September!

Hey all! I hope everyone is getting used to the new school schedule by now.......I'm still having trouble, but we're getting it figured out!

Our theme this month is Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I love projects with these themes! I just love all the colors that go with them.

My first project is a card using one of my fave sets called "Seasons of Friendship". It has this great tree image, with several little images that you can put with the tree - a little birdie, a flower, leaves and a snowflake. It also has the great saying with it that you see on my card.

My base is Brocade Blue, layered with More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, and then Very Vanilla on top. On the Vanilla piece I brayered More Mustard on the top half and Brocade Blue on the bottom - but first putting a circle that I punched out of printer paper and sticking it on using removable adhesive. I used printer paper because the thinner paper works best so you get a clear shape because the brayer can get the ink right up to the template edge. I stamped the tree image using Chocolate Chip ink and stamping it three times without reinking. That gives you the shadowy images. Then I stamped the leaves using Crushed Curry, More Mustard and Chocolate Chip (I stamped off first when using the chocolate chip so it wouldn't be too dark) I stamped the verse in Chocolate Chip and used 3 of our Antique Brass Vintage brads.

On the Mustard layer, I added a little faux stitching down the side. and finished it off using some of our awesome Chocolate Taffeta ribbon.

For my next project, I made a cute little name place card/treat cup for a Halloween party or just to give to friends! I'm addicted to these little Sweet Treat Cups that are in the new Holiday Mini Catalog. And you get 12 of them for $2.95!! That's a bargain and they are so darn cute and easy to do! You can fill them with just about anything! Okay, probably not liquid! But my project gets pretty darn close to toeing that line!

This is the top of it. I used Pumpkin Pie and I freehanded the web using the white gel pen. The little circle is punched out using our scalloped circle punch. That circle is actually what was punched out of the middle of the image that's on the bottom part that you'll see in the next picture. I used our large oval punch and Elegant Eggplant layered with Pumpkin Pie punched with the small oval punch. I popped up the circle and the ovals with dimensionals and wrote my son's name using the white gel pen again! I love that pen!

Now you can kind of see where that circe came from! I stamped the same image from the Sweet Centers set using the Pumpkin Pie ink and used the 3/4" and 1/2" circe punches to punch out some of the orange images to layer on top of the Eggplant piece. I also used a smaller hole punch to punch out the eyes of the orange image so the purple showed through on them. For some reason, I did not like the orange eyes, nose and mouths!! I'm weird like that! AND, the best part.....I filled the little cup with Oobleck! (Easy! Just mix 1/2 cup corn starch with 1/4 cup water and add food coloring!) That's why I made this one to sit on the cup part, so the oobleck would not be touching the cardstock and make it soggy. The flash made it hard to see the color, so I took another picture to capture that a little better! So cute!

My last project is another Sweet Treat Project! It's a cute card using the sets Animal Crackers and Sweet Centers again. My base is More Mustard layered with the Top Note Die shapes in Really Rust and Very Vanilla. I punched out a scalloped circle punch to use for a template and sponged Bashful Blue while moving it around in different positions. I paper pieced the balloon basket using the Rust and Mustard papers and popped it up with dimensionals. I stamped the squirrel in Chocolate Chip and sponged it using chocolate and mustard inks, cut it out and stuck him in the basket. I had to freehand some little whiskers so you could distinguish the nose/eye! For some reason, it just didn't look right when you couldn't see the whole squirrel - it just looked like little dots! I filled the cup with almonds! It's finished off with the 1/2 twill tape. I really like that stuff, but just don't think to use it very often. It's very easy to work with.

Well.....I hope you enjoyed my projects today! Please come back again to visit!