More Monsters for Halloween

Well... these will have to count as my Halloween decorations for this year. I've been pretty busy with family and church stuff to drag out all my Halloween stuff to decorate. But last night my hubbie got a vampire movie and this idea was born.

I used the basic idea from this earlier post. Then I just made my "monsters" more Halloween themed. I am not super happy with the way my jack o'lantern turned out, but it is kinda cute. I just drew out eyes, nose and mouth on black and cut those out for him. I used Pumpkin Pie and a scrap of Garden Green for the stem. I made a slit thought the top of the treat box and slid the stem through (leaving a wider base to hold in place and secured it to the back side of the flap).





I am much happier with my vampire box. Like I said, Victor got Daybreakers, a vampire movie last night. I was freaking out the whole time I saw it, and I have been pretty jumpy ever since. In classic immersion fashion, I decided to create a vampire to take away the "freak out" about vampires... I'll have to let you know if it worked.

I am not afraid of this guy. He was created with Basic Black. His eyes are Real Red on top of Elegant Eggplant and a black pupil in the middle. I used 2 petals from a flower punch (non-SU) to get the fangs and then punched out another tiny flower and cut the petals apart to get the tiny teeth in between. Victor recommended drops of blood, so I punched a scallop circle and cut out each scallop in V for the blood drops... still so much less scary than the movie...

Thanks for looking...

Motorcycle Mama!

I am really excited about these cards! I got this new embossing envelope and it reminded me of those metal truck toolbox things that dudes have. I got it because I thought it would make good guy cards, and really, who doesn't need more stuff to make a good guy card?

I got the idea to use the Motorcycle with this card when I was trying my first attempt at this week's challenge over at Stampin' Royalty.

I used a very light gray as a base coat. I then layered on Basic Black. On this card, I left the black alone. I used SU's circle brads. I cut out my Motorcycle in an oval from Natural White and put it on a bigger black oval. I cut open (well.... my husband cut open) an Arizona tea can and I ran the aluminum through my cuttlebug with this embossing plate for a very manly look! (Seriously... how cool is that?!? It's totally green and it looks so cool!) To go with the sketch more, I added a circle of natural white with the message "enjoy the journey" from the It's the Thought set stamped in Cherry Cobbler to add a little bit of color.

On this one, I used a really cool rough brick wall embossing plate to emboss my black layer that's underneath. Then I used my platinum all purpose ink from SU (which is really messy- FYI) and a sponge and inked up the embossed background to bring out the pattern a bit more. Instead of brads at the bottom like the sketch, I used my "screw" brads in the four corners on my aluminum embossed panel. Then I used my 1" and 3/4" punches and punched more aluminum (bonus: the can sharpens the punches!). On the 1" circle, I used my stazon to stamp Happy Birthday from the Vintage Labels set and added a mini black brad. I popped that up with pop dots and put the second 3/4" circle under that one a bit

This one is also very similar. This time I embossed the black with an embossing folder that has rough edged lines (all the rough backgrounds just struck me as very manly). On this one, I added 3 square silver brads that I've had forever and never used. Then I punched a 1" circle and used a set of rub-ons that I've also had forever. I put "Treasure" on this one.

The insides of all three are empty. Nothing fancy inside for dudes. These cards are all man (and I think my mojo's back!)

Thanks for looking...

Monster Madness!

I knew I had to make these CA-UTE monsters when I saw them...

I gotta give the credit to this amazing lady, Sarah. She is amazing and I love her ideas AND her generosity. She posts very clear directions for how to make lots of things. Frugal people like me appreciate you, Sarah. You rock!

I made a few different ones. Luckily, I just ordered some 12 x 12 paper from the clearance rack on Stampin' Up (what deals!) That gave me lots of color options. This is Melon Mambo with her eyes a Perfect Plum. I used scraps of white for the teeth and scraps of white and plum for her flower embellishments. I tied a purple bow at the top of her flap.






Here is a side view of the box. It is so cute for a little gift.... OR... I filled this blue boy over here with candy for my nephew. He LOVED it. On this guy I used a retired piece of Bermuda Blue and Real Red for his eyes. I used the red and black for the spots all around him.

I kept the flaps closed on them by using a small piece of adhesive Velcro.

I was thinking of offering my first ever kids class and teach the little'uns to make the monster boxes. Whatta think? Good idea or no?

Thanks for looking...

Sketch Challenge Struggle

My inspiration for this card is the sketch challenge over on Stampin' Royalty. I gotta tell you, I was STRUGGLING with this one. It could be because it is the end of the quarter so my grades are due soon and I have tons of papers to grade, or maybe that everything at school is making me crazy on every level, but the bottom line is, I think I've misplaced my mojo...



I was determined to find it so I used the sketch from the ladies over at SR and this is my creation. I don't love it (see... my mojo is missing still). But, hey... I got to spend sometime on ME today (well...yesterday) when I made it.



So... I chose to turn the sketch on its side. I used the Season of Friendship and Day of Gratitude stamp sets. My base is More Mustard. I used my oval template to cut out an oval on a Natural White card stock and put that on the next biggest size oval of Early Espresso. Then I put that on a square of Cajun Craze. I used my boho blossoms punch to punch out a bunch of mustard, espresso, and cajun "leaves" and there's some Red Ridinghood leaves in there, too ('cuz I LOVE the red leaves on the trees... ). I finished it off with a few leaves from the Day of Gratitude set in Chocolate Chip and Red Ridinghood.



I am also working on getting more inside my cards, so here's my inside. The message from Day of Gratitude and another red leaf (remember... they're my favorite!)

Thanks for looking...

ALLLLL ABOARD!!

I fell in love with this set from the moment I saw it. I got it over a year ago (I think), and today was the first day I inked it up! WHAT? I know...

So when I saw this challenge over at Stamping 411, I decided to finally use it. I was inspired to use the colors because of the ribbon. This is one of those cards that after I decided to use the Boatloads of Love set, I looked at my ribbon wall and saw this unopened roll of ribbon. As my luck would have it, Pacific Point and Tempting Turquoise matched it almost perfectly!



I stamped the boat on Whisper White with my stazon, and I used the markers to color in the boat. Then I layered that on a piece of turquoise.

Next, I used an embossing folder and embossed the bottom part of the larger piece of white. I don't know the offical name of the embossing folder, but looks like waves to me. I used a sponge brush to lightly dab on some pacific point onto the embossed image.

Next I added the ribbon and then put that onto a Pacific Point based.


Inside, I added the sentiment "friend-ship." I punched it out with the word window and layered that on a turquoise scrap that I punched out using the modern label punch.

I made a second one, too, but that's for a special occasion, and just in case the person I'm giving it to actually reads my blog (which I do highly doubt... but that's okay...) I am not going to post it. I'll let it be a surprise...

Thanks for looking....

Grateful for Time To Create!

I am falling in love with this set! I so didn't even like it when I first saw it, but when I went to the regional conference for Stampin' Up, this is the set we got for "free." While we were there, we got to see lots of cool samples of the card, and as freebie from regionals, I have seen lots of ideas on the blogs that I check out.

One of the blogs that I check out on the regular is Stamp & Scrap with Frenchie. And she is awesome! She's got some great ideas and she makes videos so that you can really see and understand how she does things. I love her!

I, as usual, had to switch stuff up a bit. I did make the big medallion/flower thing the way that Frenchie did. Great technique using a sponge to take off some of the green and then I added on some Rich Razzleberry. I used Chocolate Chip ink for the sentiment and a Chocolate Chip satin ribbon. I really love how it turned out. I also used some green pearls that I found at a scrapbooking convention I went to.

This is another technique Frenchie shared. She used versamark and then used stampin' pastel chalks to color on top of the stamped image. I swear, I watched her video and she was rubbin' a cotton ball with the chalk on it over the image, so that's what I did and it looks pretty smeared. (She did the same thing with white craft ink, and I smear that without rubbing anything over it so I don't think I'll try that.)

So I did one by sponging ink on the stamp itself, and one by rubbing chalk on the stamped image that was versa marked.

I really like Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant together. I again used a green pearl in the center of flower/medallion (what do you call this thing anyway?) I had the eggplant colored ribbon.

Here's the smeared chalk one. Mine did not turn out anywhere nearly as nice as Frenchie's. Oh well. I tried it. Next time, I will only dab the chalk on, not rub it in.

I did put the flower from this set on the inside, in eggplant.

I hope you like them! Thanks for looking...

Swap time, Baby!

I recently (today) attended my first Stampin' Up regional! It was so awesome!

I made 115 things to swap. I didn't know if I made too many or not enough. After attending, I would say that next time, I might make 150 or 175.

I got some amazing swaps from others and want to pass on the information (for you stampers, it's the "recipe") for my swaps.

I made 51 little tea light candles. Super easy. Follow the directions to make them from my entry here. I used the Tags Till Christmas and Berry Christmas stamp sets. I used Red Ridinghood, Garden Green, Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist and Wild Wasabi. When I did the little snowman, I took off the "to" and "from" and before the wax dried, I sprinkled a bit of dazzling diamonds to make it blind. So fun!

For this 2 ornament card, I used the ornament punch (of course!) I also used the Tags Till Christmas, Peaceful Wishes, and Delightful Decorations stamp sets. The colors are Real Red, Garden Green, Always Artichoke, and Whisper White. In addition, I put in the silver elastic cord. On the green ornament, I also have a diamond bling right in the middle. Then I popped up the red "Joy" ornament. Of course, I couldn't make them all the same. I had to change which was on the right, which was on the left, which one hung lower than the other one.




I didn't want to do all holiday cards, so I came up with this fun one. It starts with a base of Crumb Cake. Then there is a layer of Pink Pirouette. I used the new decorative label punch and punched out a label in Pear Pizazz. Then I stamped the stems and leaves from the Just Believe set in Wild Wasabi (I don't have Pear Pizazz ink!) on Very Vanilla and punched that out with the decorative label punch. Finally, I used all the words from In a Word set for the sentiment.










This is my non-traditional Christmas card! I used a base of Wild Wasabi, a square of Certainly Celery (with one end punched with the scallop edge punch), and a short strip of Rose Red.

I used the Perfect Punches holiday sentiment on white. I inked the stamp with celery. I wiped off the words with a baby wipe and re-inked the words with Rose Red.

It's super simple, but sweet none-the-less.





This poinsettia card was actually the first one I made for the swap. I started with a base of River Rock. I topped that off with Red Ridinghood that has been embossed with the Petals embossing folder (I don't remember the whole name). I topped that with a strip of Always Artichoke that I punched down the edges of both sides with the edge punch. Then I punched two five petal flowers and used my bone folder to break down the fibers in the paper, which makes the ends of the paper curl up a bit. I used silver or gold glitter brads and the sentiment from Occasional Quotes in either silver or gold ink (depending on the color of the brad in the flower). I also inked up the edges of the petals in the gold/silver ink.

Since I can't do all of them the same way, I positioned the strip of artichoke in a bit of a different place on each one. On the silver, I went right down the middle. With the gold, I shifted the placement over to the right a little bit.

If you got my swap card, I hope you're happy with it! You can email me with questions if you have any.

Thanks for looking....