Hello and welcome aboard our Comfort and Joy Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. 

If you have arrived here from Arty Maz then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. 

I apologize in advance – this is a rather long post. But it’s full of some very pretty things. So I promise it’ll be worth it.

Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart Featured collection “Comfort and Joy” combined with some of the papers and embellishments from the Annual Ideas Catalogue. These creations I made over the weekend at the official Close To My Heart Album Retreat. Prior to Covid these Album Retreats were run face to face, but only from Home Office in Utah, USA. And whilst I have been to one of these in UTAH – it’s not an affordable option every time. And they run around 3 a year. So an upside to Covid is that these Album Retreats are being run virtually. I’ll talk more at the end of this post about next years events.

For Album Retreat you pre-purchased a kit, that was mailed out to use. The Kit contained – pre-cut pieces for 20 pages (all packed beautifully by layout), backing papers for layouts, an E size stamp set (an E Size stamp set has two full 6×6 sheets of stamps in the one packet), and two other stamp and thin cut sets, embellishments (including a full 12×12 sticker sheet, a sheet of glitter die cuts, a bottle of Stickles, wooden stars, and black velvet ribbon), stencil, and a set of mini blending tools. Besides these supplies I had to supply my inks, adhesives and tools such as trimmers etc. And then the entire event was run via a private Facebook Group. Each layout was done individually as a Live video, that was then saved so that you can watch it again or at a later time. I was crazy and got up at 2am each day and participated live. I just love the vibe of doing it live.

So now I’d like to share all the layouts and talk through some of the cool things that I learned along the way.

So in 2021 Close To My Heart are offering 4 Virtual Album Retreats. The first being the 15/16 January 2021 (that’ll be 16/17 January for Australia). Bookings for this event will open on the 5th of November. And it will sell out. It is open to both Makers and Customers So if you are interested in finding out more about this fabulous event please contact your CTMH Maker, if you don’t have a Maker and would like to know more you can contact me here. Whilst it is a big investment. To come away from the weekend with 20 fabulous pages, learnt new techniques and added some stamps and thin cuts to my stash – it is totally worth it.

This exclusive Comfort and Joy paper collection is only available until the end of October while stocks last. The Workshop Collection can be yours for just $62.  Individual components can be ordered from your CTMH Maker. If you do not have a Maker please contact me or place an order here.

I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Crop Craft Create.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting

Danielle