came from Alyson's  blog then you are in the right place! We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!  In celebration of National Papercrafting Month, Close To My Heart invites you to reflect on the things that make you who you are and on what you want to accomplish in the coming months. Then, with the help of the Year >> Noted paper...

Here is another layout that I completed over the Christmas break.  I am so happy with the way this layout turned out.  I think it is because of the black matting that I used.   I am very drawn to cards and layouts that have matting around all the elements.  This is not something that I do very often but I've been doing it more frequently lately.   I was able to use up some old trim that I had as well as some brads from an older halloween pack.  I pulled papers from a couple of retired kits and used the textured cardstock from the recent Free to be Me kit.   I also finally used up some of my marquee enamel shapes and my Oodles of Doodles stamp set.  I even added a this cute little journalling card from the retired Sophia paper pack, that's what the green polka dot paper is from also. What do you think about the black matting?  Do you do a lot of matting or not?

I always start my scrapbooking layouts by reviewing my pictures and finding a pattern that suits them before even printing them.  Sometimes that means using a CTMH pattern and sometimes it means using a pattern I find on the internet.  I always start with something as my inspiration though, even if in the end it looks very different.  This layout was inspired by one I saved on my Pinterest board . The original post can be found here . Since I usually create double page layouts and this was just a single page, I needed to figure out how to the right page would look.  It was pretty simple though and I think it turned out quite well.   I used the new Hopscotch Workshop kit and the coordinating complements .  This kit is only available until the end of March in the first Seasonal Expressions Idea Book.  The frame is a photo mat cut from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge.  I used the arrows that were cut out and just flipped them over...