Thursday's Throw Aways - Happy Halloween

I picked up some new toys to use for Halloween.  One was a Martha Stewart Drippy Goo Punch.  The package had spiders printed on it that were pretty cool so I punched them out and saved them.

Then I found some cute little striped buckets in the $ section of Target.  They had a tag that had a cute little Halloween black cat on it, so I punched those out and saved them.

Then, I had some extra little Halloween chickies that needed a home.

I just love the way these turned out!

Friday CPR 10/30 - Go There if You Dare

There's a new post there today. 

Another Haircut Another Treat

A quick little treat for my hairdresser.   Some orange mints wrapped up for Halloween.

Teapot Tuesday 65

Yippee Yay - Cindy's back today!!!  And with a stinkin' cute teapot and a story to go along with it that you have to read to understand my card for today.  Please go visit Cindy's glob and give her a great welcome back! 

This little teapot house belongs to Blacken White and his wife Blanca.  Blanca has a mission for us.  She's tired of the same old black and white and she wants us to hit Blacken with color.  So here is my story........

Mr. and Mrs. Blacken White and The Magic Room

Blanca the wife

and Fran with the Plan

got some sheets ready

and snuck up on the man.

They spun and they twisted

and though they felt crummy

they wrapped Blacken up

till he looked like a mummy.

The moon was full,

the bats flew by,

the pumpkins stood watch

as they gave it a try.

They pushed him in

and counted to three.

They opened the door

and what did they see?

Blacken was wrapped

but he wasn't duller.

Oh no, it was magic

He was now full of color!

This is called a magic card and I found the directions on Splitcoast in the Resources section.  This mummy stamp was in the $1 bin at Mike's along with the pumpkin stamp this year.  I picked up the sentiment and bat stamps at Mike's a couple of years ago.  I used SU's Itty Bitty Backgrounds on the Pumpkin Pie cs. 

Pretty cool, huh!

Zero Calorie Cake

Today is my friend Linda's birthday.  Last week when I saw her I gave her a little surprise.  It's a zero calorie birthday cake.  Not my original idea I must add - you know I'm a great copycat!  I saw the original here.  It is really simple like a real cake - as long as you have all the right ingredients.  Personalizing with your own creative flair is always welcome! 

You will need a battery operated tea light (you can get 2 in a package for $1 at the Dollar Tree).  You'll need some pretty papers, flower and leaf punches and the SU exclusive Flower Folds Die.  The link above has a great tutorial.

No cake would be complete without it's own little bakery box. This I will take credit for.  I used some Sahara Sand cs and made a little 1 1/2 x 2 box pattern.  Gave it a band of coordinated dsp and a ribbon and added some more punched flowers and leaves to the top.

I love this project!!!  It's cute, inexpensive, and can help you use up scraps of all that beautiful paper you have from your cardmaking or scrapbooking. 

Oh, and by the way - HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA!!!

Chip

I just couldn't resist taking pictures of this little guy as I watched him yesterday morning.  He's having his breakfast right now, but he's also been stocking up for the winter.  Just before these pics I observed him filling his cheeks and running back and forth to his secret den.  I was most amazed to see him completely stuff a maple leaf into his mouth and run off with it.  I wonder if that will be a lining for his little stash?

Teapot Tuesday - A Dedication

MariLynn chose a beautiful mosaic white teapot with a swirl of pink ribbon around it in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Check this link.  The suggestion came from Dawn - great idea Dawn!!!

My card is in honor of my friend Mary Ann who passed away earlier this year after a long battle with breast cancer.  Mary Ann was a teacher in our school district who had a heart of gold.  Years ago, when she got her diagnosis and knew that she would be out of school she asked for me as the substitute in her class.  It was going to be longer than 20 days and they weren't going to let me do it as I don't have my teaching certification, I only had substitute certification at the time.  Mary Ann insisted that I take over her class - she always showed such a confidence in me. 

When I started working in the school office Mary Ann was transferred to our school.  It was such a pleasure to have her there.  She was such a calming influence to the staff and the students. 

She retired a few years ago and moved out of state to be near her grandchildren. We didn't know it at the time, but she knew that her cancer had spread and she was going to be in an even bigger battle. 

When she passed away this spring the staff planted a beautiful flowering crabapple tree in her honor.  This week (Wednesday, 10/28) we are going to all wear pink and place a plaque at the base of the tree.  So, you see why I chose a tree for my card. 

Breast cancer is an insidious disease.  It has taken two very wonderful people from me this year.  I don't want to lose anyone else like that so please, if you haven't gotten yourself checked, make an appointment now!

Downline Swaps

We held a swap for the first time at our recent downline meeting. The theme of the month was pink for breast cancer month. We had to create any kind of card that had pink in it. Here are the swaps from the meeting,

Thinking of You

For a friend who recently lost a family member.  You're in my thoughts and prayers.

Sit Down Strike

I had to post this picture that I took yesterday after I saw what Sabrina had posted.  Check this out.  I think the deer of the world must have been having a sit down strike yesterday!

You can see the branches of the oak tree in the foreground are heavy with rain drops.  The deer sat out there in the rain for quite some time.

We were supposed to have been on the Lighthouse Challenge this weekend but the weather was really too nasty.  Rain and temperatures below 50° along with anticipated coastal flooding talked us into staying home.

Catching Up

You'll find three new posts for today below.  I hope you enjoy them all!

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 32

My cousin gave me a beautiful calendar last Christmas.  We enjoy going to tea together and she found a calendar that had pictures of lovely teapots.  I really didn't want to just toss this into the recycling pile.

I am lucky to have at my disposal a set of envelope dies for our school Sizzix but you can find many envelope templates just by googling "free envelope templates". 

All it took was a few folds and creases, a little snail and voila business size envelopes.  Now these particular envelopes will need address labels and they'll also need stickers to seal the envelope.   But at least now they have a second life!

Boss's Day

Autumn Splendor came in handy for making this card for my boss for Boss's Day.  Some Ruby Red and Confetti White cardstock, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard and VersaMark Ink, and Chocolate Chip ribbon did the trick.

Click on the picture to see the beautiful scissor work on those lower leaves.  (Yes, I'm patting myself on the back - it was tedious!)

October Swaps

These are the swaps from our October downline meeting.  We were to use pink in our cards in some way in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.   Great job ladies!!!

Teapot Tuesday - In the Pumpkin Patch

MariLynn chose another cute teapot for this week's challenge.  To see what I'm talking about, please click here.   I couldn't find a direct picture of the teapot, but you'll get a treat when you visit the SCS gallery.

Just someone let me know if I start typing gibberish, please!  I've been so tired lately that I think I've been typing what I'm hearing on the TV as I'm nodding off.  I reread my last post and deleted some nonsense.  I have no idea where it came from.  Thanks for bearing with me!!!

So here is my card.  I used the Top Note die for the pumpkin.  I bet I didn't have you fooled!

Aside from the Top Note Die, you need good sponges!  The edges of the card and all the edges of the pumpkin are sponged.  The leaves were stamped with my Autumn Splendor stamps onto DSP and cut out.  The "sunflower" is the smallest daisy die with a Soft Suede center. 

So go check out that link from up above to see how close I got to the teapot!

CASing Fall and Halloween

Sometimes I like to sit down with my stamps, ink and paper and start from scratch creating a project all my own.  Other times, particularly when I'm overwhelmed with other decisions, I often feel the need to create but I try to find a jumping off point that will eliminate making too many choices.  So I CASE (Copy And Share Everything) something that I've seen somewhere else.  This could be getting inspiration from a posted challenge, or from a project seen recently.

I found myself in this frame of mind this weekend and here are the projects that I've CASed.

The above project is strongly based on something that I saw on Julia Bettencourt's blog.  This project is so simple and so pretty - even HWNSNBP said he liked it!  The most time-consuming part of it is all the sponging, but without it it definitely would be lacking.  I used my Lovely Letters alphabet for the letters as I don't have an alphabet die set yet.  The pumpkins are ovals and circles punched out of crimped Pumpkin Pie cs.  The blocks are actually die cut boxes that are sponged, assembled and decorated.  The vines are from another die.  Don't be surprised if you see another project based on this idea soon!  Thanks Julia for the inspiration!!!

Then I got out one of my new dies - the Bigz Two Tags die.  I saw a cool project on Angie Kennedy Juda's blog that she got as a swap from Eva.  I don't have the specialty paper that she has, so instead I used my new Platinum Shimmer Paint on the scroll stamp from Friends 24-7 on the inside of the tag. 

The outisde sentiment is from Holiday Best and colored with markers.  I used some of the leftover crimped cs for the orange panel on the fron of the tag. 

You can see that I stamped the little bird from Twick or Tweet on watercolor paper.  I colored the image with my markers and used the purple and blue inks on the background.  It's been punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch, scored under the bird's feet, and adhered to the tag with another little piece of black cardstock.  Oh, if only I weren't fighting to keep my eyes open right now!

The sentiment on the front of this tag comes fron the Holiday Best set.  I really like the way the silver looks on the black.    What do YOU think!

Fall Fest Projects and Swaps

I was very fortunate to be able to attend the Fall Fest sponsored by the INKredibles at the end of last month.  We were treated to two very special guests - Karen Barber and Michelle Zindorf. 

Karen demonstrated her Black Magic with a Twist technique.

The backgrounds were made by using another stamp from the Charming set.  We just repeated the image on the paper to make it look like it was pre-printed DSP.

The flower image in the center oval was first stamped in Whisper White craft ink and when it was dry we colored over the ink with SU's colored pencils.  The while dots were added with a gel pen. 





Michelle taught us how to build a scene with sponges and post-it notes.

I fell in love with both of these techniques and the funny thing is is that they're not hard at all, they just need an extra dose of patience as the cards are built up.

I'll be sharing the rest of the projets of that day soon.

Friday CPR 10/9 - Who's the Wise Guy?

To view my Friday CPR post for 10/9 - Who's the Wise Guy? click here.

Teapot Tuesday

Our substitute hostess MariLynn came up with a wonderful challenge this week.  Cindy (our Teapot Queen) celebrates her birthday in October so MariLynn picked a cute birthday hat teapot.

Such vibrant colors don't you think!  Here's how I interpreted it.

The petals are stamped with the Pick a Petal set and cut out.  They are slightly curled and the top four are popped up on dimensionals.  I did run the Orchid circle through the Big Shot with the small dots - not sure if you can see it in the picture.  The sentiment comes from the Teeny Tiny Wishes.  I drew the banner shape around it after I stamped it. 

I think it'll make a nice cheery birthday card for Cindy.  What do you think?

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 31

I thought I was going to be able to combine Teapot Tuesday with Thursday's Throw Aways but it wasn't meant to be.  The circuits just weren't connecting this afternoon.

So, I dove into my bag of tricks - well it's a box really - and came up with this.  We recently had one of those fund raisers at school where the student's sold gift items including wrapping paper.  I took one of the extra booklets and tore out the wrapping paper samples. 

None of these jumped out at me to make them into something else.  So I flipped the pages...............

There, that could work.   A little red and white paper, a couple of punches and a brad later..............

You know those crazy lines make it look all whacked out, but it's straight - trust me!

World Cardmaking Day

Before I tiptoe off to bed for the evening I thought I would post a picture of a Halloween card that I actually did squeeze in on Paintingday I mean Saturday.  I used stamps, ribbon, and pearls from the $1 bin at Mike's along with an SU corduroy brad and my new MS Drippy Goo punch.

Yes, I know the drips are dripping up but it's not too bad, right?  Well, I wish that I could have spent more time stamping but at least I got this one done!  Whoooooooose going to get this one?

Teapot Tuesday ?

Teapot Tuesday will be a little late this week.  I've been exhausted trying to deal with this bathroom remodel we're doing.  I know I shouldn't complain because it really is going to be beautiful when it's done, but we just haven't been able to catch a break with anything.

There was a problem with the tile, then the toilet was delivered in a million pieces.  We needed to special order the caulk to match the grout and the order was not placed by the store when they said they did it.  We ordered the closet door in the wrong size and had to reorder that.  Then we realized that we needed a smaller vanity and sink because the closet was slightly larger than it used to be.  They won't be in until the end of the month!

This weekend was supposed to be dedicated to painting.  Well, after three cans of paint (only one was actually used), it still isn't the right color.  Just look at the chips I've collected......

Yes, you could say that I'm a color coward sticking with the neutral color, but you can't really see the depth of most of the colors here.  The room is small and therefore I don't want to paint it too dark, but right now, it's too light.  So I will be masking and painting again this weekend.  I have to admit that it's a lot easier to paint while the toilet and sink are not in there, but it's almost like being held captive in a large plastic bag once you're done covering everything and the doorway!

I'm hoping to combine this week's Teapot Tuesday and Thursday's Throw Aways ..... provided I can find some energy somewhere!  Bear with me please.  

Swaps

Recently I attended Fall Fest up in Allamuchy, NJ and a downline meeting and at each there was a swap.  I didn't get a chance to make many swaps for Fall Fest and I only needed a handful for our meeting.   I chose to use my new Gifts of Christmas set to decorate a die cut box for my Fall Fest swap.  I kept the box flat for swapping and I only had 10 of them.

I've shown you a close-up so you could see how I added some depth to the image by using a darker color to accent.  The image was stamped after I colored it with my SU markers, reactivated the ink with my breath, and stamped it on the Kraft box.  Then I touched up any areas with the markers directly onto the paper.  The last step was to add the accent lines with a darker color.  The doves were stamped onto Whisper White cardstock, cut out, and added to the box with dimensionals.

The other swap was for our downline meeting.  We had to use pink in our swap in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Again I showed you a close up so you could see that the floral image here (from the Charming set) was clear embossed after stamping and then stamped over with the words.  I inked my stamp up with my markers first and stamped the image onto Whisper White cs.  Then I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp directly over that image with VersaMark ink so that it could be clear embossed.  After it was embossed I just inked up the word stamp and stamped over the floral image.  I used a sponge to remove any "word" ink from the surface of the flowers. 

The side of this card was stamped on the left with the Medallion stamp in VersaMark ink and on the right with another stamp from the Charming set also in VersaMark.

I'll be sharing pictures of all the swaps I swapped for in the near future.