Sugar Skulls

So yesterday got away from me!  I was going to share these, but DH and I were relaxing with some leaf-peeping and a last beach walk for the season.  Hope you had a relaxing Sunday too!

These skulls are from Amuse, stamped with Memento Tuxedo, and colored with Copics.  The base is a PTI die that I thought was just perfect as background accent (and to hide the marker that bleeds through the back!).  My next batch will have some sparkle though.  These went out to an Etsy customer as a little "thank you for your order" gift. :)

I stamped out a bunch more of these to play around with and can't wait to use them on more projects!  I can't get over how popular these have gotten this year.  When I taught ELL in South Carolina, my students would use these to decorate alters for Dia de Los Muertos on November 1st and 2nd.  It is a beautiful celebration of ancestors who have passed on and have been blessed to take part in this celebration in years past.  If you don't already know about this celebration, I encourage you to learn about it.

Have a beautiful Monday!

Some Halloween Fun

I got the chance to take an Amuse Stamps Halloween card class last week and thought I'd share them with y'all!  I made a little oops with my "spooky" (it is a little wonky), but I love the little skeleton dudes.  They remind me of Karate Kid, the original one with Ralph Macchio.  Dating myself a bit huh.

Not much going on here.  I wanted to take a nap today, so what happened?  Everyone else is asleep and I am wide awake typing this post.  Oh well, at least it is quiet. :)

Gonna play with some sugar skull stamps I got from the class.  They are pretty addictive!  It's fun to go wild with bright colors!  If I get anything finished I'll share with you tomorrow...

Witchy Treat

These days we aren't allowed to have treats like this at school.  This is almost as good in that it is sweet to look at!

The card is 4.25"X4.25", my favorite size.  The image is PTI, the b&w paper is cut with a PTI die, and the witch hat is an MFT die.  The other goodies are this 'n that from my stash.  I'm thinking I'll make another one and give these out to my roomies on Halloween. :)

Do you have anything fun you do with/for coworkers on Halloween?

Spooky Banners

Morning' Peeps!! I'm still checking off items from my Summer Resolutions List. Guess I just can't let go of Summer! LOL! So along with finally getting my final boxes of donations out the door (I can check that off the list now), I've created some new banners. :)

These banners were fun to play around with, especially to embellish!  The bonus is that my Halloween box is looking a little more empty now. Yay! 

Lots of times I make a bunch of the same thing with the same colors, sorta assemble line style.  This time I went outside of my box and played around to see how this would look with different combos. :)

The letters I cut with my Cricut and the doilies are cupcake doilies. :) For this banner I also cut shadow letters from a grayish-brown chevron paper and I love the look!

This last banner was originally going to be only orange, black, and white.  It was just too match-matchy (I can't believe I said that since I kinda swoon for match-matchy!).  Green was just the right thing to add for some spooky pop. 

I've got a couple more banners in the works.  We'll see if they make the cut to be shown off.  In the meantime, these puppies are in my Etsy Shoppe for sale and I'll be showing them off at work to see if anyone wants to order one. :)

With the yucky weather we are having this weekend, I'm off to clean (and hopefully create) in my studio.  Happy World Card Making Day (realy weekend)!!!!

Frightful & Delightful

It is amazing what a little cleaning/organizing will do to remind you of what you have done! It is both "frightful" and "delightful". LOL!

Remember this caramel apple from last week? Well here is another gem that turned up when I decided to go through my card "repair shop" at the end of my summer break. The bits and pieces came from the reject pile when I was trying to make this card and this card last fall.

This card ended up in the "repair shop" because it was nekkid as a blue jay inside (meaning no sentiment) and didn't have an envie either.  An easy to solve problem, I just needed to sit down and do it.

The envie stamps are from PTI Fall Jar Fillers- OMG I adore that whole series!  The card uses MFT dies and a old Amuse stamp.  Goodness knows where the paper came from since I was all about making room in my Halloween paper stash last year so I could get more!

It is funny that in August we had some crisp nights and now that it is September we are hot 'n humid.  Didn't Mother Nature look at her calendar???

What can you do?  Oh, I know.  Stay in and make stuff!  Hee-hee!

Caramel Apple for the First Day

Today was the first day back to school for the kiddos where I teach and let me tell you that any teacher would love to have and apple like this on their desk. *wink wink*  When I was doing some cleaning last week I came across the goods to make this card.  I don't think I've shared it before, but I taught this card to coworkers a few years back and discovered I had leftovers begging to be assembled. :) 

This card is so cute, I can't believe I hadn't shared it- so here it is. LOL! It was fun to come across all the parts.  Even better, all I had to do was color and glue!!! 

I wish I had more of that background paper. :( It made for such a matchy-matchy card!  I'll admit I have a soft spot that look. The caramel on the apples has a shine to it on the paper and so I added shine to the stamped image too.

Well, now that Day 1 is done it is time to get ready for Day 2 (and then crash into bed!). See you all soon...

Sweet 'n Spooky in a Jar

Happy Hallow's Eve, Eve!  Thought I'd share a couple more Halloween cards made with leftovers from cards of years past AND some new fun stuff. ;D

I went nuts cutting Halloween paper with dies last year.  I had WAY more cut goods than ideas, but it is so awesome to pull out that precut stuff and run with it later. :)  Here is evidence exhibit A. LOL!  I used to hate spiders as a kid.  Not saying I want one as a pet or anything now, but I have a certain affection for them these days.  They eat so many other creepy crawlies that I despise that now they are on my "good list".  Not sure who to give this one to this year.  Maybe I'll save it for next year.  We'll see...

Here's the sweeter version!  My DH and his sister both seem to like candy corn.  For all the sweets that I love, candy corn is soooo not on my list.  Totally fun to color though!  I might give this card to my DH for Halloween.  I think he can overlook the more "girly" aspects of the card, since he will be mostly focused on the candy corn and wondering if it'll mean he gets some candy corn to go with the card. LOL!

Have a sweet, not spooky, Wednesday!

Pumpkin Jack

Another creation using those MME papers from my friend Lynn with some added goods from the scrap pile. :)  They sure have gotten me in the mood for the season.  Not that it takes much!  The leaves here are GORGEOUS- our reward for suffering through a rainy May & June.  (Did you know that?  A rainy spring makes for a stunning fall.)  Then of course there is apple cider, which I am blessed to have easy access to 3 varieties of fresh cider within 3 miles of my house.  My current hometown is deep in the middle of apple orchard country.  Wander a mile in any direction and you'll hit an orchard.  Finally there is decorating for Halloween!!!!!  We pulled down the boxes and started decorating.  We have 7 boxes of pumpkiny goodness.  Ahhhhh, I love fall (she says until we get to winter, which she loves- until we get to spring, which she loves too- summer, oh yeah she loves that too.  Hee-hee).

The pumpkin fella is AMuse and he's colored with YR24, YR23, Y21, W2.  The dies are from Papertrey Ink & My Favorite Things.  The black ribbon is from Michael's and the burlap is from The Hen's Den.

This week I'm making even more fall cards when I take Katie's class on Thursday and then the following Thursday I'm saying good-bye to fall and hello to Christmas with my class.  Hope to see some of you there! :)

Jack and I are going to "scare" up some fun here:
Cards in Envy- Now That's Scary Challenge

"Carving" Pumpkins

Happy World Card Making Day Everyone!  Alas, I haven't made any cards today as we were out an about in Hampton, NH for unsuccessful antiquing.  We did happen upon a great garden in North Hampton and a yummy restaurant in Portsmouth, NH and I do have some fall cards to share with y'all today!

These pumpkins are made with the same MME papers from this post with some additional papers from my scrap heap I've been working my way through.  They are a little labor-intensive to plan & prep, but SO worth it don't ya think? :)

I've only posted 4 here, but the prep allowed me to have everything I needed to make 7.  The pumpkins shape come from the pumpkin die by Papertrey Ink (which I've had for a couple years now and never used).  Each patterned paper got run through to make the "ridges" and then I had to play "puzzle maker" to mix 'n match them.  I only wanted to have one piece from each pattern per pumpkin (say that tongue-twister 10 times fast!).  The leaves are also from a Papertrey Ink die.

Each ridge is edged with brown ink so to give the ridges more definition.   They are all mounted on kraft cardstock.  I feel a little bad about this cover one.  I cut the kitty's head off!!!!  Does that make it for sure a Halloween card then???

I would totally make more of these- they were super fun!  I'm so glad I finally broke out these pumpkin dies!!! I've got one more set of cards to show you this week using this same set of papers, so stay tuned! ;)

I'm taking my patch to party here:
Allsorts Challenge: Autumn colors
Sweet Stampin Challenge: Autumn is here
Simply Create Too: Autumn/Fall
Fairy tale challenge: Pumpkins, Mushrooms, or Bats

Jolly Roger!

 Last year my friend Lynn gave me a set of papers from the spiders web line by MME as a congratulations for getting my first teaching gig at Ink About It.  I was so swamped by getting ready for the class I set the papers aside and forgot about them.  Well, how happy was I when I found them pulled them out this week!!!!

These were so much fun to make!  I did add some Tim Holtz distressed bazzill style paper and a fun grey chevron from the scrap pile.  The stamps are from Papertrey Ink and the dies are My Favorite Things.  The Jolly Roger's bones are colored with Y21 and the eyes are colored with YR23.  Everything is outlined with W2- love that for outlining!

I'm so excited because all of the supplies were already in my stash, I have some Halloween cards ready, AND they are squeal-worthy cute. :)  Wait until you see the cards I'm sharing on Saturday!!!!  I showed everything to my DH yesterday and he actually said wow (that's a huge deal with us) and he thought they were all gold medal worthy (I always have him rank them with gold, silver, bronze.  I'm a geek.  I know. *smile*)

See you Saturday Peeps!!

My Fashion Plates

 (image credit)

Do you remember that toy, Fashion Plates?  I came across a post by Kim at her blog ART & INSPIRATION.  Her post is so spot on for how I felt about that toy.  I wanted them in the worst way for years when I was a kid.  I finally got them probably 6 months before I was "too old" to play with them 'cause it wasn't "cool" anymore. Wish I knew where they were!  Luckily I have found a new version (at least it makes me think of a newer version of FP's).

The left two tags I made way back in February at a class at Ink About It.  The one on the right I made, gosh maybe early May at a "reunion" crafting get together.  The girls were so popular that by the time any store had gotten the stamps they were sold out- I never was able to get the stamps until about a week or so ago!!!  These are soooo much fun to dress up. :)  I'm trying to get some other projects done so I can make a few more!

(image credit)

This is the only image I could find of all the girls you can get to play with from Prima.  I got 3 to start.  The 2nd in from the left & the last 2.  I haven't played with them all yet, I've been busy crafting though.  Hold on to your hats!  I've got lots of posts coming up this week!!

Ghosting Bag

It's that time of the year again.  Ghosting time!  I made this goodie bag to be prepared for the ghosting that happens every year at this time. :)  You can check out the tut at The Hen's Den and while you are there don't forget to enter a project you posted on your blog from any day this October.  That's right- you pick the project AND the theme.  The name of some lucky player will be drawn at random for a chance to win goodies from The Hen's Den store!!!!   ***East Coast Folks- Hurry before we all lose power from "THE FRANKENSTORM". ;D

(The DT has posted some of their inspiration pieces in the gallery, but don't worry we won't win. ;) )

More Black Magic

Here's another Black Magic Pumpkin!  These have been fun to play around with this year. :)  Oooh, I just love using those scraps and messing around with wacky color combos- at least they are wacky for me.

I like to think Tim Gunn would say I made it work.  Not one paper was bought this year for this project.  In fact, it might be possible that everything used here is at least 2 years old.  No wait.  I lied. The aqua ribbon on the mason jar is from this summer.

Oh and the button is from last month.  So is the orange ribbon.  Humph.  Well the papers are all old dangit!  And I have posted 3 times this week.  Yahooey!

 

Witchy Boots

 

I'm one of those gals that loves shoes.  All kinds of shoes- excepts super ugly ones, although my husband and I differ in opinion as to what ugly shoes are!  LOL! I would totally wear these witchy-poo boots- at least on Halloween. :)

This card was so much fun to make!  I love that it is a different color than the typical orange and black for Halloween.  The image is from PTI- Friendship Jar Fall Fillers, the sentiment is from Amuse, the washi tape is Bella Blvd, and the paper is from the scrap pile I like to call my studio these days.  Seriously, it looks like a bomb went off in there!  

 There is a little sparkle that you can see IRL, but I couldn't seem to capture it well on film- or should I say on pixels?  What do we say these days since we don't use film much anymore? 

Hope you have a delightful, rather than frightful, Tuesday.  Wish me luck.  I have my first parent conference of the year this morning! :)