2008 Halloween Inspiration Station...and some cards!!

Edited: I'm starting a blog list of other Halloween Inspiration Stations. Be sure to send me your links so I can post it here.

1. Here's Jen's Inspiration Station HERE. She found lots of goodies that have never even been used. Creating your own Inspiration Station is a GREAT way to collect all of your supplies into one area...and hopefully put them to good use this year.

2. Check out my friend Heather's collection of Halloween goodies HERE. She's got the GOO punch from Martha! Gotta get me some goo!

3. Look at Lynn's Inspiration Station HERE. I spy a cute Longaberger basket, gotta love those! And look at the SU! goodies, I didn't even get ANY of those stamps out! Once you start digging through like Lynn did, you find out you have a lot more then you think!

It's double bonus day here at Mish Mash. Not only am I going to show you my 2008 Halloween Inspiration Station, I'm going to show you a few Halloween cards too!! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!Woohoo, let's begin our little tour. This year, I put all my Halloween goodies in a portable vintage drawer so that I can set it on my desk while I'm working. I find these old drawers at antique stores and flea markets. I'm always on the look out for them! This one was REALLY cool because it has wooden dividers in it, probably a card file drawer of sorts. I can easily take out the dividers to make space for whatever goodies I want to place in there.

This first section has a ton of Halloween ribbons in oranges and blacks. I'm still hoarding that Martha Stewart ribbon from last year!
Here's some chipboard stickers and tiny alphabet stickers by Making Memories. And don't forget about the Halloween images booklet by Crafty Secrets. Frightfully good stuff!
I got out my little bread pan and tucked in all my stamp images I want to use this year. I've got Papertrey, Stampendous and some darling Whipper Snapper images by my good friend Anna Wight. I can't wait to ink up that little Ghosty Girl. And how about a haunted house with Papertrey's Boards and Beams set. Oh ya, gonna try that soon!
And then there's the embellishments...buttons and baubles, oh my! And the glitter, I'm all over the glitter this year. Pine's into the glitter too, check out her blog. Stay tuned for glitter mania on my cards today!
And last but certainly not least.....the paper. I was in Halloween heaven (is that contradictory?) when I spied these new My Mind's Eye papers the other day. They called my name like a kindred spirit........Miiiiiishie.....buyyyyyy meeeeeeeee. So I did.

Okay, enough about my oh so ghostly goodies, let's see some cards! First, I want to show you a fun technique I did with glitter today. I used some of Martha's glitter from Michael's. By the way, have you seen Martha's daughter's new show called Whatever Martha? It's a total hoot, the other day they were making fun of Martha's cigar purses! You must watch it!! I digress so easily, onto the glitter.

First, I have to tell you about the colored image (more digressing). I stamped my Karen Lockhart image called Pumpkins in a Wheelbarrow onto Papertrey's Shimmery Cardstock and colored it in with Copic Sketch Markers. Oh boy, is that ever a bootiful effect! The finished image takes on a ghostly appearance, kind of opaque with a cloud of smoke over it. (like those special effects, spooky huh?) Okay, THEN I cut out my stamped image with a Spellbinder's Square Nestabilities Die Template. While the cut square was still in the die template, I used my Quickie Glue Pen by Sakura and outlined the square image. I made a very fine, neat line of glue.

Then I not so neatly dumped glitter all over the image. Don't be shy here girls, you can put the glitter back in the bottle!
Shake the glitter off carefully and you're left with a very neat outline of glitter. This is a good time to zoom in so you can see the shimmery glitter, the shimmery cardstock and the fun black and white polka dots I added to the pumpkins. I had to make them match the cardstock!
Here's my spooktacular(am I with it today or what?) finished cards. I used some of that vintage polka dotty paper from My Mind's Eye, black cardstock, black satin ribbon and Karen Lockhart's *pumpkins for sale* sentiment.

On this closeup, you can see some Making Memories epoxy circle embellishments with green Foofala buttons tied on top. It's all so delicious, I could goblin them up. (Snort!)
Here's a closeup of the polka dotty pumpkins. I used a SU! white gel pen and a Sakura something-or-other black pen to make the dots.
I think I must keep these cards for myself...at least for a week or so. They are just frightfully delightful to me! Totally witchin', dude! OKAY! I'll stop now.....but I do love to talk in Halloween terms this time of year. It's so much fun!

Have YOU made your Halloween Inspiration Station? Link me up in the comments section and I'll share your link on my blog. Have fun this Halloween, my ghoul friends! I need one more thing for Halloween this year and that is the Martha Stewart slime punch or whatever it's called. I love the drippy look!

Here's Taylor's Inspiration Station, isn't the tiered basket cute? I just love Taylor, she's so sweet!!

Photo Finish Holiday Card Challenge

Edited again: The adhesive I use with fine glitter is a two way glue pen from Stampin' Up!.

Edited to add: To answer a few questions-Yes, the card is stitched shut to form a pocket. The card does not open up, the inserts simply slip into the pocket. Yes, the stitching shows on the back. I usually don't like to see stitching exposed but I'm gonna live with it this time. The tiny buttons are about 1/4" diameter and I got them in one of those clear bags of buttons from Foofala, the best deal on buttons!! They run about $6 bucks and I find a good assortment at Archiver's. I stick them on with glue dots. Thank you all for the wonderful comments, I SOOO enjoy reading them.

It's challenge time at Papertrey Ink! This month, Nichole challenged Design Team members to create a Christmas/Holiday card that incorporates photos. Check out Nichole's blog HERE for more information. I was up to the challenge and took it one step further......I finished all of my Christmas cards!!! (Well, 90% complete...I ran out of Kraft card stock so I'll need to finish up the inserts later). It's not even October......I have my Christmas cards done!! Woohoo, write THAT in your journal (that's what I tell Eric when I want him to remember something!).

Once I got started I couldn't stop! The thought of getting my Christmas cards done early made me so excited. And to think that there's a photo and a little family letter is even better! Do you include photos in your Christmas cards? How about livening it up this year? Instead of just slipping the photo in the card, incorporate your photo into the actual card design. I chose to make pocket cards to hold my photos this year. I dearly love a pocket card!

Here's what my design looks like below, complete with decorated envelopes ANNNND matching address labels. Can you believe I did it all? For the address labels, I used Papertrey's address labels. I just printed off my label sheet and added a matching snowflake to coordinate with the rest of my ensemble. Josey stamped the snowflakes onto the labels for me.
Here's a closer view of the completed pocket card. I simply added some patterned paper to my folded pocket and stitched around three sides to make the pocket. All Kraft card stock edges are inked with white ink.
Here's what the insert looks like. A photo of our family adhered to Kraft card stock. I corner rounded one corner. Note: This isn't a current photo of our family. As much as I tried to organize a photo shoot for a Christmas photo, the timing just didn't work out. So I'll have to update my actual cards this year with a current photo. Besides, Eric would faint if I asked him to light a fire with near 80 degree temperatures!
Oh but wait, there's more! I added a second piece of Kraft card stock to my pocket insert. This is the same size as the photo insert, and I attached the two together with a brad. This allows the two pieces to swivel. LOVE it!! I printed my insert with *Happy Holidays from the Woodersons* then added some 2008 Family Highlights for each family member. Font is AFL Postmaster.
Okay, you wanna see some behind the scenes action on how to make the embellishments? I got out all of my supplies and matched up my papers and ribbons, etc. I used Papertrey's Everyday Blessings patterned paper, Spring Moss and Aqua Mist Grosgrain ribbon. I love seeing everything all piled up, ready for mass production.
I wanted my cards to have some beautiful embellishments but I didn't want to spend hours and hours mass producing twenty-some Christmas cards. A stamper can only take so much mass producing right? And I know a lot of you probably make double or triple what I make! So I decided to stick to one fancy embellishment and then keep the rest very simple. I started out by stamping snowflakes from Pine's Rustic Snowflakes onto Kraft circles that I punched out. I embossed the snowflakes using VersaMark embossing ink and white embossing powder.
I wanted my snowflakes to have a soft feel to them so I used one of those finger dauber spongy things and white ink to soften the centers of my white snowflakes.
Then I threaded my buttons with linen cording and adhered them to the centers of my snowflakes. I didn't want to thread them all but I knew Pine would be proud if I did. :)
Then I glitterfied the snowflakes with some SU! Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Love that stuff!!
Aren't they so pretty and glittery?

I then added my snowflakes to my pocket card fronts. My finishing touch was stamping the fun sentiment from the Rustic Snowflakes set with black ink. It reads *may you never forget the flavor of snowflakes*. I love how Pine designed the word *snowflakes* with a different font. So cute!!

I hope I have inspired you to get a head start on your Christmas cards! I'm nearly giddy that I have mine almost done!! Have I said that yet? Be sure to check out all of the other Papertrey Design Team Members' blogs. They each have made a photo Christmas/Holiday card so you'll have plenty of ideas to get you started.

Here's the links:

Lisa Johnson's blog is HERE

Lauren Meader's blog is HERE

Heather Nichols' blog is HERE

Debbie Olson's blog is HERE

Becky Oehlers' blog is HERE

Happy Fall Ya'll

Hi everyone, it's officially Fall and I love this time of year. It seems to not last long though around here. Our summer has extended itself all of a sudden and next thing you know it will be freezing! Such is the life of a Kansan though!


I have some Fall cards to share with you today. My first are made from Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty Scarecrow. I just *love* scarecrows. They have such happy faces. It's been ages since I've seen a real scarecrow though, maybe I need to revive that tradition in our garden. Plus I love the Wizard of Oz so I think it would be fitting to have a scarecrow in Kansas, don't ya think?
Images were colored with Copic markers. The Sketch tips really work great getting into those tiny detailed areas of Karen's stamps. I cut and embossed the image and also layered them onto square Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies. That extra detail adds just the right amount of texture to make the images pop off the page. I tied my images up with Papertrey Satin Chocolate Ribbon and then adhered them to my card fronts. Patterned paper is by Cosmo Cricket, they have some of my most favorite collections of papers.
And here's some Halloween cards I made using the Crafty Secrets Journaling and Images Booklets. They make for easy peasy cards for sure! I added all kinds of little tags and labels from Making Memories, and some sticker sequins too. Background papers on both cards are from Webster's Pages. I love that these Fall looking papers lend more of a Fall theme rather than being bright and bold Halloween colors.

Hope you all have a stellar day! It's nice and *crisp* here this morning, I can see that my flip flop attire will be coming to an end soon.

Look Who's 10!

My little Jordan turns 10 on Wednesday!! Oh, how the years have flown by. She's getting all grown up now and when you're 10 it's all about the BLING! Usually I'm scurrying to make the girls a special birthday card but this year I'm on the ball and two days early! One of Jordan's birthday gifts is an outfit complete with a funky striped dress, headband, bracelets and this necklace, above. Jordan loves to accessorize and coordinate her outfits, so I thought a blinged out card would be fitting this year. I used lots of textures like the puffy SU! ribbon, the pearls, the textured Pinking Circles Nestabilities Dies from Spellbinder's, and the fun patterned paper from Crate Paper.
My card was easy to personalize for the big *10th* birthday (double digits are good when you're that young!). I reached for my JustRite Stampers Sonnet Self Inking set and my small rectangle and small circle wooden stampers. I chose to use the wooden stampers so that I could spell out my words in a longer format, and also use an ink pad in a color other than my black ink that comes with the self inking stamper. On the rectangle stamper, I spelled out *Look Who's*, and on the circle stamper, I used the fun polka dot border that comes with this Sonnet set along with the number *10* in the center. You can see my wooden stampers below, with the letters/numbers/border all arranged. And as I've mentioned before, if you lightly sand your images and then clean as usual you'll a get good, even coverage of ink. Many of you have asked the question, *What JustRite products do you suggest I start with as a beginner?* Okay, I have some suggestions, but of course you should base your first purchases on what your stamping needs are. My suggestions are just guidelines to help you get started.

For me, I will most likely use JustRite Stampers products in three ways:


1. Mass production projects such as monograms/wedding/anniversary/baby shower invitations, Christmas cards, etc. For these types of projects I suggest the self-inking stampers, and possibly some separate un-inked pads so that you can customize your ink colors. These products make quick work of repeated stamping. You can check out all of the Self-Inking Stampers HERE. Click on each link to see what borders, center and fonts come with each set. I also suggest the Small Alphabet so that you can make the tiny, customized border around the center stamped image.

2. General greeting card and gift giving projects such as birthday, baby, get well, etc. For these types of projects, I may use the stamped image only once or twice. I will probably also want to match my ink colors to the colors of cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon, etc that I use. In this case, I will use a variety of Wooden Stampers, Border and Centers sets, Fonts and Borders and Alphabets and Numbers sets.

If you want to start with some decorative borders and a font alphabet, check out the link HERE for the Fonts and Borders section of the store to see the variety of fonts and borders. Each set comes with a small wooden circle stamper too.

If you want to customize your projects with certain themes such as Baking, Christmas, Baby or Birthday, then check out the link HERE for the Borders and Centers section of the store.


If you purchase a starter set but then want to change out the fonts or add add numbers, check out the Font section of the store HERE. This is where you'll find the individual alphabets, number set and the small alphabet (the one that can go around as a border).

3. Spelling out longer words and phrases for a complete customized project. In this case, I'll reach for the wooden stampers, especially the longer rectangle wooden stampers, and an alphabet/number set. You can view all the Classic Wooden Stampers HERE.


My best suggestion to get you started is to click on all of the links above. Then click on each, individual product link. This will show you more photos of the what the stamped images look like. You'll also see a complete listing of what all comes with a set, such as which fonts and in what sizes, what wooden blocks, what borders, etc. Have fun selecting your first JustRite products and let me know if you have anymore questions.

Birthday box in a hurry

Yesterday I had to make a run to town to get a birthday gift for Josey's friend. I thought she was going to her party today but then we found out that Megan wanted Josey to come over last night instead. I had to wrap Megan's gift lickety split so that Josey could go with her friend. They were meeting up at the high school football game and Eric was waiting in the car for Josey! JustRite Stampers to the rescue!! I stuffed all of Megan's goodies into the makeup case along with some iridescent scrunchy filler. Then I added some pink tulle to the handles. Now onto the box topper and matching card. I grabbed my 10 Designers Borders and Centers stamps and went to work. I used my 1-5/8" Classic Wood Round Circle Stamper to stamp the birthday sentiment on white card stock. I then punched that out and layered it onto a punched pink circle. I added sequins around the sentiment and pop dots to the back of the layered circles. I then stamped the flower border on another piece of white scrap card stock. I used my Circle Nestabilities Dies to cut and emboss the circle. If you use two little snippets of Scotch tape to keep the die in place over the stamped image, you'll be sure to get a perfectly centered border image. I then cut and embossed a larger Nestabilities Scallop Circle. I used a white gel pen to add dots to the embossed scallops. I adhered all the circles together and used a pop dot to stick it to the top of the box. Megan can leave the embellishment on the box or take it off if she wishes.
I used the same JustRite sentiment stamp to make a quick birthday card, using circle punches for layering. Josey had to fill the card out in the car on the way to the football game! I stuffed the makeup case into a gift sack with matching tissue and Josey was on her way!!

Soooo, as all busy mom's do, we improvise! I couldn't let Megan's gift go unembellished. I love that as stampers, we can reach for our supplies and make quick projects. My girls have come to love all the attention that I put into their friends' and teachers little gifts. So keep on keep on stamping. Your family will always remember those special little touches.....JustRite touches in this instance!

Edited to add: If you find that your ink is pooling on your stamp and you're not getting a good impression, I have a tip for you. Take a fine grit emery board or sanding block and sand over the rubber image. Then clean your stamp as you usually would. You can do this will all rubber images and you'll be amazed at the great ink impression you'll get.

Bandito Chili Dogs

Edited to add: The script font I use for my recipe cards is CK Becky, a Creating Keepsakes font by Becky Higgins. You can to the CK website and download it for free. And you can find cheddar cheese soup in the soup aisle. The brand I use is Campbell's.

Ready for a new recipe today? Every Fall I make these Bandito Chili Dogs. I think I got the recipe from a Taste of Home publication several years ago. They're perfect for get togethers or game days and the fellas love them! I couldn't resist making a recipe card (4" x 6") using Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty Hot Dog stamp. Who knew a hot dog stamp would come in so handy!? I colored the hot dog image with Copic Sketch markers, using the *splotch* method....simply tap the tips of the markers onto the stamped image randomly. I splotched some chili off the side of the hot dog and then added a few little black dots with a fine tip Copic black multiliner pen for some texture. I used a grey marker to make a shadow line underneath the hot dog. For the patterned paper, I chose a bandanna print from a scrap from my stash of papers. I pinked the edges and added a strip of black card stock to give the circle a bold element to rest on. I then distressed the edges of the white cream card stock with Ranger Distress ink and an Ink Blending Tool. Easy peasy!
Here's a photo of the Bandito Chili Dogs below. And let me answer some questions that may be running through your head.....YES, I know these are not healthy, and YES I know how much fat and calories these contain(most of the time we use Light Hotdogs if that matters :). But they're SOOOO good and easy to make!

Here's the recipe for you. You can copy and paste into a word document right from here:

Bandito Chili Dogs

1 (25 oz)can chili
1(10-3/4 oz)can Cheddar Cheese soup
1 package hot dogs(8)
1 package hot dog buns(8)
Fritos corn chips
mustard, if desired

Combine chili and soup in pan or crock pot. Heat through and serve over hot dogs. Crumble on a handful of Fritos chips. Squirt with mustard if you like. Great for game days or Fall get togethers. Double the recipe for more servings. Yeehaw!

I hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off to wrap Jordan's birthday gifts, prepare treat sacks and plan some games. Gotta make a run to town to purchase a gift for birthday party Josey is going to..might stop by the quilt shop also just for fun. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Lockhart Witches Hat

I have another Halloween card for you today. I'll have to make it short and sweet because I need to get to get ready for work and company that will be coming tomorrow. My stamp image is the Itty Bitty Witch's Hat from Karen Lockhart. I colored it with Copic Sketch markers on an Inchie Art Square. Patterned paper and Happy Halloween label are from Making Memories. Purple sequins were added to the centers of the design elements on the patterned paper. Bottom elements were stamped from Papertrey's Guidelines stamp set in Pumpkin Pie SU! ink. Purple ribbon from Papertrey Ink. What are you plans for Halloween this year? I'm hoping to get my decorations up as soon as I find some spare time. It's a great time of year to get spooky!

Witch's Legs Halloween Card

October is just around the corner, which means Halloween will be here soon. I can't wait to decorate with some of my new Halloween goodies I've found. I'll post pictures when I get it all done. In the meantime, I've begun to make some Halloween cards. This card uses Karen Lockhart's Witch's Legs stamp. The striped legs and the funky, pointy shoes just crack me up! I colored the stamped image in with Copic markers, the very fine tips of the Sketch Markers come in very hand with a detailed stamp like this one. I added sequins to the shoes and layered my image onto a scallop cut Spellbinders square die. My background papers are from Making Memories, some of my favorites for Halloween projects. Both ribbons were Archiver's finds. Check out this angle to see the glittery patterned paper from Making Memories. I also ran my black scallop die through my Fiskars Crimper to add texture.
I embellished the inside of my card too. I stamped the Lockhart *witchie, witchie* sentiment on a Making Memories label, added a little snippet of leftover patterned paper and adhered it over another strip of leftover patterned paper. FUN stuff ladies!
Today my friend Carmen is coming over to make Halloween goodies for teachers and friends. We like to get together for each holiday and mass produce. We're just going to combine all of our Halloween papers, ribbons and packaging and see what we come up with. I'll be sure to take photos....especially since Carmen has the most beautiful fingernails and jewelry. She'll make a good hand model for me!