Halloween Tags

Happy Monday Morning to all of you. Halloween is not that far away now, and I've been busy getting items ready for one of our local shops. I love Halloween, the black cats, the witches and their funny hats, the Jack-O-Lanterns, the colors of orange and black - everything about it. All of these tags are pretty simple and do not take a long time to complete. Lean them against something, hang them from your Halloween Tree or a door knob, or use them as gift tags.

They are cut from orange cardstock, stamped images from Inkadinkado. The bat is from the "Creepy Crawly" set, and the birds are from the "Halloween Trails" set(aren't they just the coolest - I just love all the images in these sets)with black StazOn ink, adhered to black cardsock and trimmed with deckle edges, then applied orange glitter glue around the edges of the orange cardstock, punched a hole in the top and tied ribbon through. They look much better IRL, for some reason the photo is blurry.

The stamps can be purchased from Jacksonbelle Embellishments or 7 Kids College Fund (links are in the sidebar), the glitter glue is from Michael's or JoAnn's. I hope you enjoy them. I'll have others in another post.

Early Morning Visitors

Good Happy Thursday Morning!! I had some early morning visitors today - Mama bear and her 2 cubs. The cubs were playing on the deck and then decided to climb the tree and play on the roof. Mama was watching anxiously from the neighbors yard and calling them to come with her - but they decided - NO! They played for awhile then climbed back onto the tree and went to the top for the days nap. Mama is not stretched out under another tree also napping until they decide to come down. I just love them and especially love them in my yard even if they are a little mischevious and sometimes make messes - it's worth it just to have them so close.

I have included a photo of my butterfly bush that I planted last year - it made it through a freezing winter - looked like dead sticks after the snow melted in late April, but grew beautifully and looks like the butterflies really do like it.

And a rose I finally coaxed to bloom this year. This is our 2nd full summer in this house and while there were roses planted, they had been neglected. I don't know the name of this rose, but it is very large bloomed and beautiful. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Have a great day

Crafy Secrets Challenge

This weeks Crafty Secrets Challenge was to make a card honoring friendships, and add some sparkle. I made this card "Missing You Girlfriend" for my best friend of almost 40 years. We see each other maybe once every 2-3 years now as we live so far apart and our lives are very busy. We stay in touch by telephone calls and cards to one another - this seemed perfect.

I placed a Crafty Secrets DP from their Pastel Pack onto a pink top folded card base, then ran a black panel through my Cuttlebug using the "Textile" embossing folder and adhered to the DP panel and edged it in Silver Stickles by Ranger. I edged the image from the Crafty Secrets Wacky and Wonderful Vintage Image Booklet in Silver Stickles, adhered it to a black mat, then a pink mat, then a dp mat, punched a hole on both sides, thread my ribbon through and tied a knot. It was very simple and quick - quick only because I pretty much had the idea going around in my head for a couple of days before I even began.

I hope you like it, let me know what you think. Please visit often - I love hearing from you.

3 Little Girls

I am thrilled to say that I design for ScrapSmart If you are unfamiliar with ScrapSMART they offer CDs and downloadables of the most beautiful vintage images for all occasions. I will tell you right now that I will never endorse a product unless I absolutely love it and use it myself. Reenie Feingold is the founder and owner of ScrapSmart and a dream to work with - I feel very honored to be working with her, and her product is amazing.

This is one of the cards and tags I designed for her Newsletter. I'll be posting more in the next few days. The image is one of many sewing related images on the Sew Savvy Vintage Sewing Ads: Cards and Envelopes CD, Item#CARDVS142 and the "Sparrows Sheet Music" is also a ScrapSMART downloadable - Item#AMUSC4, Music 04 sheet. Reenie even provides a free graphics program to resize images. Please click on the link above and check out all the beautiful images she has to offer.

Have a great day.

First Post

O.K. So my daughter has shamed me into finally posting to this blog I've been working on for a couple of months. She's been working on hers for only a couple of weeks and has already posted. Might have something to do with 3 brainiac daughters and their friends who help her put it together. The truth is I've just been putting off posting because I wanted everything to be just perfect before I started (somewhat of a control freak) and I'm thinking I won't be able to post as often as I should or even want to - I know it doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things - but those are my reasons. So anyway, I am finally posting today, September 1, 2008 - and the air is full of Fall.

Fall is my favorite time of the year and has been for as long as I can remember. I love everything about it. The changing colors of the trees - we have many Aspen groves up here and soon they will be changing to shades of orange and yellow with still a little touch of green - they are just beautiful. The crispness of the air, the smoke curling from chimneys as we begin to warm our homes, fires in the fireplace, falling leaves, and the thought of soon-to-be family gatherings for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas - all a part of this most wonderful time of the year.

The card I am posting today was made for a Crafty Secrets Challenge "Oranges" on Splitcoast Stampers a couple of weeks ago. Their vintage images, papers, and clear stamp sets are just beautiful and make cardmaking and projects so easy to come together (that is unless you are like me and overthink everything into oblivion - that's a slight exaggeration - but not much really. Anyway I hope you like it. The image is from Crafty Secrets "Seasonal" Hearwarming Vintage Booklet, the paper is from their "Earthy" paper pad, and the corner stamp is from their "French Mail" clear stamp collection.

I hope you'll come back - I'll really try to get much better at this. Have a wonderful long weekend, and make a little time for yourself.