Eeek! and a WINNER!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Just popping in to share a card for Halloween! I've got lots of fun goodies on this one: chipboard cat from Maya Road (inked with black pigment ink), washi-tape-covered tags and punched scalloped borders (orange stripes washi tape from DeNami Design), black May Arts corduroy ribbon, black Paper Smooches twine, alphabet stickers from Lily Bee, and a fancy background stamp (Looped Flower) from Hero Arts. I sent this one to a very dear, cat-loving friend. I hope it brought a smile to her face!!

I'm also sharing the winner of my washi tape giveaway from Monday. I used Random.org to select a winner. It was lucky #12, which was

terriavidreader (IN-USA) !!!

Congratulations, Terri! I've emailed you :D Thanks to everyone who entered!

I hope you have a fun Halloween wherever you are! My oldest is now a freshman in high school. She decided that she's too old for trick-or-treat, so she will be manning the door at our house tonight to hand out treats (most likely in her mad scientist costume). My fifth grader is very much looking forward to trick-or-treating tonight. He was very happy to recycle his Apple iPhone costume from last year, which made me very happy. I'm glad that last year's hard work lives on!

Hope your day is filled with more treats than tricks! Thanks for stopping by,
Emily

Good News!

Greetings, friends! I'm popping in here quickly to share a bit of good news: I just got word that I've been selected to be a member of this year's holiday design team for Purple Onion Designs! Over the next two months I'll be sharing holiday projects featuring Purple Onion Designs' fabulous rubber stamps. I have some fun decorations, gifts, and packaging all planned out and I can't wait to share them with all of you. I'm so excited to be part of it all!

Not familiar with Purple Onion Designs? I first discovered POD's unmounted rubber stamps a few years ago and have loved working with them. In fact, I've been published several times with POD stamps. Here are two projects featuring POD stamps that I had published in Northridge Publishing's Simply Handmade: Holidays 2012 issue last year:

Stamps:  USA map, star circle, and airplane from Road Trippin’ set by Purple Onion Designs

Stamps:  Vintage Journal Label by Purple Onion Designs

Purple Onion has tons of fabulous alphabet stamp sets, trendy subway-style noteblock stamps, cool vintage elements, and ultra-handy scrapbooking-themed stamps. Lots of variety! Sound intriguing? Be sure to head over to the POD website to take a look.

Right now Purple Onion Designs is promoting the release of a new line of holiday stamps from the very talented illustrator Stacey Yacula. Between them, Purple Onion Designs and Stacey Yacula are giving away two sets of her Winter Wishes collection and you can be a part of it! Check out the details on the Purple Onion Designs blog and Stacey's blog. The giveaway ends tomorrow (that's October 31, 2013) at midnight EDT. Be sure to swing by for your chances to win, and if you do, let them know that I sent you {wink}.

It's time for me to get back to work, so that's it for now. I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!!

Thanks for stopping by and take care!
Emily

Ways With Washi: CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS + a Giveaway!

Hello there, DeNami Friends! It's time for my October edition of Ways With Washi.

I don't know about you, but every year I wish I had more time to make handmade gifts and decorations for Christmas. My problem is that I never start early enough, and once I start thinking, "Oh, maybe I should make something fun for Christmas," it's too late. All my other Christmas preparations are much too pressing, and I run out of time. So this year, I decided to start early. I know that we are still three days away from Halloween, but today I'm sharing a few ideas for jumpstarting your Christmas decorating with washi tape.

So, let's get to it!

For my first Christmas project today, I made a tabletop Christmas tree. This silver-and-aqua beauty stands about 7.5" tall. Can you spot the washi tape?

Starting with a Styrofoam cone, I covered the tree with overlapping circle punches. I chose two coordinating subtly patterned papers, dressing up some with overlapping strips of Musical Notes Washi tape and stamping others with DeNami's Teeny Star Background in silver ink before punching out the circles. I anchored each circle with a straight pin from my sewing supplies stash after glamming up the stock white pinheads with a bit of silver nail polish. 

I finished off my tree with a loopy baker's twine bow (from DeNami's Summer Twine 3-pack) fastened to the treetop with a decorative stick pin and a tiny tag stamped with the Noel sentiment from DeNami's Christmas Greetings stamp set.

My second project is a Christmas tree ornament. I started with a clear flat ornament that I picked up for cheap at a local big box crafts store. Then I cut out poinsettia petals from Red Stripes Washi Tape and leaves from Lime/White Dots Washi Tape and adhered them to the face of the clear ornament. Can you guess how I made the petals and leaves look so uniform? I stamped a petal from DeNami's Whimsical Garden cling set on cardstock to use as a pattern for trimming my washi tape flower parts. A cluster of amber rhinestones creates a realistic-looking center to my poinsettia. I finished my ornament by stuffing it with some multi-color DeNami Iridescent Shredds for a bit of sparkle.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! I hope you picked up a few ideas to use in your own Christmas decorating this year

GIVEAWAY

How would you like to win a roll of washi tape of your very own? I have a brand-new roll of Black/White Dots Washi Tape from DeNami Design that I'd love to give away to a reader of this post. Want to be in the running? Just leave me a comment on this post using the word "DECORATE." There's no need to be a follower of my blog to enter, but if you are a follower (or become a new follower!), you can have a second entry in the drawing--just leave me a second comment telling me that you are a follower and how you follow. :)

I'll leave commenting open until 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, October 30, 2013, and will draw one commenter at random. The winner will be announced right here on my blog on Thursday, October 31, and if I'm able to find an email address, I'll be sure to contact the winner as well.

Thanks for joining me today for some more Ways With Washi!
Emily

Embracing Hope with FWF

Just a quick post this morning. A dear friend from church had breast cancer surgery earlier this week, a bilateral mastectomy. It sounds like the surgery was successful (so far, so good), which is such a relief. I've been mailing her a handmade card each day this week, just to let her know that she's on my heart and in my prayers. This is one of them.

Simple but heartfelt. Both stamps were from a Unity grab bag (good stuff in those!), but I don't know what stamp sets they were from originally. I'm linking up with today's Unity Friends With Flair.

I have much to accomplish both today and over the weekend, so I can't stay to chat. I hope that you have something good planned!

Thanks for dropping by,
Emily

DeNami Design Product Spotlight October Blog Hop

It's the last Wednesday of the month and that means it is time to show off another awesome DeNami Design stamp with a blog hop! This month we are featuring the adorable Halloween Kitty stamp.

Isn't that one cute kitty? Just because she's named "Halloween" Kitty, doesn't mean you can only use her for Halloween. I wanted to share a simple card design to show that she's perfect for year-round use, too.

Every single supply that I used for this card comes from the DeNami Design store!

Halloween Kitty stamp

Hello Friend stamp

Teal Chevron washi tape

White cardstock

Onyx Black Versafine ink
Habanero Versafine ink

Autumn Twine 3-pack

You can purchase this adorable stamp for 10% off the regular price for the next week. You also have the chance to WIN this fabulous product in today's spotlight blog hop! All you need to do is hop along to each stop in the lineup, leaving comments along the way. Here is the blog hop lineup:

DeNami blog 
Lisa Petrella
Deb Wabbe
Wendy Elliot
Emily Keaton  <==== you are here!
Lisa Elton
Pattie Goldman
Dana Seymour
Tammy Hobbs

One commenter will be selected at random to win this month's prize! Just check out the DeNami blog for all the details.

Thanks for stopping by today!!
Emily

Happy Birthday, Mom!

(Spoiler Alert:  MOM! If you haven't yet opened that package I sent you, do NOT read any further or you will spoil the surprise!!! OK?)

TGIF, my friends! This is the first time in what seems like eons that I've had any time at all to do (and then post about) even a little bit of recreational crafting all for my own personal purposes. Life on Bliss Road has been all kinds of crazy busy the past several months. Half the time I don't know if I'm coming or going! It's all good, but I miss creating regularly. So I positively welcomed the chance to do some personal crafting as my mom's birthday approached. I sent a package off to her earlier in the week (fingers crossed that it arrived in time!!), and I couldn't wait to share the fun birthday card I made for her. Without further ado, here it is:

and now for the punch line inside:

I hope this makes her laugh out loud!!! The image and sentiment stamps come from a hilarious stamp set called Gossip, Hot Flashes, and Crazy that I earned from Unity Stamp Co. back in June for being the Growing In Unity gal of the week. It's such a snarky collection! When I first saw this set, I started reading some of the sentiments to my husband and he told me that I absolutely needed to get this one. It kind of reminded me of Emerson Quillin's snarky "Listen Honey" cartoons, of which my mom has always been a fan, so my Gossip set was the first thing I reached for when it was time to make her birthday card. Those elegant retro ladies' dresses are such fun to paper-piece!

I also used a label frame from Unity's Season of Joy set, and the "happy birthday" sentiment is from How YOU Doin'? And a little red polka-dotted washi tape was just the ticket for dressing up the inside of this card.

Well, my To-Do list beckons and we have {yet another} busy weekend ahead of us, so I really must run. I'm linking up with Unity's Friends With Flair party today.

And, Mom, I hope you are having a FABULOUS birthday today! Is there a decorated birthday cake (or some other sinfully good yummy) in your plans for the day? If not, there should be!! Get out there and celebrate like you mean it!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

Thanks for dropping by!
Emily

October Pinspired at DeNami Design

Ready for a little Halloween inspiration? That's just what a few of my DeNami teammates and I are serving up today. This month we were to be inspired by this fun Halloween photo:

And here's how I translated it into a card:

I used these fine DeNami stamps:

Fuzzy Ball

Small Dot Circle Frame

Medium Dot Circle Frame

Seasonal Faces stamp set

Animal Faces stamp set

Be sure to check out what the other designers did with this inspiration photo on the DeNami blog today!

Thank you so much for dropping by!
Emily

DeNami Happy Halloween Blog Hop

Hello and welcome, friends! I hope you are ready for a fun blog hop today! We are featuring awesome ideas for Halloween projects. Get ready for lots of amazing inspiration!

Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Tenia Nelson's blog, Jazzy Paper Designs. If so, you are on the right track! If not, you'll want to head over to the DeNami blog to start the blog hop at the beginning. (And remember, if you get lost along the way, you can always head over to the DeNami blog to get pointed in the right direction.)

Don't forget, there are some amazing DeNami prizes to be won! Two lucky commenters will be drawn at random from among the comments left along the blog hop to win a $20 DeNami Design gift certificate! You have until Monday, October 14, 2013, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize.

Now I can't wait to show you what I cooked up for today's blog hop!

How about that sweet Franken-Chickie? Is he super cute, or what? He's the perfect addition to the little haunted house scene I created on a punched tag with the DeNami Three Houses stamp and some Green Graph washi tape, plus some fun tangerine baker's twine. Finally I used some candy patterned paper and the DeNami Happy Halloween sentiment to finish off this quick and easy card!

Well, now it's time for me to send you along on your way. Before you leave for more Halloween inspiration, be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for the randomly drawn prizes and then you can be off to see the very sweet and talented Amy Smidebush! 
 
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy the blog hop,
Emily

Halloween Spiders

I prefer my Halloween to be a little more on the sweet and cutesy side than creepy, so this week's DeNami Product Spotlight stamp is right up my alley. :)

Aren't those little spiders the cutest? And I love that this stamp is the perfect size to fit inside the Elegant Square Frame.

I had so much fun making cute Halloween cards for my family and friends with this new Halloween Spider Web stamp. I couldn't stop with just one card!

See? An entire set! They came together so quickly--all I needed were my markers and some DeNami washi tape: Orange Stripes, Black Curly Loops, Black/White Dots, and Black Chevron.

Looking for some more ideas for this fun Halloween stamp? Be sure to check out the rest of the team's lovely creations today on the DeNami blog. Like what you see? Then you can score a great deal on the Halloween Spider Web--as our Spotlight Product, it's on sale at 10% off for the next week!!

Thanks for stopping by today!
Emily

Owl Always Be Your Friend

Good morning! It's my turn to share a fun DeNami project with readers over on the DeNami blog today, and I couldn't resist giving you all a peek of it here ;).

I love to experiment with all sorts of design styles using my DeNami stamps. Recently I tried a little something new--I took a stab at pairing up themes and motifs in fun patterned papers with images and sentiments in my collection of DeNami stamps. This was the result:

I love how this owl gift set turned out! It includes a notebook with attached decorated pencil, a decorative clothespin magnet, and a customized Post-It notepad. I think that DeNami's Owls stamp set perfectly complements the owl motifs in the Birds of a Feather digital paper collection I used! I customized the Post-It pad with a different DeNami owl and the Owl Always Be Your Friend stamp on every page and wrapped it up for gift-giving with aquamarine baker's twine from DeNami's Summer Twine 3-pack. I took the owl puns one step further on my notebook with DeNami's You're A Hoot and Square Word Bubble stamps. And there you have it: a gift set that was as much fun (if not more!) to make as it will be for my recipient to receive! So perfect for autumn. :)

Thanks for stopping by today!
Emily