Carmel Apple Giftie...

We love Connor's karate instructor, Master Brandt. He is awesome...patient, caring, involved, really knowledgeable about what he does, and he always has time to listen to my concerns and find a way to help Connor.

So, I wanted to make him a prize and attach a little note to let him know how thankful we are to have him in our lives. It does seem like the right time of year to do that...

So, I made a caramel apple basket. Actual caramel apples seemed to have logistical problems...messy, what extras do you add, hard to transport...this seemed to solve those dilemmas.

I made some homemade caramel sauce and put it in a cute container. I used the recipe from the How Dos She? blog...it's really tasty and super simple! I decorated the jar with some fall stickers that I bought on clearance at Target...I love that I am finally embracing the concept that absolutely everything o a project doesn't have to be homemade to be acceptable...it makes things soooooo much easier! I added some apples and one of those cutter/corer thingies.

I did use a Papertrey stamp set to make a label for the top...I mean...if you have the perfect tool....you HAVE to use it ;)

I just used more of the stickers to make a tag and wrote a nice note on the back of it. I love it when you give someone a prize and they seem genuinely appreciative...it kinda makes you want to be nice more often...at least that's how I felt...but I got over it ;)

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge 133

So...when I saw this sketch, my mind immediately went to the super cute snowman image from Stampendous holding a banner I would make for him. Random...but it's where I went...

The problem of course, is when you start with a giant image, you end up with a

SuPer-SiZeD project...

way too big for a card...

I think I'll either frame him or put him on the front of a gift bag.

Here he is holding his banner that I made from punching out ovals, folding them in half, and then writing on them and gluing them onto baker's twine. I'm kind of on a baker's twine kick...probably because I bought 8 full spools of it...to make the goodies on the side, I just cut whole images out of the Cosmo Cricket Christmas paper (from last year's line) These colors totally don't look like they match at all in the pictures...I guess you'll just have to trust me that it's cute in person.

Here's a close up where you can almost see that I used Crystal Laquer on his eyes and mouth to make them a little more coal-like...wait...maybe shiny coal is diamonds and this is all wrong...well...they are a little more dimensional...I also used punched snowflakes, some diamond dust, and a pom pom to finish him off...

Here is a side shot of his face where you can see his 3D nose and how the twine is punched through and then pulled around to make him look like he's holding the banner. Plus...I love him and 2 pictures wasn't enough ;)

Here he is on a boring kraft paper base before I decided that was way too bland and moved him to his teal home...he's much happier now...

Sprinkles Jar Filler

Perfect filler for these sprinkles jars to make the adorable sprinkles tube holder from Day 3 of Taylored Expressions 12 Days of Christmas.

They are like colored white chocolate chips...like shaped candy melts...too cute as gingerbread man eyes and Christmas bell and poinsettia decorators ;)

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge

Here's the sketch for the challenge....originally I saw something super cute in my head...

this isn't it...I made what was in my head and on paper it was ridiculously busy and just not right...the photos of the actual project aren't great, but it's 90 degrees outside and I started sweating trying to set it up to get a picture...90? in November? I know about the sunshine tax, but c'mon...this is crazy! Anyway...I fiddled for about 5 minutes and decided this was as good as it was going to get...

originally in my head, the buttons ran down the sides where the twine is...but it wasn't right...there was also a lot of ribbon and rick-rack in my head that just wasn't pretty in the real world...I really am happy with how the button scallop came out around the main image. ;)

I even made a matching envelope...and the inside of the card has the matching color strip across the bottom just to tie it all together.

The stamps are from Taylored Expressions and all other supplies are from PTI. I have only recently found Taylored Expressions...and I think it's going to be an expensive discovery ;) She did a 12 days of Christmas idea series that had some of the cutest ideas ever! It was kind of a spendy week...but I have the stuff to make lots of Christmas gifts! Of course, now I need to actually quit hoarding the goodies and make the presents!

Halloween fun

Halloween at our house...

I finally took a picture of our pumpkin display without a flash...it's not the greatest photo, but it's here...we have more pumpkins than this, but they are spread along the front walk-way or over on the far side of the house and I couldn't get a good picture. I did not buy any new ones this year...there just weren't any cute ones out...and I am sad that my Mickey and Donald pumpkins didn't get out this year, they need some repair work...any one know a good pumpkin hospital?

Friday, we had a little party for the daycare...we dressed up, practiced trick-or-treating, and played some games. This is a quick pic of the treat bags I made for them...super simple, but I made all 6 of those tags in 30 minutes with stickers and my Papertrey dies...

Here is a close up of the tag...loving the dies for tags...absolutely planning on making my own Christmas tags...but we'll see what really happens...it'll probably be those lovely self-adhesive sticker guys again this year...

After the daycare party, we had the cub scout party here...8 elementary school boys amped up on sugar and testosterone...not pretty. It was absolutely hysterical to see them bob for apples...they took their shirts off and really got into it. I was too busy drying people off to get any pictures. We played a few games, ate pizza, and decorated cookies and cupcakes. Here is Connor after he got "mummified" in toilet paper.

He cracked me up when half-way through the evening, I went inside to get something and he followed me in, gave me a big thumbs up, and told me "The party's going great Mom, don't you think?"...Seriously...the boy slays me!

Here are Connor and Sanford in their costumes...The Gangster and the Keystone Cop...Sanford's costume was a small fortune, but when I saw them together, it was worth every penny!

Connor wanted his dad to take him trick-or-treating, and Sanford loved every minute of it...my husband is suuuuuuch a ham! I can't figure out how someone so anti-social can love being the center of attention...it's a puzzlement!

So, the boys went off and I stayed out in the cul-de-sac with all the neighbors, eating snacks, watching Halloween movies on a giant blow up screen, and passing out candy...have I mentioned how much I love my neighborhood? Seriously... it's like something in a movie...Fourth of July parades, Christmas parties, someone always home to borrow an egg from...it's a great place!

Here's Connor with all of his loot.

What I really needed was to take a picture of the boy this morning when he looked like something from Night of the Living Dead and refused to get out of bed...when he finally did get up, he put on a hoodie, pulled the hood up and the drawstring so tight so that only his eyes showed...and I swear they were glowing red at me as I kept nagging him to hurry up and get ready for school!

oh...and for anyone keeping track, yup, the pumpkins and all Halloween stuff was taken down and in the garage before I went to bed last night...Jo-Ellen, be sure to let Rob know I wasn't a slacker :)

Papertrey October Blog Hop

Projects this month were supposed to represent a winter holiday that was not Christmas. I used traditional Christmas colors...mainly because I loved how the mug looked paper pieced using the new Christmas Prints paper ;)...I was careful not to use trees, since those screamed Christmas to me and I was trying to keep it generic winter.

I make a cocoa box using an A2 card box and tiny tubes.

I had extra space at the top and originally was going to fill it with starlight mints which I thought would look adorable, but I was to lazy to go to the store and ended up filling small 1 x 8 inch bags with individual servings of marshmallows...one package per tube of cocoa. The marshmallows fit in perfectly with minimal coercion :)

The mug fit nicely on a 1 3/4 inch circle punch...so then I had to use the new dies that coordinate with that punch. The scallop is quite pretty. I cut it in felt and paper and ended up using the paper...but it cut really nicely on the felt too...no problem with the details.

This is a pretty generic winter giftie that could be given as a Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Hey, I like you present. It should also make my friend Cindy happy that I actually made something and submitted it somewhere ;)

If at first...

it looks like crap, try, try again.

Ummmm...it's only like 15 times cuter now.

And it took about 5 minutes...must have just been having some kind of cute craft blockage yesterday....

Same ribbon tie, same stocking, just a different layout and bolder colors made such a difference...in my head at least :)