Happy Halloween

October is almost here and I'm getting excited about Halloween!

Today Parker and I did a little shopping, we found these rats at Dollar Tree. They had a bunch of fun stuff. We also went on a hunt for his Halloween costume. He's going to be a creepy scarecrow. It reminds me of the one in Batman.



In this close up you can get a better look at Angel's raised wings and the black on black embossed chevron squares. I can't remember where I found the spider punch, but it's made by EK Success. The Happy Halloween sticker came from Making Memories years ago.

I'm sharing this with Stampotique Designers Challenge, Corrosive Challenges, Daring Cardmakers, and Forever Night Challenges.

Elegant Thank You Card

 

I simply love damask patterns. I find them classy and elegant.

 

The base of my card is Basic Grey. I heat embossed the damask pattern from a Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration set called Bliss on Sahara Sand cardstock. The grosgrain ribbon color is called So Saffron. I finished my card with a few rhinestones for a bit of sparkle.

 



Here you can get a hint of the sheen of the embossed damask pattern. I think this color combination is so lovely.

I made this thank you card for my neighbor Donna. Yesterday she was kind enough to surprise me with 3 big bags of craft goodness. They were filled with things like glitter glues, rhinestones, ribbons, fabrics, sequins even a calligraphy pen and nibs. It was such a delight to look through all the fun stuff. I had such a rough day at work yesterday. Boy was it ever a Monday! It was nice to forget about the issues, and think about creating something beautiful!  It's sometimes funny that something as small and trivial as a roll of ribbon can make me happy. But isn't that why most of us craft :)

 

I'd like to share my card with Fab Friday, The Stuff Of Success, Party Time Tuesdays, The Stamping Boutique, Skipping Stones Designs, Make It Monday, Simon Says Stamp & Show, Gingerloft, and Through The Craftroom Door

Wicked Halloween Goodie Bag

 I made this Halloween goodie bag out of a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of orange cardstock. At the top of the bag I used Black Lace decorative tape from Tapeswell. For the handles I twisted a 1/2" strip of black cardstock and attached with Scor-Tape. I embossed a tag with a Chevon embossing folder and randomly colored it. Next I stamped Linda , colored her, fussy cut her, then attached her to the tag. I added a fun little button from Pink Paislee. The sentiment Wicked Halloween came from Close To My Heart. I used Halloween Baker's Twine along with orange and black Seam Binding to attach the tag to the goodie bag. This makes a fun party favor by filling it up with things like Halloween suckers, Pez dispensers and candy, stickers and tattoos.
I'm sharing this with Paper Issues, Really Reasonable Ribbon, Stampotique Designer's Challenge, Hiding In My Craft Room, The Squirrel And The Fox and Send A Smile 4 Kids.

Thankful, Grateful, Appreciative

I'm so excited about Autumn!

I just love this time of year when the weather is a bit cooler and the leaves on trees turn such gorgeous shades of red, orange and yellow. I've already started burning my Pumpkin Pie scented candles. Yum!

The colors of fall are the inspiration for this card. The base of my card was created by randomly stamping leaves in versamark on pumpkin pie cardstock. At the bottom I added some rust organza ribbon layered with brown velvet ribbon. Next I threaded brown satin ribbon through the cream lace ribbon. I made the flower with burgundy satin ribbon. I saw the technique some time ago on the Really Reasonable Ribbon Blog. The sentiment was created by coloring a stamp with green, brown, red and orange markers. I stamped it on cream cardstock, fussy cut it and adhered to my card with foam mounting squares. I can't remember the name of the stamp.It came from Stampin' Up! several years ago, so it's probably retired now.

I'd like to share this with Really Reasonable Ribbon, Addicted To Stamps, Crazy 4 Challenges and Sentimental Sundays. 

 

Kit Kat M&M Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

 

Pinterest made me do it again! I saw this this cake and just had to make one too!

Let me tell you it was a huge hit at my sister's birthday party!

I made mine using 3 marble cake layers and my cream cheese frosting.

 

Here's my recipe for the frosting...

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

 

2 packages Cream Cheese

1 container Fleischmann's Olive Oil Spread - approx 1 cup

1 bag Confectioner's Sugar - approx 10 cups

tsp Vanilla Extract

 

Let cream cheese set out until room temperature. Combine cream cheese and Fleishmann's until smooth. Slowly begin stirring in powdered sugar. I cover my mixer with a damp towel to prevent sugar dust flying everywhere. Add a vanilla and continue mixing for about 10 minutes. If you prefer your frosting a bit thicker, simply add more powdered sugar.

 

This makes a lot of frosting and any extra will stay fresh for weeks in the refrigerator.

 

I'm sharing this with Tatertots and Jello, Liz Marie, and The Stuff of Success.

Pinterst Made Me Do It

 

I keep seeing amazing painted furniture transformations on Pinterest. So I just had to search the Internet to learn learn about different types of chalk paint like Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint. I've seen a ton of recipes on Pinterest for DIY Chalk Paint using things like Plaster of Paris, Spackle or non-sanded grout.

Well I just had to paint something! I went searching  places like flea markets, yard sales, and Campbell Yard Sales. Then I upon stumbled You Never Know and found this dresser needing some love.

 

 

After bringing it home I could hardly wait to paint it!

I could not stand the wait to order chalk paint online. So instead of going to Lowe's to buy some paint, I used some I found in our garage. I couldn't figure out where the Spackle or grout was, so I improvised. I got a disposable cup, some baking soda, a splash of water and paint. Mixed it up and slapped it on the dresser. Can you tell I was excited and couldn't wait any longer!?! It dried pretty quickly so I lightly sanded it down the to bring out some of the underlying wood. And finally finished it off with Minwax Special Dark Paste Finishing Wax.

YAY! It now has a happy place in my craft room. I can hardly wait to get some "real chalk paint" to test it out. I need another piece of furniture, so stay tuned to get a peak where I create. :)

 

I'm sharing this with Liz Marie, From My Front Porch To Yours, Redoux, My Repurposed Life, Simply Designing, and Tatertots and Jello.

 



Teacher's Prayer

Tonight I made a card for Parker's teacher.

This prayer is so lovely and fitting as a Thank You card.

The base is kraft cardstock, layered with Garden Green. I love the pop of the bright grosgrain ribbon. To highlight the center I played with my new piercing tool from Stampin' Up!

 

I'm sharing this with Really Reasonable Ribbon, The Stuff of Success and Make It Monday.

Happy Hauntings

Look at that sweet face!

 

This is a picture I took of Parker last year. I'm sure you can relate to just how difficult it is to get a picture of a child without them making silly faces! He's showing off some of his artwork that we used to make the Happy Hauntings banner behind him. We played with black, white, orange and purple acrylic paints. After our artwork dried I cut it up to make the banner shapes. Layered them with black crepe paper and topped it off with the Happy Haunting cards from Pink Paislee. They always have the most awesome Halloween collections!

 

I'm getting pretty excited about Halloween. After all it's Parker's favorite holiday!

 

 

I made this card with the Spooky Sweets stamp set from Papertrey Ink. By tearing white cardstock I formed the shape of the skull, then inked up the edges to age it. I stuck a red rhinestone in the eye socket. I left it misshapen, as if it would have been a pirate that wore an eye patch. 

 

 

Aren't the test tubes fun! I used the same stamp set to make the label. I love the velvet spiders and web on the ribbon! Parker is going to love all the sprinkles. He simply can't have plain ice cream. lol

 

I'm sharing these with Capture The Moment, Stamps and Fun = Creativity, Skull A Day and Totally Stampalicious.