Too Cute To Spook!! (CQC106)

Hi all! Time for another fab color combo over at colourQ challenge!!! I think these colors are very "Halloween-y" wouldn't you agree? :) The palette is: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, and White. Here's my page!!:

Here's the palette!

I think these are definitely Halloween colors, but you could go fresh and summery, too.. Think bumblebees like the fun inspiration pic, and you could go a whole different direction! Of course, I went Halloween, LOL ;) I used a sketch I found online at Scrapbooks, etc.:



I started out with a base page in the Tangerine color. I punched some black circles, and arranged them as the sketch showed. I used a strip of DP from last year's SU! Halloween pack. I punched really large circles in the gray, and that was where I decided to put my title. The title was taken from the name of a new Halloween line from Bella Blvd. I thought it would make a great title, too! I arranged some dimensional stickers between the circles in the title, but BEFORE I did that, I colored the stems on the jack-o-lantern stickers black. Remember, you want to stick as close to the palette as you can, so since there was no brown in the palette, out comes a black permanent marker! Little things like that can help a lot! ;)

I die cut the black journaling paper I used, and a Tangerine mat for it. I added a few more stickers, some bat brads, and did my journaling with a white chalk pen. And that's my page!! I hope you like it! I'm thinkin' it's going to replace the Sweet Summertime page of the boys that's currently in the shadowbox frame that I have in my house! A bit more seasonal, wouldn't you say? ;)

Have a super day! :)

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: solid cardstock & patterned paper: Stampin' Up!; punches: EK Success; stickers: K&Company and Sticko; bat brads: making memories; dies: Spellbinders; pens: Zig

Teen Wolf

Hi there! I had a bad night of sleep last night, decided to get productive around midnight, after laying in bed and trying to sleep. I'd been meditating on this new Werewolf stamp that I bought from Inkadinkado recently. When I saw this stamp, I knew I HAD to have it, because I LOVED the movie "Teen Wolf" with Michael J. Fox when I was in junior high! Besides, how many werewolf stamps have you seen out there? None, here... I mean you see vampires, witches, and jack-o-lanterns, but I've never seen a werewolf stamp. And, this guy is SO funny! So, I had been thinking since I got this stamp that I would love to use some brown flocking powder on him, to make him look "furry." BUT, my first attempt didn't exactly go as planned.... 

Uh, I'll let you see for yourself & have a good laugh! ;D

ok, pick yourself back up off the floor and dust yourself off! I know, I know.... UNBELIEVABLY bad! He looks like he's got a bad afro and lamb chop sideburns! heeheehee.... Anyway, after this **DISASTER** I realized I needed a finer tip glue pen than the 2-way glue pen I was using. Then I remembered that I had bought a VERY fine tip glue pen awhile back and never used it. It's called Quickie Glue, and it worked fabulously for this project! Think a ballpoint pen with glue in it. Here's attempt two on "fuzzing up" my werewolf...

MUCH better, wouldn't you agree? The rest of the card is pretty simple. I made the card front with a spooky tree looking paper I found in this mat stack. I punched a large circle from pale yellow cardstock & stamped the sentiment onto it. I thought I needed something in the LR hand corner to balance out the moon and werewolf in the UL hand corner. So, I used a red suede photo corner and a glittery brown brad from my stash, both VERY old, but I think it works, to create balance and tie all the colors together. 

Ok, well that is it for me today! I've got a fun page to show you tomorrow for colourQ! See you then :)

hugs, Noelle

supply list: stamps: Inkadinkado; patterned paper: Martha Stewart Crafts; brown flocking powder: Inkadinkado; punch: EK Success; solid cardstock in Cherry Cobbler, Barely Banana, and Close to Cocoa: Stampin' Up; Quickie Glue pen: Sakura; chalk pens in white and gray: Zig

DUST IT OFF!: The photo corner and brown brad are really old from my stash, no clue on the brand. 

Matthew 11:28

Hi there! Hope you are having a great weekend so far. We are.... well, we are just having a long and difficult year any way you slice it. Had some very **good** news on Friday in that we are getting a new dishwasher for Christmas though, yea! That will solve one problem we've had as of late! :) But then last night, hubby's car door quit latching/locking/shutting at all, really. It had been sort of sporadically locking for the last few months, so now here's another big expense, oy! We will find out tomorrow, hoping the estimate isn't too ridiculous! This year has been so crazy & stressful... Not just for me, but for so many friends and family, too. It's almost like this year is cursed or something.

Anyway, I found some peace at church this morning, the sermon was all about using your talents to serve God... and I thought, you know, I don't use my talents to serve God nearly as much as I should. So I thought I would make a card with one of the AWESOME faith based stamps I own and love. And maybe seeing this will give someone else peace in their heart. I think I will send this card to my Grandma in Illinois. She has also had a TERRIBLE year, and I think she would like this card. So, I'll try and get that in the mail this week. Now see, it made ME feel better to make it, it will make her feel better to receive it, and it might even make you feel better, too? All that from a little card. :)

I layered up some pretty patterned papers. The scalloped circle is die cut from some cool patterned acetate, I love the shadowy effect that the patterned acetate gives. I had the card all made & felt it needed something a little more, so I stamped the praying hands from this Spiritual Sketches stamp set on the green patterned paper. Again, I was trying to give a subtle effect by using a tonal ink color. The main sentiment is this Bible verse stamp from Verve, which if you like it, is only $2.40 on sale right now. :)

Well, that is all for me tonight. I hope you have a great week! I have a very cute page to show you on Tuesday for colourQ! :) 

hugs, Noelle

supply list: patterned papers, acetate, & metal gem accents: K&Company; punches: EK Success; sentiments & swirl stamp: Verve; praying hands stamp: Inkadinkado; solid cardstock & inkpads in Wisteria Wonder, Ruby Red, and Old Olive: Stampin' Up!; die: Spellbinders

Headboard from a salvage door

Hi there!! FINALLY here is the home improvement project I've been teasing you with for the last few weeks! Sorry its taken me so long to get this posted... things have just been **CRAZY** around here. I've got to face that things always seem a bit crazy here, but lately, even worse than normal! I've been relocating Ev's playroom to our unfinished basement, and reorganizing a corner of my craft room, since a friend of mine gave be a gorgeous, wood, 4 drawer vertical filing cabinet for all my 8 1/2 x 11" cardstock. Also, I'm doing a prompt for another blog, and last night I gave a stamping demo at a scrapbooking night. Super fun & I got to meet some great people! But, anyway, CRAZY, and the boys are home on Fall Break right now, too.... So, as you can imagine, that really doesn't lend itself to productivity! LOL....

Ok, so, this project has been in the making for a good long while. I saw this idea in some DIY home improvement magazine YEARS ago... Then, a couple years back, we upgraded to a king sized bed, and our queen sized headboard didn't work anymore. And, THEN I bought this old door at a Habitat for Humanity Home Improvement Outlet for 12$ about a year ago.... and... in my garage it sat.... Here's what it looked like BEFORE my little makeover.

Because my bed is a king size, and the measurements were taped on the door, I knew I didn't have to cut my door down at all, but you should always measure first! :) If you do need to cut your door down for this project, make sure you cut some off of each end so it looks "even," particularly if you have evenly spaced panels like I did.

So, a couple coats of dark taupe paint... a coat of lighter taupe paint mixed with glaze and dry brushed on... a 1" thick long board cut to fit along the top, and a piece of trim, to go around the edges of the board... and voila'!! You have a fabby new headboard, on the cheap! I estimate this project cost me around 60$, but could have been lower had I only purchased quarts of paint instead of gallons, or only used a single paint color. I bought gallon cans of the 2 colors, because I am also painting my old tag sale dresser to match! It's sort of a goldy beige shade now. That color worked well in our old house, but since we painted the walls of our master bedroom green in this house, I think the taupe will be nicer. Besides, I want it to match my headboard!! :) Well, that is it for me today, off to do laundry & get going on my colourQ page for this week! :) Have a stellar weekend!

hugs, Noelle

Birdie Birthday (CQC #105)

hi there! I was waiting for my new microwave to be delivered today, so I had time to get my colourQ challenge done for this week! Woot woot! I hope YOU can come over and play these fun colors this week! Isn't that a fab chair in the inspiration pic? These colors wouldn't really work in my house, but I LOVE that fabric!! SO fun & cute :)

here's the palette:

So, this card is a bit of a departure for me, I created a little scene with these little felt birdies (they were in the package from Kara, aren't they "tweet?" Ok, ok, corny, I know... ;) I made the birds some spindly little legs to stand on. I made the middle bird bending one leg like a flamingo :) 

I opened my previously unopened package of mini glassine envelopes and found an old Christmas tag that fit well in there, I flipped it over to the back side & stamped my birdcage in Wisteria ink and sentiment in brown ink onto it. I threaded some black ribbon through the hole in the top & tied it at the top with a chocolate brown button and some green baker's twine. 

The card is "built" on a Pear Pizzaz card base and a black mat. The DP is from a mat stack and has some little whimsical birds printed all over it. It was the PERFECT match to Wisteria Wonder, even though it's not SU! 

I got a new filing cabinet in my studio the other day (pics to come soon!) and when cleaning out all the old filing boxes that I used to keep my letter sized cardstock in, I found this cool "puffy" paper. I forgot I had this & hadn't used it in awhile. It's a specialty paper, almost a fabric coating of this fuzzy stuff, really fun! I die cut some clouds out of a corner of it & that was the last thing I added. Like with all specialty papers (glittered, cork, etc.) I cut it from the BACKSIDE to ensure a clean cut. 

Well that's it for today! I keep teasing you with this and not getting the pics taken... BUT I have a very fun, inexpensive home improvement project I recently completed. I'll try to share tomorrow. :) Have a great one! :) 

hugs, Noelle 

supply list: stamps: Inkadinkado; DP: K&Company; glassine envelope: making memories; felt birds cut with PTI die; cloud die: MFT; ribbon, solid cardstock, inkpads; SU!; button: BasicGrey; twine: PTI

DUST IT OFF!: Kara sent me those little felt birds from her stash. both the ribbon and that puffy paper are really old from my stash :)

Gnarly Birthday Party Invitations

Hi there! So so sorry it's been so long. Busy weekend! So, as you probably already knew, Saturday was World Card Making Day. So, as much as I wish I could, I NEVER have an entire day to devote to crafting! Unless I go away on a crop or something, there is just NO WAY that happens. But, I did want to do **something** on WCMD, so I designed my oldest son's birthday party invitations! I had recently gotten this cool Skater Dude stamp set and die from Papertrey Ink, which is my new "papercrafting guilty pleasure" website! It's a good thing I ordered it, too. because my almost-11-year-old son was very wary about the idea of a themed birthday party....and to be honest, I am not even sure how to plan a non-themed birthday party! LOL. Anyway, once I suggested an X Games theme to him, he was good to go.... but secretly, between you and me, I planned the party for an evening instead of during the day.... Because, Ian has broken his arm TWICE this year, once on a skateboard, and once on a Ripstik. I (quite frankly) don't have the bravery to take seven 10/11 year old boys to the skate park! So, we are going to stick with Tech Decks and Wii skateboarding for the party.... I really can be quite smooth when it comes to redirecting my kids, sometimes! ;) I even found this COOL set of plates and papergoods for the party online! :)

So, I had to take a little direction from Ian on these. I feel like the skateboards are not the right colors.... Anyway, had it been left up to me, they would've matched the background paper a little better! This paper is old from my stash... I think the collection was called "Geo-Hectic," A really fun boy collection! I die cut and stamped the skateboards, and I used the die for the sentiment as well. I used some of the brads that Kara sent me in my SWAP goodie package! I scored and turned the "boards" up on the ends a little so they looked real. I attached them to the card with 3D dots, so they would appear like they had wheels underneath.

I had fun with the wording/font on the interior of the invites, too! :)

Well, I hope you like my invitations! I'll be back soon with this week's colourQ card! :)

xoxox, Noelle

supply list: die & stamps: PTI; brads: K&Company; DP: We R Memory Keepers; solid cardstock & inkpads: SU!

DUST IT OFF!: That DP is pretty old, and those brads ere from Kara's old stash! Go me! :)

colourQ 105

Hi there! I haven't gotten my card done for this week's challenge yet, but I wanted to make sure you had a chance to get a head start! Be back soon! :)

hugs, Noelle