October Kit

I'm working a little ahead here. I was so far behind and don't want that to happen again. I know the next week or so is going to be very busy since I have to go back down to California for the wedding. I have a million things to do before then and now, so I thought I would just post this a little early and get one more thing crossed off my list.

I can't believe it's almost October. Yikes! This year has sped by so fast! As for the kit, this was definitely my favorite kit to put together. Not surprisingly, it is the most loaded, too. The only difficulty I had was that Halloween paper is kinda hard to come by in June, though I just found some at Joann's I wish I had known about. (Although, who knows if it was in stock back then.) I had fun and I hope you have fun with it as well. I've already made my layout, but will wait to post it again (it's on my personal blog, already).

Happy Halloween!!!


1. Paper

patterned: Halloween-themed (5 different patterns)

plain: 2 sheets of black cardstock (Not pictured)



Extra paper:

Plain: 2 sheets of lavender printer paper, 1 6x12 orange cardstock, 4 mats (yellow, orange, purple and green).

Embossed: 2 mats - orange pumpkins and yellow skulls



2. Ribbon

1 black polka dot organza

1 orange stitched

1 thin orange and white striped


3. Brads and Bling

4 silver round brads

4 orange flower brads

1 silver witch charm

2 jump rings for use with witch (if she'll fit) or orange tags

5 tiny orange tags



4. Embellishments

1 package of Jolees Halloween costumes

1 m&m's candy shaker box

8 Halloween-themed chipboard embellishments

1 felt strip of pumpkins

2 punched borders of spider webs





5. Titles

1 cricut die-cut title, "Spooky"



6. Sentiments & Phrases

1 sheet of Halloween-themed glitter stickers

1 package of Halloween-themed acrylic stamps

Non-Kit Cards

So I have been trying my hand at making my own cards for birthdays and other occasions and thought I would share some of my favorites.























Here are some birthday cards I made for some of Hanna's friends:

Rachel's January Results - Belatedly Continued

Better late than never?

I thought I would share a couple of cards I made using some materials from Marieke's awesome January kit, and of course, completing violating the rules (again).

Theresa's September Results

Layout (1/1)

I absolutely loved the materials in the September kit. When I saw them I knew immediately that I wanted to do a layout of our friends' daughter Calder, playing with legos at a party we had last summer. When I actually went to scrap it all, I went into a sort of scrappers-block. It took me a long time to get past it. Looking at the wonderful posts you ladies put up were very inspirational - and you will find that I've lifted some of your creative ideas to finally get this one finished. All in a day's work indeed!

Card (1/1)

Among the many cool things in the September kit - I was most strongly drawn to the bit of blue/green/orange ribbon provided in the embellie bag. I don't know why, but I love it! I couldn't think of what to do with such a small, precious piece - but finally came up with this.

My friend Shirleyanne just recently bought a pair of (really expensive) jeans called "genetic denim". The embroidered insignia is double helix. If I could fit into a pair of jeans like that, I'd probably buy them myself. :-P

Her birthday was coming up and I just couldn't let the rest of the paper go back into storage without doing at least one card. Voila, the little ribbon that could became my artistic representation of DNA on a birthday card (for a science nerd like me).

Note to self: take pictures BEFORE writing on the card!

Marieke's September Results

Okay, so I am finally catching up. Yay!

As usual, this is another one for Kurt's album. At this point, I have come to believe I'll never be done with it. I just have to think positive and say to myself, "It will be done. It will be done."

I was happy to get 10 photos on this layout. That always feels like a huge accomplishment. I scraplifted a lot of ideas from Claudia's layout. I loved how she cut out the circles. I totally stole that. The idea of adding paper to fill the spaces in between the photos came from some layouts I saw...somewhere. One of Rachel's layouts? A magazine? I don't remember now. Sorry. I'm usually much better at giving proper credit. :-)

The only other thing I can add to this is that when Spencer saw it and read the poem, he said, "Two little eyes? Two? Really?" Oops. Sometimes, I just forget.

Rachel's September Results

So I cheated a lot this month, but in my defense, due to my daughter's burgeoning - ahem - interest in my work, I had to create this layout twice and I was tired. Speaking of tired, let's pretend I glued the photo mats on straight.

I stole Claudia's idea of using the dry embossed cardstock as rounded-edge photo mats and am really pleased with the results. I also loved her idea of using the puzzle pieces in the title, so gave that a shot as well. I decided to cover some puzzle pieces with patterned paper, sand the edges and use them as photo corners for the layout itself.


I know we have already talked about what tools we find it difficult not to use in our discussions of whether we should adjust the rules. For me, hands down, I miss border punches the most. This month I just caved in and used one. I tried to match the color of the puzzle pieces behind the title (which were inked with blue chalk ink) by using watercolor to paint the border strips. I just couldn't resist adding on to the circle theme, so please forgive me.

Claudia's September Results

I absolutely loved this month's kit! Marieke, thank you so much. The colors, patterns, and details you assembled worked together beautifully, and were so much fun to create with. I completed 4 pages, 2 2-12x12 page layouts: Gavin's first day of preschool and a toddler page of Mia.

First off, for Gavin's page, I used the puzzle pieces and the chipboard brackets and bar to make the title. I have been trying to find different ways to frame pictures instead of my usual matting, so I used the embossed paper to create a right-hand border.

Secondly, I continued with the non-matting and was inspired by an article in "Creating Keepsakes" about layouts using 10 pictures. I attempted to frame a picture of Mia on the title page using ribbon and brads, and on the facing page using knotted ribbon as photo corners. I wanted to include some of Mia's pronunciations of words but without writing out a list, so I wrote them on yellow strips within the blue border. (On a side note, since I made this page a couple of weeks ago, some of these words have changed, so I'm definitely going to date this... she's growing so fast!)

Idea for Puzzle Pieces - September Kit

Here are some projects featuring puzzle pieces:



















And some cards...










And some other projects which might get your creativity flowing:

September Kit

I swear I haven't forgotten about this club - I've just been busy busy busy unpacking and exploring Boise. I've started September's layout and will hopefully post it tonight or tomorrow and then I'll catch up on August's kit. Thanks for you patience.


1. Paper - 4 Sheets (2 patterned and 2 plain)

patterned: multi-colored circles (2 different patterns)

plain: lime green (2 sheets)



Extra paper: 2 - 6 x 12 (yellow & blue) and 4 mats (2 embossed and 2 plain)






2. Ribbon

1 polka dot organza

1 thin lime green

1 striped tri-color (this one was only 12 inches because I only had 4 ft of it, but just had to include it)





3. Brads and Bling

Brads: 4 orange round brads & 4 yellow flower brads

Bling: 10 pieces of chipboard - various shapes






4. Embellishments

1 package of soft spoken toddler themed embellishments

1 sheet of white puzzle pieces




5. Titles

2 stamped words - Play and Delight





6. Sentiments & Phrases

1 card insert - Thinking of you

1 toddler poem in 2 different fonts on yellow paper