Halloween Crafties

So I have been working with the November Two Chicks kit the past couple of days (more on that to come later), but I did have some time to make up some fun goodies for the staff members I have been assigned to this year at the big boys' schools. I know I am late to the pop tab altered can party, but I finally got a safe can opener so I could whip these up. So cheap and really easy to make - I filled them with mini chocolate bars for a sweet treat! These were all created with products from the October Kit at Two Chicks Designs. That kit just keeps going!

I am in charge of the craft activity for Jackson's party tomorrow afternoon and I wanted to have the kids make something really fun. And something they could actually use beyond Halloween. A few months ago I saw these bookmarks on a blog and decided they would be perfect for the kids to make at their party. And I have needed a reason to use this stamp set for, oh, 4 years, I think. Oops! We just won't mention that little fact to Ken. In any case, these little Stampin' Up Bug stamps finally got used and I think the kids will really like them. I pre-cut and stamped all the pieces so the kids will just have to glue everything together and add the eyes and brads. The glitter and the googly eyes are my favorite part!

Since the circles are simply attached with brads, you can put this part over the page to keep your place. How cute is that? Someone much more clever than me came up with this idea, but I had to steal it for my kiddos.

I know Amy has been crafting away with some fun Halloween goodies too so hopefully she can update us with her projects too. Thanks for looking and Happy Halloween!!

production line birthday cards

I don't know if anybody is like me, but I am always rushing at the last minute to create a birthday card when the boys are heading out to a classmate or friends' party. I decided to embark on a journey to find a card that I can create with my mulitude of supplies and came up with the following "rules" for my creation.

Jen's Criteria for the perfect birthday card:

1. A style and design which is appropriate for friends and family of all ages.

2. A card I can create in an asssembly line style to make a whole bunch at one time.

3. Inexpensive to create.

4. Super Cute!

It has taken a long time but I think I have finally found it! Last week I whipped up 8 cards that are just waiting to adorn a special gift when needed. And I got a chance to play with some digital elements to create this hybrid card.

It was super simple and fun to create this card using digital kit by Sharon Carroll at A Peek Into Yesterday . I am not a digital scrapbooker but I LOVED this Bingo style kit from Sharon so I printed it out on white cardstock and simple adhered it to my kraft cardstock base. I also resized the circle element, printed and punched it out and added it to a metal rimmed tag. A fun brad and a little handwritten sentiment rounded out the production. Super simple and SOOO perfect for what I have been searching for. It is an inexpensive card I can create over and over again. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

A little time on the internet is not always wasted!

OK ... so as Jennifer said we are going to be adding some fun ideas we find along our crafting travels. At the moment I am attempting to come up with some fun ideas for Teachers' gifts for Christmas. As I am surfing my regular crafty blogs I click links and arrive in places I never knew.

I came across this blog today - Angie is a Stampin' Up demonstrator and she has some seriously fun stuff on her blog. She also does some really fun video tutorial and I just had to share this one - because we are close to Halloween and these are TOO cute not to share ... seriously look at these ... they hold mini KitKat or Hershey bars - SO cute. Anyway Angie has an excellent video tutorial HERE - it is worth the 6 minutes to watch it - because how fun would it be to make these for some special Trick Or Treaters?!!! I do not know Angie - but she seems to be my kind of crafty person!!!


I am so into these that I want to start making some right now .... but I am still on the hunt for some crafty links to share with you - because that is the kind of crafty blog friend I am :) Also since my Halloween kit from Two Chicks is on its way here I am thinking there is some FUN paper in there that will be perfect to make some of these!

Stay tuned - let me waste the time on the internet so you do not have too - haha!

One is silver and the other gold...

Do you remember those lines from the Girl Scout song? I have them constantly on my mind as we navigate life back in our hometown. I have had fun catching up with some friends from childhood and college days and my dear friend Christie is one of those "golden" friends. She and I met while we were both studying to be high school teachers in college. Neither of us thought middle school was the place for us, boy were we both wrong! I ended up in 8th grade and she ended up in gifted education at another local middle school. So funny how those things happen.

In any case, we had lost touch with all of my moves and one afternoon I realized she had "friended" me on my Facebook. I was all excited to catch up on her teaching days only to find out she had also left the education field to focus on other goals. So how much more excited was I to find out she is the "head chick" of Two Chicks Designs???? I mean, really? Scrapbooking!! I was soooo over-the-top excited to reconnect with her. And connect we did. And start a new kit club she did. And it's totally awesome! I love that she is a scrapbooker with no time to scrapbook and desires to put kits together for those of us that want to laugh, and crop and create pages for our albums that are unique and beautiful and easy to create. (Is that a run on or what??)

So let me be the first to introduce you to the Two Chicks Designs Kit Club. It is a kit jam-packed with yummy papers and embellishments picked out just for you by a fellow scrapbooker. And one of the things I love most is that for a couple of the cardstocks you get 2 of the same color. Yep! You can actually create 2 page layouts with these yummy kits! Without raiding your own stash! And there's more - 2 alphabets!!! Yes, 2 entire alphabets! For this alpha junkie that is BIG stuff. Here are some of the projects I made with the October kit that just keeps going and going with Halloween-y Goodness! Oh how I love the fall!





If you love Halloween or fall-related projects, this is the kit for you! Pick one up today! And tell them Jen sent ya! ;)

Girl Trap

I need to get this down somewhere because it is sooooo going on a page about Jackson.

So here goes... Last night we were talking about how Jackson has a new seat in class next to one of his friends who happens to be a boy. He says very quietly, "now I'm outta the girl trap." I wasn't sure I heard him correctly but Ken asked him to repeat what he had said and he told us he used to sit between 2 girls in his previous desk and that was a "girl trap - a girl, a boy in the middle and another girl" I could barely drive I was laughing so hard! The girl trap.... baby you don't know the half of it...

SO how will I actually scrapbook this?
I have a plan to find a great picture of Jackson, maybe from some random event where I got a great photo of him to talk about some of his creative thoughts and personality traits. I will probably go to my category drawers as part of my Library of Memories system (thank you, Stacy Julian!) and find a fun shot of Jackson. I love that even without having a picture of the "girl trap" I can still record this silly idea from him! It would be awesome to find a picture of him between 2 girls, but I'm not sure a photo like that exists for us, LOL. Right now I have no idea how this page will turn out, but I know I won't remember just how he said it even a month from now. I try to keep little notebooks all over the place to just get it jotted down right away. It definitely helps this tired mom of 3 to remember all the crazy, sweet, and silly things they say! Stay tuned for the layout soon, I am definitely inspired by my little boy right now!
xo, Jen

We're back and we're SCRAPPY!!!

Did you think we had left the blogging world forever??? Well, we did too, or so it seemed, but then we (actually, just Jen) decided it was a nice place to show off our craftiness, make some new friends, and link up to all things scrappy, cute and crafty. And of course, Amy is always along for the ride! So with a new theme, we begin again... Some things have changed around here and some things will stay the same, but you can be assured that these 2 crafting friends are ready and willing to share our love for this industry.

You will NOT find:

Many posts related to our personal lives unless they overlap in our crafting world, if you would like to know what's going on with the hubbies and the kiddies, head on over to Facebook and friend us there. You can keep up with our daily lives more than you probably want to ;)

You will certainly not find any drama or favoritism. We love crafting from every angle, country, or local scrapbook store.

On the flip side, you WILL find:

Lots of our layouts and scrapbooking projects - if you can cut and glue it! We have it!

Tips and Tutorials we find around the web (or possibly even think up on our own - GASP!) for creating scrapbooking pages or projects

Quick gift ideas - in this poor economy we are always on the hunt for fun and cheap gift ideas we can use our products and tools for

Reviews of products, tools, kit clubs, web sites, etc... that interest us.

LOTS of links to anything CUTE!

So you can easily see that while our personal lives are still on vacation from the blog, our crafting, scrapbooking, tutorial-finding, link-loving selves are still here! We look forward to many more posts this year! For a tiny tease of what I (Jen) have been up to, here is a little looky-lou...

See you right back here VERY soon!

xo, Jen