Itsy Bitsy Spider

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I haven't blogged in over a week, which is soo not my norm, but I've been busy celebrating my now three (or "free" as she says it) year old's birthday, going to pre-school Halloween parties, helping my oldest daughter dress up every day last week for various activities at school - superhero day, camo day, book character day and more.  We also went through some evaluations for my oldest daughter and found out she has severe ADHD possibly coupled with something else that I'm not ready to blog about yet since we need to do more evaluations but either way, we are so relieved that we are starting to get some answers to things we've all been struggling with! 

Anyway, I was just trying to say that we've been busy but I'm here today to show you a couple of things I made for Halloween. The first is a tribute to Reese's favorite nursery rhyme (last year). It just made sense to dress her as a spider for Halloween last year.

I used the Bella Blvd Too Cute to Spook product line that I won in a Bella Blvd contest a couple of months ago.  It's just too perfect for my cute little spider girl!  Lots of fussy cutting, hand stitching and machine stitching but oh so worth it! I made one of those spiders with my sewing machine!

Love the clouds and those little stars were very tedious to cut and glue.  Some are even popped up.

Thanks Bella for the great line to work with!

The next is a little Halloween project I created for Imaginisce.  If you have kids, you've probably been Boo'd by another neighbor kid but if this is new to you basically, you leave a little "boo" gift and poem by the front door, then ring the doorbell and hide.  If you're good and hide like a ghost, they never know who boo'd them.  Anyway, I created these little "Boo" candy corn door hangers, which contain you guessed it - candy corn.

I made a little cone out of scrap paper to get it the shape I wanted and then I used that pattern to cut the different colors.  I cut the yellow a little bigger on the top and then gave it a pretty trimming with a punch.  I used white for the entire cone and stitched the orange and yellow to the white, adhered it with ultra strong glue.  Then I used a Martha Stewart lace punch to create the pretty lace handle.  I cut out some of the lace on the handle and threaded black ribbon through it for that "extra touch".  I found the mini chalkboard signs at Joann's. I painted the frame orange and wrote "BOO" in chalk. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Fall Projects...and Summer Just Began

Yes, I know that we just celebrated the first day of summer last week but Imaginisce just launched their Happy Harvest collection so I've been playing around with it.  I also think I am secretly hoping for cooler fall weather to cool down these 100+ degree days!

Here's a couple of the things I have made...make sure to look below to find out how you can win your very own Happy Harvest Sample pack.

Pumpkin Bowls

I plan to add some hershey's kisses in the fall colored wrappers when they come out!

I will post a tutorial for these so check back in a few days.  These are so easy peasy to make and you won't believe what I used to form them!

Imaginisce Happy Harvest Collection: Fall into Fun 12x12 Paper, Dancing Leaves 12x12 Paper, Autumn Splendor 12x12, Fall Friends Icon Die Cuts, Fall Phrases Word Die Cuts, Bazzill Navel Cardstock, green twine

 

Napkin Rings

I wrapped the napkins with 1.5 inch strips of paper and then I punched paper "flowers" with the i-top and added photo brads using the i-top large brad daddies.

Fruit Trio

Made from strips of Happy Harvest papers, mod podge and die cuts.  I found these fruit at Michael.  They are made from newspaper and were in the Michael's clearance bin for .50. I am definitely going back when I get home. The pumpkin is made from the apple mold so I tried to do the stripes up and down to look like a pumpkin and then did the apple with little bits and peices of paper.

I'll be posting a layout featuring this collection for tomorrow's Sketchy Thursdays DT reveal!

GIVEAWAY!

Head over to the Imaginisce blog to see how you can win your very own Happy Harvest Sample pack!  While you're there make sure to tell them what you think of these projects I posted here today. Thanks for looking,.

Magical Christmas Card

Sketchy Thursdays is teaming up with a new challenge site called Jingle Belles. I LOVE their concept - to make a new christmas card each & every week so that you can "take back December...one holiday card at a time!" What better way to not stress about cards at the most hectic time of the year and the bonus is that you can use up your scraps from last year's Christmas lines.

Sketchy Thursdays has brought back their Second Chance Challenges for this. One winner will be chosen on Sketchy Thursdays for a sponsored prize and one winner chosen on Jingle Belles for their sponsored prize so you have two chances to win but you must use the Sketchy Thursdays sketch and a CHRISTMAS theme in order to qualify for the prizes.

I used my scraps from the Echo Park line that I ran all over town looking for at Christmas time. I distressed the edges and stitched on the 2 paper strips before I glued them down so that the card recipient wouldn't see the stitching on the inside of the card. I fussy cut the holly and then used the Glossy Accents crackle to give it a veiny leafy look. I stamped "Magical" in green and then sprinkled Walnut Ink embossing crystals immediately over the ink and heat embossed it to give it some luster. I didn't use versamark because I only wanted an itsy bitsy bit of embossing powder to stick and to see the green through it. Lastly, I used silver pearl embossing powder to create edges around the card.

Make sure to visit Sketchy Thursdays and Jingle Belles to see what our design teams did with this sketch!

Still in the Christmas Spirit!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! We had plenty to eat, Santa arrived with loads of goodies for the little ones and we enjoyed lots of family time together. It was also my mom's birthday so were celebrating many wonderful things! If only we could have taken her out to eat somewhere (besides the always open on Christmas day Chinese stereo-type).

Here's the last Sketchabilities sketch of 2010. Take a look below at my take on Karan's fabulous sketch and the wonderful DT reveals on the Sketchabilities blog. I created this before the holidays so it's still all about Christmas.

Supplies: From the Scrapbook Circle kit - Crate Paper North Pole Collection - Sleigh Bells, Snow, Pine and Frosty papers; CTMH cream cardstock; Pink Paislee Expressions chipboard aphas in Limeade; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphabets.

Thanks for looking! Happy New Year to you and yours!

Sketchy Thursdays LO, a Featured LO and BIG NEWS!

WOW, WoW, wow, what an exciting week this has been.  Not only am I in the hustle and bustle of getting everything done in time for Christmas but I have had a super busy, EXCITING scrapbooking week.  So, without further ado, I have 3 things I have to share with you today. This is going to be a long post so stick with me.


First, Sketchy Thursdays is taking a break from the blog this week but they are not taking a break from their INCREDIBLY awesome sketches and giveaways.  I've included my layout reveal below but if you want to see the sketch I used for it and want to play along for the prize, you need to "Like" the Sketchy Thursdays Facebook page to see it.  They’re only posting the sketch on the Facebook page and you'll need to post your entry there as well. 

Supplies: Scrapbook Circle December 2010 Kit; Crate Paper Snow Day Collection - Sparkle, Flakes, Frosty, Mittens, Rub-ons, Sew Brads; Martha Stewart Baker's Twine; American Crafts Delight Foam Letters; Girls' Paperie tinsel & twig sticker market; K&Company Brenda Walton and Marcella Adhesive Rhinestones; Glossy Accents; Other ribbon

For the layout I fussy cut the mittens paper and used it to make the scallops at the top and bottom.  It's a bit hard to see but I used glossy accents and irridescent glitter on a few random ones. I also fussy cut the snowflakes and snowmen and gave them that same glitter look.  I used the "let it snow" part of the rub-ons on the picture.  It shows up just enough on the layout but not so much in the photo. 

I fussy cut the paper to make them look like snow caps on the word "snow". I then doodled the foam Thickers with little lines and snowflakes deliberately placed at all the curves on each letter. Then I placed two smaller flakes above their heads to look like they were catching them. The letters are crooked on purpose but I am sure you figure out that I was going for a falling effect.

Here's the little snowmen. I love the how the ribbon looks like his scarf if I do say so myself.    

Now head on over to the Sketchy Thursdays Facebook page and play along for your chance to win this!

Second, the layout I created for last week's Sketchy Thursday reveal using my Crate Paper stash from the December Scrapbook Circle kit was featured on the Crate Paper blog yesterday!!!  You have to scroll about 3/4 way down the page and that's where you'll find my "I Believe in the Magic" LO. That's exciting and such an honor! Thanks Crate Paper.


Last but certainly not least is that I was selected to be on the 2011 Design Team for Imaginisce! 

I am absolutely THRILLED to have been chosen! I can't wait to get my box of goodies (Merry Christmas to me) and start creating with them. And I'm talking about more than just scrapbook creations! If you came over from the Imaginisce blog, welcome to a little piece of my world. I hope you'll stick around my blog to see what I create. If you are one of my fabulous followers already, head over to the Imaginisce blog and/or Facebook page and tell them Heather Leopard sent ya!

Thanks for sticking through this lost post. It all just happened to fall on the same day.


Merry merry,
Heather

I Believe in the Magic

12/21/10 UPDATE: I am so excited and honored that this LO was featured on the Crate Paper blog. It's posted about 3/4 of the way down here ---> Crate Paper Happy Holidays Blog Event

The gig is up. :( Here I am with the last official layout reveal for my December Guest Design Team stint at Sketchy Thursdays. I have had a ton of fun and I am happy to say that they asked me to serve a 2nd spot as the January guest designer!!!  I said abso-freakin-lutely and I am so excited!!! I told them I could just stay on indefinitely, just kidding of course (or am I?). So here's the last reveal for Sketchy Thursdays for 2010.  With that said though, make sure to "Like" them on Facebook because they might just have something in store for you later this month. ;)

I LOVE the Scrapbook Circle December kit soooo much!  LOVE it!  These lightbulbs were quite a fussy cutting feat and then I decorated them with Glossy Accents (lines, dots, stars, etc). I also had fun playing with different stitch types on my decorative squares.  I didn't include a title or journaling (gasp) but I did use the word-stickers to tell the story. Some of the letters in the word-sticker are colored in so I hand wrote the date at the bottom to look similar to them.

Supplies using my Scrapbook Circle December kit: My Mind's Eye - I Believe "Dots"; Lilybee Designs - Christmas Town "City Sidewalks"; Crate Paper - Snow Day "Candy", "Sparkle" and "Melt"; Crate Paper Snow Day Rubons; Girls' Paperie tinsel & twig sticker market (for the words); American Crafts Holiday House Glitter Merrymint; Handmade flower; misc. lace

Make sure to stop by Sketchy Thursdays to play along to win their FABULOUS prize this week - a $25 voucher to Scrap N Craft with T! I can't wait to see what you create.

Trimming the Tree

I hope you all are getting in the Christmas spirit like I am.  I haven't finished my Christmas shopping, I've barely started actually, but we are loving the spirit of the season - the songs, the decorations, the parties!

Here's today's Sketchabilities sketch and my LO reveal. I had some fun with this layout, creating some mini Christmas trees using that ribbon I had to hunt down, that I mentioned in my previous post. I can't remember if these trees were a brain child of mine or my gf Audrey or a collaboration of both. Either way, they are TDF cute. So here goes...

Supplies: Echo Park Merry Christmas papers - Holly Berry, Home for the Holidays, Christmas Countdown; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Alphas; Creative Imaginations Foam Stickers (alphas); Bazzill Cardstock; Glossy Accents; Clear Embossing Powder; misc. ribbon

Thanks for looking and make sure to play along over at Sketchabilities for a chance to win some yummy goodies from this week's sponsor!

There's No Place Like Home

Check out Karan's new sketch and other fabulous design team reveals over at Sketchabilities. Since this reveal falls so close to Halloween I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This was so fun (and challenging) to do. I hope you get all the subtle and not so subtle references included in this layout. There are 3 - 4 references - can you guess them all?

Here's the sketch and my layout.

Supplies:
Rainbow: Red -  Jillibean Soup Old World Cabbage Stew "Brown Rice"; Orange - Lilybee Domestic Bliss "Centerpiece" Yellow - Heat Embossed Misc. Yellow Cardstock; Blue - CMTH Splendor; Green - Jillibean Soup Old World Cabbage Stew "Diced Tomatoes" ; Purple - Bazzill Dotted Swiss Cardstock "Grape Jelly"

Squares: October Afternoon Thrift Shop "Complete Set", Jillibean Soup Old World Cabbage Stew "Red Peppers"; Misc. Green Cardstock; Stripes Paper Uknown 

Ribbon - My Mind's Eye Lost & Found; Clouds - CTMH Splendor Paper; Alphas: Colorbok Modern Red Glitter Clear Stickers, Thickers Delight Fabric Letter Stickers "Leaf" & "White" (misted with Shimmerz Chick-a-dee); October Afternoon Mini Market Stickers "Indigo & Cream"



The rainbow looks like it should be so easy to pull off but I had to go include an arch and then of course they had to line up perfectly so there wouldn't be any gaps. Let's just say my ruler got a lot of use that day. If you try this make sure to measure it all out on scratch paper and cut a template for each strip. That way to can make sure it will line up correctly once it's all cut out. I did that and it worked beautifully (no wasted pattern paper).

Oh, if you complete a layout using Sketchabilities Sketch #33 or Sketch #34 and link using Mr Linky you will qualify to win a scrapkit worth $35.00 from Scrapshotz...you have until Nov 10 to complete this challenge!

Christmas in July

My goal is to get Christmas 2009 layouts completed for the girls by July.  I just made this goal up right now (half way through July) as I am typing this so I've got some work to do and I hope I have enough of this paper to have it coordinate (at least a little).  Here's my first stab at this aggressive little goal.  I used the adorable CTMH Jingle paper pack, Chocolate Alpha Small stamp with Chocolate ink, True Friends stamp with Juniper ink, chocolate waxy flax, Tulip ink and blending pen (for the artsy look under the word 'cookies') and their Sparkles.  I also used MM Shimmer Alpha Red and The Paper Studio Groovy Jazz Pink Chipboard alphas.

Rheagan and Reese's pj both said Santa's Favorite so I thought I'd play off that for the title of this particular layout.

This layout was based off this week's Nuts About Sketches sketch:

Coloring Eggs...AND HANDS???

It seems I always put off scrapping the holiday photos for some reason.  I must be the mass of photos I take.  Needless to say I am very far behind on Christmas and Easter photos and have lots of catching up to do going back a couple of years, I'm afraid.  Here's a start at Easter using Week 115 Nuts about Sketches sketch.  I have been dying to scrap this set of pictures ... look at Rheagan's hand!!!

The circles in the sketch got me thinking about going to Archivers last weekend with my friend Audrey and I really liked the way she was incorporating circles on her layout that night. My circles are a combo of the sketch, a scraplift and my own originality.  I also used Shimmer Spritz (Bed of Roses) on my green cardstock to give it some pizazz and then I combined 2 thread colors in my hand stitched circles.  Like how I strategically placed the flower in Rheagan's hair?