Tiddly Inks Card

Hello Friends -

I'm back, not with the project I planned to show today but I'm back.

Today I have a card for one of my nieces.  It also is for the Tiddly Inks challenge -- Reading Fun.  I chose School Girl with School House.  The card is 5 x 7 inches.  The colored cardstock is from Core'dinations.

I pop dotted School Girl to give it a bit more dimension and add to the perspective.  I'm pleased with the way she turned out.  I feel like I'm getting a little better at adding dimension to hair.  She still needs a little something but I see some progress.

Here is School Girl, a bit closer.

What do you think of the hair?  Now, if I could just work out the shading on her face.  I would really be on a roll.

It is funny, when I was growing up EVERYONE started school the day after Labor Day.  We went to the Great Geauga County Fair over the long weekend, saw friends, ate fair food and then started school.  I didn't know anyone that started school on a day other than the one after Labor Day.  It was that way for as long as I knew and all the way through school.  Now, the Wonderkid has been in school for two weeks, already.  Many of the schools in our area have been in for a month.  So, Labor Day doesn't have that same end of the summer feel.  Add to that, we live in the South and we'll be wearing shorts for another 6 weeks and could be swimming for a month.

It certainly changes the way I think about the holiday.  It was a nice day off, I think about the meaning of the holiday, thank everyone that fought to bring us the 40 hour work week (when we can still get it) and the weekend.

So, Happy Labor Day, Y'all.

Supahhh Star

Hello Friends -

I have a quick post today.  I wanted to show you a birthday card I made for my niece.  She is 9 going on 16 and has beautiful caramel colored hair.  She is a SUPAH STAR!!!  This digi from Tiddly Inks is perfect for her.  In addition, it was Christy's (the artist that made the digi) birthday last week and her favorite colors are red and black.

What do you think of that Core'dinations glitter cardstock?  Isn't it amazing and oh so glittery?  I'm not big on the glitter normally but it seems to work so nicely with this image and all. The edge of the red cardstock was done with a Martha Stewart edge punch.

I must admit, I can't see red and black together without flashing back to my high school and college days.  Do you have any color combos that cause you to flash to a certain time or place?

I'll be back tomorrow with another quick post from the road.  Wish us luck as we trudge North.

Hello Friends -

I have a couple of quick posts for you this week.  The Wonderkid is on spring break and we are headed to ...
No, it isn't Disney, or even Florida, or even the beach.  The Wonderkid and I are going to beautiful sunny snowy Ohio.  When I traveled for work all the time I would complain about the fact that I was sent North (colder part of the country) in the winter and South (hotter part of the country) in the summer.  So, now that I control my travel a bit more what do I do, I go North when everyone else in the world is going South.

And, Ohio, dion't get me started.  If it wasn't the homeland I certainly wouldn't spend a serious amount of time in Columbus.  However, when Granny is 93 and still kick around with most of her marbles, you go where she is and don't complain.  It warms my heart for the Wonderkid to spend time with his Great-Grandmother and you want to see someone that thinks he is a WONDERKID!!! Watch out world, Granny will be telling you about her genius Great Grandson.

All of this is the long way of telling you I had to hurry to get my crafting in before we start the long trek north.  Did I mention I had to take my winter coat out of storage?  I put it away thinking I was done with winter, I forgot about this little excursion.

A couple of things about this card.  Number One, the image is from Bugaboo Stamps.  Isn't he a cutey?  Now, do you think people will get hung up on the fact that he is an Easter turtle?  Who ever said an Easter bunny makes any sense, anyway?  And for my friends North of the Boarder (meaning Canada not Tennessee) she has this little guy with a Canadian flag and Maple leaf on his shell.

Number two, what do you think of those buttons?

These are the ones I'm talking about.  Aren't they cute?  So, I've been eyeing a little gizmo from Epiphany Crafts.  It will allow you to make a button with any cardstock backing you choose.  I think I'll do a product review after I've played with it a bit more but so far, I'm having fun.  Here is a link to find them.  My Archivers was selling them when I went in this week.  They were also demoing them.  I had looked all over for a place to buy them and was still doing a price comparison when they were staring me in the face and I had my 40% off coupon.  How could I pass them up.

Finally, I cracked my stash of Creative Charms open, again.  The butterfly is one of the many ones I keep buying and then saving because they are just so cute.

Well, I just went to check on the link for this little gem and didn't notice they changed the day their challenge is due.  It normally goes through Saturday morning but this week it was only until Friday.  Oh well, thems the breaks.  You still get to see a fun green card.  (The challenge was monocromatic and three buttons).

I'm curious, how do you start your creations?  Do you begin with a sketch, challenge, picture, paper, color or do you have a final goal and work from there?

It's the Little Things

Bedtime at my house is a battle.  The Wonderkid HATES to sleep.  He would rather do anything than lie still and fall asleep and so, every night we learn how long he can hold out before he falls asleep from sheer exhaustion.  Adding to the frustration, I've set-up a routine that I HATE (or at least I hate most of the time).

The Wonderkid only falls asleep with me cuddled right next to him.  I know, I know, every book in the world will tell you not to do this.  Let them cry it out, they say.  Give them something to replace you and let them sleep with that item (I have friends that got their children to sleep by themselves by giving the child their bra).  OK, so I know that is what they say but for the longest time I loved the quiet time I shared with the Wonderkid as he fell off to sleep.  And in honest moments, I still enjoy parts of it.

I love listening to him make up songs about his day.  I love the crazy questions he asks which tell me what about his day was most interesting to him.

And, I LOVE that he'll turn to me and say, "Mommy, know what?" and I'll say, "No, what?" and he'll say (with the most wonderful giggle in his voice because he knows that I know what is coming next) "I LOVE YOU".  Now, how can I tell him he must go to sleep in his own room all by himself and I won't come in to cuddle with him and help him fall asleep?

So, we continue this routine and most of the time I get frustrated and count down the time until he falls asleep.  Last night, though, he fell asleep quickly and I could still see him in the twilight.  I turned and looked at him so peacefully sleeping and my heart turned over.  I stopped breathing for just a moment and I remembered just how much this little person means to me.

So, I bring you this layout using two pictures of the Wonderkid sleeping.  In the top one he is 9 months old and in the bottom he is 3 1/2 years old.

For anyone wanting the details about the layout, the paper is from Core'dinations (Black Magic Petrificus under Sleeping; the letters are White Wash Windowpane; the background is Canvas Texture).  The font on the journaling is Carbon and the titles are all Bernard MT Condensed.  I sanded the word baby and I ripped a strip of the Black Magic.

Bah Humbug Aperture Card

This seems simple enough but it wasn't.  First, I needed to look-up and make certain I understood exactly what an aperture card contains.  After assuring myself that I just needed to have holes in my card I was off to the races.  For some reason I decided this card would be embossed.

So, I needed to choose an embossing folder.  Let me tell you I went back and forth over folders for a couple of days.  Eventually, I was starting to run out of time and patience.  If you enlarge the photo, you should be able to see the lovely embossing I did with my Cuttlebug and Sissix embossing folder.  Again, I'm not certain what the folder is called.  I promise labeling and organizing my folders is very high on my list of things to do.

After I embossed the red Core'dinations paper from the Jillibean coordinating stack I pulled out my circle Nestabilities and cut a hole in the middle of the embossing.  Now, I'm not certain that is the best way to do make this card.  When I ran it back through the Cuttlebug with the Nestie some of the embossing became  a little less pronounced.  However, I don't think I could have lined the Nestie up in the middle without having the embossing already on the paper.  Any one have a suggestion?

Speaking of lining up the Nestie.  I don't want to tell you how many times I had to cut the card base to get that circle in the correct place.  Lets just leave it with I have lots of scrap kraft paper waiting for new projects.  Luckily I use it quite a bit.  I had to line up all three layers and cut them to get this card to look "right".  The embellishments are simple and straight forward but I think they are fun.  The hat pin, button, twine an patterned cardstock all come from Jillibean Soup.  They call the patterned kraft cardstock one of their "staples".  I think they names of their papers are so cute.

I added a ton of dimension to this card.  The button has two pop dots stacked on top of each other and then placed behind the button.  The Core'dinations in pop dotted and so is the sentiment.  The sentiment stamp comes from the Inkadinkado Holiday Wishes set.

Bluemoon Scrapbook Layout Sketch

This is my take on the Bluemoon Scrapbooking monthly challenge.  Here is a link to the challenge in case you want to join in.  They have a really incredible prize package, you get $40 to spend at Bluemoon Scrapbooking.  Do you know how much damage I could do with $40?  They have some stamps from Australia that I have been coveting.  They also have a little bit of Jillibean Soup paper and canvas stars.  Don't buy all of it though, I want to stock up on what they have. 

Here is a copy of the sketch.

I must admit, sketches often times help a layout come together very quickly. I hadn't used them until very recently but I'm starting to love them. 

I've had this Jillibean Soup paper on my mind for the last few weeks and I must admit I adore it.  I thought it looked fantastic with the Wonderkid's sweater.  If you click on the picture you can get a close-up of the entire layout.

Here is one portion of it.

Does he look like trouble or what?

The outer layer is Jillibean Soup Kosher Salt from the Lentil Soup collection.  I was on their website looking at papers and I couldn't find it.  I may be a very unhappy person.  I NEED my papers and I think I used the last piece of this one.  I'll show you a little trick later in this post, though.

The upper textured layer is from the coordinating Core'dinations Jillibean Soup stack.  I didn't sand it this time, although I thought about it for quite some time.  I loved the way it looked without the sanding.  It is crisp and clean this way.  The button comes from my stash but the bakers twine is a Jillibean Soup beanstalk.  They have a package of red and brown bakers twine.  It is so soft, I was amazed at how wonderful it feels.  

I used a Tim Holtz stamp from Stamper's Anonymous for the circle in the middle of the layout.  It is part of the Visual Artistry sets.  I don't know where they hide the names of each set so I can't help you find it any more than that.  I used Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks.  All of the cream paper has the edges inked with Chestnut Color Box inks.  It matchs the dark brown of the Jillibean Soup papers very nicely.

I promised you a little trick.  It was killing me to cover 10.5 inches of this paper and not do a single thing with it. So, I cut out the center (No one will ever notice except for you and me, and you won't tell, will you?)  Here is a picture of the back of the layout.

I know the photo isn't great but I took it after I turned off all the lights in my light box.  The Jillibean paper is around the Core'dinations.  I couldn't stand the thought of wasting all that paper.  Some might call my cheap, I consider myself frugal and maybe just a little bit of a hoarder.  If I had known I might have trouble finding more of this paper, I would have cut even more of the paper.  Isn't it yummy?  I haven't decided what to do with the piece I cut but I can easily get a couple of cards out of it or even use it as part of a layout.  That piece was big enough, it could be an 8 x 8 layout base.  So, do you blame me?  Am I crazy?  Do you do the same thing?

I think I'm going to go work out a better way of photographing 12 x 12 layouts.  I can't stand the angle that I have on this one.  I haven't photographed a layout in so long I hadn't worked out all the issues.  I'm also thinking I want some new Bristol board for my light box.  It never seems to end.

On a side note, if you are ever in Colorado and looking for a good photographer.  Andrea Flanagan is fantastic.  She took this picture of the Wonderkid.

I think I'll be back tomorrow with a t-shirt for the Wonderkid to wear on St. Patrick's Day.  

Tiddly Inks Shaker Card and Sketches in Thyme Challenge

Good morning all.  Pull up your chair.  I've got a few things to show you today.  However, I'm going to start with the fun news.  I received an email this morning saying I WON!!! Creative Charms does a giveaway most months.  This month,  I won the kit of the month.  You can see it here.  It shouldn't be long before they have the new kit of the month posted, also. So, I would check it out.  I was just thinking I need to order more velvet ric-rac from them.  Now, I have black on its way to me.  Isn't this fun.  I love getting goodies in the mail (although recently my UPS driver asked if I was ordering bricks).

Now that I've shared my little bit of fun, how about some eye candy for you.  In fact, I have two cards to show you.  Lets start with the Tiddly Ink card. 

This is a shaker card.  The image is on the card base.  Over the image is a piece of acetate (I used part of the packaging from a sizzix embossing folder) then I put a strip of pop dots all the way around the edge.  On top of the pop dots was a second piece of acetate (the other half of the packaging) and finally a frame to cover all the "inners". 

Here is a side view of the card so you can see the layers.

and another showing the impossible little bits of pop dots.

The next time I do this I will have a strip of pop dot tape instead of a hundred little pop dot squares.

In between the two pieces of acetate and in the middle of all those pop dots is sand.  The Wonderkid has a sandbox (courtesy of PopPop) with it comes sand, EVERYWHERE.  So, I decided to "borrow" a little bit of it.  Just so you know, a little goes a long way when you are talking about shaker cards.

Here is the sand and the image.

I used two Tiddly Ink images for this card.  The main image is Sandy Memories.  If you notice, the little boy on the left has a bit of a sun burn.  The little boy on the right must have a good mommy who puts lots of sun screen on him.  The crab, starfish and sand dollars come from Don't Be Crabby.  I printed about a dozen sets of the starfish and sand dollars and colored them, cut them out and afixed them to the frame of the card. 

I finished it off with a button from my stash (I think it was a bag of buttons from JoAnn's) and some of my new baker's twine from the Kraft Outlet.

So, do I have you thinking about shaker cards you could do?

I need to digress for just a moment.  I ordered a few things from Christy at Tiddly Inks yesterday and I screwed up when I did the ordering (I should have waited another minute for the download button but I didn't).  So, I emailed Christy asking if she could help me out.  She was a real trooper and stuck it out with me until I had my images.  Now THAT is customer service because I'm certain she had something better to be doing than emailing with me bright and early on a Sunday morning. Thanks, Christy.

OK, moving right along.  (Now I have the Muppet Song stuck in my head. Do you remember it? Click the link if you want to hear it.)

Sketches in Thyme card.

As the name says, this is a sketch challenge.  Here is a copy of the sketch.

Do you think I followed the design?  What do you think of the card?  I'm very pleased with the way all of the colors pulled together.  The only thing I think it needs is some embossing on the light green section.  The light green is Core'dinations, the dark green is Bazzille and the pattern paper is some that I picked up last week at Archivers.  The ribbon came from my stash.

Can you see the little pieces of bling on the dark green?  They are Queen and Co pearls which are specifically designed to coordinate with the Core'dinations papers.  I have been eyeing them since Core'dinations did a post about them but I just hadn't purchased until recently.  This color is called Shamrock, so I had to use it.  The sentiment is one of the $1 stamps from Studio G.  I picked up two of them last year and now I get to finally use them.

Tiddley Inks Monochromatic Project

I don't think monochromatic is my kind of work.  I don't have enough pens to really give something depth with just one color.

However, here is my card for the Tiddly Ink's challenge.  I love these images (although I'm finding them tough to color -- my problem not the artist's).  I need to practice a bit more so I can get better at these.  I have one that I'm wanting to color but I haven't taken the time.  It is a cute little carpenter. 

But I digress.  Here is my card.

I like this sweet little image.  I used my cuttlebug to emboss the Core'dinations gemstone paper.  I love the way this paper looks after being embossed.  It is wonderful to send something through my cuttlebug and not worry about seeing a white core when I finish.  I thought the hearts gave a sense of missing someone and wanting them home.  The ribbon is from my stash.

Here is a closer look at the image and the embossing.

I used the new print and cut feature in SCAL2.  I love that I can print something in a circle or along any path I dream up.  I also love that I can use whatever fonts I like.  This one is called Chiller.  I'm not convinced I quite have this feature "mastered".  I don't feel like I can get the printed image in the right place on my mat so I can cut it.  I need to mess with it a bit more to figure out how to make it work better. 

Wouldn't it have been wonderful if I printed the houses and the sentiment in a circle around it and then cut the whole thing out?  Now that would be cool.  I'll need to work on this for a bit more to figure out how to make that work.  I think it can be done. 

Thank you for looking at my creation.  All recommendations are sincerely appreciated.  Including feedback on the new look to the blog.  Do you like it or not?

Fall Card

I think I desperately needed to do a card without an immediate purpose.  And so, I was very excited about the challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog.  The challenge for this week is a creation with at least one Cricut cut that shows your favorite season.  While I know a lot of people will be doing spring and flowers and all that, I couldn't look at another pink or green piece of paper (at least not for a couple of hours).

I think it has been at least a few days since I mentioned how much I love Core'dinations paper.  I received a huge box of it just this last week (it weighed 35 pounds and I think at least 30 of those pounds were Core'dinations papers).  All of the paper, except the cardbase, are Core'dinations.  I used two Sissix embossing folders from Stu Kilgore to make the card topper.  The card topper is from the Sandy Tones Color Core All In the Family pack.  The leaves are all cut out using my cricut and the Sesame Street Seasons Cart.  I bet you never thought to look on that cart for leaves, did you?  I used my Tim Holtz sander to bring out more of the embossed images and my Tim Holtz paper distresser to rough up the edges.

Here is a closer look at the card.  You can see some of the distressing on the bottom right corner of the card topper.

Can you tell that the wheelbarrow originally was filled with sunflowers which I covered up with the leaves?  The leaves were cut from a package of 1.75 x 12 inch strips of Core'dinations ColorCore Cardstock.  This package of paper showed up in my mailbox one day last month without an explanation.  I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth so, I'm using it.  At first I couldn't imagine what I would do with these little strips but I must say, they were perfect for these small leaves. I could have made the leaves almost twice as big and still fit them on the strips.

Thank you for checking out today's card.  I'm hoping to put together a couple additional cards for tomorrow.  We'll see if the weather calls me outside or if I still get some crafting done.  I've been sitting in my craft space with all of the windows open.  It is such a wonderful feeling.  I think spring might have arrived here in Georgia.

Bugaboo Dottie Digi Stamp

I have another card I made with my first attempts at coloring and Digi Stamps.

This stamp is from an incredible store called Bugaboo Stamps.  I love her characters, especially some of the little boys.  She has some REALCharacters.  I love her older characters named Stella, Gus and Mildred.  I've already decided I need to buy one of the Mildred stamps to make a card for my Grandma. 

Dottie (the image in my card) was a freebie.  Isn't that nice of Bugaboo Stamps?  She does regular freebies so I recommend signing up for her emails. 

I think I did a decent job coloring Dottie given that I only have 20 pens and none of them are great for skin tones or hair.  The browns just weren't the right color.  I have one red and a slate blue.  Actually, the one color I could really work with was blue.  I'm not certain I would have made her dress blue or used that color for her boots but necessity dictated on this card.

I used a clear stamp from Inkadinkado for the sentiment.  It was a stamp I bought from Micheal's when they were on sale. 

The embossing folder is Birthday Greetings from Cuttlebug and the cardstock is Core'dinations.  I love the way the Core'dinations looks when it has been embossed. 

Thank you for checking out my card today.  I'm hoping to do a couple more challenges this week, although work and snow is really getting in the way.

Calendar

I have given away my first large present of the year.  I made a calendar using Designer's Calendar.  In the past I have used one of those programs to make calendars for my family and friends.  You know the ones, it seems everyone in the world offers them. I made mine with Costco but Snapfish and RitzPix and everyone else out there offers them.  My frustration with those calendars is they force you into one of their boxes.  You get a template (maybe a couple) and you must fit your pictures into that template.  Often times I don't want the entire pictures (I never said I was a great photographer, many of my pictures seem to be off center).  Or, I will want a vertical picture with two horizontal pictures and that isn't an option with them.

When I first saw Designer's Calendar I knew I wanted it.  I love the idea of making calendars, they are practical and allow me to display photos.

This cart has some neat features.  It has four fonts (base, script, boxed, circled) and it has a ton of word art (although it seems to be a little American centric -- Columbus Day is one of the pieces of word art).  Because I knew I was going to be cutting out 12 months worth of calendars, I didn't want to mess with each and every day needing to be laid out separate.  Therefore, I used the boxed numbers, months and days and welded them all together.  By doing this, I was able to make a "lace" out of the calendar which I then glued to another piece of cardstock.

Here is the way it looked in Design Studio.  The months are all the same length, I used the same days and copied them to the next month, then I only needed to make certain I started the month on the correct day (and remember which ones have 30 or 31 days).

As you can see, I have hidden the outside of the box going around each number.  The box is blue, not black like the number.  My only frustration with this project came when I wanted to save the calendar.  Because I only hid one contour (the outside of the box) I couldn't save it.  Each time I want to cut one of these, I need to go back and hide the appropriate contours. I tried hiding two contours and copying each number over top of itself so I could hide two contours on each (thus making it possible to save the hidden parts).  On the first two pages where I tried this, it randomly cut different contours.  It was frustrating enough (and I had so little time) that I quit with the idea that I'll go back and figure it out later. 

The base cardstock is Core'dinations, the pattern paper is from a company called Gartner in Minnesota.

The pattern paper is from DCWV's Animal Crackers and the base brown is from Cloud 9. 

Here are three of the months.  I loved the way they looked using patterned paper and a solid paper.  I used paper from more companies than I can name.  The holly paper for December was from Paper Studio which comes with the coordinating cardstock.  Paper Studio is sold by Hobby Lobby.  I bought this stack in July of this year. 

So far, all of the pictures look a bit plain.  It wasn't all that way.  Here are some of the other pages.

I used Core'dinations White Wash cardstock for the shamrocks.  I then put them through my cuttlebug using the Divine Swirls and Dots folders.  I didn't want too much on the page because of all the pictures but I needed something.

 I love this page.  I'm not normally a fan of the pink but I think this came out nice.  I created the strip of hearts in Design Studio using the Love Struck cart.  The large valentine heart is from the same place.  If you are a fan of Design Studio (as I am) I will warn you that the keyword search never finds any of the hearts on this cart.  I don't know why but I have taken to using CricutSearch.com because of this problem, especially.

I used a  K & Company stack for the patterned paper and Core'dinations for the embossed hearts.  I also used buttons from JoAnn's to decorate the empty spot at the top.  I used a technique from Enfys at Going Buggy.  If you haven't had a chance to check out her blog, I highly recommend it. She does some incredible inking and great cards, layouts etc.

 Isn't this a fun page?  I used Walk In My Garden for the flowers and then the other embellishments are from the very wonderful Creative Charms.  I absolutely love their products.  The butterflies, ribbon and jewels are all from Creative Charms.  You can find them here.  I have some of their velvet poppies which are very elegant but I have so much trouble convincing myself to use them.

 Here is a close-up of one of the butterflies, some of my stitching and the ribbon.  I also inked the edge of the flower using my bic markers.  I loved the effect it made by soaking into the paper in different ways.

The cardstock is Core'dinations White Wash and the pattern paper is the Basics from the Paper Studio.  I am normally a huge fan of the Paper Studio but this stack was one of my worst purchases.  None of the colors coordinate with ANYTHING.  They are all just a little bit off.  However, in this situation, I was able to use some of the blue.

 The yellow cardstock is Core'dinations.

I know this page is a bit plain but I'm loving it none the less.  Isn't the owl cute and he matches so nicely.  The pattern paper is from KI Memories' Little Guy stack.  I bought it at JoAnns.  It just goes to show, you can find what you are looking for in some very odd places.  The recipient of the calendar was in a sorority and their mascot was an owl so I added this little guy to this page.

 It is a little plain but fun none the less.  You can't tell from this photo but I embossed the frames using my cuttlebug and the damask folder. The sun and bee came from Create A Critter. 

It is tough to see but the wings on the bee are made using the packaging from one of my carts.  I embossed it using dots.  I think I should have inked it also but I was starting to run out of time and energy.

Tomorrow, I'll show you more pages of this project.  I have some really neat stuff to add but this is getting a bit long.

Thanksgiving Card

I probably shouldn't be so proud of this card, but I am. I know it is simple but I feel like I finally have my mojo back.  At the beginning of the week I knew I need to get some things done but I just couldn't seem to make it work (computer problems, upgrading SCAL and life didn't seem to help matters).  But now, I seem to be thinking of a hundred and one different things I'd like to make.  This card was one and it came together so quickly.  Do you ever have those days where you agonize over paper selection?  Nothing in your stash seems to be "quite right"? 

This card pairs 3 of my favorite companies -- Core'dination cardstock, Creative Charms embellishments and SVG Cuts.  The final thing I used was eerie pattern paper (jack-o-lantern). 

First came the cut.  if you haven't checked out the great products from SVG Cuts to be used with SCAL, then I suggest looking at them.  This set is called Linus' 3D Fall Cards.  Take a look at all 9 cards.  They also have a bonus with the cuts as card tops (with or without the stitch marks) and the items separate.  If I can get it cut out, I'll show you one I designed using pieces from different places.

Then came Core'dination cardstock.  I stock up on their cardstock every time it goes on sale.  Just this week I was able to buy their Nostalgia ColorCore for $15.  It has 80 sheets and 40 colors.  Hobby Lobby has paper stacks on sale every few weeks and this week I couldn't resist.  However, the two I used here are from JoAnn's.  They too have single sheets on sale, often times 4 for $1.  The only problem is I've grown frustrated with their customer service again so I've sworn off going into the store.  We'll see how long that lasts.

Here is the inside of the card.  The pattern paper is the eerie jack-o-lantern cut at 5.5 inches.  The sentiment is something I created in word and printed on velum.  I think I'll send this one to my Grandma.  It says, "I am Thankful for You".  I used Edwardian Script and Bauhaus93. 

When I first put the card together it was clear that it need just a little bling.  I decided to check my stash of Creative Charms embellishments.  As I hoped, I had just what I needed.  The eye is a gradient gem.  You can buy them here.  I used the medium shade in the amber assortment.  The flowers came in two different sets.  They looked like this

and this

This was just a small part of the October Deal of the Month.  Unfortunately it isn't available as a package any longer but I think you can find all of the pieces parts on their website. 

I'll leave you with one more picture of the full card.