Happy Halloween!

I know it's a bit late, but I wanted to share a quick post about some of the fun Halloween crafts I've seen and made over the last few weeks. Halloween has never been a huge holiday for me, but it sure makes for some fun creative opportunities. I dressed up in the costume I made for Comic Con in September, and my husband and I spent a quiet evening at home with friends celebrating Halloween. What are your Halloween traditions?


First up, the Halloween banner I made at Julie's class. Mine is the "condensed" version to fit on my kitchen cabinets, but I really love the way it gave some holiday spunk to my small little kitchen!

Close-up of some of the fun details on the center panel.
Isn't the glittery bat great? I love the small button, too.

Next up - another one of Julie's projects! She made these adorable Witches' Brooms our of black licorice, skinny cello bags, cardstock, and a stamp. Quick and easy, but super cute! I feel like that about sums up so many of Julie's projects.

These two adorable paper pumpkins were made for me by a friend. The first one is a more simple pumpkin, and the second one is made of layers of paper "lollies" -- accordion-folded paper circles. Both are wrapped around cute little twigs.

And here's my costume! I dressed as Chell from the computer game Portal. Not many people recognized who I was, but that's ok; the costume went over very well at Comic Con, which was it's intended audience anyway. I got the jumpsuit at a military surplus store, the shirt is stenciled on with a Sharpie, and I made the "long fall boots" out of hardware store finds, shoes from DI (thrift store), and officially licensed Portal socks.

Super pleased with how the boots turned out!!
Check out the originals here.

And here's our pumpkin! It's the Crest of Hyrule, from the Legend of Zelda video games. So yeah, we had a super-nerdy Halloween!

Getting Back on the Wagon

These last few months have been crazy for me, hence the virtual "radio silence" on the blog lately. It mostly started in September, when I went to Salt Lake City's first-ever Comic Con and put together a costume within 5 days. After that huge burst of creativity and resourcefulness, my brain had just had enough!

So now I've taken a bit of a hiatus and I'm back! Unfortunately, during my "break" I completely missed sending my own Dad a birthday card! (Yeah, I'm such a great daughter... But I did call him on his birthday!) When Julie invited me over to stamp the other day, I thought "Here's my chance to jump back into stamping again." Looking through some stamp sets, this one jumped out at me as the perfect choice for a belated birthday card for my Dad. And hey, it happens to fit with a challenge! I'm on a roll!

I love the way the Smoky Slate looks with Pacific Point. My default was to just go with Whisper White, but on a whim I tried out the (relatively) new color of gray. I think it turned out great! The fun stripe details come from the "Gorgeous Grunge" stamp set, and the phrases are from (ironically) the "Remembering Your Birthday" stamp set. By the way, this Gorgeous Grunge set is ON SALE for 25% off! But hurry - sale ends October 28! Use hostess code ABJABXYN at checkout.

I'm linking this card up at The Paper Players weekly challenge. This week it's to make a masculine birthday card. Perfect! The colors, layout, and details of this card are definitely great for a guy's birthday.

"Fall Fun" Blog Hop!

Hello! Thanks for checking out our Fall Fun Blog Hop!

If I'm your first stop, welcome! If you've been hopping for a few blogs, thanks for stopping by! For anyone who might not know, let me explain how our Blog Hop works: We are a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators (and friends) who have banded together to put on a monthly blog hop for our readers. At the end of each post in the Hop, you'll see the "Next Blog" sign; after you've checked out this entry in the Hop, click on that sign to take you to the next blog, then the next one, etc., until you wind up right back where you started.

This month's theme was "Fall Fun." I'm a BIG fan of Fall! I love the crisp, cool weather and the changing colors in the trees. I love the back-to-school vibe (especially now that I'm done with school!) and all the great holidays that sneak up on us so fast in the next few months. I just wish that here in Utah Valley we could get true Fall weather for a bit longer before the snow sets in. Ah well. I hope you enjoy the fun, festive projects we've created for you today! Remember to click through the whole hop, and comments/pins/shares are always welcome. Happy Fall!

I created this card for the Cards In The Mail Swap I'm participating in this coming year. You can see the other (amazing!) cards I've received in my last post. This month's Swap theme was to focus on the Holiday catalog and anything "fall" themed (so it fit perfectly with this Hop -- two birds with one stone!). The lovely "Truly Grateful" stamp set from the Holiday catalog really stuck out to me. I LOVE wood grain, and so this background stamp was just begging for me to use it!

The layout for this card was actually inspired by a sketch challenge (which has, of course, expired by now -- just my luck) but it lent itself so well to this banner with a faded stamp detail. I chose the color palette using Stampin' Up's Color Coach, which I borrowed from Julie. I've had one on my "short list" for ... well, probably years now, and every time I use it I wonder why I haven't bought one yet. Hm. It may be going on my next order, now that I think about it.

Thanks again for stopping by! I hope you've enjoyed my "Fall Fun" creation. Be sure to click through to the rest of the Hoppers to see what they've made.