Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from me and my monsters! Okay, so there aren't any scary monsters. Just one lovable, blue, cookie loving one.

 Here's another Halloween monster for you!


And  here's a little Halloween treat and a joke to go with it (I've been texting my kids Halloween jokes all day and they all think I'm weird).


Who won the skeleton beauty contest?


No Body! Mwahahaha!

The darling Emily Anderson made both of these projects and I so appreciate her sharing them with me!

Have a spooky and safe Halloween!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Ghoul's Weekend

Saturday, we wrapped up our latest Artistic U Scrapbook Retreat. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! And now I'm exhausted. But we had the best "Ghoul's Weekend" ever! If you missed it, never fear, we'll be doing another in the spring. Here's a few pics of the creative fun. Some are from Instagram.  If you have an Instagram account, check out #artisticu for more photos or follow me on Instagram, user name BlytheShupe.



The lodge was absolutely beautiful! We had plenty of space, a hot tub and heated pool, comfy sleeping arrangements, a theater room and gorgeous views! We even had a masseuse come up on Saturday to work out those knots from so much creative fun. We probably didn't take advantage of all the amenities like we should have because everyone was so busy scrapping!


My partner in creative crime, Jen Mahan. I couldn't have done this retreat without her and Diana Veenendaal. Diana cooked up a storm for us and we ate like royalty!



One of our pretty witches, Kristen. Anytime you finished a project, you got to wear the hat. The most projects completed over the weekend won a prize. Wish I looked as great in this witch hat as she does!


I'm taking a breather here. Enjoying some social time with my scrapping friends, Marielle and Sara.

   

One of the multiple projects provided to our participants. Jen Mahan is the creator of this beautiful page using the Close to My Heart Artbooking Cricut Cartridge and Cricut Craft Room to manipulate some of the images. 
 

Our pumpkin contest participants! They were all so creative. You had to decorate a pumpkin using scraps, etc. that you had on hand. I was very impressed with how clever they all were.

So if you missed it, make sure to sign up for next Spring! We plan on doing this twice a year, in the spring and fall. We'll be posting spring dates and details soon at ArtisticU.net. And now, I'm going to go take a nap. Got to rest up so I can start planning the next one.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

It's a Blog Hop!



October 15th was a big day. Why you ask? Well, Close to My Heart's Holidays from the Heart Gift Guide went live. It's full of Christmas goodness as well as some non-festive goodies that will warm your heart. Now I know we are just gearing up for Halloween but we all need a little Christmas now and again. To get you excited for this gift guide and the special that accompanies it (spend $100 in product from the gift guide and/or the Close to My Heart catalog and receive a starred item from the gift guide FREE) I'm participating in a Blog Hop to give you lots of good ideas.

Now, we all know that while we have the best of intentions at Christmas time, sometimes reality gets in the way and we don't quite have enough time to do all those magical things that we wanted to. I had a similar experience creating projects for this hop. So instead, I decided to keep it simple. I love tiny gift cards, any time of year. And these were quick and easy!



Using the stamp set from the Seasons Tweetings Gift Bag Kit, it probably took me two minutes to create this little Happy Owlidays card.



And how about some Christmas kisses?



This card is my favorite though.



I love the Magical Days stamp set. I can't wait to play around with it some more. And I can't wait to see what some of my fellow bloggers did with it. Check out their posts below and see if you get some great inspiration.

This blog hop is open for members of the CTMH Blog Boosters. Please do not enter if you are not a member of the group.


Friday, October 11, 2013

A Little Pickled Toad

One of my favorite stamp sets for Halloween is Magic Potions. With "Commotion Potion, Guaranteed to Quiet the Voices Inside your Head", and "Bat Wing Brewing Powder", it is perfect for Halloween decor, parties, etc. My very talented friend, Diana Veenendaal, used Cricut Craft room and the Close to My Heart Cricut Cartridges to create this Pickled Toad candy holder. In Cricut Craft Room, she combined a web overlay and some shapes to create the base. The other shapes are from the Close to My Heart Artiste Cricut Cartridge and are sized for the Magic Potions stamps. If you don't know it already, many of the shapes in the stamp sets correspond with shapes on one of the three cartridges. The stamp carrier sheet will even tell you which cartridge, what page of the guidebook the image is on, and what size to set your Cricut to for perfect sizing. How's that for Faster, Simpler, and Easier?

Diana was kind enough to let me make one. Here it is from assembly to finish.



Did I say already that Magic Potions is one of my favorite Halloween sets? Well, I'm saying it again. Make sure to sponge around the green glitter paper in black ink It's a great finishing touch.



Don't you want to share a little Pickled Toad with someone you love?

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

A Halloween Layout

In October, I usually try to do at least one Halloween layout for my Cherish Your Memories scrapbooking group. However, this year, Close to My Heart didn't have a Halloween themed paper packet. So I looked at the colors of the various paper packets and toyed around with which paper could be most easily manipulated to work for Halloween (we are nothing if not versatile in the scrapbooking business). And then I saw a layout by my friend, Launi Layton utilizing the Sarita paper packet. And then I saw that layout as manipulated by my friend, Jen Mahan. So what did I do? I scraplifted the idea from both of them and manipulated the layout even more to make it my own. So here it is--my twist on a Sarita/Halloween layout for this month's Cherish Your Memories Class.


The Cricut Artbooking Cartridge was a must for this one. Use real dial size for some of the images and Cricut craft room to create the outline of the Haunted House. 

If you've never come to a Cherish Your Memories Class, you really should. We meet once a month in Salt Lake City and once a month in Provo and we have a great time. You get to have a fun with a group of people that love scrapbooking and you go home with four finished scrapbook pages (you just add the pictures). Contact me for time, place and cost. Here is the second layout we'll be doing on a non-Halloween theme.


We'd love to have you join us!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Happy October!

I love October. Time for cooler weather, sweaters, fall leaves and Halloween.

For my first Halloween share of the year, I share with you not my work but that of a friend. The wonderfully talented Jen Mahan made the cutest little desk banner and was kind enough to share her idea with me. Using Cricut Craft Room and all three Close to My Heart Cricut cartridges (which are so much easier to use all at once with Cricut Craft Room), Jen put together a file that includes all the cuts needed for this spooky banner. You can actually make between five and ten of this darling project from one packet of Laughing Lola paper, two to three sheets of black cardstock and a sheet of crystal blue cardstock. LOVE it!



And for more ghoulish ideas, check back periodically as the month progresses for more fall/Halloween inspiration. And if you want a fun "Ghoul's Weekend" don't forget to join us at ArtisticU October 24th to 26th. We'll have Halloween, fall and even Christmas fun planned for you there. The deadline for registration has been extended to October 10th. Hop on over here to register.