Looking Like Halloween

I made this page to document our Halloween decorations this year. I've already told you how crazy my kids were for decorating. I really like these goodies on this light blue-ish purple. Part of this stuff is even more left overs I had from the JBS Mercantile Haunted House Mini-Album Kit. I added a German spider web scrap, a Martha Stewart spider sticker, and a Jolee's Boutique glitter flower. 

The journaling says: Halloween decorating - the love it. I brought all the boxes down from the attic and they went crazy grabbing stuff and decorating all over the house. They helped me set up the village and decorate the Halloween tree, decorate the hall tables. One of my fave things this year is the old skeleton on my new old mirror from Brimfield. I collected all the Halloween ornaments from before the kids were born 1. because I've always loved Halloween and 2. I loved thinking about my kids someday getting enjoyment from them. And now here we are all these years later, decorating together. 

Here's some of our decorations:

Our Halloween Village all across the dining room table.

My old mannequin dressed for Halloween. It's too bad I couldn't find my vintage black bustier :) She looks great in that. 

Here she is wearing vintage necklaces and a J. Crew orange necklace.

Our Halloween Tree - I really like this white feather tree - works for all seasons. This photo is a bit blurry but I used thick white embroidered white on orange trim. 

I got this old mirror at Brimfield - the perfect size for this vintage cardboard skeleton.

Just some stuff jumbled on the hall table. The lights look really cute at night.

And this girl. How cute is she???!!!

Cut Files Winner Announced from JBS Blog Hop!

According to the random number generator, my winner is:

Jennifer Cardwell said...

Awesome giveaway to go with my new cameo that I ordered and am waiting to arrive! My favorite costume growing up would have to be the glowing butterfly. My favorite cut above, I can't choose. They all look awesome! Thanks for the opportunity! moadibp2@aol.com

October 17, 2012 4:16 PM

Thank you to EVERYONE who left comments and played along. I truly enjoyed reading about your special Halloween costumes from the past - some very special memories shared. Laura said her mom spent the morning putting on her clown make-up and she won second place in the costume contest as a new kid at school so it was a special memory for her. And Susan said her fave costume memory was the year Strawberry Shortcake came on the scene - she couldn't afford to buy the costume for her daughter so they got creative and made their own out of a red tablecloth and she drew seeds all over it - and her daughter won best costume! Don't you just know that costume was way cuter than any store bought Strawberry Shortcake. 

My favorite Halloween costume memories involved my mom painting my face too. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandma wasn't particularly artistic (she has MANY fine qualities, I could go on and on, that's just not one of them. Well, no, she IS artistic with quilting but she didn't share that talent until later in life) so for Halloween she would take me over to my mom's house and my mom would paint my face. One year she did an incredible job painting my face like a leopard. Another year she did my witch make-up. And then I went trick or treating with them, my mom, dad, and half sister - like a "real family" - in my kid mind (a traditional family - which is what I did not have). And so all of that together was a special time for me. I've always loved Halloween.

So congrats to Jennifer Cardwell - you've won the cut file set! We will be emailing your shortly with your goodies!

Epic Jenni Bowlin Studio Halloween Bonanza Blog Hop!

Have you seen this incredible Haunted House Mini-Album by Jenni Bowlin? Oh my, you have to see it.  I grabbed one right away when they hit the store. It was the only scrappy thing I took with me out of town on fall break. And I made the book just as the directions told me - cause you can't improve on a Jenni design! This one shown here is by Jenni. It's just a really, really cool little book. It's going to look so cute on my Halloween mantle. Wouldn't this one be so fun to put together with a group of girls on Halloween Eve? So, with that introduction brings me to the introduction of my scrapbook page:

This is the page I made with leftovers from the fabulous Haunted House Mini-Album Kit. If you want to be able to make Jenni's book and this page, then you will need to pick up one extra orange butterfly rub on in the store and grab some black and orange buttons from your stash. Everything else comes in the kit: the paper, transparency, bingo cards, labels, stickers, stars, vellum, and even some orange glass glitter.

This is a page about the kids and how much they love our Dept. 56 Halloween Village. Since Jenni's book is based on house shapes, I had this perfect bingo card piece that was the leftover after cutting out a roof so I used it here to make a house shaped frame for my picture - since it's a page about the village. 

I used the back packing sheet from the JBS large Halloween Bingo Cards which has all these cute mini sized bingo cards. For the covers of Jenni's book she trimmed off the border of the bingo cards so I had those to use on my scrapbook page as you can see here how I used it to frame the butterfly/bingo card embellishments. 

I love this script font. It's called Burgues Script and it's a pay font - not a cheap one either. Although considering you'll get years of scrappy font usage happiness out it, you could consider it an investment in your happiness ;)

Still in the mood for more Halloween?? Get this . . . . . . .

In celebration of our JBS Halloween Treats Bonanza, Jenni is giving away this adorable house and the two eerie trees she made with one of the limited edition Halloween kits (the 3D house kit is sold out but there's still two other kits left, including the Haunted House Mini-Album Kit I shared above). Hop on over to Jenni's blog for a chance to win!

MY GIVEAWAY PART! So blog hops always have a prize, right? Well, here's your chance to win all four of these cut file sets designed by Lisa Dickinson for JBS Mercantile! Leave me a comment telling me what was your favorite Halloween costume from your childhood years. Or if you didn't dress up and do the Halloween thing then tell me which is your favorite cut set shown above! Or tell me if you're going to get that Haunted House Mini Album Kit. I don't care, just leave me a fabulously wonderful comment, lol! And leave me your email address, if you like, so I can get to you ASAP once I draw a winner.

ALSO, in celebration of JBS Mercantile offering cutting files, we have a special from Silhouette we're passing on to our friends in order to help you get started with a new Silhouette Cameo. The promotion runs from October 17th thru the end of October - or in other words - Halloween Night (insert crazy witch laugh)!

Halloween vinyl/CAMEO bundle:

·         1 roll 9-inch x 10 feet black premium vinyl

·         1 roll 9-inch x 10 feet orange premium vinyl

·         1 roll transfer paper

·         1 Silhouette hook tool

·         1 Silhouette CAMEO®

·         All for $269.99! (MSRP of $351.95)

Just enter the code "JBShalloweenbonanza" during check out! Here's the LINK. So even if you haven't thought about trying the vinyl, this is still a great deal on the Cameo. The Cameo retails for $299.99 and during this sale it's basically $269.99  and you could think of the vinyl stuff as "free" :) That's a 30 dollar savings!

One more thing! If you would like to know more about how to get the most out of your Silhouette, check out this class, Silhouette 101, at Creative Passion Classes, by our newest JBS Design Team Member, Amanda Jones Robinson. Our very own Betsy Sammarco will be making an appearance. There are lessons, pdf's, webinars, free Silhouette files, lots of good stuff and the class is 25 percent off through Friday.

AND . . . as  part of our Halloween Celebration we are offering 3 mega kits on super sale!

See details below! The stickers and embellishment kits would make great stocking stuffers. Make sure to leave a comment on the JBS Inspiration Blog for a chance to win one of these three kits!

Keep hopping on and check out the rest of these talented ladies' blogs for more inspiration, fun, and chances to win those cut files!

Amanda Jones Robinson
Amy Kingsford
Ashley Calder
Betsy Sammarco
Briana Johnson ------------(You are here! Comment for a chance to win the cut files!)
Connie Mercer
Corrie Jones
Doris Sander
Jenni Bowlin ------------(A chance to win the 3D Halloween House & Trees)
Jenni Bowlin Studio --------------(A chance to win one of the Mega Kits)
Jenni Hufford
Jill Sprott
Kerry Lynn Yeary
Leah Farquharson
Lisa Dickinson
Megan Klauer
Natalie Elphinstone
Shimelle Laine
Tina Walker

HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN!

Scrapping Vintage at JBS Mercantile Today

Check it out at the JBS Mercantile Inspiration Blog today for more details about this page! Don't you love those Maple Leaves - cut files by Lisa Dickinson are on sale at the Mercantile Store! And make sure to check out the Inspiration Blog tomorrow for something VERY fun and exciting - special Halloween projects, sales, giveaways, lots of good stuff - we'll be blog hopping tomorrow so check back!

http://www.jennibowlinstudioinspiration.blogspot.com/2012/10/scrap-vintage-school-falling-leaves.html

My Star-Pal

Happy Saturday! This is the last page I made for JBS Mercantile this month. I think there's a little something from all the kits. The blue tags and the airmail tape are from the mini album kit, the star label is from Antiquarian, the banners are from Artisan, and the glitter alphas and patterned paper are from the main kit. I wanted to incorporate lots of journaling on this one so I used the tags and the check stub (both from Jenni's new perforated papers). This page is a bit special to me because of all the journaling so when I started out with this one - I started out intending to focus on the photos and the story and just let the design fall into place however it would after the other two objectives were accomplished :) So I ended up with a collaged look in order to get some goodies on there as well. But my husband and I think this is a special one because it gives such a slice of who he is right now.

There are two stories on this page which both occur around the same time as this picture. The journaling on the check stub is literally about this picture. I talk about how my son has been taking this green basketball to school. He started doing that because the kids weren't really letting him play basketball (he's the new kid and he's not really a basketball player, he knows much more about soccer). So he started taking his own ball but not playing basketball - just dribbling around and rolling it down the slide. It became his recess security. I guess he felt like if he didn't find another kid to play with, he had his basketball to play with. And the jacket. This was the first time this season he got to wear his jacket and that gave him a little shot of happiness that day. He's always liked having his jacket and tries to wear it too early in the fall and too late in the spring.

The rest of the journaling tells the story of the game we play many nights before he falls asleep. The "I Love You More," game you all probably know. He always starts out with, "I love you all the way past Pluto." And then the other planets get mentioned and the sun and Heaven and on and on. But the solar system is always involved. So I thought the Star-Pak label would be perfect and it just hit me I could make it say Star-Pal instead by covering the K with label paper and using the red alpha letter L from the October Afternoon stickers from Artisan. Clever moment for me! :)

Here's a shot so you can read some of the journaling if you wish. Cracked me up with he said he loved me all the way to Heaven then Pluto then Texas then Great Wolf Lodge because we aren't very far from Texas and Great Wolf Lodge but that's a place he's always loved going. I know there's supposed to be a space after the colons but since my space was limited I just left those out - because they would've taken up mucho space and the story is still told well without them.

Thanks for checking it out!

JBS Mercantile: Blessings Layout with Feedsack Rosette

This layout was made with the main kit and the feedsack quilt pieces are from Antiquarian (which has sold out). I love this peach diagonal gingham paper. I want more :) It really looks nice as a background. I also used the BONUS kit cut now included in the main kits!!! The doily you see here is the kit cut for October. Isn't it great! It's from the Wren JBS Collection.

This is a photo strip of me and my darlin' from a recent birthday party. Oh Ava cracks me up. I love her second pose - stunned. She does that one often. I used some of our new JBS Mercantile cuts! Blessings is part of a title set designed by Lisa Dickinson which is available for purchase at the Mercantile store. The cut file says Autumn Blessings but I just used the blessings part for this page.

So here's the pretty feedsack rosette I made. You can't really make anything ugly using vintage quilt scraps or pieces, lol, you know? They're just inherently beautiful. In the Antiquarian kit Jenni gave us two half round scalloped quilt pieces. I used embroidery thread to sew a running stitch along the inside of the first piece then used the same piece of thread and continued to sew along the second piece so I could gather them up together as one complete circle. I just knotted the ends of the embroidery thread together with a little slack in the middle and the used glue dots to attach one of the new JBS quilt stars to the center. I did hand sew the rosette to the page in the middle because I wanted the center of the rosette to be really tight against the page so the outer edges would pucker out better and look more full.

Here our our new cuts!

This is the bonus main kit cut!

And these are the Mercantile Cuts for purchase. I have loved working with these. I've got a page to share soon using the leaves that just makes me so happy. Lisa did an absolutely wonderful job making these. PS thanks Lisa for letting me steal your collage image from your blog :)

Now I must go pack for a Cub Scouts camp out weekend! Confession: I have never been overnight camping in my entire 32 years of life. Shameful, isn't it. I was raised by my grandparents and that was just not their kind of thing. Anyhow. It's supposed to be in the low 40s here tomorrow night. Any words of wisdom from the camping pros? I already got Doris' pearls of wisdom: baby wipes to freshen up, head lights for the cool kids, and clothes in a laundry basket or plastic container. We have a giant tent for 10 even though we are only 4 at Adam's insistence. This is going to be fun. I can't wait to watch him put that big dude up.

JBS Mercantile October Reveal - Woodgrain Chevrons!

Hey girls! Today is October 1st so that means we've got new kits up for sale at JBS Mercantile! Subscribers get to purchase add ons today and non-subscribers are allowed to purchase starting on the 2nd. NEW MERCANTILE CUTS FOR PURCHASE!! Today and tomorrow they are 25 percent off!

This page, I love. I used my exacto knife to cut out random pieces from the chevron woodgrain paper. Since the chevron pattern is so small, I didn't want to take the time to try and line the back of each cut out so I just ran strips of paper down each row - plus I think it makes more of an impact on the cut outs vs. if they were all different and mixed up. Having rows of the same color/pattern makes the design cut out more visible and s"stronger" I think.

Here's a look at what the page looked like before the top layer went on. The only tricky part of this is getting the sticky behind the strips and getting the strips placed just so while holding the top layer in place so that you get these base strips placed just so. 

Here's a shot of the top page before I glued it onto the base piece. You can see the cut out random-ness here a little better here just to give you an idea in case this is something you want to try. Or this gives you an idea of how it would look just to experiment with solid colors behind the cut outs.

So then I had this fab idea to run the ticket strips down some of the rows and tuck them behind some of the cut outs. Man, I felt smart, lol. It's like giving it another layer of interest and I love how it made the ends of the ticket strips into angled ends. I typed a small bit of journaling on my photos in Photoshop before I printed them so all I had left was a title - that part is pretty self explanatory :) 

JBS Mercantile Gallery Reveal