Well worth the delay - - -

The Enchanted Cottage in Lewisville, NC held their Customer Yard Sale yesterday and I was happy to make the trip to shop this yearly sale . . . Stampers set up spots in their parking lot for this one day sale and they sell new or gently used craft items from their craft rooms at great prices and this year they did not disappoint! The original sale date was Saturday, Oct 1st but with the rains from Hurricane Ian the sale was moved to yesterday. 

Prior to the sale I stopped at the bank and picked up singles, fives, and tens for my purchases so that the sellers would not have to break larger bills if I bought anything.... needless to say I almost ran out of singles since the prices were better than the DollarTree!

Here are photos of the sellers set up in the parking lot and this year there were a lot more sellers than in the past and they almost filled up both sides of the parking lot:

Was not really looking for anything at this sale.... sometimes I arrive at these sales with a list of stamp sets or dies or a machine I am looking for, etc.. No list but the sale did not disappoint!

The first booth I shopped the seller was selling all her dies for $1.00 each, or if packaged in multiples, then it was still $1.00 for the package. These two items I paid a dollar each:

These holiday tree dies were all in a plastic Stampin Up case and I paid $1.00 for the whole case:

Creative Expressions, Cottage Cuts, Sizzix/T Holtz, IOStamps, and a single SU tree die --all pieces are in their packaging and a great deal for a dollar for sure....

Sizzix/T Holtz and IOStamps birch tree dies - package of these two was a dollar....

New and never used ECD Decorated Door die set was also $1.00.  The seller had her products sorted by holidays and very organized so easy to find favorites at her booth! 

DSD was shopping with me and she found this great deal for me -- a brand new in box, never used, Mini Misti for $6.00 --- this item retails for approx $50:

Shopped other booths and bought these two die sets:

Happy to find the mailbox as it is a good size and will get used this holiday season for sure... 

LOTS of Stampin Up stamp sets at every booth for sale, both wood mounted and cling/clear mounted. Lost of SU ink pads, a few SU Big Shot machines, lots of SU card stocks, punches, markers, and Paper Pumpkin kits. I did not buy any of them but there was certainly a lot of SU products to choose from. There was one vendor that was selling a lot of the Xyron machines - from the very small to the largest one they sell. A few Cuttlebug machines with plates were for sale, craft carts, storage items, paper racks, marker holders, scrapbooks and supplies for that, paper trimmers, Close To My Heart stamps sets and ink pads, LOTS of Stamps of Life products, SimonSaysStamp stamp and die sets, and pretty much anything else you would want for paper crafting. 

Last booth I shopped the vendor was selling still sealed SU stamp pads so I bought the three colours I use the most since my stamp pads are showing wear --

This vendor also had a box of re-inkers but I already have all of those that I needed so I just bought the stamp pads for $2 each. I also bought a holiday background stamp from Catherine Pooler for $2.50:

I also bought a stamp/stencil set from Stampers Anon/T Holtz for Halloween for $8.00 for the set. This was the most expensive item I bought:

Certainly another great sale and have to say this year the prices were too inviting not to shop!! But certainly happy with all I found considering I was not looking for anything special. After we left the sale we shopped at a local flea market and then headed back to Greensboro to shop at Hobby Lobby. Once that was done off to Mario's for a yummy lunch and we headed home for the day. A fun outing for sure... Used stamping sales are always a favorite......

Stylin' Witch Hat

 Hat seen the Witch Hat wire form at the Dollar Tree so I picked one up and made this Witch Hat wreath for a door:

The orange fabric with the black stars was the only thing I did not buy at the Dollar Tree as I had a small piece of this fabric left in my stash. For the mesh curls on the bottom of the hat I used black, orange, and purple mesh from the DT. I put a black and orange mesh in one curl and a black and purple mesh in the other curl. I used three rolls of the black, 1 roll of the orange, and 1 roll of the purple mesh. In the end I had enough of the black mesh to make a few extra curls with two pieces of the black mesh. I used these black curls to fill in where I wanted more volume and also for the ribbon at the top of the hat. All printed holiday ribbons are also from the DT. Once I had all the mesh curls on the bottom of the hat wire form I then hot glued two DT pumpkins, their purple/black flowers, and three large black pom poms I had in my stash. (Also I attached all mesh rolls and ribbons to the wire wreath form using black pipe cleaners). 

For the spider webs on the hat I used scissors and cut the glittered spider webs out of the spider web tulle from the DT. I put the webs on the hat using Glossy Accents. For the black spider I used 110# weight black card stock and black glittered card stock and glued those together. Added a green crystal from my stash for the spider so he would show up on the orange fabric hat.

 Easy project to put together for the up coming holiday. 

Halloween Fry Box Treat Holders

 Used a fry box die from the stash to make these Halloween Fry Box Treat Holders. I used the small die set from the ScrapDivaDesigns Witch Bow die set for the Witch embellishments:

I die cut the fry boxes out using solid card stocks. For the printed card stock lining on the fry box I used scrap printed card stocks and just cut out the back piece of the fry box. Used the trimmer to trim the printed card stock to fit the inside of the back piece. I put the printed card stock on the inside back of the fry box using liquid glue. For the sparkly spider webs on the front of the boxes I used the spider web tulle from the Dollar Tree and I cut out the webs using scissors. 

The small witch hat on the front of the spider webs were die cut from glittered black card stock using an old Cuttlebug Witch Hat die. Used an old dollar punch from Mikes for the bugs on the webs. Here is are photos of the fry boxes by themselves:

The Witch Bow die set from ScrapDivaDesigns has both the small and the large Witch dies in the die set so it is very economical. Here is a photo of the small and the larger Witch Bows this set makes:

I made my small Witch Bow embellishments using scrap card stocks and once all the witches were assembled I used hot glue to attach a small black clothespin to the back of them to be able to attach them to the back of the fry boxes. For now I put paper shred in the fry boxes from the Dollar Tree but closer to Halloween I will use a clear bag and add holiday candies to the fry boxes with the paper shred for a holiday treat. Until then the treat holders are ready to go:

Hershey BOO Bar Treat Holder

 Am working on Halloween treat holders and I wanted to make a holder for the regular size Hershey Chocolate candy bar. I have the candy bar holder from Jaded Blossom but that die set has stitching on it and for these holders I did not want to use a stitched die so I made my own pattern for my Hershey BOO Bar Treat Holder. Here is a photo of two of the treat holders I made:

To make the treat box I used solid card stock 3 1/4 x 11. With the long side at the top of the scoreboard I scored this at 5 1/4 and again at 5 3/4. I turned this and scored each long side at 1/2. Once all scored lines were done I used the bone folder to crease those lines. I clipped the scored lines that will make the bottom of the box. To assemble the boxes I used tear and tape*. For the prints on the fronts of my boxes I cut a piece of printed card stock 2 1/8 x 5. I put the front panel on my boxes using liquid glue. (*To make things easier I put the tear and tape on the box flaps but kept the box flat so I could put the printed card stocks on the fronts of the boxes. Then removed the white backing of the tear and tape and assembled the boxes).

The witches on the fronts of my boxes were made using the small Witch Bow Die set by ScrapDivaDesigns.com. (This die set has both the small and the large witch dies in it). I used all scrap printed card stocks for my witches/bows and front pieces for the boxes. For the crepe paper embellishment at the top of the box I took a piece of orange crepe paper, layered a black piece of crepe paper on that and did this twice so I have 4 crepe paper layers. Hot glued a black pipe cleaned in the center of the length of this and used fringed scissors for the top and bottom edges of the crepe paper layers. Once that was cut I used my fingers to 'crimp' the crepe paper and fluff it up. Used hot glue to put this onto the box fronts.

Used tear and tape to add the Witch Bows to the box front. For this box I used a die for the word "spooky" and I die cut that out of glittered green card stock:

For this next box I put the Witch Bow die on the box front and added three skulls from the KS Craft Holiday Confetti die sets used for shaker projects. I cut these out of white glittered card stock. Used liquid glue to add the skulls to the box front. Again added the crepe paper embellishment at the top of this box. The boxes go together easily and the small Witch Box fits well on the front of the box:

I also made a rosette using the KS Crafts Spiderweb Rosette die set I had bought earlier. I used lighter weight black card stock from Mikes for my rosette:

That is the small rosette die and I used three die cut pieces to assemble this. This rosette measures approx 5 inches across so it is quite large. I also had to cut one strip off the last piece so that I could attach one end to the other to form the rosette. I used the enclosed spider die and I cut that out of orange glittered card stock and hot glued him to the center of the rosette. This rosette would be a good size for the front of a large treat bag for Halloween. 

Altered Wooden Dollar Tree Pumpkins

Had seen these Dollar Tree wooden signs altered on YouTube for Fall and Halloween so I decided to make my own. I bought 4 different colours of these "signs" for my altered projects. This is a photo to show what these look like from the store:

Each of these signs have a different saying on them and the words are covered in glitter. I brought mine home and using a piece of sand paper I sanded off the glitter on the fronts of the signs. On the backs of these are a large scan label so I peeled those off and used Goo Gone to get any residue from that sticker off the backs. Pulled off the rafia bows that were on the stems and threw those away. 

I picked out card stocks from my stash that I wanted to cover the fronts of these with. I turned the card stock over - printed side down - and laid the wooden pumpkin on the back of the card stock. Used a pencil to trace around the pumpkin and used scissors to cut that out. Covered the fronts of the signs with ModPodge and put the card stock prints on each sign. Once dried I lightly sanded the edges of these and sponged a brown ink on all the edges of the printed sides. With that done I again used ModPodge to cover the card stock front. Set that aside to dry. Here is a photo to show the sanded and then sponged edges and all the pumpkins covered in the card stock prints:

Wanted to decorate the fronts of these wooden pumpkins but I did not want them to match. Here is a photo of two of these pumpkins:

The one on the left has a felt Scarecrow embellishment I bought last year at HobbyLobby. Bow was made with ribbon in the stash. The one on the right I used the new Pumpkin Border die I just bought and die cut the pumpkins w leaves out. Used scissors to cut it down to the size I wanted for the front of the pumpkin. Used the 'popcorn tulle' from the Dollar Tree for my embellishment with the flower at the top. For both of these I added gems from the stash to add some sparkle. Here are the other two pumpkins I made:

These two pumpkins I used double sided card stocks from the stash. Made a rosette for the one on the left and added a button to the center of that using the glue gun. I cut the shank off the back of the button to have it be flat. For the pumpkin on the right I used wired ribbon from the Dollar Tree and cut off the wired edges for my embellishment with the flower. Here are photos to show the colours these are from the back:

Easy items to alter and another good use for stashed card stocks... and now onto another shopping item... My recent order from My-Creative-Time.com arrived this week and I bought two die sets:

The above photo is their Pocket Pillow die that I had seen a few projects made with and it will be cute for a treat holder for the holiday season ahead.... and of course HAD to add this die set for BOO Day:

This "Oct 31st" die set die cuts the front piece and the shadow piece. I rummaged through my scraps and glittered/foiled card stocks to make these:

Lots of detail on this die -- cute spider and bat and the 'drips' off the letters.... then DH is working on house projects - I ordered something he needed for a project off Amazon but it was just under the price I needed for Prime shipping... so I quickly looked and ordered this die for Halloween to bring my total up to free Prime shipping for my order. Here is the die:

Cute die with the haunted house, spider and webs, Oct 31, pumpkin and bat.. but I did not pay close attention when I put it in the cart.... as you know all die cut pieces have a right and a wrong side... this die cut piece is showing the right side of the die cut piece:

As you can see the "31" is backwards on the die so needless to say this will be returned to Amazon since it is unusable. So lesson learned... next time I will just order more TomBow glue to bring my total up for my order! 

Online Shopping

 Just received my order of the Pumpkins Border die from Pretty Pink Posh:

I die cut this out of scraps to show all the detail in this die:

This die has all the cut details but it is easy to piece together. I also bought two stencil sets from Pretty Pink Posh:

This stencil set has three layers and it is their Candy Corn stencil set. This next stencil set is the Layered Pumpkins set. Their stencils are a good weight and all their stencils have their logo on them in the lower right corner and if the stencil pattern is a set then each layered stencil has a letter so you would know which stencil to use first and so on for layering. It is also nice to have their logo on the stencil so you know which company you got it from and you will know which side is the front of the stencil and the direction to use it so things line up easily. Although I have not used the Candy Corn stencil set yet I did use the Layered Pumpkins stencil set for a sample. Here is the set of three stencils:

and a photo to show their logo and the letter on the stencil in this set:

For my sample I used a pumpkin ink and I used blender pens to add the ink over the stencil:

Once the stencil was complete I cleaned the ink off of it with a baby wipe and all the ink easily came off the stencil - here is the pumpkin pattern:

This three piece stencil set has a stencil for the pumpkins, one for the leaf/stem at the top of the pumpkins, and a third stencil to put Jack O Lantern faces on the pumpkins for BOO Day (Halloween). But this stencil set is not just for Halloween -- it would be nice on card fronts or tags for Fall as well as Thanksgiving without using the Jack O Lantern face stencil piece. Once I had all the stenciled layers complete I used a fan brush and splattered watered down white acrylic paint over the pumpkin piece:

Also in the mail was a small order from Jaded Blossoms and I had bought their Acorn Stencil set. This is a set of two stencils. The stencils have no markings - no logo and these stencils are not numbered or lettered so I marked my stencil set in the corner so I know which is the front of the stencil and how to place the stencils for easy layering. Here is that stencil set:

I stenciled a sample piece for this stencil set as well and here is that along with the Layered Pumpkins stenciled sample:

The Acorn stencils also cleaned up well using a clean baby wipe to remove the inks I used. Lots of possibilities for these stencils for the holiday projects ahead... When I use both of these stencil sets I will trim my white card stocks to the size I will be using and I will stencil each layer on my trimmed card stock, in an assembly line fashion. Once each layer is stenciled on the card front pieces then I will clean the ink off that stencil and go to the next layer in the stencil set until both designs are finished. Fun patterns for the Fall projects!

KS Craft Ghost/Pumpkin Shaker

 Used this die set I just bought from KS Crafts:

I have made shaker projects in the past but was never happy with having to use the craft foam from the craft stores to make the shakers. Once the foam is cut it can be a bit wonky or the liquid glue gets all over so that when you put your shaker pieces inside the project they can adhere to the edges of the foam inside the shaker..... so I gave up.... until.....

Jen @ strawberrycream39 on YouTube showed what she uses for her shaker projects. She uses the foam board from the DollarTree for her shakers. Last trip to DT I picked up a sheet of the white and a sheet of the black foam board to try this out. With DT stocked up with school supplies there were two displays of this foam board - one in the school supply section and the other was in their office supply area by the teacher's supplies at my store. 

Knowing that all die cutting machines are different I knew the first cut may not be the best from my machine but happy to report it cut well and the foam board kept most of it's shape and did not totally flatten. Here is a photo of a piece of the foam board next to the piece I had cut out on my BigShot:

After my first cut piece I decided I would cut out a second piece and I would stack and glue these together for my shaker piece so it would be deeper for the shaker bits:

With the two foam pumpkins cut out I used TomBow liquid glue and stacked those two pumpkins and set them aside to dry. For the backing to my piece I cut a piece of #100 weight black card stock from Mikes for the base piece. Using glittered white card stock I cut out the ghost and added black glittered card stock eyes and mouth pieces to my ghost. I used liquid glue to adhere the ghost onto the black base.

Cut out the printed card stock for the backside of the pumpkin shaker. Glued that to the black base over the ghost piece. Cut a piece of pumpkin card stock for the front of the shaker pumpkin. Used plastic packaging for the clear sheet for the pumpkin shaker. Used liquid glue to put the pumpkin card stock pumpkin frame piece onto the die cut clear packaging pumpkin piece. Set that aside to dry. 

Wanted to use the shaker/confetti holiday dies from KS Craft to make pieces for my shaker. This is a die set of four different designs for shakers:

I cut out the skulls and ghosts using glittered white card stock, the witch hats are black foil card stock, the bats are from solid black card stock. Also used some shaker gems from the stash for my shaker bits. With everything dried I assembled the shaker pumpkin layers -- but first I ran the anti-static brush over the inside of the clear sheet for the shaker to cut down static for the shaker pieces. Used liquid glue to put the shaker pumpkin pieces together:

Here is the full project finished:

I used black glittered card stock for the 'hat' on the ghost that comes in the die set. Here is a photo of the side of the shaker part to show the two stacked foam sheet pieces:

Thanks to Jen for sharing this tip for her shakers as it went together easily and the foam board holds the shape of the die cut pieces well - no wonky shapes! Plus the shaker/confetti dies fit perfectly in the pumpkin shaker piece. Another easy project for BOO Day!