Halloween in November

If you don't plan to scrapbook any other Halloween, plan to do this years. When has Halloween ever been in November?

I couldn't help but start with this photo because it's my favorite. It just... looks like I swiped it out of one of my mom's old photo albums.

We tricked and treated around Grandma's neighborhood just for a couple hours in the cccccooolld.  But from the looks of their collections of goodies, we could've said we were out all day.

This is mostly made up of Jennie Bowlin stuff.  A think I stole the yellow and grey polka dot paper from a Studio Calico kit...  and the instagram button. I just LOVE that. Even though this photo wasn't an instagram... it looks like it should've been.

Up in the top right corner where the scalloped circle is... well the main purpose of that is to cover up a BOOBOO! lol... I frequently get a little quick with the ink pad and end up dropping it on the paper.  So that's what happened here, i got a big smudge of brown ink up there and I just didn't like what it did for the page.  So I just punched out a circle and covered it.

IT's THURSDAY! my fave day! Except for my head hurtsness.... errgh.
And looking forward to some time with friends tomorrow night!... and the next night...
and... hopefully in there do some Holiday decorating around here!

xo
fitts Mcfinister!

Dunt Dunt DAAAAA!

Since New Jersey is at the mercy of the impending doom approaching..  Roo and I decided we might as well get arty and crafty in case all our supplies end up in a van down by the river in the upcoming days.

Another thing I'm glad we were able to squeeze in before the end of the world was the trip to Storybook Land this past friday! And I got some great shots of my sweetie so I was very eager to get some of em' down in the album.

 

I didn't use any sewing this time... I decided a staple here and there was good enough.

 

So I cut out a bunch of 1" circles from one of my papers... and I looked at my swiss cheese paper and said... hey, why not just throw this down too? It does match... and it makes a neat frame... It's like when you have no stickers left on the sheet and what's left is the borders.  Why not use it?

It's true.  I'm all about the TRENDY when it comes to crafts. And the currents trends include fabric, handwriting, and... chevron. There are others, but that's a dominant component in what I've seen lately.

Oh, and I forgot to mention my usage of my black pen.  I pretty much use one of those for every page. This one was the one that came with my smash book. It has a glue stick on one end but I must say it just plain don't werk!



So despite all the nervous unknowing... we have had an outstanding Sunday so far. We went to movie church, gave our wallets to the person next to us, (we prob. won't need em much longer anyway...) stopped to gather snacks and pizza, had a couch bed picnic, watched 7 episodes of Adventure Time,washed all the washables, collected water, and got our art on. And now for some pumpkin carving...  I know... better late then NEVER EVER AGAIN EVER IN THE EVERNESS OF THE WORLD!

So stay safe my friends!  And just remember, you can get crafty without power... but you can't pick your friends nose.  ..  ..  I mean, you can get your art on without your pants on, but you can't dry your dog in the rain if the rain is the wet kind.

Keep your pants on.  THERE'S ONE RULE!!

Hay... A happy life tradition.

Yes, the pics in the hay that everyone has!

I have them too... And to go with my orange striped fall wardrobe... I have some orangey scrapcents!

October 6th, we went with our dear friends The ROSTA'S to the pumpkin patch...   We saw all the wood cutouts that almost looked just like the characters they intended to be.

This is made with the October studio calico kit... Which really had nothing to do with fall... But I went with a color scheme rather than a theme.



The sewing went a little wonky at some points, but it really doesn't matter in scrapbooking. There's no RULES! 

(put your shirt back on)  THERE'S ONE RULE!

I just LOVE that commercial!!!  I cracked up so hard the first time I saw it... and then the second... and then all the times I watched it on Youtube.

So where was I?  YES YES so there is a giant threadball of pink hell on the back of this page that I neglected to take a picture of.

I'm also getting bored with just shoving my pages into a plastic sleeve and into a binder.

I have this one 12x12 display item that i found on sale one day at AC Moore, and I LOVE IT!  It's like one of those photo flippers on a stand, but big. I'll take a pic of it when I get a chance...   so that's one way I like to display pages... but I tend to just throw in my latest creation, then switch em out.

Well, I better get my butt in gear so enjoy your weekend! 

Enjoy the colors! 

Enjoy the friends!

Enjoy the apples and the pumpkins!

AND Enjoy the ...  frost... to be totally current.

Sometimes... the day before is better than the day of...

Sometimes your daughter has a 3rd birthday.  Actually, it normally only happens once.  After 3, sometimes it skips 4 and goes right to 5... but it never goes back to 3 again. And you're at your moms house because she always has a picnic on labor day, so you bring your newly 3 year old daughter and you also bring your camera because you think you're gonna get some really good pics of her on the exact day she turns 3. But then it turns out to be the yuckiest most HUMIDIFIED day ever there was the whole summer and  your daughter spends the entire day in the pool with TURNY... (i love when nicknames evolve out of mispronunciations from toddlers ) .  Should be Tierney.  :)

So let's just say the birthday pics were a wash...  but the dancing vids from that day will be cherished!

Luckily the day before, I just happened to tote my camera to my friend Michelle's house for her son's 4th birthday party...  and sitting across from Roo, I was able to snap a series of her eating her philly swirl push up pop.  Though I could've easily included 15 pics, I chose my 5 faves and smooshed em into an instagram collage and then cut em apart after I printed them. And this is probably to be my last layout of summerness that I'll do until next year.



So just this past August I

finally got my hands on some Studio Calico kits.  So this is mostly from the August one ... or the September one... I'm not really sure because Roo mixed them together...

But hopefully I can dedicate some pages to just one kit exclusively..  because I LOVE THEM.

And I'm trying a new thing where I just kinda ...  turn off the brain and just go with it.  Ya know how when you think too hard, you just get frustrated and end up with nothing. This way, I just throw it all down and then edit later. Because after you've thrown down, inspiration surely follows and you suddenly just start getting ideas.

To make these sunshiney spotty lights, I used this simple app called "Bokehful".  You can make them in a few different shapes.. the hex is my fav...  as is prob. for most.

If I ever get a new iphone... I fear I may abandon my camera all together because between the apps and the ever-evolving quality of photos it takes...   I may just lose the need...

I've also been addicted to foam adhesives lately.  I feel this need to make things pop out..  So there are several different heights going on with the photos.  You can probably tell from the shadows... a couple are flat... then some are off the page a little, and some a little more.



There are some things in the works that me and my hubs are trying to plan.  Maybe some workshops or collage clubs.. lol.  But we'll keep you posted.  Would love to get together with some of my local friends and make some art!

Digital scrap

 

I know I've mentioned this before, but it just got easier...

 

Close to my heart has this great ONLINE software you can use to make digital scrapbook pages.  You have a lot of artistic freedom like you always did, but now they've got what they call "express layouts". 

So if you don't want to think, you don't have to!  They've made layouts for you that are adorable!

 



There are a bunch to choose from, you just pick the one you want, and slide your pictures over onto it. 



And when you slide in your photo, you'll see this window pop up with more options for editing your photo.  You can change it to sepia or black and white. You can zoom in or out.  You can crop, rotate, and matt it!



And the prints come out beautiful.  I've made books on snapfish, shutterfly, walgreens, cvs, blurb, and Studio J.  And I've loved every one of them.  But the biggest difference I noticed between the photo sites and Studio J is the quality of the photos.  The pages in my photo books seemed to have faded over time and my Studio J prints are still as bright as when I first got them.  They are 12 x 12 high quality prints. Perfect to just slide into your favorite scrapbook.  Also a nice idea to make one here and there and add it into your project life books.

So check it out, play around!  I know you'll love it if you have very little time and want to make something special!

STUDIO J

CLOSETOMYHEART

 

TADA!!!

YAY FALL!

It's almost my favorite holiday so I am determined to get a head start on costumes this year. 

And I probably would've been done with Roo's last month had my sewing machine not crapped out on me.  So I'm kinda depressed because after the dishwasher, fridge, and computer died...  having my sewing machine follow suit was just the cherry on top of my sundae of despair...

But I have to say despite all that material needless woe, I've been pretty chipper lately.  I've packed even more activites into my schedule and somehow feel like I've gotten more done because of it. It's like the Jar of stones theory...  Between all those stones you can fit a whole lot of sand!

So this year my daughter is helping me a little with her costume.  She's being Rapunzel.  No questions... she's been telling herself and everyone else since April that this is what her Halloween costume will be and the decision has not even been tempted to waver.  Though a part of me is disappointed that my control over her Halloween attire is over already, I'm still going to make sure she'll be her own little Rapunzel and not wear the same dress all the other little Rapunzel's will be donning. May not turn out to be the best, but it'll be something we'll do together and have fun doing! 

SO my darling friend Suzanne agreed to let me borrow her sewing machine for the time being, until I can find another, or find some money to buy one. It can probably be fixed, but it may cost more than it would be to buy.  Still have to look into that... but this way, I'm not spending any extra dough at the moment... 

I'm also bummed because my mom and I signed up for a sewing class monday nights and it got canceled due to not enough enrollment.   I was finally gonna have someone show me all the things I'm doing wrong because I never bothered to actually take lessons...  I wanted to.  But time, money, and availability relatively close to home were always an issue.  And again, I was so excited to fine one I didn't have to travel an hour to... and it's cancelled!  Maybe that was God saying it would've been a waste of time.

 

Anyway...  so I think I'm just happy because it's my favorite time of year, and it makes me feel extra giddy and inspired. I have a lot of projects lined up...  but again, hard to share as much with little media progs to work with...  my iphone turned itouch has been my main source of sharing as long as I'm in range of a good source of wi's and fi's... 

Any ideas on what to make with that awesome red balloon material?  I'm thinking something for ROo of course... maybe a jumper...  maybe a bag?  I guess it'll have to wait till after Halloween anyway...

My advice...