You Are in For a Treat!

I just wrapped up some fun and not too scary Halloween cards and treat bags. I went to one of my go to companies for Halloween- Doodle Bug! I just love how you can use all of their collections from years prior together and make your scrappy dollars go further!  Plus its loads of fun to mix and match their papers, stickers, and dimensional stickers to see how many possibilities you can come up with.

I hope these inspire you to make some cute Halloween cards for the goblins in your life!  Here are the cards all together. I will show you close ups of each as well!

I mostly use the 6x6 paper pads for my cards. This way the design of the pattern papers are in proportion with the size of the card. You also have the entire collection to play with  which gives you endless possibilities.

 

This one I used a border sticker on it, to give it a little bit of glam.

 

I always find tower cards the hardest to design, so I try to make myself design one each time I make some cards.

 

This year in addition to my cards I also made some treat bags. This would be so much fun to make with the kids if you had a party or to have ready for any Halloween get togethers you have coming up. They don't take long to make. Again I used the 6x6 paper pads, some of their stickers and some border punches. The bags I had purchased, the kraft ones are from Michaels and the polka dot ones are from Pebbles, 31 line.

 

Just cut your topper the width of the bag and make sure you have a bit to fold over so you can staple it to the top of the bag.

 

Here are the two with the polka dot treat bags and with Doodle Bug's current Halloween line.

 

 

 

Here is Frankie's close up.

 

Here is the Witch's close up.

 

These are the treat bags that I had purchased from Michaels. They were located in the gift wrap area of the store. On these I used Doodlebugs Halloween collection from last year.

 

Here is a close up of the ghost. On these I also decorate the fronts as well since they were only kraft in color and I thought they needed a bit more!

 

The other close up.

 

 

I hope these inspire you to make some fun Halloween cards or treat bags. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Happy Scary creating!

 

Next up I will have a home décor Halloween banner that I whipped up with Teresa Collins Paper Halloween line along with some embellishments from Anna Griffin.

 

 

 

 

 

I am Back... Refreshed and Ready to go!

I know, its been awhile since I had last posted. It wasn't my intention to take a hiatus from the blogging world, but life got in the way.

For me years are in school years since I work for a school district. At the start of last summer everything was going fast and furious and everything was going well, almost too well. Husband was back to working fulltime and not doing temp work, and I had just received a promotion. Things couldn't be better in the career arena.

Shortly after we found out we were expecting. This was the cherry on top of everything else going well. This had been a long roller coaster of a journey for us since it was 3 years in the making and we had pretty much given up any hope of it becoming real for us. We were ecstatic when we found out. We were at 12 weeks; and had just shared the news with most family and friends. I had my first appointment with a doctor at that time and everything came crashing at that point. We found out during the ultrasound that the baby had died. Its been a much tougher journey then I had anticipated to bounce back. Hence why I took some time to slow down a bit.

I can't believe its been a year since all of that has happened life moves way too quickly. With that being said Fall is peaking its head in good old Wisconsin and for me this season is the highlight of the entire year. I am going to try and start sharing some of the projects I have been working on. I recently took the plunge and started project life style scrapbooking, I have a Halloween banner that I just finished,and cards will of course be on the way as well. I look forward to sharing all of these goodies with you again.

Here is my favorite card from last year to get you all in the Fall Halloween mood! Supplies are Doodlebug, their Halloween collection from last year. Its no surprise that I have once again bought some of their goodies this year as well and I can't wait to go play and create with!

 

Happy Creating!

Some More Christmas Cheer!

I am back today with more card ideas! We just got ourselves dug out from the storm. We ended up with 14 plus inches of snow! It makes a for a beautiful winter wonderland. I hope you enjoy the card and tag ideas!

These were done with Echo Park's Seasons Greeting and October Afternoon's Merry Christmas lines and with Tonic Studios punches. I used stickles to color in the the snowflakes to give them some more sparkle. The tags were made all with scraps!

 

Here are all of the cards I made with Doodlebug's North Pole pattern papers and embellishments. I also used Tonic punches on some of these cards as well.





 

 

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

 

Happy Creating!

Holiday Projects Galore!

I love this time of year, I just wish there were more hours in a day to get all of the projects done that I want to! As many of you may know I make all of my holiday cards to send out and no two are identical! I am not one who likes to do a production line or mass produce if I don't have too! I love just getting everything out and seeing how inspiration hits! So here are some of the cards some will see coming their way this year! I hope it helps inspire you to create something special yet for this year or for next year!

Here are some items I made with Doodlebug Design's North Pole Line. I love the traditional colors of this line. I of course used some of my Tonic punches as well on the projects. I used the Simplicity Victorian Border punch and the Scalloped Arc Border along with the medium Holiday Tree and Multi Level Snowman punch.

                                                           
                                                               Here are there close ups!

I will be back with some more projects tomorrow! Stay warm (here in WI we are in the middle of a blizzard, 14 inches and counting!) Happy Creating!

Vintage Christmas Fun

I can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner. This can be the craziest time of the year with  lots to do, place to go, people to see, parties to have. Let alone taking time to do some fun scrappy things this time of year.

I snuck some time for myself since I wanted to share some quick, fun and easy things that can help spruce up either your home, office, or table.

I have been hoarding this October Afternoon Very Merry paper for quite some time. I love the color combination on these papers. My inspiration to use this paper actually came from buying the cute little wire basket from Hobby Lobby. Isn't it amazing what can spark your inspiration!

So I did some traditional items for the holidays like my paper garland, and card and something a little less traditional- pinwheels! Yes, I said Pinwheels... they aren't just for summer! Come take a look!

 

Pinwheel How To:

For the larger Pinwheels I cut my paper to 8x8. I then measured from corner to corner. I drew a pencil line from the corner down to 4.5 inches and then from the bottom corner up to 7 inches. (Smaller is 6x6 and I went from the corner down to 3 and from the bottom corner up to the 5.5 inches.) I then cut on the lines. Next I punched the holes. Please see diagram.  I then took a border punch and did the edges. Next take the brad and gather the corners and then put the brad through the center and close it. The below diagram will help you place the holes.

 

The pinwheels are fun to use to dress up the candy containers for little visitors, or to decorate a table. They are also fun to use on a present as a bow to spiff up a special present for someone. You could also attach them to your garland for a fun window dressing. The options are endless and versatile for any occasion!

 

 

Garland How To:

For the garland again you will want double sided pattern paper, or cardstock since the color shows through. For this I took my paper and cut 2.5x 12 inch wide strips. I then punched down both sides of the strips. I then cut them in half since I wanted a smaller looped garland. Then just take end to end and staple take the next strip and link it and staple…

 Incredibly simple but oh so cute!!  There are so many fun variations you can do with this. You could alternate with cardstock or Kraft paper, you can make bigger loops to use on a mantle or for above a window or for a tree… you could stamp holiday sayings on them or you could take a punch and cut a pattern along it… I am sure this isn’t the last garland you will see. I just can’t believe it took me this long to think to use my punches on it.

Last but not least here is the close up of the simple card I made with my punches and some left over paper scraps.

I hope you enjoyed the vintage holiday projects and came away with a few ways to dress up a special present for someone, to add some unexpectant charm to a table or display, or helped inspire a holiday card!

 

Happy Holidays!!! And Happy Creating!

 

 

 

Halloween Cards

I had some fun playing with my Tonic punches and with some of my long lost stash of halloween scrappy goodies! I love digging though my seasonal stash of things and forgetting what I have and making things work together! Don't get me wrong I have new halloween goodies, but I felt compelled to use some of my older stuff first!

For these cards I used for pattern papers Authentique Glowing and embellishments are Authentique Glowing and Making Memories. As for punches I used the Scalloped Arc Border simplicity punch and the Tag and ticket Duo punch. I had a lot of fun playing with all the pattern papers and the fun little diecuts from the collection. I love that this has a vintage feel to it as well.

Here is the whole collection of them. 

Here is a close up of two tiny cards I did. 

This is one of my favorites since it has all the fun pattern papers!!

 



 

Another fun one that I used just the scalloped border punch.

This one I used the big die cut for the saying and I used the border punch just on the tips of the strips. 

 

I hope this gave you some ideas on what to do with some of your stash! I hope to have some more halloween projects yet this month so stay tuned!

 

Happy Haunting!!

A Chill is in the Air!

I would so be in heaven if I could find a place that was always wrapped in the beautiful colors of fall and the awesome crisp temperatures. Anyone know where this place exists??

Can you tell, I am so loving this weather? The nice cool crisp air, no more of the 90+ degree days.. I think we ended up with like 39 of those this summer.. Ucky-Not for me!

Fall is my favorite time of the year and I was so excited to see what Simple Stories Harvest Lane collection looked like. Needless to say I was not disappointed! Its a very cute collection with all the fun ,rich, earthy colors of fall. I made a layout and a card with the collection and I can't wait to make more with it since I have tons of fall pictures due to our yearly trips to Door County.

On the layout I used the following Tonic Punches:

Tonic Tools used: Edger Punch 3, Border Punch: Pumpkin, Maple Leaf and Fall, Simplicity Border Punch- Scalloped Diamond Punch, Duo Ticket and Tag punch.

Here is a close up of the heart embellishment.

The heart embellishment is a 4x4 piece of cardstock covered with layered border punch strips. I then used one of the 4x4 elements on the pattern piece of paper I then used my scissors to cut the heart out and then layered it on top with pop dots so you can see the fun pattern paper through the cut out.

Here is a fun simple card I made as well with the collection. This is geat for a new homeowner or someone who may have recently moved into their own place.

Here are the two projects together.

 

Well I hope my projects inspired you to make a fall project! Happy Creating!

Who doesn't need a Happy B-day Card now and then...

I have been busy working on a home decor project last week, which is almost done and pictures will be coming.. I have one more coat to do on those items before I can declare them finished! In the meantime though I have made some simple Birthday cards.. It seems like we are always needing a birthday card around here so I made a few up to have on hand. As like most of my cards I used scraps and odds and ends that are left from some other projects. I think its fun to see what you can come up with from the leftovers! Plus I hate to waste or throw any pretty paper out! Don't you??

Most product is from doodlebug. Here is a look at some simple doodle-y birthday cards!

 Some are a little girly and some are little bit more manly! 

Here is a pic of the original project that left me with all the fun Doodle Bug leftovers! I made a mini book of my niece and nephew's birthday!

I hope this helped inspired some birthday fun! Happy Creating! 

Mother's Day Projects

So my first projects have been posted on the Tonic blog! I was so excited to see it! I had given you a peak of what the layout had looked like. Now you can see the two cards and the layout. The layout is of my sister in law with my niece and nephew. The two cards are mother's day cards.

If you want any ideas of what tonic punches/tools were used to make the items or step by step instructions check out the link here.

I hope you enjoy the projects. All pattern papers are American Crafts Garden Cafe. I love the bright fun colors! Next I have to plot how I am going to spend the weekend since Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day. I may have to dedicate some time to the wonderful hobby this weekend!

Happy Creating!