Happy Mail Day

So my husband has been on an extensive hunting trip, I think he's been gone 12 days so far but seems more like a month to me. My son keeps me company but his work schedule takes him away on weekends and evenings so I only get to see him a few hours when I get home.

I don't mind the quietness it's a nice break however being an Amazon Prime member I bought one of their firesticks. This is a great device and if you have never heard of it well it works through your wireless internet and allows you to access many online sites like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. Since I am an Amazon Prime member I get some free shows and movies. And now comes the part where I have been addictively watching Downtown Abbey. I am not much of a TV person but this was a show I wanted to watch but never found the time and always forgot to DVR it. Now I am obsessively watching it for hours on end thus between doing my husband's chores and marathon watching this show I don't have anything scrappy done. Well that and I am also working on my grandkids Halloween costumes. They are going as Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie.

Well that was a long way around to sharing what I arrived in the mail today. I have been very good about cutting my scrappy spending but splurged the other day and bought some new supplies. I was excited to see what arrived today both my MFT and Simon Says Stamps orders. It is a Happy Mail Day.

Some fun things I snagged.

I love this cute little elephant. I have another stamp with him but haven't used it quite yet. I guess I better use this one so I can justify my need for it.

With my MTF order I got those free stitch dies under the Halloween Graveyard dies which are actually two border type dies. Not sure what I will do with those stitch dies but should be fun figuring it out.

 

And lastly I couldn't resist that cute Stamping Bella witch. She was just too adorable to pass up. 

 

So has anyone else become addicted to Downton Abbey?

Halloween - It's Official!

At least around our house it's officially decorated that is. I was a busy girl and was able to get 80% outside done and 100% inside done. Well technically I guess it's 100%. I usually have a very intricate Halloween village that I put on display but since the grandbabies have been walking I have omitted it. I was tempted this year to put it out but decided they still aren't quite old enough where I don't have to worry about something getting broken. Other than that it's done.

The outside still needs some spot lights up, cobweb material that I fill across an entire wall and of course fill it with spiders but it's too early for that. All I will get from now until HW is a bunch of debris stuck to it.

I was looking for pictures and a video I took last year to show you my witch who is mostly life size that is cooking up my zombie Harold in a cauldron but alas I guess I deleted it. I have two fog machines that also need to be setup but last year we used dry ice on top of that and lets just say it was a very cool effect and definitely will be repeating that. Ok enough rambling.

Back to more watercolors. I decided to splurge and bought some real watercolor paints instead of using my Distressed Ink dyes. They were a bit more work than the inks becauase I had to come back two or three times to get the effect I was after.

Using up some odds and ends 3-D stickers to complete this scene as well as a Simon Says stamp and dies for the sentiment

Halloween - Layout

Figured since I was in the Halloween phase that I might as well capture this picture of my dh and his little sister which allowed me to use up a stockpile of HW pp.

Apparently he doesn't quite remember why they were dressed up and since his sister is no longer alive it's hard to get any details about this.

I love this photo and my dh will have my head if he knew I was sharing it but it's so funny to see him dressed up as a woman in his teenage years.

For some reason this photo brings back childhood memories for me. That moment you are trying to throw together an outfit at the last minute because your friends want to go out but you hadn't really planned on it. Of course back then the Spirit store didn't exist and store bought costumes were pretty scarce so you had to rely on your own creativity. I remember going as Tom Sawyer one year. I had a straw hat and overalls so that pretty much made it an easy decision.

Lastly I actually did a few stamped images on this page which isn't something I normally do, but it just seemed like it needed a few more details. Up in the left hand corner you will notice a bat trio and little hanging spider, these were stamped.

Halloween - Happy Halloween

Funny how you dig through your dies and realize you haven't used something in a long time. That's the way it was with this spiderweb die.

 

I made the tag using a negative die punch from my Impression Obsession pumpkin dies, then diecut 3 Halloween sentiments and glued them together for the bolder or thicker look of the Halloween and then added the cute little epoxy spider from Bella Blvd and finished it with some Baker's Twine and a Happy sentiment.

 

Halloween - Happy Haunting

I splurged and bought these Impression Obession Pumpkin dies. I didn't realize they would be quite as large as they were, but that's ok they work better being a bit larger. You can't tell from the photo but they also emboss lines down the pumpkin so they really are pretty detailed.

 

The sentiment stamp is from Kraftin Kimmie stamps. Epoxy stars are from Doodlebug and Enamel dots from MME. 

Halloween - Trick Or Treat

When I first started stamping I was intrigued by the Stampscapes stamps, although they were fairly pricey I slowly accumulated a few, but like most things I never really used them because quite frankly I wasn't too sure how to use them. This of course was a long time before Youtube.

I could never bring myself to purge them because they still hold a soft spot in my creative mind and one day I hope to master them. I have decided I might need to go buy a few more. Seems in order to have a nice scene you need at least three or four of the of same scenery. Mine are all over the place.

In the mean time I brought out a few and decided they would work well for this window scene.

I have also decided this window die doesn't get nearly as much love as it should. Seems the only time I use it is for Halloween, so now I have a goal to use it for at least one of my Christmas cards as well.

 

Window die is from Poppystamps, Cat die is Papertrey Ink, background stamps from Stampscapes and the little witch die is a punch from who knows where. I can remember a time I used to go to the Expo and buy these little pkgs of punched things and these were part of that collection.

Halloween - Happy Pumpkin Day

I decided I really like incorporating watercolors in my cards and decided to use both the watercolor technique along with creating a scene. On this card I actually painted the colors in an attempt to set the color scene I needed. Used both stamps and die cuts to complete it.

Have to tell you every time I use watercolors I can't help but hope I am channeling some of my father. He was a wonderful sketch artist and took up painting as an extension of his talents. His watercolors were some of his best paintings and am lucky to be able to enjoy having a few of his paintings in my home.