All Paper Arts

Since I have already had pumpkins in all my posts this week I decided to go ahead and finish the week with pumpkins. Who doesn’t love a good pumpkin? Goodness knows I look like I have swallowed a couple right now. Actually, just the other night I was wearing some new PJ’s when I heard my husband talking to our friend who was over. He kept saying, “look, now, see the pumpkin?” I thought they were talking about something on the video game they were playing. Nope, my wonderful hubby was pointing me out when I would turn sideways. I guess buying orange PJ’s when you are 28 weeks pregnant isn’t a good choice. I should have known when I heard my step daughter’s snickers that they weren’t talking about the video game. So back to real pumpkins. For this years card swap I picked Halloween as the card I would make. Each of us is suppose to make 32 cards. After the swap we will each have 2 sets of 16 cards. These make great gifts. I give them to the girls teachers at the end of every year. Last year my oldest daughter’s teacher told me it was the best teacher’s gift she had received in all of her years of teaching. When I saw her this year she told me she gave one of the cards to her friend who framed it because she liked it so much!

Here is a super easy gift bag great for autumn. You could use it for a gift bag or a treat bag. I kept the bag flat in order to scan it for you so you could see more detail. It is much more awwwspiring when it is filled. I used a stamp roller for the lines of leaves and acorns. Simply fold overr the top edge and punch two holes for the ribbon. My punch actually makes a small rectangle slit for ribbon to go through but you can use a regular hole punch and still get the same effect. The pumpkins are some of those felt pumpkins in a bag that were only $1. I tried to stay very simplistic with this but you can go as elaborate as you’d like.

Yesterday was Moose You So Much. I picked the moose you yesterday because I really am missing autumn. I want signs of it to start now! My patience is not as good as usual. I am blaming pregnancy on that. Just like I blame pregnancy brain for the really silly little things I seem to do at least once a day. Like leaving my engine running while I was at a meeting. Don’t worry my door was locked. Oh again don’t worry my husband was there in his car so he was unable to lock the car for me. Then there was the time after I had mowed the lawn and I thought I had locked myself in the backyard. My back door was locked and I had already locked my gate so I didn’t know how I was going to get out of my yard. That was until after I finally realized I had the keys to the gate lock and the front door in my hand the whole time I was freaking out. Those are just a few examples and probably the funniest of my pregnancy brain. At least I haven’t forgotten to pick my kids up from school…yet.

Today is Such a Deer. This is another version of yesterdays post. I just love the way the googly eyes really make these pop! Not to mention the dimension it adds. The little pumpkins are felt they were near the register in Joann’s only $1 for over 30 pumpkins. I thought the pumpkins would make a great border for a scrapbook page. I am also going to use them for a “closure for a gift bag” that will be posted tomorrow.

It is official, it is now fall. Ah fall, the time of year when the sky smells clean and crisp and leaves start dropping from the trees in brilliant shades. Pumpkins and apples, warm cider and pecan pie, the smell of cloves and cinnamon. Yes, autumn is my favorite season of all. Of course I have to drive a long while to find these smells and sights. Either drive or unlock my memories from when I lived on the east coast or Germany and seasons actually happened. Then I wake up and remember I am in North Texas where the high for today is in the 90’s. A cool front is coming in tonight or tomorrow though…yep it is probably only going to be 90 tomorrow with 100% humidity. Can you sense the sarcasm? If I wanted to go buy some “real” pumpkins to put outside for decorations they would rot in a matter of a week or so. Ho-hum… If you live some place where you can see fall all around send me some pictures will you? Until then I will just have to rely on making cards, scrapbook pages, and other paper arts to imagine it is fall around here. Here is a cute card to get me in the autumn mood.

This long and thin card is a thank you card designed by Stephanie. Stephanie had several different colored and patterned paper combinations for us to choose from. If I remember correctly she also had different colored sheer ribbon. It is always nice to give your fellow card makers a few choices.

card making, rubber stamping, stampin’ up, all paper arts

In July we had a Get Well or Sympathy theme for card party. Here is what Greta came up with. She borrow my sizzix envelope die for the mini envelope. Greta told us she didn’t want us all mad at her so she stamped and cut out every single bandage stamp herself. I want to say it was close to 100 of them that she cut out. Yep that is one of the reasons why we all love Greta!

sizzix, stampin’ up, card making, rubber stamping, scrapbooking, all paper arts

When I made my post about showing off my friends’ cards this week I forgot to mention most of these were designed by my friends. Remember what I have told you about how card parties work. You design a card, make a sample, and then have all the materials for everyone to make their own copy of your card. So although this was Carla’s design I made this one which I can assure you didn’t come out near as cute as Carla’s. This card has several elements from embossing to cut and adhere pieces.

embossing powder, scrapbooking, card making, rubber stamping, stampin’ up, all paper arts

Okay, I will admit things here have been even more hectic then I thought they would. Since I am still getting in the routine with the girls school and activities, my school and activities, and getting ready for baby, I am going to post some of my favorites cards all this week. A card a day, each one by one of my card party friends. To start it off here is Angie’s card. I love this set and have even been tempted to buy it a few times.

card making, stampin’ up, rubber stamping, all paper arts

Here is a sample of a boy card I made using the Tag Pad I disscussed yesterday. We made variations of these at the August card party. I used a journaling tag on this one so somebody could either stamp or hand write the receivers name on it. The little tugboats are a sizzilit die. The green one is out of vellum. I used embroidary floss for the fibers on the hole.

K&Company, card making, scrapbooking, tags, sizzix, all paper arts

K&Company has some really great papers out right now for children. I especially like the boy paper they have out. The ones with the old cars and fire engines are my favorite. Of course I don’t have any boys so unless I am making something for a client or a friend I hardly buy much boy stuff. This Tag Pad was way too cute to pass up. The little pad comes with 24 assorted tags. Some have lines for journaling or open spaces in the middle of the pattern for pictures. Of course the pad is already shaped like a tag including having the hole punched. So it is a nice effortless and quick way to add tags to any paper arts project. I am sure I wouldn’t have been able to pass up on the girl tag pad either but it was sold out.

K&Compnay, Tag Pad, scrapbooking, card making, all paper arts

Once I thought things were getting to normal I end up having a week full of surprises. Yes once again in the month of August I have been on emotional rollercoaster. As I have already talked about Monday my girls started school including my youngest. Tuesday I started school. What I did not tell you was that on Monday I found out I was expecting another baby. I went in Tuesday to get a blood test to make sure this wasn’t a joke. On Wednesday my doctor’s nurse called me giggling to say I was pregnant and that I had been for awhile. So I went in that afternoon. Well no kidding I have been for awhile the doctor told me it looked like I was 20-22 weeks. 20-22 weeks??? And I didn’t have any clue? So Friday my hubby and I went in for a sonogram yet another surprise looks like I am more like 24 to 25 weeks!! The actual day the sonogram tech gave was December 13th which happens to be the day of my final exams for college. I know you are dying to know is this one a girl or a boy right? It’s a girl or as far as the tech was concerned and despite not even knowing I was expecting everything looks good. So how is that for a way to round out the month of August? Looks like you will soon be seeing baby girl paper art projects.