Spooky Treats Box

 Sharing a tutorial on how to make this box over at the CLASSroom. The Hocus Pocus papers from Pink Paislee are so fun to use and didn't require much embellishment because they are already so fabulous!
But this project can be great for almost any occasion, so don't limit yourself to just Halloween, it is a great way to share candy, pictures or even a little mini-album. The possibilities are limitless  :o)

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Goofy Much?

Laurel and her sweetie celebrated their year anniversary together on Saturday, so cute!! He brought her a gorgeous arrangement of orchids and she got him a t-shirt from one of his favorite bands. They went to an art show, out for dinner at their favorite Indian restaurant and then hung out with us at home for a little while. I am so happy that they enjoy each others company so very much and have a very fun and energetic relationship. I feel so very blessed to have children that I love and respect so much and that they are so good at finding people to have in their lives that feel the same way about them as I do.

:o)

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Hambly Halloween Mini-Album

 Making a Halloween album was a fun, quick and easy using the green Frame and Grid overlays and a sheet of the black Halloween rub-ons. By keeping the color scheme simple and using a clear album it placed the pictures in the spotlight and assemblage fun. As I printed out pictures I edited them to be in pairs, a front and a back. That way when they were placed on the overlays there wasn't much trimming left to be done, all I had to do was adhere them in place on their pages.

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Save the Ta-Tas

Just a quick share of a fun Hambly layout that I made with the Sweet Tooth Transparency in brown and the Sweet Tooth in pink on the gorgeous shimmery cream color. I just fussy cut a few of the jars out and adhered them lightly with a glue pen to the transparency and then stitched it all with pink thread onto the kraft card stock. I have to tell you, these transparency layouts are so hard to shoot, lol! They are so reflective that I had to try about ten different things to try and cut the glare. The reason it is so light on the top and bottom left is that I had to turn off the right hand lamp in my light box because that is what was creating most of the problem. I figured it was better to get a shot with no glare that was a little unevenly lit than one that had a huge white reflection of the lamp and bulb. What do you think, and do you have ideas on how to shoot it so that it would look better?

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Hambly Halloween Treat Can

A fun tutorial for creating this treat can is up over at the Hambly blog :o)

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I Love You to the Moon and Back

A few months ago I was going through a box of old photos and found a few of these amazing pictures of my Grandmother Hakes holding Laurel when she was only two weeks old and Tyler looking on as an almost two year old. My Grandmother had a very debilitating stroke soon thereafter, and I don't have any more pictures of her after that. The beautiful memories from this extraordinary moment make my heart fill with love, and appreciation for this wonderful woman and for the time that I had with her on this earth.
The Togetherness line from Cosmo Cricket was the perfect combination of colors and theme for this very precious photo, and it helps me tell how perfect this little moment was for all of us.
I feel so blessed to have the time and opportunity to scrapbook and preserve memories like these. The stories that we need to tell are so important, and are truly treasures in our lives. I am thinking it is time to go back into my older pictures again and see if I can find a few more treasures that deserve a little extra love...

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Glimmer Mist Halloween Wreath

 Not much to say today, it was a relaxing weekend and I did manage to still got a good chunk of my to do list worked on as well, always nice when you have a good balance like that. I had been working on this wreath for the last week, and finally got it finished and photographed, yay!!

All it is made from is old books (reader's digest that I bought from the library a few years ago for ten cents each) Tattered Angels mists, doilies from Ellen's shop (so cute!) and the back is just a circle that was cut from an old shipping box. It was all hot glued together (a few burns later) and some black ribbon from the Michael's doller bin. I cut a wide side and a narrow side from each roll with my pinking shears. The wide side I gathered and have around the edges on the outside and inside and the narrow edge was looped to make tiny little bows for inside of my doilies. Nothing expensive or hard to do on this, you just have to have some patience. Spray a lot of old book

pages and start ripping and gluing. I am thinking it needs a few little fake black spiders to go on it so those will get added later this week.


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Meet Winnifred, My Halloween Lollipop Doll

I am so excited to introduce you to Winnifred, she is the darling little lollipop doll that Natalie taught us to make last night. Celeste, Erin, Natalie and I got together to get a little more crafty girl time and there were some more delish snacks too of course. Natalie had all the adorable components ready for us, so all we had to do was start painting and dressing our cute little dolls. It has been forever since I played with a doll, and I just have to say I have been missing out! This cute little lady was so much fun and addicting that I am going to be trying my hand at making more of them for other holidays and occasions.

It isn't that I need another hobby, but these are so tiny and giftable not to mention flat out super cute! After I got started I kept getting ideas from the other gals and loads of help too! Natalie drew the perfect little eyes and Celeste put on that perfect little pout. I did manage the hair and rosy cheeks myself, and I wish you could see the little green stripes on her legs.
Sweet Winnifred is sporting some seriously bewitching fashion and I think Christian Siriano would call her capelet "fierce"!

It really doesn't get much more fun than this, playing dolls with your friends, is definitely going to be on the agenda again!

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Using Text on a Thank You Cards

 Our theme for card group this month was using text on a thank you card. I love text of any kind and can always use more thank you cards! So this months card was something I was really excited to make! I started with some Tattered Angels spray mists in Vanilla Breeze and Patina on Hero Arts Snow colored cards as my base. I love how true the colors of the mists came up using the white as the base. I intentionally added lots of splatter drops for visual interest by just dipping a paint brush into the top of the mist bottle and then tapping it against my hand to give it some directional control, it was then set aside to dry. Then the edge of the card was inked using Frayed Burlap Distress ink. That same color was then used to stamp the gorgeous Hero Arts Old Letter Writing script wood mounted over the top of the misted layers.

Once the base is complete, it is time for the sentiment layer. I used a lovely Prima paper that had very subtle text in the layers of color and design but the primary images were the butterflies. I cut pieces that were 2 1/2" x 2" and inked the edges of those as well. I also punched out little butterflies using my much beloved Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly punch and added the beautiful Basic Grey Teal Opalines onto the bodies of those little butterflies. The sentiment was printed out on my printer, trimmed apart, adhered to the card a letter at a time and then stitched with my sewing machine for a little extra texture. I loved making this card and will be reproducing it in a few different ways and colors in the future. I thought it would be a fun one to share how I made and that someone else might be inspired by it as well.
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Happy World Card Making Day!

How are you spending this fun day?
I am celebrating the day in a few different ways, first I shared a trend watch post over at the CLASSroom on pleats. There is some gorgeous blog candy on all the posts over there today, so go leave some love and maybe you will get lucky!! And right now Ellen has so many gorgeous products in the shop that it is easy to be inspired!!
Second, I am going to be spending a little time in my studio playing with the products that I ordered from Ellen last week, new Pink Paislee, 7 Gypsies and Graphic 45 that have been calling my name all week!
Third and lastly, I will be enjoying the evening with my card group! We thought how fun and appropriate it would be to schedule our get together on WCMD so we could enjoy the day together. The theme of tonight's swap is using text and the topic is Thank You cards. I just love the card I made for tonight, lots of layers and it is shimmery!! (gotta love that!) I will share more on how I put it together tomorrow, but thought it would be fun to sneak a peek of it for today  :o)
I just love the idea of this day, spending it creating memorable pieces of you that you will share with others is an amazing concept. It is all about the giving or yourself to others that you love and expressing your creativity while doing so, great stuff!

So my very best to all of you who are spending the day in a similar way, and sharing that connection with each other, it makes us all friends and helps the world become a more beautiful place one card at a time...

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