Using sketches and scraps

I started working on some Christmas card and tag designs this weekend. (I'm really behind the curve on this.) Sketches are always a great inspiration for me. I almost always reach for a sketch when designing a card. I used this sketch from Jen at i{heart}tostamp for my cards.  One of my cards does not follow the sketch EXACTLY because I only have one embellishment/flower instead of two. But that's the beauty of a sketch- you are free to use your own interpretation. Here are my cards:

I used BasicGrey Wassail papers and some vintage digital images from VintageHolidayCrafts.

When I finished the cards, I used the scraps to make some tags.

The next time you need some inspiration, turn to a sketch and your scraps. 

15 Easy Halloween Milk Jug Craft Projects

Just came across this fun looking idea. I wanted to make luminaries for the driveway with jars but since kiddos get scared at my house, milk jugs might be safer. No broken glass.


15 Easy Halloween Milk Jug Craft Projects

Halloween table decor

My Halloween dining room table decor was inspired by this Martha Stewart idea. I bought a bag of bones from Michael's and some purple glitter but decided against the glitter once I got it home and placed the bones on my plate. One, I have a limited amount of time and two, I liked them plain. I added some bugs to my plate. It's hard to photograph a cake plate and not get a glare from the flash so bear with me, I took several pictures.

 

Here's a shot of the whole table. I picked up the mats at Tuesday Morning and the napkins from the Salvation Army Thrift Store- all four for $1!

 I wasn't sure what I was going to do about napkin rings. But then I remembered my vow to use that stash of leftover faceted beads and came up with another use for them.

All I did was cut about a six inch piece of 20 gauge wire. I made a loop at one end, strung on the beads, and finished it off with another loop at the other end. I took four of the spider rings that are going into my treat bags with the candy and cut the rings off. I hot glued them to my bead ring. Then I just wrapped it around the napkin. It's not a closed ring but it still works. I'm thinking this would be cute at Christmas too with red and green beads and maybe two rows instead of one.

That was all super quick and easy. And fairly inexpensive. Thanks for looking. I'll be linking this up to some great link parties. 



Halloween decor

I have never decorated the inside of my house for Halloween, even though we go all out for the outside. However, I've been so inspired by all of the great crafters in blogland that I've decorated my mantel and table. Most of this is with Dollar Tree decor and a few pieces we already had.

My inspiration came from HERE at Cap Creations and HERE and HERE at Mine for the Making, just to name a few. There are tons of others with great decor. Just visit some link parties and you'll see.

(Never mind that dinosaur of a tv up there. I so wish it was not there. I could really decorate a mantel if it were not. Hubby hates this whole set up too, so a total redo of the mantel is on the to do list. We have another nice TV but it doesn't fit in that hole... another story.)

Here are some close ups of the decor. I got my vases at the Salvation Army Thrift Store for $1.00 a piece, so I got two different sizes and I got the candlesticks for the vases for 50 cents each (I love it when I can beat the dollar store price!).

I filled the short vase with spiders and the bat is suspended there with glue dots.

I'll be back later to share my table decor.

I'll be linking up at Get Your Craft On and other parties listed on the side.

Spooky potted trees

I saw these trees at my local Target.  They were $40 each and I wanted two of them. I'm not about to pay that for a Halloween decoration when sticks are FREE from the yard. My hubby was on board with the project too so here is what we did.

We found two urn style pots at Big Lots- $3 each. My hubby painted them with Krylon for plastic. $5.44 per can.

We got two boxes of 100 orange lights from Target- $2.50 each (Note the expensive pots only have 50 lights.) FREE sticks from the yard, some sytrofoam discs and blocks from Dollar Tree (hubby wanted to stack them for height and depth) $2 for foam for each pot, got some rocks and moss also from Dollar Tree, $1 per bag. The hubby painted the sticks black and we assembled our own spooky trees- for approximately $15 each!  (Really less, one can of paint will do both pots.) And we had fun together doing it. 

Here's a shot of one in the daytime:

 A shot at night all lit up:

 Both pots (sort of hard to shoot around the coffin, yes that's a coffin- you can read about it here.)

I love my pots! Thanks for looking and have a great day and fun Halloween.

Linking up to Get Your Craft On with Today's Creative Blog  and

Handmade greeting card giveaway

NOW CLOSED: I tossed the names in a hat and picked one out. The winner is Jamie!

NOTE: I've bumped this up to the top until Oct. 14. If you're looking for another post, please scroll down.  Scroll down for blog candy on World Card Making Day on Oct. 2.

Hi, and welcome to my blog and my giveaway. I'm hosting a giveaway for a set of four handmade greeting cards. Two are 5.5 inches x 4.25 inches. One is top folding and the other is a regular side fold. The other two cards are square shaped. One card is a thank you card and the others are all ocassion. All are blank inside and have been created with quality acid free papers and supplies. You will receive envelopes also.

So, what do you have to do to win?  I'm trying to improve my etsy shop and increase sales. I've recently begun some activities that have increased traffic to my shop, but still no sales. I'd like to have your feedback. Please visit my shop. Then come back and leave a comment with feedback or constructive criticism. Some things I'd like to know: Are these products you would buy? Why or why not? If you buy handmade cards/tags, do you prefer single cards/tags or sets? How many cards/tags per set? Are my prices too high? or too low? (yes, I've heard prices can be too low. If you're prices are too low your products seem cheap and inferior.) Are the shipping prices too high? too low? What about the overall shop appearance? Is it appealing or is there something driving customers away?  You may also offer any other suggestions you have. Please address at least one of my concerns in your comment to be entered. Generic comments that say "Nice shop", etc. will not be counted as entries.

For an additional entry, spread the word- your blog, twitter, facebook, etc. Leave another comment with a link to where you've spread the word.

For an additional three entries, make a purchase. Please let me know in a comment what item(s) you purchased.

Purchase is not necessary to enter. You can simply leave your comment on the shop.

This giveaway will be open until Oct. 14. I'm looking forward to your comments and appreciate your participation and honesty.

There is a coffin on my porch!

LOL! It's leaning against the wall by the front door. It will get moved out into the yard later. These photos were taken a couple of years ago. My hubby loves Halloween and does some over-the-top projects and decorations. He built this coffin a couple of years ago. I can take no credit for this. He made this all by himself. I would not have had a clue where to start.

He had no pattern either. He sketched out the shape he wanted for the coffin on the shop floor and made sure it was wide enough and long enough for him to fit in. (Kids get great candy here at my house, but they get the daylights scared out of them.) He made this from 1x12 spruce boards and stained them. He used door knockers purchased from ebay that he added some paint to in order to distress and antique them. Handles from cabinets and upholstery fasteners were used on the sides for embellishment.

Oh and the inside is lined too!

No blogging or crafting

I haven't been blogging or crafting the past few days because I've been enjoying these beautiful sights. My hubby and I got married at the St. Simon's lighthouse (almost five years ago) so we visit a lighthouse every year for our anniversary. We went a little early this year because we had a day off work for Columbus day and went over the long weekend. We visited Old Bald Head lighthouse and the Oak Island lighthouse in the Cape Fear, NC area. So pretty. Lots of friendly people and good food.

Speaking of food, I wanted to share this quick pasta dish. I made this Friday night before we left for our trip. I needed something quick because I had to pack. I didn't have all the ingredients in the recipe so I modified and used what I had. I'll give you both versions.

Black bean pasta

8 oz. uncooked spiral pasta
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
garlic, 1 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 cans  tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) black beans
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Cook pasta drain. In large saucepan coated with non-stick spray, combine green pepper, onion and spices. Cook until tender. Add tomato sauce and beans, Bring to a boil, simmer 5 minutes and add pasta. Sprinkle with cheese.

My version:

I didn't have tomato sauce so I used about a half jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce. I also substituted the peppers and onions with chopped frozen seasoning blend containing onion, green and red pepper and celery. I also wanted to use up some penne so I threw that in with the rotini. That's why you are seeing two shapes of pasta.

Verve VSWCMD4

Here's another card I made with another Verve release challenge sketch. Same papers from K&Co. I sometimes use the same paper collection over and over once I have it out, especially if I like the combo I'm using.

Verve WCMD Release week challenges

Verve is having a release week and has a series of sketch challenges. I'm trying to complete them and here is my first one for sketch 1 (VSWCMD1).

Papers: K&Co; Bazzill cardstock

Stamps: Verve

Tools: Nestabilities, MS border punch

Accents: Ribbon, button, Rhinestone

CPS 187- Happy Halloween

Sharing a quick little card I made with TGF stamps using CPS 187 sketch. TGF had to challenge to make a regular stamp into a Halloween theme. I took a Dressy Anya and colored her in a Halloween theme. I put a spider button on her hat.

Tip: I don't have the web border punch, so I punched strip and cut it apart for my corners.

Paper: Making Memories, Bazzill cardstock

Stamps: TGF

Tools: Nestabilities, Martha Stewart border punch, Copics

Accents: Button

Skull goblet candy bouquet

Here's a fun gift I made for my hubby a few years ago. It's a candy bouquet arranged in a skull goblet.

I designed the wrappers with graphics from PCCrafter in a photo editing program and printed them out. I wrapped the candy, attached it to skewers, placed foam in the cup, and stuck my candy in. I also added some spiders and skeleton hands. I used black tissue paper for filler. Easy and fun!

I'm linking up at Get Your Craft on Tuesday and other parties on the side.

Linking up here too

WCMD candy winner

I'm a little late picking a winner but here's the lucky number

Here are your random numbers:




6

Timestamp: 2010-10-04 23:53:18 UTC

That's
 
sequin said...


Candy great! Thanks for the chance! I really want to win! I hope to get lucky, Link posted on the sidebar! http://fantasy-of-sequins.blogspot.com/



October 2, 2010 2:32 PM

Please email me an address so I can send your goodies! Thanks for visiting my blog.

I made some cards

I did get to make cards today on World Card Making Day. I actually started on Christmas cards!

Here are the two cards that I completed:

The first one is for a release challenge at StampTV to make a 2 3/4 x 4 1/4 card. I've never made this size but I like it. I'm thinking that it would make a cute place card for a dinner table with the right image and words. The sentiment and image are from GKD Simple Pleasures. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and OMS.

The second one is the Christmas card. It's also for a StampTV release challenge to use two sets from one set. I used two different ones from A Very Merry Christmas. I stamped the one on the background and heat embossed it using Stampendous jeweled gold. I love how it sparkles. The picture does not do it justice. Sometimes embossing doesn't turn out so well for me, but this did beautifully on the Gina K cardstock, so I embossed enough for a set of six and also embossed the tree from this stamp set six times for another set.

Happy World Card Making Day

It's World Card Making Day. I really need a holiday like this. LOL, like I really need an excuse to make a card or craft. I do need the push to start those Christmas cards. I hope to make some cards to share here with you later today, but hubby says we are painting and doing some house projects, so we'll see what happens. While you're here browse around- I do have plenty of cards posted. Maybe something will inspire you.

And... to celebrate I have a little "candy". Just leave me a comment to let me know you visited. You have until Sunday October 3 at  8:00 p.m.  Spread the word too- twitter, facebook, your blog, wherever.

I'm also giving away a set of four handmade cards. You can enter to win that HERE. (Comment on this post for the above candy only.)

Halloween candy cake

It's October 1! That means 30 days 'til Halloween! We have so much fun with Halloween here.

( Check out my handmade greeting card giveaway HERE.)

Here's a great conversation piece for your Halloween functions and parties:

I wish a I had a better picture but I made this years ago before I ever thought about blogging. Here's a quick how to:

The base is a cardboard hat box lid. Turn boxes upside down and stack them from largest to smallest, however many layers you want. This one just has two. You could paint them first I suppose it you don't want the cardboard peeking through. I'm not sure how that would affect the ability to stick the candy on. I attached the candies with double sided tape. After I had all of my candy on, I went back and attached toy eyeballs, bats, spiders, hand, etc. So much fun.



Thanks for looking. I'll be linking up to the great parties listed on the side.