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.

Got a brand new stamp? Here's a tip!

As I was making some treats for my co-workers at the Y, I used my "Trick or Treat" sentiment from the Hostess set Holiday Best for the first time. I used SU markers to color directly onto the stamp and when I stamped it for the first time, it wasn't very pretty. Has this ever happened to you? Well, I have a solution! Simply take your sanding block and rub it across the stamp a few times. You'll be able to see the difference just in how the ink transfers to the stamp...and the result on paper is even more amazing.

The tag on the bottom was before sanding, and the one on top is after. Pretty cool, huh?

I am so anxious to share these and the other Halloween Treats I have made! There are 67 total (28 of one design and then 13 each of 3 other designs). I will start revealing them next Monday. My next few posts will show you a little more from the Open House! I hope you are getting lots of ideas from those pictures!

Scalloped Turkey

I have been on a big punch art kick lately (although a lot of today's post was made with the Big Shot Scalloped Circle die). I saw this post on SCS and knew I wanted to try and make it into a card (hers is a gift box). I am really excited with how he turned out! The card was made by cutting 2 Scallop Circles out of Chocolate Chip. Score one of them about an inch down and adhere it to the other one so that the card will open. Three more scallops were cut out of Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, and So Saffron and then cut so that there were only 4 scallops per piece. They were adhered together in the center and then adhered to the Chocolate piece. I used a Chocolate Chip marker to add the detail to the feathers. The feet, beak, and gobbler (not sure if that's what it's really called) were all made from the Scalloped Circle punch just cut to different sizes. His body is the 4th circle on the Coluzzle and his head is the 1 3/8 circle punch. His hat was made with the Word Window punch and then a little square cut from Basic Black and rounded on two corners. The buckle was hand cut from So Saffron and Basic Black and a White gel pen added the details. Finally, I gave him googly eyes! Easy, easy, easy!

The inside was cut with the Coluzzle and stamped using the Holiday Best stamp set (Hostess Level 1) and the Chocolate Chip marker (I eliminated the leaf design)

Stamps: Holiday Best
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Chocolate Chip Marker

Accessories: Big Shot, Scallop Circle Die, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8 Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, White Gel Pen, Coluzzle

Fancy Favor Made with 8 1/2 x 11

As you can see, today's bag is very similar to yesterdays... however, this bag was made using an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock instead of a 12x12 piece. I knew there had to be a way to do it and found the solution! Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the process, but the directions should be easy to follow for those occasions when you don't have a 12x12 of the cardstock you want to use!

1. Cut your cardstock to 6x11.

2. Cut the remaining strip to 6 x 2 1/2.

3. Adhere the small strip to the longer strip.

4. Line up the cardstock on the die so that the seam occurs AFTER the score line for the flap of the bag (if you lay it before the score line of the flap, you will have a seam on the front of your bag).

5. Run through the Big Shot and score creased lines.

6. When you fold your bag together, you will notice a small strip of paper that extends past the crease line of the flap. Simply snip this off at the score line and you can adhere your bag together!

Stamps: Holiday Best, Seasons of Friendship

Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, Old Olive

Ink: Whisper White

Accessories: Big Shot, Fancy Favor Die, Scalloped Oval Punch, Horizontal Slot Punch, SU Markers, Chocolate Chip Ribbon