Full Harvest Moon

I've been so busy getting ready for our annual Halloween Party that I haven't had a chance to post anything here this week. Each year we like to make new props to decorate our yard and add to our haunted barn. The last couple of years people have emailed me with funny Halloween photos including a photo of a mooning scarecrow. I always laughed and thought, "one of these years I'm going to have to make one of those!" Well, this was the year. After a few obstacles I finally got him completed and set up yesterday.

We have him standing in our front yard next to the drive way so that passersby can see him and our guests won't miss his full moon! I hope it makes everyone laugh. I think that is the best part about having our Halloween parties each year...all the laughs we get when we see what our family and friends come up with for their costumes.

Next post will be stamping related...but probably still Halloween related. I made some really cute prizes to award those with best costumes, but don't want to share that here yet...I think a few people coming check out my blog once in a while and don't want to ruin the surprise.

Enjoy your weekend!

Batty For Arachnaphobic Autumn Harvest Apparitions on a Spooky Skyline

Now, how's that for a title?! Those are the sets we used last night to create the projects at my October Hostess Club. There was a little bit of whining that the projects I had prepared were too complicated, but in the end I think everyone was happy with their completed projects. Besides, I knew they could handle it!

The first project we did was Jan Tink's Bib Card. I gave everyone a choice of doing either a Halloween or Thanksgiving version. I think the group was pretty much evenly split on their choices. We used the masking technique I described on a card here also using the Autumn Harvest stamp set. Then the images were water colored with ink from the ink pads & the aqua painter - except for the background. To create the soft blended background, we used the stampin' pastels, then went over the entire image with the Weathered background stamp inked in Creamy Caramel. The scoring and cutting involved to make this card is a little tricky, but it is well worth the effort, I think. I'm glad that Jan came up with this cool design and shared how to make it on her blog!

Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Weathered background, Autumn Apparitions (Halloween), Holidays & Wishes (Thanksgiving)

Card stock: Really Rust, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, More Mustard (Thanksgiving) & Elegant Eggplant (Halloween)

Ink: Black Stazon, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip (Thanksgiving) Elegant Eggplant (Halloween) various to watercolor

Accessories: Coluzzel, Scallop punch, 1- 1/4" and 1- 3/8" circle punches & aqua painter

The other projects we did was an cute little box called Qbee's Peek-A-Boo Box filled with M&M's and a pop up candy card. I found the template for this the adorable little box here. It's called a Peek-A-Boo box because when opened it has a window punched out to show the contents inside. The photo below shows the box open. Thanks to Brenda (AKA QBee on SCS) for sharing her awesome template!

The pop up candy card is a design that I fell in love with when Karman, who is now my upline, did a workshop here for me 3 years ago. She taught me how to make it, but I'm not really sure what it is called or who came up with the original idea. It sure is a cute design though! When you pull up on the ribbon the candy inside is revealed. The basic directions for the pop up candy card are as follows:

Cut two pieces of card stock: 4 ¼ x 6 ¼” (for outside of card) & another piece at: 2 ½” x 4 ¼” (inside card)

Stamp pieces of card stock as desired.

Score the outside piece along large edge at: 1 ½”, 1 -3/4”, 4 ¼” & 4 ½”

Fold card and tape along the back overlapping edge. Punch a hole thru both layers at the top middle and thread 14" ribbon through the hole. This will hold inner card plus candy.

To keep our energy up between these projects, we were treated to a delicious pumpkin cake made by this months hostess. Thanks Colleen! She said she would send me the recipe, so when she does I'll share it here. Have a great weekend!

Spooktacular

As promised, here are the other pages we made at my Holiday scrap class this past Friday. (Again, the edges got a bit cut off during the scanning/stitching process) Since we have a Halloween party each year, I never run out of Halloween photos to scrap! Autumn Apparitions is a nice set to create with. The bold images stand out nicely and require no additional coloring so it makes for quick cards and pages. In addition to the Creepy Crawly double-sided designer paper, we created our own designer paper for the background with the help of two textured wheels. First we wheeled the Pumpkin Pie 12x12 card stock with the Rough Around the Edges jumbo wheel inked in Really Rust, then we went over that with the Speckled wheel inked in Basic Black. That made a nice textured background for our Halloween photos.

After stamping the title with Big Deal alphabet, the white card stock was cut away from the inside of the "a's" and the "p" with an exact-o knife or small scissors. Then small scraps of Creepy Crawly paper was adhered on the back to cover the opening. The middle of the "o's" were filled with the moon (which is actually the large pumpkin image from this set) and then the bats and the spiders were added with the help of the stamp-a-ma-jig. After putting this much work into the title, you definitely want to use the SAMJ to make sure the placement is perfect just like the rest of your title!

On the second page, the circle image in the middle is a shaker tag. Halloween confetti was added to the inside for a fun touch. I also did some faux stitching around the edge of the shaker tag...that was a bit tedious because of the circle and not being able to use a template.

Hope you liked seeing the pages we created at the Holiday Scrap Class! If you missed this class, but would like to come over and make these pages, please let me know and we can set up a class for you and a friend. Hope you have a "spooktacular" day!

'Tis the Season

On Friday night I had a holiday scrapbooking class here. We made two 12x12 layouts (2 pages each for a total of 4 pages). One layout was Halloween and the other was Christmas. Today I am going to share the Christmas layout we did. It took me a while to scan and then stitch together each side of these layouts and unfortunately part of the layout is cut off and looks kind of crooked...but I've lost my patience for trying to mess with it any further. Just wanted you to know that in real life these aren't crooked and there is more of a border at the top and bottom of each page. I also noticed after scanning that I didn't write my journaling yet...oops!I just love the Wintergreen double sided papers, so I was excited to use them for scrapbooking. Same goes for the Season of Joy stamp set, this was my first time using both of these in my scrapbook. I had seen the snowflake image used as a scalloped border in the October Stampin' Success magazine and knew I wanted to try that. (shown above on the left side of layout) I also knew I wanted to use the word stamp included in this set as a border.(shown below) To get the spacing of each word block image, the Stamp-a-ma-jig became my best friend! Isn't that poinsettia in the center of the layout awesome? I learned how to make this from a very creative woman that came up with this design and then posted the instructions on SCS. You use both the large and small tag punches to create this. I still don't know how she looked at the tag punch outs and thought to herself...I am going to create a beautiful poinsettia or star burst out of these! I guess she is just a creative genius! After talking with her in emails I have also learned that she is a very nice person besides! Thanks again Donna for not only coming up with this fabulous design, but also for taking the time to share your instructions! I can't wait to make more of these. I didn't have any mulberry paper or the pretty sparkly paper that Donna used on her sample card, so I used card stock that matched my layout along with vellum. I cut out the poinsettia from one of the sheets of Wintergreen papers for the center and topped it off with a clear rhinestone brad.

Stamps: Season of Joy, Big Deal Alphabet, Typeset Alphabet-Lower

Card stock: Always Artichoke, Sage shadow, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Wintergreen double-sided designer paper

Ink: Always Artichoke, Sage Shadow & Certainly Celery

Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Rhinestone brads, Silver eyelets, Celery grosgrain, Soft Sky Double stitched ribbon, Large & Small Tag punches, Photo Corner punch, Ticket Corner punch, Round Tab punch, 1/2", 1" & 1-3/8" circle punches.

Tomorrow I will share the Halloween layout we did during this class...so don't forget to check back! Enjoy your day!

Autumn Motifs

My friend and upline Karman celebrated her birthday yesterday, so I made this card for her. I know that out of SU!'s four color families, Earth Elements are her favorite, so I used those colors to create this card for her...perfect for an Autumn birthday I think.

I like using the stamp with the row of dots from In the Spotlight to create the look of paper piercing. Somewhere I saw the scallop punch used with this set and hoped I'd remember to try it next time I got out these stamps. Doesn't that image look cute with the scallop punch? This is the first time I've use the Hostess set Punch Party, because I don't have the Designer Label punch...but Karman does, so I punched some out last time we stamped together...so she kind of helped make her own card! hehehe Hope you had a nice day on your birthday Karman!

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Party Punch, In the Spotlight and Rough Around the Edges jumbo wheel

Card stock: Old Olive, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard & Very Vanilla

Ink: Old Olive, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard & Really Rust

Accessories: Scallop, Designer Label, Slot & 1" Circle punches, Taupe grosgrain, Antique Brass brads, Chocolate Chip marker & Stampin' Dimensionals

I probably won't get a chance to post anything else until after the weekend. I have a scrapbook class tomorrow and still need to get things ready for that. Then on Saturday we are going to CedarPoint for their HalloWeekend. Can't wait...riding the coasters during the day and haunted houses at night! Should be fun!

Happy Fall Y'all!

I just LOVE the scarecrow image in this set and haven't played with him in so long! So I got him out last night to make this card. SU! needs another cute scarecrow image! I don't think there's been one since he retired a few years ago.

The other day I visited a good friend of mine who has a big pumpkin patch and a green house where she grows flowers and veggies to sell. While I was there I bought some beautiful mums and some Indian Corn stalks to decorate for Fall. She told me to come back when I was ready for my pumpkins. I got a call from her over the weekend saying she picked some of the best shaped ones she could find and put them aside for me...so come and get 'em before someone buys them!

She was right! Those were the most perfect shaped and sized pumpkins I could ask for...and she wouldn't let me pay for them. Each year she likes to contribute as many pumpkins as we want to take for our party...isn't that nice? So of course I had to make her a nice thank you card. I know she loves scarecrows and everything Fall related, so I think she will love this card...plus it was a good excuse to pull out this cute scarecrow image, don't ya think?

Stamps: Happy Fall Y'all (retired), Canvas background

Card stock: Old Olive, Really Rust & Very Vanilla

Ink: Old Olive, Really Rust, Always Artichoke and various others to watercolor

Right now I have the pumpkins arranged out front around the stalks of Indian Corn and they look so nice and festive...and unsuspecting. That's because they don't realize what we have in store for them in a few weeks! *insert evil laugh*

These are the pumpkins we carved for last years party using the Pumpkin Masters pumpkin carving kits and patterns. They always turn out so cool! They look like they are really difficult, but they're not. My boys have done these with us since they were little. Not sure I can get them to do one this year...I know there was lots of complaining last year. Teenagers! I'll just pull out the "it's tradition" card and hope they will want to make their mama happy. ;-)

Have a good one!

It's getting spooky!

We've been having such gorgeous, unseasonably warm weather here in Michigan that we've been taking advantage and getting things decorated for our upcoming Halloween party. I thought I'd share a few photos of our graveyard along with a couple scrapbook pages today.

This first photo is of me & Mr. Bones taken a couple years ago...he always guards the entrance to our Restful Bones Graveyard. (I decided this should be my new profile pic for the month of October :-)

The next couple photos show the graveyard with the tombstones I've made throughout the years. I try to come up with humorous names to paint on each one. Our guests have to walk through the graveyard to get out to our "haunted" barn where our party is held.

We usually even decorate my hubby's '66 Chrysler 300... but I don't think that is going to happen this year, however, since he has already put it away for the year.

So far we have the graveyard all set up, minus the tombstones. (I don't put those up until right before the party because it seems like if I put them up too early I end up having to repair them.) We set up this other life sized zombie (not shown)in the middle of the graveyard this year and I swear every time I walk out of my garage he scares the heck out of me!

I've also been busy working on some scrapbook pages for my holiday scrapbook class coming up on Friday...but I can't share those yet! I must say...I am really excited to share them because they turned out really cute. However, I can share a couple pages I made using last years awesome Halloween sets called Best Fiends & Just Between Fiends along with the Halloween Night designer papers. Here is the left side of the 2 page layout:

Here's the right. They look better side by side, but can never get them posted like that here.


See the scariest couple winner? That is my friend (fiend? hehehe) Rachel and her hubby. She loves to stamp & scrapbook too. Costume contest winners won a bag (hand stamped of course!) of goodies including a Halloween DVD. Hmmmm...note to self...better start thinking of what we're going to give this years costume winners.


Stamps: Best Fiends (retired) , Just Between Fiends (retired), Arachnophobia & Speckled wheels, Whimsical Alphabet (retired) & Howling Good Time (retired)

Card stock: Certainly Celery, Only Orange, Lovely Lilac & Halloween Night designer series papers (retired)
Ink: Black Stazon, Only Orange & Certainly Celery ink cartridges, various to watercolor

Accessories: Bold Bright eyelets, Vintage brads, Aqua painters, Tearing Edge, circle punches

Techniques: Bleaching, Water coloring


Thanks for stopping by...have a great day!

Welcome to the jungle!

I have it listed here on my blog description that I like to paint and would be sharing some of my painting projects from time to time. Since I have recently gotten a couple emails asking me about my painting, I thought I'd share some with you here today. Believe it or not, to create this mural I did a LOT of stamping.


While all the animals are hand painted by me (using no stencils) almost all the background foliage is done with stamps. I say almost all the foliage, because there are some leaves, such as the palms above the leopard, that were hand painted. To stamp on the walls I used acrylic paint which I painted right onto the stamp with a foam brush. This way I could shade the stamp by applying several different colors of green paint. I could then get 2 images stamped per loading of paint onto the stamp. So, yes...it did take me a while to do this, as I did the entire room. It was a labor of love however, so I didn't mind. The room was painted for my boys (aged 9 and 7 at the time) and I loved seeing their faces when they would come home from school to see what I had painted that day.This is my youngest son Danny around the time that I finished the mural - had to be 10 years ago now. My oldest son eventually moved into his own room downstairs, leaving Danny with the jungle room...yes it is still painted like this much to Danny's dismay. He has been asking lately for me to repaint, but I must admit I hate the thought of covering up all my hard work. Actually, when he has friends over they all say it's cool...even though a lot of it is covered by speakers, amps and guitars.No, I don't have twins, but by the looks of this photo you might think I did. A couple months ago Danny asked me to take two photos of him - one playing his bass the other his guitar, then in Photoshop he combined the two...cool, huh? Danny is the one I talk about here when I say my son helped me figure this or that out on the computer. He's really good at computer stuff.

Anyways...back to the mural. The photos above show the main part of the mural which is on the wall under the window and can be seen from the doorway. I also painted other animals, frogs, lizards & snakes that you might find in the rain forest around the room strategically placed between dressers, desk, etc... One of my favorites was this cute little frog that is next to the door. I actually copied that little guy from a t-shirt one of the boys had at the time. The other animals I painted were inspired from posters, wall paper border and magazines. I had originally planned to paint a giraffe coming up from behind the bunk beds, but never did get to that.

Hope you enjoyed seeing photos of my very first mural project. I have painted several since this one, but I think this will always be my favorite. If you live here in the southeastern area of Michigan and are interested in having some painting done, please contact me. I also do faux finishes and stenciling.

Enjoy your day...it looks like it's going to be a beauty! I'm heading out to a family get-together in a while so I know my day will be good!

A few more Halloween projects

Here is a couple projects we did at this months Hostess Club meeting. The first project is a spinner card...sorry about the blurry photo. Batty for you is the perfect set to make a spinner card I think! I found great instructions on how to make a spinner card on my favorite stamping website.

Stamps: Batty for You, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Canvas background, Spooky Skyline & Speckled jumbo wheels
Ink: Lovely Lilac, Gable Green, Black Stazon & Basic black ink cartridge
Card stock: Lovely Lilac, Gable Green, Only Orange & Basic Black
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Stampin' dimensionals, Crop-A-Dile, 1-3/8", 1-1/4" & 1" cirlce punches, Photo Corner & Word Window punches

The next project we did was this cute little Halloween decoration that can be hung from a door knob, peg or any where else you can think of. This is made from 4" coasters.

The stars and fog coming from cauldron were stamped on the Perfect Plum card stock with Black Stazon ink and then painting them with the Aqua Painter filled with bleach. This fun technique turns dark card stock very light and allows you to then add color with pencils or markers. In this case water color pencils and a bit of reinker were used to color in all the stars and the fog. To highlight the fog even more, add some highlights using a white gel pen.

Stamps: Haunting Halloween
Card stock: Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie & Whisper White
Ink: Black Stazon, various to watercolor
Accessories: Orange grosgrain & Black Gingham ribbon, 1/2" circle punch, Crop-A-Dile, Vintage brads, Large Oval punch

Haunting Halloween is such a cute set and it's on special until the end of the month for 30% off! Contact me today to order it or to sign up for my Batty for Halloween class where we will use this set, plus others to create some fun halloween projects.

NEW: Sign up for blog updates

Lately I've gotten several requests asking me to add a sign up button on my blog that will let you know via your email when I update my blog. I think I figured out how to do it (and I didn't even have to ask my son! heehe) At least it is showing up here on my blog. (I'm such a computer whiz!) So, if you want to sign up, there it is on the sidebar to your right.>>>>>>>>>>>>

While I'm here, I may as well share a card with you, as I'm sure that is why you're here!

This card showcases the super cute Season of Joy set along with the new Wintergreen papers. I really like the papers, probably because they contain all my favorite shades of green: Artichoke, Sage & Celery along with a bit of Soft Sky. The only thing I don't like about these papers is deciding which side to use!

For the main image I just inked my stamp with Sage Shadow and then used my Artichoke marker right on the stamp to color in a few of the shapes for more interest. Quick & easy! I also stamped on the patterned paper at the top using the swirl from this set. The snowflake from the word "Joy" is stamped on Sage card stock and punched out with 1/2" circle punch. Then I added a rhinestone brad and popped it up with a dimensional. The final touch is some Soft Sky double stitched ribbon.

Hope you like this one! Have a great weekend!

Baby X 3 = Triplets

I mentioned here last month that a member of my downline just became a Grandma to triplets! She has been off spending lots of time with her daughter and the new babies, so it was only last week that I got to see her and give her the tri-fold frame I created for her out of blank coasters. She liked it so much that she wants to make more of them for the godparents. Since I had to type up a basic "how to" for her, I figured I would share it here as well.

I started by using blank 4" coasters. First, I cut and stamped 4" square pieces of card stock with my background stamp - if you have craft ink, that would be the best choice. For this particular project I used craft for the Blush Blossom pieces, but for the Soft Sky I used the Classic dye ink since that is all that is available for that color. You could also use patterned paper instead, and this project would go even quicker.

Next, cover coaster with a thin coat of Royal Coat Decoupage (Modge Podge is fine too) and adhere the card stock squares...don't worry about trimming the rounded corners just yet. Cover one side of coaster, set aside while covering another coaster. Then go back and cover the backside with solid card stock. After it sets a bit (only a few minutes...you just don't want it wet enough to slide around) you can sand off the corners with a sanding block or file. This makes the rounded corners fit perfect and is much easier than cutting.

For this project I wanted to have pastel hardware to match my card stock so I created faux hardware. If you don't want to attempt this, you could also use the new jumbo eyelets & Hodge Podge hardware.

To create the oval frame, first punch out the smallest oval in your desired color of card stock as shown below.

Next, use the larger oval punch and center it over the hole left by the smaller oval punch.

Punch out your frame shape after centering it as shown above.

Ta Da! Now you have an oval shaped frame! To create a jumbo rivet/eyelet shape. Do the same as shown above, only using the 1/4" and 1/2" circle punches.

Next, you will want your pieces to be shiny like metal hardware. To do this, you'll need to heat emboss them with clear embossing powder. Take the pieces you punched out and smoosh them in your Versamark pad and cover with clear EP. Use tweezers and emboss with your heat tool. Repeat this step 2 more times. If you have the Glassy Glaze EP you can probably just do this step once or twice. When you are done you will have any color hardware you want!

To make the holes in my coasters I used the Crop-A-Dile...it cuts thru these coasters like butter! I used the largest 3/16" punch for this. Now it is time to assemble and embellish your project. the fun part! Use ribbon, chipboard, cut out stamped images, etc... For the stamped images I used here, I stamped them on watercolor paper, which is nice and thick, colored and cut out.

Stamps: Bundle of Joy, Flannel Plaid background, & So Many Sayings

Card stock: Blush Blossom, Soft Sky, Barely Banana & Water color paper

Ink: Blush Blossom Craft, Soft Sky, Brocade Blue marker & Black Stazon

Accessories: Soft Sky double stitched & pink gingham ribbon, stamp-a-ma-jig, Punches: large & small ovals, round tab, 1/4" and 1/2" circle

Have fun...the possibilities are endless! Click here to see another coaster frame I made for my niece: http://lwdesigns.blogspot.com/2007/07/i-finally-created-something-with-my.html

Spooky Night

I can finally share the scrapbook pages I submitted to Stampin' Up! for their monthly contest back in August. I think they turned out awesome, (if I do say so myself!) but I guess it wasn't what they were looking for in a winning entry. Bummer! When I saw the category was pages created with a Halloween theme I thought for sure I had a chance (anyone who knows me knows I am a Halloween freak!)...so much so I had even picked out my free stamp sets! (now I know why my Grandma used to say, "don't count your chickens before they're hatched!" hehehe)

Oh well...better luck next time I guess. Now it just bums me out that all I have left are the these scanned images...wahhhhhhhhh! Guess I need to get busy and re-create them again for me to keep this time. Please note: to view these at full size, please click on images.

I absolutely love these photos of my boys in front of our graveyard entrance. (don't worry, I did not go into those details in my journaling to SU! hehehe They probably would have eliminated me just based on being weird enough to have my own graveyard!) Anyways...back to my layout. The title was stamped with Big Deal alphabet in matching color ink to card stock, but before I stamped it I used the kissing technique* with the Canvas background inked in Basic Black. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to add the spider, bat & cat from Batty For You to the letters. (used my black marker to ink just the image and not the words from those stamps) Each letter was cut out and matted on Gable Green card stock that was stamped in Wild Wasabi with the Canvas background...and cut out yet again...yes, I'm a glutton for punishment!.

The strip of Gable Green card stock in the middle also served as a pocket for my journaling tags. I hand lettered each of those in a spooky, dripping font. To do that all I did was pencil in my letters - penciling first allows me to figure out spacing and my mistakes can easily be fixed. After I had my spacing down, I went over the letters using my black journaling pen- I lettered all in caps. Then I went back and added the drips coming down off the letters...ooooh spooky! You might have noticed the black gingham ribbon with the pumpkin and black colored accents? I did that by taking the black gingham and running it over my Pumpkin Pie ink pad.

For the background I used the Spooky Skyline jumbo wheel, but I also have a hint to go along with that: When I wheel 2 pages straight across like I did here, I like to wheel them both together so that when they are next to each other in the scrapbook they are one continuous pattern. I used a bit of low tack artist's tape on the back of the card stock so I didn't have to worry about them moving while I was rolling them. Same goes with the Pumpkin Pie strip. I even kept the tape in place while using the Tearing Edge..

Stamps: Batty For You, Big Deal alphabet, Canvas background and Spooky Skyline jumbo wheel

Ink: Basic Black, White Craft, Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie & Wild Wasabi

Card stock: Basic Gray, Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie & Gable Green

Accessories: Black brads, Black Gingham ribbon, Round Tab, 1-3/8, 1-1/4 & Ticket Corner punches, Tearing Edge & Stamp-a-ma-jig .

*For those who don't know what the kissing technique is: Take a solid image stamp and "ink it up" by pressing it onto an inked up stamp with lots of pattern, and stamp as usual. This will transfer the pattern to solid image and make it textured looking. Hopefully I explained this OK. If you have any questions...just ask away..

Now I'm just wondering what the winning layout looked like? Oh well, my layout is still a winner in my book...oh wait...it isn't in my book now is it??? Gosh, I better stop before I make myself even more disappointed, hehehe. If anyone reads this and wants to make me feel a bit better - by all means post your comments! It's always nice to get a few comments - lets me know someone is actually looking at my blog.