Looking Forward to Halloween with Our Craft Lounge stamps

For some reason, I have Halloween on the brain lately.  I do love Halloween, but even I have to admit this is getting a bit ridiculous!  I have to promise myself that this is the last Halloween project for a while - after all, school starts in less than two weeks so there are plenty of related projects there I should probably be doing...

At any rate, I just couldn't resist making a fun card with some Our Craft Lounge stamps.  The Spooky Tags set would be great for simple tags on  treat bags or homemade items (have to let the neighbors know where they came from or they'll just throw them out!).  But they also make some great scrapbook embellishments and cards - here's what I made this time:

I based my color palette on an eery sunset.  Using glossy white cardstock, I brayered on ink, moving from bottom to top of my panel.  Beginning with Sunset, followed by Spring Iris, ending with Outdoor Denim.  Next, I stamped the image, then the sentiment, over the brayered background using black Staz-on ink.

Digging through my stash of Halloween papers, I found the perfect pattern/color combination in this Heidi Grace paper.  (Not long ago, I saw they still carry some of this paper at Joann's.)  I added some machine stitching using black upholstery thread, then topped the card with some cardstock panels and popped up my image panel on some foam adhesive tape.  Finally, I colored some clear Sparkles with a black alcohol marker and added them in a swirl design.

I left the inside simple, with a cardstock liner and a stamped sentiment from the same stamp set.  All supplies other than the stamps, marker and pattern paper are from Close To My Heart.

Overall dimensions of this card are 8" x 3.5", perfect for gifting a couple of dollars to a special little someone too far away for Trick-or-Treat.  Or maybe a school store gift certificate for a favorite teacher to replenish a few supplies.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love to see/hear what you like to make for Halloween, or whatever your favorite holiday is!

Final Day of White Christmas Week!

Hello and welcome to the final day of White Christmas week!  Don't forget to post on any/all White Christmas posts for a chance to win one of at least two Christmas stamp sets.  I would appreciate it if you are also a follower or email/reader subscriber.  I will draw winners when I return from CHA.

Here's my final card:

 

This simple card uses some Heidi Grace papers from my stash, along with stamps and inks from Close To My Heart, and heat set studs for the i-Rock from Imaginisce.  I used a technique called ghosting to create the stamped image at the bottom of the card.  Simply stamp your design with Versamark ink and heat emboss with clear embossing powder.  Then sponge ink all around the image.  Finally, lay a scrap of cardstock on top of the embossed image and iron with a clothes iron until the embossing powder all transfers to the scrap cardstock.  Another quick & easy card that looks like so much more!

Thanks for stopping by today; I hope you will continue to visit me!  I'm afraid we got back too late tonight to post any CHA pictures, but there will be some news and goody giveaways coming up - I even managed to take second place in a mixed media challenge contest so there will be a couple of things I don't normally have coming up.  I also have a terrific small paper company that I can't wait to share with you!

Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge

Sorry for the horrid picture; I barely squeaked this one in under the wire since my camera's card is a little bit full!  I think I need to leave that one for the link to have a picture, so I'll put up a better one too.  This week's Cricut Circle challenge is all about holiday recipes.  We had to use at least 2 Cricut cuts; mine are from Jolly Holiday and the title is the font from Robotz.

  My cardstocks are Brown Bag, Tulip, and textured White Daisy from Close To My Heart.  My pattern papers are all from Heidi Grace's Jolly & Bright line.  (Some of the papers from this line were still available at JoAnn's last time I shopped there.)  I used a white Uniball Signo pen for my recipe journaling and the written part of my title.  For the "frosting" on my Cricut cuts, I used Liquid Applique.  After letting it dry, I heated it with my embossing gun.

I am feeling the need to add a little something more to this layout.  At the very least, I need some hardware on the right page.  Those four photos all have another photo underneath, so I need something to keep the mats down.  It may have to sit for a day or two while I decide what to use, then I'll update...

Another Design Team (Fail)

I'm pretty busy this week and not getting much done, so I thought I'd share a recent Design Team submission.  I didn't make it, but I'm sure the contenders were all awesome!  I love the sketchbooks from Scrapbook Generation publishing, and Allison is starting a new blog devoted just to sketches.  That's why they were hunting for a design team.

So, let me share my interpretations of the sketches. (You can visit www.sketchsupport.com for the actual sketches, plus many more.)  First up is a card.  This was a fun sketch, and the best part is you can change Allison's design element shapes to any shape you want.  I changed mine to stars and made a card suitable for graduation or some other accomplishment.

I used recycled plastic packaging over the blue stars, gold DMC floss, iron-on stars adhered with my I-rock heat tool, and various star shapes.  The stars were a combination of punch-outs, chipboard elements, stamped & hand cut, and Cricut cuts.  The green stars are popped up on foam adhesive.  All cardstock, chipboard, stamps, and ink from Close To My Heart.

Next is a single page layout sketch.  I don't do single page layouts much, so I chose to make a title page layout for some Sea World pages.  (This was actually my least favorite item for this call.  I definitely wasn't "feeling it" on this one.)

I used some of my favorite Heidi Grace papers here from the Under the Sea line.  I really hope I'm "over" this line by the time I run out of my stash, because I can't find much from this line left anywhere anymore!

Title was cut with my Cricut.  Bubbles were cut with my Cricut from plastic packaging and highlighted with some paint.  I used the same paint to edge my photos for some definition.  I added some bling with additional smaller "bubbles", I-rock gems in crystal.  Cardstock & ink from Close To My Heart.

Finally, a two-page layout, my favorite way to work!  This was a fun sketch, and while I don't usually do strip journalling I really liked the effect here.  I really enjoyed making this layout, and finally scrapping those pics from my brother's 50th birthday a couple of years ago.

It's not often I get to scrap "adult" pictures anymore, so it was great to know I can still rock a grown-up theme.

Papers are all discontinued Close To My Heart, and all page elements were cut with my Cricut and popped up on foam adhesive (except "the big" is flat on the page).  The gold circles in the party hat pom poms are more iron-ons adhered with my I-rock, man I LOVE that tool!  The self-adhesive pearls on the ends of the striped paper are from Close To My Heart in Mocha.

I currently have one more DT submission out.  I didn't see anything about not sharing things before their decision, so I will likely post those for tomorrow.  It's all Imaginisce goodness, which means you're gonna love it!

Oh, Croppy Day!

On Saturday, Mandie & I spent the day at a 12-hour fundraiser crop.  With kids home from school today, I'm kind of wishing I was back there again and find myself singing "oh, croppy day" (to the tune of Oh Happy Day - yes, the gospel song) over and over in my head!  I know, I'm odd.  That's OK.

At any rate, it was nice to just spend a lazy day cropping.  I only completed three 2-page layouts, and finished another I had started previously.  The only downside was that I forgot the cord that connects my Gypsy to the Cricut - good thing Mandie had all of her cartridges with her!

I can't share all of my layouts today; a couple of them are for the Cutters Creek blog later this month.  You can look for my Summer flashback this Friday, the 15th, and my pirate Halloween layout next Tuesday, the 19th.  However, I can share the other two.

The first layout is for this week's Cricut Circle blog Think Pink challenge.  This challenge asks us to use at least 3 of the following: Pink, Ruffles, Scallops, Flourishes, Glitter and Jewels.  We also have to use at least two Cricut cuts.  I had some cute pictures of our girls from a few years ago, where they had fallen asleep together in our bed, and I decided to use those.

I met the criteria using pink, a flourish cut, lots of scallops on my chipboard elements, and pink gems.  I used a sketch pattern from the new Magic book from Close To My Heart, and modified it by using chipboard flowers instead of additional pictures.  Patterned papers, chipboard elements, and the large brad in the upper right are all from Basic Grey's Sugared line; cardstock and pink brads are from Close To My Heart; Cricut cuts are both from French Manor; and pink gems are I-rock gems from Imaginisce.

The other layout I completed also uses some older pictures I really needed to get scrapped!  I do have a little journaling to complete - it will go to the left of the main photo under my subtitle.

I used another sketch for this layout, but I can't remember which book it is from.  I used some of my favorite papers on this layout - Beyond the Sea from Heidi Grace - along with some Cardstock from Close To My Heart.  I will warn you that these papers are super hard to find, but I'm working on finding a source for anyone who is interested in them.

My title is cut with the 3 Birds Cricut cartridge (thanks Mandie!) and my scallops and circle are cut with Plantin Schoolbook.  Adhesive gems and pearls are all from CTMH, and the rub-ons used on my subtitle and directly on my main photo are also from the Beyond the Sea line.  (Click on the photo to enlarge and see them better.)

Thanks for stopping by today!  Don't forget to stop back here or over on the Cutters Creek blog this Friday and next Tuesday for more scrappy goodness.