Halloween Party!! Decorations and Mummy Pinata

Here are some pics from our Halloween Party-18 Fourth Graders-Whew! It was lots of fun!

Our tablescape--fun decorations from Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart (clearanced from last year )

Our spooky lamp!  The lanterns are from Dollar Tree, the lights don't work in them any more, but I like them for decoration!

Cupcakes-cake stand from Wal-Mart, cupcake wrappers and pics are Wilton (found at Wal-Mart) these are super easy to use and add a nice touch!

Michaels has the best deal on Glow Sticks-15 pack for $1.00.  These make great little prizes and I love how they make our prize pot even more spooky!

The pinata, made out of a large cereal box, wrapped in reverse wrapping paper just to cover cereal box and then wrapped in white crepe paper.  I used ink on the edges to age it and added some easy eyes! 

Here's the spooky family! Happy Halloween!

Mummy Pinata--Cereal Box

Here's a picture of the Mummy Pinata I created out of a large cereal box. I taped around the bottom and top of the box, covered in white paper and then wrapped around with white crepe paper. I then took some brown ink to distress the crepe paper to give it a more spooky feel.

Tanya-Challenge One for June

This is my take on the challenge at Trail Makers.  We were to create a Father's Day card using June's kit!  I love how easy this was to create!  The kit includes all the right elements for making a beautiful hand-made card for the special dad or guy in your life.  I love the combination of ribbon, buttons, stickers (that all coordinate) and PAPER! 

June's Kit--Debut Project

June's Kit for (Paper)Trail Makers goes hand in hand!  What a perfect stash of goodies to create wonderful Father's Day projects.  The possibilities are absolutely endless! I found a photo of my husband from last year's Father's Day spent at a nearby lake!  I knew instantly that this kit would be perfect for this photo.  The only product I used that wasn't included in the kit is the alphabet letters.  Thanks for looking---I can't wait to see what you all create!

May 2 Color Combo Challenge-Trail Makers for the love of Scrapbooking

Color Combo Challenge!!

Trailmakers

Here we go...I love color combo challenges.  Your challenge is to create a layout or project using the colors below. 

Nikki Sivils Rainy Day paper is the perfect match for this combo!  It is also especially fitting for the rainy spring that we have had!  For this challenge you must at least use the 3 colors shown and you may use black, white or craft paper.  Here are my 2 cards that I created!  Have fun!  Post a link to your project in the comments!

Paper Trails May Kit!

May's kit over at Paper Trails  is such a great mix of beautiful papers that can be used for elegant or fun scrapbooking!  I adore the bird paper-mainly because my oldest daughter's nick name is Hailey Bird.  I couldn't wait to scrap some photos of her with these adorable birds.  Aside from the fantastic papers, there is high-end chipboard-I kept this natural and love how it works on the page.  Other products not included in the kit are twine, buttons, ric rac and alphabet stickers. 

Challenge #2~April Showers Challenge~Week 2

This spring has been a perfect photo-op for rain, splashing, umbrellas, rain coats and boots!  It sure has been soggy here!  April's kit couldn't have been a more appropriate fit for our very wet spring.  I love this picture of my daughter jumping in a puddle!  I altered it to black and white to really showcase all of the cute Crate Paper extras.  I enjoyed layering some of the sticker borders from the kit and adding some of the fun elements to the page.  

Items used not included in the kit are the buttons and alphabet stickers. 

Tanya~Week 2~Banner Challenge

There is a great challenge this week Trail Makers challenge blog.  We are to draw inspiration from the blog banner and create a project.

  The possibilities with this are endless, you could use it as a sketch to create a layout/card or you could use the colors, swirls, ribbon as embellishing inspiration!  Get creative and make something inspired by this banner.  I chose to create a card purse using a template from Krisis Kreations.  Here's a teaser for it!  What a great idea for all of those beautiful cards!  It's also a perfect gift box if you create a lovely card set for someone. 

I created my card purse using the blog banner as inspiration AND using Trail Makers April Kit filled with deliciously, springy Crate Paper! 

All items except for the ink can be found in the Trail Makers store!

Fun in the Neighborhood Blog Hop!

The time is here!  How much fun is this...we are having a progressive dinner at Trail Makers!  Please join along for great fun and inspiration.  Have you ever gone on a Progressive Dinner?  Here is how it works. There is a group of people who would love to have dinner together.  The entire group travels to each other's houses.  The first house hosts the salad, second the main dish, third drinks, forth side dish etc.  Our wonderful leader, Sandi, pulled inspiration pictures for us to have a "Progressive" Scrappy Dinner.  Below is a list of the different hosts.  Please stop by for a visit-take on the scrappy challenge and win a prize and make friends!

If you've made it this far, you are ready for the entertainment :)  We are going to use this picture to inspire us. 

Here is my inspirational layout. 

I used mostly April's Kit for this layout with an addition of some Clear Snap ink and BG pearls and extra buttons from my stash.

Here is how I was inspired:

circle table:  large circle on LO

pleated curtains:  pleated sticker border

playing cards:  tags from Scrap Matters (our sponsor this month)

If you started here your next stop is Trail Makers Challenge Blog. 

Please leave a comment and a link to your "card playing" layout/project to be entered in for an RAK!

Fun in the Neighborhood Blog Hop!!!

COMING SOON!  Stay tuned for wonderful inspiration and prizes!!

Trail Makers March Kit-Challenge of 3's

This week at Trail Makers there is a challenge of 3's.  I decided to make 3 cards.  I had a busy schedule earlier this month and I was able to create these THREE beautiful cards quickly.  This is what makes these Graphic 45 papers and this kit so great-you can take time and work in a multitude of details or you can create a quick set of cards using their versatile die-cuts and beautiful papers and it looks like you spent a lot of time on them. 

Spring is in the air...

over at Trail Makers!  There are some projects posted on the blog, debuting March's Paper Kit that will put a spring in your step without a doubt.  Imagine a world full of pixies and gardens and you will be delighted to find this month's kit.  A sure cure for the winter blues!  For my first project I created a recipe box diorama.  I was inspired to alter a recipe box into a spring time decoration.  I fussy cut some of the pixies, butterflies and book.  Using a pop-up idea, I added dimension.  It was a fun project that I will use for decoration in one of my daughter's bedrooms.   

Here's a close-up of the frame. 

Close-up of flying pixie

Trail Makers Endless Love Challenge

The challenge for Trail Makers this round is to use the lyrics from Endless Love by Lionel Ritchie.  You can use as much of the song or a little as you like.  You could use it as a title, as journaling, or just a side note.  I used the lyric "I can't resist your charm" and chose to use "Your Charm" as the title.  I journaled around the paper block and photo.  I used February's Kit which is full of Pink Paislee goodness!  The only items I used aside from the kit are the Pink Paislee alphabet stickers and the American Crafts Alphabet stickers. 

My Pink Stamper is Febrary's sponsor and I used one of her wonderful sentiment stamps as a subtitle.  Here's a close-up.

Go ahead and give this challenge a try--I always get stumped on titles, and this is the perfect way to come up with an easy title-use a song lyric!

Trail Makers Recipe Challenge

I really enjoyed this Recipe Challenge at the Trail Maker's Blog. It certainly had me thinking outside the "box". I decided to alter a small, $1.00 Valentine chocolate heart box using February's kit-which as I had mentioned before, is fabulous! This altered heart box could be used to house a mini album, an accordian heart card, or to hold a gift card. Aside for using it for Valentine's Day, it could also be used for a wedding gift or for Mother's Day-another example of this kit's versatility. At any rate, here's how I followed the recipe: Lace, Ribbon, Tag, and Stamp. I decided to emphasize the word "love" by stamping it multiple times on the tag. The stamps were provided by this month's sponsor My Pink Stamper

Along with February's kit I used a small Valentine chocolate box, pearls, Glimmermist and platinum Stickles.


I challenge you to think outside the box and play along this week! 

Trail Makers February Kit

I love February's kit for (Paper) Trail Makers!  I found it to be the  perfect fit for this photo of my middle daughter-who is our girly girl.   It is chock full of floral Pink Paislee goodness with beautiful coordinating embellishments ranging from Prima, ribbons, buttons, badges, and more!  It was an added bonus to get to use the stamps from our February sponsor, My Pink Stamper.  The sentiments work with this kit perfectly.  Aside from kit materials, I used an extra piece of ribbon, alphabet stickers and ink.

LCOM Birthday Bash Blog Hop

Are you ready to get your crop on? Then join us at the LCOM forum right now for 8 sketches and lots of inspiration so you can get your groove on. We also have a tutorial on how to make an easy card organizer for you to get organized and make your own handmade cards for the year.

Here's the first card I made...it's based off of Kimberly's sketch.  I used the secret element!

 Here's the second card I made...it's based off of Rusha's sketch.  I used the secret element!

Here's the third card I made...it's based off of Sandi's Sketch -I used the secret element.

And here's the sketch that I created. If you go through all the blogs you will be able to see everyone else's sketch. Better yet go to the forum and see them all in one place!

And my card to go with my sketch. Can you guess what my secret element is? If you guess my secret element and use it on your card or layout, you will get an extra point. Check out the forum or the other blogs and see who else used it. That will give you some help!

You have until January 16th at 11pm EST to complete all 8 sketches. You'll get a point for each sketch you complete and a point for each secret element you get correct. You can also get points for completing the card organizer. You don't have to use birthday theme if you don't want to. Grab this blinkie and when you are finished with them all and tell us you are finished at the forum. Winners will be announced on January 18th...a first and second prize.

Now for my RAK...all you have to do is leave a comment to be eligible. I will announce the winner here on my blog on Tuesday, January 18th.

picture of RAK

Next stop is Monique's blog Have fun!!

Trailmakers Challenge

I loved the challenge this week at Trailmakers Blog.  It was to get creative and create your own embellishments!  Perfect for tightening the purse strings after Christmas.  For this challenge I created pleated flowers using coordinating paper from Basic Grey's Green at Heart line.  Plus, another penny pinching piece on my layout is using poor photos.  I printed these pictures and once printed, I realized I was out of several colors of ink-and they printed with a pink tint, then the pink ink ran out and faded into yellow.  Instead of throwing them away, I used them on this page.  I think they worked with the silly theme of the layout. 

Have a look...

Great News to Announce!

I am excited to announce today that I am new Design Team member for Trailmakers challenge blog!  I am looking forward to creating projects with the wonderful kits that are available here at their store!  Here is a list of the other girls on the Design Team!

Amarylis Doria http://amadrian8.blogspot.com/

Mellisa Toy http://paperfairytales.blogspot.com/

Yara Freytes http://itssummereveryday.blogspot.com/
Krystle Thomas http://hightimesinthehighdesert.blogspot.com/

Sandi Johnson http://sandileescraps.blogspot.com/


 I am looking forward to scrapping with them!  If you get a chance, stop by and work on the challenges-jump into the forum and get inspired!