Hello Halloween 2016 | card 4 ft. Mama Elephant

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

I am having a crazy hard time staying on topic this season, and that is super weird for me. I love Halloween and I think it's pretty clear that I love creating cards, but something about the fall and the cooler weather just makes me want to cook, cook, cook and cook.

In some ways I think that the reprieve helps. It gives me an opportunity to recharge and when I do sit down in my art room, it's almost like sitting down for the first time with all my new things.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 140lb watercolour paper to 4x5 1/4" and prepped it with my powder tool. I then used VersaMark ink to heat emboss this super sweet witch kitty image from Mama Elephant's "Meowlloween" stamp set.

I smooshed Distress Inks onto a laminated sheet of paper (that's my palette) and a damp size 2 round watercolour brush, I then fussy cut the images out and set them aside.

On another piece of watercolour paper I created a black and gray water splotch also using distress inks. Once my stamped images were dry, I adhered them down with a strong two way tape.

The greeting is stamped using CTMH Archival ink to get a good crisp image. When stamping on watercolour paper, I prefer to use the MISTI to ensure a thorough stamp. Honestly if you have the opportunity to get your hands on it, take it. It is literally my most used tool.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. Don't forget to follow me over on the right side bar and toss me a line in the comments section below, I love to hear from you.

Hello Halloween 2016 | card 3 Sweet Treats

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Today's card is for the Card Concept, it is this new challenge that I have recently come across and I really like the way they lay it out. Now this is my first time there so hopefully I've got it figured out.

My understanding is that they give a concept (this week is Sweet Treats), and you draw your inspiration from that, but you have to use one or more of the styles they have listed. I think this is an excellent thing for someone who may be new to challenges or (like me) gets so many ideas in their head that they get all jumbled up. It kind of helps keep it on track.

For my style I chose Clean and Simple.

I don't have much of a put-it-together explanation, I think this one really just speaks for itself. The panel with the greeting is raised on foam tape, and I used some sparkling ribbon to cut the line between the panel and the accent strip.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. Don't forget to follow me over on the right sidebar so you don't miss out on any future posts, and toss me a line in the comments section below, I love to hear from you!

This card is for:

The Card Concept:

#59 Sweet Treats

Hello Halloween 2016 | card 2 Ft. Simon Says Stamp (again)

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Today I decided to create a shaker card. Something that I don't think has been up here since Christmas 2015, maybe something in the spring? I don't even know.

I had this idea in my head, but was super worried about trying it out because I've never done a partial die cut like this before.

To begin, I stamped the dog from Simon Says Stamp "Trick or Treat" stamp set on 110lb Copic-friendly paper and masked him off, I then used an assortment of pumpkins from Lawn Fawn's "So Thankful" and MFT's "Witch Way is the Candy" stamp sets.

For the partial die cut, I made two little marks on the edges of the panel right above where the pumpkins are, I then placed my die and lined up the cutting plates so that only the upper portion of the die would have the pressure as it went through the machine. After much breath-holding, I removed the die from the piece and saw that I only had to bring the cut down a tiny bit! I then used my Cutter Bee scissors to fussy cut out the rest of the piece around the stamped images.

Next I masked off all the images again, and used Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire, Forest Moss and Gathered Twigs to create the ground and the sky. I used Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves to create the background sky that will be behind the shaker. I would normally have used Dusty Concord, but I was away at a retreat and didn't have it with me. I used a size 10 Round watercolour brush to splatter clean water over the piece to make it look distressed.

All the images are coloured with Copic Markers.

To create the pouch for my shaker I used the Fuse Tool from We R Memory Keepers along with an old 12x12 scrapbook page cover. I used a variety of sequins and some foil leaves as the shaker material.

Everything was put together and adhered to the top of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. Don't forget to follow me over on the right sidebar so you don't miss out on any new posts, and toss me a line in the comments section below, I love to hear from you!

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:

Halloween Inspiration