Halloween cards are done!

This weekend I finally finished my Halloween cards, so I thought I would share the last batches of cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^® unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Spooky Bingo Bits
Paper: Too Cute to Spook - Full Moon patterned paper (Bella Blvd), Whisper White, Basic Black, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Peach Parfait, Kiwi Kiss, Wild Wasabi, Going Gray, Crushed Curry, Pool Party
Ink: Jet Black StazOn^®, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Peach Parfait, Kiwi Kiss, Wild Wasabi, Going Gray, Crushed Curry, Pool Party
Accessories: Black and white fibers (On the Surface), 1-1/4" circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, 1-3/8" square punch, Stampin' Dimensionals^®

I think this set of cards was my favorite. They're a fairly simple layout, but I think it works here. I love this patterned paper, so I wanted it to be visible on the cards. And I like how the punched circles matted on black squares coordinate with the polka dots. I probably wouldn't have put these colors together myself and thought of Halloween, but I think they work!

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Too Cute to Spook and Best Witches (Unity Stamp Co.)
Paper: Too Cute to Spook - The Boo Crew  patterned paper (Bella Blvd), Whisper White, Basic Black, Perfect Plum, Peach Parfait, Kiwi Kiss, Wild Wasabi, Crushed Curry, Pool Party
Ink: Jet Black StazOn; Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Peach Parfait, Kiwi Kiss, Wild Wasabi, Crushed Curry, Pool Party and Blush Blossom markers
Accessories: Black fibers (On the Surface), Basic Black 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Ticket Corner punch, Dazzling Details, Rock Diamond Stickles (Ranger), black rhinestones (EK Success), google eyes (Inkadinkadoo), Stampin' Dimensionals

This patterned paper is from the same line as the polka dots, and I think it's adorable. I had purchased the stamp sets at the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo a few weeks ago, so I was excited to run across these coordinating papers in Archiver's. I used a large piece of the paper on each card and then a layered focal image stamped with either the monster or the witch. Some fibers and a bit of a sparkle here and there, and that's it! These cards also have a pretty basic layout, although they took a bit longer because of the coloring.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Spooky Bingo Bits
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Blue Bayou, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, Crushed Curry
Ink: Jet Black StazOn
Accessories: 1-1/4" circle punch, Bitty Bat punch, Cupcake Builder punch, and Jack o' Lantern layering punch (EK Success),  Spooky Fence die (Amuse Studio), Stampin' Dimensionals

I made two cards with this design. They were quick -- minimal stamping, mainly just punch, glue and go! The jack-o'-lantern is a three-step layering punch, so by punching the layers in different colors, I made the jack-o'-lantern look as if it is lit up. The moon, clouds, bats and fence finish off this not-too-spooky scene.

Well, now that my cards are done, I just have to send them off. (I often forget that the work isn't done just because all the cards are made ...). Thanks for stopping by!

A few more cast members

Well, I had a quiet, but fun, birthday. I slept in a bit Thursday morning and spent a good portion of the day lying in bed in my pajamas reading a book. In the afternoon, my dad brought over a bouquet of flowers for me, and I watched Singin' in the Rain.

Then while I was at belly dance class that evening, my sister put up streamers to decorate the apartment, and my parents and brother brought over cake, ice cream and presents.

One of the "presents" my mom gave me was an ice cream bucket filled with my old Legos from when I was a kid. There's nothing quite like receiving something as a present that was already mine, and we all had a good laugh about it. (My sister said she is going to start doing this; I told her I have a bunch of DVDs I've never opened that she could literally "regift.") But it was fun to have them and compare the different pieces then and now. I think one of the things that's changed the most with Legos is the people. I had forgotten, but they used to be large round heads attached to a small piece that also had jointed arms. The hands were small circles that could be attached to the knobs on the other Legos. That's it; no bodies.

I had three people in my old bucket o' Legos. I had to build bodies for them, which was interesting. They're about twice the size of my other Lego characters, so I'm not sure how I'll incorporate them into any future stories. Maybe they'll be stricken with gigantism. Or they'll be the last three ancestors of a Martian colony that crashed into Earth two hundred years ago. Who knows.

But without further ado, here are the new members of my cast:

Lucas (in white) is the self-proclaimed Biggest Star Wars Fan Ever. He has all of the movies memorized, and he even made his own light saber (it's hard to see in the picture).

Sally (in blue) is a vigilante, The Exasperator. She tracks down robbers and then tells them bad jokes until they agree to give back what they stole.

 Cy, the cyborg, has one regular hand and and one magnetic bar. It's handy for picking up the screws he drops when doing self-repairs, but it makes rolling through the refrigerator aisle at Sears a challenge.

The two detectives, Clive (magnifying glass in the right hand) and Basil just opened their own locksmith business, Sure-Lock Homes. They are hobby sleuths and discuss their cases everyday over high tea.

The guards, McCartney and Harrison, are in a Beatles cover band on the weekend. They are talented singers and musicians, but they consistently get reviews that they are too stiff on stage.

Cleo and Patty have their own Vegas-based snake-charming show. Currently they are on hiatus after an unfortunate incident with an escaped python.

Jean is the understudy for Pebbles Flintstone in an off-off-Broadway production of The Flintstones: Their Hip-Hop Caveman Life. She believes in fully immersing herself in her roles.

Mac lives in Antarctica with a colony of emperor penguins. He is mastering the intricacies of waddling and hopes to someday be able to catch fish without a fishing pole.

Li'l Pete is Paul's ultra-rich cousin (see A cast of characters) and the styling director for Paul's fashion shows.

Rocky wants to be a movie director and is making money throwing boxing matches so he can pay for film school.

So there you have it. I'll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite shows, The Big Bang Theory: "It's not enough to make the Legos move; they also have to capture your heart." -Howard Wolowitz

They say it's my birthday!

Happy birthday to me.

Happy birthday to me.

Happy birthday to me-e.

Happy birthday to me.

Today is my birthday. Thirty-six. I feel like I'm getting old. I had to renew my driver's license this year and I realized that the next time I renew it will be when I turn forty. Egad.

On to happier thoughts ... The toddlers in my class (with the help of another teacher) made me this adorable sign for my birthday. They put it up on one of our classroom doors late Tuesday afternoon, so I found it when I came in yesterday. (I took this pic at home; sorry the contrast between the cream paint and the top of the cupcake isn't great. I just had to bring the sign home so I could enjoy it on my actual birthday.) I got some homemade M&M cookies, too. Yum!

I don't have anything exciting planned for my birthday. I have belly dance class tonight (yay!), so I don't really have time to go out for dinner. My parents and brother are coming over after class with cake and ice cream, though, so I'll get a little treat.

I did take today, tomorrow and Monday off work to "celebrate." No big plans -- unless you count stamping, reading, watching TV and lying around on the couch big plans -- but that's fine by me. There are plenty of productive things I should be doing, but who really wants to be productive on her birthday?

Have a great day!

Scoring challenge

This month the SoShelli.com Creative Challenge is to create projects using scoring. I've used my new Simply Scored Tool several times, but for this card I went all out:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Create a Cupcake
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Baja Breeze card stock, Whisper White card stock, Early Espresso card stock, Designer Series Paper (DSP) Patterns Stack - Brights Collection (Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight)
Accessories: Simply Scored Tool, Dazzling Details, Basic Rhinestones, Corduroy brads (Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Baja Breeze), Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Scallop Trim Border punch, 1" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, Sticky Strip

I used the Simply Scored Tool in three different ways on this card:

• Textured background -- With scoring grooves every 1/8", the Simply Scored Tool is perfect for making textured backgrounds. I love to make score lines at random widths for an interesting effect.
• Scored ribbon -- I used Sticky Strip to adhere a piece of Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon to a 1/2" wide strip of Baja Breeze card stock. To add texture to the ribbon, I scored the card stock  every 1/4". Then I added the scallop border behind the ribbon and adhered it to the card.
• Accordion flowers -- I cut three strips of DSP of different widths (the wider the strip, the larger the flower) and scored them. For each strip, I scored every 1/2" on one side of the paper, flipped the paper over and again scored every 1/2" (in between the current score lines; when done the score lines are every 1/4"). Then I punched the scallop trim border and accordion folded the strip. I used Sticky Strip to glue the two ends of the paper strip together, making sort of a tube. Then I spread one end of the tube open, flattened it to make a flower and glued it to a circle of card stock covered with Sticky Strip.

For embellishment, I added card stock circles and corduroy brads to the flowers and then placed a thin line of Dazzling Details glitter glue on each of the peak folds (it's a little hard to see in the picture, but it's a great little sparkle in real life). I also added Dazzling Details on the banner and a few rhinestones for a little extra glitz. I stamped a birthday greeting on the banner, but you could make this card work for just about any occasion.

Thanks for stopping by!

Zipper pulls

When I started decorating barrettes I planned to give them to my cousins' daughters for birthday presents. I wanted to give something handmade to the boys, too, but I couldn't figure out what the "boy equivalent" of barrettes would be. I finally came up with the idea of making zipper pulls. So this weekend I made three zipper pulls:

Supplies:
Shrinky Dinks plastic sheets, 1/4" hole punch, 9 mm jump rings, 1" lanyard hooks, permanent markers, clip-art images

I thought about using stamped images on card stock, but that wouldn't be very sturdy for rough-and-tumble little boys. I could laminate the paper, but that still wouldn't be great. So I decided to try Shrinky Dinks^®.

I wanted to stamp images and then color them in with permanent markers, but I don't have any kid-friendly stamps that are large enough (they do shrink quite a bit). So instead I used pre-made images. I looked through some clip-art images on my computer, found a few I liked, then enlarged and printed them. I placed each image behind the Shrinky Dinks plastic and used permanent markers to trace the outlines and color in the images. I punched holes slightly above the images, cut them out and shrank them according to the directions on the Shrinky Dinks package. Once they were cool, I added a jump ring through the hole on each piece and attached a lanyard hook to the jump ring. Done!

These were easy to make -- and, even as an adult, I still thought it was fun to watch them shrink! You could create just about any kind of zipper pull, as long as you have an image to trace (or draw, if you're more talented than me). Thanks for stopping by!