It's the Great Pumpkin!

Yesterday afternoon, when I stepped outside to walk to my daughter's school, it really hit me that it's fall. While it's been "hot" here, the sun was lower in the sky and it reminded me how quickly the days are shortening. Yikes! I love fall, though, and I'm excited for Halloween.

I've had an idea floating around in my head for a Halloween card, and I love how it worked out. In fact, I liked it so much, I made three variations! Here's the layered version:

While there were several steps for making the pumpkins, they were pretty easy to make. I used my dwindling stash of Amy Tangerine and AC Nightfall papers and die cut ovals with my Nesties. I played around with the layers and then stitched them onto the card base.

For the background, I stamped the Dash Pattern background stamp from Hero Arts with Versamark. I used PTI's Edgers #1 to make the bottom strip and then adhered the strip of paper from Studio Calico's Autumn Press at the bottom. I made the sentiment in Word and printed it onto the patterned paper. I totally dig how the brown and black look together...it's not a color combo I ever use, but I'll be using it again.

I'm linking this card up to the E.A.D. Designs "Be Thankful Color Challenge" that I saw on Amy's blog. There are other colors peeking through, so I hope it counts. If you get a chance, check out the challenge!

I had extra pumpkin layers, so I made more cards. Here's the CAS version:

On the base, I printed the sentiment (Two Peas' Journaling but expanded), but otherwise used the same Hero Arts stamp and patterned papers. The orange base paper is also from Autumn Press, and the twine is May Arts (love their natural twine!).

Lastly, here's a small card (4 1/4" square). I went WAY out of my comfort zone (more like out the door and down the street):

I started with the same base but then painted the edges, used several Distress Inks to provide depth, and (shriek!) distressed the edges lightly. To me, the edges looks like fog--I love how it turned out! Like the CAS card, I made the stem of the pumpkin out of brown cardstock.

Here's a close-up of the layers on one of the pumpkins:

The layered pumpkins have so much texture (and movement). I thought I'd link up to the Moxie Fab World Textured to Perfection Challenge (especially the last card with the painted and inked edges).


I wanted to pass along that Print Candee reached 1000 fans on Facebook, and to celebrate, they are having an amazing giveaway on their blog. They are giving away a $100 Amazon and $50 Michael's gift certificates (wow!). Go to THIS post to check out how to leave a comment to enter, and while you're there, check out the blog!

Thanks for looking! I hope you're having a good week!

Chevron Feather

I grew up in the Phoenix area, and I still love the southwestern motifs--the colors, the angles, the repetition of patterns. So even though the the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger is a dessert, the colors, the rustic feel, and striped layers reminded me of a southwestern vibe:

So, playing with the southwestern feel and stripes, I came up with an idea based on a feather. I must say I find some irony in the fact that I thought of a feather when I looked at an overloaded dessert (maybe I thought it was a low-cal dessert). Anyhoo, here's this card:

This card is actually my second version. The first one had the feather's quill, but there were some wonky issues with balance (it didn't look right unless I made the card about 9" tall). Oh well...live and learn. In this version, I eliminated the quill and ran the chevrons all the way down. I also left the chevron edges unglued to make the edges more feathery, so some of the points are a little curled up.

The chevrons are over a golden shimmery Bazzill that I misted with Mr. Huey's Cream. It's a little hard to see the misting in the photo, but here's a close-up:

The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday's Studio AE's August set (isn't it a fab stamp?). I also added a thin strip of wood veneer along the side. Beside the fact that I am addicted to my husband's stash of veneer lately, I think it works with the rustic look of the card.

Thanks for looking!

Come if You Dare

This week on the Create blog, Paige put out the challenge to create a Halloween party invitation. I love Halloween parties. Actually, I just plain love Halloween!

I was all set to make a CAS, fun card, but while I was putting away a Unity stamp from another project, a stamp caught my eye. So, I changed my card entirely and came up with this one:

This card was pretty simple to make (other than the sewing...my machine is having tension issues). First, I created the sentiment in Word and printed it on Basic Grey patterned paper. Then, I broke out my stamp positioner and used it to stamp the Unity bird/frame image from the "When I'm With You" KOTM. I was holding my breath that the sentiment would be in the right place! Then I die cut the stamped image and at die cut another frame behind. Here's a close-up of the stamped image:

If you look carefully, you can see that the cream is actually patterned paper with writing on it. I went around the patterned papers with my sewing machine and added some twine and a My Mind's Eye button.

I'm joining in with Unity's Friends With Flair this week. If you get a chance, play along!

On a personal note, I found out that the big Federal grant I wrote in June got funded--woo hoo! It was a pretty good size grant (about $3 million), but unfortunately, I don't get any of the money (I wrote it for a client). I wish I could write grants for myself, but there aren't a lot of paper crafting grants out there. Ha!

Have a great day!

Poker Christmas

I wanted to write a quick post to join in the Moxie Fab World Card Play Challenge.

When I was about 8, my grandparents taught me how to play poker. They never went to casinos or were gamblers, but they had grown up in the pre-Depression-era playing card games and wanted to share all of the fun poker games.  Every time I visited, we played for several hours a day (for money, no less), and I learned a lot! Playing was all fun, and I'm sure my grandfather folded good hands on a few occasions to let me win. Although I never play anymore, I have very fond memories of playing cards with them. Sorry to ramble on!

I inked up my Unity Suzi Blu stamp again to make a card based on playing cards:

Her dress is (obviously) made from a playing card, and the heart in her hand is fussy cut from the five of hearts. In the stamp, she's holding flowers in her right hand, so I masked the flowers to only show her hand.  Otherwise, I just paper pieced the rest of her outfit and colored her with Copics and colored pencils. Here's a close-up of Suzi:

Very stylish! I wish I could wear her outfit!

I went back and forth on the sentiment, but I really liked this one from Waltzingmouse Stamps. It's a little quirky for a Christmas card, but I'm the type of person who likes a little quirkiness now and then (okay, maybe all of the time).

Once I finished the front, I liked it so much, I decided I would frame it for Christmas decor. Of course, I realized after I had cut the front panel that it's a non-traditional size and will require a mat. I wish I would think of these things in advance--ha ha!

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

Trick or Treat

Happy Monday! Bows and Berries has a new challenge starting this week, based on a Halloween inspiration pictures (see here). I decided to use the new "Thumbs Up Monster" to make lollipop covers for Halloween treats:

Now I had visions of cranking out 24 of these covers for my daughter's class, but after envisioning the kids ripping them apart in .02 seconds to get at the candy, I think I may be coloring this little guy in Photoshop for the class treats. [That's the great thing about digital images!]

Here's a close-up of the orange monster:

And here's a close-up of the yellow monster:

He is so cool! If it hadn't been a Halloween picture, I probably would have put him on a surf board or given him drumsticks (stay tuned for that!). But, I wanted him to hold something in the other lollipop cover, and since I am certifiably addicted to the toothpick flags the past few weeks, I made one for him to hold. The sentiment is from the PTI Tag-Its.

I don't normally let my 5 1/2-year-old daughter get near my Copics, but she wanted to help color the monsters. She did a great job! Here's one that she colored:

Isn't the blue and orange cool? I love it!

So if you get a chance, visit the Bows and Berries blog and try the challenge! There are some great inspiration pictures from the Design Team.

Have a great day! Thanks so much for visiting! :)

Print Candee Bookmarks

It's been busy, busy, busy! My mom was here (from Maine) early in the week and I attended a multi-day training session later in the week. Plus, all week I've been fighting some type of cold that's settled in my chest--ugh. But, it's the weekend and tomorrow is World Cardmaking Day--yeah!

This month, the Print Candee Creative Team made projects with the theme of "little gifts." Fun! I decided to make a bookmark set, but I went a little out of control! There were so many good images that would work...I love that about Print Candee.

When I made these bookmarks, I had my in-laws in mind...they are avid readers. I started off by making a set of seasonal bookmarks using Pink Pueblo's Four Seasons Trees:

Once I figured out the best strategy, they were super easy to make. I started off using Photoshop, but I found it was easiest to just save the jpegs in Word and resize them all the same. Then, I used my Papertrey Ink Bookmark die (although you could just cut them, too). To finish all of the bookmarks, I cut a second bookmark in patterned paper, attached it to the backside, and tied a ribbon on top. As a tip, you could use Print Candee papers to easily match both sides. Here are the backs:

I did leave off the winter. In South Dakota, we really don't need a reminder about winter--LOL! Aren't those trees gorgeous? They would make a nice notecard set, too. Here are close-ups of the seasonal bookmarks:

Love the summer tree (the last one)...I think it would work for fall, too. You could stamp a sentiment on any of these, too.

When I was looking through the Print Candee website, I ran across Digital Potpurri's Cherry Blossom stamps. Holy cow, is it a pretty set! It was tricky to size these well for the bookmarks, but here are two I made:

Here's a close-up of the cherry blossoms:

For the butterflies, I did use the png files in Photoshop to layer the butterflies and recolor them. The butterfly on top is an orangish-red, although it's hard to tell in the photos. Here's a pic:

Finally, I wanted to make sure I had a more masculine bookmark, and I found Life is Groovy's Birch Trees Spring/Fall set. In Photoshop, I simply layered the birdhouse on the tree. I finished it off with some May Arts natural twine. I think it's my favorite!

Thanks for taking the time to look through all of these pictures. It was so much fun to make these...I may be making about 50 more for Christmas!

Have a great weekend!