Witch Cat In A Pumpkin Happy Halloween Card

Old stamp sets from Stampin' Up!

watercolor paper

Green Galore, Lovely Lilac, Pumpkin Pie, Textured Black

card stocks

various inks, aquapainter

Button paper punch

orange light weight craft yarn

Thanks for looking =) 

Stitched Witch Halloween Card

Really old stamp set from Stampin' Up!

Watercolor paper

Black textured card stock

White card stock

Lovely Lilac card stock

Black Stazon ink

Various colors of inks, aquapainter

Button paper punch

Sewing machine with orange thread, zig zag stitch

Orange light weight craft yarn

Thanks for looking =) 

Jack O' Lantern Happy Halloween Card

Retired pumpkin stamp set from Stampin' Up!

Wacky Wishes from Stampin' Up!

Various water based markers to color the stamp image

Various ink pads for the pumpkin

White card stock

3/8" black grosgrain ribbon

Thanks for looking =) 

Two Halloween Cards

Sympathy Card

All supplies from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

Thoughts and Prayers stamp set

Close As A Memory stamp set

Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso

markers and card stocks

Natural card stock

Modern Mosaic embossing folder

twine

Scallop Edge  border punch

Lace Ribbon border punch

paper piercer

pearlescent dimensional paint, Tulip brand

I made the teeny tiny flowers from a portion on this 

paper punch. I attached a scrap of Cherry Cobbler

card stock to a thin strip of scrap white card stock

to easily insert it and maneuver it into the punch where I wanted.

Thanks for looking =) 

Peeking Dragon Card

I created this fun little card for a nephews birthday.

All supplies used from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

Just Sayin' stamp set

Darling Dragons stamp set

Word Bubbles die set

numbers embossing folder, not sure of manufacturer

Summer Sun and Whisper White card stock

various classic inks to watercolor the dragon with

dimensionals

I stamped the dragon twice, once onto scrap paper to 

cut out his arms and head for popping up on

the base image. 

Thanks for looking =) 

Beetles Invasion ! Asian Beetles That Is

Somehow these little bugs know when it is the warmest day 

of the week right before a cold snap,

taking flight from the woods and field to our house

in search of a place to overwinter.

It's crazy to see so many in flight at once -

and that you can hear them as they bounce off of the siding

 in search of the perfect place to land. 

It sounds almost like rain drops. 

How to tell the difference between Asian Beetles and Ladybugs

http://www.ehow.com/info_7851787_differences-between-asian-beetles-ladybugs.html

(we still call them ladybugs, it's easier to say !)

It's difficult to see in the photo all of them

that are on this one window, but there are lots !

Multiply that amount by oh, I don't know,

a million, and you'll be close to the number of them

trying to get inside the house and barn!

Don't dare go outside when they are swarming

because they get in your clothes, hair, etc and

they can "bite" ! They also stink if you squish them.

The good news is, we only have to deal with the

swarming of zillions of them for a few days.

This is inside the window above my craft table in the basement.

I circled several of them that were scurrying about it

at the time I took the photo.

This is my craft table directly under the above window.

Yes, they do get in the house but the majority of them are in

the attic. Lots make it into the basement, too,

while some do make it in to the main living areas.

Most die and those that live I will catch and throw

back outside. Waste of time though

since the little bugs will just try to come right back in.

We live in a 100+ year old house that has many small gaps

and old windows, easy places for them to enter.

Those that get away just crawl into the walls and windowsills,

up into the attic. Sometimes I'll find them hidden elsewhere

(especially amongst my crafty things in the basement).

Once spring arrives, those that live will make their way back out.

Most die. I joke that our house is insulated with ladybugs !

Woolly Worm Winter Prediction ?

I saw this woolly worm racing across the floor of our new 

steel building in search of a place to over winter.

I rescued it, taking it to the old wood barn where

there are many things it can spend the winter under.

It has no black ends, if you believe the folklore,

it means we are in for a mild winter !

Wouldn't that be nice after the record setting winter

we had last year ? 

 

http://www.almanac.com/content/predicting-winter-weather-woolly-bear-caterpillars

Deer Reflection Scrapbook Page

This is it, my final photo to be scrapped for my 

Photo Of The Week scrapbook album !!!!

After much indecision as to how I wanted to scrap this photo,

I decided to go super simple. 

I wanted to let one of my favorite photos (what a lucky shot!) show 

with no distractions. I've learned over these last few months of scrapping

my Photo of The Week submissions that I really do like the

"less is more" scrapping mentality, I put too much on some pages that 

distract from the photos. Also, as much as I liked putting my supplies to use

combining textures and being creative,  I'll admit that 

I prefer digital scrapbooking for numerous reasons ! 

I submitted this photo to our local newspaper to be considered as 

Photo Of The Week last summer.

It was taken last year during the historic flooding in our area.

I just happened to hear a "swish swish swish" sound of something

moving water, but couldn't see anything at first. 

I then caught a glimpse through the trees of a deer walking down the middle of our flooded road.

I rushed to grab my camera, but without thinking as I went out to the porch,

I let the door close a bit too loudly behind me, frightening it. 

I pressed the shutter button over and over, hoping to catch a photo of it.

 I was thrilled to see what I caught - and that it was in focus!

My photo was printed in black and white as a sort of 

honorable mention for Photo of the Week.

I have the newspaper clipping and will scrap it on
a separate page along with some journaling.

How did I make this "shadowbox" scrapbook page? 

I used corrugated card board (no idea how photo safe that is though!?)

to give the dimension to the page. I cut the center out of it

then used that piece, but trimmed down a bit, to mount the photo on

so it would pop back up to the height of the surrounding mat.

A little trick I learned decades ago when I was working in a frame shop.

The card stock is Early Espresso Textured Corednations by Stampin' Up!

I lightly sanded the edges to reveal the Kraft core.

The photo is mounted on Kraft card stock.

I decided to not add any words to this page.

They will all be on the opposite page that  

I feature the print from the newspaper on. 

Thanks for looking =)

Basketball Net Full Of Snow Scrapbook Page

One more page from my 

Photo Of The Week scrapbook album.

This is a photo I took of record breaking snow

 last winter - nearly 14" of snow ! 

The photo printed out too dark.

The barn should be more red. 

The background paper was from an old 

Die Cuts With A View stack.

The snowflakes were created with a 

coordinating stamp set and dies from Stampin' Up!

I stamped them with Whisper White Kraft ink

onto Smokey Slate card stock.

Thanks for looking =) 

Welcome Autumn Card

Sentiment was created with My Digital Studio

then I cut it out by hand after printing.

I used a coordinating die from Stampin' Up!

to cut the kraft background piece. 

Lovely Leaves, retired from Stampin' Up!,

stamp set with various colors of ink

then hand cut and bent. Low temp glue gun

used to adhere all the pieces together.

Lattice embossing folder, Kraft card stock, Soft Suede ink

for the background on the card. 

Thanks for looking =) 

Hunter's Moon / Blood Moon Eclipse

I did it, 

I finally got a couple okay shots of the full moon!

I was determined to try again this month

during the Hunter's Moon / Blood Moon eclipse.

There were many, many bad shots, too.

I tired various settings I read about 

as well as the preprogrammed settings

on my Nikon D5000 with Tamron 18-270mm lens

set up on a tripod (no remote shutter release). 

Just luck to get these few:

Full moon before going to bed.

Near total eclipse, low in the sky around 5:30 AM.

Tweaked in Photoshop Elements.

Leaving my house around 6:45 AM.

Lots of clutter in this shot, but it was the only safe spot along the road I could

pull over to see the moon above the bluffline.

OWH ODBD - Snowflakes

First time I've participated in a challenge at 

Operation Write Home in a while !

This card was made for the

Our Daily Bread Design Challenge -

use snowflakes but not on a Christmas card.

My card is blank so it could be used for anything. 

All supplies from Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise:

Snow Angels stamp set, retired

Snowflake border punch, unknown

Snow Flurries die

Whisper White, Soft Sky card stock

Various classic inks

Whisper White Craft ink

Aquapainter

glitter glue (coated with sealer to make sure no glitter comes off)

Puffy Paint

White 5/8" organdy ribbon

Dimensionals

splitcoaststampers.com sketch

Thanks for looking =)

AnythingButACard Autumn Magic/Spring Wonder

Time for a new challenge at AnythingButACard ! 

I'm tickled to say that I am one of the newest members

of the design team and this is one of my first submissions.

The theme this month, Autumn Magic / Spring Wonder.

My piece right now is celebrating Autumn,

but it could easily be changed throughout the seasons.

Be sure to take a moment to visit AnythingButACard to see

the first set of amazing and varied team creations this week.

There will be more posted each of the next two Sundays.

Lots of inspiration for you to make a project (it can be anything

crafty, but not a card !) and share

with us in the InLinkz at the bottom of the challenge post. 

This is exactly how it looked 

as a table decoration at a wedding reception in mid September.

My daughter brought it home thinking I could do something with it.

I wasted no time in ripping it apart,

knowing I'll find uses for the pieces at some point.

The wood was freshly cut, still wet and oozing sap so it had to be 

disassembled then set outside to dry.

I found out a week after receiving this that I would be a member of the 

design team at Anything But A Card ! Woohoo!!!!

It became the perfect canvas for my first design team project,

although I was kicking around several other ideas.

How to's:

You want to tear apart the

"silk" flower then reassemble it so that

the smaller petals will be on the top of 

the fairy's skirt when you put it on her.

Also, you may want to flip the petals upside down.

I did this since they looked better that way. 

Save the plastic center pieces for another project if 

you wish, you will not need to reuse them for the fairy skirt.

Flower fairy supplies:
~"silk" flower
(I used the one that was on the decoration to begin with)

~two pipe cleaners
(I painted mine flesh colored, they were white to begin with)
~wood bead with hole drilled in bottom
~acrylic craft paints
~something for hair
(I used a type of floral supply)
~something for the top of the dress and something to tie it
(dyed corn shuck from my stash and raffia were used on my fairy)

Paint the wood bead and add facial features.
Fold one chenille stem/pipe cleaner in half.
Thread the folded end through the fairy's flower skirt.
Wrap the other chenille stem/pipe cleaner around the first in the area
you would like the arms to be.
Attach the item you are using for the dress bodice.
Shorten each stem as needed to make the length of arms and legs
you wish. Bend the ends over to help hide the sharp pointy ends.
Add a dab of glue then shove the fold of the legs chenille stem/pipe cleaner
 into the hole of the wood bead.

I had planned on using skeleton leaves as wings for the fairy,

but they were too fragile.  I have some tulle, somewhere.....

or perhaps this little fairy has no wings and is looking up

 wishing she had wings like the beautiful butterfly has ?

Supplies used to make the card stock leaves

The saying was designed using My Digital Studio

then printed out on my home printer.

I hand trimmed the white part ,

used a coordinating die from Stampin' Up!

to cut the Kraft background piece. 

The leaves were assembled using a low temp glue gun.

Supplies used to create the butterfly.

I really should have used black embossing powder

on the butterfly to make it pop more.

The black Stazon ink looks dull.

It was stamped and colored on a piece of 

drafting weight vellum paper. 

It is attached with a thin strip of clear acetate

and heavy duty double stick tape. 

Before assembling with a low temp glue gun.

Done ! 

This could easily be swapped out

to make a spring/summer display if the 

embellishment on the band is attached with velcro dots

or you make the band easily removable.

The fairy is just sitting on the stump , not glued in place,

so she could be changed out, too.

The butterfly is attached with a thin piece of acetate and

double stick tape that could be removed. 

Thanks for looking =)

Be sure to see the rest of the AnythingButACard

Design Team projects for week 1 of the 

Fall/Spring Challenge !

World Card Making Day - PaperCrafts

World Card Making Day 2014 with Paper Crafts!

I just whipped up a couple of these cards this morning to send in a box of cards I'm working on to donate to Operation Write Home. Pretty easy to make card of thanks for the troops for their service.

I used a centering ruler to help align the stars.

Sponge blue ink over the stars punched out of removable sticky note paper.

Be sure to lay scrap paper along the bottom half of the card.

Sponge red ink over a plastic stripes template.

It would have been far less messy (and quicker!)

had I used die cuts glued to the card front rather than sponging the ink.

The sponged ink created a different look, though.

Adhere small punched out card stock stars with star shaped eyelets.

Attach the die cut "thankful" on top of the finished card front.

Die is retired from Stampin' Up!

Glue to a card base and write a note of thanks to the troops. 

Thanks for looking and keep on hopping 

Paper Craft World Card Making Day Blog Hop

(click on the MrLinky at the bottom of the page)

Operation Write Home World Card Making Day Blog Hop

LOVE cards (see my previous post)

World Card Making Day - OWH Blog Hop

It's World Card Making Day ! 

I made Love cards that could be suitable for parents to send home to their kids for the Operation Write Home World Cardmaking  Day Blog Hop ! Although they have several layers, they are still quite flat and mail friendly.


Supplies Used:
Stamp sets: Darling Dragons - retired Stampin' Up!
                  Circle Of Friendship - retired Stampin' Up!
                  Just Sayin' - Stampin' Up!
Card stocks: Watercolor paper
                     Basic Black
                     Whisper White
                     Lovely Lilac
                     Pink and Green white core card stock, Die Cuts With A View (old , from my stash)
Black Stazon ink
Assorted classic ink pads and markers, Stampin' Up!
Aquapainter to watercolor the images using water based inks
Punches and die from Stampin' Up! :
                      Circle
                      Label(?) - retired
                      Slot(?) - retired
                      Word Bubbles die
Cuttlebug Hearts embossing folder
Fiskars Leather Texture Plate
Big Shot die cut/embossing machine
Black 5/8" grosgrain ribbon
Yellow ribbon, Michael's Dots Dashes and Checks
Fine sandpaper to remove pink from the embossed hearts background paper
Adhesive
Dimensionals, Stampin' Up! (pop dots to raise the stamped images slightly)
Fray check for the cut ends of the ribbons
Double Stick tape, heavy duty, to adhere ribbon




Be sure to bookmark the post at Operation Write Home and keep checking back throughout the day as other cards are shared at the bottom in the InLinkz for the hop ! Submissions are accepted from 6 AM PST until Midnight PST October 4th - plenty of time for you to make a "Love" card and share, too !

Want to find out more about Operation Write Home and how you can help make cards to send to the troops ? Read this post for all the current needs.

Smaller sentiment stamps were colored directly with water based markers to get the multi colored stamped image. Be sure to "huff" your warm breath onto the inked rubber stamp before stamping onto the card stock to moisten the water based inks if they dry as you are coloring.

Once your card stock is embossed with an embossing folder,

texture plate, brass template with stylus, etc,

you can add color by rubbing an ink pad directly to

the raised areas or by lightly sanding white core card stock

with a fine grit sandpaper to reveal the white core. 

Thanks for looking =)