Happy Halloween

I made my little guy a pigeon costume this year for Halloween! He is the pigeon from Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! It was my first sewing project and I am thrilled with the outcome. :)

Halloween

I signed up for the Halloween card challenge on the SSUS group only to realize that all of my Stampin' Up! Halloween sets are retired. Luckily for me, my partner was okay with my using contraband. So, that gave me the perfect opportunity to pull out my new Doodle Factory Halloween II stamps! I just love this line of stamps and really need to use them more.

I used a sketch from Lauren Meader this time. It's My Time's Saturday Sketch #06. I moved the scalloped edge to the right side so it could be the edge of my card, but that was the only change that I made. The card is 4.5" square.

I started by brayering a piece of glossy cardstock with the retired Pumpkin Patch spectrum pad and when that was dry, I stamped the haunted house on the background with Palette Noir ink. This gave me the railings for the house since they were too fiddly to cut out.

Then I embossed the haunted house on glossy cardstock twice and colored it in with my Stampin' Up! markers (Perfect Plum, Going Gray, Always Artichoke, So Saffron and Basic Black.) I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but I cut the house and moon out and popped them up with dimensionals. Then from the second image, I cut out the bushes and popped them up again. This gave it a pretty cool 3-d look. The ghost was also cut out, but I glued him flat on the background.

Since this is supposed to be a Wow! card, I decided it wasn't sparkly enough. So, the black layer is completely covered in Martha Stewart black glitter. It is really stunning in person. The spider web is flocked with Panda Black flock as well.

I really loved this card when it was all done. I hope my partner likes it too!

Stamps: Doodle Factory Graveyard Shift and Witch's Brew sets from Starving Artistamps
Ink: Palette Noir, VersaMark
Paper: PaperTrey white cardstock, Basic Black, Perfect Plum, Glossy White
Accessories: Black Panda Flock from Stampendous, Black glitter from Martha Stewart, Black embossing powder and Heat & Stick Powder from Stampin' Up, Dimensionals
Tools: Brayer, Heat Tool, Paper Snips, Retired large corner rounder from Stampin' Up!

Mystery Image Swap

I guess it's been more than a week, but I finally sat down to make my mystery image card. I absolutely love the Charlie and Charlotte stamps from Whiff of Joy and they just had a new release!

Anyway, I picked up this fun & festive paper a couple weeks ago at the Scrapbook Clubhouse after hitting the outlets for some warmer clothes for the baby. They are from American Crafts and were just too cool to pass up. I added a little glitz with some stickles to kick them up a notch.

Charlotte was colored with Koh-i-noor pencils and gamsol. I then added red glitter and liquid applique to her hat.

For the layout, I thought it would be fitting to use one of Katharina's sketches since Whiff of Joy is her company. I started with Sketch #28, but obviously I deviated a little. That's what happens when you try to go from memory.

I hope my partner likes it! It's been super fun to see everyone's cards. Thanks for playing along!

Stamps: Singing Charlotte from Whiff of Joy, Season of Joy from Stampin' Up!, Clear Ovals from A Muse
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: PaperTrey white cardstock, Real Red, American Crafts patterned paper
Accessories: ribbon from American Crafts, Red glitter, Ice stickles and black stickles, liquid applique
Tools: Dimensionals

My Turn!

It was my turn to host the Mystery Image Swap this month. It was much harder than I thought it would be to chose just one image from all of my fun new stamps. I finally decided to choose a Whiff of Joy stamp since I figured the other swappers might not own these yet.

To thank everyone for participating, I made these cute little 3x3 note cards with the puppy from the Charlie with Dog stamp. He's just so cute! (This is not the swap image by the way. Come back later this week for the big reveal with my sample.)

I also pulled out my new October Afternoon papers for these cards. It is just so pretty and dainty. I thought it was a nice contrast to the happy dog.

These were quick & came out really cute if I do say so myself...

Stamps: Charlie with dog from Whiff of Joy
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: PaperTrey white cardstock, Pretty in Pink, October Afternoon patterned paper
Accessories: Pink taffeta ribbon from Stampin' Up!
Tools: Dimensionals, paper snips

Mystery Image Swap

It was time for another mystery image swap. This time, we got this cute little Changito monkey from Stampendous. He is so cute and summery that I just had to pull out the DCWV summer mat pack paper that I picked u at Joann's for half off. The colors are so bright and fun that they went perfectly with this little monkey.

I colored Changito with Koh-i-noor pencils and gamsol and then highlighted the circles on his water tube with stickles. I also put a little Crystal Effects on his sunglasses to make them shine.
I don't remember where I got the flip flop ribbon from, but t was just too fun to not use.

The layout is from one of Laren Meader's Saturday sketches during July.

I love these mystery image swaps. It's so much fun to see what everyone else does.

Stamps: Changito from Stampendous, Sentiment from A Muse
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Neenah White cardstock, Basic Black, Summer Sunrise from PaperTrey Ink, DCWV Summer Glitter Stack
Accessories: Flip flop ribbon from ?, Crystal Effects, Ice Stickles
Tools: Koh-i-noor Pencils, Gamsol, Classic Rectangle Nestabilites from Spellbinders

First Doodle Factory Card

I got my blog candy from Tracy at Starving Artistamps this week and finally got everything mounted. Of course, when I sat down to make a thank you card with it, I drew a blank. So, I used a different Doodle Factory set. I'll just have to work my way up to the Great Outdoors.

I was inspired by this card from Natasha Trupp's blog. I just loved the way the cow's head peaks over the fence. Too cute! I love the polka dots too, but I didn't want to do a complete CASE. So instead, I applied a Taylored Expressions sketch instead -- sketch #24 to be exact.

That was fun and I can't wait to pull out some more Doodle Factory sets this week.

Stamps: Doodle Factory Country, Country Sentiments from Starving Artistamps
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink, Stampin' Up markers in Green Galore, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Basic Black
Paper: Papertrey Ink white cardstock for card base, Whisper White Cardstock, Basic Black, sweet Patterned paper from Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Black organdy polka dot ribbon from May Arts
Tools: Aquapainter, Stampin' Dimensionals, Classic & Scallop Rectangle and Classic & Scallop Oval Nestabilities from Spellbinders

Indulge me a little longer...

We also decided to commemorate the 6 month milestone (one month late) by getting some professional pictures taken. At 3 months, we went to Sears and I wasn't happy with the experience or the pictures. So this time, we went to Kiddie Kandids. I love the pictures that we got, the sales pitch at the end was very casual and low pressure and it was even cheaper than Sears. They gave me some referral coupons, so if you have one in your area and would like to try them out, let me know and I'll mail you a coupon.

Seven Months!

I can't believe another month has passed. My little guy turned 7 months old last Friday, so it was time to pull out another onesie and get some pictures. What a difference a month makes! Last month, he was barely able to sit up and needed one of us to help him stabilize. Not anymore!

If you'd like more information on how I made this onesie, see the six month post here.

I'm planning to stamp tonight, so check back tomorrow for some cards. :)

Greetings from Maine

Hi everyone! Our vacation in Maine is coming to an end. Unfortunately we had pretty gray and cold weather all week, but we still made it out to Acadia National Park at Schoodic Point in Maine.

It's mid-August and we've only had one day this week over 70 degrees! We actually had to go to the thrift store to get our little guy some long sleeved shirts, long pants and a jacket because we did not come prepared.

Did you see that I actually won the Great Outdoors blog candy from Starving Artistamps? I am so incredibly excited about that! All I can say is that I love Tracey's husband. ;)

It's been fun though. I leave you with a shot of our little guy in Grandpa's backyard looking out at the Atlantic Ocean.

My advice

I went to a bridal shower today where we were supposed to bring marital advice for the bride. I never know what to say with these types of things. So, my "advice" was to make this pie often. It's my favorite. ;)

I typed the recipe and printed it out on Papertrey ink white cardstock. Then I stamped this cute pie from the Baked with Love stamp set. I love the Kim Hughes Collection at Cornish Heritage Farms. I colored the peanut butter top with Koh-i-noor pencils and the silver pie plate with a Zig Painty. The chocolate chip on top was stamped in VersaMark and embossed with Chocolate scented embossing powder from Gel-a-tins.

The recipe is from my favorite cookbook, Wanda's Pie in the Sky. Unfortunately, it is out of print. If you'd like to make this heavenly chocolate peanut butter pie, I've posted the recipe below.

Stamps: Baked with Love from Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink: Palette Noir Black
Card stock: Papertrey Ink White, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Zig Painty, Chocolate Scented embossing Powder
Tools: Heat Tool, Koh-i-noor pencils, gamsol

Choclate Peanut Butter Cream Pie
from Wanda's Pie in the Sky cookbook

For the crust:
1/4 cup sugar
2 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup roasted peanuts
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

For the filling:
10 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups smooth peanut butter
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar

For the topping:
2/3 cup whipping cream
6 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 Tbsp corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For the crust: combine sugar, chocolate and peanuts in a food processor until finely chopped. Thoroughly combine the graham cracker crumbs, and sugar mixture, and butter in a bowl. Press onto bottom and sides of a 10” pie plate. Bake for 15 minutes until golden and firm. Cool.

For the filling: in a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, and butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Whip the cream and vanilla in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold the cream into the peanut butter mixture. Spread into the cooled crust. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

For the topping: Bright cream to a slow boil over low heat. Remove from heat, add the chocolate and stir until smooth. Mix in the syrup. Allow to cool until it is beginning to thicken slightly but is still smooth. Pour over the pie. Chill until serving time. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Great Outdoors Blog Candy

No, not here... Did you see the new Doodlefactory Great Outdoors set from Starving Artistamps? It is so cute. I love the little pine trees and the camper. Anyway, you can throw your hat in to win the Great Outdoors sheet and all four sentiment sets to go with it! Check it out here.

Whiff of Joy

I came across a new stamp company called Whiff of Joy. They have some really cute winter kid images coming out soon. When I found out that Katharina, the owner, was having a sketch challenge contest to find a guest designer, I just had to whip up a card!

The challenge was to make a card using this sketch. Since the new Whiff of Joy stamps are all winter related, I pulled out the Lily and snowman stamp from Pink Cat Studios.

I must be on a paper piecing kick or something because I paper pieced Lily's coat, mittens and boots and Tweet's hat from the flowered background paper and Frosty's scarf and hat band from the striped paper. Then I added Indigo flocking to Lily's fringe and ear muffs. I love how this looks in real life. Frosty is covered in ice stickles and his hat, eyes and buttons were colored in with a Black Sakura jelly roll pen. Since it was already so late, I didn't give the pen time to dry before adding the stickles and it bled a little. That was a bit of a bummer, but I don't think it is too noticeable.


Stamps: Lily and Tweet from Pink Cat Studio
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink
Paper: Night of Navy from Stampin' Up!, Natural White from Classic Crest, White Papertrey Ink, Snowflake Park Small Snowflakes and striped paper by Heidi Grace
Accessories: Indigo Flocking from Stampendous, Black Jelly Roll pen from Sakura, Ice Stickles, Navy craft seam binding from Martha Stewart
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Stampin' Dimensionals, Cuttlebug tag die

Another Bridal Shower

Now that the anniversaries have past, it's time to think about the 3 weddings we have from August 30-September 30. Another bridal shower equals another card!

For this one, I thought I would incorporate a few of the Dirty Dare challenges going on at Splitcoast Stampers this week. This card fulfills four of them! Definitely fills Lauren's challenge, Sharon's challenge and Laurie's challenge. Kind of a stretch for Christine's challenge, but I'm going with it anyway.

The layout is Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday sketch #45.

I paper pieced the bella's dress to match the background paper. I didn't have any card stock that coordinated, so I made the mat by smearing the Oasis Green ink pad on a piece of white card stock. Perfection and if I hadn't told you, you wouldn't know the difference! The vellum layer is popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals. I hid them behind the ribbon.

I think that's about it. I'm hoping to at least sneak in one more Dirty Dare card before the week is up.

Stamps: blingabella from Stamping Bella, sentiment and clear ovals from A Muse
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink, Oasis Green VersaMagic
Paper: Papertrey Ink White card stock, vellum card stock, Manhattan Cocktail Dress Patterned paper from Luxe
Accessories: Ice Stickles, White Tafetta ribbon from Stampin' Up!
Tools: Watercolor wonder crayons, Aquapainter, Paper Snips, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin' Dimensionals

Tiny Miracle

Eric's newborn cousin had surgery earlier this week to fix a violent vomiting issue. She is okay now, but her parents have been through a horrible week of uncertainty and then surgery. I can't even imagine!

I wanted to send a note to Eric's aunt to let her know that we were thinking of them. I am not great at making Thinking of You type cards and feel like I never have the right thing to say. It's even harder with a baby involved.

I decided simple is best so I chose Natasha's Fall to Layout #6. I chose a few different patterns from the Almost Amethyst prints patterned paper from Stampin' Up and added a little ice stickles to some of the blocks to keep it from being too drab. I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I added some very thin black ribbon to the bottom that I've had forever.

I'm pleased with the card. It was quick and hopefully sends the right message.

Stamps: Baby Love from Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink: Palette Noir Black
Card stock: Papertrey Ink White, Almost Amethyst Prints Patterned Paper
Accessories: Ice Stickles
Tools: 1 1/4" Square punch

Anniversaries

July is a big wedding month which means lots of anniversary cards! This week is both my parent's anniversary and Eric's parents. Since my stamping time is a little limited these days, they are both getting the same card.

When Emily had a free shipping offer at Stamping Bella a few weeks ago, I just had to place an order. These cute tiddly Inks kids were at the top of my wishlist. I used the gamsol magic technique again to color it in. I'm getting better at shading to add dimension instead of just blending all the color until it is totally flat!

The layout is from Taylored Expressions's Cupcake Challenge #25. I had to flip the layout since my main image was too tall and I forgot that it was supposed to be off-center. I'll have to try this sketch again since I think it would be cuter with more of the circles showing.

Stamps: kissieface and sentiment from Stamping Bella
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink
Paper: Papertrey Ink White card stock, Regal Rose, retired Loves Me patterned paper from Stampin' Up!
Tools: Koh-i-noor pencils, Gamsol, 1 1/4", 1" 1/4" circle punches

Announcing my not-so-newborn

I finally finished the baby's announcements. He's 6 months old, so I'm only 4 months or so late... At least they beat his first birthday invitations out the door!

Before I even got pregnant, I knew I wanted to make one of Cami's trifold cards. When I found out that I was having a boy, I picked the rocket theme and color scheme and ordered all the supplies. The plan was to have all the stamping and folding done before the baby was born so I could just slap on the picture & birth stats and be done. Funny how things don't go according to plan...

This picture was taken at 6 weeks. It's my favorite. I ordered wallet prints from Photo Express because they were the only site I could find that would cut out the prints. Since I was ordering 98 pictures, I didn't want to have to cut them all myself. I can't recommend these guys enough! They were awesome and the pictures are great quality on Kodak paper.

Okay, so on to the stamping. I stamped the rocket from A Muse on watercolor paper, colored it in with my watercolor crayons and an aquapainter and then cut it out. It is popped up with a Stampin' Dimensional. I used my plain and scalloped oval nestabilities to make the frame and punch the hole in the front of the card.

The birth stats were cut out and embossed with a rectangle nestability. I blurred out his name in the picture because we have decided not to post his name to the internet.

Just for reference, at his 6 month check-up on Friday he weighed 20 lbs 6 ounces and was 28.5 inches long! I can't believe he was ever that small.

Last weekend at the Rubber Stamp Expo, I found this cute set from Inkadinkado with the perfect stamp for the left side of the card. It was really lucky because I had no idea what I was going to put there. I think the Hi! I'm New Here. sentiment was just too perfect!

Here's a shot of the announcement fully opened. I love the way these came out, but I definitely underestimated the amount of work they would be. In the end, I made 91 announcements. If you look at how many stars are on these invitations, I hope I am forgiven for procrastinating so much! I totally should have ordered a stars wheel instead. ;)

Stamps: Starstruck from Stampin' Up!, Rocket from A Muse, Little Tyke from Inkadinkado
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink, Soft Sky
Paper: Whisper white card stock, watercolor paper, Soft Sky, Taken with Teal
Accessories: Lavendar grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Plain and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Rectangle Nestabilities, watercolor crayons, Aquapainter, paper snips, Scor-It, Basic Gray Notch Tool

Six months

Last week, I mentioned that I made a gift for my husband's new cousin. I also made these for my little guy.

About a month ago, I stumbled upon this etsy shop and fell in love with their grow baby grow onesies. The idea is to take the baby's picture every month on their birthday and then after a year, you can see how much they have grown and changed. Brilliant! The only problem I had with this product is that they use Gerber onesies and chose the size for each month based on the manufacturer's sizing guidelines. Gerber onesies run small to begin with and my guy just switched into size 12 month clothes from Carter's (even though he is only 6 months old)! Gerber onesies also stretch out of shape pretty easily. They are made out of an underwear-type material.

So, I decided to make my own using Carter's onesies and Avery ink jet iron-ons. They are my favorite brand. :) I just got Photoshop Elements for my computer and thought this would be the perfect project to get started with. Plus, this way I could control the sizing of the onesies. I made 1-6 month onesies for the new baby and a 6 month onesie for my little guy. I'm planning to make the rest of his as he grows and I'll make the 7-12 month size for my husband's cousin when we see how big she is at 6 months.

By the way, this is a blatant CASE of the etsy onesies. When I stumbled upon the free Fortuna Dot font, I decided to just copy the design exactly. Once I get more comfortable with Photoshop, I'll try designing my own graphics.

Billy's Room

Melissa over at Pink Cat Studios ran a contest to be a guest designer for a new accessories set for Dress Up Billy & Dress Up Lily. I absolutely love these stamps and knew I had to at least try. ;)

The challenge was to create Billy or Lily's room. I had planned to do both, but time escaped me so I only have Billy's room to show you. I had so much fun making this though that I might still do Lily's room when I get a chance.

To me, Billy is all boy. After just getting home from a baseball game, he tossed his gear on the floor and is ready to start playing with something else. ;)

When I decided to take on the challenge, I figure it would be a great opportunity to try out a room card. Melissa Baldwin has a great tutorial here. I used some really old chatterbox paper as wall paper and cut the rug out of coordinating paper with a petite scalloped circle Nestabilities from Spellbinders. The molding on the wall is just a strip of Suede Brown Dark Prism card stock that I scored to give it a little shape.

For Billy's bed, I wanted to give him a cute dinosaur sheet ensemble. I used a corner rounder on one end to make it look less boxy and the key tag punch from Stampin' Up! to make his pillow. I just punched it twice to make it a little bit shorter. To hide all of the toys that Billy shoves under his bed, I added a bed skirt. To do this, I put down some Sticky Strip (red lined tape) on the back of the mattress piece. Then I applied some wide grosgrain -- making sure to ruffle it as I went along. I love how it came out.


Please excuse my horrible handwriting on Billy's toy box & name frame. I didn't have any PCS alphabet stamps, so I had to make due. ;)

The toy box was based on a technique that Mary O'Neill did on the Carol Duvall show several years ago. It took a little digging on the HGTV website to find the exact episode, but I did it! I love how the toys are layered to add a little dimension there as well.

I colored in the crown with my Krylon pen from Stampin' Up! to add some bling. I forgot how much I hate the smell of that!

Anyway, I had so much fun making Billy's room. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Stamps: Dress Up Billy, Dress Up Lily, Billy Plate 1 from Pink Cat Studio
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink, Old Olive
Paper: Papertrey white card stock, Dark Suede Brown Prism card stock, Creamy Caramel from Stampin' Up!, patterned paper from Chatterbox, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals, Sticky Strip, Wide grosgrain ribbon from some packaging
Tools: Petite Circle Nestabilities, Koh-i-noor pencils, Gamsol, Krylon pen, paper snips, Scor-It, Key Tag punch

Rubber Stamp Expo

Thanks to Tracy at Staving Artistamps, I found out that the Rubber Stamp & Scrapbook Expo was coming to Hartford last weekend! After checking with my local stamping friends, I found out that my friend Pat was demonstrating on Sunday, so that was the day that the baby and I headed up.

Being the geek that I am, I decided to stamp a onesie for the baby so he would look even cuter than normal. I chose Drake the dragon from the Doodle Factory Fairytale set because I think he is just too cute! I colored him in with metallic soft paints from Tulip. Isn't the sparkle awesome?
The convention itself was a lot of fun. In addition to seeing Pat, Ms. Technique Junkie, I ran into Barb & another Pat who were both in my sideline when I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. That was a nice surprise because I haven't seen them since I was pregnant.

I did pretty well spending-wise. I had to pick up the two Tropics sentiment sets from starving artiststamps and I also got a cute clear baby set from Inkadinkado. Hopefully I'll have a finished project to show you with those early next week.

My little guy was a real trooper throughout the show considering he missed his morning nap. By the time we left, he was ready to fall fast asleep.

Stamps: Fairytale Doodle Factory from Starving Artistamps
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Tulip soft fabric paints