Boo To You

Tired of putting out all the same old Halloween decorations, I decided to make new ones. Check out my inspiration found here at You Craft Me Up!

This was a super easy project. My husband cut the blocks for me from 2 x 4's. I painted them black, then used a Dremel tool to sand and rough up the edges. On white card stock I stamped the background with a Stampendous block stamp in black ink, then traced and filled in the letters from a dollar store chipboard alphabet set.

Using AMM Chocolate Paper Stain, I aged and antiqued the whole square making sure to darken the corners and edges.

Using home made Decoupage glue (3 parts white glue, to 1 part water), I fixed the finished card stock squares onto the blocks.

I also made a Halloween vignette in my ultra tiny front foyer, which isn't even large enough for a small side table. I am smushed up against the front door in order to take this photo.

I have often seen mini shelf wedges while out shopping and have thought of picking some up, but never got around to it. When I was inspired by You Craft Me Up!'s - "Wall Reveal", I of course was not able to find any shelf wedges any where - even Walmart because they are re-doing their home decor department. Finally at the last store I found a $ 5.00 wedge shelf in the Clearance bin, just the price I was looking for, especially since the non-clearance wedge shelves were going for $39.99 a piece.

The skulls in the martini glass are from the Dollar Store as well as the glass candle (pumpkin) holder, the spider webbing, ceramic pot, Spanish moss and the florist foam inside the pot. The branch is from my back yard. I haven't decided what to hang from it yet.

The grave stone was on Clearance at the same store I purchase the wedge shelf. The crow which I cut in half was purchased at Liquidation World for $ 3.00. Crow Frame tutorial found here at Dollar Store Crafts. I used the 'vintage newspaper' printed paper bag from my local Shabby Chic decor store as the background for my Creepy Crow Frame. I crinkled the paper then went over it with AMM paper stain. My crow unfortunately was hollow inside so I had a rough time gluing him in place. Believe it or not, white glue did the trick, I couldn't find my glue gun.

The Canicula Embalming Fluid bottle is real. My father in law gave us this bottle he found at an antique bottle show many years ago. I never thought of displaying it as Halloween Art until now.

Now I am itching to get my hands on a scroll saw to make some cut out lettering, but the blocks will do for now. As well as a Cricut, which has been on my MUST HAVE LIST for ages, I specifically stopped and showed one to my hubby when we were in Walmart recently, hoping he gets the HUGE *hint*!!!

Kraft Homage

This is my homage to Jennifer Bucks - The Buck Stamps Here "Late" design for the No Time to Stamp challenge "Thread it Through"

I have Kraft paper and the SU - Simply Silhouette stamp set, but instead of merely casing, I was inspired to create this card:

I have wanted to use this butterfly since my hubby bought me this set Inkadinkado- Garden Delight last year, but never knew how to use it since it was so large.

I had planned on stamping it in Memento Rich Cocoa then adding the image to a card with an orange and cocoa theme. However when I stamped the image out in just the Memento Rich Cocoa it reminded me of Jennifer's card and before I knew it, I had a monochromatic homage to Jennifer Buck's "Late".

I didn't have any coordinating DS to match so I created my own using the Stampendous - Tiled Quad Cube, also a gift from my hubby - ain't he grand!

Details:

Stamps: Inkadinkado - Garden Delight, Stampendous - Tiled Quad Cube, SU - Pocket Silhouettes

Ink: Memento - Rich Cocoa, SU - Whisper White pigment

Paper: SU - Close to Cocoa & Whisper White

Embellishments: Silver Brad, Mat Pack

Stamp Simply

Oi! I need to re-think Christmas cards for next year. I love the template card I made, but it is just has too many layers and too much painting detail to mass produce. Next year I will think more simply.

This is what I have been up to:


I still have to cut and scallop all the burgundy mats and mount to the card fronts as well as mount the card front to the folded card, heat set the liquid applique on ALL the cards and apply ribbon. Did I say "Oi!" already? Wish me luck!

Stampendous Christmas

It's been a while, I was in a bit of a funk and didn't do any cards. I'm back and I have a dozen ideas, here's hoping I actually get them down on paper.

I tried to be good this year and not buy any new Christmas stamps and just use what I already have. I fell in love with the Santa Trio stamp by Stampendous last year, when I saw it featured on Stampers Dream, with full intentions of using it on my Christmas cards. Of course I didn't, but I have this year.

I sort of had some of my layout already planned, but was struggling with some of the details. I knew before purchasing my DP that I wanted the colour combination to be a bit different from the traditional green and red. The DP changed a few times going from brown, blue & green to red, blue and green. Blue and green were the key ingredients.

Thanks to Kerry J. for the use of her cuddle bug folder and for brain storming with me over the layout. As well, if Kerry J. is ever so gracious as to share her LOW FAT lemon square recipe with all of us, YOU MUST try them, they are FAB!

I am so happy with the results, I love the the colour combination, although IRL the red is more burgandy and the white cardstock is shimmery white by SU, which you can't see in the photo.

Details:
DP: Karen Foster - Christams Stripes, SU cardstock - Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue & Shimmery White, Michaels cardstock - burgandy
Stamps: Stampendous - Santa Trio, EK Success - Sentiment roll
Embellishments: Tombow - markers, Cuddle Bug Folder - Christmas Ornaments, SU - Scallop punch, ribbon from my mother-in-law, Stickles

I have am going to try Marvy Liquid Applique on the Santa Hat and Boots, but it takes 24 hours to dry then needs to be heat set, not so sure that I am going to want to do that on 30 odd cards so Stickles on all of them may be the out come. It's a lot of colouring in for this card, I thinks thats why I didn't end up using it last year. I still love it though.

Two for One

I had to whip up two cards very quickly for friends in the US, since my daughter is leaving tomorrow to go down to visit.

The graduation card I wish I had embossed, but sadly, I was feeling to lazy to redo it.

Piggy birthday is by Pink Cat, I love this set I think I will end up using it a lot.

Turquiose Sweet Sixteen

An age specific birthday card caught my eye the other day. I though it was for a sweet sixteen and was turquoise and black. I searched for it again today, and found this beautiful card instead. I did find the original card I had intended to case, but it was purple not turquoise, so I guess this case was just meant to be.


I didn't have a "sweet" stamp that was large enough so I printed from my Mac. I think I would rather have used black organza ribbon, but I didn't have any.

Thanks a Bunch

CASE Alert!

I ordered some stamps just before the Holidays in preparation for the many thank you cards I will have to send out. I hadn't yet planned the layout however.
Low and behold my Stampin Up supplier sent me an adorable Christmas card and I fell in love with her layout. Due to Copy Right laws, I am not sure about posting her card, but here's her site: Stamp with Jenn

I used Changito Banana by Stampendous and Thanks a Bunch by Earth Sonnets Rubber Stamps. I basically just did a search for a Thanks a Bunch stamp until I found one that I liked the lettering style of. The Yellow Minds Eye paper is speckled using SU - Itty Bitty Backgrounds.

Here's my mock up of Jenn's layout.

Kerry's Changito

Kerry J. so graciously sent me a stamping care package that had a bunch of one off's of some of her stamps. The next few post's are some of the cards that I have made thus far from her kind gift.

I saw a template for this design several weeks back on Split Coast Stampers, but didn't take note of the users name so can't give them credit. It is somewhat of a gate design / tent topper.