Freaky!

     I had to giggle at the expense of my twin sister tonight.  I'm not sure how the subject came up but we started talking about Freaky Cereal.  Do you remember it and the song - "We are the Freakies, we are the Freakies, this is our Freaky tree.  We never miss a meal, 'cause be love our cereal".  Check it out on YouTube if you don't remember the ditty. 
     I found it appropriate to end October with it and the segue to post the anniversary card I made for my husband for our Halloween anniversary.  We've been married for 15 years.  I'm amazed by how quickly it has gone by and I can't wait to spend the next 15, 20, 25, etc. years with him.  He is a wonderful, loving, giving, supportive, handsome man and I am blessed to call him mine.  He has endured a lot.....we have endured a lot but most people/couples/families do.  It's all in how you manage each situation.  But I digress.  Happy Anniversary Joe.  I love you with all my heart and soul.   Gee...I hope he reads this!
     I was hoping to make a gate fold card of a haunted house so that I could layer each opening with fun ephemera and goodies, but I just didn't find anything I could use in my project so I went looking for Halloween papers I remembered that I had and found that I had purchased a package that contained this cute little Haunted House.  I had to maneuver some folds that could be pulled up to expose the entire house but in the long run I think it came out pretty well!  The door was meant to be separated from the house but I attached it so that it would fold down and expose our wedding photo.  Yes, that is our wedding photo!  Isn't if fun!  Can you believe my mother actually said I looked prettier during this wedding than I did for my first wedding which was a formal, outdoor event.  Thanks Mom...I think.
     I did see a card on Pinterest that inspired the rest of the front of my card.  The pumpkins and the ghosts were borrowed project ideas.  I was finally able to use my Stampin Up owl punch to my advantage with the ghosts and the pumpkins are oval punches with inked edges and layered to look like pumpkins.  Aren't they cute?  I also added the leaves and a little sparkle.  I'll use these again!

     I also worked very late into the night on Halloween Eve making these cute little pins for my co-workers.  Unfortunately the mummy pin you see below it the only one I took a photo of.  This one is just a 1.5 inch circle wrapped with a stretchy piece of some kind of fabric I found in my remnant stash.  I added the eyes, a ribbon bow and a pin on the back.  I punched the circle out of cardboard so it had some stability and I think it worked out pretty well!  I made a green ribbon wrapped Frankenstein, a black kitty out of a "clumpy" of black canvas threads, a wolf man that was a little more trimmed up instead of just a circle that I wrapped with a dark greenish/brownish soft ribbon, a little girl alien and a couple of other things.  I just kept being inspired as I went along and before I knew it it was almost 1:00 a.m.!  Made for a long Halloween Day at work but I found my second wind and was able to enjoy a beautiful dinner out with my husband and back in time to greet a few trick or treaters (which are rare out where we live).  Good thing we stopped for a couple of bags of candy! 

 Thank you for stopping by.   Let me know that you did by leaving a comment.  I hate to think that my number of views on my blog are all mine!  LOL!!!

Week of Wonderful

I can't imagine that Facebook or some other social media hasn't done for others what it has for our family over the last year.  I have an Aunt that no one knew existed, and a niece we thought we would never know of surface.  The Aunt is Laura Conners.  She is my mother's half sister (same father).  She and he husband Mike were in Colorado this week and we were able to spend some time and learn more about her and her family and her about us.  We've been communicating for almost a year so it was so nice to finally meet face to face. 

Marnina Colby is the other edition.  She is my middle sister's daughter and was given up for adoption at birth.  That was 18 years ago and we never thought that we would know anything about her.  But after a short search on her part she was able to find her 1/2 sister, my niece, on Facebook.  It turned out that her sister (also adopted) found her biological family the same day...the same way.  Marnina is currently on a mission of sorts, in Israel.  She was raised Jewish.  She a beautiful young lady and a typical 18 year old.  She and my niece and their brother were able to finally all meet and spend time together in Florida.  I would have loved to have been there with them just to see the joy on their faces.

But, since I had the pleasure of having my new Aunt here I have the photos to prove it!  The first photo is of Laura.  The next is of her and me.  Jeez my hair looks dark!  The next is Laura and her husband Mike. 

 We had dinner at my sisters house and my son, Brandon, and granddaughter, Evee were able to join us.  He is usually working so getting him to join us is rare so we were lucky to have them there.  I took the opportunity to get some recent pictures!  I haven't had one of he and I in a very long time.  So, here we are and one of he and his cutie pa-too tie daughter.  I have beautiful granddaughters!  Just saying! 

 I did squeak some time in to make a card this weekend.  A request by a co-worker for a baby shower card.  Graphic45 paper's didn't disappoint again!  I've used it almost exclusively of late and I love the way this came out.  I hope she does too!  The next project is a special card for my hubby for our anniversary.  I tried a few ideas today but no luck.  I'll try again tomorrow night!

October Rush

Weekends just are not long enough!
Between the things you need to do and the things you want to do there just are not enough hours in the day. And, when the days are as beautiful as they have been this weekend you just want them to go on.
As promised in my last blog entry here are a few pictures of the treasure we "acquired" at the antique market.  Can you tell I'm still feeling a little badly?  I can't wait to find a use for them.  Something a little more industrial maybe or adding them to a vintage piece not yet imagined yet.

Aren't they wonderful!  Oh the possibilities!

One of my coworkers asked for a birthday card for her daughter.  Using my favorite Graphic45 paper, again, and my new found love of step cards, here is what I created.

With Amber and Claire living with us I wanted to be sure we had some Halloween decor up this year.  So, yesterday I started on a project idea I saw on Pinterest.  I didn't have all the pieces of the original (not for not trying...drove around looking for a wooden crate for an hour on Saturday) display but I think mine has my own flair.  Claire gave it the "It's not to scary" nod of approval.

What started out as a little bit of decorating ended up being a little bit of decorating and a lot of cleaning out the flower beds in the front of the house!  I actually ran out of day light!  But boy do they look a lot better.  Now I have the itch to plant some bulbs.  Hope I can do that before the first freeze.

Cards and Pumpkins

What a nice weekend.  Sorry to have it end as I still have sooo much to do!  We went to an antique sale/show in Longmont on Saturday and I think we got the deal of the century!  Found a container full of old hinges, metal feet, ceramic wheels and other rusted, beautiful goodies.  Two sisters were running the booth and one turned to the other as asked how much after we offered to purchase the entire container.  The other sister said to the first sister "You make the deal", so she asked us how much we wanted to pay.  We really lowballed it but not trying to insult them and offered $25.  She accepted our offer!  We were thrilled, actually giddy!...the other sister...not so much. This easily could have been well over $100 worth of treasure.  I felt a little bad so I actually paid $30.  The "other" sister was still talking about how her sister just "gave away the farm" as we were walking out.  If the bag hadn't been so heavy we might have sprinted away! Once I have few minutes I'll post  some photos of the items we purchased.  We joked on the way out that we hoped we hadn't created a Bette Davis/Joan Crawford/Sweet Baby Jane moment between them.

Still doing my best to knock out some October birthday cards!  It's a good thing I attended a card crafting class last weekend or I'd be very behind!  But, I wanted to make sure that the "special cards" were getting done and so far..so good.  And yes, in case you are keeping track it did take me four hours to make these.  It's a good thing that I don't do this for a living, I would starve to death.  But, in my own defense, I did do laundry and make a batch of ham and bean soup today..YUM! So, here are the two cards I made.  The girlyish one is for my Mom and the Steampunk version is for my Son.  Now to purchase the gifts!

 

We also took some time and stopped to get pumpkins on Saturday.  We haven't done this in a long time and would have preferred to choose them with the kids/grandkids but we weren't able to this time.  The were so pretty!

October Occasions

We have a plethora of birthdays in October!  No...really....a lot of them.  The month starts with our granddaughter Laurel who turned 8 on the 2nd.  Then my sister Jennifer who is much, much older than 8.  We had a little pizza party celebration for her at our mom's house (see her blowing out birthday candles with my twin and my grand daughter Claire in the photo below), my aunt, my mother, my son and several friends, not to mention our wedding anniversary.  Way to many to keep up with when, as I've said before, it takes me 2-3 hours to make a special card for them.  But, I think I got off to a good start!  The card in yellows was made for Laurel and I was able to use the flea market find of the beautiful paper dolls again; and the side step card (Graphic45 paper) was for Jennifer.  I am a little hooked on these side step cards and can't wait to try my hand at a different version of them although two of my first three attempts turned out fairly well.  Attempt number two is still sitting on my craft table.  My measurements went wonky but I loved the papers I started it with so I'm hoping I can save it. 
Our Colorado weather has turned cool and we got a dusting of snow over the last couple of days and as I said to my twin sister "I understand why bears hibernate".  It just makes me want to take a long nap so it's a good thing I have these birthdays to motivate me!  We also created some cute cards at Amy Casal's Sassy Chic card class...one being the appropriate birthday candle card.  Love the texture of the candles. 
I hear the call of making my own Christmas cards this year.  I didn't send any out at all last year...none...store bought or handmade, so I am over due.  I've seen some great inspiration cards so it shouldn't be too difficult!  Happy Fall Y'all!

Side step card

I wanted to make a special card for my husband for his birthday.  I always seem to exceed but this time even I surprised myself!  I had seen a wonderful round card being made on Pinterest using Graphic45 papers but was having a difficult time following the tutorial...it was done in a very fast speed.  So I kept looking and came across and A6 Side step tutorial on YouTube.  I've never made a side step card or any kind of dimensional card.  The tutorial was very easy to follow and this is the result of my inspiration!  I love Graphic45 paper and have started on my next card already so I can learn to make these quickly.  This one took me about two hours...geez! I can see some beautiful Christmas cards made like this. I also need to set up my light box some where so I can get better pictures.

It has been so long since I've posted anything that my blog site has changed and I didn't know it! 

I haven't been very inspired.  I know...that's horrible!  I would walk into my craft room and just feel overwhelmed because I have so much stuff.  So what do I do?  GO BUY MORE STUFF!!!

My husband (Joe) and I love to hit the flea markets and garage sales and I haven't been able to walk out of the door or off the lot of a sale with treasures in my hand and the thought in my mind that what I found is meant to be something other than the item I discovered. 

I found this "thing" that I later learned is called a grater.   I'm not sure that this would grate anything but I new for sure that it would a great frame for something cool.  I found metal painted drawer pulls that were so cool they said "psst, Kharen...take me home".  So I did. 

I've attended a couple of Sassy Chic card classes in Longmont with my sister and tomorrow I am dragging one of my girlfriends there.  If she wasn't hooked on making cards she will be after this!  I can't wait to see what we make.

But, I finally was motivated to get back into the craft room by a request from a gal that bought from me at my one and only craft show last year.  She bought my small collage squares and now wants a handful for girlfriends that she is getting together with at the end of this month.  I finally finished them (mostly) tonight by adding some little wooden feet (with a little assist from my husband) so they will stand.  A few more baubles and beads on a couple of them and they are done.  But, in the meantime here they are!  I hope she enjoys them as much as I enjoyed making them.  And, I will make more!  Was invited to participate in another craft show on October 6th but it was just to short notice for pokey me.  Maybe next time.

Imitation and Inspiration

Sunday I was able to work on a project that was, again, inspired by a project I saw on Pinterest.  When I say it I couldn't wait to cut up the Ouiji board that has been hanging in the garage for a very long time.  I thought I was going to have to really sweet talk my husband into "donating" it to the cause and then into cutting it up.  Cut up a Ouiji board!  That has to be a really bad thing!  Why do you think I asked him to do it?  Thankfully, nothing bad happened.  He also had another one he preferred over this one so I was very lucky.  I am lucky...he is the most amazing man. 
So, back on topic.  Early on in my Pinterest adiction I saw the photo and then went to the site for these little houses.  I was immediatley facinated and couldn't wait to give it a shot.  It's kind of like making cards but these are a little more decorative.  Once these are completed I will attach a way to hand them.  They will be a nice piece to hang on a wall as they are a little too big and a lot to un-Christmas like to hang as an ornament unless you have a tree that stays up year round.  Do you?  I'd be jealous if you do! 
Like I said, I found the project on www.pinterest.com and if you click through you will find it takes you to  craftster.org but I accidently came across it on another blog site but now can't find it....darn.  But I was inspired and used her pieces for inspiration but found that I'm putting my spin on them as usual.  I liked her's a lot, especially the one with the skeleton on it (note the skull bead on one of them), but right now I vow not to purchase anything new until I use, repurpose, sort/organize, give away or throw away some of the "stuff" I've collected/hoarded, over the last year or so and so far I've been able to use what I have on these houses!  Yay! 
Hear are the first few.  I have about 7 more to do and I'm really having fun coming up with something a little different for each one.  Wish me luck on the rest.  I may need it.  Remember....this is a cut up Ouiji board!

Birthday Card

Wow!  Two postings in one week!  It's a miracle! 

I was just so excited about a card I created last night because, as I've said before, cards are not my favorite thing to do because they take me forever to plan and make and I usually look for inspiration for a long time before I ever even get started.  Most of my layouts are inspired by other cards I've seen (with the exception of my Valentines) and then I put my own spin on them and this card is no exception.  I had this wonderful pack of papers by Graphic45 (I actually use a lot of their papers) and I wanted to use the vintage look for a co-workers birthday card so I went to their website http://www.g45papers.com/ and found the paper I wanted to use and there was a small gallery of examples of other peoples work.  I borrowed the layout I found there of a card made by Cheryl Nyboer and, as usual, put my spin on it.  I was very happy with the end product and thought I would share it with you!  Happy Friday all and Happy Birthday to my co-worker Bonnie!

Winter Whimsies

I had taken some pictures of Valentines I made this month and thought I'd get them uploaded here.  Little did I realize that pictures I had taken at Christmas were still on my camera!  Yikes!  I need to get back on my game.  My pictures mean a lot to me but I've just not been real interested in doing what's right with them.  So, it's time for me to get back on the ball!
December was so busy and I did make quite a few Christmas gifts, most of which I did not take pictures of.  I was making and wrapping in the same breath!  I am a huge fan of Pinterest and a lot of the ideas come from there. I'm inspired almost daily and am so very addicted.  I don't think there is a day that goes by when I'm not spending at least a few minutes on the site.   What is Pinterest you say?  It's an online bulletin board where people "Pin, Like or Comment" on postings that others have found.  The pins and likes can be saved to your own bulletin board for review later.  I currently have over a thousand "likes" and have created several of my own boards and actually have several people "following" the pins and boards I have created.  Give it a try at www.pinterest.com and if you need some direction send me an email at kharen@comcast.net and I'll help you start getting around! 
So I'm posting some pics taken between December 2011 and February this year as well as the afore mentioned Valentines which I am actually quite proud of.  The flowers on some of them came from a technique I learned at a Sassy Chic card making class.  My folded/accordian type flowers still need some work but I'll keep trying.  I may have to break down and buy Tim Holtz's die that makes the strips already scored.  Should make them so much easier.  A few pictures of family at Christmas time and from my daughter and nephews combined 25th birthday party.  They grow so fast!