Isn't That Sweet?!

Christmas Cards Day 6

2011-12-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Another simple Christmas card for you:

I kind of wish I had taken a group shot, I made 12 of these and they looked so pretty all lined up!

Papers: CTMH Believe Level 2 kit

Stamps: CTMH D1498 Art Philosophy Seasons(tree)

SU Season of Joy(sentiment)

Christmas Cards Day 5

2011-12-17T21:00:00.001-07:00

Can you believe I've posted 5 days in a row? I've been pretty lazy with my blog lately, but that's just because my life keeps getting in the way. I like these recent short and sweet posts... quick and easy just like my Christmas cards have been.

This card wasn't exactly quick with all the heat embossing, but if you set it up assembly-line-style it doesn't take too long. Nothing beats heat embossing for a little bit of shimmer without too much bling:

Snowflakes were cut out with the CTMH Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge, then stamped with the coordinating snowflake images from D1480 Snowflakes stamp set in versamark, then heat embossed using silver and pearl. Added a little extra sparkle with some rhinestones and silver ribbon. Papers are from CTMH Wonderland Paper kit. This card is really pretty up close, click on it to see for yourself.

Thanks for popping in today!

Lorrinda

Christmas Cards Day 4

2011-12-16T21:05:00.002-07:00

I believe this was a Mojo Monday sketch from days gone by...a great pattern for using up scrap strips of paper:

Paper: CTMH Mistletoe Level 2 kit (retired)

Snowflake : CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge

Thanks for popping by, be back soon with more Christmas cards!

Lorrinda

Christmas Cards Day 3

2011-12-15T21:00:00.001-07:00

Another cased Christmas card for you. I was inspired by a beautiful card made by Darleen Adamo, and I wish I could find the link to post here, but I had this saved in my inspiration folder b.p.(before pinterest) Now I pin inspiring ideas to my pin boards on Pinterest, so finding links will be a snap.

It's hard to see in the photo, but I stamped a glittery snowflake in the center cutout portion using CTMH Create a Shade Pearl Paint.

Stay tuned for more Christmas cards!

Lorrinda

Christmas Cards Day 2

2011-12-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

As promised, here's another set of cards I made for this year's collection.

And the same card, just flipped sideways:

Stamp: CTMH C1469 December 25th

Card base and cut shapes made with CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge Z1686

I totally cased these cards from CTMH TV. Here is a handy dandy video tutorial:

Want some more crafty holiday video inspiration?

Check out CTMH TV

Lorrinda

Going Postal...Christmas Cards Day 1

2011-12-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

I am so unprepared for Christmas this year! I had most of my decorations up by the end of November, and thought that I was on track this year....but I just realized that it will be Christmas next weekend! NEXT weekend!! I have made a few online purchases, but I am no where near the end of my Christmas list.

I have been tinkering away at my Christmas cards since Halloween, so at least I have that done...but I still haven't mailed them. Before I go postal, I figured I would snap some photos to share with you over the next few days. I don't usually make bulk cards, but at Christmas I try to make at least 6 of each style. Assembly line cardmaking means I get lots done quickly, but I have to keep the design fairly simple.

Please excuse the poor lighting, I've been going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, so it's been tough to get any decent natural light for my camera.

This is a quick and easy card, and I liked how it turned out so I made another variation using the opposite piece of the torn white paper:

Paper: CTMH Wonderland Level 2 Pack

Stamps: C1468 Winter Joy (kids) and

D1480 Snowflakes (sentiment)

Make sure to check back, as I will be posting the rest of my Christmas cards over the next few days.

Lorrinda

Medallions Challenge

2011-11-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Say that 10 times fast!

I made this card for the Championing Award Medallions Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

The challenge is to make something that incorporates a 3 dimensional medallion in an innovative way. I was in Christmas card mode and I couldn't figure out how to use a medallion for Christmas other than on a tag...then it hit me to make a tree out of it! What do you think? I have a gazillion brads so I went all out with the silver mini brads. I like to bling-bling my Christmas cards, don't you?

This card will probably be attached to a gift, so I wasn't worried about the weight or the thickness, but it would probably require a padded envelope for mailing.

Thanks for popping by today!
Lorrinda

Supplies used all CTMH unless noted otherwise:
Paper: Mistletoe Level 2 Pack
Sentiment Stamp: D1243 Peace on Earth
Red Sparkles Z1326
Bitty Brads-metal Z1368
Cranberry Ink

SU Silver elastic cord
SU Border punch
Create Impress snowflake brad

Moxie Fab World: Random Fun Challenge

2011-11-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not missing....I've just taken an unintentional extended crafting/blogging break. I was only planning to slack over the summer, but then life just sucked me in. I'm sure you can understand the demands on a working Mom who decided she needed a new kitchen...'nuff said. Plus, I am officially addicted to Pinterest. Don't know what Pinterest is? Trust me, you don't want to know! Seriously, don't look it up or you will be sucked in to your computer and will never get out. Don't. Go. There. Consider yourself warned.

Even Pinterest couldn't keep me from following along with my favorite crafting blogs, and I came across the Moxie Fab World 365 Cards Week . The new Papercraft special issue 365 Cards celebrates a card for every day of the year, including some wacky holidays and silly celebrations. There's a whole week of challenges, just what I needed to get ~~away from Pinterest~~ my crafty mojo kick-started back into gear!

Did you know there is a National Margarita Day?? Me neither! It's February 22, which I think is perfect, because here in Canada that is getting to the end run of a very long winter and I know I could really enjoy a margarita about then (but I could really enjoy a margarita on any given day :)

I just happen to have the perfect card for Moxie Fab World's Random Fun Challenge:

I made this card back in January, but I haven't given it to anyone because it`s one of my favorites ~~and it would cost a premium to mail with all those brads~~...it's sitting on my display shelf in my craftroom just waiting to be entered in a challenge celebrating National Margarita Day! (So if some of my followers recognize this card, please don`t slam me for case-ing myself!)

Winter is just starting here, and this relaxing beach scene along with some Jimmy Buffet on my ipod is just what I need to mentally escape the cold dark winter months ahead. I think I'm just going to keep this card for myself. Anyone want to join me for a margarita? I found some great cocktail recipes on Pinterest that I want to try...

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All product CTMH

Stamps: D1228 Chillin' (sentiment), B1351 You're Sweet (lime)

Inks: Pear, Sky, Sorbet

Paper: cs in Sky, Sorbet, and Colonial White

Pear B&T duo paper from Olivia Level 2 pack

Vellum

Brads: Spring, Summer and Basic Assortments

Opaques in Pearl and Mocha

Liquid Glass

Prisma Glitter

Techniques: masking, brayer and sponge backgrounds, paper tearing, edge distressing

Tombstone/Pushing Daisies Cake

2011-10-30T13:05:00.001-06:00

A quick post today.

My friend and coworker recently celebrated her 50th birthday, and of course I had to make her a cake!

Her first grandbaby was born just 2 days later, so I guess we can say her youth is "officially" pushing daisies now that she is a wise and respected Grandma! But since she is someone who neither looks nor acts 50 years old, I didn't feel one bit bad poking fun at her with this cake. She was a great sport about it too.

Here's hoping the next 50 years are as good as the first...Happy Birthday Heidi!

This cake is fondant-free (yucky stuff), all yummy buttercream frosting. To make the letters, I put the cake in the fridge until the frosting was stiff, then I used my CTMH alphabet stamps to create the letter impressions in the icing, and filled in the color with a small paintbrush and black petal dust mixed with vanilla to make an edible paint. Turned out pretty good! The daisies are royal icing.

Back to business...

2011-10-11T20:17:00.001-06:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything here!

Did you miss me?

I had decided to take some time off this summer because we were crazy busy with summer activities and a complete kitchen reno, but then found that sending the kids back to school did not revive my crafty mojo as I had hoped.

Our home was a mess after the construction, and as I tried to stay on top of the drywall dust I realized that we just have too much stuff! I've been busy cleaning out closets and storage boxes, trying to simplify and de-clutter. Why do I hang on to so much crap? It's starting to look and feel better but I still have more to do.

My new kitchen is almost finished, but still needs some trim and window coverings before I'll have the "after" pictures to share.

I miss you all! I have been in my craft room this week, and will soon have some new projects ready for my blog. For now I have some tasty photos to share!

My talented daughter did this for Thanksgiving:

Best. Veggie. Tray. EVER! Jenna rocks!!

My hubby did an 18 lb turkey outside in the turkey fryer, and stupid me forgot to take a picture. But I will say that it was awesome! Sit down supper for 12 was a good way to break in the new kitchen! Why, oh why, did I not get any photos of Thanksgiving dinner this year!? (Hey gang, if anyone took any photos please email them to me!)

For dessert, I made a 4 layer Pumpkin cake with

whipped cream cheese filling

topped with pecans and drizzled with caramel...

can you believe there was none left over??!!

Nothing beats Thanksgiving leftovers, and I made an extra large cake on purpose so now what am I supposed to have for breakfast this week? Huh?

I am so glad that sugar doesn't soak in by osmosis,

because I also made this cake last week:

This one was made for my friend Shirley.

She has 5 family birthdays in fall, and they were all together at her home last weekend for Thanksgiving. She ordered a fall birthday cake for 5. Notice the 5 little turkeys?

This one is a 2 layer pumpkin cake with a caramel/pecan filling and all cream cheese frosting. The figures are made of sugar gumpaste.

So, I've had enough sugar for a while. I am suffering from paper and glue withdrawal though, so hope to get my fingers sticky and inky this weekend!

Thanks for not un-following me in my blogging absence,

I will try to get back to posting more regularly now that I've had a break!

Lorrinda

Another one of those "special" birthdays...

2011-08-22T10:38:00.000-06:00

I know, every birthday is special as long as we're around to celebrate it. But some birthdays are just more special than others. You know, those milestone birthdays...
We recently celebrated my Dad's 65th birthday in style...the entire family spent it together on a Vacation Houseboat on Shuswap Lake in BC.

Since 65 is one of those "special" birthdays, I really wanted to make my Dad a great cake, but it would have been too hard to take it on the 3 day road trip we took just getting to the lake. So I made him this special card instead:

Some of you may recall seeing others like this that I've made.

I have made several of these Birthday Year ~~cards~~ books for family members.

I have a full tutorial with pics for you on THIS POST.

Here are the inside pages,

click the pics to enlarge them if you're interested in reading the text. Some of these trivia tidbits were really interesting to research:)

Thanks for not un-following me as I have been a very lazy blogger this summer!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

(All product CTMH unless noted)

X7137B Lucky Level 2 Paper Pack

Cardstock in Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand

Inks in Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand

Stamps: C1439 Enjoy Life, D1495 You & Me

Z1387 Wooden buttons

Z1371Blue buttons Assortment

Z280 natural Hemp

Retired Pewter accents medley

Ribbon scraps

Cricut and Plantin' Schoolbook Cartridge

We interrupt this summer break for a candle project

2011-08-06T10:30:00.000-06:00

How's everyone enjoying their summer? Between kitchen renovation and family camping trips my summer has been anything but lazy. I came back from a long weekend at the lake to find 375 unread posts on my Google Reader! So much crafty inspiration...so little time.

I haven't posted anything crafty for a while, so I thought I'd share my candle project with you. My Mom is one of 6 girls, and they get together every year for a "Sister's Weekend". They always bring little gifts for each other, and this year Mom asked me to make something for her to give each of them.

She loved the candles I made:

These were super easy to make. I started with inexpensive 3" pillar candles from Ikea.

The sentiment was done with my printer onto white tissue paper (tape the tissue paper to a sheet of regular office paper so it doesn't bunch up in the printer) Then trim the excess away around each logo, smooth it down onto the candle, cover it with a piece of waxed paper large enough to wrap around the entire candle with enough to grab onto to keep it tight, and carefully heat it with the heat gun until the logo is set into the wax. Then remove the waxed paper...viola! Custom candle.

I wrapped some matching ribbon around the base of each candle, and it it just held on by the brad in the center of the flowers pushed into the candle like a stick pin.

The big one is 5" and has an angel charm on it for their sister Leona who passed away from Breast Cancer 3 years ago. I really miss her. They kept this one burning all weekend while they were together.

This was a fun project. Thanks for visiting my blog, and a special thanks to my followers who have stuck with me while I've been pretty much AWOL this summer. Summers in Alberta are just too short to spend in a basement craft room, I'll be back to regular posting when the kids are back in school.

Lorrinda

Kitchen Reno Update

2011-07-25T13:32:00.000-06:00

Hi there! Just thought I'd pop in with a kitchen update. I have been so busy that I haven't even stepped into my craft room in the past 2 weeks. But I have been painting so I guess that counts as crafty, right?

So, if you remember my last post, we had just finished the drywall. Since then I had to put 2 coats of paint on the ceiling of the entire space, all by myself:

If I never paint another ceiling in my life it will be too soon!

Then I painted the kitchen and adjoining laundry room:

The color is Benjamin Moore "Stone House", nice and calm. I may still paint one wall blue...I'll have to wait and see when it's all done. Just ignore that hole in the wall under the window, it's an access panel for the dishwasher plumbing, and will be hidden when the cabinets are done.

Then we got kicked out of the house and had to move into the camper while the flooring was installed. New flooring was put in front of the front door (shown) and the back door in the laundry room, so we couldn't even get into the house until all was finished.

Isn't it purty?? Was just finished YESTERDAY.

Talk about a tight schedule...we just had enough time to move the appliances in and get things cleaned up. Then this morning THIS beautiful van showed up:

And this is the view from my front step right now:

See? We've been so busy in the house we haven't even mowed the lawn...not really, it's been raining all week so we just couldn't get it cut and all the rain does is make it grow faster. Today is a beautiful day, and by tonight I should have most of the cabinets installed.

Thanks to Peter and Vince:

I'll be back with another update soon. Sorry if you popped by looking for some crafty ideas, I am too tired to even think about making anything crafty, but I do have the new CTMH Idea Books, and I did get time to order some new supplies (I always have the energy to spend money!).

Thanks for popping in! If anyone has any advice for adding some pops of color into my overly beige new kitchen/family room I'd love some ideas?

Lorrinda

Just checking in...

2011-07-14T21:30:00.000-06:00

Hi all! I thought I should check in to my poor neglected blog and let my followers know why I have been such a bad blogger lately....

We decided to start a complete kitchen reno this summer. I could stop right here and I'm sure you'd all understand, but I have pictures to share!

Important NOTE: I like to think of myself as a scrapbooker, but I am 15 years behind on my pictures so I figure if I blog it then it is an actual recorded event...am I right? (I am also taking Stacy Julian's online course 'Finding Photo Freedom' at Big Picture Classes right now, so maybe someday soon I will stop thinking that I am 15 years behind with my photos...wish me luck with that...I'm already 4 weeks behind on the course! Remind me again why I thought I would have time to do a 10 week online workshop while I was starting a kitchen reno???? I'm glad that my registration allows me unlimited access to the course materials so I can revisit this as a winter project.)

Here is my kitchen BEFORE:

For a 30 year old kitchen, it's really not that bad...

But...the counter top is all chipped and the flooring is in really bad shape. The cabinet color isn't so bad, but those stupid door pulls in the middle of the doors have always bugged me, and the drawers are warped and don't work very well anymore.

And since we moved in 11 years ago, we have wanted to knock out this closet/pantry wall to open up the kitchen and family room.

This was the kitchen last week. Removed the cabinets and scraped off the backsplash tiles. Discovered some creative wiring behind the range hood, and realized we forgot to mark the stove outlet on the plans and would have to move it to the right 6 inches...and of course there was not enough wire so we had to fish a new electrical line in. There was some colorful language when my big hubby had to crawl into the tiny attic space to do the wiring, but we are still happily married (for now, things may change by next week).

Here is my kitchen today. Making progress. All the drywall repairs are done, ceiling almost finished. Don't you just love my new plastic drapes? They are all over my house right now until the wall sanding is done, but even with the plastic there is a lovely film of white dust covering virtually every surface in my home. I should be able to start with a primer in a couple of days, then I have the ultimate joy (not) of painting the ceilings.

My new cabinets are scheduled to be here on July 25th, and before then I have to prime and paint my kitchen and laundry room (and I still can't decide on a color, I'm thinking teal blue), repaint the ceilings, and remove all the yukky peel and stick vinyl tiles from the floor. And hubby has to fix the holes in the subfloor, move a couple of floor registers, and cut in the stove outlet. In case anyone else is worried, we do have a real electrician coming to do the work on the breaker box and hook up the stove outlets. My man is a trained plumber however, so he will come in handy when we finally get to put in the new sink and dishwasher. Hopefully that will happen before the kids go back to school! Then I can get him started on a new bathroom...

So, now you know why I haven't been spending much time in my craftroom this summer. Fear not! I am having severe paper withdrawal symptoms, and the new CTMH Idea Book will be out soon...so just as soon as I can find the time I will get back to creating! I have been keeping up with blogland over my morning ~~pot~~ cups of coffee, and have been following along with all the CTMH gals tweeting from the big convention in Disneyland (I really wish I was there!)

Thank you all for hanging in there while I renovate!

Lorrinda

If you can read this, THANK A TEACHER!

2011-06-26T22:14:00.000-06:00

Today's post is sadly my last one as a member of the Heart 2 Heart Design Team :(

It has been such a great experience to be in the company of such fabulously talented ladies for the past 6 months. Each week the challenges have pushed me out of my creative box, and being on a Design Team with these gals has motivated me to bring my A game! We've all become friends through our little chats behind the scenes, and I really hope to get to meet them all face to face one day. I feel so honored to have had this design team opportunity! If you get a chance this week, pop in to their blogs for a visit, and sign up to be a follower if you aren't already:
Debbie: http://www.scrapmyheartout.blogspot.com/
Haley: http://inkyscrapper.blogspot.com/
Jessica: http://www.jessicaspaperpetals.blogspot.com/
Jody: http://cre8nmemories.blogspot.com/
Karen: http://www.kdaycreations.blogspot.com/
Mary: http://www.mbryt1.blogspot.com/
Melinda: http://www.ifyoublingittheywillcome.blogspot.com/

I will continue to stalk their blogs on a daily basis :), but I will really miss being a part of this team. However, our term is up and it's time to pass the torch on to some new talent! Keep your eye on the H2H challenge blog for the new Design Team introductions, and please give the new designers a warm welcome.

Before I get all choked up, I better share the details of this week's challenge.

This week H2H has a color challenge for us:

My kids have had really great teachers again this year, and today is the last day of school (Yay!...? This used to be such a happy day for me, before I became a Mom... just kidding...I think...)

I wanted to include a little something to thank them for being a part of my kids' lives. I made them each this cute bookworm card to go with a little gift:

Recipe: All product CTMH:

Stamps: B1380 Mayberry WOTG, C1322 Gratitude (Retired), and D1290 August Word Puzzle (Retired)

Paper: Bamboo, Barn Red, Blue from X7137B Lucky Paper Pack

Inks: Barn Red, Indian Corn Blue, Desert Sand, Sunflower

Z1371 Blue Button Assortment

Z906 Bamboo Waxy Flax

Z1099 Twill Ribbon (Retired)

and googly eyes from my stash :)

Want to play along with us? Now it's your turn to use these fabulous colors on a project. Don't forget you must use some CTMH products...then link it up at H2H so we can all pop by for a peek. Each entry has a chance to win a fantastic prize from our lovely sponsors, and a place in our Top 10 at the end of the month.

One last thing:

I want to share the inside of my card with all of you today:

Summer is always so busy for us, the kids are home from school, the yard needs maintenance, weekends are spent in our camper (with no internet), and just to make it extra crazy around here we've decided to begin a complete kitchen renovation. I have no idea when I will get a chance to get into my craft room for the next few weeks, so I may not be posting to my blog very much this summer. I will keep checking in with some of my favorite blogs that are in my Google Reader, and will try to leave some comments along the way. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning this little blog...I'm just taking it easy where I can this summer, and am giving you fair warning that I'm gonna be a lazy blogger for a couple of months.

A big THANK YOU to all my followers and to everyone who has taken the time to leave me a comment here.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

Lorrinda

H2H BINGO!

2011-06-19T22:00:00.001-06:00

Hi there!

Today the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog is playing BINGO!
We would love to have you come by and play:)

Here is the bingo card:

Draw a straight line in any direction, and use those 3 elements on your project this week. I had fun with this challenge :)

My bingo line goes through DOILY, FLOWERS, LACE:

After I posted the photo, I'm thinking that this card could have used some stitching around the edges...but I was too busy this week to get back into my craft room to add it. (Summer activities are gearing up and I don't have a lot of spare time to craft.) So now this looks unfinished to me. Oh well, sometimes I have to remind myself that it's just a card and the recipient really won't care! (I found a sign on Pinterest that says "Done is better than perfect", I think I need to make one for my wall.)

Here's a close up of the flower cluster, they are just simple rolled paper roses sitting on top of crochet lace flowers:

Stop by H2H to see what the other DT gals did with their bingo cards. Wanna play too? Pick a bingo in a straight line in any direction on the card above, and create something with those 3 elements on it using CTMH products. Post it on your blog and link it up at H2H so we can all pop by for a peek. Each entry has a chance to win one of the prizes donated by our generous sponsors, and we'll be picking our faves for the Top 10 at the end of the month.

Not only did I get to play bingo, but I got to finally use this stamp set to make a card for the Moxie Fab World "I'm Sew Excited" challenge. (I love it when I can get one card to fit more than one challenge:) But I still think I should have added some stitching...

Thanks for stopping by today!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

(All materials CTMH unless noted)

Paper: X7133B Miracle Level 2 Paper Pack

Stamps: C1442 Tailor Made, D1472 Simple Memories (Doily)

Ink: White Daisy, Desert Sand and Bamboo

Z1136 Crochet flowers from White Daisy Mini Medley

Z673 White Daisy Embossing Powder

Z1127 Stitched brown ribbon from Chocolate Ribbon Rounds Collection

Eyelet lace scrap and stick pins from my stash

H2H From Our Heart to Yours...Creating Background Paper for Dad

2011-06-12T23:02:00.000-06:00

Hello there!

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is to create your own background paper for a Father's Day card. The Design Team has made some fabulous cards with their own background techniques, and since this is a 'From Our Heart to Yours' challenge...we're sharing tutorials of what we did :)
Their links are over on my sidebar, or you can see all of their projects at once HERE.

I used a couple of different background techniques on my card this week:

Random Stamping on the Hawaiian shirt:

Started with a 4x6" piece of paper.

I stuck 4 small stamps on my block to keep the pattern uniform, and then just filled the paper with it:

To fold the shirt, just google origami shirt-fold and you'll get an assortment of tutorials to choose from.

Sponged Background Scene:

Start with your piece of blank cardstock. Mask off the sun with a circle of scrap paper and a temp bond tape that can be easily removed. Then mask off the horizon with post-its, cover the bottom edge of the sun too.

Then I used a sponge and Sunny Yellow ink and dabbed and rubbed until it was even.

Next I used Smoothie ink, and filled in the rest of the sky.

Then I grabbed the Sunny Yellow again and went over the entire sky to blend them together.

Remove the post-its and you should have this. Leave the circle mask on for now.

Now use post-its to mask the horizon line, line them up right along the edge of the sky.

I sponged Sunset ink for the water, leaving a strip of white beneath the sun to look like a reflection. Remove the post-its mask.

Then I sponged the edge of the reflection with Sunny Yellow, and blended the colors. The trick with this sponging technique is to build up the color in layers so you don't get smears/blotches of ink.

To make the waves, I just cut a random wavy edge on a scrap of paper, and held it in place while I sponged with Smoothie Ink. Randomly move the edge and ink along it until you have a wave pattern.

Now you can remove the circle mask...

Cover the horizon line with the edge of scrap paper, and lightly sponge on Sunset ink to get the water line.

And there is your sunset scene!

The rest of the Design Team have more 'From Our Heart to Yours' goodness for you here. Do go to each of their blogs to learn what they did, and leave them some love while you are there...we all love getting comments :)

We'd love to see what you can come up with! Create your own background paper for a Father's Day project, and link it up at H2H so we can all see! Each entry has a chance to win a prize from our June sponsors, and yours could make it into our Top 10 for a crack at a future Guest Designer spot.

Thanks for visiting today!

Lorrinda

All supplies used from CTMH unless noted:

Paper for shirt: from X7129B Hooligans Level2 paper pack

Cardstock: White Daisy, Black, Lagoon

Inks: Black, Sunny Yellow, Sunset, Smoothie

Stamps: D1470 Dreams Come True (flowers), B1376 Wings (leaves), D1423 Happy Forever and D1288 June Word Puzzle (Sentiments, both stamps retired)

Z1393 Black Mini-Medley (mini button brads)

Black hemp string

Sponges

Post-It notes and removable tape for masking.

H2H Wedding Challenge

2011-06-05T22:52:00.002-06:00

Did ya miss me?
Sorry for being MIA, I had a little boiling water accident and kind of melted my right hand, so was unable to do much of anything last week (except whine and swear, I'll admit it. Burns really hurt! especially on the soft parts between your fingers.) That's what happens when you try to do 14 things at once, life has a way of forcing you to slow down sometimes. For the record, I'm not a big fan of the 'Pasta Express', one big burnt thumbs down. I'm all good now, just a little peeling but no more pain and shouldn't be any major scars. I apologize for not leaving comments on everyone's blogs, but I suck at typing as it is, let alone doing it with just my left hand. I'll try to get around to everyone's blogs this week to catch up.

H2H has a new challenge up today...and the theme is WEDDINGS! I loved this challenge :)

I went all out with the bling, but kept my color scheme very muted. I think the end result is very elegant, which is the look I was going for:

(You can click the pics to see them in more detail. I highly reommend it for this card because I had a tough time photographing all the shiny/sparkly details.)

This is the folded card, it fits in a standard A2 card envelope. Why yes, that is embossing on the envelope, thanks for noticing! It just seems to make it more formal somehow.

And here it is open:

Just google tri-shutter card fold and you'll find several templates/tutorials to make one. It looks difficult, but is really very simple to make.

Here are some close-ups of each section:

Don't you just love the bling on the ring?

I left the top edge of this white panel open to create a little pocket for a gift card or cash, I should have taken a better picture of this but I think you can visualize it:) I purposely left this area blank so there is a spot to write on.

All the stamped sentiments and images are heat embossed with silver, and I used rhinestone and silver accents. I love the way this turned out! The pattern paper is from the CTMH Bliss Level 2 paper pack, one of my faves from the CTMH Spring/Summer Idea Book. If you don't recognize it, it's because I used the reverse side of the colored pattern to showcase the coordinating gray pattern. For a complete list of the supplies I used, a recipe is at the bottom of this post.

You should check out what the rest of the DT has made for this challenge, awesome stuff! And, we have a new Guest Designer joining us this month, Jena from Live, Love, Laugh, Scrapbook...welcome to the DT Jena! (Jena was our Top Chick for April. Want to get a guest spot on the DT? You just have to play along! If your entry makes it to the top of our Top 10 you are in!)

Now it's your turn to play along. Create something for a wedding, and link it up at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog so we can all see!

We have new sponsors for June: Michelle Owen of Cutezie Creations and Romaine Rancier of Bumbles n Bees who have generously donated some fabulous prizes! Head over to their blogs and leave them some love. You have until the end of June to play along with all the challenges this month! The more you play, the more chances you have to be a random prize winner or a future guest designer Top Chick! Remember, Heart to Heart is a CloseToMyHeart challenge blog, to be eligible for any prizes your project must include CTMH products.

Thanks for visiting my blog,

Lorrinda

Supplies all CTMH unless noted:

Paper: X7132B Bliss Level 2 Paper Pack

Stamps: D1337 Love Always, C1227 Our Wedding Day (retired, used the sentiment for the envelope)

Z669 Silver Embossing Powder

Z1104 Clear Sparkles

Z1263 Bitty Sparkles

Z1366 Metal Brad Assortment

White flowers by Petaloo

White satin edge with silver organdy ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon

ABC Challenge!

2011-05-22T22:53:00.000-06:00

Happy Victoria Day!

If you live in Canada you get today off, yay for long weekends! I had to google it to learn that it was originally a holiday in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday (duh), but we now continue to celebrate our current Monarch's birthday on this day as well. It is also the unofficial end of the winter social season and start of the summer social calendar. I'm all over that. Notify my personal valet to bring 'round the WHITE town car, as I must consult Yves for a couture fitting for the summer wardrobe as well as several new hats....um, not.

Guess how I spent my long weekend? We had a pipe leading to an outside faucet burst, and got a minor flood in the basement. It could have been much worse. At least it was clean water and we were home to catch it before it did any major damage, but the carpet and couch got soaked and there is some damage to the ceiling. Best part? My 10 yr old son was sitting on the dry side of the couch playing on the xbox, totally oblivious to the sagging dripping ceiling or the splish splash of water dripping onto the soaked couch and carpet. Seriously. Yeah, color me impressed. It's nothing we can't clean and repair ourselves, but not how I was planning to spend my long weekend! (And right at the start of the summer social season! How will I ever explain this at the country club? Oh my heavens, I feel positively faint, someone please pass me the smelling salts!)

I did make some time to create something for the
Heart 2 Heart challenge this week,

which is an ABC or Anything But a Card challenge!

Crafting really is a good way to de-stress :)

I made a mini journal.

The finished size of this cute little notepad is just 3.5"x 4.5",

perfect size to keep in my purse or throw into the beach bag!

(I won't tell you the choice words I used this weekend

to express myself!

Let's just say I threw 10 bucks in the swear jar.)

The cover is made from one piece of cardstock, with a fancy fold to make a place to keep a matching pen. I fancied the front up with some stamping, layering, and a bit of hand stitching:

I decorated the inside of the cover too:

Between the spring cleanup yard work and the stupid water leak in the basement, I didn't get a chance to make a template or a tutorial for this cute little notebook. I promise to get one done soon to share with you!

For some more Anything-But-a-Card inspiration, check out what the rest of the H2H design team has whipped up for you this week! Then go and create you own project that isn't a card, and link it up at H2H so we can all admire it:) Remember, to be eligible for prizes you must use some CTMH product on your project, and you have until this Saturday to play along with all of the challenges from this month!

Thanks for popping by today!

May your basement be dry and your social calendar be full :)

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All product CTMH unless noted.

Paper: Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, X7137B Lucky Level 2

Stamps: B1376 Wings WOTG, D1477 Universal Backgrounds, D1495 You and Me (May promo)

Inks: Z2140 Outdoor Denim, Z2118 Desert Sand

Button Assortments: Z1371 Blue, Z1372 Green, Z1387 Wood

Z280 Natural Hemp

DMC Floss #3750

Techniques: piercing, stitching, distressing

Sweet Baby Cake

2011-05-19T09:42:00.000-06:00

And now for something completely different...

A friend asked me to make a cake for her co-worker's last day before she left to have her baby. She didn't give me any instructions other than "Can you make a cake for a boy baby shower/goodbye we'll miss you party?" No problem! LOL..I had to think about it for a while, and came up with this:

The cake is devil's food, filled with crushed Oreo cookie filling.

The frosting, fence and grass are vanilla buttercream frosting.

The rolled roses, sign, mama and baby sheep are made of fondant and sugar paste with royal icing accents. I used an edible food writer marker for the eyes. Here's a closeup:

This is the first time I got to try sugar paste figures, and I am really happy with how they turned out :) Just have to make them a few days in advance so they harden enough to handle.

I hope they like it!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Lorrinda

What's YOUR Favorite Technique?

2011-05-15T23:50:00.000-06:00

It's Monday again! Is it just me or does time move faster as you get older? I was so busy last week, spring cleaning and getting the yard ready for summer and cleaning out the camper...whew! The weather has been warm but very windy, so I was glad to retreat into my craft room to create my project for this week's Heart 2 Heart challenge....which is show us your favorite technique!

I love to use fun and interesting techniques on my paper crafts, there are so many it was tough to choose just one, but if I have to pick I'd say embossing! I love dry embossing to give a raised texture, and I love to watch embossing powder melt with a heat gun.

Here's my card featuring these 2 embossing techniques:

I had planned to do a tutorial for you, but the week just got away from me! So I'll tell you what I did:

The background layer is embossed using my Cuttlebug and Oval (from Heritage Set) embossing folder. I then sanded the raised image to reveal the white core of the CTMH cardstock. I cut out another oval to fit so the center panel could be popped up. I then stamped the image from CTMH D1455 Blessed stamp set using Versamark ink, used white embossing powder, and heat set it. The sentiment from D1476 Card Chatter-Sympathy set was done the same way. I thought it need a little wash of color, so I colored the bird and flowers using CTMH markers. Added white grosgrain ribbon and some half pearls to dress it up a bit. So, this card is only 2 layers, but the embossing adds so much texture and dimension!

This week, we want to know what YOUR favorite techniques are! Need some ideas? Check out what the talented gals on the DT have to share with you. They are always full of great ideas!

Don't forget you must use some CTMH product on your creation. Link up your project to H2H for a chance at some great prizes from our generous sposors, Angel and Sharon at the end of the month, or possibly a spot on our Top 10, where you may get chosen to join us as a future Guest Designer!

Thanks for popping by today!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All product CTMH

stamps: D1455 Blessed and D1476 Card Chatter-Sympathy

cardstock in White Daisy and Garden Green
Z1294 Sanding kit
Z673 White Daisy embossing powder
Z555 Craft heater
Z270 White Daisy Grosgrain ribbon
markers in Baby Pink, White Daisy and Desert Sand

Other product:
Provocraft Cuttlebug and embossing folder (Heritage Set-Oval)

Bling on the Buttons!

2011-05-08T22:04:00.002-06:00

It's Monday again, where did last week go?

I hope all you Moms got spoiled yesterday. For a funny look at what my Mother's Day usually is like, check out my post from yesterday. No Hallmark commercial soundtrack, just...Real. Life. Wouldn't want it any other way. You Moms know what I'm talking about :)
I got to spend the afternoon/evening with my Mom, the gang took us out for supper. Always a treat! She lives just 20 minutes away, so we get to see each other often. As a teenager, I never thought I'd enjoy spending extra time with my Mom, but the older I get, the smarter she is. Funny how that happens...

Today Heart 2 Heart has a new challenge for you...use BUTTONS on your project!

I love buttons for paper crafting, but I have a problem with naked buttons (you know, where there is no thread or string in the button holes?) Is it just me?...I love looking at all the pretty projects with buttons on them, but when I go to make one I just can't leave the holes empty. I'm obsessed, and that is why my simple card today took longer than 10 minutes to make:

See what I mean? I had to compulsively fill all the button holes with something, and I'm glad I had CTMH waxy flax to match. If you've never used waxy flax, you must try it! It is like a fine hemp string, but it has a waxy coating on it to make it sort of stiff and moldable. It is stiff enough to poke through button holes easily, and the waxy coating means you can just tie it once and it won't come undone. Love this stuff so much I have it in every color:) After I had all the buttons threaded, I just stuck them to the image with mini glue dots. So, except for threading all of the buttons, this card would have taken just 5 min to make. Doesn't this image just make you wish it was SUMMER already?

For some more fabulous ideas to use buttons on your projects, please check out what the talented gals on the H2H DT have for you this week! I just love being on a design team with these gals, they blow me away every week!

We'd love you to play along with our button challenge :) Just create something with buttons on it, post it to your blog or an online gallery where we can leave comments, and link it up at H2H! You have until the end of the month to play along, and we have some awesome prizes up for grabs this month from our sponsors Angel of Angel's Moments and Sharon of Tucker Lover. Please take a moment to visit their blogs and leave them some love for offering up such wonderful prizes!

Important: This is a Close To My Heart challenge blog, so your project must include some CTMH products to be eligible for prizes. (It does not have to be 100% CTMH) Recently we've had several entries with no CTMH on it whatsoever, which is not following the rules, so they have been deleted. We hate doing that, but it's only fair to those players who ARE following the challenge rules.

If you have been living under a rock and don't know what CTMH is, you can view our current Idea Book online to see all that CTMH has to offer. If you are Canadian, feel free to shop on my website. (If you are American, or want to find a consultant in your area, please go here and click on 'Consultant Locator' at the top of the page. ) Presently, CTMH products are only available in North America through independent consultants.

Want to become a CTMH Consultant? (If you sign up in May, you get the new consultant kit for 50% off!) Kit details are on my website under your opportunities or on page 128 of the Idea Book. For more info, contact me through my website.

Thank you for visiting my blog!
Lorrinda

Recipe:
All product CTMH unless noted:
Stamp Set: D1467 Trees & Things
Pattern paper: X7134B Sweetheart Level 2 paper pack
Cardstock: Black and White Daisy
Inks: Desert Sand, Black, Garden Green and Topiary
Waxy Flax in Z1089 Black and Z1086 Cranberry
Red buttons from CTMH retired
Black button from my stash/unknown
Green plaid ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T11:29:00.000-06:00

No mushy Hallmark commercial Mother's Day for me...

Except for the 5 o'clock shadow, this is exactly how Mother's Day looks at my house :)
(Oh, and I never shop for cards anymore..:) :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the wonderful Mother's, Grandmothers and Mother figures out there!

Lorrinda

H2H #54 Mother's Day!

2011-05-01T22:35:00.001-06:00

Happy Monday!

Time for another Heart 2 Heart challenge...this time it is Mother's Day!

If you're like me, you wait until the night before you need the card, then scramble to get it done. This challenge will get you motivated to have your Mother's Day cards done with time to spare this year!

For the border, I stamped the roses in Vineyard Berry ink. The dark ones are 1st generation stamped, and the lighter ones are just stamped a second time without reinking. I trimmed them with micro-scissors, then glued them to the card base. Then I trimmed around the roses and the base together to get the pretty cut out edge, allowing the inside edge of the card to show through when it's closed. Leaves were 1st and 2nd generation stamped with Juniper ink. A bit of fussy cutting on this card, but other than that it is pretty simple.

Pop on over to H2H to see what the rest of the Design Team has created to inspire you this week!

Sadly, this is the last challenge that Lisa and Corina will be on the DT for...but they have a really good excuse for leaving...they were both chosen to be Extravaganza instructors at the CTMH Convention this summer!!! Corina and Lisa, I will sure miss having you both on the team, but hope to catch you playing along with us once in a while. I'll be keeping up with you on your blogs, so I won't say goodbye:)

I want to welcome our new DT members, Jody Gustafson and Haley Dyer, and our Guest Designer joining us for May is Joelle H. You may recognize these names as they are all super talented and are frequent H2H challenge players. Be sure to check out their blogs and leave them a warm welcome.

We also have 2 new prize sponsors this month, Sharon Holmes and Angel Shifflett. Link up your Mother's Day card to H2H this week, and be sure to play along all month for more chances to win yourself a fabulous prize! You could also end up in the Top 10 for a shot at a future Guest Designer spot on our DT.

Thanks for popping by today!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All products CTMH unless noted:

Stamps: D1470 Dreams Come True, E1019 Bohemian Alphabet

Paper: Colonial White and Juniper cs

Inks: Vineyard Berry, Juniper

Z1336 Pearl Opaques

Spellbinders Nestabilities petites scalloped ovals large dies

Anniversary Surprise!

2011-04-26T19:28:00.001-06:00

Quick post today! I just have to share a fabulous surprise we got yesterday!
April 25 is our wedding anniversary, and yesterday my sweet hubby and I celebrated 13 years of married bliss. We had family over for supper, and my 12 year old daughter planned a surprise. She had snuck off to Grandma's house the day before, and I knew she was doing something sneaky, but I had no idea what they were up to.

Well, were we ever surprised when she brought this out:

She made it all by herself, baked the cake and decorated it.

It was my favorite, chocolate with buttercream frosting.

This is her first cake made from start to finish,

Grandma said she just helped with the oven and the mixer.

I'm so proud of her!

Thank you Jenna, it tasted as good as it looked :)

Sympathy Card for Mary

2011-04-25T13:27:00.001-06:00

Hello bloggers.
If you are following my blog, then you know that Mondays are usually Heart 2 Heart challenge day. The design team and I are all heartbroken, as our wonderful host Mary lost her infant granddaughter last week. We have decided to take the week off in support of Mary, and to honor sweet baby Liberty. If you would like to show Mary some support, you can leave her a comment on the H2H blog HERE. I'm sure she will appreciate it.

Instead of a challenge card, I am posting the sympathy card that I am sending to Mary:

I have a tough time making sympathy cards when I need them, and making a card for the loss of a baby is especially difficult. I found this poem, that expresses such a pretty sentiment, and it inspired my card.

As a butterfly graces our lives with one moment's fragile beauty, so too has your baby's presence blessed you, and those that surround you with her short life, and unique spirit. May you find peace, and joy with each butterfly that passes, knowing that your baby lives on in the hearts of all she touched.

Mary, please know that we are all thinking about you and praying for your family, and even though we never met Libby, she has touched all of our hearts.

Hugs;

Lorrinda

Recipe:

Stamps: D1452 Find your Style, D1217 Free Spirit, D1476 Card Chatter

Paper: Smoky Plum, Pansy Purple, White Daisy

Z678 Silver Pearl Embossing Powder

Create a shade Pearl Paint

Z1336 Pearl gems

Martha Stewart lace edge punch

Fine wire

White satin edge ribbon

H2H Bunny Hop!

2011-04-18T05:14:00.000-06:00

Welcome to our Heart 2 Heart Bunny Hop!

Every other month we have a From Our Heart to Yours challenge. Well this time around, we want to share a blog hop with all of you!! Today is our first blog hop - the H2H Bunny HOP sponsored by the DT for all of our CTMH fans! The challenge was issued last week, make a project for Easter or Spring using CTMH products, and link it up today between 8 am and 8 pm EST at H2H. Then, hop along to visit everyone's blogs to see what creative ideas everyone came up with. We'd love you to hop along with us!

HIPPITY! HOPPITY!

You've hopped here!

For my project, I made an Egg Basket!

I'm so happy I finally got to use this adorable stamp set on an Easter project!

Isn't this sweet?

The bunnies are from CTMH stamp set D1454 Sensational Season, which was the March Stamp of the Month.

The first time I saw this set, it reminded me of the illustrations in the Beatrix Potter books, so when I colored this I tried to keep the colors soft and vintagey (I just made up a word, but you know what I mean).

Images were stamped in Desert Sand Ink onto Colonial White cardstock.

Coloring was done with a combo of CTMH watercolor pencils, blender pen, and markers.

The little bunny clothes are stamped onto pattern paper and cut out/paper pieced onto the stamped image.

I made the basket with Heavenly Blue cardstock, and dressed it up with X7133B Miracle pattern paper.

The handle was edged with a Martha Stewart lace border punch, and I added a Kraft border as well that had been sponged with Colonial White ink to soften it.

I embellished with a scrap of lace, some paper flowers and a button.

The sentiment on the tag is from B1351 You're Sweet stamp set.

Then I just filled the basket with a shredded brown paper bag and some candy coated chocolate and malt eggs. (The little suckers kept disappearing while I was trying to take a picture. Honestly, I have no idea where they went.)

If you've been following me at all, you just know I'm going to

share the pattern for this egg shaped basket

so you can make your own! :)

Right click on the picture below, and save it to your computer.

Then you can print this out at 100% onto 8.5"x11" cardstock,

and cut it out to make a reusable tracing template.

Thanks for HOPPING by today!

Now, hop back to the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog for the next link along the bunny hop. I hope you've been leaving some love in the comments as you hop along...
Remember this hop is open until 8pm EST, so there is still time for you link up your project! One random participant will get a prize, so you want to play along! Remember, projects must include some CTMH products or the link will be deleted. Also, make sure to check back throughout the day so you don't miss anyone!

Lorrinda

H2H is having a Bunny Hop!

2011-04-15T22:35:00.000-06:00

Every other month we have a From Our Heart to Yours challenge. Well this time around, we want to share a blog hop with all of you!! On April 18, we will be sponsoring our first blog hop - the H2H Bunny HOP and we want you to play along.

Here are the details: Before Monday, April 18th, create something Easter or Spring themed. Post it to your blog. Then on Monday April 18th, add your link to our Mister Linky on the H2H blog. You can ONLY post your link between 8:00 am EST and 8:00 pm EST on that Monday!! After 8:00 pm, the link list will be closed and no other entries will be added through the week. You also MUST include CLOSE TO MY HEART products or your link will be removed. Then through out the day, you can bunny hop among the links to see what everyone has created.

We would love to see a big turn-out for this hop so spread the word! There will also be one random blog hop participant chosen to win a prize so you want to play along!!

Here is a badge you can place on your blog post to advertise the hop. Be sure to add the blog address as well: http://heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com/

So hop to it and plan on participating in the Bunny Hop! See you then!

One Person's Trash....

2011-04-10T22:47:00.001-06:00

Happy Monday! Birds are singing, sun is shining and the snow is melting (finally!)
Time for a new challenge at Heart 2 Heart! This week we have an early Earth Day challenge for you...reuse or recycle something on your project. You can recycle something to use on a new card or layout, or raid the recycling bin to find something that can be re purposed.....save something from the landfill and give it a pretty new life!

I chose to recycle something that I know you all have....

empty ribbon spools!

I don't know about you, but I have a bag of these things in all sizes that I just can't bring myself to throw away. I knew there must be something they'd be good for, but I needed this challenge to kick me into gear and git er done! I picked out a few 2 1/2" diameter cardboard spools with nice 1" wide centers.

Here's what I transformed them into:

Pretty little Trinket Boxes!

These would be perfect for a small gift or party favor,

or just to keep trinkets in. (duh)

I made the pink one for my daughter to keep her guitar picks in.

Here are some close-ups for you:

Used CTMH X7133B Miracle Level 2 Paper kit and leftover Z1354 Miracle Irresistibles chipboard elements, bead and ribbon handle and trim from the scrap bin. Wanna know how I got that ribbon through the bead? I used a dental floss loop to pull the ribbon through the tiny bead hole. (I'm a dental hygienist, I got a million uses for floss!)

Used CTMH X7131B Sophia Level 2 Paper kit and repurposed a fabulous scrap of embroidered rose trim that I saved from a cute little sundress my DD wore when she was 4. (Yep, it's been in a ribbon scrap box for 8 years, I never throw away anything crafty) Added a bead to anchor the CTMH crochet flower and paper flower together.

Covered this one with CTMH X7135B Wings Level 2 Paper kit,

rose made of Vineyard Berry cardstock from the scrap bin

and black ribbon remnants.

Google rolled paper roses to make these flowers,

there are a ton of video tutorials on YouTube.

Because I know you wanna know, I snapped a few pics to show you how I made these. There are several tutorials out there in blogland, but I wasn't keen on the lid part on any of them, so I came up with a top that fits inside the trinket box to open and close easily.

First, carefully pry the top and bottom off of the ribbon spool,

I had to use a craft knife on a couple of them.

I salvaged a TP roll from the paper bin,

and found that it fit perfectly inside my ribbon spool tube:

So I sliced off 1/2" to use for my box top:

You now have all the parts needed to make the trinket boxes!

I didn't take pictures of the decorating part, but here's what I did:

1. Cover the insides and outsides of the tubes, and both sides of the circles, with coordinating pattern papers. (I used CTMH Bonding Memories liquid glue so I would have a bit of play time before it dried to get the strips of paper lined up with the tubes.) Allow glue to dry.

2. Sand all the edges to get them nice and even and smooth, ink them too if you want to to hide the cardboard.

3. Poke a hole through the lid circle, and embellish the top with a ribbon handle knotted on each side of the hole to give it some strength. Don't want it pulling out!

4. Glue the narrow tube to the top circle, and the wide tube to the bottom circle. (I used CTMH Liquid Glass for this because it is super strong and easy to get a narrow bead on the cardboard edge.) Allow glue to dry. Here's a pic of the insides:

5. You may want to give this a good coat of ModPodge or an acrylic spray sealer at this point to make it durable.

6. Trim with ribbon, beads, bling, and buttons...whatever floats your boat!

Surprisingly, these come together pretty quickly. I sat down to watch Survivor, and had one done before the show was over, so I kept going and made all three trinket boxes in 2 hours. I don't feel like such a big couch potato if I do something else while I watch TV:) Recycling, crafting, photography and watching my shows all at the same time....it was a productive evening!

We want to see YOUR projects with re-used or recycled materials! Use your imagination, I'm sure you can find something in the trash that needs a new purpose.

Need some inspiration?

Check out what the H2H DT has to offer this week!

These gals ROCK at turning trash to treasures!

Link your artwork up to H2H to play along. Remember it's a CTMH challenge, so please try to use some CTMH products on it to be eligible for the Top 10 and prizes from our generous sponsors,

Michelle Zimmerman of Life's LITTLE Things and

LeAnne Dudley of Dudleychick Designs.

**Heads up! Next week, on April 18, Heart 2 Heart Challenges will be hosting our first ever Bunny HOP! We're looking for Easter or Spring themed projects. Check out H2H for details if you would like to bunny hop with us!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by :)

To celebrate my birthday this Wednesday(or as I prefer to call it - my 14th anniversary of the day I turned 29 -having to do math distracts people from actually counting the candles ;), and to celebrate reaching 300 followers this past week, I'm going to give the Wings black/rose and Miracle blue/green trinket boxes to one lucky commenter. Open to all my fabulous followers, so if you've just been getting this feed in Goggle Reader click on over and sign up! Please leave me a blog link or email (sally at gmail dot com) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Lorrinda

Spring Flower Pot Pocket Card

2011-04-03T22:30:00.001-06:00

I may be a victim of wishful thinking, but I could sure use a little spring right now. March has been miserably cold, and I am so sick of snow...

Thankfully, the Heart 2 Heart challenge this week is APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS! We are to focus on rain and/or flowers.

Even though I could not seem to find any stamps with rain or showers in my stash (note to self: buy more stamps), I was happy to make this card, it really makes me think of spring:

But wait...the spring part is in the inside!

I attached a package of flower seeds to the pull out part :)

Nothing makes me wish for spring more than a pack of flower seeds...

Here are some close-ups:

**Tutorial for this adorable Flower Pot Pocket Card is HERE

The paper marigolds were made by layering about 8 scalloped circles in graduated sizes from 1" to 3" (smallest on top), centering them with a brad punched through, then just scrunching them up, super easy! I cut the scalloped circles in various sizes using my Cricut. There are several cartridges with a scallop circle on them, I used one of the flower shapes from Forever Young because it was already in my machine. It's getting scrunched up anyway, so no need to be picky :) To be honest, I made the flowers first, then found a pack of marigold seeds in the garden shed (behind a 3 foot snowdrift), and thought they looked like the flowers I just made. Eureka! Don't you just love it when things come together this easy. It was meant to be. To finish it off I made a triangle stand for the back so it will stand up too.

Now to wait for all the snow to melt so someone can plant these suckers, not sure yet who the recipient of this card will be...I think it would be a nice teacher gift, or maybe Mother's Day.

Want some more springy inspiration? Check out what the fabulous H2H DT has got for you this week, APRIL FLOWERS BRING MAY SHOWERS ...I'm sure you'll be inspired to play along! Remember you should use mainly CTMH products, and please give us a list of the items you used. Link up your creation to Heart 2 Heart for a chance at some prizes and maybe get a spot as Guest Designer for an upcoming month!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All product CTMH unless noted.

Paper: X7136B Mayberry Level 2 paper pack

Cardstock: Kraft, Colonial White

Stamps: W330 Beautiful Day (sentiment), B1380 Mayberry (leaves)

Inks: Desert Sand, Garden Green

Sorbet ribbon

Garden green brads (can't see them, in the center of the flowers)

Sorbet brad on the butterfly

Martha Stewart Butterfly punch
Provocraft Cricut and Forever Young Cartridge

Rockin' Sketch

2011-03-27T22:30:00.003-06:00

Heart 2 Heart is having a SKETCH CHALLENGE this week.

Your choice, round or square.

Check it out:

I'm not into round cards. I mean, they look great, but I like my cards to stand up all by themselves. I'm weird that way. So I chose to do the second one, with the circle element on a standard card.

Recipe for 6x6"card:

Paper: X7138B Fanfare Level 2 Paper Pack

Stamps: D1432 X-Treme, D1283 Say it in Style

Inks: Pacifica

Cranberry Brads

All product CTMH

Check out what the gals on the DT have come up with this week! You are sure to be inspired!

Get out your crafty supplies and play along with us! Create something based on the sketches, then link it up to H2H so we can all see! Remember, the H2H challenge requires that you use mostly CTMH products, and you have the whole month to play. We have some new prizes for April from our very generous sponsors, and we're looking for some talent to join us as a future Guest Designer...could it be you?

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Lorrinda

Baby, Baby, Baby

2011-03-20T21:38:00.000-06:00

Have I got you all humming Justin Bieber songs now? For some reason 'Baby' keeps playing in my head...Yes, I have a pre-teen daughter, why do you ask? Sorry for the ear worm, but it's a catchy song and now it's stuck in your head too. Just be glad I didn't put it on an instant music player on my blog to annoy you :) You're welcome.

This week at Heart 2 Heart, it's a BABY challenge! Make a card, gift item, scrap page...anything baby-related, as long as it includes mostly CTMH products.

I chose to make a card:

And a girly one too:

These cards were inspired by this card from the talented Deneen Treble at A Path of Paper. Hi Deneen! I just loved the little dresser on her stair-step card, and thought a big one the size of the entire card would be cute too. What do you think?

The scalloped edges were cut with my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities Labels Four die. Pieces were layered to create drawers, and a couple of them were popped up on foam dots to appear open. On the blue card I sanded all the edges to reveal the white core in the cardstock, and on the pink card the edges are inked. The baby items are from CTMH D1266 Baby Steps, and the teddy bear is from a Christmas stamp CTMH D1443 Share the Magic. To make the drawer handles, the blue card has a brad inserted through an eyelet. The pink card's pretty knobs are little flower brads from a retired CTMH Mini Medley pushed through punched flowers. The only pattern paper used was scraps to make the little onesies, I used Miracle paper for the boy's and Sweetheart paper for the girl's. The only non-CTMH item on these cards is the cute little wire hangers, I "borrowed" them from one of the many Klutz Paper Fashions craft kits that my daughter has. She has about 100 of these hangers, so I hope she won't miss 2.

Oh Baby! Check out what the fabulous H2H DT has to offer this week! Their blog links are also over in my sidebar. Play along with us, and link up your baby creations to the H2H Challenge blog. Remember that you are required to use mostly CTMH products. You have until the end of the month to play along, there are prizes to be won (from our generous sponsors Lori Brown and Angie Parchey), and one lucky person will be invited to be our Guest Designer next month!

Thanks for visiting my bog today,

Lorrinda

Recipe:

CTMH products:

Cardstock: Sky, Baby Pink

Pattern Paper: Miracle, Sweetheart

Stamps: D1266Baby Steps, D1443Share the Magic

Various markers, Inks and watercolor pencils

White Daisy eyelets, brads and flower brads

Non-CTMH product:

Mini hangers from Klutz Paper Fashions kit

Nestabilities Labels Four

Cuttlebug

Designer Tissue Boxes

2011-03-13T23:49:00.000-06:00

This week at Heart 2 Heart, we are having a "From Your Heart to Ours" challenge. It's "Show and Tell"! We want you to show us something you've created for your home or a home decor item, and tell us what you love about it! This can be something new you create, or something you've already made...but it must include mostly CTMH products.

I have many home decor items made from CTMH products, but I'm going to share a couple of my tissue box covers because these haven't made it to my blog yet:

This one was made using G1022 CTMH Mayberry Workshop kit, which includes the fruit and flowers stamp set! This box cover is in my kitchen, and it's my way of injecting a little bit of spring into the room :) Don't you just love these spring colors?

This one is in my family room, and I love the rich colors. It matches my furniture. It's made using X7128B Olivia Level 2 Paper Pack, and D1436 The Present stamp (one of my faves).

I'm not sure if one can call tissue box covers 'home decor', but I like them because I can make them to match my rooms, and I buy whatever tissue is on sale to refill them instead of trying to find tissue boxes that aren't hideous. I need to make a few more... the sky's the limit when decorating these!

Here are a couple of tutorial links for you:

There is a tutorial available at Splitcoast Stampers that is very helpful to make small square tissue box covers, and you can go to ehow for instructions to make any size box and decorate it as you want.

You have to check out what the awesome gals on the design team have made to inspire you! These gals amaze me every week, and I am thrilled to be on a DT wth them. Their names and blog links are listed on my sidebar, and are also at H2H.

So, we want to see some fabulous CTMH home decor items that you've made! Tell us what you love about them! Link up your pics at Heart 2 Heart. You have until the end of the month to play along. The more you play, the more chances you have to win a fabulous prize from our sponsors Angie Parchey and Lori Brown. Remember, your project must include mostly CTMH products, and please link to the page of your project (not to your blog home page) so we can find it!

Here are some past items I have posted that I would also call home decor. You can click on the caption under the pic to go to the post if you want the details.

This first one is from the VERY 1ST H2H Challenge, I'm so happy this challenge has caught on and is growing every week :)

BIG hugs to Mary for hosting the H2H Challenge Blog!

Hanging Birdhouse

Wine Glass Candle Shade

Thanks for stopping by today!

Lorrinda

Recipe for Tissue Boxes:

1. CTMH G1022 Mayberry Workshop kit, includes B1380 Mayberry stamp.

CTMH Just Blooms flowers in Whie Daisy and Summer Posies(leaves, retired)

CTMH Inks: Cocoa, Desert Sand, Olive, Garden Green, Smoothie, Sorbet, Honey

1/4" coral satin ribbon from my stash

Tools: Coluzzle to cut oval on top

2. CTMH X7128B Olivia Level 2 Paper Pack

CTMH D1436 The Present stamp set

CTMH Ink: Cocoa

CTMH Antique Bronze brads

Rust paper flowers, 1" rust ribbon, peach ric rac ribbon all from my stash

The Three Bears are Popular

2011-03-11T13:48:00.002-07:00

Hello everyone. When I posted my Three Bears card (post below), I had no idea how popular it would be. Thank you to everyone who left comments here on my blog, and at Big Red Scraps and on the private CTMH consultant board! I have received about 15 private emails requesting instructions for this card, most wanting to know how I did the inside tent fold, and how to get a full sized border with the Cricut. To be honest, I winged it :) But, rather than answer all the emails individually, I thought I should just do up a tutorial to share with all of you.

First, the finished size of the card closed is 5x7".

Here is another view of the inside of the card which shows the center fold a bit better:

This pic shows on scrap paper how to score and fold the inside paper. If you want your card to fold flat, use a lightweight paper for the inside, cardstock would end up pretty bulky.

Click the pic to see bigger

For the tent, just cut the paper on the center score line, and fold the flaps back to form a tent door. I paper pieced Lucky pattern paper to make my tent, but you'd get the same effect without the paper piecing:

To adhere the inside piece to the card base, apply adhesive to the outside edges only, leaving the center pop up part free to move:

That's about it for the card...easier than it looks isn't it? Now you can embellish all you want!

Here's a tip for cutting out detailed images: Stamp them in an ink color similar to the paper... I stamped the bears in desert sand ink onto kraft paper. This way, you don't have to be perfect with the cutting because the lines don't show as much as if you stamp the image in black ink. After the image has been cut out, ink the edges a bit with a sponge to hide any imperfect cutting.

And here is a CRICUT VIDEO TUTORIAL that explains the 'Fit to Length' button on the Cricut to customize a border. I used the Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge to make the background trees border on the card, I made mine 11" and trimmed it to paper piece onto the card.

If you have time, you should check out the rest of Robyn's awesome Cricut Video Tutorials. I learned so much about using my Cricut that I never would have figured out on my own. You can find her and all of her videos at My Pink Stamper.

I hope this post answers everyone's questions, and I expect I'll be seeing several tent pop-up cards in the galleries! I'm happy to keep sharing my instructions if you promise to credit me with a link ;)

Thanks for popping by today!
Lorrinda

The Three Bears Make a Scene

2011-03-06T22:27:00.002-07:00

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is Times 3! We are to use at least 3 stamp images to create a scene on our project.

I've been staring out of the frosted up windows at the monster winter we've been having, longing for warm summer evenings around the campfire...that is what inspired my card:

Click pic for larger view

That would be me ("Mama Bear") with the flaming marshmallow on a stick, and the bear at the bottom reminds me of my outdoorsman hubby. But, the inside of the card has the real scene:

click pic for larger view

When I saw the Times 3 challenge, I immediately thought of the Three Bears, and this adorable CTMH stamp set 'C1363 Beary Best', and decided to make a rather masculine card with it. Not that many men I know will appreciate all the fussy cutting that went into this...it took me an entire episode of "Young and Restless" to cut out all these images using micro-tip scissors and a craft knife. But hey, I had a vision! Isn't it annoying when you have a vision of the finished product but neglect to take into account how much work it'll be? No matter, the kids will give it to hubby so it'll be displayed in my house for a long time. Or maybe I'll do what my mother does...she's been giving my father the same 3 or 4 greeting cards for more than 30 years! She just puts them away, and rotates them year after year, and he never notices. Ha! (How many of you can actually recall the birthday card you got from your husband 2 years ago? 'Nuff said.) I, however, have a room full of paper and stamps, and I'm always looking for excuses to make cards, so that's unlikely to happen here. My point is: Save these over-the-top cards for someone really special. We'll be putting a gift card in it, so actually this card IS the gift and the packaging, so I didn't mind the extra effort with the fussy cutting.

Want to play along with our TIMES 3 CHALLENGE? The super talented DT sure made a scene this week :) You have to check out their inspiring works of art HERE. Then, pull out at least 3 images and create a scene on a card or other project, and link it up to Heart 2 Heart so we can all have a peek! Remember you must use mostly CTMH products, and you have all month to play along. Our prize sponsors this month are Lori Brown and Angela Parchey, and our Guest Designer for March is Mary Gunn! Go ahead, make a scene!

Thanks for visiting my blog today,

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All products CTMH

Paper: X7137B Lucky Level 2 Paper Pack

Stamps: C1363 Beary Best, D1467 Trees and Things (lantern in the tent), D1311 Oct Word Puzzle (Retired, used the star and the moon).

Ink: Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand, WhiteDaisy

Various CTMH Markers and Watercolor Pencils

Blending Pen and Waterbrush

Z280 Natural Hemp

Z1387 Wood Buttons

Pewter brads

White Embossing Powder

Also used Cricut and Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge for letters and the tree silhouette border on the card inside.

Inspired Step Fold Card

2011-02-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

It's time for another Heart 2 Heart challenge! This week, we've got a color challenge for you:

I gotta say, I struggled with this color combo. These are not colors I normally use, and all I could picture in my head was Halloween images. I pulled out every Gypsy and Creme Brulee pattern paper I could find, and just wasn't feeling it.

Then an early morning wake up call (thanks to Bentley) dragged me out of my nice warm bed. He normally doesn't wake up until the kids do, but for some reason he was whining at MY side of the bed at 6:30 am.

I grumbled (translate: swore) as I let him out into the -30C/-22F morning (then I regretted swearing at him as I watched him dance on his freezing little paws as he tried to do his business).

How can you stay angry at a face like this?

The point of this story is that the sunrise in the freezing horizon was a perfect shade of Creme Brulee, and I had one of those "a ha!" moments right there in my furry slippers and I knew exactly what I would do with this color combo:

Don't you love it when inspiration hits you smack in the forehead at the most unexpected time? All my favorite craft projects happened this way.

I was up anyway, so I went straight to my craft room and had this done before anyone else woke up. I masked, sponged and stamped the scene onto a 4.25x5.5" piece of White Daisy cs, cut and scored the Gypsy cardstock into this modified step card fold that I've been wanting to use, trimmed the pieces off the scene to fit onto the card base, inked the edges and stuck them down. The ribbon was a last minute addition, and I restrained myself from adding any more embellishing. The finished card is a standard 4.25x5.5", and I made it in my PJ's :)

Honestly, it took me longer to photograph this than it did to make it. I learned that Gypsy purple is a difficult color to capture with my camera...I tried every setting, played with the white balance and the lighting, and still could not capture the yumminess that is Gypsy. You gotta see this color IRL, it's real purty.

Here is a side view of the modified step card fold I used:

And the inside is prettied up a bit too:

I first noticed this awesome card fold on Barbara Diane's blog, with her lovely card here, and have been looking for the pattern ever since. I searched and googled for a template to make this card, and found some side step folds and some step folds, but couldn't find this one, so...since I had to figure it out anyway, I thought I'd save you a few headaches and share :) The template is sitting on my Martha Stewart Score Board, which I only bought because I had a 50% off coupon, and thought I'd hardly use it. It has come to be one of my favorite tools. Sorry, I only have a .jpg for you, but you can click the pic to make it bigger.

I'll call it an 'Outside Step-fold Card'

Not inspired by freezing in your PJ's to let your dog out in the morning? Check out the amazing projects from the rest of the H2H design team...they are sure to inspire you! (Their links are over in my sidebar)

Link your project up to Heart 2 Heart to play along with our color challenge, you have the whole month to play along! *Remember that you are required to use mainly CTMH products and link to the page where we can leave comments for your work of art.

We have 2 generous new prize sponsors for March, Angie Parchey and Lori Brown! Pop on over to their blogs and leave them some love. And, we're announcing our new Guest Designer chosen from our past Top Ten winners.....head on over to Heart 2 Heart to see who it is!

Thanks for visiting!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All products CTMH:

Cardstock: Gypsy, White Daisy, Black

Stamps: D1436 The Present, C1408 Live Inspired, C1257 Happy Birthday

Inks: Gypsy, Creme Brulee, Black

Black satin ribbon from my stash

Techniques: Step fold card, masking, sponging

Tools: Martha Stewart Scoreboard, Paper trimmer, sponges

Big Red Blog Candy

2011-02-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

My friend Leisa from Big Red Scraps is celebrating 200 followers!
Congratulations Leisa!

To celebrate she is giving away some yummy candy:

Drop by her blog and plan to be there for a while, she is SO talented!

Leisa also hosts a searchable CTMH gallery site for everyone to share their CTMH artwork, called

Big Red Scraps, Paper Creations using CTMH products.

Isn't she a doll for setting up a gallery for all of us to use?

A Cold Care-Package Card...

2011-02-20T21:30:00.003-07:00

The challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week is to make a card using anything that makes you think of the word COLD. Ice cream, icicles, snow, Popsicles...Brrrr!!

Well, I kinda took the word COLD a different way...sniff sniff...because I got me a doozy of a cold right now, I was inspired by my medicine cabinet:

Here's a close-up of the cute little birdie:

Yep, that's actually itty bitty birdie Kleenex tissue :)

When you open the card, it's a care package!

This care package includes a pocket pack of Kleenex tissues, Halls throat lozenges, Neo Citron cold medication and a tube of lip balm. Now that I think of it, I should've included some instant chicken soup too...I'll add that next time I make one.

CTMH Supplies used:

Cardstock: Sky, White Daisy

Pattern paper from Mayberry Level 2 pack

Stamps: C1396 Love Birds, D1013 Playful Caps (retired), C1079 Playful Lower Case (retired), D1308 All Decked Out (branches), D1467 Trees & Things (leaves)

Inks: Black, Sky, Honey, Pear, Smoothie, Cocoa.

Z1377 Color-Ready Kraft Borders

White Grosgrain Ribbon

Other Supplies Used:

Martha Stewart Score Board

Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Four

Scor-Tape

Kleenex, Halls Breezers, Neo Citron Cold and Flu, Avon Lip Balm

What makes you think of the word COLD? Check out what all the super talented gals on the DT have done this week, I promise you'll be impressed! The links to their blogs are in my sidebar. Go and leave them some warm comments!

Play along with us at H2H this week...whip out your CTMH products and create a card that makes us think COLD. I know there are more appetizing ways to use COLD than I have here, and I can't wait to see what you come up with! We still have prizes from our awesome sponsors up for grabs, and we'll be looking for our next Guest DT member from all the entries we get.

If you're interested in making one of these Get Well Care Package Cards for yourself, I had to design the box since I couldn't find a template for what I needed, so I took some photos and made up a tutorial for you!

COLD CARE PACKAGE CARD:

You will need:

* 2 pieces of cardstock: 7.25"x10" for the box, and 6"x11" for the card/top.

* pattern paper and stamps etc. to embellish it.

* a strong tape adhesive like red-line tape or Scor-tape works best to hold the box together.

* a scoreboard helps, but you can make do with the track in your paper trimmer.

* a bone folder for scoring

Take your 7.25"x10" piece of cardstock for the box:

Score it along short edge (shown in red) at 0.75", 5.25", and 6"

Rotate cardstock, and score along long edge (as shown in red) at 1.25", 2", 3.25", 4.5", 5.5", 6.75", 8", and 8.75"

Trim off the parts shown in black:

Trim off the bottom parts shown in black as well, and then CUT along black lines as shown to create tabs,fold them all in (valley fold) and valley fold along the score lines marked with green stars too:

Here is a closer look at the top, you now have to add score lines to the top squares as shown, 0.5" in from each edge, then valley fold those score lines in:

At the top, fold center tabs up, fold top tabs over them as shown to create a little box:

Now, stick that box down to the base as shown, using a strong adhesive tape:

At the end, fold and adhere the tabs as shown to create the end boxes:

Do the same thing at the other end as well.

Should look like this, go ahead and stuff it to make sure it all fits:

For the card top, take the 6" x 11" cardstock, and score it (shown in black) along long side at 0.75", 5 3/8", 6.25", and 10.75"

Valley fold at all score lines:

Tape the box inside with strong tape, tape at back and front edges as well:

Should look like this:

Now decorate it as desired, and fill it with your goodies!

I hope this tutorial can be followed, I put it together in a cold medicine haze. Please let me know if you try to make it and it's totally not working?

I'm going to go back to bed now.

Thanks for visiting today!

Lorrinda

I {heart} Heart 2 Heart's Close To My Heart HEART Challenge!

2011-02-13T22:30:00.082-07:00

I dare you to fit more "Hearts" in my title!

Did you ever notice that when you write the same word over and over it looks like it's spelled wrong? Or is it just me? I am having flashbacks of writing lines on the chalkboard during recess...I will not talk to my friends in class. I will not talk to my friends in class. I will not talk to my friends in class... I was a bit of a chatterbox and I had a mean Grade 5 teacher, after about 10 lines I was terrified that I was spelling 'friends' wrong and thought he would make me do it over. Simple but effective punishment. I tried telling my kids this story, and all they wanted to know is "What's a chalkboard?" Seriously? Part of the punishment involved cleaning the chalkbrushes at the end of the day, those of you who can remember chalk at school know what I am talking about.

Back to now...
the challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week is to make anything with a HEART on it!

I feel sorry for elementary kids today, poor things will never know the pleasure of having to fill 4 chalkboards with lines...
But they still get Valentine treats and a party, so we made treat 'bags' for my kids' classmates, and we had an assembly line going for my heart project. Gotta say I'm sick of hearts for a while:

Here's the finished product.

Here is a close up:

Here's a peek at what's inside:

And here is the pattern to make them, super easy!

*The complete product list is at the bottom of this post.

I used our new Kraft cardstock for the base. The kids did the stamping,folding, and filled the treat bags. (My son complained the whole time, "Do I have to stamp all of them?" Which sparked the whole discussion about writing lines on the chalkboard...)

I did all the cutting and the gluing.

Got hearts on the brain this week? Join us at Heart 2 Heart for our HEART challenge! Anything goes, as long as it has hearts on it and is mostly Close To My Heart products. Check out the projects my friends on the Design Team have made (their links are over on my sidebar), you're sure to love them! And I hope you play along! You have all month to join us, we have prizes and everything!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All products CTMH:

Cardstock: Kraft, Holiday Red and White Daisy

Stamps: D1254 Soul Mates hearts and borders

Ink: Holiday Red

Red ric rac

Liquid Glass to adhere ric rac ribbon

Other:

Small celophane bags and candy treats from Walmart

Tools:

Cuttlebug Script Embossing Folder

SU Scallop Border Punch

Cricut Accent Essentials to cut red hearts and cut out circles.

MS Score Board

Valentine Chocolates with a twist

2011-02-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Quick post today...
My kids' school is having their annual Bazaar tonight, and once again I was asked to bring a decorated cake for the Cakewalk. If you've never been to a cakewalk, it's like musical chairs...but when the music stops, if you are standing on the right number you win the cake. Several cakes are donated, and participants purchase tickets to enter the walk. Money raised is for charity.

Anyway, with it being so close to Valentine's Day, I chose a Valentine theme for my cake this year:

Yep, it's ALL cake, even the little chocolates are cake balls dipped in white chocolate. I must admit, this is not my original idea...I got it from bakerella.com If you're not familiar with Bakerella, you're in for a treat! She has the cutest ideas, and awesome tutorials so you can make them too.

The best part of this cake, is that I made lots of the cake balls, so I got to snack while I was decorating it!

Thanks for visiting today!

Lorrinda

Kiss Me!

2011-02-06T23:11:00.001-07:00

The challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week is STAMP KISSING! Not that I need an excuse to kiss my stamps :)

No, we mean the Stamp Kissing Technique. If you're not familiar with this technique, we have featured a fabulous video tutorial by our Guest Expert this week, the one and only Tresa Black, that shows several variations of stamp kissing...

Now that you've watched the video, get out your stamps and start kissing them!

Here's what kisses did for my stamp:

I seem to be on a pink kick lately, which is weird because it's not one of my favorite colors, must be all the Valentines in the air this month. This card actually started with the ribbon which set the mood for the paper choice, funny how one element can inspire the whole card...

I inked my stamp in Baby Pink, then inked a background stamp in Hollyhock and "dirty kissed" them to create a patterned flower outline. To stamp the centers, I inked the background stamp in Hollyhock, then kissed a clean center stamp on it to get the pattern, then stamped it in the flower centers. Then I cut them out, and inked the edges before using them on the card.
The hardest part of this card was the punched border...those corner punches are tricky to line up with the punched edges...my hard learned tip: punch the border mat first, then cut the inside layer piece to fit. If you cut your center piece first, then try to border punch the mat, it'll never be even. This pearl of wisdom came to me after about 4 attempts...so I'm sharing it to save you some paper.

Pop on over to H2H to see how my friends on the Design Team used the Stamp Kissing Technique on their projects. Our Feb. Guest Designer Aaron, is also playing along with us this week! You are sure to be inspired to play along. Check out their blogs and leave them some love!
Corina
Melinda
Debbie
Karen
Lisa
Jessica
Mary

We'd love to have you join us for this week's Kissing challenge...we have a couple of awesome prizes from our sponsors up for grabs this month, and you may get invited to be an upcoming Guest Designer if you make it into the Top Ten. So show your stamps some love this week, KISS them!

Thanks for popping by today!
Lorrinda

Recipe:
All products CTMH unless noted

Cardstock: White Daisy and Hollyhock
Pattern Paper: Sweetheart Level 2 Kit
Stamps: B1306 Cottage Floral, D1335 Intrinsic Backgrounds, D1412 Noted Backgrounds, D1406 True Friends.
Inks: Baby Pink, Cotton Candy, Hollyhock
Buttons: Z1370 Pink Assortment

Border Punch: StampinUp
Pink satin ribbon from my stash?

Paper Cubed (P3) February Valentine Challenge

2011-02-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

Time for our February challenge at Paper Cubed!

This month is, you guessed it....Valentines!

I've had this image of a heart of roses in my head for a while, and I finally had a reason to make it! It's too much for a card, but works great for a box! Is there anything better than roses and chocolate...together? (Ok, maybe diamonds...but I did put pearls on it!)

Here's the top:

And here's the inside:

I found the template for the triangle box HERE, enlarged it and printed it out onto pink cardstock, and cut it out and assembled it. Then I made some hearts for the top and bottom also out of pink cardstock, with some smaller hearts as accent pieces for layering.

I made the rolled paper roses (There are several video tutorials for rolled paper roses on YouTube) out of 3 different shades of pink cardstock, these are tiny...I started with 2 inch square pieces of cardstock, spiral cut them, and rolled them around a toothpick! You can see in the photo, the roses are a bit smaller than the Hershey kisses. I stuck them together with tiny dabs of CTMH Liquid Glass, and inked the edges in a deeper pink color for some definition. Then I and added some seed pearl beads to the centers for some pretty bling. Once I had them all made (it didn't take that long, I did them while watching a movie), I glued them all onto a heart shape of pink patterned paper, edged it in gathered CTMH pink crochet ribbon, and stuck it down onto the pink cardstock heart top. I finished it off with a double bow out of pink satin ribbon, with a pearl center accent. After it was all together, I thought the sides of the box needed something, so I stamped heart images on it, added some half pearls, and finished the edge with pink satin ribbon.

The finished size of this box is roughly 6"W x 6"L x 2.5"D.

I filled it with Hershey's caramel kisses for the photo, but I think I'll use this pretty box for a small gift. This would be perfect for a gift of jewellery or maybe even event tickets. Not sure just yet who the recipient will be...but I have a couple of weeks until Valentine's Day to decide.

Do you enjoy making more than just flat cards and scrapbook pages out of paper? February is the perfect month to try your hand at a gift item, altered item or home decor piece! Or maybe you have a fabulous 3D card fold or mini album to show off? Why don't you join us at Paper Cubed? You have the entire month to play along. We'll choose the Top 3 entries as well as have a random prize draw at the end of the month. Pop on over to P3 now to see what the talented Design Team has created for February. We'd love to have you join us!

Thanks for visiting today!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

Cardstock: CTMH in Cotton Candy, Hollyhock and Blush

Pattern Paper: pink polkadots on white from CTMH Sweetheart Level 2 kit

Stamp: CTMH D1245 In My Heart

Ink: CTMH Hollyhock and Blush

Ribbon: CTMH Z1384 Pink Collection

CTMH Z1336Pearl opaques

Seed pearl beads from my stash

CTMH Z679 Liquid Glass

Scor-Tape used to assemble box

Triangle Box Template from http://elizabethallan-blog.blogspot.com/

Candy Winner!!

2011-01-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

OK folks! Time to pick the winner of my 1st Blogaversary Candy....

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 131
Result: 28

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Comment 28 was:

Marion Young said...
Happy Blogaversary! your work is amazing, My fav is your Holiday planner and your easy to follow how to make steps.. keep it up you have an awesome talent and eye..
my blog - http://cardsnscraps.blogspot.com
January 6, 2011 4:22 AM

CONGRATULATIONS MARION!
As mentioned in my contest rules, you have 7 days (until Monday, Feb. 7) to claim your candy, or I choose another winner.
You can find my contact info in my profile on the sidebar, hope to hear from you soon Marion!

I WANT CANDY

2011-01-30T23:59:00.003-07:00

My blog candy giveaway is now closed.
I will be drawing a winner shortly, and announcing it here this week.
Thank you to all my followers for your lovely comments.
Good Luck!

Getting Sketchy at Heart 2 Heart

2011-01-30T23:48:00.002-07:00

At Heart 2 Heart this week, we've got a sketch challenge!

I had this fabulous new CTMH paper on my desk just begging to get used! So I made my honey a Valentine card:

The paper is from the CTMH Sweetheart Level 2 paper pack, available in the new Idea Book tomorrow! Isn't this paper fabulous? Can you see the flowers on the center panel paper...they are made completely of tiny little hearts, how cute! It's all hearts and pink, but the reverse sides are mostly black so I think this paper will work for a guy too. My big tough oil-field-working, camo-wearing, collector of hunting rifles and knives guy actually likes little pink hearts :), so I used the fronts of the papers...
The sentiment stamps are from CTMH D1254 Soul Mates, and the hearts stamped behind the sentiments are from CTMH D1402 Togetherness.

Now, you must go to H2H to check out what the talented Design team has done with this sketch, it always amazes me to see what different people can do with the same sketch! (even though it seems most of us had Valentines on the brain this week!)

Want to play along with us? Whip up something using mostly CTMH products and the sketch at the top as a template, then link it up at the H2H blog. Your entry might just get you a spot in the Top Ten, and there are also some awesome prizes to be won from our generous sponsors this month, Shirley Ross and Sandra Strickler. All the details can be found at Heart 2 Heart.

Thanks for visiting today!
Lorrinda

Recipe:
Cardstock: CTMH Black and White Daisy
Pattern Paper: CTMH X7134B Sweetheart Level 2 Paper Pack
Stamps: CTMH D1254 Soul Mates and D1402 Togetherness
Inks: CTMH Black and Cotton Candy
CTMH Black Hemp
Tools: Edge Distresser
Buttons from my stash

Happy Birthday Jenna!

2011-01-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

My baby girl Jenna is turning 12 this week. 12!!! When did that happen? She's growing up way too fast.
Her official birthday is on Wednesday (Groundhog Day!), but we have to go to the city to visit the orthodontist (really should have planned that better-braces on her birthday! I'm a terrible mother), so we had cake and a slumber party this weekend. To make up for the orthodontist, I baked her cake by request. She asked for chocolate fudge layer cake and even found a pic on the internet of the cherry blossom decorating she wanted. This is as close as I could get...

The curly one is my Jenna, with her BFF Cara.

They like blue, can you tell?

Jenna wants me to straighten her hair like Cara's,

and Cara wishes she had curls...

Girls, you're beautiful just the way you are!!

They were happy with the cake though, check out those smiles!

Jenna got an iPod Touch for her birthday, they are in her room texting each other right now. I won't pretend to understand it.

I think I may have to break in with some nail polish and force a mani/pedi on them.

Pretty Peacock

2011-01-24T00:05:00.005-07:00

Hi! Thanks for popping by today. Did you get to browse the entries for the H2H From Your Heart to Ours challenge last week? If you like to peek at other people's craft studios, you really should check it out! There were some genious organizing tips posted. I can hardly believe the beautiful spaces some people are lucky enough to craft in. The challenges are now open all month long, so you can still play along if you want to!

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is to use animals or birds on your project. I've had this stamp for a while, and this proud peacock was begging to be used. I made this card for my niece, and am mailing it with a gift, so I won't need an envelope, which is good because it's pretty lumpy with the ruffles and rolled paper flowers...

This 5x7" card was made with papers from the CTMH Magnifique Level 2 paper pack. I stamped the peacock with multiple colors, and blinged it up with some CTMH Sparkles. The paper ruffle is made with four 1x12" strips of paper. The stitching is hand done with embroidery floss. I had to bow out the sentiment because after I made the card I couldn't fit a sentiment on it! But I kind of like it this way, and may just do like this again on purpose. The rolled paper flowers are made with cardstock scraps, and I learned a tip to make rolling heavy cardstock easier...mist it with water first to soften the paper! You will find an awesome video tutorial for making these flowers from Tracey Mason.

Now, you must check out the fabulous ideas from the rest of the H2H Design Team for more inspiration to use birds or animals on your projects! Play along with us this week, and you are eligible for a prize from our generous sponsors at the end of the month, and you may just end up in the January Top 10 for a chance to be a guest designer next month! What are you waiting for? Come play along!

Thank You for visiting my blog!

Lorrinda

Recipe

Cardstock: CTMH Chocolate and White Daisy

Pattern paper: CTMH X7127B Magnifique Level 2 Paper Pack

Stamp: CTMH D1438 Circle of Love(peacock) and C1257 Happy Birthday

Inks: Black, Chocolate, Pacifica, Lagoon

Sparkles: CTMH Z1327 Blue and Green Assortment and Z1263 Bitty clear sparkles

Embroidery Floss: DMC3846

Ribbon from my scraps box

Techniques: Puddle pad stamping, stitching, paper ruffles, rolled paper roses

Simple Sentiments

2011-01-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

The One Layer Wednesday challenge at Simplicity this week is to create a single layer card with NO image stamps, just words or sentiments, and we must use more than one. I hope this card follows the rules, technically I never used any images, but the words form a heart.

I masked the card base with a heart shape, and just random stamped 3 different "love" sentiment stamps in 3 shades of pink: CTMH Baby Pink, Blush and Tulip. Can't get much simpler than that! I like the simplicity of it. I adore CAS(clean and simple) cards, but I have a habit of overdoing it. I almost added some bling and ribbon, but then stopped myself (aren't you proud of me?)

Pop over to Simplicity to see some other great CAS cards with sentiment stamps, maybe you'll want to play along!

Thanks for visiting today!

Lorrinda

Show Us Your Craft Room!

2011-01-16T23:30:00.001-07:00

At Heart 2 Heart this week, we will focus on organization and it will be the first From Your Heart to Ours challenge! This is a challenge where we encourage the players to share a little of themselves in order to inspire someone else. We want to see your craft room and hear about your organization ideas!

For me, this is the most challenging challenge ever. Did you ever try to take pictures of your craft room? First you have to clean up the mess so you can find your desk. Then you must tidy up your supplies. When it's cleaner than it has ever been, you dig out your camera, and looking through the lens you see all the flaws...Notice you won't see the floor on any of these pics? Yeah, I didn't feel like vacuuming...
Honestly, I think I'd almost rather post a picture of myself nekid than let everyone see the hole that I call my craft room. Seriously, my "Rubber Room" is a spare bedroom in the basement with a teeny tiny little window, ugly blue carpet and really crappy flower panelling (flowers, seriously? who panels a room in flowers?). Totally not the creativity-inspiring decor of my dreams. One thing I DO like, is that it is super organized, so I can easily find what I am looking for.

My craft stash shares this room with the guest bed. That means... when we get company, I have to fold up my tables and lean them against the wall, and I can't get to my crafty stash until they leave. Waah waah waah.... We moved into this house 11 years ago, and this room is on the bottom of the list for renos. All the furniture in this room (except for the bed and the folding tables) was salvaged, and free is good.

Enough blabbering, here are the pictures. (BTW, I've labelled these all "My Craft room Before" on my computer, so that when I have the time and money to paint and get new flooring, lighting and shelving, I can take some "after" pics) Obviously, I do not hold group gatherings in this room, this is my private cave.

This is the first thing you see walking into the guest bedroom, it's my daughter's corner,and I spread out onto that table too when I need more space. OK, I usually have that table (and the bed) covered with my ~~crap~~ projects.

Over to the right is my corner, don't let the small footprint fool you, I have a TON of stuff crammed in there! My card/scrapping supplies are all out in the open, the closet on the right holds my photo albums, boxes of pictures waiting for a home, my sewing machine and all sewing/mending supplies. When I need to sew, I just swing my chair around to the other side of the table, open the closet doors and tada! Instant sewing nook. There is a heavy duty desk back in the corner there, which is great for stamping and punching on. Under it, is a rolling cart full of punches and Cuttlebug folders/plates. Why yes, that is a curtain hanging there, thanks for noticing. When we have to convert this to a guest room, I can throw all my junk on my desk and pull the curtain to hide it. I may still make curtains for the shelf units too.

You can see my laptop on the corner of the table, but may wonder where is my printer? I actually have a wireless printer that is shared by everyone else in the house, and it is in the office just outside of this room, so I don't have far to go when I need it.

And here are some closeups of my supplies, and some of my organizing ideas:

My Cricut, and all of my embellishments are housed here in the little nook above my desk in the corner. I am toying with the idea of sorting my embellishments by color, but right now they are sorted by item, and I can still find them.

I'm a Ribbon Ring Gal. Isn't it pretty? I like my ribbon to hang straight and not be all twisted up. I can see what I have, and when I can't decide what ribbon to use I can drape it over my project one at a time without unrolling and re-rolling ribbon tubes. If I have bulk rolls, I cut a 3 ft length to hang here, and put a little red dot sticker on the card to show that I have more in the box of extra ribbon in the closet. Works for me...and it holds a lot, those little cards each hold 3 or 4 different ribbons. I can see by this picture that I'm short on blue and green ribbon...

You may have noticed this by my table in the big picture, and wondered what the heck is that? It's my embossing clipboard! I covered it in tinfoil so it heats up from the back too. I can clip my piece up there and not burn my fingers holding it while I point the craft heater at it. I must say this works really well! I just leave my craft heater hanging there all ready to go...

My CTMH stamps are stored in these plastic shoeboxes. Each box will hold about 40 stamp envelopes when they are full. I removed the foam insert from the packaging(saves a lot of space), and flipped them around so I can see the name and number on the top corner as well as the stamp set that's in it. See that big white binder on the top shelf? It's my master stamp catalog. I stamp all my stamps in it when I get them, helps to season them and I can check for defects. The binder is organized by theme, and I can just flip through it to look for a stamp I need, but the stamps themselves are organized alpha numerically...it's easier to find them and to put them away this way. I used to waste so much time searching for a stamp, but since I've organized my stamps like this, it's super easy to find what I need. Even my 11 yr old daughter can keep up with this system, so I let her use them too. My non-CTMH stamps are cataloged the same way, using the same binder, but the stamps are stored in a drawer under the desk in the corner as I don't use them as often.

I like things to be organized (you think?) because I hate wasting time looking for stuff. It has to be right at my fingertips or I forget I have it. Whenever I have a creative block, I organize my stuff. Sometimes just going through my supplies will trigger an idea. So this is what I did one evening while watching Gray's Anatomy:

I'm a big fan of using the CTMH cardstock color swatches as labels! I used a round tab punch to make labelled color coded sponge wedges, no more washing out yucky sponges and no more inky fingers. I've been using these ones for about a year, and they are holding up really well. I also used a hole punch to make easy to find tops for my reinkers, because those bottles all look the same in a box.

My cardstock is sorted by color too, and I use the vertical Cropper Hopper storage system for it. I took another ring of CTMH color swatches apart, and used it to label my tabs. The lighting isn't great in this room, so I find these colored and labelled tabs really help me to find the right color without squinting. Oh yeah, and I put my cropper hopper files on their back, with the open part facing front (because I'm weird), I like to be able to slide a single piece of cardstock in and out without having to hoist the entire 20lb full container off of the shelf. This vertical system works so well for me, because as you can see, I have a ton of paper. Storing it this way instead of in horizontal bins uses way less space and is easier to pull out individual pages.

My patterned paper, most of it CTMH Level 1 and 2 kits, is stored vertically on the shelf below. I just keep them and their usable scraps in their original bags, sorted alphabetically (why yes I am a freak, why do you ask?) by name so I can find them.

Hello, my name is Lorrinda and I am a paper hoarder...don't judge me.

Jenna's favorite thing to do is shop for new school supplies, I wonder who she got that from? Do you think we need therapy?

I even keep my scraps sorted by color, in these narrow drawers. This is a new addition, I used to keep them in an accordion file. But this way, I can easily toss my scraps in when I clean up, and they are easy to quickly look through before I cut up a new piece of paper. I told Jenna she can use all of the paper in these drawers whenever she wants, and we're actually using up our scraps now!

So, that's pretty much all there is to see here. The view from behind my table is a very uninspiring wall with a bed and a dresser against it, but it has a TV to keep us company, and a door to shut out the noise and the boys (which, according to Jenna is the most important thing!) At least we have a place to keep all of our crafty stuff so it isn't all over the house. This room isn't a good spot for big group projects, but it will accommodate 3 or 4 people quite easily. So we can still have a friend or two come over to play!

Now, you must pop over to HEART 2 HEART to drool over the pretty craft spaces and super organization tips from the rest of the design team! And, most importantly, we want to see YOUR craft room! That's the challenge this week...share your craft room with us, or, if you're like me and don't think your space is worth showing off, then show us your orgnization ideas! We could all use those! I could really use some ideas for Cuttlebug folders and Nestabilities...

Thank You for visiting my space.

Hopefully someday I'll be posting "after" pictures!

Lorrinda

Channelling Jimmy Buffet....

2011-01-10T01:00:00.003-07:00

(*Edited: I am also submitting this card to the Creative Paper Artists

March challenge "Take Me Somewhere Tropical".)

***************************************************

Today is the first Heart2Heart Challenge of 2011!

I'm so excited, as this is my first post as a member of the design team. I must thank Mary again for inviting me to be on this awesome team! I have been so inspired by the creativity of the former Design Teams and by all of the challenge entries, so to be invited to share my favorite CTMH products as part of the DT is a very big honor. (Ooh, I just felt my face flush as I typed that! I do believe I am nervous!) Ahem, on to the challenge...

It's a color challenge!

Create a project using CTMH colors:
SKY, PEAR, COLONIAL WHITE
plus a touch of SORBET if you wish.

Did you ever have a craving for a Margarita at 9:00 AM after running the kids to school? Ok, it was a rhetorical question... no seriously.... I can't be the only one!? I will admit to humming Jimmy Buffet songs the entire time I made this card.

This is the happy place I go to when I'm doing yoga:

All supplies used are listed in the recipe at the end of this post,

and here is the summary of what I did to create this card.

First, I masked the setting sun and horizon, and brayered and sponged the scene using Sky, Pear, and Sorbet inks. I didn't take pictures of this process, but I will refer you to the master, Michelle Zindorf, who has literally hundreds of easy to follow tutorials on her blog illustrating this background technique step by step.

Then I tore some Colonial White scrap cs, and inked the edges a bit with Sorbet to look like sand.

For the beverage, I free handed a margarita glass onto some vellum, inked it with Pear ink on the reverse side, then scored and folded the edges under. I ran a bead of Liquid Glass along the rim, and sprinkled it with Prisma Glitter, cut a slit in a lime wedge image and stuck it on too, then let the glue dry while I ~~made myself a margarita~~ browsed my Google Reader blogs. I added mini glue dots to the folded under vellum edges, placed the left side down first, squeezed it a bit so it curled out before sticking the right side down.

Here's a closeup that shows how it is attached to the card, you can just barely see the folded vellum edge:

Then I stamped the sentiment, and matted the card front in sorbet cs, sky blue cs, pear B&T paper from the Olivia Level 2 paper pack, and finally mounted it on a Colonial White card base.

Honestly, the brads and pearls kind of took on a life of their own, ~~plus after 2 margaritas I could no longer pierce a straight line~~, and I thought they looked like beach pebbles and seashells, so I just kept randomly placing them on the "sand" border mat until I ran out of room.

Then I looked out of my window at this scene:

And I looked back at my finished card, and

now I really want ~~another~~ a margarita, and my toes in the sand...

It's 5:00 Somewhere.

Amen Jimmy!

For some more fabulous inspiration using these colors, check out what the talented gals in the H2H design team have come up with! When you're all inspired, please play along! Remember, you must use mostly CTMH products, and please list all the products you use. Link your project to the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog for a chance to win yourself an awesome prize. Your entries could also be chosen for our January Top Ten, where you may be invited to be an upcoming Guest Designer! Speaking of Guest Designer, you have to visit our January gal Vicki's blog, she's a wizard at crafting paper!

The awesome prizes this month are courtesy of our very generous sponsors Haley Dyer and Susan Winter. Do pop over to their blogs for a visit and leave them some love!

Thanks for visiting!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All product CTMH

Stamps: D1228 Chillin' (sentiment)

B1351 You're Sweet (lime)

Inks: Pear, Sky, Sorbet

Paper: cs in Sky, Sorbet, and Colonial White

Pear B&T duo paper from Olivia Level 2 pack

Vellum

Brads: Spring, Summer and Basic Assortments

Opaques in Pearl and Mocha

Liquid Glass

Prisma Glitter

Tools: Piercing Tool Kit

Rubber Brayer

Sponge

Bone Folder

Paper Trimmer

Techniques: masking, brayer and sponge backgrounds,

paper tearing, edge distressing

My First Blog Award!

2011-01-06T18:51:00.001-07:00

Imagine my surprise when I was having my morning browse through my Google Reader, and I read Barbara Diane's post today, where she gave me a Stylish Blogger Award! I almost snorted my coffee all over my keyboard! Wow, THANK YOU Barbara Diane! I don't know what to say!

If you're not familiar with Barbara Diane's blog, Barbara's World of Whimcees, please stop by and check it out. She's got a wonderfully whimsical style and in addition to her papercrafts, she makes the most precious dolls and bears. I've (lovingly) nicknamed her the Owl Lady...check out her blog to see the fabulous countdown calendars she puts on her apartment door for holidays. I was impressed by her Halloween one, then blown away by her Christmas one. I can only imagine the increase in foot traffic past her door on the holidays! Drop by and say hello, make sure your mug's full so you can stay a while, there's lots to see.

On receiving this award we are to do the following:

* Thank the person who gave you the award on your blog.
* Share 8 things about yourself.
* Pass this award onto 8 other bloggers that inspire you.

Eight things about me:
1. I grew up on a Quarter Horse ranch, but I haven't been on a horse in 10+ years, and I really miss it.
2. I have 2 younger sisters.
3. I drive a Hyundai Santa Fe.
4. I've known my husband since I was 13, but we never dated until our late 20's.
5. My favorite season is Fall, after the first big frost and there are no more bugs.
6. I hate bugs.
7. I live in a place where there is snow 5 months of the year, and I don't own a pair of snow pants.
8. I love to bake, but everything I've tried with yeast has flopped.

Now the hard part...I'm supposed to pick 8 other bloggers that inspire me, and pass on this award. I wish I had 50 of these, because I am inspired by all of the blogs I am following!

Below are 8 of the many blogs on my list that I get inspiration from. Stop by each of them and you'll see right away why these are in my faves:
A Path of Paper
Big Red Scraps
Lisa's Creative Corner
Tracey Mason's Studio
Wizard's Hangout
Paper and Ink Playground
Jessica's Paper Petals
Scrappin' My Heart Out

If you're on this list, please participate and pass this award on...isn't it a nice one to receive?

Thanks again Barbara Diane! You definitely made my day! I will keep this little award in my sidebar with pride!

Happy Blogaversary to me BLOG CANDY!

2011-01-05T07:02:00.001-07:00

Blogs. Blogging. Blogger. Google Reader.

Hyperlink. Upload. Download. Linky.

In my copy of Webster's Dictionary, these words don't even exist (OK, so my dictionary is from my university days and according to my kids that was "back in the nineteen hundreds"!)

In this relatively new medium we can have a place of our own; where we can meet and network with people with similar interests; where we can share pieces of ourselves; where we can stretch our wings and learn new things and where sometimes we make friends with a kind word and not with a tweet or a poke :)

One year ago, after lurking on the blogs of many talented people who inspire me, I decided to start a blog of my very own. My intentions were to have a place to share my crafts with other crafty people. It started with my first post HERE. I really had no expectations. I remember the day I got my very first follower, I was so excited that someone was interested in what I was doing enough to actually FOLLOW me?!

In just one short year, I am amazed at how my little page in blogland has grown. I am blown away by my blog stats that show where my viewers have come from this year. I have followers from 11 countries with over 30,000 visits! This blogging thing has really opened the door to the world for this small town Alberta girl.

I have had the pleasure of corresponding with some of you outside of this blog, and am grateful for the opportunity to make cyberfriends from all over the world! I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of you, and how your comments really brighten my day.

I am also grateful for the many fabulous blogs I have discovered through comments left here. My Google Reader is full of the blogs I am following; it's a comforting place I come to when I need some inspiration, some instruction, or just some eye candy. I know how encouraging it is to read the kind words left by my readers, and I have challenged myself to leave more comments on all of the blogs I visit in 2011.
The online crafting world is such a generous place of sharing and support, and I love it here!

So, friends....sing along...

"Happy Blogaversary,
Happy Blogaversary,
Happy Blogaversary,
Haaaaa-py Blogaversary!"

For my first blogaversary, to show my appreciation for my followers,

I am giving away BLOG CANDY!!

Wanna see what's in those bags?

CTMH Discovery Level 1 Scrapbook Kit

CTMH Perfect Day Level 2 Paper Pack

CTMH Rough and Tumble Level 2 Paper Pack

Assorted pink and purple papers

Assorted green papers

Assorted Orange, Pink and Brown papers

CTMH Triple Play Mini Album Kit, includes stamp set, inks and instructions.

CTMH Acrylic stamps "Key to My Heart" and "Something Splendid"

SU Birthday Calendar and Happy Moments Cling Stamps

CTMH Finishing Files and assorted bling

Mini Album, Tag Album and Gift Card Album

If I reach 200 blog followers,
I will throw this into the candy pile!

Here's how to enter:

You must be a follower. If you've been lurking...welcome! You can sign up to follow this blog over on the right sidebar. Open to everyone worldwide, including fellow CTMH consultants :)
Leave a comment to enter, and please tell me which of my posts is your favorite, or what you would like to see more of on my blog.
You can earn an EXTRA entry if you spread the word about my blogaversary candy and share a link to this post on your blog. Just leave a second comment here with your blog address so I can check it out!

Contest closes January 30, 2011.

On February 1, I will randomly choose a winner
from among the comments entered,

and will announce the winner here on my blog,

who will have 7 days to claim their candy or I pick another name.

I sincerely appreciate your visits

and your comments,
I am inspired by you every day!

Lorrinda

************************************
Comments are now closed.
Winner to be announced shortly!

First Challenge of the Year!

2011-01-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's January! Not only is it a brand new year...it's time for the Paper Cubed Jan. 2011 challenge!
The first challenge of the new year is to create a 3D project with SPORTS as the theme. Pretty much rules out cards, but anything else is fair game! (did you catch the clever sports metaphor there?)

I don't know about you, but I always get a little rush putting out all the new calendars on New Year's Day. It's like a fresh start, leaving all the baggage of last year behind and vowing to try harder, accomplish more and be better in the year ahead. I don't make New Year's Resolutions anymore (they tend to fizzle out by the end of the week), but I always start the year with more motivation and focus.

On that note, here is my SPORTS themed 3D project for January at P3:
I went with a handy dandy new desk calendar that features extreme sports.

(As always, you can click the pic for a detailed view)

I must thank my upline, Diane Fischer, for this idea. She made a stand up calendar in a workshop last year that I thought was so cute. There are 4 panels, 2 on one side, which can be flipped around mid-year to show the 2 on the other side. I fashioned a center support with a velcro tab to make this standing desk calendar stay up. The finished calendar is 5"x10"x3", the supplies I used are listed in the recipe at the bottom of this post. I found the calendar printable at http://www.printfree.com/

And here are the close-ups of the other panels:

I'm not sure who is getting this yet, but it definitely isn't girly.

For more sports-inspired 3D crafts, head on over to Paper Cubed to see what the rest of the super-creative design team has come up with. Get yourself all revved up to create some sporty crafts of your own, then link them up so we can all cheer!

I hope 2011 brings you health and happiness

and all the crafting time you want!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

Stamps: CTMH D1432 Extreme

SU Extreme Skateboard and Extreme Snowboard

Papers: CTMH Aspen Level 2 Paper Kit

CTMH Simple Pleasure Level 2 Paper Kit

CTMH You Rock Level 2 Paper Kit

CTMH Zippidee Level 2 Paper Kit

Inks: CTMH Twilight, Cocoa, Desert Sand, Smokey Plum, Cranberry, Versamark

Brads: CTMH Black, Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Cranberry

Images and sentiments heat embossed with CTMH Black Embossing Powder

Tools:

CTMH Euro Paper Trimmer, Bone Folder, Piercing Tool Kit, Craft Heater

Other: Velcro dots, Printable Calendar from www.printfree.com

Time for a Heart to Heart....

2011-01-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

Remember last week when I said I had some exciting news? OMG, I have been just about ready to burst keeping it to myself! I have been invited to be on the HEART 2 HEART DESIGN TEAM! I have been SO inspired by the creativity showcased on this blog, using my favorite products from CTMH, and I am just flabbergasted that they offered me a spot on the design team! Somebody pinch me!

If you are not familiar with Heart 2 Heart, you must check it out for some creative inspiration using Close To My Heart ! Each week there is a new challenge to inspire and motivate you to find new ways to use your CTMH products. This new year has brought a newly redesigned H2H blog! If you've been following along, you have to stop by to see the new design and grab yourself a new blog badge. There is also a new format, and the more you play along all month - the more chances you get to win a prize or make the monthly Top Ten, where you could be invited to be a guest designer for the next month!

And even better, wait till you meet the rest of the design team...UBER talented! I better bring my A game, because these gals certainly up the ante when it comes to creativity! Challenges will start on January 10, so until then, please welcome the new members of the H2H Design Team :

Corina Scrapbooking Ink.
Debbie Scrap My Heart Out
Karen Karen's Creations
Lisa Lisa's Creative Corner
Lorrinda *you are here :)
Mary On Life and Creating
Melinda If You Bling It They Will Come
Senior DT member: Jessica Jessica's Paper Petals

Check out these gals! Talented or what? Take a few minutes to browse their blogs, admire their beautiful artwork, sign up to follow them and leave them some love while you're there! Heart 2 Heart challenges will begin on Jan. 10, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year!
Lorrinda

Where has the year gone?

2010-12-29T22:53:00.001-07:00

Woo Hoo! What a ride 2010 has been! Is it just me or did this year fly by faster than ever?

I started my blog almost a year ago. I remember exploring blogger over my Christmas holidays trying to see if I could actually figure out how to do this, and trying to decide how much of a commitment I was willing to make to it. Well, I must say I am sure glad I took the leap. I have joined in a few challenges and have pushed my creative self out of my box. I have been surprised by how many visitors I have had, and by all the lovely comments that have been left on my posts. Thank you readers and followers for enabling my craft ~~obsession~~ hobby!

I have been struggling with a back injury, and have been advised to take a break from my job for a couple of months. I'm doing meds, physio, specialists and trying to exercise at home. I'm so glad to have my hobbies, my Google Reader and this blog as a distraction from all of that.

My kids have been having a great year at school, straight A's for both of them. Getting a dog has been such a good thing to get the kids to take on some responsibility at home, and they have both grown so much in both maturity and height. My 11 yr old daughter is almost as tall as me already, and my 9 yr old son can wear my shoes (I'm not dainty, 5'7" and wear size 8 shoes!)

My hubby has gone from employee with benefits to independent contractor, without too many glitches. This was a major adjustment for me, and I struggled with so many "what if's". This also means we now have an accountant and I don't have to do the taxes this year. Yippee!

At my family reunion in August, I was given my Grandmother's family ring as I am the oldest granddaughter. She had 17 children, so it's a beautiful custom ring with 4 rows of birthstones in it. She wore this ring every day, but I only take it out for special occasions. I am to pass this on to my daughter, as she is the oldest great-granddaughter. It is the first family heirloom for us, and it was a very special moment for me when my aunts presented me with it. I would much rather have my Grandmother here, but I will always cherish her ring.

All in all, it was a good year.

I am SO excited for 2011!
I can't go into specifics just yet, but I have big news!
I also have a surprise for my followers, but I'm keeping it a secret for a few more days.

You'll just have to check back to get all the details. :)

Happy almost New Year!
Lorrinda

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

I want to wish all of my blog friends

a very Merry Christmas!

I hope Santa is good to you,

and that you have a safe

and happy holiday with your loved ones.

May God bless you all

with health and happiness!

Lorrinda

Dreaming of a White Christmas...

2010-12-24T08:00:00.002-07:00

I made this card for my parents, had to make it big (5x7") to include kid's school portraits. I don't know why I don't make big cards more often, they just seem more festive somehow...

I was feeling the white....

Cut the snowflakes on my Cricut using Home Accents cartridge. Dabbed them with liquid glue and covered them with glitter. Arranged the snowflakes in a wreath circle, added adhesive pearls and ribbon. The sentiment is embossed in a silver pearl color (tough to photograph the sheen, but it's real purty IRL), and I used a pearl paint brushed on the edges for some extra shine.

I like how this turned out, I wanted something simple and elegant and I think this works.

And, it was easy to make :)

Merry Christmas!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

All CTMH Products

Cardstock: White Daisy

Stamps: C1281 Card Commentary and C1379 Holiday Commentary

Z678 Silver Pearl Embossing Powder

Z1039 Pearl Paint

Z1336 Pearl Opaques 1/2 pearls

Z134 Prisma Glitter

Craft Heater

paint brush

White ribbon from my stash

Need a little gift bag?

2010-12-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

This is my second post today, can you believe it? I've actually had these done for a few days, but am only getting a chance to post them to my blog now. I'm sure you are all having a crazy week too!

Need a last minute pretty package for a little gift or stocking stuffers? Why not use up some of that ancient printed paper or cardstock that you have laying around? (Admit it, you have stuff that you bought because it was on sale and have never used...)

Try these simple 2-5-7-10 boxes. A full tutorial can be found HERE at Splitcoast Stampers.

Each of these were made with a single 81/2 x 11" sheet of double sided cardstock. This particular paper was in a bulk pack from Costco that I have had forever. The stamp is from SU, cut circles out of coordinating cs with my Cricut. Used a length of twill ribbon threaded through holes to fasten the top.

I needed these to be a bit taller, so I used a 12x11" sheet of Costco cardstock, used the same score measurements of 2-5-7-10 along the 11" side, and altered the score lines on the 12" side to 2" and 10 1/2" (see tutorial). I cut the tags with my Cricut and Storybook cartridge, used CTMH stamps C1427 I Believe and C1379 Holiday Commentary with gold embossing powder. To make the fastener for these, I threaded a loop of stretchy gold cord through a pierced hole, and knotted it at the inside so it stays. The loop can be hooked around a gold brad to keep the top closed. Embellished with a bit of gold ribbon, a bit of bling and some punched pine branches.

I think both sizes turned out pretty nice, and these came together very quickly.

Best of all, they were made from stuff I had in my stash!

Merry Christmas!

Lorrinda

Holiday Dough!

2010-12-23T08:34:00.001-07:00

I have a nephew who is saving his money for a school trip to Quebec, and his mom told me he wanted cash for Christmas. Well, that's just boring. Not the cash part, who doesn't like cash? But I think he should get some presents to open. I found this adorable little poem by fellow CTMH consultant Theresa Dodd, and I just had to use it!

(Click the pic to get a closeup view)

Theresa's project used rolled up dollar bills (which made for a really nice fat presentation), but here in Canada the smallest paper money we have is a $5 bill, so I got creative with the $1 coins and added some candy to fill the box.

The clear box is recycled packaging I found in my stash. The candies are Hershey's kisses and Mint Candy cane balls. Now he'll have a present to unwrap with the rest of the kids. This should keep him busy unwrapping his money for a while, don't you think?

Merry Christmas!
Lorrinda

Gift Card Presents

2010-12-22T16:45:00.001-07:00

I love gift cards! I know many people think they are a cop out, last minute, haven't-put-any-thought-into-it gift...but for those on our list who have everything and are hard to buy for, they are always perfect.

I came up with a cute way to package those gift cards:

The one on the left is how it looks closed, the right one is open. This way they still get a present to "open"!

These are very simple to make:

Start with a piece of cardstock 5"x12"

Score along long side at 5" and 10"

Fold along score lines

Embellish as desired, I used a velcro dot to hold it closed.

That's it! I whipped these two up in about 15 minutes using retired CTMH Evensong paper pack.

I'm going to share this over at Heart 2 Heart, where the last challenge of the year is an easy one...a Christmas card!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Lorrinda

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

2010-12-17T07:59:00.002-07:00

My daughter's class is having their Christmas party today, and I was asked to bring something sweet. Finally! The last couple of class parties I was assigned veggies or fruit...boring! What kid is going to eat veggies when there is sweet stuff around? Sweet stuff is so much more fun to make, and to eat!

These were very easy to make. I started with 2 dozen cupcakes, and 2 dozen cake balls shaped into cones. When the cupcakes were warm out of the oven, I used the bottom of a shot glass to press holes in the center, then let them cool. The cake ball cones were placed into the holes to form the base of the tree. Then I just spread white frosting around the edges, and piped green frosting onto the cone shape with an open star tip. Sprinkled on some colored balls and placed a little candy star on top.

Only took me 30 minutes to frost these, and aren't they cute?

Thanks for visiting my blog,

Lorrinda