A couple of pumpkin layouts...a la Studio J

It's a beautiful fall day in in east central Alberta, did I spend it frolicking in the leaves with my kids? No. I spent the afternoon detailing my SUV (hey, it probably won't get done again until spring) I drive a Santa Fe, not sure if that's an actual SUV, but it's not a car, or a van, it's one of those crossover thingies. We call it Steve...if you've seen "Over the Hedge" you'll get it. ("I'd feel better if I just knew what to call it, so I'm naming it Steve!"  bonus points if you know who said it.) Anyway, it's now nice and shiny and smells of leather cleaner.  Life is good.
The gorgeous sunshine today reminded me of the October days we took the kids on a pumpkin hunt with their cousins. I have a couple of layouts to share. Would you believe these are digital? Done with CTMH Studio J website:

(click on the pic to get a larger view)

Those 2 in the middle of the 5x7 on the lower right page are mine :)

They were sure cute when they were little.

There they are again, on the right end of the log this time, only they got bigger.

Great thing about Studio J, not only did these layouts get done super fast, these papers which coordinate with the photos so nicely are no longer available. They have been retired from the CTMH catalog, but you can still use them in Studio J!  There are also exclusive Studio J papers and patterns which are not available anywhere else.

Give Studio J a try, it's FREE. Yep, I said FREE. You can access it HERE, and you can play with it until you're happy with your layouts. There are no charges until you order prints, which get delivered to your door, in fabulous archival quality. Pricing starts at $15.00 per 2 page layout, with discounts for purchase of a membership such as $7.00 per 2 page layout (that's just $3.50 per page, I couldn't print my photos for that, let alone a 12x12 layout!) which includes .jpg files for archiving, free page protectors and free shipping.

If you haven't tried Studio J yet, what have you got to lose? It's free to play! I suggest creating an account when it asks you, no charges- you just set up a user name and password which allows you to save your layouts and come back to them later. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can create gorgeous scrapbook layouts, with no mess to clean up.

Thanks for visiting my blog;

Lorrinda

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my readers, I'd like to wish a very Happy Thanksgiving. If you're not Canadian, you probably don't celebrate Thanksgiving in October, but we do, and it's been an absolutely perfect weekend for it. The sun is shining, the leaves are falling, and it's 22C degrees outside (nicer than it's been most of the summer here in Alberta) Last night we had stuffed turkey breast with all the fixings, and Mom's homemade buns. Not quite the traditional turkey supper, but there were only 6 of us so we decided not to do the big turkey this year. Still, turkey with stuffng is my absolute favorite meal, no matter how it's prepared!

The challenge at Heart to Heart today is to incorprate anything to do with leaves and or trees. How fitting, since we spent most of yesterday raking the leaves from under the now bare trees in our front yard. I couldn't decide, so I made one of each.

First, the trees:

I masked the center panel, then sponged inks in bamboo and gray flannel on it. Then I stamped the little trees in gray flannel, garden green and olive to make it look like they are in the distance. Next, I removed the mask, and stamped the big tree in new england ivy over the whole thing. I distressed and inked the edges, then used a piercer to make holes to thread the hemp through in a cross-stitch design on the corners. It was matted onto olive cardstock, then put on a blank A2 card base. I did the corner of a matching envelope to go along with it. I like this card, it's simple to make and flat so it's easy to mail.  I made some with different sentiments...thank you, sympathy, and christmas.

And, one using leaves:

This one was fun. I wanted to have the leaves multicolored, so I used a puddle pad technique. What is a puddle pad you ask? It's a technique I found on a CTMH TV Art and Soul episode, you can view the video HERE to learn how to do this ink technique. It's a bit messy, but very easy and I am thrilled with how the leaves turned out. I stamped the leaves onto colonial white cs, added the veins in desert sand ink, then sponged cocoa and honey around the edges. Stamped the sentiment, then mounted it onto cocoa cs with the corners punched. Add a few more mats and some ribbon, and the main image is popped up on 3D foam squares to give it some dimension.

I can't decide which one I like better, so I am entering both of these cards for this week's challenge at H2H.

Thanks for visiting my blog,

Lorrinda

All product from CTMH unless stated,

Recipe for tree card:

Stamps: D1298 Beautiful Things (trees)

            D1400 Everyday Celebration (sentiment)

Cardstock: White Daisy and Olive

Inks: Olive, New England Ivy, Bamboo, Gray Flannel

Hemp

Paper piercer

Recipe for leaves card:

Stamps: D1232 Nature's Vein (leaves)

             C1424 Nature's Gift (sentiment)

Cardstock: Cocoa, Honey, Barn Red, Colonial White

Inks: Barn Red, Honey, Orange, Cocoa, Desert Sand

Cocoa grosgrain ribbon

(Corner punch from SU)

Mary's giving away birthday candy!

If you follow the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog, you know Mary. She's the host of the blog, and she's celebrating a special birthday this month (one with a zero on the end). To celebrate, she's giving away this blog candy to one lucky follower:

Pop on over to one of her blogs, On Life and Creating or Ridiculous Lab, and wish her a happy birthday. While you're there, browse around and leave her some love, then enter to win!
Happy Birthday Mary!

A Thankful Month!

In Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October, and I have a lot to be thankful for this month!

First, my beautiful family. That's a given! It's a beautiful fall day and I think we'll go out and  rake play in the leaves. My kids are growing up so fast, I remember when they were little and a pile of leaves would keep them amused for hours. I'll be lucky to get their "help" raking for 10 minutes today, they'll want to be at the playground with their friends.

Second, my blog followers has hit 100! When I started this blog in January of this year, I really was thinking it would be used as a place to post my pics to enter challenges. I never dreamed that I would meet so many wonderful and talented people here in blog land, let alone get so many visitors who would want to follow along with me. Thank you all so much for your visits and your comments. They are truly appreciated!

Third, Mary from Heart 2 Heart has invited me to be the Guest Design Team member for this month! Wow!
I have been following the CTMH challenge blog since day one, and I have found so much inspiration from the Design Team and the creative gals who play along each week. I am thrilled to be a part of the H2H blog and just hope that I can give back in some way for all the ideas I have found at H2H. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of the DT for October!

And, on that last note, the challenge at H2H this week is to create a birthday project of any kind.  In keeping with the thankful theme of this post, I want to post a birthday card I made for someone who I am very thankful for...my Mother.  This is a very special card I made for her 65th birthday.

you can click on the pictures to get a larger view if you would like to read the text.

It's more than a card, it's a booklet of world events and pop culture in the year she was born.

It required a bit of research, but it was SO worth it for her reaction! 

She passed it around to everyone, and even took it to work to share with the staff.

I have made these birthday books before,

if you're interested, I posted a very long tutorial with research links HERE.

If you have a birthday coming up that you need a card for, pull out your CTMH supplies and create something fabulous! Then hop on over to the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog and share it for this week's challenge. If you're stuck for ideas, just check out what the uber-talented H2H Design Team and challenge players have for you, there is always inspiration to be found at H2H.

So Thankful for all of you who are

following my blog and leaving comments!

Sending cyber-hugs!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

CTMH products:

Silhouette Level 2 paper pack

Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks stamp pad

Z2103 Bamboo Exclusive Inks stamp pad

Z1218 Brads basic Assortment

Z1243 Pewter spirals

Z1300 Just Blooms White Daisy Variety pack

Colonial White Organdy Ribbon

Pewter Eyelets 

Connections club charms

No stamps on this one :(

other supplies:

Ice stickles

pewter heart brads and cherub charm from my stash

Text done in MS Word 

H2H ABC Challenge

I really wanted to play along with the ABC challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week.

The rules this week are:
A...use an ALPHABET stamp or stickers
B...it must be for a BOY
C...must have the color CHOCOLATE in it

I didn't think I'd have time, so I revived THIS old scrap project that fit with the requirements, and entered it.


Is that cheating? Submitting an old project that wasn't actually made for this challenge? It feels like it, so I found a few minutes to create this card for my nephew who has a birthday coming up:

Recipe:

All product CTMH

Pattern paper from Good Times paper pack

Cardstock in Chocolate, Twilight, White daisy

Stamps: D1432 X-treme

                                     C1263 Charm upper case alpha

                                   C1265 Charm lower case alpha

Inks in Chocolate, Twilight, Sweet Leaf and Buttercup

Techniques: Sponged background, 2nd generation stamping, torn edges

No embellishments! I tried ribbon and brads but they just looked funny on this boy card.

My conscience is clear now,

I've entered a new original project for this week's challenge, 

and got a card done that I actually need.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Lorrinda