A 30 Thirty Sucks! Gift

Our friend Nikki recently turned 30. While I truly believe that my life started at 30, everyone poked fun at me turning 30 and we all poke fun at others turning 30...Nikki's 30th wasn't any different. Ok, except that she celebrated hers this weekend (together with Halloween).

I wanted to do something fun and different. For Dallas' 40th we made the May Your 30's R.I.P. flower bouquet. For Steph's 30th we made her a survival kit (the blog didn't exist yet, I guess I need to put some pictures together to make a post about it). 30 Sucks it was!! Here is how it started...

Get it? Thirty Sucks!

Not so fancy looking. I admit it! 

Let's add some finishing touches and see what you think.

 Still not done, but getting closer! You can see her party invitation in the background.

Nikki came to work on Friday dressed as an ear of corn. I, of course, had to roll with it. There are lots of cute cuts on the Smiley Cards cartridge, but they aren't necessarily a cut you are going to use everyday! Thanks Nikki for giving me a reason to cut this...

I think he is CUTE!!!!!!!

So here is the end result for Nikki's 30 sucks gift. 30 Suckers in a basket made all cutsie!

 I put the corn cob on a popsicle stick and added him to the basket.  Nikki loves ice cream *what girl doesn't* so it was a great time to use the ice cream cone cut.

Nikki~ It has been my experience that 30 doesn't suck. That is truly when my life started! It had some bumps (and always will) But I know so much more about myself now and things are working out just great!!! Sure, there are parts that aren't ideal, but you can make the best of it and live each day to the fullest or you can complain about it and be unhappy. I choose to make the best of it (even if people disagree with my/our choices) and hope you will choose to the make the best of  it too! You are a strong and beautiful woman. Your dreams are waiting for you and no one but you can pursue them! (just be sure to send a post card now and then!) I am grateful I have been blessed with the opportunity to call you my friend! xoxo

I hope the same for my blogger friends. Life truly is what you make of it. There are people I know that aren't happy if they aren't complaining. That takes too much work and gains you a reputation. Surround yourself with happy people that don't create drama and your world can be a wonderful place to be!

~Til next time ~ Jen

I am linking up here -- Please visit them and see the other great ideas in blog world!!!!









 

 

A witches shoe and candy corn - the last of the Halloween Cards

I found my desk earlier. Don't worry it didn't last long. I put all the Halloween goodies in their respective places and I bet it wasn't 15 minutes before the work space was covered in 'stuff' again. I am blogging so I am not tempted to rush the Stickles dry on the birthday card that created the new layer of creative mess! If I am pleased with the birthday card I will share it soon!

What I am sharing tonight is the last (as far as I know, anyhow) of the Halloween cards. These two were pretty fun. I should have taken a picture of the one sitting on the coffee table that I am unhappy with and I bet one of you would have been able to offer a suggestion on what to do with it. Maybe that will be a post of its own. Anyway, these two cards I had fun with.  We're talking about glitter, candy corn and shoes, what's not to like? This first picture is of two candy corn, pretty basic 'finish' to them. Jim thought the bows looked like ribbons in their hair (good thing that was the look I was going for!!!)

The cheeks on the two above are colored with those fabulous Martha Stewart Glitter Markers! LOVE 'EM!
Things get a little more technical from here...The unfinished shoe

The finished shoe and a sparkly candy corn!!!!!! Do you see how I had fun?

All cards were stamped on the inside with Happy Halloween. The sentiment on the outside of the shoe was handwritten. The papers on the shoe are Bazzill and Cloud 9 Designs.

Linking up at

 Please stop over and check out the other awesome projects!!!


Halloween has been fun, but I am getting the itch to move on. I am sure there will be random card here or there between now and the end of the month and that is fine, but time to broaden our horizons!!! I need to share our new candy thermometer with you, the birthday card (if I like it), those freebies are still sitting in the garage waiting for someone to look at them and love them.......and whatever else that could distract me along the way! Thanks for stopping by! We've almost made it to Friday!!! Please leave a comment so we know you were here!
~Jen and Jynx (she is sitting on my feet)

Pumpkins, Mice and Spiders, oh my!

Halloween is getting closer! I had some cards that needed finished (still have a few more to do too...) I have been telling you there were some projects in the works and I am going to finally share some of them with you!!!

Cricut cuts are kinda like baking cookies.  The Cricut mat is your cookie sheet...

By the way, I am not a fan of the new style cutting mats. Mine are not sticky. I tried to make several cuts the other day for a different project and the paper kept shifting all over. :( Looks like I will be taking some advice from some others in Cricut world and using some sort of adhesive to make my old ones (and the brand new ones out of the package) sticky again.

Take them off the cookie sheet and frost!

Ok, I'll quit with the baking analogies.  Here are the finished cards! I think they turned out cute! Each one had their own challenges and their line of progressively better cards. :)

The spiders were cut using the Smiley Cards cartridge. I used dimensionals (not sure who made them) between the two spider bodies to give them some depth. The purple paper is from Bazzill. The stamps are Indadinkado. The picture below is the front of the card with spider inside. I inked around the edges of the stamp and used colored pencils to color in the stamp.

Here is a closer look at the inside.

Now the pumpkins. On the inside I stamped Happy Halloween. The pumpkins were cut using Gypsy Wanderings.

And the mice! The mice were cut using Happy Hauntings. I really took the opportunity to play with my new Martha Stewart Glitter Markers. I must say I LOVE them!!!!!! 

How is your Halloween card making/project(s) moving along? It won't be long now. Where is the time going?

Thanks for stopping by. I am linking up to All Things Thrifty for All Things Spooky

and to Debbiedoos for her newbie party.  Thanks to both for hosting! I hope you will stop over and check out their awesome blogs and some (or a lot) of the projects found there!
I am also linking up to



and I need to work on grabbing buttons from everyone!
Have a great week! ~Jen