Party Prep

We are T-2 for the Gibson 2010 Halloween Party and I am starting to put things together.  Up until now I have had things scattered around the house because I had to do some rearranging to make room for this display and for some party food on Friday night. 

I love the Eat, Drink and Be Scary sign and the gal that created this has it as a free download from her blog, Craftily Ever After.  She also has another great sign here.  After you download them take a look around her blog as there are lots of great ideas and inspiration there.  The Crafty Witches Book of Magic Spells was also a free download from the Chickabug blog.  There is an abundance of great party ideas there and I have added it to my favorites.  For the book you simply download the file, print it, cut it out and stick it on a book you already have on hand.  The Apothecary label on the flower pot (a re-purposed Yankee candle jar) is from Echo Park.  I love digital downloads because you can re-use them! 

I really love DIY decorations and with the power of the internet, a few minutes and a printer you can find just about anything these days.  Now I need to actually get off the computer and start cleaning up!  Have a great day.



Just One More....I Promise!

Last Friday Creating Keepsakes Dream Team Member Cindy Tobey was the Guest Blogger on the CK Blog and she shared a pattern for this fabulous little paper pieced haunted house!  I loved this idea when I saw it in the Creating Keepsakes October issue and knew I wanted to make this ASAP.  So after printing the pattern and cutting out all the pieces and then busting out a craft knife so I could make all the little cuts I had an adorable house of my very own. 

Once it was finished I had no idea what I was going to do with it but knew I wanted it on display so I used an 8x8 piece of a Scenic Route chipboard album and printed out the background from Echo Park's Apothecary patterned paper pack (I have gotten so much use out of this line and to think I only paid $1 for it from the Jessica Sprague Website on One Buck Wednesday).  I used a thin coat of Mod Podge to adhere the paper and then used a dry adhesive to attach the house.  The adorable little bat is from a free download I got from the Paper Glitter blog.  It was originally part of a tag but I just needed the bat so I fussy cut it and attached just his body so the wings lift slightly off the paper. 

I love, love, love the way this turned out!  I seriously couldn't be happier.  I worked with supplies I had on hand and that certainly helps to clear out some of my stash. 

On another Halloween note my paper cone wreath is featured on the Creating Keepsakes Blog today!  I am so flattered that Megan Hoeppner was inspired by my project and asked to share it on the blog alongside her take on the project!  If you get the chance you should check it out! 

Summer Lovin'

I completed this layout in July and posted it in my Club Creating Keepsakes gallery and it was chosen as a Gallery Highlight for that week!  I love the way this turned out and I especially love the papers from Sassafrass's Nerdy Bird line.  I made the collages in Photoshop Elements 7 and had them printed at Shutterfly.  The photos are from the summer of 2009 and I was just waiting for the perfect papers to get them scrapped.  The Nerdy Bird lines compliments the colors in the photos perfectly.

Thanks for looking!

My Best Friend Layout

I have loved Cosmo Cricket's Nutmeg line since they released it.  The papers are gorgeous and the embellishments are so cute.  The entire line is perfect for pictures of my girls.  The layout is one I made recently from a sketch challenge Cosmo Cricket shared on their blog last January/February-ish.  I loved the sketch so much I decided to re-use it!

These photos are from 2 years ago when we first moved here!  I love scrapping older photos because it reminds me of how fast my girls are growing but I also get to remember the day I snapped these.  I am not a chronological scrapper so I jump around scrapping the photos that I love the most when an idea or mood strikes. 

All the papers and embellishments on this layout are from Cosmo Cricket and I used a Fiskar's border punch on the strip of brown patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Felt Halloween Banner

I have really been struggling with getting a good photo of this banner because it is so long but also because it is not hanging in a good place to get some natural light. I was inspired by this mini felt banner after visiting a blog in search of Halloween decoration ideas....unfortunately I did not write down the blog so I cannot give credit but if you know where this came from please let me know so I can give proper credit. I was sure I would remember the blog but after much searching I have not come across it again.

Here are the instructions in case you want to stitch your own. This was super easy and did not take too much time. The triangles are about 3 inches high and I used 3 9x12 inch sheets of black felt and another 3 sheets of orange felt for this. I used a rotary cutter and a ruler for this and it took me about an hour to cut all the triangles. I stacked the pieces so they were alternating and then stitched them together using my sewing machine. I slightly overlapped the edges and then back stitched across them to give a little extra durability to the banner. I stitched 3 inch pieces of black ribbon in the ends so I could hang it up. That's it! I said it was easy!

I have the banner hanging across the wall and window in my living room and it has really held up well. It has been up for a month now and I love looking at it every day.

This is the last Halloween project I have unless I feel the need to make something else but I am ready to move on to some Thanksgiving and Christmas projects that I can share. Thanks for sticking around through all the Halloween ideas. I have been going a little overboard this year in preparation for our Halloween Party.

Have a great day!

Fall Colors

Over Columbus Day weekend we went to Dresden for 3 nights. Dresden is a lovely city located along the banks of the Elbe River. I am not going to make this a long post but just wanted share some photos of the beautiful fall foliage.

I have plans on posting the last couple Halloween projects this week as long as Blogger cooperates with me. I planned on posting these photos earlier in the week but I did not have the patience to mess with the blog settings to fix the problem.

I hope you had a great weekend and a chance to enjoy the weather in your neck of the woods.

Halloween Garland Wreath

The stars have finally aligned and I was able to actually add a photo to my blog!  I have had the hardest time with Blogger lately.  I am not sure if it is due to our slooooow internet connection or changes that Blogger has made but it has been nothing but frustrating for me as of late.  Here is my next DIY project....a super simple and fast Halloween wreath using nothing but a 12 foot Halloween garland that I picked up, a cardboard circle and some hot glue.

I used a 12 inch cardboard cake circle and removed the center after tracing a large bowl and using a box cutter.  I actually ran out of garland about 3 inches from the end so I would recommend using a 10 inch circle for a 12 foot garland.  I was able to use a piece of black garland from last Halloween to piece it together but meant a little extra work removing the pumpkins from it and then cutting some bats from the back side of the wreath to glue onto the front so it looks the same.  I simply hot glued the garland in place as I wrapped it around the circle.  I tied a 8 inch piece of black ribbon around the top before hot gluing a bat I cut from poster board on to the wreath.  The bat helped cover my pieced together garland. 

This project took me 15 minutes and I used supplies I had on hand, minus the cost of the garland which was $6 and I picked it up at the Post Exchange about a month ago.  The garland is fluffy enough that you would not really need a foam or metal wreath form unless you wanted to or have one on hand.

I am linking up with Eighteen25 for this post...if you haven't visited their blog before you really should!  It is full of great ideas.

Happy World Card Making Day

What a fun day!  Do you have plans to make some cards today?  Maybe get a jump on your holiday cards?  I am having a couple of friends over today and plan on making some Halloween and Thanksgiving cards.  I even have plans for my girls to play along too. 

I want to share this card that I made to include with a housewarming gift.  I was so pleased with the way this came together and was looking for a reason to use this stamp set again but have yet to sit down and play with it some more.  I fussy cut the trees from a scrap of patterned paper and then used my micro tip scissors to fringe cut the scrap of green to make the grass.  I cut the rectangle for HOME and then used a hole punch placed over the corners to make the tag.

Here is a list of the supplies I used:
White Cardstock - Xerox
All inks - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - We Are Memory Keepers
Twine - Martha Stewart
Trees - Kaisercraft patterned paper
Grass - green cardstock from my stash
Zots to place behind the trees and green house

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! 

Halloween Digital Layout

I am not a digi scrapper but I wanted to play along on a Club Creating Keepsakes challenge and I don't have any Halloween-ish papers so I tried my hand at a digi page.  I used PSE 7 and find myself working on many projects and have taken a few free classes from Jessica Sprague so I know enough to do a basic page but I never took the plunge until now.

I also do not have an abundance of Halloween photos so I pulled this gem out of my photo album and scanned it in.  Yup!  That is me.  I am pretty sure it was 1985 or 86 and I was dressed as a Wuzzle....click here if you don't know what a Wuzzle is. I was a huge fan and I think I felt pretty darn cute wearing this costume. 

The digi papers and adorable little characters across the bottom are from Echo Park and you can find those on the Jessica Sprague website.  The bats and title across the top are from a Club CK freebie download that you can find here.  If you have never been to the Club CK page before you should take a look around.  You can create an account for free and there are a ton of resources available just be clicking around.

I have a few more Halloween projects to share but I have had a hard time getting good photos so I will keep working on it and give it another go next week.