halloween cards (& blog candy winner!)

i don't usually "do" halloween, but when jolene surprised me with these *FABULOUS* recollections monsta stamps, i knew immediately that i had to use them to make cards for the nieces and nephew. (well, i mean, there are FOUR of them...and they are LITTLE MONSTAS...how perfect can ya get??!) these guys are hangin' out over at caardvarks today, where there's also additional holiday eye candy for your viewing pleasure!

(monstas: recollections clear stamps; text background: justrite "brayton uppercase" font set; patterned paper: bo bunny, kaiser, sassafras, basic grey, scrapbook wizard, gcd, autumn leaves; cardstock: core'dinations; black glossy cardstock: ranger; inks: colorbox & staz-on; ribbon: michaels; buttons: joann fabric; adhesives: xyron, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

i based the entire set on this adorable sheet of bo-bunny paper, which i actually bought for its reverse side during the Great Purple Quest surrounding niece lindsay's birthday. i know it sounds nuts to say the whole thing's based on this when there is only one teeeeeeny circle of it used, but the color scheme, the cute-but-not-cutesy style, and the verrrrrrrry faint distressing all came directly from here. see?

to make the spooky "boo BOOOO boOOoOOOooO" text background behind the monstas i used the larger block of my justrite horizontal wood stampers set and all the B's and O's (& zeros & upside down Q's!!!) from the font set and the 2 3/8" round stamper set; then i stamped the whole thing on each color of basic grey solid paper...then lined up just underneath each block... (the JR's are easily aligned if you work pretty parallel and trim the edges) ...and stamped again to fill the space. i wanted each one to be the same...but different...and i don't have any halloween text stamps.

i made the "tombstone" by tracing a fancy colorbok chipboard frame (from darling june); the bats are hand-drawn & mounted on jewelry wire with foam tape. you can't really see it in the photo, but the b&w panels and the colored mats are attached to each other (& the card) with machine stitching. "happy halloween" is computer-generated in "westate" font & printed on avery clear labels; it's inside each card, as well. oh yeah, and everything with eyes has a googly eyes...except the bats, who have teeeeeeeeeeny purple pearls. you know, to make them more *realistic*! :)

ok so now that all the creative essplainin' stuff is over, let's get to the GOOD PART, ok?!?! by which i mean, of course,

who won the blog candy??!

the random number generator chose # 32

which means that ♥Leah♥ is the lucky winner!

(which is quite funny, since her nom d'blog is "LEAH THE ORANGE" & i had already turned this bit of text orange for halloween!)

please email me with your postal address, missus, so i can get your goodies in the mail ASAP!

many thanks to everyone who played & all to the darlings who linked to my giveaway! i ♥LOVED♥ reading all of your favorites and hope you had a chance to look at everyone else's answers, because there's some great stuff there!!!