My Little Pumpkin

My card today is for this week's Tic Tac Toe Challenge. Claire gave us a great board for fall and Thanksgiving. This card is for my youngest daughter.

I chose the bottom row across - die cuts, orange, enamel dots.

I haven't colored in awhile and really missed it.  And wouldn't you know that as I start to color again, two lights went out over my art desk! The bulbs aren't burned out so it's a call to the electrician this week. I can still get in my coloring it just needs to be early in the day when the natural light is good.

For this card I used an underlay of Copic markers and then went over it with Prismacolor pencils. I masked off the word pumpkin from the sentiment and made it larger using alphabet dies.  I didn't want to try and align everything perfectly so I went for a casual look of slightly wonky letters. And if you look closely you will see I got in one enamel dot!

Products used:

• Stamps: Stamping Bella Set of Pumpkins
• Dies: MFT Birdie Brown Alphabet and Numbers
  

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Sketch Challenge

My card today is for the sketch challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. The sketch this week really had me stumped. Then I remembered some old Halloween washi tape and it was quite simple from there.

The black corner was cut from cardstock and then I layered the washi tape. I did have to cut the striped tape in half lengthwise as the stripes were getting to take up too much of the card.

A simple "boo" finished it off!  I hope you will join us this week!

Products used:

• Simon Says Stamp "Boo" die
• Washi tape of unknown origin

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Elegant Pumpkin Card

This card is for the color challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week.  Diane gave us great fall colors - Cajun Craze, Mango Melody, Mossy Meadow with Gold for dessert.

This pumpkin from the Stamps of Life is one of my favorites of their fold-it cards.  I made these cards a few years ago for Thanksgiving. Several months later my brother-in-law commented that he still had it sitting on his fireplace mantle, he thought it was that pretty.

This time I changed it up by making it an easel card. It was very easy to do. After cutting the base of the fold-it, I scored the top at about the half way point and glued the pumpkin to the top below the score line only. This allows the top of the card to bend.

The pumpkin can be solid or with the cut work. I like to do every other section cut work and back the pumpkin in metallic.

Here I sponged the edges of each section with the Cajun Craze to give them some depth. I used some oak leaves die cut from Mango Melody and sponged them with both the Cajun Craze and Mossy Meadow.

Products used:

• The Stamps of Life Fancy Pumpkin Shaped Fold-It; Leaf Stamps and Dies

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Haunted House Easel Card

I've been using my Anna Griffin dies and card supplies a lot more lately. She has some wonderful easel cards - actually some of the best shaped easel cards out there (in my opinion). I bought this last year and of course didn't make anything with it until now.

The thing that takes me FOEVER is picking the paper. After pondering colors for the window frames and shutters I decided to do the quick thing - cut them out of my choices, lay them out and then decide! This may waste a bit of cardstock (as if I don't have enough) but it really does go faster. I can always save the pieces I don't use for next time although in this instance, the parts are so small I did not. 

I have this sitting out a decoration and a few of my friends saw it. I now have a few more to make.  I guess I should have saved those small parts after all!

Products used:

• Anna Griffin Haunted House Easel card die and Halloween stickers and sentiments
• Stampin' Up! Magic in the Night paper, Core'dinations Gray, various solids
  

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Two Challenge Tuesday

I have two cards today for the color challenges at Splitcoaststampers and also at CAS Colours & Sketches.

My first card is in keeping with my Halloween goal this month.  It was a little bit of a stretch with Karen's colors of Old Olive, Orchid Oasis and Crushed Curry but I think Ipulled it off with Frankie.  Her dessert is to use ribbon in a creative way, so his hair is actually two strips of ribbon!

 

There was just no way I could figure out Halloween with the colors at CAS Colors & Sketches, although if I had more time I probably could have thought of something.  But I needed a thank you card so I pulled out an old favorite die - Floral Squares.  It makes such beautiful CAS cards!

I hope you've enjoyed my cards and will join us in one or both of the challenges!

Products used:

• Card one: Queen & Co. Frankie and Friends and Border dies
• Card two: SU Floral Squares dies and Go To Greetings stamps, linen thread, gems
  

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Another Road Trip - Easel Card

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday so I have a birthday, not Halloween card for you tonight!  I used the new Woodie Wagon die from Anna Griffin to make this card. This die is so perfect for those of us of a certain age who remember riding around in station wagons with wood on the side. My husband just finished converting our SUV from a normal 4 wheel drive to one with a special off-road suspension and heavy duty tires. He did all the work himself and it took a few weeks but now he'll be able to take it wherever he wants to go. He's planning on camping and visiting National Parks in his retirement.

This die was fun to use and a bit intricate.  You don't have to paper piece or make the car two tone, but it sure looks good when you do.  I used Anna Griffin stickers for the pine boughs and cones but needed to use other ephemera for the travel themed pieces.  I had some fun Washi tape that looked like a road so I added it. 

 

I'm not sure it shows up well in the photos but I used silver for the chrome bumpers and hubcaps along with white on the tires and headlight.  Anyone remember white wall tires?! These aren't exactly white walls but are very reminiscent of them

I hope you've enjoyed the fun trip down memory lane.  Anna has some great easel dies (among others) and makes it look so easy.  But when you start to choose what ephemera to add and how much and where...well it's harder than it looks. There is definitely a learning curve, even with the colors to choose.  It makes a big difference but with patience the results are well worth it!  You get some very impressive cards.

I'll be posting more using Anna Griffin products in the months ahead.  I really enjoy using them as a different kind of crafting and cardmaking method.

I am entering this in the Sisterhood of Crafters Masculine Card Challenge.  (One we all should participate in because I know it's the one type of card most of us need and yet make the least!)

Products used:

• Dies: Anna Griffin Woodie Wagon
• Ephemera: Anna Griffin Woodland Holiday Stickers and Birthday Sticker from Create 7, Carta Bella Road Trip
  
• Paper: AG Handsome, SU Night of Navy, Very Vanilla, Silver Foil, Red, White, Wood (retired)
• Accessories: Road Washi tape

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Frightfully Good Halloween Shaker

Happy Thursday! My card today is for the Tci Tac Toe Challenge.  Silke gave us a great board and I chose the top row across - shaker, slim card, fold card.

 

This is not my usual Halloween card.  I usually go for the cute or pretty Halloween, not the scary or creepy.  This skull is part of a shaker card kit from Queen & Co, and quite honestly I never expected to use it.  Just not my style.  But then I saw this Halloween paper in my stash and thought "why not"?  The skulls on the paper aren't creepy and I thought it would make this skull less so.

I made it a mini slimline and a fun fold to fir the challenge.  After constructing it, I'm not sure why I didn't put the flap on the left but it works either way. Oh well, next time.

I've seen this same shaker as a sugar skull for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and I would love to try making one like that as well!

Products used:

• Shaker Kit: Queen & Co. Spooktacular
• Dies: Quuen & Co. Basic and Halloween Sentiment Stacker
• Paper: Stampin' Up! Cute Halloween
• Markers: Copic R20

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Candy Corn is A Vegetable

I love this sentiment even though I really don't like candy corn!  (In fact I like corn better than candy corn.)  I thought the sentiment went quite well with this fun stencil from Simon Says Stamp.

 

It's a four step layering stencil; since one of the layers - the top of the candy corn - should technically be white I wasn't quite sure how to handle that at first.  After trying to give it shading by using a light grey, I decided making it a much lighter shade of the yellow worked best.

This is a super easy card to make as the sentiment is from a pack of pre-printed sentiments also from Simon Says Stamp.  To finish it I added a few enamel dots in matching colors.

I am also entering this in the Stencil Fun challenge.

Products used:

• Stencil: Simon Says Stamp Halloween Candy
• Inks: Distress Ink - Lucky Clover, Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin
• Sentiment Strips: Simon Says Stamp

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Lawn Fawn Bats and More Bats

I'm the hostess at Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge this week.  I chose Highland Heather, Bermuda Bay and Parakeet Party with embellishments as dessert.  

I'm keeping with my Halloween theme and although these colors don't necessarily scream Halloween, I think they do quite nicely.  I played around with making the sky cloudy but ultimately chose to go with a straight blended sky in Bermuda Bay.  The moon is a very cool stencil from Spellbinders that can give a pretty realistic looking moon depending on the colors used.  Here I used Parakeet Party.

The bats  are colored in Copic markers to color match the Highland Heather and the sentiment is from a pre-printed sentiment package from Simon Says Stamp.

I'm trying to use my stash and I have a TON of enamel shapes so you can expect to see them on most cards in the near future!

I hope you've enjoyed my card and will join us in the challenge this week!  I am also entering this is the "Make the Cards" challenge - theme Halloween and the October Stencil Fun challenge.

Products used:

• Stamps / Dies: Lawn Fawn Fangtastic Friends
• Stencil: Spellbinders Layered Moon
• Ink: Distress Oxide Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron
• Markers: Copics - V01, V12, V15, V17, E23, E25, E27, G99, G94
• Accessories: White gel pen, Gesso

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Frightful Friday 2022

It's October and I'm back with a Frightful Friday for Halloween!  You may think this card is a bit out of my usual style - and it is.

It uses products from Anna Griffin - a crafting company with very ornate, Victorian inspired images.  Anna has some fantastic easel card dies; most are large making 5 x 7 cards.  They make for very impressive cards - definitely good for milestone birthdays and events.

This is the pumpkin easel card.  I used some old Core'dinations card stock since I wanted a distressed look.  I'm not sure if Core'dinations is even made anymore but I have a bunch of it so I'm not worried about needing more!  

The hardest part of making Anna Griffin cards for me is choosing the embellishments.  There are so many beautiful ones and while Anna makes it look simple, it's not!

I hope you've enjoyed today's card.  Keep visiting this month for more Halloween inspiration!

Products used:

• Dies:  Anna Griffin Pumpkin Easel
• Embellishments: Anna Griffin Mini Halloween Sticker and Embellishments
• Paper / Cardstock: Core'dinations, retired Stampin' Up! Halloween paper
  

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Color Challenge Tuesday

Yesterday I said most of my cards this month would be Halloween or autumn themed.  Today's card I'll call autumn since the colors are somewhat fall.  Mical at CAS Colours & Sketches chose Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie (says "fall" right there!) and Shaded Spruce.

I attended Scrapbook & Cards Today's Crop & Create Cardmaking virtual event this weekend.  WOW!  What an explosion of cardmaking!  Needless to say I got a lot of nothing done - LOL.  I did make several of the cards but also did a lot of watching and learning while making my own cards at my own pace.

For today's card I used products from the event (for one, that tiny die cut envelope which is just adorable!)  Several of the presenters used various types of paste with stencils.  This is one of those techniques where I've had all the supplies forever but rarely if ever use them.  Fortunately my embossing paste hadn't dried out and I was able to create some texture in the background of this card.

Products used:

• Dies / Stamps: SCT Crop & Create Delivered set
• Die: (flower) Scrapbook.com Hello  Bloom
• Accessories: Tim Holtz Dot Fade Stencil, Studio 490 Wendi Vecchi Embossing Paste

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Great Shoes! Shaker Card

Happy October!  I'm kicking off the month with a fun Halloween shaker card for the color challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  Mary chose terrific colors for the holiday with Halloween as dessert - Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight and Gorgeous Grape.

Because of the sentiment and that great show image, I really wanted this card to have a textile feel so I picked out papers in what I call "menswear" patterns - stripes, checks and a woven look.  Since it was a little dark, I brightened it up a bit with glitter washi tape and buttons.

This shaker is part of a kit from Queen & Co.  you'll be seeing more shakers from them this month.  Since it's October and I love making Halloween cards, you'll see at least one per week.  Check back on Fridays for another month of "Frightful Friday" featuring Halloween.  I'm trying to keep this month to all fall and Halloween cards.

I'm also entering this is "Make the Cards Challenge #64" - use washi tape.

Products used:  all Queen & Co. except the buttons and punch for the sentiment

• Dies / Stamps: Spooktacular shaker kit
• Dies:  Foundations 8 and 10
• Paper: Hocus Pocus, Fright Fest

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