Scary Sweets and Spooky Treats!.....

I have another project using the Hallowe'en Party Stamp Set from Waltzingmouse Stamps, just to show you how versatile it can be!

Yesterday was all about the invitation and today it is about the decorations....well.....a bit of decoration for your Hallowe'en season!




I have these spooky little marker sticks (I can't for the life of me think of what to call them!) that I made to poke into my jelly beans.

I began by just tracing the popsicle stick onto Basic Grey Eerie designer paper, cutting it out and then gluing it onto the stick with Tombow glue. I LOVE using Tombow and I use it for almost everything. I sanded the edges of the paper to get that lovely vintage look.



I cut out some Rustic Cream circles from nestabilities and stamped some of the sentiments and/or the images onto them. Then I began layering them with pop dots onto various coloured cardstock circles, also cut out with the Nestabilities circles and scalloped circles which were all sponged around the edges with the tea dye inks from Papertrey Ink for an even more vintage-y feel.

Then I just glued the stick to the spooky scalloped circle decoration, tied some gingham around the stick and plunked them into my bowls of jelly beans - which by the way were so stale AND I had just bought them - doesn't that just bug you?!! HAH... no pun intended!

I've been keeping a secret.......

I can't believe this day has finally arrived and I can tell everybody!

Claire Brennan, of Waltzingmouse Stamps, is opening her NEW ON-LINE STORE today and releasing six new stamp sets!! and I have been chosen, along with four other fabulous designers, to be on her very first design team! Wahoo!

I am so thrilled, as she has the most wonderfully unique stamp sets and her excitement is so contagious!

I honestly can not believe the company I will be keeping! The rest of the design team is made up of Julia Aston, Belinda Chang Langner, Laurie Schmidlin and Anya Schrier. Now tell me ....am I not the luckiest girl??!! Never mind, I know I am.

Claire sent me a couple of stamp sets to play with and boy did I have fun! I will be showcasing these all this week beginning with the Hallowe'en Party set!











With the help of the Pumpkin Nestabilities, I made some cute little Hallowe'en invitations with the Hallowe'en Party Stamp Set. I folded a piece of True Black cardstock in half and then making sure to keep the stem of the pumpkin die above the fold, I was able to run it through my Cuttlebug and have a folded card. I did have to run it through a couple of times to make the cut but it ran through easy enough.

I then opened up the card and ran it through the Cuttlebug again with the Pumpkin embossing folder.

Using a smaller Pumpkin nestabilities die and Rustic Cream cardstock, I made more pumpkin shapes. Before removing the cardstock from the die, I sponged inside the die with Memento Tangelo Ink for the pumpkin and Memento Bamboo Leaves for the stem.

Then I stamped the Hallowe'en Party invite with Memento Tuxedo Black. There are three verses, as you can see, each one a "scary" invite to your party!

To finish off the invitation, I swiped the edges of the black cardstock with Vintage Cream Ink and then added some BLING!!!! Who doesn't like the bling??!!! I decided I liked the look of the Zva Creative Crystal flourishes to mimic the pumpkin vines! I just trim the flourishes to whatever size I want - they are huge with lots of crystals!

The last photo is the inside of the invitation, so that your friends will know when and where the party is!!

I hope you liked my very first Waltzingmouse Stamps blog post because I LOVED making those invitations!!

Little Paper Shop Preview!

Good morning and welcome to another Little Paper Shop Monday! We have a few announcements today so hold onto your hats!!

We are so fortunate to to announce a new Design Team member! Ann Kranitz, previously a guest designer for Little Paper Shop, has been asked to stay so yay!! Ann and welcome to Little Paper Shop!

So then we of course we needed a guest designer and we found Pam Varnell - yay! so Pam will be with us for a couple of releases! Welcome to you Pam also!

Today's challenge is a double whammy - we are challenging you to enter our sketch challenge, LPSC35, and we are also previewing a new stamp that will be released on Saturday October 3rd!!

There are two say to win this little cutie Katie Caroler. If you enter the sketch challenge and if you comment on the Little Paper Shop blog - double the chances, and double the fun! The winner will be announced on Monday October 5th!

On with the show! Here is the sketch this week and my preview of that sweet Katie Caroler!





I used Cosmo Cricket 's Jolly by Golly paper with Papertrey Ink cardstock and followed the sketch.

I stamped Miss Katie with Memento black ink, (which will not streak when you colour with your copics) and then masked her so that I could stamp the fence. Since the fence has a post on either end, I masked the one post and stamped the fence again.

I stamped and coloured the lamp post, cut it out and adhered it beside Katie. Then I added a Zva Crystal dot on top of the bulb and used my Spica glitter pen to highlight the light all sparkly and pretty.

I added a bit of Sugar Sparkly fluff to the lamp post and around her feet to make it look like sparkly snow! I LOVE it! As a final touch I used a Zva Creative crystal flourish to make her song beautiful!!

I hope you liked my preview of Katie Caroler and please check out the other design team's previews! I am sure they will be so sweet!!

Sweet Anya and Hope Stamps Eternal!

SALE NEWS!!! Don't forget...25% off EVERYTHING in stock at Hope Stamps Eternal until midnight tonight...in case you missed the Blog Hop or got lost along the way the Promo Code is "HALLOWEEN" (make sure it is All Caps!!)


Good morning!! uhm......afternoon....yes I am horribly late for this challenge and my excuse is ....nothing.....We had people for supper last night and I almost choked on my butter tart when I remembered about the Hope Stamps Eternal challenge today.....so sorry to all my teammates, although a little birdie told me that maybe we are all NOT on the ball today..... lol!

Here is what we do every week (usually on time). Rachel shows us a picture of a cupcake and we (the HSE Sweeties) get terrifically inspired the cupcake and then we make a creation that is based off the inspiration cupcake! We would love to have you join us!

Just create anything that inspires you after looking at the cupcake photo below, upload a picture of it to your favorite gallery such as Splitcoaststampers or Paper Craft Planet, use the key word CIC26 (Cupcake Inspiration Challenge 26) and then come back to the Hope Stamps Eternal blog and leave your link with Mr. Linky!!

Here is today's cupcake photo - isn't it gorgeous!!





This cute little girlie is all grown up Anya from The Greeting Farm, and I decided to use the colours as my inspiration today, and got out my Basic Grey Indian Summer paper.

I used Crystal Stickles to highlight the Zva Creative flowers on the ribbon and also the flowers in the stamp and then I kind of wrecked the lace on her dress by adding stickles to that....dang it.....

I used a green Zva Creative Crystal Dot on the sentiment, but it wasn't green enough so I took my copic marker and went over it a couple of times to darken it - LOVE doing that!!

I also used the Martha Stewart arch lattice punch but I wanted to use my doily lace punch but I think that someone has borrowed it and not returned it......or it could possibly be in the mess somewhere in this room......I am so unorganized when I work.......ugh (again)

Well, I hope you were a bit inspired by my card and please take a boo around to the other Sweeties in the design team and see how they were inspired by these delicious cupcakes......I'm on my way to get another butter tart! yee haw!!

Colleen- Carolina - Kelli - Michelle - Natalie - Tammy - Jess - Rachel

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop!

Good evening and welcome to another Papertrey Ink Blog Hop! This month we were to use or re-purpose the packaging that our Papertrey Ink supplies came in.

Well, it just so happened that I received my new parcel just yesterday and so I was able to put together the following project. It certainly isn't hard and it really doesn't use up many supplies, and it is perfect for a quick and simple hostess gift.


I made some paper coasters....you know the kind that your waiter puts under your glass at a restaurant on your dinner table or under your beer mug at a bar! I used the clear sheet that the stamps are attached to before you put them in your CD holder!



You can see that first, using the Spellbinders nestabilities, I cut several large circles from the Papertrey Ink Holiday Cheer designer paper.

Then I cut larger circles from Papertrey Ink cardstock and then larger scalloped circles from more Papertrey Ink cardstock each time using the Spellbinders nestabilties. I used Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado and Scarlet Jewel cardstock.





I glued the designer paper circle to the cardstock circle and then glued those pieces to the scalloped circle.

This is the part where the re-purposing comes in!! Using the clear sheet that the stamps are attached to when we buy them all brand new, wonderful, freshly mailed and lovingly received, I cut out the same size of plain circle as the larger size piece of cardstock.




Using the same die, I cut plain circles from double sided adhesive. I carefully removed one side of the coating from the adhesive and attached it to the clear circle. Then I removed the other side of the coating and adhered the clear sheet to the designer paper.

This adhesive is slightly opaque and almost transparent, just enough so that you can see that designer paper but it does tone it down a bit so that you can add your sentiment and not have it be too overwhelming.




I stamped the sentiments from Signature Christmas and Stocking Prints in black Staz-on ink so it wouldn't rub off when the moisture from a wine glass or a beer glass comes in contact with it.

These paper coasters are not meant to be permanent, just a cute little hostess gift that she won't feel guilty about tossing out!

Hope Stamps Eternal Hallowe'en Hop!!

Hello!! and what a great day for a Hallowe'en hop!! You should be arriving here from the wonderful Natalie's blog! Here is the master list of the design team and the order in which you should follow in order to receive the proper spelling of the code word!


Tammy (Stamp Happy)
Jessica (Shamrocks and Seashells)
Carolina (Carolina's Creative Pad)
Kelli (Yard Sale Kind of Luck)
Colleen (Glitter Ink)
Michelle (Stop and Stamp the Roses)
Natalie (dougnat diaries)
Bonnie (The Lucky Clucker)

Hope Stamps Eternal is having a BIG 25% off sale, and you can get in on it by visiting all the blogs in the hop and collecting all of the letters to get the Promotional Code!

Each blog will have a secret letter (don't worry, they're not too hard to find!) that you will collect and when you put them together it will spell the code word needed at checkout for 25% off of store items from the 24th to the 27th!! The Promo code word must be entered in capital letters at the store!! If you follow the blogs in order, it will spell the code word!

AND one of our blogs will be the Secret Sweet Stop and that will have blog candy and if you leave a comment and your name is chosen you may win!! yay!! To find out what the candy is, visit the Hope Stamps Eternal blog - even we don't know whose blog has the candy (I hope Rachel knows lol!) A random post will be chosen from that blog to win the candy on Sunday night ,9:00 pm MT!!

Okay, let's get to my post - yay!



I've chosen to use the Inkadinkado mini clear stamp, Tombstone.

Using my 3 x 3 gridline acrylic block, I stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed it with black embossing powder. I sponged over it with Memento Tangelo ink and then cut it out with my Spellbinders circle nestabilities.

I used black coal shimmerz paints and sponged over the background with my big sponge dauber and then popped it up onto the same spot with some Zva Creative adhesive pop dots.

I decorated my card using that funky Martha Stewart Drippy Gooey edger and topped it with some Basic Grey Eerie paper from the 6 x 6 paper pad.

I topped the whole card off with those gorgeous Zva Creative Flourish Crystals in beautiful Jet Black!

Thank you so much for coming around and don't forget to grab my "letter" (I'm the last one in the hop) leave a comment, and then hop over to the store, Hope Stamps Eternal to enter your code word for 25% off everything in the store! Wahoo!!

It's a Girl!!

My husband's niece just had a brand new baby girl- Olivia Leigh and she is just the sweetest little thing! Just a peanut!

Of course I had to make a card, so I got out my JustRite Baby Stamp Ensemble and whipped up this cute FAST card! I added a bit of Crystal lacquer to the shoes after colouring them with copics..........




We are going away for a few days to Shipshewana for my birthday..... yay hubby! Total surprise......but the catch is, there is a Volkswagen show in Toledo we have to stop at on the way.......groaning and moaning about the VW show. I shouldn't moan about it, I've never been to a VW show so I may like it ;)!

There is a Hallowe'en blog hop for Hope Stamps Eternal on Thursday the 24th, so please come back here then to find out how you can save 25% on product in the store!

JustRite Mega Font Hop!!

Well, good morning and welcome to Day Two of the JustRite Font Blog Hop!! We had so many wonderful things to show you, that we had to split the HOP into TWO DAYS!! Isn't that fabulous?! If you missed yesterday's blog hop, just click this link to the JustRite blog where you will find the links to all the Day One designers.

JustRite Stampers is celebrating their Mega Font Hop (a 2 Day Event with 54 designers in total) in style with a Super 7 Day Font Sale. Take 30% off all JustRite font sets and the Horizontal and Veritical Font Stampers. Sale begins Sept 17th and ends Sept 24th.

I am sure you have already heard about the delicious blog candy, but in case you haven't here is a little ditty from our fearless leader, Kellie...........

"Do you want to win some candy?? Of course you do – everyone loves candy!!!

The Mystery is no-one knows which blog is the one that will be giving it away -- nope-- not even the designers!

There are 3 Blog Candy prizes each day which will go to 3 random commenter's from three random designers blogs. So, to win some JustRite Candy go check out all the blogs, comment on as many as you can from the two day hop.

You have until Sunday at noon EST to leave your comments. Good luck, the lucky winner may be YOU!!! You have 6 chances to win Check back here to the JR blog on Sunday Evening to find out who the six lucky winners are!! Enjoy the Hop!!!

Okay, let's go!! Today I am going to show you how the JustRite fonts can be used for everything and anything that you may want to say!

My first project deals with a slightly personal issue, and I am sure you have all had some dealing with it at sometime. I'm talking about breast cancer and on the happy side, I can say that my mom is TEN YEARS cancer free!! Wahoo!!

My mom is not one to show us the down side of things, and so in keeping with that spirit, I wanted to congratulate her in the JustRite way ;)!



Using the above three JustRite products, (Wood Stamper 2" with bonus 15 pt font and center, Celebration Demi Phrases Set 2" and Just a Little Caffeine Borders & Centers Set 2") and some mixing and matching, I custom made my own stamp!!

Using the 15pt font, I made up the words "10 Years Cancer Free" along the bottom of the 2" stamper. The top of the sentiment, "We're Celebrating", is part of the Celebration Demi Phrases!

The teacup is a stamp from the Just a Little Caffeine Borders & Centers set and I coloured it with copics and then added Crystal Lacquer to the cup, because after all, it is a china teacup! I chose to showcase my tag with the Spellbinders Kaleidoscope Pendant.









Now you are probably wondering WHY we would celebrate with a cup of tea!! and I have a little story to tell you......just a short one, don't worry. I have told this before but I will share it with you.

When my mom had her breast removed 10 years ago, she was released from the hospital the very next day - too soon as far as I was concerned but who am I to say.

I raced over to see how I could help her out and as I got to the front door, it opened and there stood my mom, inviting me in for a cup of tea!

I said "MOM!! Go sit down and let me help you!" and she said, in her kindest mom voice, "Bonnie, YOU go sit down and I will make you a cup of tea........." so I just felt that the tea stamp was the only way we could choose to celebrate.....well that and the yummy pink M & M's!!



My second project is all about Thanksgiving! Using the JustRite Brayton Uppercase Font Set, the JustRite Times New Roman Lowercase Font Set and the JustRite HorizontalWood Stamper along with the Spellbinders Pumpkin Nestabilities, I made pumpkin place cards for my family at Thanksgiving!




Using the Horizontal Wood Stamper, I stamped each name and cut them out with a tag die from the Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio.

For the grandbabies, the capital letter is the Brayton Font as above, but the lowercase letters are the Times New Roman Lowercase Font Set. I used the smaller Spellbinders Pumpkin Nestabilities die and the Spellbinders Wizard Tag Trio!



I hope you have found some inspiration from my post today and please, if you have ANY questions, feel free to email me or ask in the comment section and I will get back to you.

Ready to keep hopping? Here is a list of the other JustRite designers participating in today's hop:

JustRite Stampers

Debbie Olson
Jerri Kay Jimenez
Taylor Van Bruggen
Holly Simoni
Barb Schram
Terre Frye
Michelle Kovack
Kim Moreno
Catherine Doucette
Kellie Fortin
Kimberly Crawford
Kathy Jones
Michelle Giraud
Angela Barkhouse
Heather Pulvirenti
Tami Mayberry
Jennifer Buck
Keri Lee Sereika
Jami Bova
Laura Davis
Stacey Kingman
Bonnie Sharp you are here..;)
Stephanie Severin
Janine Orchard
Debbie Seyer
Margie Higuchi
Lauren Bergold
Anja Curvers

AJ Otto

Stamps: JustRite Paper: Papertrey Ink, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey Ink: Colorbox ink, Memento Black, Papertrey Ink, Copics Accessories: Spellbinders Kaleidoscope Pendant, Spellbinders Pumpkins, Scalloped Circle and Circle Nestabilities, Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio, Spellbinders Wizard Tags Trio, Cuttlebug pumpkin embossing folder, pink twine, Sharon Johnson's silk ribbon, Martha Stewart fern punch, pop dots, glue dots, Crystal Lacquer, Papertrey Ink ribbon

Happy Hallowe'en.......

The TWO DAY JustRite FONT blog hop starts today and runs through tomorrow! You can see the work of 54 designers over two days and the wonderful things they can do with the JustRite fonts.

The links for today's and tomorrow's hop are on the JustRite blog (click) and all of the designer's blogs. I am in the hop tomorrow so come on back and see what I have created with the JustRite fonts!!

I have another Little Paper Shop Hallowe'en card made with {Boo!} and {Jena Witch}. Both of these sets are on sale until next Tuesday and you still have loads of time to make your Halloween cards.




The yummy paper is Basic Grey's 6 x 6 paper pad Eerie and I added the strip of black cardstock punch with the Drippy Goo edger punch. I LOVe that punch! I saw it used as mud drippings in a card magazine so it is not just for Hallowe'en - although isn't it cute?

I also used Papertrey Ink's Tags for Spring set and stamped the kitty in the middle. The tag is highlight with Zva Jet Crystal Dots...perfect!

Thanks for coming around and visiting.....

Trick or Treat!!

Good morning everyone!! A few things today but first - today is release day over at Little Paper Shop! You can get {Jena Witch} and {Boo!} for 10% off all week - how's that for spooky?!!

And it is the 15th, so that means it's time for the Senior Design Team Challenge at Little Paper Shop. It just happens to be Jessica's turn to issue us a challenge and this month we couldn't make a card!! EEK!!. but still create something Halloween-y!



I made up this little treat holders that are so fun to make! I will be doing a tutorial for them later this week!

As for the little jelly bean holder.....I saw it on a crafty blog somewhere (sorry folks, don't know where) in blogland and it is so easy!

Just take a small white gift bag, cut it down to about 2" and then using the Martha Stewart picket fence punch......punch all around the top! It is very difficult to get through all the layers, which in this case is wonderful, so that fence get's a little ratty looking which is perfect for a Hallowe'en treat baggy thing-y!!

Secondly, this month my six month term of being a Splitcoaststampers Dirty Girl has come to an end. Booooooo! (and not the scary kind) I thought I would be happy to be over the stress but I am a little sad - it was SOOOO fun and I loved every minute of it!! But now I am an alumni - yay!!....which I've never been an alumni of anything......well, I suppose school, but everyone can say that!

And happily, the September gallery is open and this month the theme is Winged Things - perfectly beautiful gallery with all sorts of butterflies and fairies and moths (ew) and planes - you need to go and see it - of course you have to be a fan club member but that is so easy to do!!

Here is a sneak peak of one of my projects:




Stamps: Little Paper Shop
Paper: Gina K Designs Green Apple, Papertrey Ink True Black, Stampers Select White and Bitty Dots dp, Basic Grey Eerie designer paper (background)
Ink: Memento Black
Accessories: Martha Stewart Gooey punch and picket fence punch, Papertrey Ink ribbon, Spellbinders circle and square nestabilities, and Labels Three

BOO!

Good morning and welcome to {BOO}! This is the next release from Little Paper Shop and will be available on September 15th......oh my word - that is tomorrow!!

We also have two ways for you to win this stamp set!!

1) Leave a comment today on the Little Paper Shop blog and one random winner will be chosen and announced tomorrow on release day.

2) Play along in this week's challenge to create a HALLOWEEN card and one random winner will be chosen and announced next Monday, the 21st! Link your creation back to the Little Paper Shop blog and please use the keyword LPSC33 if you upload to Splitcoaststampers or your favorite site.



I stamped the pumpkin on various Basic Grey papers, cut them out and then added some shadowing and highlighted them a touch with the corresponding copic marker.

Both sets of eyes are separate stamps and were stamped on white cardstock, cut out and then glued on with my Quickie glue pen! I love the little scowling pumpkin!

The spider is also a separate stamp and I just stamped him onto the pumpkin....there is also a spider web stamp that I think I should have used in the corner.....dang it!!

Take a look at the Little Paper Shop blog to see what the other designers have done with this sweet Hallowe'en set or better yet, take a look at their blogs and leave a comment - you know they love to hear from you!!

Introducing Jena Witch!

Good morning!! It's time for another Little Paper Shop release!

The images that I am going to be showing you for the next three days are all Hallowe'en related and will be released on September 15th!! Just in time to get those Hallowe'en cards and treats whipped up and on their way!!



This little sweetheart is called Jena Witch - now she isn't too scary is she? I coloured her with copics - green skin and all - after all she is a witch.....The sentiments that come with this set are perfect for Hallowe-en and this image!!

I cut her out and popped her up onto some Bazzill cardstock that was run through the Pumpkin Harvest Cuttlebug folder. Imaginisce Spooky Town paper was used on the bottom of the card and was highlighted with some ooey gooey drippings from the Drippy Goo Edger.

If you would like a chance to win Jena Witch, leave a comment on the Little Paper Shop blog today! Thanks for coming around and check out the rest of the design team and see how they portrayed this little sweetie!!

P.S. arggghhh!........This is my second post of the day........you won't want to miss the first one!.....(that's called a cliffhangar....*snort!)

Argggghhh....and your booty too!

Did you know that September 19th is "International Talk Like a Pirate Day"?!

Hope Stamps Eternal is celebrating that day this weekend with our Inspirational Cupcake Challenge and we would love for you to play!!

Just make a card or create a page after being inspired by the Cupcake photo and upload your link to the Hope Stamps Eternal blog! and here is the photo for this week......




Isn't it a swash-buckler?? Doesn't it shiver your timers??!! (enough already....)
Now everyone knows that Pirates like a good haul and they travel the seas looking for booty......well.......they found a gift card stocking holder and they LOVED it and they were satisfied!! (true story.....I swear.)





I found this wonderful booty....uhmm gift card holder/stocking template on Splitcoaststampers by Claire Brennan.

When you lift the flap there is a place that you can tuck in your gift card! Isn't that brilliant??

With all this pirate talk I got a little nervous and when I was sewing, I mistakenly sewed the flap shut (covered up nicely by pompom ribbon!) So I decided to just make a decoration.....which I LOVe by the way!

I used Daisy D's Christmas paper for the main part of the sock and used the Distressed Stripes Cuttlebug folder on the toe, heel and flap of the stocking...



The sentiment was stamped onto Kraft paper cut out with Spellbinders tags and then held in place by two buttons topped with Zva Creative Crystal Dots and they are sooooo blingy and sparkly and just like finding a treasure! See how it all ties in?

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my different look at "International Talk like a Pirate Day" I don't want to have to walk the plank!

Please take a look at the other matey's inspirations - they may have followed the rules a tad bit more than I did!