Saturday, October 31, 2009

Here it is one of my favorite holidays and I have nothing spooktacular to show you except my pic of my door decorations. It's from last year since I'm not quite finished yet (it really has been a montrous week!). I know it's TODAY!

As far as craftiness I have only some very simple and quick Christmas tags that I did as a DT project for Custom Crops. All were done with my Nesties and Cuttlebug folders in my Cuttlebug. they can be assembled in a jiffy which is great for those of us who are still wrapping on Christmas Eve. (Who Moi?) so if you'd like to see the specifics of these please click HERE.

I also received a Blog award from both Sandy and Kaye. They are lovely friends and fabulous crafters (although Sandy doesn't think she is but we're working on her confidence. LOL) Thank you sooo much ladies! Now for the questions...answered supposedly with one word. (I doubt that)

1. Where is your cell phone? Gone2. Hair? Red3. Mother? Heaven4. Father? Heaven5. Favorite food? Pizza (Seriously, I'm a real foodie but I can always eat pizza!)6. Dream last night? None7. Favorite drink? Wine8. Your dream/goal? To be published.9. What room are you in? Craft/computer room10. Hobby? Card making11. Fear? Alzheimer's12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here13. Where were you last night? Here14. Something you aren't? Tall15. Muffins? Banana nut16. Wish list item? Copic air brush system17. Where did you grow up? Hinsdale, IL18. Last thing you did? Blog hop19. What are you wearing? PJ's20. Your TV? Off21. Your pets? 2 Pixie Bob cats, Goliath and Jezebel22. Friends? Many23. Your life? Comfortable24. Your mood? Stressed (LOL)25. Missing someone? Becky26. Vehicle? Jaguar XK827. Something you're not wearing? Makeup28. Favorite store? Neimans29. Favorite color? Red30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday31. Last time you cried? Yesterday32. Best friend? Becky and Lisa33. One place you go over and over? Bathroom (I drink alot of water. LOL)34. Facebook? No35. Favorite place to eat? Boulevard in S.F.

Now to pass this on. I have soooo many faves. Hopefully they won't cringe. LOL Lots of these flying around so Hmmm...

Friday, October 30, 2009

OOPS! Almost forgot! It's been one of those days. Well random DH has chosen number 48 to win my BBTB Blog hop candy so Bonnie, come on down! Need your addy so email me at dlmundinger@yahoo.com and I'll send it right out to you. Thank you to all for participating. Sorry so short. It really REALLY has been one of those days.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Gotta post this quick if anyone still wants to do one for Halloween! Gotta write this quick too or I'll be late for a hair appt. LOL I did this Halloween Hanger for Custom Crops. with the exception of the shadow for the moon it really doesn't require Design Studio but if you'd like the .cut file click HERE. There's a full explanation, more pix as well as how to do the dimensional stars in the article. I just LOVE A Child's Year! Sorry so short! Gotta go!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we have a COLOR challenge of purple, green, and black for our Halloween cards. I was looking through my folders and saw my skeleton scroll which I thought was a MUST HAVE last year and then proceeded to never use it. I had planned to use patterned paper for this challenge since I have several sheets which fit the criteria, but then came across my foil cardstock in BOTH purple and green so there you go. After embossing I carefully colored all of the embossed area with my black sharpie (no mean feat with a monovision contac LOL).

I used my new Stampin'Up skull stamp with StazOn on the green and cut it out with my octagon Nesties and added black rhinestone eyes. The scalloped octagon behind is done glittered cardstock. His crown is a Sizzix die, also in glitter cardstock so I used Terrifically tacky tape around the edges of the card and sprinkled on Doodlebug glitter so it would match. (Didn't want to waste that much of my precious glitter card stock. :-D) The crown is embellished with a spooky brad and more gems and all of the layers are popped for dimension. I just LOVE black tulle, (soooo funereal!) and the tombstone was the perfect final touch. I hope you like my shrine to the skeleton king and it's not too scary for you. I had a ball making it. So now pop over to The Cuttlebug Spot to see the fabulous creations my DT sisters came up with (and ignore those who are color blind even though they are very cute. Just kidding!) But be sure YOU play along with only purple, black, and green! We've got a $20 gift certificate to Custom Crops up for grabs!

Monday, October 26, 2009

It's the last Monday of the month and you know that means it's Blog Hop time on Bitten by the Bug! Hopefully you're on the hop and have arrived from my sweet and talented sister Heather's blog. If not, and you'd like to start at the beginning, hop back to BBTB. This week we all decorated the pointed tag from Stretch Your Imagination for Halloween. I also added the frame for that cut and designed a shadow for it in DS. Surprisingly enough I was playing with some Sizzix dies in my Cuttlebug and by cutting them several times (for a shadow effect) they ended up looking quite a bit like Cricut cuts so I decided to use them on my tag.

I added a little bit of texture to the candy corn with my Swiss dots Cuttlebug folder. There was a bit of doodling as well.

Of course I used alot of pop dots to add dimension. Hope you like. Now you're off to Michelle's blog. Prepare to be amazed at her fabulous creations, but before you go...

Take a minute to leave a comment for a chance to win this blog candy from K & Co. I'll be announcing the winner on Friday, October 30. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Seems like the easel card is quite rage right now so of course I had to try my hand at one. I managed to use a bunch of Halloween stuff I hadn't gotten around to playing with like my MS graveyard, scary fence and rat border punches, my CB Spooky house folder and the adorable owl Cottage Cutz die available exclusively at The Scrapping Cottage.

Tell me he isn't the CUTEST! I couldn't resist adding lidded google eyes. The tree he's flying from is actually the branch also included on the die which I cut twice. The moon is a Marvy punch.

Now check out that ghost. I bought some mica tiles at my LSS and had no idea what to do with them so I tried cutting them with my Sizzix Bigz ghost die and it worked. Isn't he cool? I was not succesful trying other dies or punches with this stuff but I was thrilled with the ghost. The tombstone is a Cuttlebug combo and the bats and little ghost are raindots.

I ran a line of large adhesive beads to catch the easel. The sentiment is mounted on Labels Four Nesties. "Missing You" is from the CB Forever Friends cardmaking combo. Wow, not a Cricut cut in sight. Now I'm off to an overnight SWARM. No internet for the rest of the weekend but we sure will have FUN! Wonder if I'll get any crafting done. LOL

Friday, October 23, 2009

Oops! Thursday came and went with no post! Sorry about that. My craft rooom had become SUCH a mess that I'd actually moved into the exercise room as well and when I ceased to be able to walk in EITHER room I decided I MUST stop and get organized. Besides, I need to start packing for our slumber Party SWARM over the weekend. Can't wait! Here's a card I did for Custom Crops using my Nesties and Cuttlebug. The article explaining the open gatefold technique is HERE. I used my nested maple leaves and the Cuttlebug maple leaf combo and a number of embossing folders to give them texture. I soooo love Fall!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Here's a little Halloween card I did for Custom Crops using the Witch's shoe and several other cuts from Paper Doll Dress Up welded to a rectangle fromm Plantin Schoolbook. I had some great specialty paper that I used that I think I got at J's. This witch is stylin' right down to her glitter socks! For full instructions and the .cut file click HERE.

Instead of a buckle I decided to use a spider web and popped a glitter pom pom onto the spider cut and added some google eyes and ribbon. You can NEVER have too many google eyes, especially around Halloween.

My "Teen Queen" card is also now available at Custom Crops and is a good example of how I build my layers on a shaped front card for those who are interested. You can easily swap out the numbers if you have a teen of another age I would think. Click HERE for the free .cut file and article. Well, time is flying so it's back to the drawing board. See you soon! xxD

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

We're packaging up some sweet Halloween treats over at The Cuttlebug Spot this week so I decided to make some Halloween Crackers. Nice way to use up some of those TP rolls I've been saving to do a tag book (but never got around to it). These were so easy and fun that I want to make more. Especially love all the pretty colored tissue paper I used.

On the first one I used Coredinations card stock and sanded the embossing but I wanted MORE color so I got out my Copics. I wanted a bit more dimension as well so I punched out a few of the circles with my Stampin'Up 1 1/4" circle punch and popped them up a bit.

I love the way the spiderweb embossing looks on this acid green foil. I fully intended to use my Cuttlebug cut and emboss duo for the spider on this one but I couldn't find it. I searched high and low but to no avail so I had to resort to this plastic one. Wouldn't you know I found it several days later put away in the Holiday page of my CB case. No wonder I couldn't find it. It was put away in it's proper place. I NEVER would have thought to look there. LOL My DT sisters came up with some fabulous ideas for this week's challenge tso be sure to click HERE and take a look. Also if you play along you have the chance to win a gift certificate to Custom Crops. BTW, have you hear that Custom Crops is having their own gypsy giveaway? Well the link to the rules is also on The Cuttlebug Spot so hurry over. You have until Oct 23 to enter.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Happy Monday! We had a fun one at BBTB this week (don't we ALWAYS?) Well, this week we used the sign post from The Christmas Solutions cartridge but had to make it in a Halloween or Fall theme. The style to me suggests old England which brought to mind Edgar Allan Poe. I made a shaped front card and my raven is actually the bird from A Child's Year with it's tail feathers altered in Design Studio. I ran the top layer through my Xyron and and sprinkled on some Doodlebug glitter. I realize the poem says Nevermore, not Never More, but it didn't fit as one word so I thought it looked sort of like a pub name this way. LOL The sign itself was cuttled with my weathered wood folder and inked a bit. Wish the pic came out better. Quite glare on the moon inside.

Here you can see that the front is shaped a bit better and I used one of my fave Halloween papers from last year that actually is text from Sleepy Hollow inside. Hey, maybe that was what Edgar was reading when the raven came knocking at his chamber door. The moon is a circle from George and I inked it a bit to look like clouds on the inside.

Here are a couple of dimensional views. You know I wouldn't be happy without a whole lot of popping going on. LOL Now go have a peek over at BBTB what my fabulous DT sisters did with this challenge and why don't you take a stab this one yourself? I'd love to see what you come up with.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sorry guys, I worked hard yesterday hoping to have something to post today but as the day wore on I realized what I was doing will work for a future DT challenge sooo.... anyway. I'll be sharing a few pix I took on Friday in the city. Was gonna put my sweetie on here first but I'm afraid he'd die if he found himself on the sidebar of a bunch of crafting blogs. LOL Tell me that lunch doesn't look yummy! I'm trying to take more pix so someday I may be able to actually do a layout. Well, we'll see, but in the meantime I've been checking out the new challenge blog Stuck on U Sketches. Wow what a bunch of talented ladies and their sketch challenges are fabulous! (Not to mention that my dear friend Leah is on the DT). Besides that, they are offering some BLOG candy as a thank you to their followers (They're already nearing 100!) so be sure to check it out HERE.

Here's my sweetie, smiling because he actually dragged me out of the craft room.

We ate at the ferry building and took a walk down the waterfront. This is STILL quintessential SF! and the back bumper was fake fur. LOL

Friday, October 16, 2009

WooHoo! After a couple of unseasonable days of rain it's going to be a gorgeous day! DH informed me we were going to "do something" today (translation: I won't be crafting and he won't be practicing the piano) so we're off to the city! October weather is BEAUTIFUL in San Francisco (much better than June or July) so I'm happy as a clam. Oh Oh! No blog post yesterday and I've been working on DT stuff all week so what's a girl to do? Hit my Cutting Cafe files of course, for a quick easy card that looks like it took far longer than it did to make. I printed the Autumn Days printable stamp set on kraft paper in brown (I'm SOOOO lovin' that I can do that now), cut the background collage out, matted it in plaid, cut and embossed a Cuttlebug maple leaf, used my petite scalloped circle Nesties to cut out the sentiment, tied a big bow, added some mini skittles and I WAS DONE! Now it's off to the shower. You've got to stop by The Cutting Cafe to see what Regina's been up to. Just wait 'til you see the new All About Christmas set. What fun stuff! TTYL xxD

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Happy peak of the week! Here's a little Christmas card I did for Custom Crops using the Jingle Bells from Joys of the Season, and the bow from the package on Pooh and Friends. It involves a teeny bit of trimming, but in general it's pretty quick and easy. Full instructions and the FREE .cut file are available HERE. Because of the way I make my shape cards, with a separate full mat that fits on top of the folded card base, one crafter told me she downloaded the .cut file to use on a layout and just skipped the card part of it. I thought that was a pretty cool idea too.

Here's a dimensional shot because you know how I love my pop dots! And of course some adhesive gems. LOL More pix on Custom Crops.

Also, for those of you who loved my "Priceless" shopping card, (would that be you, SandyE?) I cleaned up that mess of a file and it is also available for download HERE. I even designed a separate sentiment in Plantin Schoolbook for those of you who don't have DonJuan. If that's been helpful, I'd appreciate a comment, especially on the Custom Crops site. Thanks so much!That's it for now! Did anybody else feel the earthquake last night?

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we have a monochromatic color challenge. It's really beginning to feel like Fall here so I got out the orange box of paper and started to play. Honestly, they ARE all oranges, but didn't exactly photograph as such). I decided to try the weaving technique for the background and chose 3 shades and cut paper in a variety of widths to make it a bit more interesting. Then I taped the edges and ran it through the Cuttlebug using D'Vine Swirls which this season makes me think of swirling leaves. I really love the effect. The mat is done with one of the new 5 x 7 Cuttlebug folders exclusive to Oh My Crafts. The opening and frame is with my Labels One Nesties.

I love the Cuttlebug pumpkin cut and emboss set and added a number of leaves, some punched, some Nesties, cuttled with Swiss Dots, Herringbone, and the small dotted folder from the butterfly set. The corners are Sizzix. The metallic leaf brads and pearls are from M's.

I still managed to get a bit of dimension, and isn't that ribbon YUMMY!? It came on one of those teeny spools so I've GOT to go look for some more of it, although I'm not sure if it was from J's, or M's. I'll certainly be on the hunt. For this reason I decided to enter it in the Caardvark's Take a Bow challenge which is to use ribbon in a wonderful way. Their sponsor is May Arts which has THE MOST GORGEOUS RIBBON IMAGINABLE!!!!! I CRAVE their stuff BIG TIME!!!! One of my other favorite challenge sites, Paper Blooms, is also having a monochromatic color challenge this week. I really hoped to do another monochromatic card for them featuring Leah's GORGEOUS hand crocheted flowers, but just in case I don't have a chance to I'll be entering this there as well.

This may have been my favorite Cuttlebug Spot Challenge yet and it sure looks like my Design Team Sisters agree. Their projects are FABULOUS! So hop on over to The Cuttlebug Spot, take a look, and play along. I'll see you there.

Monday, October 12, 2009

This week at BBTB Regina chose the monster cut from Paper Doll Dress Up. All I could see when looking at this guy (besides a haystack and believe me I thought about it, LOL) is Cousin Itt from the Addams Family. Oh how I LOVED that show when I was a kid! I tried to be as authentic as possible so I googled "Cousin It" and found out his name is spelled with 2 "T's, his hat was a bowler (which I remembered but had to fashion on my own in DS) but there were no pictures of him from the front. I had a bit of a debate with my friends Margie and Lillie as to glasses type and Lillie remembered shades which made sense because I don't remember seeing his eyes and I had this perfectly sized button so there you go. For hair texture I wanted to use my Forest Branches folder but the branches ran the wrong way so I scored a bunch of lines at different angles and inked them a tiny bit.

Even with the shades and hat band he looked a little bland so I added a sentiment from Celebrations and a sign cut with my Nesties and computer generated. His bat friend is a Cuttlebug cut and emboss die combo.

I'm always extremely frustrated when an Cricut cut doesn't have a shadow but this one resized fairly well so I was able to get a little of the dimension I so dearly love. Now wait until you see all of the spooks assembled on BBTB. My DT sisters obvious had a ball with this challenge so check it out, and join us for some Halloween fun!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Wondering about the title? Well If you remember I've been complaining about those MS border and corner punches since I got them. I've wasted tons of paper screwing them up so my dear friend Margie made me a personal video (making fun of me all the way) on how to successfully punch a rectangle. WOOHOO! I finally did it! (It still took several tries, I swear the spider web punch is the trickiest, LOL but THANKS MARGIE!) Another first, I finally got the Printmaster program for our new computer and was able to CHANGE the COLOR of my Halloween Long Border stamp from the Cutting Cafe. (It's PURPLE, in case the pic isn't too clear on that) Resized it too, but I already knew how to do that. Instructions for this are on The Cutting Cafe site so now the possibilities truly ARE endless for ALL of Regina's fabulous designs. New stuff is being added daily so be sure and stop by The Cutting Cafe. Believe it or not I made this card BEFORE breakfast! The stamped image is from a Stampin'Up big wheel, I used distress inks to shade and rain dots to embellish. WooHoo! I feel good! (da da da da da da da!)

Friday, October 9, 2009

What a fun night we had last night! All that girly shopping, laughing and eating. Hayley loved her card and I so loved the little jacket Hayley picked out for her birthday that I even got one for myself. Hayley had her mom take a pic with her phone of the two of us in our matching jackets but unfortunately I don't have a copy to share. But OOPS! The day is slipping right past me and I almost forgot to announce the winner of the Tiny Box with Sentiments Set from The Cutting Cafe. DH picked the lucky number 14 which is JOY! WooHoo Joy! Please send me your mail addy and I'll get it right out to you. Thank you everyone for participating. Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe to see all of the new things. Regina has been adding things DAILY so check often so you don't miss anything.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Tonight I'm meeting my BFF and her daughter Hayley for our annual birthday shopping trip. For the past 5 years "Aunt" Donna has allowed Hayley to choose her own outfit and we have some fun while she tries on all sorts of things and models for us. Then it's girls night out for dinner. WooHoo! This year Hayley turns 13 (going on 30), so she's FINALLY a real teenager. I just finished her card. She's always been a "pink girl" and loves her plaids (a la Juicy Couture). This shaped front card is a combo of DonJuan, George and Happily Ever After.

Lots of layers and dimension. I've started to make my own pop layers that I can cut in strips or any size I want by running 1/16th" foam through my Xyron. Thank you Lillie. I still often buy the white and black in 1/8th" but now I can have the thin ones in any color I want (almost). The crown was also run through the Xyron right side down and glittered with Doodlebug Sugar Coating. I used lots of adhesive beads and pearls too.

Here's the inside printed from my computer on hearts that match the front so they won't show from the outside.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I'm having one of those weeks. My designs don't seem to be cooperating and I keep looking out the window at the gorgeous weather and just feel like being outside. I do, however, have a TON of Halloween stuff going totally unused so I really did want to see if I could come up with something quick and easy. Why I chose to stamp is beyond me. LOL I'm the first to admit I STINK at stamping but I've got drawers full and still keep buying more. I saw think Inkadinkadoo stamp last year in rubber but didn't buy it (and was always sorry) so when I saw it in a set in acrylic I jumped on it. I don't want to even tell you how many times I had to stamp to get a decent image (and to even get the ink to stay on it for that matter). My dear friend Lillie solved that one for me by asking if I'd washed it first. HUH? Wash a new stamp? To me that's sorta like having to wash new clothes before wearing (okay, I do wash new underwear, but regular stuff, come on!) Well thank you Lillie, it did work MUCH better after washing.

I decided to frame my stamp with one of the Halloween Card Borders from The Cutting Cafe. WooHoo, no problem with stamping there, AND I could resize it to fit my stamped image. There are 6 different borders and each style comes with or without border lines so 12 different frames in all. Had a hard time choosing, but I'm sure I'll be using some of the others SOON! Finally I colored with my Copics and ran the stamped image through my Cuttlebug to give it a bit of background texture. The green frame was cut with my Nesties Mega curved rectangles and I used that exasperating MS Spiderweb punch because I didn't want it to get the best of me. Notice no corners though. LOL So here's my quick and easy card that managed to still take several hours to do. TIME FOR LUNCH!

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Welcome friends

I'm so happy you came to visit and share in my crafting adventures. I hope in doing so you are inspired. I would love to hear your comments and I'm happy to share my designs for your personal use, but please do not submit them for contests or publication or copy them for any commercial venture.

Hugs, Donna email me at

dlmundinger(at)yahoo(dot)com)

About Me

I've always loved crafting, even as a little girl. My inspiration was my Daddy who was a wonderful artist and made beautiful 3-D Valentines for my teachers in grade school. Although I love all kinds of crafts I haven't had a real focus since abandoning counted cross stitch back in the 80's. Until I got my Cricut in 2008, that is. I've since expanded my horizons and found a new love in coloring both rubber and digi stamps with my Copics. Now I'm a blissfully retired card maker and papercrafter married 41 (!) years to a wonderful guy with two furbabies, Goliath and Jezebel. Everyday I look forward to dreaming up designs and playing in my craft room. I invite you to share in my adventures.