Ghosty and Witch Hat Clothespins and A Skully Necklace Too!

Hi Everyone,
Oh my, the month is flying by.  Surely it can't be Oct. 12th  already.  Normally in the month of October I have a lot of crafty good pictures to show.  This year while I have been banging out some crafty good Halloween projects I just have not had time to post or to prep a file for a file share. Let me catch you all up on craftroom happenings. First I have to tell you that I pre-ordered the KnK Force. YES, The Force WILL Be With Me! I am so excited that the machine will be coming to live in my craftroom sometime in November.  People it has a camera, Yes! A CAMERA. That is what you use for alignment for print and cut. Not only does it have a camera, it has true z axis, and a rotary tool. I plan to cut my little heart out.  The first thing I am going to cut is . . . a record album. Oh yes, records make for great recycled projects.  I plan to cut wood too.  I think that the craftroom is going to get pretty darn messy once the Force comes to play here. OK, so enough of that (mostly because I bought the Force with limited info and based my decision on how much I love my other 2 KnK cutters) but I do have a cool pic I got off of Facebook.  Here it is:

How sweet! It has color lighting!
Now for Halloween, I fell head over heals for the Stampin Up Witch Hat clothespin. True to form I had to make more of it than what it was. I just could not see why anyone would want the white paper backing on the glitter paper to show.  Come on Peeps, its all about the details. Part of me does understand that at $2.50 a sheet one might want to live with the white showing. I blew through my 4 sheets in about a minute because I made them double sided. So off to Michael's I went to get some more black glitter paper (also backed in white)(what's up with that, why would you not have a black backing???) Well it was a saving at @1.99 less 20% off my entire order (Thank you Michael's) While I was there I saw white glitter paper and knew right then that I had to make ghosties too.  Here is my pic of how they all came out.

I made 40 and the only thing I wish I had was white clothespins for the ghosties. I just didn't think to pick them up when I was at the store.  I love how they came out. I made so many that I even had some to donate to the Halloween bake sale at work.  I cut the ghosts with my ZING and most of the hat were made with SU punches but then I made a digital file because I was making so many.  Oh and Mr. Ghosts bow tie is my all time favorite Martha Stewart bat punch.  I swear I use it every year!!
So are you still with me? quick story, I get a home party catalog at work for Touchstone Crystal by Swarovski. Whooo baby, talk about pricey! So I see a necklace called the Zoe.  I loved it and thought this would be a great necklace for all us girls at the house.  After all we are all up and into Halloween.  Here is a pic of the necklace:

The price was $79.00 for the skull bead and the 6mm light amethyst pave ball bead. OK so it is two necklaces but no way could I buy 3. So off I went to one of my favorite bead suppliers Fusion Bead. Don't you know I made all 3 necklaces for less than the cost of 1.  And I even changed it up a bit to make them our own.  Here is a pic of mine and Sam's:

Hard as I tried to get good pics it was tough. But you get the idea. I am so happy with how they came out.  If you need to order Swarovski beads Fusion is a great source.  They always have a coupon. I made Rory's necklace just as the catalog one and it will look awesome with her costume this Halloween. Pics to follow for sure! All total with findings and chain I made the 3 necklaces for $58.00. The best part is that it is all Swarovski.
Thanks for visiting and let me know if you are interested in the cut file for either the Witch Hat or Ghostie clip, they were fun to make and if anyone wants the file I will take the time to upload it.
Lysa

Halloween 2015 - Projects Started!

Hi Everyone,
So happy to tell you all that Halloween is in the HOUSE!  I do so love when I am decorated for the Halloween season.  Now mind you I am not scary or gory at all.  More like country store. I know that once the rooms are filled in all their black and orange it is easy for me to find my Halloween Mojo. Being a former and brief hobby demonstrator with Stampin Up, I always make it a point to follow all my SU favorites and there is always some new and adorable item I just can't resist.  This years is the Witch Hat clothespin clip.  I have already made 18 of them and will most likely make another 20.  Here is a picture of how I am using them as a topper for my Hershey Nuggets.

How cute are those little hats.  I got my instructions from Angie over at ChicnScratch.  Here is the link to the video where she shows you how to make it.
http://mychicnscratch.com/2015/09/12-weeks-of-halloween-2015-week-7.html

Now I have to tell you I (true to form) needed to bump mine up a bit. The hat is made from a 2.5 inch circle punch with a 1.25 in circle cut from the center and 2 of the Christmas tree punches.  Well I cut double of all the parts and adhered them wrong sides together.  I did this because the black glitter paper is backed with white. I just did not like the white showing.  I also could have used plain black cardstock but I wanted the glitter to show everywhere.  I also inked out all the white edges.  So what was meant to be a little quickie ended up being a bit more labor intensive but so worth it.  The bows are made from the SU bow punch.  For all my digital cutting friend this file would be so easy to create with a simple circle and a triangle.  I did use all punches so I did not bother to create a file. Now all that is left to do is make a cute little tag.  I am pretty sure these will be this years work favors.  I just love them, Don't you?  Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Lip Balm Holder for Halloween 2014

 Hi Everyone,
I am so happy to say my final Halloween favors are done.  As you know my most favorite non candy favors are made with AVON products.  I love their lip balms and hand creams for crafting.  I am almost always able to purchase them for .79 cents or so.  I also like to buy from AVON as I have a co-worker who is an AVON lady and I would much rather support her than Dollar Tree.  I used CraftArtistist2 to design the file and I used my Zing and MTC software to cut them out.  The pumpkin and bat are Martha Stewart punches that I have had for years.  Don't you just love when you spend money on something and you use it for years! I also printed all the paper using Stampin' Up digital files.  I buy all my favorite papers as digi files because as you know once they retire they are gone.  The pumpkin paper is from the "Cast A Spell" DSP line from back in either '09 or maybe '10.  I still use it all the time because I love it so much.  Here is a picture of the pdf file share for these quick and easy favors:

You can find the PDF file here at this link:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/r5hf80cw3mmtr58/lip_balm_holder_halloween_2014with_photo_and_tips.pdf
and the MTC file can be found using this link:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/n02t6gc70vcxz7i/apothacary_lip_holder.mtc
Here is a picture of the lip balm holders and whats left of the little jack o' lantern boxes waiting to be handed out at work next week:

So to sum up Halloween 2014, I think my favorite favor was the beaded spider.  I made so many of them and could have kept going if I had more peeps that I wanted to give them to.  He may resurface this Christmas as "The Christmas Spider" from the Ukrainian legend. Next week I will be on vacation from work for a few days and all the Halloween paper gets put away and out comes all the Christmas craft supplies. I can't wait for this years Christmas crafting season as I bought some great Stampin' Up paper and supplies.  They did a lot with Kraft paper and boxes this year.  Kraft is my all time favorite for Christmas.  Thanks for pit stopping my blog and I hope to see you again soon.  Enjoy Halloween!!
Lysa

A Beaded Spider, Perfect for Halloween!

Hi Everyone,
I am so addicted to making these little cute beaded spiders this year.  I have made 10 and was thinking of making even more.  There are so many tutorials out there in cyber land all you have to do is google beaded spider and you will find many tuts and pictures of  them.  I think what got me going was the wreath kit from Stampin' Up.  The frightful wreath came with a beaded spider kit.  I didn't really like the wreath but loved the spider.  Everyone started to make them.  Angie over at Chic N Scratch made a nice video of hers and you can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsxF04OFhiw
  Here is a picture of some of mine:

Look how cute they look just hanging out around the house:

I like them because they are creepy in a cute sort of way.  I made so many that I can get one done is less than 20 minutes.  Here are the supplies I used:
24 gauge wire
silver bead caps
silver decorative head pin
acrylic beads by Jewelry Fundamentals 
black seed beads size 15
small white glass beads size 2
silver tube (bugle) beads
pliers
Here is a picture of the beads I used.  There was no "mm" sizing on the package:

 All I did to create the body was thread one small bead along with a bead cap, large bead and second bead cap onto a head pin.  I twisted the end of the head pin to hold it all together.  I cut 4 strands of the wire in 6 inch lengths.  I twisted them around the body where the "head" meets the body of the spider.  I shaped the legs out to 4 on each side of the body.  On each leg I threaded the following bead patten:
3 black seed, 1 bugle, 3 black seed, 1 bugle, 3 black seed, 1 bugle, 3 black seed.
I then finished each leg with a white size 2 bead.  I looped the wire through twice and then clipped the wire flush. I used very thin wire and if you wanted something a bit more sturdy you may want to use 22 gauge wire in lieu of the 24 gauge.  I was posing one of my spiders and bent the leg so many times that I broke it.  I hope you give this little guy a try.  I am off to make a few more to bring to some friends at work. Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Halloween Is In The House!

Hi Everyone,
The past week has been so crazy busy that I barely had time to play in the craft room. The whole living room and dining room are glowing in black and orange and we are totally ready for Halloween.  Rory and I made a new banner for the mantle way back in September.  It was the last day of summer vacation and I have had it hanging off the china cabinet since then.  It looked so silly amongst the summer patriotic decorations.  I am sure everyone who stopped by thought I was a bit off my rocker.  I did have a hard time getting good pictures (as usual) but I thought I would post them anyway.  I think Rory and I did a great job. Here is the picture:

Well, that is really a better picture of Rory than the banner!  Maybe this one is a bit better:

and here is a close up of the letter S, I was glad I could catch a bit of  the gold sparkle:

So here is our crafty recipe:  The banner base pieces are from the Stampin Up banner kit called chalkboard.  The DSP layer is from SU's cast a spell from years ago.  I have the digital file so we printed the paper using CraftArtistPro2. The stars and the medallions were also made and printed with CAP2 and we used the Brother SnC to cut them out.  I made so many of the stars and I still want to make more. The letters and shadows were cut with my Zing through make the cut.  I love watching Rory use the computer and the die cutters. She really is a wiz with the Zing. If you look closely behind the letters you can see we added an embossed piece.  We used our sizzix and a cuttlebug embossing folder of a web.  Last but not least we even used my favorite Martha Stewart bat punch for the little bats. Each piece is sprayed with champagne mist so it sparkles. Wow, that's is a lot of product.  But worth it for sure.  We did not plan to hang this in front of the mirror but it was so long that this was the only place we could put it.  So if I had to change one thing, I would have made sure that the backs of the pieces were black.  I think that the chipboard reflection makes for an unfinished look.  All in all we love how are banner came out.  Today I have to finish some craft kits for Rory's friends that are coming over for a little celebration.  The girls will be making the paper pumpkins that I made last year.  We needed a quick and easy craft to do and this is perfect. Here is a peek at the project and the kits:

Don't the kits look great in the Stampin Up cases??  Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Halloween 2014 Favor Box

 Hi Friends,
Well don't you know Halloween is coming fast and furious.  I could not believe when I got to work today and the first time I typed the date this morning I thought to myself "How the heck did we get to Sept. 17th!"  Time is surely slipping past me. So this weekend I am taking down all the summer/patriotic decorations in the hope that I can get Halloween up the following weekend.  I made my annual speech to the family about how I was going to scale it back.  I say the same thing every year. "No bales of hay, Not taking out the Halloween dishes, Not going to put up the 5 foot twisted wire Dept. 56 tree . . . etc" and then every year I do the exact opposite and put up pretty much every single decoration I have.  Well, that would be me. Say one thing and do the other.  So today I have for you this years candy favor.  I cased it from Stampin Up.  You know they came out with the curvey keepsake die.  Which I think is kind of a blast from the past as this little bon-bon box has been around forever and a day.  I have it as a .gsd file from my Wishblade years!  Now what got me was you have to cut it in 2 pieces.  Which is great when you want to make it with 2 patterns. Plus it does save a bit on paper as you can cut it with half of a sheet of 12X12. My problem is  I really don't like the way it goes together and it was just a bit to big for me.  I have to make about 30 or so of these so I need to take candy cost in to consideration. As it is I went with Hershey Kisses instead of my normal Hershey Nuggets. I created the pattern where the base was 2 inches and it was huge so I shrunk it down to my liking.  I used my CraftArtist2 to draw the box and exported it to a .pdf file so that I could cut it with my Zing using MTC.  I saw these pumpkins all over Pinterest and thought they were so cute.  I see SU peeps are making Frankie and Vampires and all sorts of cuties.  I even saw a penguin.  I loved them all and thought I would share my file with all of my digi cutting friends. Here is a picture of the pdf file:

For those of you who want the PDF you can find it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/8e9iqkb93h8a92z/bonbon_box_with_pic_2014.pdf

And the MTC file is here, I have included the faces and the leaves with the MTC file:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/vu58hx4v42c1y9x/curvey_box__share.mtc
I hope you like this file and I think at Christmas you can make some really cute boxes by adding a cut out window. If you need this box to be larger you can easily resize to your need.  Hope to be back with a picture of Rory and my banner that we made in the next day or so.  It came out great and I can't wait to see it hanging with all the other decorations.  Please let me know if you have any problems with the file.
Thanks for visiting,
Lysa

Skullys, Kittys and Tear Bears . . Oh My!

Hi Crafty Peeps,
Today is September 1st. How sad is it that summer is on it way out.  Well I guess it is only sad for people like me who love the heat.  Our August here in Jersey was a cool one so I didn't spend as much time in the pool as I would have liked.  It was however a perfect August for outdoor activities.  You can see by my lack of crafty blogging that I was at least enjoying the nice weather.  I did manage to show Rory how to make a tear bear.  In fact I made a second bear and a kitty.  Rory chose a panda to make for her Mom.  We had a lot of fun and she had an easy time so I can see why these little guys are a great craft for the kiddies.  I will say I did tear the parts for Rory.  I made each pattern piece 4 layers thick.  Rory stacked and glued all her layers as well as assembled her bear.  I think she really loved brushing it out with the wire brush.  Rory even did all the shading on her panda.  Being all the pieces were torn prior, Rory completed her panda in about 2 and half hours.  I think she did an awesome job.  Here are a couple of pictures:

I think you can tell Rory is pretty darn happy about the way her panda came out.  Now me, I made a second bear just like the first one that I made for Rory. Here is my pic:

I really like making the brown bear.  I wanted to make another but I need to buy more of the mocha colored paper.  I did have some more of the black and white so I thought I would give a kitty a go.  I tried to copy a picture of an assemble one that was posted on line.  I have been using CAP2 to make my patterns.  Here is a pic of my kitty.  I want to make a witch's hat for him. I just haven't gotten to it yet.

 

He looks so sad with the big droopy eyes! And he is way to big, but I love how he came out.  Don't you like his wire whiskers? 

Now for the skully:

So back a few year Stampin' up had that awesome ornament on the cover of the holiday catalog.  2012 I believe it was.  If you remember or look back on my blog you will see I was making them with a Halloween theme instead of a Christmas theme.  I only made about 5 or so.  I kept them all and use them around the house at Halloween.  Well my friend Karen asked me if I would make one for her as she wanted to give it to her son.  He is a dude who loves Halloween and he (like me) love skullys.  She knew which one she wanted so I made it up for her this weekend.  I even made a box for her.  Here are a couple of pics, I should have taken some along the way but I didn't! Silly Rabbit, I am no kind of blogger.  Here are the pics:

I even stamped her up some tissue paper.  My favorite part is my skully embishment.  I printed the skulls with the 31 out on SU whisper white cardstock and then domed them with Lisa Pavelka magic gloss.  Gee I just love that stuff.  I use my Teresa Collins stampmaker UV light to cure it.  I use the light to cure my gel nail polish too.  In fact the only thing I don't use it for is to make Teresa Collins stamps - go figure!  I can't wait to bring this ornament to Karen, I am pretty sure she is going to be thrilled! Tomorrow is the last day of summer vacation and I am staying home from work with Rory.  Guess what we are doing! Yup, we are going to spend the day in the craftroom and we will be making our Halloween banner for 2014! I can't wait, I don't know who is more excited.  OK, I think it's me! Hope you stop by again as I have some Halloween goodies coming up.  Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Halloween Mojo 2014!

Hi Everyone,
Oh yeah, Back to School items have taken over all the store shelves and TV along with print ads are ramming back to school down my throat.  Now as a Grandma and crafty Nonna all it means to me is that the pool will be closing soon and it will be time to drag the 20 or so Halloween boxes down from the attic and get the decorating mojo going.  So seeking inspiration while I was floating in the pool, I started to feel a tad sad about putting away all the patriotic decorating goodies.  All my stars will be boxed up and put away until next May.  I just love my barn stars (some call them nautical stars).  So I thought why do I have to live without stars until May.  I thought lets make me up some Halloween Stars.  So I did.  Now I am hooked and will most likely make one for everyone I know.  I found these to be quick and easy using my CAP2 software along with my digital Stampin' Up papers.  My Brother Scan N Cut made easy work for cutting out the stars.  Here is a picture of the prints as they came out of the printer:

 I know it just looks like a page of flat stars, but they get better.  I wanted the assembled stars to look good from the back too so after the SnC cut them without ejecting the mat I slapped down a piece of black paper on to the mat and hit the cut button again.  This way a solid black star in the exact same shape was cut.

Just a note about the SnC:  I find while it has its place in the world of digital die cutters. it is not perfect.  I don't use it for anything other than fussy cutting print outs and stamped images.  I often have issues with that as well.  There are a lot of work arounds as I have mentioned in the past but until Brother adds a negative offset in direct cut mode this cutter will not meet the need in which I bought it for.  Wow, was that ever a boring statement! I don't recommend this cutter for peeps who only have one cutter.  But if you are like me and have an arsenal of cutters you would enjoy having this one as well.  You can clearly see by the picture the condition of my mat shows that I use it all the time. OK,enough venting! Here is a picture of the star after it has been cut, inked and assembled.  I will for sure have these bad boys hanging everywhere come October. (who am I kidding, I start decorating for Halloween the second week of September):
TA DA..... Here it is:

 What you can't see in the picture is that the star is completely covered in gold Tsukneko ink that was mixed with rubbing alcohol and sprayed on .  It really does look amazing in person.  I hope you like it too! I am off to get my chores done so I can get a bit of pool time in as our summer days are numbered.  Have a great day and thanks for checking in.
Lysa

Digi Halloween - This Year & Last Year.

Hi Everyone,
Wow, Halloween is behind us and I must say we had an awesome one.  All the kids in town looked great and the day was perfect for the parade and for trick or treating.  I think the temp topped out close to 70 degrees! So today is the day to start packing up all the black and orange Halloween things and start to get the house ready for Santa's arrival.  I was able to take time to sit down and get my digi-scrap on and got Rory's yearly Halloween picture done.  Easy Peasy with CraftArtist 2! I went a bit scary this year, which is unlike me but Rory did look scary so it seemed to work. I really get a kick out of seeing last year side by side with this year.  It is fun to see how Rory has changed. CA2 made it so easy to crop Rory from pictures and place her in a different background.  Here is the picture:

ohhh, Scary! Sam did a fantastic hair and makeup job. There are 9 Rorys in the picture. Can you see them all.  My favorites are the one in the upstairs right window and on the roof. She really did look scary with all that paint on her face. So not like last year:

I really think Rory liked being something scary and I can't wait to see what she chooses next year.  I will say that since I am not a very good photographer I had a hard time with her ivory colored costume.  In the house on the black sofa the contrast popped well but out side it was difficult to capture her well. Even when I sat down to scrap I found it hard to come up with a solid background that worked.  Both picture were made in CA2 and as always I can't say enough how awesome the software is.  I always tell peeps to check out the free version at the DaisyTrail website. I am off to start the big pack up and today is the NYC marathon so in this house that means soup!!! Yup. every year the marathon kicks off soup season in this house and the first is a batch of potato cheese soup (yummy)! We all watch the marathon while I make soup.  It's just one of those silly family traditions we have been doing for years. Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Scan N Cut Fun

Hi Everyone,
It's Sunday and now I am sad because my brain has turned to thoughts of Monday morning and work. Now mind you it's not that I don't like going to work it's more like since the SnC arrived in the house I have let a few things fall to the wayside.  Mostly the laundry.  So if I don't get up and away from the SnC now I won't have anything to wear to work tomorrow.  Really it is that bad.  I run home to play with the machine.  I really love it. See those cute little paper pumpkins up there.  Yup, easy peasy with the SnC.  The Brother website has a creative center. The site has nothing to do with the SnC except that it has printable paper craft patterns.  You can visit the site at this link:
http://www.brother.com/creativecenter/us/en_us/family/index.htm

I found a cute little print and cut pumkin file there and all I did was print one of the pages because I wanted to use my Stampin' Up paper. I used the scan to cut data mode on the SnC and saved the file. I sized the large at 3.5 inches high and the small at 2.5 inches high. I used 8 shapes for each pumpkin.  Scored them down the middle and glued them back to back.  I added some brown paper twist as the stem made a quick goblin and some leaves using CA2 and cut them out with the SnC.  They came together quick and easy. Now if only I could make about six more I would love to give them as little gifts to a few friends.  I hope you like them and I am thinking that this pattern will make great apples for the teacher!! Check out the site when you can as I saw a lot of really cute patterns for downloading.  And yes it is free.
Have a great Sunday, I am off to do some wash . . . or am I?
Lysa

Ok . . . So I did a few loads of laundry but I made more pumpkins too!!

Birthday Smiles!

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick check in to say Hi! We have been so busy here at the homestead I hardly have a moment to sit down.  First off the house is decorated for Halloween! I tried my best to thin it out a bit by only putting out my all time fav Halloween stuff!  Well it didn't work because every time I saw a corner I was back in the attic grabbing something to fill the space. While it does seem to look the same from year to year I still stand back and say "oh I love how that looks!"  Here is a shot of the bay window in the living room:

and the mantle:

All I can say is at least I have done away with the bales of hay and most of the faux foliage. Well since the homestead looked so nice we thought we would have the family over for Rory's birthday.  It was a great time. I had to make a little favor for the occasion (something simple as time was not on my side) Here is a pic of the favors:

Don't you love the tag line! Rory's 10 and you thought Halloween was scary!  I used Stampin' Up witches brew paper and the bread tag thinlet to create a fold over for a single Ghirardrlli chocolate.  Where those 10 years went I cannot tell you (Oh, but mirror in my bathroom sure can, can you say CROWS FEET!) We had a great celebration and today I thought it would be great to just sit and play. I thought I would play with some of the pictures that were taken yesterday.  When I saw a picture of Sam and Rory that was taken it reminded me of a picture I had from Rory's first birthday.  I wanted to bring them together on a digi page and here it is:

Surely the crows feet on my face are worth their weight in gold. I love these 2 girls more than anything and I wish for them that those beautiful smiles are on their beautiful faces everyday of every year of their lives. I use CA2 to create this page. Gee, I love that software!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all are getting your Halloween on.
Lysa

Let's Play What's Wrong With This Picture!

Hi Everyone,
Here I am with a quick post to check in and let you all know that I have gone completely off the crafty edge.  Yes, it's true. Here is a picture:

There, you can see for yourself I have totally stepped off the edge. What you don't see it?  Your thinking it looks just like your crafty desk, come on really! I can't remember the last time I had 3 seasons whispering in my ear at the same time. Yup, the Rainbow Loom (summer) bracelets are still going strong, I cut 20 more coffins for the nail file favors and made a bread tag foldover for my Board meeting favors (Hello Halloween) and just to keep me moving I had to play with my SU festive flurry stamps and thinlets (can you say Christmas tags 2013) I am just all over the place. Problem is I should have spent the weekend working on the mess that is still in garage from the room makeover (oh well, my car is in the garage and how bad would it be if Sam has to clean snow off of her car? hee -hee) And then there is that awesome huge (and annoying) pile of laundry and that kitchen floor (what to do, what to do) I know, I can spend another hour or so online looking for more information on the new Brother Scan N Cut die cutter that is coming out in October or better yet another hour searching pinterest for Vintage Halloween Goodness or maybe a trip to Five Below because I am running a bit low on lime green rubber bands.  Gee . . . . I am out of control . .  but the fact is I had an awesome weekend washing away my work life and playing in the craft space.  Like I always say "I 'yam what I 'yam and what I 'yam is a crafty good girl!"
Hope you all had a great and crafty weekend and have an awesome good work week for the crafty goodness is just a mere five days away!
Lysa
Here are some extra crafty good pics!

3 looms long so no extensions!

I just can't stop the LOOM'N!

Halloween 2013 For The Work Peeps!

Hi Everyone,
It is an awesome fall day here in Jersey.  The air conditioner is off and the windows are open.  Even though I am a summer girl I must say with the horrible summer weather we had, today is just simply lovely.  So what did I do? Well, I never left the craftspace! Yes, it is true, on this beautiful day with so many chores to do I never left the room! But, with the windows open and the smell of Autumn in the air I was sure happy living in my own private Idaho (sorry Idaho, I just can't let it go). So, this years Halloween favors for the work peeps are proving to be one of my all time favorites. I do want to tell you that true to par I am no photographer as the following pictures just don't show these cuties in their true light! Please stay with me as I make a long story out of a quick and easy project. First my friend Joanne (Hi Jo!) gives me 2 spools of ribbon that went unused at a her niece's bridal shower. Joanne's niece (her sister Elle's daughter (Hi Elle))is getting married, probably as I am typing right now. Yup, right now! So anyway back at the point. They (Aunt, Mom,& the bridal party) decorated a party room at a winery for the bridal shower and they had some left over ribbon, and guess what? They thought of me! ME, yeah, Score!! Free awesome crafty ribbon goodness comes my way! Here is a picture of the free crafty goodness:

Ahh. . ..  almost 50 yards of crafty good white and opal mesh ribbon! So of course the first thing I thought was "gee, this is going to sit in my stash for a long time until my next wedding favor job".  Then I thought, "Maybe Christmas?"  I added the crafty good ribbon to the stash and was happy that someone thought of me.
Then, I went to work on Tuesday and my favorite AVON lady (Hi Donna) hands me my order. OMG!! happy dance as I open the bag to reveal the cutest Halloween emery nail files I have ever seen! Stay with me people, I am getting to the craft. So now I have awesome crafty ribbon and an awesome crafty favor and all I need to do is figure out how to package them up. Well here it is, my crafty good favor for the girls at work!

So cute, want to see what is inside? here he is:

He is the cutest nail file I have ever seen and the girls are going to love him!!!  Here is a few more not so great pictures of them:

I can't wait to give these out to the work peeps. I already called Donna to tell her to order me 10 more Avon files so that I have enough to send to Sam's office as well.  Pulling apart the white mesh ribbon that Joanne and Elle gave me created the perfect ribbon web effect for my little coffin fold overs and I just loved how the opal fibers catch the light just like a real web.  I really wish I had a better handle on photography so that you could see just how cute these little coffins are.  I hope you think they are as cute as I do.  And more importantly a shout out to Joanne and Elle on the big wedding.  I am thinking of you both and sending cheers, wishes and blessings to you both and to the Bride and Groom for a long, and happy life together.
Thanks for visiting,
Lysa

Halloween 2013

Hi Everyone,
I was determined to get a Halloween post up before August ended.  In the past by the end of August I usually have 3 Halloween projects done and am ready to reproduce them on a large scale.  This summer I was so caught up in putting the house back together after the construction that my crafty good time was much less.  Then I got caught up in the whole rubber band thing and I am still in love with the loom! Well at least I have been making some black and orange bracelets.  I have always loved the bread tag shape that was taken from those little plastic tabs that hold the bread bag closed.  For crafting it has been around for a long time and Stampin' Up has re-sparked the trend with a thinlit die in this years catalog.  Of course all the SU peeps are making a box out of it.  I really wanted to make a version that has a narrow base and was cut in one piece.  And as always MTC made quick work of that. Here is my picture of the box I made.  It holds a fun size M&M pack really nicely.

Here is a picture of the .PDF file:

You can download the .PDF file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/1keyvf8gnd8j4l6/bread_tag_box_with_notes.pdf

The .MTC file is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/a1d088609chhunm/bread_tag_box.mtc
I hope you like this file and if you do please leave a comment and if you have any questions on this easy peasy box please don't hesitate to ask. Don't forget to check out my other free files by clicking the free file link on the sidebar.
Thanks so much for visiting and enjoy this unofficial last weekend of summer ):
Lysa