HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween Friends!
I know I'm a little late in the day (didn't get photo taken last night as planned) but I have one last Halloween Card to share today in my Halloween card Spooktacular! :) But first, a fun JibJab video to wish you all a Happy Halloween. I created this last year starring me, my husband (Werewolf), my sister (Mad Scientist), my brother-in-law (Vampire) and my Dad (Frankenstein).

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

That video always makes me smile! Now on to the card! For this one I used my new Gingham background stamp from Market Street Stamps and stamps from the Halloween Moon set from Hero Arts.

I covered the background panel in Pumice Stone Distress ink then stamped the Gingham with Black Soot Distress ink.   For the moon panel I first covered the whole thing in Mustard Seed distress ink.  Then I clear embossed the moon & stars, and added Wild Honey & Spiced Marmalade on top.  Well I didn't get make all the Halloween cards I sketched out this year, but I'll just save them and perhaps use the ideas next year.

Now for a little business!  I took all the comments and answers from my 100th post giveaway, numbered them and then used Random.org to pick the winners of the prize packages.

The winner of the Sparkle & Shine Prize package is...

 

Susie!

And the winner of the Fly Free Prize package is...

The Constant Scrapper!

I have already emailed both these ladies and will be getting their goodies out in the mail ASAP!  Thanks for stopping by today, and thank you all for your encouraging and kind comments on my first video.  I am happy with how it turned out and so glad you all enjoyed it as well.  I have some plans for some future video projects too that I hope you all will enjoy!  Have a Happy rest of Halloween and don't eat too much candy!!!! :)

Peek-A-BOO

Hi Friends,
I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.  It got really cold here this weekend, I actually had get frost off of my car this morning!  Today I continue my Halloween project extravaganza with a fun ghost card.  This card features Lawn Fawn's Happy Haunting & Sally's ABCs set.

These little ghosts are just cute popping up to play peek-a-BOO don't you think?  I don't have a die or punch that makes a bigger scallop so I used the waves from My Cute Stamps Fishy Fun set for the scallops and just cut around them.  I actually like the whimsical feel the uneven scallops create, it goes perfectly with the ghosts.  Thanks for stopping in today.  Have a fabulous rest of the weekend!!!

Halloween Treat Bucket

So today I have something new to share!  After much, much work I have finally... wait for it... made a video.  I know, I know, try to control all your excitement.  HA!  It really wasn't a ton of work, but more of a learning process, of which I will not bore you all with the details.  So please be kind, it's my first try, I hope you all like it.  I wanted to get it up as soon as it was done because it features a fun halloween treat bucket project.  So without further a due here it is!

 

Whew! I should have picked an easier project to start with.  Anyway, here are some pictures of my finished treat bucket.  I hope some of you will try making some of your own and share them with me.  I think they would be fun for Christmas as well!

 

Thanks for stopping by today!  Tomorrow I'll be back with another Halloween card to share! :)

Spooky House

Seem like everyone has made a haunted house card with a big moon behind it...well I, of course, am no exception. :)  There is just something about this little Lawn Fawn house that calls for a big bright moon behind it.  So today's card is another Distress Ink background Halloween card.  I told you I loved Halloween!

I created a purple distress ink panel again using Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves.  The purple of Seedless Preserves is just so rich and yummy!  I used my Perfect Pearls Mist yet again (I warned you I was in love with it) but this time I spritzed my favorite background stamp and stamped the mist onto my background.  You can see it pooled up in a few places and gave me some bigger blobs but that's okay, it just adds to the spookiness.  I cut the circle out using a new Sizzix Framelit die, and colored a panel with more distress ink to place behind the cut out for the moon.  I did try something new on this card.  I cut some grey cardstock in the shape of the ground I wanted and then covered it in Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  I love the texture it created!  I will be experimenting more with this product in the future.

Thanks for popping in today!  The Halloween fun is far from over, I will have another card to share tomorrow.  And hopefully if all goes well a video before the weekend is over.  Yes, I filmed my first video, but due to some computer upgrading I needed to do it has not yet been edited.  I hope to get it done this weekend because I show how to make another treat bucket, and it happens to be Halloween themed.  Wish me luck!

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Boo!

Hi Friends!
I just wanted to first thank you all for your sweet and encouraging comments this week.  I can't express how much I appreciate all my crafty friends.  Now, to continue my Halloween card week I have a super quick & easy card I created that features some fun patterned paper & another try at using some colored mist.

I stamped out the letters from Lawn Fawn's Quinn's ABCs on a piece of scrap cardstock then drew an outline around them to cut out a mask. 

{Just a little tip, I tried the mask first with typing paper, it did not give me a nice crisp edge.  The wetness of the mist soaked through the paper and it wasn't pretty.  So to save the rest of you from wasting a card base, use cardstock for the mask with mists rather than paper.}  

I used removable adhesive to stick down my mask, gave it a little spritz with Mister Huey's Custard, removed the mask then let it dry.  Then I just layered some fun pattern papers along the top and bottom and added some twine.  The papers are from Echo Park's Happy Halloween line.  I bought them last year on sale so I don't know how easy they are to find now, but if you do a Google search you may be able to still find some. I just love the colors.

Thanks for stopping by today, tomorrow I'll be back with another Halloween card!  I know you are all shocked. :)

p.s. Today is the last day to play along with my little giveaway! You can leave comments HERE, I will draw winners this weekend.

Carbon Copied with Karen

Hi Friends,
Today I have a special card to share.  I'm excited to be posting along with Karen of The Bald Dragonfly as her Carbon Copied guest.  If you aren't familiar with Carbon Copied this is basically how it works: Same stamp set. Same challenge. Same post date. Same post time.  You can read more about it HERE on Karen's blog.

We decided to play along with the current Lawnscaping Challenge - Paper Piecing and use Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Sea set.  I cut out little fishes like crazy for this one, they remind me of goldfish crackers. YUM!

Be sure to hop over to Karen's blog and see what she came up with, it is sure to be absolutely fabulous!  Oh did I mention that we discovered we actually went to college together?  Small world!  GO PACK! :)

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Witching You ...

Hi Friends,
I love Halloween.  I used to look forward to dressing up in my costume and trick or treating as a kid.  I love all the fun decorations that come with Halloween too, however I will pass on the scary stuff and just stick to the cute stuff.  And today's card is no exception.  I have a whole page of  Halloween cards sketched out so I am going to try to make & feature as many as I can this week before the season is over.

Today's card is another one of those that sprung out of me trying to think about my stamps creatively.  I came up with this Halloween card using many different Lawn Fawn sets, none of which are "Halloweeen" themed.  I have actually had this idea sketched out for awhile, it is where I first thought about using the card in Cozy Christmas as a book!  The idea here was to make a Witchy card without an actual Witch (just her personal items).

Since all my pieces of this card are various colors I wanted my background to be more muted.  I also experimented with color mists for the first time.  The back panel is inked in Pumice Stone and then sprayed with Mister Huey's Custard spray.  I also sprinkled some water & Perfect Pearls Mist for texture. I am really loving the effect of sprinkling my distress inked panels with Perfect Pearls Mist, so be warned you will be seeing more of this. It is a little hard to photograph but I tried to get the light to catch the shine of those silvery spots.

I used 6 sets on this card.  I was also going to throw in a cat too, but didn't have room.  Maybe that would be a nice addition to the inside.  I am entering this card into this week's Wee Memories challenge "Free for All." since I didn't get it made in time for their Holiday challenge. Thanks for stopping by today, I have some more fun stuff lined up for this week so see you again soon!

P.S. You can still play along for some blog candy goodies on my 100th post giveaway HERE

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Young Crafters Unite! #3 - Masculine Cards

Hi Everyone, it's time for our next Young Crafters Unite! Challenge.  This month we are challenging you to create a Masculine card!

I'll be honest, Masculine cards are not an area I am well practiced in.  I guess because my creations seem to lean more toward the bright and cute side of the scale, Masculine can be a challenge for me.  However I decided that guys can appreciate bright and fun design as well so with that in mind here is what I created.

I used a new set from My Cute Stamps for this one and stuck with a manly nautical feel...well not too manly.  :)  I think this card could work for both a grown up or kids.  I actually restrained myself from making the sentiment read "Ahoy Matey" but change the anchor to a skull and you've got a pirate ship! I look forward to seeing your Masculine creations!

Be sure you check out all the other amazing design team creations.

Marie/Legojenta

Britta Swiderski

Jennifer Rzasa 

Jess Larsen

Paulina Nakamura

Check out all the challenge details at the Young Crafters Unite! blog including the amazing prize up for grabs.

A $25 Gift Certificate to Simon Says Stamp!

Batty Halloween

Today's blog post is brought to you by the letter "L" 

Does anyone remember the typewriter guy from Sesame Street? :) Just some fun for this Friday morning.  Anyway, today "L" is for Lawn Fawn in the Stamping A to Z series over at Two Peas in a Bucket.  So the Design Team created some Lawn Fawn projects.  I wanted to use my new doodlebug Halloween twine so I paired it up with some Heebie Jeebies Bats, Sally's ABCs and lots of yummy distress ink!

For this card I started out with a white base.  I clear embossed the sentiment on the white then added Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves Distress Inks to the background.  I sprinkled water & Ranger Perfect Pearls Mist on the background to achieve the speckled effect.  It's hard to photograph but the perfect pearls mist gives a nice shimmer to some of the spots.  For the bats I clear embossed them as well then colored them with Pumice Stone & Black Soot distress inks.  Because the twine is wrapped around the background several times I used Foam Tape to adhere it to the Black card base (which is kind of hard to see in this photo) and then popped the bats up with foam adhesive as well.  I really loved the effect of the pearl mist splatter so I am defiantly going to use this technique again.  

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to check out yesterday's blog post for a chance to win some goodies! :) I hope you all have fabulous weekend!

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InLinkz.com

100th Post Scavenger Hunt Giveaway!

This is my 100th post!  How exciting, I started my blog less than a year ago and looking back I feel like I have come a long way since December 2010.  I have made some amazing friends, I have learned so many new crafty things, and I have been given some amazing opportunities!  It has been an amazing journey so far and I look forward to what the next 100 posts bring. :)  To celebrate my little blogging milestone I have gathered up a few little things for not just one, but two giveaways to say thanks to everyone for your friendship and creativity.  But to make things a little more fun I thought we could play a little scavenger hunt game!

Here are my little prize packages. (I snapped these pics this morning with my new phone!)

Sparkle & Shine Prize Pack

Fly Free Prize Pack

And here is how the scavenger hunt works!  To play just leave a comment with the answers to the 5 questions listed below. (1,2,3,4 & 5) For each correct answer you get your name in the pot!  For a bonus entry leave a second comment telling me which of my past projects is your favorite or has inspired you in some way.  So that's 6 chances total.  If you have been following for awhile you may know the answer to these questions (because they are pretty easy), but if you don't you can "hunt" for them because the answers are all somewhere in my blog.

1.  Where does the name of my blog come from?
2.  There was a very big event in my life in April, what was it?
3.  What was the very first Challenge I participated in?
4.  Which Design Teams am I honored to be a part of?
5.  What was my one word I picked to describe my 2011?

Please leave your comments by next Thursday the 27th and I will pick winners on Friday the 28th. Thank you all for making this creative ride so enjoyable.  And here is a little card to share that sentiment!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Tomorrow I have a super fun Halloween card I am excited to share!

Social Club Birthday

There is something about a fancy martini that I just love.  Maybe it's the beautiful glass, or the long list of yummy flavors to choose from at most resturants, or maybe it's just the fact that you add "tini" to the end of any name and it's just plain fun!  That is what I think of when I look at the Cosmo Cricket Social Club collection.  I have had this pad of paper for awhile but hadn't found the perfect place to use it.  What I decided was I needed to let the papers be the star of the show and let their fun colors and patterns shine.  So that is just what I did.

The polka dot paper along the bottom is one of my favorites in this collection, so I used it as a base and picked other papers in the pack to go along with it. I am definitely going to use some more of this lovely paper very soon. :)

On another note, this is my 99th post so number 100 is just around the corner!!!  Personally I think that is a good excuse for a giveaway don't you?  So I'm going to gather up a prize package and stay tuned!  Thanks for stopping by!

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Studio Calico + Lawn Fawn

I see so many people who love Studio Calico.  So I decided to get a Studio Calico 6x6 paper pad and see what all the fuss was about.  It's different than the bright pattern paper I'm typically drawn to so I wasn't sure how I would feel about it (although I'm not very good about using the bright pattern paper anyway).  Turns out, I love it!  I used a few of the patterns from the Autumn Press pad along with some Lawn Fawn to create this simple birthday card. 

I think the color palette is just lovely.  I used Bisque Liquid Pearls and Rock Candy Distress Stickles for my accents. And it seems I am incapable of making a card without some twine or ribbon, so I added a little of that as well. :)  I'm looking forward to using some more of the lovely papers in this pad.  I also got some Mister Huey's too and I'm looking forward to trying those out as well.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you all have some fun things planned for your weekend.  Me and the hubby are headed to a pumpkin carving party tonight and then hopefully the corn maze tomorrow night. The leaves are peaking and it's a Fall-tastic weekend here in the mountains.

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Lawn Fawn Inspiration Week: My Cup of Tea

Hi Everyone,
Today is day 3 of Lawn Fawn's October Inspiration Week.  Today we are focusing on My Cup of Tea.  I branched out again from a typical card and tried my hand at a little sewing on this one.  I created this little tea bag pocket using some felt from the craft store and embroidery floss. By the way, I don't own a sewing machine, nor do I have mad sewing skills.  So anyone could give this project a try!

I stamped out my image on tissue paper and used it as a pattern.  I stitched through the paper and carefully tore it away after I was done sewing.  I used a blanket stitch to sew up the sides & raw edges.

I cut the card the same size as my tea bags so that everything fits in the pocket perfectly.  This would make a nice little gift for someone who loves tea.  It could easily be carried in a purse or bag for some tea on the go!

Be sure to stop by and see the rest of the Design Team's creations and visit the Lawn Fawn blog too for your chance to win some Inspiration Week Giveaways! :)

Lawn Fawn Inspiration Week: Sally's ABCs

***  For my Swimming for Katie Blog Hop post please scroll down or click HERE ***

Hi Friends,
I'm back with day two of Lawn Fawn Inspiration Week.  Today we are focusing on the newest alphabet set Sally's ABCs.  For my project I branched out and tried something other than a card.  I made these cute little treat buckets by combining Sally's with Harvest Season & Hebbie Jebbies.

I used a scrap piece of paper to measure the length around the bucket and mark where the handles would be. I then used this as my pattern.  For the "autumn wishes" bucket I used the two leaf stamps from Harvest Season and some masking to create the strip along the top.  I stamped along the edge of my cardstock, colored them in with copics and then fuzzy cut them out.  For the "trick or treat" bucket I used the emboss resist technique with black soot & seedless preserves distress inks.  I just love that new purple Tim Holtz created for his seasonal distress inks!  The orange strip is distressed on the edges with Ripe Persimmon distress ink, also part of the seasonal distress ink trio.

Be sure to stop by and see the rest of the Design Team's creations and visit the Lawn Fawn blog too for your chance to win some Inspiration Week Giveaways! :)

Swimming for Katie

Hi Everyone, today I am participating in a special blog hop for Katie Renz.   

From October 10-12 some of the best stampers are joining together to support and encourage our friend and fellow stamper, Katie Renz, who is currently battling inoperable gastric cancer.  If you're not familiar with her, Katie’s cancer story started just before Christmas last year.  This young, beautiful, healthy, vibrant mother of 3 with her infectious smile was suddenly diagnosed with an inoperable cancer, virtually overnight.  A few tummy aches and then stage 4 gastric cancer.  Her first post about it is here.  The idea of “Swimming for Katie” came from her recent post here.

This exclusive stamp I used in my project, designed by Becky Oehlers, is available as a clear stamp, as well as a digis or a dig and SVG cut file.  100% of the profits go to Katie's fund to help her and her young family.  Her husband Kevin and her three young children need our help and support.  In addition to the Keep Swimming Octopus, Marianne Walker and True =D Doodle Designs both also donated digis that are for sale.  Direct donations are also being accepted.  Information central is HERE.  This is a permanent page that will stay active at i {heart} papers with current information and the full 3 day blog hop listing, as well as the donation button. 

Click Here to see all the items available for sale.

I hope you will join me in supporting Katie through a purchase or donation.  Below is a list of everyone who has projects posted today.  I hope you will be inspired by them and moved to purchase or donate.  Also, if you would like to send Katie a card, her mailing address is:

Katie Renz
PO Box 5913
Bellingham, WA 98227-5913

Ashley Harris 
Clare Buswell 
Jessica Diedrich  
Lisa Somerville 
Charlene Merrick  
Eva Dobilas  
Judy Rozema  
Sharon Doolittle 
Tifany DeGough  
Windy Robinson  
Ashley Cannon Newell
Connie McCotter 
Heidi Van Laar  
Karen Maldonado 
Lori Craig 
Melissa Phillips  
Tosha Leyendekker  
Amy Kolling  
Angela Thomas 
Angelica Suarez 
Angie Blom 
Becky Oehlers 
Betty Wright 
Bev Gerard  
Brenda Weaver  
Carolyn King  
{ Chari Moss }
Charlene Driggs 
Cindi Bisson 
Claire Brennan  
Corinna McGregor  
Craft Critique  
Karen Hunsaker (Rubbernecker Stamps Designer)  
Keely Yowler 
 Kelly Schirmer 
Keri Lee Sereika 
Kim Hughes 
  Kimber McGray 
Kittie Caracciolo 
Kristin Eberline  
Wendy Price

Lawn Fawn Inspiration Week: Winter Fox

Hi Everyone,
It's time for another Lawn Fawn Inspiration Week!!! Today we are featuring the sweet little Winter Fox.  I love that she comes with a big steaming cup of cocoa.  So warm and cozy.  I paired her up with the tree from Critters in the Forest and some snowflakes from Making Frosty Friends to create this ornament.

I created the frame using sizzix framelits to cut the shape, Papertrey Ink woodgrain impression plate for the embossing and Tea Dye & Vintage Photo distress inks to get the texture to stand out.  I colored the fox and tree first with copics to get a nice wash of color and then went back overtop with my colored pencils.  I have seen some friends try this technique and I really love how it fills the image with color like a marker but still has the nice texture of colored pencil.  The mug, scarf and sentiment circle were all cut from patterned paper from My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas paper pad.

Be sure to stop by and see the rest of the Design Team's creations using Winter Fox and visit the Lawn Fawn blog too for your chance to win some Inspiration Week Giveaways! :)

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Witchy Kitty

Hi Friends! I finally finished a cute little card that I have had sketched out in my sketch book for weeks!  I'm super excited about how it turned out.  I really love when I can think outside of the box and come up with new ways to use my stamps.  For this one little card I used 5 different Lawn Fawn stamp sets!  Wow! Anyway, enough build up, I hope you all like my creation as much as I do. :) Here it is...

So if you haven't figured it out, I turned the soup bowl from On the Mend into a cauldron by drawing the little feet and the "to: Santa" card from Cozy Christmas into a book. The bubbles are from Critters in the Sea and I'm sure can all figure out where the cat and hat came from.

I am playing along with Lawnscaping with this one, this weeks challenge is dimension.  I used foam adhesive to pop up the frame, cauldron, book and some bubbles.  By the way, Micro Pop-dots are a must have for adding dimension to small things like the these bubbles.

Thanks for stopping by today! Lawn Fawn October Inspiration Week starts Sunday and I can't wait to share my projects with you!

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Sweet as Sugar

Hi everyone!  Today I'm sharing a Clean & Simple sugary sweet birthday card.  I made a glittery cupcake card for my cousin's brithday back in May and My mom requested I make another one for her to add to her card stash for her friend's birthdays so here is what I made for her.

I used some cupcake stamps from Hero Arts and sugared them up with some yummy glitter...don't they look good enough to eat?  I also thought this card would be the perfect opportunity to use Lawn Fawn's new Sally's ABCs set.  I really love the font of these letters, and the small outlined space gives you the opportunity to accent your letters with colors to match the card!  I also used pink cardstock with a metallic shine for the card base to give it some more sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by today, I've been busy, busy, busy working on some DT assignments for next week and my sketchbook has some fabulous ideas in it too that I can't wait to make and share with you very soon. :)  I hope you all have an amazing day!
Chari

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Happy Wishes

Stopping in this morning to share a quick card with you. I have been working on some Design Team assignments this weekend so I have to wait to share my latest creations.  But I wanted to share this card I made to send in a small package to my friend Laurel.  Her birthday was last week, but I got my package out a little late...so Laurel if you haven't gotten it yet look away! :) hehe. I really love paper piecing Lawn Fawn's Lunar Lights, it makes for such lovely lanterns. 

I started with the pattern paper on this one then picked my background cardstock to match.  The darker green card base is stamped with the Hero Arts envelope background stamp and the lighter green panel is embossed with the Papertrey Ink Linen impression plate. I love when you can make a card using a few simple items.  Some pretty paper and a great stamp set is all you need sometimes.  Hope you all have a happy Monday.

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