Halloween Round Up

Halloween was a real whirlwind this year! It seemed that no sooner were the candy, costumes, and decorations on the shelves at Walmart when Halloween night had come and gone!

I had been looking forward to creating the Halloween Decor Project from Stampin Up and I was able to incorporate it into a spooky little scene in our hallway entrance that totally captivated my granddaughter, Raine!

For the first couple of times she was over, she would not walk past it at all, even if I held her! Gradually, she was able to go by if I was holding her and by Halloween night, she walked past it herself a couple of times!

Here's the hat by itself after I completed it:

And here it is in the Halloween display I created:

Luckily, I had a day off prior to Halloween in order to create some cards and gift bags.

For Steffan, I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to color in a stamp from the Happy Witches stamp set by Hampton Art. I die cut the stamp as well as a Black Glimmer paper using the Lots Of Labels Framelits.

The sentiment from Halloween Expressions Mini from Inkadinkado was stamped with Archival ink on Cucumber Crush card stock. The edges were inked with the archival ink and then the matte was mounted on a Rich Razzleberry card base.

The die cuts were adhered to each other and then popped up on the matte using Dimensionals.

For Courtney, I cased this card. I used the wonderfully spooky stamp set, Witches' Night, to stamp the main image on Whisper White card stock using Basic Black Archival ink. I used Pumpkin Pie and Rich Razzleberry inks to sponge the image and then die cut it using the Lots of Labels Framelits, cutting a larger one from Black Glimmer paper. The colored image was also stamped with Versamark and then heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder to make it shiny. The die cuts were adhered to each other.

On a strip of Rich Razzleberry I stamped the zig zag pattern stamp from the same stamp set and then adhered a strip of Black Glimmer paper over top. On a Pumpkin Pie matte, I stamped bats in each corner and then it was adhered to a Rich Razzleberry card base using Dimensionals.

The strips of Rich Razzleberry and Black Glimmer were adhered in the centre of the matte and then a black Spiderweb Doily was cut in half and adhered to the back of the die cut. The die cut was then adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

 For Raine's gift bag, I used a piece of paper from the Happy Haunting DSP pack and the Gift Bag Punch Board to create her treat bag. To decorate it, I used a stamp from the Witches' Night stamp set to stamp on Pumpkin Pie card stock and then die cut it using the Lots of Labels Framelits. It was attached to the bag with a black spiderweb doily cut in half behind it.

I used both the Boo To You and the Seasonal Frame Thinlits Dies to die cut Boo! and Spooky from Pumpkin Pie card stock, three copies of each. The words were glued together using the Fine Tip Glue Pen. I used Versamark and Clear Embossing Powder to heat emboss the words to make them shiny.

Steffan's bag was made the same way but I used a different stamp on Real Red card stock and it was heat embossed to make it shiny. The stamp was die cut and adhered to Black Glimmer paper die cut and then adhered over a spiderweb showing the white side.

I used the Howl-o-ween Treat stamp set with StazOn ink to stamp the skull and bone on Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper. They were die cut using the Boo To You Framelits.

Finally, for Courtney's gift bag, I stamped the image from the Happy Witches stamp set on Rich Razzleberry card stock and die cut it. It was edged with Basic Black Archival ink. A larger die cut label in Pumpkin Pie was used behind it, with a black Spiderweb Doily sandwiched between.

Here's a picture of Raine in her costume taken by her daycare provider. They had a party that day and took their costumes to put on there. Prior to this, Raine had not been persuaded to try on her costume but when she saw all the other kids getting into their costumes, she figured it was ok to do the same!

Here's Raine after returning from walking door-to-door for over 1 1/2 hours! She had a ball and got a Walmart bag full of goodies!

Here she is, enjoying some of her candy stash!

 Hope you all had a good Halloween!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Color Burst Projects

As you should be able to tell from the date of my last post, babysitting and working are taking the majority of my time these days. Don't get me wrong—I'm loving the time I get to spend with my granddaughter! However, by the time she gets picked up and we get supper done with, I'm about DONE for the evening!

However, I have had the odd moment to create but just haven't had the chance to blog about it. Today, I have two projects, both using Color Bursts.

My first card is a card that I designed for my friend, Charlene.

I started by using the Earth Tone set of Color Bursts on a piece of watercolor paper.

I sprinkled tiny bits of Merlot, Burnt Orange, and Yellow Ochre on the paper and then spritzed them with water. I tilted the paper to make the paint run in different directions, adding more powder and water until I was pleased with how it was taking shape. I then added in some Terre Verte (green) to increase the richness of the colors. Once I was totally pleased with the effect, I dried the piece with my heat tool.

I then mounted the oak leaf from the Vintage Leaves stamp set on an acrylic block and sprayed it with water. I pressed it down onto the colored watercolor panel and held it in place for about 30 seconds. When I removed the stamp, there was a little bit of pooled water which I absorbed with a paper towel. I then repeated this procedure on the rest of the panel.

I dried the panel again and then threw a few droplets of water onto the panel as well, letting them sit for a few seconds before blotting with a paper towel.

Because I was planning to use Embossing Paste on top of the watercolors and I wasn't sure if the paste would reactivate the watercolors, I decided to use Ranger Distress Micro Glaze to seal the surface. Just a little bit goes a long way with this stuff! You simply get a little bit on your finger and then rub it into the surface of your work. After it is completely covered, you take a paper towel and just buff the piece, removing any excess.

The next step was to lay my Garden Leafy Stems stencil, from Memory Box, across my watercolor piece and secure both it and my watercolor paper to my craft mat using some washi tape. I then applied Dreamweaver Gold Embossing paste with a palette knife. When complete, I simply lifted the stencil off of my work and set it aside to dry.

The next day, (it didn't take that long to dry but I didn't have time to get back to the card until then!) I inked the edges of the watercolor piece with Black Soot Distress Ink and then finished with a fine line of Ranger Archival Ink.

I stamped the sentiment using the same archival ink and the Endless Birthdays stamp set. I then knotted a piece of Cherry Cobbler Sheer Linen ribbon around the panel and also added a length of Gold Sequin Trim. I then mounted the panel, using Foam Tape, to a Cherry Cobbler card base.

Around the edges of a matte of Natural Ivory card stock I stamped the oak leaf, using Delightful Dijon. I then inked the edges of the matte using Cherry Cobbler ink.

I love the richness of the colors in this card, especially accompanied by the gold embossing paste!

My next Color Burst project was thank you cards for my stamping group. For these, I used Color Bursts on 9 x 11" sheets of watercolor paper and then cut them down to size as mattes.

For the blue set, I used Indigo and Terre Verte for the colors, finishing with some green, blue and crystal sequins. The color on these is very smooth in appearance as I let the colors dry naturally after moving the watercolor paper to get the paint to flow.

For this second set of cards, I used Merlot, Burnt Orange, Yellow Ochre and Terre Verte. The color in these cards is rougher in appearance, except for two, because I dried and then spritzed again with water, creating a droplet pattern. To these cards I added green, red, and gold sequins.

Both sets of watercolors were trimmed to matte size and edged with Ranger Archival Ink. The sentiment was also stamped with archival ink, using the now retired Four You stamp set. The blue set of cards were mounted on Night of Navy card bases and the fall color set were mounted on Kraft card bases, using Foam Tape.

Have you tried Color Bursts yet? I just love playing with them and next time I use them, I want to try using stencils with them. I'm looking forward to the results!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Pretty in Pink Poinsettia

I often wake up with an idea for a card. Today was no exception and since it was one of my days off, I was excited to create what I had envisioned!

I started by stamping the petals for a poinsettia using Pink Pirouette ink on Pink Pirouette card stock. I punched them using the coordinating Festive Flower Builder Punch. I also punched out three larger petals from Silver Glimmer paper for leaves and the centre parts of the flower.

Though you won't be able to see it in the photos, I used my Wink of Stella pen to trace over the stamping on each petal, giving each a subtle yet noticeable shimmer. I then folded each leaf in half and out again to give each petal a bit of dimension.

I used my 3/4" Circle Punch to punch out two Pink Pirouette circles to act as bases for the petals. Using my Silicone Craft Sheet and a glue gun, I proceeded to glue four larger petals to one of the 3/4" circles. Once the four were in place–clock fashion at 12, 3, 6 and 9–I glued the remaining four large petals in between the first four.

I glued the four smaller petals to the second 3/4" circle, again in clock fashion, and then topped them with the two double petals criss-crossed on top. I then glued the base for these petals onto the larger petals.

Next I glued the silver centre parts of the flower and finished up by gluing the three silver leaves to the back of the finished flower. What a pretty flower this made!

I cut a 5 x 7" card base from Whisper White Thick card stock. I glued a 3/4" strip of Silver Glimmer paper down each side, using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Using the Softly Falling Embossing Folder, I embossed a 5 x 6" piece of Whisper White Thick card stock. This card stock really holds the embossing very well!

On a 1 1/2 x 2 1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock I stamped the sentiment from the Embellished Ornaments stamp set. I first inked the stamp with Versamark and then Pink Pirouette and stamped using the MISTI This allowed me to re-stamp again using the Pink Pirouette to get a nicely colored sentiment which I heat embossed using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Using a sponge dauber I inked the edges of the tag in Pink Pirouette. I then used my Fuse to create a plastic pocket for the sentiment from a page protector, first fusing the bottom and sides and then adding in a selection of pink and silver sequins.

I left the top plastic about 1" in length but trimmed the back piece of the plastic even with the top of the tag. I then threaded the plastic through a jumbo size of silver paper clip and folded the long top plastic piece down the back of the tag. I fused three lines on the back, starting nearest the paper clip and spacing down about 1/4" each time.

An important tip about sequins . . . because they are so full of static, and the plastic pocket also holds a lot of plastic, I take a few precautions to try to eliminate as much static as possible. I pour my selection of sequins onto a dryer sheet and rub them down good with it. Before pouring them into the plastic pocket I stick a rolled up dryer sheet in there and rub it around. Finally, I pour the sequins into the plastic pocket from the other dryer sheet. This seems to help a lot!

I took my completed sentiment pocket and clipped it onto the top right of the embossed sheet of Whisper White. I applied Mounting Tape to back and then adhered it to my card base. I used a few little pieces of the Mounting Tape to adhere the poinsettia to the bottom left of the card.

My last touch was for the inside of the card. Using the poinsettia from the Reason For The Season stamp set and Versamark, I stamped a poinsettia on the bottom right of the card. I heat embossed this with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I love how this card turned out! The glitter of the Glimmer paper, the Wink of Stella shimmer on the poinsettia and the twinkle of the sequins all combine to produce a beautiful Christmas card!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Acorny Thank You

One of the first items that appealed to me in the Holiday Catalog was the Acorn Builder Punch as well as its coordinating stamp set, Acorny Thank You. It might have something to do with growing up in the country, surrounded by oak trees AND their acorns! Regardless, I thought it would be cute to be able to mix and match colors and papers to create all kinds of acorns for fall cards.

For this card, I started by stamping the acorn bottom twice on Whisper White card stock using Baked Brown Sugar. I used the coordinating punch to punch out the bottom as well as punching two tops from Gold Glimmer paper.

I knew that I wanted to use the Kraft Corrugated paper as a matte for a good dose of texture but thought it looked rather plain so I decided to stamp on it!

On a scrap of the corrugated paper, I tested Basic Brown Sugar, Soft Suede and finally Tip Top Taupe inks. I settled on the latter ink because I wanted the stamping to become a subtle background pattern.

After stamping oak leaves all over the corrugated matte, I inked the edges with Soft Suede using a sponge dauber.

I used the Stitched Circles Dies from Simon Says Stamps to die cut circles from a piece of the now retired Color Me Autumn DSP.

On Mossy Meadow card stock I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed using Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder from Recollections. It was die cut using the Bitty Banner Framelits.
The corrugated matte was adhered to a Mossy Meadow card base using Dimensionals and the stitched circle matte was adhered to the matte in the same manner.

Using glue dots, I adhered an arrangement of Gold Cord on the stitched matte and then adhered two acorns at angles with Dimensionals over the cord. The sentiment was adhered at bottom of card front also using dimensionals.

For the inside matte, I stamped the oak leaf in Mossy Meadow on Naturals White card stock.

I really love all the texture on this card–to me it simply screams, "Fall!"

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Autumn Leaf Shaker and Four Fuse Tool Tips

With Autumn in the air, I decided that my next shaker card made using the Fuse tool would have to have a leaf (or two) in it!

I chose a leaf patterned paper from the now retired Color Me Autumn DSP and adhered it to a piece of Crushed Curry card stock to give it strength.

I then used the Leaflet Framelits Dies to cut a maple leaf in the bottom left. I used the same die to create my shaker from a piece of a page protector. I filled it with an assortment of sequins, including some from Pretty Pink Posh.

As I created the shaker for this card, I realized that there was a bit of a learning curve for the Fuse tool.While my first shaker with the Fuse had been a straight-sided window, a leaf shape was much more complicated!

As I tried to trace the outside of the leaf die, I found it very tricky to fuse all the little angles of the die. It was then that I decided that my first piece of advice for the Fuse Tool was:

1. Don't choose complicated shapes. With that said, there is a caveat to this piece of advice; though a die shape maybe somewhat complicated, your fusing doesn't have to be ie. because the fused edge of the shaker will be generally hidden from view, you can fudge the fuse line a bit so that it is not so complicated to create.

I also had to create the leaf shaker a second time because the first time I was actually trying to fuse the INSIDE of the leaf die! I found it somewhat difficult to wrap my mind around where the die would cut the shape and where I would fuse it. This brings me to my second tip:

2. Die cut the inside of the die; fuse the outside of the die. The fused area of the shaker has to be OUTSIDE of the area where the opening is die cut, providing you with an area to adhere to the surrounding card and allowing you to keep the actual fused line hidden.

As I played more and more with creating the leaf shaker, my Fuse was still plugged in but sitting idle. when I used it to fuse again I actually ended up melting my plastic instead of fusing it! :( So my third tip becomes:

3. Unplug the Fuse when you are not planning to use it for awhile. On my iPhone, I have Siri set a timer for 15 minutes when I first plug in the Fuse so that I get it heated to its optimum heat setting. When I unplug it, I use the stopwatch function on my phone until I am once again ready to work with the Fuse tool. I then set a timer for the elapsed time on the stopwatch (or 15 minutes if it has been longer than 30 minutes) to reheat the Fuse.

4. While the Fuse is plugged in, use a heat safe container in which to hold it. I found that the little stand included with the tool to be somewhat useless. Because of the cord is so short, trying to rest the Fuse on its stand seems to be a very wobbly accident waiting to happen! Instead, I use a squat little canning jar to rest the Fuse in when I'm not holding it. Makes me feel a whole lot safer!

After my shaker was created, I taped it in place on the back of the card stock and then adhered the matte using mounting tape to a Crushed Curry card base. I used a Project Life journaling pen to create a stitched line around the leaf shaker.

The sentiment was die cut from Cajun Craze card stock using the Hello You thinlits and glued in place using the Fine Tip Glue Pen (my newest favorite adhesive!).

I'm going to keep playing with my Fuse to learn more about how it works best. Hopefully you will find the tips I have shared today useful in your fusing endeavours!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Hearth and Home: Fused

I had just the best day today on my day off!

For the last three days, I've been sick with a bad cold and had to take two days off work but finally started feeling better today. Usually if I get a cold, it always seems to strike on my day off–but not this time!

Today I was able to play with a lot of Stampin' Up! goodies from the new Holiday Catalog and I paired them with my new We Are Memory Keepers Fuse Tool.

After reading a lot of posts about this tool and seeing the creations that people were making with it, I decided to take the plunge! Am I ever happy I did!

I decided to use the window from the Hearth and Home Framelits to create a winter scene, suitable for a Christmas card. What could be cheerier for Christmas than a Real Red window frame?

I used the Fuse with a page protector to create the little pocket which I filled (too full, but it's hard to stop!) with a mix of both Stampin' Up! and Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

On a piece of Watercolor paper I sponged in a sky using Marina Mist and then stamped the conifers using Mossy Meadow ink. I adhered this scene to the window using Sticky Strip.

To create the wall for my window, on a Whisper White matte I adhered a Mistletoe-filled paper from the gorgeous new Home For Christmas DSP. On top of that I adhered a piece of Whisper White which I had embossed with the Stripes Embossing Folder to resemble beadboard. A tiny strip of white laid across the top gave the illusion of a chair rail. The completed matte was then adhered to a Real Red card base using Dimensionals.

The window was adhered on the card front using Dimensionals. I added a small wreath to the top of the window.

The wreath was created by first punching a hole in Mossy Meadow card stock with a 1/2" Circle Punch and then putting the 7/8" Scalloped Circle Punch over the punched hole to punch the wreath.

I added flowers to the wreath by using a Memory Box die called Flower Mound to punch tiny white flowers which I adhered using the Fine Tip Glue Pen. I added some red Stickles to the centres and completed the wreath by adding a bow made with 1/8" Real Red ribbon.

The Sparkly Seasons stamp set provided the perfect sentiment for my card! It was stamped with Versamark on Mossy Meadow and then heat embossed using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I used the Washi Label Punch to punch the sentiment and it was adhered to the card bottom using Dimensionals. A couple of rhinestones completed my cheery winter scene!

Have you made shaker cards? Have you tried the Fuse tool? Drop me a comment below–I'd love to hear from you!
Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Vintage Leaves and Happy Scenes

Friday was the first meeting of our stamping group after the summer break. It was a small group this time round as a number of members are either traveling or had other activities that night but we still had fun in creating two fall cards.

The first card used the Hearth & Home Framelits and the Happy Scenes stamp set to create a fall scene.

Watercolor paper was masked at the bottom using Post It Label Roll. Marina Mist was sponged over the top of the paper to create the sky.

The MISTI was used to stamp the scene using Basic Black Archival Ink. The scene was then colored in using Stampin' Write Markers.

The window was cut from Basic Black card stock using the Hearth & Home Framelits and adhered to the scene using the new Fine Tip Glue Pen.

A matte of Tangerine Tango was embossed using the Stripes Embossing Folder and then Cajun Craze ink was sponged over top to give definition to the stripes. The matte was then adhered to the Basic Black card base using Dimensionals.

The completed window was adhered to the striped matte using Dimensionals and then a tiny bow created with the now retired Pumpkin Pie 1/8" ribbon was adhered to the top of the window using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

A 1" banner was cut from Basic Black card stock using the Triple Banner Punch. A 3/4" strip of Whisper White was also punched to make a banner.

The sentiment was stamped using the Basic Black Archival ink and then the banner was sponged with Pumpkin Pie ink and edged with Cajun Craze. It was then adhered to the black banner. The completed banner was adhered to the bottom of the card using Dimensionals.

A matte of the now retired Naturals Ivory card stock was stamped with leaves from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamp set (an invaluable stamp set for adding "little touches" to cards and envelopes!) using Tangerine Tango and then edged with Cajun Craze.


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

The second card was a one layer card with lots of textured elements!

Oak leaves were cut from both watercolor paper and vellum using the Leaflets Framelits.

On a craft mat, Distress Inks (Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge, Fossilized Amber) were stamped and then spritzed with water. The two watercolor paper leaves were dragged through the ink until the colors were as desired. The leaves were dried using the Heat Tool. Water drops were spritzed onto the leaves and then blotted with a towel and then dried again.

The vellum leaf had the edges and stem inked with Versamark and then heat embossed using Gold Embossing Powder.

All three leaves were bundled together using Linen Thread. A little Crystal Effects was applied to the thread ends to make them stiff and then the ends were wound around a pencil to provide a little bit of interest to the thread.

A die cut from Gold Foil was made using the Starburst Framelits and then the shape was embossed using the Woodgrain Embossing Folder. It was adhered to the Soft Suede card front using Dimensionals. The bundle of leaves was adhered over the starburst also using Dimensionals.

The sentiment from the For All Things stamp set was stamped with Soft Suede onto Baked Brown Sugar card stock. The Triple Banner Punch was used to flag one end.

The 7/8" Scalloped Circle Punch was used to punch a shape from Soft Suede and it was adhered to one end of the sentiment banner. A Gold Basic Metal Button was adhered on top. The banner was adhered to the card front using a Dimensional.

For the inside of the card, a matte was created using Naturals White card stock. Three oak leaf tips from the Vintage Leaves stamp set were stamped at the bottom of the matte using Baked Brown Sugar and then the edges were inked.


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Love the colors and textures in these cards! Hope you enjoyed viewing them.