Is it Fall yet?

It is hard to believe it is Fall already! With temps in the hundreds the past few days, it is more like a summer heat wave around here. But it is Fall and Halloween is just around the corner.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, especially for decorating.
Halloween is spooky, silly and scary all at once.

This year to start off my decorating I went to a fun Halloween only craft faire.

Halloween and Vine

This is a juried show and all the crafters/artists displayed amazing Halloween art. Some silly, some fun and some downright spooky.  If I had a bigger pocketbook, I could have bought a lot more. It was so hard to decide what I could afford and not live with out.

This silly little witch below had to come home with me. She is so ugly she is cute!



The artist I bought her from is Kerry Howard Schmidt.
Paper Moon
Lots of fun, felted goodies!


This little kitty came home with me too. I will be hanging it on my Halloween tree. But first I will need to make a fake candle, as my tree is in our sun room, and candles don't do well out there. It can get a bit toasty out there on a hot day!

Len Bentham created this little kitty and "Jack"
Happy Holidays Blog



This artist had some amazing Halloween figures, I wish I could have spent more money!!!


It was really hard to decide what to buy, but I think these too will fit right in my Halloween decor.
As I get it all set up I will share some of my crafts and some of the Halloween decor I already own, some I have had for years.

Thanks for visiting!

Birthday Cards

I have several birthdays in August so I had to make some cards. One was a quick card using left overs and the other took a bit longer, but both were fun to make.

The first card also doubles as photo frame. I covered chipboard with this pretty pattern paper from MME. I covered both sides of the chipboard with paper so it looks good from front and back.

I used a Sizzix die to cut out the frame shape. I have two of the same Sizzix frame die, but in the second die I took out the frame "center" cutting blades so it would cut a full shape with out the "hole".

It's not hard to do, you just need a good pair of pliers!



I slipped a mat in front of the greeting, here the wood grain paper. To add a photo, just slip out the greeting and slip in the photo. I also used foam strips to raise the front of the frame for a shadow box look.
I made all the flowers using punches and flower stamens from the cake supply store. I colored the spiky white stamens with Copic markers to a  warm yellow shade.

The  card below was for my sis-in-law. She likes western themed things so these left over chipboard pieces from Cosmo Cricket made quick card embellishments. 

The sentiment is part of a set from Close to My Heart.

I hope the recipients of these cards liked them!

Thanks for visiting.

Fair Time

Hello, long time no post! Life and work have gotten in the way of my crafting and scrapping! Hopefully my next post will be sooner. 

It was just county fair time here in Sonoma County. It is always a summer must for us to visit, to see the beautiful themed flower show, the animals, carnival and fair food!

I also love to check out the Adult Fine Art and Home Art Exhibits, and also the Kids exhibits. 

There are some talented people in our county. 

Almost every year I also enter items in the Home Art Exhibits. It is fun to see my creations on display and see if I won any ribbons! 

Below are a few of my entries this year. 

I entered my smashed penny bracelet, made from my smashed pennies I gather on my travels. I added some bead accents and used my handy Crop-a-dile from my scrap tools to punch a hole in each smashed penny. 

I also entered this little sewing book I made while scrapping at my friend Narda's one weekend. I covered manila file folders with sewing themed scrapbook paper and real sewing pattern tissue. I covered chipboard for the covers and put it all together with my bind-it-all.  

 

I embroidered the little heart for the cover. The photos that will go in the album are photos of my sewing projects that I have given away or were out grown! 

I also made another paper mache figure, this time a Santa with his toy bag on a paper mache book. Santa is molded from styrofoam shapes and aluminum foil, covered in paper mache medium.  

Painted and covered with mica flakes, all set for Christmas!

I entered some cards too! 

 

And of course some scrapbook pages!



My 4th Fervor page even won a blue ribbon!

I had another 2 page scrap book lay out, but the fair crew only displayed one page! I was disappointed they only displayed one side as they were attached together? The judge wrote on my entry, "where's the journaling?"  On the half of the lay out you did not see!

My son Henry entered a Lego creation, as he does every year. He always themes his creation to the Fair theme, and wins a blue ribbon every year he has entered.

Thanks for visiting! Hopefully my next blog post comes a little bit sooner that the last!