Trick or Treat?

Hi SOC ladies!  With Halloween right around the corner, you might need some treats for party or for teacher.  Why not try altering these petite coffee cups and filling them with goodies?  This was a very fun, easy project that you can do with the kiddos too.

I ordered the 4 oz. cups and matching lids from restaurant webstore here.  I gathered some patterened papers, embellishments, scissors and my ATG (you can use a glue stick or any paper adhesive). 

 1st, I took apart one of the cups and used it as my template.  Once I trace and cut the template on the desired patterned paper, I applied adhesive with my ATG and wrapped it around the cup.

Next, I cut paper for a straw from scrap paper, about 1.25" x 4.25 ".  Apply adhesive down one length of the strip, roll it beginning with the opposite side (I rolled mine around a thin paintbrush) and adhere the sticky side.

Then, it's time for the fun part, grab your stash of embellies and decorate the cup and lid.  I kept mine simple with ribbon and Boo labels made with the Cricut.

Fill the cup with treats and you're got a cute and spooky gift!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hugs,

Kimberly

A Fun and Happy Halloween Keepsake

Halloween is such a fun time for the kids. Creating a keepsake to display a cute photo of the fun times always gives me instant joy. This was the girls’ 2^nd Halloween and they were super excited to trick or treat with their little tutus on. I converted the photo to black and white to coordinate with the overall design of the keepsake. This keepsake can be displayed all year long as any themed album or card.

Happy Halloween by Karen Jiles Supplies Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper: DCVW; Spiders: Recollections; Other: Ribbon

When creating keepsakes, you can add repositionable tape to the photo to update the keepsake as often as you like. I typically make all of my keepsakes permanent, but that is purely personal preference.

 

How will you capture and display your favorite Halloween photo(s) this year?

 

Karen

Feeling Un-Inspired?

Hello everyone, Barb here. I want to take a moment to thank all of the participants of the SOC Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop! I hope everyone had a chance to visit all of the blogs, as there were some awesome projects being shared. I just love seeing all the pink things! A special thank you goes out to Cheryl for coordinating such a wonderful event. And also a big thank you to Tiare, for providing the platform for all things SOC!!

Okay, on to my blog post.  Do you ever have days when you feel, well, un-inspired? You have gorgeous paper in your stash, lots of stamp sets, wonderful embellishments, luscious ribbon…everything you need to create a beautiful project. Everything except motivation and inspiration, basically, you’ve lost your ‘MOJO’. Yeah, that happens to all of us…don’t fret…I have a solution!  If you think about it, inspiration is all around us. We can be inspired by colors, sounds, scents and photographs, the possibilities are endless. We just have to be open and receptive. One of my favorite go-to inspiration tools are card making or scrapbook themed magazines. I love browsing thru the pages and seeing all the wonderful submissions. I rarely copy the designs exactly as they are printed, but I do take bits and snippets from various projects and use them to create my own. Another tool I use frequently is the simple photograph. Pictures are great sources of inspiration and the Internet has millions of free images to browse thru. If you want to create a beach themed layout, search for beach pictures. If you would like to create a card using a rose stamp you have in your stash, and you want a fresh take on the color of roses, search for rose images. If you need to create a snow themed project, search for Winter pics…I think you get the idea. And don’t forget about all of the wonderful creative blogs out there. Visit them and make an Idea folder on your computer and start ‘collecting’ projects that you love. 

The inspiration for my card today comes from this photo on my Pinterest board.

(photo credit via Pinterest)

It also features a design I saw in a recent issue of Card Maker magazine. The card opens on the side, after lifting the flap.You see by browsing thru my pin boards, I came across the candy corn picture. And it reminded me of a stamp set. It also brought to mind, this candy themed patterned paper. Then, while thumbing thru a magazine, a unique card design caught my eye and I decided to give it a try. I was armed with inspiration and I was ready to get busy! Creating this card was not only fun, but easy.

Click to enlarge.

 Card Supplies:

 stamp sets: Friendship Jar, Friendship Jar Fillers(Papertrey Ink)

patterned papers: Matilda(Cosmo Cricket) 

card stock: Ivory Layering(GinaK. Designs), Dusty Durango(Stampin' Up!) 

ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Soft Suede(Stampin' Up!), Antique Linen, Vintage Photo Distress Inks(Ranger)

accessories: Copic markers, Clear Star Glitter pen, Rustic Twine(PTI), Oval, Oval Scallop Nestabilities, Friendship dies(PTI)

The next time you are feeling un-inspired, open up the recent issue of Scraps of Color magazine. You can download a copy for FREE. Just click on the link in the right side bar. You will find lots of seasonal inspiration there, everything from sketches to create awesome layouts, to card samples to step by step tutorials. The issues are jam packed with color photos, informative articles and freebies. The Creative Team always has wonderful projects showcased, as well. Now it’s your turn. What do you turn to when you're feeling un-inspired? Leave us a comment, we love hearing from you!

Has my blog post inspired you? GREAT! 

Go create something beautiful.

Top 5 Scary Movies!

Greetings Creative People!

By the time you read these words, I'll be gone. I am currently enjoying myself on a cruise ship somewhere in the Caribbean, woohoo!!! Don't worry, I'll be sure to toast it up for you!

Well, my all-time favorite season is here and one of my favorite holidays is quickly approaching...Halloween! To get you into a spooky mood, I wanted to share this quick digital layout that I created using the free digi-kit available in the upcoming October/November issue of the SOC magazine. Be sure to download your free copy this coming week! I listed out some of my favorite horror movies. Do you enjoy scary movies? What are some of your favorites?

Tip: To make my photograph match the layout I tinted my photo with a touch of purple from my background paper. Use the eyedropper tool to grab the exact color you need. Then add a photo filter over the image using the color you've selected.

A Scary Fairy and a Giveaway

In the last SOC issue I had the pleasure of working with the Fairyopolis stamps, which are super cute! On pages 16-18 you can check out what Barbara, Karen, and I created with them. I also showed you a little bit more about them last month on the blog, too. Well, I don't know about you, but I like to make my supplies last, so I started thinking how I could dress up these cute little fairies into scary ones for the Halloween season!  I love products that are versatile and can be used for more than one purpose.

Just by stamping on a neutral patterned paper, embossing, and adding ink and mist I transformed this once cute fairy into a grungy one that fits right into my Halloween themed tag! I know I say this all the time, but every time I look back through the issues of SOC I am able to find a new inspiration or jumping off point! I challenge you to take a look back at the last issue and see something that you may have missed the first time or two! And to challenge you even more, I would love for you to create something based upon that inspiration and come back and share it with us here! And for doing these things you could actually win some scrap candy from me!
I have a little treat that I'm giving away on my blog. Please come over and check it out because there are several ways to gain entries! So hop on over to my place at www.myeyesandheart.blogspot.com and I have a treat not a trick for you!

Have a great week!

Welcoming October...

Hi there,

In preparing for the upcoming issue, one of our themes was Halloween. We had so much fun with this theme that I thought that I would create some more goodies to share with you. I created a Halloween card and a treat container. Both were created with some fun papers from Die Cuts With a View. I absolutely love filling little handmade Halloween containers for my girls to give to their teachers, so this little set will be duplicated for sure..:)

Halloween Treat Container & Card Set by Karen Jiles. Supplies- Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View; Cardstock and Stamp: Close To My Heart; Ribbon: Martha Stewart and Paper Studio; Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink; Punch: Martha Stewart.

Halloween is just around the corner. So, what kind of Halloween goodies will you create this year?

Karen