Around Here - November 2013

November seemed to fly by! We visited the Tech Museum in San Jose with friends to see the Star Wars exhibit.

We enjoyed family time on the weekends. John made us bacon and eggs for breakfast and then Alex made us some "sandwiches."

We have been in our current rental house for a little over a year, so we are getting more settled. The dogs even got their own spot in the office. We were due for an Ikea trip and Alex stayed in their Smaland (supervised kids area) for the first time while we did some shopping.

John and Matt worked on the front yard, which looks great. Fall comes later here, so the leaves are still falling.

Alex just finished another round of Soccer Shots and had a lot of fun. He likes to play goalie and dive for the ball.

Alex and John went ice skating for the first time this season. I stayed home to grade papers, but still got to see some of the action on this video. Alex is really improving and I cannot believe how big he is getting.


We had a good Thanksgiving starting with a trip to the park. We made a green bean casserole and mashed potatoes to take to dinner at a friends' house. Alex helped a bit, including peeling a potato.

Alex got in lots of play time. I am not a huge fan of our living room chairs, but they are good for making a tent. We reorganized Alex's room earlier this month and made a bin just for costumes so Alex can more easily play with them.

We wrapped up the month by putting up the Christmas Tree this evening. Alex is bouncing around in this photo as usual.

It has been a good month, and we are ready for more fun in December.

Fab Color Combination

The Fab Friday challenge blog has a fun color combination up that I wanted to try.

I had not used much of the Gumball Green card stock, but I really like the color and will use it on more holiday cards. The wreath was made with the 1/2 inch circle punch and a crop-a-file. Some of the supplies for the card are on sale now through Monday December 2 and are liked below.
In Color Card Stock
Neutrals Card Stock
Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details

Card Swap

I participated in my first Card Swap with the Fun 'n Crafty Stampers. I enjoy being part of this group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators. I wanted to use the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set to make a masculine card to send out.

Supplies Used
Card stock: Smokey Slate, Old Olive, Basic Gray & Whisper While
Stamp Sets: Gorgeous Grunge & Bring on the Cake
Ink: Smokey Slate & Old Olive
Washi Tape: This and That Epic Day & Season of Style

Card Instructions
1. Cut Smokey Slate card stock to 8½ x 5½ inches for the base. Then score and fold at 4¼ inches.
2. Cut Old Olive card stock to 5 x 3¾, cut Basic Gray card stock to 4½ x 3¼, and cut Whisper White card stock to 4¼ x 3 inches.
3. Use Smokey Slate ink to stamp the dots from the Gorgeous Grunge set on the Smokey Slate card stock.
4. Use Old Olive ink to stamp the big splatters and dots from the Gorgeous Grunge set on the Old Olive card stock.
5. Use Old Olive ink to stamp the stripes from the Gorgeous Grunge set vertically onto the Whisper White Card stock.
6. Adhere washi tape towards the bottom of the Whisper White card stock
7. Use Smokey Slate ink to stamp Wish Big from the Bring on the Cake set onto the Whisper White card stock
8. Adhere the layers of the card onto the base.

If you are on Facebook, please "Like" my new Stamp Across the Miles page to receive more crafty updates and inspiration.

Quick Cards

It is a busy fall around here, but I have made a couple of quick cards recently with one of my (new) favorite stamp sets, Oh Hello (clear-mount and wood-mount links).

You can order this stamp set and other card making supplies at http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx. If you use the hostess KPHAEC6N at checkout through 11/25/13, then I will send you a free gift in December.

Any holiday crafting plans? If so, I would love to hear about it in the comments. I hope to get back to making some holiday cards over the next couple of weekends.

Thanks So Much Card

I have a new stamp set to play with, so I wanted to make a card. I found the inspiration for the card on two other websites. Jennifer posted some great card ideas with this stamp set and Shimelle's blog showed a fun idea for adding a scalloped border to washi tape.

Here are the instructions to make this card with links to the supplies used:
1. To make the card base, cut an 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of Smokey Slate card stock in half.
2. Score and fold at 4¼ inches to make the card base
3. Trim a piece of Island Indigo card stock to 5¼ x 4 inches
4. Trim a piece of Whisper White card stock to 5 x 3¾ inches
5. Stamp the oval from the Oh, Hello stamp set in Smokey Slate ink towards the upper left corner of the White White piece
6. Stamp the flower from the Oh, Hello stamp set in Island Indigo ink on the left side of the oval image
7. Stamp "Thanks So Much" from the Oh, Hello stamp set in Island Indigo ink on the right side of the oval
8. Adhere two pieces of washi tape from the Gingham Garden set below the oval
9. Use scratch paper and the Scalloped Edge Border Punch to add the scalloped edge to the third piece of wash tape before adhering it to the bottom of the Whisper White sheet.
10. Adhere your Whisper White piece to the Island Indigo piece and then adhere to the Smokey Slate card base.

(Before making the card, I practiced my stamping on scratch paper. If you are using the clear mount stamp sets, then you can use clear acrylic blocks C, D, & E. )

The card is flat and should mail well. :)

Halloween Happenings

We enjoyed some Halloween festivities around here. First, we went to a pumpkin carving party last weekend where we discovered John's hidden carving talents. Alex picked the Mickey Mouse pattern and John got to work. Alex and I worked on a pumpkin with a simple design.

Then we were off a a Halloween Party with our Las Madres friends. Alex enjoyed the games and the bounce house.

Trick-or-Treat was Thursday night and Captain America was ready to go. Alex picked out this costume based on the shield.

Once it was dark, John and Alex went around the neighborhood while I passed out candy. We live on a side street, so we did not have too many trick-or-treaters. It was a fun Halloween week!