Jelly Belly Halloween...

Here's the Halloween card I planned for my hostess club for our Oct meeting. Everyone liked it, and it's fun and easy to make! Jelly Bellys are probably my all-time favorite candy, and to me there is no other jellybean, I happily pay $7/pound, no questions asked for my beloved JB's, luckily I don't eat sweets often! Here I chose Wild Blackberry, the color is a deep purple that is almost black and it really compliments this card! To make this card easier to make, we filled the cups, then stuck them to acetate, and then trimmed the edges. Once that's in place with a little glue, it's easy to set your layers. Took me a while to figure that out, but it's a great trick!

For this card, I chose an odd color combo, Basic Black, Green Galore, and Lovely Lilac. Most people do orange, but it just seemed played out to me this year, I wanted purple, and somewhere it works! We used the Sweet Centers stamp set, 1 3/4" punch, and the Sweet Treat Cups from SU for this card. To add a little edging, we punched the purple layer with the Spiral punch, and those openings worked perfectly for running our black ribbon through for the X. The Happy Halloween is from All Holidays, and punched with the Modern Label punch. We took our purple scrap (from the tearing) and punched 1/4" holes and stuck those on with Glue Dots. I will be making many more of these! I just hate that you have to tear the card to get to the goods, but you know for JB's, I believe I would tear it in a hot minute...LOL!

Give Thanks Nugget Box...

These are the Nugget Boxes I planned for my hostess club for Oct's meeting. Everyone loved making them, they are lots of fun. I prescored everything for them, which was a lot of work, but saved a LOT of time at the meeting. Below is the pic of the box open and you can see the Nuggets. Of course, being me, the candies had to match, so the Nuggets are the Almond Nuggets in the gold wrappers, silver would have been tacky here...LOL! We sponged and stamped on Avery address labels and wrapped the candies in those. I also like using DSP, but in my hostess club, I love to show how you can create things with what you already have around you.

We used the Autumn Harvest set for the Nugget wrappers, and sponged them with Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango. The DSP is Razzleberry Lemonade, the CS is Crushed Curry, ribbon is Dusty Durango. We used the Give Thanks acorn stamp from The More The Merrier Level 3 Hostess Set. These are SO easy, and they make wonderful Thank You gifts, hostess gifts, etc.

***Please forgive the blurry pics. I am having camera trouble, have no idea what's wrong with it, it's just not focusing, I may have to go back to my plain old digital until I figure it out. Thanks for bearing with me!

My Etsy Store...

I have no idea how well this will go for me, but I have decided to open an Etsy store. Many of the cards on my blog may show up there, so if it's something you might like to call you own, you know where to find me...LOL! It's in the beginning stages now, but I am hoping to have it done and stocked next week! There is one card up now to check everything and I think it's all ready to go! Check it out!

www.inked4you.etsy.com

A Soft Suede Sunset...

This card was sent to my Uncle who shares my birthday on Sept 26th. This was made in minutes, I was in a huge hurry, but I still love how it turned out! The base is Soft Suede, and I used Naturals White CS for the Top Note Die. The corners are the Curly Label punch lined up in the Photo Corner punch, although in hindsight, you can't see the centers, and it would have saved a ton of time to just cut the Curly Labels in half. Oh well, you live and learn, right? The treeline is from Lovely As a Tree, and the background is brayered in 3 colors (Bordering Blue, Crushed Curry, and Old Olive) with sponging over it in places, and the sunset is sponged in Crushed Curry and a tiny bit of Really Rust. I used a Gel Pen for the corners and edge of the Top Note, and stamped the sentiment from Heard From The Heart in Soft Suede. Finished this off with some Soft Suede Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon, and called it done.

Birthday Wishes from Under The Sea...

My youngest daughter turned 3 today!!! She is an Ariel fanatic, she just loves that mermaid, so I decided to make her an Ariel birthday card. Of course, I don't have any Ariel stamps, so I had to think. I GOOGLED 'Ariel Line Art' (cause if you google Ariel images, or Ariel clip art it's all in color), and adjusted the size down until it was small enough for my card front. I printed it on cardstock, and colored it in. This card is SO simple, I probably shouldn't blog it here, but it goes to show you don't have to go all out to make a nice card! I knew that Tara would want to keep this in her room and play with it, so I did not want any embellishments on it that would come off.

This is not the best pic, I remembered to snap it right before giving it to Tara, so there was no time! However, the bubbles have Crystal Effects on them, as do Ariel's eyes. The coloring is actually a lot more detailed than the picture shows. This image was colored with Sharpies 36 Color Collection! Her hair has NO lines at all, I was amazed, it took some time to color, as I don't have the fine point Sharpies, but this looks great for what I used. Frosted Lace Stickles were used on her tail.

And here is the best picture by FAR!!! My little angel SO excited to have an Ariel birthday card!

CS is SU and DCVW White Core

Ink is Sharpie, and a couple SU markers

Image is digital and I can email to you upon request.

Big Shot was used with a bubble texture plate on the green.

Sorry for the bad pics and quick post. This week is just starting, we still have Chloe's birthday at home, a small family party for both kids, a friend's kids birthday party Friday, beach trip to pack for this weekend, I am on preschool snack duty all week, and the house is getting dirty, it's freaking me out. I am a neat freak who loves to clean, so needless to say, no more stamping till I catch up on cleaning!

My Homemade Sock Monkey (if you laugh, I will hit you with him!)

As many of you know, my husband and I recently spent a couple nights quietly together making sock monkeys from a kit to give our little girls for their birthdays. Our youngest girl, Tara, turned 3 today, and Chloe turns 5 on Thursday, but we gave both of them one today. This is the monkey I made! No, he isn't the prettiest thing (or even close to it) that I have ever seen, but the light in those girls eyes when we handed them over was priceless! This one went to the 5 year old, and she named him Banana Head (so original, huh?). Jim and I had a great time. They each turned out differently as I varied from the pattern a little bit as I wanted big, round monkey ears, and the kit pattern was for flatter ones. We also chose different buttons for the eyes. We can't help but laugh when we look at these guys! The girls just got them today, and they seem to be a hit! It's from the heart, and that's most important. Of course he was set aside to open real presents, but was picked back up and loved! I have included a full body shot, and then his close up with the vest I added buttons to! He's too skinny, kind of ugly, and a pain to make, but SO worth it to watch 2 little angels enjoy them!

Sock Monkey Double Challenge! MOJO102 / CC232

I am HOOKED on the Mojo Monday Sketches! I just finished #101 last night, the new one posted today, and so I just finished #102! I have posted the sketch below so you can see it! Check out Mojo Monday for yourself! I also made this for last weeks SCS Tues Color Challenge, CC232 (a little behind, but I wanted to use this combo tonight!), to use Close To Cocoa, Taken With Teal and Very Vanilla.

I LOVE this Sock Monkey from SU so much. I have heard people on forums knock him, all I can say is, they must not own him! He's adorable, and oh so much fun! I usually paper piece or color him, but today he said he felt like being Vanilla!

Stamps: Sock Monkey
Paper: CS...Close To Cocoa, Taken With Teal, Very Vanilla
Ink: CTC, TWT
Punches: Scallop Edge, Scallop Square, Photo Corner, Boho Blossom, 1", 3/4", and 1/4" Circles
Accessories: Sponges, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Styled Vanilla HPH, Very Vanilla Ribbon, Paper Piercer, Cuttlebug Folder....BESIDES the Cuttlebug Folder, this card is once again SUO!

I hope you all enjoy it! It was the most fun to make, I truly had a good time. Now to get ready for bed! I think I will leave the mess I made for another day :)