Outdoor Halloween Decor

I don't totally "get into" Halloween, definitely not the scary/gory stuff. I prefer cutesie things when it comes to decorations.

I don't do much to decorate outside, just a few items. We don't have trick or treaters out here so no one appreciates it anyway.

craftysahmiam.blogspot.com

This wreath is an oldie. The idea was found in a crafts magazine. 

The pumpkin was made out of paper twist as is the bow. 

The ghost is a scrap of fabric, marker for face, stuffed with polyfil and stuck on a piece of dowel.

 The corn stalks are straight stiff pieces of raffia, all on a grapevine wreath base.

Thanks for looking =)

Wish BIG

Birthday card I recently made to try to coordinate with a gift bag I wanted to reuse. All items I used may have been from Stampin' Up!. The company used to sell organdy ribbon, not sure if this was a color they carried; it was a scrap. The star punch is definitely made by another company, just not sure if I bought it from Stampin' Up! many years ago.




Current items used:

Word Play stamp set

Circle punch

Decorative Label punch - new in Holiday mini catalog

Whisper White card stock

Real Red marker



Retired Items:

Only Orange marker

Periwinkle Blue glitter from the Pastel Diamonds Stampin' Glitter Stack

Ballet Blue, Green Galore, Summer Sun card stock

organdy ribbon

Thanks for looking =)

The Leaves Are Falling

                                                  The wind blowing numerous leaves out of the trees

                                                (I used Photoshop Elements to make the colors pop,
                                                                the sky didn't look very blue out of the camera)

I'm trying to learn Photoshop Elements tips to help make my pictures "pop". I've recently signed up for membership to   http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/

I've been amazed to see what my version 7 can do, but now want version 9 after seeing the new things it can do !   "Dear Santa......"  giggle =)

OLD sample I made several years ago; I saw a sample like this somewhere but I've no idea where. 

Thanks to whomever shared it, wherever it was published or posted. 

Thanks for looking !

s{ick}?

*I'm still having issues with Blogger/my internet connection/browser/whatever the problem is that has been preventing me from uploading.*

I needed a get well card for my father, so I whipped this up with the Word Play stamp set. I should have made the Marina Mist strip narrower.........

All supplies from Stampin' Up!

Card Stock:
Crumb Cake
Marina Mist
Cherry Cobbler
Very Vanilla
Early Espresso

Markers:

Marina Mist
Cherry Cobbler
Early Espresso

Chocolate grosgrain ribbon


Word Play stamp set
Retired stamp set for the inside, I think it is Versatile Verses.


Punches:
Wide Oval
Decorative Label - new in Holiday Mini Catalog
Scalloped Edge

Top Note Die from Sizzix/Stampin' Up!

Paper piercer and mat pack
 
Thanks for looking =)

"Boo?" "Whoo?"

Patiently waited for the UPS man to show up yesterday with my order from Stampin' Up!. I was afraid it had been rescheduled because I hadn't seen it all day. Finally at 6:32 PM it was delivered. I've NEVER received a delivery that late, wow ! I hoped it would be here early enough to work on the project I had in mind. It's one of those "It is a neat idea in my mind, but will I be able to make it work the way I want to" projects....... inspired by several punch art projects, I wanted to make something for display. So I spent the morning today trying to bring it to life and here it is; it turned out okay (the photos leave a lot to be desired though)








All supplies are from Stampin' Up!



Stamps:

Vine jumbo - wheel

Stipple Plaid - background

Teeny Tiny Wishes





Punches:

Two Step Owl Extra Large - for owl and ghost

Butterfly Extra Large- for pumpkin vine leaves; I timmed the lower portion of the wing off to create the leaves, but they could easily be cut freehand

Small Oval - for pumpkin

1" Circle - for pumpkin



Card Stock:

Chocolate Chip textured - owl; pumpkin stems

Early espresso - owl tummy

Basic Black - owl and ghost eyes

Whisper White - ghost; owl eyes

Pumpkin Pie - pumpkins and the "ribbon" on the roll

Always Artichoke - field, vines, leaves

Summer Sun - owl beak



Ink: mostly used for sponging on the edges of the punched pieces

Going Gray - ghost

Early Espresso - owl

Whisper White Craft - owl

Pumpkin Pie - pumpkins; stamped Stipple Plaid for ribbon

Always Artichoke - vine wheel

Basic Black - to stamp Happy Halloween



Extras:

cardboard ribbon roll - love finding new uses for "trash"

acrylic craft paint - to paint the rim inside the roll

twig - and a real spider web attached!

craft pellets or sand to weight down the cardboard roll

adhesives

scissors

tweezers - were helpful with the itty bitty parts

Stampin' sponge - to sponge ink on the edges of card stock

dowel - to wrap thin card stock strips around to create vines




Thanks for looking =)




Edited November 13th: I entered this project in the soshelli.com Fabulous Fall challenge. It did not win, but here are the winners:
http://stampinandscrapinbee.blogspot.com/2010/10/ever-want-to-make-christmas-crackers.html

http://butternutsagedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/08/back-to-school-teacher-gift.html

http://www.stampingmoon.com/2010/10/mrs-frankie-goes-to-hollywood.html

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/aprils/blog

http://inkadinkadoodle.com/?p=2875

http://addinkandstamp.blogspot.com/2010/10/thanksgiving-bitty-boxes-and-more.html

Painted Halloween Luminaria

I created this project a couple of years ago to enter into a contest; it did not win.

It started off as a clear plastic picture frame, the type that is sort of L shaped with a built in easel, bent plastic at the bottom. It also uses an old paper mache' frame I had sitting around, decorative paper and ribbon.

I created it the way I make my stamped/painted ornaments (I hope to post a tutorial at a later date).

Supplies:
Acetate/window sheet/overhead transparency
Stazon black ink
Line art image of choice (I used retired images from Stampin' Up!)
Various colors of indoor/outdoor acrylic craft paints
Small paint brushes
Toothpicks

Stamp your image onto the acetate with Stazon ink.

Flip over the stamped image, paint on the back side.

Using the craft paints and tiny paint brushes, paint in your image. TIP: you will need to paint some portions before others depending on your image. Because you are working on the back side, you will need to think about what colors you want to be on top as you layer on the paints (depends upon the image). For example, the white "swirls" in the night sky trailing around the ghosts were painted on before the night sky.

The toothpicks come in handy to add the tiniest details, like the glowing red eyes in the windows. They are also useful in removing unwanted paint once dry: just lightly scratch at the dry paint that you want removed. Great for removing tiny mistakes, such as going out of the lines !

Be sure to let each color dry before moving on to the next ! This is a much more time consuming way to color an image on acetate, but I really like the look. I came up with this idea many years ago when the stamped acetate glass ball ornaments first became all the rage. I thought it was a neat idea, but I didn't like the look of the images colored with markers. I drug out my paints and gave it a try, was so happy to see the results were what I had hoped for, but more importantly, that the curling of the acetate to insert into the ornament did not crack the paints off since I used the indoor / outdoor paints. I chose to use that type of paint because to me they seemed more durable, flexible than regular acrylic craft paint. You can see my very first painted ornament here:
Flaky Friends Ornament

Wrap the mache frame in decorative paper, add ribbon and punch embellishments.

Once the painting is dry, adhere to the back of the mache frame with Sticky Strip. Be sure the painted part is flipped over to the underside, sandwiched between the pastic frame and the unptainted top of your acetate. You want the stamped image on the front. The painted part underneath allows the stamped line art details to show from the front. It also protects your painted image since it will be between the two layers.

Adhere the framed piece to the front of the clear plastic frame with Sticky Strip.

You can add a battery operated tea light to create a luminaria (though the light would show much better through a piece that was colored with Sharpie markers).

This was entered in an old soshelli.com contest.

Thanks for looking =)

Eeek! Miniature Wooden Crate

I bought two of these cute little crates years ago from a tole painting shop that was going out of business. They were 25c each.

I base coated it with black acrylic craft paint then stamped the little spiders background with white craft ink (I do NOT like it, it dries far too slowly).

The tag was stamped with Basic Black then water colored with various classic inks from Stampin' Up!

I added a dab of Crystal Effects on the eyes.

All images, inks, punches are from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for looking =)

Various Items from the craft booth

This is the last of the posts showing items from the booth I had at a festival recently. To see other items, look at posts from the last two weeks. They start with "The Crafting Frenzy Begins" post.

Below are several additional items that were in the booth, almost all of which were class samples or leftovers that I made into finished items to try to sell that day. Each was priced at $1, the last hour of the day I marked them down to 50c and sold a few. It was not a very good day............

Stamped glasses with matching stamped cellophane bag and tag, there were three leftover from a booth I had years ago. They'd make great votives with one of the battery operated tea lights. Also a fun way to present hot cocoa, favortie candies, etc.  I sold them for 50c each as I was packing up to leave.

Country fabric angel ornaments - hand painted wood discs, fabric bodies, tea stained fabric wings (the wings were premade, I tea stained them) . I sold four of them for 50c each.

Painted wood ornaments, were $1, sold for 50c

They were unfinished basic snowflake shaped wood peices bought for 97c originally. I added the wood disk that I painted the snowman face on and painted the base snowflake.

Yes, I was practically giving things away. I didn't want leftovers. Thank goodness there was no booth fee at this event ! 

Jingle Bell snowmen - the bells were in a package from the dollar store. I painted large wooden beads for the heads, ran cording through them to create hangers. The hats and scarves were made from a fleece blanket. That is the cheapest way to buy basic fleece for crafting, especially if you can find blankets on sale ! I stamped the scarves with the little snowflake from the Snow Swirled set by Stampin' Up!, using white craft ink (this photo was taken before I stamped them) . I had them priced at $1, none sold - not even when I marked them down to 50c the last hour I was there. I guess there were no snowman lovers at that festival, after all nothing that had snow themes (other than the glasses) sold from my booth !


And of course I am once again having issues with uploading photos, geesh... here are the remaining items I had in the booth, no photos though.


Mini tin pails, 4 - none sold; they were the MnM pails and hydrangea pail that I have posted elsewhere on my blog

Stamped tiles wrapped with ribbon, 6 - various themes, but the two I did sell for $1 each were stamped with Roses In Winter and Wonderful Wings using Stazon ink. I have 4 leftover.

Stamped candle packaged with a matching gift card in a cellophane bag with ribbon shred; Roses In Winter stamped in Rose Red, Always Artichoke on a white candle - did not sell

Mini gift bags with Snowmen or Santa Claus on them (Holiday Woodcuts) -  none sold , there were 12 total

Full sized gift bags with matching cards in a vellum sleeve on the front, Christmas themed, 3- none sold

Cards, cards, cards !!!!!!!!!! - I sold 11 to one sweet elderly lady, 5 to another vendor and no more beyond those. Those few I sold went for $1 each. Unless someone is a stamper and realizes the time and effort involved, no one seemed to appreciate them. Then those that do stamp/craft liked looking at them for ideas, were not interested in purchasing them.

LOTS and lots of class samples that were priced 50c each - I parted with 5 things, the rest are back home and in a storage tub again for the time being. I sold two of them to a young girl that makes jewelry, she wanted to use the ideas to make her own boxes for her jewelry.



Thanks for looking =)

Recovered Notepads

Well, I guess they really aren't all that quick......... but still easy enough to do if you want to customize a notepad. I had 4 leftover notepads from a class; I recovered them with card stock and a stamped image that I watercolored using various classic inks from Stampin' Up! and an aquapainter. This is a great way to make personalized, one of a kind notepads.

Priced at $1 (original cost of the notepad alone), I sold three of them from my booth at the festival.

                                             


Supplies:
Stamp sets from Stampin' Up!, all of which are now retired

Button Bear - my very first stamp set from Stampin' Up! that I bought 10 years ago; what was your first set and when did you buy it ?

Equestrian Dreams

Classic Convertibles





Various classic inks, Stampin' Up!

Aquapainter

Signo silver pen

Various card stocks

Texturz plate, Stampin' Up!

Square hand held hole punch

Ink pens and a scrap of coordinating paper to insert in the pen



Cut your cardstock/decorative paper to fit the existing cover on the notepad that you wish to recover (these notepads are 5"x7"). Line up with the holes on the current cover and punch new holes in the piece of cardstock you will be recovering with. You will need to do this twice to make a front and back cover. You can adhere your cardstock/paper to the existing cover with a strong adhesive or if your cardstock is sturdy enough, totally replace the existing cover.

Decorate the front however you wish, reinsert the wires into the new covers and slightly crimp them closed - done !

Thanks for looking !

Mini Photo Frame Magnets

I found these neat little magnets on clearance several years ago for 50c each. They are metal and glass picture frame magnets with a strong magnet. The graphics that were in them when I bought them were fun, retro pictures. I wanted to use them for a class, let the guests customize them to their kitchen/office/etc. Another what I thought was a good idea for a class, but apparently no one else did since no one attended so I had several magnets leftover. And I still do because not a single one sold for $1 at the festival; there are 12 of them, each of them is a very different theme and packaged in a clear plastic box. A couple of them I removed the glass from so the dimensional items (such as the center magnet with the flowers and mini rhinestones, ribbon) would fit better. Others I kept the glass on and wrapped the ribbon around the entire frame. Some are watercolored images, some have heat embossing. They all use Stampin' Up! images, inks and card stocks.

Thanks for looking =)