Happy Halloween!

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

MacBeth Act IV Scene 1

Here I am with my second Double or Nothing post for The Beary Scrap and this week is dedicated to our DT leader Susan (and a guy named William!)-- who inspired me early this week by saying she was waiting to see a Double, Double Toil and Trouble project! I guess I haven't had enough of Halloween because that got me in the mood for a little Shakespeare (I do have an English minor!) and a double dose of Tear Bear Witches.


And so my Double or Nothing project this week is a DOUBLE pair of Halloween birthday days with DOUBLE Tear Bear Witches to wish my two nieces a DOUBLE Halloween birthday! (Yes it's true, these two sisters, turning 8 and 5 this year, share that spooky day a birthday. If you read my Halloween post last year, you might know who else shares that day with them! Hint: There's a reason I like Halloween so much!)


Here's a look at the front of my Halloween birthday cards, the Tear Bears are decorated with all kinds of cute Halloween stickers and bling.

A closeup of one of the cards:

Here they are standing up:
And a look at the inside:

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Scrapbook Sisters-- Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up?-- Halloween
The Paper Shelter-- Anything Goes
Penny's Paper- Crafty Challenge-- Halloween
Crop Stop -- Unique Fold
Party Time Tuesdays-- Anything Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge-- SWEET
Hooked on Crafts-- Halloween
Make it Monday-- Anything Goes
Paper Playtime-- Anything Goes
Birthday Sundaes-- Birthday Card
Crafty Calendar-- Spooky Birthday
Come and Get it Challenges-- Anything Goes
The Secret Crafter-- Spooky or Whimsical

So, did you figure it out? Yep, it's my birthday too today! We are a whole freaky family of witches. And what I would love the most for my birthday is for YOU to enter our Double or Nothing challenge so I can visit your blogs and get inspired by your talented projects, so be sure to link up your project by 11:59 EST on Halloween night for your chance to win!

Spooky Double or Nothing at The Beary Scrap

We have a brand new challenge at The Beary Scrap-- it's Double or Nothing-- to use two of something on your project. I had so much fun making my Double or Nothing project for this week and can't wait to show you what I came up with:



I got this little wood coffin at my local craft store (it's about 6 inches tall and two inches deep) and couldn't wait to decorate it up. First I painted the whole thing black; for two reasons, first so I didn't have to cover every tiny surface with paper, and second, so that no wood would show between the edges of the paper.



Then I measured or traced each surface and cut some paper to fit from Authentique's fantastic Glowing papers.

After covering the coffin with my TWO designer papers, I went to work embellishing it (oh, the most fun part!) with TWO types of trim (black tulle and seam binding) , two vintage Halloween potion tags (digi images bought off etsy), TWO black candy dots and TWO sparkly spiders.

But wait, I still have one more DOUBLE on my project, it's also a DOUBLE treat-- a cute coffin and then inside--


an extra goodie! I filled my coffin with some Halloween candy and this cute little mummy. I actually was thinking of putting a creepy skeleton inside but I've been making lots of these candy mummies and my daughter insisted this was perfect for putting into the coffin.


This one is a mini version made from a package of Tic Tacs (though I have been using full size Hershey bars for my other ones). Simply rip some strips of muslin fabric, glue around the candy, add two eyes and a sentiment (or any other decoration; I wanted to add a spider but then that would be 3 spiders and ruin my doubles! Hee hee).

I am entering this project in the following challenges:

Pile it On Challenge 42-- Fall is for Fun
Papertake Weekly-- Spooky Hues
One Stop Craft Challenge 153-- Halloween
The Poodles Parlour-- Spooky Halloween
Crop Stop-- Halloween
ABC Challenges-- B is for BOO
Party Time Tuesdays-- Totally Spooky Projects
Divas by Design-- Something Spooky
Crafting for all Seasons-- Halloween
Decorate to Celebrate-- Halloween decoration
Friendship's Garden-- Vintage Halloween

I hope you have enjoyed our first week of Double or Nothing projects and are inspired to make one of your own. WE LOVE SEEING YOUR CREATIONS AND VISITING YOUR BLOGS so be sure to enter our current Beary Sweet Challenge by clicking HERE; you just might win a Beary Sweet voucher!

A Sketch, some Journaling and some Challenges!

Happy Friday to all you fabulous paper crafters out there! Here is a teeny peek at my second Free for Fall project for our current Beary Scrap Challenge:




For a long time I have been wanting to make a layout with the chorus from a Trace Adkins song that I absolutely love-- it makes me tear up (yes, I'm a sappy dork!) every time I hear it, which is usually in my car full of 3 busy kids as I'm driving them from one activity to the next and the words really hit home for me:

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

And so I finally decided this was the week and I made my layout on this song and our crazy busy life. Here is my two page layout, with pictures of kids' various activities this week.


A closer look at page 1, this page has the song lyrics down the right hand side along with a picture I took in my car looking at my kids in the rear view mirrow-- I saw this idea somewhere in a scrapbook magazine once and thought what a cool picture, as I so often see my kids that way as I peek in the mirror to see what chaos may be happening in the back seat!


The first page is based on this great sketch from Sketchy Thursdays where the challenge was to "get your journal on" which I love because I love to write and believe journaling is so important for scrapbooking!



And then I had to expand to a second page because I hardly ever do one page layouts! Plus then I can just have even more journaling! Here is the second page, down the left hand side of this page is a list of all the things our days currently include (like school, homework, swim team, football practice, piano lessons, etc) and my feelings about the craziness:

I am also entering this layout in the following challenges:
Deep Ocean Challenge Blog-- Fall Colours
Do You Stack Up-- Use Your Scraps (random scrap embellishments)
One Stop Craft Challenge-- Anything Goes
Lasting Memories Scrapbook Layouts-- Tag You're It
My Mum's Craft Shop Challenges-- Inspired by a Song

Thanks for letting me share this layout with you, even if it's a little bit sappy!And if you have a project to share you have one more day to enter to our Free for Fall (0r Anything Goes!) challenge so link up your project by clicking here for your chance to win!

Free for F'All at The Beary Scrap

We have an awesome challenge going on right now over at The Beary Scrap, Free for F'All or Anything goes! There have been a lot of awesome entries so far so if you want a chance to win a $20 voucher to The Beary Scrap store, hop on over and link up your project!

My project for this week is a quick paper pumpkin you can make as seasonal decor or to use as table favors for a fall occasion. All you need is a scallop circle punch and some great fall paper!


If you want to try out this little pumpkin for yourself, follow these steps:

1. From your patterned fall paper (you could use Halloween papers for a spooky pumpkin!), punch 8 scalloped circles. My punch was 3 inches but you could do smaller or larger depending on what you have or cut them out with a die cut machine.


2. Ink the edges of your scallop circles and then carefully line them up exactly and fold them in half.


3. After they are folded and even, unfold them and cut off the bottom scalloped edges to make a straight edge. The straight edge needs to be the same on all of the circles so measure carefully. (I had a little bit of a hard time getting them even, so don't get frustrated if the first try doesn't work out perfect! Just try again!)




4. Begin attaching the circles to each other, one at time so all the scallops match up (as close as possible) and the flat edges are all together on the bottom. You may have to fold a little more and adjust as you go to get everything matched up. You also may have to trim a little off the bottom to make the pumpkin stand straight if not all your straight edges lined up. You should end up with a shape that looks like this:



5. Embellish however you want! I broke a branch off a tree in my yard for a stem and worked it through the center of the pumpkin. You could also use some wire, fabric or just more paper for a stem. Add leaves, curled up wire or anything else you like! I spritzed some seam binding with Glimmer Mist and used that for my leaves.

Happy Crafting this weekend and remember to enter your project in our current challenge!

Birthday Cards

It seems like I can never have enough birthday cards-- not for me or for the places I sell them! Here is a fun birthday card I made from a card kit I got from Express the Moment ( I LOVE THEIR KITS!!) I loved the paper in this kit; the colors are bright and fun but also non gender specific, so these cards can be for a girl or boy!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Pile it On-- Do it For Fun!
Deep Ocean Challenge Blog-- Birthdays
Aud Sentiments-- Happy Birthday
The Poodles Parlour-- Birthdays, Buttons and Brads

And one more card (just not for the challenges) that comes from the same kit. Just for fun!

Golden Anniversary

It's been awhile since I made something fun and got to enter it in a challenge so here is an anniversary card I made for a special order. I love these colors, dark autumn colors are my absolute favorite! I was really happy with how it turned out and my customer adored it!

I am entering this in the following challenges:


Southern Girls Challenge-- Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up?-- Swirls
ABC Challenges-- Anything Goes
Penny's Challenges-- Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesday-- Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks-- Anything Goes