Ms. Kiki picked a winner!

Happy Halloween Eve! I first want to send out a HUGE thank you to all of you that stopped over during Kimberli's blog hop this past Thursday. I also want to welcome those that are new to my blog. I do look forward to blogging with you and am so glad you are joining in the fun we have here! Now, as many of my friends have come to learn, I do things a little different when it comes time to pick a winner for my blog candy. Sure, I could do the random generator but I have a beautiful assistant, a.k.a. daughter, a.k.a. dog, that loves to help her mommy pick the winners. As you will see in the video, Kiki does a wonderful job and as some have found out, she is not easily bribed. However, Kiki has a little brother, and I do mean little, that wanted to join the fun so recently I have let little Shadow start to pick a runner up prize. I'm hoping in time I can teach my little parakeet, Freddy Mercury, how to pick a winner so I can have two runner up prizes! Here is a picture of my three little babies:

Freddy loves sitting on Kiki!



I got off track, didn't I? Ok, sorry about that, so here is Kiki and Shadow at work picking the winners!

Ms. Kiki picked number 25, which is Kimberli from http://kimberliscreations.blogspot.com/! Congrats Kim- you won the set of Peachy Keen stamps!

Little Shadow picked number 15, which is Chris from http://chatterscene-mom.blogspot.com/! Congrats Chris- you won a suprise second place gift!

Ladies, email me your addresses and I will get your candy out asap!

I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween and enjoy all the Butterfingers, Reese's (Cups, pieces and minatures), Mounds bars, Licorice, Candy corn, Smarties, Sugar Babies, Snickers, Dark Chocolate Milky Ways, Root Beer Bottle Caps and Chocolate, (including dark!), that your crafty hearts desire! I know I will!

Thanks for stopping in!

Susan

Awards, thanks and new friends

Hey ladies! Last weekend I was passed on the Versitile Blogger Award and the Butterfly Award by my friend Amy at http://amyscraftingspace.blogspot.com/. Thank you very much for thinking of me Amy! It's always fun to see what Amy is creating, she is very talented and such a nice lady! If you follow her blog stop on over and say hi, if you don't follower her you are missing out so get on over and follower her blog! You'll be happy you did!

With the Butterfly award there are no rules attached but with the Versatile Blogger award there are a few rules.

1.) Thank the person who awarded you
2.) Tell 7 things about yourself that your readers may not know
3.) Award 7 other bloggers this award

So here are my 7 things:

1. I love McDonald's McRib sandwich.
2. My least favorite months are January and February.
3. I not only believe in ghosts, but given the chance would investigate them.
4. I was a volunteer EMT  years ago but stopped because of what I saw.
5. I was on a mud volleyball team.
6. I have, and still use, a hairbrush I bought in 1984. (Thats true!)
7. I almost gave up blogging after my first month. (I'm so glad I didn't!)

Now I need to pass this on to 7 bloggers and I'm going to do something a little different here. As I said in # 7, I almost gave up on blogging after my first month. I would go through blogs and leave comments but I would rarely get any comments, or followers, in return.  I am so glad I didn't give it up because to be honest, I look so forward to visiting with all of you and the inspiration you all have given me is priceless. So I am going to pass this on to 7 bloggers that I've begun to follow that do not have a large following yet. Please stop over by them and share the blogger love that we all have become so thankful for. In no certain order, ladies, please enjoy these beautiful awards on your blogs:

Bobby - http://bitsandpiecesdesigns.blogspot.com/
Angie - http://crazyscraplady-angelpie.blogspot.com/
Lulu - http://lillulu13.blogspot.com/
Mynnette - http://mynnettekitchenonastampage.blogspot.com/
Sheila - http://sheilassuperdupercraftycorner.blogspot.com/

and also check out:

http://edoggsugarlipsandprincessbuttercup.blogspot.com/
http://izzy-izzwizz.blogspot.com/


Ladies, if you need any help adding these awards to your blog you can email me and I would be more than happy to help you out. (Email address is on my profile). Amy- thank you again for thinking of me. I'll see you all back tomorrow night when Ms. Kiki will pick the winner of the PK stamp set!

{{Hugs}}

Susan

Kimberli's Creations Halloween Hop!

Good morning and welcome to our Halloween blog hop! We have several talented ladies who will be sharing fun Halloween projects with you today, to hopefully inspire you to create some Halloween crafts of your own! If you just happened upon my blog, please go to the very talented Kimberli's blog at http://www.kimberliscreations.blogspot.com/  to start from the beginning, so you don't miss anything! There will be some fun giveaways along the way, so be sure to hop by each of the blogs so you don't miss any!

For my project I decided to create a little Halloween decor. Some of you are well aware of my recent addiction to making rosettes, (yes, I spelled it right this time..lol), and as you will see I'm still suffering this addiction.

How cute are those rosette eyes??

What a cutie!



To sum this up I used an 8 x 10 thin canvass and glued the design paper on. I then made the rosettes, using my new MS scoring board, and using hot glue attached the google eyes. The Owl was cut from the shadow feature of the Sentimentals cartridge, along with the beak and feet. The hat and bowtie was cut from the Create a Critter cartridge. The "Trick or Treat" letters were cut from Storybook, and the "Or" was cut from Wild Card and tied with twine around the branch. (I just want to add, I don't have a Gypsy and have no clue how to use my Design Studio, so all these cuts were done the old fashion way. I really need to get with the program here....). Lastly, I had picked up this frame for free at a garage sale this summer. It was in sad shape with no glass but after cleaning it up it worked perfect for this project! To add a little flair I decided to hot glue a few black sparkly branches on the bottom to give a little 3D ish effect. Oh, and I also added a little silver ribbon along with a feather and gem stone to the hat to up the cute factor! I'm going to enter this project over at http://lessology.blogspot.com/. The challenge this week is to create wall art so I think this fits the criteria.

Now, since it is a Halloween hop there must be candy, right? Right. I'm sorry about eating the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers but I do have something that's Peachy Keen! Yes, I have a set of Peachy Keen stamps up for grabs!

To win this set of stamps you have to be a follower of my blog, leave a comment telling me your favorite Halloween candy- you know, the one candy you always sneak out of a childs supply, (don't tell me you never have), and check back on Sunday night, Oct. 30th, to see if you won. You will have one week to claim the candy otherwise another Trick or Treater will be picked. As always, the fabulous Ms. Kiki (my doggie) will chose the winner!

Now in case you get scared and have to find your way back on the haunted hop path, here is a list for you:


Kim @ Kimberli's Creations - http://www.kimberliscreations.blogspot.com/


Chris @ Get Inspired With Chatterscene - http://chatterscene-mom.blogspot.com/

Tracy @ My Scrap Escape - http://myscrapescape.blogspot.com/

Maria @ Creative By Design - http://marlm-creativebydesign.blogspot.com/

Susan @ Cricut & Grasshopper - http://cricutandgrasshopper.blogspot.com/  {BOO! -that's me!}

Renee @ I Came, I Saw, I Created - http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/

Dana @ Paper Memories 4 U - http://papermemories4u.blogspot.com/

Lori @ Got 2 B Crafting - http://got2bcrafting.blogspot.com/

Crystal @ Creations By Crystal - http://crystal-kovach.blogspot.com/

Sis @ Paper, Craft, and Scissors - http://papercraftscissors.wordpress.com/

Okay you Tricksters...hop on over to Renee now and see what goodies are in store! Thank you to Kimberli and to all of you for stopping in. Have a safe Halloween and for goodness sake, stop sneaking the children's candy! ;)

Susan

p.s. If you are a new follower please let me know and leave your blog address so I can follow you back! Thanks!

Haunted House card

Hi friends! I hope all of you had an enjoyable weekend. I spent some time locked away in my No Boys Allowed room working on my project for the blog hop I will be in on Thursday. (See the upper right side bar). I really hope to see all my best blogging buds join in for the fun and prizes! Along with working on my project I also made a little card which just so happens to fit the criteria for the Getting Cricky Simply Sunday challenge. The criteria is to use black and orange with only one extra color. In my case that color is a dark, almost blue) purple.

This card was super easy to make. When I look at it I think of how exciting it would be to go through a real haunted house! Then again, I'd probably run out screaming so I will stick to looking at this card. I think I've had a few moments of what could be called paranormal activity, have any of you? I really would love to hear them and this time of year is the best to share ghost stories! lol! The stamp is from a MS set and I really had one heck of a time getting the black ink thick enough. I started with Momento's but it wasn't giving me the dark look I wanted so I added Staz On ink over the Momento ink and it worked perfect!

I'm off to get this entered over at
http://www.gettingcricky.com/2011/10/getting-cricky-simply-sunday-challenge.html

I'll be checking in on all of you shortly. I don't know if it's from the days getting shorter but I am sooooo tired tonight.  I have to knock that off or I'm in store for a very long winter!

{{Hugs}}

Susan

Paper Rossette Instructions

Hey ladies! As some of you know, I have been promising a video on making paper rossettes using my new Martha Stewart Scoring Board. Well, my husband has finally figured out, (for me), a way to get this video on my blog. Sorry about the delay but you will be happy to learn how to make these. I don't know if any of you have seen the price on the pre-made ones at the craft stores but let me tell you, they cost between $5 and $10 dollars. Can you believe that? They are so easy, and fun to make!

For some reason I could not upload the video onto Blogger, so below is a link to my YouTube video:


Rossette Demostration <---click

Supplies needed:

Scoring Board

Tape runner
Hole punch
Hot glue gun
12 inch x 1 1/4 inch paper strip
Cardstock for backing and top
A brad/gem/button
Unlimited creativity!

I really hope I've inspired some rossette making! You just never know when there might be a challenge when you might be called on to make a rossette for a chance for blog candy...hint hint hint! If I did inspire you to make one please let me know...I would love to see! Thanks for stopping in!

Susan

*As always, if you are new here I would love to have you as a follower and I'd be more than happy to give you a new follower also! Please leave your blog address!

Link Up Love Party!

The fabulous K. Andrews is having a link up party and the best part, no costume is required!

http://www.gettingcricky.com/2011/10/link-up-love-party.html

Link Up Love Party: How it Works

*Link Up Party runs from Tuesday 10/18 to Tuesday 10/25. Winners announced 10/31
*Grab the Getting Cricky blinkie and post on your blog's sidebar
*Be a follower of the Getting Cricky blog
*Create a new blog post that is titled Link Up Love Party with K Andrew. In your post, you must mention that the link up love party is a way to get to know each other and find new blog inspiration, mention my blog, with a link back to my blog .
*Post your favorite project that you've done in your blog post THAT HAS TO DO WITH HALLOWEEN!! That could be a card, layout, treat holder or decoration, anything halloween related.
*Copy and paste the link up code into your blog post so the Inlinkz will show up on your blog. (This code can be found at Getting Cricky)
*Spread the word so everyone can join in!
*You must visit, follow, and comment on the 5 people before you AND the 5 people after you in the Inlinkz. It would be fantastic if you would visit as many as you can--maybe everyone? If you are one of the first 5 then you will need to blog the ones before you and a few more after--as long as it's a minimum of 10 near you in the link up tool/gadget)
If you do not do the above your link will be deleted, because it's just not fair to those who work so hard linking up and showing love to the ones on the list. I have two moderators who will be checking this out to keep it awesome and fun!

My favorite Halloween project so far would have to be my Mr. Jeepers Creepers card.

Thanks for stopping in today! And for those interested, the video for the rossettes will be posted tomorrow. ( Tech issues).

Susan

Just an FYI

Hi friends! Now I know I promised an instruction video yesterday on how to make rossettes and I wanted you all to know the video is all ready to go however, I'm having an issue posting it. My husband/ camera man/ I.T. person is in the process of fixing this issue and I'm hoping to have the video up soon. In the meantime here is a picture of the rossette that was made during the video:

As soon as possible this video will be posted so I hope to see you all back then! This is so easy to make and the creations are limited only by your imagination!

Thanks for stopping in!

Susan

Rossette Heaven!

I am in rossette heaven! As I said in my last post, I've learned to make rossettes with my MS scoring board. (Just an fyi, Pendra and Pam, yep...those were the first ones!) This time I took a leap of faith and made one with punched edges. Pretty daring, huh? lol! I did decide against wallpapering my craft room, a.k.a. No Boys Allowed room, with rossettes and thought I'd make a card with my latest one.

The pretty design on the top of the brown rossette is a cut from the Storybook cartridge.  I'm so tickled about how these turn out! A few of  you have asked how to make these and I am more than happy to share. I hunted down a video at YouTube but I am more than happy to post a video on here for you all too. Check back in tomorrow and I will have one up for anyone interested! I'm going to enter this card over by my friend Maria's challenge at http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/ , Inspire Me Fridays.

I hope you all had a great weekend. I did get my Honeycrisps and homemade apple pie, yummy! I also had a little trip to the E.R. Not me, oh no, my shoulder is still doing great and since it is I'm not worrying about test results just yet. (Yea, I'm bad that way- if it doesn't hurt that means all is good, right?) ;) This ER trip was for my 17 year old. Saturday night while we were out at Sam's club my son thought he heard someone downstairs so he decided to cut the screen in his bedroom and hop out the second story window. When he noticed that would be too far to jump he ran in my room, cut my screen, hopped on the roof over our front door and jumped on the concrete sidewalk below, hurting his foot. Luckily there were no broken bones and there was nobody in our home. He is doing fine but now I am going to have to figure out how to replace screens. I don't want to wait for my husband to do it, that could be a while. (Only because he is so busy). Does anyone know of a challenge I can enter for replacing screen? lol! Ok, I have to do some housework now, boring, but I will be hopping around later to say hi to you all!

Take care-
Susan

*As always, if you are new here I would love to have you as a follower and I'd be more than happy to give you a new follower also! Please leave your blog address!

Mr. Jeepers Creepers!

Hey friends! TGIF! (Thank God It's Friday)! In honor of Halloween I made another card and will be entering it onto the challenges over at http://craftspotbykimberly.blogspot.com/  and http://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/.  I've never been much into Halloween cards before this year but my goodness they are fun to make, aren't they?



Mr. Creepers eyes WILL follow you!



The skull was cut from the Wall Decor cartridge, (3 times for layering), the embossing was a Tim Holtz one and the cool spider webs/spiders was from a Martha Stewart stamps set. Oh, and I did a ton of inking the edges to give it that spooky look. 

I have something to tell you all! Guess who finally learned how to make a rossette with my Martha Stewart scoring board? If you guessed Kiki you're wrong, I did! I know, I know... some of you very talented ladies may think big whoop, but I am thrilled and will be making them like crazy! Who knows, maybe I'll wallpaper my "No Boys Allowed" room with them! Ha ha, how funny would that be!

I am determind to get to the apple orchard this weekend to get my favorite apples, Honeycrisps! Yum! They are amazing, and even more so when my husband makes one of his fantastic apple pies. I hope you all have a fun weekend, thanks for stopping in!

{Hugs}

Susan

*As always, if you are new here I would love to have you as a follower and I'd be more than happy to give you a new follower also! Please leave your blog address!

Ms. Kiki picked a winner!

Hey everyone! I have some exciting news for you! Not only did Ms. Kiki pick a winner of the really cool Sizzix/Hero Arts embossing folder and stamp set but there is yet another winner! Did you all know that Ms. Kiki has an assistant? That's right. Little Shadow was feeling left out so Kiki and I decided we would allow a boy into our craftroom, a.k.a. No Boys Allowed room, and let Shadow pick a second place winner.  Now I know some of  you already know that Ms. Kiki is a girl of high moral fiber and cannot be bribed but just an fyi, Shadow has no morals. Just like a male, he is bribed easily with belly rubs. ( I could make a comment here but you all are already thinking it, aren't you? Now now ladies!) ha ha! Now on to the grand prize winner....

Congrats Pendra!

And now the second place winner of a bottle of green Stickles and something else to be determind, lol:

                                                                       Congrats Pam!

Ladies, email me your addresses and I will get your prizes to you ASAP! (Pam, I deleted the email with yours from last time, sorry about that). Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my little tray I made.  It's so much appreciated! Now just real quick, I'm going to be in a blog hop on Friday, Oct. 27th and I am so excited! I hope you will all join in for some creative spooky fun. There will be real "treats" to be given out and perhaps a trick or two. Check out the blinkie on the top right, isn't it awesome? Oh, and I really want to say a BIG welcome to new friemds here, I am so glad you decided to join the party!

Now if you will all excuse me I have to go harrass my friend Lisa from indymermaid.com. I know many of you follow her blog and have missed her just as much as I have, so make sure you pop over and say hey! But don't think for a second I won't be around to your blogs......I'm on my way! BOO! ( I need to lay off the candy corn already...................  :)

{{Hugs))

Susan

Card Tray/Blog Candy Info

Happy Saturday! (For the blog candy info please scroll to bottom)
I have always been inspired by art and I do feel that the line between crafting and art is a very fine one. That being said I decided to do something a bit out of the box and I made a beautiful tray using Tarot cards. Now I know people have different opinions of Tarot cards but if you set all that a side and look at the artistic value only they are very interesting. The artwork is something that I find the most fasinating. That being said my curiousity got the better of me and after I finished this project I thought to myself, "I wonder what these cards mean". I went through a whole deck and these were the eight cards I picked out because the artwork appealed to me the most. So I went online and looked them up and what learned floored me. The cards from the top left corner across mean... Knowledge, Patience, Moderation, Conquest, Mirage, Nurishment, Agreement and Control. Those eight cards describe me almost perfect. I didn't include the Joker card, then it would have been perfect.

Yes, the arrow in the middle does spin!





After painting the tray a metallic purple, I then laid a piece of acetate on the bottom and placed Tarot cards on top. I then used a Martha Stewart punch and outlined the cards. The embellishment in the middle is a Tim Holtz and the gems are a combo of Martha Stewart and Jolee crystals. I then put a sheet of Plexiglas on top however because the guy at Ace hardware cut the glass too small I had to get creative here. I outlined the sides of the Plexiglas with another design using an Ek punch. All in all, this is really a very easy project.

Up close

The artwork on the cards is pretty amazing. I wanted you to see what the tray looked like before I started the project. It was just a tray I picked up at the Goodwill store for .50 cents.

What a drastic change, right?

I've decided to enter this into a new challenge blog I've found at http://artwithnoboundaries.blogspot.com/.

   I do want to send a special thank you to the following ladies for entering my blog candy giveaway yesterday. Due to circumstances (unknown to me) I have decided to go ahead and end this giveaway and will be chosing one of you lucky ladies on Monday to win the Sizzix/Hero Art set. Actually, Ms. Kiki will chose, as always! I was disappointed, to say the least, but your support means a lot to me. It really does.

Pam at http://craftycards4u2.blogspot.com/

Audrey at http://cuteandsome.blogspot.com/

Kim at http://crazyaboutscrapin.blogspot.com/

Pendra at http://pendrasplace.blogspot.com/

Sherrie at http://sherriescraps.blogspot.com/

Rinne at http://rinnesbliss.blogspot.com/
Kate at http://smallbitsofpaper.blogspot.com/

Well, thanks for stopping in! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Susan

It's Witch "Craft"

Hello ladies! I am dedicating this card to all of us good witches that love to craft! A while back I won some Digi Stamps from Bugaboo stamps and decided maybe it was time to give one a try. I printed out this really cute image, colored it just for fun and set it a side. Then this past Monday night I was watching Dancing with the Stars and heard the song "Fly me to the moon" by Frank Sinatra and it got me thinking about another Blue Eyes song...."It's Witchcraft". Next thing you know I'm up in my craftroom adding a witches hat and cutting a little black cat from the Cricut Cartridge Designer's Calendar to spruce up my little witch!

Now I know I'm not the best at blending and all that but I don't think it's too bad for the first time doing this. I found a few new challenges too and am excited to enter my little witch card!

http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com/

http://craftspotbykimberly.blogspot.com/

http://paperplaytime.blogspot.com/

These really fun blogs are doing Halloween challenges so I figured, why not?

Now don't forget friends, tomorrow is my guest spot over at http://craftingmisfit.blogspot.com/. You have to see this project I'm doing, it's so cool and there is an interesting twist to it also! Oh, an a little fyi...there is going to be a little "candy" involved...wink wink! Hope to see you then!

Susan
p.s. If you are new to my blog I hope you will follow! I would love to do the same and meet more friends!

October Calendar

Well, it's October and it's time to unveil my monthly calendar. September flew by and last week I didn't even realize I didn't have my calendar ready for a new month! This was the first project I did since my Cookie Book project and the "issue" that followed. (Which btw, my Cookie Book didn't win at Lessology but there is always next time). I was actually nervous about going back into my craftroom. It wasn't that the Cookie Book project caused my "issue" but I was in a great deal of pain working on it so I think that may have had something to do with my nervous feeling. Kind of like falling off a horse. The horse didn't hurt you, the fall did. But like the saying goes, you have to get back up on that horse and so I did!

Now for October I wanted to use Halloween colors but not have it look too Halloweenie. The paper in the background is some old graduation paper I had laying around and I liked it because it looks kind of like wind swirling the leaves around. The leaves and tree were cut from the Wall Decor cartridge and the little pumpkin was from Designer's Calendar. For the numbers on the calendar I alternated the colors orange, purple and black for a more fun look. It was hard taking a good picture of the finished product because it is so dark but I hope you can get the idea.

I can't believe only two more months until my calendar will be completed! Just in time for a new year to begin and a new calendar to start! This is such a fun project to do that I will be doing this every year now.

Now I have some exciting news to share! I will be a guest designer at http://craftingmisfit.blogspot.com/ this Friday, October 7th! I'm so excited I really hope you will stop over and check it out! Well, I must get crackin on the project I will be doing so I'm off to ride that horse called my craftroom! (Better known as "no boys allowed" room).  Hope you all have a great day!

{{Hugs}}
Susan

Thank you!

I wanted to send out a big thank you to my wonderful friends for their concern and prayers. I am finally feeling better and have even been in my craftroom! While the shoulder is better there were a few things found from the lab work that are still in question. So until I get those questions answered I'm going to fall back on an old saying that a friend and I used to remind each other of while in beauty school....."It's better to look good than to feel good". Of course, that's easy to say when you are 19 huh? LOL!

Speaking of looking good, I did spruce up my blog a bit. I thought it was time for some fall colors. My husband and I went for a wonderful walk today with the pups and the beautiful fall colors inspired me to clean up my blog a bit. Here are a couple pictures I took along the way.

See? Minnesota doesn't always have snow! I'm so happy to be back to myself again. September wasn't the greatest month for me but after seeing all the beautiful colors today I'm certain October is looking good!

{{Big hugs}}

Susan