Haunted Hills

Hello everyone, how about a Halloween card today? Halloween cards are one of my favorite kinds of cards to make. I don't really give out any :-o  but I love making them all the same. This one is a hodge podge of several different digital and clear products.

The cute witch and her sidekick is from Mo's Digital Pencil (at least it was, I can't seem to find it in her web store anymore!), I think it's called Trick or Treat. I colored them up with Copics.

The papers are digital as well, from Design House Digitals 'Halloween Vintage Findings'. If they look familiar, it might be because I believe there's a paper pad from My Mind's Eye that has these same papers. I freehand cut some rolling hills using different patterns to create the background. I also stamped the haunted house and trees in the BG with a clear stamp set from Inkadinkado, I think. 

And last but not least, the Haunted House ticket is a printable from the Silhouette store. I really wanted coordinating ribbon too, but of course had nothing even close in my stash. So I striped a plain piece of grosgrain with a ruler and Copics. It actually bled a little and I thought I ruined the ribbon, but after tying it into a bow, turns out I LOVE the effect! One of those happy accidents I will be using again in the future, kind of an 'ombré' look to it. 

Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by!

Carnations for Mother

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with different techniques lately, trying to 'expand my horizons', so to speak. Trying to prevent my mojo from getting stale, I guess. One of the things I've had in my crafting supplies for ages were Glimmer Mists. I've made my own spray inks ages ago, but didn't really use them all too much until I got sucked into buying some luscious colors from Tattered Angels. I started making my own patterned papers with washes of color and some simple embossing. Here's a card made with one of my more 'successful' attempts.

The problem with creating a gorgeous piece of DP is that I don't want to cover anything up. The subtle changes of colors merging together, a pretty spatter of ink here, a lovely blend of colors there, etc. etc. I usually don't end up using them at all. Which defeats the purpose, so I forced myself to use this one, and leave as much of it visible as possible. 

The flowers are from Papertrey Ink's last set in the Year of Flowers series, the carnation. I gold embossed them and water colored with a combination of Tombow markers and the Glimmer Mists I used for the background paper.

I stamped some flourishes in gold as well, and cut them out too. The sentiment is from a Verve set. I may save this for Mother's Day, although I don't know for sure. I'm pretty fond of this card, LOL! I'm so happy with the result I may actually start using my pile of pretty papers after all! I'll just have to make sure and use a layout that doesn't cover up too much of it.

Hope you like it, and thanks for all the lovely comments, they really make my days so much happier!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Verve, Inkadinkado
Ink: Versamark, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists
Paper: Arches water color, PTI
Tools & Accessories: Filigree embossing powder, Tombow markers, water brush, seam binding, sheer ribbon, pearl headpins, Sizzix texture plate, Spellbinders Labels die

Open if you dare...

Isn't this card eerie?! I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I decided to make it a recessed window card to really showcase that glorously creepy haunted house. I made a litle background paper using Adirondack reinkers on wet watercolor paper. The colors bled into each other creating really cool patterns. Then I just stamped/embossed right on top of that.

Stephen King would be proud of this one... LOL!

Hope you like it, thanks for looking, have a great weekend everyone!

Stamp: Inkadinkado, Papertrey Ink sentiment, Studio G

Ink: Brilliance, Distress, Adirondack

Paper: Memory Box, Papertrey Ink, watercolor paper

Accessories: SU modern label punch, Black embossing powder, Stickles, brown, black and orange glitter, SU Heat n Stick powder, striped grosgrain ribbon, brad

Two Little Birdies, Sittin' in a Tree...

I have just a little A2 card to share with you all today using an Inkadinkado stamp. I really like Inka's birds, they're so sweet. Colored the birdies with some Copics, but the leaves and flowers are my usual colored pencils.

I'm off from work this weekend, so I get to just relax, and stamp, of course!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend as well!

Stamps: Inkadinkado, Papertrey Ink

Ink: Versafine, SU

Paper: PTI, Bazzill

Accessories: Copics, colored pencils, OMS, Fiskars Fleur de lis punch, Prima flower, PTI button, Cuttlebug EF, Wrights satin ribbon, SU scallop oval & oval punches

Jeweled Hummingbird

I love Hummingbirds. Whenever I have petunias planted in our deck boxes out back, this gorgeous iridescent emerald hummingbird comes by for some nectar all summer. So when I saw someone use this stamp from Inkadinkado on SCS, I knew I had to have it! He's so fun to color with all the patterns and little details.

The flowers are from Magnolia, which I popped up and layered. I also stamped the hummingbird on vellum, then colored on the back of the wings, cut them out and glued them on to the main image. It kind of looks like he is really flying, because if you've ever seen a real hummingbird, you know you can't even see the wings! They are a blur because they're moving so fast. That's the effect the vellum kind of has.

Hope you like it!

Stamps: Inkadinkado, Magnolia

Ink: Palette, Distress

Paper: PTI, Memory Box

Accessories: Nestabilities, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, Liquid Pearls, MS Lace border punch, MS Moire ribbon

Last Minute Halloween Treat Bags

Happy Halloween everyone! I needed to make up some last minute treat bags, so I did some quick bag toppers. These were sooooo simple. Black cardstock for the base, a DP layer, some die cut circles, a variety of stamped images/sentiments, glue it all together, staple it onto the bag and it's done! Now I have to go to the craft store and figure out how to make cat ears for my DD, I couldn't find any in the two big box stores I went to last night!

Happy trick-or-treating, hope you get tons of candy!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Inkadinkado

Paper: Bazzill, Rusty Pickle

Ink: Versafine, Palette

Accessories: Nestabilities

Meow! CPS #74 Sketch Challenge

Isn't this cat from Inkadinkado adorable! She looks so sassy with her 'catitude'! It's been a while since I made a card, I went through a bit of a slump, I think. So I looked through my favorite challenge blogs, and decided the Card Positioning Systems sketch was the simplest. The challenges always help me when I'm stumped for ideas.
Stamps: Inkadinkado
Paper: Papertrey Ink, SU!
Ink: Fluid Chalk, Palette
Accessories: PTI ribbon, Sizzix texture plate

Happy Harvest...

This gorgeous DP was the inspiration for my card today. I have been searching for this Heidi Grace Harvest Floral paper for a long time. It's pretty hard to find! I finally found it on eBay and bought a bunch of it. I decided it was perfect for Inkadinkado's new pumpkin stamp from the Bats & Cats set. I colored them with Adirondack ink and used some Papier Effects Sepia glaze over the center pumpkin. It doesn't show very well in the pic, but it really adds that extra WOW to the actual card.

Stamps: Inkadinkado, PTI
Ink: Distress, Palette, Adirondack
Paper: Fabriano w/c paper, Heidi Grace, PTI, shimmery brown cardstock (unknown),
Accessories: Nestabilities, Spellbinders Double-ended tags die, Folk Art Sepia Papier Effects, copper brads

Harvest Colors card.

I had to post one more card I made. I have quite a few to show, but I'm too tired to do them all tonight!
This one took quite a bit of time, but I love the way it came out. My inspiration for a card/project usually comes from DP or a certain image. In this case, it was the image. I saw new Halloween/Fall stamps from Inkadinkado on their web site, and fell in love with them. I tried to find them online, but no one had them yet. I knew AC Moore carried a lot of Inkadinkado stamps, so I decided to check it out. Well, I was wandering the stamp section there, I didn't see them on the shelves and started getting pretty down. Until I spied a box on the floor with the Inkadinkado logo on the side. Well, I had to open it and look, and lucky for me, they had a whole bunch of new holiday stamp sets in there. I quickly rummaged through them and found the Bats & Cats set I wanted, plus another set of Halloween flourishes. This crow scene was in that set, and I love it!
So the crow stamp brought to mind deep, earthy colors reminiscent of Harvest time, so I stamped it in Burnt Umber Palette ink on SU! mustard paper. I tried to find some DP that would do the image justice, couldn't find anything in my stash, so I made my own. I took some Adirondack reinkers, did some washes on watercolor paper, then glazed over the whole thing with Pearl Ex for a gorgeous shimmer. When it dried, I ran it through my Big Kick with a Cuttlebug floral embossing folder. Love it!

Stamps: Inkadinkado, Papertrey Ink
Paper: Arches w/c paper, SU!, Bazzill
Ink: Distress, Palette
Accessories: Leaf and Flower punches from The Punch Bunch, Martha Stewart leaf punch, Olive felt ribbon, Spellbinders bookplate die, copper brads, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Pearl Ex, Adirondack reinkers, Clear round epoxy sticker, Tulip Dimensional Paint

Autumn colors

The heat wave has finally relented! It was unbearable. Hot, sticky and sometimes stormy. Last night we had one final storm, with tornado watches (fortunately nothing here, just a lot of broken branches and overturned garbage cans) and afterwards it cooled off. This morning is beautiful and cool again. I've been busily making flowers, flowers and more flowers. I figure if I make enough of them until I get sick of it, I won't ever have to buy Primas again. Seriously! And I kind of like mine better, and I can always find the color I want!
I needed to get away from pastel colors for a bit. I love soft colors, but I needed to make something bold and earthy. So I decided on an autumn theme. I water colored a piece of paper in Adirondack inks again, Raisin, Pesto, Butterscotch and Ginger, then used the same spectrum pad for the leaves. I couldn't find an appropriate sentiment, so I left it blank. I can always go back and add one if I decide later.
Stamps: Inkadinkado
Ink: Adirondack
Paper: SU!, K & Co. Mira collection, Memory Box
Accessories: Olive grosgrain ribbon, nestablities, Assorted flower punches from The Punch Bunch and Carla Craft, Martha Stewart leaf punch

Summer Sunrise Birdie

Stamps: Inkadinkado, Printworks, Studio G

Ink: Palette, Printworks Designer Ink, Tombow markers

Paper: Bazzill, Papertrey, Fabriano w/c paper

Accessories: Grosgrain ribbon, Dew Drops, Copic Spica pens, Nestabilities

I saw this paper in Michael's a while back and loved the beautiful oranges, deep pinks and blues. Unfortunately, I cut it up without looking at who made it! The little birdie stamp is one of my favorites, I saw another blogger use it and had to have it. I stamped everything with Palette ink and colored with my markers. I used Copic Spica pens to add subtle shimmer here and there. It doesn't have a sentiment because I like to leave some of the cards I make blank so I can add it later, when I need a certain card at the last minute.