HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Its here!  Its here!  Connor was so excited this morning when we woke!  Halloween is finally here and will be over before you can blink.  No doubt within a few hours every child with be in a sugar induced stupor and walking into walls.  Halloween is a fun time as long as you follow all the safety rules! 

Rule #1 Give Mom all Coffee Crisp and Kit Kat bars. (The list used to be longer so dont complain)

Rule #2 Do not ask Mom if we can go to EVERY house in the world 300 times throughout the night because we are NOT going to so STOP ASKING.  :)

Rule # 3 Make sure you ask for treats for Mom and Dad too.  Make sure NOT to tell the people we told you this or we will be tsked.  (Hey, we are the ones doing all the heavy lifting!!)

Yup, thats it!  Oh and the usual wear bright colors, carry a light, no strangers, throw away anything with gunk in it, make sure you can see and breath in your costume, no crossing back and forth on the street, stay close, listen, give Mom all the Coffee Crisp bars, what?  I mentioned that already?  Oops, my bad.  hehehe  ;)

 

Connor is being Bumble Bee the Transformer.  So when people ask him what he is being he says I am being Bumble Bee.  People always respond with "Ahhh how sweet, he is being a bumble bee."  Then I have to speak up and say "no not a bumble bee, Bumble Bee the Transformer."  He says people should just KNOW THAT because how many little boys would want to be a REAL bumble bee for Halloween, they arent COOL!  Right-O.  My Frankenbucket was a hit with Connor's teacher, she thought it was cute.  :)  So we are all ready for the hustle and bustle of the night.  Connor's Dad is even making a route plan!!  lol  It should really help because its just the two of us taking Connor tonight and we both forget where we are suppose to go.  :)  So we are ready to PAR-TAY!

Speaking of parties!! This weekend is going to be the busiest weekend of digital scrapbooking history!  Saturday is (Inter)National Digital Scrapbooking day which is bringing on parties, challenges, giveaways, challenges, chats, crops, you name it, its happening!  Also, its the first of the month so we are getting the Guild kit ready and the Notebook is coming out this week!  I love this months kit and I KNOW everyone else will as well!!  AND last but certainly not least, Natural Designs is having a BIRTHDAY!  Its our 3rd birthday and we are celebrating BIG TIME!!  Including a STOREWIDE 50% off sale!!! How awesome is THAT!!  I have three new products in the store today!!!  All 50% off!!  The kit is only $2.50 and comes with 8 papers and over 20 elements!!  WHAT A DEAL!  The word art is also brand new and is on sale this weekend for only ONE DOLLAR!!!  :)  Check them out!

Boy Wonder Page Kit

My gorgeous son who inspired this kit, Connor.

Some new deluxe word art for you loved one pages!

Cherish Word Art

Layout by Sayo, aka bunnynose

Wonderful You Word Art

 

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and a very happy, safe Halloween!  :) Thanks for stopping by!

Zazzled

There is this website that I joined awhile back but never really got into it.  Its called Zazzle.com and I heart it.  :)  I designed a pair of Keds last night.  CHECK THEM OUT!

 

I made them with my page kit, Free As A Bird and am so happy with them.  I even put them up for sale so other people can buy them!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!?!  You can purchase them HERE!  You know you want them!  ;)  Imagine how adorable you would look with these, a cute pair of jeans and a little red tee.  OMG, too cute. 

Something else that is fun!  Jessica Sprague is hosting a FREE class about writing. I AM SO THERE!  I have signed up and am eagerly waiting for the first email to come.  Seriously, its taking WAY to long to get started but I understand that good things come to those who wait!  There is still time to sign up!!  Its guaranteed to be a great time!  I have never taken one of her classes before so  I am even more excited to see how she works.  :)

Some layouts I have been working on....

Created with Christine Haskell's new kit Fading Fall available at NDISB and Whispers of Autumn this months Guild kit available at DSAGuild.com.  This page was created for my INspired challenge, to create a page using random facts about someone other then yourself.  Check those details out here!  Please feel free to play along and post.  :)  Love to have you join us.

Well, thats all I can share because the other ones are made with kits that havent been released yet or are still in progress.  :)  My mother saw this layout and liked it so much she actually had it printed. FIRST TIME EVER!  I think she just really likes the photo I took of her.  ;)  Hope everyone has a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!

OH OH OH I almost forgot!  NDISB is having a birthday and you are all invited to join the party!

A Wee Bit Greener

On Saturday when we awoke Sean immediately turned on the radio.  I mean IMMEDIATELY!  We were not even out of bed yet.  Normally this annoys  me because I enjoy a few minutes of quiet before I pull myself into the day.  This day however, I forgave him because when he turned it on there were some people talking about an event happening in the city.  It took FOREVER to find out what was going on but we found out that they were having their first annual Eco Expo!  I knew from the brief description on the radio that it was something Connor would truly enjoy.  Why?  Because they had a FIFTY foot whale that you could go inside!  I called up his Dad and asked if he wouldn't mind if Connor was a bit late visiting and off we went.  Connor was hesitant about going in a whale.  In the summer we had a whale wash up on our shores that we went to see and it was rather smelly.  Once he found out it was a fake whale though, we were all set.  Also, I told him that Moby was going to be there.  No, not the cool bald swooner, the recycling robot.  Moby had visited Connor's classroom only days before and Connor had LOVED him!  All day all I heard was Moby gave me a sticker, Moby gave me a pencil, Moby says we should recycle, Moby says....well, you get the idea.  Moby was his hero of the day.

 

When we found the building we excitedly ran into the building.  It only cost us $5 each and Connor was admitted free.  Let me tell you it was WORTH it!  It was fairly small but lots of activity.  Connor had a BLAST in the whale.  I ran into old friend in there.  That was odd!  Hey!  Long time no see!  So, just hanging out in a whale's belly today are we?  Nice.  lol  Turns out she has a new job and was partly in charge of the whole project which is FABULOUS!  There was a shark mouth there were you could have the kids' photos taken by Kodak.  I really would have liked for someone to mention that to me since I stumbled across a photo of Connor laying on a laptop at the exhibit.  Ok, CONNOR found his picture and I told him he was being silly and that he wasnt on the computer.  He was.  I took the picture home with us.  lol  Its nice and has a cool border from the company.

There were many tables for clothing, crafts, goodies like cookies, coffee, etc..  Sean was excited because they gave him a free tire gauge and light bulb.   Connor and I bought cookies from a nice lady named Jessie who owns The Cocoa Pod.  She is doing my friend Jen's wedding cake which I thought was a nice coincident.  She was super nice and was wearing THE COOLEST NECKLACE EVER!  I loved it and asked where she bought it.  Buttonique.  Awww...the joys of Etsy.  I contacted them and they are going to make me my very own necklace!  LOVE THAT!  They are going to be at a local craft fair here in two weeks so I am definitely going to check out their table.

They had some tables showing stuffed wildlife.  Connor REALLY did not get why people would stuff dead animals.  I felt so badly for the woman at the table that I kindly steered Connor away because she was getting quite flustered.  lol  Hmmm what else.  OH the Star Lab.  That was cool.  They had this GIANT blown up dome and we CRAWLED into it.  They shut off the lights and shows us the stars throughout the year, the Constellations and the Zodiac.  Connor had trouble saying Zodiac so he has decided he is just going to call them The Man.  Very cute.  On the way out we stopped by a table and they gave us TREES!  Yes!  TREES!  We though that there were two per bag but there were four so we ended up with EIGHT TREES!  Since we have no yard to plant them we took them out to my folks.  My father laughed, they live in the woods, like they dont have enough trees! ;)  It was so much fun though! Connor had lots of fun planting them and taking lots of pictures as well.  I had to fight with him to let me take some too.  lol

A layout that I made last night about our tree planting experience.

All credits can be found with the original upload at NDISB.com.  :)

Connor is always reminding me to do good things for the environment, even when I am already doing them.  So I know that he truly enjoyed his first Eco Expo and we will be attending next year as well.  Have a GREEN day! ;)

In the Spirit!

I am overflowing with Halloween and Christmas spirit this week.  I have been eagerly attacking many of my to-do projects.  My entire place looks like someone went insane and ransacked it, I suppose thats partly true!  This week I have been busy working on scrapbooking designs, layouts, Christmas gifts, Halloween treats, I am a MAD WOMAN!  With Connor off of school today we have been busy being creative together!  This morning he asked me if he could make a digi scrap page and how could I possibly say no to such a charming request???  Here is his page!  He chose to use the Guild kit this month, Whispers of Autumn.  How cool is that!  :)  I think we have a future artist on hand.  I took that picture of his I-Dog when we were out doing a photo shoot for his "school" photo.  I was extremely disappointed with his photos last year so this year we decided to take care of it ourselves.  So glad we did!  We got his proofs and they are WORSE then last year's!  His eyes are black, the color is dull AND his hair is stuck up everywhere!  When we were kids, the photographer actually took the time to make sure we looked decent.  Now they line them up and throw them down as quickly as possible.  Drives me bonkers.

This is the picture I decided on!  Had it done up like a photo package and let him hand them out.  :)  I think it turned out nicely but I am bias since I took the picture and he is my kid.  lol

Last year for Connor's Halloween party his father, stepmother and I went out of our minds trying to find cute but affordable treats for Connor's school party.  This year I decided I was going to figure something out early so I would not be forced into paying ridiculous sums of money on something the kids are mostly going to toss aside anyway.  In my last post I mentioned that I had purchased Kate Hadfield's candy toppers and I LOVE THEM! They saved the day!  I also mentioned the adorable idea for Frankenbucket by Megan Turnidge.  Seriously, scroll down to see and for links.  This is what I came up with when I combined the two!  Best thing?  The price!!!  :D  That and its SERIOUSLY ADORABLE!!  Toot toot!

What I needed to complete this project:

Bucket

Primer

Sandpaper

Green, grey and black paint

White paper

Glue gun and hot glue

Black marker

Lollipops

Candy toppers

Glue (NON TOXIC)

Craft foam blocks to stick the suckers in

LOTS of curling ribbon

Scissors

Hole Punch (not necessary but makes a neater, quicker job)

Plastic bolts

Black Ribbon

Sand the bucket or the paint will come off.  Prime the bucket, I did two or three coats, paint the bottom of the bucket green, the top black, glue black ribbon where the green and black paint meet for a nice clean look.  Then I used a marker to draw on his hair. Using the black marker I gave him some scars, painted his eyes and tooth on white cardstock, then cut them out and away ya go!  Stick them on the bucket of course.  Hot glue the bolts (we used plastic plumbing bolts because they are lighter and hold better), which have been painted grey on the side of the bucket.  Cut the foam to stick in the bucket, going higher in the back to give it a nice depth.  Print your toppers, I made mine a little smaller and had them printed at Staples for great color.  Cut them out, punch the holes, stick the lollipops in, glue the bottom closed.  You could use tape here as well.  If you use glue, again make sure it is NON TOXIC!  You know how kids like to eat paper, just ask my brother.  ;)  Curl up LOTS of ribbon in various colors.  Tie some to the lollipops.  Then all you have to do is stick the suckers and the ribbons into the foam.  To keep the ribbons in place, I used toothpicks and just pushed them right down so they were not sticking out.  It did take a bit of time but well worth it.  When Connor saw it he FREAKED OUT and that was the best part of it all.

Connor and I also found this cute little craft on the Martha Stewart website and made a few for his cousins to attach to their Christmas presents.  Quick, cheap and fun.

For this project we needed:

CRAYOLA Crayons

Muffin tins (we used disposable star tins from the dollar store)

small knife

Cookie sheet (just to place the tins on to put them in the oven)

Nail

Lighter

Ribbon

All you do is peel the crayons, cut them into bits, throw them in the tins, put them in the oven at 150 for about 15 minutes.  Take them out and wait for them to cool.  I put them in the freezer like suggested to pop them out easily.  Then I heated the nail with the lighter, poked a hole in the top of the star and tied the ribbon.  Easy peasy.  :)

Now I am off.  We are going to get some work done.  Meaning I am going to clean and he is going to follow me around asking why we cant just play video games all day.  :)  Have a good day! Thanks for stopping by!

Creativity Campaign

Lately I have seen a lot of people starting their own little creativity campaigns and I want to as well!  I know I havent blogged in FOREVER but I am back now.  I am going to do better.  I promise!  :)  Pinky swear and everything.  Ok, so I have had been up to A LOT since I posted last.  SO much going on both in my online life and my real life.  Let's stick with my online life though because let's face it, its much cuter.  lol  I have been designing a bit!  :)  YAY!!  Wanna see?  Of course you do!

Distant Dreamer

Some layouts that my fabulous CT created with this one!

wvsandy

bunnynose

amson

yhalos

Are they not some of the most beautiful layouts EVER? I love them.  Every time I put out a new kit my team just amazes me!!

I also have this new one in the store called Hidden Treasures and for a LIMITED TIME you get a FREE matching alpha with purchase!  :)

And some creative inspiration from this kit! :)

Mine

Frani_54

sandersmr

Fantastic!  :) 

What else have I been up too?  Hmmmm....  Getting ready for Christmas! Thats right! I have almost ALL of my shopping done and thank goodness.  We went to Walmart the other day and it was PACKED with crazy shoppers.  Everyone is trying to finish their Halloween preps and get Christmas started!  Speaking of Halloween! I bought the CUTEST LITTLE TOPPERS EVER today!! Kate Hadfield has them on sale for A DOLLAR today!  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!!  I ran to the store as fast as I could to grab them up!  I am going to have them printed tonight, get them ready early. 

OH and I was thinking on doing all suckers, sticking them in a bucket and Megan Turnidge has the CUTEST buckets on her blog.  I am totally lifting her Frankenbucket for my little suckers.  BTW dont know if everyone knows this but by suckers, I mean lollipops.  :)   I am sure Connor is going to love these for his class party!  I will post pictures when they are done!

FINALLY getting around to working on my art journal!  Creatively Gina has been helping me out with her Art Journal challenge at Natural Designs!  So far I have successfully completed the cover!  lol  Kidding, I have also glued the pages together.  I have decided to paint inside the book so I glued 5-6 pages together at a time so they would be thicker and hold the paint nicely.  I have started to give the pages a main coat of paint.  This way when I am out and about I will have a ready canvas for any inspired moments that come to me in line-ups or at Tim Horton's or wherever I may find myself.

This is my digital cover which is made with two Guild kits, one is an oldie but a goodie, Unlock Your Dreams and the other one is this month's kit, Whispers of Autumn.

And here is the finished cover.  I painted black around the edges of the cover and the back page so they would blend together nicely.  :)

Wow, long post but at least it is mostly pictures right?  :)  Excellent!  Alright, I am off now but I hope everyone is having a scrappy day! :)

OH OH OH ONE MORE THING!  I was VERY HAPPY and excited to find out that another one of my layouts has made the Gallery Standouts Blog!  GO ME!  hehehe

 

It was created for this week's Digi Dare and was made from two kits I received with the last issue of Bella Scraps Magazine.  One was Late Afternoon by Natali Designs and the other was My New Story and Letter Press Alpha by Bren Boone Designs.  Oh and of course we have Something Blue Studios' Worn Overlays Set 2.  :)