It has been a really LONG week, I'm sure all of us can relate to this one right? I had a client come home from the hospital with a permanent catheter at my night job and the next two days after the nurse quit and the other person I work with in the morning!  So overtime and training in my future UGH.  On the October Afternoon front I have been workin there everyday this week also boy are we getting the product out girls.  I am even going in in the morning (Saturday) to pick up more work.  Head home and off to the science museum with the girl scouts for the day.  A long week but I cannot wait till next week for the SALE!!!!!!!!!  Yes October Afternoons second warehouse sale.  Can you say it's good to live in Minnesota.  I hear there is going to be some AWESOME stuff you all are going to love at the sale.  Are You going? Get your paper shelves cleared and come with me I'll be in line waiting with the best sister ever, can you say DANGEROUS???

Okay so I have been promising halloween goodies and still have not had time to do these, hopefully tonight after this post I can get some stuff accomplished.  For now I wanted to share the Boolean Join function in Make The Cut.  If you need an awesome tutorial head over to Under A Cherry Tree http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/2011/05/video-tutorial-how-to-pop-up-butterfly.html and lookup Jins awesome tutorials.  If you dont have Make The Cut, you must get it it will change your paper crafting world!

Basically the Boolean Join function allowed me to kind of "erase" part of the middle of a butterfly outline so that when I cut it, it would lift up the wings so to speak and allow them to kind of POP of the card giving it dimension.  There are so many graphics that you can use this function for, off the top of my head you could use flowers, stars, candles on a cupcake and so on.

Heres the card I hope it brings you some inspiration.......

Melissa

Wall Hanging

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This post is bringing back something I had done a few months ago right before I started my contract position with October Afternoon.  I found this old drawer at a rummage sale and thought it would make a great "frame" for some pictures to hang on my wall, scrapbook style of course.  Right away I knew I wanted to use those papers I got from the warehouse sale I had been to earlier this year at October Afternoon.  A couple of hours later and wala a new picture frame for the door by my entryway.  If you live in Minnesota and did not make it to the last sale at October Afternoon you must get to this next one.  It is on for October 20th-24th check their blog on the website Octoberafternoon.com for all the details.  I know I will be there, probably everyday.  Okay maybe not everyday but close to it lol.  Hope you all have a great weekend coming up and that you take some time to scrap!

Cheers
Melissa

A few new cards

Hi everyone

Two posts in one week Im on a roll!  Just wanted to share some more projects with you and give you an update on what I have been up to.  I am hoping to have a few more posts later this week for you that will have some halloween goodies! 

First is a sympathy card (shown above) for a dear friend David who lost his mother and I actually made two just like it one for another dear friend Dave who not only lost his brother but a close friend all within two weeks of eachother. The stamp set I used for this card is Organic Outlines from Stampinup, it is a retired set I just recently bought from my old upline at a sale.  It is embossed in black as well as the sentiment which is from stampinup also and embossed.  The cardstock is black, whisper white and old olive.  The next card (below) is for a wedding for my dear Cousin Sam and his wife Becky.  I used the same stamp set and colors of cardstock.  Enjoy and I hope it brings you some inspiration in your day.

Melissa 

What Ive been up to

Well it has been a crazy start to the school year here at our house.  We have had back to school projects and lots of homework going on.  Some how we have managed to sneak in a few projects here and there and I want to share them with you.  The first are some lunch bags I came up with to pack my daughters lunches in.  I thought it might be fun for her to have a bag that she could share with a friend.  I took the first one and made a hangman game on it for her to play with a friend. There is a boy and a girl dressed in school uniforms (Of course, we dont want to violate code here). I included the pieces for the stick man in a little envelope that I put inside the bag.  The second one was a tic tac toe board called tic tac lunch. Last one was called Puzzle Time. I stamped an image that I later cut out with the help of make the cut.  I went to the gallery and used a shared file that was puzzle pieces and cut the stamped image into puzzle pieces.  It was a quick puzzle for her to put together with a friend or by herself. 


Other than that we have been making birthday treats for 44 kids in one class!  It is a combined class of two with two teachers.  Teacher cards and sympathy cards all in one.  I cannot wait to get to October and enjoy my favorite time of year and halloween.  I will have the cards and birthday treats to show you in a couple of days.  I really wish I had more time to post for now it is kind of random but I hope to have more of a schedule in the future. 


Thanks for looking,
 Melissa

Back to School

Im sure for everyone its different but for us it means piano lessons start, Girl Scout meetings, Robotics meetings and PTO duties.  I also will start back to my other job of subbing for the school district.  So as the days become longer for us the summer nights turn to crisp fall days and my favorite time of year is just around the corner.  In the next few weeks to come I hope to have a few halloween goodies to show you but for now I have been busy with back to school goodies. 

My youngest daughter and I have been using up the last few days we had together in the kitchen.  She loves to cook and bake and when I saw these creations in the Family Fun magazine I knew this would be great for us.  They are apples made from a oreo cookie.  Stick a popsicle stick in the middle of the cookie and cover it in red candy melts.  The leave and the smile are green laffy taffy rolled out and cut.  The eyes are mini chocolate chips on top of a dollop of white icing.  Half a mini pretzel stick and you are set.

The next goodie the box of crayons is a graphic from Lettering Delights.  While I was searching through an old post on Under a cherry tree I saw the pretzels she made from the graphic set and knew I had to make these.  One they were easy for my daughter just melt chocolate and dip and her friends would love them.  So of I went my head spinning and I thought fry box!  I knew I could cut a fry box with the crayola logo and put it on the box to hold the pretzel rods.  This is what we came up with and I am sure she will love sharing with a f1.50riend at lunch as I put one in her lunch for her and another labeled for a friend  If you search lettering delights look for the pretzel crayon wrapper it was a $1.50 for the crayon wrapper graphic.  Once you have it you can print on a printer and cut to fit the pretzel.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we enjoyed making them.  Later this week I have a teacher back to school card and hopefully some time to make some Halloween goodies as my favorite time of year is right around the corner!

Happy Scrapping,
Melissa

New Obsession

Well this past week or so has been very busy. We went camping for the week and it was very hard to come back as my youngest Abby said "Back to real life!". Tonight she is spending the night with her favorite Aunt AKA cookie baker extraordinaire! So after running kids everywhere today and stopping to pick up work from OA I stopped at Archivers and saw the most amazing new product called honeypops from Inky Antics http://www.inkyantics.com/honeypop.htm.
I cannot tell you how cool it was to see a real card made from these. I could not bring myself to pay 7$ for the paper (One Sheet) and 15$ for more stamps. Now I dont know about you guys but my brain always says I know I can make that paper on my own! So I did, came home googled honeycomb paper and wala found this site http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/10/17/3-dimensional-pumpkin-card/. After that I found some pumpkin doilies and tissue paper at the dollar store and now you have my first honeycomb card. I can only imagine the possibilities for this. I also started to think that I bet you could buy the cheap wedding bells at the dollar store or somewhere and spray them with ink and run them through a sizzix machine or other die cutter. Can you say hearts, stars, apples the possibilities are endless! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did I would LOVE to see what you come up with!

Cheers for now,
Melissa

Waterfall Card Video Tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC2Gv_sQsHU

Some of you wanted a video tutorial for the waterfall card I made. Blogger would not work for me to upload the video here so I uploaded it to Youtube, clicking on the link should work for you if it doesnt let me know. I hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to let me know.

Melissa

Brother

Since my last post I have been trying to upload a video to all of you for the waterfall card to no avail. I am having issues with blogger for some unknown reason. As soon as I figure it out I will post it. For now I am bringing you the layout I have been working on for the Sketchy Thursday post for this week. I love these things they are a great way for me to get some pages done and I love looking at everyones work.

My page is of my son and my youngest daughter the two of them are adjoined at the hip somedays. My daughter will not know what to do when the boy moves out of the house someday. Her world revolves around her brother that is an understatement. The picture was taken on the tractor to the farm at the minnesota zoo. It was a very hot day and she was almost comatose in his arms and lap until mom pulled out the camera. As usual the son is trying everything he can to avoid the snap of my camera. The background paper is from October Afternoon as well as some of the papers used on the grunge flower and the pennants. All other paper is from a Michaels paperpack. The twine is from a bundle of Archivers brand. The border, the pennants and the grunge flower were all cut from Make the cut. The flowers were in the gallery under flowers and labeled Grunge Flowers, the pennant was a cut from Lettering Delights. I used stampinup reinkers in a spray mister bottle for the ink behind the photo. The word stamps are from SU! and the circle journal spot is from a clear stamp set from Archivers. The brother stickers are old stash from my minds eye I believe. That about sums it all up. I hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Cheers

Melissa