confetti

tricks & treats from my busy week!

boo! to you...

with treats galore!

mignon wanted to be salt & pepper with a friend, so here's what i came up with--they were so cute!

eye-popping tomato soup (from marthastewart.com) for my book club crowd!

crescent mummy dogs (from pillsbury.com) for the girlies...

with a side of green noodles!

eyeball cupcakes for a school party...

and last, but most definitely not least--candy monster cupcakes based on these awesome ones.  not suprisingly the original inspiration came from martha stewart kids.  sooo much fun for the girlies and their friends, this was a great activity for kids.  and of course for mummy, too!

happy halloween!
:) lexi

welcome to our patch!

 

today i have a quick card and a quicker post.  one more pumpkin card from the recent saltbox studio release.  this week has been a blur of cooking, baking, cleaning, sewing, and creating.  i'm so looking forward to the fun payoff of trick or treating with the girlies and their friends tomorrow night--we have the best halloween neighborhood!

'night!
:) lexi

paper crafts blog tour

in honor of creating keepsakes/paper crafts new online store and the latest edition of paper crafts gourmet available for pre-order and coming soon, i have a project and recipe from pc pro alisa bangerter to share.  looks yummy and cute!

Enjoy Halloween Tag
Designer: Alisa Bangerter

SUPPLIES: Cardstock: (ivory) Dye ink: (Black) Stewart Superior Corp.; (Summer Sun) Stampin' Up! Specialty ink: (Mango Lemonade color wash) Stewart Superior Corp. Color medium: (black chalk) Craf-T Products Accents: (black brads) Making Memories; (chipboard bat, moon) Melissa Frances Fibers: (black striped ribbon) Pebbles Inc. Font: (Black Family) www.dafont.com Adhesive: (foam tape) Finished size: 3" x 4 1/2"

1 Make tag from cardstock. 2 Crumple tag and smooth out. Spray edges with color wash; let dry. Apply chalk. 3 Ink chipboard moon; let dry. Chalk edges and adhere. 4 Ink chipboard bat; let dry. Adhere with foam tape. 5 Print sentiment on cardstock; trim and tear edges. Chalk edges and adhere with foam tape. Attach brads. Attach ribbon with brad.

Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuits
by Alisa Bangerter

This is a perfect recipe to pull out if you are short on time because there is no rolling or cutting. The cheese and garlic add extra kick to a plain biscuit, and kids love them. They are the perfect accompaniment to serve with soups or stews, and are great served with a salad.

INGREDIENTS
2 c. flour
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. butter or margarine
1 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 1/4 c. milk
Chives (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture is fine. Add cheese and mix well. Add milk and stir until just moistened. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Sprinkle top with chopped dried or fresh chives if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 15 minutes.

looks like a great project and a great magazine, too!!

:) lexi

more spooky fun!

today, we did another fun activity the girls like to do every halloween--a spooky take on the gingerbread house!  there are so many possibilities with all the cool seasonal candies out there.  anyway, we don't always get to it, and we ran out of time last year, so it was a must do this year!

these two sweet mansions are my girls.  i wish i'd remembered to take a picture of the decorating in progress.  we ended up with three other neighborhood girls creating with us and we made quite a mess of candy and wrappers.  the more the merrier, right?  or spookier in this case!  in addition to candy, the houses are constructed with graham crackers and royal icing.  i prefer to use chocolate graham crackers for these, but the store i went to didn't have them, so we added the oreo crisps for a bit of a darker shade--they made great shingles and windows.  some other good ideas we've used in the past are square pretzels, stick pretzels, chocolate necco wafers, skull suckers, etc.  there really so many possibilities--i always have fun wandering up and down the candy and snack aisles looking for new building accessories.  the candy corn pumpkins are always top on my list and this year, i love the peeps ghosts and jack o'lanterns.  we just may have to make some peeps s'mores with the extras!

'night!
:) lexi

carving real pumpkins!

we carved a couple of pumpkins today--one for each girlie.  mignon had to have the pirate pumpkin in real life, like the one on the card!  colleen came up with her own design...

and named it crybaby pumpkin because they both thought it looked like it was crying.  she came up with the nose all on her own!  both girls were hesitant to get their hands too mucky, but they really wanted to roast the seeds, so finally they dug right in to separate them from the pulp...

salty, crunchy, yummy!

:) lexi

new in the haunted house!

a new house means a few new decorations!  i had my eye on this black candelabra and hanging spiders from pottery barn as soon as i saw it, but i put off buying it because i was hoping to get it on sale.  then, while in the mall a couple of weeks ago, i couldn't wait any longer and it was a good thing, too since it was the last one!  the stuff at pottery barn kids next door *was* on sale, so this cute little creature came home too...

the girls are always begging for a pet!!

i love halloween!
:) lexi

dum-dum ghosts

today, the girls and i spent some time making dum-dum ghosts.  a favorite halloween craft, and one we've done together every year.  in fact, i remember making them when i was young, although my tools and technique have changed!  what used to be kleenex and a black marker is now tissue inserts and a stamp from the old su! set, fun faces.  one year, i found these leftover tissues from my wedding invitations and decided to try them--like the kleenex, they're the perfect size, and the weight is even better.  i don't know why i kept them other than i am a crafter and, therefore, a hoarder of anything that might remotely be useful one day.  and hey, it paid off!  here's one of the things we do with the ghosts...

a spooky ghost tree!  i got this tree from pottery barn kids a few years ago on major sale and it's one of my favorite decorations.  the ghosts make it even more fun--everyone likes to pick one when they're feeling like a dum-dum!  we also make them for class treats and any that are left over go into the cauldron of candy on halloween night, so it's an all around fun and useful halloween craft.  tomorrow, i'll try to take pics of the new finds i got to haunt the new house this year...

'night!
:) lexi

carved & embellished!

here's the second card that came to mind for the saltbox studio pumpkin carving party.  and three new jacks--captain jack, princess jack, & bozo jack!!!  i decided to "carve" all of the face features, adding one embellishment per pumpkin with stickles.  things you could stick into the pumpkin as my second grader said.  we have these great little "potato pumpkin head" sets that inspired the idea.  i thought of the pirate and princess first, but then i got stuck.  i really felt like i needed three for the card to be complete and after a little doodling on practice pumpkins, a clown came to mind--crisis averted!!  a couple of other designers and fans got carving, too, so go check them out...

• elena
• novell
• jen

thanks guys!  and if any of you have pumpkin oak and want to join the party, post your card somewhere and leave a link for me to add it to the list!

see ya' later...
:) lexi

pumpkin carving party!

i had so much fun "carving pumpkins" with my saltbox studio pumpkin stamps last week that i had to revisit the idea and ask the design team to have a little pumpkin carving party with me.  the tall pumpkin from pumpkin oak has such a nice big canvas to doodle on, a perfect pick from the patch!!  here's mine--quickly for now!  and i'll be back later to post links of the team members and friends who were able to join the fun.  they may be posting tomorrow, though.  in fact, i have another idea brewing as i type, so i'll have another tomorrow, too!!

:) lexi

jack o' cake

here's a quick cake i made for a cake walk today.  i wanted something not too big or too difficult, but that would be seasonal and fun.  and this totally fit the bill!  i baked the cake in an aluminum mixing bowl to get a rounded half pumpkin shape, iced it in orange, and added the stem and features in fondant.  super easy--and it was picked by the first winner!!

thanks for stopping by...
:) lexi

maryland crab cakes

today, we made another kind of cake, maryland crab cakes.  mignon has usa day tomorrow--each student researched a different state and, for part of the project, had to make a food from the state to bring to the presentation.  she has maryland, so my aunt who lives there sent us senator barb's favorite crab cake recipe, and her daughter who goes to loyola here came to help us.  we got them all shaped and ready to broil tomorrow morning, but of course, we had to do a test run tonight...

yum!  we had fun cooking together and julia said they were just right.  i hope the batch in the morning goes as well!

'night!
:) lexi

eta:  here's a pic of the finished early morning maryland crab "cupcakes"--they were a hit!!!

give thanks

i didn't have to time to stamp anything new today, so i thought it would be fun to show an example of how easy it is to turn those extra atc's into full cards.  usually when i'm doing a trading card swap, i make sure to have extras just for this reason--pull in some additional papers for layering, ribbon or other embellies and voila, a quick card!  for this one, i thought it would be good to stick with the same basic color scheme, with just a little more orange.  my original atc provided the focal point, sentiment included!  {all stamps by the saltbox studio, vintage brown paper by a muse.}

i hope you're having a great day!
:) lex

indian corn

finally, the other corn card as promised!  when i was coloring the little mouse eating his corn the other day, it reminded me of the multi-colored indian corn that i buy every fall to decorate for thanksgiving.  i love the way the kernels are drawn and with the fine point of my copics, they're easy to color, too.  i used a mix of cream, yellow, tan, sepia, and red--any similar colors would work and the beauty of copics is that you can keep layering and blending until you like the look.  i decided to cut the corn away from the mouse times three to create a little "door hanging" element, adding a small bow with a mini glue dot to tie them all together.  another sweet and simple saltbox creation!

blessings,
:) lexi

give thanks & hook 'em!

i'm coming down off of a 4-day weekend--a busy one too!  but i did squeeze in little stamping, so i thought i'd share a few things today since i wasn't around much the last two.  saturday was our monthly stamp club meeting and our atc theme was fall, halloween, or thanksgiving--perfect for using stamps from the new release from the saltbox studio!  i decided to use the pilgrims from give thanks again, but this time color them a little more traditionally, using brick white and skin white for a soft touch.  (i need to remember to post pics of my wood ones when i take them out!)  i thought the little pumpkin from pumpkin oak was just the right scale and style for the pilgrims, so i added one at their feet.  simple, but sweet!  i brought the same stamps to the meeting and used a few more on the project we made there...

one of our members led a project turning clear card boxes into mini file boxes or treat bags.  i thought this would make a great little file of scrapped cards with things to be thankful for, including pictures from thanksgiving, or maybe a container to store place cards, or even packaging for thanksgiving treats to give a teacher.  so cute and lots of possibilities--thanks kim!

while i was at the meeting, the tx/ou game was in full swing--and i was checking the score from time to time on my iphone.  love that thing!  anyway, i was very excited when texas won, and of course had to stamp a card in their honor.  my fellow longhorn stamper geeta sent me these awesome stamps last year from deadbeat designs.  don't they go well with pompomabella for this occasion?!  and just in case you didn't know, su! pumpkin pie is the perfect burnt orange!

hook 'em horns!
:) lexi

rock, paper, scissors ~ joy!

i was in the mood for a challenge today, so i headed over to splitcoast to see what was going on.  the friday challenge is the limited supplies challenge and today, titled "rock, paper, scissors", it was all about using rocks (only gem-type embellies), paper (any kind), and scissors (decorative scissors and straight edges only), with a "bonus" of using metallic paper.  i decided to use another new saltbox image that i had yet to ink up--like i've said several times with this release, so many stamps, so little time!  i absolutely love this angel from the joy to the world set and thought she lent herself well to rocks--the a muse mini star twinkle stickers are a perfect fit for the star buttons and halo.  i traced around her gown with a cool shadow copic marker and added other soft touches with cream and brick white, also blending in a little sand color on the bethlehem scene.  a clear glitter pen make her wings sparkle.  i really wanted to use some scissors and metallic paper, too, so i matted her on gold card stock and trimmed it with my mini scallop scissors.  i haven't done a challenge in so long and this was a fun (and easy) one to play!

thanks for stopping by...
:) lexi

p.s.  i haven't forgotten my other corny card--maybe tomorrow!

share your harvest

i couldn't believe i hadn't inked up this cute little mouse from the new saltbox release yet, so i got right on it tonight!  he's from the kid's table set--definitely a must-have.  anyway, i thought he would look cute sitting in the field munching away, so i used a single stalk from the cow stamp in the farm friends set and selectively stamped it on each side of him.  clear stamps make this very easy to do.  i had so much fun coloring the corn--it's always the simple things!  i feel another corny card idea forming, so check back tomorrow...

'nite!
:) lexi

tricky treats pumpkin

today i have another saltbox pumpkin card--and the result of the domino effect!  while creating yesterday's card and looking at my decorations, i got to thinking that if i omitted the top of the pumpkin and doodled an opening and handle along with the face, i'd have a quick and cute trick or treat pumpkin--you know, the plastic ones that we all carried at one time or another?!  so easy and yet another cool thing to do with a plain pumpkin stamp.  this one is from the new set give thanks, which also has a leaf and acorn branch, the tall pilgrims (i love those!), a cornucopia, and several sayings--lots of perfect fall images!

don't forget you have two chances to win the new saltbox stamps over at the a muse news blog--one for the fall sets and another for the holiday sets--just click the links and leave a comment on each post.  but hurry, time's up at midnight!

:) lexi

howdy pumpkins!

i'm still in full halloween decorating mode here, inside and out like i shared last year--i love halloween!  it's been tons of fun figuring out where to put everything around the new house.  and adding a few new things too!  inspired by all the stuff around me, i just had to come up with another halloween card.  plus, now that the new saltbox studio stamps are unveiled and available for purchase, i thought it would be fun to show a few different ways to use them.  while the fall stamps are more general fall or thanksgiving in theme, there are several different pumpkins.  and with a black fine liner and a little doodle carving, they are easy to turn into a perfect family of jack-o-lanterns--frightful and delightful!!

:) lexi

p.s.  don't forget to leave a comment here and here on the a muse news blog for a chance to win the new saltbox stamps!!!

it's like christmas!

today's the day--the new saltbox studio stamps are available for purchase--just click here!!  not only that, it really is like christmas on the a muse news blog, where you have *two* chances to win free stamps!  you can enter to win all of the fall sets on this post and all of the holiday sets on this one.  how cool is that?!  there are so many great images in this release--it's been very hard to pick which ones to show you and i'm so excited for you to see them all.  today i used one of my favorites,"ho ho ho" with "merry christmas" and i've gone back to my minimalist beginnings of white space stamping--i love clean and simple.  the mix of letters and pictures makes for a very cute card!  there was more than i could possibly share during the peeks, so be sure to keep coming back for additional inspiration from this release.  i'd love to know what you're faves are.  and don't forgot to go enter to win!!!

:) lexi

o christmas tree!

i just had to come back with another saltbox peek since i missed being able to post yesterday!  plus, all my posts have been fall and there are christmas sets being released too.  i stamp chronologically--and i quickly get caught up in the domino effect of good ideas and inspiration, so i stayed in fall too long!  isn't this the cutest christmas tree?  it's little, but nice and full in a great pot and i love how the lights are wound around.  just wait 'til tomorrow--so many stamps, so little sneak time!

:) lexi