Lone Wolf Designs Showcase: Lawn Fawn's Lawn Cuts

Happy Friday, people! Am I excited for the weekend - we are going to the lake! Woohoo! It's supposed to be all of 60 degrees today but hey, lake time is lake time is lake time. :) 

Today I am up on the Lone Wolf Designs blog - I was so excited to try out Lawn Fawn's Lawn Cuts! These are 100% steel dies, made in the USA, and they coordinate perfectly with several of the Lawn Fawn stamp sets! If you've been to my blog before, you know I love Lawn Fawn. I met Kelly Marie at Scrapfest last year (at the Mall of America in Bloomington MN). She is the sweetest and her class was SUPER fun! Needless to say it didn't take much to entice me to expand my Lawn Fawn 'collection'... :)

Recently Kris asked for feedback and some posters suggested they'd like to see more altered items, so I decided to use my new Lawn Fawn stuff to decorate an old clipboard. 

St. Vincent de Paul, 80 cents. Yup, 80 cents. This is rural Wisconsin.

Then I chose some pretty Lawn Fawn papers. These are actually holiday papers. Go figure, right??

Lawn Fawn fa la la papers, perfect for more than just holidays!

 Once I cut the sizes, I rounded the edges with my trusty corner chomper. LOVE that tool.

We R Memories corner chomper

 Then I had to decide what to do with that ugly clip on top. I thought the gunked-up part would come off, but it was some sort of funky glued mess that I could NOT scrape off. So, paint to the rescue! 

Raided the kid's craft drawer. Yes, yes I did. I bought it!

 I know, the first coat is never that pretty. You just have to keep going. :)

Holding on to the faith that it will look prettier in a couple of coats.

 While it dried, I thought of ideas to further camouflage the ick. Ribbon flower to the rescue! Confession: I haven't bought glue dots. Like, EVER. I make my own using parchment paper and Aileen's tack it over and over glue. I even made a little book for them that you can see here. :)

Don't use waxed paper. Trust me. PARCHMENT.

 I didn't have any large dots left, so I pulled out the large sheet from my glue dot book and poured the glue. The advantage of making your own is making them any size you desire! FYI, you want the glue evenly spread - no holes, but also not super thick unless you don't mind a longer drying time.

lovely glue dots

 Since I had the glue out I checked my glue dots book and realized I needed a few more medium sized ones. It may be hard to tell in the photo, but there's one dry glue dot on the page - top right hand corner. :)

make sure you put these to dry where kids and pets can't get at them. Or else you will have delighted children and/or very irritated pets. :)

 Then while I was waiting for everything to dry, I found the stamps I wanted to use. Aren't those hot air balloons adorable??? It's too bad that I am terrible at allergic to coloring, but a few My Mind's Eye scraps and I was in business.

Lawn Fawn Blue Skies stamp set

 Choosing how to align the patterns is the most fun!

 Pretty, no?

I think so. :) This is the larger of the 2 balloon stamps.

 Then I got busy with the little banner stamp. I love that stamp!!

Washi tape is a prefect low-tack way to adhere your dies to your image to make sure it
doesn't move. Just use the tapes that are not your favorites. :)
These are the coordinating Blue Skies Lawn Cuts. 

 The Lawn Cuts are super easy to use. Just stamp the image, line up the die along your stamped edge, tack it down so it doesn't shift, and run it through your machine!

Super easy to line up!

 Meanwhile, the board was shaping up...

Pink twine for extra contrast.

 I went to town on the clouds. It never hurts to cut extra; I'm sure I will use them!

So many cute little lawn cuts...

And the next day....

The glue dots had dried. I checked them about 22 hours in and they were dry, so they may have been done sooner. Drying time depends on the weather as well; I've noticed high humidity means they will take longer to dry. You know when they are done because they turn clear. 

Ready for use!

 Time to start the ribbon flower! Knot the end of your ribbon and trim off most of the excess - not all of it. Leave a tiny tail.

You can knot the end as many times as you want. It depends on how thick you want your flower middle.

 Smoosh that tail right down in the middle of the glue dot. You don't want to see it!

Just smoosh it. Trust me.

 Then start winding and twisting. Tack the ribbon down into the glue every little bit; you can twist as much or as little as you like. You can make a puffy flower if you leave it looser; mine generally turn out fairly flat because I like them twisted a lot.

Shaping up!

Once you have most of the glue dot covered, cut a tiny tail. Tuck it behind the glue dot and then run your fingers around the glue dot, smooshing it behind your ribbon.  It's sticky, yes, but not crazy so.

See how pretty that is? And super duper easy! 3 minutes start to finish, seriously.

  Once you have your ribbon flower adhered, you can use your nail or a bone folder to poke ribbon over any exposed glue. 

Kind of a shabby chic vibe, no?

 I decided to outline the clipboard in twine. A) because it's pretty and b) because I cut the one side slightly short and I didn't like seeing the exposed edge. I'm one of those "fudge! I have to fix my mistakes and I'm not throwing this one out!" crafters. Sorry, people.

Taking shape!

Voila! I sparkled up the clouds and used adhesive tape on some of the clouds. I think this may end up as a gift for my oldest daughter with a cute little notepad (a shorter one) tucked under the clip. :)

What do you think? 

Altering item ideas:

• Look anywhere and everywhere for items you can alter, not just in stores. Look around your home - I bet you could find a box, a pail, an old candy tin that you could alter. How about a notebook? 
• If you're new to altering items, go for easy and inexpensive to try first. Once you see how easy it is - and FUN - then go shopping for shadowboxes and frames. 
• Consider non-traditional items, as well - how about empty containers? I've seen great things on pinterest with old jars, empty tea bottles, etc. Just remove the labels and get creative!
• Dollar stores and the dollar section at Target are great places to browse for inexpensive ideas. Thrift stores are also good options; if you don't thrift, odds are you know someone who does. Ask that person to keep an eye out for you - but a) be specific in what you are looking for, b) note your budget and c) only ask someone you trust NOT to buy you a whole bag of stuff or who might just keep 'finding you things' once you've said "uncle." :)
• Altered items can be a great mix of crafting tools - use whatever you have in your arsenal (stamps, inks, paper, ribbon/trims, beads, paint, sprays, 3D items, etc).
• Don't scrimp on quality adhesives - you don't want to put something together only to have it fall apart! 
• Altered items make fantastic gifts! Spread the love with a personalized frame or a trinket box. 

You can find these and many more products for your crafting projects at 25% off MSRP at Lone Wolf Designs, LLC. All you have to do is join the Lone Wolf Designs Discount Craft Group Facebook group. If you haven’t joined us yet, you’re paying too much for your craft supplies!

Thanks for visiting me today - have an amazing weekend! I'm going to take my leftover cloud Lawn Cuts and go make some pretty cards while everyone else fishes. :)

Jen

Lone Wolf Designs product spotlight: Artbin magnetic die case and magnetic sheets

Hey there!

You all know how much I love organization, right? I mean, I even wrote a guest post for Operation Write Home on organizing your craft space... but if you could see my office right now, you'd be shaking your head at me. Yes, I know, best of intentions and life getting in the way and all that aside, I really do LOVE an organized space.

Now, here's the hard part - I am my father's daughter. I will cobble together a CHEAP solution with what I have or can get inexpensively and a lot of the time, it works fabulously and I could care less that it's not pretty and all pinterest-y. Case in point: I use shoe boxes (sans lids) to organize socks, tights, bathing suits, etc in dresser drawers. It's cheap and it works great. I use shoe boxes and smaller boxes a lot in my craft room drawers because of my super deep drawers!

So when I started buying all these wonderful Spellbinders dies, I looked around (read: googled and asked blog friends) how to best organize them. The one idea I really liked was to take empty CD cases, adhere a strip of magnetic adhesive, and label them. It was easy, pretty inexpensive, and I could easily grow my collection this way without a lot of cost to organize them.

Now, in my office I have these really deep drawers:

I know. They not intended for crafting storage, but they are built in so I work with what I have.

And yes, you are seeing shoe boxes inside, because it totally works to keep things organized. Right now the dies and the embossing folders (I'm not that good. I recently decluttered and sold a whole bunch!) share a shoe box.

I label the outsides with the titles so I can easily see what I am grabbing.

But this is the problem: the dies slide around. The magnetic strips in several are loose or completely falling off of the plastic. I've had them fall out as I put cases back into the drawer because the CD lid is slightly broken or they are 'off' and one die doesn't adhere well. 

They just don't stick well, and the cases are slowly breaking over time because I use these dies a LOT. And you know what? It's kind of hard to repair a CD case. And it's not worth replacing, really.

This is how they looked as I took them out of the drawer and laid them down for a photo. Nice, huh?

And this one? The largest die doesn't fit in the case, so I've kept it tucked away. I'm quite frankly kind of amazed that I haven't warped or dented it because, you know, things happen (read: kids get into mommy's stuff) and these dies are pretty thin. 

It's just not a great solution. It worked well at first, but now... not so much.

So I was very excited to see that Kris of Lone Wolf Designs can order the Artbin magnetic die case and sheets. I read some reviews online and they were overwhelmingly positive, so I thought I'd give it a try. I don't mind spending money on a better solution when it helps me not lose things or damage them. It doesn't make sense to me to spend a bunch of money on GOOD crafting supplies and then not take care of them.

This is the case, which comes with a set of 3 sheets and you can order additional packs of 3 sheets.

The case with the starter sheets.

An additional sheet pack. No surprise, I'm going to need more!

WOW. You should see (and feel) these sheets. They are THICK and have a real heft to them. They are very magnetic and my dies didn't move at all once I put them on the sheets!

I went back to my post-it notes to make labels for the sheets. I didn't want to write on the sheets themselves (what if I sell a set or two later on?). A tiny touch of scotch tape to make sure the label doesn't fall off and it's all set!

They fit very securely in the case.

Loving how they don't slide around!

This case has a very sturdy base with feet so it can easily stand as well. 

To open and close the case, you slide those copper latches on top.
Genius, right? No cheap latches that will break off later!

There's a lot of room in here for multiple sheets, which is great because I want need more dies. 

Best of all, I won't lose one due to it falling out and getting dented or bent because I didn't notice it falling... and that pretty, clear cover is just dying for a vinyl label. Now I just need to convince a crafty friend with some electronic die cutting thing to make me a pretty label... :)

Recently Tami also reviewed some Sizzix folders that she used to organize her dies. If you don't think my system will work for you, be sure to see how she put hers in order. :)

You can find these and many more products for your crafting projects at 25% off MSRP at Lone Wolf Designs, LLC. All you have to do is join the Lone Wolf Designs Discount Retail Sales Facebook Group. If you haven't joined us yet, you are paying too much for your craft supplies!

Jen

OWH MWT and a BIG announcement! :)

There; hopefully I've lured you in.. and now I shall get on with the card first. :) 

It's Operation Write Home mid-week throwdown time and the challenge this week is masculine cards. Well, I was out of town on Sunday and never got around to sketch 180 when I returned, so here you go - a two-fer:

Paper - MME Stella & Rose
Card stock - PTI smokey shadow
Hero Arts for OWH sentiment
CTMH gray ink

What made this card much more difficult was forgetting to mat that rust-colored piece (I couldn't leave it. It didn't look right). I sliced off a couple of very thin strips of card stock, added a little liquid adhesive, and slapped 'em down (all in a calm, easy manner, mind you) and voila - I bet you couldn't even tell I had to fudge it. :)

And now for the BIG NEWS - I'm on the Lone Wolf Designs Design Team! Kris is the owner of Lone Wolf Designs LLC - here is her facebook link - and she provides crafting supplies at 25% off retail! Seriously, go check it out. I know how I love a good deal! Be on the lookout as I share some projects using the products she carries (Lawn Fawn, anyone?). 

Today was highly productive... I took the kids to the zoo for a free and up-close-and-personal look at "underground creatures", including some very reptilian ones. It will not surprise those of you that know me that I feigned an urgent bathroom need when they brought out the snakes... *shudder*.  Then I engaged my daughter and her friend in some child labor life skills (hulling strawberries with my super-duper cool and you will want one too strawberry huller and then mashing them); made jam, and then made pretzels with the girls once the friend went home. I can't decide if the cinnamon-sugar or plain ones are my favorite... with plenty of kosher salt!

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen