Thanksgiving Decor

Sorry for being MIA! Just a simple post today to show two of my new decor items for Thanksgiving. I have several card orders going right now, however, most of them are for showers/weddings for Spring/Summer next year, so while they are keeping me busy, I won't be able to post the final product for a very long time (I never like to post pictures of invitations until after the event)! I did invitations for a co-worker's grandson's birthday that is next weekend, so look out for those next weekend! :)

Anyways, here are my two projects:

First up is my "Thankful Tree". I took a clear vase, threw in some moss and a few twigs from my yard, then used my Stampin' Up Leaves #2 die to cut out leaves from various fall colored paper in my scrap bag. I plan to write things I'm thankful for on each leaf throughout the month. 

Next is this little pumpkin frame made from the oval punch and various scrap pieces. I sponged each piece with Close to Cocoa ink and hand cut the stems from Chocolate Chip cardstock. I tied some twine in a knot and adhered it to the solid colored pumpkins using a glue dot. The background is Kraft cardstock. I do wish I had spaced out the pumpkins a little more, but overall, I think it turned out cute :)

Click here to see a Thanksgiving project from a few years ago!

Halloween Decor

If you haven't already noticed, Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. I'm not sure why...but I just love everything about it. I added to my decor this year with some homemade decorations that were super easy, super cute and super cheap!

First up are these yarn candy corns that I have in my bathroom. It took less than 10 minutes to make all three of them. You simply take a styrofoam cone and wrap it with yarn. I used pins to hold the yarn down when I switched colors. You just keep wrapping and wrapping, there's no right or wrong way! The top was the hardest part because the yarn kept sliding off the top. I would definitely recommend getting white styrofoam and not green just because a little bit of the top does show, but you can't tell at all unless you look really close up; however, I'm sure the green would make it much more obvious.

Isn't this adorable?? It's made from a small terra-cotta pot, a terra-cotta saucer, glass bowl from the Dollar Tree and a wood ball! I painted the pieces black, hot glued everything together and embellished it with some ribbon and an SU Spooky Treats rub on.

Do you notice the little glass block in the background?? Melissa's mom made that for me last year and gave it to me at my baby shower. It was one of the first things I put out this year and I'm going to be really sad to have to put it away!

Here is what my little chest looks like in my entryway. The lighting on this picture stinks, because it's so much cuter in real life. The banner is a printable that I found on Pinterest. I just printed, cut and stapled to a ribbon. The tree and Frankenstein light are a hand-me-down decorations from my mom, I got the frame at my baby shower and it has a picture of my son wearing a Halloween shirt, the middle frame is another Pinterest printable (a witch), and the bottles are two old Starbucks frap bottles that were spray painted black. The smaller one is embellished with a Spooky Treat rub on.  I finished it all off with some black cheesecloth.

The rest of my house is decorated with fall-like pieces, so they will be able to stay up through Thanksgiving. I need to come up with some new ideas to replace these ones now that Halloween is pretty much over. 

Enjoy your Halloween and Trick or Treat. Ours got moved to Saturday due to the weather forecast. My husband and I both have tomorrow off, so I'm excited to have a weekday off with my favorite two guys!

Halloween Party at the Rudy's

This past weekend I had two of my best friends, Melissa and Carrie, along with their husbands and kids over for lunch (Melissa has Mila who is 3 1/2 months and Carrie has Reese who is 9 weeks). It gave me an excuse to plan some sort of Halloween themed shindig, since it is my favorite! I kept it pretty simple and made Zuppa Toscana in the crock pot, garlic breadsticks, Italian sandwiches from Giant Eagle and then some miscellaneous treats and appetizers. Melissa brought a side dish and Carrie brough cupcakes for dessert. My favorite thing was my "pumpkin" cheeseball! Thank you Pinterest for the idea! hehe

I also had little gifts for the girls and their moms, which I couldn't just wrap up any old way! I got little Halloween books for the kids and candles from my neighbor who pours her own candles for Mis and Carrie. I thought they turned out super cute. Reese's name could have been spaced out a little better, but that's okay.

I used the Big Deal Alphabet set to stamp the names on tissue paper after wrapping the books and oval and circle punches for the pumpkins. The stems were cut and attached to the back and the little green squiggle is a pipe cleaner. I tied it off with some raffia. The candles were wrapped in small sandwich bags with half of a doily folded over the top. The stamp set was Holiday Best, which I colored with markesrs and I used the scalloped oval to punch it. I finished it off with a small piece of raffia and the tiny binder clips! Needless to say, they loved them! :)

Here is a picture of the spread. It's sort of blurry, but you get the idea. I wish I had taken more pictures.

And, about 30 minutes before they arrived, I couldn't figure out where to put the silverware. So I pulled out some old baby jars (I never throw them away, because you never know when one will come in handy!). I wrapped scrap ribbon around the top and punched out two more pumpkins. The baby food jars themselves looked cute, but I love adding extra details.

Halloween Baby Shower!

Okay, I'm a day late...I'm so sorry! I knew I never should have made a promise to post three days in a row! haha

Anyways, last year on October 23, I had my baby shower, which was all Halloween themed. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so it was a no brainer as to what my theme was going to be. With the  help of my amazing friend Melissa, everything turned out great! It was held at a local bed and breakfast that I had driven past every day for 4 years on my way to work and always hoped to have an event there. I absolutely loved planning it and was pretty bummed not having something Halloween themed to plan this year (especially since I've discovered Pinterest and there are so many cute things on there!).

First up are the invitations: The bear is from SU's Teddy and Train stamp set, while everything else is from a clear stamp set I bought at Michael's or Joann's, so is the paper. The bear is popped up with dimentionals and I used the criss cross card technique. These were extremely time consuming, but I absolutely LOVED then end result and they were a huge hit!

 I loved the candy corn stamped on the envelope.

All 50 of them!

This was what the room looked like. Melissa and I made the centerpieces out of supplies we picked up from Pat Catan's. They were also prizes for the games.

Close up of the centerpieces. 

These are the favors I made. They were baby food jars filled with various Halloween candies. I used my Big Shot to cut Halloween fabric using the scalloped circle die. I glued that to the jar lid, tied it off with some raffia and used the scalloped circle, 1 1/2 and 1 3/8 punch for the tag. Each one also had a button attached to the bow. These buttons came from a jar of antique buttons I purchased a long time ago at Joe and I's favorite antique store. All of the buttons were either orange, gray, black or white...except one blue one. Whoever had the blue button also won a prize!

Here are some pictures of the dessert table. I made all of the cookies, Melissa made the popcorn mix and my friend Carrie made the pumpkin cupcakes!

Witch hat cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels, oreo bombs, pumpkin cupcakes!

 

Are these not the cutest things ever???

 Halloween popcorn mix with candy corn and M&M's.

 Pumpkin cupcakes made by my great friend, Carrie.

You can also see the picks in the fruit. I used the Batty for You stamp set as well as the same patterned paper from the invitations to create those.

There was one aspect of the shower Melissa didn't allow me to know about/make on my own...the drinks. Her and her mom took the time to cut out pumpkin faces out of duct tape and attach them to orange cups. They were so cute and I thought it was such a great idea!

Speaking of Melissa, here is a picture of her and I. (I'm obviously the one on the left! hehe) Now, one year later, she has a little one of her own who is almost 4 months old! She's actually pregnant in this picture, but didn't know it yet. How neat is that?!

Pumpkin Party

How cute is this?? Made 100% digitally, I used elements from this site. She has a ton of cute free stuff. As much as I like making cards/invitations with cardstock, stamps and ribbons, making them digitally is fun too and the results can be just as impressive and it makes it easy to get a whole bunch done in a short amount of time. (you can click on the picture for a clearer picture...not sure why it's showing up so blurry?)

I always love how projects look once they are mass produced. It just seems like such a great accomplishment, especially when each one is made by hand and even though that's not the case with these, I still think it looks neat.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Well, I definitely haven't been posting as often as I would have liked to, but that doesn't mean I haven't been stamping!! Stamps aren't just for cardstock anymore :) I made this cute little decoration out of a canvas, the Stampin' Up Big Deal Alphabet and my son's sweet little feet. I originally was going to free hand the letters, but that really scared me. Then I was going to do stickers, but I didn't like that idea either...So I thought "I wonder what would happen if I put paint on my stamps?" and this was the final result! The spacing isn't 100% where I wanted it, especially the word 'feet', but I still think it turned out cute! The script is from a clear stamp set I got at Michael's or JoAnn's (so is the bat). And the paint wiped right off the stamp. I was quite surprised. I want to do a canvas for all of the months, so I'm sure I will have more of those to share!

I've been working like crazy on invitations. Unfortunately, I don't post invitations until after the event, and both of the events I'm working on (a wedding and a bridal shower) aren't until next year. But trust me, they are super cute!!

Tomorrow I will share digital invitations I made for a one year old's birthday party and then Tuesday I will show you all of the awesomeness that was my baby shower exactly one year ago. It was all Halloween themed and I loved it -- especially the invitations!

Christmas Card Set

Ok, I know it's only October, but now is the time to place your orders for Christmas cards! I can make any style of card you need in any quantity. I can also include a family photo if you'd like. Cards can either be digitally created and printed, completely handmade or a combination of both depending on what you want. Please don't hesitate to contact me (renae.rudy@yahoo.com) and get a jump start!

This is a set I made a few years ago as a gift for a neighbor. He loved it! All of these cards were made using SU's Simply Scrappin' Kit. Not only are they great for scrapbook pages, they make it so easy to create coordinating card sets quickly and there was very little stamping required. 

 Here are some close ups.

I also made this cute little gift box for them :)

Click here too see other Christmas creations!

Tyson's Birthday Card

This card was made for the cutest 4 year old I know, my friend, Kelley's son, Tyson (his sister is Trinity, who I made the Lalaloopsy stuff for). Kelley's mom watches my son and Tyson is his little buddy. His birthday was Pittsburgh Pirates themed, so I knew I had to make a baseball card! The DSP is miscellaneous Stampin' Up from my scraps bag. I made the baseball by cutting a circle out with the Coluzzle. I then used the same size circle and my bone folder to trace where I wanted the stitching to go. I drew little "v's" over the scored line with Bravo Burgandy and then sponged it with Close to Cocoa to give it a worn look. All of the other pieces of the card are also sponged. The flag was made on the computer and then cut out. I punched two holes for the toothpick to fit through and adhered it to the card base. The baseball was adhered using dimensionals.

Lalaloopsy Birthday Party

Today I'm going to share something other than a card. My friend's daughter had a Lalaloopsy birthday party in April. I had never even heard of Lalaloopsy until I met her. They are these really cute little dolls with button eyes. I found this wreath idea on Pinterest and just had to make her a Lalaloopsy one for her birthday. It was super simple to make and very impressive; and while it didn't take a lot of ribbon, it took a lot of cutting and even more time! I lost count at 500 strips of ribbon and it took me probably about 4-5 hours (spread out over a few evenings) to make it.

I started out with a foam wreath and small pins. I used about 8 different types of ribbons in varying sizes, colors, etc. I cut several 4 inch strips of each ribbon and placed them in piles. I then made a loop from the ribbon and pinned it to the wreath. I continued doing that with 5-6 ribbon pieces until I formed a little bunch, pinning them very close to one another. I wanted the wreath to have some sort of uniformity to it, so I worked in bunches at a time and made several of the same patterns all over before starting a new pattern. Once I got most of the wreath covered I went back through and just pinned left over ribbons to fill in any gaps. I finished it off by tying Lalaloopsy dolls and buttons to the wreath using fishing line.

Since there aren't really any Lalaloopsy decorations, I offered to help her come up with some things for the party. I made the little coloring book, buttons and banner on Microsoft Word using various digital scrapbooking papers. She had Lalaloopsy dolls propped up on dolls stands with paper pom pom flowers with little buttons scattered around as the center pieces. I wish I had taken pictures because everything looked so cute! Her one relative even made a Lalaloopsy cake that looked like it belonged on a competition show! The best was a picture of Trinity laying in a big pile of her Lalaloopsy dolls that was displayed by the cake.

These are the cookies I made to bring to the party. I used food coloring to dye sugar cookie dough six different colors. Once they came out of the oven I used a baby food jar to make an imprint and a straw to make the button holes. I thought they turned out super cute!

Simple Baby Card

I made this card last year for my friend April, who's son just turned a year old! She had posted pictures of his nursery on Facebook, so I made the card to match the color scheme. The alphabet is Stampin' Up's "Big Deal Alphabet" and the letters fit pretty perfectly inside the 1 3/8 inch circle punch. I used the 1 1/2 inch circle punch for the colored cardstock behind each letter. The "a" and the "y" are raised with dimensionals.  I also scored a border around the inside using a bone folder and my paper trimmer and then hand drew then "stitching" around it. The buttons were just miscellaneous ones I had laying around and were adhered with glue dots. I finished it off with the twine wrapped twice around the front of the card.

The inside had a 3 3/4 x 5 1/4 blue border (I'm sorry I can't remember exactly which color I used, but all of the colors used are Stampin' Up) to frame the writing space which was 3 1/2 x 5. I also punched the bottom to make a slot for the gift card to go.

Look Whooo's Graduating!

I know school just started and graduation parties have come to an end, but today I'm sharing a card that I made last year for my mom to give to someone she knew who was graduating. I absolutely LOVE punch art projects and was super excited at how cute this little guy turned out!

The eyes and belly were made from various sizes of circle punches, the body and wings were made from the scalloped circle punch, the feet were the horizontal slot punch, the head was the tab punch (I can't remember it's official Stampin' Up name) and the hat was made from the curly label punch with a thin rectangle on top. I free hand cut the nose. The diploma was made by rolling up a small rectangle of cardstock and tying it off with some shiny string.

You could use this punch art owl for many different occasions: put a birthday hat on him or a balloon in his hand, have him sitting next to a pumpkin, or dress him up like Santa...the possibilities are endless!