...FriGhTFuL & DeLighTFuL...

I took a quick peek at the Mojo Monday sketch today...and it was sooooo calling to me...

and I'd had the Stampin' Celebration! October challenge bookmarked since Friday...

I just LoVeD the colors on this!

The orange, aqua, and that black and white ribbon on the top of the wreath?!?!  AwEsOMe!!

so...I made this....

I used the colors and the layout...except instead of putting it on a card....

I put it on a plastic card box and added a ribbon handle.

It will be soooooo cute when it's full of candy corn!

I could have shown you now, except that someone....who shall remain nameless but is 11, lives in my house, and who's name rhymes with Donnor....ate it all ;)

Here's a closer view of my pumpkin...it's just embossed oval punches layered together....I love how the PTI sentiment pops embossed in white on that black paper.

Here's a close up of the ribbon handle/button detail.

I just cheated and glued it on...hopefully, the recipient won't get too aggressive swinging it around or they may send their candy corn flying...I personally wouldn't consider that a big loss (candy corn is some NASTY stuff!) but I know it would bring tears to the eyes of some people...again...with names that rhyme with Donnor....

I'm linking this up at Mojo Monday and Stampin' Celebration.

Thanks for looking!

jen

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...50th BiRtHdaY gift...

Our friends 50th birthday was this week.  

I dropped her off cupcakes last Saturday...raspberry stout cupcakes with chambord ganache and Bailey's irish cream buttercream

I delivered a bottle of wine and a balloon on her real birthday.

But for a 50th birthday, you deserve at least a birthday week...it's too big an event to fit all of the festivities into just one day :)

Plus, she invited some friends out to dinner last night, so I needed something special to bring.

...enter the craft project that made me cry...

okay...looks incredibly simple right...how could that possibly have caused TEARS?????

So, the box is a go-to staple for me...they sell the sweet little things at Hallmark for like $6...and that amazing doo-dad on top...another $2.50...those guys at Hallmark are simply genius when it comes to packaging...now...almost $9 is more than I'd normally spend just to wrap something...but I've been sick all week and I knew I only had one project in me...not a project and a cute package....gotta know your limits...



So the actual present was 50 scratch off lottery tickets...which is why the box says - Hope you get LUCKY- inside...get your minds out of the gutter...what were you thinking?!?!?!


The concept of the packaging for the lottery tickets was simple...accordion fold paper to hold each ticket and just glue as many pieces of paper together as needed to make it big enough to hold all the tickets...it was the scale of the project that I failed to grasp...


ok...so...here's the tear inducing project...

Here's the front....simple enough...nothing drama inducing here...

...and a side view...where you can begin to see the dilemma...that is an awful LOT of folding going on....

I don't have a good close up of the finished product because it's nearly impossible to fit something 

over 10 FEET long 

into one photo...8 sheets of cardstock, cut in half and then each half folded first up 1 1/2 inches to make a pocket and then scored and folded every 2 1/2 inches to make the page...and i needed FIFTY pages...I scored and folded for over an hour...

The concept seemed so simple...but the reality was an ugly, unwieldy, disaster...

ok...maybe not a disaster...but it wasn't a walk in the park...

I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep or the weird chemicals in the cough syrup...

but half way through the folding I was in tears...

Since I was sick, we didn't actually get to go to the dinner...but I heard the birthday girl liked her present...and hopefully, she really will get lucky and there will be something good on one of those scratch off tickets! ;)

Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
jen

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...BoxY PumPKin...

This week's JUgS ChaLLenGe was...

and the ChaLLenge was to use FaLL coLors at

Originally, I was thinking I wanted to turn a box into a FraNkeNsTeiN...I could totally see it in my head...but I didn't have a box that I thought would work.

What I did have was...

It's a fun shape...It opens nicely...it's a good size...PeRFecT!! :)

Here's my finished box...I used one sheet of paper I've had sitting around for a long time to cover it...on the sides, I cut the strip in half BEFORE I put it on the box, so that I didn't make an unfortunate mess trying to use an exacto knife to make my little box open...let's not talk about how I figured that one out or why I used all caps on the word BeFore...  :)

I used a Stamps for Life set and paper pieced and embossed the pumpkin shape...polka dot and argyle...LoVe how that turned out!!

I  used my new EK SuCcEsS garland punch for the swirls and leaf...

Ribbon, twine, button, tag...done.  The whole thing only took about an hour...which is really fast for me  :)  

I am still LoViNg bLuE added to traditionaL faLL colors...not sure what's up with that...but it seems perfect to me....

Here's the inside...I can't decide if it should hold candy or a gift card...but it's going in to Connor's teacher...she's crafty...so I know she'll like it :)

Thanks for looking

Have a SpEcTaCuLar Thursday!

jen 

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...GoiNg BaTtY...

I decided to try the SC348 Splitcoaststampers sketch today...

It's kind of funny how the more wonky paneled cards I do...the easier they get.

This was completed in 40 minutes...that's SuPer fast for me!!!

Here's the sketch ...

...and here's my version...

I went HaLLoWeEn-Y again...and 3D...

I used the cute Halloween MME pad and some Aqua mist cardstock again because I liked how it looked here ... but this time instead of making a card, I put the panel on the front of a clear A2 card box...it's holding an ENTIRE bag of M&M's...but they aren't halloween M&M's...so someone is going to have to empty it out, eat the offensive non-holiday candies, and replace them with theme approved candy...Seriously...my work is NEvEr done!!!  :)

I used the PTI halloween sweets and treats set again...since it was still on my desk from last night...and the bat stamp in the background is from the Paper SmOocHes Halloweenie set.

I embossed the orange paper in the back with a cool spiderweb folder, but you can't really see it...

Here's a view from the top...

I know...please try not to be offended by the boring, everyday M&Ms that are defiling my HaLloWeEn box...I'll get right on fixing that...as a matter of fact, I started trying to remedy the problem just as soon as I had snapped the picture :)

You can see here how the bat's wings are not adhered so they stick out like she's flying...not quite sure what's up with the female Halloween critters...just in a tiny bow tying frenzy I guess...oooohhh...I totally should have given her eyelashes too!!!  I'll do that when I fill her with the correct goodies!

I think it might need a handle of some type too...maybe eyelets in the sides and a ribbon?  That way it wouldn't impede the speedy intake of chocolatey goodness :) 

Thanks for lOoking!

Have a super Friday!!

jen

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