Wooden Halloween Signs

The Cricut gets used for  more than just paper crafts in this house. We also cut things out for Jim to take downstairs and use for woodworking purposes! He will ask for a shape or go through the handbooks looking for a shape and then I cut it out. That cut then gets taken downstairs and turned into a pattern.
Check out the Halloween signs Jim has made this year! We used the Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge.

This first one was a gift to Jim's Mom.

Pretty cool!

The wood is pallet wood!
Jim hand painted the words onto each sign.

These three are an order for a friend.

I think the witch turned out pretty cool.

I'm thinking I might need to cut her out for some cards...

The ghost, the cat, and the witch head all came off the Happy Hauntings cartridge.

There is one other thing that Jim made.

This witch was also originally a Cricut cut.

He did alter the cut a little bit and I think the change is great.

If you don't know what the cut looks like, you would have no idea.

I think she's AWESOME! and wait until you see where she ended up!!!

The spindle is part of one I picked up a few years back.

I actually think our larger sized spindle collection is dwindling.

Oh darn! A reason to shop for "junk"

LOVE IT!!!

Do you use your cutting machine to help with other projects?

Did you decorate for Halloween yet? 

We decorated this weekend. I can't wait to share!!

Hugs!

~Jen

partying here:

Sunday's Best at My 1929 Charmer

Halloween cards...round 1

Halloween mode is in full swing around here. So many things have been working against that the decorations are still EVERYWHERE!!! THAT MEANS CLUTTER!! Ugh. I am so ready for them to be where they belong and the clutter back upstairs!

I made my first batch of Halloween cards. I didn't use the Cricut for these. GASP!, I know. I had picked up some Halloween addons at some point and finally had the idea to use them. Am I the only one that buys stuff for the stash and then it gets forgotten???? Please tell me I am not. Anyone?

The cards turned out pretty cute. {So cute that most of them have sold. THANK YOU!!!}

Let's take a look-see!!!

A look at all of the cards (and a couple coffins that were awaiting delivery)

I put them in sets of four to sell them.

I think I did pretty well because the "scrap" pile was minimal when I was finished.

All very similar, but yet different

I used foam dots behind the little trick or treaters.

Every time I think I have a favorite picked out, I change my mind.

Have you decided?

The card on the left in the above picture was a test. I used one of punches I found at TJ Maxx for just a couple $$. So many of these punches look cute but then I don't know what to do with them when I get them home. Is there a problem for others??

I have decided that I don't have a picture of my favorite one.

There was one more that I left out of the mix when I was assembling the sets.

I sent it to someone and never took a picture. :( The ghost was on that one.

They're all cute in their own way.

The next batch of cards will be made with the Cricut. Stay tuned.

Here is an update on the coffins!

These coffins have been a huge hit.

(my original post here)

I came across a bunch of cool things at JoAnn's one night.

I will have to go back because I have sold almost 30 of these things and I'm out of cool stuff.

What is your favorite thing about Halloween?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs ~ Jen

Linking up here:

An argyle Thinking of you card.

Hey Everyone! I hope you are well!! I'm sorry I haven't been around. I guess I need to accept the fact, that blogging just doesn't fit in my schedule some days. Sad, isn't it?

We do have a few more batches of canning to do and then I can share a picture of the canning cellar with you. It sure is pretty! The end of canning means the end of the garden. We do have a few things still growing, but clean up of the rest of the garden needs to take place. The weather forecast looks good for most of the week!

A friend's friend's fur baby passed away recently. My friend asked if I could make her a card to give to her grieving friend. I told her absolutely. I will say it is much more fun to make happy cards, but I thought it was sweet she cares enough about her friend to send a card. (ok, ok, yes I thought it was cool she asked me to make the card! But you really already knew I thought it was cool)

I came home and was looking through some of my cartridges and consulted Google. I wasn't seeing a whole lot on Google that was inspiring. I didn't care for the cards that had dogs off of the Create A Critter cartridge. They seemed a little too cutesy for this situation. Awhile later I pulled out the Wild Card cartridge and was looking through it and found the PERFECT cut!!! The friend that asked me to make the card LOVES argyle!

The argyle card is the 2nd cut on the Wild Card cartridge and is on page 33.

I cut everything at 6 inches.

I used my Gypsy to make the cuts.

I have read that if you aren't using a Gypsy you should always cut the envelope first and then the other cuts.

This is the blackout feature and BOTH icon cuts!

Blackout card and both icon cuts layered together.

You can see I ran my ribbon behind the cuts.

The ribbon tied and sentiment attached.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up Sincere Salutations

Do you see the frog?? The pointy thing that is holding the card???

I now have two of them. One of my girlfriends went on vacation a month ago.

She was in an antique store in Illinois and saw them and brought them home for me.

The second one is much larger. I will share it soon.

The inside sentiment - I searched Google for quotes about dogs.

I decided on this one. I'm sorry the photo is blurry.

It says

"A good dog never dies. He always stays. He walks beside you on crisp autumn days when frost is on the fields and winter's drawing near. His head is within our hand in his old way" by Mary Carolyn Davies

I cut the envelope using the blackout feature.

The paper was onesided, which is perfect for an envelope!

The Created for you is a Stampin' Up stamp as well.

You didn't really think I wouldn't put anything on the envelope did you??

I love how the card turned out.

My girlfriend loved the card and commented on the argyle.

Jim thinks I should make Christmas cards using this cut.

SO, perhaps you will see this cut again.

This is part of why I haven't been around.

I'm making these coffins and selling them.

Some people are giving them to their child's teachers and others are giving them to the kids in their family.

I have an assortment of things to put in them. I have things for adults and kids.

Some people are buying them empty to fill with their own stuff and others like the one stop shop idea.

If you missed the post on these coffins, it is here.

I may need to do another post showing all the different ways they have been decorated. What do you think?

What kind of Halloween projects are you working on??

Thanks so much for stopping in.
Hugs! ~ Jen

Linking up here:

A Peace Sign Birthday Card

Happy Weekend Everyone!!! Earlier in the week was Jim's Mom's birthday. We had a weenie roast out back. Jim's Mom and Step-Dad, and Jim's Grandparents joined us out back. We, of course, had too much food. Jim's Mom LOVES the peace sign!!!

A little sidewalk chalk birthday sign.

She loved it!!

Jim's Mom is one of the easiest people for me to make cards for.

She appreciates them on so many levels.

When she has some to send, she puts some thought in to who she sends them to.

She wants to send them to people that will appreciate them as well.

Her birthday was no different. Jim and I talked about what to make and it came together like a charm!

Ready to take a look at how it came together???

This ribbon came home after a trip to Hobby Lobby.

I had Jim's Mom in mind when I bought it, but figured I could also use it for a number of things.

I hadn't used it yet.

I pulled the ribbon out and the ribbon determined the colors for the card!

I used the Disney/Pixar Cars cartridge to cut the peace sign and the circle for behind it.

I cut everything at 4.5 inches.

I did cut the peace sign twice. I want to add some dimension.

You can see in the photo above that I used foam dots (or squares actually) to give the dimension.

I used the squares between the yellow and the first peace sign and then between the two peace signs.

I added some ribbon across the top.

and a sentiment across the bottom.

The sentiment is from a set of Christmas stamps I have that is made by Fiskars.

Added some more ribbon to the inside, as well as a sentiment.

She also received A LOT of stamps on the back!!

I don't normally put that many on the back, but this was fun!!

The  front of the card and the front of the envelope.

Yep, added more ribbon there.

Apparently I was ribbon happy the other day!

Ah yes! My favorite part. If you have been here to see other cards, you know I like to add a little something to the back of my envelopes. This one was no exception.

I added a peace sign stamp (not sure who it is made by)

I also added a little quote sticker.

I think it turned out pretty cool and she LOVED it!!!!!

Yep! We sang happy birthday to her!

How fun! After cake, we sat around the fire for awhile.

It was too bad we did this on a week night. We could have sat around the fire for quite some time!!

What do you think of the card??

It was pretty simple.

If you make one, I'd love to see you share it on the Facebook page!!!!

Peace!

A look back at Halloween 2011

I have been contemplating my Halloween cards for the last few weeks. I thought I would take a look at what I did last year and put all of last year's Halloween posts in one place!!

Details here

He was my first Gypsy project.  Details here

Details on the pumpkins and spiders

Details on these two are here.

And if you missed the post on this year's coffin treat box, the details are here.

Have you started your Halloween projects?

Which of these is your favorite??

Thanks for stopping in!!!

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered. Welcome to all the new followers here and on Facebook!!!!

The lucky winner of all this fun stuff.....

Geri from Sister #5 Designs! Here is the proof that rafflecopter picked Geri!!

I about fell out of my chair when her name popped up! I mean, what are the odds that the girlfriend I work with, and started blogging with, and go thrift store shopping with, the follower that lives the closest to me....would be the one that wins. Seriously???????? How does this happen??????  I guess the odds were in her favor. When I told her it was her she said "Well, at least I'm saving you the cost of postage." Smarty pants she is!!! I hadn't even thought of that. I almost feel like I need to have another giveaway, but wouldn't I feel even worse if she won that one too.

I'm still in shock and can't believe it. But Congratulations to Geri. I can't wait to see what she does with the supplies, which ones she keeps and which ones she shares with her daughter and granddaughter!

I hope you will stop over and say "Hey!" to Geri. We're big Steelers fans!!! Check out the Steelers projects Geri has recently completed. You could change them out for your favorite sports team!!!

HERE is the link to how she worked her magic in this room.

Thanks again to everyone for following!!!!

I hope you will join us on facebook and share us with your friends!!!

Congrats Geri!

We will never forget

Here are some photos from a memorial at the fire house across from Ground Zero. These were taken in April 2010 when we were in NYC.

Not forgotten!