Happy Labor Day!

I hope you all had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! The roar of the Harleys is finally starting to dwindle.... I think I'll miss that sound! What a party this weekend - I truly hope everyone who was here has nothing but good tales to tell about Milwaukee!

So ... as I was scrounging through my craft area, trying to get more goodies ready to sell ....I came across my SU Halloween Hedgies set. Oh, how I love the hedgies! Always have, always will. I always wished they had made more sets with those cuties. Anyway, I was thinking about how much I LOVED making Halloween & fall cards.. even more than Christmas. So ... I sat down ... & before I knew it, I had made a card!

Not too shabby ....except ......

Here's the reason why card making & I were never a good fit. I. Am. ANAL. I know, most paper crafters ARE a bit Type A. But - I panic when even the smallest detail has gone wrong. And that happened with this card. I'm just going to leave it at that. 

I had actually made this pumpkin out of punches about 3 years ago for a project & never ended up using it. It sat gathering dust. In fact, look up at the base of the stem, you can see the dust!! And no, that's not the part I'm having a fit about LOL

I still have a huge stash of charms - & this pumpkin worked perfectly. I can't wait until fall, & all things pumpkin! I can't wait to make pumpkin pie & pumpkin bars & pumpkin cookies. I actually hate pumpkin ... but I love baking with it :)

Tomorrow is the first day of school - Matthew starts High School & Michael is in 5th grade. Back to the grind. Back to homework every night. Back to getting up at 5 -stinkin' -o'clock. Sigh .... 

Happy birthday!!

It's my co-worker's birthday tomorrow & I wanted to make her a little something. I don't really talk about my obsession hobby at work, nor has anyone seen anything that I've made. But I've decided to start spreading the love a bit -- & I'm starting with my friend Lou. Turns out her daughter also makes cards & so I figured she'd be a good one to start with :)



Can you believe I've never ever altered a frap bottle? I've *saved* the frap bottles -- about 22 of them -- but this is the first one I actually did something with. The sentiment is from SU's Oh So Sweet -- one of the few SU sets I own. Basically I own any set that has food or hedgies, lol. So yes, the hedgie on the card is also from SU, he belongs to the Hedgehog Happiness set. The papers on both are K&Company McKenna. Lots of seam binding & dies & punches -- oh my!




Close up of the card...I added some shine to the balloon...





I stamped the chocolate from that same SU set for the top - used lots of Nesties & seam binding - & filled it up with pretzel M&M's. I sure hope she likes it!

Thanks for visiting -- have a super week!!

Bobbing for apples

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!! I'm continuing my fall/Halloween card trend & dug out one of my very favorite stamp sets ever --SU's Halloween Hedgehogs. I love the hedgies & wish they would bring them back!




I stamped the image onto SU's Natural Ivory & colored it with Prismas. The papers are Recollections (from Michael's last year)....added some stitching & Quickutz swirls....a bit of glitter & of course some shine for the apples.





I was in a hurry so I couldn't get a very good close up ---just imagine shiny apples :)

I'm hoping to finish the inside tomorrow so I can get it listed on Ebay. Or Etsy. It's always a crap shoot where to put it, lol!!


On a personal note, my mom had her surgery on Friday & it was one of the longest days of my life! We were there by 6:30 am & I didn't get to see her until after 8:00 at night. But she is home, recuperating & doing well!! Thank you all for your good thoughts!

Stampin' Up?? Really??

Yeah, I don't really use SU stamps much. I do like their card stock & inks, but their images....most of them aren't my style. I love *cute*, & they just don't have a lot of *cute* stamps. The exception to that is the hedgies!!! I *heart* the hedgies. & I bought the Halloween Hedgies set on Ebay about a year ago.



How cute are these trick-or-treaters?!?!! This was actually my second attempt, I really messed up my first & it is now in the circular file. I messed up the background....which figures, because I was already done coloring the image!!

Anyway, I used my pencils & gamsol, & added a bit of shimmer to the pumpkins & the stars on the witch hat with my clear Spica glitter pen. The papers are SU's Basic Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, & BASIC GREY EERIE!!!! That's right, I finally got the new schtuff & I couldn't wait to use it! I got all 3 of the new pads, I actually bought 2 of the Eskimo Kisses just cuz it's so cute!! You can get all the new Basic Grey papers & embellishments at 7 Kids College Fund HERE......the NEW new stuff is towards the end. I used my Martha Drippy Goo punch on the black & orange layers.....I just love that punch!






Here's a close up of the trick-or-treatin' gang!





And how cute is this pumpkin charm?? Someone asked me where I get my charms.....why, I get them on Ebay, of course!!!! But you can also get a huge array of charms & spacers at my friend Nikki's store HERE. She has some great stuff so while you're there, why don't ya do a little browsing???

I'm off to get my kids from the bus stop.....then homework, dinner, clean up, showers....there just isn't enough time on school nights to get everything done!! What about watching all the new fall shows?? Sheesh, a girl's gotta get her fix!!!!

Still struggling

This card took me roughly 4 hours to create, lol. I couldn't get my coloring right, I kept changing my mind about the papers, & the layout.....forget about it!!! Of course that 4 hours includes blurfing & checking my favorite galleries on SCS for ideas.....but still....I started this at 8:15 after my kids were gone, & I finished it about 15 minutes ago.

I got the SU Halloween Hedgie set last year at my LSS's rummage sale. I didn't get to use it ~ by the time I remembered I had it, it was Thanksgiving. That seems to happen to me a lot. Well, this year I got the set out in AUGUST & set it right next to my desk, where I could see it every day. It took me until now to create a card with it, but at least it's not Thanksgiving yet!!


I stamped the image onto watercolor paper with Colorbox black pigment ink, the embossed it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. When I watercolor, I always like to emboss my image, either with II so it's sparkly, or clear EP so it's shiny & smooth. Either way, I think it adds a lot to the final outcome. I used my SU markers & I switched off between my aquapen (STILL learning how to use that thing) & my blender pen. The striped paper is from American Crafts, & the olive is DCWV which is a great Cuttlebug-using paper because it has a white core. I used my new Autumn Type folder, then sanded it lightly so more of the white would show. Of course, I didn't want to then cover it up, so I ended up putting the hedgie off to one side, added some ribbon & a whole bunch of the pseudo Dew Drops (the cheapie plastic baubles from Michael's). I used my 1/4" hole punch to punch a bunch of Old Olive cardstock, adhered that to the bottom of the baubles, then attached them to the card. I think just 3 baubles would have sufficed, but once I started I couldn't stop!


Who has fun plans for the weekend?? I have no idea what we're doing. At this moment I am very crabby. I'm crabby that my mojo went away (apparently IT has fun plans for the weekend ~~ somewhere else.....). I am crabby about something that happened at the Cub Scout meeting last night. I'm crabby that my 9 yr old gave me a bunch of 'TUDE this morning before getting on the bus. The only thing that has made me smile so far today is the yummy GINORMOUS cup of iced coffee I had this morning. Iced coffee always makes me happy :)