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

A just for fun post about our fun day

Jim and I were off together today. Our original plans were to spend the day with our friend Connie at a craft festival called Christmas in the Woods. Connie's vehicle (with less than 18,000 miles on it) broke down on her way to our house. No Connie, no Christmas in the Woods. Fortunately for Connie the picture she sent me as a text message didn't come through as an attachment or the first photo of this post would be of Connie's vehicle being put on the flatbed. We missed Connie and Christmas in the Woods will happen again next year.

I wanted to look at some things at Target so off we went. We dropped a couple things off at the post office, got some Dunkin and headed on our way. Our closest Target is about 20 minutes away. Target is also in our mall. Once done at Target we decided to walk around the mall. Here are some shots from our day.

This haunted yard is between our house and the mall. It would seem someone REALLY enjoys Halloween!

It is a place that looks cool in the dark too. I could have stood there for awhile taking it all in.  There are things I noticed in these pictures that I didn't notice while standing there taking the pics!
Onward to Target and the mall. Here are some photos from the mall. The displays inside Hallmark definitely drew us in (good job Hallmark)
Angry Birds anyone?

LOVE the guys from Prep and Landing! Make sure to check it out this holiday season if you haven't seen it yet.

This wireless band from the Peanuts is pretty cool. They each start two songs and the others join in. We stood there mesmerized for awhile. (Long enough the clerk came over to talk to us about the set)

This Snoopy house is a gift bag....are you wheels turning.  Mine are, I'm still contemplating how to do it!

And of course, Hoops and Yo Yo. The jingle on this ornament was a hoot!  Love them too!

And...the train! What has happened?  This train is WAY cooler than the trains I remember at the mall.  This goes around the concourse and the conductor even punches the tickets for each kid (and adult). We didn't ride, but I was tempted. Oddly, asking to borrow someone's child just so I could ride the train was most likely frowned upon.

From the mall we went to Hobby Lobby. Couple pics from there. Both are making the wheels turn.

This one is the The 4 Stages of Life. Cute card? Cute wooden thing. Perhaps Jim will make his take and I will make mine. :)

We had coupons and a gift card for one of our favorite places to eat. We are only a few miles from the Original Quaker Steak and Lube. Here are a couple shots from inside...

It is a Penguins Hockey Night. Let's go PENS!

After our good eats, we went after a geocache (one of our other hobbies, someday we will have a post about geocaching). If you haven't heard of it check it out here.  We had success!!!! This was our 103rd geocache and this is what it looks like...

We enjoyed our day together. We didn't end up getting the couple things I had on the list when we left the house, but we spent the day together and had a nice time! Now we are settling in for some hockey, college football and buffalo chicken dip! Sounds like a perfect day to me!! (I was going to make cards, but hanging with my honey is more important. Cards will be here tomorrow)

We hope you did something fun today! I do have some card projects to share. Perhaps I will share one tomorrow!
~Jim and Jen

Heard you caught a lil bug...

I made a variety package of cards awhile back. This was one of them. I wish I could have found the sticky note that I made the sketch on.  I would have shared that too. The thought came to me one day while sitting at my desk for my full time job. I have learned after forgetting countless ideas to do my best to sketch them or make a note of some sort. I did just that. A few days later I made this card

The jar and the bug were cut from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. I covered the jar with a sandwich baggie to give the jar some added dimension. I used my computer and printer for the sentiment.

What do you think? Would love to hear from you! Comments are fun! (I just need to learn how to reply back to your comments by email. I will get there!)

Linking up at

Thanks again for stopping by!!! 

~Jen

A fall evening at Buhl Park (part 2)

As promised, here is part two of our evening in the park. The rain has come (as promised) as well. Everything is more vibrant wet, unfortunately the rain drops aren't conducive to picture taking. Weather permitting we will have more fall photos to share!  We can't change the weather, but we CAN enjoy the photos that we took the other night. Have a look!  Hope you enjoy!!!

Thanks for stopping by! We have some freebies we need to share and there are some projects on their way too!! Happy middle of the week!!! Have a great rest of the week!
~Jim and Jen

A fall evening at Buhl Park (part 1)

As you know, fall is in full swing here in western Pennsylvania! I promised you more pictures and you shall get them. We went to a nearby treasure for a stroll last night -- in hopes of getting some good fall shots! We think we succeeded. If you are in the area, or coming to the area, here is more info on Buhl Park. It was a great evening to be out and about, especially with a camera or two in hand! Take a look for yourself!

The weather the past few days has been PERFECT fall weather for PA. Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for part 2. Please leave us a comment and let us know you were here and maybe even your favorite thing about fall.  Hoodies and camp fires in the back yard are two of our favorite things about this time of year!
Linking up to

~Jim and Jen

It is Fall in PA

Hi! Not many projects were completed this weekend (it happens). I took a couple days off from my full time job to do some projects and get some fall-before winter comes sorts of things done and well, not a whole lot of any of that happened. I managed to get my first cold of the season and I didn't have the urge to do a whole of ANYTHING! (it happens)
Those couple days combined with the weekend weren't a total bust, but they definitely weren't what I had in mind when I knew I wasn't working for a couple days. During my short bursts of energy I would get a little bit done. We did go for a couple local rides to see the fall colors. We will do better this week to get some really nice shots. Most of these shots were taken while the car was moving.

We will work on some better shots this week. The weather looks like it should cooperate with those plans, at least for a couple days! We hope everyone has a good week! Hopefully we will have some projects pictures soon! ~Jen and Jim (and Jynx)