Prettying up some packages...

Whenever I can, I like to use my Cricut to help decorate packages. It's a great way to try some new cuts. It's so much easier to adhere the layers when they're cut in a larger size. Here's a package I decorated recently:

"Hoo's having a BIRTHDAY" was cut from the Hoot 'n' Holler cartridge, and the little pink owl was cut from Kate's ABCs. I simply hand cut the cloud to show off the sentiment a little better.

Isn't that a cute owl? I added some sparkle to the feather lines on his belly and to his eyes. Since this if for a very girly little girl, I knew she'd like a little glitter.

I also added a little glitter to the word "BIRTHDAY."

 

For this package, I simply used some glittery pink chipboard letters and some flowers. Easy, peasy, and just right for a little girl.

Here's a look at both of them together.

Thanks for stopping by today. Don't forget to laugh--a little or a lot--every day!
Cheryl

Our Halloween welcome to the kids...

Just a quick post today. I wanted to share with you just how we welcomed all the wonderful little trick-or-treaters to our door on Halloween night. Remember the spider that I made? If not, you can check it out and see a close-up photo in the previous post. Here's how we displayed the spider on our front door:

The "BOO!" was painted onto the glass with some acryllic paint.  It's easy enough to scrape it off with a razor blade when Halloween is over.

As you can see, I always carve a couple of pumpkins.


I love to add "hair" to Mrs. Pumplin. I simply use some sparkly, colored pipe cleaners and twist each one around my finger to create curls. I make some tiny holes in the top of the pumpkin with a sharp skewer or nail and stick the pipe cleaners in.














I decided Mr. Pumpkin needed a hat, so I grabbed an old New Year's hat that we had in our costume box.  Since it said "Happy New Year" on the front, I made a Happy Halloween sign to cover it up.

You may be noticing that you can see tin foil inside the pumpkins. Well, you're right, there is tin foil in there! I always carve my pumpkins on October 31st. I line them with tin foil not only to help reflect the candle light, but also to keep the pumpkin meat fresh and protected from the candle. As soon as the trick-or-treaters stop coming, I bring them in and bake them. After they have cooled, I put the mashed pumpkin into ziploc bags--2 cups per bag--and freeze it. That way we have pumpkin all year long.



I hope you all had as much fun on Halloween as we did.

Thanks for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day!
Cheryl

Happy Halloween!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Halloween and enjoying all the trick or treaters. When my kids were little, I really loved to make their costumes. In1987, my twins were 10 years old, and it was one of the last years they went trick or treating. They may have gone one more year, but that would have been it. I made it a rule in our house, that when you were 12, you had to help hand out the candy.

I knew I was going to miss the creative outlet of making their costumes, so I really went all out in 1987.  I made my twins into Pierrot dolls. If you've never heard of them, click this link for some images of Pierrot dolls.

Here's a picture of my girls in their costumes:



Aren't they stinkin' gorgeous?

I bought a clown costume pattern to sew their outfits out of black and deep pink/fuschia. The ruffles around their neck were made from the same color pink satin,only that fabric had silver sparkles all over it. I also made them little black skull caps. I tied their long, dark hair up on top of their heads and pinned the little caps on.  I painted their faces white and added some of the eye makeup characteristic of Pierrot dolls. If you look closely you can see a blue tear painted on each right cheek. I did take a photo of them looking very sad, but that photo has disappeared from our album. I wonder which one of them I should blame for that! LOL

Making my kids' costumes each year was as fun for me as it was for them. I just wish I had taken more photos!!!

Now onto something a little less lovely. To decorate our door for the trick or treaters this year, I decided to stretch some webbing across it. In the center of the webbing is this little beauty:

 I made her out of 1/2 of a styrofoam oval cut lengthwise.  I painted it black, then added a coat of ModPodge and a generous amount of black glitter. Of course, I also added a couple of spooky, red eyes and some pipe cleaner legs. Here she sits in all her glory on top of the bag of webbing.

Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day!

Cheryl

Christmas bags and Cricut cuts...

Christmas bags can really add to the cost of a gift if you buy the prettily decorated ones. I prefer to pick them up at the Dollar Store and add my own decorations.

Here are a couple of bags I picked up the other day:

 They are nice big gift bags, but definitely on the plain side.  I decided to try a few new Cricut cuts to decorate them.

For this bag I used some cuts from the Christmas Cards cartridge that my daughter gave me a couple of years ago.  The snow is just a piece of paper torn from a 12" X 12" pice of cardstock.

 

Isn't this little snowman cute? I cut him out of white glitter paper and used a little dimensional paint on the buttons, eyes and mouth.  I popped him up on some foam tape for some added dimension. You can just see in the picture on the left that I added some stickles to the snow for a little sparkle. In the photo above, you may be able to make out that I put some blue sticky-backed gems in the centers of the snowflakes.

For the red bag, I used the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to cut a stocking out of some pretty, glittery striped paper. I ran the heel and toe pieces through the Cuttlebug in one of my embossing folders.

 

I'm sorry for the glare and shadows on the bag, but it is made from very shiny foil! I cut the "Happy Holidays" from the Christmas Cards cart and added a few felt candy cane stickers. 

 

The holly leaves were some velour leaves I ordered from Oh My Crafts when they were on sale and the berries are Card Candi that I colored with a red ProMarker.  I also added some ribbon for a loop and a button with a little red bow.

The tags on both the bags were cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge. There are some really great tag shapes and designs on that cartridge.

 

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed my bag transformations. Don't forget to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

 

 

 

 

Surprises are so much fun...

The other day one of my twin daughters told me that her three small children (ages 7, nearly 6 and 3) had picked something out for me when they went with her to the store.  She packed up their purchases and sent them to me in the mail. Since she lives about 500 miles away, it takes a few days for a package to arrive.

Yesterday, the box was delivered and here is what was inside:

Do those kids know their grandma, or what? You can see in the photo they picked out some cute, Halloween card blanks with envelopes, 3 Halloween punches, 3 packages of assorted ribbons, a cute "witches legs" stamp and two glitter 4-packs. Of course, I had to try out some of these supplies and make them each a little thank you card.

Once of them even decorated the box:

It's a little hard to see in this photo, but there's a happy face drawn on one side of the box.  I'm not sure which one of them drew the face, but it sure made me smile.

Here's a picture of those three beautiful grandchildren.  They'll be coming to visit over Thanksgiving, and my daughter and I are planning a few Christmas crafts for them to enjoy. They like to craft as much as I do. My daughter has also inherited the crafting gene, so Thanksgiving will be a blast!.

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

 

Card for a beautiful baby boy...

My niece recently gave birth to her second baby boy, and so I wanted to send her a little gift along with a card. I have had this image in my envelope of images for ages, so I'm not even sure where I got it. I had printed it on watercolor paper, so I colored it with AquaMarkers (by Letraset). You can see how intense the colors are from the AquaMarkers. I really love that about them. I also added some stickles to the stars for a little sparkle. The polka dots on the little sleeper were made with gold liquid pearls.

I stamped the banner and cut it out. Then I took my smallest "Congratulations" acryllic stamp, curved it on the block and stamped it onto the banner. It's not perfect because it wouldn't curve like I wanted it to (it's a dollar stamp, after all), but I don't think my niece will mind.

Here's a better look at it:

You can see in this photo how I've popped it up on dimensionals. The scalloped rectangle is also popped up on dimensionals.

Here's a look at the inside of the card. I used the same star-patterned paper on a yellow mat as was used on the front. The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and heat-embossed with white detail embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

 

The last of my Halloween cards...

I have finally finished making all of my Halloween cards and have sent off those that needed to be mailed. Always such a good feeling!

Aren't these two characters fun? They are both from the Happy Hauntings cartridge. That cartridge has so many fun Halloween images on it.

I once again made pop-up cards. They're perfect for these images.

Here's a picture of the cards when they're closed.

And another photo when the tag is pulled and the images pop up to reveal the Boo! message. Did you notice that I used two googly eyes over the o's in Boo?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next card has lots of googly eyes. I simply added them to a strip of DSP that had a cute "little monster" design on it. I matted it with some Halloween-patterned paper, added a couple of stickers and the card was done! The pictures below also show an example of the little coffin treat boxes I made for each of my grandkids. I filled them with M&Ms.

Here's Dracula, himself, with bloodshot eyes, no less!


It's hard to see but there is a spider that has been heat embossed onto the large web in the upper left hand corner.











The owl in this card was cut at 3 inches from the Hoot 'n' Holler cartridge and the leaves were punched out with a Martha Stewart punch. I scored them down the center and then did some shaping to give them a little dimension.

Don't you love the wood-grain cardstock? It looks like real veneer!

 

Here are the last two cards - I promise!  These are for older kids or adults

The label die cuts are chipboard pieces that came with the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. I inked them with some purple distress ink, stamped them with Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder. The flags on the first card were each embossed with different folders in my Cuttlebug. One of the folders was actually a Christmas folder, but because the flag was narrow enough, I could position it on a non-Christmassy portion of the folder.

Thanks for looking at so many of my Halloween cards. I promise not to share any more - not this year anyway!

I'm so glad you paid a visit to my little blog. As I like to remind everyone, don't forget to laugh--a little or a lot--everyday.
Cheryl