The Mouse and the Halloween Treat Bag

Happy Friday everyone. This week has gone by so S-L-O-W. I do have Monday off, though, because our district honors the jewish holiday. How sad is it that I live for three day weekends and vacations?

Today I am going to post a Halloween treat bag (more specifically, the tag) I created to enter a contest. Alas, as I was finishing my project, I noticed mouse droppings on the outside edge of my white craft desk. There were only two but when I searched around the outskirts of the floor, I found many more. Then I searched the kitchen and I won't go into details there. It was so gross!! We bought poison for some areas and traps for others but still haven't caught any. We are not sure how it came in but we hope it went out somehow and never comes back. We did find a dead field mouse in the garage and I am hoping that this was the critter that had invaded our space. I cannot handle that again. I do not think mice are cute and can live with them if the stay outside!! Needless to say, I never photographed the project in time to enter the contest.

I stamped the image using the circle from Paper Trey Ink's Tag-its #2 and the jack-o-lantern from the Tag-its #7 Mini stamp set. I colored the pumpkin with Copic Markers. I had never colored on Kraft card stock and not sure if I will do this technique again. It was harder to get the colors to blend on the toothier paper.

I was originally going to fill the bag with candy corn but since it previously held paper flowers I wasn't sure that was sanitary. I found these adorable jack-o-lantern covered Lindt chocolates to use instead. Who can resist a chocolate truffle?

Supplies: Stamps, Polka Dot Paper and Dies-Paper Trey Ink, Copic Markers, Tsukineko Ink, Paper Scraps,

 Queen and Company rhinestone

I was going to send this to my niece who went off to college for the first time this year but Charlotte informed me after a taste test that the truffles were melted. I guess I am going to have to buy two more bags. Hmm-that certainly worked out for both Charlotte and Chris. I only like dark chocolate!!

I hope this inspires you to create some goodies of your own. Have a great weekend!!

Nora

Back to School, Kitchen Construction and Other Fun Stuff

September is here and that means back to work for me. I enjoyed my summer immensely and cannot say that I am all that excited to be going to work every morning. I like my job and the hours but just wish I could get paid for staying home and doing what I want. Don't we all?

We also are going through a kitchen remodel. I spent last week emptying the cabinets, shelves and a hutch. Yesterday the contractors came and gutted our kitchen. They are still working on getting the floor up. Unknowingly we had 3 layers underneath our tile!! It looks like a big mess. I will post photos later on this week.

Our poor isn't liking the construction very much. Stinky peed his crate tonight when we went out to dinner and he hasn't done that for a couple months. I am convinced he had a seizure that was brought on by all the chaos but since we weren't home, we don't know. The only reason I think this is he usually pees so that it is all outside the crate when he is mad. He doesn't like to step in it!! Tonight it was mess inside the crate and we had to give him a bath. Poor thing!

Enough about our chaos and now to the fun stuff! Tonight I am going to show you the gift tag and card I made for one of Char's friends last month. However, as things often go in my life, I had to make the card twice. 

The first card I had created was personalized and had a 12 on it. However, when I went to buy a gift box, the only one that I could have bought that would have matched was bright pink. The birthday girl was not a pink type of girl. So I carefully removed the number and added the cupcake. 

Supplies: Card stock and dotted paper-Paper Trey Ink, Word Paper and striped paper-October Afternoon, Stamps-Paper Trey Ink, Tape-Bella Blvd, Ink-Paper Trey Ink, Die Cut-Paper Trey Ink and Cupcake-Martha Stewart

I have to say that this card was a CASE of a card created by Dawn McVey. I really like the pink and aqua color scheme on this card. I also love how easy the tape was to use. I will be utilizing my tape like this on many cards!!

Since this card was a reject, I had to make another card in the color scheme that matched the box. I liked how it came out and was feeling really good about it until Charlotte told me she thought it looked too much like a boy. I told her too bad because I WAS NOT making a third card!!! Looking at the photo now, I get where Char was coming from but I think it is cute anyway. 

Supplies: Blue Card stock, Polka Dot Paper, Stamps, Dies, Ink-Paper Trey Ink, Glitter-Stickles, Patterned Paper-Making Memories and My Minds Eye, White Card Stock-Stampin Up!, Kraft Card Stock-Paper Studio, 

Tape-Queen and Company

I had to make a matching tag for the gift and I used a fun mix of curling ribbon to decorate the handle. I have not been a fan of curling ribbon in the past for gift wrapping, but I really like the looks of this gift. I will be repeating it for the future.

Supplies-Stamps, Dies, Ink-Paper Trey Ink, Kraft Card Stock-Paper Studio

Here are both the gift and tag together. I know the photos don't look like the blues match the box but IRL they did. It was a cloudy day when I took the photos and I only get so much light in my room when that happens.

Thank you for looking. I promise I will be back later in the week with some photos of what has been going on in my kitchen!!

Nora