CSAYL Friday with Fred She Said

Hello!  It's Friday and there is a new Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenge up for you.  This week is being sponsored by...

Fred She Said has some adorable digi stamps and this weeks winner is going to win a $15 gift certificate to use in their store!  Awesome, right?

OK, so this weeks challenge is All Sewn Up.  So do something that involves some stitching on your project.  This can done on your sewing machine, stamped stitches, done with a pen, etc.  However you choose.

 

Now don't laugh, but you might notice that my stitches are not showing up in this picture.  Why is that, you ask?  Because I got ahead of myself and snapped this picture before adding them.  So I ripped my card apart (yes, literally), added some stitching and then it was too dark to get a good picture!  So.  When the sun comes up tomorrow - or today as you will be reading this on Friday - I will snap a new picture and update it.  It's just been that kind of week, lol!

 

Be sure to pop over to the CSAYL Blog to see all of the other projects this week!

 

 

Happy Friday,

 

Michelle

Spooky Treats for School

Hello again!  Is everyone else enjoying the Fall weather that is starting to set in?  It's still getting pretty hot here during the day, but the nights are cooling down.  I love Fall!  Of course, that means I do a lot of crafting for the Fall holidays, too.  So today I am sharing a sweet little treat for Halloween! I like to make lots of little things for the kids to take to school for the holidays and this is one of my goodies going to Emma's class.

I used a small cellophane bag and filled it with some candy corn. Using some patterned papers, I have made a little bag topper for decoration. I wanted to personalize them, so I made a little nameplate using one of the journaling stamps from the Scallops and Lines stamp set. For this one, the letters are die cuts, but with long names I will probably just hand write them.

Here is a close-up of the topper, so you can see the little bats. Had to add some Stickles to the bats for a little extra fun!

Honestly, the hardest thing about these is not eating all of the candy corn!

Happy Stampin',

Michelle

Laugh Until Your Face Hurts!

Hello everyone, today I have a card to share with you that is sure to spread some laughter and happiness! We can all use a little more of that, right?

For this card I started out by stamping my background with some of the happy faces from the Cutest Gingerbread Man set.

I lined up 4 of them on my acrylic block and inked them up on my Kaleidacolor pad. These faces are actually small enough that you can ink them with just one color from the pad, which is what I did here.

Those faces make for a whole lotta happy! The words are from the Pure Happiness set. I have cut my stamp that says "Pure Happiness Is" apart so I can stamp each word individually, and I just added the "..." after "is" with a marker.

On the inside of the card I stamped the sentiment with one of the not-so-happy faces. That little frowny face just cracks me up. That's about how you start to look when you DO laugh so hard your face hurts! Which is something I happen to do a lot, and hope you do too!

Happy stampin',

Michelle

Halloween Pencil Toppers

Hi!  It's September now, so Halloween is totally fair game now.  Woohoo!  In fact, it is Halloween Week over on the SP & Company Team Blog, so check in over there each day this week for some fun, Halloween treats! 

Today is actually my day over on the blog, and I have a bonus project for you here as well.  I always like to make treats for the the kids to take in to their classes for the holidays.  A really fun one to do is a holiday themed pencil with a fun topper.

Now, my number one rule for making things for the kids is...KEEP IT SIMPLE!  As much as the kids will love whatever you make for them, the simple fact is that they will tear it to shreds in front of your crying eyes!  Trust me.  You don't want to put too much labor into these sorts of things.  Keep it simple and you can save yourself from flipping out when the shreds hit the floor, LOL!

 

I used the Nested Bats dies from Spellbinders to cut out the bat from some black paper.  The edge is inked with some white ink.  Had to add some googly eyes, because let's face it...they make everything better!  I wanted it to say something, but wanted to keep it pretty general, so I chose these stamps from Mix 'n Match Sentiments: Kids.  With this particular pencil it becomes "For the scary kiddo".  Hee hee!  Because kids are pretty darn scary, right?  

 

You can whip a bunch of these out in no time.  Emma's class only has 16 kids this year so I am very lucky!  But with some classes pushing 30 kids, something like this would still be simple to pull off. 

 

Pop over to the Team Blog and see the other project that I made for Halloween week.  Ever wish that candy grew on trees?  Here's a little sneak peek...

 

 

Happy Halloween Week!

 

Michelle

 

CSAYL Friday!

Hello!  It's Friday, so that means it is time for another CSAYL challenge!  This weeks challenge is to make a card using non-traditional Christmas colors.  This is always a fun challenge and it's nice to get away from the typical reds, greens, etc., for Christmas.  Play along with us this week and you can win 4 images from this weeks sponsor, Meljen's Designs!  You don't want to miss this one.  Meljen's has some of the most adorable images, like this little owl....

He's so cute!!!  I went with more of a note card style for this card and didn't stamp a sentiment on the outside.  I really like doing cards this way, because I can send them whenever I want.  This could be used for Christmas, a seasonal winter note card, etc.

Be sure to upload your project using non-traditional Christmas colors to the challenge blog and go check out Meljen's Designs to see what you can win!

Have a great weekend!

Michelle

There's Something Fishy Around Here!

Hello everyone!  I have a really fun card to share with you today.  It's no secret that I have loved the Father's Day Fun (SP & Company) stamp set, ever since it came out.  If you've been hanging out here for awhile, you have probably seen me use it a few times!  Well, I have found another awesome way to use these stamps.  Fish!!

That's right...turn those little neckties on their sides and you have cute little fish!  I stamped them on a mix of patterned papers from Splash (Echo Park) and Paradise Beach (Echo Park), and trimmed them out.   For the eyes, I used some little, black pearl accents.  The sentiment, from Bold Sentiments III: Birthdays (SP & Company) is stamped in black ink.

Are these guys fun, or what???  Don't be surprised if you see these little fishies making another appearance around here.  Love, love, love them!

I am entering this one into the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week.  The theme this week is...

Happy stampin',


Michelle

Hello, Stud Muffin!

Hello there!  How is everyone's Summer winding down?  Our kids don't go back until next week, but I know some people have already started going back.  Going to be busy this week getting all the last minute shopping done, haircuts, etc.  Hard to believe Alex is a Sophomore this year, and Emma is going into third grade?!?

Have still been managing to find some stamping time among all the craziness.  Which is good....it keeps me sane!  Spent some time playing with the new Lawn Fawn stamps that I ordered a couple of weeks ago and made this little cutie.

This one is an itty bitty.  It is only about 3" x 3".  Perfect size to drop a little note in the hubbies bag when he takes a trip or something.  All of the images, including the paper lines, are from Lawn Fawn.  I punched the left edge with a punch I got from EK Success.  Love the look of the notebook paper!

And, I am entering this one over on the CAS-ual Fridays blog for the square card challenge.  Even though my card has taken on a slightly rectangular look in this picture?  Not sure how that little trick happened.  Of course, it could just be my eyes!  I have an appointment for that this week, too, haha!

Have a great day!

Michelle