Happy Halloween!!!

Have you missed me? I'm sorry I've been MIA lately, its been busy...and I don't see it getting better before..oh February! That's OK, I'm really looking forward to the holidays and Halloween is fun! We had a little Halloween party this weekend, just got my best friend's family together to let the kids dress up and play! I made this very special treat for everyone:

I know what your thinking...ewwww! Kitty Litter! (OK, maybe you weren't thinking that, but I was!) But its not Kitty Litter, its a cake! And once you get past what it looks like, its actually not too bad! I found the recipe here. I'm telling you, you have to do this for your next Halloween party! The reaction to it is priceless and it is very easy to make. I just went to Wal-Mart and purchased a Kitty Litter Box and Scoop! I'm defiantly saving this for years to come! Sorry I don't have any cards or anything to add right now. I have been working on some Christmas Cards and will try to upload those over the weekend. I just really had to share this cake with you! My husband made fun of me because I put the Kitty poo a/k/a tootsie roll over the side...he said "What cat misses the litter box" and I replied the one that couldn't quite make it! Duh! Anyway, we had a great time! By the way, I made little Halloween bags for the kids, but I forgot to take a picture...sometimes I wonder about myself! I used the same concept as my holiday bag in the previous post, but used Halloween paper instead. Oh and I have my place cards done for Thanksgiving! Yay! Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!

My first workshop as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!

Well, I had my first "workshop" today! I invited some friends and family over for an open house to be my first audience! I had two sessions and they both went really well. I had 4 people that had never been to a Stampin' Up! workshop and they really enjoyed themselves! I had a few pros that enjoyed themselves as well! I made a couple of goodies to hand out! This was my door prize: I used the template from Julie Buhler's Paper Pleasing Ideas blog. This woman is very talented! Unfortunately I didn't have any Stampin' Up! holiday paper on hand, but this worked. I also made a beaded pen and 5 cards from a osw template. Here is a picture of everything included in the box:

Everyone really liked these and they were very easy to make. Then, because I always feel like I need to give something to everyone, I also made little gifts for each attendee! I made about 6 gift card tags for each person and put them in cello bags, decorated a topper and voila! I used my Cuttlebug for the tags, I also used the scallop circle for some tags. I attached ribbon to each tag and stamped them with various Christmas stamps. Everyone seemed to like these as well, plus it gave me ideas for tags for my Christmas presents! I had a really good time and look forward to doing more workshops! Plus, if this wasn't enough, my mom took my daughter for the afternoon and came back with a couple outfits for her and a winter coat! Yay! Another thing to check off of my to do list!!!

Mid-October, Already?!?!

Is it me or is this year flying by! Wow...I've been busy getting things ready for my open house this weekend. I've got all my cardstock cut and that's ready, I'm just working on my door prizes. In the meantime I have a couple of cards to show you! Last week there was a sketch challenge on SCS that I wanted to try. It is SC145 (info here). I knew as soon as I saw this challenge I wanted to make a Halloween card with the Haunting Halloween stamp set! Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Black, Whisper White; Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Black, Orchid Opulence, Yo Yo Yellow, Close to Cocoa; Stamps: Haunting Halloween. I really like this set, the kitty is so cute! The other one I did was for a birthday card. I wanted to use some pretty colors! Quite a contrast from the Halloween card! I don't have the recipe handy for this card, I'll have to post it later. It is hard to tell, but it is the same sketch challenge. Be sure to check back in a few days for my post about my door prize for my open house! I have to wait until the camera is available to take pictures, but I think you'll enjoy it!

Halloween Treats!

I wanted to do something special for the kids at my daughter's daycare, so I decided to make the 2-4-7-10 box (tutorial here). I am really pleased with how these turned out, especially the kitty! I used the Haunting Halloween stamp set; Pumpkin Pie cardstock, ribbon and ink. I put some candy and little Halloween notepads inside, the second picture shows all that I included. (M&Ms, Teddy Grahams, Necco Wafers and the notepads) I think the kids will like them! I had to make 15 total, and I did it in stages. I scored and cut all the paper first, then I cut the black pieces and white pieces, stamped the kitty and colored it. Then I stamped the pumpkin pie pieces (for the box) and then assembled it. Today I put all the candy inside and tied the ribbon. It really wasn't all that complicated, just a little time consuming. I think the most time consuming part was scoring and cutting the box. I only had to waste 2 pieces of cardstock, because I would get into a rhythm and forget what I was doing and cut to far! I think I can probably still use some of the cardstock as scrap though! I can't wait until Halloween to give these to the kids! Next big project will be Thanksgiving! I just ordered my paper and stamp sets last week, so I should be able to work on those in the next few weeks! Yay!

Christmas Planner

I was playing around with a new project I found originally on this site. She also listed her sources of the project. I couldn't find white folders, so I used green. It turned out OK... The first picture is the front. The ribbon actually wraps around the whole thing, but it is crooked in the picture. The paper is a pack of Christmas cardstock I bought at Joann's with my 40% coupon! On the next couple pages I used my cuttlebug for the tags and tied ribbons to each of them. I used Brushstroke Alphabet stamp set for all the words and the Holiday Tag Team for the images. I printed the Christmas Cards list on the printer. For ink I used Real Red and Green Galore. The next picture is the last two parts of the planner. I printed out the calendar for November and December and put one on each of the last two sections. I think this project was a little more complicated that I wanted it to be. I was disappointed with the folders, so I think if I do another one I will go to an office supply store and look for the white folders. I do like the concept of this and was hoping to use it as a door prize at my open house, but I'm not sure I'm proud enough of it to give it away...does that make sense? I really think I need to stay away from the Internet...every time I spend any time on SCS or reading other people's blogs, I end up with a new project! I already have enough projects to last me until next summer, but they are all due by Christmas or mid-January! Nah, I love being busy, so I guess its OK!

Did you know that . . .

National Boss Day is Tuesday, October 16th? Well it is. Here is the card I made for my boss. I was going for masculine and no frills, I think I accomplished that goal. I am pleased with how it turned out. I think my boss will like it. Here is what I used: Stamps: Touch of Nature; Brushstroke Alphabet and Party Punch; Cardstock: Night of Navy; Bordering Blue and White; Ink:Night of Navy; Ribbon: Navy and Bluebird; Punches: Tag and Spiral. I sponged around the edges of the Bordering blue to add just a little. It's a pretty simple card.

I have been working on my Halloween goodies for my daughter's day care, hopefully I will have those posted soon. I am doing the 2,5,7,10 box and I have to do 15, so I have all the paper cut and scored, now I just have to stamp and assemble. I'm taking it slow =-) I've been spending all this time worrying about Christmas and not focusing on the immediate holidays!

Monday Already?!?!?!?!?!

What happened to last week? Oh my! I just realized I haven't posted anything since last Monday! Bad girl! Work has been busy and the weekend was busy as well! Friday night we went to an art exhibit in South Bend (about 3.5 hours from us) and then Saturday we went to a festival in Greenfield to see one of our favorite local bands, One Side Later.

Yesterday I managed to finish 1 major Christmas present for a family member (who shall remain nameless because he or she may or may not read this blog!) Obviously I can't post any picture! I also worked on some glass jars for Christmas (the Emboss Resist Etching technique). These are just like the ones I posted last month, except I went to Wal-Mart and found a different kind of jar. I don't have pictures to post of that either, sorry, but it is very hard to capture the jar. I do have a picture of a couple scrapbook pages I made at a class a couple weeks ago that I wanted to post. I really liked how they turned out. I have colored in the pictures to protect the innocent! On both pages the bottom half is a pocket, although I do not know what I am going to put in it. This second page is my favorite because in the bottom right hand corner is a 12x12 sheet of vellum that folds out and holds 5 small pictures. This was a very cool technique to learn and I am sure I will use it many times in my scrapbooks! The third picture shows the vellum sheet unfolded. Sorry about coloring out the pictures, I would love to share with you my beautiful family, however, we just made a personal decision not to put our family photos on the Internet.

Today I need to work on my Halloween Cards! I can't believe it is October!!! Sheesh! Another thing that has been keeping me busy is the demo side of SCS! I got in on Saturday so I have been some time there! Do you ever notice how there are not enough hours in the day to do everything you want!!!!

Stamping on Titles!

I decided to try my hand at stamping on tiles! I found the tutorial on SCS (link), however, I did bake the tiles at 350 for 10 minutes after stamping with staz on and another 10 minutes after coloring the tiles. I also sealed it with Clear Acrylic Sealer. I bought the tiles at Lowe's for 32 cents each. They turned out great!

I used French Script as a background and Touch of Nature on top. The palm tree is a non-SU stamp I found on eBay. I colored the stamps using Stampin' Up! Pastels. I made a set using colored sharpies as well, but I thought the color was too bright. I ended up making 5 sets as Christmas gifts. This was very easy to do, if you use the sealer, just be sure to spray 10-12 inches away from the tile and not too much at once. I did have a few bleed. But at 32 cents each, you have a lot of room for error =-) Good luck!