The Close To My Heart 2014-2015 Annual Inspirations is live! And my Washi Obsession!

Happy new catalog day! The Close to My Heart catalog is now an annual catalog which means that it is bigger and full of wonderful things to peruse. Check it out online here.

You may have noticed that I took a bit of a break from posting here for awhile. I had an issue with my phone which prevented me from using the "easy way" to upload photos and that just seemed to slow me down too much to post.  I've also been making a big push to declutter and get organized. It's just long overdue! I'm trying to go drawer by drawer. There are some areas that have taken days and some that are quick and relatively painless. I still have more drawers and nooks and crannies to go through!

Another thing I've been working on is finding a planner system that works for me. After trying and looking at systems I can purchase, I'm going to try out one that I will just print. But being a scrapbooker, I, of course, have to make it visually appealing and fun! I found a free colorful printable planner here: http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2014/06/free-planner-and-calendar-more-2015/

I'm also using some pages from here: http://www.greenchildmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Personal-Planner-Hearts-by-Green-Child-Mag.pdf

But to make it even more fun, I'm using Washi tape to highlight important dates. Now, I can hear you tsk, tsk, tsking at me, saying it's just an excuse to buy more Washi tape but I say, "No, no, I had already bought the tape!" Now I'm using them! Look, doesn't it grab your attention?

Well, okay, I did buy some new ones too and I am eagerly awaiting my NEW rolls of Washi tape from the NEW catalog because, after all, I need just a few more colors so I can accurately assign one color to things like appointments, holidays, events, practices, work, things associated with a certain member of the family, birthdays, etc. Right? Humor me.

Here's another cool new product which will enable me in my Washi tape obsession.

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Polar Bear Fun!

I love having some time off! It's been very difficult for me to get time to create with my new work schedule. I know, I should make the time, but when I see the dishes and laundry piling up, I figure I should make time for that first!!!  I even had time to go and get a bunch of new trimmer blades...I had been cutting with a dull blade for months now! It used to be that I could just pick up a Fiskars blade from Walmart or Target but my local stores don't carry them anymore. The nearest craft store is somewhat of a trek and it's a trek that's better done on a day off! Anyway, like I said, I love having time off!

I decided to do a bunch of cards which I could use as holiday, New Year's, winter birthdays, and thank you's. I picked the cute Polar Bear Holiday stamp set and the lovely To You and Yours set for the sentiment which I put on the inside using Outdoor Denim ink (some I'm leaving blank on the inside, like for the ones I'm saving for birthdays). The Polar Bear Holiday set has some great sentiments on it already but I really love the font on To You and Yours. The nice thing about the polar bear stamps is that I just needed to add a tiny bit of color with my Sky and Whisper CTMH alcohol markers and some colored pencils since they are white!

I also used the Frosted and Sparkle and Shine paper packs and Crystal Blue cardstock for my card bases because I had a lot of it! I don't know if you can tell from my pictures, but the front of my card is cut a little shorter so you can see the gray houndstooth pattern even while the card is closed and my card is slightly smaller than a standard size. It's about a 4" x 5.5" card with the front flap being 4.25" long. The Bronze Shimmer Trim and the Lagoon Houndstooth Washi Tape made for easy embellishments! I also used 3-D Foam Tape to pop up my sledding bears.

Here's a shot of my supplies. I cut out my circles using my Cuttlebug with Spellbinder dies (both regular and scalloped). I used an embossing plate to give some texture to the blue circles and inked them a little with Heavenly Blue ink (retired). In case you haven't heard, we will have embossing plates in the Spring/Summer 2014 CTMH Idea Book! Yay! We'll also have a bulk pack of sponge daubers!

Just for fun, here are my polar bears, cut out. Wheeeee! They look so happy! It really helps to have a good scissors like your handy dandy CTMH Micro Tip scissors. 

Here's the outside of my final card...

...and a view of the inside!

I'm linking up with 365 Cards for their Anything Goes Challenge. Seeing as how I always seem to be in need of cards, I think I should visit this challenge blog more often and get inspired!

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Washi Wonderland

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