Halloween Recap

I know this is kind of a late post regarding Halloween since it's the 6th day of November already, but bear with me with the delay. I have some family members that check up on our latest stories through this blog and this is my only way of sharing with them what's going on in our home.

The day before Halloween we created our Jack-o-lanterns. We had the kids drew the kinds of faces they want their "jacks" to have and then Mitch and I carved it. We also made the kids help out get all of the seeds and innards of the pumpkin out. It sure was a messy job.

Here's Marcus' jack-o-lantern. Like I mentioned before, we gave them the sharpie and they went to town with their sketch so you can still see the outline of the face in these carved pumpkins.

Here's Maddie's pumpkin. I carved hers and while doing the mouth, totally messed up and accidentally cut out most of the jagged teeth except one, leaving this jack-o-lantern to look toothless. Oooppps! Thankfully Maddie was not too upset about my mistake. 

On Halloween, the kids had their respective class parties in the afternoon. I was busy jumping from one class to another that I didn't get any picture of that activity. 

That night we went around our area trick or treating. We walked with our dear friends, the S family and had a blast. The kids definitely got a lot of candies. Here's a look at their loot after we went through it...

We bought a big bag of candies to give out but because Mitch and I both walked with the kids, we didn't get to give them all out. I guess that means we will have candy ready for Christmas. The problem now is hiding it from the kids so they don't try to eat them all!

What's your favorite Halloween candy?

Till next time,
Grace

Family ride layout *Paper Secrets Guest DT*

Happy Monday friends. I can't believe it's already the 4th day of November. Before you know it, December will come and go and 2013 will be over. Time sure flies fast!

Anyways, this month I was fortunate to be chosen as the guest designer at the Paper Secrets blog. They sent me the "into the woods" collection by Lawn Fawn and I have to say, it's the perfect paper and colors for this season. Here's my first (of two) layouts that I created for them this month...

Family Ride Layout

The layout above is based on this sketch provided by Paper Secrets...

I decided to change the background shape into a circle to make it complement the "bike ride" theme of my layout. Here's another close up look of the page...

To see more close ups of this page along with sketch challenge details, please click here.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic week.

Till next time,
Grace

Birthday boy gift set *Paper House*

Happy Friday. Did you have a great Halloween? Is your home littered with candies and bouncing kids on a sugar high? Well that's how it is in home today. :)

Today I'd like to share one of the recent projects I created for Paper House. I love the birthday boy paper and sticker line that they have and decided to use that in this birthday boy gift set. I created the gift box using my Cameo machine and a box template from the Silhouette store. I love how easy  it is to create things with that machine. ;)

Birthday Boy Gift Set

 Super Hero Birthday Set

Card size: 4 ¼ x 5 ½”

Treat box: 6 x 4 ¼ x 2 ¼”

Supplies Used:

Papers- Happy Birthday Boy (P-0666E); Super Hero City (P-0667E)

Stickers- Birthday Boy (STDM- 0173E); Birthday boy (STCX-0180E)

Others- Ribbon, Die cut machine, Pen, Die cut shape, Adhesives

Instructions:

For the card:

1. Create the card base using white cardstock with the fold on the right side.

2. Cut out a piece of Happy Birthday boy paper about 1/8” smaller than the card base and adhere to the card front.

3. Create a shaped die cut from die cut machine using Kraft cardstock. Cut in half and adhere to the top left corner of the card. Add pen lines on the inside edge of the shape.

4. Cut out some more arrows from the Happy Birthday boy paper and adhere to the bottom left side of the card.

5. Add dimensional stickers to the card.

For the treat box:

1. Create the treat box from brown cardstock using die cut machine.

2. Cover all sides of the box with Super Hero City paper.  Add the border sticker on the top of the box, trimming excess to create three strips.

3 Adhere the dimensional stickers on the front of the box.

4. Thread orange ribbon through the top holes of the box and tie into a bow to close.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Till next time,

Grace 

Halloween Costumes 2013

 Breaking up some crafty posts to share with you this year's Halloween Costumes...

The family didn't coordinate costumes this year. We got the kids' costumes at a steal of a deal that trying to put them all together in one theme just couldn't work. Maybe next year. The kids wore their costumes at our Ward Trunk or Treat/Chili cook off last Friday and I took pictures of them before we headed out to the party. 

Marcus will be a "clone trooper" from Star Wars this year. We got his costume last year AFTER Halloween so it was 90% off. Can't beat that! 

Maddie's costume was a score found at the thrift store. We were actually in there to look for some shelves and on our way out, I spotted the trims of this dress on a rack by the entrance door. I stopped and looked at the dress and was impressed at the quality and beauty of it. I noticed that there were no tags inside the dress, which would mean that someone took the time to sew it. And the fact that it was only $6 made this dress a no-brainer for us. I didn't know what Maddie would actually be but I  really wanted this dress for her. Luckily Marcus said that the dress reminded him of Princess Elizabeth in Pirates of Caribbean so that's who we're going to call Maddie this year. :)

I too wanted to "dress up" this year. I found this really cute idea for a Mary Poppins costume in Pinterest (gosh don't you love that site?!) and decided that I'd like to dress up as one of the most famous nannies in the universe. I didn't want to spend a ton on this costume (I'm not a believer in spending lots of money for something I will just wear once) so I rummaged through my closet first. I found my white shirt, black stockings, purse and shoes in my stash. I got the skirt and grey jacket at Goodwill (both for under $6, I might add) and then I searched high and low for a black hat. I couldn't find one so I rummaged through my closet again and found this beige number that I hoped would work. After gluing some flowers, I called it a day. The only thing missing was a black umbrella but by that time, I was exhausted at trying to make this costume work and I just didn't care much anymore. Luckily some people "got" my costume and that was good enough for me. 

Mitch is going to be a "Waldo" character this year.Not of his own choice but I guess everyone at his work is going to be so he doesn't really have much say on it. We are not going "diy" with his costume at I haven't been lucky to find red/white striped sweater and red/white beanie cap in the thrift store. 

I'll take a picture of him and post it after Halloween. 

How about you? What would you be this Halloween?

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Grace

Latest Design team Work *Die Versions and Epiphany Crafts*

Happy Monday folks. Thanks for stopping by today. 

I love it when I can incorporate design team assignments with the season or holiday that's coming up. It  makes me enjoy the "season" even more. Here are a couple of projects that I created with the Fall and Halloween theme in  mind. 

Welcome to the Family card

You can read more about this project in the Die-Version blog here. 

Princess Leia layout

This is still one of my all time favorite costume that I made my little dear daughter wear for Halloween. Our family was into the Star Wars theme that year. You can read more about this layout plus see how I created it in this post at the Epiphany Crafts. 

Thanks for your continued support and I hope you have a fantastic start to your week. 

Till next time,

Grace

Happy Birthday card *Inspired By Stamping*

It seems like birthday cards are my "thing" lately. This is my third handmade card for that theme. Oh well, at least I'm  going to be well stocked for next year. If only I remember to actually give them out to friends and family. Ha!

This one is made for the ABC challenge blog. I love their theme right now, it's X for Xtra special. This means that they are looking for cards made for special occasion and I can't think of a better occasion than birthdays. Don't you think so?

Happy Birthday card

This was was made with some Lawn Fawn papers, Simple Stories brads and Inspired by Stamping stamps. The sentiment is just so gorgeous and the flower are super versatile. Just by changing up the colors of the inks I use with them, I will be able to use them for different seasons. Definitely going to be one of my "go-to" stamps from here on out. Plus did you know that the frame stamp is FREE with your purchase at the IBS store? Check it out here. 

I feel like when you have such a lovely framed sentiment, everything else in your card should be subtle. Would you agree with me on that?

Till next time,
Grace

Glue Dots' "Favorite Things" Blog hop

Hi there friends. Today I'm participating in a very special blog hop. 

Glue Dots recently added me as part of their new resource team. This is such an honor and as part of the team, we were all asked to share one of our favorite things. 

One of the many things I love about Autumn is the chance to decorate my home with the season's accents and colors.

It doesn't take too many supplies to create something for my home. Like many of you, I don't have too much time to create just one project so my motto has always been...short, sweet but effective! :)

Below are some of the supplies I used for the project...

I later on added some white paint, buttons, twine, embossing folder and liquid pearls.

I painted the background scallop cardstock piece with white so that the paper and accents can stand out better.

I used my die cut machine to cut out my letters and leaves. And to add some texture to them, I ran them through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder.

Using some Glue Dots mini and pop up adhesives made this project super fast to put together.

here's the list of blog hoppers...

Dawn Barrett - http://dawnmercedes.blogspot.com/2013/10/some-of-my-favorite-things.html

Donna Budzynski - http://memesartplace.blogspot.com/2013/10/glue-dots-favorite-things-blog-hop-here.html

Erin Bullock - http://deeplyrootedlife.blogspot.com/2013/10/meet-dottesses.html

Joy Dickson - http://joyslife.com/glue-dots-favorite-things-blog-hop/

Jessica Griffin - http://canyoupixelthis.com/2013/10/23/glue-dots-my-favorite-things/

Danielle Hunter - http://ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com/2013/10/glue-dots-favorite-things-blog-hop.html

Smitha Katti - http://www.smilingcolors.com/2013/10/glue-dots-our-favorite-things/

Samantha Taylor - http://taylorstamped.blogspot.com/2013/10/glue-dots-favorite-things-blog-hop-o.html

Grace Tolman - http://tolmanchronicles.blogspot.com/2013/10/glue-dots-favorite-things-blog-hop.html

Glue Dots Blog – http://www.gluedots.com/glue-dots-blog/entry/meet-the-2013-2014-resource-team

There is an awesome giveaway included with this hop. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop.

Till next time,
Grace

Have a lovely birthday card *Inspired by Stamping*

Hi my lovely blog friends. Today's another card share. I've been on a card frenzy lately. Since starting school, my only "crafty" break is creating cards. They are quick, sweet and I get to test out some new supplies. 

Today's share is made with the latest sketch at Cardabilities as my inspiration...

Have a Lovely Birthday card

I used some more of the Lawn Fawn "Into the Woods" paper plus leaf and sentiment stamps from Inspired by Stamping. The white flower is also from the IBS store and the brad is from a Simple Stories pack. 

I love the sketch and how it made me use my stamp more. I created the leaf design by stamping the image on the back of a scrap paper (gotta love those one sided pattern papers) and then cut out the image to create my hanging accents.

What about you, what have been your favorite crafty project to make lately?

Till next time,
Grace

Warmest Birthday Wishes card *Inspired by Stamping*

Happy Monday friends. I hope you have enjoyed "hopping along" with the Inspired by Stamping and WorldWin blog hops. Wasn't that fun?

Today I'm starting off the week with a card share. I'm entering this for the latest papertakeweekly challenge which is to use the "Halloween Hues". I love rummaging through my scrap stash to find just the right colors. Make sure you stop by their blog and play along. 

Warmest Birthday Wishes card

I used some new stamps from Inspired By Stamping for my frame and sentiment accents. I also used some white flowers from the IBS store. 

I'm so glad that I was able to use the purple glittered cardstock here. I've been hoarding that for a while. *wink*

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Inspired by Stamping and Worldwin Papers BLOG HOP

Hi there crafty friends and thank you for joining us in this Holiday blog hop. Inspired By Stamping and Worldwin Papers has teamed up to offer you over 15 inspiring Christmas projects to jump start your holiday season.  We hope that you’ll find just the right inspiration for your next Christmas themed project.

Christmas season is all about gift giving, and this hop is no exception. We have planned a very sweet giveaway for a lucky winner. To be eligible for the giveaway, please visit each blog in the list, grabbing the “letter” code as you go. Once you’ve landed on our last blog, which is the Inspired by Stamping blog, you will leave a comment with the secret phrase created by putting together all of those letters that you collected from each blog. Winners of the giveaway will be announced on October 23^rd on both the Worldwin Papers and Inspired by Stamping blogs.

The designers have worked hard to produce all of these fantastic creations, and we would like to invite you to leave some comments on their individual blogs as well.

So what are you waiting for…let the hopping begin!

*If this is your first stop on the "hop train" please hop on over to Worldwin papers blog where it all starts :)

Dear Santa Layout

For my layout, I layered some WorldWin cardstocks and even added an envelope to tuck in my son's actual letter to Santa. I then used some Inspired by Stamping stamps to add some details and designs to my page.

Supplies Used:

Cardstocks- Original Colormates®Deep Racy Raspberry,Medium Berry Red,Dark Spring Green; Kromekote®Brushed, Silver Foil Mirror Finish; Worldwin® Cardstock Packs, Kraft and Ivory

Envelope - A7 Gold, Worldwin Papers

Stamps- Holiday Sentiments, Holiday Washi Tape, Holiday Tags, Build a Snowman- Inspired by Stamping

Others: Border punch, Twine, Photo Corners, Stamp ink pads, Pen and Adhesives.

And the code from this blog is.....O

Now hop on over to Irit's blog to get the next code- http://iritshalom.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks for hopping along with us and I hope you have a fantastic day.

Till next time,
Grace