Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!! What are your big plans for the day? Mine are work all day with some very excited third graders, then go home and tag along on my niece's second Trick or Treat! I'm really looking forward to it.

Last year, in addition to Trick or Treating, we took the Musher to Boo At the Zoo at the Fort Worth Zoo.  As this was her first Halloween where she really  had any inkling as to what was going on, I took pictures.  And then I took some more.  And some more after that.  So the end result is having about 503204823490858234908 pictures of Halloween-related Ellie from 2011.  And they're all too cute to throw by the wayside, so I'm sure I will scrapping them all up. 

So Cute It's Scary

 

I'll take any excuse to use ridiculous quantities of October Afternoon products on a layout!  Super exciting to get to use even more Witch Hazel!  I'm going through a phase where I'm REALLY enjoying using very bold backgrounds on my layouts.

 

 

 

A little cluster of embellishments, including one of the cutey postcards from the Witch Hazel collection.  I turned it into a tag for journaling and added some of the ribbon from the miscellany pack.

 

 

 

I liked how these skulls came in a range of colors, so used them in a row along the side.

 

Here's a closer look at the postcard.  I punched a hole in the top, added the ribbon and tucked it behind my photos.

 On the other side, I added my journaling and in keeping with the postcard concept, added Ellie's information address-style.  I LOVE how these postcards are actual postcards and not just labeled as such.  Super cute!

 

 

Supplies:  patterned paper, die cuts, postcard, ribbon, brads, button, stickers - October Afternoon; letter stickers - October Afternoon, American Crafts

Thanks for looking and have a Spooktacular Halloween!

UNHalloween Pumpkins

I have a Halloweenish (but actually, not Halloween related at all) layout to share with you today....

 

Mickey's Punkin' Patch

 

I had these cute photos of the big fake Mickey Mouse pumpkins in his garden at his house in Toontwon from a few years ago.  I totally had to break out some October Afternoon Witch Hazel for this one.  I threw in a few other papers...some Studio G (which I bought at Wal-Mart over a year ago for 97 cents), some Jillibean Soup, a little Studio Calico, My Mind's Eye, and some Fancy Pants. 

 

 

 

I used a Studio Calico paper (from the Classic Calico Volume 2 Collection) as my background and threw some mist up on that baby: Mister Huey's Pumpkin Spice, I believe.

This little pumpkin sticker from OA's Witch Hazel was perfect for the layout.  The letter stickers and the lable behind the pumpkin come from this collection, as well.

 

More Witch Hazel with the vintagey pumpkin card and the flags.  The button is from My Mind's Eye and came in my Studio Calico kit last month.

 

A few more My Mind's Eye embellies and some twine for a rustic feel.  These are layered over some Witch Hazel washi tape.

 

Supplies:  patterned paper - October Afternoon, Studio Calico, Jillibean Soup, Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye; chipboard - My Mind's Eye; flags, letter stickers, stickers, and card - October Afternoon; spray ink - Mister Huey's (Studio Calico); stamp ink - Jenni Bowlin (Ranger) in Fountain Pen; other - twine

 

Thanks so much for reading!

Laughter and Such

Hello, Crafty Friends!  How is everyone doing this fine Friday?  I'm doing great knowing that it is indeed Friday!  Woot!

 

I've been busy trying to finish up my 2011 December Daily whenever I can spare a moment.  I'm very nearly done and will be posting it in its entirety once it's complete.  I need to hurry it up, so I can move on to getting my 2012 December Daily set up.  I have a different format in mind this year.  Something a little more simple, consistent, and concise than the more freeform version I started last year.  You can see bits of it here, if you are interested:

 

December 1

December 2

December 3

December 4

December 5

December 6

December 7

 

Meanwhile, here is my latest 12x12 creation!

 

You Make Me Laugh 

 

I wanted to create a layout featuring my girlfriend and this silly photo I took of her a couple of years ago.  I'm loving using Studio Calico's Classic Calico collections as my backgrounds lately and when I pulled this starburst background out of my stash, I thought it would look really cool with some more circles!  I was super surprised with how much I liked the design of this page once it was completed.

 

 

 

With the exception of the "Together" die cut by October Afternoon, I cut every single one of those circles out old school style...with my Creative Memories circle cutting system (I can't remember the proper name of it, I've had it so long).  I still can't seem to jump on board fully with my Cricut.  I love, love, love that I have it and coveted it for so long, but with my scrap space being very cramped, I don't have it set up to where it is easy to get to.  I need to find a remedy for that!

 

This little Jillibean Soup flower worked really well with the pastel colors of the layout.  Plus, it added a little something to my circle design.  I popped up several of the smaller circles to give the layout some overall dimension.

This little flag from the Soleil collection by Basic Grey was super perfect!  I also used some word stickers from Authentique that I sprinkled in various places.

 

It wouldn't be a Deedee layout without a touch of October Afternoon.  I only used a smidge of their paper from the Woodland Park collection, so included this cutie little die cut too.

 

Supplies:  patterned paper - October Afternoon, Fancy Pants Designs, Echo Park, My Mind's Eye, Studio Calico, Basic Grey; die cut - October Afternoon; flag - Basic Grey; felt flower - Jillibean Soup; word stickers - Authentique; letter stickers - American Crafts, Studio Calico; other - ink

Thanks so much for stopping by!  And Happy Friday!

Halloween...a One Year Old...a Zoo Trip...and PANCAKES!

Hey everybody out there in the blogosphere.  I have been a horrible, horrible, horrible blogger as of late.  I'm going to try very hard to get my proverbial crappola back together and blog my little heart out this week.

Just so you know what I've been up to:  work....work....work...and more work.  We're only in the second six weeks, but I'm having the kind of year where it feels like it should be May already!  But only five (?) more weeks til a much needed and MUCH anticipated Thanksgiving break!

Well next week is my third favorite holiday:  Halloween.  I have tons of pictures from the past couple of Halloweens to scrapbook, but have only done three.  That's right:  three.  I really need to get a move on, because I have no doubt I'll be adding to my collection when Elle Belle goes trick or treating on that fateful night!  Though, really, I shouldn't feel even slightly bad about that, because her mom hasn't even decided on her costume yet, so.....

Enough chit chat...I actually have the one and only Halloween layout I've done waiting to be shown to you all.  I used Echo Park's new Chillingsworth Manor collection here.  The only addition is some strips of washi tape.

Frighteningly Good Pancakes

In Fort Worth, at the city zoo, they host an event annually around this time called "Boo At the Zoo".  Since Ellie is the one and only child in our entire family, we tend to jump the gun on doing fun "kid" stuff.  So, my mom, my sister (Ellie's mom), Ellie, and I headed out to Boo last October.  We decided to make a day of it and nab some pancakes beforehand at a favorite Fort Worth landmark: Ol' South Pancake House. 

 

I don't own Photoshop or PS Elements or anything fancy.  I use a lot of Instagrammed photos, but these were just SOOC images that I edited a bit in, of all thing, Microsoft Word.  I brightened them up a bit to give them a more filtered look. 

 

Layer upon layer of Halloween yumminess!

 

The sticker behind the journaling card is actually from Basic Grey's Black Dress collection.

 

Supplies:  patterned paper, letter stickers, journaling card - Echo Park; stickers - Echo Park, Basic Grey; tapes - Bazzill, American Crafts, Love My Tapes; ink - Jenni Bowlin

 

Thanks so much for reading!!

Still Here

I haven't blogged in about ten years!  Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's been awhile.  Things have been crazy since school started back up and just haven't had the time to sit down and post some stuff.

I just finished this layout today and thought I'd throw it up on the ol' blog.

Ice Cream Aftermath

This is NOT a great picture and by some standards probably even kinda yucky, but I scrapbooked it as it's a photo of one of my favorite desserts:  fried ice cream!  Anytime I go to a  Mexican Restaurant that serves this little treat, I have to order carefully because I know I'm going to consume this puppy afterwards.

When Lisa was over in the States a couple of years ago (wow...it's been that long since her first visit...really?), I took her out one night and she got to pick everything we did.  She had been staying at my apartment during the days while I was at work and was understandably feeling pretty antsy.  So we started with dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Don Pablo's.  We ate our meal and shared a fried ice cream (!!!!!!!!) afterwards and I snapped this little photo.



I used bunches of the Cakewalk Flower Sack die cuts from October Aftnoon and layered them.  I threw in some wood veneer stars and stamps from Studio Calico.

I love these food related stamps from Studio Calico and this flair from Ormolu was perfect. I used the Fiskars Swiss Cheese border punch on the hole punched strips in the background. 

I combined a couple of different Thicker sets to give the title a little punch.

Supplies:  patterned paper - Echo Park, October Afternoon, Lily Bee Design, Pebbles, Basic Grey; punches - EK Success, Jenni Bowlin (Fiskars); die cuts - October Afternoon; letter stickers - American Crafts; stickers - American Crafts (Dear Lizzy), October Afternoon; wood veneer stars - Studio Calico; stamps - Studio Calico; ink - Jenni Bowlin (Ranger); other - tag, ribbon

Thanks so much for reading!  I hope to post again soon!