Halloween Past

Looking through my Blog I have found all sorts of projects that I designed specifically for Halloween. Most of these items still decorate my house today! I invite you to take a look back at some of my posts for inspiration. Have a fun...not so spooky...

Happy Halloween

Haunted Cabin

Trick-or-Treat Banner

Spooky Table Setting

Candy Corn Jars

Display Tray

Mini Album

Wicked Wreath  

Nightmare Before Christmas?

Today I am sharing two versions of this week's Freshly Made Sketch! I feel like I didn't create enough Halloween cards this year, so I wanted to make just one more fun skull card. After seeing all the wonderful inspiration from the design team, I wanted to create a Christmas card too. Aren't you so lucky to get two versions, one to use now for Halloween and another to use later for the Holidays!

Yummy, Yummy! Look at those colorful skulls and that awesome Cricut cut sentiment from the Artistry cartridge.

What a happy and festive snowman, looking so dapper in his top hat and scarf!

Be sure to check out Freshly Made Sketches for more inspiration or to play along!

Artistry Pumpkin Patch

If anything is popping up this Fall, it's pumpkins!! I have already had a couple of pumpkin latte's and frappuccino's, made some pumpkin bread, pumpkin spiced pancakes and the pumpkin chocolate cookies did not even last for 3 days in the house! You can say I go a little crazy about pumpkin this time of year, Yum! Yum!

I ought to incorporate some pumpkins in my artwork then also. A pop-up box card full of Cricut cut pumpkins is perfect! This project is also perfect for the Heart 2 Heart "Cricut Capers" challenge.

{On the back of the card is where I left an open area to write a message to the recipient.}

I used the Artistry cartridge and Sangria papers to create the box. Hope this inspires you to add some pumpkins to your artwork, get your Cricut chirping, or at least run to get a pumpkin latte! ;)

She Is Extraordinary!

I made this "She Art" inspired card for my big Sis! She is officially retired today and I am so happy for her! She has put in years of dedication to her profession and I admire her strength and commitment. As this chapter in her life closes, I'm convinced that the next chapter for her will be extraordinary.

My older sister enjoys my handmade cards and especially cherishes the scrapbook pages I have created for her. My medium is definitely paper, but her craft is undoubtedly with fabrics. She is an extremely talented quilter and experiments with all sorts of fabric crafts. We love comparing how much the paper arts and fabric arts transition into each other often. Recently she shared a magazine with me that featured She Art using fabric and stitching. I showed her the canvas and paper She Art that I have created. So when I was making a card to congratulate her on retirement, I thought it would be fun to incorporate some She Art.

I used a Julie Nutting stamp to create the "She". Then I pulled in all sorts of mixed papers, washi tape, vellum and chipboard complements. I hope she likes her She Art card! I also wish her all the best in her future. I hope she gets to do something she truly loves and finds rewarding, especially since now she won't have such a highly demanding full-time job! Yeah Sis!!

Trick or Treat Cutie

I saw this idea from another consultant Jennifer Bennett. I thought it was a darling card and using the Artbooking images in a mini version was such a great idea! I never would have thought to scale down an image for what is intended to be a page of a mini album. How cute!

Fall Themed Crate Card Club

This month's card club had a Fall theme. It was so nice to see everyone's ideas for Fall, my favorite season. Take a look at the lovely creations this month.

I love the change of season, the colors, pumpkins and yes even some sweet chocolate! What a fun card exchange!

White Pines; Warm Coffee

It's never too soon to think of Christmas card ideas! I used the sketch this week on Freshly Made Sketches and the new White Pines paper to create this fun coffee card. Warm Wishes of seasonal coffee is what I think of on a chilly Christmas day! The White Pines paper complimented the coffee cup stamp perfectly!

Homecoming with Beautiful You

My daughter just celebrated Homecoming this past weekend. In our small town we have only one beautiful golf course that makes the perfect back drop for photographs. She invited her group of friends and their dates for a photo session before the dance. I am entering my pocket pages in the Heart 2 Heart Home Is..... Challenge, because for my daughter right now home is enjoying all the High School events, celebrations and sports games. That's what you do as a teenager in a small town!

With the long three day weekend I had extra time to actually get the pictures in my scrapbook! One of my earlier purchases from the new Idea Book was the Beautiful You Picture My Life collection. I knew that these cards were going to be perfect for my daughter and her Homecoming event was the best fit! The black & white cards are neutral enough to blend with anything, but it just so happened that the Homecoming theme was Burton's Bash...as in Tim Burton movies. {Beetle Juice, Alice in Wonderland, Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas} The gold foil finish of the cards blended beautifully with a couple of the dresses and gentleman's vest. Lastly, the bits of floral complemented my daughter's dress.

I filled a total of 3 pages. The first page is an introduction to the event with some hand written journaling from my daughter. Then you open to pages 2 &3 that contain more couple pictures and some group pictures that were just for fun!

I love that I was able to talk my daughter into doing the journaling. It's like injecting her personality directly into these pages. I would never think to write the year like her, 2K15!!

These group photo's are my favorite. The upper left is what the kids call a squad pic! The lower right photo was an on the spot idea seeing that one of the dates was actually on crutches. That's a memory they will never forget!

Some of my favorite cards in the pages and collection. I love the script, colors and design. You can see more of these cards online.

This is why I scrapbook...she is making memories and I am recording them for us! I will forever enjoy looking back at these times and she's so busy living right now, that when she finally slows down she will enjoy looking back also.

Thank you for stopping by. If your interested in the pocket scrapbooking style and not sure where to start I can help you! Contact me if you would like more information or to attend a workshop.

Haunted Escape in a Volkswagon!

Here is a fun Halloween card idea for you! I used one of the Pop-up cards on the Artfully Sent cartridge to create this card. Instead of using the Volkswagon bug on the inside of the card, I cut it out to create a Haunted scene on the front of the card. I stamped and colored the little characters and added a spring under the skull to make him more animated!

I love making Halloween cards fun and whimsical, it makes me think back to when I was a little girl! Go ahead, be silly with your cards and scrapbook pages this Halloween!

Grateful for FMS

Ugh! What a busy week I had last week! I am glad, or should I say grateful, to finally get to relax and even make a little time for crafting. Freshly Made Sketches is always a great inspiration for jumping right back into my creativity. The sketch this week was simple with a block pattern allowing me to play with several colors and patterns of the Sangria paper collection. I love what an elegant, yet fun collection Sangria is. I also love how well it lends itself to some gold glitter, because Fall screams gold glitter!

Embossed Scary Halloween

You have seen dry embossing many times, but have you seen a diffuser? Well, don't be scared of this new tool! It's a lot of fun to play with and you'll get some really awesome results from it.

Close To My Heart now offers a circle and square diffuser that you can use with any dry embossing folders and a die cutting machine like Cuttlebug and Sizzix Big Shot. I played with the circle diffuser so far and this is the Halloween card I created.

For this card I used an older skeleton folder and the circle diffuser. I simply laid the diffuser over my folder that contained a piece of white cardstock in the middle. I then ran it through my Big Shot. What you have in the end is the embossed image all over the cardstock except the middle, circular portion. Now I can stamp or embellish as I desire on the flat surface. For this particular card I stamped a winged scroll image in black then I layered a skull metal charm on top. You will also notice that I sponged some ink on the embossed image to allow it to stand out more.

Here is a close up view of the center image~

Here is a look at another piece of cardstock that I rolled through the Big Shot using the circle diffuser and the new Confetti folder.

The diffusers come in square and circle. You can also reverse the effect by only using the punched out circle or square allowing only that small portion to be embossed on your card base. (you can search a video of this technique in action by following CTMH on Instagram)

Finally, one last look at the finished embossing using the circle again with the quatrefoil folder.

You can find these diffusers and all the embossing folders online.

October Has Goodies in the Bag!

Check out all of this month's promotions! You'll find lots of goodies to put in your bag, including a brand new bag for anyone interested in becoming a Consultant this month.

Be sure to check out the Stamp of the Month, Twinkle, and get a head start on your Holiday projects. You can find more details on the Current Specials tab.