My Happy Stamping Place

Happy Halloween

Times have changed.  That's for sure.  Gone are the days where we travel as a family to Pumpkin patches, apple orchards weeks in advance and enjoy a nice fall day selecting pumpkins and enjoying the fine fall weather.  Now there are busy schedules to coordinate.  My daughter couldn't select or carve her pumpkin because she had homework and had to work.  My husband took my boys up to Cub foods to select their pumpkins.  It doesn't have quite the same ambience.  We didn't get them until yesterday, the day before Halloween and the decorated them last night.

Here are the boys with their selections.

Here they are all carved up.

Dont' ask me what the two on the left are about.  Some inside jokes from Utube videos and video games.  The one on the right is a puking pumpkin my husband did.  Lovely.  This is the part of Halloween my husband always takes care of.  Carving pumpkins.

I was busy making treats for my son's class.  Here is what he gave this year.

Little pockets made out of the Stampin' Up! Sizzix top note die.  These would make great gift card holders too!  Here is what he gave his teacher.  I made these for my co-workers too.  First I made shortbread cookies with the cookie press kit from Stampin' Up!.  Then I packaged them and presented them in boxes made out of the fancy favor box Sizzix die

They were a big hit at work!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

Chicken punch art

At long last I have the chicken punch art I have been promising.  I made this recipe card for my recipe club. The chicken was made using the Pennant builder punch and few others.

This chicken was made using the pennants punch for the body.  I punched the triangle and then rouned the 3 corners with a 3/4" circle punch.  The bird punch is the wing, the daisy Sizzix die is the tail feathers and the rest uses the Boho blossom punch. I used the largest blossom and trimmed it for the headpiece, the beak and the waddle.

It's pretty easy.  I hope you enjoy it!

It's pizza and pumpkins for us tomorrow night. We are going to pick out our pumpkins and carve them for Halloween.  Friday night is always pizza night at our house and it fits in with the busy night we have ahead of us!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

Christmas Stocking

There are so many great products in the Holiday mini catalog!  The Stitched Stockings stamp set with it's coordinating punch is one of my faves.  Then team it with the new silver glimmer paper and forget about it!

Recipe: Stamps: Stitched Stockings, Curly Cute(greeting)

Paper: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Soft Suede dp from the Neutrals dp collection

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Other: Lace border punch, 2 1/2" circle punch, Perfect Pennants Sizzix die(scallop circle), Snow Burst embossing folder, Stocking Builder punch

All products can be purchased on my online website here.

My husband and daughter are off looking at a couple of colleges this week.  We have another 4 scheduled within the next month.  The big college push is on!  This is all new to us so we're navigating the world of college applications, scholarships, etc.  It's a little overwhelming!

So it was just me and the boys last night.  I took them out to dinner at Applebees.  It wasn't the lighthearted, fun dinner I had imagined.  I should have know better.  It was more like referee time between the two.  Trying to keep the peace. Sigh.  Someday I'll miss this, right?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

Candy Corn pennant

I saw this fun idea to use the pennant punch to make candy corn!  Here are a couple of cards with the candy corn.

I have a couple of friends coming over tonight to work on making halloween treat containers for our kids' classmates and some co-workers too.  I'm not sure what I'm making yet but I'll be sure to share what we all come up with!

We're still figuring out the kid's costumes for Halloween.  My youngest, Sam, wants to be a Marine.  This is fueled by his cousin who recently became a Marine and his love of guns.  My middle one, Nick, wants to be Axel Rose, the lead snger from Guns N Roses.  His friend wants to be the guitar player, Slash.  We'll be looking for a long blonde wig and a red bandana.  It should be interesting.  How are your Halloween plans coming along?

I hosted my Halloween Bunko night on Tuesday and my house is all decked out.  I'm ready!  We may even sneak in a Halloween party or two.  Such fun!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

Sparkly Spider Web

I'm enjoying a beatiful fall weekend.  Beautiful temps and colors.  My kids all had fun stuff going on this weekend but unfortunately, we had my daughter into Urgent care where she was diagnosed with strep throat and mono!  Ugh!  Her doctor said she was only the 10th patient in her 26 years of practice that had both at the same time.  So she's been feeling lousy but the antibiotics seem to be kicking in so her throat is finally feeling a little better.  There's nothing you can do for mono.  You just need plenty of rest which is tough to do for a teenager. I"m not sure how she got so run down so early in the school year but we're going to try to concentrate on getting her better and avoiding getting to this point in the future.  No sign of the rest of us getting sick.  If anyone is going to get it, it should be me because i'm handling all of her dishes and food but I'm luckily pretty resistant to this kind of stuff.

Now for some fun stuff!  We made this card in my stamp club last week.  The designer paper is embossed with the spider web embossing folder and then distressed with the sanding block so the web stands out more.  Then you coat the whole thing with hairspray. While it's wet you douse it with dazzling diamongs glitter.  Shake off the excess and then spray the whole thing with hair spray again.  Let this dry before adhering it to cardstock.  I recommend using mono multi adhesive to adhere it to your cardstock.

 
The ribbon is the wide basic black ribbon cut in half.  You want the edges to fray.  It adds to the shabby chic look.  The pumpkins are colored in with markers and some dazzling details added for more sparkle.

All products can be purchased from my online website here.

I have more projects to show you in the next coming week.  I haven't forgotten about sharing my punch art chicken.  I just need to get it photographed so you can see how it is made.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kathleen

More Swaps

I have some more swap cards to share.

This first one is by Theresa Argonza.  Love the tiny jingle bells and the beautiful colors.

 
Next up is a card by Tina Taves.  i love the sparkle of snow beneath the house.

 
The last one today is by Sandy Hoefakker. I love the pink frame around the little girl.

 

I am lucky girl getting all these beautiul swap cards!  It feels like Christmas everytime I participate in one. 

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Kathleen

More Fall Wow Swap Cards

Just a quick post to share more of the swap cards from my Holiday Mini wow swap group I'm in.

First one is by Lisa Putnam.  It's a gatefold card.  I always forget about gate fold cards but love the results!  It looks like she did the rock-n-roll technique on the tree and added some glitter.  So pretty!

 

 
Next up is a Halloween card by Lori Mueller.  There are so many fun touches on this card that a picture just does not do justice too!  Love the ribbon treatment, the spider web is embossed on vellum cardstock and overlaid on the halloween dp, there are tiny scallops peeking out from the greeting which is embossed and you gotta love that tiny pleated circle!

The third card had no name on it.  what a shame!  The main image is run through the square lattice die for some wonderful texture.  There looks to be some kind of shimmer added to the leaves and the embossed frame is peeking out behind the main panel and greeting.

 

I gotta get going to work.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen