Season of Friendship

This week the Color Throwdown Challenge CTD664 is turquoise, brown, kraft and white, and right away I imagined fall leaves when I saw the colors. Here is my card for their challenge.

I first chose my cardstock colors then grabbed two of my favorite leaf stamps, the larger one from Magenta and the smaller from Rubber Stamps of America. I stamped them with GinaK Premium Dye Ink in Charcoal Brown, then fussy cut each one. I decided I wanted to make the front of the card narrower and have the leaves sit along that edge...and I planned on sewing them down the middle with my sewing machine, but chickened out on the latter. First, I ink blended Stampin' Up! Bermuda Bay ink lightly along the edge of the card front to give a little background. I played with placement of the leaves and glued them down partially so they looked like they landed there and the edges weren't completely flat. Then the white space on the inside back of the card looked super white, so I decided to lightly ink blend there too with Bermuda Bay. I grabbed the sentiment from an old Stampin' Up! set called Season of Friendship and stamped it in the same GinaK brown ink.

Hope your fall is treating you well...it is still 90 degrees here in Florida! But our humidity and temps will become mild in the coming weeks and it will be sooooooo nice until late spring! 

See you back here soon,

-Carol

Día de los Muertos

I just made a fall/cultural themed card for my Spanish teacher friend. El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a fall holiday in Mexico and when we taught culture, we used to teach the high school students about it and how it is not at all a Mexican version of Halloween. It falls on November 1st and 2nd, near Halloween. It is a celebration of dear ones who have passed on but will not be forgotten. Here is a link to an explanation of this celebration.  I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Fall Mood Board Inspiration (here) challenge. The photo provided for the challenge includes candles, fall leaves and flowers which remind me of some of the symbols of Día de los Muertos.

First I made a faux-iris technique card base. I used Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink to stamp my Stampin' Up! Spooky Bits cute skeleton stamp because it is another symbol of Día de los Muertos. I masked the skeleton and ink blended lightly behind him, then added googly eyes. The colors of this holiday are cheery and bright, and can even reflect the favorite colors of the family member being celebrated. I tried to use some fall colors from the inspiration photo from Simon Says Stamp for this challenge. I used a Reverse Confetti banner die after I ink blended a piece of white cardstock to mimic the papel picado (cut paper- linked here) hung in the homes and streets of Mexico for celebrations. I made my own sentiment and punched it out with a scallop circle punch from Stampin' Up! 

Hope you enjoyed this little culture lesson and my card for a friend.

-Carol

Eat, Drink and Be Scary

This week's Tic Tac Toe Challenge #135 board here is up and waiting for people to play along with us! I decided to make a tag by going diagonally from the bottom left square up to the top right square on the tic tac toe board: black, orange, purple. I figured I could make some Halloween cookies and deliver them to a friend with this tag attached.

I used black embossing powder to heat emboss my ghost (from Stampa Barbara) onto a sparkle vellum tag that I cut with Stampin' Up! Banner Framelits dies. I cut two more tags from patterned paper using a banner die that is one size larger than the vellum one. I embellished all three with stamping (MFT Primitive Pumpkin sentiment on the orange tag), black glitter cardstock and sequins. I decided to add a little tag on the vellum one and stamped it using the Stampin' Up! Eat, Drink and Be Scary stamp set (old) and matted it with black glitter cardstock. I cut a scalloped eyelet embellishment to decorate where my black velvet ribbon would tie and held the ribbon in place with orange and purple baker's twine.

Come join us this week!

P.S. I made the Halloween table runner several years ago with a fun fabric charm pack from Sweetwater called The Boo Crew. Here's the tutorial for this quick project! I love getting it out every year! 

-Carol

Coastal Birthday Wishes

Guess what?!! I am a Surprise Party Guest for October and November at Seize the Birthday...and I couldn't be happier to be asked! Use a Stencil is the current topping so I immediately grabbed a favorite shells stencil for my card.

The stencil is made by The CraftersWorkshop (TCW) and it is 12" x 12" with several different shells included. On the front of my A2 card base I ink blended with Ranger Distress Oxide inks in Dried Marigold, Spun Sugar and Abandoned Coral. Then I die cut my sentiment four times, ink blended one of them, and stacked them so they would stand above the card. I added some sparkle like you see in the sand at the beach by using sequins...and it was complete!

I hope you will join us for some stencil fun and see all the creative ideas using this topping!

See you soon!

-Carol

Wonky Witch Tag

Another witchy greeting for Halloween! I couldn't wait to share this wonky tag once it was complete. The story behind it is that I recently saw the concept (the witch's comment) and knew I could make some kind of stamped item using it. I am sure that  I am dating myself by referring to driving a stick (shift), but in high school it was cool to know how to drive a clutch and I made sure that I learned! Hope she makes you laugh! I am playing along with The Paper Players PP561 here and Just Us Girls Word Week Challenge #604: Halloween. Check out these challenges and join the fun!

The stamp is an oldie from All Night Media and the tag is cut with my Simon Says Stamp Drifting Stitches Borders as well as a Reverse Confetti tag die for the bottom scallops and the decorative tag circle for the ribbon at the top (both made with black glitter cardstock). I made my cloud stencil with some My Favorite Things Ocean Waves dies and cut the moon with a My Favorite Things Inside and Out Stitched Circle die. I made my own sentiment on the computer and used Stampin' Up! Word Bubbles Framelits dies for the speech bubble. I colored the witch with Prismacolor pencils and used some Pretty Pink Posh jewels for sparkle in the night sky.

Hope you're enjoying October...before we know it Halloween night will be here!

-Carol

Pure Innocence Halloween

I have loved the Pure Innocence characters forever at My Favorite Things. I own mostly the beachy little girls in my collection, but today I needed to make one into a little witch for Halloween for their Weekly Sketch #561 right here! I'm also entering it at The Paper Players "Spooky" PP561 right here! and the Just Us Girls #604 Challenge: Halloween!

I stamped the Beach Cutie with black ink but used Post It notes to cover the top of her hat and from her hands down. I drew her pointed hat and made her top into a long dress. I used Copics to color everything. Then, I wanted her to sit side-saddle on the broom, so I drew a lap, colored it and popped it up on foam tape. (The popped up part really makes it look like it is her lap in front of her!) Next, I made a broom for her to ride. I die cut a moon (with MFT Inside and Out Stitched Circles) out of sparkle vellum and die cut a rectangle (MFT Inside and Out Stitched Rectangles) out of black patterned paper. I strategically used my Sugar Pea Card Front Element Builder to have stitching on the computer made sentiment. (I saw the sentiment somewhere and knew I had to make a Halloween card with it!) Finally, I added three Pretty Pink Posh gems and the card was done! 

Hope you enjoy this cute little witch, driving a stick(shift). LOL!

-Carol

Better With You

Here is another fun fold like my last post that I made this past weekend during World Card Making Day. I wanted to make one in pretty colors that my daughter likes to surprise her. See my last post for details! I am entering this in NBUS#31-Never Before Used Shtuff here because I have hoarded this pretty blue and pink patterned paper from Crate Paper FOREVER! I am also entering it in the Simon Says Stamp WCMD challenge here as well as their Wednesday Challenge here! Simon Says Stamp, I'm in Florida where it is still hot and I am a papercrafter because I love the relaxation and creativity of making cards and other things with paper, as well as meeting so many people through our mutual hobby. 

This fun fold is from @laclaudelscrap on Instagram and I have a link to her tutorial in my last blog post. The sentiment is Pretty Pink Posh Simple Sayings: Life. I love the fonts at Pretty Pink Posh so much!!

See you back here soon!

-Carol