Blessings

Well, this is a first for me. I am completely prepared for my card swap/project day with the ladies. This NEVER happens. I'm usually throwing stuff in a box hoping something will come to me when I get there. Then I spend my time trying to piece together whatever I brought.
I've already shown you the two swaps I am bringing, the Halloween card and Trick or Treat bag. Well, here is a card that I am bringing to make.



I even had time to cut out all the little pieces so we can spend our time stamping and pasting :) I'm too good.

Here is what I used:

~Ingredient List~

Paper: Ruby Red cardstock from Stampin Up. Green designer paper from Stampin Up's Patterns Pack II. Speckled off-white paper from my own stash.

Stamps: Papertrey's Fall Elegance and Fancy Flourishes

Inks: Papertrey's Pallette Hybrid Inks in Orangerie, New Leaf and Dark Chocolate. Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Tea Dye for the aged look around the die cut outs. Versamark for the watermark flourish on the card base.

Other: Spellbinder's Large Deckled Rectangles and Small Petite Ovals. Martha Stewart's Lace border punch. Brown satin ribbon (5/8th inch) from Michaels and clear dew drops.

Trick or Treat

Oy Vey! I'm killing myself with this bad picture taking. I need to practice where in the house I can get good lighting and can take some good pictures. I took the pictures for the following project outside, but that's not always possible (could be raining, could be dark, could be smoggy from a fire in California, or there might be Bigfoot waiting to sell me a magazine subscription). Anyway here is what I've been working on...



This is a little treat bag for the ladies in my stamping group. I took a picture from the side so you could see the little chocolates I put inside.



And here is a stamp image that I couldn't leave out. I'm not typically one for whimsy, but sometimes one just catches my eye and I have to use it. This is one of those images.



I used a 3.5 x 8.5 inch piece of cardstock and scored it at 3.5", 4" and 7.5". I went ahead and creased all the score marks so that the paper folded into something like a small envelope with a 1/2 inch flat bottom. I then took my deckle scissors and cut the little fold of the envelope for a small decorative edge.

For the front of the card I cut a vanilla cardstock circle with my 2 inch circle punch and stamped it with "Trick or Treat". I added stickles for a bit of glow. I then cut out a 1 x 3.5 inch piece of black cardstock and punched out Martha Stewart's Graveyard Gravestone border punch. Then assembled the front as shown in the picture above.

For the back, I used Spellbinders Label Three for the die cut and stamped the cat image directly onto designer paper. I also stamped the image onto white cardstock and cut out just the toilet paper to paste over the image on the designer paper. I then embellished the back with a die cut from Sizzix Scribble Swirls and a single dew drop.

At this point I added my chocolates (in a 3 x 4 inch cellophane bag) by stapling it to the top inside back of the "envelope". I closed the envelope up and punched on either side of the exposed staple a ribbon slot with my Fiskars punch. I then added 14 inches of 1 inch black organdy ribbon. Tied it shut and voila! A cute Trick or Treat gift.

~Ingredient List~

Paper: Elegant Eggplant, black, vanilla, and white cardstock from Stampin Up. Orange designer paper from Patterns Pack II from Stampin Up.

Stamps: Ghouls & Goblins clear stamps from Inkadinkadoo

Other embellishments: Graveyard border punch from Martha Stewart, 2-inch circle punch, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label Three, Sizzix Scribble Swirls die, Crystal Stickles, 1" black organdy ribbon and a dew drop from my own stash.

Weekend

Yes, I'm still working on those crafts - just haven't had time to take some pictures.

The family had a very busy weekend. Usually we are a stay at home kind of family, but this past holiday weekend we had a lot planned. Saturday we attended the opening Air Force Falcon football game. Here are a few pics...


The Air Force usually has a fly over of some sort at every game. These are F-15's.



Here is a parachutist coming into the stadium before the game.



And here are the Air Force Falcons!! The game was a complete blowout, Air Force won 72 - 0!! Of course, it really wasn't an even match but I really didn't expect to see the Falcons score so high.

Then that evening the family went to a hot air balloon event called a "Balloon Glow". We've been here for several years but had yet to get to this annual event. It was beautiful!





Then we returned on Monday to watch a mass ascension. That was great too!





It was a very fun but exhausting weekend for us homebodies. I am hoping to have some time this weekend to actually post a project or two. Looking forward to getting them on the blog.

Crafting Time

Its amazing how I overestimate how many hours there are in a day. You would think that I would have caught on that it is always the same, never enough. I started this blog with the intent of completing at least one project a week and posting it. Ha! I've already blown that resolution. I did complete a project this weekend and I am almost hesitant to post it - because I don't like the way it came out. But I want to at least prove that I try. So here is a picture of my latest attempt at crafting...



Its small because I don't want you to look too closely at it. It is supposed to be a recipe or coupon box. I haven't decided which - because I haven't even decided if I am keeping it at all. I bought a clearance recipe box at Michaels for 47 cents. It was already covered with a cute apple picture but I thought I could do better (ha!) so I re-covered it with some K & Company paper, added some spellbinder die cuts with Stampin Up's Rustic Rooster. I also tried my hand at coloring with copic markers. That was a disaster. Either I picked the wrong colors to blend, didn't blend them properly or both! Then I added the buttons in the vain hope that it might improve. Not really. It also doesn't help that I can't tie a ribbon.

I've also discovered I'm lousy at taking close-up pics. I need to figure out how this camera works - I've only had it for a year. I also know my lighting is terrible in the house. Need to plan better and take pics outside in full sun - or something close to it.

So, I haven't completely abandoned the idea of doing a blog. I'm sure as I muddle through all this new stuff and find a way to create a few more hours in the day, I'll be just fine. Stick with me, okay?