no tricks, just treats!

Here are the treats shown in the last post. Anyone who knows me or has been to one of my stamping workshops knows that I love to make treat bags, boxes, containers, you name it! It's one of my favorite things to do, especially around Halloween and Christmas!

Most everything was made with the Witch's Brew paper line. This candy pail was made out of a Prima container.

I've also seen that you can buy these brand new. Although I think the only place I've seen them is at Archivers. And since the nearest one is over 100 miles from me, Prima containers will work just fine! My friend Tami also made a really cute one that you can check out here. I also decorated some Hershey nuggets :)

These cute little treat purses hold a mini Hershey bar that slides out the side! The stamp is from the Stampin' Up! retired "Web Wishes" set. Isn't that spider so cute?! I love her eyelashes. Every pretty spider should have them you know!







These little treat holders also hold a mini Hershey bar. It's hard to tell from the photo, but there's a little opening on the inside for the candy bar to slide into and velcro holds it closed.

Well, now that my scrap room looks like a tornado ran through I'm sure I will spend a good part of tomorrow cleaning it!

But first, a little veg time in front of the tv :)

Reminisce

I've been working feverishly to finish these projects. Reminisce is doing another design team member search. So I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring. Not because I think I'm all that and a side of fries (well, maybe I am...I do have 20 lbs to lose!). Anyway, I'm entering knowing that the chances of me winning or even being runner up are slim to none. I mean, have you seen some of the talent out there? But I think it's fun to do it anyway. It gives me an excuse (like I need one!) to get some projects done, use up some of my stash of papers that I've been hoarding (yes, I'm a paper hoarder but I'm working on it! lol) and who knows....maybe, just maybe, someone will like what I've come up with! (And how cool would that be??!!) Hey, you can't win if you don't try, right?

So here goes. Here are some layouts that I've been working on. It feels really good to get some of these photos scrapped, let me tell ya!

This layout is actually 8 1/2 x 12. The reason for this is that I don't have any 8 1/2 x 11 albums or page protectors. I didn't need to make this page a 12x12 size, I wanted it smaller. So I took a 12x12 page protector, cut it down and sewed it down the side to make my own! Then on the back side I slipped in the kids' "maps" from our nature walk :) (BTW, the little "dots" next to the deer are footprints. I know, they look like something else!)


The tags tucked behind each photo hold all of the journaling. I didn't feel I needed to make this into a 2pg spread (trying to conserve room in my scrapbooks as I scrap a lot of pages each year!) So each journaling tag highlights notes and thoughts pertaining to each photo :)

This 2pg layout inspired by one of Becky Higgins' sketches was actually one I did at Camp Crop-A-Lot back in June.

I love shaped papers like this snowflake one from last year! The great thing about papers like these? You don't have to do much with them. I think if you do too much, then it takes away from the great design of the paper.

I love the cute little Making Memories snowflake charm :)

And here are some cute little cards I came up with. In case you don't figure it out, I have an addiction to Martha Stewart's punches! I especially like to use the border punches with my cards. They're just so pretty!!

I made a couple versions of essentially the same card. With this one I used the "So Kind" sentiment and swirls from the Stampin' Up! Priceless stamp set. BTW, the papers for these cards are from that cute Easter line with the shimmer papers...remember the ones?? The ones with the cute chicks and bunnies on them? I just used the reverse side for these cards...but I saved some chick paper for my Easter layout :)


In this one I opted to keep it even more simple and just stamp the swirls with the cute butterflies. Love those butterflies! I added Stickles to them and the swirls. Personally, I actually like more simplistic cards so this is one of my favorites.
Here's one more version using some lace cardstock from KI Memories in the background.

Here's a simple fall card. I like to make a lot of my cards without a greeting so they're multi-purpose!
One of my favorite things to do is to use photos on the front of cards. How fun would it be to get this one in the mail? I used a glue pad on the edges of the photo to add the glitter. But be sure to let it dry a bit before messing with it. Don't be impatient like I am or you'll smear your glitter!

It's also fun to use photos on the front of Christmas cards. If you're going to send a photo in the card anyway, why not put it on the front? (BTW, my friend Tami did ribbon like this card on one of her Halloween cards and I just loved it ~ so I had to do it, too!)

And here's some treats just in time for Halloween :) I'll post photos of the individual items in a separate post. I think this post is getting pretty long already!!

And now that I've used up my stash of Reminisce from last year it's time to buy some of their new lines ;-)

wildlife

I don't care how long I live here, I will never get tired of seeing this in my yard

I live on 3 1/2 acres and most of my neighbors in my cul-de-sac have lots that are around the same size or larger. That's what drew us to this house in the first place. When I look out my front window, I don't immediately see houses. When I'm in my backyard, I don't see any. It's so nice. Not that I'm anti-social. But there's something very calming about sitting in your backyard and staring at nature.

This morning as I was sitting in my scrap room this cute little young buck decided he wanted to eat the fallen bird seed from my bird feeder. And when he was done, he simply trotted off into the woods. I had to take photos through my blinds so excuse the white stuff at the bottom of the photos! I did not have to use the zoom on my camera. He was only about 20 ft from my front door. So neat! I will never get tired of seeing my deer friends. And it's not like I've never seen wildlife before. I grew up in Michigan, where the guys can't wait til November when hunting season starts.

But I have to resist the urge to leave out food for these deer. Because we are surrounded by woods and there are people around here that go hunting on their property. I'm not against hunting but I don't want to encourage these deer to be friendly to people. But it's so hard!!

I have a bunch of projects to share later, so til then...

time to myself

Today I went to the movies to see this

I went by myself

and it was nice

Time by myself to enjoy a movie, take a much needed break from reality. 2 1/2 hrs was not long enough.

If you like high action movies then you'll like this one.

Not feeling too creative this weekend. I'm hoping to get my mojo back this week. Til then...

no wonder!

I've only lost 4 pounds! I've been using my scale totally wrong!!!

the cutest scrapbook store ever

Today I went with my friend Carol to a new scrapbook store ~ Sweet Memories Scrapbooks (click on their name to go to their website). They just opened in August and I have to say this was the cutest scrapbook store I'd ever been in! Picture this ~ hot pink walls, black trim and accents, a black chandelier (yes, a chandelier in a scrapbook store!), cute little knick knacks all over the store, and the 2 nicest store owners that you could ask for!

It didn't matter that this store was not the size of Hobby Lobby because after 2 1/2 hours we were not ready to leave! We found so many new and unique scrapbook goodies that all you could hear from the 2 of us was "Oooh!!! Look at this!!", "Oooh!!! Did you see this??!!" I loved everything about this store. I tell ya, if I had a store of my own this would be how I would do it.

It was fun. We'll have to do it again! Thanks for that great idea to go Carol :)

quick layout

I've been wanting to do this layout for weeks, ever since I saw one on Layle Koncar's blog (at the top of her blog). So this is my take on it.

I love taking pictures of the kids under the tree at Christmas time. It's kinda like tradition...like taking pictures of them in their Xmas pj's, Santa pics, etc....

And check out the little birdies at my bird feeder. I put this out on Saturday and all the neighborhood birds have finally found it. It's a little blurry cause it was taken through the window (a window that is filled with doggy nose prints!). I put the feeders out in front so I could see them from my scrap room window.

That's all for today. I'm working on a few other projects that I'll post this weekend. Right now I need to take some more Ibuprofen cause these sinus headaches are kicking my butt!!

Halloween layouts ~ fall challenge

I created a couple more layouts for the CCPS Fall Challenge that will be listed on ebay tonight.

I bought the Debbie Mumm paper pad about a week ago and just now got a chance to crack it open. These papers are soooo cute!!! I may have to buy another pack for myself. There's fall, Halloween and Christmas in the pack and most of them are glittered and embossed. I can't wait to create some Christmas pages with this paper. I also bought a few new Sizzix dies which is how I made the ghosts and Halloween candy. To check out all of the Croppin' Chics fall creations, click here.

Fall Challenge

It's time for the Croppin' Chics' fall challenge! Click here to see all of our creations!!! The challenge runs all week. There are some super cute ones, too :)

Pumpkin Poop!

I made these bags of "pumpkin poop" for my son's fall party at his preschool tomorrow. Aren't they cute?!! I found the idea (thanks to Tami!) from some creative stampers on splitcoaststampers.

Here's the poem in case you want to make some of your own :)

I started to carve a pumpkin
With my carving knife and scoop
But the pumpkin got so scared
He took a little poop!

It looked so cute and funny
Just like a yummy treat
So I'm sharing it with you now
Because you are so sweet!

You can also use candy corn as the "poop" but I love the idea of using Cheetos! As a side note ~ a big bag of Cheetos (the puffy kind) will make about 20 treat bags (using the medium cello bags). If you use candy corn, you can change the poem from "yummy treat" to "sweet treat".

so many ideas!!!

...just running around in my head!!! Don't you hate when you have a million ideas for projects running around in your head and it seems like there's not enough time in the day to do them all?!! That's how I'm feeling right now. If you joined my stamp club, I'll be sharing some of those fun ideas with you over the next couple months :) Til then they'll have to stay a secret!!

I have boxes and bags of goodies to go through from Stampin' Up!, Studio Calico, my bag of stuff from the new Joann's that just opened in town... I'm hoping to get the creative juices flowing this weekend. Til then, I'm gonna go color with the kiddos!!

On a more serious note, I recently learned of a fellow scrapper that passed away last week. You can go read about what happened on her blog. I did not know her, had not read her blog until someone posted about her accident. It reminds us all about the reason we scrapbook. It's not about getting the right paper, the perfect embellishments, the perfect photos or how many magazines we've been published in. It's about the story we're telling, and living those stories. Not just scrapbooking them. When something tragic like this happens, it's a wake-up call for the rest of us. Make sure you hear it. I did.

working on...

Ok, I have to say that my Internet and blogger are driving me crazy this morning!!! Ugh!!!

Anyway, I've said it before but I am SO ready for fall. I'm ready for the cool weather, for the leaves to change, picking pumpkins, making Halloween treats. I'm ready for all of it. And with the weather being much cooler in the mornings lately I'm even more ready for it!

This is what I'm working on right now...


The Croppin' Chics are having a fall challenge next week. And I thought I'd do something a little different so I came up with these little bears. I've done the tear bears before (the ones with the mulberry paper) but honestly I just do not have the patience for those....tracing the pattern, wetting the paper, pulling them apart, waiting for them to dry, attaching them. Ugh, not for me! I get frustrated when it takes me more than a day to finish something! These bears took me a few days cause I had to find just the right size for the head and paws. A lot of trial and error. Thank goodness for my Silhouette!! Now that I have the right size I have it saved on my computer so I can just open it back up and cut more when I need to.

I'm also working on some Christmas cards for these special people:

Oh, and here's something that's fun. Yeah, this one was no surprise to me. Is there any other flavor than chocolate???

You Are A Chocolate Ice Cream Girl

Dramatic. Powerful. Flirty.

What Flavor Ice Cream Girl Are You?

So excited!!!

I just signed up for this:

Join us at Wrapper's Delight for a weekend long crafting time, fabulous classes, make and takes, prizes, and much more! Visit http://scrapetcevents.blogspot.com/ for more information!

I've been saving up my pennies (literally) to go to this. How fun will it be to have a holiday crop a month before Christmas??? And it sounds like there's going to be some fun goodies to go along with it so I can't wait!!!!

Hey, and if you sign up, tell them I referred you and you will get a $10 gift card. Even better!!!

Homeschool vs Traditional Schools

I've been wrangling with this issue/idea since school started a month ago. First off I will say that I never thought I'd even consider homeschooling. Like most people say, I used to think that homeschooled kids weren't socialized and then would be thrown into the "real" world as adults and not know what to do. However, in researching this a bit more over the past week and in talking to people that homeschool, this just isn't the case (for the most part). Now, there are kids that are homeschooled that are at home every day all day and don't get out. I'm not talking about that kind of homeschooling. I'm talking about the kind of homeschooling where you are part of group, where you have learning activities outside the home, where kids get together and socialize and use problem solving skills.

The reason this has come up is that I am just not happy with the public school system. And neither is my daughter. I will add that I live in a good school district so that is not the issue. I will also add that private school is not an option because of 1) the cost is just too high (I can't afford a second mortgage), 2) the curriculum isn't much different and 3) it still has the same issues that I have with our school.

My issues? Well, for one, the curriculum is just crazy. Do you know that my child only gets recess on an average twice a week? She's 6. And it won't get any better as she gets older. That is absolutely ludicrous. Children need down time, time to socialize, time away from their classroom. But they have SO many things they need to learn that there's no free time on a daily basis.

Another issue, I do not like how some of the teacher act and talk to kids. And parents and other teachers, for the most part, seem to tolerate it.

Third, the whole peer pressure thing. I will tell you that I have a pretty strong 6 year old who does not succumb to peer pressure very easily. This is a good thing and I would like her to stay that way. I worry that it won't stay that way as she gets older. I won't go into details about some of the things she's already heard but let's just say I don't like it. I have other issues that I won't go into but I'm really at a loss as to what to do that is best for my kids.

My daughter is a very fun loving, happy, social child. When she goes to school? She spends the first 3-4 months down, easily upset, exhausted. She's not that super happy child that I normally see. I thought last year it was just because she was adjusting to a new school but it has started again this year. Although not as bad as last year, she still doesn't seem happy. I'm not saying that school should be easy, but at 6 years old your child shouldn't already be telling you that they don't like school because "we never do anything fun, all we do is work, work, work". That's sad. Is this what they had in mind when they came up with the whole "no child left behind" theory?

These are some of the pros and cons to homeschooling as I see them:

Pros:
I am in control of my child's education, therefore less stress for my child (I can probably teach my child what she needs to know in 1/2 the time of her teacher because I'm only teaching one child, not 20)
More opportunities for "out of the box" kind of learning ~ museums, discovery centers, etc
Less peer pressure for my children ~ more dependence on family and family values (which to me is a good thing)
Better treatment for my child from those who do not have my child's best interests at heart

Cons
No time for myself (I know, this is a selfish one, but it's still a con)
Will my child getting bored by having the same teacher, i.e. mom, year after year? Probably not but it's still a concern
Won't be able to participate in the traditional "school" things like first day of school, school activities, etc.
If this doesn't work, will the school system give her a hard time getting back into the system?

I would love to hear what anyone else out there in blogland thinks about homeschooling. I'm not talking about "kids who homeschool aren't socialized" because I know kids that homeschool and you wouldn't know any different (other than they actually seem more adjusted) I just don't think that theory is true. But I would love to hear from some of you homeschool moms and how it works out for you.

Bella Rose

I am having so much fun with the new SU! designer series papers. The book just does not do them justice which is why I like to have at least some of them on hand when I have a workshop or open house. After seeing some other stampers' projects with the Bella Rose papers I decided that I had to have some, too! The colors are so pretty with the new In Color cardstock Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red (don't ya just love those names!) Anyway, here's a few samples I made for my open house the other day.

First, a few cards...
This one has the new ribbon that will be featured in the upcoming holiday mini catalog that starts October 1st

I made this card using the new Top Note Sizzix Die by folding the cardstock, then putting it through the machine. Got this idea from a fellow blogger!

And here's a post-it note holder I came up with.
I saw this one and decided to come up with my own
(although I really liked the Halloween one...guess I'm
gonna have to come up with that next!)

And finally, little treat bags. The tops were made with the Top Note and Scallop Circle Sizzix Dies. Super easy and supe cute :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Directions for post-it note holder:
Cut cardstock 3 1/2" x 7 1/2"
Score on the long side at 3 1/2" and 4"
Attach post-it note holder on the inside
Note ~ I attached ribbon underneath front papers and also around the back (so that when you open the ribbon it doesn't fall all over)

open house, Halloween goodies

My open house yesterday was so much fun!! Everyone got to make cards with the new Bella Rose papers and a cute decorated pixie stick! I always have so much fun sharing what I love with others. And what's even more fun is when I see others enjoying it as much as I do!! Here's a few pics of the Halloween goodies I shared with everyone using the new Batty for You stamp set.

These are the little candy jars I shared in a earlier post

Decorated Pixie Sticks

Treat Bags (I found these in the clearance bin at Michaels for just .01 each!)

Treat bags using the Ghostly Greetings Designer Series paper
and the new Top Note Sizzix Die

Hershey Bar candy wrappersAnd let's not forget some yummy treats like pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and Pretzel Hugs

Thanks to Becky Higgins for those yummy recipes! You can find them here.

Some of the gals expressed interest in having a stamp club so I'll be sending out an email to you guys with the details!