Halloween, the Cricut and WOYWW

Happy WOYWW! I’ve been messing around with my Cricut making Halloween costumes. My desk is actually clear so I’m sharing some photos of the finished projects.

Click on over to Stamping Ground to join the weekly linkage and learn all about WOYWW!

My DIL’s sister & boyfriend needed last minute Halloween costumes so I made these shirts for them.
This is what it looks like when your favorite drink is also your Halloween costume:

I purchased some inexpensive white HTV from Tuesday Morning and it was a bear to cut. I had to toss my first attempt because the Cricut did not cut it at all the way through so I hit cut twice on the second go around AND I still had to use my knife blade to cut some portions.

I told my daughter, I don’t know if it’s really good vinyl or really cheap vinyl. Either way, the shirts turned out really cute and it was a great costume!

I also made this “No Crow” shirt for my scarecrow costume and my attempt to create a mock up. LOL

Fun, right? I’ll post some photos of my coworkers and our costumers later.

Be sure to click on over to Bitten By The Bug 2 for the current challenge. The DT made amazing projects.  Take a peek!

BBTB2; Fall Holiday

Break out the Cricut and join the current challenge at Bitten By The Bug (BBTB2) challenge site. There’s a new challenge every two weeks and this challenge is Fall Holiday.

I downloaded this free svg from lovesvg.com. Their images are free and there are a ton of great ones! I used two different colors to create this kitchen hand towel. I know it’s too early for Thanksgiving, but it is a Fall Holiday and fits the current challenge theme.

The main thing to remember when cutting HTV is to mirror your images. I had to duplicate and ungroup the image two times in order to get the two-toned image. I bought these kitchen towels at Walmart in a pack of 10 for only $7.88. Yup, I’m making some of these for Christmas. Shhh...don’t tell my mom or sisters!

Now it’s your turn. Create a Fall Holiday project using your Cricut. Let us know what you used your Cricut on and link it at the BBTB2 challenge site. And most importantly, have fun!

TGIF; Thankful Friday #106

TGIF! I am having a tough week. I just don’t feel well. You know when you’re not quite sick but just kinda blah. That’s been my week. I’m so glad it’s Friday!

This week I’m thankful for the invention of the ultrasound. So amazing! As you know my DIL is due any time and she brought home this adorable photo of our newest granddaughter.

I mean, what the heck, right? I’ve never seen an actual face in one of these before.

I’m also thankful for the hubby. He BBQ’d on Tuesday and we’ve been enjoying leftovers all week. I haven’t had to cook at all. YES!

How about you? What are you thankful for this week?

WOYWW #542

I missed another week and another WOYWW but I'm back. I did a lot of cleaning, rearranging and organizing in the Command Center last week and of course it's messy again!

I am currently working on a DT project and Christmas. Yes, I said Christmas. I know many crafters have been working on Christmas cards, etc., for awhile now but this is my first.

I can't show a photo of the project one because it's not complete and two because I can't post it until November 1st.

But here's my desk with the project covered:

Click on over to the Stamping Ground site to see more of the WOYWW linkage.

See you next Wednesday!

Halloween Cards

Do you send cards for Halloween? I usually don’t but I had a clean up day today in the Command Center (no, not my house, that would be ridiculous). For some reason, I had a lot of Halloween patterned papers and cardstocks piled on on there. I decided instead of putting them away, that I would make cards. I also pulled out some embellishments from my Halloween pile.

Here’s the pile of papers:

And here’s the finished cards:

Now I need to actually send them!

All of these embellishments were from swaps I participated in years, I mean YEARS ago. I was going to toss them, but decided to use them on cards. I’m glad I didn’t toss them!

Custom T-shirt

I made the best shirt for my granddaughter on Monday. Our house has been busy with three parties in the last three months. Not little let's gather a few friends parties, but full on fill the house and backyard parties. I don't know what we were thinking!

And besides all that, the girls in my house went to a concert. Well, you know I had to make a shirt for my granddaughter! So the night before the concert, I opened up Design Space and my Cricut and designed this for her to wear on Tuesday.

Yup! We went to the Jonas Brothers' concert! Her favorite song is Cool so that's why it's in front. I did a three layer iron on for the back and also a cut out. I don't even know if that's what it's called, but I did it and I loved the way it turned out!

Fonts: College Block, Courier and Zurich Script all from my system fonts.

Fun, right?

Having a Cricut Easy Press makes doing these type of projects so easy! It takes seconds to complete compared to using my regular iron. If you're on the fence on purchasing one or not, I say "take the leap!"  You will not regret it. I purchased the 9x9 and it works fine for all projects.

Fall Porch Decoration

For those of you who know me, I'm kinda lazy. I mean I like to create things but most times I do it all in a mad rush or not at all. I made a family name pumpkin (see yesterday's post) and then I decided to do an entire porch decoration.

We have this flat ceramic planter that our son gave us and since I do NOT have a green thumb, I put fake plants in there. For Christmas I put a bunch of artificial poinsettia arrangements - it looked so pretty - and I have to confess they stayed in there until I pulled them out this week.  Eeek! See, lazy!

I updated some Dollar Tree Styrofoam pumpkins that started like this:

You can tell from my daughter's hand that they are pretty small. Probably about 5" tall & bright orange. She bought three of them and here's the after:

I used acrylic paints for them. I started with two coats of white and then a mixture of tan/lt. green for two of them and dry brushed some tan/orange/white paint. The orange one is a mixture of tan/orange/white acrylic paints.

I also added some artificial leaves to the tops and you'll see them in the final decorations. This project is a testament to save everything. I had these leaves, florals and scarecrow for about six years.

I do not pretend to know how to arrange flowers, but I did the best I could based on what I thought was visually pleasing.

I love the way it all came together! I don't know if you can see them, but I also tucked in some apple candles that I've had forever and almost tossed.

NOTE: We had some really strong winds around my area and one of these pumpkins was lost to it. My daughter even went down the street looking for it to no avail. I guess I need to buy one more. Dollar Tree...here I come!

BBTB Challenge; Pumpkins

Happy Monday! It's time for another challenge at Bitten By The Bug 2. Each challenge runs for two weeks and the current challenge is...pumpkin(s).

This is definitely not my idea, but I decided to make a personalized pumpkin. I used fonts that were in my system for the letters.

This is a foam pumpkin that I purchased from Michael's on clearance last year. They have these everywhere. I cut a hole out of the top to create a vase.

Since this pumpkin is only about 6-7 inches high, it was a great use of vinyl scraps. I used tan for the "D" and basic black for our last name.

I purchased the artificial flowers from the Dollar Tree and I had the scarecrow and leaves from my stash. This is why I save everything. I had floral foam from my stash as well & added a brick inside to hold the flower/leaves stems.

Another view:

With the grooves in the pumpkin, the vinyl was a little tough to adhere. For the "D", I went from left to right to adhere. Once I removed the transfer sheet, there were lots of wrinkles so I used my heat gun & blasted it a little. That helped A LOT! For the last name, I started in the center and used the hinge technique to burnish it towards each end.

I'm not going to lie, it was much harder than adhering to a smooth surface, but take your time...it's totally doable.

(Here's another fun thing to do with pumpkins. I made these years ago and had lots of additional orders for them. The cuts are mostly from Mini Monsters.)

Your turn...click on over to the BBTB2 site and link your pumpkin project. Also take a peek at each DT project and visit their sites to leave a comment.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #105

I missed a week - sorry - I was out at a conference for work and I was so tired when I got home. Not to say I wasn't thankful, but just tired to post.

This week I'm thankful for my kids. I love being around them just listening to their daily stories and adventures. Nothing new or exciting, just everyday life. It's so comforting to know they are all doing well. Sure, there's always something you wish for or strive for, but just being happy in what they have right now is a great feeling for a parent.

Also had to add this quote. My daughter, DIL, granddaughter and I are going to see the Jonas Brothers next week!

How about you? What are you thankful for this week? Leave a comment in the comment box. I'd love to hear all about it!

WOYWW #540

Yay! It's Wednesday, WOYWW and my hubby's 60th birthday! We have a lot going on at my house since we're having another party this weekend. I don't know what we were thinking.

His 60th is much more low-key than the baby shower two weeks ago, but there still is cleaning and all that stuff.

My desk this morning:

Just a dirty wet wipe after cleaning my desk from paint. I'll show it in another post, but I changed some dollar store pumpkins for a fall porch decoration.

If you don't know why I'm sharing my desk top, click on over to Stamping Ground to read about the linkage. Julia has been hosting this linkage for over 10 years! Take a peek into other craft rooms/desks and add your own photo!

Have a great week!

ps:  Many asked about the co-ed baby shower and what it means. Co-ed means it was for men and women. Traditionally baby showers are for women only, but that has changed a lot recently. 

World Card Making Day

Happy World Card Making Day! I had to make cards today and I felt like getting messy. View the Youtube video for the photos.

I started by using two sheets of paper, one was an under paper that I saved and the other is the March Madness Tournament Bracket sheet from my junk papers pile.

(What is under paper? It is the paper that is used under your project that are your spills and media are on.)

(What is the junk paper pile? Every since I created my first junk journal signatures, I’ve been keeping assorted papers, envelopes, cards, etc., to use in future junk journal spreads or signatures.)

The stamp set is an old one from Stampin’ Up!  They have a newer rose multi-layered stamp, but it’s very similar to this one so I didn’t find the need to purchase a new one.

I used three different ink colors for the roses:
Honey and Buttercup from CTMH
Apricot Appeal from SU!

Two different greens for the leaves:
Mellow Moss from SU!
Olive from CTMH

Vine:
Wild Wasabi from SU!

The two sprays are from Fun Stampers Journey.  I took the nozzle off the bottles and dripped the ink to the papers instead of spraying. When you spray, sometimes you get too much ink!

The script stamp is one I use all the time. It was gifted from Rubber Paws.  You can read more about her Here and Here.

The sentiment stamps are from Fun Stampers Journey.

I love the way these turned out! As an afterthought, I should have adhered the panels to cardstock before adding to the card bases. Since the sheets of paper are really thin, but they still look great.

If you aren’t already, I’d love for you to subscribe to my Youtube channel.

Junk Journal; It Takes Courage

I decided to work in my junk journal this week. I don’t know why I don’t play in them more often. Since the starting base is literally junk, it’s so cool to see how it ends up.

You know that I used my junk journals to mop up unused inks, paints, etc from other projects so I don’t even remember how this page started. I think it was a VISA offer from the mail.

I stamped three sunflowers to the page by inking the stamp with a light brown ink for the flower and olive green for the leaves. I spritzed the inked stamp with water hoping for a watercolor look. Nah...that didn’t turn out like I thought so I used a water brush and ink to color in the petals and other details.

Then I used some watered down teal acrylic paint by brushing it around the flowers and leaves. I also added some bright green to brighten the leaves/stems as well as a “grassy” bottom.

The top right needed something, so I went through my random papers and tore a strip off this sheet. I then added it to the top right and scraped some white, teal and green acrylic paints with a spatula.

Then I used a stamp dauber to add circles along the right side. The dauber was “dirty” with ink/paint so I didn’t add any additional color.

 Stamped a sentiment using the MISTI since I wanted a dark crisp image.

Added some white marks in the flower centers with a pen and small white circles using a stencil and acrylic paint. 

Close up:

Pretty cool, right? To see more of my junk journal art, click on the :junk journal” label to the right.

WOYWW #539

Hello Wednesday! Happy WOYWW to you! On Wednesdays, I get to share a photo of my work desk with other WOYWW linkers. Julia, the captain of the ship, has been hosting this linkage for years.

I am not sharing my desk this week but decided to share some baby shower photos. A couple of weeks ago, I shared a working shot of the diaper cake I was making for the co-ed baby shower we were hosting. The shower was this past weekend and here are some photos:

 If you've never seen or heard of a diaper cake, they don't normally have rows of beer cans, but I added them because of the "Baby Is Brewing" theme.

I made the onesies, the banner and the daisies at the corners.

 Here's a closeup:

 These were the centerpieces on each table. There was also a trivia card on each plate but this photo was taken before we added them.

 These stickers were also made by me. In an earlier post, I showed how I made etched pint glasses with this logo. See the post here.

 I did not make these cookies but we did stamp the tags. Aren't these adorable?! And so good!

My DIL ordered a plain cake with minimal decorations and I made the cake topper.

And the parents. I love this smile from my son. He hates taking pictures!

If you haven't guessed by now, the baby's name will be Daisy. We incorporated daisies along with the beer theme. It was a co-ed shower and we had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and they were showered with lots of love!

Click on over to the Stamping Ground blog to see more desks and join the linkage fun!

I will be late visiting this week as I'm leaving for a three day conference for work.

CWS Challenge #43 - Tree

The challenge this month at the Creative With Stamps card challenge blog is:

I am really excited how my one layer card turned out. Let me start by saying, I rarely make one layer cards. They seem like they'd be easier to make, but they aren't! Or at least they aren't to me.

I started this card by spritzing Green Olive Color Splash (spray ink) to a large acrylic block and then adding some water to soften it.

Then I pressed the front side of the card base to the acrylic block and smooshed it around a little. There was left over ink on the block so I dripped some of the leftover to the card to create some drops. (I also added some of this leftover ink to the inside of one of my junk journals - but that's a whole other project!)

I really needed to be careful on this step because I didn't want color on the back of the card. I used my heat gun to help it dry and once it dried, I added some Heidi Swapp Gold Ink Spray to it. Once those drops dried, I let it sit overnight under a stack of acrylic blocks so it would flatten.

I ended up using my Cricut Easy Press to iron it a little because it was still a little more warped than I wanted.

I used the MISTI to stamp the tree to the card front. It took three impressions to get it nice and dark. The stamp is from Bloom Art (now Lila Grey).

I added some washi tapes that I have in my stash and was going to call it done, but I felt like it needed something...

So I added a quote from one of my Tim Holtz small talk booklet. I used a fine point black pen to outline the rectangles.

Now it's your turn. Create a card using a tree or trees and link it up to the Creative With Stamps (CWS) challenge site.  The challenge runs from October 1st through October 31st.  Good luck!

LTCCB #39: Baby Is Brewing

Hi there, I’m excited to post my first Design Team project on the Love To Craft Challenge Blog. I live a crafty life! I love it! In fact, I almost always say, “I can make that”. This is both my blessing and my curse. Anyone crafty knows exactly what I’m talking about!

October challenge at Love To Craft Challenge Blog is anything goes.

My project:

Glass etching...have you tried it? This was my first time and I loved it! We’re hosting a co-ed Baby Is Brewing baby shower for my son and DIL and I made these for the prizes. We don’t have a brewing company, but I thought this idea was pretty cute. (BTW, Durham is my last name.)

 I created the “label” in Cricut Design Space using some downloaded SVG files and making my own SVG images.

Then I cut some vinyl for the stencils. I made six of them so I had to cut out six stencils. The hard part was weeding these tiny letters out.

Thick layer of etching cream. The instructions said to leave it on for 1-3 minutes. What?! Seriously, I left it on for 15 minutes for it to actually do some etching. While the cream is on the glass/stencil, use your paint brush to move the cream around. It actually thickens when it’s got a good etch. I put a bright green napkin in the glass hoping for a better photo, but it didn't do much good.

This is what they look like all filled and pretty:

And all bagged up in a cellophane bag & pink ribbon:

We included some gold kisses and yellow shredded paper to look like beer with some white shredded paper for the foam. I think they turned out really cute! In fact, I need to make more just for us to keep.

Don’t forget to click on over to the Love To Craft Challenge Blog for more DT inspiration and to link up your crafty project. See the blog guidelines for more information and as always, anything goes!

Get your craft on!

Read my BIO on the blog HERE.