One More Halloween Card

I do have one last Halloween card to share with you. I think this is the last one anyway! This is an image from Deidre Mosher Designs and was colored with Copics and I added some paint along the lines of the steam and on the bubbles in the cauldron. I knew I wanted to use a little mini broom on this card, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I thought about trying to make one with a bamboo skewer, but happened to find these in the dollhouse section at Hobby Lobby. They came three to a pack, so now I have a couple of extras the next time I need a mini broom.

 I hate it when Halloween ends, but I love stocking up on the after halloween sales. I picked up a couple of new wigs and an awesome tiered cupcake holder when I was out the other day. I got most of my stuff put away over the weekend and now it is about time to think about getting the Christmas decorations out.

I had a busy weekend. Samantha expressed an interest in leaning how to make jelly and helping me can and I told her that when I started making apple stuff that she could come over and we could do it together. She was here both Saturday and Sunday so she got to experience water bath and pressure canning. We made a Cranberry Pear jam, apple sauce, apple butter and some candy apple jelly. She pretty much made the candy apple jelly by herself with just supervision so she is going to be giving a few jars of that to a couple of people for Christmas gifts. Then on Sunday she helped me get pumpkin ready to can. I don't usually carve my Halloween pumpkins, I cook them and this year decided to can my pumpkin so that I can use it throughout the year.

Pumpkin Snowman

Good morning! I realized that I made more Halloween cards than I actually posted so you might see a couple of them after Halloween. I am pretty sure that I have more Halloween images that I do other holidays, including Christmas. I have been sorting through some boxes of things that have been stored since the flood in 2010. It has mainly been a hodge podge of stuff, some craft stuff, several stamp sets and a small tin of unmounted images, including this one. I am pretty sure that this is an Inky Antics image that I picked up at a stamp convention a while back. I love snowmen as well as Halloween so I thought this one was perfect. Image is colored with Copics, and puff paint on the spider's eyes, paper from The Paper Studio and I added a bit of baker's twine. 

I hope all my friends in the path of the storm are staying safe.

Eye of Newt...Toe of Frog

First of all, I hope all of my friends in the path of Hurricane Sandy are all safe! 

I almost forgot to post this card I made for the Riley and Company challenge and today is the last day. The challenge was to make a center step card. I have made these before and really like the way they look. I used Wicked Witch Sophie for the Riley in Oz release for my Halloween themed card. Sophie is colored with Copics, I used paper from a couple of 6 x 6 pads that I had and the little rat border was made with a Martha Stewart punch. I punched out "Eye of Newt" with a Sizzix die.

Have a great day!

October is here!!

Good morning! Today is October 1st so that means we have a brand new challenge on the Card Cupids blog. The Stamping Boutique is our sponsor this month and I chose to work with this witch image. I love Halloween and couldn't think of a better image to the start of my spooky month. Image is colored with Copics, paper is from DCWV(I think) and I added the purple star brad in the corner from my stash. We would love for you to join our challenge and send in some happy mail to brighten the day of a child. 

HERE is a great thank you from a Mom after her daughter received a Card Cupids box. 

HERE is a list of the current card needs. 

Have a great day!

Vampire Scrapling

I learned something new! While reading the new challenge on the Riley and Company blog, I saw that the challenge was "Scraplings".  I had no idea what that meant so fortunately they provided this description: 

So what are scraplings???? Scraplings are normally 1.25" x 4.25" because they are often made from the off cuts you get when you make a square card (4.25" square) from a piece of card that is 4.25" x 5.5". However if you are like me your scraplings may be a little wider depending on what you are working on at the time. Now for me 1.25" is way too narrow and I normally have wider card then that left over so you can makes yours wider .... BUT for this challenge they cannot be any wider then 2.5 inches that is for the base of the scrapling ... you can have wider pieces hanging off your scrapling if you like, but that is up to you.

I thought that was pretty cool, especially since I end up with so many scraps of paper that exact size! My scrapling uses Count DracuRiley, colored with Copics, some  bat paper I have had for a while, some baker's twine gifted to me by my friend Jennifer, and some mini red brads. 

Fun challenge and I know I will be making more of these. 

Jeepers Creepers

Good morning! Fall is definitely in the air here in Tennessee. I love the cool mornings and evenings. There is just enough chill in the air to be cool, but not quite enough coolness to need a jacket or sweater yet.  I love this time of year, probably more than any other. For one thing, I know that  Halloween is coming! I love looking in all the stores at all the Halloween goodies. I do have to restrain myself though because I already have a ton of decorations. I haven't found anything this year that I just to have, but I found a couple of interesting things after Halloween last year on sale that I will be putting out for the first time this year. 

I make almost as many Halloween inspired cards as Christmas cards. This card uses and image from Simply Betty Stamps called Louie Vampire. He is colored with Copics and I used paper from my stash, a border from K&Co. and the sentiment is from a wooden stamp that I have had forever that I just love. I am entering this card into the Anything Goes Challenge on the Simply Challenged Challenge blog.

Thanks for visiting with me today, have a great day!!

Card Cupids Halloween Challenge

It's not too late to join us at Card Cupids for our Halloween Challenge! Bugaboo Stamps is our sponsor for this challenge and I have used and image called Halloween Brat Pumpkin. Image is colored with Copic markers and I use candy embellishments and paper from my stash of Halloween stuff. We would love to see what your take on the challenge is, so create your Halloween project and link it to our challenge. Also HERE is a list of the current card requests. 

Have a great day!

Simply Betty's Monster Mash Blog Hop

Welcome to the Simply Betty MONSTER MASH BLOG HOP!! You should have arrived here from Katya's blog and if you want to start at the beginning so you don't miss any of the awesome stops on this blog hop then you can start here at Betty's blog. 

The challenge was to create anything Halloween using any of the Simple Betty Stamps Halloween images. I chose to use two of the images from the Steampunk Halloween 2012 images A Little Arsenic Before Bed and Jack and Jill. 

I decided to try and make more of my Halloween decorations instead of being limited to what I could find in the stores. I started with two wooden $1 picture frames and painted them very bright green, then a layer of crackling medium then topped that with a layer of black paint. After that was dry, I added the ribbons and the rosettes. I have decided that these will be sitting or hanging fairly close to each other so I put the decorations on opposite corners. 

A Little Arsenic Before Bed:

Jack and Jill:

And a close up shot of both images:

Your next stop on the hop is LISA.

Supplies used: images from Simply Betty Stamps, colored with Copic markers, wooden from from Michael's, acrylic paints, Tim Holtz Rosette die, skeleton and poison bottle from Joilee's, ribbon from Michael's, background paper from Recollections, and silver beads from my stash. 

Card Cupids Halloween Challenge

Oh my goodness, I can't believe that it is September 1st already. August is always one of those months that just drags by for me, but this one seems to have flown by. And since it is a new month, that means we have a new Card Cupids challenge! The challenge is a Halloween challenge and Bugaboo Stamps sponsored this challenge. For my card, I chose to use Hween Brat Witch, she is colored with Copic markers, I used paper from my Halloween stash and some buttons and baker's twine.

We would love to have you join our Halloween Challenge!!

(end of the challenge info, the rest of the post is just me musing about Halloween and memories)

~~~

Do you make Halloween cards?

Do you send them out? I don't send out Halloween cards like I send out christmas cards, but I do use a lot of my cards. If you notice, most of my cards do not have sentiments on the front of the card. One of the reasons is that I use a lot of my cards as general note cards. I try and make sure to send thinking of you or encouraging cards and lots of thank yous. So most of my Halloween cards get used that way, if I need a card for any of those reasons, I will use a card without a sentiment and write my message on the inside. Pretty much any card that goes out for any reason other than birthday during the month of October will probably be a Halloween card (although I do keep in my friends that do not celebrate Halloween for whatever reason).

~~~~

I absolutely LOVE Halloween. I probably  have more Halloween stamps, images and papers than I even do of Christmas and the other holidays combined. I love the fun of dressing up and all the fun that goes with it. I was so excited when Kip and I got married and I moved into his house because we actually had trick or treaters! This is the first place I have lived that I have had more than just a couple, I have lots of very small kids too, so I don't do scary, just fun. Another reason I love Halloween is it reminds me of my Mamaw. She loved seeing all the kids that would come to her house each year and made each child feel like they were actually the ghost, super hero or whatever they were dressed as. Doing something that she loved doing reminds me of her and how much fun I had with her. 

Oddly enough though, she passed away on Halloween and I thought I would never, ever be able to observe Halloween without being reminded of my grief. It took a couple of years, but then I realized that it would be a way for me to kind of honor her by doing something that brought her so much joy. And now instead of Halloween being a reminder of loss, it feels like a connection with her. I don't know if loved ones look down on us, or observe our lives or not, but I like to think that when I am passing out candy and admiring costumes she is with me and she is once again smiling at all the kids in their costumes. 

I always have Smarties in my bucket of things to pass out too, because so did Mamaw. She was allergic to chocolate and would make sure that was passed out first so that if she had leftovers, she could actually eat them and Smarties were a favorite of hers.

House Mouse Halloween

Good Morning! I have one last Halloween project to share with you. I am a little sad that Halloween is over. In part just because I love Halloween so much and because after Halloween the rest of the year just seems to zoom by in one giant big flurry of activity. Between Halloween and the end of the year we have Kip's birthday, Thanksgiving and travel involved with that, my grandmother's birthday, our anniversary, and the Christmas. Mixed in with all that is the shopping, massive baking and cooking sessions and different holiday parties.

Now on to my card, this is a House Mouse image and was colored with Copics. The little sentiment panel is a piece of thin wood, painted black and then I wrote Boo with a white gel pen. Pretty simple. I just love this image though! It's so funny though, for the longest time, I would only color House Mouse images with pencils and because I was never really happy with the result when I used Copics on them. I am pretty please with this one and now when I sit down to color them it just depends on whether I am in a pencil mood or a marker mood.

Have a great day!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

It's here, it's here, it's finally here! Halloween has finally arrived. If you are celebrating, have fun and be safe! My card today is for the Riley and Company Orange and Black challenge. I left Riley a little pale with very little shading since he has gone all goth with this image. I gave him some little diamond stud earrings and then added that skull and crossbones from Recollections. I don't remember where the paper came from, it was actually from a Halloween or two ago and I have been holding on to it.

I can't wait to see all the little trick or treaters in their costumes tonight. This is the first place that I have really ever lived that has lots of trick or treaters too and I love it. I remember my first apartment after I moved to Nashville, there were several kids around so I got my outside all decorated, bought tons of candy, got ready to pass it out and I had exactly one trick or treater. After we got married I asked Kip if there were a lot that came by here and he didn't know since he was normally gone to a party. I was thrilled to have so many.

Have a great halloween!!

Twelfth Day of Halloween!

Here is my final post for the Twelve Days of Halloween challenges with Simply Betty Stamps. And just like last year, I had a great time playing along with these fun, daily challenges. Anytime I can pull out the Halloween papers and embellies I have fun. Image is from Simply Betty, colored with Copics and the papers and bats are from K & Co and the ribbon from my stash.

On the twelfth day of Halloween

My true love gave to me,

Twelve bats a flying,

Eleven casks a-leaning,

Ten ghouls a groaning,

Nine ghosts a booing,

Eight monsters shrieking,

Seven pumpkins glowing,

Six goblins gobbling,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters,

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

I had so much fun today. I went with a friend and her daughter to a cooking class at the Viking Cooking store where we learned to make pasta doughs and sauces. Yummy! I took a couple of pictures that I will try and post tomorrow.

Enjoy your Halloween tomorrow!!

Day 11 of Simply Betty's 12 Days of Halloween

I have another Simply Betty project to share with you today. I can't believe tomorrow is Halloween. We had a fun time last night with some friends and family at our Halloween Bash. I tried something new, I made some black bean burgers. I have one vegetarian friend and instead of buying some frozen ones I wanted to try and make them. I didn't think that many people would eat them so I planned on freezing some to have some quick lunches on hand. But they all got eaten! We made three kinds of burgers and they were the first plate to disappear. I will be making those again.

On to today's project! Our inspiration from the Simply Betty Blog:

On the eleventh day of Halloween

My true love gave to me,

Eleven casks a-leaning,

Ten ghouls a groaning,

Nine ghosts a booing,

Eight monsters shrieking,

Seven pumpkins glowing,

Six goblins gobbling,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters,

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

I used this Edward Scissorhands image from the Burton Chibi line. When I saw casks, it made me think of a science lab and that make me think of this image. I love the Edward Scissorhands movie, but it makes me really sad. the image is Simply Betty, papers are from Martha Stewart and the border is from K & Co.

One more challenge post to go and then my Twelve Days of Halloween will be complete!

Tenth Day of Halloween

On the Simply Betty Blog:

On the tenth day of Halloween

My true love gave to me

Ten ghouls a groaning,

Nine ghosts a booing,

Eight monsters shrieking,

Seven pumpkins glowing,

Six goblins gobbling,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters,

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

I thought this mummy image would be perfect for my groaning ghoul. If you look close, that background paper is full of the eyes of lots more ghouls!

Nine Ghosts A-Booing

Just a quick Saturday post from me today. We have until the 30th to load all of our 12 Days of Halloween projects on the Simply Betty Blog so I will be back today and then in the morning with the last of my entries. This have been another fun round of Halloween challenges! On to today's poetic inspiration:

On the ninth day of Halloween

My true love gave to me

Nine ghosts a-booing,

Eight monsters shrieking,

Six pumpkins a glowing,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

I know that cat looks like he has been spooked by something. Probably all those ghosts in the background! Image from SImply Betty Stamps, colored with Copics, ghost from K&Co. and I am drawing a blank on the papers right now.

Gotta run, I am teaching a Copic class today then back home to get ready for our Halloween Bash tonight!!

Eight Monsters Shrieking!

That's right it is day 8 of the Simply Betty 12 Days of Halloween challenge. Only 4 more challenges to go! And what fun these challenges have been too.

One the eighth day of Halloween

My true love gave to me

Eight monsters shrieking,

Seven pumpkins glowing,

Six goblins gobbling,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

If you look there are other little monsters in the background paper behind my main image!!

Simply Betty Day 6

I am back with my day 6 project for the Simply Betty 12 Days of Halloween challenge. I still don't know what got on the first one I made, but it was pretty much all across that purple panel. Fortunately I didn't have to start over again, I was just able to redo that one panel. Here is the poem for our challenge:

One the sixth day of Halloween,

My true love gave to me

Six goblins gobbling,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

My image is from Simply Betty Stamps and was colored with Copic markers, the papers, little goblins and the sentiment are all from K& Co. and the brads are from Jo-Ann's.

Halloween--Day 7

Here I am with a second post today! And yes you are reading it right, I skipped from Day 5 to Day 7 of the 12 Days of Halloween! I didn't notice until I was loading the photo of my day 6 project, but it has a big smudge of some sort on it so I am going to redo that portion of my card. I will be back with day 6 tomorrow.

According to the Simply Betty blog:

On the seventh day of Halloween

My true love gave to me

Seven pumpkins glowing,

Six goblins gobbling,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

I used Pumpkin London for my card and colored her with Copics. Paper is from Martha Stewart, ribbon from Michael's and the jack-o-lanterns are from Reminisce.

Last Saturday I met some girlfriends for lunch and some shopping and those little pumpkins were one of the things I bought at a scrapbook store. I had to be good in there because I had already spent too much money at World Market. I love that store! I am of the opinion that you can never have too many dishes or stamps!

Have a great evening, My friend's daughter is here cooking with me. We are making chicken noodle soup for dinner and homemade twinkle-like cakes for dessert. Shhh, don't tell, but we already ate one of the cakes and dinner isn't ready yet.

Five Scary Spooks

And on the fifth day of Halloween

My true love gave to me

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

This is my card for Simply Betty's 12 Days of Halloween challenge. My scary spook is standing in a hallway showing off the photos of the rest of her spooky family. I am a couple of days behind on posting my cards so I will be back with another card this afternoon after I get off work.

Kip and I use a shared calendar app on our phones and he was looking over the activities for the next few days. He noticed that I listed our Halloween Dinner as "Our Halloween Bash" and asked if it was really going to be a "bash" or if we were just having people over for dinner. I told we were just having a few people over but it just sounded more fun and festive to call it a bash!

Have a great day!

4th Day of Halloween with Simply Betty

On the Fourth Day of Halloween

My true love gave to me

Four Skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

I am back with my entry for the fourth day of Halloween with Simply Betty Stamps. It's not too late to play along if you want to join in on the fun. The image is from Simply Betty Stamps

and was colored with Copics, papers are from The Paper Studio and Target, skeleton hand is from K&Co. and the ribbon and buttons are from my stash. Aren't those dancing skeletons just too funny?

I am getting excited as Halloween gets closer and closer. I have been making candy and things for our yearly Halloween dinner with family and friends, the house is decorated and I have my treats ready to pass out. Add to that the fun of getting to play with all of my Halloween images and supplies and I am one happy crafter.