HAPPY HALLOWEEN! PUMPKIN BREAD MEETS DUSTIN PIKE!

Happy Halloween folks,
I hope you all have some fun plans to celebrate and have some not too scary costumes lined up. We had a Fall Festival at my son's school yesterday which was great. The teachers and parents set up booths for all the children to play games like pumpkin musical chairs, spider toss, scarecrow toss, face painting, decorate your own cookie or cupcake, and decorate a picture frame. I volunteered to walk some students around the festival but almost got roped in to help out with the picture frame decorating booth.......I guess I was helping a little too much, coz they told me to Please pull up a chair! Needless to say that was my cue to keep walking with my group!

We had baked fresh pumpkin bread for all the teachers who have worked with my son at some point during last year or this year. Last year I made special cards for them all but the list is getting longer so I decided that baking something good would be faster for me. My son helped me choose the little ceramic bread pans for the teachers ($1.00 from Michael's) and we wrapped them with matching plastic gift bags, added a label and ribbon and that was it! All the teachers were delighted with the little treat...so I think it was a wise choice this year.

Fresh from the oven.......yummmmmy!

gift wrapped and ready to go!

I also got around to photographing my other cards from Dustin Pike which I had not posted yet. The top one is from Dustin's release this week and the monkey sick in bed is from his previous release.

Perhaps little sick monkey needs some homemade pumpkin bread to make him feel better!!

Well I'm going to take my little one swimming at his grandma's then after dinner we will be Trick or Treating in the neighborhood! Have a fantastic Halloween and stay safe!

Talk to you soon,

Hugs,

Charlotte

DUSTIN PIKE RELEASE DAY! SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT CHALLENGE

Happy Thursday Folks!
Today Dustin Pike has two releases and they are so adorable you have to check his blog out. The first one is a Season of Dragons....I used the October, November and December ones. But you get the whole year of dragons!!!! Can't ask for more than that!

I made my dragons into little goodie bags which were super easy and quick to make. You can find the instructions if you click on SCS I made these for the challenge over at Saturday Spotlight....which was to make something to hold treats....Sweet treats!! http://saturdayspotlight.blogspot.com/

Dustin's second release is Not a Creature....was Stirring, not even a mouse.....yeah right!!! These adorable little mice images are super cute, but you have to check the rest out too!! I wish I had time to make them all into a project! They are so much fun to color and I just loved making these two mice cards. If I can finish it today I will post my third little mice card too!

This one is tanglemouse....isn't he the cutest...up to no good with the Christmas lights...whoops!

This one is choo choo mouse riding along on his little train.

I'm not sure what's going on with Dustin but he's on a role right now with two releases today! I colored all my images with prisma markers, chalked the edges around the images on the goodie bags and popped out parts for dimension. On the cards I added some cute little embellishments, the lightbulbs and jingle bells are both from Michael's

card recipes

dp tangle mouse card Brenda Walton - Peppermint Twist, My Mind's Eye Bohemia - Love of my life tiny dots blue BH2050
dp choo choo mouse American Traditional Designs - Stocking Squares PA-0546
dp goodie boxes Peppermint Twist by Brenda Walton (Green), DCWV Rustic Stack (Brown/Beige), Core'dinations (purple)

Ribbons and gems by Michael's
Lightbulbs and jingle bells - Dress It Up Holiday Collection from Michael's

Don't forget to check out the complete releases over at Dustin's blog.

Have fun creating!

Hugs,

Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS LATEST NEWS

NOVEMBER GUEST DT
Welcome Sandee Shanabrough :)

Here at Midnight Madness we are so blessed to have Sandee with us for the month of November. She has been a faithful Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge player for quite some time now. I'm sure many of you have admired her work as I have, she is amazingly talented and creative. Here is what Sandy said....

"I am so excited to have been asked to be a part of this team for the month of November! I have been playing in the weekly sketch challenges for quite a while now and have enjoyed each and every sketch. Thank you Priscilla and the whole MMSC team for having me this month and for all of your hard work getting this organized and making this so much fun each week! I have been crafting most of my life. My mother is very artistic and I credit her for giving me the crafting gene! I was introduced to stamping in the late 90’s by a sweet friend (Hi Beth!) and was instantly hooked. I love all of the wonderful tools, embellishments and, of course stamps, that are available now! My dear hubby of 30 years is so wonderful and encouraging of my addiction, ahem, I mean hobby! We have two grown children and three precious grandchildren. My oldest granddaughter loves stamping with her Grammie, and we stamp together every time she visits! Pretty soon, I’ll have the other two stamping with me too! I have lived in Georgia my whole life and have been working with the same company for 29 years. Hubby and I hope and pray we’ll be able to retire within the next few years. I need more time to stamp!! With the holidays coming up, this will be a fun month to be a part of this team! I am looking forward to it!"

Please help me in Congratulating.......
Carol Hurlock and Linda Lucas!!
They will both be joining the team on a long term basis.....WHOOO HOOO! They bring so much insight, fun, creativity and knowledge to us all.

Thank you so much Carol and Linda for being a part of the Midnight Madness team. We are blessed to have you with us!

Our very own Shawne will be taking time out to focus on her beautiful family and of course on her expanding stamp line. Shawne now joins the MM Alumni and we wish her all the best for her future endeavors. We will miss you Shawne! God Bless you and your family.

Please stop on by each of these lovely ladies blogs to congratulate them!

Enjoy your day!

Hugs,

Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC25)

Click on the photos if you want to see the details.

Happy Tuesday Everyone!
Yes it's that time of week already...time for some Midnight Madness!! The DT has seen some beautiful entries from MMSC24 but I think a few of you go scared off from the challenge!!! It was a little more challenging than some of the other sketches, but kudos to those of you who did participate!! Well done!

Our Midnight Madness Masterpiece Award this week goes to

#33 Cabio...Congratulations Cabio, wear your special badge proudly!

Our Midnight Madness Remarkables this week go to

#14 Grace

#25 Vicki

#44 Stephanie Hester

Congratulations ladies, don't forget to display your lovely badge and wear it proudly!

Thank you to all the lovely peeps who join in with us each and every week, and a huge Welcome to those of you who have just joined us. You make our job so enjoyable seeing all those fabulous creations each week.

This is the last week that Chelsea over at Crafting Life's Pieces is sponsoring the MM team. Chelsea...thank you so much for your generosity during this month, for giving the DT your line of stamps to use and create with. We so appreciate it! Chelsea is giving away one $50 gift voucher to a lucky winner!!!

Our sponsor this week is Shawne from Studio313, who supplied the DT with some of her beautiful images. Thanks so much Shawne for doing this for us!

I had so much fun with this Fairytale Rosebud castle that Shawne sent to me....I felt like I was wisked away into another world!!! I decided to make a trifold card which is literally two cards stuck together in the middle but with a book appeal to it. I love how it turned out and hope you do too! I colored the image in prismacolor pencils, layered parts of the castle to give some depth to it and added a few extra little toadstools and leaves. The wider ribbon I put under the top layer of dp so that it ties at the side like a keepsake book.

Card recipe: DP - DCWV Once Upon A Time stack, Ribbon - Sheer Creations from Michael's, Flowers inside - Prima Fabric Fancies in Opal, Flower outside from Michael's, metal crown charm - from my stash, Gems - Studio18 from Michael's.

I hope you enjoy your day!

Hugs, Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC25)

OK I seem to be having some difficulty with the photo enlarging again with the main MM post. I can enlarge the first three photos but not the last two, so I figured I would switch the photos around to see if that would help....nope! That really messed things up!!! So here are the photos of the inside of my little book!

Hope you like them!

Hugs,
Charlotte

Thank You for your prayers!

Happy Thursday everyone!
This is going to be a short post just to say a huge Thank You to everyone who has offered prayers for my family over the last couple of weeks. Those prayers were greatly appreciated and are helping us get through this difficult time!
Some of you may not be aware of what my family has been going through, but we lost a very special family member to cancer. Tante Jannie, pictured here with my father-in-law lost her battle on Saturday, after a very painful and long struggle. I'm sure most of us have lost a loved one to cancer and it just breaks your heart to see this disease take over a persons body. Tante Jannie is at peace now, and the family will be able to find the peace knowing she is no longer suffering!
Thank you all again for your kind wishes!
Hugs,
Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC24)

Happy Midnight Madness day folks!

I hope you all enjoyed the blog hop and got to see the beautiful projects my DT sisters created! I really enjoyed seeing them as it was the first time for me too! If you haven't completed the blog hop yet, today is the last day!

Our Midnight Madness Award winner this week is
#71 Pam

Congratulations Pam -Have fun displaying your gold star!

Our Midnight Madness Remarkables are

#49 Cabio

#63 Karen Arthur

#67 AKA stamp (Karen Jiles)

#72 Brenda

Congratulations ladies....wear your little fairy proudly!

This months sponsor has been Gurlee Girl Designs and Chelsea has generously given the DT her entire line of stamps......thank you so much Chelsea.....we will have so many opportunities to continue to use your fabulous Gurlee Girl stamps in the future.

This weeks sponsor is Sue McMahon from McMahon Five Designs, who has some fabulous items in her store....click on the logo on my sidebar and you will be directed right to her site!My card this week is using Sue's lovely wood papers and one of her gorgeous digi stamp images. I have to admit that I told Sue I was affraid to use her wood paper in case I ruined it!!! Sue came back and told me...."it's only paper!!" I was still a little aprehensive about using it, but realized she was right. I used the Douglas fir and Hickory for my card. Go check her store out because there are so many more beautiful colors to choose from. The digi image I printed out in two different sizes, then colored them both in prismacolor pencils and layered them with pop dots. I just wanted to see what effect it would have!! I changed the sketch a little but think you can still see the general idea of the original one.

card recipe - image, wood papers and prima flower from McMahon Five Designs, gems and gold doily from Micheal's.

Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to check out my DT sisters creations.

Enjoy your day!

Hugs,
Charlotte

Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop!

Welcome to Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop. Here at Midnight Madness we are celebrating “you” our players with a fun and exciting blog hop. We have TWENTY FIVE exciting prizes to give away. As a matter of fact, here is the list of how we are giving away these prizes:
One Grand prize random drawing valued at $100
350th BRAND NEW Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize valued at $50
11 “Cards from the Crypt” (picked by our DT members from MMSC archives)
12 random Package winners drawn
You have until Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12 p.m. Midnight EST to leave your name in Mr. Linky at Priscilla’s Midnight Madness Blog to be eligible for the prizes. Prize winners will be notified at the end of the week.
If you would like to be entered in Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop prizes and you DO NOT have a blog, you still can participate. You will have to follow the directions below……..

1. Leave a comment on the Midnight Madness Blog Hop comment section with your email address, first name and last name initial.
2. Link up to Mr. Linky with first name and last name initial and in the URL space enter this address http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/

In order to have a chance at winning any of the prizes, you must gather a secret phrase along the Blog Hop. Each Design Team Member will have a particular word or words listed on their blog and as long as you visit them in order, you will have the secret phrase at the end. If you are picked as a Prize winner you will be contacted by email and you must email back the secret phrase WITH IN 48 HOURS to claim your prize. If by any chance the 350th BRAND NEW player or any of the “Cards from the Crypt” winners are not claimed, then those prizes will be added to the random winners drawn. To start off, you must begin at Pricilla’s Midnight Madness Blog! If you have not started there, I suggest you go back and begin again . . . you don’t want to miss out on the Prizes! If you have arrived from Chris' blog then you are on the correct course. If you want a chance to win you will have to follow the instruction listed above. Thank you and have fun on the Hop.

Meet the Midnight Madness Design Team
We thought it would be fun to feature in this section of our blog hop something to help you get to know the design team members and for us to get to know you. We have all chosen some questions with answers we wanted to share with you, our valued challenge players, about ourselves. You are welcomed to leave a comment here at my blog and tell us something about you. So here are some interesting things about me!
1. Where do you get most of your inspiration from?
Anything in nature whether it's the formation and shading of the clouds or the reflections on the ocean, watching a sunset....what is naturally occuring in our world is always inspiring to me. I also get inspiration from other crafters and childrens books.
2. Is there a specific time of day when your best creations are made and is there a particular food/drink item you just have to have with you?
I like to use my creativity in the mornings because I function best at that time, and my brain is clearer during the morning hours....even after very little sleep!!! I usually have a cup of coffee alongside and once in a while Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate!!!!!
3. If your house was on fire and you could run in and save ONE CRAFT ITEM, what would that be?
That would be a toss up between my sewing machine and my Big Shot. (I've only had my big shot for a month, but I love it)....so it would probably be the Big Shot. OR if I could run fast enough maybe I'd be able to grab both!!!! LOL
4. Tell us something about you that would probably surprise us!
I'm a wall flower!!!! I'm extremely shy and fear speaking in groups or in public! Yet I was an elementary teacher until my son was born!!!
5. What would you love to find at a yard sale?
A box full of dies to use with my Big Shot, a box full of ribbons and charms, or handmade envelopes.......I'm always draging my feet when it comes to my envelopes!!!!
6. If you could do something dangerous just once, with no risk - what would you do?
Probably sky diving......but I have a fear of heights!!!
7. Whom do you aspire to be like?
This may sound strange but the late Princess Diana...she was another Mother Teresa....a person who reached out to people to lend a helping hand, to make people feel important no matter what their position in life. She had the most amazing aura about her that people just felt loved in her presence. Not to mention her taste for fashion!!
8. What makes you laugh the hardest?
My son and the things he comes up with. For a 5 year old he has an amazing imagination!
9. Would you be likely to survive alone in the wilderness?
I'd probably be alright until night time!!! Then my imagination would get the better of me!!!
Cards from the Crypt
For something a little fun to honor our Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge Players we thought we would go back into the Crypt of archived challenges and pick some of our favorites to feature here. Our winners will need to do the blog hop and collect a word from each of the blogs to collect the winning phrase and place their name in Mr. Linky at Priscilla’s Midnight Madness Blog! We will email you when we verify that you have entered your name in Mr. Linky, you will need to email back the phrase in order to qualify for your prize. Even if your card has been chosen from the Crypt you are still eligible for the Grand Prize and Random Drawings.

I chose Lyn's card from Spyders Corner

http://spyder-spyderscorner.blogspot.com/2009/09/midnight-fright.html

Lyn is such a talented lady with a wicked sense of humor! She is always such a warm spirit with a true appreciation for her followers, each and every one of them! I chose Lyn's card because she found the sketch to be a real challenge to complete. I admire that she didn't give up on the sketch and produced such a cute Haunted House card.

Here is my Project

I decided to make a little Thanksgiving Thank you gift set for someone who had perhaps made something special for the Thanksgiving dinner, or helped with all the preparations. I chose my very first Magnolia stamp, Tilda from the Autumn 2008 series and colored her in prismacolor pencils. I made a pillow box and filled it with candles, a wooden purse filled with Hershey's kisses, a note card box and little wagon to carry the pumpkin! The pumpkin I painted and chalked, added some gems, leaves and ribbons. This gift set could also be used for a special teacher! Apart from looking in pictures, it's really difficult to remember what Fall/Autumn is like....living in Miami everything is green year round, so I decided to use softer Fall colors for my project. I hope you get a little inspiration from my creations.
Project recipe:Magnolia stamp - Tilda - Fall 2008, Beautiful Prima flowers from Sue McMahon's store on my side bar, papers by DCWV Rustic stack, notecard box tutorial is from SCS and the cute little wagon was from a tutorial on the Scor-Pal website (I tweaked it quite a bit and enlarged the measurements), pumpkin on the wagon is from Martha Stewart. Gems and ribbons are from Michael's.

Revealing the Word for the Secret Phrase
Thank you for playing in our weekly challenges and for all your support each week. We love showing off our creations to you and visiting your blogs each week to see what you have created We hope you are enjoying this special Blog Hop and that you are finding something new along the way. Thanks for joining us today!

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WOULD LIKE TO SEE A CLOSEUP OF MY PROJECT PLEASE SEE THE POST BELOW! I'M NOT SURE WHY THE PHOTOS WON'T ENLARGE ON THIS POST!

CLOSE UP OF BLOG HOP PROJECTS

Here is my blog hop project...please accept my apologies for not being able to enlarge the photos on the actual blog hop post!

Above is the little wooden purse which is holding a treat bag with hershey's kisses!

The little box could hold notecards, notes or treats...or anything else you would like to put in.

This pillow box I made to hold a set of candles but you could put almost anything inside from treats to art supplies depending on who you are giving the gift to.

My little pumpkin wagon took so long to make because it's quite small, but I just love the end result. As it is lightweight you would need to put a light object on it. This pumpkin isn't heavy at all and fits perfectly. I hope you have been able to see my project in a little more detail!

Thank you for taking the time to look at my creation!

Hugs,

Charlotte

MIDNIGHT MADNESS (MMSC23)

Happy Tuesday Folks,

The count down Is on!!! Just a few more days till the Prowling at the 1st Midnight Madness Blog Hop!! We hope you are getting excited about our blog hop. As a special way to thank our players and welcome new ones, we will be hosting our very 1st Halloween/Fall themed Midnight Madness Blog Hop.....Beginning October 16th at 8 a.m. EST and ending October 20th at 12 a.m. Midnight. AND OH WILL THERE BE PRIZES.....
One Grand Prize random drawing
350th Brand New Sketch Player SPECIAL Prize
"Cards from the Crypt" (picked by our very own DT members from the MMSC archives)
Plus a number of random Package winners
****PLEASE CHECK OUT PRISCILLA'S BLOG FOR ALL THE DETAILS****

This weeks Midnight Madness Masterpiece Award....goes to

#66. Karen Lynn

15. Liz Williams
21. Sue Drees
24. Craftypagan

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR WINNERS OF THE AWARDS....

TO ALL OUR PLAYERS......KEEP THOSE BEAUTIFUL CREATIONS COMING, BECAUSE THE DT LOVE TO SEE YOUR WORK!!!
Our sponsor this week is ISC is a one woman business http://www.innovativestampcreations.com They offer realistic-unique deeply etched rubber stamp sheets. With a focus on nature elements and faces of women. ISC carries various products from Ranger to Spellbinders and more. We would like to thank Betsy for her most generous prize for this week’s Bonus Winner (MMSC23) $50 worth of Stamp sheets of your choice…WOW!!!

Our monthly sponsor of those adorable Gurlee Girl stamps is Chelsea Dang from Crafting Life's Pieces. The DT are so thankful to Chelsea for giving us her line of stamps to use during this month.

As you can see from my project I have used one of the Gurlee Girl images. I decided to make a little tote/gift bag instead of a card this week. I found the instructions by Suzanne Dean at http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/ If you would like to try it out it is super easy to make. The image is colored in prismacolor pencils and oms

Card recipe: K&Co Brenda Walton Peppermint Twist designer paper, prima flowers from my DT sister Sue McMahon's store (on my side bar), ribbon, gems and brads from Micheal's, leaf punch and edger by Martha Stewart, scrolls made with Sizzix Flower and Vines #2, Cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder
I would love to hear what you think
Hugs,
Charlotte