Happy Halloween!

Halloween is finally here, and so is a bit of cool weather, and even the possibility of rain. Bliss! Not Halloween... the rain. Actually, Halloween used to be a really fun night here at the Hjulberg residence.

Every year for about 15 years we had a Halloween party here at our house. It all started when my friend Laureen became a single mom, as did our friend Rita. Laureen and Rita lived together in an area where there was no place to take their little ones trick-or-treating, so Laureen asked if they could come to my house.

One thing led to another, and we started a tradition of having a chili potluck (Laureen did most of the cooking, but we all contributed). The kids would go trick-or-treating with some of the adults, with the rest of us staying home to tend the food and hand out candy. Then everyone would come back and we'd have a feast, and the kids would play. It was so much fun! We even started a tradition of having a pool to guess how many trick-or-treaters would come to the door that year. The adults would each buy in for a buck, and we'd keep track of the count on a tally sheet by the door. Good fun!

Many different people (families) attended the party each year, but Laureen (who remarried pretty early into the tradition) and our family were the constants throughout the years. This is the first year we aren't spending Halloween together... it kinda started frittering out last year when it was just them and us. We reminisced about it the other day. I guess everything changes eventually. The kids grew up. Sigh. One of these days I've got to find all the pictures we took over the years and make a scrapbook out of them.

Anyway, enough of the nostalgia! I'm sharing the final three cards I did for Halloween. The first card definitely looks way better in person. I couldn't get good light the morning I photographed these.

I'm totally exhausted so I won't take the time to get into the recipes, but they are pretty much the same materials as I used for the other cards in my last post. I think I got a lot of good use out of my Stamp a Sweet Impression stamps and Halloween Key Ingredients this year, for sure!

Now onto Thanksgiving cards! Thanks for stopping by.

Halloween Countdown!

I figure that since I have all these cute Stamp a Sweet Impression Halloween stamps, I should put them to good use and actually send out some Halloween cards this year! So I sat down last night and cranked out these three cards.

The first is for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #39. What a fun sketch! I had to make it a square card, though, to accommodate the size of the cuppies. Once I cut out the circles, I realized I didn't have room to layer them on cardstock, so I got the bright idea to color and glitterfy faux mats. I followed the imprint left by the Nestie circle and first colored with SU's Basic Black marker, then applied some glue with my glue pen, and then sprinkled with black glitter from my Taylored Expressions Halloween Key Ingredients kit. I decided to carry the glitter one step further by stamping the greeting with my Essential Glue Pad and then sprinkling with the black glitter. I love how it turned out! If you haven't already, you must try that Essential Glue Pad. The detail is amazing!

This card is for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #63. This is another fun sketch! Plus, I got to use my Martha Stewart Pumpkin border punch. That and the orange polka dot paper are from Martha Stewart's Halloween line; the rest is from Taylored Expressions Halloween Key Ingredients kit, which I believe is now sold out.

The last card is for Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge 198. At first I wasn't sure if I'd like this sketch, but I absolutely love it and plan to use it again. This card came together very quickly. I like the relative simplicity of the look.

As you can tell, I was in a polka dot frame of mind when I made these cards! All of the images were colored on the airplane during my recent trip to Atlanta, which is why I was able to finish three cards in one sitting.

Recipe:
Stamps: Taylored Expressions Stamp a Sweet Impression Trick or Sweet
Paper: Taylored Expessions Halloween Key Ingredients; Martha Stewart Vintage Halloween
Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black; Copic Markers
Accessories: Martha Stewart Pumpkin edge punch; ribbon and glitter from Taylored Expressions Halloween Key Ingredients

My goal is to finish four more cards and mail them all tomorrow. Since the images are already colored, I think I can do it in between making scrapbooking page kits for the boutique and getting ready for stamp club on Wednesday. I better go eat my Wheaties!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ultimate Recipe Showdown Winner???

My BFF Laureen is an uber-talented chef. She has won several recipe contests, both locally and nationally, not the least of which was as a finalist in this year's Pillsbury Bake-Off contest. Unfortunately, she didn't win the big million dollar prize, but she did get an all-expense paid trip to Dallas TX for the Bake-Off, won some great consolation prizes, and had an amazing experience. Check out her recipe for Upside-Down Caramel Apple Bisquits. Don't they sound delicious...and easy... especially this time of year? Yum!

But probably the biggest coup yet for Laureen is that she is a contestant in Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown. This time, she was flown to New York and met Guy Fieri and got to cook with the pros at the Food Network Studios. She said it was the experience of a lifetime...I can just imagine! But we have to wait until March to find out if she was the big winner when the show is televised. hee hee hee

Anyway, I wanted to make a special card to congratulate her on her cooking successes. She's not actually into baking as much as cooking, but I had already made a card for her using the Voila set from Stampin Up, so I turned to my StampingBella Cecily Cinnamon Sticks. I love how she turned out in jewel toned colors, which match perfectly with new seasonal colors from Papertrey Ink. After cutting out and embossing the image with my Nestabilities circle die and mounting on a Nestie scalloped circle, I used my SU Top Note die (works perfectly with the Spellbinder Wizard, by the way) to cut out the Summer Sunrise (gold) background piece. I like how the shape mimics Cecily's wings. I kept trying to find a way to put a greeting on the front or add something else to it, but ended up leaving well enough alone. The DP is so busy that anything else might have been too much.

Recipe:

Stamps: StampingBella Cecily Cinnamon Sticks
Paper: Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise and Pure Poppy cardstock, and First Fruits patterned paper

Ink: Copic Markers
Accessories: Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy double stitched ribbon

Okay, back to getting ready for the boutique. I'll try to squeeze in another post or two soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Best Wishes to a Friend... and A Very Worthy Cause!

Here it is, over a week since my last post. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not going to get much stamping time this month because I'm getting ready for a holiday boutique. Actually, they are calling it a Shopping Extravaganza! It is mainly hand crafted items. I can't wait! I'll probably spend as much as I make. {lol}

My bestest friends Lisa from Ribbon Confections and Susan (coffeeforme on SCS) and Susan's mom Nita and I have a booth. This is our first time, so we're not quite sure what to expect. Lisa has made the most AWESOME selection of hair accessories, you can't imagine. I'll take pictures for you. It makes me wish I had little girls to buy for. She's emptied her etsy store for the boutique, but do check back in November when she restocks. You will not be disappointed. She does amazing work.

Susan's mom Nita is a quilter extraordinaire... I believe she's been quilting more than 30 years. Susan tells me it's quite an experience to visit Nita's sewing room. I can only imagine. Nita lives in Washington, so I can't see for myself, but I do believe quilters are to fabric what scrapbookers and stampers are to designer paper, so it's not hard to imagine. Anyway, Nita is selling the coolest hand made coffee cup cozies... you know, the sleeve kind that you'd use, say, for your Starbucks Skinny Vanilla Latte. I have one and get compliments on it all the time. Plus, I guess it's "green," eh? She's also selling several quilted table runners and other goodies. It's so great that she's coming down for the event and I can finally meet her in person!

My contribution is all about paper crafting. I'll have a few handmade scrapbooks this time around, but mostly page kits and stamps and such. Ergo the reason I can't spend much time stamping and posting this month... I only have so much time (and energy) around work, kids and laundry to get my goodies ready, so please bear with me!

Anyway, the card I'm featuring in this post is one I made for Lisa for her birthday. I wasn't going to post it because I wasn't thrilled with the way it turned out. I really owe her another card. It's just that I got sick right around the time I was working on it, so I didn't have the energy to start over.

This was the SCS Sketch Challenge #195 of 9/24. The image is from Taylored Expressions, Sweet Celebrations. The paper is Stampin Up's Georgia Peach DSP and Regal Rose cardstock. The flower punch is from Papertrey Ink. "Best Wishes" is from Just Rite Stamper, and I used my SU circle punches to make the flower center. I tried using Stickles on the decorative part of the icing, and that's what I ended up not liking... it didn't turn out the way I was hoping. I stuck a couple of rhinestones on there to try to help the situation. Oh well! But you know I love ya, Lis!

Speaking of Lisa, she sent me a link to the blog of a friend whose son is extremely disabled. She's selling a cookbook to raise funds to provide her son with safe transportation. I couldn't even begin to explain all of this adequately. All you need to do is go to her blog and read for yourself. The fundraiser details are under the Meals 4 Wheels post.

http://jophiesjungle.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by, and stay tuned for more. I actually managed to work on another card last night, so I hope to have another post soon.

Happy Autumn Weather!

I am soooo happy! The weather has finally started to change here in So Cal... it's sunny and clear and COOL! I can feel my spirits lifting considerably. I am definitely a fall/winter girl, no doubt about it.

It's good to feel happy again because lately it's been such a bummer, with two friends losing their spouses and bad health news for family members (see side bar under Prayer Requests). I made this card for my boss, whose husband died on October 1st. She is a quilter, so I whipped out my Papertrey Ink Quilter's Sampler stamp set (and the companion Quilter's Sampler Sentiments) and made a card just for her. I actually came up with this sketch on my own, so I'm pretty proud!

Recipe:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Quilter's Sampler and Sentiments
Paper: Papetrey Ink Plum Pudding and Dark Chocolate cardstock, and Guidelines designer paper
Ink: Ranger's Archival Jet Black ink pad (which I heat set to be sure), Copic Markers V15, E27, R81
Accessories: Papertrey Ink Plum Pudding topnotch twill ribbon

I'm super busy right now, getting ready for a holiday boutique, so I won't have as much time to stamp as I would like to. I do have a few (actually, a lot of) cards I need to send out, so I'll try to squeeze in some stamping time... and blogging time when I can. In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful fall season and be grateful each day for the many blessings in your life. God is good!

No, I Haven't Fallen Off the Face of the Earth!

I'm sitting at my desk at work right now, eating some take-out from Panda (yum), and doing a bit of blog surfing. Which reminded me once again that I haven't posted on my own blog in ages. It's a combination of things, but mostly because I caught a cold / sinus infection about 10 days ago, and it's knocked the wind out of my sails. Seems like once I make it through the work day, all I want to do is go home and sleep! I am much better now, though... just the tail end hanging on. I slept pretty well last night. But another reason for my blog absence is because the lights in my craft room have gone bonkers and need repair or replacement. I told my husband this morning that I'm feeling better now and NEED to get back into my craft room, so he MUST fix my lights this afternoon! I think he grunted acknowledgement, if not consent. I'm also getting ready for a holiday boutique, but I'll save that story for another day. Anyway, hopefully I'll have something to share soon, so don't give up on me!