All Hallows’ Eve

“November 1st (or All Hallows’ Eve on October 31st) has become an eagerly awaited date…”

-From “A Year With God, Celebrating the Liturgical Year”  (Little Way Press)

Happy All Hallow’s Eve from Stamping Peace.   These little treat boxes are filled for my husband and three sons but we hope you receive a treat today!   I learned to make these at a monthly Stamping class that I attend at the Orland Fire Station.  Stace Coombs teaches the class and being the great teacher that she is, she showed us how easy these boxes are to make.  The black paper is 10″ x 5 1/2″.  Score every two inches along the 10″ side.  Turn and score at 2″ on the short side.  Turn the paper back to the long side and cut slits up to the 2″ score mark.  Fold it all up and glue.   We added washi tape to the front, and a “Tags 4 U” tag.  The handle is attached with brads, and they are good to go!  They were sitting at my guy’s breakfast places this morning, along with the little scarecrow that you see in the background.  My mom used to put him on the kitchen windowsill every Halloween when I was growing up, with lollipops in the little sack on his back.     She passed him along to me when I had a home of my own.   He’s just a little scrap of plastic with peeling paint, but he holds a lot of wonderful memories for me!  : )

 I’m off to Joseph’s Special Education Class this morning to stamp a Halloween project with them, and later on Joseph will be trick-or-treating on the street.   We combine the fun with the true meaning of the holiday, which for us, is All Saints Day…when we celebrate the heroic people that have gone before us in this big family of God that we are part of.   Last year Joseph dressed as St. Joseph, this year he is going as St. Francis’ little pumpkin.  We are studying St. Francis from the soft-cover book “Francis of Assisi, Activities and Coloring Fun for Children”, published by St. Anthony Messenger Press.  Another book I wanted to share with you yesterday, but forgot, is “Pumpkin Moonshine.”  It was Tasha Tudor’s first book and it’s a treasure.  (She is our all-time favorite illustrator.)   Speaking of books, one of our blog followers who is also a church friend of mine, Kelly Brooks Bay, has written a children’s book!   It is called “The Rainbow Pants” (see it at amazon.com) and it is illustrated by another local woman (Lindsey aka thefrugalcrafter.com).   Congratulations Kelly….what a beautiful book!

We rarely have candy in our house, so today the guys are getting a double dose.  These are the treat bags that  I made for the dinner plates tonight.  They are a Becky Roberts design and are made with the Circles and the Labels Collections of Framelits.  The stamps are from the Best of Halloween Stamp Set.

In the background is one of the pumpkin mugs that the boys have had growing up, and it holds the names of everyone that has commented on our blog since the “blog candy” was announced.  We’ll announce the winner tomorrow. Somebody is going to get a nice treat!  : )

Stamping Peace,

Dawn

P.S.  Congratulations to the Red Sox.  : )

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Pumpkin Carving Contest

“One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is to have a happy childhood.”

-Agatha Christie

Good Day from Stamping Peace!   I grew up in a neighborhood teeming with children and with a mom who liked to organize little neighborhood projects to keep the kids busy.  One year mom announced that we would have a pumpkin carving event.  Everyone got into the spirit and when we had finished all our carvings we lined up all the pumpkins on a neighbors front steps.  Our daily newspaper came and took a picture and published it in the paper and we thought that was big doings!  Happy memories!

Today’s card with it’s little carved pumpkin face reminded me of that story, a story I haven’t thought of in over 40 years.  It’s funny how cards can bring back so many dear memories.  These cards, made for my downline, were found when I googled “Halloween Happiness” Stamp Set.  They are from robinscraftroom.com   The card and it’s “frame” are made from different sized framelits from the “Labels Collection” set.  (Start with the largest one in the set and work your way down).   Papers are pumpkin pie, Halloween DSP (designer series paper) and very vanilla.  Inks are pumpkin pie, cajun craze and garden green.  The washi tape is from the Halloween and Christmas collections.

It’s only 18 degrees this morning here in Maine, but the woodstove is sending out it’s heat and this afternoon we are going to carve pumpkins!   : )   Have a great day everyone.

Stamping Peace,

Dawn

Halloween Happiness

“October gave a party, the leaves by hundreds came – the chestnuts, oaks, and maples – their costumes all aflame.

Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the Band, The Guests were all aflutter, and danced off hand in hand.”

-George Cooper

Good Day from Stamping Peace!  October is almost over, but we are still enjoying her riches of the beautiful falling leaves and fat pumpkins everywhere.   And enjoying all the beautiful cards that she inspires.  This card is a very simple one, but sweet.  I googled “Halloween Happiness” Stamp Set and this is one of the cards that came up on www.stressfreestamping.blogspot.com   I used pumpkin pie, Cajun craze and garden green markers, used the piercing tool to “frame” the image (which doesn’t show up very well in the photo), and embellished it with some of the Halloween and Christmas washi tape.  Very basic, but I wanted the card to double as an anniversary card for my friend and “adopted daughter” Sue.   Many years ago now, she and I went up north to visit a priest friend.  He introduced us to the congregation as Sue, his “mother”, and Dawn, his “grandmother”.   I am a few years younger than Sue, but he was spoofing my gray hair.  Ever since that day, Sue has been my “daughter”.   Thanks Father, she’s a great daughter!  : )

I’ve been trying to add props to my photos ( I am not a very good photographer, but I’m giving it the ‘ol Boy Scout try!) and today’s props are some of the about 30 gourds that grew out of our compost pile.    A little bonus gift from Mother Nature this year!  : )   The pictures look a lot better when they are uploaded full-screen, they seem to lose something when they are shrunk down, but I’ll work on it.

A warm welcome to Brenda in Indiana, a new Stamping Peace blog follower.  We’re very happy to have you with us Brenda!

I took this photo yesterday, right after a little hailstorm.   Most of the leaves have danced off, but we have a tiny bit of color left!  (But a lot more than up north, where we got four inches of snow yesterday!)

Just two more days to leave a comment and have your name placed in a drawing for some blog candy on All Hallow’s Eve.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

Stamping Peace,

Dawn

Sunflower Stamp

“The farther we get away from the land, the greater our insecurity.”

-Henry Ford

Good day from Stamping Peace!  Hope you had a wonderful week-end.  We finished harvesting our vegetable garden, cut our sunflowers and all the flower gardens, and enjoyed the warmth of home life.   Saturday morning we were up early to start the wood stove (still haven’t used the furnace!), make some chex mix for snacking on throughout the day, and get the beans baking in the oven before our good friend Mimi came over at 8:00 a.m. to walk her dog Moxie with me and Teddy.  After all that cold fresh air,  I made a hearty soup and put it on to simmer for lunch and then I had the rest of the day to stamp!  I made some beautiful projects and I can’t wait to share them all with you.   Today, however, I want to share a card that I made earlier this fall with Stampin’ Up’s!  giant Sunflower Stamp.  This is a special card because I made it for my son Jonathan’s birthday.  Jonathan, as most of you know, owns a landscaping company called Summersweet Landscaping.  I found a story in Organic Gardening about four young horticulturists like Jonathan, and I stamped the sunflower right onto the magazine article!  Don’t you just love it when things come together like that?  : )

Papers:  Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla    Ink:  Crumb Cake  Embellishments:  Linen Twine and Glitter Brads

Card size is 5″ square.    Stamp Sets:  Sunflower (front) and Gorgeous Grunge and Teeny Tiny Wishes (inside).

Speaking of sunflowers, if you have young children or grandchildren, have you seen the book “The Sunflower Parable” by Liz Curtis Higgs?  My boys enjoyed that book very much when they were growing up, and her book “The Pumpkin Patch Parable” even more.  : )

I’m off to the stampuary, but before leaving I want to remind you that we have just three more days for blog comments to be entered into an All Hallow’s Eve drawing for blog candy.  I always love to hear from you and I always try to reply.

Until I hear from you, Happy Stamping!

Dawn

Spirit Week

“Every noble work is at first impossible.”

-Thomas Carlyle

Good Day from Stamping Peace!  The temperatures may be cooling down here in Maine, but our school spirit is warming up!  Recently, for Spirit Week, I went to visit Joseph’s special education class and we made this banner to decorate the hall.  The kids had the most wonderful time.  I hadn’t met the students (Joseph has been homeschooled for the past two years) and didn’t know what kinds of challenges they live with, so I had no idea how the project would go over.  It was a huge hit!  I traced a pennant from Stampin’ Up!’s banner kit for each student, and then cut out slightly larger ones in orange and black, the school colors.  They had to cut one out from a paper bag for the base of each pennant, and although it isn’t visible in the photo, they stamped little witches (the school mascot) all over the base pieces.   They then used the stencils in the kit to daub stripes, circles or chevrons.  They had a choice of orange or black ink, but some got creative and used both colors!   We used Stampin’ Up!’s sponge daubers and those were a hit as well.  After stringing the pennants together, we added black and orange ribbons between each one.  As soon as we were finished, the maintenance workers came to the classroom and hung the banner in the hall while the class watched.  They were very pleased with their work, and I was invited back.  Smiles all around.  : )

Thank you for the blog visit!  Leave a comment and you will be entered into our drawing for some “blog candy” (Stampin’ Up! product) on All Hallow’s Eve.

Have a great week-end everyone.  Hope you have some time to stamp!

Dawn

P.S.  Thank you to my friend Lori for taking this picture for us.  I forgot my camera that day!

Boo!

“Be not afraid.”

-Church hymn

Good Morning from Stamping Peace!  I didn’t have time to stamp yesterday, for I was too busy digging up geraniums and impatients to winter over in the house, and cutting back the gardens in anticipation of last night’s  frost.  So, today I thought I’d show you the Scrapbook page that I made at Beth’s event and posted last week when it was “empty.”  And look at her now!  It’s 2/3 done, I just need to find one more photo for the left side.  It’s a start…my very first Scrapbook page!  And, why hide it away in an album?  There it is, under the mirror, decorating our hallway!  : )

This is the other side of the hallway and it is sporting a beautiful Halloween card that my friend Lorraine made and brought to me at Monday morning’s stamping class.  Can you spot it Lorraine?  : )   The rest of the artwork was done by my three boys as they were growing up.  They wait every fall for the boxes to come out…first all the apple and leaves artwork, then the Halloween, and then the Thanksgiving, etc…. can you tell that we’re a fan of the arts around here?  : )

Have a spooktacular day!

Dawn

A Little Nightcap

“A merry heart doeth good like medicine.”

~Proverbs 17:22

Good Morning from Stamping Peace!   And here is the inside of the file card that I started yesterday.  Inside is a recipe for Pumpkin Latte, which we have once a year when the trees are bare and it feels like winter is close on our heels.  It warms the stomach and the soul!

 Here’s the recipe:

2 heaping T. canned pumpkin

1 T. brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Hot coffee, decaf or espresso

Hot milk

Into each large mug put first 4 ingredients.  Fill cup halfway with coffee and stir well.   Fill cup with hot milk and whisk.  Top with whipped cream, dust with nutmeg.  Toast someone you love and enjoy!  : )

“Every little wave has it’s nightcap on.” ~ Laura Howe Richards