Monday, October 31, 2011

My Time Made Easy - November Sneak Peek!

Happy Halloween!  I hope the ghosts and goblins don't play too many tricks on you this evening!

With Halloween brings the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and gift giving ideas to think about.  I hope over the next few days you'll gather some great ideas from the My Time Made Easy design team. 

Today I'm peeking the new Cover-Alls template.  Lauren peeked it yesterday on her blog.  I used the same paper in a different color...the new Farm Fresh digital paper in Sunrise.  I paired it with red to make it holiday festive!  I filled it with Deedee Desserts No Bake Cheesecake Mix in raspberry.  All you do is add cream cheese and Cool Whip to the package and put that in a graham cracker crust pie pan and refrigerate.  I received this as a gift once and thought it was a great idea.  So that's what I did here.
I added lace and gingham ribbon to make it look like an apron.  The pockets even got a little bit of lace added to them as well.  This is a super easy template to create!  The template comes with other ideas to create your own Cover-Alls to fit your crafting needs, too!
Lauren, Kathryn, and Monique are posting some fabulous creations with more of the new templates being released this month (there are 4 of them!), so make sure you swing by their blogs to see!  Thanks for stopping by today and Happy Haunting!

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Pretty Palette #33

Hi everyone!  This is going to be a quick post!  I'm here with another Pretty Palette challenge from My Time Made Easy.  Here are this week's colors.
These colors were taken from the Chocolate Halloween digital paper pack.  I thought some of you may need to make another Halloween card and would want different colors to use.
I had to made a baby card and it turns out the gift I bought was in these colors!  I used the Bringing Back Baby digital stamp set for the buggy, and printed it off on the Chocolate Halloween paper so I could paper piece it.  Then I just colored the rest with copics.  The sentiment is from Tending the Garden stamp set.
I used this week's Pretty Pattern sketch from MTME and turned it on its side. 

You can see more information on the MTME blog.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great Sunday!
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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Just Us Girls Wild Card Challenge #108 - Alter and Decorate a Frame

Hi everyone!  Are you ready for a Wild Card challenge from Just Us Girls?  We have a really fun one this week brought to us by our very talented and out-of-the-box crafter Elise!  I didn't think I would be up for this one, but it was so easy, I'm so glad I took on the challenge!
The challenge is to alter and decorate a frame.  I already had a frame in my possession that I purchased a long time ago (I got it for $.97!).  However, I had no idea what I was going to do with it until I made a visit to one of my favorite stores I go to for inspiration...JoAnn's.  While I was ambling around, I found this picture frame in the Christmas section (yes, they are featuring Christmas decorations already!).
It caught my eye and I took a picture of it for inspiration.  I often do that while I'm in stores and see something that I can recreate or use for inspiration.  I went to the button section of the store and found some amazing buttons.  I bought some snowflake buttons and some crystal poinsettia buttons.  Then I purchased some green glitter paper.  When I got home, this is what I created with my new and old supplies.
I arranged the poinsettia buttons in a tree formation, added the crystal star on top, and some glitter dots for the trunk.  The ribbon treatment was created from ribbon I've had for a long time.  The sentiment is from the Secret Santa stamp set by My Time Made Easy and it's stamped in Riding Hood Red ink.  This will look very pretty on my shelf in the living room for the holidays (if I don't give it away as a gift first).  I can see me altering another frame in the future.  This was such a cool project!  And wait until you see the other girls' projects!  You can see them on the JUGs blog and at their own blogs.


Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

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Friday, October 28, 2011

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Jingle All the Way!

Hi all!  Happy Friday!  I had the day off today because I had to take my mom to the doctor for a follow-up from her stay in the hospital a few weeks ago.  She's doing really well.  We went for breakfast because the appointment was at 7:30 am!  Quite early to get up on my day off, but it was a nice day.

Today starts a new challenge over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, and we have a new sponsor....Creations by AR.  They have some fun templates to choose from!  The challenge this week is called Jingle All the Way...use bells on your project.

I chose this Brownie Box.  It's just a cute little template that only takes one piece of paper to make.  A few score lines, and it was done!  I used a pattern paper from Jillibean called Christmas Chestnut Soup.  I love it because it's sturdy and wonderful to use for a template.  I tied the box closed with Riding Hood Red tafetta ribbon.  I strung five bells onto red and white baker's twine and tied it to the bow. 

This box will fit a lot of different small items, but I found that these pocket-size antibacterial containers from Bath & Body Works fit perfectly inside.  I was lucky that they had Christmas ones out already!

 Here's another shot of the box.  I just love this cute little thing! 

How are you doing on your Christmas cards and projects?  Why not stop by the CSAYL blog and play along this week?  We don't have many challenges left this year!  If you play along with us this week, you could win two templates from AR Creations!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great weekend!

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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Pretty Palette #32

Hello everyone!  We have new colors over at the Pretty Palette challenge from My Time Made Easy.  They are Halloween inspired!

These colors were taken from the Traditional Halloween digital paper pack

Yesterday I made some Halloween treat boxes for my nephews (you can see them here), and today I thought I'd make a different one for my niece.  I made Halloween cards for all of them (you can see them here), so I thought I'd take the image from the card I made for Ava and put it on this Cutesy Cover template (which is free!).   I printed the image out and mounted it on the Cornice Trimmed Circle cut file using Marigold Morning and black cardstock.  I tied it closed with some black twine.

Our design team made some fabulous creations with these colors.


 Stop by the MTME blog to play along!  Thanks for stopping by today! 

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Saturday, October 22, 2011

Just Us Girls #107 - 3-D Halloween Theme

Saturday!  What a great day!  No getting up at 5:00 am, fighting the traffic on the thruway, dealing with challenging kids....whoever thought of Saturday was a genius!  And whoever thought of having a Just Us Girls challenge on Saturday was also a genius!  LOL!! 

It's getting close to Halloween, and this week the JUGs challenge is a 3-D/Template challenge.  So, Maria challenged us to create a Halloween themed template or 3-D item.
I have tons of templates from My Time Made Easy (maybe it's because I'm on the design team?) and decided to use one of them...the Freshed Popped template.
This template's intended use is as a popcorn container.  I chose to make two Halloween boxes out of them...one for each of my nephews, Ethan and Kristoff.  This paper is from a K&Company Halloween pack.  I just cut them out on my Cricut and put it together...easy peasy!  The tags are also from MTME...a cut file called Frame Me.  The stamp set I used is another MTME product...A Spooky Surprise.  I stamped over the sentiment with the spider web stamp and attached the tag to the box with brads.  I decided to have them hanging off the edge so it didn't cover up the design of the paper.  Inside are some fruit roll-ups and Sour Patch candies.  They'll get more...this is just the beginning!

The JUGs design team did a fabulous creating some Halloween themed projects.  Stop by the JUGs blog to see the and to play along.  Here are the links to their blogs and our guest designer's blog.


I hope you have an enjoyable Saturday!  Thanks for stopping in today and I hope to see you playing with Just Us Girls!

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Spar-ka-lay!!

Happy Friday!  Boy, am I glad to see this day get here!  I'm very stressed work lately and it's really dragging me down.  Wine and chocolate are my best friends lately!  Sigh!

But what keeps me going is my stamping.  I'm really happy to go into my basement and do some crafting.  Today over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, we've been challenged to create something "SPAR-KA-LAY" using Bugaboo stamps.  I love snowmen, and I chose Bobble Head Christmas Snowman to work with.  I just love this little guy!
I started with this great sketch from Deconstructed Sketches and used Basic Grey's Jovial paper pack.  To make it "SPAR-KA-LAY", I used some chunky glitter on the wooden Maya Road snowflakes and the snow the snowman is standing on.  I also used it on the falling snowflakes and a little on his hat.  I colored him (or tried to!) according to an article I saw in Cardmaker magazine.  It was all about shadows.  I think I need a little more practice, but I do like it. 
Are you ready for more inspiration from the CSAYL design team?  Stop by the CSAYL blog to see for yourself!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a GREAT weekend!

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pretty Palette #31

Happy Sunday!  It's pretty dreary here in Buffalo, NY today...rainy, windy, gloomy.  Great day to stay home and craft, but I'm going out for lunch with my mom and aunt.  That will make this day better!


We have new colors over at the Pretty Palette challenge. I chose some bolder colors, and I love this  combo!  What do you think of them?  Here's what I thought of them.



I chose this Perky Lil' Penguin digital image from My Time Made Easy to work with today.  He was so fun to color.  I kept it simple by using this sketch from Clean and Simple.  The white panel was run through a snowflake embossing folder, I added a horizontal Pacific Point panel punched with a Martha Stewart punch, and tied a white sheer ribbon around it.  The tag was created using sentiments from the Secret Santa stamp set and a Spellbinders tag die.  Love the outcome of this card!


Stop by the MTME blog to see what the girls have created.   You'll also want to stop by their blogs to leave some love! 


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you are having a great Sunday!

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Saturday, October 15, 2011

Just Us Girls #106 - Color Challenge

Happy Saturday!  I'm so happy to be back with my JUGs girls!  I've missed last week, and it seems forever since I've been playing there!  We welcomed Lynn Mangan and Vicki Dutcher last week as our newest members!  I'm so happy to have them join our team! 


This week is a color challenge hosted by Pam, and what GREAT colors she has chosen!  Isn't that a fun graphic too?  So Halloween-ish, but you'll see some of the girls used them in a non-Halloween way...me included.  I needed a birthday card for a friend of mine.  (Her name is Robin...I just realized I used a bird on her card!)  We are going to her house for a get-together tonight, so I worked these colors into a birthday card.   I also just got this stamp set and die from My Favorite Things called Contempo Cage.  Love this one!  Here's what I came up with.


I actually did something I have not done in a long time....I CASED a card!  I was looking through the MFT SCS gallery and came across this card by Michele Boyer and fell in love with it.  I started with the text paper from Halloween in Wonderland paper pack by Graphic 45 and paired it with the polka dot paper from Basic Grey's Eerie paper pack.  The flourish and bird's wing were die cut from the same paper.  The bird was die cut from the Graphic 45 paper.  I added a purple crystal for his eye.  The ribbon is a sheer dotted one from Michael's.  I used the Bow Easy for the double bow.  The sentiment is from the Contempo Cage set and it's punched out with SU's word window punch.  That's it!  Love how this turned out.  I do have to finish off the inside before I give it to Robin.

The girls have some great inspiration for you over on the JUGs blog.  Here are links to their blogs too.


I hope you can join us this week!  We'd love to see what you do with these colors!  Thanks for stopping in today...enjoy your weekend!

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Friday, October 14, 2011

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Seeing Spots

I have to interrupt this blogpost to ask you if you saw my cousin Caitlin Koch's performance last night on the X-Factor?  She performed at Simon Cowell's home in FRANCE!!  She was AMAZING and I'm hoping she makes it to the next round.  We'll find out on Sunday night!  I hope you are watching too!

Happy Friday everyone!  This week at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long we are being sponsored by one of my favorite stamp companies...Paper Makeup Stamps!  I might be a little biased because I'm on their design team, but I've been on it almost since the beginning, and I've seen them grow into a wonderful company with many versatile stamps!  And they are offering a $15 shopping spree to their store for our winner this week at CSAYL!


Our challenge this week is called Seeing Spots....you must use polka dots on your holiday creation.  Here is my card for this challenge.


I love this Snow Happy set from PMS!  It's been used quite a bit by myself the PMS design team!  It's got a homespun feel to it, so I went that route with my card.  I started with this great sketch from Card Patterns.  It gave me the opportunity to use four different patterns (two of them polka dots).  I stamped the snowman in Memento Tuxedo black, colored it with copics, and cut it out.  It's mounted on a base made from Vintage Cream cardstock and Bravo Burgundy cardstock, which was run through the Swiss dots folder.  I added some vintage seam binding (from Debbie Marcinkiewicz's Etsy store) and a tag made using the Little Moments PMS stamp set.  The wooden heart button is from Prima and the other from PTI. 


Are you ready to see more inspiration from the CSAYL team?  Stop by the CSAYL blog and enter your creation there too.  Thanks for stopping by today!

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Monday, October 10, 2011

My Cousin's Bootcamp Audition on X-Factor

Here is my cousin Caitlin Koch's bootcamp audition on X-Factor.  She made it to the first 8 finalists in the girls' group and went to Simon's house to work with him.  I don't know the outcome, but I'm hoping for the best.  They seem to really like her!  You can watch it on Fox this Wednesday and Thursday.  Here's a link to the video.  It's not on Youtube, so I didn't know how to link it as a video, so here's a link to the video


I hope you enjoy it!

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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Pretty Palette #30

Hi everyone! Happy Columbus Day weekend to my US friends and Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends! It's an absolutely gorgeous weekend here in Western New York! I was supposed to go to the Buffalo Bills game, but gave my ticket to my nephew Mark. He was home from college this weekend and I think he really wanted to go. Nice aunt, I know! (But really, I would rather watch it on TV!)


My hubby and I were at our cabin Friday and Saturday, and I forgot to do my Pretty Palette post!  So here are this week's colors.  I was going for fall colors with a bit of a pop, therefore I added the melon.  I like this combination.  Here's what I came up with.


I always start color challenges by finding pattern paper to match the colors.  I found this one in SU's retired Raspberry Tart paper pack.  Love that damask design and the color was perfect.  Then I went in search of a stamp set.  I wanted a fall theme, so I grabbed the Thankful stamp set from My Time Made Easy and went from there.  First, I cut the label using A Secret Surprise cut file.  Then I stamped the outline and sentiment from A Secret Surprise stamp set in Always Artichoke ink.  The leaves and acorns image from Thankful stamp set was stamped three times and colored with copics, then cut out.  I stamped the large pumpkin from the same set and colored and cut it out as well.  The smaller pumpkins are from A Spooky Surprise stamp set and were stamped directly on the label and colored.  I layered the larger pumpkin in the middle of the smaller ones on dimensionals.  The leaves and acorn images were attached with adhesive.  I added some Star Dust Stickles. to the pumpkins and acorns.

The pattern paper was layered onto a white layer and then the ribbon was added.  The label was adhered with dimensionals.  It looked a little bare, so I add a pearl flourish from Zva.  I cut it down to fit in that upper corner.

What do you think you can do with these colors?  I hope you try them and add your photo to the MTME blog.  You can see some fabulous inspiration there too from our design team.


Thanks for stopping in today and have a fabulous weekend!

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Friday, October 7, 2011

A Paper Makeup Stamps Monster of a Hop!

***I have another post today, so please scroll down!***

Welcome to our monthly Paper Makeup Stamps hop!  This month we are having a Monster of a Hop...everyone is using one of the many PMS monsters!

We have several guests joining us on this hop.  You can find the linky list at the end of my post.  You can hop along with us!

The monster I chose to use today is Spike.  I've used him several times before and just love him.  I made this a Halloween card, using the colors of the holiday.


The dp is from a Halloween K&Company paper pack.  I paired it with this retired green from SU.  I love this sketch from this month's Sketch for You to Try.  This is the second time using it today!  The sentiment is from the Witch fairy set.  I added a spider button in the upper corner (I got a whole bag of different size spider and bat buttons for $2.50 at JoAnn's!) and put crystals in place of the button holes.


We have a great deal for you for this week only!  All the PMS monsters are 15% off!  Just use the code MONSTERHOP at checkout for you discount.  So if you see one on the hop that you like, now is the time to get it!

Below are the hoppers....stop by to see what they've created!   Thanks for stopping by!




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Christmas Stamping' All Year Long - A Purple Challenge

Happy Friday!  We are at the beginning of a long weekend for the US and Canada!  What a lovely time of year!  And we are on the heels of the Christmas holidays, so here I am again with another Christmas card challenge from Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.


This week we are sponsored once again by Pink Cat Studios.  The challenge that we have for you is to use purple on your card.  I almost fell off my chair with this one because I don't do purple very often!  But I trudged on through and came up with one that I really like!


I searched my paper stash for something with the color purple and came across this paper from Pink Paislee Pop Fashion Collection.  Love the plaid and text superimposed on it.  SU's new in color Wisteria Wonder matched perfectly with the dp.  The sketch is this month's Sketch for You to Try.  I ran the small piece of Wisteria Wonder through the Swiss Dots folder, added the white satin ribbon, and a pearl flourish by Zva.  The sentiment is from PTI's Holiday Button Bits.  I stamped it and used a nestie to cut it out.  The image is colored with copics and shaded around the image with Vintage Photo distress ink.  There are some star dust stickles on the image too for some sparkle.


Think you don't know what to do with purple?  Then stop by the CSAYL blog for some inspiration.  If you play along, you could win 5 free digis!  Can't win if you don't play!  Thanks for stopping by today!

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Holiday Year in Review - My Time Made Easy Group Post

Today the My Time Made Easy team is doing their monthly year in review.  This month we are calling it a holiday year in review.  It's hard to believe the holidays are less than three months away!  Time to start thinking about all those wonderful people in our lives that we love to remember, and the handmade gifts we love to make and they love to receive.

I've chosen one of my favorite templates from MTME...the In Suspense template.
Even though this is an older template, I've paired it with some newer products.  The pattern paper is from this month's Mrs. Candy Claus digital paper pack.  I just love the red, pink, and brown palette. 

The snowman is Made in the Snow digital image.  It comes with the snowman, the string of lights, and a stocking for different pairings.  He's colored with copics and I added star dust stickles to the snowflakes and snow under him.   

And finally, I added the bauble from the chocolate grosgrain ribbon.  The bauble is from the new Beautiful Baubles digital stamp set, and the sentiment is from the new Well Rounded digital stamp set.  I changed the color to red in the GIMP software.  I swirled some pink ink inside the ornament and colored the hanger with a silver pen.

The sweet treats inside are caramel apple candy corn.  I know they are usually for Halloween, but the colors looked Christmas-y to me!  They are delish too!

If you'd like to see more holiday in review, stop by the MTME DT blogs.


I hope you have enjoyed the MTME posts over the last few days!  Thanks for stopping in today! 

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Sunday, October 2, 2011

October Calendar


Hi again everyone!  I'm posting my calendar page late, but it's only a day late.  I love fall and was trying to find just the right images for my October page.  I found this unused Heartfelt Creations pumpkin and vine set that coordinates with the Spellbinders pumpkin nesties and knew it was the perfect choice.
I stamped the pumpkin in Memento tuxedo black and die cut it with the nestie.  Then I set out to color.  I love orange and used some Y and YR copic markers.  Such pretty colors!  I stamped the vines and leaves and colored them with YG markers.  The pumpkin was placed on top of the vines with dimensionals and I added the ribbon.  When I was ready to photograph it, I thought it needed something, so I added Star Dust Stickles to the vines and leaves.  The calendar page (from Taylored Expressions) is mounted on dp from a K&Company fall paper pack.  I left my stand for the calendar in my classroom, so this will be going to school with me tomorrow!

There are several other girls creating calendars that you'd might like to see.


Thanks for stopping by!  Happy October!

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