Tomb it may concern: Halloween Treat Boxes for teachers

I made 18 (yes, eighteen) of these cute gift boxes for my daughters' teachers, bus driver & assistant, school secretaries, speech therapist, and their OT. I went to Michael's last week and they already had Halloween paper crafting items on sale for 50% off. I snagged the last 3 packages of the coffin boxes (6 in a pack) and a package of K&Co. die cut labels. The ribbon was in my stash. Each box easily holds 16 miniature Hershey bars. Yummmm, these boxes smell good!

Treat boxes, candy wrappers, and a card for teacher gifts

The HoneyBee hive is alive and celebrating EEK WEEK at Betty Bee's Buzz. Betty has Halloween inspiration there every day this week.
I made these in part for teachers, but also for both of my daughters for Halloween this year. I have many more treat boxes to make, so check back later this week. I don't like spiders, but that one-eyed guy is pretty dang cute! Head over to Betty Bee's Buzz for the details on these projects :)

New Teaching & Sharing blog!

What is all the buzz? It's Betty Bee's Buzz TEACHING and SHARING blog which opens today. Betty is one of the most talented people I have ever met. You can imagine the thrill I felt when Betty invited me to be one of her HoneyBees!

I hope you will visit the hive and follow her inspiration. The blog will officially open on November 1st, but Betty has a "soft" opening of the blog starting today. Betty is celebrating EEK WEEK with loads of Halloween inspiration every day. Halloween means trick-or-treat and that means...blog candy!

Check out Betty Bee's Buzz today and every day. I have several treats...no tricks...to share tomorrow, but go there now and see the fab inspiration Betty has for you today!

Love You Much, Jennifer McGuire, Hero Arts, and SU!

I met Jennifer McGuire IRL! I took her Color My World class in September. We played with various Hero Arts stamps, Tim Holtz inks and dies, and we tried 7 different techniques for inking/coloring. The eighth card was a kraft card stamped with these Hero Arts flowers and background stamp. Jennifer asked us to color the flowers at home with Prismacolor pencils.

Obviously I had to buy those two Hero Arts stamps, but I used a SU! sentiment. Jennifer rocks CAS (clean and simple), don't you think? I think this may be the first "no layers" card that I have made this century! CAS does not necessarily mean "quick"...this took me 1+ episodes of Glee to color, but very therapeutic. I love to color but I have not used my colored pencils in years. How fun! I hope you are inspired to get your colored pencils out too :)

3X Thank You: Tim Holtz, BasicGrey & Hero Arts

I made these cards for both of my grandmothers and my step-grandmother. (I know...how fortunate am I to be 44 yo and have three wonderful grandmothers to enjoy?) When I think of them, I automatically think of BasicGrey Nook & Pantry papers. Remember when I made this card? The teal scallops at the bottom of cards are scraps from the previous card.
I stamped the friend definition text (Hero Arts) in chocolate chip in cream card stock, then die cut the flower (Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Alterations).

Other Supplies

Adhesive lace: Hero Arts

Sentiment: Anna Griffin

Mini brad: American Crafts

Branch: EKSuccess punch

Puttin' on the Glitz :)

Happy Halloween! Get your glitz on...

I have not played with glitter in years, but I don't know why I don't play more often; probably because I like instant gratification :) It is really pretty easy. I have two "rules" I follow:

1. Choose an image with bold solid lines.
2. Allow drying time between glitter colors.

Are you ready to shine? Link your creations here. Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a Cricut Designer's Calendar cartridge!

Triple Challenge: Thank you owl card

I am a huge fan of Julee Tillman, the genius behind Mojo Monday sketches. I have not played along in a very long time, and I sure have missed her weekly inspirational cards at Mojo Monday - The Blog! This week is Mojo Monday sketch #159.

I also admire the Creative Card Crew, and this fortnight they have another bloomin' marvelous challenge...use flowers.

Last, but NOT least: the fabulous Kay Sibley, guest designer at CupCards {to go}, has a challenge to alter chipboard or grungeboard. I punched my chipboard branch with my SU punch (I do not recommend...it hurts your palms!!! These punches were meant for card stock...) I inked it up with Tim Holtz inks, then spritzed with glimmer mist.

Other supplies:
Cuttlebug Birds & Swirls embossing folder
K&Co. Que Sera Sera designer paper and flowers
MFT sentiment samp
Bazzill card stock (orange-gold)
EKSuccess border punch; SU flower punch
Spellbinders Nestibilities ovals
DCWV brads
Recollections dimensional sticker (owl)

Happy Columbus Day weekend, my USA friends. Happy Thanksgiving, my Canadian friends. Happy Sunday to the rest of the world :)

Rated PG-13 card! (Breast Cancer Awareness)

*Save 2nd base.

I am entering this card in the Breast Cancer Awareness challenge at My Sheri Crafts.
My pink ribbon is created from CTMH Autumn Garden pink card stock. (I used my Autism Awareness ribbon magnet off of my car as a template.) I found some stickers in my stash by CM (ball cap) and Nicole (ball, bat & glove) that I placed on white card stock and fussy cut to have a 1/16" border for a little added dimension. I embossed the pink card stock with Diamonds in the Rough embossing folder and added some tiny diamond bling for some femininity. Baseball has diamonds, right? :)

Wanna play too? Click here to link your creation at My Sheri Crafts #25 - Breast Cancer Awareness.

*I wish I could take credit for my witty sentiment, but it was completely inspired by my friend, Deanna. Thanks, D!

Happy Birthday, Martha! Breast cancer survivor :)

Life without friends is like a garden without flowers. These ladies pictured are 3 of my most cherished girlfriends (pictured left to right): Kaye, (me), Sharon, and Martha. I am very fortunate to have had a close circle of girlfriends when I lived in NC. We took weekly field trips to the local scrapbooking store and the tri-fecta: ACMoore, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby. Martha was the person who got me interested in scrapbooking! This picture was taken around the time Martha was diagnosed with breast cancer. We all knew she would beat it; she truly is the strongest woman I have ever known. After she defeated breast cancer, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Martha outlived her diagnosis by two full years! Martha passed away on March 17, 2010. Today she would have been 79 years old. I think about her every time I sit down to create. When I think of her, I do miss her, but I try not to focus on the date October 8th or March 17th, but rather the "hyphen" in between. Martha LIVED her life. I love you, Martha :)
I think embossing adds so much class to a card or LO. I tried something new for this LO (new for me)...I had these pretty vellum stickers in my stash, and I embossed them with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. Works like a charm, don't you think? The stickers have a shiny gold outline, so I used my shiny gold MM brads on the LO. Funny how my tastes have changed; I used to only like gold, but now I prefer silver...
On another tangent, I had to have these floral stickers that have been in my stash for 6 or 7 years; honestly I crinkle my nose at the thought of using stickers. This trend was big then, but now not so much? If you have followed me for a while, you may know that I love to use stash...old and new. I have lots of old stash because I couldn't bare the thought of cutting into pretty papers or using up something I loved. I have *mostly* gotten over that because there are so many new wonderful products available for paper crafters.

Martha, I think I can hear you saying, "June, that is adorable!" Thanks, Girlfriend. Happy Birthday!


Supplies:
Cuttlebug embossing folder Swiss Dots
Stickopotamus photo safe vellum stickers
Colorbok Kathy Davis collection: Big Flower stickers
Making Memories: Butternut Twine Plaid paper, Maize card stock, White card stock, Country Green card stock, circle brads in gold, alpha stickers, and Sun Yellow scrapbook stitches

Trick or Treat, Paper Players & Daring Cardmakers!

I have been admiring The Paper Players challenge blog for a while now, but I have not been able to play until today. There is loads of wonderful inspiration there! This week's theme challenge is monochromatic. I do so love my papers, especially BasicGrey. I used my BG Ambrosia papers, some Martha Stewart felt spider web ribbon, a sentiment tag, a tiny binder clip, and SU scallop border punch. The 3 little bats I fussy cut from a scrap of the BG paper and adhered them with glue dots. Go check them out! You have until 8pm tonight to join in this challenge.

Daring Cardmakers' challenge is to use office theme/office equipment. My tiny binder clip came from my office desk...does that count?

Be Inspired #104 - Breast Cancer Awareness

This is in honor of all of the ladies who have survived breast cancer. I am fortunate to know a few myself...my paternal grandmother, my husband's great aunt, my mother-in-law, my dear friend (Martha), my daughter's teacher, and our bus driver assistant (hi, Pam!) I know each of them would get a chuckle out of this card; it is a bit out-of-character for me to create lingerie from paper :) For my loyal blog readers and friends, no doubt you gasped out loud when you saw it*! This card went to Pam, our bus driver assistant. Her breast cancer has returned after 5 years. I hope you will send her happy thoughts and well wishes to beat breast cancer once and for all. She is a fabulous lady! She laughed hysterically when she saw this card and said it was her favorite of all that she has received.

Here are the details:
Provo Craft Cuttlebug embossing folder, Swiss Dots
Provo Craft Cuttlebug embossing folder, Spots and Dots
Core'dinations white wash card stock (bra, dark pink layers, embossed layer)
KI Memories papers
scrap of white ribbon colored with copic marker RV17 and glued with a mini glue dot
Spellbinders Nestibilities small scallop circle die
SU word window punch (bra strap) and border punch
white card stock

*Sorry, Mom, when you see this I know you will be the most shocked!

Me & My Happy Place - Happy World Card Making Day!

At Cuttlebug Challenge blog we are celebrating World Card Making Day by creating cards using our favorite technique(s). I added my card to a LO of me in my happy place...my craft room :)

Some of my favorite techniques are:
Cuttlebug embossing (Swiss Dots on Tilda's dress),
stamp and color with copic markers,
paper piece (Tilda's dress & socks),
doodle (little black triangle dots on top note die),
lots of layers,
and paper pierce (bottom layer of designer paper by Making Memories).

Will you celebrate with us? Go to Cuttlebug Challenge blog Be Inspired #103.

Your Challenge

What:One of the amazing things about this hobby is the amazing people you meet, and this week as we celebrating World Card Making Day, your Challenge is to create a favorite card with a favorite technique and send it to a friend just because.
We would love to see the projects you have created for World Card Making Day, we have included Inlinz for you.

How: Enter to win the two cartridges by becoming a follower and leaving comments on all the posts. Yes, it is that easy! And don't forget to tell your friends...
You have until October 9th to leave comments, and winners will be announced on October 10th!

Prizes: We are giving out 1 Cricut Home Decor Cartridge & 1 Cricut Winter Frolic Cartridge.

Go create! Happy crafting :)