Halloween Wishes

Amy Rysavy has started another amazing Halloween card series at her blog, Prairie Paper and Ink.  She's one of my favorite stampers and I am crazy about every card she makes.  Yeah... she's my stamp crush .  Don't tell her I said that.

Anyhow, watching Amy's videos motivated me to break out my Halloween stamps and paper and make a card of my own.

There's a whole lot going on here, huh?  I may have been influenced by watching several episodes of Junk Gypsies all in one day.  I just kept adding things until it seemed like enough, and then I went back and added a bunch more!  

I started out with a print and cut postcard image from the Silhouette website.  At the time I printed it, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it - I just thought it was cool, and wanted to use it for something. It sat on my desk for a week and a half.  

I wanted to make a card with doilies on it.  I love the over-the-top, decorated-to-the-eyeteeth style of Becca's at Amazing Paper Grace.  Every one of her cards looks like it's ready to go to prom.  I wanted to emulate her style, which is not my usual style.  I wanted a card that was girly and glamorous, and ready to be voted Prom Queen.  

I sponged the edges of the postcard image, and distressed one corner.  Then I grabbed another Silhouette die cut for the doily.  All three of these are from the same pattern.  The polka dotted one is an inch bigger than the black and white ones.  Yep - the white one is the same size as the black one - I'll get to that.  I cut all three doilies, sponged the edges with Distress Ink, then sprayed them all with water and crumpled them up.  This changes the texture of the paper... makes it softer and gives it dimension. I love how these doilies come up off of the card.  I took the center piece from the white doily frame and did direct-to-paper inking with Distress Ink in Ripe Persimmon.  I wasn't thrilled with the lack of definition between the orange moon and the black doily, so I grabbed the white doily (that I had cut and then discarded, deciding it wouldn't work) and adhered it to the back side of the moon, while pleating it a bit.  Perfect!  

I cut three of the witch shapes from black cardstock.  Again, from the Silhouette store.  Using spray adhesive, I stuck them together to get a sturdier shape.  Using Tombow Mono Multi glue and Martha Stewart glitter, I glittered my witch.  I popped her up on foam tape, and then used a Sharpie marker to color the sides of the white foam tape so it wouldn't be easily visible.  A little bling, some Distress Stickles on the polka dotted doily, a little ribbon (Michael's) and a stamped spiderweb in the corner (Michael's $1 stamps) and I was done.

For the inside of the card, I used scraps left from the front of the card (Authentique - Enchanted) and another page from the same 6x6 paper pad.  I grabbed the cobweb stamp again and stamped it across the top.  I love how...spidery this web is!  There's no sentiment yet, as I haven't decided who I will send the card to.

I hope to get more Halloween stamping done, and to share it with you!

Enjoy,
Wendy

Happy Birthday Gnome Card

I know.... it's been forever since I posted anything.  It's not that I haven't been stamping; it's just that I have been relocating my studio from one room in our house to another and it's been totally crazy around here.  My camera went missing for quite a while, and now I can't find my stamp positioner.  I'm making progress, but I'm not completely settled in to my new space yet.

This card is one I made for my brother-in-law Mark's birthday.  I used the Forest Whimsy stamp set from Paper Smooches.  I won this set well over a year ago, and although I love it, I just never used it.  These images are so much fun to color - I love Kim Hughes' artwork!   For the I punched a mask using my Fiskars cloud punch and sponged the background with a Distress Ink pad... I'm thinking it was probably Tumbled Glass.  The grass is punched with my Fiskars grass punch in two different shades of green, and then layered onto the bottom of the card.

Everything else was stamped on white CS, colored with Copic markers and cut out.  I'm quite sure my shading technique stinks, but I don't waste a whole lot of time worrying about that.  I have a severe disability when it comes to deciding where light and shadow go, so I just wing it.  I popped up Mr. Gnome on some dimensionals to give the card some depth, and tucked one of the mushrooms behind the grass.

Enjoy!  

Wendy

Celebrating Dad

I hope that all of you had a great time celebrating the fathers in your life this weekend - I know we did!  There was lemon cake, homemade pizza and a movie involved, as well as presents.  DH was very pleased.

I wanted to share the two cards I made for my DH - one from me, and one from my DD who is a self-avowed non-crafter.  She loves my cards though, and frequently commissions me to make them for her friends.  She also loves to pin things to Pinterest that she wants me to make for her.

I love my Silhouette machine, and use it for most of the cards I make.  These were no exception.  This first one uses a file from the Silhouette store called Outer Space that includes the rocket, the planet, the stars and a moon that I used inside the card.  I did an offset of the rocket pieces and cut it out in white CS to mat the piece and make it stand out a bit from the dark background of the card.  I used a metallic silver CS for the window (port hole?) and a holographic sticker sheet adhered to white CS for some of the stars.  Do not try to cut this stuff on the mat by itself.  It doesn't work and you will only get annoyed.  

I glittered the planetary ring with Martha Stewart glitter.  The text was printed on the computer (font - Honey Script) and then trimmed into a banner shape and and matted.

The inside of the card is nothing spectacular, so I didn't take a picture of it.  I did use the moon from the Outer Space set as an accent, and added a white square to write on.

Here is the card I made for DD to give to her dad:

The sentiment on the inside reads "You're my hair-o!  Happy Father's Day!"

I knew, as soon as I saw this facial hair paper (The Guy Stack - DCWV) that it was perfect for this card, and the sentiment clicked immediately.  I used a Silhouette file (6 Moustache Set) for both of the 'stache embellishments.  It's the same one - Silhouette makes it SO easy to resize files for using in multiple ways.  The big 'stache is flocked.  I tried it first with adhesive spray - don't do that.  I ended up getting a much better result with tape runner.  I cut the woodgrain shape with my Stampin' Up! Top Note die.  the "Looking Good" and argyle square and blue background came from The Guy Stack paper pad.  I added some Basic Grey letters to spell "dad", and cut the sentiment end into a banner shape. 

For the inside, I cut the white shape from a Silhouette file and used my computer to print the sentiment.  I used a typewriter font - cannot for the life of me remember which one, but there are loads out there.  I edged all of the pieces inside and on the front with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  I love this for eliminating white edges of cut pieces, and for giving a cohesive look to everything.   

That's it for now - thanks for taking a peek, and I hope you'll come back soon!

Last Christmas Card?

I think this is the last one anyway, unless it turns out I have forgotten someone.  This is another one of the images I stamped and colored back in October.  See, it pays to think ahead!  I still have several Christmas images colored and waiting to put on cards or tags just in case I need more.

I apologize for the bad light quality in these photos.  My Ott light gave up the ghost this week, and I shot these using ambient light and my iPhone flash.  The colors are much richer in person.

The green shape was sponged with Distress Ink in  Peeled Paint. The ribbon  is from my stash.
The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug. Green cardstock is from Stampin' Up! - I have no idea what the color name is.
I embellished the snowflakes with Stickles and the water with Diamond Glaze.

The image is from Woodware Stamps; the set is called Penguin Fun.  The large white die cut on the front of the card was done with my Stampin' Up! Top Note die - the small square is a Spellbinders die.  The rest of the die cut shapes were done with my Silhouette.  The snowflakes inside the card were done with a Martha Stewart punch I found this week at TJ Maxx for $4.99!!!  TJM and Ross are two of my favorite places to look for stamping and scrapping supplies at great prices.  It's hit or miss, but every once in a while I score something great like this.

The font for the sentiment is Honey Script - I used the Print & Cut feature of my Silhouette to center the sentiment in the shape and then cut it. I sponged the edges of the finished piece with Stampin' Up!'s Riding Hood Red.

That's it for today's card - hope you enjoyed it.

Challenge Card

This was a challenge card for one of my stamp groups.  Each month, the hostess gets to choose a paper, image or technique that she wants the other group members to work with.  The next month, we all show what we've done with her inspiration piece.  Last month, my friend Crickett chose a patterned paper.  I liked the colors, but I found the quilt-square design a little busy for my taste.  I decided to use it as a scalloped border accent om the card, and pull colors from it for the rest of the card.  

I used some of the new waffle weave ribbon from the Stampin' Up! mini catalog - it is GORGEOUS!!  I also used my new toy - a Pearl Pen from Viva Decor. The stamp set I used was from MME - it's called "I Believe", and I believe that I got it last year.  Not sure if it is still available.  I'm pretty sure the sentiment came from a Stampin' Up! set, but I can't tell you which one.  I have committed the sacrilege of SEPARATING MOST OF MY SU! SETS and now I have no idea which set some of them came from.  I had to do it - I was accumulating too many stamps that I never used, so I decided to break up the sets, keep the ones I loved and sell the rest.  I will be doing loads of eBay listings soon - probably after Christmas.  If you're looking for individual SU! stamps, stay tuned and I will let you know when I list them.  In the meantime, enjoy the card!

Holiday Cardinal Card

As promised, here's another card inspired by PaperCrafts Magazine "Holiday Cards" 2010.  Randee Elsing created the inspiration card and when I saw it, there were elements of it that looked familiar.  Sure enough, when I checked my Silhouette library, there they were!

I tweaked the original color scheme and design a bit to make it my own, but kept the beautiful simplicity of the original.  Randee's card was a bit more elegant, and mine leans a little in the country-inspired direction.  I hope you enjoy it!

Told you I'd get to it eventually...

I have a habit of purchasing things and letting them.... um... marinate for a while before I use them.  So it should come as no surprise to you that the inspiration for this card came from PaperCrafts Holiday Cards magazine from last year.  I didn't have time to even LOOK at the magazine when I bought it right in the middle of the holiday season of 2010.  Fortunately, I came across it again a couple of months ago when I was putting together some project kits to work on at my friend's stamping event.  

The card bears only a passing resemblance to the one that inspired it - I have changed out the papers, embellishments, sentiment, and pretty much everything else to make the idea work with the supplies I had on hand.  Thanks to Jessica Bavier who created the card that inspired me!  I'll be sharing another card inspired by this magazine in my next post.