HALLOWEEN SHOEBOX SWAP

My friend, Sandy Braddock is one of the biggest Halloween witches (oops, I mean "nuts"!) I know! She invited me and three other stampin' friends to a Halloween Shoebox Swap at her home Wednesday morning. If you've never heard of a Shoebox Swap, it's where each person creates a stamped project for the other participants to create, i.e. all the supplies, paper cut, etc. I believe the name comes from the idea that all the supplies for one project could fit into a shoebox. Sandy's home was the perfect setting for our Halloween themed Shoebox Swap! Her home is lavishly decorated for the holiday ... lots of whimsical and spooky items!

Below is a photo of our group. From left to right: Sandy Braddock, our hostess with the mostest (aka doublesmom on SCS), me (I've noticed that I'm wearing black in every single photo I've posted on my blog .... I DO own other colors of clothing!), Karen Laub (aka nikesmom on SCS), Lorri Heiling (aka lorriheiling on SCS, and her blog, Confessions of a Stamping Addict), and Tammy Mendoza. Karen and Sandy are fellow band booster moms, Lorri is my Stampin' Up! sideline, and Tammy is my neighbor. Of course, what brings us all closer together is our love of stamping!

Here are the five adorable projects we made Wednesday morning. This first one is a treat box by Karen Laub, using a template by Sherry Graves. Sorry, I haven't been able to find the link to the template. If anyone out there knows where I can find it, I'd be happy to link it! The stamped pumpkin images are from the stamp set, Carved & Candlelit. We filled the box with shred and candies ... YUM YUM!!! This mummy card was Sandy Braddock's project.The Very Vanilla CS strips were actually wrapped around the large Very Vanilla piece for the mummy effect. The Very Vanilla CS was randomly stamped with Itty Bitty Backgrounds, and the edges were sponged with Creamy Caramel. The twill tape already had the words "HAPPY HALLOWEEN" printed on it! Sandy found it in her summer travels. Don't you just love those large googlie eyes?!This Halloween Firecracker is a project by Lorri Heiling. Looks difficult, but is super easy to make! Lorri's project uses the spider from Booglie Eyes and Creepy Crawly DP. Halloween candies are inside. This cute Halloween card was created by Tammy Mendoza. It uses an actual 35mm negative filmstrip, and plastic spider rings (with the ring portion removed).This altered fruit can was my project. I've shared this before here on my blog. For all the details, click HERE.Tammy altered these jumbo root beer and cream soda bottles, and gave one to each of us! Are these FUN, or what?! Tammy is a Halloween NUT, just like Sandy! Tammy and her dog, Gandoff have coordinating costumes each year, and they are the highlight on our street on Halloween night!
Sandy made our Shoebox Swap so much fun! She had all her Autumn and Halloween stamped cards displayed for us to oooh and aaaah over. Wouldn't she make a wonderful Stampin' Up! demonstrator???!!! Here are a few of her creations.




Gotta show you one more thing! Sandy has all kinds of interesting things in her home ... the gal's got style! This is one of my favorite things .... not only is Sandy a talented stamper, she is also a talented quilter! This is her Halloween quilt that hangs in a high niche in her entryway. I'm standing on the 2nd level stairway to take the photo, and she has to get up on an extention ladder to hang it. She made this quilt about 12 years ago when she was pregnant with her twin daughters. It's hard to see in the photo, but the group of pumpkins on the right, second from the top, represent her family of five. She had to add the fifth pumpkin when she discovered she was having twins! THANK YOU for a wonderful Shoebox Swap, my dear friends!