DE for Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. The excitement here at my house is extremely high as the kids prepare for trick or treat. I thought we would take a quick break from the candy cards so I could show you how versatile the Decor Elements really are. I've seen these particular ones used on everything from bowls to clocks to picture frames, but I decided to use mine as door decorations. They will have to come down after tonight, but they are so inexpensive, they make great decorations! (Doesn't my spooky sign look good hanging there too? )

York Peppermint Patty Cards

This card has been running around my head for a while. I will admit, I looked for a candy that would fit these colors. Come on, you know you have one like that too....You really should join us over at LNS for these challenges. They are so much fun! Just click my little blog badge on the right hand side and see what all the fuss is! Just make a card using the colors from your favorite candy's wrapper. Ella took her card home before I got a chance to take a picture of it, but here are Emily's and mine. Emily didn't like her card, but I think it's adorable. I really like the way she used the Razzle Dazzle stamp on the ornament.

Midnight Milky Way Card

This card used the colors from the midnight Milky Way. We figured they were close to cocoa, Brilliant Blue, Summer Sun, Black, and Really Rust. I like this card a little better. I used the Man's Best Friend Stamp set, Emily used Bitty bots and Ella used Asian Artistry. I think these are the best ones we all did!

LNS Challenge # 43

In case you haven't seen the new badge on my blog, I am now a proud member of the LNS design team. Our challenge this week is actually one I issued. I'm a huge fan of candy, pretty much any and all kinds. I figured I would make a challenge that combines the two things I love. So, the challenge this week was to make a card using the colors found in a candy wrapper. Well, I have to admit this was a bit harder than I thought it would be, so...I invited two of my close friends, Ella and Emily, over to help me brainstorm. The next couple of days I will show you what we came up with. This first set of cards was using Ella's favorite candy, skittles. I had the worst time with this one. I really think Emily and Ella did a much better job than I did! What do you think?

My Card

Emily's Card

Ella's Card

Luminaire or however you spell it!

I admit, I am not the world's greatest speller. I love spell check because it keeps me from looking like an idiot, but for some reason even Word can't tell me if I've spelled this right. Oh well, I'll just refer to it as the light thing. I picked up some great little realistic tea lights that operate on batteries, so I thought I would try making one of these light things. I am loving the way it turned out! It took about 10 minutes to make (including the time it took me to find my heat gun) and it has gotten rave reviews from my friends. Yes, I admit it, I even made my neighbor's husband look at! I'm very proud :) So anyway, here it is. I did use retired Baja Breeze card stock, but everything else current! If you would like the directions, let me know and I'll be happy to email them to you.

My Double Duty Decoration

Remember last week when I showed you my Halloween/Thanksgiving Door Hanger? Well I promised that I would show you the one I made for Christmas and New Years. Stupid Hour attacked while we were putting this together, but I finally got it completed. It was a little more difficult due to the intricacy of the snowflake die, but I really do like how it turned out. Besides, anything that can be used for a double duty is a bonus in my mind!

My Weekend Workshop

I had a workshop last night for a good friend of mine. She wanted to focus on Christmas, so I took the two projects shown below for our Make N Takes. This card uses the Lovely as a tree stamp set, Night of Navy cardstock and ink, and of course my favorite item from the Holiday mini....the shimmer paint. The 3D ornament also uses a new item from the mini....the Ornament punch. These were such simple projects to make, but they make such a big impact....don't you think?

Happy Together

I know I've mentioned it before, but I absolutely love the little quails in the Happy Together stamp set. I think this is probably my absolute favorite card for the Late Night Stampers Color Challenge. The Really Rust, Ruby Red and Old Olive look amazing on the kraft. I didn't want to detract from the adorable Quail, so I made this card small, and made him the focal point. This is the last of my cards for this challenge. (I know, your happy). I was really surprised though at how much this challenge stretched my limits. Challenges do for our creativity what pushups do for our bodies. I am definitely going to enjoy this stint as part of the LNS design team. If you haven't joined our group yet, you need to click on the link to the right and come "exercise" with us!

Aliens anyone?

This Really Rust, Ruby Red, and Old Olive challenge seemed a bit out there for me, so why not turn it into an Alien card. The really cool part of this card was the fact that I got to play with a new toy. I had never used the color spritzer tool before, but boy was it cool. It shoots a stream of air over the tip of a marker and gives off these cool little speckles. I borrowed Sara's to make this card, but believe you me, it will be on my next order!

Another Fall Card

Sara thought the LNS color combo looked like fall as well. I really like this card she put together. I especially love the cornucopia made from the Word Window punch.

LNS Tree

Here is one of the cards I put together for the Really Rust, Ruby Red, and Olive Green Late Night Stampers challenge. When I saw those colors I thought they were perfect for fall. I used chalk to make the leaves and then stamped the image over the top. I think it turned out really well for what I considered an ugly color combination.

LNS Challenge #42

First of all, I need to tell you all my great news. I was selected for this term's LNS design team. I am so excited, and absolutely amazed that they thought I was ready to be a part of this amazing group of designers. One of my "duties" is to design cards for the weekly challenge.
The challenge is to combine Really Rust, Ruby Red, and Old Olive. That was a little hard for me though, so I brought in reinforcements in the form of my upline, Sara. She and I got together and tried to come up with several cards that would satisfy this challenge. This first one was made by her.
We sat around talking about all the things we could think of that could be made using those colors. We finally decided that maybe the Really Rust and Ruby Red would make a good sunset, so we brayered the two onto a card front. Unfortunately it didn't look like a sunset at all. I thought it looked more like the Sahara Desert. We decided that we could make a desert card as well. Sara added a few pyramids and this card was born. Now, I'm not sure what exactly you would need a pyramid desert card for, but if you have any ideas I would love to hear them!

Monsters for My Monster

My son Jay is having a harvest festival at his Kindergarten and he asked me to make treats for all his friends. I didn't want to do the cute witch, Frankenstein, or bat boxes I have seen recently, because I wasn't sure what the other families would approve of. I tried to get him to choose that cute pumpkin box I showed you a few weeks ago, but that wasn't "cool" enough. We finally decided on these adorable one-eyed monsters. We made pink ones for the girls, and brown one for the boys. Hopefully his class likes them, but I guess since he is happy so am I.

Christmas Card Packs

I have several friends who have birthdays this fall. I never know what to get them. This year I decided to give them gifts of Christmas cards. I made up five cards of the same design and packaged them with a ribbon in an old stamp box. I really like how they turned out!

Happy Birthday Aunt Karen

One of my co-workers, affectionately referred to as Aunt Karen by my children, had a birthday last weekend. The kids and I decided to make her some Birthday cards. Unfortunately I didn't think about taking pictures of the cards the kids made, but I did manage to take a picture of the one I made. For some reason, I'm totally addicted to the Pumpkin Patch stamp set out of the Holiday mini, but it didn't look very Birthday to me. I fixed that by adding hats from Party hearty and used the curly stem from the Pumpkin Patch set to make streamers. I love the way it turned out.....what do you think?

Why our group is called "Stupid Hour Inkers"

I know I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again. There comes a time, usually late at night, when everything becomes funny. In my house we call that stupid hour! Well a few nights ago my sideline Emily and my neighbor Ella came over for a late night stamping session. We definitely hit Stupid Hour! Our first project was this cute and easy door hanger. One side is made for Halloween, and then you flip it over for Thanksgiving. It took us about an hour to create it, and we were very proud of ourselves.
Then, we got a little big for our britches, and decided it wasn't quite tricky enough to make. We decided that we would make another door hanger for Christmas and New Years. Never one to be satisfied, I choose the snowflake die to make the hanging part. Do you know how long it takes to pick out all the little pieces of coaster out of this die? Needless to say, we didn't get it finished. Stupid hour hit and we still had what felt like a million of snowflakes left to color. You can see the crazy look in Emily's eyes! We will finish them, but you will have to come back later to see what they look like.

Customer Appreciation give aways

The same weekend as my Monster Class, I held a Customer Appreciation event. We had seven people attend and we had a great time. I've already shown you the projects we made that day....the pumpkin box and Pumpkin Patch card, but at the last minute I whipped up these little favors for them to take home.

My Monster Class

Remember the Monster Class I held a couple of weeks ago where we made the Monster boxes and card? Well, I promised the ladies that attended that I would post their picture on my blog. So, Kathrin, Rebecca, and Manu........here you are! I had so much fun with these ladies and their crazy monsters, I hope they did too!

Thanksgiving Workshop Part 2

Yesterday I showed you the 3D make n take for my workshop on Friday, today I thought I would show you the card we will make. Remember that wreath Christmas card made from Pocket Silhouettes I showed you a while back ? Well by using a different stamp from the set and changing the colors of the leaves I was able to create this gorgeous fall wreath. I really like how this turned out. It is simple, but I believe it's pretty elegant as well. What do you think?