My Creative Life: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Hello! Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a happy Halloween today! I have a fun little project to share with you today. I made up some little Hershey Kiss tents for some Moms for a little music group I take my son to, and for the office staff for my dentist appointment today. I had so much fun making these and couldn't wait to pass them out! I was so happy with how they turned out, even though I simplified it because of time constraints. I felt like these were easy, considering I'd made one once before, but I couldn't find my template, so I just whipped one up before making them.

I covered the tents with strips cut from the Witches' Brew designer series paper, and then stamped images from the Spooky Bingo Bits stamp set, punched them out with a 1" circle punch, and stuck them on with stampin' dimensionals.

I put two strips of sticky strip, one to close the tent when I was done, and one to keep the Hershey Kisses in place.

The tent size is 3'' x 4 3/4''. Once you've cut the tent, score it at 3/4, 2 1/8, and 3 3/8. Then add your sticky strip to the top flap and the middle flap, add the hershey kisses, and cover the front! Enjoy! I hope you have a safe Halloween!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

More Halloween Cards!

Hello! I made some more Halloween cards late last night and wanted to share them with you before they go off to the mail.

I used Stampin' Up!'s Witches' Brew Designer Series Paper, chevron ribbon in pumpkin pie (I cut it in half to make a little more narrow to fit my cards better), the modern label punch, a 1" circle punch, dimensionals, and two retired stamp sets: Spooky Bingo Bits, and Eat, Drink and Be Scary. I really love how these cards turned out. They took a little more time than my 5 minute cards from the other day, but I'm pleased with the results. I hope you like the cards and that you'll check back tomorrow! I have one last halloween post for you, and I'm excited. I've been busy making lots of little Halloween goodies to pass out, and I'll have the templates with measurements posted too, so don't miss tomorrow's post! See you then!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Gingham Garden Birthday and Thank You cards

Hello! Don't forget to head over to my online store to check out the new weekly deals revealed today!

For today's post, I wanted to share with you some cards I made using Stampin' Up!'s Gingham Garden Designer Series Paper and stamps from the hostess set Simply Sketched. I made these with a coordinating box (You can see other samples of the box and matching cards here and here) that would make a great gift for someone.

Here are the three cards, slightly different but with the same supplies and layout:

The supplies I used for this card were the modern label punch, the scallop edge border punch (only on the last card, shown directly above), the Simply Sketched hostess stamp set, Gingham Garden Designer Series Paper, and rhinestone basic jewels. The colors I used are Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, and Pear Pizazz. That's it! Easy! Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Monday, October 28, 2013

More Halloween Cards

Hi! I'm back with a slightly different version of the card I posted yesterday. I'm short on time these days, so my cards have become much simpler. I'm sure the recipients don't mind so much-it's better than a store bought card, right? This card is easy enough for stampers who are short on time! I started with a crumb cake card base, added some torn strips of the witches' brew washi tape, stamped my little 'boo' stamp, punched it out with a circle punch, added a pop dot to the back, added some pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon, and I was done. Easy! I think it's cute for how quick it came together.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll see you tomorrow!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Halloween card with Witches' Brew Washi Tape

Good morning! Today I wanted to share a little card with you that I made for some of my friends. I love this card because it can be made in five minutes or less, but I still think it's cute. It's a great, simple card to make for someone who doesn't have a lot of time, which pretty much describes all of us, right? I saw a card like this with a Christmas theme, which I intend to make and post that another time, but I got to thinking how easy it would be to make that same card but for Halloween. I received the washi tape for free at convention this past summer (You've heard me mention convention in just about every post, but it's because it's so fun and I love it! If you're interested in attending next year's convention, ask me how!) and was excited to finally use it! I used it on a gift I made for some friends, that I posted yesterday, and today's card matches as well. I cut a crumb cake card base, tore off three strips of washi tape, placed them off to the side and near the bottom of the card, stamped an image from the "Eat, Drink, and Be Scary" stamp set (retired) and tied some pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon to the side of the card, and that was it! Easy enough for you beginner stampers, but this could also be stepped up a little for you more advanced stampers out there. I stamped the image in various colors by using the Stampin' Write markers from Stampin' Up! to color the stamp. This is a much easier way to get different colors than trying to ink the stamp with several different colors and wiping off/covering up certain parts, etc.

Anyway, I hope you liked the card, and stop by tomorrow to see a slightly different play on this card. I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Halloween treats with washi tape

Hello! Today's post is a halloween treat I made for some friends of mine that came to a class at my house. I was soooo excited for them to come so that I could show them what I made! I had so much fun making the treats I couldn't wait to blog about it. I save all my glass jars from cooking and other things, and I always love finding new uses for them. I filled these jars with homemade salsa, spray painted the tops of the lids with black 'flat' spray paint, and then wrote on the lids with Stampin' Up!'s stampin' chalk marker, and it was perfect! The chalkboard look is very trendy right now, so I thought it would be fun to use the marker on the lids, and with the flat spray paint, it held really well. I covered the jars with strips of paper cut from the Witches' Brew designer series paper pack, tied some ribbon over the paper to hold it in place and the jar was done!

Then I put some halloween shaped tortilla chips in a brown paper bag, stamped a little tag with the Eat, Drink, and Be Scary stamp set from a few years back, added some ribbon and dimensionals to the back and sealed the bag off with the Witches' Brew washi tape, and it was done. I thought it was a fun little treat! I've been thinking of this little gift all month, ever since I found the tortilla chips at the store!

This is a fun and easy treat to make for friends and neighbors, and the great thing is, it makes a lot. I hope you enjoyed today's post and that you'll check back tomorrow for more halloween projects!

Thanks so much. Happy crafting!

Friday, October 25, 2013

Happy Day card

Hello! Today's post is a card featuring one of the stamp sets that is 25% off until the 28th of October, the "Happy Day" stamp set. I love this card. It's been sitting on my desk on top of a stack of cards for the last week or two, and every time I see it, it makes me happy! I love the colors and the simplicity of the design, and I love that perfect bow!!! This card was made by Felice Gladue, and was one I received as a swap from convention. This is an almost exact case from a card in Stampin' Up!'s annual catalog, but the layout is flipped to be a landscape rather than portrait layout. The colors used are crushed curry, smoky slate, midnight muse, very vanilla and raspberry ripple. The card base has the "doily" design stamped lightly in crushed curry, for a tone on tone technique, making it ever so subtle. That same technique is used again on the raspberry ripple 'tag', to kind of tie the whole card together.

I hope you liked today's card. I've seen it about a million times and still love it! Thanks Felice for the beautiful card! Stop by tomorrow for a halloween gift I made for some friends tomorrow! It shows off ways to reuse old jars lying around your house, halloween washi tape and I figured out another use for my Stampin' Chalk Marker from Stampin' Up! I'm SOOOO excited to show you! See you tomorrow!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Kid's birthday gift-art kit

Hello! I'm excited to share this post with you today! A couple of weeks ago, some of our friends had a birthday party for their son and we were invited. The boy was turning five, and I remember when my sister was around that age, for her birthday, a friend of ours made her a cute little art kit with crayons, scissors, pipe cleaners, construction paper, stickers and glue and put all the items in a little manilla envelope and labeled it "Kelly's Art Kit", and my sister was in heaven! I was pretty jealous and tried to steal it a couple of times, it was that cool. So I thought it would be fun to make something like that for this little boy, and here's what I came up with:

I stamped some monsters, eyes, antennas, teeth and spots from the retired stamp set "Make a Monster" on some card stock, and included some popsicle sticks and googly eyes stuck on glue dots, and this was his 'monster kit'.

Then I put crayons, chalk, two foam paint brushes, scissors, glue, stickers, and a homemade book for him to draw in, with his name stamped on the front, and I put it all in the envelope. The book was made from a chip board piece from my convention make and takes, and I cut it in half, added some colored card stock cut in half, punched two holes with a single hole punch, added binder rings, stamped the front, and that was it!

I was so excited to give him his present! I thought it up over the weekend and couldn't wait to put it all together. When it was all done, I wanted to keep it for me! :)

Lastly, here's his birthday card I gave him. This card uses the stamp set "Blast Off", paper from the designer series paper stacks in the brights colors, and the Argyle embossing folder. Pretty easy! I hope this inspires you to make a craft kit for a kid's birthday in the near future! See you tomorrow!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

25 stamp sets 25% off!

Hello! That's right, Stampin' Up! released yesterday that there are 25 stamp sets on sale for 25% off, in honor of the company's 25th anniversary. I'm excited about the sale, because it's in time for a few wonderful things. First of all, Stampin' Up! is having a promotion right now through the end of the month where you get $25 extra hostess dollars when you host a party of $250 dollars in sales, or you submit an order totaling $250, so if you order some of these stamps along with supplies to make your Christmas cards, you can totally benefit from that and get $65 free hostess dollars. How cool is that? Also, this sale comes in time to do some early Christmas shopping for friends and or family members. I know a lot of people in my life who would love stamps for Christmas, and now's the perfect time to buy them if they're 25% off, and don't forget about the weekly deals I posted yesterday. Add those to your order, and you shouldn't be too far from that $250 order! Triple bonus! Without further adieu, here's the list of all 25 stamp sets on sale, with the sale price included in red: