Happy Thanksgiving

Good Evening! I bet you've been wondering what happened to me, huh? I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks simply because I haven't had anything to share. I've been so busy working and celebrating birthday's that I haven't spent any time in the craft room.

Last weekend was my husband's birthday. Unfortunately I had to spend some time working but Sunday night we went to see Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, NH. They were, quite simply, amazing to see in concert!! John described it as "intense" and he was absolutely correct. I was so energized when we got home that I didn't sleep very well and 5:30am comes pretty early when you go to bed after midnight.

Regardless I managed to get through the week without too many issues. I did spend some time this weekend simply relaxing and sleeping. I think I needed to catch up on the sleep! Now I'm really looking forward to a three-day work week. Yippee!!

Perhaps I'll have something crafty to share with you next week. I'm also hoping to see the movie 'New Moon' next weekend. Have you seen it yet? What did you think? I'd be curious to know if you liked it or not.

So until next weekend, have a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving.

-Janice

Halloween & Other Fun Stuff

Happy November to you all! I cannot believe how quickly this year is slipping by. I remember as a child thinking it took forever for summer vacation to come around. And then once school started again it took forever before Christmas break. Now as an adult it seems like I just finished shopping for last years gifts and here we are beginning to discuss what to get everyone this year. It's crazy!

Last night was Halloween here and we had fun giving out candy to all the little goblins! Here are a couple of pictures of our Halloween decorations. We purchased foam pumpkins a couple of years ago and carved a Haunted House in one and a Bat in the other one. This really makes so much economical sense to me!

John found these cute Ghost lights in the basement with some of the other decorations. They look so cute on our raised wall.

Now onto some papercraft pictures. I had mentioned in a previous post that I made a Memory Book for my sister after our summer vacation. Well I finally finished it and got some cool pictures with my husbands new DSL camera. Here is a picture of the front:

And here are two shots of the inside. I made all the pages identical but chose to only photograph two. I didn't want to put pictures of other peoples children on my blog. Some people are very particular about putting their children's photos on the internet and I really don't blame them. So to keep everyone happy I chose to share a picture of myself and my dog. Besides you really can't see me too well in the photo! LOL

If you want to see the photo's better you can click on them to make them larger.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful week!

-Janice

Halloween

Good Evening! Another wonderful weekend has come and gone around here. It was quite productive in our household the last couple of days. My dh got a new camera and he has been reading up on all it's possabilities. I got some much needed items for my car, namely a new battery and new windshield wipers. Today John removed all the leaves from our yard while I cleaned the inside of the house. It was such a nice, warm day here today! I was so excited! It got to be over 60 degrees and the sun was shining brightly. I even made an Autumn stew and an Apple Crisp for dinner tonight. See, I told you we've been productive! LOL

Since the weather was pretty miserable yesterday, I don't think it reached 50 degrees and it rained all day, I spent some quality time in the craft room. I received an email from Scrapbook Trends which inspired the Halloween Triptych I worked on.

I cut a total of six tags from some old cereal and tissue boxes. In the end I don't think the cardboard was thick enough because the triptych does not stand on it's own. I painted both sides of all six pieces and then covered the front with the pattern paper you see below. Isn't it cute? I love the pumpkins! Then I painted each of the chipboard pieces using acrylic paints and covered the letters with Martha Stewart Glitter (onyx), the bolts on the Frankenstein and the cats eyes were also glittered with Martha's Glitter. The cat's eyes were John's idea and I must say I was so excited with how it came out. I just love it when he helps me!

You should be able to click on the picture for a bigger view. I'd still like to add some stamping or other embellishments to each of these but I simply ran out of time this weekend. Since Halloween is only a week away I decided to display it "as is" for now and maybe I'll get to work on it some more later.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

Enjoy the week.

-Janice

Baby Card

Good Evening! I ran into some computer troubles last weekend and was unable to post. Rather than post mid-week I decided to just wait and post this weekend. Then we got busy and I plum forgot!

We spent the weekend enjoying a friend's Baby Shower and a local agricultural fair. There was good food all weekend, I ate way too much! We have so much Kettle Corn I think we will be eating it until Halloween!!

Here is the card I made for the Baby Shower:

The background paper is from Nana's Kids pack, the two solid squares and circle cut out are paper from PaperTrey Ink, and the two blue brads are from Queen & Co Bucket of Boy which I picked up at a local scrapbook store.

When we were on our way to the Fair yesterday we stopped by a scrapbook store that I have been wanting to visit for over a year now. I'm kind of glad we waited because I could have spent a significant amount in there! Honestly they have everything. I got some cool paper and chipboard letters that I am anxious to use for Halloween. Hopefully I can complete this and get some pictures to show you next week.

Enjoy the week, it's getting cold around here.

-Janice

Sister's Birthday Card

Holy Moly has it really been two weeks that I haven't posted? Where does the time go? I thought for sure I had made this posting two weeks ago but apparently not. I also knew that I would not be able to post last week. We spent the weekend getting ready for and then attending the NASCAR race in Loudon, NH. The weather was perfect and the race was a blast! I'll share photos of that another time as I haven't even downloaded the pictures from the camera.

Here is a birthday card I made for my sister earlier this month. Her birthday was on Labor Day weekend.

I've used this paper before and am running out of it now. I'm kind of disappointed because I really like it. The cat stamp is "Fluffles" but I changed out the word stamp which arches over it. This word stamp is from Around & About by PaperTrey Ink. The ribbon is from my stash but I used the backside of a satin ribbon as it was a bit darker and obviously not as shiny. I colored Fluffles and his gift with colored pencils. For some reason I always color the cat in gray, he just looks like a gray cat to me!

I wish that the words had arched better. I worked at this for quite a while and this was the best I could do. Unfortunately I don't think I would use this stamp in this fashion again. Oh well, live and learn.

I finially finished the Memory Album I had been working on. I even found some cute fuzzy yarn to use with it. Okay actually my husband found it for me! LOL I'll take some photos and share it soon.

Enjoy your week! I'll try not to be gone so long again.

-Janice

Happy Surprises and A Birthday Card

Good Morning and Happy Labor Day to all my US friends! I can't believe that it's September already. Where does the time go? I realized late last night that it was Sunday and I hadn't posted yet. I decided to wait until this morning since it's a holiday here!

We've had a pretty busy weekend so far, done some yard work, lots of shopping, visited my mom and took my sister out to dinner last night for her birthday. I've also spent some quality time in my craft room. I've made a couple of cards and began a small memory album for a gift. I still have to finish the album and make a couple more cards for Sept birthday's.

First I wanted to share a pleasant surprise. I was shopping at Michael's last weekend and I came across the following stamp set in their Clearance bin:


Well I don't have very many stamps like this (Valentine, love, romance type stamps) so I thought for $1.99 you can't beat it! I was checking over the receipt when I got home and to my surprise I was only charged ... ONE PENNY!! Can you believe it?!? I was so excited! Boy am I glad I didn't pass up that bargain! ;)

While I haven't inked the stamps up yet, I did discover that they needed to be put together. The rubber was separate from the wooden blocks. I thought that was pretty clever. I like it when a manufacturer gives you options. In the end I did decide to peel the backing off the red rubber and adhere it to the appropriate wooden blocks though.

Here is a picture of a card I made for a friend. The pattern paper was from a European magazine and I've always like it. I do need to play around with the settings on my printer/copier though because the colors didn't come out as crisp as the original.

In order to give the card some pizzazz I cut out three of the flower squares and "popped" them with dimensionals. I thought it made the card just a bit more interesting. You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it and see what I mean.

Well that's all I have for today. Lots to do so I can get back to the Memory album. I hope you get to relax and enjoy the day.

-Janice

Floral Birthday Card

Good Evening! I can't believe it's Sunday night already. What a crazy weekend this has been. The weather has been extremely hot and humid here in New England lately and our Air Conditioner decided to break down yesterday morning. I'm not sure who is more upset, the dog or my husband! LOL Neither of them like the humidity very much. Although, truth be told, I'm not too happy about it either. ;)

I had some plans to work in the Craft Room this weekend. I needed to create a few cards for upcoming birthdays but when I went in to pull out my paper and decide what to use for supplies I noticed that one of the shelves had collapsed onto some tools! So between having to reorganize my supplies and being incredibly warm I didn't get any cards made this weekend. Not cool.

I do, however, have a card to share with you today. I started this card before we left on vacation and completed it earlier in the week. My niece Ashley celebrated her 19th birthday on Thursday! How exciting for her! Here is the card I made and mailed out to her.

I thought the colors and paper were so feminine. The pattern paper is from Sarapapers, something I found on sale at Michael's. The tag was part of the booklet. There are several coordinating tags. The scalloped paper framing the roses is Sweet Blush from PaperTrey Ink. I couldn't believe how well this color coordinated with the pattern paper. What a lucky break! The sentiment on the tag is from PaperTrey Ink's Birthday Basics. I am so in love with that font!! The strip of ribbon is from my stash.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by today, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

-Janice