Spooky Fun!

I will gladly admit that until last year I had never decorated for Halloween. As a matter of fact, I thought it was silliness. Growing up we didn't do much with the day at all - maybe a carnival at the church and some candy that was shared by all. But my boys loved that stupid paper skeleton I purchased so much last October that I felt like this year I'd up the ante.

You already saw the Mourner's Hat I made.

I also "cooked up" these potion bottles with Silhouette store Print and Cut files and a collection of bottles pulled from the recycling bin. To colorize the bottles I mixed spray mists with Mod Podge and let them with a mix of forced air and slow air drying. Once they were totally dry I put water back in them, this will and is re-hydrating the Mod Podge but they are totally murky and awesome. 

I also cut out a witches boot on the Silhouette Cameo, embellishing it with some old lace, twine, and flowers. That dollar store raven was a nice complement for the flatness of the boot. 

I also worked up a canvas using Viva Decor paints and some Thermoweb foil.

And finally, a couple of views of the rest of the kitchen/dining area:

Next year, creepy candles are totally on my agenda! And probably more flying bats. 

In the meantime I'm starting to work up some fall themed decor for the living room, much of which will probably migrate to the kitchen for November. How do you decorate for Fall and or Halloween?

Halloween hat

Every so often I find a shape in the Silhouette Design Store that screams "buy me" even when I was actually looking for something else. I was looking for some Halloween labels to put on bottles - eye of newt and such. I found this great Mourner's Hat. 

I cut the whole file out of black cardstock. Once I got the hat together I painted the brim with Viva Decor Modeling Creme. And then I painted and accented pieces with Viva Decor 3D Stamp Paint. 

Fall Wreath

Around here the leaves are just beginning to show a hint of fall and that has made me excited about getting the house ready for Fall and Halloween. 

This weekend I got back a bunch of supplies that I'd attempted to sell in my LSS' stash sale. Including these leaves and berries - where did they come from? I don't even remember buying them but they were in my house so I had attempted to sell them. Well, knowing that no one else was appreciating their obvious potential seemed to motivate me to use them.

Harry Potter themed gift

Two years ago I had a crazy idea to make Harry Potter themed glasses for David's grad school adviser. At the time I bought a whole bunch of Target dollar glasses and practiced the technique - resulting in any wonky looking ones going into my cabinet and only gifting the best. 

Those wonky glasses are still in my cabinet and a few months back my mom was visiting and noticed them. It got us talking about doing a set for a coworker's upcoming birthday. I was more than happy to put those files to use again. 

After all that Harry Potter nonsense I had to make a Gryffindor card for her. It's mostly from ancient scraps but I did paint Ranger Distress Crackle in Rock Candy over the crest. And the MME Necessities vellum really helped ground the American Crafts Thickers word. 

She pretty much loved it all. And it got me thinking that I might have to use some of the DC images in the store to make some superhero ones for my family. Maybe.

Sadly, the HP shapes are not available in the Silhouette Studio store anymore.

Disney pocket page album

Okay kids, here it is - my first entirely pocket page album! I put it together in under a week, after months of avoiding the "daunting" task of starting. I was determined to make the style work for this project, of over 2000 photos taken (after throwing out the absolutely awful images) I'd printed over 400 and knew I'd need a way to really pack them in. There's no way that traditional 12x12 pages/my typical style was going to work with that many photos. I would have needed several albums instead of this single one that I used. 

Rather than make what could quite possibly be the world's longest photo heavy post (or break it up into separate posts) I made a quick slideshow. It's about 3 minutes long, no audio. 

In the end I ended up using less than 400 pictures, probably closer to 350, but I think they told the story well. I've decided that I like the format. I don't think I'll use the style exclusively but definitely for events oriented scrapping. And next time I plan to take photos as I complete pages, and before Fusing in things - some of my slides would have benefited greatly. Alas, my main goal was to complete the book and I hadn't looked into how most people share their pocket pages online. Couple that with some grainy images (that's what happens when you use your phone and camera and get photos from two other people, sometimes the best story won't be the one that was shot clearest). 

• The pockets themselves are a mix of WRMK and Simple Stories. I also used one assorted pack of Simple Stories Photo Flips.
• All papers and most of the embellishments were from Simple Stories Say Cheese and Say Cheese II.
•  The gold glass glitter in the large shaker pocket is from Prima. 
• I think some of the Disney licensed stickers on the outsides of the pockets were Jolee's, I don't remember the brands though and that trash already went out. 
• And the WRMK Photo Fuse sure made some of those pockets/the shaker easier to use. Have you ever tried to keep paper in that super skinny 12x2 pocket? Nearly impossible, in the past I've closed it with washi but knew that fusing it would look so much nicer.

All of the products used in this project were my own but because I still have a good relationship with my LSS it will be on display there soon as an example of pocket scrapbooking/Fuse/Say Cheese. 

Let's Ride

As I was digging through my phone photos of projects I've done and haven't shared I found this one I did of my oldest and my oldest nephew riding bikes with their Papa last summer. Summer 2014 seems like such a long time ago already! 

I remember sharing it on the Paper Issues Facebook page not long after making it since I'd just gotten the papers from the store but I don't remember if I had also used a sketch from anywhere, I sort of feel as though I had. I'm sorry to whomever I'm not giving credit. 

So, if I'm digging up old photos does that mean I'm not creating? Nope, since Sunday I've been working on a pocket page album of our Disney vacation back in March. I've nearly filled an album and am only about halfway done. Eeek! I'm trying to decide what the best way to share such a monstrosity will be. Several posts? A sort of slideshow? Video?  Should I bother? What are your thoughts? 

Products used:
Studio Calico cork stickers
American Crafts Thickers
Fancy Pants Summer Sun paper
WRMK chevron washi
MME Necessities metal brads
Simple Stories Summer Vibes chipboard frames, enamel dots, brads
Little Yellow Bicycle wood veneer banner

Chore Monsters Tattoos

Some time ago we decided to use an app called Chore Monster to act as our chore chart for the kidlets. As with anything there are a wealth of ways to use and misuse things, especially when it comes to bribing children to do chores. Our kids don't really understand money yet, but they can see the points they are earning and those points can "buy" them a variety of things from freezer popscicles, videogame time, or an action figure. 

The app was sending a series of notifications after the boys checked off such things as "brush your teeth" and "put clothes in hamper" and my coworkers were questioning the notifications that were popping up. When I showed them what the app was all about they started doing tasks around the store with relish, asking for a chore monster after each. 

The chore monster references were getting a bit out of hand so I made them monster tattoos using designs from the Silhouette design store: #29679, #29678, #29677, #29676 and Silhouette tattoo paper. 

Once the tattoos and instructions were printed up I pocketed them into page protectors and sealed them with my WRMK Photo Fuse. Temporary tattoos, you'd have thought that I gave them the moon by their reactions. Seriously, they were so excited. 

Superhero Birthday Card

I don't know if all preschool and elementary boys are totally obsessed with superheroes or if it is just my boys and nephews. Or because both dads are total nerds. Hahaha.

With two birthdays right around the corner I pulled out my Silhouette Cameo and whipped up a card for each - today's card will be for my oldest nephew. 

I got the bat signal/logo from the design store, Design ID #32037. After cutting it I coated it with Viva Decor Glitter Paste, you know so the light would "glow" or something. Pretty simple, and if the response in my household is any indication the card will be a h-u-g-e hit.

Other products used:
White cardstock
Black cardstock
Dylusions After Midnight (to colorize the 7)
Authentique Curiosity alphas

For any of you who saw my post about recommitting myself to blogging because a friend needs me to do it for accountability, you should know that Lyn has two posts up on her blog now. Both are about her and her creative process - novel writing. So the score now stands as such Jessica - 1, Lyn -1. There really aren't winners in this competition, just two bloggers and as long as we're both posting semi-regularily we'll be "tied." 

Canvas portfolio

A couple of months ago I picked up one of these Canvas Corp. canvas portfolios to alter and then store my stencil/mask collection in. 

I used two collections of Hazel and Ruby masks and a variety of Viva Decor Modeling Cremes. Once the colors had dried I added in some Viva Decor Inka Gold. Then I heavily sprayed the inside with water and then with Dylusions. 

Once alllllll of that was dry I sealed both sides of the portfolio with a spray on sealer.  Once that was dry I punched two sets of holes and put in ring clips. I filled the ring clips with 12x12 WRMK page protectors and all my stencils. 

For any stencils that were smaller than 12x12 I made little pockets with my WRMK Photo Fuse. I've been loving that tool! 

I have yet to use my Fuse for it's main purpose, pocket pages - mostly for sealing in glitter or creating pockets for storage. It has been instrumental in my pocket letters...

Thank you cards

I'm sort of crazy stocked about the project I'm sharing today - one of my coworkers will be getting married next weekend. The couple asked me to make them something instead of shopping from their registry list. I made 30 thank you cards. It was totally fun. I already handed the cards off to the brides so I'm gonna go ahead and share them with you now.

I made three designs and tossed in a bunch of extra envies because I don't know about you but I always ended up messing one or two up!

First up, a stair-step card with bunting.

Some of that washi is WRMK and I think the others are MME. Twine from WRMK. Glossy Accents, Bazzil paper, homemade enamel dot, red tape, Lawn Fawn Scripty Thanks Die and a Sizzix flower die pulled this one together fairly simply. The steps look so cool, but that level of precision, meh, it got old fast. That's just me. 

I only made six of this one - the part I'm most proud of? Using my sentiment die to create a mask so I could have that lush purple as the sentiment. Other fun here - Bazzil Cardstock, Teresa Collins Tell Your Story, WRMK chevron washi, Thermoweb Adhesive and foil, and Viva Decor Ferro.

This card ended up getting some bling added (see first photo), but was the first design I did (and the one I did the most duplicates of). This photo was actually the one I sent my coworker to see if they would actually want to use my work. 

I used Teresa Collins Tell Your Story, white ribbon, lots of foam adhesive, a Hero Arts sentiment stamp, and Studio G purple ink.

August card party

One of the last things I did for the scrapbook store before starting my sabbatical was create the August Card Party. The timeline didn't end up working out and I wasn't able to host our party the way we normally did, but Dala still has some of the cards for sale at the store. 

At the root of the Card Party was a pack of BasicGrey Fresh Cut from the store and then a bunch of goodies that I threw in to make it AWE.SOME. 

Pink Fresh enamel/wood chevrons

Fancy Pants cork arrow

Studio Calico wood veneer

Teresa Collins enamel dots

American Crafts DIY Studio bow

Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello Die

Maya Road envelope

Glossy Accents

Hero Arts sentiment stamp

Lawn Fawn sentiment stamp

Other stamp set (couldn't tell you the manufacturer)

Stazon, black

Grungeboard

Ranger Paint Daubers

MME foil washi

Stazon, teal

Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday Border die

Dare 2B Artsy Balloon Tangle stamp

Tim Holtz washi

FancyPants, gold foil cardstock, hole punched

orange ribbon (brand?)

Sizzix flower die

Lifestyle crafts embossing folder

WRMK twine

I'm Walking On Sunshine

I do a lot of quoting at work. One liner references of songs and movies, normally with the intention of getting my coworkers to retort in kind or to burst into song. Because some lines all but require to be finished in song. 

For this layout I sort of did the same thing with the title/photos. I went from  concepts of walking and song to bursting into song and couldn't stop myself from including it as a dominant element on the spread by mixing Thickers styles. 

Here's a close-up of the left side layout:

And the right:

This layout has so much delicious texture in real life. The background was created with Dylusions mists and Ranger Crackle Paint. And then I threw on some old embellishments, twine and brads (both MME, I think), flowers (also misted with Dylusions) from Petaloo, Grungeboard, and Teresa Collins border strips. 

I wish I'd taken some process photos of that background, it went through some really weird phases while it dried. 

These photos are from two falls ago, I still need to print the ones I took of them last year. It's crazy to think fall is just around the corner again...

Hello

Just a little "hello" card to get me back in the groove of blogging.

 I hope. Actually, I'm pretty certain I'll have to be consistent for a while - you see I am rather, how do you say? Competitive? Okay, quite. Quite competitive.  And one of my coworkers has challenged me to post on a regular basis to help her maintain motivation to post on her own blog. This one is for you Lyn.

So for Lyn a post, for those of you who like pretty paper:

BasicGrey Fresh Cut
Studio Calico wood veneers
Maya Road glassine envelope
American Crafts DIY Shop bow
Fancy Pants cork arrow
Thermoweb foil
Glossy Accents
Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello die
Homemade enamel dot

And for those of you who have followed for a while (or rather, haven't followed but didn't delete me in my absence) I'll catch you up on some of my recent endeavors. I've taken a sabbatical from teaching at the scrapbook store so that we can make our job situation work better for the family for a while.  I've been slowly creating again for myself. And I've edited two books for Lyn in the past six months. Vance is in first grade and Rylan is my constant shadow. I'm in a massive, entire household purge at a level I haven't purged since moving into this apartment before Vance as born.

Patriotic cards

Happy Fourth of July

In honor of Independence Day we put together a card Make - and - Donate at Soul Sentiments. We created three card kits that customers could put together and then write a sentiment for one of the in-patient veterans at our local VA. 

All three feature papers from Bella Blvd All American collection. 

Gold Foil - Silhouette America

Star, USA, and sentiment cut on Silhouette Cameo

Twine - WRMK

Viva Decor Glitter Paste

Lawn Fawn Scripty Sentiments Die

WRMK gold chevron washi

Glossy Accents

Dylusions Star stencil

WRMK twine

Viva Decor Inka Gold - Blue and OldGold

White pen

USA and Proud die cut using Silhouette Cameo

Fireworks

Something we started a few months back at Soul Sentiments was our Tidbits line. Basically, it is an assortment of embellishments and journal cards - just one or two of something from any given product. The Tidbits have been gaining in popularity, especially themed ones so for June we created a Garden one that I'll post in a few days and this Americanana one. I just love that I get to make samples for them all!

I made a custom background using some of my older October Afternoon and Tattered Angels mists. The blue painty lines are from Creatuve Inspirations paint pots. And the rest of the page is about half of the goodies that Dala put into the kit. I love the way it came together, a lot of it seemed really cutesy and not my style at all until I started layering it over that background which really seemed to ground it.

dragonfly canvas

I made this little beauty this winter as well, it is mostly mica flakes and glass glitter embedded into Art Anthology paints. Soul Sentiments provided me with a 2x2" canvas and the little easel and then I set to work at being inspired. 

Who doesn't love a teeny tiny canvas?! And all that texture. Mmmmm. 

tags

During the long, cold winter that we just experienced in the Midwest I spent a lot of time working on my mixed media skills. I developed these tags as a class on basic techniques using products by brands that most card making and scrapbook ears would recognize. The store provided the tags and I brought lots of goodies to share in the class. 

Dylusions mists, modeling paste, and lots of stencils

Ranger Distress Paint Daubers

Father-Castell Gelatoes

alcohol inks

Art Anthology Velvet and Sorbet

Totally Tulip

Wow! It has been a long time since I shared my craftiness with the world. The past couple of weeks I've gotten back into playing along with the scrapbooksteals.com Mid Week Mojo challenges. And since they were nearing the end of the 10 week series (this series was titled Tulip) I thought I would be a mad scrapper and catch up and post them all at once.

Tulip 1

Tulip 2

Tulip 3

Tulip 4

Tulip 5

Tulip 6

Tulip 7

Tulip 8

Tulip 9

Tulip 10

I used a lot of scraps and last of items on these layouts - if there's something you just have to know what I used or how I did it, then ask away but the product lists for these pages would be HUGE and just not worth listing individually.

This isn't the only thing I've been up to, and I'm hoping to start carving more time for creative play and sharing again. I miss the blogging fun.