Happy New Year...or is that Halloween?

Sorry for the absence. Between the holidays and the fact that my computer gave up the ghost so I was without access to any photos or software for awhile, I apologize. The family got an early Xmas present...new computer...and I'm back in business! Now that the holiday crazies are over, I promise to be a better poster :-)

This Halloween card was made for a recent pub call, but didn't get the love. I love bright colors, so I was happy with how this card turned out. The embossed cardstock is Bazzil, the paper and die cut are Doodlebug, the brad is Paper Studio and the sentiment sticker is SRM. I was at Archiver's recently and loaded up on their sentiment stickers, so you'll be seeing a lot in future posts I'm sure.

I'll also be back tomorrow with the January Creative Charms Kit and Deal of the Month. Have a great New Year's Eve and stay safe!

Halloween Gift Bags using Creative Charms October Kit

With October's Kit of the Month, I decide to create a couple mini gift bags. I think these would be perfect for holding candy! I love this time of the year - my kids only like gum and suckers so all the other goodies go to Mom and Dad.....sweet! On the first bag I used the Gem Stickers and a Halloween Twinkle Sticker. On the second bag I again reached for the Gem Stickers, because I like shiny stuff! I then used a Vintage Velvet Black Poppy (removed the pearl brad from the center to save for a future project) and used a Halloween Vintage Frame as the flower center.

Vintage Halloween features Creative Charms' newest items and some of the most popular vintage items. The Vintage Halloween Kit includes:

Halloween Vintage Frames*
Halloween Twinkle Stickers*
Amber Vintage Jewels*
Amber Vintage Brads
Black Vintage Velvet Poppies
Black Gem Stickers
Black Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon
Black Vintage Velvet Ric Rac
Yours for a special price of $ 14.99.
*New Items

Plus Creative Charms also has two new Deals this month. The first deal is Fall Harvest and features oranges and yellows that are perfect for those walks through the leaves and picking the perfect pumpkin. Plus this deal matches in color with the Vintage Halloween Kit.

The Fall Harvest Deal includes:
Yellow Itsy Glitzy
Yellow Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon
Amber Pure Blossom
Orange 3D Sparkly Brads
Amber Gem Stickers
Orange Fuzzy Daisy
Orange Braided Daisy Medley Regular Price $ 20.00 your for only $ 6.99.

The second deal is Early Christmas and features reds, greens and whites (clear). Thought it would be perfect for getting ready for Christmas or just enjoying the red & greens of fall.

The Early Christmas Deal includes:
Clear Itsy Glitzy
Red Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon
Clear Pure Blossom
Green 3D Sparkly Brads
Red Gem Stickers
Red Fuzzy Daisy
Green Braided Daisy Medley
Regular Price $ 20.00 your for only $ 6.99

Anyone who buys both the Kit and one Deal will be entered to win $25 gift certificate. If anyone buys both Deals and the kit they will be entered twice. You have until October 31st to purchase one or more of these great kits!

Holiday Hodge Podge

*This card will be featured in Scrapbook Trends Holiday issue - Fall 2010.

These were made with Basic Grey Eerie, Making Memories Spook Alley and Little Yellow Bicycle papers and Making Memories velvet stickers and embellishments all from the Spook Alley collection.

This was made with Making Memories Spook Alley flocked paper, ABC stickers and cream webbed packaging and a Basic Grey Eerie felt sticker. I love to use packaging on my projects!

This was made with Making Memories Mistloe collection. I won most of these goodies on Paper Crafts blog, sweet!

The papers are from Pink Paislee Amber Road. Mini ABC's are Jenni Bowlin and pearls are Basic Grey.

This was made with Bo Bunny papers, Queen and Company brads and Pink Paislee ABC stickers.

Here are a variety of different holiday cards I've made recently for calls. Please excuse the fact that they don't make a lot of sense since Valentine's Day is around the corner!

Quick and Easy Halloween Card

*This is my post over on the Midnight Oil Scrapbook Designs blog this month*

Every year October seems to be one of the craziest months of the year for our family. Soccer and football are wrapping up, my son turned 9 on the 19th (Happy Birthday Parker!) and there are Halloween activities galore in our town. In honor of that, I made this quick and easy Halloween card. Any busy Mom (or Dad) can easily whip this up between supper dishes and soccer practice :-)

I started with two chipboard pieces from the Perfectly Shaped Concave Build-A-Book Set. I used my Scor-It to create a crease on both pieces and added glittered brads 1/2 inch apart on the card edge to create the card base. I cut a piece of patterned Halloween paper slightly smaller than the card shape and adhered. A fuzzy Boo Halloween sticker, a bling ghost and one more glittered brad complete the card. Super easy!

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet!

Here is a Halloween card I made with the Boo To You October Mini Kit over at That Scrappy Girl. I used the Pink Paislee Twilight papers (love that these papers are a touch vintagey but still with a lot of great color), added some sparkle with the brads and I used one of my favorite go-to techniques - fussy cutting. On this card I cute the 31 from the patterned paper and added some 3D dots behind it for dimension.

Also over at That Scrappy Girl's blog there is a Technique Tuesday giveaway and the October sketch challenge where you can win some Jillibean Soup goodies. Be sure to stop by!

Some Spooky Die Cuts from The Scrappy Shack - BOO!

Here are some Halloweeny type things I made last weekend while cropping with my sisters. These all use the Halloween Die Cut Frames from The Scrappy Shack. They are available in any color! On this one I even recycled a bit. The green dotted and spiderweb papers, are actually packaging from some Making Memories sticker packages. And I'm a girl that loves my gems, so I added a few to jazz things up.

This one I may have gotten a "little" crazy with the Doodlebug glitter. I honestly am still wearing some of that glitter! As if the glitter didn't make it sparkly enough, I added some bling.

I generally don't make a lot of tags, but I thought these frames were the perfect size for that. I used Scenic Route papers and some Making Memories stickers.

GIVEAWAY! I wanted to remind everyone that The Scrappy Shack is giving away 20 die cuts at the end of September, so be sure to stop by their blog to get your name entered!

More Page Plan October Sketch Cards

Here are some more of the cards I made this month when I was a GDT for Page Plans. They have sketches for both layout and cards...so there is something for everyone! This card is 100 percent American Crafts. The paper and embellies are from their Spring and Summer line. I also used some vinyl Thickers. I can't get enough of Thickers! All of these goodies were a total and very pleasant suprise the other day in the mail. You can find the sketch here.

These two Halloween cards were made with the same sketch. The rubon sentiment and the candy sticker are from Joann's, the orange flocked frame is from Making Memories, Spooky and green paper are from Scenic Route Salem and the jewel is Darice. The creamish paper is actually the packaging from the Making Memories flocked stickers.

Paper is Reminisce, flocked Spooky sticker and ribbon are Making Memories, jewels are Darice and brad is Cloud 9.

I want to apologize for the poor lighting. Iowa weather/lighting right now stinks! It's either windy or gets dark so darn early. The back patio that I would sometimes use is now framed into a basement. So it stinks right now but in a few months I will be living large! It has been in the works to get an addition to our house. We are adding a basement and a 2nd floor above the basement. Our house is set up pretty weird...but I won't bore you with the details. We have changed our minds about a million times, what exactly to do with this new space. My dinky scraproom (maybe 80-90 sq feet) is becoming a hallway and closet, so one of the things to figure out was where will my scrap room go. Anything would be bigger than what I have now. My lack of space is really stifling my creative process lately. Too much stuff.. and no where to put it or find it! I suppose I should be nicer to the hubby as he wants me to take over our family room as our scrap room. This room is about 450 sq feet...pinch me I'm dreaming! It's also on the main level right off the kitchen so I will be able to go in there for a few minutes here or there. My daughter also loves to scrap so there will be space for her to have her own desk and I can also have friends over to crop. The computer will also be there so everything will be in one space. I guess the point of my story is that I will eventually set up a "lighting" area for pics and staging. The 2nd level of our addition will now be our new family room (around 400 sq feet) so if things get changed and I get that room instead it's still cool with me too. Of course I had to promise I would keep my new room somewhat cleaned up..... we'll see how that goes....

Check out my family blog if you are interested in seeing house progress.