Today we welcome guest blogger Krista Ritskes, who has some wonderful Close to My Heart projects to share!

Hello Canadian Scrapbooker fans! My name is Krista Ritskes and I’ve been a Close To My Heart Independent Consultant since 2007. I’m excited for the chance to share my artwork and love of CTMH products here on the blog.

I live in Oshawa, Ontario and am married to my Pharmacist hubby, Chris. We have 2 kids. Our daughter is thrilled to have just hit double digits and our son is 7. I discovered scrapbooking when my daughter was born and I had decided not to go back to my teaching job. When I was pregnant with my son, I found Close To My Heart and joined up, never having touched a stamp! Now, I can hardly create any sort of project without including ink and stamps.

There are a lot of things I love about CTMH, but what really hooked me were the coordinating products and the how-to books. Each paper matches the ink and the cardstock, and there is no guess work. I love simple, clean artwork that doesn’t take days to create, which is why I named my website Simply Creating.

This layout was created by following Pattern 17 in Make It From Your Heart Vol. 2. These patterns are like sketches, but the measurements are listed and it even shows you how many different papers you need to complete the layout or card. Each pattern also has artwork pictured to give you inspiration. I loved the sample for this one so much that I copied it, with a few tweaks to fit what I liked. I love the freedom to create my own artwork using a guide to inspire me as much as I need. In this layout I also used Cricut cuts from the CTMH Artbooking Cricut Collection. I stamped tone-on-tone for the bottom blue section, stamping Glacier ink on Glacier cardstock for a subtle pattern. I also used our new Shin Han Touch Twin markers to colour my sparkles to make them match my layout and stand out instead of fading into the background too much.

I also love the versatility of CTMH’s patterned paper. The paper kits come with 6 sheets of patterned paper, 3 double-sided designs. But they also include cardstock that matches exactly so there’s no guess work there. This first card was made with the Wanderful paper pack, which had a travel theme. I’ve chosen to take it in an entirely different direction.

This next card used the exact same starting point and I just switched the papers, stamps and embellishments used. I love that I didn’t have to start from scratch and that I created a second, very different card quickly and easily. The hardest part was picking which of the papers to use! I also used a different technique, distressing all the edges with a sponge inked up with Cocoa. It’s something I do a lot. My customers and friends joke that I use it too much!

My last card shows Close To My Heart’s newest Cricut Collection, Artfully Sent. I love the variety of cards you can create with this collection. My cousin is getting married this summer, and I got the job of creating a card for the gift my family gave her and her finance at their shower recently. She had dark blue on her invitation, so that was my starting point.

I loved the pattern, but the words on the image said ‘Just Married.’ That wasn’t going to work for a shower, so I hid those cuts in Design Space and cut it. Then I cut it again out of White Daisy cardstock and glitter paper so I could easily fill in the cake. I simply hid the contour of the entire card so it didn’t all cut again. Super simple card and it didn’t take me long to make. Just the way I like it.

Thanks for letting me share my artwork here on the blog. If you’d like to see more, hop over to my blog Simply Creating.

Thank you, Krista, for showing us how effortless your creative work is…using Close To My Heart products!

To learn more about Close to My Heart and find inspiration, click HERE to visit their website and blog.