Welcome, let me get the Red Carpet out for YOU! MMSC#21

Hello and Welcome, Whew so much going on I don't know it I am coming or going or if it really matters!  But, I think I have the right Challenge card for you!!  And that is a "Give Thanks" for that.

For me, I think often how lucky I am to have what I have.  I have a wonderful family, a beautiful daughter I cherish, (yes, she is severely handicapped)  but her heart is so big and she is very happy MOST of the time and enjoys the simple things in life, I think she has already achieved what we all hope to achieve in our life time, happiness, contentment, joy in life's offerings.  Surely I was chosen to be her mom for a reason. When I look at her, I step back and not 'want' so much, it's not having what you want but wanting what you have!  So I "Give Thanks' throughout the year and not just at Thanksgiving.

This card is very rich and elegant looking.  What did I do?  I wet embossed the leaves I stamped on the four square corners and then stitched around all four of the under laying papers.  I also wet embossed main image, the Cornucopia and colored it in  with chalks.  Don't hear alot of talk about chalks these days but don't dismiss them either, I feel they give it a special kind of appeal.  I placed a sheer gold bow on the left side of the card and added 3 orange flower buds.  I applied the words 'Give Thanks' with makingmemories Vintage Findings epoxy lettering which gives it a Vintage feel for this card. The stamp I have had for many years and one of my favorites for this time of year and always 'In Style'.  Thank  you for stopping my little spot, please leave a comment so I know you were here.

Our Weekly sponsor is Belles' n Whistles' for a 2 stamp giveaway and the Midnight Madness monthly sponsor is  Gurlee Girl Designs. the prize is 3 stamps PLUS a gift certificate.  These stamps are fabulous, You are going to fall in love with them, the new releases are fall and winter themed.  I also got to play with them, our sponsor was VERY kind to the Design team and you will view my designs later this month.  I hope that I have done the Gurlee Girl Designs images justice.

This card was entered in the following Challenges:
   Basic Grey Challenge:  Week #4 Embossing
   Simon Says Stamp:  Stitch it Up!!
   The Color Throwdown:  I used Olive (in the stem), Mustard (the     flower), Chocolate and Regal Red. 

Thank you again for your thoughts  and have a great day/evening, ~~~ A Thanksgiving blessing for you, Jane

The Midnight Madness Highlights

Hello ALL and WELCOME, so many things are happening at Midnight Madness including our first Blog Hop:

              Prowling at the 1^st Midnight Madness Blog Hop

The blog Hop starts on October 16th, 2009 at 8 a.m. EST and ends October 20, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight.

Prizes?  You ask, why of course,  25 prizes will be awarded and goes as follows:

 One Grand prize random drawing

350^th  BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize

13 “Cards from the Crypt” (picked by our DT members from MMSC archives)

10 random Package winners drawn

                WorkBox HUGE Giveaway!!

Enter to win your choice of a Ribbon box or the ScrapMaBob and qualify for the amazing Workbox giveaway taking place on October 12, 2009. Yes, you read correctly. I am giving away either a Ribbon Box or a ScrapMaBob (these are so handy!) and that winner will be entered into the Grand Prize Giveaway-- a Workbox in their choice of color/style. WOW!!!!!
Enter this code when you place your order to get $100 off your shipping: 100Writes

(worth $1295.00)

~~~~ A few Holiday Cards ~~~~~~

I recently 'did up' a few holiday cards.  One for Halloween, and two for Christmas, My first "official" Christmas cards.  This is a really quick post after my ramblings I posted yesterday, hope all is well.  I'm taking a break from outside work, hubby ran to the store for some yard supplies so I'm playing hooky right now!
Have a great day everyone.   Can anyone guess the makers of these stamps?  I know some of you can, as least one or two,  go ahead and make your guesses -  I'll post back and list them tomorrow.

I have entered the Hedgehog sledding in the following Challenges:
          Pollycraft:  Stripes, Snowflakes and Sparkles
AND A Spoon full of sugar #71, Christmas 

                                                               ~~~ Blessings, Jane

Our Big Family Event:. My sister's Birthday

I promised to show you these photos regarding my older sisters birthday so I am going to do that today.  My plans for today was to work outside and start putting my Garden to bed BUT it is raining like crazy outside right now and as you know I have two cats and they are freakin' with all the noise and sticking very close to Mommy, which is 'ME'.  So I am a little throw off my plans, I wanted to get started before hubby joined me tomorrow to get some of the prep work done, it is just better that way and runs smoother.  For example, he had already shut off the water outside and had someone come out and blow out our water irrigation system, I was not ready for that!!   I like to wash off my yard things before storing away.  Luckily, I have a neighbor that is a wonderful lady and she is letting me hook up to her water.  SO, you are getting the idea.  OK, back to THIS story.  My sister celebrated a milestone birthday in August and she wanted a sit down dinner for 75 guests using Vintage table clothes, real flatware, china, linen napkins, water glasses and so on...  Open bar with Wine, beer everything but hard liquor, a DJ, lighting ... So that should be easy right???  OMG OMG... I can't tell you ... I think I am now OK.  I am going to start with the photos now.

 

Inside her house, setting all the bowls, glasses, bread baskets, et.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing double??  Nope, these two are identical twins, my nieces.

It started with the outside getting decorated, my brother and two sisters working on that and my Mom already resting!  I was inside with my other sister, preparing the food, more on that later.  Trust me, being inside was the place to be, you do NOT want to get caught up in my older sisters debates!!  Chopping and dicing, and slicing inside is the place to be.   I will tell you the menu, not that I got much time to eat but either did my other siblings.  If course we refused the Birthday girls help after her first guest arrived, it is HER DAY.    The menu as a red pasta, a white pasta, dipping oils and breads and a mixed garden salad for each table.   SO exactly HOW many dishes does all this equal  **** Plenty  **** .  Dessert was baby cheese cakes and a flat sheet cake.  I took a picture of the little cakes and I did manage to snag a few of those before they were gone.  The DJ started at 7 - 11pm and after that we served sandwiches and chips.  Us sibs served the guests, refilling water pitches, bread baskets, passing out cake,cleaning off some tables for some late arriving guests.  Can you believe I said  "Please come this way, I have a table cleared for you?'

So, no photos of the dancing on the blog or the fireworks after the DJ or the overflowing of wine and beer bottles.  I slept over and got up early to start the cleanup and washed over 2 dozen serving bowls before everyone else woke up or came back to help with the clean-up,  Was is worth all that work?  Well, we are still dividing up who owes what dishes (a few strays with no owners)  but my sister had the best of times and her guests were treated like royality so ~~~ yes is was.   Needless to say we are never doing that again, I have been told since I am the youngest, to start looking for catering services.

Hope you enjoyed our family's adventure.   Happy Birthday my dear sister, Donna.  Love you but never again.   Have the best of days ~~~ Warmly, Jane

My first Wall Hanging!! Lovin' all the de'tails', for MMSC #20,

Where has the time gone?  Another week and here we are back with another Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge.  This week I did not do a card but instead did a wall hanging.  I really like this Squirrel stamp by DSR designs and I also used another stamp for the branches for the focal point of the Wall Hanging.   The Wall hanging has a black ribbon to hang it up with and a black tassel on the bottom.  I sure wish I recalled which photo I sent Priscilla on this hanging, I wonder if we will be showcasing the same one!  I am very pleased with the end product, it is very nice and it was very easy to make it into a Wall Hanging verses a card, do I see more of those in my future?

I used markers to color in the imagines, and used dry embossing folders for the grass below the branches and some blue chalk for the Sky.  I then did some layering to follow the sketch and added some embellishments of brads, ribbon and a buckle.  

Anyways this is my weekly Midnight Madness Sketch card using this stamp from our Sponsor, D-R-S Designs, they are offering a $50.00 gift certificate. They will be sponsoring Midnight Madness all month and so you will be able to see even more great cards from the Design Team featuring stamps from D-R-S Designs.

Michelle's Scrapbooking is our sponsor this week. You can find her at her site: www.michellesscrap.com  Michelle’s Scrapbooking & More carries everything a stamper would need, including all the latest Basic Grey, Spellbinders, Copic Markers, Flowersoft and stamps from such great companies as Magnolia, Whiff of Joy, Alota Rubber Stamps, Stampavie, CC Designs, House Mouse and more.  

Thank you for visiting my blog, I appreciate your visit.   I hope you have a great day/evening.   ~~ Jane

Lazy 'Dazes' and Sundays

Hello, Today it is a bit cooler and I don't know what I think about that, nice still but I feel winter is going to be settling in soon and in Minnesota, always a cold one but also a slower time of the year where you are in the house more and getting cozy and doing inside things.  Since today was a lazy day, my daughter and I went out and did some shopping and since my daughter is in a wheelchair it is somewhat time consuming getting in and out of the vehicle and YiPPee, I can't even drive my little sports car, I get to drive this black honken  SUV.  I am sorry Peter, you know I love you and count on you and you never let me down (the SUV's name) I name them all, he is very nice but not like my Mable, not like my Mable.  Okay, I am chatty today, hubby watching the game, don't be bugging him!  So where was I, oh yes, some of my favorite things ~  we went shopping and we first went to Archiver's and got my paper fix and a sheet of embellishments, you will see that in use later on some cards I will showcase in the future but is that not nice?   Then off to Target, I decided I need a good read, that is my second favorite thing to do is read,  I have not read this Author before so I thought I would give it a try, it sounded very interesting!  Megan is none too happy waiting for me to pick out a book nor was she very happy waiting for me to pick out some papers but on to the next item is the cookie dough, well she was ok with that!   Okay, I have to say, anything that I have to turn the oven on for is 'homemade' at our house.  I used to buy Toll House but with those issues of their tainted dough I switched brands and I really think that Pillsbury is actually better than Toll House.  Then you see my Tea set, so now you now know some of my favorite vices.      

                Shhhh, the Game on the TV, the Vikings are playing today.  Now if I was a better blogger I would know how to get rid of the Signature up above but I am too far into my post to start over now so sorry about that.

We did get several loads of laundry done before our shopping trip.  Actually I sorted the clothes and Hubby washed them while I was getting breakfast ready for Megan and getting her dressed for the day, Megan needs alot of help.  Of course hubby still struggles with who's clothes are who's, doesn't matter you wore those clothes just yesterday because he still puts them in the wrong bedroom, like he can't remember what you looked like yesterday!!

I hope you have had a good weekend, I did two of those blog hops earlier and finished a few challenge cards to be posted later but whatever you did, I hope you enjoyed it ~~~~  Now what to do next.   READ, MAKE CARDS or MAKE those COOKIES?       Blessings Jane    (Now where is that Signature?)

**** Annoucing the Blog Candy winners ****

First off, I would like to thank all my followers both the ones from the very beginning of my blogging days and my newly acquired blog followers for finding some interest in my blog whether in my posts of my handmade cards or on a more personal level with photos and comments from my life moments or any combination of thereof.  I hope I can continue to provide you with some entertainment, LOL and I will try my best to offer you some interesting cards or moments... Now on to the CANDY WINNERS

As you know, I posted two blog candy's, one for a boy and one for a girl PLUS an additional bonus if I reached over 110 followers, well we did that so both the boy and girl blog candy winners will be getting that bonus candy.

For the Girl Candy is:

Aline Fonseca  from Rio de Janero, Brazil  - I may never get to go there but my candy will!!

AND

For the Boy Candy is:

Terry from iluvmybugs  , Terry lives in the United States, I know where that is!!


Please claim your candy by September 24th, midnight otherwise I  will need to draw another winner.
To claim your candy, Please send my your mailing information by clicking on my  "send me an email" mailboxes in the upper right hand side of my blog. 

Thank you all for joining in the blog candy giveaway, I will be doing another one later this year.   Blessings, Jane

Halloween Altered Container

Hello and Welcome to my tutorial on an altered project, a Halloween Candy Container. I thought this Container turned out very nice, I hope you do to. This one is a long one so hold on for the ride. I know some of you know how to do this but even so, it is always fun to see how other people would do the creating. I took lots of pictures of the steps just to ensure that we don't miss anything. Let's get started:

I used an empty Raw Almond Container, it really does not matter what kind of a container you use, the size is up to you depending on how much treats you want the container to hold. I did not remove the label, I just covered it up.

I try and lay out all my supplies I think I will use when I start a project, sometimes I don't use every item I lay out and sometimes I find I need to go get something else, I think I was close here. I wanted to show you the stamp set I used. I purchased this set at Michael's just this season.

The papers I used: The orange paper is the bottom layer, I wanted to cover the label so I measured how wide that was and made this a tad bit wider than that. You do not want to make it too wide otherwise you will start running into the curve of the container and then your label will not lay flat. So the orange paper, then the black paper, I edged punched both the top and the bottom of the paper with Martha Stewart's edge paper, the pattern is the stars.

Now I added a patterned paper, I like this one here and I also punched the edges again with the star punch.

I am now going to add my stamped images to the container band, I used black ink and used the sharpie to refine some of the stamped images.

I first used a color pencil to color in my images and then notice I now inked them up. I used a make-up sponge wedge and used black ink around all the sides and then randomly added orange and green ink to give it some more color.

I added a ribbon across the band and glued on my images and four buttons of green, orange and black. You can now glue this on your container. Do several inch sections at a time only gluing that section for now, hold a short while to let the glue dry, making sure that it is flat and then continue until the band is all around your container, be sure to adjust label if necessary so your label (if you left one on) is covered and you have no bubbles. Don't be in a hurry now, this is very important.

Starting on the tag; Stamp the image, I inked it up like I did the other images above.

Now I am going to glue the tag onto the orange card stock and cut the orange card stock into the shape of the tag, then use a hole punch to make one hole for the ribbon.

Here is the ribbon I used, it was just what I had on hand, I also used one half of a black pipe cleaner to give it more texture and dimension.

The tag is done. Now just tie it onto the container.

Buy candy and add to your container and you're ready to either give as a gift or you to enjoy yourself!


Thank you for viewing my first tutorial, forgive my shadowed pictures, I hope to do more in the future. If there is anything you would like to see, please comment and we will see what we can come up with here at Midnight Madness. Sincerely Jane, "The Paper Affair"

**Update:  I just got news that this tutorial made cardoftheweek at cardoftheweek.com,  great news ****

   

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. MMSC19

 

I am not always one to do this style of card but I saw this stamp and I fell in love with it.  Then the absolute worse thing happened...  I keep singing this over and over while I was making this card and I can't carry a tune, it was a good thing my family was not home at the time, but I sure had fun!


Most of the card is paper pieced with the exception on the verse:  upscale trims, leaves,  flowers, dew drops and gold doilies grace this card.  The inside was also done up complete with a custom envelope.  In this case, I used the archway from a window to use as my main focal point giving the verse extra attention in the center stamped and then embossed in gold and that I added another layer of the archway onto the left hand side.


Anyways this is my weekly Midnight Madness Sketch card using this stamp from our Sponsor, D-R-S Designs, they are offering a $50.00 gift certificate. They will be sponsoring Midnight Madness all month and so you will be able to see even more great cards from the Design Team featuring stamps from D-R-S Designs.

A very special thank you goes out to Sammye Jo Monroe Singer for sponsoring us this week with 62Cards. Visit the site at www.62cards.com  and join in some great crafty chit chat and giveaways on the blog at http://www.62cards.blogspot.com/!  The winner will get one of her NOT YET released 6 x 6 album kits titled Sweet Summer, how sweet is that?

If you have not already and are interested in entered to win my blog candy (which will end September 15th at midnight), please enter now, we are now on the last day.    Thank you for visiting my blog, your comments are welcome.

*** Hurry BLOG CANDY ENDS SHORTLY, September 15th at Midnight ***

     Sweetening the blog Candy


My dear dear fellow blogger and avid and incredible card making friend said "Sweeten the Pot" with your blog candy and do I always listen to her, no - but I probably should!!

So, me being me added another layer to that. IF/When I reach 110 followers I will add this onto the winners of the boy and girl blog candy. SO in addition to the current blog candy posted if I reach 110 visible followers you will get the side that either says boy or girl depending on which one(s) you win. Make sense? I labeled the sides so one says boy and one says girl. I get to keep my green ruler, I have come to like that alot and really miss it when I can't find it, can you say PANIC?

Please do not comment under this one, continue to apply/comment under the orginal posts for the boy and girl candy - just wanted to show you the bonus:

Each has an additional stamp, paper pad, package of ribbon, the same pre-stamped images, a tag either a boy or a girl tag, and two stickers. WOW so go and spread the word, I think we can get there from here, don't you? ~~~ Jane

Blog Candy (little Boy) *** Up till Sept. 15th! ****

I am offering up some blog Candy, be it summer goodbye or Hooray school is now in session. This one is for a little boy. If you are the winner you will receive all that is in the picture but not my white back drop prop. What do you need to do:

Leave a comment so I know you are interested in this blog candy

Become a visible follower, if you are already, I got you but leave your comment.

Post blog candy onto your blog

You may enter in both blog candy (girl and boy)

Good luck to you all.

Blog candy (little girl) **Up till Sept. 15th.**

I am offering up some blog Candy, be it summer goodbye or Hooray school is now in session. This one is for a little girl. If you are the winner you will receive all that is in the picture but not my white back drop prop. What do you need to do:

Leave a comment so I know you are interested in this blog candy

Become a visible follower, if you are already, I got you but leave your comment.

Post Blog Candy on your blog.

You may enter in both blog candy (girl and boy)

Good luck to you all.

Mini Circular Photos

Hello everyone, a very busy day at my house, up and got daughter off and then me off to the Gym, I got my strenghtening in but blew off my Cardio hoping to get a long walk in but that did not happen. Anyways Craft store, the Pharmacy, the Grocery store and the to start my project and my cooking. I have to warn you, I am in a very chatty mood tonight, so expect some long winded-ness, it that a word? I'm using it any ways. Above is a photo of my sister, actually both are my sisters but this is about the one without her head cut off. I am not born yet so can't show you that. She is celebrating a milestone birthday on Saturday and she has got us all working. I am making a dozen of these mini-pictures to as a surprise to decorate her party with, I actually have 6 different photos or two of each one. I thought, silly me that it would not take that long but I clocked it and between watching the stove and hunting for the items my cat stole - 4 hours!! I know...and I know you must know too as to where does my time go?

This is the not so fun stuff you gotta use, my Beacon 3 and 1 glue that a dear craft friend recommended to me and my circle cutting system by Creative Memories, it is a very old system but it serves me well. I also used this chipboard for the backing of the photos. You can see my black cat Joey (Joey is a girl) already starting to steal my stuff and yes, she did run off with the green circle cutter.

The funner stuff here, (is funner a word?) I got those photos printed at the photo shop and then my craft store purchase which is some green paper, (her colors of her party, I didn't just make ALL this stuff up, you know!) dollies, green and off-white ribbon and some 'brides' embossed paper flowers, they actually say they are confetti but I have always liked them a lot and so I picked them up. The only thing is you get a TON of them - all in the same color and I wish that they would sell them in a multi colored pack as they have other colors. I really like the container too, can you say ** altered ** container project. These pictures here show my three older sisters, each treasures in their own right.


They are going to look something like this, I still need to add my ribbons and I decided to add some of my dew drops as the flower centers, I have alot of different colors of those so I am off to get these from my craft room, Joey is going to love these.



There is my helper, she HAS to be sitting on my chip board. I do have two cats but Charlie is sleeping and she is not as nosey as Joey is. I am actually working on the kitchen table to watch my stove as I am preparing my assigned items. I don't get to decide what I am doing, my sister is telling me what to do and HOW to do it so since it is all about her I am doing it her way. AND really my craft room is WAY to messy to actually work in there anyways and that is on my things to-do list. Can you believe my husband came home while the dishes were stacking up and me crafting and he YES, washed ALL the dishes for me. I think we finished at the same time, it worked for me!



This is one of the end projects and it is sideways, But I think I got the top of this blog post picture right. Yes, my sister has huge brown eyes. SO happy birthday my dear sister. Stay tuned, I will be toting my camera to her Par-tee - expect to see linen, and china and wine and song. I hope I have not bored you to death, LOL but another early and full day tomorrow and then a sit down dinner for 75 and a day/night of fun on Saturday, an overnighter and then clean-up (I can only imagine).