Pumpkin Carving

 

The girls were quite excited to get to work on the pumpkins this afternoon. I know a lot of kids don't like pumpkin "guts," but my girls seem to relish the ooey gooey-ness! It may seem a bit late to actually carve them on Halloween, but around these parts if you do it earlier they start drying up or getting mushy right away. Waiting means they'll look good during show time! It helped of course, that the girls were off school today.

We started out with Amy's pumpkin and were disappointed to see, upon carving out the lid (after I dropped it bringing it into the house when the stem broke off), the inside was a bit moldy. We still carved it, but  threw out the seeds (dangnabit, the seeds are my favorite part-wink, wink Felicia). You can see Amy's pumpkin on the left...with it carved the way she requested. I had stencils that we used for the other two. But the caveat for those is I couldn't find my pumpkin carving tools and did them with a regular paring knife. So, if they look a little rough around the edges, that's why.

I've roasted our seeds, but they are a bit dry this year. Sigh...oh well. It's not like I need the seeds, right?

Thanks for stopping by. It's entirely possible/probable that I will post pictures from this evening, so feel free to check back later...or not.

Jeanne

Happy Halloween!

Isn't this a cute pizza? I surprised the girls for dinner last night by picking one of these up. They don't have school today and the school put on a Trunk or Treat/Fall Ball event last night.  I volunteered to help pass out cookies for 25 minutes. Well, I ended up volunteering until the line of people was gone-which was well over an hour). That means I didn't get to see the decorated trunks at all (except from my vantage point at the cookie table).

Steve took the girls and my camera and took lots of pictures...here are just a few:

I think I'll give him points for trying... (he said he put the camera on the night setting...you know the one where you need to have a very steady hand or a tripod)

He did get a couple that were better

  The fingers on the table apparently grabbed the hands of people trying to get candy. Amy was safe, but Jessica got grabbed, I'm told.

At the dance Amy rocked out! A couple of the teachers were the deejays on the stage and they got everyone in the spirit!

I took this one of Steve and Jessica.

I think the school can safely say the event was a rousing success. There were a TON of people there all having a great time. I'm sure it helped that the weather was perfect...70s during the day and just a hint of crispness to the air by the time the event started at 6pm.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a fun-filled and safe Halloween!

Jeanne

Basic Grey Butterfly Card

Before I get into the card I finished today I thought I would let you know that the adhesive I ordered on Sunday morning from The Tape Depot arrived today! That's super quick considering it came from Florida (priority mail)! Each roll of tape is wrapped in its own little bag of cellophane, too. I have to finish up the adhesive on my gun first before I can try the new stuff, though.

Now for my card. I think I shared that I found some Basic Grey clear stamps at a store called Capture this past Saturday. You know I love me some butterflies and when I saw this set I HAD to have it for that butterfly alone. The stamp itself is clear, but the backer sheet has the colors on it. I thought it looked so striking I tried to mimic it by stamping the image with Versamark and rubbing chalk over it. I managed to get the chalking done and the image cut out yesterday, but ran out of time to do any more. Here's the final result:

And this is another instance wear the colors in the butterfly actually coordinate better with the dp in real life than they do in a photo. You'll have to trust me on this. The butterfly stamp has that second set of antennae attached and it looked okay, but I wanted only one set, so I cut out the butterfly and the extra set. I used a glue pen to adhere the body and the antennae to the white circle and then used some pop dots to lift the wings a bit. You might be able to see it better in this photo:

There wasn't much room for a sentiment, so I left it off. That way the card can be used for whatever sentiment is needed.

I used the Autumn colors in the chalk tray from Close To My Heart using little pom pom puffs...and added some Cinnamon Stickles for just a touch of bling.

After I finished the card I had  a bit of time left before having to go pick up the girls from school and I didn't feel like starting another card, so I decided to run over to Archiver's to see if I could find something to use my 30% off coupon on (it expires on the 31st) because you know I want to keep getting the coupons! I came upon a 6x6 stack of Basic Grey paper called Ambrosia that coordinates with this stamp set. I'll have to see what I can pull together! The paper I used is from Die Cuts With a View Fall stack which I seem to be turning to a lot this season .

Stuff I Used-

Stamps: Basic Grey-there's no name on it other than Bohemia

Paper-Fall Matstack (DCWV), Autumn Terracotta (CTMH), white

Accessories-Cocoa organdy ribbon, Cinnamon Stickles, Autumn season Chalk (CTMH)

Tools: Circle and Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, glue pen

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day and just think...the weekend is inching ever closer!

Jeanne

Kindergarten Hoedown!

Happy Wednesday! Well, I've not made into my little corner much this week so far. I wandered in yesterday for a few minutes, but didn't finish anything, sorry!

I have this cute picture to share though. The parents were invited to come to school and watch the students perform a little musical during their Specials time. I need to go through and edit a bunch of the pictures I took, but this one didn't have any other kids' faces in it, so thought it was okay to share.

Amy's in 2nd grade now and this is the first time the parents have been invited to watch something like this! I think the school has had some turnover in Music teachers. The current teacher just started there this year and she has really taken the bull by the horns so to speak. The kids were so excited to share with us. It was a coordinated effort, too. They made their vests in Art class and we added the bandanas before they went on stage. The all participated really well and the performance was just adorable! Some students had a line to say and those who didn't have a line got to ride the stick pony (Smokey was his name). Jessica told me she didn't want to say a line...she wanted to ride the pony and she did a great job of it, too!

On Monday I was without my computer because a fan was going out and it sounded like it was possessed! Steve took the fan out so I could try to find a replacement. Wouldn't you know...it wasn't a universal size fan, so no one had the correct one. However, the gentleman at Radio Shack said it might just need a little oil to lubricate it. Steve told me when I shared this that that was his back-up plan. So...why did it take him a week of the fan making increasing amounts of noise before he did anything? So anyway, I used the girls' computer some on Tuesday and man oh man it made me appreciate my computer even more!

Enough rambling...that's it from me for now. Hope you have a great day. I hear some parts of the country are getting snow...but here, we've been having some glorious Indian Summer weather. Hope you are warm and cozy in your neck of the woods.

Jeanne

Halloween Test Tube Gift & Card

Before I get into the project I created today I wanted to let you know (based on some comments I received after my earlier post) that I do own an ATG gun (the red 714) and have for well over a year. I absolutely love it and feel it was one of THE best investments I have made in crafting tools. I thought the price on the refills I shared today was too good not to pass along. The reviews I read mentioned that the refill adhesive is the same size, acid-free, stronger stick, and costs less than the Scotch/3M brand. The refills will fit the Scotch 714 that I own. I'm one who loves a good bargain and happily share info as I find it.

Okay...with that out of the way, I realized I needed to get a little gift together for my friend, Kelly's boys-the ones we met up in Estes Park this past summer. I had two test tubes left, so I decided to make them each one. Actually, before I made that project, I sat down to make a card and pulled out my inspiration papers that I print off when I find something I like in my Reader (since I don't have a computer in my craft corner, and my memory is not as good as I'd like it to be). The paper on the top of the stack had the picture of this card from For the Love of Paper. At first I thought, well poo, I don't have any oval punches. But I DO have the oval Nestabilities! I used the second to smallest one and I liked how my pumpkin looked. I decided to run the cut Goldrush (CTMH) ovals through the Swiss Dots embossing folder and sponged Brown Bag ink on them.  I cut a stem freehand, inked the edges then sanded them. The striped dp is from the Fall Mat Stack by DCWV. I used my new Martha Stewart spiral punch on Autumn Terracotta cardstock inked with Brown Bag...I just love how it looks. Adding the two ribbons layered on top of each other looked kind of neat, I thought. I also sponged lightly Brown Bag ink on the Brown Bag background piece.

Then I turned to making the test tubes-following the design I used for the party favors earlier. I didn't feel like making the tag this time, but what do you think of what I did? I felt a little creative coming up with this!

I used that spiral punch again. I didn't take a close up of the top of the tube, but if you wanted you could click on the picture to enlarge it. I thought it would be neat to make the card and tube holder coordinate.

I just got back from the post office a little bit ago, so they are one their way...or rather waiting for the postal workers to send them on their way. Our post office has one of those APCs (automated postal centers-or a postal version of an ATM) which I love when I want to send packages out but not  stand in line!

By the time we did the pumpkin patch and I got errands done and this made...my creative time was up.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful week. If I'm lucky I'll be able to wander to my creation station during the week...

Jeanne

Pumpkin Patch

 

Whoosh! Did you see how fast the weekend went by? But we managed to make it to the pumpkin patch this morning. We thought it was supposed to be nice out like yesterday, but instead it was cool and blustery when we got there. Mommy forgot her coat~mainly because I had been busy before we left and I was hot. Here are  a few photos I took.

Amy nailed Jessica with some of the corn in the corn box!

Then the girls made "corn" angels...and rather than go through the tall corn maze (longer and it cost a lot more) we opted for the "mini" maze where the corn wasn't as tall. I like this shot because it's got the "spooky" abandoned house in the background.

Amy wants me to show this picture and I added the other one.

Last one:

Wouldn't you know, by the time we got home and had lunch...the clouds left, the wind died down and it warmed up. Oh well...it was fun and felt like a true fall day!

I've got a project I'm going to post separately so check back in a bit!

Jeanne

Do You Have An ATG Gun? **Enabler Alert**

Happy Sunday!

I was checking out some suggested blogs on my Reader and came across one where the gal talks about ATG guns and refills. She'd been holding out on buying the big red gun because of the price. Apparently there's a website where you can buy the adhesive for a great price. Click on this to see what I bought. I checked out the reference on Splitcoast (the thread is 6 pages long!) and decided to place an order to try it. You get free shipping on orders over $35. Oh and for those who don't have a tape gun...they sell those, too for $25! I will soon have 24 rolls of this stuff that appears to work well or better than the 3M tape. If you read the thread on Splitcoast...the tape is acid free and doesn't leave what they are calling "boogers" like the 3M tape does. I was down to my last couple of rolls of adhesive for my gun and didn't relish buying more...would rather spend the money on goodies not adhesive!

Anyway...the reviews are positive and the price is good, so thought I would share for others who may not know about this. Just doin' my part to help the economy, you know! 

I love bloggin'!

Jeanne

Pick of the Patch-Digi Layout

Happy Saturday! Last night's movie party was lots of fun. I'm not quite sure how much of the show the kids actually watched, but great fun was had and that's all that matters, right? Susi put out quite a spread of goodies and after the show the kids made spooky faces with a flashlight and told a few spooky stories. Then they just played, kid style.

I decided to do a shopping trip today to some not so local scrapbook stores. I drove up to Fort Collins (sorry, Christi...I couldn't find your phone number to call you and it was a last minute decision to actually go) and visited the Treasure Box. I wandered for a while, soaking in all the goodies. I tried to find some specific Doodlebug paper, but was unsuccessful. I did find one or two other things, so all was not lost! Upon leaving, I asked if there were any other scrap/stamp stores in the area and was told about one called Capture. I figured if I made the drive I might as well make it worth my while.  It was a nice, smaller store that had an area for digi/hybrid scrappers! I asked the gal if she knew of any other stores and she said there was one, but couldn't remember the name of it.  She said some cross streets and I tried to find it, but didn't have any luck. On my way home I decided to try to find a store I'd been to once or twice in Longmont. As bad as my memory is these days...I was actually correct about which off ramp to take! I found the store and happened upon a good sale. Unfortunately, it was because the store is closing. I found a couple of things there. At that point I figured I'd better head home.

One would think that I'd run into my corner and create, but I decided to work on a digi layout instead. Steve had taken the girls out and they were due back soon and would interrupt me anyway.

Here's the layout I worked on:

I shared these photos recently and wanted to scrap them. I had a hard time figuring out just what I wanted to do. I've been trying to work on this one for a few days. I'd pick a template, try this or that and didn't like it, so I'd delete it all. Today I was determined to get 'r done! It still took me quite awhile to figure out something I liked.  Because I had only two photos I couldn't find a template that worked for the type of photos I had. But this one seems to work better than others.

Credits:
Template: Missy Strand-Cookie Decorating 101 from 7/23/08 from Sweet Shoppe Designs
Kit: Kay Miller Designs-Pick of the Patch from Kay Miller Designs 
Date: Arianda Wiczling-Date Seals-Scrap Girls
Font: Pea Tracy

Thanks for stopping by! It took way longer than I thought to get this posted. My computer locked up on me and I had to reboot. That takes forever. It was snuggle time for the girls before bed. So while the computer was doing it's thing, I was on the couch with them.

I may have forgotten something...but hopefully nothing too important!

Jeanne

Enjoy the Moment-Card

Guess which stamp set I finally broke down and bought? Papertrey Ink's Out on a Limb! You know, I've wanted it for awhile, but when I would try to order it, it would be out of stock. When it was in stock, I didn't have the funds to order it! Finally the two merged and I snagged it.

And after seeing different blog posts with the new Martha Stewart border punches, I was just itching to see them in person. I've had to stalk Michaels for a few weeks, but got lucky this week as they finally reset the punches with all her new ones-and there are some really neat looking ones. That I had a 50% off Joann's coupon was icing on the cake. LOL I was able to use the spiral edge border punch on this card. I just started subscribing to Pickled Paper Designs and fell in love with this card when I saw it. (Apparently, Kathi did too...here's her version!). I tried using CTMH markers to color in the leaves and even tried a little blending of colors. Not sure I was really successful at it, but overall the effect is okay. I Cuttlebugged the New England Ivy background with the Argyle embossing folder and attached that to Cocoa cardstock. It's kind of hard to see, but I added a bit of Goldrush under the focal image and distressed the edges. And you can obviously see I pierced the edges. Enjoy the Moment is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages set. The ribbon is from Michaels, I believe.

Yea, it's Friday! The girls and I are invited to Hattie's house for a party to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. They are quite excited. Other than that, and maybe a jaunt to a pumpkin patch...there's not much on my agenda, so hopefully, you'll come back and see what I've been up to!

Thanks for visiting!

Jeanne

Amy's Mouse...All Fixed Ü

Well, I didn't get it fixed before I picked her up from school, but I did get the old glue gun plugged in after we got home. My glue is a little discolored, but oh well. I tried to put a bit more than the very thin line of glue that was on there (no wonder it was falling apart). I do think it was a cute idea and the girls were very creative.

 

That's it from me for now...til next time!

Jeanne

Foliage Trails Embossed Leaves Card

I was able to work on a card today and for the most part, I'm pretty happy with it. Not sure about the ribbon, but oh well...it needed something and that's what I chose.

I was completely inspired by this card by Julee Tilman of the Poetic Artistry blog. When I first saw it, I thought the leaves looked a bit familiar, but I wasn't sure if I had the set. Then I remembered I bought Foliage Trails by Inkadinkado when I was in Sioux Falls. Yea!

I picked up some coppery looking embossing powder at Joann's I think...it's from Stampendous.

What I did was stamp the image using Versamark, then heat embossed with the embossing powder. I used my brayer to layer on Sunflower ink first. I then added some Goldrush  brayering, leaving some of the Sunflower alone and finally, I added Autumn Terracotta with the brayer on the left side. I went back and blended in a little more of each color with a sponge. Then I took a sponge and some Barn Red ink and inked the edge of that piece. I added the piercing at the end using the piercing mat from SU. I rubbed my Chocolate ink pad over the raised portion of the Cuttlebug Rustic Branches folder and ran it through. That gave me the ink in the recessed part of the cardstock. I did that on Desert Sand cardstock. The dp behind the focal image is from DCWV Fall Stack and is also pierced for interest. The decorative brads are Spare Parts from Hobby Lobby. The ribbon is Cocoa organdy from CTMH (as are the inks and cardstock).

In real life, the colors work better together than they do in this photograph. LOL  For a relatively simple card...it took me all the time I had before I had to pick up the girls and even then I had to finish up the piercing before I could take a picture.

Thanks so much for visiting! Have a great night and just think...it's getting closer to the weekend.

Pumpkin Patch!

Yesterday was field trip day for Jessica's class. They went to the pumpkin patch. I went along as a chaperone (finally-I've not been able to go as one because I've always had Jessica). Not sure why, but the teachers chose a pumpkin patch that was a good 45 minutes away from the school. What that meant is, I think we spent the same amount of time on the bus as we did at the actual pumpkin patch! We were to go to 7 stations and boy did they move 'em quick. LOL On the drive up it started out sunny, then the farther north we went the foggier it got. I was a little concerned that it would be too foggy at the patch, but as we pulled up, apparently that was an area where the fog had lifted! This field trip was Jessica's first time on a school bus. She was quite excited.

I'm going to be sharing photos, hope you like.

First up, the class was singing Happy Birthday to Jessica. She got to be the calendar person since it was her birthday.

 

 

 

 

Our guide. She had the neatest accent (could have been English) and a fun pumpkin hat and t-shirt. She seemed to be a fun person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun photo op spot.

 

 

 

 

 

Jessica found a really funky gourd!

 

 

 

 

 

But I don't wanna pet it, Mom!

 

 

 

 

 

Last one. There are others, but there are other children in them and I didn't think I should post them.

 

 

 

We had quite the busy day (or maybe I should say I had quite the busy day)! Jessica normally goes to school in the "afternoon," but for the field trip she had to be there at the start of the school day (7:45am). Because I was helping...I had to be there, too. We got back at around 1pm, and I had to pick the girls up at the end of the day-so a quick breather there. We had swim lessons after school. Got home from that and fixed a quick dinner-oh and squeezed in a quick phone call to my brother for his birthday. Then Amy and I were off to her Brownie meeting from 6-8pm! I dropped her off first, then made a quick stop to the store and back to the meeting where I was quickly recruited to help with the craft project they were working on. I manned (or should I say "wo"manned the hot glue gun for a table of girls). They made cute little critters with baby food jars, fun foam, googly eyes and cotton balls. I'd show a picture of Amy's but it's already falling apart! I think hot glue wasn't the best choice for this type of project...it's not forgiving enough when you transport the project from the meeting to home.

Once we got the girls to bed I was D-O-N-E for the day. It was a fun day, though!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm hoping to get to my Creation Station after a while...so maybe I'll be back later today!

Jeanne

Stories In Hand...Free Class!

You all know I am a huge fan of  Jessica Sprague, right? She offers some very cool digital scrapbooking classes that are available forever! Well, Ms Jessica is offering a FREE...unlimited number of students class and the registration started this morning. Go to Jessica Sprague's website and read all about it. Then sign up! You DON'T have to be a digi scrapper to take the class. She just wants everyone to have a chance to see how her classes work.

I signed up first thing this morning. Hope to see you there...

Jeanne

Completely Adored...Digi Layout

Whew! I thought I'd do a quick facelift on my blog today. Well, it wasn't so quick after all, but it's done. How do you like the new look? I realized I was trying to edit the code on the wrong screen. Once I figured that out, it went much more smoothly.

Jessica's party day yesterday ended with a bang...literally! About 5pm the girls were playing in the backyard, Steve was on his computer and I was resting on the couch, when all of a sudden we heard this extremely loud BOOM! The girls screamed, I jumped up (rather quickly for this gal who has been fighting back pain) and Steve yelled. The power was out! And it stayed out for about 3 hours or so. Turns out a fuse blew on the nearby main street. Steve honestly thought it wouldn't be fixed until the morning because it just affected our side of the street and the houses behind us. Across the street all was lit. I joked that not only did we live on the wrong side of the tracks (because on the other side of the near-by freeway are the pricier homes), we also live on the wrong side of the street! The girls thought it was quite exciting...until it was time for bed. Then they got a little worried and upset that the power would be out forever. Luckily it came back on about 10 minutes after they went to bed, so they settled down and were able to fall asleep.

Now, I wanted to be able to share something with you today (besides the blog facelift) so I worked on a layout this evening.

Of course I used a template! This one is a Cookie Decorating 101 Template from Sweet Shoppe Designs. It was actually designed by Kay Miller (aren't you surprised?)! I rotated it 90 degrees to fit the picture of Jessica. I used Blooming Crazy by Kay Miller and Mandabean. The font is Pea Tracy. I know her face isn't clean, but the grin is precious and shows in a flash the fun she had.

Thanks for visiting and I truly hope your week is full of good things and big hugs and lots of laughs.

Jeanne