Ready for Halloween !

Happy Wednesday !! It's late and I'm exhausted !! If I start to make no sense, you'll know I'm falling asleep lol

The sentiment and spiders on this card are from PaperStudio. The spiders were actually all connected in a row and I brought the scissors to them and cut them apart. Stamped on white cardstock from PTI layered on dark orange CS.

Have a good night : )

Ink Storage

Hello there! This is going to be a quickie post tonight as my youngest is sick and needs her mama. Last week, Stacy and I got our PTI order in and it consisted of ink and paper, NO STAMPS!!! Can you believe it? I ordered 18 of their inks, I think everything but Dark Chocolate, Fresh Snow, True Black and Pure Poppy. Anyway, I just ordered the cubes to see how well I liked them and I thought as I ran out of ink, I'd replace them with the full size pads. After I unpacked the box, I realized I was going to have a storage issue. Below is my solution.

I stamped each of the inks on a piece of plain white card stock and then used my small EK Success heart punch to punch out each of the colors. I used a glue dot to adhere each of the hearts to the labels on the backs of the inks. Then I lined all of the cubes into the lid of a rectangular canvas box (which held a birthday gift from Stacy to me, several years ago!)

Here's a little bit of a closer look at the cubes.
We'll see how well this works. So far so good! Hope you all have a good night!

Officially Autumn..................

Yes......but it was 86 degrees here yesterday : ( I'm so ready for cooler weather and chili and hot cocoa.......yum !!

So to celebrate my favorite season, I played around with different leaf stamps to make this cute wreath. The wreath was stamped with Mailbox Greetings and the sentiment too. The background of the card was stamped in orange and brown from some fall stamps I bought years ago from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for stopping by !! I have to run get ready for a birthday party.......have a great night !!

Little Halloween bits and pieces!

Happy Saturday to you all! I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Mike and I are currently kidless! We just finished dropping off the girls at my parent's house for the night. We're planning on going out to dinner and couldn't be more excited! I love my girls but sometimes you just need a brake! Before I delve into my fun little project today, I just want to say that the recipe Stacy posted yesterday is delicious! We fixed them last weekend and they were a big hit here!

Now, on to my project. These little Halloween tags started out several weeks ago when I picked up three different $1 stamp sets at Joann's. The tiny images were too cute to pass up. That afternoon, I stamped two of the pumpkins and the Jack-O-Lantern. I practiced coloring the images in and cut one of them out. Just as I started to cut out the second pumpkin, Landry woke up from her nap, which = craft time OVER! Fast forward two weeks to when I made this Halloween garland. I got a bit overzealous with the 2" kraft colored scalloped squares and cut too many out. So, there they sat for days, in a pile, on my table. Fast forward one more week. I had no inspiration, no idea of what I wanted to do when I saw the half cut pumpkin on my table. I decided to finish trimming it out along with the Jack-O-Lantern. As I was trimming, the scalloped squares caught my eye. So, I played around, stamping, embossing, stitching and embellishing these cut little Halloween tags, using tiny bits and pieces of Halloween goodness!

Here's a close up of one of my two favorite tags. I heat embossed the cauldron and covered up the bubbles with little gems. Then added a bit of punched patterned paper, some twine and a True Black Vintage Button.

Finally, my favorite tag. I simply heat embossed the witch and added a bit of trim from my mom's trim bag and a small piece of black grosgrain ribbon.

There you have it! My little Halloween bits and pieces that just came together, by accident! Hope you all have a nice evening!

Off the subject..............

Tonight I just didn't feel like making a card or gift bag or anything !! Becky and I have started embroidery and I've kinda been addicted this week. I've completed 3 tea towels and as soon as I'm done with the 4th, I'm gonna try my hand at a rag quilt !! So don't be surprised if something not in the shape of a card pops up lol

So instead of a crafty post tonight, I'd like to share one of my newest favorite recipes. When Matt and I were on our little vacation, the Innkeeper made these awesome egg blossoms for us. OMG !! They are wonderful and so super simple !! You have to try them out---they are addictive !!

*note: I always cut my pound of bacon in half and this recipe is for one blossom. It works with any amount you choose to make

Egg Blossoms

1 egg

3 strips turkey bacon

Heavy whippping cream (as needed)

Italian seasoning

Pam

To make:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Spray muffin tin with Pam
• Arrange 3 pieces of bacon criss crossing in muffin tin
• Break egg into center
• Add enough heavy whipping cream to fill the cup
• Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning on top
• Bake for 20 minutes

How simple was that ??? If you decide to use regular bacon instead of turkey, just arrange the bacon like above and bake for 10 minutes before you add the rest of the ingredients. Non-turkey bacon needs a little more cookin' so that it does not come out too raw.

I hope you try it out !! I promise you will love it as much as we do !! Have a great weekend gals !

Boo!

I love Thursdays! It's close to the weekend, it's a good TV night (Survivor AND Grey's Anatomy) and it's close to the weekend! :) Tonight's card is another Halloween one that I made last year, BB (before blog). Stacy and I had just bought our Cuttlebugs and we challenged each other to simply make a card with embossing.

I started with a black base and embossed three squares with a dotted border. I'm not sure what the name of it is but it's one of those that comes in a four pack. Then I die cut the spider, Boo! and ghost. I adhered them to the pumpkin colored card stock, added stickles for eyes and popped the card stock up on pop dots, across the card horizontally. To finish the card off, I tied some wide, black and white checked ribbon across the bottom.

Here's a closer picture of the card.

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday night!

With Sympathy

Today's post is dedicated to Lorene who recently passed away. I didn't know her personally, never got the chance to meet her or talk with her, but she was an important part of my boss's life and I'd like to take this space to let them both know that we're thinking about them.............

Happy Owl-oween!

It's cool here this morning and if you close your eyes, you would almost believe that it was Halloween! I LOVE it! Today's card is one I made last year after seeing an example in Archiver's flyer. After getting the flyer in the mail, Stacy and I ran up there one day and I was on a search for the Halloween Owl stamp set from Hero Arts. Stacy and I searched and searched and couldn't find them anywhere. We made a trip around the whole store and I was so disappointed that I couldn't find the stamps. I even asked one of the employees if they had the stamp set in, after all, it was in the flyer. Well, while the employee assured me they didn't have any, Stacy, The Magnificent, found the elusive stamp set!!!! I could have kissed her! They were hiding on the bottom row and we had both missed them somehow!

So, on to my card! It's a total copy of the one from Archiver's. I started with a black base and layered on white card stock with a pumpkin colored piece I cut out from a scalloped rectangle nestablities die. Below that, I layered on another small piece of pumpkin card stock. Then, I stamped my Owl Witch onto white card stock and colored her in with watercolor crayons. I adhered her to the pumpkin rectangle and layered a piece of acetate around the whole card which I attached with a piece of orange ribbon. To finish it off I stamped my sentiment on top of the acetate, lining it up with the pumpkin rectangle below.

Here's a closer picture with the acetate held up.

I hope you have a great day, wherever you may be and that you're enjoying you're weather, whatever it might be!

Something for a pumpkin door.......

How was everyone's weekend ? We had one of the busiest weekends ever !! It was kinda nice to get back to work today to take a breath !! lol

A pumpkin door.......yes, I have a pumpkin colored front door !! Isn't it awesome !! I needed to dress it up a bit for Halloween.....am I starting too early ? lol So I decided a loooonnggg banner was just the thing !!

I started out with 5 in. scalloped circles in various colors. I ten cut 4 in. circles in various Halloween papers I have held onto (why ??). I cut my letters at 5 in. on the cricut using the Printing Press cartridge. I love how tall and skinny they are !! I then heat embossed all of the letters with clear powder.

There we go !! A banner that looks good against my pumpkin door !! Have a great one and I'll see ya Wednesday : )

What I'm working on...

It's been a lazy day around here today. We slept in, had a yummy breakfast, went to the local Harley Dealer for a special event they were having and then came back home so Mike could mow. After Landry went down for a nap, I ran up to Hobby Lobby in search of this embossing folder.

You see, the other night I woke up in the middle of the night and had the idea to make these little tags for Halloween treats for Abie's class. I had all the materials except for the embossing folder. Once I got home, I got to work on the tags by trimming them out with my Doodlecharms Cartridge. I cut the pumpkins in shadow and they are 2" tall. After that, I ran them through my Cuttlebug with the Distress Stripes folder and finished them off with a bit of green and orange stickles. They're currently drying and I hope to finish them tomorrow!

Hope you all have a nice evening. We'll be dining Al Fresco tonight and enjoying the fabulous weather!

Let it Snow

Happy start to the weekend everyone !! I really got in the mood for colder weather today. It was a little cool here for me and I had to put on a light sweater !! So I decided to play with some new stamps and make a Christmasy card........

I decided to go a little non-traditional and use green, pink, brown and white. I used one of my snowflake stamps in two different shades of pink to make the background for the card. The sentiment is also from the same set and I thought it would pop in bamboo leaves (from Memento). The ribbon was bought back in February and is supposed to be Valentine ribbon. The button is from PTI.

Have a great weekend !! We're taking the kids to the parade tomorrow at the Fall Fun Fest here in town and it should be lots of fun !!

Halloween Garland

Hello there and a happy Thursday to you all! It's Becky with you this afternoon with a fun little garland to share. I trimmed out thirteen kraft colored scalloped squares with my Accents Essentials cartridge. Then I stamped them all with white ink and a star image from a $1 stamp set I picked up at Joann's. Then I inked the edges of all the squares with dark chocolate ink.

Then I used my Doodlecharms cartridge and trimmed out some of the leaves and acorns, on Coredatnations card stock. After trimming them out, I sanded them, to let the lighter shade come through, and colored in the top of the acorn.

Then I cut out the spider image from the cartridge, also on Coredanations card stock, and sanded again.

Then I cut out the pumpkin image and, again after sanding, I added green stickles for the stem and a little stitching with my sewing machine.

I used score pal tape to adhere the squares to the ribbon and voila! A nice little festive garland.

The squares were cut at 2" and the images cut at 1 3/4".

Hope you have a fantastic evening!

Welcome Baby O !!

Hey there gals !! Wednesday is here !! You know what I look forwar to on Wednesdays....the grocery ads !! lol I love looking and planning out our meals for the next week : )

Ok, there's another precious baby in our family !! Our cousin had baby number 2 and from what I hear, he's adorable ! I'm so excited to meet him in a few days. I decided I wanted my gift to be a little different. Seriously---how many onsies does a baby need !! (trust me---I've had 3) I know one thing we can always use is a fresh supply of bath toys. I found this cute jar at Hobby Lobby. I filled it with different bath toys and secured a rubber duck to the lid. I wrapped cs around, added 2 scalloped squares with the letter "B" in the center. Finished off with yellow and white polka dot ribbon. Card to match----whatcha think ? I hope he and big brother have lots of fun with their new toys !!

Sweet little birthday card!

Hello all, it's Becky with you today. Stacy and I were busy checking the Papertrey Sneak Peeks last week and I fell in love with this card from Dawn McVey. It inspired me to try and make a plaid background. I never even thought of using ribbon stamps to get that look. Duh! :) I started out with a plain piece of white card stock that I stamped with a piece of "ribbon" from CTMHs Ritzy Ribbon set using a melon colored ink. After that dried a bit, I took the lined image from PTIs Let Freedom Ring set and stamped it the other direction with lime green ink. I used my circle Nestabilities to cut out a piece of the plaid and mounted it on some Melon Berry card stock which I had trimmed out with my scallop circle Nestablities. I took my white pen and placed a dot inside each scallop.

For my main image, I stamped a flower from Stampin' Up!s spots and dots (I think that's the name) on Spring Moss card stock and heat embossed it with white powder. I popped the image up with a pop dot and slid my sentiment underneath it. I then mounted the whole thing to a 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 piece of Spring Moss card stock. Finally, at the bottom, I added a small piece of Melon Berry card stock which I punched with on of my EK Success punches. Wow, that's a lot of steps for such a little card! I hope you have a great night!

Just around the corner..................

is Christmas !! Can you believe it ???? I decided to switch gears and start on a few gift card holders for Christmas. I started with a dark brown cardstock measuring 6x12. I scored it at 4, 6 and 8 inches. I folded it so that the two smaller sections formed a peak. You can see this better in the next pic. I added a teal swirl stamp with clear stickles on the dots to give it some sparkle. The sentiment is from SU........

You can see the peak a little better in this photo. I folded the peak over to the left to form a pocket to hold the gift card. Behind that I added teal cardstock that I ran through the cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder. Again, I added a teal swirly with stickles for sparkle:

I'm gonna call it an early night !! Have a great day and I'll see ya Wednesday : )

St. Louis...finally!

Good evening dears, it's Becky with you tonight! Do you ever have one of those projects that you know you need to complete but you're totally not excited about it? That's how I've been with our St. Louis scrapbook. I've had the supplied for awhile now but it was just sitting down and doing it, ya know? The way I like to do these types of books, themed albums that is, is to buy a paper pack and go to town! That way everything goes with everything. I also try to keep the layouts super simple, with one or two patterned papers cut to the same size and just mix and match them throughout the book.

This first picture is of the cover of my book. I purchased a Pioneer fabric album in black, 8x8 size and trimmed a picture of The Arch to fit in the window on the front.

The first page you see is the title page. I bought a DCWV Citrus Stack card stock pack in 8x8 size and used this sort of metallic red as a base. Then I cut out a U from my All Mixed Up Cricut cartridge in grey and flipped it upside down to simulate The Arch, genius I tell ya! :) Then I just cut out letters from a bright blue card stock from the same pack, I believe it was my Learning Curve cartridge, and popped them up with pop dots. Pretty simple but it gets the point across!

On to the inside. I purchased the DCWV Citrus Stack patterned paper and trimmed pieces to 3 1/2 x7 and 2 1/2x5. Then I just played around with them and the pictures. I finished my pages off with little bullet journaling statements. Overall I'd say this album took me several hours to complete. Not too bad and the best part is, it's done!
Well, I'm outta here for tonight. Mike took the kids out to play and I'm right behind them!

Frank N. Stein

Do you ever get one of those headaches on the back of your head that just won't go away? Do you have 3 kids that NEED something right now? Welcome to my Friday lol

Tonight I wanted to share some Frankenstein tins I made for the kiddo's and my nephew for Halloween. I bought these cute little tins at Target $1 for two. I've had them for a year and they've just been sitting there staring at me lol So, I decided to turn them into Frank N. Steins !!

Do they look familiar? Yep, they're from SU. Becky and I had the pleasure of making several different Halloween themed items last year at a class we attended. We had a blast and I thought they would translate well on these buckets.

I'm sorry to leave, but I need to take something for my head (and get another round of drinks for the kiddos)......Have a great weekend !!

Good Luck!

Happy Thursday afternoon to ya! It's Becky here today and I have a card to share which I made for a co-worker who's moving on to greener pastures! This is a guy who started work just three months before I did and we've been at the same office for over ten years. I'm going to kinda miss him!

This card has three different elements which I've been wanting to try out. #1 stamping a patterned background. I did this on the Pure Poppy with pumpkin colored ink and the single leaf from Out on a Limb. #2 rolling my edges. I did this on my Dark Chocolate paper. Finally, #3 stamping on patterned paper. I did this with my sentiment on some Summer Sunrise Bitty Dots Basics paper. Somehow, I don't think all this meshed so well together! Lol! Poor Stacy is tired of me texting her, I'm sure, about my inadequacies in the stamp world!

One thing is for sure, I do love how the sentiment turned out and I'm sure to be stamping on patterned paper a lot more! I hope you all have a nice evening. Today is Mike's (my husband) birthday and we're having tacos for dinner and brownie sundaes for dessert. Yum!

Simply No Name

Are there times that you are just baffled as to what to put as a sentiment on a card? Why do we have to say anything on the front ? Well, I was playing around with my fav tree stamp and white flowersoft to make this stark, cold winter tree. Once I finished, I decided that it didn't need anything else. I wanted it to be the focus. The card was run through the cuttlebug with my snowflakes folder and then I inked the edges in white. Simple brown and silver ribbon. Done. Simple, clean and now I can write whatever suits me when I go to send it on !!

Have a great night gals !!

Teacher's Helper

Hello there, it's Becky with you this afternoon. Teacher's Helper, that's what I was yesterday! My sister, Jennie, teaches second grade. She is one of the most creative and crafty people I know. So when she called me, asking for help, Thursday night I was shocked! She was working on her lesson plan book and I guess the kind you buy at the teacher's store are pretty ugly. Jennie decided to make her own but needed a bit of help with the cover. The inside pages, which are her actual lesson plans, measured 8 1/2 by 14" long. We trimmed the black patterned paper to 8 1/2 inches wide and then tacked on a piece of cream patterned paper at the end to make up the rest of the 14". To help hide the seam, we trimmed a piece of red card stock to 1" by 8 1/2" and punched one edge with the Upper Crest Punch.

Across the end, we added cream colored numbers, matted on black card stock, which were cut out from the Storybook Cricut Cartridge. Jennie placed the numbers, using a ruler, so they'd be nice and straight.

She's going to take the front and back cover we made and have the laminated and bound at Kinko's with the lesson plan insert pages. Pretty cool, huh? Hope you have a great night.

Just for Dad

Hola gals ! I can't believe that the weekend is finally over !! Tomorrow back to work and back to the routine : ( I've enjoyed these last three days off !!

Tonight I'd like to share a card that I made for my father's upcoming retirement. I can't believe that it's actually come !! He's so young (55 !!) and the countdown is on. Just a few more weeks and he'll be a free man lol. When I think of retirement, I think of relaxing and spending lots of time with family. As for my dad, well, I don't think he could sit still if he tried !! He'll be off to new adventures with mom and the RV and I'm sure she's finally gonna learn how to send pics through email !! (sorry mom, ya gotta learn sometime hee hee)

I tried to keep it manly but fun at the same time. I decided to use Everyday Button Bits and make a bird carrying a bunch of balloons. A simple "Happy Retirement" and some striped paper.

Dad if you by chance read this......Congrats !! I love you and am happy for you and mom !!

Have a great night ladies !! See ya Wednesday : )