Planner numeral stickers

It was with great excitement that I launched into filling out the dates in my Simple Stories Carpe Diem planner this week - I had just gotten it in the mail and decided that a year's worth of dates needed to be on the calendar pages ASAP. Ha! I got sidelined quickly when I filled out March and was off by one day the entire month. I rummaged through all of my scrapbooking supplies but didn't have a month's worth of small number stickers that would cover embellish my mistake.

I set out to make my own. And while I was painstakingly editing the file the hubs asked if I was going to share them on my blog and put all that effort to good use. I decided that it wasn't such a bad idea. So here you are, a free and editable Silhouette Studio file to use in your planner/crafting. I printed them on Silhouette White Sticker paper and then used my Cameo to cut them out. One sheet is a year's worth of numerals and I grouped them so that the colors are editable in groups by month. 

Calendar Numerals File - .studio file

I've never tried to file share on the ol'blog before, hopefully this works.

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