Forget Me Not Friday!

Wow, where did this week go? For that matter, where did the month go??? Even the year is flying by so quickly! Just one more sign that I am aging! Despite my battle to remain young at heart!

Have a quick little card to share with you today. I made it using the Forget Me Not kit by Andilynn Designs.

And now it's time for a little look at what is coming soon......  here's a little peek at my soon to be released Christmas kit!!

Football and Other News

It's football season!  My youngest has been playing football for years. He loves it!  So do I!  I remember the very first year he played, I had my worries.  The kids were so small, they looked like bobble-head dolls in their big helmets! We love the game, we love his enthusiasm. At some point I stopped worrying about the thoughts that he might get hurt.   H wears his bruises like badges of honor.  As you can see in this layout!

He recently celebrated his birthday.  Of course I had to make a football themed card for him!

Cute, huh?

In other news.......
I've been busy working on designing a Christmas kit to be released very soon!  It will be a part of a HUGE blog hop with tons of FREEBIES!!!  It's coming here on November 11.... so be certain to mark your calendar!  You will not want to miss this!!! 

Lighting Up Halloween

I just made these awesome lanterns to light up my entry way for Halloween.  They are a great craft to do with kids.  Easy skills and you'll be recycling.  Good stuff to be teaching the little critters in our lives!


You're going to need a few recycled glass jars.  No plastic ones for this project! So go ahead, eat that last bit of apple sauce, you know you want to!  Then wash and dry your jars.  I used some spaghetti sauce jars for mine.  You just have to make sure you use glass and not plastic, because you're going to be putting a candle in it.  The plastic ones would melt and burn.

You'll also need:
Tissue paper
Decoupage medium (I used Mod Podge)
Brush
Paint (if desired)
Ribbons (if desired)
Punches
Scissors
Halloween craft elements (if desired)

After you've washed and dried the jar and removed the lid, cut your tissue paper into strips. Protect your work surface.  Then place your jar upside down on the protected work surface. Coat the jar with your decoupage medium. Adhere the strips of tissue paper one at a time, being certain to smooth out as many wrinkles as possible.  As you apply the next strip of tissue paper, overlap the edges just slightly.  Continue until you've covered the jar with the tissue paper.

Once this is set, apply a top sealant coat of your decoupage medium all over the covered jar.  Allow this to dry thoroughly.


You can use all the same colored tissue paper on your jar, or use different colors to create a fun striped look.

Once the sealant coat is dry, you can embellish your jar. Perhaps you'd like to make a jack-o-lantern face.  I used some punches to create the eyes for Frankenstein. I sketched the hair, smile and stitches on cardstock and cut them out with scissors.

For the haunted house lantern, I used digital scrapbook elements from the Spooky Town kit.

I painted the rim (where the lid would screw on) on my jars with black paint, then covered them with Halloween themed ribbons.

If you are using a regular flame candle inside your luminaries, please be mindful and monitor it constantly.  Check to be sure that it does not get excessively hot, is never left burning unattended, and that the candle does not burn down close to the bottom of the jar. Also, it's a good idea when you are burning candles in your house to place your house/car keys near the candle, that way you won't leave home without forgetting to blow out the candle first! (My husband the Fire Marshal insisted that I mention these safety tips!). You could use one of those awesome little flameless battery operated tea lights instead!

Have fun recycling your jars and lighting the way for some trick-or-treaters at your house!

The Winner is........

Before I just blurt out the name of the winner for my stop on the Ideas for Scrapbookers Birthday Blog Hop.....  I'd like to say thank you to all the people that read the blog, leave us comments and encourage us, share your pages with us, as well as all my co-contributing artists at the site.  They are such very talented women who have shared their energy and inertia with me.  Most of all, A big thank you to Pam Callaghan for starting Ideas for Scrapbookers and including me in her wonderful venture.  This is a really enjoyable journey and I am so glad to be a part of it.

And now without further adieu....  I entered the names of all the participants (2 for those that earned 2 chances!) on papers and placed them in a basket. A nice seasonally themed basket at that... and had my son assist by making the selection.....

 The basket with all the entries

The winner... Precious Memories!!!!!!

Precious Memories Scrapbooking & More (Staci) - if you can email me your address (see "Contact me" on the menu above), I'll get your RAK sent out to you!  Congratulations!!!

Filtered Flowers

A few months ago, Dolores shared this awesome flower tutorial at Ideas for Scrapbookers. I've been so wanting to make one of these ever since!  I finally got the chance to try out this flower this week. Dolores is one of my Contributing Artist "sisters" over at Ideas for Scrapbookers, she has an awesome style and creates beautiful scrapbook pages. You can read more at her blog The Joy of Scrapbooking.

I used a white coffee filter. I did spray it with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist to give it a blingy look before cutting out the petals. I hope you can see that detail.  The flower center is Prima.  This was really easy to do and fun to make. I love that it is made using a household item.... and one that doesn't cost a fortune!

Ingredients:

Coffee Filters

Ink: Tattered Angels, Colorbox

Papers: Haynay Designs

Gems: Prima

Template by Carina

Masquerade!

It's Halloween time... you'll be seeing lots of ghosties and goblins about.  To celebrate, I've made a mask shaped card.

The inside opens up to reveal the critters that are peeking through the mask!  Boo!!!!

Ingredients

Masquerade template by Kelleigh Ratzlaff

Digi papers/elements by Jennifer Fox

Blast off!!

My oldest has always been into rockets and planes.  I recently made a few projects for him.  First I designed this scrapbook page to remember one of his summers at Rocketry/Robotics Camp.

Then I worked with this great template for creating CD/DVD folders.  I decided that I would start preserving photos and videos to disk and package them up nicely.

Gonna make a great gift idea, huh? I've got a lot more CD folders make!

Ingredients:

Bits & Bots by Stolen Moments

CD/DVD Folder Template by Simply J Studio

Ideas For Scrapbookers Anniversary Blog Hop

Happy Anniversary Ideas for Scrapbookers!!!  

We are celebrating the one year anniversary of the Ideas for Scrapbookers blog all this week.   Starting with a blog hop today.  You should have just come from  Heather's blog.  You can always go back to the Ideas for Scrapbookers blog to start form the beginning.

To help celebrate I've got a RAK for you to try to win!!! (keep reading to learn how)

Pam Callaghan is not only a very talented artist, she is also a kind, sweet, big-hearted friend. She started the blog a year ago wanting to share ideas to help keep scrapbookers and paper crafters motivated.  She graciously shares templates, ideas and creativity.  I am extremely thankful to be one of the contributing artists for her site.  I am also grateful to have Pam as a friend.

I was looking back through the many wonderful posts over the past year and am in awe of all the talent that has been shared.  I'd like to highlight a few of my favorite projects from the past year.

Easy Made Hydrangeas by Dolores.  I just love these little flowers.  Dolores makes them look so easy to make.  I'm going to have to put my left-over scraps to work making some these dandies to use on scrap pages and cards.

Postage Stamp Template by Pam.  Oh my!  Isn't this darling?  And so easy to make.  I love how you can use simple tools to recreate this. I think this template would be great for a travel related page too!

What was I thinking? by Linda C. Linda was a featured artist at the site. I really like how she applied one of Pam's template to help her create 2 different layouts, and helped her deal with that situation we've all been in once in ahile - what to do with paper we bought on a whim!

Reader's Pages Turned into Sketches 4.  This is one of my favorite features of the blog.  Reader's that have shared their scrap pages with us and Pam has turned their works into wonderful sketch/templates!

Designer Showcase: Shaped Cards.  This was one of my favorite projects that we shared.  As you can see, the site isn't just about scrap book pages.  We share all sorts of things, cards, techniques, templates, supply reviews, journaling ideas... you name it!

I could go on. There are so many inspiring ideas to share.  These are just a few of my favorites.


Now the RAK - to be entered for a chance to win the RAK I'd like you to share your 3 favorite posts  from Ideas for Scrapbookers. Just leave me a comment and be sure to include your 3 favs.  Want 2 changes to win???  If you become a follower of my blog, you'll get a 2nd chance at the prize!! Just let me know in your comment that you are now following.  Already a follower?  That's OK - let me know that in your comment and I'll give you a 2nd entry as well!! You have until the end of this week to come back and leave your comment.  I'll close the entries on Friday October 22 (IFS actual anniversary!!) at noon (eastern time).  I'll choose one lucky random commenter and will announce the winner later that day. Good luck!!

From here you can continue on to Dolores' blog!

Happy Hopping!!

Leaves and projects are falling!

Just wanted to share some other projects that I've finished up this week. 

Trying to get my calendar for 2011 made up. I'm typically working on it frantically on the last days of December.  I've only gotten 2 months done so far.  But that's 2 months completed!!!  :-)

The cool temps and crunchy falling leaves inspired me to create this page. Pictures are from a letterboxing hiking day we spent at Valley Forge Park last year.

I'm also trying to keep up on designing and making some Christmas cards too!


Phew - that's 3 seasons in one post!  Wow, this year is flying by, isn't it???  Hope you are making the most of it!

Sweetest Day

Happy Sweetest Day!!!!  I've got some really cute cards to share. The weather is (finally) starting to turn cooler and feel like Fall, so I gave them a seasonal flare.

 

Take some time to tell your family and friends that  you love them. Enjoy your Sweetest Day!

Make sure to stop back on Monday..... all the artists at Ideas For Scrapbookers are having a blog hop.  I'll be having a RAK at my post!

Ingredients:

Punkin kit by Wendy

Splendiferious kit by Jennifer Fox

Everyday Love Cards Templates by Kelleigh Ratzlaff

Horizons

Ever feel like you've been given a ticket to ride an emotional roller coaster?  Yeah.  I've had a lot of that lately!  Not to worry, the good always out-weighs the bad.  And luckily, I really like roller coasters!!

My youngest became a teenager this week.  Here he is with his fav bday present (from his uncle).  It's a quick cell phone photo.... gonna have to get a good pic to scrap with!

Yesterday I received the senior portraits for my oldest.  I just had to scrap.

My journaling reads:

It’s an emotional year. It’s a busy year. It’s your senior year.  You sit on the threshold of your dreams. I envy you. Your positive energy and your hope for the future are admirable. You’ve worked hard to get where you are. You’ll be working even harder from this point forward. You’re building your confidence and self-esteem. A can-do attitude is going to take you to new adventures and possibilities. Watching you learn and grow has been a wonderful journey for me. Just when I think I can not be any more proud of you, you prove me wrong. You have a brilliant, creative mind. Your ideas, your outlook and your belief in yourself are going to take you far.
Your horizons are limitless.



Make sure to stop back on Monday..... all the artists at Ideas For Scrapbookers are having a blog hop.  I'll be having a RAK at my post!

Ingredients:

Aviator by Stolen Moments and JennCK Designs

Fuss Free: Fall for Me by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs

Feeling Better Sale!!!!

Come on over to ScrapMatters, we are back up and running and having a SALE!!!!!!

Potions Emporium

Can you tell I've got Halloween on my mind?  I've got another Halloween treat to share with you.  I used a card box template to make this unique Halloween candy dish.

My kids have not yet figured out that the top opens!  So they don't know that there are M&M's inside!!!  How long do you think it will take for them to figure it out?

Ingredients:

Book Shop Card Box Template by Little Potato House
All Hallow's Eve by Quirky Twerp

Ink: Colorbox

Brad: Making Memories

Treats

It's getting to be Halloween time!  I've got a few treats to share.

This will be an awesome goody bag!  Well, actually goody box!


And to wish some Halloween fun to a trickster in your life.... a card. But not just any card.... a haunted house card!  I used some wired ribbon to make curtains in the windows.  I frayed the edges.  Check out that little bat snaking a peak out the top window!

I like these types of treats - they don't have any calories!  hehehehe!!!

Ingredients:

Card:

Cozy House Card Template by Kelleigh Ratzlaff

Enchanted Evening Kit[ by Sugarplun Paperie
Witch Girl Digital Stamp by Arty Pants
Everyday Gratitude by Elise's Pieces
Wired ribbon for the curtains in the windows

Coffin Box:
All Hallow's Eve by Quirky Twerp
Flowers: Prima; Bazzill
Brad: Making Memories

First Job and License

My oldest recently started his first job.  I'm very proud of him.  He is working at our local grocery market.  Where I shop.  He made me promise NOT to sneak my camera in and snap pictures of him while he is working!!  Now, would I do that??  Seriously???  Well.... yes I would!!  LOL

So instead, I got him to agree to have his picture taking before leaving for work!

Also, the details about my License Plate Mini Album are up today over at Ideas For Scrapbookers.  Take a look!

Ingredients:

Football Fanatic by Haynay Designs
Back 2 Skool by Haynay Designs
2010 Calendar Grid by Geeky Diva
This Woman's Work by Trixie Scraps and Wimpychompers
Clip This Borders by Haynay Designs (coming 10/08/10)

template by Graham Like the Cracker

Toot! Toot! Gallery Stand Out!

I'm a bit humbled to say that one of my creations made the Gallery Stand Out blog!!!  It is this little Halloween treat bag that I created. I'm so excited! 

Of course that made me realize that I have not yet shared that little beauty with all of you.  Here is one more treat bag that I made

No better time than the 1st of October to be sharing these treats, huh?

Ingredients:

A Spooktacular Evening by WimpyChopmpers

Fold Over bags by Geeky Diva Designs

Ribbon: Michaels

Button: Bo Bunny