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Sizzix has a great pop-up die in the shape of a ball that I love.

It is great for cardmaking but I found a new use for it – to make halloween pumpkin decorations.  Take a look at this.

Isn’t it adorable?  I just love it. Of course you could make the same thing inside a card but I like this little guys as a stand alone decoration.

I didn’t make this as a pop-up (no elastics on the inside) and used 6 side panels to create it (and not the layered panels with the hole for the elastics).  It is still flexible enough for me to slip in a little electronic tea light inside so that it glows at night (we are having a huge halloween bash next week and I am using these to decorate the house).

For the top of the pumpkin I just rolled a piece of brown cardstock and glued on some thin, curly strips of green cardstock and poked it into the hole that was already there.

For the jack-lantern face I used this die. 

I think I am going to make a bunch more of these for around my house - using patterned paper for some of them.  The kidlets can take them home at the end of the night.

Yesterday my copies of the last issue of Memory Makers arrived.Even thought I have been prepared for it for awhile it still made me sad.  I have read and been part of Memory Makers for a long time.  The last issue seems so final.

So it is with a sad good-bye that I end this chapter.  I will savor this last issue for awhile.

Here are my pages from this month’s column.

And here is this month’s color palette (great for fall layouts).

If you make something with this palette make sure to show me.  I love to see what you make.

(In addition to my Color Swatch column I also have a DIY wedding quiz in the issue – be sure to check it out.)

Which one is your fave?

Choice 1

Choice 2

Option 3

To create the embossing I used my Big Shot with the baby themed Textured Impressions (this one and this one).  Love these – especially when I know I am going to need to make a lot of something.

(Want to see another baby shower invite I made recently?  click here)

to be sitting and scrapping today. I feel like it has been forever (really only a few weeks). I’ve done a few things here and there but not any real, sit-down-and-glue-paper-to-paper-just-for-fun-kinda-scrapping.

It all started yesterday really. I played hookie yesterday and didn’t do a thing. Nothing, nadda, zip, zilch. Just buried my nose in a book. Forgot to each lunch, didn’t check emails, didn’t do dishes and definitely didn’t do any laundry. I really just read all day. And I felt gulity the whole time even though the kids and my husband were out for the day. That was what made it so awesome. The slightly guilty feeling – it made me feel as if I was getting away with something, lol. I needed it though. It has been crazy lately with all the travelling and trying to keep up with my other creative commitments. 

Today I couldn’t wait to get into my scraproom.  I made myself do the chores I skipped yesterday first but now I am busy creating away.  It is nice to feel all charged up again.  Here is the first page I made – appropriately about my daughter who has also turned into a bookworm.

Just a simple page using only cardstock, some foam letter letters and some rub-ons. 

Foam letters and letter rub-ons are by American Crafts.

 To make the decorative border I used some scalloped cardstock and then took a 1/2″ hole punch and punched the circles.

It is just a simple page to document my daughter’s sudden love of reading this summer.

More page soon.