Spooky Speculation...

Halloween will soon be upon us and I’m getting a little excited!  I need to help the kids figure out their costumes this year, but even more importantly, Pinterest has some great ideas for decorating!  

We never do much at our house, just a couple of pumpkins and some corn stalks on the porch.  This year I want to do ghosts from the trees and maybe some gravestones.  We are smack dab in the middle of the block with two empty houses, one on each side of us.  We could totally be the creepy place!

So tonight I will traverse Pinterest, find all of the projects I want to trick the house out with, and make a list of what we’ll need to get started.  I can’t wait!

Oh the memories I’ll be able to scrapbook this year!!!

In The Meadow We Can Build...

A Snowman!

     Now don't get down on me because I'm feeling the warm fuzzies about Christmas.  I really do love the season, and although I complain every year about how the season is earlier and earlier it always comes too fast for me and I'm scrambling to make cards and buy or make gifts.  This year there is a gingerbread contest we have to enter because they are using the theme I suggested.  Which reminds me, I need to shop for animal candy molds...

     I'm getting sidetracked!  It was a busy day with a lot of spray painting - more on that later - and cleaning the craft studio - halfway, so I would have room to work - and hitting up a moving sale.  Tired is not the word, accomplished is!

     Because I promised myself I would, I grabbed some paper, dies, embossing folder and my Big Shot and set out to make the card I have been thinking about all week.  

Here is the prototype I found on Pinterest:

     Here is my finished product.  It was really pretty easy and I think it will be one of the major cards we put out this year to friends and family.  The only change I would make is the size.  This is pretty square and I'm afraid it will cost more to send out than a standard sized card.  I think I might also add some bling.  A little sparkle here and there to give it a polished look.

Hope you enjoy!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...

Christmas!  

Yes, it IS just around the corner and will be here before we know it.  Which means, in card making terms - you're late!  You better get moving now in case you haven't started already - and by you, I mean me.

I'm really excited this year because I've been hitting up sales and I've picked up some new (to me) embossing folders that scream "Use me!" and I've been scouring Pinterest for ideas.  Just the other day I laid out all 30 or so choices and told my boyfriend to choose the ones he would like us to send.  He gets this choice because he actually helps me make them.  He's so good about that!  I, however, get final say.  

He chose several that I thought he would.  I was very surprised by some he didn't choose and when I asked him why he said he thought they might be too hard.  Sweet boy, don't challenge me so!  Anyhoo, I reminded him that my choices trumped his and that maybe the hard one wouldn't be as hard as we thought.

As I was searching the internet the other day I found another card that I just fell in love with and I think it is going to be THE ONE that I'm going to love.  I'm going to change out the background, add some texture and possibly some bling but I think this will be our go to card this year!  So excited!

Have you started your cards? Where did you come up with your ideas?

Christmas Cards - Part 1

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (besides summertime!) and it’s the time when I feel I can get most creative in some areas of my life.  If you haven’t checked out my post about the gingerbread, please do!  In the meantime, I will enchant you with my Christmas card journey.

            My cards should have been started in July so I wouldn’t be waiting until last minute to get it done, but my name should be “Last Minute Jenny”.  Therefore, I’m right on time!  I actually started thinking about cards before Thanksgiving.  I scoured Pinterest for card ideas as I am not a good card idea person at all, and I found some pretty good, albeit easy, examples. 

I started scouting my local crafting store for Christmas scrapbook paper and finding none, thought there would be some there for Black Friday, which of course it wasn’t.  I went on-line and found some 6x6 paper packs at scrapbook.com – all brands I had never used before, so this would be a learning experience as well.  I picked up some red 8.5x11 cardstock and Kraft paper for my cards and envelopes and got to work getting those cut out while I waited for my patterned paper.  I used my Cricut to cut the envelopes – all 60 of them.  Last year I did them by hand.  With a pattern.  Not again.

My patterned paper came in magically fast – I thought I would have a longer wait than I did so I started my card prototypes.  This is important.  If the card is too difficult my boyfriend will say so and then getting him to help will be no fun!  It took several days to get started and then I had one day all to myself and voila!  I was able to get all prototypes done and made into kits of 15 each and they are now ready to assemble!  Only one last problem – I thought it would be easy to go to my local Joann’s and get a set of Christmas stamps.  Well, it isn’t.  There was nothing Christmassy in that store except the decorations.  Once again, the internet should have saved me but as of this writing the stamps I ordered have not even shipped yet. 

We are headed to Michael’s over the weekend, even though it is an hour away, so we can get the cards stamped and ready to go out by the 17^th.  That is my deadline.  I will have to do the family picture this weekend, have it reproduced in-house and ready to go in the cards by then. That should not be a problem.  Getting the dogs to pose properly will be!  LOL!  I love them.  Last year we let the cat sit in the photo for the first time.  We’ll see if he returns…

Results and finished photos to come…