Only a few more days . . .

Hello my friends and HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Well, there's only a few more days for me to get things created & ready for the big craft show I participate in at the high school each year.  This show has 150+ vendors and draws quite a crowd.

Each year I try to have something new to share & sell.  One of those items this year are the Kids Kard Kits I shared with you in an earlier post HERE.  Something else that I know you've all seen around blogland but I've never made for the show are Hershey Bar Pouches. (if you'd like a tutorial please leave me a comment and I'll get one made up for you)  I think they will make great stocking stuffers ... here are a few I made yesterday. (The candy cane image is a *NEW* pre-colored image which will be available at the Shelly's Images store very soon ... perfect for this item ... quick & easy.)

I have used various scraps of holiday paper from my stash for the background on these Hershey Bar Pouches.  The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is a new Cheery Lynn Designs die (B186) that I purchased at Joan's Gardens.  The Snowman is a Marianne die (LR0246) also from Joan's Gardens.  The trees are Spellbinder (Nestled Trees), Mittens are Sizzix and Deer is also Spellbinder (Fanciful Holiday).

Here are a few other items for the show:

Christmas Card Sets

Holiday Tissue Box Covers w/matching cards.

And, by request, Wedding Money Holders.

I have several money holders made up for Christmas ... in fact here's a couple new ones ... and I never thought about making them for weddings until someone approached me at the last show and inquired if I had any.  Needless to say, I got right on that topic!

Here are a few challenges I'd like to share these creations with:

Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

 Clear It Out Challenge - Gift (Hershey Bar Pouches..surprise inside and used up scrap papers)

 Creative Craft Challenge - Special Occasion - Not Birthday (Wedding Money Cards)

Die Cuttin Divas #89 - Anything Goes (Hershey Bar Pouches)

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - O Christmas Tree (Hershey Bar Pouches)

LEJ Designs - Anything Goes

Party Time Tuesday - Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes

Thanks for letting me share a few of my creations with you today!  

Guess I'd better get back to work ... time's a wasting!!

Trick or Treat Night

YEP!  Last night was Trick or Treat here in my little town and what fun it was!

We probably had somewhere between 150-200 kids ... I lost count because they would come in 'clumps' and I couldn't count and hand out candy all at the same time!  LOL

 Always the first to my door are my favorite little neighbor girls Olivia & Emily Adkins.  They sure are growing up!  Miss Olivia was such a cute candy corn girl but maybe she should have dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz since she had 'Toto' along with her this year.  (new puppy Levi ... how cute was he all dressed up for the occasion!

Little Miss Emily made the cutest little kitty cat and found a way to stay warm in the process!  Don't you just love the SMILES on these girls faces!  They are adorable!  

AND ... since the whole family was doing the Halloween Walk through the housing development, Daddy Adkins (Phil) also dressed up!  Of course this is his line of work (construction) so he didn't even have to go to the Mall to find his outfit!  

Here are a few of my other favorites through the evening 

(ones I was quick enough to get photos of that is):

There's always ONE in the CROWD ... especially when you get a group of teenage boys out for a fun time.  However, I must admit, these guys put some effort {thought} into their costumes vs the ones who show up in jean, flannel shirt & pillow case to grab all the goodies.

Well that's it for this year!  There were MANY, MANY more I wished I had snagged photos of but maybe next year!  I was glad to see so many come out since the weather certainly made a change for the worse over the past 48 hours!  Hope you are having Halloween Fun in your neighborhood too!

Time to get more crafting done for next weekends craft show and watch some NFL Football!

GO STEELERS!!!

Mr. Mustache . . .

Happy Friday Everyone!

Are you ready for the weekend???  Trick or Treat is tomorrow night in our neighborhood and I'm expecting to hand candy out to between 150 - 200 kids.  LOL ... Welcome to the Suburbs!!

 Every year I'm amazed at some of the FABULOUS costume's I will see come to my door ... but of course, there are those NOT SO FABULOUS, put a little dirt on your face and go as a Hobo, Trick or Treaters that come calling.  Hopefully the rain will come early and be gone before the little ones start out!

Today I have my 1st creation to share with you as a member of the Crafty Secrets / Heartwarming Vintage Design Team.  There is SO MUCH going on right now at the website you really must pop over and check it out!!! 

One of the newest digi sets is called Barber Shop and that is the set I decided to play/create with today.  Here's what I've come up with . . .

 This was an empty black box (5 1/2" x 8 1/4" x 1 1/2") that I found at Michael's for $1.  I thought it would be perfect to turn into a 'Gentleman's Suitcase' to house all his shaving toiletries by adding the handles.  All the fabulous papers, images &  ephemera are from this new Barber Shop Kit.  What fun!!

I am SO PROUD of the outcome of this altered box ... I can hardly believe I did it!  LOL!  There was a fair amount of fussy cutting and popping up on the front of the box ... but I think it looks SO COOL!  LOVE these new images and can't wait to play more with them!  There are just SO MANY possibilities with this set, my head is swimming!!

You can pop on over to the blog HERE for more information on this fabulous new masculine set!  The design team just received this set (I was in a hurry to play, LOL) and will have more inspirational creations to share with you very soon!

 Our Websites, Gallery, Store

• CraftySecrets.com
• Our Store Locator
• Visit Our New ETSY Store!
• Visit Our Shopatron Store
• Join Us On Facebook

 Here are a few other qualifying challenges I'd like to enter:

Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes

Fussy and Fancy Friday - Anything Goes

Inspire Me Friday - Anything Goes

 The Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes

Stampin' for the Weekend - Anything Goes

Digistamps4Joy - Anything Goes with a Twist/make it Masculine

Repeat Impressions DCC1024 - Anything But a Card

 Paper Pretties - Masculine

Tanda Stamps - All Things Manly

Through The Craftroom Door - Anything Goes

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you've found inspiration in my work!

Have a fabulous weekend and be safe!

MORE EXCITING NEWS . . .

Hello everyone and Happy Thursday to you!  

Did I mention I would have MORE EXCITING NEWS to share with you soon?

Well ... today's the day!

Check this out!

I am SO THRILLED to have been asked to join the design team at Crafty Secrets by the lovely & talented Sandy Redburn, Owner of Crafty Secrets.  It is something I had hoped for for a long time now!

I learned of their product line over on Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) probably about 5 years ago and have been creating with their awesome vintage products ever since.  I was even one of the gals who helped host the Crafty Secrets Challenges at SCS for a couple of years prior to their departure from SCS.

Their stamps are FABULOUS not only in construction but in the theme content ... if you haven't already, you'll definitely want to check 'em out!  I will post all the links at the bottom of this post.

They are in the process of switching a lot of their past stamp sets into the DIGITAL format ... how cool is that!  I'm really excited about that because even though several of their sets are my favorite to use ... I LOVE having the flexibility now of the digi format so I can size them as needed for projects other than A-2 cards.  And will have several of those projects ready to share with you very soon.

Please come join in all the excitement ... here are the links:

Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I'm still up to my neck in craft show projects and it's really difficult to stay focused in my 'cave' with the beautiful Indian Summer we are having!  Did you ever feel you need "TWO OF YOU"?  LOL!  I'm sure you know exactly where I'm coming from!  Anyways ... what ever you are doing today ... ENJOY!

OH WAIT ... one more piece of EXCITING NEWS I'd like to share with you before you go.

My beautiful granddaughter, Morgan came to visit on Tuesday to share the news with myself & her grandfather that her long time boyfriend, C.J. had asked her to marry him ... of course, she said YES!  We are happy for them and wish them nothing but GOOD THINGS in the future!!!

See you soon I hope!

Have a wonderful day!

A Sisterhood Halloween Challenge

Time for another challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters!

Today's theme is 

HALLOWEEN 

and our sponsor is 

one lucky winner will win FOUR  Delicious Doodles digis of their choice!

I know ... I went a little crazy with creations to share for this challenge but what can I say???  I was having fun!!  Hope you like them!

 This card uses two of Teri's fabulous digis ... 'The Grim Reaper' and 'Spooky Haunted House'.  I combined them together in Microsoft Word then colored the sky & windows with chalks.  A Prismacolor red marker was used for the fingernails and the background paper is from Crafty Secrets.  

Is this too creepy for a belated birthday card?  REALLY ... I need to know!

This card also utilizes a Delicious Doodles digi image ... this one is called 'Pumpkin Witch'.  I have colored her using Prismacolor markers and the background papers are DCWV.

 My last project today is a Halloween Candy Box created using images & papers from Crafty Secrets.  The basic box came from the $1 bin at Michaels and I have used a portion of one paper for the 'sentiment' panel as well as 'fussy' cut the pumpkins from other paper & images.  Cheese cloth was used for dimension as well as the Cricut cut out spiders and Stampendous stickers from my scrapbooking stash.

Sssshhh don't tell him ... but this is hubby's Halloween present!

I'll be back a little later to add these creations to a variety of other qualifying challenges but right now I really must get on the road to my sister's beauty shop for my monthly 'Do-over'.  

Other Qualifying Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - Happy Halloween

Crafting for all Seasons - Spooky
 Creative Belli Blog - Halloween
The House that Stamps Built - Anything Other Than a Card (Altered Candy Box)
 My Mum's Craft Shop - Spooky
 The Paper Shelter - Halloween
 Scrapalicious USA - Halloweenie
 365 Cards - Spooky
 Crafty Sentiments - Recycle It (Altered Candy Box)
 Digital Tuesday Challenge - Halloween/Spooky
 Scrap Creations - Halloween
Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge - Get Your Spook On - Halloween
Papelitos Challenge - Halloween

See you in a little while and please pop over to The Sisterhood of Crafters and join in the fun!!

Joan's Gardens Challenge

WOW am I tired!  I've been working in my cave ALL DAY trying to get caught up on projects I need for the November Craft Show ... but since I missed last week's challenge at Joan's Gardens, I decided to steer away from my craft show stuff for a little while and create a card for this week's challenge.

This week's challenge requirements are:

• Create a card showing your favorite winter pastime (i.e. making a snowman, going for a sleigh ride, going skiing, etc.)
• Use black embossing
• Use a frame
• Create something that is dimensional

I don't know that this was my FAVORITE winter pastime, but I do remember fondly going out on our back acreage to where my Dad had planted a grove of pine trees to pick out our favorite tree that would be used for Christmas.  My sisters and I would bundle up ... because of course it was December in the 1950s and there was a LOT MORE SNOW back then!  LOL!  We would put on our boots, hats & gloves then follow Dad down over the hill and back up the other side to where the pines were.  OH GOSH! How would we ever pick the perfect tree ... they ALL looked so perfect (Dad had quite a green thumb!). 

Anyways ... my card depicts that memory of cutting & dragging that PERFECT tree back home and wait in anticipation for the time to decorate it beautifully for all to see on Christmas morning!

Recipe for this card:

Papers:  Burgundy cs, white cs

Stamp:  Stampendous

Ink:  Versafine black

Accessories:  Detail Clear EP, ZIG 2-way Glue, DecoArt Glamour Dust, Cheery Lynn Designs B186 Merry Christmas Die Set, Memory Box Frostyville Border die, QuicKutz Frame EF, Quickie Glue, Pop Dot, Spellbinder Create-a-Flake Three Shapeabilities

(Items in red were purchased from Joan's Gardens)

Other qualifying challenges:

ABC Challenge - New To You (My new items are the dies identified in BOLD RED above)

 Lady Anne's - Anything Goes

Cheery Lynn Designs - Texture

The Crafty Blogger Challenge - Anything Goes

Critter Sketch Challenge - Embossing (this card has both wet & dry embossing)

Fashionista Challenge - Anything Goes

House of Gilli - Emboss It

Ooh La La Challenge - Christmas Sentiment

Stamp & Create - Winter Wonderland

Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes

Pile It On - Holidays

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Peace and Calm

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - No Rules

Crafty Hazel's Challenge - Black & White + one other color if you like

Hiding In My Craftroom - Die Cuts

One Stop Craft Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Ann's Challenge  - Black & White + one other color

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - Christmas

Oozak Challenge - Die Cuts

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Traditional

4 Crafty Chicks - Dry Embossing

ABC Christmas - U Up to You (Anything Goes)

THANKS SO MUCH for stopping by and for any comment you may leave ... I truly appreciate you taking the time!  Enjoy your week and hope to see you back here soon!