Happy (1st) Halloween

My grandson is experiencing his 1st Halloween today, although at only 4 weeks old, he won't be doing any trick-or-treating. Unless they're handing out diapers or bottles of formula! But even though the little guy won't be really participating, that's no reason for grandma to skip giving him a card to celebrate the holiday!

I kept it super simple with three candy corn colors and black ribbon to separate each section. A little ghostie (from Papertrey Ink) popped on foam tape adds a little something extra.

However you celebrate the day, I hope it's full of goodies!

BOO to you!

I'm taking a break from baby "things"....creating, shopping, excitedly waiting....you get the point...and I created a simple Halloween card to share with you:

I used the Polka Dot Parade #7 stamp set from Papertrey Ink for the image and sentiment. The frame was created using 2 Large Labels Nestabilities dies. The ghost's bowtie is created with purple Stickles and sparkles in real life. And a few buttons add the finishing touch in the lower right corner.

Easy, quick and a what a cute ghost!

Enjoy your Friday and remember the weekend is just a day away! Woohoo!!
See you again soon!

Halloween and other happenings

In what started out as a very uninteresting week has provided a few mention-worthy moments. Here they are, in no specific order:

1. While much of the country, and Ohio, in fact, was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy, our area saw some heavy wind and rains but nothing too intense. We are fortunate and our hearts go out to those who are still waiting for the power to be restored or the water to recede from their homes. Our thoughts and prayers to you all.

2. On a happier note, I got a new camera! I have been dabbling in photography for about a year now thanks to my pal Kathy getting me interested. Well, the credit doesn't all go to her - I've actually been interested for quite some time but it wasn't until I bought a camera from her (my first dSLR) that I really started pursuing the hobby in earnest. To the tune of now owning additional lenses, understanding aperture and now, buying my own, brand new, "big girl" camera. Here is the first picture I took with my new toy:

3. She might look like a willing photography subject but, in fact, she is far from it. About 3 seconds after this shot, she was on the move and giving me that "don't you dare take another picture of me, lady" look.

4. I am totally disillusioned regarding the intelligence of American voters. More on that subject here.

5. Halloween was rainy and cold and so we had very few trick-or-treaters. Not that we ever have very many but this year was a bit worse. However, we did have one super adorable Woodstock stop by to see us:

This is my daughter's friend Kristy's baby. He was sound asleep when they visited - Halloween wears a little guy out!

6. Speaking of Halloween, at least one of my kids still likes to dress up:

That's my daughter dressed as a candy corn (her legs were yellow).

7. I am cutting back my hours at work slightly, taking every other Monday off. Business has been pretty slow and I can only surf Facebook on company time just.so.much.

8. I am also now the Birthday coordinator at work. This means it's my job to make sure that a little celebration (with a card and dessert-y thing) is organized when one of my co-workers has a birthday. The last person to handle this important task really wasn't up to the job. And I am a party planner after all so it's a perfect fit. First celebration is this Friday.

9. Did you hear that Disney just acquired Lucasfilms and will be making a feature film Star Wars 7 in 2015? That news was HUGE in our house this week. Trust me, the SW fan that resides here (my son) has talked of little else.

10. And I think that about wraps it up for me. I'll be back soon with more things to share or check me out on Facebook. I seem to be there a lot these days.

Have a Wicked Halloween

Time is running out to get ready for Halloween so I whipped up another card tonight to share with you. I only send out a couple of cards for Halloween (it's not a big holiday in my house now that my kids are all grown) so I don't usually post too many spooky goodies to share. But watch out because my Christmas stamping finger is twitching to get busy with red and green goodies!! 

Here is tonight's "wicked" Halloween greeting:

This image and sentiment are from a previous Close To My Heart stamp of the month set. I love having a large image to work with - and solid so no coloring!  I stamped the witch on a piece from a book, mounted it to an orangy damask printed paper (from PTI) and edged it with a punched printed paper (not sure the source). A little ribbon (also PTI) finishes up this quick card - ready for the mail.

That's it for me tonight. If you want to see what else I've been up to lately, check out my other blogs, listed at the top of this page, including my new review on the iPhone 5 at Are You on the Fence. Have a great Friday!

Halloween Treat Holder - and Treat

I have a new craft project - and treat recipe - posted at Mama on the Fly - here's a sneak peek:

You can find step-by-step directions at Carolyn's blog - I hope you'll stop by and check it out! She will also be talking about the project on 101.5 The River tomorrow morning!

In other news, yesterday was my birthday. Thank you to everyone that left me a birthday wish throughout the day - makes a girl feel special!!
I took the day off work, slept in, did NO cooking, spent the evening with my family and cake. It was the perfect day!

Be back soon with more fun things to share!

Halloween Party Invite and BOO Banner

I created a sample tablescape for my party-planning business and wanted to share a couple of the items here. You can see the whole arrangement at Petite-Party Planners.

Let's start with the invitation:

This is a flat panel invitation (doesn't open) that includes the party details on the front and additional information on a solid panel of cardstock on the reverse.  Keeping this piece flat and without a lot of embellishments makes it easy to mass-produce as well as easy to mail.

The mini BOO banner uses the same materials as the invitation and includes canvas circles as the base for the Cricut cut letters. In addition to BOO, other mini banners could be created using the word EEK or maybe AHH. I think these would be adorable tied to the backs of dining room chairs for Halloween Day. Agree?

Also in the arrangement is a blinged up mini pumpkin and a candy-filled mussie-tussie. I hope you'll stop by Petite-Party Planners and check it out!

City Crafter - Corrosive Style!

First, I want to say that I found a great challenge blog that offered the perfect color inspiration this week so I had to play along. City Crafter offers some fun and unique challenges and I plan on playing again and again!

Also, this week at Corrosive Challenges, we have a really different challenge for you. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to CASE one of the DT and create your card based on one of us. Maybe it will be me? To CASE a card, you simply pick one you like, change up the image, papers, one thing or many things and make the card your own based on the design elements you see on the DT card. Make sense?

As for those of us on the DT, we CASEd each other for this assignment. My inspiration came from fellow DT member, Anita, and her card HERE. This is my version, based on her layout:

Between the layout inspiration I got from Anita and the color palette from City Crafter, this was a fairly easy card to create! Love that!

Image is from Papertrey Ink, ribbon is from my stash and I don't know the source of the paper - sorry!

I hope you will try your hand at these fun challenges this week. And have a wonderful and safe Halloween! This is the last of the jack-o-lantern cards for me so start watching for a lot of Christmas to start popping up on this blog! Until next time -

Halloween Silhouette

I have another Halloween card to share with you today - this one created for the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog.

I think I am just about done with all my Halloween cards and projects. Good thing since it's now less than a week away!

This week's challenge at H2H is to create a Halloween project, or if you don't celebrate Halloween, use a pumpkin or two in a project. Here is my card:

I love this new stamp set, Captured Moments, because the 3 main stamps in the set cover Autumn (falling leaves), Halloween and Winter. So a lot of versatility in one set and you'll definitely be seeing it from me again!

I stamped the image on cream cardstock and punched a circle from a piece of the scraps that I temporarily adhered at the top edge and then sponged around in order to create the glowing sky. The ink I used was Creme Brulee. There was more heavy sponging right around the circle in order to enhance the area and make it look more like the glow from the moon that diffuses the further it travels outward. The rest of the card is simply matting - no additional embellishments required which works great for me since this one is going in the mail!

So we would love to see what spooktacular artwork you have up your sleeve for this challenge! Head over to H2H for all the details and join in the fun!

I'll be back soon with another card - this time for the PTI blog hop! Stay tuned!

Spooky Corrosive Challenge

It's the week for orange and black so be prepared for some Halloween goodies this week (and maybe a little Christmas thrown in as well).

This week we are creating Halloween cards at Corrosive Challenges. If you aren't all about Halloween, then create something using orange and black. Here is my sample:

I know someone who celebrates a Halloween anniversary so I thought this image from Tiddly Inks would be perfect! Add a little orange, green and purple, and you've got a not-so-spooky greeting!

Keeping this short and sweet today - come join in the fun this week at Corrosive! We'd love to see your terrifyingly terrific Halloween treats!

Back tomorrow with two posts!

Final Halloween Project

I finally completed my last Halloween project (for this year, anyhow) and am really happy with the results so I am not only sharing it with you but also with the readers at Tatertots and Jello for the weekend wrap-up.

Here's my Haunted House and Subway Art:

I have seen all kinds of Subway Art this season and I was really excited about trying this myself. Here's a little run-down on how I created this -

First, I found an .svg pattern of a haunted house and cut that from black cardstock on my Cricut. Then I opened up my Photoshop program and working with an 8.5 x 11 size, I started added Halloween themed words to the blank "canvas" - making some of them horizontal, some vertical and some rotated on their side. I also incorporated a lot of different fonts so there was a lot of visual interest.

After I had a pretty good assortment of words - and a few little clip art images - I printed my sample sheet on copy paper. This way I was able to lay the cut out house over the piece and make notations of which words needed to be resized or moved to accomodate the house. I think I printed 6 or 7 sample sheets until I got everything positioned just the way I wanted. Then the finished piece was printed one last time on adhesive-backed linen paper, which has almost a canvas-y look to it.

This piece was then mounted to a cardstock mat and the house was adhered over the top. This piece was then mounted to a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock and trimmed top and bottom with a row of matching grosgrain ribbon. I framed the piece in a scrapbook layout frame and there you have it!
Here is what the project looks like hanging in the living room:

(I put together the arrangement in the tin holder as well. Yes, the craftiness overcame me this season!)

I hope you like this little project and it inspires you to try your hand at Subway Art. For more great ideas, be sure to visit Tatertots and Jello - you'll be crafting up a storm in no time!

Halloween pennant banner

As I mentioned before, I've been on a little Halloween kick this year. So I purchased some new items to add to the decorations I already had and I have made a few things. Today, I want to share with you a banner I created to hang in our family room. I have more of the items we have decorated with posted at Ridiculous Lab if you'd like to stop by and take a peek.

Here is the banner I finally decided to create:

Sorry for the glare - it was hard to get a good photo of the entire thing. Here's another shot:

Click to see a larger image.

I have some pics of the individual pennants and can explain how I made this as I show you a few close-ups:

I started with an .svg pattern to use on my Cricut. This one included a scalloped edge pennant and a straight edged one. I cut the scalloped edged pieces from black cardstock and the straight edged pieces from various patterned paper, staying with the colors black/gray, orange and purple.

I also cut the letters on the Cricut from a sheet of DP that was black and printed with eyes. To the "O" letters, I hand cut a couple of additional eyes from the paper to add for fun. Each letter was mounted to a die cut mat (using Nestabilities). Some of the mats were stamped with an image as well (see the "S" and "P" above).

I punched holes in the top two corners of each pennant and threaded them along a length of ribbon. I had picked up a small garland of spiders and beads and combined that with the banner by clipping the two together using clothespins that I covered in matching DP.

The entire project is then clipped up to a section of trim in my family room, with the ribbon tied in bows at the ends. Simple and fun! I hope this has inspired you to create a banner of your own this Halloween!

I will have one last Halloween project to share with you soon - I think I might finally get it finished and hung up today. Don't forget to check out Ridiculous Lab for more spooky goodies!

Last Day for Candy Give-away and Corrosive Challenge

Today is the last day to enter my blog candy give-away - see this post for all the details!

This week at Corrosive Challenges, we are challenging you to create a card that doesn't include the color white. No white allowed!  I thought this would be a real challenge since I was working with a digital image from our sponsor, Robyn's Fetish, but it turned out to be not so difficult - take a look:

Here are some Big Ideas from this week's card:

* Print digital images on light colored cardstock for a different look. I chose a light peachy color to print on and then added color to the jack-o-lantern with my Copics. Hard to see in the photo, but his eyes, nose and mouth were colored with a sparkly black pen.
* Use both sides of your DP for instant match-ability! I also used a larger Nestability die to cut the piece of DP at the left side of the card, keeping the "fancy" edge of the cut toward the center of the card and then trimming the outer edge even with the card base.
* Working with a black mat but don't want the interior of your card to be black? Mount the entire piece to a card base of a lighter color - in this case, I used the same peach cardstock that I printed the image on.

We'd love to see what you create with no white. Play along at Corrosive Challenges this week and you might win this month's prize package and a chance to be a guest DT member~
See you again tomorrow!

Black, White and a Green Frankie

The current challenge at Papertrey Playhouse is to create a card that is black and white and incorporates just a pop of color. Great challenge, Deb!! I got an idea last night before going to bed and couldn't wait to make this today - turned out exactly as I pictured, which doesn't always happen.

All products from Papertrey Ink. Isn't Frank just the cutest thing? And a big shout out to Kathy who let me borrow the Tiny Treats Halloween set (I feel guilty breaking in your nice, unused set but SOMEONE has to love these stamps!!  LOL). 

I {heart} this frame stamp and plan on stamping up a few to have on hand but while I had the whole set, I had to put Frankie to good use. Fits the challenge perfectly, if I do say so myself.

Now I am off to see what new Papertrey goodies I want to get from the October release tonight! See you soon -

Halloween pennant

I don't know why, but this year I am in the Halloween spirit! It undoubtedly comes from all of the fabulous projects I have seen around blogland (especially at Tatertots and Jello). So I have bought some things to decorate with but I am also making a few things. I thought I would share with you one of my Halloween creations:

This banner I actually made for my daughter - mine is still in the creating stage.... I found some great printed paper at one of the local craft stores and die cut the scalloped banner pieces and the DP pieces with my Cricut. I then used 2.5 x 10" strips of the patterned paper to make accordion folded embellishments which I adhered to the pennants, each topped with a die cut letter to spell BOO. If you look closely, you will see that the Os in the word also have eyeballs in the center of them. These were just small ovals of black cardstock highlighted with a while gel pen. I tied the pennnant pieces together with ribbon and added long tails to hang the completed piece with and topped the finished piece with a sparkly die cut ghost. Easy and fun to make!

I will be back tomorrow with more artwork to share and will post more Halloween DIY projects as I get them completed.

Have a creative day! And don't forget to visit my blog Ridiculous Lab where I am revisiting my 20s later today.

Halloween with PTI

I recently participated in a Halloween card swap on the Papertrey Ink Forums and these are the 2 cards I sent out -

All products are from PTI. The ghost is from the Fall Jar Filler set. I stamped him on vellum and cut him out and added him to an embossed and punched strip of black cardstock. One ghost was stamped on printed paper and popped up on foam tape so he would stand out from the crowd.

The witch feet are also from the Fall Jar Fillers. It's hard to see in the photo but I added some black and gold sparkly pen accents to the image. All products from PTI except the gold patterned paper that I have had in my stash forever!

I am really getting into the Halloween mood this year (not sure why - it's never really been an exciting holiday for me) and I plan on making some items to decorate the house with. I will be sure to take a few photos when I'm all done and share these creations with you too.

I am off to update Ridiculous Lab - stop by and see what's new!