Happy Halloween 2011!

Happy Halloween! Such a fun holiday, I always LOVE it!! :) Here's a little crafty goodie I gave to the boys this morning (because, you know, just what they need, MORE candy! haha!) I had actually seen these darling test tubes on Niki Estes' blog, too cute! So, I ended up ordering several different sizes of test tubes from PTI, so I could experiment with them! These large squared off ones fit those cute mellowcreme pumpkins perfectly, and those are my kids' faves. :) I used the Halloween set I bought from SU! last year and some DP scraps to make the tags. Also, I used some funny spooky eyes stickers on the top of the tubes. Here's a few more pics:

Having a bit of trouble arranging the text on this post, so I'll put my supply list and sign-off here. Have a spectacularly SPOOKY Halloween! :) -Noelle

supply list: test tubes: Papertrey Ink; stamps: Stampin' Up!; bakers twine: Jillibean Soup; eye stickers: Jolee's; markers: Copic; white eyelets; punches: EK Success

DUST IT OFF!: The patterned papers are scraps from my bin, and the stamps are last year's cuties, LOVE these! :)

Now here's some more cute costume and pumpkin pics of the boys! :)

Ev's costume is Leo from the Little Einsteins,
I made him this card last year and never gave it to him,
so he got it this morning! 

Collin is a knight. He got this card that I made recently.

Ian is a military guy.
He got one of these cards,
I used this card as a design for a Stamp Club project last Fall.

Boys with their jack-o-lanterns! :)

Wii Birthday Party invitations & kid thank you notes

Hi there! I've been as busy as a bee in my little office these last couple days. My boys' birthdays all fall in a 7 week period, so, particularly years like this one where they all want their own parties, autumn is the season of birthdays around here! These are the invitations for our last birthday party this year! Whew! Collin wanted a "Wii" themed party. I was unable to find Wii themed plates, etc, so I went with Wii Mario Kart. I think I'll make cupcake pics with this stamp, too. It's PERFECT for him, called Game On over at Papertrey Ink. So, I actually made the sample card of these first, and then made the Critter Christmas Cards the other day with essentially the same layout. These papers are actually sports themed, but not overtly so, and I loved the colors and the patterns, I knew Collin would, too! I thought the banner printed DP looked VERY "birthday!" Now just gotta get these guys in the mail, here's the inside for ya.....

Kept them simple and printed in color because my black ink cartridge is empty! Hahaha, sometimes it's NOT a design choice, but a practicality issue instead! ;)

Next up, I hadn't finished the Thank You notes for Ian's birthday party a couple weeks back, you may remember his birthday card and his skater birthday party invitations. I needed some simple, FAST, cute, boyish thank you notes that utilized supplies I already had. Here's what I came up with:

I thought this paper from my stash had a "grungy" feel that kind of went along with the skater theme in a subtle way. I let the DP do the "heavy lifting" on these cards. I used those Dude stamps from Verve again for these, along with an old SU! hostess set for the "rock star" stamp. Now all I gotta do is get my kid to actually WRITE his thank you notes! Wish me luck! ;)

Well, that is it for me today, I'll be back tomorrow to show you a sweet Halloween treat! See you then!

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: patterned papers: Bella Blvd. & Fancy Pants Designs; stamps: Verve, Stampin' Up!, Cat's Pajamas, and Papertrey Ink; punches: EK Success; black buttons: BasicGrey; dye inkpads & solid cardstock: Stampin' Up!

DUST IT OFF!: That paper on the thank you notes is really REALLY old, I just never had the "right" project for it, I think this one fit the bill! :) 

Halloween Fun!

Well, hello there! Happy "Halloween Eve!" Hope you all are doing well, we've been up to the usual pre-Halloween activities... Halloween parties, pumpkin carving, and a few crafty things as well. These are the pics of the boys before the Halloween Party at church the other night. Collin is a knight, Ian is a "Combat Commando" (essentially a soldier in camouflage..), Evan is Leo from "Little Einsteins. I think Ev's costume is one of my favorite the boys have ever had. Right up there with this one (LITTLE) Collin wore in 2005...

Do you recognize him? He's the Lollipop Munchkin from "The Wizard of Oz!" :) Look at how little he was!! :( He was just about to turn 3 in this pic **sob** 

Anyway, my 2 FAVE costumes the boys have ever worn, right there! Here's another pic from the other night, an action shot! So, I'm not just going to go on and on about how cute I think my boys are.... I actually DO have a crafty project to show you, too! :) Every year we have loads of "regular" trick-or-treaters, and then we have our "special" trick-or treaters, our friends who live nearby that either walk or drive over to say hi and show us their costumes. This year, I wanted to make a little special something for our friends. The "regular" trick-or-treaters, just get boring old candy, but I made these goodie bags for our friends :)

I took some old scrapbook inserts, you know those papers that come inside the page protectors? yeah, I never scrap with them, usually they are kind of flimsy, but they can be perfect for a project like this. I always assume stuff like this will likely get thrown out anyway, so I like to make them cute, but not spend loads of time or money on them. I stamped some stamps from a REALLY old Autumn Leaves set. felt good to ink those up! I colored with Copics and added a little Stickles, and there you have a treat bag topper. Or twelve treat bag toppers! 

I had some bat rings and fruit snacks leftover from the bags we made for Ev's Fall Party, I added a couple chocolates to each one, I think they turned out cute, I hope the kids like them! :) Just a simple little goodie, but still fun :) 

Well, that's it for me, I have another fun post for you tomorrow, have a great one! :)

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: stamps: Autumn Leaves, Stickles, Copic markers

DUST IT OFF!: Use those old scrapbook inserts to make some treat bag toppers, and while you're at it, pull out some OLD stamps to use on them! :)

Creature Comforts (JB44)

Hi all! What a week! We've had some sort of meeting or event every night his week, not to mention all the regular sports, homework, etc. And my dear friend was visiting me from CA, and it snowed, it snowed ALOT, actually! :) But with all that's been going on, I never had time to sit down and craft anything! Today, I probably should have been cleaning, doing laundry, etc. But, I just had to sit down and create. My mood was crying out for some creative time :)

These 2 cards are for the Not a creature was stirring challenge at Jingle Belles this week! I had been dying to ink up these new stamps Owl and the penguins which I can no longer find on the site. I punched 2 large circles and stamped my images. I focused the Copic colors for coloring around the DP's I was using. To the penguins, I sketched in an ice floe for them to sit on and coated it in Crystal Effects to make it shiny. The owl got some pearl "ornaments on his pinecone Christmas tree and I added Stickles to both images.

I actually had the dotted panel on this card at a wider width like the one on the owl card. But then once I got all my papers cut, I decided that I wanted the decorative corner with the snowflake to show more than it was with the panel wider, so I cut that one down a bit. It was still wide enough to stamp my sentiment down, so I think it worked out ok. :)

You can see the Stickles closer here but it's a bit harder to see the glaze on the "ice."

I loved this little guy from the moment I saw him. I love that he made himself a little tree out of a pinecone. I wanted to emphasize the "decoration" aspect of the stamp with some ornament printed paper and by adding a few ornaments to his "tree." Oh, and if you don't live in CO, you might not realize that's a blue spruce tree he's perched on... they are exactly that shade of bluish green. ;)

You can see the Stickles and pearls better in this shot.

Well, that's it for me tonight! heading out to a Halloween party at the church in a little while, the kids can't wait! :) Have a stellar weekend! :)

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: stamps: Inkadinkado; patterned papers: Crate Paper and BoBunny; punches: EK Success; markers: Copic; Stickles; inkpads: Memento

Carving Time layout (CQC108)

Hi all! Time for another "Halloween-y" color combo at colourQ! Sorry, I just HAD to use my made-up word one more time! :) And actually, you don't have to go Halloween with these colors at all, last week, several people did NOT go that route, and there were some GORGEOUS non-Halloween projects up! Woot woot! 

Here's my layout: 

I'll admit, I am not real thrilled with these pics, the colors became off because of the glitter on some of the accents (like the letters). I've got some more better "detail" shots below, also not lovin' the weird light filtering across the pics, I swear, they are not like that in person! I DID go "Halloween-y" ;) because I just CAN'T NOT do holiday stuff if there's the opportunity? Yeah, I'm kind weird that way... blame it on my Christmas birthday! I do! ;) 

You can see here how I arranged the photos...
The pic of each boy above, and their jack-o-lantern right below them.
I added names to the pumpkin pics.
I essentially arranged the page in 3 strips/sections, one per boy.

So my VERY Halloween page, I was desperately TRYING not to do my typical "border strips" pages. My go-to layouts are always, border strips either along the top or the sides, usually title on the strips, and then mat and arrange pictures in a boring fashion & add coordinating stickers. And, if I want to get ALOT of scrapping done in a hurry, it pays to stick with that, because I can do those border strip pages with my eyes closed! BUT, if I am trying to actually create a DYNAMIC layout? Well, then, I either need a sketch or to think outside the little box/rut my brain gets into! 

So, ok, sorry for rambling... I matted the orange (peach) paper with a black piece. I found some yellow in my stash that was almost an exact match for the daffodil color, but it was shimmery! oh yeah! Cut two 5" wide strips and laid them down about 2/3 of the way down the page (rule of thirds, look it up if you don't know what I'm yammering about, good design principle!) This is another thing where the pics are a bit weird, the yellows have far more contrast than shown, but the shimmer reflected the light more, and in some pics it appears to be the same shade of yellow. 

You can see the contrast between the 2 yellows much better in this pic.

I distressed all the outside edges with one of those edge distresser thingys. So, I decided to use the yellow strip as the place where the pictures would all "land." I ended up covering more of the page (and almost ALL of the yellow strips!) with this plan, but I really like this. I got ELEVEN (count 'em!) pics on this two page spread (SWEET!) and still had room for a journaling block? Yep, I'll be doing this technique again! Maybe it will get me out of my border page rut :) 

You can see in this pic better that the letters do match the paper!

The title was made with some glittery letters I had in my stash in the perfect shade! Most of the "decoration" on the page came in around the title with those glittery chipboard pieces. The photos are matted in the Saffron shade. At the end I decided to add the banner with the "lanternmania" sentiment to bring in a bit more of the Daffodil color that I had (almost completely!) covered with my pics. Threw in a few dimensional and pillow stickers to complement the page. I bought some of these Storybox kits from Creative Memories recently, and I've been using a TON of them on my Disney layouts (pics to come soon!) It's a journaling box, it's also a photo mat, LOVE that! And, generally, I really NEED lined paper if I'm doing hand journaling. So, I love these & that's what I used here. Added the boys' names to the first page, since I arranged the pics of their pumpkins right under their respective pictures. And that's it! Hope you like it & I hope you'll join us at colourQ this week! :) 

Have a stellar day! 

xoxo, Noelle

Journaling paper with lines.

supply list: peach, saffron, and black cardstock: SU!; shimmery yellow "daffodil" cardstock: Bazzill; glittery chipboard shapes: Martha Stewart Crafts; letter stickers & pillow stickers: K&Company; dimensional stickers: Jolee's; glittery orange letters: Colorbok; journaling box: Creative Memories; black pen: Zig

"Lanternmania" banner in the daffodil color.

MY Jingle Belles prompt! "Snow SOFTLY Falling"

Hi there! I am SUPER excited to be the "guest star" over at Jingle Belles this week! I gave Lauren and Stef the idea for a prompt & they liked it, so I get to be this week's guest star. :) I hope you might make time to come and play my prompt? Oh pretty please?? 

If you read this blog often, you know that lately, my projects have centered around the design work I do for colourQ and those "have-to" projects: scrapbook pages I NEED to get done, birthday cards for my loved ones, etc. But when I do find time to play another challenge? Well, Jingle Belles is almost ALWAYS my "go-to" challenge! I love to make holiday cards! And I LOVE the fun, positive atmosphere on that blog. Lauren and Stef are both HUGELY talented, experienced designers, as well as being so nice. :) 

So, my prompt is "snow SOFTLY falling." When I think of winter, I think of: softly falling snow, snuggly sweaters and socks, mittens, down parkas, warm, soft cookies & coziness in general. So, that was my jumping off point for this idea of making a SOFT Christmas card/project. I recently learned how to do wool felting & I knew that was something I wanted to incorporate, as well as flocking, ribbon, & stitching. But, some other ideas of SOFT items you could use on your projects this week are: batting, velvet, fibers, denim, thick layers of embossing powder, soft silk flowers and snowflakes, pillow stickers & upholstered brads!  Really, anything your brain can come up with that is SOFT, it doesn’t have to be only papercrafting products that you use, either! :) I encourage you to pull out those quilting, knitting, sewing, & flocking skills!

This project started out with the felt snowflake medallions that you see on the giftcard holder and on the card. I die cut the green scalloped circles from a wool felt sheet. Wool felt is different than craft felt, it is MUCH thicker and if you want to do needle felting, you really need the sturdiness and wooliness of the wool felt. The snowflakes were felted on freeform using wool roving. Felting is very simple & I have really enjoyed adding this technique to my crafting skills. The pouch is also felted, instead of being stitched closed. If you go to this link on Spotted Canary, you will see a tab on the right hand side of the page. that says "related videos." Click on that and it will take you to a short 3 minute video that shows that basics of wool felting.

I used some craft felt as my base mat for the card and stitched the cardstock card front to it in the four corners. I gathered some ribbon with a running stitch & adhered that down, too. Had to add lots of white flocking to sweet Santa!  I made a tassel from fibers to my giftcard. 

Well, I hope you like this project, and I hope you will be able to come play with us at Jingle Belles this week! I'm thinking I need to make another set like this so I have one for both Ian and Collin's teachers this year. :)


Have a GREAT day! :)


-Noelle


Supply list: stamp, solid cardstock, ribbon: Stampin' Up!; markers: Copic; wool felt and wool roving: FeltWorks/EK Success; flocking powder: Inkadinkado; die: spellbinders

InkadinkaBOO challenge

Hi there! I just wanted to share a quickie Halloween project, likely my last one of this year, I am not sure, but I'm kind of starting to feel a little "over" making Halloween stuff, LOL....

So this is for the InadinkaBOO challenge at Spotted Canary. Go to that link and you will be able to take a short online FREE class with 3 video tutorials (each video is around 7-8 minutes), and then make a Halloween project based on the class. The class covers techniques like rolled paper, sponging and blending inks, fussy cutting and heat embossing. You will be entered to win a 250$ prize package! There is one winner for every challenge and usually not that many people enter, so your chances are good!

And, even though I'm no beginner, I like the classes, I usually learn something new or a new way to do something I already knew how to do. It helps me think outside the box a little, too... You might remember that I made that 3D Christmas card for the last challenge, and I'd never made one of those before! On this project I did some paper rolling on the letter "B," that is new for me, too!:)

Ok, so I really have wanted to try mixed-media painting, I admit that's why I bought these canvas! Buuuut.... well we all have our comfort zones, I guess! the only real "painting" I did on these was to base coat the canvas by dry-brushing on silver acrylic paint! The other color comes from sponging ink on... Next time I'll try to do a wee bit more PAINTING! ;) 

As I mentioned the canvas color comes from a light coat of silver acrylic craft paint, and sponged on dye ink. The letters were sketched on the back of the paper and cut with a craft knife. I used punched squares and circles of scrap paper to help "guide" the sketching. The outside of the "O's" are corner punched with a large corner rounder. The letters were sponged with black ink all around the edges and adhered to the canvas with glue dots. 

I embellished the "B" with a sparkly chipboard rat, the rolled paper corner and two pins. The first "O" got a few dimensional stickers. The second "O" I stamped and cut out my fave Halloween Inkadinkado stamp Trickster Cat. I colored him, added some epoxy glaze on his nose and gave him a few gold teeth ;)  I stamped the sentiment below him a bit off center as not to disturb Mr. Spider who was printed in the lower R hand corner! All 3 mini canvas got ribbon wrapped around and topped with a button. And that it's for me tonight! I hope you'll pop by tomorrow or Saturday, as I'll be the "guest star" at Jingle Belles starting tomorrow! See you soon!

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: mini canvas; patterned papers: K&Company; stamps: Inkadinkado; craft knife; stickers: Jolee's Boutique; chipboard rat: Martha Stewart Crafts; silver acrylic paint; sponge brush; purple and orange dye inkpads; black and orange buttons; ribbon; corner rounder punch: EK Success; square and circle punches to help trace letters: EK Success

colourQ 107 Trick or Treat pets

Hi there! Happy Tuesday and we have another great color combo for you at the colourQ!!! Here's the palette for this week:

I got going with my card yesterday, and I pulled out these cute stamps Ghouls and Goblins from Inkadinkado... I actually won these stamps in my last Spotted Canary prize package! Too cute, it's little animals all dressed up for Halloween! I took 2 of my faves from the set, the little doggie dressed up like Frankenstein, and the the kitty "mummified" with toilet paper, LOL! I stamped them on some white cardstock (I like Neenah Solar White, I've almost gone through the whole 250 sheet package I bought 2 years ago!) and I colored the dog with Copics.... I confess I DID think the palette showed Old Olive instead of Lucky Limeade... Not fully paying attention, I guess! It really wouldn't have made a difference in the coloring, though, because I don't have a ton of Copics, and these are the only green ones I have! ;) I stamped the cat stamp in the Pumpkin Pie ink and outlined the toilet paper with brown pen. I also added some stripes to him with a marker, and colored his eyes, too. 

Next step was the card base... I started to go to my "go-to" background, some Halloween patterned papers, but I couldn't find one with just the right colors or style for these cute images, so I got out my Halloween embossing folder instead. The folder really had the same "cute" feel that the stamps had. At this point, I was still under the impression that the palette showed Old Olive, and between **thinking** the color was supposed to be olive, and the coloring I'd done, I pulled out, embossed and sponged this piece...

Suddenly, as I'm layering this up with the bright orange and raspberry tones, I just get the whole WRONG feeling for the card, this piece was way too muted to go well with those colors, and suddenly my muted, sponged card looks NOTHING like the palette! Ever had this stamping experience? LOL, so I actually choose to READ the colors listed on the palette this time, and I see the color is supposed to be Lucky Limeade, NOT Old Olive! Aha! So then I got out a Limeade piece, did the dry embossing and sponged the orange ink on instead.... THEN my card starts to "feel" like the palette! YES!!!

This card was a weird one for me. Usually I start pulling out supplies and know exactly where I want to go. This one was a work in progress until the final detail! I had the card all made, even took my pics, and then decided it needed just a little more! So, I added the tab with the pumpkin treat bucket to the UR hand corner, and only then did I feel like it was really "done" if you know what I mean! 

I hope you like my funny little card that took me on a funny little journey! LOL, have a stellar day & PLEASE come play with us at colourQ this week? I'd love to see what you might do with these colors! 

hugs, Noelle

supply list: stamps: Inkadinkado; markers: Copic and Stampin' Up!; embossing folder: cuttlebug; brads: making memories; corner and tab punches: EK Success; solid cardstock and inkpads: Stampin' Up!

DUST IT OFF!: I save all my ribbon scraps in a ziploc bag for these times when I just need a little ribbon. This piece was a scrap! :)

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Hi all! The kids are home and I have already put them in front of the TV long enough, so I'm going to keep this "short" and sweet! I had "pinned" this Vintage Santa on Pinterest last week, with no reason but I just loved him! Then I saw the prompt over at Jingle Belles this week is "A Caroling We Will Go!" I just thought the Santa in the picture (on the phone, "lending his ear"!) he reminded me of the old song "Jolly Old St. Nicholas." 

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Lend your ear this way

Don't you tell a single soul

What I'm going to say..

Christmas Eve is coming soon,

now you dear old man,

whisper what you'll bring to me,

tell me if you can! 

And then the song goes on to say what all the children would like for Christmas, some of them are pretty "old school!" ;)

I started with the sheet music paper, it had the vintage feel I was going for and went along with the song theme. I backstitched bakers twine all around the edge of my card front after piercing holes through. I printed my Santa out, and had some trouble, he was only going to print this size or an 8" x 10" LOL, sometimes my computer is TOO smart if you know what I mean! This size turned out OK, but I would have liked to have made it slightly bigger. I found an ANCIENT pack of stickers in my Christmas stash, those definition stickers were in there. "wish" and "carol" seemed appropriate! I added a santa mini dimensional sticker, some "jingle bell" brads (for Jingle Belles! ;) also I wanted to add some more "music" to the page. A glitzy photo corner completes the vintage-y card, for a vintage carol. :)

hugs, Noelle

supply list: patterned paper: The Paper Studio; Santa clip art: Pinterest (link above); definition stickers: making memories; 3D Santa sticker: K&Company; bakers twine: Crate and Barrel; glitter photo corner: Martha Stewart Crafts; brown ribbon and jingle bell brads: hobby Lobby; red/green ribbon: Michaels

DUST IT OFF!: I think I bought those definition stickers (it was a little pad of Christmas stickers, a variety) before we bought this house in 2006. The copyright date on the back says 2005! :)