An update and some exciting news :)

It has been such a crazy few weeks here, sorry my blog has been a little neglected! First, things are going well after surgery....actually, much better than I expected. I still have residual nerve damage in my left leg, but my doctor is optimistic that the nerve will repair itself over time. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
We celebrated Avery's sixth birthday over the weekend. We had a Luau...so much fun! Unfortunately, I couldn't find my camera battery charger so I don't have pictures of my own. I was able to use my mom's camera, so I'm just waiting to get a disk from her and I will post pictures then. We had so much fun and I can't believe my baby is six!!!

And then....the most exciting news yet....I earned an Honorable Mention for Papertrey Ink's September Guest Star Stamper contest for the category Best Halloween Project! This was my entry here. I can hardly contain myself!!! Anyone who knows me IRL, knows that I live for Papertrey Ink stamps.... I love this company!!! So, this is a huge honor for me!! You can see the announcement on Nichole Heady's blog here. If you have time, be sure to check out all of the great projects.
AND....If that weren't awesome enough....I was choosen for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge spotlight w/ this card! I am totally excited about this...there were over 200 entries and some amazing cards in this challenge! You can check out Dawn's announcement and see the other cards that made the spotlight here.

If you've made it this far, thanks for sharing in my excitement!!! I hope to post some cards soon. After having two sick kids over the last few weeks, I have finally caught a bug myself. So between that and trying to catch up on work from being out with surgery I haven't had much crafty time lately!

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Witch's Broomstick

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year! I had first seen these cute broomstick gift bags last year while browsing the internet and I have been wanting to try one myself ever since. I followed the instructions from Martha Stewart's website here. I made the tag with two older Papertrey Ink Halloween stamp sets. The witch and circle scroll on the 'moon' are from Spooky Sweets II. The witch was stamped first in black ink and then stamped over that with Versmark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The bats are heat embossed on True Black cardstock and then cut out and attached to black wire so they would appear to be flying around the moon.

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless indicated)
Cardstock: Stampers Select white, True Black, Summer Sunrise, Raspberry Fizz
Stamps: Spooky Sweets and Spooky Sweets II
Ink: True Black, Versamark
Other: Marvy scallop circle punch, raffia, black craft wire, paper lunch sacks, twine, stick

A couple of new challenges

...at least new to me! I'm so excited to have found a couple of new challenge sites. I have combined the two on this card. The first is called Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenges and here is this weeks sketch:


and the second is a site called Pals Paper Arts and their challenge this week is to create something with a Halloween theme. That I can do!! I love Halloween!
So, here is my card that fits both challenge criteria:

I embossed the moon with a Cuttlebug embossing folder (not sure the name...maybe spots and dots?) and then I lightly sanded the surface to give more of a contrast to the moon 'craters'. Everything else is pretty self explanatory!



Anyway, I am looking forward to checking out these blogs a little more in depth...looks like some great stuff!!
BTW, for those of you who know me IRL and are wondering how I'm making cards, posting on my blog and blog surfing three days after back surgery when I am only supposed to sit for 30 minutes a day...well, the computer part is easy to explain-I'm just using my laptop in bed. As far as the card making...the island in my craft room is countertop height... So no worries!!

Edited to add: Okay, so I missed the deadline for the Pals Paper Arts Halloween challenge. Oh well! It was the inspiration for the theme and I'll blame not realizing it was last weeks challenge on the pain medication! *wink*

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise indicated)
Cardstock: Dark Chocolate, Kraft, Vintage Cream
PP: Autumn Abundance
stamps: Boo To You
Other: Dark Chocolate polka dot ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folder

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #16

I love these colors! Okay, I know I say that just about every time, but I really mean it this time! I had a few ideas immediately, but ended up using my new Autumn Abundance stamp set from Papertrey Ink. Of course, getting to play with my Copics was an added bonus! So, here is what I came up with for the Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #16:


I know its kind of hard to see in the picture, but I stamped the little acorn cluster with VersaMark on the dark chocolate layer.


I intentionally left off the sentiment so that I could use is for whatever need may arise. I thought it would be pretty easy to add one in the white space around the flowers. I hope it doesn't make the card look unfinished for the purpose of the challenge!
Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey ink, unless otherwise indicated)
Cardstock: Kraft, Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate
stamps: Autumn Abundance, Background Basics: Text
Ink: Dark Chocolate, Vintage Touch tea dye duo, Versamark: Tsukineko
Other: Summer Sunrise saddle stitch ribbon, wood button, button twine, Nestabilities Label 3 die