Today is the beginning of the DIY Holiday Gifts class at Two Peas, and I'm very excited to be part of the GG team that created projects! You won't see my work until week three, but I thought you - like me - might all ready be planning your holiday gift guide and, if that's the case, maybe you're thinking about making a few this year...

some great ideas from the GG's this week:

Funky Frame by Jen Jockisch (a fun frame that you can personalize for every holiday. Easy decorating - gotta love it!)

Neighbour Gifts by Jen Gallacher (cute, easy, and green ways to create festive gifts for your neighbours or coworkers or whomever you feel like being nice to this holiday season!)

Back tomorrow (?) with a festive project of my own! Now, go drink some eggnog and listen to Jingle Bells or something! :)

I'm very excited about the mid-month garden! I had a little more time to prepare, so I created a few layouts to share with you all! But first...some of the layouts that caught my eye today:

• Like Cat & Dog (I pretty much adore everything that Stephanie does. Total eye-candy!)
• Argue Mateys (Adorable! And I love those Hero Arts spider web stamps)
• She (simple design, powerful page and a good reminder, I think, about self-image)
• Our Chills & Thrills (love the non-traditional colors on this Halloween layout)
• Happy Halloween (I am totally drawn to this design, and I love the Spooky Scary kit!)

You know how I feel about Halloween, so here's a seasonal hybrid layout showing a few of my spooky decorations from last year. *Hopefully* you'll feel inspired to start documenting your own spooky home decor: 

©Two Peas in a Bucket

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Making Memories (spiderweb); Digital Patterned Paper: Spooky Scary kit by Jen Allyson (orange dots, black text); Digital Brushes: "beware" from the Halloween Word Art kit by Rhonna Farrer, spider line from The Spider's Web Stamps kit by Carina Gardner; Gemstones: Clear Gemstones by Hero Arts

More details and links to the supplies here.

Here is a closer look at the numbers:

I created a digital collage with my title and journaling on the orange patterned paper, and then I had it printed twice so I could cut out one set of numbers to attach on top with foam adhesive.

Here's a closer look at the spider line (much cuter that the one I discovered the other day), which I embellished with gemstones:

Love those digi stamps! Check out Carina's kit: The Spider's Web Stamps. So very perfect if you happen to be working on Halloween projects right now. I especially like the polka-dot pumpkin. :)

I also created a couple more layouts focused on the theme for October: Typography. The first one is a title page for Sadie' second year album:

©Two Peas in a Bucket

More details and links to the supplies here.

The letters look like stickers, but they are actually cut with my Silhouette. I typed the alphabet in the Quickutz RoboMaster program (the software for the Silhouette), and cut it six (?) times from different colors of cardstock. I saved all the extra letters for later! And by the way, if you were thinking about purchasing a Silhouette, I noticed it's currently 20% off at Two Peas right here.

And last is a page I've been thinking about for a long time. I've been wanting to document the nicknames we have had for Sadie, and I had an idea about how I wanted it to look. It didn't translate exactly, but I think it works:

©Two Peas in a Bucket

More details and links to the supplies here.

I wanted to create this traditionally, but sizing all the fonts would have been a nightmare, so hybrid it is! I used two of my new favorite digi elements: Curled White Photo Frames and notebook paper from the Fancy Free kit by Michelle Underwood with some funky handwritten fonts. Because the colors I chose are so freakin' bold, I kept the design pretty simple, so this layout came together fairly quickly. As always, gotta love that. :)

Have you ever heard the "urban legend" to be careful when you wash your grapes because there might be a spider hanging out in there? Yeah, right, you say. But perhaps no one mentioned it could be an inky black spider with a sinister red dot on its back...

I'm officially chilled to the bone.

This is what I discovered crawling around our fresh bag of grapes:

In case you weren't sure, that's a BLACK WIDOW.

In my freaking bag of grapes.

When I first saw it, I didn't even realize what it was. All I knew was that the hair on the back of my neck was standing on end, and I was terrified the thing had laid eggs in the 30 seconds it took me to chuck that bag of grapes into the garbage can. So, no, I didn't take that photo. Gimme a break. I saw Arachnaphobia. There is no way in hell I would get that close to the little venomous fiend.

So this, my friends, is a public service announcement dedicated to all the grape eaters out there: sometimes you can believe the things you hear/read. Beware the creepy crawlies. Especially the venomous ones.

Sadie and I've been reading a book called The 13 Days of Halloween. I sing along to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas. Sing, you ask? Hmmm. I suppose "croak" would be a more apt description. Nevertheless, it's inspires a little more Halloween spirit, and besides reading/singing/croaking Halloween, decorating Halloween, consuming dangerous amounts of sour Skittles and Starburst (shame on you Costco for stocking candy in bulk!), we've been planning a costume. Here's a hint:

Any guesses? :)

In the meantime, I am planning to make a Halloween album! Last year, I was so inspired by this album (created by one of my favorite scrapbookers: Nichol Magouirk) that I vowed I would make one. I love the idea of being able to page through one album and see Sadie's (and baby's) costumes over the years. I admit I am not as productive as Nichol, so it is highly unlikely that I will finish this album in time for Halloween (heck, I have not even finished last year's Christmas album!), but I have all ready accomplished the most *difficult* task: shopping!

Here are the spooky goodies that crept into my shopping cart:

Spook Alley 6x9 Mini Book

Spook Alley Deco Pins (Put stickpins on the list of scrappy stuff I can't resist)

Spook Alley Trims & Treats (the feltie ghosts are adorable!)

Spook Alley Glitter Rub-ons

Spook Alley Looking Glass Stickers

Spook Alley Vinyl Tape

4x6 Mixed Media Spook Alley Notebook (also topping the "irresistible list," these little notebooks)

Trick or Treat Clear Cut Shapes

Wicked Web Trick or Treat Specialty Paper

And how I wish I had seen these earlier:

Halloween Collection Vintage Findings Kit

Halloween Collection Vintage Findings Mini Kit

Trick or Treat Brad Assortment

Trick or Treat Jewel Stickers

It's possible I'll supplement with a *little* more shopping down the road, but you know, I think I could be set for the next twenty years or so of Halloween scrapping! ;)

Hello, all! Hope you are beginning your weekend with a fabulous Friday! The weather has turned snappy these past few days, so I think we'll be staying in and adjusting to the inevitable coming of cold, cold winter. That's a-ok though because I have several assignments that need my attention. The mid-month Garden at Two Peas will be arriving shortly, and I'll have some new layouts to share, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with this one (maybe you'll recognize it from a sneak peek I showed earlier?):

This page was published in the Aug/Sep issue of BHG Scrapbooks Etc., and I can't remember if I ever explained or not, but the title is a little play on words. Everyone has heard the phrase "cute as a button," right? Well, for the longest time, Sadie referred to buttons as "bunnies." Just a cute little toddler quirk that inspired me to document the adorable way she was pronouncing different words.

I just got the page back a couple weeks ago, and reading through it, I kept saying, "Oh, I remember that! Oh, that was so CUTE!" All of these pronunciations are long past. Such a fleeting time. And therefore, this page is Reason #17 that I am glad to be a scrapbooker. :)

Moving on to the scrappy details. See that white font for the title? The one that says "cute as a." Yeah, that one. I handcut that. It was a pain in the @ss. But now I have my trusty Silhouette, I don't have to handcut anything anymore. Just thought I'd mention it because that is the first thing I thought when I got the page back. I will never handcut anything AGAIN.

The other portion of the title is done with some of my favorite letters ever: American crafts vinyl Thickers. Considerably easier than handcutting, but I would love to see them in every color! :)

And now, onto the Banana Frog stamp giveaways! I never heard back from Mary, so I used the handy random number generator for TWO numbers:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

11
17

Timestamp: 2009-10-10 03:16:02 UTC

So that would be Charlene (It's All About...Arrows) and Nancy L. (It's All About...Flourishes)! Ladies, can you send me your mailing addresses? I will get these out to you as soon as possible! Thanks for all the comments, and be sure to check back next week, as I still have a few more sets to give away! :)

I thought I'd share a layout that I did over the summer using the American Crafts Teen line:

When I first saw the Teen line, I thought, "hmm, funky, colorful, but...I don't have any teenagers." But as you've no doubt figured out, most theme-oriented lines can be re-purposed. I used it here to make a page about my husband and me and our 5-yr anniversary. We are most definitely not teens, but it still works. (The paper and the relationship.) :)

I love journaling stickers, but I despise hand-journaling. So instead of using a sticker for journaling, I used it as a frame for my accent/title. (Incidentally, I noticed the Remarks sticker book that I used is 75% off at two peas.) The glittery heart and flair are both from the Teen line as well. Sometimes it's nice to use coordinating products. Makes life a little simpler.

The large die-cut of the couple comes from Provo Craft's Going Places cartridge, and when I originally laid out my design, I noticed that it didn't show up very well against the background. To help it stand out, I added a vellum backing, which also doubles as a frame. I stamped the vellum with Dots inked in Versamark. Just a little detail for more visual interest.

Supplies: Die-cut cartridge: Provo Craft, Patterned Paper: Minimal and Pop Quiz by American Crafts, Sticker, Chipboard, Flair, Brads: American Crafts; Stamp: Dots by Hero Arts; Ink: Versamark