Happy Halloween

Couldn't resist making just one more PURR-fectly adorable Halloween Card using the sweet kitty mascot in Wendy Vecchi's Halloween Add-On Stamp and Die set (from her latest Spellbinders' release: NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection!)

I diecut the cat from some very cool sticky-back wool felt sheets (<-- that's a link to them; they come in lots of other colors too!) which Wendy was kind enough to share with me, so IRL, he's just the tiniest bit furry, which is obviously even more awesome. 

I used the Essential Envelope die to make a pocket which holds a pull-out card created with the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On; adorned with more candy corn, spider web and spider diecuts from the Halloween Add-On and the "Happy Halloween" sentiment, as well. I used the "Boo" sentiment to stamp some cotton ribbon which works as a pull for the tucked-in greeting.

All the sets are very generous, and each has a lot of extra "accessories" that can be combined in many different ways to make your projects unique. Because Wendy really is a crafter as well as a designer, she's thought of the details we need: like making a separate solid base for the cat and the candy corn... making it easy to add the details to a surface rather than trying to just assemble them all on a finished card. BTW, if you're not catching the Tip Tuesday series via Wendy Vecchi's Instagram Feed or the awesomely inclusive Make Art with Wendy Vecchi Facebook Group, you're really missing out on great info, inspo and ideas!  

The Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set remains one of my FAVORITE elements, especially when used with Wendy's Designer Series Archival Inks from Ranger. In this case, Pink Peony, Peachy Keen, Sunflower and Goldenrod.

I'm linking this up with the super-creative ladies at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for their "H is for Halloween" challenge (#255); where PINK is optional (but a nice touch since October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month). The SNARK is also optional, by the way (sorry guys mine has none unless you find the cat's expression humorous, which I do, lol!); you can find outstanding examples of both by checking out the fabulous DT cards at SoSS!

PS: Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a day that's all treats and no tricks!!!

Happy Halloween

'Tis the day before Halloween and all through the blog, Jack-o-lanterns, Witches and Bats are a-stirring! On this card, they take the form of Eyelet Outlet Witch Hat and Witch Leg Brads, as well as Bat and Pumpkin Brads; with a background (and diecut letters) made from Pumpkin Washi and Spider Tape.

The Eyelet Outlet Store has fabulous embellies for Thanksgiving, Autumn, Christmas, Birthdays and pretty much any other occasion you might like to celebrate in card form; and the Idea Gallery is full of examples to inspire you! (Just sayin'...)

Gourd-geous

It's a Smashing Pumpkin Mandala Monday doodled with all three sizes of Ranger's Black Letter It Fineliners in my Dina Wakley Kraft 6x6 Journal. Hope your Halloween Week will be full of fun and treats! ♥

Happy Narwhal-idays!

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, the prompt is called, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" which is a nice musical reference to the fact that we want to see critters (lambs, reindeer, penguins, robins) or creatures (yeti, monsters) in any style you'd like. I went with narwhals, as you can see:

As I was getting out my much-loved Lawn Fawn Winter Narwhal mini stamp set, I also found a sadly neglected Critters in the Arctic set, as well as Jen Long's Tons of Love Sizzix stamp and die set and Rubber Moon's adorable Nerdy Narwhal. (Those latter two, sadly, are out of print though the Lawn Fawn sets are still available.) And since obviously it'd be IMPOSSIBLE to just choose one of the above, I decided to stamp my own little pod of narwhals to star in their own punny card inspired by my favorite Narwhal and Jellie book, "Happy Narwhalidays"! I used stripey Thickers and Doodlebug My Type alphas to create the sentiment, clustered the paper-pieced pod around it, added a few mats and called it good!

"While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (JB2421) will run until Wednesday, November 6th and you're invited to link up with us at Jingle Belles!

Boo and Stuff

It's a BOO-tiful day to go a-haunting! Eyelet Outlet Ghost Brads have found the perfect house, and they've brought along a Black Cat Brad (for luck, of course) as well as a Pumpkin Brad, a Witch Hat and a couple of high-flying Bats. Mats of Spider Web Washi and Glitter Black Tape complete the design. 

Super Spooky Shopping List:

Ghost Brads

Black Cat Brads

 Pumpkin Brads

Witch Hat Brads

Bat Brads

Spider Web Washi

Glitter Black Tape

Eyelet Outlet has all the embellishments you need, for EVERY holiday you celebrate! ♥

SOS533: Birds of a Feather

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash is for the birds! Or, more accurately, about them. Because we'd like to see cards that feature our fine flying friends OR their feathers OR both! 

I have A LOT of bird stamps... and dies... and vintage bird books; but as I was deciding which of those to choose from, I realized I've had a beautiful set of Jane Davenport Feather dies for at least a couple of years and NEVER used them, so this seemed like the perfect time. I diecut the feathers from a "rejected" Alcohol Ink background (no idea WHY I didn't use it at the time but happy to find it now!) and then used the cut out feathers to position the dies on a watercolor background and cut out the shapes so I could back the apertures with deep blue cardstock and inset the feathers. The sentiment comes from Dina Wakley's Scribbly Birds Stamp Set which I've had for probably close to a decade and used many mannnnnny times; I don't think I've ever used the sentiment WITHOUT the birds before, but I thought it was just right for this card.

The SOS Crew have been working hard to inspire you, so there are plenty of birds and feathers flocking together at Shopping Our Stash; why not fly on over and check them out? Then start planning what you will link up with us between now and Monday evening, November 4th.

MM43

It's a Very Vecchi Mandala Monday featuring the adorable kitty from Wendy's Halloween Add-On stamp and die set in Spellbinders' NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection. I haven't quite used alllllll the dies from this impressively substantial set, but I did manage to work in the cat, spider web, spiders, tri-color candy corn, smaller iced candies, stars, and it wouldn't be Halloween without bats, now would it? I cut nearly everything from scraps of cardstock and apart from the dies I only needed a supplemental scattering of Liquid Pearls dots (leftover from the fun Treat Bags last week) to complete this 5.5" square card design!

I hope your week is off to a good start and that you'll get the chance to do something creative today! ♥

You're Not the (EM-)Boss of Me!

Flashing back to Wendy Vecchi's first collection for Spellbinders (The Garden Collection) and specifically playing with the Flowers and Foliage 3D Embossing Folder with a selection of Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger. I've used a bunch of different techniques that Wendy has shown off in various Tip Tuesday posts, such as inking and spritzing the emboss- or deboss-side before embossing; painting the flowers with diluted Archival Reinkers from the back or front; applying ink directly from the Archival Ink Pad (on the emboss- or deboss-side); and inking, stenciling, stamping (with some older Studio 490 stamps) and/or doodling on top. I love how you can get so many completely different variations with the same embossing folder, but they're all equally beautiful!

PINK Christmas: Week 2

It's the second week of our gala PINK CHRISTMAS celebration at Jingle Belles, in which we are asking YOU to make holiday cards that are predominantly pink and WE will donate to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each card that gets linked up! Visit the original PINK CHRISTMAS post at Jingle Belles for all the details as well as the Linky Tool to add your cards. Meanwhile, here's what I made this week:

I raided my happy little stash of Doodlebug Design papers, journal tags and stickers to make this sweet (in every sense, lol) little card that's mostly pink... with touches of tan gingerbread and reindeer; as well as some fun green Christmas tree cookies. I used an ancient pink background paper with a strong horizontal element to it, which made lining up the decorative strips super-easy!

Link your gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creations (because YES, you definitely can make as many as you'd like!) on the original post at Jingle Belles. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd. 

Dia de los Muertos

The Day of the Dead (November 1st) is a remembrance and celebration of friends and family who have passed away and Sugar Skulls are one of the day's most beautiful symbols. This card features Eyelet Outlet Sugar Skull Brads, as well as Rose Brads, a Sunflower Brad and some Mini Bees; with Skull and Bones Washi Tape serving as the perfect background.

Shopping List:

Sugar Skull Brads

Rose Brads

Sunflower Brad

Mini Bees

Skull and Bones Washi Tape 

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has all the brads, tapes, bling and enamels you could possibly wish for, whether you celebrate Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, Thanksgiving or all of the above!

Halloween Treat Bags

Halloween is just around the corner and what could be more seasonally appropriate than some "boo-tiful" little treat bags. There's a complete step by step tutorial showing how I made some on the Ranger Project Page, using Ranger Archival Inks, Transparent Gloss Texture Paste and Liquid Pearls; I'd love for you to pop over and take a look!

Mandala Monday

Douglas Adams' fans will be (mildly) excited to learn that this is Mandala Monday number 42 for the year; and while it does not (as far as I know) solve the mysteries of life, the universe and everything, it's brightly colored and (mostly) symmetrical; as well as being contained in the tiny library catalog card journal that my friend Mary (@millwoodstudioart) made for me!

Pink Christmas!

It's that time again at Jingle Belles, our favorite prompt of the year: PINK CHRISTMAS! In which you make and link new holiday cards that are predominantly PINK and we (Stephanie and Lauren) donate $2 (apiece!) per card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Yes, you can link as many cards as you'd like to and no, your cards don't need to be entirely PINK but we'd like the pink to be the main color. Options regarding size, shape, themes and additional colors added in with the PINK are up to you! 

Sound good? Then without further ado, here's my card:

You know how it is when you have NEW crafty goodies: you just cannot wait to use them, then you can't stop, right? I am currently obsessed with Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders, so for this card I broke out the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set and used the triple holly leaf die to very quickly cut lots of layers from textured pink cardstock; which I then inked and stacked, in two five-petal layers for each flower, into poinsettias, finishing off with the three berry cluster at the center, and finally a few tiny stick-on pearls plus a few cuts of the beautiful, delicate greenery die. I used the sentiment stamps from the set and a Build-a-Plaid background made with the second smallest stencil and Pink Peony Archival. A little bit of lace, some darker pink mats and a bit of machine stitching and I was good to go! There's a little more detail about the making of the poinsettias and the use of the Build-a-Plaid Stencils on my blog.!

The poinsettia-making process is made much easier by starting out with a 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock, upon which you stack your first layer of five poinsettia petals; then you add five more petals... (staggered between each pair on the first round) ...and make them immobile with a second 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock on the back.

Speaking of EASY: of course you can use the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencils without any special equipment but... IF you happen to have the MAKE ART Stay-tion, not only do you never have to worry about securing the stencil edges with any sort of adhesive, you can also do things like an evenly spaced diagonal plaid background with NO measuring or worrying about keeping the stripes parallel. I do like to place a small tape loop behind my paper before I begin, so that it doesn't shift as I change stencil directions, but other than that the four super-strong, never-pinchy magnets that come with the Stay-tion are more than adequate to the task of holding the stencils no matter how many times you re-arrange them.

I do hope you'll head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creation and then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Scaredy Cat?

There's no need to fear! Fun and fabulous Halloween cards are easy as (pumpkin) pie with Eyelet Outlet Small Eye Brads, Spider Brads, Spider Washi and Glitter Black Tape paired with the sweet kitty, spider webs and sentiment from the Halloween Add-On to Wendy Vecchi's Not Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders.

And YES, the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencil Set continues to be very addictive (in a GOOD way!); this time I've used Cactus Flower, Petunia, Violet, Orange Blossom, Tea Rose, Fern Green and Prickly Pear Archival Inks from Wendy's Designer Series Line at Ranger. I love that they are translucent so that you get different tones in the places they overlap!

SOS532: Halloween

It's time for a brand new, super-timely challenge at Shopping Our Stash. This fortnight's theme is Halloween, so you can either rock that holiday OR go your own way but use Halloween colors: orange, black, green, lime and/or purple. I went with the former, so that I could work in one of my own favorite Halloween colors: PINK!

I actually had an entirely different plan, but when I got out my Halloween stuff, I discovered a little un-remembered cache of Frank Garcia's Luna collection from Prima Marketing a few years ago, so obviously I immediately switched gears! The witchy and webby papers only needed a bit of distressing; the pumpkins, ghost and sentiments I fussy-cut from a few journal cards that were in the set. I added a Hero Arts' diecut black cat and half a dozen (sadly discontinued) Eyelet Outlet Mini Spider Brads and called it good.

This challenge (SOS532) runs until the evening of Monday, October 21st. I hope you'll hop over to SOS to see what the other Boo Crew Members have made to inspire you!

Stuck on Stickers

I haven't made a sticker mandala in ages, but I had so much fun with this, I predict you'll be seeing additional ones fairly soon! I used my Helix Circle Tool to draw some concentric circles and a Letter It Fineliner from Ranger for the smaller shapes that hold the puffy animal stickers. Reinforcement circles (cut in halves) and tiny triangles give the design more structure and tiny flowers have a bit of sparkle irl. In the center the sweet kitty from Dina Wakley's Pocket Circles Stamp Set is the perfect mascot!

 

Let's Go Gecko

What's grey and green and hilarious and good at typing? Gordon the Amigurumi Gecko, of course! Made especially for Nephew Matthew's birthday. 

This pattern is called Gayle the Crested Gecko Amigurumi; it was designed by Charlyn Smith and is available in her Etsy Shop, Critterific Crochet. You can see lots more cute/realistic crocheted critters on her IG account @critterific_crochet.

I used (sadly discontinued) Mani Pedi yarn from Lion Brand in the Yoga colorway; though I "stacked the deck" by using the grey and green sections I had skipped over when making ami fishes a while back. I enjoyed making this and would recommend this well-written, intermediate level pattern (with LOTS of great photos and even links to some helpful videos) to anyone who is moderately skilled at crochet and likes lizards. 

Gettin' Sketchy

Stephanie and I are still making cards based on her awesome card sketch this week at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun! First here's a reminder of the sketch:

And now, here's my card:

I went a bit vintagey this week; actually I went almost entirely vintagey! Only my sentiment is cut from a modern Simple Stories mini journal card... oh and there's a silver metallic cardstock layer... but otherwise the background collage is all vintage paper; the postcard is scanned and re-sized but it's from my IRL collection of vintage postcards. Maybe my favorite things are those beautiful vintage Plaid Trading Stamps that Stephanie found and gifted to me!

You've got until next Wednesday evening (10-9-24) to link your sketch-inspired cards at Jingle Belles; remember you can flip it, stretch it, rotate it, smoosh it or change shapes; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card!

Witch Way to the Candy?!

Nothing says, "Happy Halloween" as well as a witch-shaped shaker card full of Eyelet Outlet Pumpkin Sequins, am I right? Especially one that features the fab new Black Cat and Candy Corn Brads, as well as Spider and Pumpkin Brads not to mention that beautiful new Spider Washi Tape.

Shopping List:

Pumpkin Sequins

Black Cat Brads

Candy Corn Brads

Spider Brads

Pumpkin Brads

Spider Washi Tape

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store for all the creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky Halloween Brads, Tapes and Sequins you could possibly desire!