BOO

 Hi Peeps,

Here's a fun Halloween card today using the Spellbinders Large die set of the month from a few years ago. This cupcake with all of its spooky decoration options is so fun. As it's die week, Anything Goes, at Just Us Girls, this card fits in perfectly.

The background is made using a Betterpress plate and the Betterpress system. I thought the Damask was appropriate for a Halloween card. The skull and bones, bats and cupcake paper overlay are all cut from white Glimmer paper. To color it, I used both Copics and ink blending. IRL it looks great, but the photo doesn't show much sparkle. The arch is cut from black card stock and then brushed with white craft ink to make it look foggy.

For the inside, I used just a simple sentiment from Gina K.

I think my little five y/o friend that lives in Brooklyn would like this card for Halloween.

Have a good evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hey, Boo! set from Gina K Designs (inside sentiment)

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock, Spellbinders Betterpress card stock & SU white Glimmer paper

Ink: Gina K Designs, Spellbinders Betterpress ink, Copics

Other: Spellbinders Boo-Licious Fall Cupcake die set &  Lux Damask Betterpress Plate & Betterpress System, Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arches, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 die set, blending brushes, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Happy Owl-O-ween

 TGIF Peeps,

I'm just squeaking in my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. Jaydee has a fun sketch this week and I've used it to make a fun Halloween card. (It will be time to send them out before we know it.)

The stamps are from Taylored Expressions and are fairly old.

As you can see, I rotated the sketch to fit the stamps. I originally thought I'd make a gate fold card, but decided to just make a regular landscape design. The papers are from my stash of fall paper scraps. I used a Gina K Designs cloud stencil to make the cloudy background.

For the inside I used another Taylored Expressions Halloween stamp.

Thanks for checking in. Wishing everyone in the U.S. a fun and relaxing Labor Day long weekend. I'll be hanging in watching US Open Tennis and a little baseball.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Owl-o-ween and Trick Or Treat sets by Taylored Expressions

Paper: Gina K Designs Kraft and Tangerine Twist card stock, misc patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copics

Other: Gina K Designs cloud stencil, Master Layouts 13 dies, Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arch dies, Glossy Effects

Happy Haunting

Happy Monday Peeps,

I'm squeaking in my Freshly Made Sketches challenge card this morning before the link closes. I made this card with some older Lawn Fawn sets and dies.

I thought this frame die set would make some fun haunted mirrors using some holographic card stock. It was a little difficult to get a good picture without some weird colors in the background though. The little ghosts are stamped on vellum and fussy cut as this older set doesn't have dies.

For added spookiness, I outlined the frames with black Stickles and added some very old spider, frog and bat brads.

The inside uses more images from the same set.

Have a great week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Happy Haunting and Flirty Frames sets by Lawn Fawn

Paper: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Layering Weight White card stock, The Apothecary Emporium paper pack by Echo Park patterned paper, SU Vellum, SSS Holographic card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 die, Black Stickles, Halloween brads, SU dimensionals, 

TRICK OR TREAT

 Hello peeps,

I've got a spooky, but cute Halloween frog for you today. This die is the freebie this month if you order the whole "club caboodle" from Spellbinders. As Ann's theme this week at The Paper Players Challenge is Nature, I knew this image would work perfectly. I've paired him with a beautiful full moon, a new layering stencil from Waffleflower.

I started by ink blending the moon using the layering stencil set onto the front of a white card base. After the stenciling I masked the moon then splattered some white paint over the panel for stars. The frog was assembled from the die cut pieces and glued in place. The frog pieces were all cut from white card stock and ink blended with the colors, except the hat is cut from black card stock.

I've added a simple Happy Halloween sentiment on the inside. This is from a Gina K Designs stamp set.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Haunts and Harvest set by Gina K Designs

Layering Stencil: Moon and Stars by Waffleflower

Frog Dies: Happy Halloween by Spellbinders

Paper: SU Basic White Thick and Black card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Blending brushes, white gel pen, Dr ph Martins white paint, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue

Just A Friendly Little Boo

TGIF Peeps,

I have another Halloween card for you today. I made this with all wood mounted stamps to participate in Amy's Wood Block Wednesday Challenge, and I'm also using this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch by Jen T. 

After stamping Rosiland the witch, and her kitty Roscoe, I colored them with Copics. The image is cut out with a Spellbinders Oval die and then matted with a slightly larger oval cut from orange card stock. These are popped up with SU Dimensionals onto a panel of SSS holographic card stock.

The sentiment is cut using a GKD circle die which I layered with a slightly larger circle die from the same die set.

There are plenty of embellishments on this card including small holographic stars, sequin spooky shapes and I used black Stickles on her outfit and yellow Stickles on the pumpkin's smile, nose and eyes.

The inside is very simple, stamped in two-toned orange and black with another wood block Halloween sentiment stamp.

The witch stamp is called Rosland & Roscoe and it's from Stampassions. The outside sentiment stamp is from Simply Stamped by Dee Ann McLen, and the inside sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday and the coming weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted stamps from Stampassions, Hero Arts and Simply Stamped

Paper: Gina K Designs, X-press It Blending white, Hero Arts, and SSS holographic card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Tangerine Twist  & Copics

Other: Spellbinders Oval dies, Gina K Designs circle dies, black and yellow Stickles, holographic stars, large sequin halloween shapes, SU dimensionals, Connect glue

FEELING WICKED

Hello Peeps,

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I didn't really do much of anything. I got a new smart TV for my craft room on Friday and spent some time getting Apps added etc. We dumped cable before we went on our vacation last month, thinking we would go the streaming route. My TV was over 20 years old, so I needed to get a new one for streaming to work. Plus, it was a plasma TV, and it was not very energy efficient. I don't really watch too much TV, but I'm a big baseball and tennis fan, and there are some series I like, plus the news, so I figured it was worth it to get a new one. (Just in time to watch the US Open Tennis.)

I only made one card over the weekend as I wasn't feeling very creative for some reason. I liked the open sketch that Judy created for Freshly Made Sketches. I used it to make a Halloween card.

Using some really old patterned papers from Basic Grey, Dies from Spellbinders, Hero, and Time Holtz I made this one.

The martini glass die is from Hero Arts, and I cut it from Holographic card stock. After cutting the Spellbinders halloween images, I added them to the glass and popped it all up with foam tape to the front of the card. To help the Halloween images pop out, I added some stickies to the bat, the witches hat and the eyes in the skeleton. The sentiment was cut twice and the letters stacked. 

Here's the inside, which uses a Gina K Designs sentiment and flying bat image.

Wishing everyone a great week! Maybe my mojo will return at some point.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Haunts and Harvest stamp set by Gina K Designs (inside)

Paper: Gina K Designs Tangerine Twist, Sweet Mango, Black Onyx, SU Basic White Thick and SSS Holographic card stock, Basic Grey Eerie Collection

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Tangerine Tango, Blue Demin

Other: Hero Arts Martini Glass die set, Spellbinders Boo-Licious Fall Cupcake die set, Tim Holtz Bold Halloween Text dies, Black, Orange and Stardust Stickles, foam squares, Connect glue

Happy Halloween

 TGIF Peeps,

It's funny, but even being retired I still look forward to the weekends. Probably because that's when we get together with friends more than during the weekdays. Our plans for tonight are for a little wine and a little pizza with friends.

Last night I pulled out some old wood mounted stamps to make a card for this month's Wood Block Wednesday Challenge. Since I still could use a couple more Halloween cards, that's what I made.This is Rosiland and Russel from Stampassions. All of the images, inside and out, are from wood mounted stamps.

I stamped the duo in Memento black ink on vanilla card stock and colored the images with Copics. After, I cut them out using oval dies from Spellbinders, using the next size to cut a black mat. The orange chevron patterned paper is very old from SU. The greeting is inked first with coral ink and then with black for a two-toned effect, cut out with a sentiment die and also matted. While it's hard to see in the pic, I added some Nuvo glitter to the pumpkin's eyes, nose and mouth, as well as to the tiny stars around the outside, and added two small black enamel dots on the sides for embellishment.

The inside:

Thanks to Amy for hosting this challenge to use these older wood mounted stamps. They usually sit  neglected in their drawers.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps:

Witch stamp: Stampassions

Happy Halloween stamp: Stampendous

Inside sentiment stamp: Simply Stamped

Tiny cat stamp: Hero Arts

Paper: SU Vanilla and Black card stock, SU DSP

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Gina K Designs Coral Reef, Copic markers

Other: Spellbinders Essential Stylish Oval dies, Simon Says Stamp Sentimental Label dies, Big Shot Switch, Nuvo clear glitter brush, black enamel dots, foam squares, Connect glue

Happy Halloween

 Happy Hump Day folks,

Today I have a Halloween card that was super fun to make, and super easy to make. No stamping on this card at all. It's pretty rare for me to make a card without any stamping, but here we have one.

This card works for two challenges this week. The Paper Players challenge is the monthly CAS challenge with a theme of Signs of Fall, and the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is called Text It. 

To make this card I started with a slimline card base in thick white card stock. This one measures 8.5 x 3.5 inches. I lined up 4 of the Tim Holtz Bold Text dies from the set down the front, taped them in place and ran it through my die cutting machine. After removing the die cut letters, I ink blended orange ink over the entire front of the panel, then blended black ink around the edges. I glued a piece of black shiny/matte card stock under the front panel, die cut the spider and popped her up over one of the "Os" in BOO!, and covered her body with black Stickles to allow her to stand out a little more.

This was SO fast and easy to make and I love how it turned out. It will go to one of my nephews for their Halloween card.

For the inside, I added another of the text dies, but this time instead of using the negative, I used the letters and another die from another Tim Holtz Halloween die set.

The signs of Fall and Halloween are very obvious around the hood. Everyday on my walk I see more and more skeletons, ghosts, and goblins popping up in trees and yards. It's very festive!

Wishing you all a great day and week,

Colleen

Supplies

Dies: Sizzix-Tim Holtz dies Bold Text Halloween, Spider Web, and Retro Halloween

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight White, Black Onyx, & Tomato Soup,  SU Pumpkin Pie, and Erin Lee Matte Black card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Tangerine Twist, Black Onyx

Other: Blending brushes, Big Shot Switch, Connect glue, black and yellow Stickles, SU mini Dimensionals

The Witch Is In

Hello and happy Hump Day,

As you read this I'm on the highway again heading back to my Mom's in Northern California. My niece's baby shower is this Saturday in Bend, OR, so I'm driving to my Mom's and then we will drive from her house to Bend on Friday afternoon. 

Earlier in the week, I did have a chance to make a couple of cards for Claire's Paper Player's Challenge. It's CAS week with a Fall theme.

I made two cards. One has some die cuts and one is a one layer card. I would consider both CAS, but I am posting the one layer card in the gallery for my challenge card.

Here are the cards. 

This first is a Halloween stamp set from Hampton Art Stamps. This is a mini slimline card size. The card stock is GKD Heavy Weight Vanilla and the images are colored with colored pencils. 

My second card is made with Hero Arts images and dies. I used the Taylored Expressions A2 Rectangle Mask to mask off the outside of the card to ink blend the center with three fall shades. The Hero Arts pumpkin die is cut from shinny gold card stock.

Thanks for checking in, and have a great rest of the week.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: The Witch is In set by Hampton Arts and Color Layering Fall stamp set and dies by Hero Arts

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight Vanilla, Layering Weight and Heavy Weight White card stock,

Concord & 9th gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Sweet Corn, Sweet Mango and Jelly Bean Green, VersaMark

Other:  GKD Fine Detail Gold EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die, Prisma Color colored pencils, gamsol, blending stumps, yellow Stickles, Nuvo clear glitter brush

Hey Boo

Happy Saturday afternoon,

I'm on the road again, this time I'm visiting my mom in Northern California. For this trip, I drove instead of flying, so I packed my car with lots of craft supplies to play with while here. I'm planning around a three week visit, so being able to bring supplies is great. 

Yesterday, I managed to make a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Jen M. is the hostess with a square card layout, which is always fun to do. I decided to make another Halloween card. 

I started by using the On the Diagonal Turnabout stamp by C&9th, stamping it with two orange shades and black and gray. I wanted to use this for the two triangle elements, so I cut out the center with a square die, then cut that in half diagonally. The two triangles are glued to a 4.5" square white panel that I stamped the GKD greeting and bat images. The panel is matted with black and then glued to an Orange card base. Finally, I added some small pumpkin sequins for embellishments.

I used another GKD set for the inside images.

My mom lives in the Redding, CA area where it is smoky from the surrounding wild fires. The sky is a gray/brown, and some days the smoke is lower and some days higher in the sky. When it's lower, it's really hard to be outdoors, so those days we stay in with the air conditioning. Everyday the fires grow in size and more towns are being evacuated. It is so horrible!

I hope your Sunday is nice and relaxing. Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: On the Diagonal Turnabout set by Concord & 9th, Haunts and Harvest, Hey Boo sets by Gina K Designs, Gina K Designs inks in Tangerine Twist, Sweet Mango, Black Onyx, Stormy Sky, Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Black Onyx, Tangerine Twist card stock, Polychromos colored pencils, pumpkin sequins, Misti, Big Shot

Halloween Happiness

Happy Fri-yay to all! 

Really, I'm not sure why I'm excited about Fridays now that I'm retired, LOL. But, there are plenty of workers out there who probably are, so I'll continue to be excited for Fridays.

I had a really fun, crafty day yesterday and made several cards. Some playing with new techniques that I'm learning by watching YouTube videos. (It's great to have the time for that now.) However, today's card isn't made using a new technique at all, rather the oldie and goodie technique of using markers to color directly on the rubber before stamping. This Halloween Happiness is a single stamp with multiple images that I wanted to use different colors on, so coloring with markers was the way to go. It's a rather old SU stamp that was wood mounted. Recently I unmounted all of my SU wood sets and I'm loving how much less storage room they take up, as well as being able to use them in a stamping platform, like the Misti. 

This is my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge, and I love the center oval design. Because this stamp included a sentiment, I used some Halloween embellishments from my stash in the place of the two sentiment banners in Jen's sketch.

I've used another older SU Halloween stamp set for the inside greeting and images.

My photos this morning turned out much better than yesterday's, and I did use the Shot Box again. I lowered the light intensity today. Besides brighter, no blue tones either. Maybe this is the secret! I need  to try and find some additional instructions or suggestions on the web, but I'm feeling much better about my purchase.

Have a great day and weekend, and thanks for looking in!

Colleen

Supplies

Halloween Happiness stamp and Halloween Smiles set both by Stampin' Up, SU Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black and Basic White card stocks, Halloween patterned paper from my misc stash, SU Markers in various colors, Gina K Designs Black Onyx ink cube, GKD Master Layouts 2 and Stitched Oval dies, Altenew Featured Sentiments die set, Misti, Gemini Jr, stash Halloween embellishments, Connect liquid glue

BOO!

 Hi and happy Sunday,

Since I need to review some spreadsheets so I can present data for a meeting tomorrow, I did some stamping early in the day today. I got two cards made as I went pretty simple letting dies and embossing folders do most of the work.

For this post I have my card for LeAnne's CAS Paper Players Challenge. She has a fun pets theme this week. CAS means limited layers, embellishments, and plenty of "white" space. My card pushes the boundaries some, but I'm going with it. 

I need a few more Halloween/Fall themed cards and I remembered this cute Avery Elle Halloween cat set. I've used this week's layout from CAS(E) this Sketch!.

I started with a panel of Basic Black card stock and dry embossed a spider web then sponged some white craft ink over the raised areas using a sponge dauber. I trimmed the panel down using a die for A2 card layering and glued it to an Oyster Gray card base. The sentiment panel is made with another piece of the same Oyster Gray card stock and topped with a Halloween border cut from Holographic card stock. The cat images are stamped, colored with Copics, and cut with the set dies.

Here is the inside using more images from the same Avery Elle stamp set.

I hope all is well in your world. Thanks for looking,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Bad Kitty set by Avery Elle

Paper: SU Basic Black, Whisper White card stock and SSS Oyster Gray and Holographic card stocks

Ink: Gina K Black Onyx ink, Copics, Hero Unicorn 

Other: Avery Elle set dies, SU Spider Web EF, Taylored Expressions Dripping border die, Gina K Master Layouts 1 & 2, sponge dauber, Gemini Jr, Dimensionals

Treats Of Course!

 Happy Labor Day all,

It's a scorcher in California and the western US this weekend. I spent most of the day at my craft table under the ceiling fan. We don't have air-conditioning in our house. We've not really needed it being so close to the ocean, but the last couple of years have had way more hot days. Since it going to be more of the same today, I'll be doing more of the same, LOL.

Here is one of the cards that I made. I've used the current Freshly Made Sketch for the layout.

The stamp set is an older Lawn Fawn Halloween set of kids in costume. The patterned papers are from my Halloween stash bag. I have a bunch of scrap pieces in a bag and these were big enough to use for the sketch. I used a cover plate from Waffleflower to add texture to the background.

Here is the inside of the card. All images on the front and the inside are from the same LF set. The images are colored with Copics.

Thanks for checking in. Stay Cool!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Costume Party set by Lawn Fawn

Paper: SU Very Vanilla and Basic Black card stock, Tricks & Treats Patterned Paper pack by Pebbles

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Gina K Tomato Soup, Copics

Other: LF Costume Party dies, Waffleflower Circles Cover Plate die, Gina K Master Layout 1 dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

Scream and Sugar

 Happy, happy Friday Peeps,

I'm getting into making some fall and Halloween cards lately. Maybe because it's been SO HOT recently, working on fall projects help it seem cooler? Not really, LOL. 

The ladies at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog have a fun and simple sketch this week. I pulled out a retired SU set,  DSP and an embossing folder to make my card.

For the inside, I've used some old wood mounted Hero Arts stamps.

Hope you're having a nice day. Here's to the weekend!

Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Merry Cafe set by Stampin' Up, Hero Arts cat and sentiments - wood mounted

Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango card stocks, SU Apple Cider DSP

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Chocolate Chip

Other: SU Tasteful Label dies, Gina K Master Layout 2 dies, SU Spiderweb EF, Misti, Gemini Jr, 

large sequin bat and spider embellishments, Dimensionals

You're the Pumpkin Spice in My Latte

Happy Thursday evening to all,

Yay, one more work day then it's the weekend! I'm always happy for the weekends, LOL.

I have two cards to share. Using Jaydee's Tic-Tac-Toe grid for this week's Paper Players Challenge, and a couple of weekly sketch challenges, I made these. They both use Lawn Fawn stamp sets.

For this first card I used the Freshly Made Sketch 404, which is actually the previous week's sketch. For the tic-tac-toe, this uses the diagonal options.

 This is a shaker card. I haven't made one of these in quite awhile. Here is the inside of this card.

For card number two, the sketch is the current Sunday Stamps sketch. It uses the right side down on the tic-tac-toe grid.

And the inside of card two.

That's it for today. Have a great Friday!
Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Pumpkin Spice, Love You a Latte, Sweater Weather, Costume Party sets all from Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Whisper White card stock, Doodlebug patterned paper, SU Painted Autumn DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, VersaMark, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn set dies, Die-namics oval die, Plastic, mounting tape, heat tool, black EP, Gemini Jr, Misti, dimensionals, enamel hearts, white Nuvo crystal drops, sequins