Halloween Mini Pizza Box

Well, Stampin' Up! was my first stamp love, and my only one for years. But then the young and attractive PTI came along and turned my head. Since then there have been others, I admit it, but you never forget your first, right? LOL! SU is my go to company for Halloween stamps, probably because I have so many and I can't bear to part with them, even though they are all retired now, except for this one I just got, called Sweet Centers, from the Holiday Mini Catalog, and it's actually an all-season set. The neat thing about it is you can order treat cups that fit into the centers of the images to fill with candy or

confetti or anything you like! But instead of using one of those, I decided to try a mini pizza box. You can find the directions HERE. Everything I did to the box I did before assembly. I used Pumpkin Pie CS and used my coluzzle to cut a hole in the lid. I cut a square of retired SU Halloween DP, coluzzle'd it and added Lovely Lilac eyelets at the corners. I stamped my focal image in Kiwi Kiss on white CS and punched out a 1 3/4" circle in the middle. I cut a layer of Lovely Lilac CS and coluzzle'd a slightly hole in the center so it would show through the main focal piece. Then I used black Staz-on on a square from an

old PTI box. I adhered this to the back of the LL piece and adhered the whole thing to the top of the box. Next I stamped images from two retired sets on the edges of the box. "Happy Halloween" is from Spooktacular Greetings, and the border is from Happy Fright Night. I used Sticky Strip (aka Terrifically Tacky Tape or red-line tape) to assemble the box. This box is 4" square and 1" deep. That's a lot of candy corn baby! I'm thinking more along the lines of a big chocolate chip cookie or maybe a large thin brownie! What do you think? This project went together in a snap and was really fun to make. I hope you enjoyed it too. Thanks for looking!

ODBD Three for Three Challenge Card

I have become quite a fan of Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, particularly since I have been making cards for the church. ODBD is having a challenge to make a pocket card--you can read all about it HERE. I decided to make a double pocket card. You can find the directions HERE. I used SU Afternoon Tea (ret.) and folded according to directions. I made tags from PTI Vintage Cream CS, rounded the corners and used my SU eyelet border punch across the bottom. I used Sing to the Lord and stamped the scriptures on the tags in Close to Cocoa. I sponged with Groovy Guava (SU ret.) and stamped dogwood blossoms in Soft Sky (SU ret.). I added Groovy Guava double stitched ribbon. The butterfly on the front is die cut using SU Sizzix Butterfly die. I repurposed an old PTI stamp box for the die cut and stamped the Amazing Grace Hymn on it in Staz ON Timber Brown. I added pearls (from Hobby Lobby I think).






Here is a picture showing the tags. I absolutely love the way this turned out and hope you do too. I hope everyone had a good weekend and is looking forward to the week ahead. Thanks for stopping by!

Gina K. Autumn Blessings

I've been in love with Gina K. Designs' Heavy Base Weight Luxury CS for a while now. It truly is luxurious. But I finally tried their stamps too, and I really like them. Here I've used Inspiration Mosaic and Autumn Beauty. GKD also recently came out with Pumpkin Spice CS. This is what I used for the card base here. I have to say, there are other colors I like better. In any case I used the Inspiration Mosaic for my layout. I stamped one of the sunflower images and the pumpkins in Palette Burnt Umber on PTI vanilla. I made some patterned paper of my own using various images from the Autumn Beauty stamp set: Corn stalks on SU Ruby Red CS, branch on SU Pumpkin Pie, small sunflower on Summer Sunrise (PTI), and leaves on GKD Pumpkin Spice. Images are watercolored with SU inks. Sent. and leaves are stamped on vanilla, colored, sponged, punched out with SU large oval punch and mounted in Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware (SU ret.) Other patterned paper is PTI's Autumn Abundance, a gorgeous collection of DP. This card was very time consuming to make because of cutting out all the different squares, but I really like how it came out. If you were making multiple cards, you could have 1/4 sheets of each of your patterns, stamp the mosaic on each one, then cut them out so each card would have different patterns in each square. Hope you enjoyed looking! Happy Stamping!

Cards for church members

This is the card I made for the members of our church that can't make it to services. I used several sets from ODBD: Sing to the Lord (bird and dogwood blossoms), Amazing Grace Hymn, Scripture Collection 2 (on front) and Flourished Christian Symbols (inside). Card base is PTI vanilla, dogwood blossoms stamped in Soft Sky (SU ret.). Hymn is stamped in Soft Sky on vanilla and distressed with Close to Cocoa, matted with a C to C layer, distressed with Chocolate Chip. Bird is stamped in Versamark on vanilla and embossed in gold, watercolored with SU inks Soft Sky, Pink Pirouette, Cameo Coral, Wild Wasabi, Barely Banana and Close to Cocoa, cut out and popped up on foam tape. Scripture is stamped on vanilla in C to C, dogwood blossom stamped around edges with Soft Sky, punched with ticket corner punch (SU) and matted with C to C cardstock, also popped up.

Here is a detail of the bird, sorry for the blurry pic.

Here is a pic of the inside. Everyone from the church will sign these cards on Sun, so they have to be 1/2 sheet size instead of the typical 1/4 sheet size.

Hope you enjoyed seeing these cards as much as I enjoyed making them! Have a great day.

At Last! The Clock!

I have had this clock mostly done for several weeks now and finally put the finishing touches on it today. I bought this KaiserCraft clock kit from my LSS. They have a lot of really cute frame, shaped album, and clock kits. It comes with the pre-cut wooden parts and the clock parts. You decorate as desired! Here I used Good Morning Sunshine DP (SU retired), the bird chipboard (current SU catty), chipboard #'s and corner piece are not SU. I used acrylic paints to paint some of the chipboard and covered some with the DP. I used various buttons and ribbons(SU and PTI). The kiwi ribbon with the white polka dots is from the Pig Tales collection (SU retired). I never ordered it, so I put out a call for help on SCS and got some that way. I used Mod Podge to apply the DP. I used brown paint for the distressing.

Here is a detail of the ribbon and buttons. And of course my little angel-faced mischief-maker! Look at that gap across the front of her smile!

Here is a detail of the bird on the branch. I drew the veins on the leaves with a marker.

I am just so thrilled with how this turned out! Brad said "It's the best thing you've ever made." I don't know about that, but I love it and hope you do too. One thing I forgot to mention--the kit comes with an easel type stand, but I plan to hang it on the wall in my stamp room. Have a great day!

Brad's Apprentice Journal

On September 13, Brad and I will be beginning a course in the Apprentice program, which is a class designed to help you grow in your relationship with God. It is based on a book by James Bryan Smith, who lives here in Wichita and spoke at our church last Sunday, entitled The Good and Beautiful God, Falling in Love With the God Jesus Knows. You read the book, do spiritual exercises, keep a journal, and discuss your experiences in a small group. Everyone who's done it says it is amazing, and Brad and I are really looking forward to it. So I made him a journal. This is one of SU's chipboard covered books, covered with Basic Grey paper from long ago. The image is from ODBD's set Keep My Lamp Burning, and is the coolest lighthouse image I have seen--very collage-y. I inked up the stamp in Buckaroo Blue, then wiped the blue off the edges and corners and inked those up with Mellow Moss. I layered it on Buckaroo Blue and Mellow Moss CS and some Night of Navy and Mellow Moss eyelets and some hemp finished off the journal. I hope he likes it! I had a great time making it. Have a great day!

PTI Round 4 Regular Card 2

Well folks here they are AGAIN, On My Couch and OMC Additions! This uses one of my fave color combos, dark blue and rust. I think this would be a really good masculine card, maybe an anniversary card for your DH. It sort of makes me think of Archie and Edith Bunker on All in the Family. Is anyone reading this old enough to remember that show? My mom used to never miss it! BG is Polka Dot Basics stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear EP on Enchanted Evening CS, PTI's newest color. Sent is also embossed in clear. Chairs are stamped in Enchanted Evening, table is Burnt Umber, rug is SU Really Rust, and mugs are colored with RR ink and blender pens. Night of Navy eyelets (SU retired) match really well. I have to say, I never thought I'd use any of the couches and chairs except the one for paper piecing, but I really like this polka dotted one too! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day.