A tale of two Jacks

So, my son had lots of fun trick-or-treating as a lumberjack last night! Here he is in his home-assembled costume that I described in my last post.

Wanna closer look at that awesome hand-crocheted beard (scored from Etsy)?

It was a very festive evening at our house last night. My daughter spent some happy time putting up a few decorations to entertain our trick-or-treaters and to dress up our dinner table. My husband even got into the spirit of things while preparing our traditional Friday-night homemade pizza. May I present the "Jack-o-Pizza?"

Hope you had a fun day yesterday!
Emily

Happy Halloween

It has been months since I've been inspired to write a blog post here on My Little Slice of Bliss. Rest assured, all is well here in my little corner of the world--I've just been so busy with work and family that papercrafting and blogging have taken a definite back seat. Autumn has been a whirlwind, and here we are on the last day of October already. Happy Halloween!

My kids are in 6th grade and 10th grade this year. My sixth grader is excited to go trick-or-treating tonight. After masquerading as an Apple iPhone for the past two years, we decided it was time for a new costume for him. I picked up an awesome hand-crocheted beard from Etsy, and we put together a great lumberjack costume for him from items we already had around the house: hiking boots, jeans, one of Dad's old plaid flannel shirts, an ear flap cap, and a non-lethal axe we constructed from cardboard, a paper tube, and aluminum foil. At least he'll be cozy and warm tonight! Sorry, no photos yet!!


Last year my daughter decided that as a high school freshman, she was too old for trick-or-treating. She's opting to stay in again this year to hand out treats to the visiting neighborhood goblins. Because that means she'll miss out on all that yummy loot (and little brother might not be in the mood to share), I put together a little Halloween treat for her, which I'll share once her lil' bro heads out to haunt tonight. The gift bag is a pattern from DeNami Design, and it's the perfect size for two Reese's Pumpkins. Love those!

And speaking of my daughter, she got crafty yesterday and used my DeNami stamps (and my patterned paper and dies . . .) to decorate packets of hot cocoa mix to hand out to our trick-or-treaters tonight. Aren't these adorable? I think she did an awesome job :D.

Well, I hope that you and yours have a fun Halloween. Thanks for dropping by!

Happy Haunting!
Emily

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

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

DeNami Design Chickies Sneak Peeks

Welcome to Day 1 of the DeNami Design Fall/Winter Release Sneak Peeks!! Today brand-new DT Member Pattie Goldman, veteran DeNami DT member Lisa Petrella, and I are giving you sneak peeks of brand-new DeNami stamps about to be released in the always-fun CHICKIES category! Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post for details on a great giveaway :D.

Do the sweet DeNami chickies totally tickle your fancy? If so, you are positively in luck! The new release includes brand-new chickie stamps for summer activities, various sports, girlfriends, camping, gardening, Halloween, and Christmas. Whew!! That's quite a few! 

Are you ready to take a peek at what's in store for the chickie category? Let's get started!

The new chickie stamps I was most excited about are the camping ones! Not only do I have my very own Girl Scout and Cub Scout in my family, but our family loves to go on camping road trips. This card uses the brand-new Campfire Chickies stamp and Chickie in Tent stamp. I thought this would make a perfect thank-you card for my daughter to give to her Girl Scout leader! Her troop LOVES to go camping. :) I also used the ultra versatile Small Cloud and Thanks A Bunch sentiment, and threw in a couple of Sand Boutique Buttons. (All of the patterned papers are digital prints from the digital Campout collection by Design by Dani, available from JessicaSprague.com.)

Now how about taking a gander at a pair of stamps that are perfect for the rockers in your life?

This card shows off the new Rock Band Chickies stamp and the fun You Rock! sentiment. I added some chipboard alphabet stickers to spell out "dude," the perfect touch for a teenager-bound card. A bit of Black Curly Loops washi tape and some red DeNami cardstock round out my design.

Next I'm shifting gears to autumn and Halloween!

For this creation, I paired the brand-new Pumpkin Patch Chickies stamp with the cling-style Trick or Treat sentiment stamp. Aren't those chickies sweet? I made my background from an assortment of DeNami washi tapes: Lime/White Dots, Black Curly Loops, and Orange Stripes. I also used some Desert Orange cardstock and black baker's twine from the DeNami store.

And finally, let's have a little Christmas in July!

Don't you just love those sweet little Caroling Chickies? And I am completely captivated by the tiny sentiments in the brand-new Christmas Greetings petit four stamp sets!!! This is a set that I have been waiting ever so patiently for :D. They are just the perfect size for Christmas tags, and that's exactly how I put them to use.

The DeNami To and From stamps are perfect for completing these festive tags. I also used some red DeNami cardstock and red baker's twine from the DeNami store. 

All of the new stamps I used today in my sneak peek projects will go live in the DeNami online store on July 10 at 9am PST.

OK, are you still with me? Thanks for hanging in there through this long post. :-) I mentioned a giveaway way back at the beginning of this post.

DeNami Design is giving away two gift certificates today! Be sure to leave a comment here on my blog post, Pattie's chickie sneak peek blog post, and Lisa's sneak peek blog post, too. Then head over to the DeNami Design blog and leave a comment there, too, for another way to win today!

I'm so glad that you dropped in to check out some of the new chickie stamps in the DeNami Design Fall/Winter Release! Be sure to tune into the DeNami blog tomorrow for more sneak peeks and giveaways.

Until then, have a day filled with bliss,
Emily 

Happy Halloween!

It's October 31, and you know what that means. A Happy Halloween to all of you!

First, a quick update:  I'm happy to say that we weathered "Frankenstorm" with no issues. There were high winds and plenty of rain, but we came through unscathed. No loss of power or Internet (cable) service. The kids had the day off from school on Monday when the worst of it hit, and I'm glad because there are plenty of downed limbs and branches around as a result of the storm. Both of our kids walk to and from school every day (our daughter walks solo and our son gets a Mom escort each day), so they and the other kids in town were spared a potential dangerous trip to and from school. After all of the hurricane reports these past few days, we are realizing how fortunate we were. My heart goes out to all of those folks living in areas that bore the brunt of the storm.

And now, I have two Halloween projects to share today. First up is my son's Halloween costume! He decided that he wanted to be an iPhone (or more specifically, an iPhone 5, as he wants to be as up to date as possible!), so I made him this sandwich-board costume.

We modeled our design after this:

My son and I worked together to design and print out the graphics that became the "apps" on the iPhone screen. After trimming, I mounted them on black foam-core board. The "screen" background is made from a few sheets of 12x12 patterned paper. Lots of paper-crafting goodness in this costume! I had so much fun :D!!

And, of course, every iPhone must bear the Apple brand icon on the back.

He is over the moon about his costume and cannot wait to show it off! He's already asked for photos to take to school so he can show his teacher and classmates. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates tonight for trick-or-treat :D. Please, no runs, no smears, no errors!!

I also wanted to share this adorable Halloween veggie platter that my daughter made for us! She asked on Monday {when she had the day off from school due to the hurricane} if she could make something special to go along with supper. I didn't know quite what she was up to until she brought this adorable concoction (all of her own design!!!) to the table.

Can you see the pumpkin face? (If not, squint a bit.) Those bowls of dip are the eyes. My son has always said that he doesn't like raw baby carrots (at an early age he had a texture aversion and hated that they didn't dissolve in his mouth like most other foods). Anyway, he's always avoided them, but his sister's fun creation and her gentle prodding to just try one with a bit of dip swayed him, and he gave it a shot. Score!! He discovered that he does in fact like raw carrots, and now he can't wait for his sister to make us another of her Halloween-themed veggie platters to have with supper tonight. A proud mom moment all around!

Well, thanks so much for dropping by for a visit today. I hope that you are staying safe, warm, and dry wherever you are.

Happy Halloween!
Emily

A little Frankenpumpkin in the middle of a big Frankenstorm

I hope all of you are holding your own against Frankenstorm if you are in harm's way. I've prescheduled this post (in case we lose power!), so I don't have an update on our situation yet. But I wanted to be sure to share the pumpkin my kids decorated to spiffy up our house for Halloween! (Be sure to see yesterday's post for the ones they made to enter in their orthodontist's pumpkin-decorating contest. So cute!)

OK, ready? Here it is:

It was SO much fun watching this take shape!! Didn't they do a great job? Their Frankenpumpkin started life as a small-ish orange pie pumpkin. They painted it in several layers of acrylic paint and molded ears and nose from Crayola Model Magic. Frankie's hair is a miniature black feather boa from A.C. Moore that I helped staple into place. The eyes are circles punched from cardstock (aren't they lucky to have a mom who is all outfitted with just the right craft supplies??), and the mouth and stitches were drawn on with a black Sharpie. To give Frankie a rosy glow, I let the kids borrow some of my blush. Too cute, right?

I'm still working on my son's Halloween costume, so I can't pre-schedule a post about that at this point. I'm planning to finish it in the next few days, so hopefully we'll still have power so I can share photos of it on Halloween. Would you believe that it is a paper-crafted costume? I can't wait to show it off. Fingers crossed that the weather won't ruin trick-or-treat for the kids. They are so looking forward to wearing their costumes (and all the treats, of course, too).

Thanks for taking a peek at our pumpkin! Stay safe, wherever you are!
Emily

Some Halloween Critters

OK, this Frankenstorm business, quite frankly, has us running, if not quite scared, then at the very least cautious. We aren't too worried about the rain, but the forecasted high winds could be quite a problem for us. We lost half of one of our taller trees over the summer, and we noticed recently that the remaining half is starting to split away from the main trunk. The direction it is listing aims it directly toward the power and cable lines that feed our house. Realizing this sent us scurrying into action over the weekend. Really, there's nothing we can do about the tree, but it became paramount that we prepare for the {now strong} possibility of a power outage. Lots of measures taken over the past two days, and now I'm pre-scheduling a few blog posts that I'd hoped to share this week. It would be just my luck to have Halloween projects to share and then have to miss Halloween completely because of a power and/or cable outage. And since we get our Internet service via cable, either type of outage will torpedo my posting plans!!

So today I want to share photos of the cute little pumpkins that my kids decorated! They made them to enter the pumpkin-decorating contest at their orthodontist's office. They had so much fun making them!! Each of these started life as a mini white pumpkin. Here's what my 13YO daughter did with her pumpkin.

And now it's my 9YO son's pumpkin.

Am I allowed to say how cute I think these little guys turned out? Can you spy the paper-crafted portions of both of these? It's true, the apples don't fall far from the tree ;).

I hope you'll tune in again tomorrow, because I have another family pumpkin project to share. This one is the one that we're keeping for ourselves. We'll put it out on the porch to entertain the trick-or-treaters on Halloween (if any of them come out in Frankenstorm, that is!!). Anyway, I think it's totally cute and can't wait to show off how it turned out.

Stay safe everyone!
Emily

DeNami Halloween Blog Hop

Good morning, friends! And welcome to the last stop on today's DeNami Design Halloween Blog Hop! Today the DeNami Design Team and customers alike are showcasing Halloween projects made with DeNami stamps!

Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Lani M.'s blog, Keep Your Eyes Open. 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 super-fun 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 15, 2012, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize.

Well, on to my Halloween project! After we featured the DeNami Fuzzy Ball stamp last month as a product spotlight, my head was brimming with more ideas for this versatile little stamp. I couldn't resist trying out my idea for a Fuzzy Ball bat on this adorably batty Halloween card.

Making my bat was as easy as (pumpkin) pie! I simply stamped the Fuzzy Ball on some DeNami charcoal cardstock and added a face from the Animal Faces stamp set. After drawing on two cute little fangs with a black pen, I cut out the body and added some wings. The wings started life as two ovals punched from DeNami lavender cardstock, but quickly took on their characteristically webbed look after cutting each oval in half lengthwise with scalloped scissors. Quick and easy! That beautifully lettered sentiment may be found here.

That does it for me today! Thanks so much for hopping along with this month's DeNami hop. I hope you got tons of great ideas for Halloween! Be sure to leave a comment before you go to be eligible for the prize drawing.

Have a great day!
Emily 

PS In case you are wondering, the background paper I used for this card is a digital paper from Shery K Designs. It's part of a great Halloween digital collection called Boo. 

Spooky Houses for Halloween

Happy Wednesday! Today I have a little something for Halloween to share with you.

Aren't purple and green so fun for Halloween? I combined a bunch of great DeNami stamps (plus DeNami cardstock, ink, and twine) for this fun card:  Square Word Bubble, Friendly Ghost, and this week's Product Spotlight stamp, Three Houses.

Want to talk about a versatile stamp? This is it! Go check out all of the fabulous creations designed by the DeNami DT on the DeNami blog today. You'll say WOW!

Thanks for dropping by!
Emily

R U ready for a Challenge?

Are you ready for a challenge? Today is the first day of the DeNami Design October challenge, and this month it's a color challenge!

Here's the direction I took these colors.

It's a matchbox-style box perfect for filling with Hershey's Nuggets chocolates {*wink*}.

I just love creating packaging for treats for family and friends! All of my supplies for this project come from the DeNami Design store. Can you spot all three DeNami stamps that I used? If you said the Small Jack O'Lantern, Polka Dot Background, and Everyday Greetings stamp set, then you are bang on!

Are you ready to take on this fun color challenge? All you need to do is use this lovely fall color combo and at least one DeNami Design stamp, and you are golden! Be sure to check out today's post on the DeNami blog for more inspiration for this color challenge from the design team and for all the details about this month's challenge.

Thanks for dropping by today. I hope your day is filled with bliss!
Emily

PS Want to make your own Nugget box? You can find templates and directions for all sizes of boxes like these right here.

Friendly Mummy

It's so much fun to make cute cards to send to family and friends for Halloween. The new Friendly Mummy stamp from DeNami Design is perfect for those too-cute-to-spook cards.

Can you believe that I used four different DeNami stamps to create this clean-and-simple, quick-and-easy card? Yup, that's right. The cling-style Halloween Fence, cling-style Retro Borders 1 Set, and the wood-mounted Happy Halloween all joined forces with the Friendly Mummy to bring you this card {wink}.

And it just so happens that you can snag this fun little mummy stamp at 10% off this week because it's the DeNami Product Spotlight!

Want some more ideas for using DeNami's Friendly Mummy? Be sure to check out the DeNami blog today to see how the rest of the design team used this stamp. I know you'll be inspired!!

Thanks for dropping by today!
Emily

Halloween Goblins

Whew! Here we are already on the 12th of September! The past week at our house has been a whirlwind of going back to school and figuring out what will work for our new school routine. Over the weekend, we took in a concert, went apple picking, had friends over for dinner, kicked off the new Sunday School year, and celebrated my hubby's birthday. And so far this week has been filled with appointments and hubby's travel for work. So, when I tried to catch my breath, I was surprised to realize just how far into the month we are already! Halloween is just around the corner ;), so I dove right in and made my first Halloween card of the season--one featuring some one-eyed goblins, no less!

I created these too-cute-to-spook guys using DeNami Design's Fuzzy Ball stamp, coloring with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits, and drawing on long, skinny legs by hand. Each goblin's feet were created by snipping in half a small heart punched from coordinating cardstock. The background paper is some that I picked up at Target several years ago--I just love the colors in it! 

This adorable Fuzzy Ball stamp is our DeNami Featured Stamp this week! It will be on sale at 10% off all week. There are so many ways to use this fun little image! Be sure to check out the DeNami blog today for lots more creative ideas using the Fuzzy Ball.

Thanks so much for dropping by! See you again soon,
Emily

Textured Halloween

Well, last week seemed like a long slog, but I think my mojo has found its way home again! Thanks to any and all of you who kindly pointed out the way. ;)

Today I'm sharing what is probably my last Halloween card for this year. I finally have enough to send out to everyone on my list! I never used to send out Halloween cards, but I enjoy mailing notes to my far-flung family and friends--usually every month or two--to say hi and keep everyone updated on what's up with us. I think it's fun to change things up a bit and make and send cards that match the season, so I started making Halloween cards (and Thanksgiving ones, too). Variety is the spice of life, right?

So, here we go:
Can you believe that I made this entire card {gasp!} without stamping a single thing? I know, shocking, right? Last fall I won a fabulous Halloween collection, the Esmerelda Collection by Anna Griffin, over at the Moxie Fab World. I've been having a blast pulling out various elements to use on my Halloween cards this fall. The fun spiderweb patterned paper and the layered Halloween sticker both come from this collection. The canvas scalloped border sticker is from Little Yellow Bicycle, and the black spider brad came from the Target Dollar Spot. I hand-rolled black canvas (after a liberal application of Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz) into the black roses.

I'm playing along with three challenges:

• Textured to Perfection Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, to incorporate texture in an innovative way. I've got all kinds of layers of depth here: textured cardstock, embossed patterned paper, multi-dimensional sentiment sticker, canvas border sticker, and handmade rolled canvas flowers. How's that for a whole lot o' texture goin' on???
• City Crafter Challenge: "A Boo-tiful Color Challenge," to PRIMARILY use the colors BLACK and CREAM on your project. I've used lots of black and cream here, with a splash of muted orange.
• Paper Sundaes Challenge #91: Halloween or Fall

Now that I've completed my Halloween card construction, it's time to start getting them in the mail so they arrive before Halloween! That's one of my projects for this week. My other project is to get the house ready for company. My sister (sans children) is coming to visit me for several days at the end of the week! I haven't seen her since last Thanksgiving, so I'm really looking forward to this visit. She flies in Wednesday night and I'll have her to myself on Thursday and Friday while my kids are at school. This will be fun!! And the best part? We have plans to be crafty! She isn't terribly crafty herself, but asked if I could help her make some note cards to give as holiday gifts to her staff at work. She has 10 people on her list, so we have a lot to accomplish, but I really think we're going to have fun. I'm so glad she is interested in allowing me to share my paper passion with her!

That does it for now. Thanks so much for dropping by for a little slice o' bliss today!
Emily

Card Recipe:Stamps: none!
Paper: textured black CS; Esmerelda patterned paper from Anna Griffin
Ink: Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz
Accessories: black canvas, glue dots, Halloween canvas border stickers from Little Yellow Bicycle; Halloween 3-Dimensional Sticker (Esmerelda Collection) from Anna Griffin; black spider brad from TargetTechniques: handmade flowers

Something my kids made

My mojo is MIA. I don't know where it's gone. I've tried several different projects over the past several days, and nothing is coming together as planned. Boo hoo. I've bagged my attempts (except for my StampinB post for tomorrow--but be prepared to be underwhelmed) and have decided to give it a rest for a few days.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little something that my kids cooked up on their day off from school for Columbus Day on Monday. My daughter (who is 12) received a cool Halloween treats cookbook as a gift a number of years ago and looooooooooooooves looking through it when autumn rolls around. This year she flagged about 30 pages of themed treats to try. There's nowhere near enough time to make them all (for this year, at least), but I encouraged her to pick one or two to start with. She decided to try this cool Graveyard Treats dessert, and she and her little brother spent Monday afternoon concocting it.
We found the decorated sugar jack o' lanterns in the bakery at our local grocery store, a 6-pack for $1. So cute! The tombstones are just Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies (with some eerie green gel frosting inscriptions). There's a chocolate graham cracker crust, topped with a vanilla pudding mousse layer, topped with an orange Jell-o layer, topped with Cool Whip and decorations--complete with some graveyard dirt (chocolate graham cracker crumbs). They had a ball putting this all together. And it is SO delicious (pretty rich, too). I wasn't sure about the chocolate crust and orange Jell-o combo, but it is terrific and refreshing.

That's all I've got. If you find my roaming mojo, can you send it back home? I miss it.

Have a super day,
Emily

A Giveaway!!

Happy World Card Making Day!

I must admit that this is the first year that I've really paid attention to this papercrafting holiday, but it totally makes sense to me. I love the idea of devoting an entire day to something that makes so many people happy. Not only does the creating process give me a terrific sense of satisfaction (and most other cardmakers, as well!), but it also usually brightens the day of the person receiving one of my handmade creations. It's a two-fer!! And that makes me so very happy. :)

So in honor of WCMD and my 300th blog post (which went live earlier this week), I'd like to share my little slice of bliss with one of my readers by offering this blog candy as a giveaway:

Yes, it's a little Halloween-flavored kit of papercrafting supplies including a 12 pack of 12 x 12 specialty papers from K&Company's Spooktacular collection, a pair of Halloween paper punches from EK Success, and an adhesive gem spider web from Colorbok. All this Halloween goodness because I've had Halloween on the mind so much recently, having made six Halloween cards this week. In case you missed them, you can find links to all of them here:

Monday: Boo! to You (1 card)
Wednesday: Jack O' Lanterns (3 cards: orange, purple, and green)
Thursday: Halloween Bingo (1 card)
Friday: Spooky Chandeliers (1 card)

So here's how you can enter my random drawing for this Halloween prize package:

1. take a look at the Halloween cards that I made this week(the links are listed above),
   
2. and then come back here to leave me a comment on this post telling me which one was your favorite!!
   

That's it!! You don't have to be a follower or anything, just be sure that I have some way of contacting you (either through your blog or by including an email address in your comment). Only one comment per person--unless you are a follower (or become one!) and then you are welcome to leave a second comment telling me so for a second chance in the drawing.

Comments will be open until Thursday, October 6, at 5 p.m. EDT. I'll announce the winner here in a blog post on Friday, October 7, and will try to contact the winner directly as well so you don't have to remember to check back. ;)

Thanks for stopping in today. Have a terrific World Card Making Day!
Emily

Gettin' Spooky for Friends with Flair

Newsflash!

We interrupt this Friends with Flair post for an important announcement:

To commemorate my 3ooth blog post (which I just noticed was yesterday!) and to celebrate World Card Making Day (which kicks off bright and early tomorrow), I figured it's time for a GIVEAWAY!! Check back tomorrow, that's October 1, for the whole scoop.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled FWF programming.

Welcome to Unity's Friends with Flair blog hop! Check the Unity Stamp Co. blog for hop details and a full list of today's participants.

Today I'm sharing a one-layer Halloween card that I made using the chandelier from the Regal Greetings set from {ippity} by Unity.

I shabbied this up with some black ink sponged around the edges for a creepy Victorian look and drew in a spider web background. 'Cuz you know no one (with any substance, at least {wink}) has been around to dust those chandeliers in that old haunted house for quite some time! Anyway, I drew the web with a Sakura Glaze pen from my blogging buddy Jessi (thanks, friend!), dusted it with clear embossing powder, and heat embossed it for extra dimension.

A three-dimensional "Spooky" sticker from Anna Griffin and some black crochet string was all I needed to finish off this easy OLC!

I'm entering this Spooky creation in these challenges:

• All Things Unity challenge to make a one-layer card,
• {ippity} challenge to tie it up with twine, ribbon, or string on your project,
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge : ANYTHING GOES,
• Paper Sundaes Challenge: ANYTHING GOES

Well, I hope you have a fabulous weekend! My family has lots of fun stuff going on, and I am definitely hoping to get in some World Card Making Day crafting time. Be sure to peek in tomorrow for the details on my celebratory giveaway: sharing my bliss one little slice at a time!

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: {ippity} Regal Greetings
Paper: PTI kraft CS
Ink: Versafine onyx black
Accessories: sponge, Sakura Glaze pen, clear EP, heat tool, black crochet thread, three-dimensional sticker from Esmerelda collection by Anna Griffin
Techniques: sponging, one-layer card, embossing

StampinB Halloween Challenge

Happy Thursday! It's time for a new challenge from the Stampin' B's Design Team. This week Faith is our hostess, and she is challenging us to make a Halloween card. I had so much fun with Mr. Smiles earlier in the week that I just had to press him into service again:

That SPOOK bingo card is another digital element from the Haunted Collection by Carina Gardner that I first used earlier this week. Mr. Smiles once again was colored with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. And that bejeweled spider web? An adhesive embellishment I picked up in a clearance rack at Target last year after Halloween. (Unfortunately, there was no way to try out how it would look against that bingo card without it sticking. I'm afraid that it blends into the background way too much. It would have looked better if I'd adhered the web to some vellum and cut out around that before adding it to my card. Ah, well. Hindsight really is 20/20.)

I'm playing along with these challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Challenge : ANYTHING GOES
• Paper Sundaes Challenge: ANYTHING GOES

Thanks so much for dropping by today. If you'd like to try your hand at this week's Stampin' B's Challenge, post your project on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

See you soon!
Emily

PS The sweet Paulina of Pretty Pink Posh is offering an awesome giveaway: a Big Shot Machine and two sets of Spellbinder dies. If you are interested, you should definitely check it out HERE.

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mr. Smiles by Jane's Doodles
Paper: The Haunted Collection digital papers and elements by Carina Gardner, white CS, purple and lime green CS from The Paper Company
Ink: Palette noir black
Accessories: Lilac baker's twine from The Twinery, colored pencils, odorless mineral spirits, paper blending stumps, foam tape, scissors, EK BOO border punch, lime green buttons from Doodlebug, Colorbok adhesive gem spider web
Techniques: digital papers, Gamsol Magic