Happy Halloween!

I'm sorry I've been away. It's funny how life can get crazy at times. I have/had some health issues which kinda caught me by surprise. I've been debating with myself the last few days to mention it. Originally I hadn't planned on talking about it but as I type it's coming out. Since I'm an all or nothing kind of person I'm gonna spill the beans.

Last month I woke up to being blind in one eye. Oh wow did that freak me out. I have an amazing job and they are understanding when I come in late or have to go to the doctor that kind of thing. Except that morning we had a board meeting I couldn't miss. After a few mins my vision came back.. I went to work and forgot about it.

This past Thursday the same thing happened. Only this time with the prompting from my retired RN mother I called the doctor. It was time for a yearly eye exam anyways. Course mother wanted me to see an opthamologist however the optometrist said come in and she could refer me if necessary.

Good news my eyes are perfectly healthy, no problems there what so ever. There is no damage and nor will there be any damage. :D Happy Days. Then she said.. its something else probably high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes... go see your reg doc.

I've had all those tests just a few months ago and they all came back with low levels. Having a nurse for a mom I pulled out the Blood pressure machine.. yes we own one... and started taking my bp several times a day all weekend. Sure enough it's been low :D

Not to sure whats going on, we'll see. I have full faith Heavenly Father is looking out for me. Plus I have amazing friends and family if I did need anything. I will be seeing my regular doc later this week. I'll keep ya posted.

Anywho because it's Halloween so I'll share another story with you. I went to a Tupperware party.. yes they still have those. Afterwards some of us ladies stayed around and worked on scrapbooks. As neither Sarah or I had never done a scrap book before we figured the two of us would work on her's. It was slow going at first. We knocked out a few pages and it was fun. Ton's of fun actully I really enjoyed doing it. So much so that I asked her if she would let me do her Halloween pages. Here is the right page:

Here's a close up:

Oh my did I have fun doing this. I have no clue what I would scrapbook but It was fun!

Here is some of what I used:

InLinkz.com

Do have a safe Halloween!

Pushing the limits

Sorry guys I've been busy. I ended up creating invitations for our work party.. we than had a change in the schedule so I'm having to recreate them. Thankfully I get paid to do it. :D We also had to clean up the chaos from the construction. Since we were doing it already we may as well organize at the same time. It looks good.. for now. :D

The Fantastic news is my amazing husband was hired to work at Whole Foods...raise the roof! You see his ultimate goal is to create and sell condiments. His Worcestershire sauce is amazing as is everything else he makes. Ideally we would like to sell it on the shelves of markets like Whole Foods. With him working there his foot is already in the door. :D Very exciting. Plus 20% discount! woot woot!

More exciting news I was asked to be a guest designer for a blog... :D that will be next month, closer to Thanksgiving. Very excited about that. Anywho.. enough about that stuff.

I found some time to craft yesterday :D I was afraid since I hadn't done it in a few days would I still love it? (I'm notorious for starting a new hobby and then ending it quickly) Yeap still loving it. phew.

The other day I mentioned how sketch challenges are difficult for me. I'm not to sure what or how to do them.. there's no real rules. I'm an exact person and not fond of gray. What can I change? How can I change it? blah blah blah..forget it move on to something more exact. I've decided I need to push myself and not skip over them any longer. I took Hero Arts sketch challenge and created this:

That scallop border is the bottom of the Flourish ornament. I embossed it with this powder that has glitter in it so it really sparkles. (It is kinda hard to find online so I didn't add it to the tool manager. I can get it for you easy as it's at my local store) The picture doesn't do it justice.

InLinkz.com

The ribbon is from our local store and the pearls were a free gift from Simon Says Stamp. Time to get back to those invitations. I hope your having a good week!

Katie

Mmmm Stripes

Simon Says Stamp and Show is having a strips challenge. That awesome paper is from a pack I never wanted. It was given to me to make some card samples from since it wasn't selling at our local store. It's funny I never wanted to touch it but once I started playing with it I can't seem to put it down. As a matter of fact the packet is almost gone.

Anywho, I decided to try a sketch challenge. I will admit this is my weakness. I'm an exact person so when I see a picture I lean towards matching it instead of being creative with it. I follow a number of blogs. One that I frequent is Jennifer McGuire's blog. She is amazing.. that goes with out saying. She took this months Hero Arts sketch.. worked her magic.. ta da an amazing card.

I decided to give it a try using her card as inspiration.

I love that paper! I punched out a couple of circles, inked them up. The green was then stamped with a wet back ground stamp for that cool effect.

Here's most of what I used:

InLinkz.com

Er I don't recall which punches I have.. sorry I can look it up if your interested. The buttons are from Hero Arts. I tried to put them in the cool tool manager however it was being disagreeable. That and work is needing me to put out a fire.

I'm glad it's Friday.

Katie

Halloween without Orange?

Craft night was productive. :D I was able to make 1 card for two different challenges. A paper piecing challenge from Lawnscaping:

and a Halloween challenge.. the key being not to use any orange... from Cas-ual Fridays:

Here's my card:

I had fun piecing the house together. All the paper is from hero Arts Hello luscious with the exception of the gray that was random gray paper I had in my stash.

Here is most of what I used:

InLinkz.com

The card stock is from Hero Arts layering papers, The ghosts where stamped on vellum paper.

Happy Days,

Katie

Church Sample #4

I have a busy day here making invitations for our annual meeting here at work. I'm thankful I get to get paid to craft. :D Here's another I made for the Church crafting day that's coming up:

Here's my "fab" version:

I had a hard time fabbing this one up. I did more of goof up lol. Well I goofed off. Isn't that how we learn though? Trial and error. Not that there are any errors per say I was just playing around. I love how the font is filled in and I tried my hand at making my own bakers twine. That was pain for the price i'll just buy it.

I believe the paper is Echo Park, the blue is from Hero arts.. it was an envelope I cut up.

Short and sweet today, have a good one.

Merry & Bright

Oh the joys of construction. There was a water leak sometime back and they finally came to fix the drywall, only to find one of the showers was leaking to... it's fixed and thankfully I don't have to pay for it.. the benefits of being a renter.

Because the first construction "dude" (he was a total surfer so the term fits) said the issue looked "abnormal" meaning there was mold. Which forced them to set up a negative air environment to fix the problem. (I told the owner our dining area looked like a scene from the X-files) Thankfully the jet engine fan is no longer required. That was awful. It really made watching the telle no fun. The bonus was I found time to craft. :D I decided to try my hand at the Hero arts make holiday cards without holiday stuff again. Here's what I created:

I'm not sold on the envelope pattern back ground. Those 2 pieces looked great together and made the kraft really plain looking so I added that pattern. I should have used a lighter color. But that's just me.

I love how that red square came out. It was done with 3 distress inks. I use the inks like I do Copic's... in pairs or in 3's. Personally I think it gives it a little bit more of a dimensional color. The text was created by spraying a stamp with water, stamping the paper then drying it quickly with the heat gun.

Here's most of what I used:

InLinkz.com

I say most only cuz I'm sure I forgot something. I usually do. If I have time I will redo this card if I do I'll show you the results, well see.