I Want Candy......

.....candy corn that is.....it's time for a candylicious challenge brought to you from Pause Dream Enjoy.  This is such a fun and easy challenge this week so I know that you won't have any trouble being amply inspired and playing along with us.  All  you have to do is make a project using candy.......see I told you.  Easy.

For my card, I used Mini Monsters for my candy corn girl die cut at 1 12"

 

My rosette was created by cutting a strip 9" x 1 1/2" paper (Tim Coffey - I want candy).  After cutting the strip I punched down the full length with my Martha Stewart drippy goo punch.  I then laid this on my score board, scored at every other score line and folded the strip accordian style. Once complete I adhered the two ends together, pushed the center of the 'circle' down and adhered a small square to the center of the circle to hold it in place. (I did this on both sides)

 

On the inside of my card I adhered pieces of candy corn that I also cut from the I want candy paper.  And now that you've seen my project hop on over to Pause Dream Enjoy to check out all the other fabulous projects our DT created for you this week.  But first let me give you a few more details about this week's challenge.......

 

Starts: Friday, October 26th 12:00 am EST

Ends: Thursday, November 1st, Noon EST

Winner (chosen by random.org) Announced: Thursday, November 1st late afternoon

Our Sponsor this challenge is

Cardz TV Stamps

http://www.cardztvstamps.blogspot.com/

Prize: 1 Stamp Set of the Winner's Choice

Here is my CANDY-licious project...

YOUR PROJECT HERE

Enter your project below!

...

Cheers on Me

Happy Thursday everyone and welcome to another Just A Scrappin design team challenge where this week's directive was to make a project with a cheerleader.  As I was preparing my post I realized that I had a moment of craziness and submitted the wrong picture to my DT captain thanks to my not paying attention.  So if you've come to my blog via Just a Scrappin I apologize for any confusion.

Now that that is out of the way, for this project I used:

Locker Talk for the lockers and the banner on the 'school wall'

Paper Doll Dress Up for my cheerleader (not sure why I chose orange & blue for the uniform because I am neither a Florida or Auburn fan - Roll Tide Roll)

And now that you've seen my project for this week's challenge be sure to hop on over to Just a Scrappin to check out the rest of the great projects our team created for you this week.  Then create your own cheerleader themed project, link up and play along with us.

I look forward to seeing what you create.

Cancer Stinks

Happy Wednesday everyone.  Today I have a special card to share with you.  This was made for this week's “Let's Hear it for the Girls!” Cricut Cardz Challenge where our directive was  to make a card for Breast Cancer Awareness using any cartridge(s) and colors you’d like.

Now I admit I have not lost any friends/relatives to breast cancer but I have lost loved ones to other types and still have others who are currently battling this ugly disease, including my own father who is battling three different types of cancer.  All I can say is that he is one heck of a fighter and with the loving support of my mom he's kicking tail. 

So back to my card - for this one I used:

Create a Critter for the skunk
Graphically Speaking for the comic "callout"
Stand and Salute for the ribbon in the skunk's hand

And now that you've seen my card be sure to hop on over to Cardz TV and check out all of the other great cards our DT has created for this week's challenge.  This was a tough one but every one of the ladies did an awesome job. 

When you're doing being inspired be sure to create your own, link up and play along with us.  And speaking of playing along I'm also including this card in the die cuts challenge going on over at Hiding in My Craft Room.

Hats, Hats, Hats

Only four more days until craft show time, and boy have I been a loom knitting fool.  Of course I'm still getting my paper crafting done and you'll some of those projects this week when we highlight our DT challenges starting tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have a couple of loom knitted hats to share with you that I made last night once my 3 day long headache finally broke.  I was excited to be able to complete these in one night because it put me at least one day ahead of schedule for the projects I wanted to complete for this weekend's show.

The first hat is one of the many woven top hats that I have found tend to do well in my area.  The ribbon flower was purchased from Walmart.

The second hat is one of the team spirit hats I'm giving a try at.  This style beanie sold very well for me at the last show and since I was asked about school colors I decided to give them a try.  Not only does this color scheme work for the pro and college levels but it's also the school colors for our local junior high.

Upcycled Sweater Scarves

Olive Oyl

 

I got my serger back from the sewing repair shop the other day and while I was headache free this weekend decided to sit down and put a few scarves together.  I love finding great sweaters at the thrift store (the one where I can get them for $1 each), cutting them up and piecing them back together again.  It's like creating art from puzzle pieces. 

Flower Power

Purple Crown

Pocket Scarf

After cutting out squares for an hour or so yesterday morning I sat down and found that I had cut enough to make three scarves and still have a few squares left over.  The fourth scarf was one that I had almost finished putting together when me serger died last weekend.

Now talk about a disappointment.  My serger isn't even a year old yet and it was only the second time I had sat down to play with it.  But I am grateful that the same gentleman who repaired my mom's machines growing up is still around.  He does awesome work and is very reasonably priced.  And now that it's all fixed up my serger is running better than ever........

Breast Cancer Awareness Hat & Scarf Set

Happy Friday everyone.  I wanted to pop in real quick and share with you this hat and scarf set that I made in honor of breast cancer awareness month.  I found this great ruffle yarn at Michael's last week in the perfect colors for a breast cancer awareness scarf so I couldn't resist making one of these sets.  I love how the pinks and white set up to make a beautiful ruffle scarf.  However, I wish that my camera allowed the true pink of the hat to show through. 

Oh well, we can't everything huh? 

And now it's time to get back to it.  There's so many projects to get made and only 5 more days left before I have to load and set up for my show.............

Coffee Sleeves

In between my knitting projects this week I have started making coffee sleeves in preparation for my craft show next Saturday.  These are just the beginning of what I've got cut out and going on.  After I put the first few together and saw how easy they were I talked my husband in to making a trip to Joann's for me to buy more fleece.

With mere fabric scraps and a few minutes behind the machine I'm able to whip these up quick and easy like.  And what great, inexpensive, gift giving ideas for teachers, bus drivers, co-workers, stocking stuffers, etc these will make for coffee lovers. 

Add a gift card to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or any other coffee shop

- OR -

add a couple packets of a good instant coffee inside the little pocket

 - OR -

place the sleeve around a coffee cup and fill the cup with some KCups.

I'm sure there are ideas for how you could present these for gifts but those are the ones that come to mind first for me.

Can you think of another way to present?  I'd love to hear it.

Cold Weather is Coming....

.....I can feel it in the air.  It has after all been cooler in the mornings and evenings - at least here in the Panhandle of FL.  Of course it always comes just as we prepare for the Mullet Festival and no I'm not talking about the hair.  LOL  Mullet is a type of fish that is very abundant in our local bays and waterways and for the last 36 years we've had a festival full of great food, entertainment (this year they've got Colt Ford, Jake Owens and Kellie Pickler coming), craft and other vendors as well as rides. 

 

Cold weather also means a need for new hats and scarves and I have been busy trying to get more made up in time for my next craft show the end of this month.  In doing so I was excited to discover that I finally got the making of these ruffle scarves down to 3 hours.  That means I can crank one out in just one night!  And with only two weeks left to get it all done that means I need to get busy, busy, busy so I can have a nice variety of them finished.

 

I finished this green set over the weekend and am currently working on a purple set.  I finished the scarf last night and tonight will get the hat done while we watch the WWE.

 

So what are you working on in preparation of the cold weather?  Christmas cards?  Hats? Scarves?  Holiday decor?  I'd love to see so if you'd like to share leave me a comment with a link to your project and I'll come take a peek.  Until then............

Last of the Hot Chocolate Holders

FINALLY!  I have finished my hot chocolate mug holders that I needed to get completed for the upcoming show in a couple of weeks.  There were only 6 left to do but after making so many I started forgetting what cuts I'd already made and what ones I still wanted to make.

Enter Teddy Bear Parade............with this being a new cartridge I knew I hadn't made any with these cuts yet and went to work getting them done. 

Then I also decided to use the gingerbread from Stretch Your Imagination as well as the Santa and mitten from Simply Charmed.

And since I used scraps from my stash I'm going to enter these last holders into the Super Scraps Saturday challenge over at Hiding in My Craft Room.  If you have some scraps you should come play along......

Boo Ha Ha Ha

Happy Friday everyone!  If you're like me you can't wait for the weekend to get start so you can get cracking on all those great projects you've thought about throughout the week.  But first we have to start and end our work day.  So before we begin the work day I wanted to share with you a quick and easy card I created for this week's Pause Dream Enjoy DT challenge.  I'm also entering this one in the black, orange, and purple challenge that's going on over at Hiding in My Craft Room.

This week our directive was to create a project on which we used the word Boo.  Luckily for me I had this great chipboard tag in my stash that worked perfectly with this ever so cute Teddy Bear Parade cut.  I just cut this little guy out at 2 1/2", put him together and away I went.......I told you it was quick and easy......just what I needed this week.

Now that you've seen my creation for this week's challenge pop on over to Pause Dream Enjoy and check out all the other wonderful creations our team put together for your enjoyment and inspiration this week.  Then create your own, link up and play along with us for your chance to win

Come play with us!

...

Halloween 3D Centerpiece

I made my first one of these back in 2010 for my husband whose favorite holiday is Halloween, but with the recent Movable Monsters free cut of the week last week I wanted to create another one with an updated look. And what perfect timing with this week's Just A Scrappin challenge directive being to create a 3D halloween project.

 

Now since I already had this project laid out from a couple of years ago I started with those cuts and then added in the new ones from Movable Monsters. That said, here are all the deets......

 

Using Happy Hauntings I cut:

 

The tree at 10" out of chipboard. I then used the chipboard as a "stencil" and traced it onto foam core board and then cut it out using a craft razor knife. I then painted the tree with brown acrylic paint and shaded it using black and a lighter brown. Once the paint was dry I came back and added a coat of clear rock candy distress crackle paint.

 

The four tombstones were cut at 3" with a piece of foam core board wedged between the front and back stones to add depth.

 

 

The two vaults were created by cutting the tombstones at 4". For the depth on this I used foam tape placed between the front and back headstones (foamcore was too difficult to cut around the cross). The foot stone was created by using the bottom portion of the tombstone only. For the center of the vault I cut a piece of cardstock 3" x 2 1/2", scored at 1" and 2" - turn a quarter turn and then score at 1/4" along both ends. I then embossed the cuts using my Sizzix faded brick texture and inked with brick red distressed ink. This was then formed to fit the head and foot stones to create the vault.

 

The skeletons were cut at 4". For the backside of the skeletons flip the cuts and hide all facial contours. To make them moveable/poseable I adhered the front and back pieces together with a piece of off white quilt thread between the bones.

 

Using Movable Monsters I cut:

 

The top half of two mummy and one zombie bodies at 2". Cut one zombie body in full length. When putting the pieces together use the quilt thread (instead of brads) to make the pieces posable.

 

At the bottom half of the bodies cut a toothpick in half and glue between papers. This will enable you to insert the pieces into the foam core board.

 

Now to put it all together. I found the moss landscape mat at AC Moore in the Halloween section. For the base of my graveyard I adhered a section of the mat to a piece of foamcore board using a hot glue. The tree was glued to the center of the square. To create the graves I cut four pieces of the moss landscape, folded it in thirds gluing all edges and then hot glued them in place. I then placed my skeltons as desired, gluing the necessary sections to keep them in place. Since I did not have any of the spider webbing stuff I used fiber fill to create the webs from the tree to the vaults.

Seriously

Happy Wednesday everyone and welcome to another Cricut Cardz Challenge.  Can you believe this is our 118th challenge?  My how the time flies.....

This week's challenge is Anything Goes.  You can make a card, project, layout - ANYTHING - so long as you use your Cricut. 

As you can tell I chose to make a card......I had to since I just received the new Suburbia cartridge in the mail a couple days prior.  I've been looking at this cartridge and salivating and on World Card Making Day I just HAD to dig in.  And just like the Child's Year cartridge, Surburbia is going to be a fun one.

Both my silhouette and the word seriously were cut from Suburbia.  At first I was going to use the question mark with the word and try to come up with some smart alek sentiment but I changed my mind.  Instead, I chose to make this an enouraging card and used the following sentiment:

Everything will be okay in the end.  If it's not okay, it's not the end.  (Author Unknown)

Now that you've seen my take on this week's challenge hop on over to Cardz TV and check out all of the other fun and exciting projects our design team created for you this week.  Then after you've been amply inspired, create your own, link up and play along with us.

I can't wait to see what you make this week.

Quick & Easy Birthday Card

Happy Tuesday everyone.  I have another quick and easy birthday card for you today.  Remember when I told you yesterday that I had cut out several items on World Cardmaking Day?  Well this is another of the several Teddy Bear Parade cuts that I made.

Of course it didn't hurt that I had a scrap piece of this wonderfully perfect paper to use for my background.  Isn't it great when you have that perfect piece just lying there in your stash waiting for the right card?  This is one of the many reasons that I don't throw out any of my scraps.  Seriously, you should see my scrap bin and shelves - I'm overflowing in them......

As you can see this was another of my one cut cards and you know that's okay because teamed up with this paper I didn't need another cut. 

So have you added the Teddy Bear Parade to your cartridge stash yet?  I'm having so much fun with this one - kinda like the Create a Critter cartridges - one and two.  And these days it's difficult to choose which one of the three I want to play with more............

Send in the Clown Birthday Card

Since Saturday was World Cardmaking Day I spent my morning cutting various goodies while all the men in the house were still snug in their beds.  I started at 6am and a couple hours later had to break to begin cooking breakfast and doing my normal Saturday routine.  But throughout the day I was crafting away - like when everyone was watching football or playing video games.

Saturday was also my youngest daughter's birthday, and that means I have have three twenty somethings running amuck in the world.  Needless to say I'm longing for the days when they were all younger and I didn't feel quite so old.  LOL

But I digress and what would a birthday celebration be without a bright, cheerful, clown to make everyone smile?  This one is from the recently released Teddy Bear Parade and given that it is the only cut for this card it made for a nice, quick and easy one to put together.

Book Reviews: Firebird & Unconditional

I was recently presented with the wonderful opportunity to preview a couple of new books that are on the market.

The first is a child's book, Firebird - written by Brent McCorkle.  As soon as I saw the cover I had to read the story.  And what a wonderful story it was.  Firebird is a little baby oriole who -like me - LOVES the sushine.  But one day when a storm comes in Firebird asks his momma why God allows the storm to take away the sun.  To this his momma enourages him to fly up through the clouds and storm to see what lies on the other side.....

What follows next is a wonderful illustration about how the Lord is allows there with us - even in the midst of a storm.

This is a wonderful story for the young and the still young at heart.

The next book, Unconditional, written by Eva Marie Everson is the story of Samantha Crawford an author who at first glance has the world by the horns.  She has a loving husband and a career that she loves.  But one fateful night her world changes when her husband is senselessly murdered. 

After that night Samantha begins a journey down a road that leads to near self-destruction as she attempts to take her life.  But the Lord has other plans for her and she is instead reunited with a childhood friend - Joe.

Joe, who is dying lives a life full of sacrifical services to children without fathers.  And while Samantha watches Joe give tirelessly to the children she begins to find new purpose in her own life.  Along the way the police find her husband's killer and Sam becomes torn between the desire for revenge and grace.

Inspired by real life events this is one book (or movie) that is sure to touch your heart strings as it serves as a gentle reminder that God's grace and love are always there surrounding us no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in.

Quick & Easy Christmas Easel Card

My weekend was full of chaos as it was the start to our craft show season.  As always it began with the Oktoberfest and I'm here to tell you that it was an awesome start!  We stayed so busy this year that I hardly had a moment to sit.  And since we were so busy that means it's time to bust tail and get cracking for the next show in four weeks - especially since we got wiped out of a few things.

So as I sit to prepare for the next show, my posts will probably be a little eratic and for that I apologize.  Just know that I haven't forgotten about you.  ;o)

Today though I have a quick and easy card for you - what else would I create at the end of such an exhausting weekend?  lol

I haven't created an easel card in such a long time I actually had to refresh my memory on how to make one.  Then I simply used my Sizzix to cut this cute reindeer and his Santa outfit and then I found a bright, cheerful paper to use as his back drop.

See?  Told you it was quick and easy.

Have a great week everyone!