Celebrate Fall

A fall celebratory gift bag done using the sketch at ISpy Sketch challenge.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Leaf(Taylored Expressions).
Paper:  DP (My Mind's Eye); turquoise cardstock.
Ink:  Timber Brown (Staz On)
Extras:  Ribbon; Blossom die; leaf die (Taylored Expressions); brown button; blue decorative button.

Seize The Cupcake

So what do you think it is?  Is it a cupcake?  Is it a pumpkin?  ---- It's a pumpkin cupcake!  I decided to make a pumpkin cupcake for a special October birthday card.  I cut three scallop circles out of patterned paper and fit them together as a pumpkin.  Cut a rectangle for the stem and adhered the flame from a candle die cut.  Cut out a cupcake liner from teal cardstock and crimped it for a more authentic cupcake liner look.  Then, I edged the pumpkin cupcake with teal stickles to make it stand out more.  I added the swirls for a little more pizzpazz against the background.

This is my first entry over at Skipping Stones Designs.

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge #150

SPIES:
Stamps: Sentiment (Taylored Expressions).
Paper:  White cardstock.  Teal cardstock.  DP -Basic Grey.
Ink:  Teal (Memento).  Teal Stickles.
Extras:  Swirl die cut (My Favorite Things); candle die cut (Sizzix); scallop circle die cut (Spellbinders); paper crimper- for cupcake liner; scallop border die (Taylored Expressions); brown ribbon.

Now, I'm off on a whirlwind 5oth birthday trip with my high school BFF, who happens to share my birthday-Oct. 23rd (only she's a year younger than me!)!  Yes, I'm the one who will be 50 this year!  :)  We are spending 3 active packed days in NYC, starting tomorrow!  We will be seeing Wicked on our birthday!

Excited to have some "wicked" girl's time!

Stylin' Skull

 

 A quick and simple card today featuring a very stylish skull!  I've been wanting to use my new trendy tape some more so tried it with the sketch from Repeat Impressions #0312.  For more texture and contrast, I embossed the card background also.  The purple frame was part of my homemade background using purple paint dabber and cut with a scallop circle die from Spellbinders.

The stamps I used were the skeleton from Inkadinkadoo and the top hat.  I stamped them both in Versamark and then embossed, using white powder for the skeleton and black for the hat.

Witch Moon?

Another card for ColourQ #158.  I told you I love these colors!  ;-)  I had intended on submitting it to Mojo Monday sketch last week but it just didn't come together for their deadline.  I still used the sketch, though and I like how it all finally came together.  Here is the Mojo Monday sketch:

The purple DP is, yeah, you guessed it --- more of the same homemade paper I've been using.  I think I've pretty much used it up.  I do have a couple dies I cut out so you might see ONE more card with it!  LOL!

I've also been trying to at least go through all of my Halloween stamps this year.  I bought two sets  new last year and didn't get to use them much other for making potion bottles for a home decor display.

For this card I used stamps from both sets and a small set from We R Memory Keepers.  The sentiment I used from the Stampers Anonymous set and spritzed it with Lemon Zest Dylusions and Sun Sisters Glimmer mist.

The moon was a circle die sprayed with a homemade pale grey glimmer mist and then outlined dotted with crystal Stickles.  I used another Shapeabilities die (under the sentiment) with lavender organza ribbon and a Prima dyable flower dyed with Sun Siders Glimmer Mist, Lemon Zest Dylusions and Pearl Glimmer Mist. 

SPIES:

STAMPS:  Witch, bat(We R Memory Keepers); 31(Pink Paislee); Side border (Pink Paislee); Sentiment (Stampers Anonymous).

PAPER:  White cardstock; watercolor paper; DP Oct 31(Fancy Pants Design).

INK:  Jet Black (Staz On); Pale grey glimmer mist(homemade;  Sun Sisters and Pearl glimmer mist (Tattered Angels); Lemon Zest Dylusions(Ranger Ink); Purple Paint Dabber(Ranger Ink).

EXTRAS:  scallop circle die (Spellbinders); Renaissance Heart Shapeabilities (Spellbinders); rick rack border punch (EK Success); Prima dyable flower; lavender organza ribbon, black velvet ribbon.

It is such a nice feeling once a card evolves, veers onto a certain path and then ultimately falls together in a unique and fun way!

Happy 16 Days Before Halloween!

Chapeau de Witch

Happy Middle of October!  Time's a flyin'!  I have a really fun Halloween card today.  My inspiration to paper piece a witch hat came from the current ColourQ Challenge picture (see below).   This color combo has to be one of my all time favorites.  Of course, I may be biased since I have an October birthday but I love all the colors of Halloween too! 

I fashioned the hat from a banner (triangle) die cut and scallop oval die cut.  I ran the triangle through a damask emboss folder then wrapped the base of it in black tulle.  The "buckle" is a Spellbinder's Shapeabilities pendant with a lavender button and Halloween brad affixed in the middle.  The paper for the buckle was leftover homemade background paper I made with watercolor paper and Dylusions ink spray.   I just love those new ink sprays!

I used the sketch layout from Freshly Made's sketch challenge and flipped it a bit, setting the border of hexagon dies cut from patterned paper on one side with a lavender ribbon and the sentiment.  All of this was adhered to a background of wavy embossed white cardstock with an orange cardstock border.

SPIES:
STAMPS:  Sentiment (Pink Paislee).
PAPER:  Black and white cardstock; DP- Hello Summer (Echo Park), Oct 31 (Fancy Pants Design).  Homemade background paper from watercolor paper.
INK:  Elderberry (Memento); Lemon Zest & Postbox Red (Dylusions Ink Spray).
EXTRAS:  Black tulle(Jo Ann Fabrics); damask & swirl emboss folders(Cuttlebug); Banner framelits (Sizzix); scallop oval die (Spellbinders); hexagon die (Spellbinders); Contemporary Heart shapeablilities (Spellbinders); lavender ribbon; lavender button; Halloween brad.


Happy Monday!

A Walk For PKD

Yesterday, the Hubs and I walked for PKD (polycystic kidney disease) foundation in the Raleigh Chapter walk.  It was a gorgeous fall day, perfect for a walk around one of the local parks.  The chapter raised around $7,000.00.   We were very happy to take part in this walk as it has a very personal connection to our family.

I was diagnosed 16 years ago with PKD and fortunately have never had and probably never will have any major issues or complications (dialysis and/or kidney transplant) with it.  However most people afflicted with PKD do at some point have to undergo dialysis and kidney transplant.   There are two kinds of PKD, a recessive form that shows up at birth/childhood and a dominant form that does not show up until sometime in adulthood and is usually hereditary.  If a parent has PKD, a child is 50% likely to acquire the disease in adulthood themselves.  Unfortunately at this time there is no cure for PKD.  This is one disease that makes organ donation greatly needed.

I have the adult form, which means my two young adult sons have a 50% chance of acquiring the disease sometime in the next 20 years.   They will have to undergo ultrasounds and/or MRI throughout their adult lives to hopefully catch the disease before it begins to cause problems.  And, hopefully, if they do get PKD, they will be as lucky as I, their mother, has been and will not have any complications requiring treatment.   I pray everyday they will be spared not only acquiring the disease but also spared passing on the gene to their children.
                                                             
Ways to be involved is to learn about the disease, give generously to the PKD Foundation to fund more research and a cure, and maybe most importantly, become an organ donor. 

If you would like more information on this disease or the foundation you can visit the PKD site here.

Sunday blessings!

Retro Mummies

I tried something different today.  Not sure what to call them other than maybe hanging paper plaques.  They pretty much evolved as I went along.  So I'm calling them Retro Mummy Plaques.                                                        I started with paint chips from Lowes that I have accumulated to reuse somehow in my crafts.  I  took your old standard first aid gauze (left over from my recent surgery, unused of course!), wrapped it around the paint chip                       

securing it on the back with craft tape.  Then, I wrapped that cool Halloween trendy tape on top of the gauze here and there to add a splash of color.  What mummy doesn't want to keep up with today's fashion?  LOL!                                                                             Next, I adhered plain cardboard (reused from inside an old frame) to the back of the paint chip a little more support and stiffness.  The background is craft paper with painted watercolor paper on top of it.  I sprayed Dylusions paint on watercolor paper to get the orange/yellow background paper that I put behind the mummies and also used for the dangling sentiments too.   I finished off all the paper with rippled decorative scissors. 

At first I was just going to attach a ribbon to the top for hanging and then remember these mini hangers I had.  So, I attached the ribbons to the hangers and then inside the cards at the top and again at the base to hold the sentiment portion;, and made ribbon bows with buttons for the hanger tops .  Those cute little 3D spiders are from my sticker stash.  And of course the mummies needed eyes peering out of their gauzy faces so I used some of my Halloween googly eyes.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiments (G Studio).
Paper:  Watercolor paper; Paint chips; Kraft paper; cardboard.
Ink:  Jet Black(Staz On).  Lemon Zest and Postbox Red Dylusions (Ranger Ink).
Extras:  Gauze; Trendy Tape; Rectangle spellbinder; ripple scissors; black polka dot ribbon; Halloween googly eyes; green button; orange button; mini hangers; spider stickers.

CHALLENGES:

1.  The Kraft Journal - Challenge #91 Reuse-Recycle
 

              The Kraft Journal - #91

2.  Daring Cardmakers - Incy Wincy Spiders

Woo Hoo

I'm just stamping away these days.  I almost believe I have more creative mojo than I can handle at the moment.  So many ideas and they just keep coming faster than I can get them out!  Not a BAD problem to have!LOL

I love the final outcome of this card.  It's not how it started out, however.  The whole inspiration for the card came from that cute owl ribbon.  I haven't used it much for paper crafts, only to make fall baskets.  The top layer I embossed with a tree branch emboss folder.  The cute little owl on the branch is a stamp I colored with Copics and cut out.  Both papers are from Basic Grey's Pyrus Paper pad.  Such cute colors and patterns!

I finished the card off with the sentiment, some lace behind the owl ribbon and turquoise dots for more punch.  I used the sketch from the Sketchbook Saturday Challenge and also entered it in the Basic Grey Ribbons & Lace challenge.

SPIES:
Stamps: Owl-Autumn Silhouettes (Kanban); Sentiment (G studios).
Paper:  DP-Pyrus Paper Pad(Basic Grey); white cardstock for card base.
Ink:   Jet Black (Staz On); Teal (Craft Smart); Egg shell, Sanguine, Teal Blue & Ice Ocean (Copics).
Extras:  Owl ribbon; lace ribbon; teal dots; leaf branch emboss folder (Cuttelbug).


CHALLENGES:
Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #80
Basic Grey - Ribbon & Lace Challenge

WOO HOO!

Witchie Purple

Love, love, love this color combo.  I came up with so many ideas of how to incorporate them but just not enough time.  I am going to make those ideas a reality, just not in time for the challenge over at The Play Date Cafe.

I even did a little painting on this card.  I used a paint dabber (purple twilight), dropped droplets here and there onto watercolor paper then spritzed with water.  I let some of the paint run down for a more runny effect then splotched it in places with a kleenex before drying it all.  I love how it turned out and I have plenty more of it to use on other projects!  It's hard to tell in the photo, but I trimmed around the "spooky" sentiment to make make a little head over the eyes and applied quotation marks for eyebrows.

I almost forgot about the black mesh on top of the purple border.  It was a mesh bag containing something I bought and I saved to re-use/recycle. Of course it was sitting in a basket for months until it hit me like a ton of bricks today that it would be perfect for Halloween crafts!

SPIES:
Stamps: Frames, silhouette (Recollections); Witch, Skeleton(Stamper's Anonymous); Sentiments (Pink Paislee).
Paper:White cardstock. Watercolor paper.
Ink: Jet Black (Staz On); Purple Twilight Paint Dabber (Ranger Ink).
Extras: Black plastic net; quotations punch; Royalty emboss folder (Couture Creations); googly eyes.

Scrabble Love

 

So I was busy this weekend crafting for World Card Making Day and cooking dinner for my youngest son, who graced us with his presence for one night to he could get a haircut and do laundry before rushing back to Chapel Hill this afternoon to study for mid terms.

In all that excitment, I almost forgot to post this for the Tuesday Trigger challenge at Moxie Fab World.  I have more to post but will be doing later as the other challenges don't expire tonight!

I loved working on this card.  I have had the scrabble paper for a long time --- 10 years in fact!  As I was digging through letters, I remembered it was in my drawer and then I remembered I had those wooden scrabble letters as well.  The designer paper pack, Hello Summer, from Echo Park goes perfect with the scrabble paper.  I did struggle a bit with the scrabble letters at first.  I had spelled out "forever" and it was just too long so I just took a letter and covered it up with the red heart button and placed a number four sticker on top.

I thought the pinwheel added a good playful touch in the top corner and also carried over the polka dot paper.  I didn't like a traditional bow behind the pinwheel so I just did a layered ribbon look.  Voila!

Soup To Nuts - Tues Trigger

Moxie Fab World

SPIES:
Stamps:  None
Paper:  DP:  Scrabble (EK Success); Hello Summer (Echo Park). Kraft cardstock.
Ink: None
Extras:  Scrabble letter tiles; Fancy Square Framelit (Sizzix); Pinwheel die (Tim Holtz); Scallop border(Fiskars); blue buttons; red heart button; #4 sticker; light blue ribbon; twine; blue elastic twine.

Thankful Tag

For World Card Making Day I've been playing around trying new items and new techniques.  So, pretty appropriate that my first post for the day is of a tag, not a card.  LOL

I bought some of the Dylusions ink spray by Ranger and just had to try them out.  Here I used Lemon Zest and Postbox Red along with some Walnut antiquing solution for the tag background.  The images I stamped in Staz On Jet Black and then sprayed the whole tag with Pearl Glimmer Mist.

The pumpkins are a stamp I stamped on DP with the same Staz On ink.  I then sprayed some of the Dylusions onto each pumpkin as well for the various color tones.  Finally, I applied Glossy Accents to each pumpkin to give them more shine so they would stand out more against the background.  I cut out each pumpkin before adhering for more texture and definition.  My finishing touches were stamping the sentiment and inking around it, inking around the entire tag and adding a ribbon.

My inspiration for the tag was the challenge over at Cupcake Inspirations:

SPIES:
Stamps: Pumpkin & leaf vines(Inkadinkadoo I think) ; Stalks(Inkadinkadoo);
Paper:  Tag; DP -Black Widow (We R Memory Keepers);
Ink:  Staz On Jet Black; Lemon Zest & Postbox Red (Dylusions); Vintage Photo distress ink(Ranger); Walnut antiquing solution (Tsukineko); Pearl Glimmer Mist(Tattered Angels).
Extras:  Glossy Accents(Ranger); cream satin ribbon.

Autumn Air

Wow!  Already it is October!  Autumn IS in the air, you can smell it!  I tried my hand at another gift bag using the tree stamp again I used on a previous card.   The leaves have yet to change here in the Triangle of North Carolina, but this bag has made me want to break out my sweaters.

As I mentioned I used the tree stamp from Autumn Silhouettes and used Staz On Timber Brown ink.  I cut it out and then used chocolate brown, ruby red and gold dimensional pearls for an even more 3-d effect.   I placed it on the doily die cut I cut using My Favorite Things doily die cut through my Big Shot.  The background was made from brown cardstock embossed  with Spellbinders M-Bossibilities Imperial folder.  I adhered a rectangle of DP from Crate Paper Farmhouse collection, which I stitched a border around beforehand.  I also added a scallop border on one side of the DP, using Taylored Expressions large scallop border die cut. 

The banner was made from Sizzix triangle framelits, cut and then sewn to add some texture.  Then, I cut out stamped leaves I colored with red, yellow and green inks and dimensional pearls. The banners were glued onto kraft rope.

I inked the sentiment stamp with three different colors at once and placed on a border matching the cardstock used for the scallop border and placed a couple of stamped and cut out leaves alongside it for the finishing touch.

Challenge #143 Use Big Shot/Die Cuts

Challenge #168 Banners

SPIES:
Stamps:  Tree (Kanban); Leaves (The Paper Co.); Sentiment
Paper:  White bag; Brown, blossom cardstock; DP-Farmhouse (Crate Paper).
Ink:  Staz On Timber Brown; Scarlet, Sunbeam, Pistachio ink.  Dimensional pearls.
Extras:  Triangle Framelits (Sizzix); Doily Die Cut (My Favorite Things); Scallop border die cut (Taylored Expressions); brown thread; kraft rope.