HALLOWEEN CANVAS BOARD AND PAPER SALE.

BOO AND TRICK OR TREAT DAY IS COMING and I found such a great deal on the Close to My Heart "While Supplies Last" sale! 

I made a cute 6x6 canvas display board (from CTMH), painted it bright orange, covered it with some of the Spellbound paper and some little felt "Hooligans" from last year's while supplies last sale, added some of our black tulle, a ribbon, gems and a ruffle of our For Always textiles. I modpodged over all the papers too.

The SPELLBOUND paper pack (18 sheets of paper) is on sale for only $2.20!!  Yup, you heard it right! $2.20 for 18 sheets of gorgeous Fall and Halloween inspired papers. The photo in the above link does not do it justice.  Plus, the papers are more orange than the browns it shows on the website picture.  I took a few pictures of my papers. Here they are:

And these are BLACK, not browns!  Everything is a vivid orange and black, white and black, etc. No browns, even though my camera even makes these papers look brown.  You get:

12 – 12" × 12" Cardstock Sheets (3 Black, 4 Sunset, 4 Slate, 1 White Daisy) 
6 – 12" × 12" B&T Duos® Papers (2 each of 3 double-sided designs)

Here are the cardstock colors:

  

 

I'm so excited to make some Halloween and Fall cards with this paper!  It is so beautiful "in person". It's well worth the price for just the cardstock! I never have enough black, and I love the slate!

Have fun! (don't we always??????)

 

YUMMY GLUTEN FREE SOURDOUGH PANCAKES!

Hi all, It's time for another wonderful gluten free recipe! My husband's delicious gluten free sourdough pancakes... and they are oh so good!

I've put the recipe on recipe cards if you want to print them out.

Here's the recipe. The "starter" can be used for other yummy delights, such as muffins, rolls, bread, biscuits. I haven't been able to get my husband to try gluten free sourdough bread yet but I'll keep urging him as I had to with these pancakes.

There you have it!  These are really not hard to make. It takes a crock with lid, a medium bowl and a small bowl. Be sure to never use metal bowls or spoons! My husband says it ruins the starter.

Now we have to try  making some gluten free sourdough rolls. That is my next favorite thing (or used to be when I could still eat wheat). I think hubby tried them once with regular sourdough but they turned out like hockey pucks!   

Sure hope you try these if you have to eat gluten free.  There is nothing like a sweet/tart sourdough pancake with pure maple syrup and a little sprinkle of powdered sugar!

SUMMER FLOWERS REMINISCE.

Sadly, Summer is coming to an end.............. I love Fall and the golden days... but I'm missing my colorful summer flowers!

It's time to travel down memory lane, and visit some of my old friends of summers past.  Here's Crocosmia from last year, being visited by our local hummingbird!

These are one of my all-time favorites! The vivid oranges brighten up my summer yard... and keep me company way into the Fall.

I like to reminisce about flowers of my past, like this stunning Iris!

My son gave me three Iris bulbs a few years ago, and although I had to leave them at my previous house, I have this picture to remind me of their beauty.

Geranium hanging baskets graced my last house entry gate. I hope to have hanging baskets next year although I don't have any gates where I live now.  I LOVE garden gates!

One of my old friends, Queen Anne's Lace, grew in profusion along the road to my last home. I have loved these flowers since my childhood.  Isn't Mother Nature amazing?

My last home was in a very wet climate (SW Washington). I didn't think I would see any here in dry central Oregon, but there are actually a few peaking their stately heads up in my little backyard viola flower bed!  

Every Fall, it seems I find myself drawn to my flowers of previous years. They are like old friends that I like to visit every now and then.  I'm glad I've taken tons of pictures!

I didn't have too many flowers this year since we've only been here a year, so I depended on what was already here!  There are lots of wildflowers in my front flower bed.... which are just now saying hello to me!

I tucked in a little green plastic tray that I found at our Rhubarb Festival for 50 cents!  I keep it filled with water and the birds and bees love it.

Oh my.. one of the last pink carnations that is hanging on to the very last minute of summer!

It is really hard to keep flowers around for very long, as the local deer love browsing here for their midnight snacks!  This flower pot (below) used to have really glorious blooms!

 

........until mama and her baby came by for a delicious snack. One morning, she was standing practically ON my deck, munching away at EVERYTHING!

I tried hanging tin foil on a post in my flowers, and also draped foil over my pots. It seems to help.  I sprinkled some of my marigolds with chili powder, thinking it would keep the deer away, but all I did was kill the blooms! (duh....).

It's been a few weeks now since the last deer foray, and a few flowers have managed to begin forming new blossoms.  I'm glad the deer left me "something" to look at!

I also have a few survivors on my back deck, because every night, I drag the pots back right next to my house.  I did this after catching a deer right in my fenced backyard, happily munching away at my strawberries in a pot on the edge of the deck!

My lone back deck survivor - Begonias and daisies.

 

I will savor this lone pot for the rest of the summer!

I hope I have a few more days to enjoy my lovely summer flowers...... until the frost hits, which should be soon.  In this neck of the woods, some of our nights have already hit 32 degrees!

When they are gone for another year, I'll continue to reminisce about my old friends of summers past.

CUTE "FROSTED" CARDS.

Just wanted to do a quick post to show you a couple of darling Christmas cards using the new FROSTED papers and the September Stamp of the Month,  POSTER TIDINGS.

This card uses our Slate Satin Polka Dot Ribbon. One of my favorites!

This card is made using the Colonial White Die Cut Card.

On the top card, you can see how just part of the stamp was used. I love that idea!

These cute cards were made by Gina Brandstetter, a fellow CTMH consultant, at Gina's Little Corner of Stampin Heaven. You can view the stamp set on my September 5th post, or on Gina's blog link above.  Thank you Gina for the cute ideas!  I also love how she put a "ribbon" and a "bow" on the top card where the words "ribbons and bows" were on the stamp. Oh so clever!

Many of the Close to My Heart consultants have blog hops highlighting the different new papers. If you would like to see more ideas, search for "CTMH Frosted" (for example, or any of the new papers) on google or most search engines. This is a great way to find neat ideas for projects and cards.

If you have any questions about how these cards were made, let me know and I can help you with the cuts and designs.
 

REDISCOVER CTMH - FREE SEPTEMBER DOWNLOAD.

Simply Awesome! A free download each month from Close to My Heart!  

As I posted ON MY BLOG HERE ON AUGUST 8th, each month, for the next year, Close to My Heart is going to be offering a FREE EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD .... as their way to shout it out and promote this wonderful company!  There will be specially designed, colorful gift tags, notepaper, home décor, and more!   I will post it here on my blog the first of each month.  AND DID I SAY FREE???? We love free stuff, right?

DOWNLOAD FOR SEPTEMBER:

Click HERE FOR THE SEPTEMBER DOWNLOAD which will take you to the Close to My Heart Website.  The link to the eCard is under the Rediscover blue box on the CTMH website.
 
Have a blast with this neat download! And be sure to subscribe to my blog posts (upper right at top of column) to receive notice of each new download!
 
 

YOU ARE MY HAPPY - Stamp set Video.

As promised, here is the Close to My Heart Video on the September special TRIPLE "You are My Happy" stamp set and some sweet ideas for using it:

Hope you enjoy this! As usual, you will need to go to my "real" blog to view this video. To do that, click on my "Pink Paper Cottage" name at the top of this post.

This special September TRIPLE You are My Happy stamp set can be purchased for just $10 when you purchase $50 in Close to My Heart products (during September only) from this Autumn/Winter 2013 IDEA BOOK.

Have fun!

 

FRUGAL CRAFTING IDEAS - PART 3.

Here's another fun and thrifty idea for your crafty projects. Use bits of wools, wool felt or blanket scraps.

I like to use bits of my wool felt for little flowers or cutouts like hearts, stars, birds, etc.

I used to live really close to a Pendleton Woolen Mill in Washington. I would go there and buy a big bag of wool scraps for $3.00! Then I would take it home and wash the scraps in hot water, then dry them on a really hot temperature. That would "felt" the wool so it was kind of thick and fuzzy.  

Sometimes you can find bags of wool scraps at thrift stores or yard sales. It doesn't have to be felted. You can do that yourself. 

Or how about using pieces cut off from wool blanket scraps?

 
I was THRILLED to find a bag of Pendleton wool scraps from old blankets at a thrift store for $3.00!  Any old pieces of wool blankets would work just fine.  I would NEVER cut up a full blanket, but finding the Pendleton woolen blanket scraps was like finding gold!

I made some little western tags using little bits of the Pendleton wool blanket scraps:

I used little cowboy buttons that I got at a fabric store ON SALE for $2.00!

One more thrifty thing to look for is jewelry and pearls! You can cut the pearls apart and glue them on individually... on your page layouts, cards or tags, and use the little pearls as centers for your flowers.

I found these strands of pearls for just 50 cents at a thrift store. I love the bronze tinge on some of them.

Enjoy searching for those frugal finds!

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CLOSE TO MY HEART SEPTEMBER SPECIALS!

OK everyone. Close to My Heart is having TWO September specials! One is the Stamp of the Month, and the other is to celebrate NATIONAL STAMPING MONTH.

First, here is the AWESOME Stamp of the Month - POSTER TIDINGS, yours for only $5.00 with your product order of $50.  RETAIL VALUE OF THIS STAMP SET IS $17.95 and it is only available in September, 2013.  Isn't this just darling? 

Of course, as always, if you just want the stamp set alone, you CAN order it on its own without purchasing anything else!

Here is the Close to My Heart video which shows you some creative ways to use this stamp set: (you will have to go to my actual "real" blog to view this video... you probably can't view it here from your email inbox).

OK....next............. drum roll please!!!!!!!!!!  Close to My Heart has another special in September! They are offering a TRIPLE stamp set (You are My Happy) for only $10 to celebrate Nat'l Stamping Month!  This is such a cute set. Full retail value is $47.90! And it is yours for only $10 with a $50 purchase from CTMH. 

Look at the cute sayings!

I know.. that's ALOT of stamp sets! But who doesn't love 'em?  I sure do.  I'll be posting a CTMH video in the next couple of days with some sweet ideas for using this You are My Happy stamp set.

And for sure, having an alphabet stamp set with upper and lower case letters for under $10, is a dream come true!

Enjoy September and these wonderful offers from Close to My Heart.