Hi and welcome to my blog! I am Melissa Thomas, a Stampin' Up! demonstrator from Austin, Texas and I love Halloween! I always have-- I blame my mother (of course) as she made my costumes every year and always made a big deal about it!

For this blog hop I decided to feature the super cute bats in the Cutest Halloween DSP and an easy fun fold! If you want directions on how to make this card, check out my YouTube video showing how to make it and another fun fold Halloween card here!

Don't forget to keep hopping along to see other Halloween inspiration and I hope you have a Happy Halloween! Hand out candy to call the kids who come by, okay? It's been a tough year and they could all use a little fun!

Happy crafting,
​Melissa

Welcome to the Paper Pumpkin Thing Blog Hop! Thanks for hopping here from Rachel's blog and don't forget to keep hopping... The list is below. But for now... 

Who loves Halloween?? This girl. And who loves Paper Pumpkin? We do. Match made in Heaven. 

I was so excited to get this month's kit and see where my imagination took me. My daughter and I did an unboxing video on Facebook last week when we got it and she wanted to make all the bags- right away! So we did. They are adorable. We will fill ours with some non-candy treats for her classmates. (Last year we made "Ghostly Clay" for every kid with essential oils and it was hit!) If you are interested in subscribing to Simply Earth's monthly essential oil recipe box, where you get cool recipes like this, please use my referral link here!

So, once we made all the packages there were a few of the cute shapes left over and I have had this card idea in my head for quite some time... I cut three pieces of card stock to cover the front of a card base (to make it look like Candy Corn!) and ran it through the Big Shot with the Scattered Sequins embossing folder. Add a little label stamped with some of the fun lettering from the kit, a bat, a strip of Black Glittered Organdy ribbon, and some splatters of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint- bam! Cutest Halloween card ever. And this is the add-on project that my Paper Pumpkin customers are getting this month! They love getting my happy mail... 

Now the 3D project had me stumped this month, but then I remembered that we love luminarias at Christmas and this bag would look cute lit up. I also knew that the reflective BOO and the reflective piece behind the pumpkin would pick up some of the light... So I cut a strip of black cardstock to hold the back and bottom upright and here it-- a spooky luminaria. Looks even cooler in the dark...

Here's another look at both projects together! I really love Halloween! You can read a bit here about why I love it and see a few other projects I've made lately with Holiday Catalog products...

Make sure you keep hopping along.... There are so many fantastic ideas on this hop! True Paper Pumpkin rockstars!

Did you miss out on the September kit and wish you could get it?

You CAN! Just subscribe to Paper Pumpkin and then you can pick up a FULL KIT for $18 or a refill (no stamps or ink) for just $9 in my store! Only subscribers can get previous kits or refills-- so don't delay! (And I heard October's kit is going to be a spicy colored fall kit! Woohoo!)

Happy crafting,
​Melissa

Welcome to another month of the Stampin' Friends Blog Hop! I cannot wait to see what everyone has made for this month's theme- which is Halloween!! I really love Halloween- I always have.

My mother was really into it-- she made my costume every year (generally she sewed it) and it was always amazing but the last year she made me a costume I was about 12 and it was a parrot. She made an entire cape of felt feathers that she sewed the detail into and then she made a parrot head. If I find the pics, I will post it on Instagram-- make sure you follow me there. Totally worth it. 

So... on with the projects... (And don't forget that next week I am hopping with the A Paper Pumpkin Thing Blog Hop, and it's all Halloween too-- so come back for another dose of cuteness then.)

​First up, my 3D project...

This holds one of those delicious Chocolate Covered Orange Marshmallow pumpkin things and is so adorable you probably don't want to open it. I wanted to utilize these ready made pillow boxes and make them  "Halloweenee" (totally technical term, by the way).  By adding the broom paper from the Toil & Trouble DSP and a hat cut out from that same DSP, I feel it softened the edge on Halloween. So did the watercolor penciled pup from Trick or Tweet. A small piece of the Black Glittered Organdy ribbon finishes it off nicely. I might hoard some of this ribbon. LOVE IT!

Now my card on the other hand, is a bit bright. But I really wanted to use the Halloween lightbulb from the Making Every Day Bright stamp set. The Happy Halloween sentiment is from Spooky Nights. And the star DSP is just too cute...

And have you seen the shine on that Black Foil paper? Holy moly. I really hope they keep this around in the new year, but for now, I am loving it! 

I hope you loved my projects! Make sure to comment below and pin my projects to Pinterest! Also, if you love the Trick or Tweet stamp set, check out my class to go info below... 

Now, make sure you keep hopping around! I am sure everyone has awesome projects to share!

I am offering a five treat package Trick or Tweet class (which includes the stamp set) for only $25 when you purchase my Craft Camp to Go (which is $45 and includes shipping). Want to see a sneak peek of all five projects? 

The Craft Camp to Go is the virtual option of my live Craft Camp next month and it features the All is Bright DSP and Gold Foil-edged cards and envelopes for a stunning One Sheet Wonder set of 10 cards with an acetate card box. Check out the ticket here, but act fast because registration closes September 30th! Classes will ship out the week of October 8th. 

And as always, I wish you... 
Happy crafting,
​Melissa

I try not to be an alarmist about Christmas coming but I do love the idea of prepping ahead of time so I can actually enjoy the month of December. My birthday, my mother in laws birthday, and our wedding anniversary also falls during that magical month so preparation is key- I try to get Christmas gifts lined up now and my cards too!

So in that "a little pressure now so no pressure then" mode-- I'll be posting inspirational projects each week until Christmas. This first set of inspiration comes from an online convention that I'm participating in this rainy weekend!

There is SO much you can do with our Project Life cards and making cards is one of them! Ronda Wade designed a few cute holiday ones from the Seasonal Snapshot 2015 kit! Behold- fast cards that look fancy!

This month's Paper Pumpkin kit was so cute! I wasn't sure about it at first but I love the birch paper straws and with a yummy candle in them they will be great for the Island Crafters Fair on October 17th!!

This was my add on project for my Paper Pumpkin subscribers! If you want to subscribe let me know-- it's easy to sign up at http://www.paperpumpkin.com

And in October $2 of your new subscription goes to help fight breast cancer!

I made a few other cute treat holders for the craft fair! This ghost from last year came out great with the BOO from this year!

This one is also a combo of the new and old!

We had fun last weekend making the Witch's Hat decor piece! We also made three cards from the leftovers and still had tons leftover... Unfortunately the kit is sold out now... But we had fun!!

Look at the cute treat bags that my friend Angie Watts made for our team swap!

Happy fall and happy crafting!!!

Hugs,

Melissa

I love a stamp set that works across the holidays! The Six Sayings stamp set is a hostess set that is only $11 for clear mount! What a deal and what a way to take those hostess dollars even farther! You can earn hostess dollars by placing a large order ($150+) or by hosting a party where friends come over to craft with you and me! Let me know if you want to host a party-- we have some cute kits that would make a great party!

So-- this stamp set is the one that I won at Convention and was the one I selected to create my team swaps! If you chose a Halloween stamp you had to make it a treat holder-- so here is what I made: craft bag with Washi tape at the top, with the rough edge trimmed off, stamped with our new black archival ink pad and the Boo from Cheer All Year stamp set!

The bat is from that set too, which I love. While I was working on some sketches for this project my daughter grabbed the bat and stamped him upside down and then grabbed a pen and started drawing a tree limb... I was so impressed and inspired! I used the branch from the Annual Catalog stamp set- Choose Happiness! Cute right??

My Thanksgiving card also used the graphic images of feathers from Cheer All Year and then gold embossed the Thankful on top. It looks beautiful in person with the new Into the Woods ribbon!!!

And the main attraction for me was the Christmas card! I love these wooden snowflakes and the sentiment is just too cute!! Plus the the vellum! And the watercolor trees!! To die for! With a fancy fold!!

So what do we think? If you love this stamp set as much as I do-- let's get you set to host a party! It can be online, Facebook, FaceTime, catalog, Skype, or in person!!!! Either email me or send me a request via my website!

Happy crafting,

Melissa

Our team does a four card swap for every new catalog that comes out-- and it's holiday catalog time! We each pick a stamp set and I picked Merry Everything!

I can't wait to get my swaps in the mail-- since they are in Texas I send my designs and they gather mine and send them back to me!!

Here's my first card-- Halloween card with Tangelo Twist!

This next one is my favorite because it uses Hello Honey and gold embossing on vellum!! I can't wait to make a few more of these!

And this is my second favorite-- I love this embossing folder because it makes anything look super fancy! And that cherry cobbler ribbon is luscious!

Now pardon this lopsided photo but apparently I didn't take a picture of this card completed-- so this is it in the planning stage... The Bermuda Bay star paper was part of the Halloween DSP but it screamed Christmas to me!

So, what do we think?? Fun set of cards right? Merry Everything is a great set because it includes all three fall holidays plus a general tag for gifts-- love a multifunctioning stamp set!

Happy crafting,

Melissa

This Sunday I held a kid's craft class-- mainly with PreK and Kindergardners! Nine girls total-- including triplets and twins-- whew!

It was a ton of fun and while prepping I thought carefully about how to make this super simple, within their attention span, and yet give them exposure to a higher level of crafting than they had before...

So break out one ink color and some punches... Here we go!

The first project used SU's chevron gift bag and the stamp carving-- to make a jack-o-lantern bag!

We then stamped and punched the hexagon "hey pumpkin" to glue to the bag for some color!

I then CASEd a card from Pinterest with the candy corn puzzle! They loved this the best -- especially our two sided designer series paper! We ended up with some creative candy corn!!

For the last card I had the girls stamp and punch again but my critical mistake was letting them play Bingo with candy corn before this one-- we lost a few of the younger ones but we got through it!

They then snacked, watched a show, and played on Marianne's awesome bunk bed witha slide... Then I read them a book and everyone was settled down enough to go home!

I wanted to do this more advanced project with the moms but we got talking and I forgot... I am instead going to make them and give them to the moms as a thank you!

Cute photo holders made with clothespin, tile, and Staz On ink!!

We also tried cinnamon spice ornaments but they were goey and quite the mess...

Oh well-- that's crafting right??

Happy crafting,

Melissa