Halloween Cards, Tags and Boxes

Hello Crafty Friends!  I'm posting more Halloween cards and projects I created.  I am still having issues uploading photos to Blogger.  I spent 2 hours today trying to figure out why Blogger was not allowing me to upload photos from my phone when it was previously allowing me to do so. I deleted all of my cookies and history hoping that was the fix but it still won't allow me to upload my photos to my blog.  I thought uploading from my phone was the fix because Google was taking over a week for my photos to show up in my Google Drive.  Now it won't allow me to upload from my phone.  The photos finally did upload on to my Google Drive and allow me to upload to Blogger from my computer but well, now I'm  behind on posting the cards and projects.  It's frustrating because I can't post daily on to my blog until the photos I've taken are uploaded to Google drive.  I'm not sure how to fix the issue.

I'm currently working on Thanksgiving/Fall and Christmas projects now that Halloween is over.  Most of the images on my Halloween cards and boxes are from my Echo Park Collection kits because I don't have too many Halloween stamps for some odd reason.  I have a million Christmas stamps but very little of Halloween and Fall/Thanksgiving.  I primarily purchase the Echo Park papers and stickers for my scrapbook albums but have had to use them on my cards.  I guess I will have to buy more Halloween and Fall stamps.

For the boxes, I actually traced  existing boxes I have and used them as templates.  I have a lot of box dies but I really liked the size and shape of these boxes.  I saved the templates for future use.

I had dyed a roll of seam binding in various colors.  It's become very handy to use as ribbons on my projects.  

I have so many ribbons, it's not funny.  I'm so glad I'm now able to use them up.  It adds another level of dimension to my projects and they are so pretty on cards.

As I was going through my craft containers today, I found another container full of wood mounted Stampin Up.  I could not believe it.  I thought I had already unmounted all of my Stampin Up stamp sets.  I now have another container to work on.  

I'm also making it a point to use my dies to add different elements to my cards.  In the past, I neglected to use them.  They literally sat in containers never being used.  I've decided that this time around I'll use them more often.  It makes me wonder why I buy them but don't use them.  I'm beginning to think I enjoy buying them as much or more so than actually making something with them.

Anyway, I really hope I can figure out how to fix my Blogger issue so I can post on my blog more often.  If you have any questions regarding the projects I post on my cards, feel free to message me.  The comment button is located below each of my posts.  Just to let you know, I am unable to provide information on some of the tutorials I've posted in the past.  I had saved them on the Scribd website but for some reason some of them have been removed.  Some of my tutorials are still there so just click on the links I provided to the left of my blog.  For the ones that have been removed, I am unable to provide the instructions to them.  For any future tutorials, I'll post the instructions directly on to Blogger so it'll always remain on my blog.

That's it for today.  Until next time. . .hope you have a wonderful week 💓

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Halloween Cards and Tag Holder

Hello.  I had to repost my previous post because I realized it did not post with the full post on the blog interface so I had to repost it.  Blogger is being difficult.  I'm sorry that I had to repost it. I worked on these card and tag holders to store my cards and tags.  I used Echo Park papers and stickers to decorate the box.  I also made a Thanksgiving and Christmas holder but I'll share it once I am to fill them up with projects.

I am thinking maybe doing a craft fair next year just so I can sell my cards and projects that I created.  I used to sell them on Etsy back a decade ago and I did really well there but I didn't like the process of having to ship the packages.  After a while it really felt like a job, a job I no longer had time for because I already had a full time job.  Besides, I read that Etsy is no longer a  good site for handmade items.  AI has taken over as well as drop shippers.   I'm thinking a craft fair may be easier but nowadays, handmade cards are not as popular as it used to be.  Sending cards through the mail has gotten expensive which is unfortunate.  

I'm not sure . . .maybe I'll give them out as gifts to family and friends.  I enjoy making them and it keeps me busy so I'll continue to make them as a creative outlet.  My retirement has been going well so far.  In a week, it'll be 3 months of retirement.  I'm still figuring my way through it.  Initially, I had a set schedule that I wanted to follow and that is how I started but then I decided to try just going with the flow.  I think I'm going back on a schedule.  I felt more productive and I accomplished more things.

I have a few more Halloween projects that I'll be sharing in the next few days then I'll move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas projects.  Anyway, hope you are all having a great week.  Until next time.  💓

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Halloween Card and Tag

Hello Friends!  Happy Tuesday.  I resumed unmounting my Stampin Up rubber stamps.  I ended up unmounting at least 175 stamp sets.  I'm almost done unmounting all of my wood mounted Stampin Up sets.  The stamps bring back some good memories of when I first started rubber stamping and card making.  I was so obsessed with making cards when I first started.  I needed to buy everything.  I remember when cards were made with all sorts of embellishments and ribbons.  Now cards are no longer designed with bulky embellishments.  Unfortunately, I still have all of my embellishments.  Luckily, I can still use the ribbons, stickers and embellishments on my scrapbook projects.

After I'm done with the remaining Stampin Up stamp sets, I'll start unmounting loose stamps which I have many of.  I still love the stamps so I'm not going to get rid of them.  I eventually will sell them but I'd like to still use them.  I really need to work on more cards and projects.  

I worked on a few cards with matching tags and boxes.  This set is a Halloween and tag set.  Most of the images on this set are Stampin Up.  The word stamp background was stamped then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  

My goal this week is to put up some of the Halloween decorations in my foyer and work on pruning the plants in my yard.  Sadly, with the intense summer heat, some of the leaves on several of my plants burned to a crisp.  It bothers me because the plants were so lush and pretty during Spring and the heat wave ended up damaging some of them.  

Well that's it for today.  Hope you all have a wonderful day. 💓

Visit me on Instagram: Stampin Inspirations

Halloween Tags

Hello Friends.  Wow, a week has already gone by since my last post.  I've been really busy this past week.  I decided to start working on organizing my garage.  The first thing I decided to tackle was to reorganize some of my craft stuff.  I managed to unmount 3 containers of wood mounted rubber stamps, including about 70 wood mounted Stampin Up sets.  I still have about 5 storage containers left to go.  It's been a tedious job to unmount the stamps and put them on clear sheets and plastic storage envelopes.  I ran out of the plastic storage envelopes and had to buy more of them.  They'll be delivered in about a week.   I decided to take a break from unmounting stamps until the envelopes arrive.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to really sit down and craft this week.  I did make a few Halloween tags the previous weekend.  I really had fun making these tags.  I used a bit of embossing powder and used my embossing folders for the design elements on my tags.  My future goal is to learn to make pop up and fun fold cards.  I always loved pop up cards and have made a few way back in the past but I have to relearn how to make them again.  I've seen quite a few that I would like to try to make.

With these tags, I used a few random stamps from different brands.  I'm not really a "brand" sort of person.  I just use images that I like.  It doesn't matter who makes them.  I've never been the type to buy stamps from specific brands.  That's part of the reason I sometimes don't list the brand on my post because I sometimes use different stamps from different brands all on one card and I can't remember who made them.  A lot of the images on my cards, I had stamped and colored quite some time ago but never made cards for them.  I did this a lot, especially when I sit down and listen to music or watch TV. I would just stamp away and color images.  It was very therapeutic.

 

I also made a Thanksgiving box and card set that I'll share next time.  I'm hoping I can find time this week to make a few projects.  It's crazy because now that I'm retired, I've been so busy that it feels like the days have been flying by so quickly.  I'm glad I've been able to work on home projects that I've put on the back burner for so long.  It's going to get busier because the holidays are right around the corner.  

While we're on the subject about the holidays, I'm going to have to start decorating for Halloween soon.  I'm going to start early.  I've never decorated the inside of my house for Halloween, just the outside.  I decided I'll do some decorating on the inside this year.  I want to try something new.  I bought a few indoor Halloween decor recently so it'll be fun to decorate the inside this year.  Nothing crazy, just a few decorations here and there.

Anyway, that's all for today.  Hope you all have a wonderful week.  Until next time.  💖

Visit me on Instagram: Stampin Inspirations

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C111

Hello Friends! It's that time again! Crazy 4 Challenges time! I'm sorry I haven't been blogging. . .do I say this every week? I think I do. . .but yeah. I've been in crafting hibernation and I don't know how to get my mojo back. I do have my moments from time to time but I can't seem to make it last long enough to actually work on a project. Thank goodness for Crazy 4 Challenges . . .I can honestly say, if it weren't for the weekly challenges, I don't think I would step in my craft room at all. I'm hoping the new year will bring back the spark and I'll find it all exciting again. It's been a rough crafty year for me. . .maybe, I need to take a step back and do other things, clean out my craft room, and maybe, just maybe, I'll be back to make crafty self again. We'll see.

Anyway. ..I digressed. . .yes, it's Crazy 4 Challenges time and this week Tammy has come up with a fabulous challenge. The challenge is to incorporate some sort of candy to your card design! Before I go on. . .we'd like to bid Tammy farewell. . .she is stepping down from the design team to focus more on life and her family. We'll miss her beautiful cards on C4C but she'll still be in blog land so not to worry!!


My card is rather simple. . .just a printed vintage image with lace, ribbon, and crochet flowers added to the mix. Although I haven't been crafting much, I do still crochet when I'm sitting down watching television and I've been making the 1 inch crochet flowers that you see on my card. I crochet to keep myself from falling asleep while watching television with my family. . .it's either that or eat . . .which I don't want to do. I actually need to lose weight and I am having a great deal of problems with that. Ugggh! That's a whole other story. . .I could write a book about my countless attempts to lose weight.

Anyway. . .stop by C4C and check out the lovely cards the crazy gals created this week or stop by their individual blogs!

* Barbara Anders
* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
*Lynda Benden
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger
*Vicki Garrett

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & nscripted

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Give Thanks - Unity Stamps September KOM and Halloween Stuff

Hello My Friends!! It's November. . .Yipee! It's a month of gratitude, did you know that? Well, it is!! It's a month when we look at our lives and find gratitude in what is. . .there are so many things to be grateful for. . .for one thing, just being alive is a reason to be grateful. LOL!

I'll work on my "Reflections Album/Journal" today. . .I think I'm going to focus on creating "gratitude" layouts this month. I'll post it later when I'm done.

I worked on this card yesterday. The images are from the Unity Stamps September KOM. I finally found time to actually use my Unity stamps. I've been terrible with stamping for the past months. . .I call it burn out. I've reflected and reassessed my life and wonder what direction I should head for the upcoming year. Change is difficult sometimes but well, it's inevitable. . .it happens and we do have to accept it when it does happen. I'll figure it out before the new year starts.

How the heck did my finally using my Unity Stamps turned into a discussion of change! LOL! It's funny. . .that's how my brain works apparently. Only "I" can understand it most times. Actually, when I talk about change. . .it's about my blog and stamping, card making, and paper crafting. . .because I finally used my stamps which I haven't used since buying them, it made me think about what I want to do in the next coming months or year. It made me think about how to make blogging feel new and exciting again and what I should do about it. I've been blogging for close to 4 years and basically, been doing the same thing day in and day out and maybe I need to do something different with it. I don't know. . .I'm still mulling over it. . .:) I'll figure it out!

All I did with my card is stamp the images on card stock and cut the leaves out and layered them. There really isn't much to talk about. . .other than the stamping, I added lace and epoxy sticker to dress the card up a little. That's about it

Photos of the Day

Before I go, I wanted to share a few Halloween pictures from yesterday! Did you all have a wonderful Halloween? Well, we did. . .unfortunately, there weren't too many trick or treaters last night and now I have a ton of left over candies.

I did decorate our house a little bit. . .not too much. . .just enough to be festive

I like this "Boo" sign because it lights up at night

My daughter at the very last minute decided to dress up in a costume. . .she is actually wearing her high school "homecoming dance" dress, threw on a cape that she wore for Halloween in the 8th grade, and my step-son's old Halloween Wizard hat. LOL! Whala. . .this is what she came up with. . .it a actually turned out pretty good.

Here is her costume in full form. She is actually wearing my knee-high boots. . .you can't see it in the picture.


Anyway. . .that's it. . .sorry for the super long post. Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and that your November will be a fabulous one!! Remember. . .be thankful and find gratitude in your every day life. . .:)

Halloween Projects - Altered Basket and Container

Hello Friends!! I actually made these projects last week but forgot to post them on my blog. . .:) The first project is a little wicker basket that I bought at a garage sale and decided to alter into a Halloween basket. All I did was stick on the eyelet lace and add the skeleton embellishments. Super simple and fast project! All the embellishments are from a K&Co scrapbook pack that I bought last year but wasn't able to use up last year. I haven't bought any new Halloween embellishments this year because I'm still trying to use up the ones I bought last year. . .LOL!

With this project. . .I altered a bunch of "Prima" packages that I decided to keep to alter. They work perfectly as treat boxes! Gotta love the pretty packages that embellishments come in, huh? All I did was cover them with designer paper and stuck the scrapbook embellishments on to the design. Again, another fast project. . .this is like a 10 minute project.

This is a close up of the altered "prima" packages. It's a great idea to save the pretty embellishment packages. . they really do come in handy. Well, that is if you actually use them. I once had a thing for saving pretty packages and containers but never get around to making anything with them so they end up only taking up a lot of space. I'm trying to go through my stuff and start using the ones that I saved.

That's it for today. . .I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C60 Halloween Challenge

Hello Friends! In one week it'll be Halloween and this week at Crazy 4 Challenges has a fabulous challenge for you! Yup, you guessed right. . .it's a Halloween challenge! How fun!! Be sure to stop by Crazy 4 Challenges and play along with the crazy gals! The team created such cute projects for this Halloween. . .you can see all the cuteness at C4C or stop by the designer's individual blogs:

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden
* Angela Wood
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger

I was really excited about this challenge because I really wanted to create this Witch Hat Box. The box was cut using myscrapchick.com cutting files!! I love the Halloween Treat Boxes set. . .there's various types of boxes that you can create including Frankie, Dracula, Pumpkin and others!!! Be sure to check out myscrapchic.com . . .there's a ton of Halloween files that you can work with.

Anyway. . .I actually created a bunch of other Halloween projects but I'll post them tomorrow.

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!

Halloween Gate Fold Double Accordion Mini Album Tutorial

Hello Friends! Sorry for the poor quality of the photos but I created this project over 2 years ago! OMG! I created the tutorial for a Stampin Up club I had a while back but I no longer have the club. I have a lot of tutorials that I have not transferred to this blog. The tutorials were stored on a website that I no longer pay for and well, I have to reconstruct the tutorials so that I can upload them to Scribd. Unfortunately, I am way to lazy or burnt out to reconstruct them all! LOL! But, I decided because it's a Halloween project, this would be a good time to post this tutorial.


The mini album opens up as a "gate-fold" and is held closed with Velcro on the back of the oval panel. The oval is actually optional and you can wrap a ribbon around the album to keep it in the closed position but I prefer the Velcro option.

When opened up, the pages alternate from left to right. It's just a fun way to view the pages.

As you can see the pages are laid out in an alternating fashion. I decided to add a bunch of Halloween photos that I took in the past of my husband and kids. This project may appear "complicated" or "difficult" to create but it's actually quite easy. It's not exactly a "quick" project but try it out anyway. After the first album, it gets a lot easier to create a second one. . .:)

I'm really sorry that I don't post daily on my blog anymore. I'm not sure what my future will be with this blog. I was thinking of taking a few months break after the new year starts but like everything in life, I always change my mind. There was a time when all I wanted to do was create, share, blog and create tutorials but I don't know, I think I'm burning out a little bit with paper crafting. Maybe a few months break will bring back the old feelings. I don't know. . .do you sometimes feel the same way?

I know of a lady who was crafting (wood cut/tole painting) for 25 years and she recently put all her craft stuff on sale. I went over to buy a few things and she had literally a thousand craft books, tons and tons of wood cuts for the tole painting, and a whole bunch of other craft items for sale. I asked her why she was selling all her things and she said that she suddenly. . .almost overnight just no longer had any desire to craft which for me is quite amazing. I still love crafting but I want to grow into other areas of crafting such as crocheting and sewing so maybe that's where I'm heading. .. I don't know. I still love paper crafting and don't think I'll ever stop doing it but I'd like to explore other craft areas. I think that's where I'll be next year. . .:) You know, working with different craft projects, sort of mix bag of various areas of crafting. . .we'll see.

Anyway. . .just sharing my thoughts. Below is the tutorial. You don't need a Facebook account to subscribe to Scribd but you do need to subscribe by providing your email address and a password in order to download or print the tutorial. If you don't want to subscribe, you can view the tutorial directly online on my blog or on Scribd. You have the option to view the tutorial full screen, scroll option, or book option. Email me if you have any questions.

Hope you all have a beautiful Wednesday!!

Gate Fold Double Accordion Mini Album