Birthdays and Pumpkins

Today my #2 child turned 17. Wow. I feel a little old! David turned 18 last month, Charlene 17 this month, next month Dakota will be taking driver's ed! EEEK! Scary huh?! I worked nights all weekend, so no fun with the new toys that came in on Friday. I hope to play some tomorrow.

Dakota and Geoffrey carved their pumpkins tonight while we waited for Charlene to get home from work. I got some good pictures for scrapbooking and the boys did a great job on their pumpkins. I love this picture of these boys of mine!

Scallop Punch Pumpkin Tutorial

This is an an adorable little pumpkin we made at the October Stamp club meeting. You could use this concept to make ornaments for any holiday of occasion. They even work realy well as cat toys :) My youngest cat keeps stealing them off the table as I'm working and batting them around on the floor!

My 11 year old son helped with this bunch and he wanted this bright Only Orange. I personally prefer Pumpkin Pie or More Mustard for pumpkins. But hey, Geoffrey was happy!



Supplies needed: two 2x6" strips of paper

Scallop punch

green ribbon

lighter or lit candle

tape runner

optional: Jumbo Wheel like So Swirly or Cutlebug and embossing folder, then rub raised image with ink pad

1. Punch out 6 scallops. You can get 3 scallops out of a 2x6" strip of paper.

2. Fold each scallop in half with design to the inside. MAKE SURE FOLD IS BETWEEN SCALLOPS so all are the same. Open all scallops back up.

3. Put a strip of sticky on each half of three of the scallops.

4. Take 1 stickied and 1 not stickied scallop and adhere 1/2 of each together, matching up the scallop edges.

5. Continue adhering scallops alternating sticky with not sticky until all6 scallops are used and all halves are adhered to another half.

6. Take a 2" piece of ribbon, fold it in half. Then singe the ends slightly with a flame (candle or lighter) to prevent fraying while applying sticky.

7. Apply sticky to both sides of not folded edge.

8. Stick ribbon into top of pumpkin and squeeze to adhere.

All Done! It is now ready to be made into a name card for the table, a scatter for around a candle, or strung up on Su gold cord with a bunch more as a cute Autumn garland!

Tutorial below

I had promised to start posting tutorials for the projects we do at Stamp Club meetings for those who can't make it. So here is the first tutorial I put together. Hopefully they don't all take this long to put together!

Turorial: Peaceful Wishes Card

Supplies needed

Stamps: Peaceful Wishes, Linen BG Paper: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla Ink: Mellow Moss, Always, Artichoke, Ruby Red, Versamark, Chocolate Chip Extras: Cutter kit distressing tool, paper piercing tool with mat and piercing guide, 2 way glue pen, Romantic red glitter, powder pal, tape runner.
Step 1: Stamp pine branch with Mellow Moss on Mellow Moss card base.

Step 2: Ink up the Linen background stamp with Versamark.

Step 3: Place card base on background stamp and rub over whole area carefully.

Step 4: Repeat with Ruby Red strip.

Step 5: Stamp berry branch on ruby red strip in a random pattern- be sure to let some of the images go past the edge, this gives a better random pattern.

Step6: Use paper piercer, mat, and guide to "stitching" holes along each long edge.

Step 7: Use red marker to make stitching lines along each edge being sure to let the marker stop in each hole.

Step 8: Distress long edges with Cutter kit distressing tool, then ink edges with Ruby Red ink.

Step 9: Stamp mistletoe branch in Always Artichoke on the Very Vanilla piece.

Step 10: Use 2 way glue pen to put dots of glue on all the berries.

Step 11: Apply Romantic Red glitter to the glue dots.

Step 12: Distress all edges of Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke pieces.

Step 13: Ink edges of Always Artichoke piece with Always Artichoke ink.

Step 14: Adhere Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke pieces together.

Step 15: Adhere Ruby Red strip approximately 1/2" from left hand edge of card base.

Step 16: Adhere mistletoe element to card leaving space for the sentiment on bottom of card.

Step 17: Stamp "Peaceful Wishes" along bottom of card with Chocolate Chip ink.

All Done!

Votive Luminary

I am so excited to share this one with everyone at the next club meeting! We are going to be making some really cool stuff this time. I saw this on splitcoaststampers.com and had to do it myself. It turned out gorgeous and I think I will have to make some to give away as gifts and for all kinds of holidays! I got to use my Holy Triptych stamp set for a lovely Christams centerpiece. I then went out in the yard and cut some pine branches, found a couple closed pine cones, and bought some fake red berries to add to the black candle tray I have had forever and voila! I had a perfect centerpiece!

This is the tree wise men lit up. I love the soft glow. It looks even better in real life!

This is the angel. You can't see it here, but I added glitter to her wings so that when the candle isn't light, she still has that special shine. The fourth side uses the Holiday Wishes set's Merry Christmas stamp.

Sneek Peek at November Club Projects

This is a 8x8 scrapbook page that we are going to make next month in club. It uses the Artfully Asian stamp set. We will use twill tape for the first time and stamp on it!

October Club Projects

If you missed club this month, you missed a great time. Here are some of the projects we made this month.This darling little pumpkin is made using these Stampin Up! products: scallop punch, pumpkin pie cardstock, So swirly jumbo wheel with chocolate chip ink cartridge, and a non SU sagey green ribbon. Very easy and very quick! I plan to make a whole bunch of these and string them on the Gold Cord from SU to make a Thanksgiving garland, I will also use the oval punch to attach names to the pumpkins and use them as namecards at the table. I might try scattering some around a large round candle with some dry leaves and stuff as a centerpiece.

This is the lunchbag luminary unlit with the lights on. Used Autumn Harvest and Holiday Wishes stamp sets with Choc Chip ink, then used watercolor pencils and blender pen to color the pumpkins.

This is the lunch bag luminary in the dark with a candle lit inside. very cool in real life.

This the masculine card we made with the Noble Deer and Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp sets and Weathered background stamp. The cardstock is Handsome Hunter, Really Rust, and Very Vanilla. Used Choc Chip and Really Rust ink. Any nature loving guy would love to get this card!

October Stamp Club Meeting

Yeah! We have our next date picked and we will meet on Friday Oct 19th at Dawn's house. If you are a member of the club, you should have received a set of directions to her home in your email and possibly your mailbox at work. I just finished working a weekend of nights and I am ready to go play with my toys! Hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to post real soon.

House Warming Card

Here is a card that I made tonight after work to give to a friend at work who just moved in to her new home. It's in the country and thought these little wilderness friends were just the perfect welcome wagon! Gotta go to bed now, have to be up early for work in the am!

Christmas Ornaments

These are some ornaments that I made using the On board Trimmings set of chipboard pieces. I painted this one white with acrylic paint, then used the Baroque Motifs set to stamp the swirls in Soft Sky and Versamark, then used Iridescent Ice embossing powder to make it sparkly! I used Blue Bayou and Versamark for the flower/star/snowflake in the center. Also embossed with Iridescent Ice. Then I used the handy dandy Crop-O-Dile to punch the hole in the center of both chipboard pieces and used a turquoise rhinestone brad to hold it together. Also used Crop-O-Dile to punch hole and set the light blue eyelet. Used the lovely Gold Cord available in the Holiday Mini catalog. Used basically the same process for all of the ornaments and I have prepainted a bunch of chipboard pieces for use to make ornaments at the next club meeting. That would be the October club meeting, which looks like the hostess will get to pick the date as I have only had 1 response to the "which date works for you" question.
Don't these look just yummy for on your tree, decorating around the house, to give as gifts, or to attach to gifts ?!