Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy "Mumday"!

I saw these great Halloween treats online and decided to try them out.  What do you think??

They are made from a rice crispie treat, white chocolate melts and mini chocolate chips for the eyes.  I think they are cute and real easy to make.

Each mummy is unique!  It took no time at all before I had a whole bunch of the little devils (oops mummies!!)


I hope you have a great day today!  Hard to believe that October has flown by and November is just around the corner!  Take some time to enjoy today - and Happy "Mumday"

Gail S.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Planning for Christmas!


While looking at other blogs last week, I saw several ladies that were making Christmas Planners to get organized with the Christmas holiday that is "just around the corner".  I fell in love with these planners and decided to make one for myself.....and also the ladies at work, sister and a special blog friend!  I got started by looking up "Christmas Planner" and got several tutorials on how to make them.  The one I chose to use was made from a plain, manila office folder. 


This is what the outside of one of them looks like.  I used retired SU! Christmas DSP to decorate this planner, along with some cute winter decorations that coordinated so well with this paper.  You may not be able to see in this photo but the red on the stripes has glitter on it and really sparkles.  I added some SU! rhinestones to the label that I printed off of the computer to add even more sparkle.  Blushing Bride and Bashful Blue cardstock matches perfect.

When you open the planner, you get this:



Again, I went to "Mr.Google" and searched Christmas Planner inserts and it brought me to a site that had calendars, gift list pages, Christmas card pages, shopping list pages, holiday party planning pages etc. You can pick and choose whatever you want to add to your personal planner.  For the ones I made I printed off the current October, November and December calendars (below the calendar is a spot for things to do this month), shopping list pages and gift list pages.  I had some snowflake embellishments that I purchased last year on sale that I added to some of the folders pockets.


The last pocket, I took an ordinary envelope and changed it into something to hold my receipts.  I added some scraps of my paper I was using and added a pretty red ribbon to the front.  I punched part of the top with a circle punch and added some pretty paper to the inside and printed off on the computer the word receipts.  I think this is a great addition because you can put all of your holiday receipts in one spot and have them if you need to return anything.  No more looking for the lost receipt!

I used my Crop-a-Dile to add some eyelets and used the same red ribbon that I had on my receipt envelope to go around my planner to keep it all closed up when not in use.

I had lots of Christmas paper that I bought on sale last year for 70% off and made 6 more planners:



This is the inside of one of the red and green planners:



I hope you enjoyed looking at all of my holiday planners and maybe I have inspired you to make one for yourself (or even a couple to give away!) 

Happy holiday planning :)

Gail S.


Thursday, October 27, 2011

Halloween Treats!

I was busy this weekend making Halloween Treats to give out on Monday!

We live in the country (9 miles from the nearest town) and don't have very many trick-or-treaters come to our house so I make treats to deliver to co-workers, people that I know around town and my two little twin neices.  One of my neices is going to be a cat this year and the other a spider!  They are in the first grade this year and growing up way too fast.  For them I made some extra special treats :)

Aren't these guys scary looking? They are actually glasses that I filled with some goodies.  They can drink their spooky potions in them.  I think I picked these up from Walmart.  I also got the girls some scratch and color Halloween pictures and some tablets that you drop in warm water and they dissolve and expand into spooky Halloween objects.  They will love them.

For the people and work, sister, friends etc.  I used alot of retired SU! items and some old papers I have been hoarding and decided to use.


I used some SU! glassine sacks and filled them with candy and decorated the tops!  I made 25 of them while watching TV.  Below is one of the bags close-up.



I used SU! Top Note die, scallop punch, and the stamp set Batty for you.

I have been having a blast watching all of the scary movies that they have been showing on TV for the month of October. I don't like the bloody, gory movies (Freddie Kruger etc) but I like the ones that make you jump or listen for something outside that makes your skin crawl.  With hubby outside picking corn all day and half the night - I am alone in the house and it makes it even creepier! Love it!!  I have a DVR so I have recorded quite a few to watch later on.

I also worked on another project, while watching those scary movies, that I will share in a day or two...they are for Christmas!

Hope you are all having a good week - so far.  Thanks for stopping by.

Gail S.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Happy Halloween!

I don't make very many Halloween cards but I did decide to make a simple one this past weekend.

I just used some items that I had in my scraproom to make this and used a retired Stampin UP! stamp set.  I need to use up some of my stash before I buy some more!

Then I had to make a card to send to a friend this week:


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I have to work this Saturday but I will have Sunday to enjoy.  

Gail S.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Abbey's Quilt and a Table Topper

 

Well, I finally have had time to get some pictures of Abbey's quilt - two years in the making!  I am happy it is finished and how it turned out.

This is showing the quilt laid out.  It is three blocks across and 4 blocks down.  This is a close up of one of the blocks:

The pattern is supposed to look like old wooden spools of thread - 4 spools per block.  Do you see the spools? Below is a close up of the stitching on the back of the quilt:

It is kind of a floral, leafy design.  Now sometime I have to get it to her :) Until then, I am enjoying it folded up and laying on my couch. 

While I was in the sewing mood - I made a quick and easy table topper in some pretty fabric I picked up in North Platte.

This is a close up of the topper:

Looking at the picture of the table topper on the table, I notice how green my lawn still it.  The weather forecast here says a HARD freeze tonight.  I have been covering my tomatoes in my garden every night and tonight I am going to say goodbye to them.  I picked some ripe tomatoes and quite a few green ones and am going to go try to wrap them in newspaper and and see if they will keep awhile longer.  Store bought tomatoes just don't have that wonderful taste like the home grown ones. 

My guys are out picking corn this evening so I am home alone in the quiet.  Pray we have a good harvest this year and no more breakdowns (we have had two already).  Our fall has just been beautiful - the trees in town are turning beautiful autumn colors of yellow, brown and red.  When I go for my walks during my lunch break I enjoy seeing the explosion of the colors.  I pass by an oak tree and have found quite a few acorns on the ground - soon the squirrels will be gathering them all up! 

Thanks for stopping to look at my projects. I hope you enjoyed them. I did get some cards made and will post them next :o) 

Gail S.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Friend

Last week was a blog friends birthday.  Vicki Crisman has "This art that makes me happy" blog and is another from Nebraska. I have been following her blog for a couple of years.  We have never met...yet... but we have visited via the computer quite a bit.

I sent Vicki a birthday card for her special day and thought I would share it with you.
I love this card layout.  It can be so versitile and think I will have to use this again. 

I also made another card:


Aren't the colors of this card just beautiful?  I got the idea for this card from the blog Simple and Sincere.  

I have Abbey's quilt all done (yeah!!).  I just have to find some time to get some pictures of it and then I will post it.  

The mystery quilt bus trip this past weekend was a lot of fun!  We went to Valentine, Ne and stopped at two quilt shops and two fall craft fairs!  Had a great time.  I will post what treasures I bought while on that trip.

Thanks for stopping by!  Gail S. 

Friday, October 7, 2011

I've Been Quilting!!

Besides making cards, when the weather gets colder I like to break out the sewing machine and quilt!  I have been finishing up on Abbey's quilt and as soon and I get done with it, I will share. 

Meanwhile....a few years ago I purchased a "quilt block of the month" pattern. You are to make a quilt block that goes with that month and display it.  A wood holder came with the project.  I have made exactly TWO BLOCKS in the past few years!!!  This weekend I finally finished "October's" block!


 What do you think?  I like the colors!  Cute buttons were added.



I better get started on Novembers block - maybe I will get that done by NEXT November! 

This Saturday, a local quilt guild is hosting a mystery bus trip.  My sister and I are signed up to go on it.  We leave at 7:45 am and we arrive back at our starting spot about 7:00 pm.  We have no idea where we are going but they always end up being lots of fun!! Past spots that we have gone to are Cambridge, McCook, and O'Neill, Nebraska.



Thanks for stopping by! 

Gail

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Field Flowers

I had to play with the stamp set Field of Flowers once again.  I used some different colors together and like how they look.  I used Baja Breeze and Cajun Craze with a dash of very vanilla! (sounds like a recipe -hehe)


What do you think? Like the color combo? 

I have more to share so stay tuned....it has been crazy busy here at home and at work.

Gail