Happy 7th

I was so inspired by this verve sketch that I had to make another card for my son's 7th birthday.  That sketch makes it easy to use up some of that chipboard I seem to have laying around.  I definitely have more than I need.  Don't you just love when a sketch works so well you could make it over and over.  The only drawback for this sketch is the somewhat finicky circle cutting.  

 I fell in love with the fun colours of the this patterned paper.  I believe it's an October Afternoon collection. It's usually hard to come up with masculine cards since my stamp collection for that category is somewhat limited.   The "Happy" sentiment from the Waltzing Mouse may be a little too feminine but I thought I could pass it off as more boho LOL.  The happy birthday sentiment might be a little too slanted but whatever....it's still a fun card.

Disneyland Haunted Mansion at Halloween

Anyhow we're back from Disneyland and we all had a blast.  It was a large group of us, 6 kids and 8 adults, making it easy to keep an eye on all of them.  We were able to separate and make the most of our time.  It was so awesome to see everything done up for halloween...I can only imagine what it looks like at Christmas.  Has anyone ever been during that time? Would I do it all again?...I'm much too exhausted right now to even think about that.  I must say that any family outing or wait in line in the future will be a peice of cake.  In the end, the memories made were magical and I was so surprised at how well the kids travelled.  

What magical place have you travelled with your family and what made it so special?  I'd have to say that one of our most memorable trips still has has to be the Vancouver aquarium only a few hours away.  The kids were just so excited to see the wonders of the ocean.

Ghoolishly Late

Wow, I actually have something to post and keeping with the theme of the last few months...I'm late!!!  yes Halloween has come and gone but I did manage to find time to make these labels for the pencils my kids gave to their classmates.  I did the same thing last year. This time there were 44 to do and I only made a few the same.  I practiced different techniques like sponging, background stamping and using those punches I've collected. Nothing fancy but I just had to post the fact that I FOUND TIME and I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth!

Thankfully, I'm now down to one job and hope to find time to make my Christmas cards before time runs out.  Most likely they'll be late but that just makes me consistent doesn't it?  Thanks so much to all my blog friends that have stayed in touch with me blog or no blog and to those of you who followed me post or no post.  I can't wait to start seeing all of your holiday creations.  'Tis the season you know?!

Please forgive the picture quality.  I haven't found the perfect set up for taking pictures in the new house plus I'm working during the day now so it gives me limited time to take those pictures.

Today I'm grateful for having the kids living in an awesome neighborhood where they can play with other kids their age from dawn until dusk.  I'm also thankful for the fact that the temperature today sunny and warm.  Much more like September weather rather November.

Have a fabulous week.  Happy Crafting.

Ghostly Greetings 3 in 1

Yes, I know, Halloween is over and my calendar does indeed say November but there were at least two challenges left to do that had inspired a ghostly card and I thru in a Get Sketchy Challenge  for good measure. (that and the sketch worked perfectly).  So here are the Challenges:

1) Everything But the Kitchen Sink .  The challenge was to incorporate toilet paper in a project...that's right toilet paper and you should just check out some of the ingenious ideas that those ladies have come up with.  All week last week my preschooler was coming home with these ghosts made out of kleenex and he decided to use a box of it to make his own at home.  By the end of week I was pretty tired of finding these little guys all around my house.  Who would have thought it would be the catalyst for my next creation?

2) Crazy 4 Challenges .  The challenge was to make a spooky halloween card.  These ghosts may be more cute than spooky but it still fit the theme.

3) Get Sketchy Challenge #12 .  My version of the sketch is a way more simplified version than most but once I got those ghosts on my 5x5 card there wasn't room for multiple layers and embellishments.

The ghosts are made by covering half a square of TP with a whole square and tying with gingham ribbon.  I then ran the ends of the ghosts over my black ink to give them a darker, scarier look and then I added eyes with my marker.  I also used my marker on the die cut sticker to doodle the Ghostly Greetings sentiment.  What do you think?  Any ideas on how I could have jazzed it up a bit without making it too busy?

Ghostly Gifts

Good Morning!  Just a quick post today to share with you the little gifts my daughter will be giving her classmates for Halloween.  I prefer giving pencils over candy because I figure the kids will be getting enough of that on Saturday.  I made 2 1/4 tags and used my favourite Carved and Candlelit stamp set (retired) and sentiment from my new but well used Grateful Greetings set.  I used inexpensive scraps and white paper.  I glued black tabs around the pencil first and then glued that tab between the two layers of the tag.  It took me about an hour and a bit to make 17 of them....while I was surfing ebay.  So what do you think?  I'm sure kids would rather have candy but I think parents (and teachers) will be grateful for something different.

Spooktacular Halloween - Mojo 105

This week I got a nice little parcel in the mail from my on line scrapbook supplier. As some of you know I am a sucker for designer paper!! It is what fabric was to my mother. I have loads of it piled up waiting to be used and yet I still feel the need to spend more money on the newest stuff. And the current collections are amazing.

So for this fun sketch I decided to pull out my new halloween dp and the matching die cut stickers. No stamping needed!!! Although I'll probably put a sentiment inside the card. I used my fav Stampin' Up halloween colours: Basic Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin pie, and Elegant Eggplant. I also used Grey for the card base, Elegant Eggplant ribbon and the Stampin Up! circle punches (1 1/4" and 1 3/8"). The rest is not SU!

My favourite part of this card is the scallops and that eerie looking purple bat. Looking at it now I should have spent a little bit more time on the orange and black squares maybe distressing or sewing or, if I had an embossing folder, I would have embossed the orange CS. Something that would have brought more attention to the bat without overpowering it. Either way this was an excellent sketch to play with and I learned how to make those scallops with my circle punches.

If you don't hear from me this weekend, I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend with family and friends and getting some me time in your craft rooms.

Delightful Night

I don't know about you but I'm having a very nice evening in my craft room. I'm getting a chance to look through things that I haven't been able to get to all week...like this Crazy 4 Challenges sketch. Unfortunately I missed the Get Sketchy challenge :-( I promising myself to finish GS#6 by the end of the weekend before I forget about it. Even for this Crazy 4 Challenges #2 I'm cutting it real close. I may even be too late but oh well, I got to work out a new Halloween card which generally have me stumped for ideas.

Because I don't have a distressing tool I used my scissors to distress the edges of my cardstock and paper.  I also distressed the popped up pumpkin.  I think it turned out quite well.  The sentiment is of course from the Grateful Greetings set I keep mentioning. The pumpkins are from the retired Carved and Candlelit set which is really too bad because it has a lot of versatility for Halloween and Thanksgiving/Harvest.  The dp is the Night & Day specialty paper .  This paper is also versatile if you like working with black and white because the paper pattern isn't specifically for halloween.

I'm going to go and brainstorm some more ideas. Take care my friends, have a fabulous weekend and hope to hear from you soon.

Creepy Crawly

I'm having hard time keeping up to date with the posting this week aren't I? It really has been a busy week and it's not helping that my two year old is refusing to take a nap and I'm exhausted because he's not sleeping well at night. Hopefully next week will be a better one. On the brighter side of things, my daughter really likes her Grade One class and teacher and my son is very happy to be a big boy going to preschool.  They are also very happy to be going to music lessons and are quite proud of themselves. Besides sleep, what more can a mother ask for?

I did try to get a challenge done last night but I got "stuck". Too tired maybe? or I may have been stuck because my last challenge (Get Sketchy #4) turned out so well for me that nothing I did gave me that same yippee kind of feeling. Does that ever happen to you? Nothing looks as good as.... Sometimes it happens if I see someone elses amazing version of a sketch and my brain automatically just gives up. Giving up is a whole lot easier to do when your tired too, isn't it?

Anyhow, here are a couple of Halloween cards I made last weekend before the back-to-school craziness began. I saw something similar on either SCS or another blog (they used only black and white) but if you recognize the layout please let me know so I can give credit where it's due. The wonderful thing about this card is how easy it is. The "hardest" part was colouring in the eyes and pumpkins. The top card uses a Going Gray card base and the bottom one uses a White card base.

Thanks for taking a peek at my update. Hope all of you have a fabulous weekend.  

Paper:  Night & Day Specialty dp , Going Gray, Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant

Ink:  Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Scallop square punch, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch scallop edge punch, paint brush, Pumpkin Pie ribbon

Stamps:  Haunting jumbo wheel , Sweet Centers, Grateful Greetings.

Trick or Treat

Halloween is officially on it's way. The stores are already lining their shelves with bags of candy and costumes galore. I'm not a big fan of halloween and never really got into it as a kid. My husband on the other hand likes to go all out for the event.  He even gets dressed up. I prefer to focus on the Christmas season.  

Here are a couple of mini cards that I made using the new Sweet Centers set in the Holiday Mini catty. One is a shaker card and the other is a treat card using the sweet treat cups.

The shaker card uses the window sheets in the Night & Day Specialty dp and the jack-o-latern face is from an retired stamp set called "Carved and Candlelit". I used the 1 3/8" circle punch for this. For this card I should have added some more micro beads and even some of the bigger beads to mix it up a little. The picture doesn't do this card justice because it's an interactive card and I find them to be a conversational piece. I've also black embossed the outer image which makes it pop and add shine.

I'll probably make the treat cup cards for my daughter's classmates. I've seen a lot of crafters take the time to make sure the treat cup can be opened without wrecking the card but let's be honest, the average 6 year old just wants to get to the good stuff: The Candy!!! To make it easier to get to I used re-positional gluedots.  I didn't buy the 1 3/4" circle punch for this but used my circle scissors . It worked but would have take less time if I had had the punch. If you do decide to use the circle scissors, first cut out the circle and then use your stamp-a-ma-jig to position the stamp properly and trim the image as you like. I may put less candy in the cup and put the jack-o-latern face in behind.

Paper: SU Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper white, Night & Day Specialty dp

Ink:  Basic Black, Versamark

Accessories:  Circle scissors, black embossing powder, treat cup, orange micro beads, candy, 1 3/8" circle punch.

Stamp sets:  Sweet Centers, Grateful Greetings, Carved and Candlelit