Halloweenie Happeneenie

Wrapped up the month of October with a visit to Larry's Tavern to listen to Custard Pie and join the masquerade madness...

Lots of Festive Halloween Happenings here!

Some clever costumes: Garden Gnome (wearing a shirt that said, "I kicked the lawn jockey's ass") and of course his companion said beat ass Lawn Jockey, Three Blind Mice, an Egyptian pharaoh and his queen, a bat, a geisha, Pocahontas, a zombie (that was The Boy), Janis Joplin (that was me), a Black Sabbath fan (The Husband), a bee in a tu-tu, a witch, and a few more I'm a little fuzzy on!

A good evening over all. Good music, good times - "swear to God..."

Last year I "posted spooky" all month along with Laume over at Beach Treasure. She was all about the spooky again, but this year, I devoted myself to the Scrapfest Recap posts. Which if you think about it, considering I had a post for each day of the month - that is pretty spooky all in itself! Anyway - if you didn't get enough Hallowe'en yet - pop over to her place and see what she and the other spooky posters have been up to.

I will leave you with one spooky thing...

My car turned to all sixes this month.

The Husband's van did too.

Freaky!

Scrapfest 2009: My Little Yellow Bicycle

Little Yellow Bicycle is another favorite of mine (I haven't said that for EVERY vendor have I? I do have a lot of favorites, I know!)

Their booth had some fun items displayed. I do not really have a photo of the make and take because I kind of did just the "take" part! We we're running out of time, and it is really hard to keep a finished 12" x 12" project intact while running through the mall cramming stuff in your bag! They did a different spread each day and gave enough supplies so that you had plenty to work with when you were finished with what they suggested. The day we picked up was Halloween themed featuring their "Trick or Treat" line.

We did however attend their "25 Days of Christmas" memory book class. I love Christmas and Edwina loves Hallowe'en, so between the two of us this year we were both happy with our class choices!

We got a ton of stuff to work with - I haven't finished the project (this fall has been crazy busy as usual - all these posts in a row was more than I imagined I could do!) but even still - there will be mega left overs!

The book is really cute - it is a sturdy chip board album and it coordinates exactly with precut paper provided in tablet form... you punch out the pages and some extra embellishments and simply glue them down. The base is pre-designed and no trimming or sanding is necessary. Very cool.

As I mentioned - this one isn't done yet either. I want to spend some time picking the right photos from The Boy's childhood and mine. None the less, you can see the bones of the book and imagine how it will turn out!

...and lastly, the back cover.

And what could be in this bag? Was I the lucky winner of the door prize drawing?

Yes I was! Yea me!

Oh my golly! It's the ENTIRE TRICK OR TREAT LINE! Yup! Every single item! The whole enchilada! What an amazing prize... it includes another chipboard album similar to the one above and another pack of precut paper to adorn it not to mention all those embellishments. I cannot wait to put it all together! I plan to share some of this with Edwina - Halloween is her favorite after all... and she's a great travel buddy!

Thank you again Little Yellow Bicycle Folks!

Scrapfest 2009: Creative Imaginations

I was sad to find out that Creative Imaginations did not have a vendor make and take booth this year - their's was the "go to booth" the last few visits to Scrapfest.

Luckily, we signed up for their "Box Full of Love" Class in advance! It is a beautiful project which I will finish up soon... as soon as I select the rest of the photos I want to use (and scan them in and print them out!). Meanwhile, here is what Cheryl Mazzetti designed for us!

Above is a view of the completed box from the outside. We used the "Corina" book as the base. This shot shows a closeup of the butterfly and swarovski crystal we added.

Inside the box is a fold out book which we embellished with a variety of things from the "Narratives" line by Karen Russell.

You can see the stickles we added to enhance the already beautiful paper and rub ons.

The book is an accordion style - you can see how it looks all together here.

Here is the first page. A photo of me and The Boy. Probably the rest of the photos will be of us as well.

We used a neat technique here, folding paper to make it look like ribbon - very simple, but very cool. We added the faux stiching to complete the effect.

Page two...

Page three...

Another fun and easy technique - we punched a few evenly spaced holes with our quarter inch punch, and threaded through a thinly cut piece of paper.

Page four... Page five...

Page six...

And finally, the back cover.

I know I still have some finish work to do - but check out all the extras I'll have for another project! And these are some truly lovely items!

I have the class curriculm sheet for this project since they were kind enough to provide them, they include all the individual items we used as well as assembly instructions. I feel funny simply posting them here, but if you send me an email, I will shoot them back to you.

Scrapfest 2009: American Crafts

American Crafts' bright, bold designs are always a hit with me. Add the owls... well you know the deal with me and owls! This was such a fun card and showcased many of their products: specialty double sided papers, stamps (embossed image), rub ons, and flair!

We also took their "2009: A Year In Review" class. Loved the scrapbook - disappointed with the process! Of all the classes we took - all of which promised to provide us with enough supplies for a completed project - this is the only one I needed to purchase more items for when I arrived home. Normally, we take the 45 minutes allotted time during the class to listen carefully, check our supply kits, and maybe do a few things using tools provided that we may not have at home. I noticed right a way that the one pack of letters would not allow us to spell out each of the abbreviated months... I asked the instructor about it and she quickly handed Edwina and I each a second pack of letters. Edwina noticed that we did not have enough white "filler paper" on which to build the pages - not a huge deal for me, as it did not show I planned to use printer paper. We also needed to pick up a few more sheets of coordinating paper for the later month pages - and speaking of pages the book only came with 10 for a twelve month project! OOPS! Not sure who was to blame for this minor set-back and I still love the project... just feel bad for those who may not have had an Archivers - or any craft store for that matter - nearby once they tried to finish up.

That being said, here is the sweet book I will have finished by the end of the year!

close up:

The cover features their Corduroy Foil Paper in blue and "Doris Spooler" paper from their Craft Fair line. I love this line - too bad I couldn't find it at MOA or at my own store back home... We also used the rub ons which coordinate with Craft Fair paper as well as their "Thickers" letters and accents. The font is "By The Yard" (white) and the ric rack is called "Patchwork" (bubblegum). I would be remiss if I did not point out that this line also includes a paper called "Lucy HOOTski" - what do you think you'll find there?! Other paper names are "Ruth Buttonham," "Lola Threadgood," and "Alice Stichenson"! Very clever.

A journaling page with "Myrtle O'Seam" paper from Craft Fair and a few more rub-ons to get us started off... (Yes, I did notice I haven't written anything there yet... this is always hard for me! Plus I think that a summary at the end of the year would be best. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

And then each month will have a two pages spread following the same format: 8" x 8" pages with two vertical 4" x 6" prints and a space at the bottom to add an embellishment and the month.

Remember January 2009? Word of the year... Books to read during the long winter months... President Obama's inaugural... and ACDC!

I really like this idea - kind of a picture a week book! Those picture a day projects always sound so daunting...

Now to finish up the rest of the months!

Scrapfest 2009: QuicKutz

QuicKutz used their Epic Machine to help us create this card. It is simple - but nice. Who can't use a card just to say hello to someone you miss?

There are a lot of embossing die cutters out there and I urge you to research each of them before making a decision on one. All have their own best features. This one is a crank handle that cuts and embosses and has the ability to accept other manufacturer dies and folders.

Which ever machine you may decide to purchase, remember that even your "negatives" can be saved for use on another project or as a frame, embellishment, stencil, or mask... love that!

Scrapfest 2009: Autumn Leaves

The folks at Autumn Leaves by Creativity Inc. were really nice.

They ran out of their "real" project on the first day - I never got to see it.

This was one they whipped up quickly so as not to make us scrappers sad.

Could not find a link on their site to get you to the full line of "scrap metal" embellishments - but they have a wide variety in the collection. One thing though - they are very heavy. Good if you appreciate sturdy well made items, potentially problematic if you have a light weight project!

Scrapfest 2009: KI Memories

Need a treat box to 'boo' the neighbors with?

How about this one offered up by KI Memories? We used a single sheet of 12" x 12" paper and a few strategically placed scraps and embellishments to create it. Wicked is the name of this line of products.

Can you see how we made the score lines? At 4" and 8" on both sides, then a diagonal score for the outside corners.

A quick whole punch in each crimped corner and it's ready for the ribbon.

You can do it - it's a piece of cake!

Scrapfest 2009: Prima

Prima Marketing did not disappoint! Their flowers are still lovely.They demoed a very cute tag project which focuses on their Go Green Initiative. They take reduce, reuse, recycle seriously...

Notice when you turn the project over, they have designed the packaging to be used within the project to eliminate waste - clever!

Their website states, "Our mission is to provide premium products and packaging that are environmentally responsible. Most of our flowers and embellishments are already acid and lignin-free and we use papers made from the mulberry tree which is a renewable natural resource."

I like that idea and I like this project!

Scrapfest 2009: EK Success, K&Company, Inkadinkado

Sweet treat bag! Definitely another highlight item. The stamp is an Inkadinkado product. The papers are from K&Company, I really enjoy the bright colors and depth of this line by Tim Coffey - every paper is lovely.

The bat punch and border punches (that boo border is scary cute!) are from yet another sister company EK Success.

Nothing like a sparkling black bat I always say!

Here are a few more profects on display using the same tools and papers - cute!

They also wanted everyone to know about their new crafting community, spotted canary. The tagline there is where ideas take flight. Haven't had much of a chance to poke around there - but it seems to be a place where you can find lots of projects, a user forum, and a contest!

Someone go check it out and report back!