Count Your Blessings

I decided to do a throw down challenge card, and use

• the sketch for the CAS83 challenge at Splitcoat stampers,

• the colors from the H2H color challenge which are

•  and the first stamp I saw in my craft room (which happened to be this a tree stamp because it was still on my table from the last card I made)

If you tend to overthink your cards like I do, you should try a throw down challenge too! Grab a sketch, pick 3 colors, and reach into your stamp box with your eyes closed.  See what happens, you may be pleasantly surprised!

This card took 11 minutes from start to finish...

Recipe:

All product CTMH

Tree stamp: B1319 Four Sesons

Sentiment: D1312 November Word Puzzle (retired)

Ink pads in Autumn Terracotta, New England Ivy, and Honey

White Daisy cardstock in textured and smooth

Sponges and adhesive runner

Thanks for visiting!
Lorrinda

Warm and Fuzzy

I feel like a fraud.

I need to come clean.

I lied on my last post about the products I used to make this card:

Well, it wasn't a TOTAL lie...I did use a product called Flower Soft, which is a wonderful product from the U.K. available now in many North American craft supply stores and HERE.

 

Making this card, I discovered something about myself. 

 I am impatient and cheap.

Which explains why, when I found that I didn't have any green Flower Soft, which was imperative for me to execute my card as I envisioned, I had a mini PMS meltdown, because I live in the middle of NOWHERE and how was I supposed to finish my card? I can't just run to the closest craft super store (3 hours drive), and online order deliveries take at least a week! What's a crafty girl to do?

I improvised.

And, I discovered a thrifty little trick: I can make my own!!!

Because I love my blog readers, I am going to share with you.

I love the poem "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." Don't you?

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN FUZZY FLUFF

(That's what I decided to call it)

Take a scrap of cardstock...

(I don't wish to offend any CTMH purists, but white core cs doesn't work as well for this)

roll it up tight:

Then get your grater:

I found this one at IKEA, because I know someone will ask. It comes with 2 sizes of graters (I used the small holes), a container that snaps onto the grater and a lid. It is awesome! I've had it in my kitchen for 3 years and never used it once....this baby is staying in my craft room!

Rub that rolled up scrap of cs across the grater a few times,

and you get this:

Beautiful Fuzzy Fluff!

TIP: Turn off the ceiling fan, or any other source of air movement in the room. Ask me how I know this.

Now, this stuff isn't exactly the same as Flower Soft.  Here's a closeup to show the difference:

The stuff on the left is mine, on the right is the Flower Soft.

It is plastic, and spikier.

But on this card I used both, and I bet you couldn't tell until I pointed it out, could you?

To adhere it to your project, just put dabs of a liquid glue wherever you want the stuff to stick.

I used CTMH Liquid Glass, because it's the best, but you can use white school glue too. You don't need much.

This Fuzzy Fluff is free, and you can make any color you want! You could store it in a jar if you want to, but I just make enough to use when I need it. I have plenty of scraps, I can always make more...

Now go forth and FUZZIFY!

Thanks for visiting my little blog,

Lorrinda

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EDITED TO ADD: 

I received a lovely message from Michelle at Pink Paper Paradise,

she started a weekly linky party with this post!

You should check out her new Make it Monday NON-challenge linky party!

 Link up your own creations, ideas and tutorials and inspire others with no challenge rules or deadlines. 

Check out the links for some great ideas and inspiration.

Happy blog hopping!

 

OLW18 Trees

I have been following a blog called Simplicity for quite some time now. You may know Late Blossom's work on Split Coast Stampers, she is the queen of CAS(Clean and Simple) cards. You can check out her gallery HERE.
I have always loved her simple style, but whenever I try to copy it I end up going overboard and end up with something not so clean and simple. 
Well, Late Blossom has a weekly challenge called One Layer Wednesday, and in order to groom a clean and simple style, I will need to challenge myself. So I finally decided to jump in and play along with her challenges.

This week, the OLW challenge is to use a tree stamp.
Here's what I ended up with,

I used  a CTMH stamp set B1319 Four Seasons, black ink, Flower Soft stuck on with Liquid Glass, and a scrap of black hemp because I thought it looked bare without it (Hello,CAS challenged, remember?) I think I could really get to like this CAS thing, this card took all of 10 minutes to make. The glue isn't even dry in this picture. I just want to spend less time on my cards and more time on my scrapbooks. Afterall, most people will toss a card after it starts to collect dust. Not me, but most people.

But the best part is the cheesy sentiment inside. 

I thought about stamping it, but didn't feel like piecing together all those letters, and printing it out from the computer would make it a 2 layer card, which breaks the rules. So, I handwrote it, even though I don't like my handwriting...Wow, this CAS style is so liberating!

Oh yes I did. The minute I saw this stamp set that song popped into my head. I've been dying to use it.

 I may be dating myself, but I always sing along to James Taylor.  I sing to Lady Gaga too, I'm a cool Mom.

But just to make me feel older than I already do, I have to share this:

On a recent summer road trip, I was singing along to Bon Jovi "Living on a Prayer", and my 9 yr old Shane whined from the backseat, "Mom, can you pleeeease change the station? I don't like music from the nineteen hundreds!"

My husband thought it was hilarious.  OK, I laughed too...that kid is making me gray.

Thanks for visiting my blog,

Can you believe 3 posts in 3 days?

Lorrinda

H2H Challenge - How fancy are your folds?

I've missed playing along with the H2H challenges this summer!  I've been following along and there have been some fabulous challenges that I really wanted to join in, but I just never seemed to be able to find the time.

I'm baaaack!  I was so happy to send the kids off to school this morning so I could play! The challenge from Heart to Heart this week is to include fancy folds on your project. Not sure if this gatefold can be classified as a "fancy" fold as it is actually very simple...

...so I made the inside fancy to compensate!

Here it is fully open,

Recipe:

All product CTMH

Felicity paper pack (special promo, not available anymore :( so sad, I love these papers)

Stamps D1266 Baby Steps and D1262 Express Postage

"clothesline and pins" out of Waxy Flax in Colonial White

Inks in Twilight, Bamboo, Barn Red and Cocoa

I colored the images using a Blending Pen and ink pads

BabyBlue safety pins hold up the clothesline,

Cuttlebug and Sizzix texture plate in Harlequin for embossed background.

What do you think? Does this qualify as a fancy fold card?

 I'm entering it for this weeks' challenge at H2H anyway!

Thanks for popping by,

Lorrinda

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I wasn't sure this qualified as "fancy folds", but I guess the gals at H2H liked it anyway, because they chose it as one of their Friday Five this week. Thank you so much! I would sure hate to be one of the judges, I don't know how they choose just 5 from all the wonderful entries...

P3 Challenge 9-1-10

First, I'd like to apologize to all of my followers for being absent this summer...it has been busy with the kids at home, and camping, and weddings, and reunions, and shopping for back to school...
I've really mised my crafting time, and now that school has started again and our routine is somewhat back to normal, I hope to get back into my craft room!

Today is Sept.1, and that means a new challenge from Paper Cubed!
The challenge this month is to make a Book Mark!  Here's what I came up with:

Recipe:
CTMH  D1306 Treasure Life My Acrylix Stamp
CTMH  X7090B Silhouette Paper Pack (retired)
CTMH  Z1300 Just Blooms Paper Flowers
CTMH Z1034 Designer Ribbon Rounds Black Collection
CTMH Inks in Z2105 Black, ZZ2163 White Daisy, Z2118 Desert Sand
Spiral clip, Brad and eyelet in pewter

I first stamped a dandylion flower image in white pigment ink onto bamboo cardstock, then I stamped the verse in black ink over top. I matted it onto black cs, then layered it onto a printed background paper, then another piece of black cs. The finished dimension of this book mark is 8cm x 20cm.

I then embellished it with some paper flowers, spiral clip, brad and eyelet. I kept the embellishments fairly flat. I threaded a length of ribbon through the eyelet, and secured it with a very tight black bead.

Join us for this month's challenge! Just pop over to Paper Cubed, check out the rest of the talented design team's fabulous creations for inspiration, and play along! You could win a Martha Stewart punch!

Thank you for hanging around this summer,
Lorrinda