Another a"maze"ing card

Happy Halloween! The kids woke me up bright & early wanting to get their costumes on for the parties at school. I certainly feel sorry for the teachers today! Both of my boys wanted costumes from their favourite video game "Minecraft". The youngest is "Steve" (check out that diamond sword) and my oldest is a "Creeper" (the bad guy). I had a late night cutting & pasting these costumes together (just printed cardstock glued over paper bags) but the kids are happy so it's worth it.

My other crafting project has been the creation of Halloween cards for the kids. This card is the one I made for my younger son.

I made a set of cards with mazes on the front for the BC Children's Hospital and the boys asked to have similar cards for themselves. For this one I used a digi from Dustin Pike's Doodle Dragon Studios which I inserted into a dollar store maze. The papers are Bo Bunny and the border punch is Martha Stewart. The sentiment is printed off my computer. This was a very quick card to put together - I think the longest time was spent prying the maze apart so thatI could replace the inside image with the digi.

Have a wonderful Halloween!

Challenges:

• 2 Sisters - Halloween colours
• 4 Crafty Chicks - Halloween
• ABC Challenges - Halloween in a hurry (make the card in less than 30 mins)
• Craft Punked - Halloween
• Crazy Amigo - Halloween
• One Stop Craft - Halloween
• Top Tip Tuesday - Halloween

Dintinctively Pink Christmas

I'm in a festive mood today so I'm sharing a Christmas card that I just finished up.

I used a sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches as my starting point and was inspired to use pink as my base colour because so many challenges this month are calling for pink (due to it being Breast Cancer awareness month).

I was shopping on the weekend and picked up a couple of new die cuts (the tree and deer) so I just had to use them right away. The tree die cut is from Dee's Distinctively Dies - I cut the tree layers (plus free-handed the largest layer because I wanted my tree to be a bit bigger) and then embossed them using a snowflake embossing folder. I popped up each layer of the tree to give even more dimension. The tree trunk is just free cut from a scrap.

The window frame is also popped up so that there is depth (Memory Box Madison Grand Window with ledges trimmed). The deer are cut with Memory Box (deer trio). I really lucked out with the black/grey patterned paper - I was looking in the scrap box and found just enough of this paper. I love how the design looks like swirling snow.

That's it for now - thanks for visiting.


Challenges:
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - embellish with die cuts/punches
ABC Christmas - anything goes
Christmas Card Challenges - pop it up
D.L. Art - Holiday in Oct/Nov/Dec
Do You Stack Up - embossing
Fussy & Fancy - anything goes
Jingle Belles - creatures
Love to Create - lots of layers

Twisted Trick or Treat

UPDATE:  My card was chosen as one of the Top 3 at Forever Night! I'm just thrilled to be included among such wonderfully creative & creepy cards.

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I'm hoping that my BFF Jacqui is too busy to check any blogs but if not, Jacqui, please stop looking now!

OK, so today I'm sharing the Halloween card that I created for Jacqui and normally I'd wait until it arrived before sharing it on my blog but there are so many challenges right now with Halloween for a theme and I just love entering challenges, so ...

 

Sorry about the picture being a bit blurry but honestly, it doesn't really hurt the look of the card (lol). The card front started as a tag (made a couple of weeks ago in a class at Country Lane). I trimmed the top and then added a couple layers of patterned paper (Basic Grey). The final - and my favourite - touch is the netting wrapped and tied along the top. The net is actually recycled from a Halloween treat bag! I just love the ragged look of the knot. In case you didn't see the first post, the images on the tag are Stampotique and Tim Holtz and the background was created using Dylusions sprays.

 

Challenges:

2 Sisters - Halloween

ATC's and Cards With Attitude - Halloween

Card Makin' Mamas - Halloween

Come and Get It - Halloween

Crafty Calendar - All things spooky w/ optional recycling

Craftymess Challenge - Halloween

Fashionable Stamping - Halloween

Forever Night - Anything goes / picture inspiration (I think my girl has as much attitude! lol)

Loves Rubber Stamps - Get your spook on it's Halloween

My Sheri Crafts - Halloween

Paper Playtime - Boo

Party Time Tuesdays - Trick or Treat

Pile It On - Any holiday

Pink Elephant - Halloween

Sentimental Sundays - Halloween

Sweet Stampin' - Halloween

Top Tip Tuesday - Halloween

Tuesday Throwdown - Halloween



Yummy Halloween

Today's card was made for my darling niece and includes some of my favourite things - Bo Bunny paper, an Elizabeth Dulemba digital image and lots & lots of layers.

I chose a sketch from Twisted Tuesday as my starting point. For my main image, I used the caramel apple from Elizabeth Dulemba - I printed off 6 copies of the apple so that I could colour and spray mist (using Shimmer "Frost") the caramel coating separately and then pop it up from the apples. Love how it worked out although if I did this again I'd probably choose to leave off the spray mist or go with something a bit clearer.

Twisted Tuesday sketch

The papers are a mix of Bo Bunny and DCVW. I added Stickles "Rock Candy" to several of the candy images so that the card would have more shine. Every layer is popped up so the card has lots of dimension! And looking at the photo I'm kind of taken aback at how busy the card is - doesn't look quite this colourful or busy in real life. Oh well, my niece will love it and that's what counts! Happy Halloween to you all!

Challenges:
2 Sisters - Cute & creepy
Card Makin' Mamas - Halloween
Challenge Up Your Life - Halloween
Chocolate Coffee Cards - Stitching (real or faux)
Come and Get It - Halloween
Craftymess - Halloween
Crafty Catz - Halloween
Dream Valley Challenges - Halloween
Heck of a Challenge - Halloween
My Sheri Crafts - Halloween
NMWC - Halloween creations/colours
Pile It On - any holiday
That Craft Place - Halloween
Twisted Tuesday - Sketch plus twist - use spray mist
Unique crafters - Halloween

Pretty patchwork envelope

I'm in love with this birthday card that I made for my niece. First off, it uses products from some of my favourite companies (Basic Grey for papers, Pollycraft for the digi, Spellbinders for the dies) but it also gave me a chance to try a new technique!

The image is an old one from Tales from Pollycraft (the store is closed down but you can still get her images from Little Miss Muffet Stamps) and it is perfect for my niece - swear it even looks like her! I coloured the image using Copic markers. All of the papers used on the card are from Basic Grey. The digi is framed using a Spellbinders die cut and the sentiment is a rub-on over another Spellbinders die cut.

I wanted to make a long card but didn't have an envelope that would fit - instead of making an envelope, I used one of those reply envelopes that you get inside bills and altered it according to an article I recently read (which magazine? hmmm). It was such fun digging out scraps of paper and gluing them to the envelope. I finished off by running a brayer over top so everything was really adhered. And "voila" a custom envelope that also used up a bunch of paper scraps from my ever-expanding bucket oh scraps!

That's it for now although I'll be posting soon with another birthday card for another niece ... reminder to self: finish that card ASAP before I miss her birthday! LOL.

Challenges:
Card Mania - happy birthday
Craft Us Crazy - children
Crafts and Me - anything goes
Divas by Design - anything goes
Simon Says Stamp - dies/punches

And these challenges for the envelope only:
Craft Room Challenge - alter it
Party time Tuesdays - anything but a card
Penny's Paper-Crafty - anything but a card
Unstampabelles - recycle/repurpose

Inky Halloween fun

I have been having such fun attending classes at Country Lane lately. I've now taken 4 classes, all with the amazing Debi, and I so wish there were more I could fit in. The latest class was Halloween Fun and I'm just thrilled with how each turned out. Debi teaches techniques, not card kits, so even though we had her examples to work from, every card in the class turned out a bit different.

These first 2 cards involved creating our own backgrounds using distress inks and stamps. I still can't believe these started as blank white pieces of paper! I particularly love the second card with the 3D tree and creepy bunny. The main stamps are Stampotique and the background stamps are mostly Tim Holtz. The images are coloured with Copic markers. I'm not sure who makes the die cuts for the tree and fence - if I come across them in my travels I'll add later. I love the technique for the first card where we covered the initial stamps (the tree & fence) with masking medium and then created the background. Once the background was finished, I just rubbed off the masking medium - sure easier than trying to cut out these detailed stamps!

This card was incredibly simple. It started with a napkin (yes, a napkin) which we then embellished. I chose to colour the pumpkin eyes/mouths and add a popped-up/cut out head from a Stampotique stamp. Once home I also added a couple layers of black grass using a Martha Stewart border punch. Ever since this class, I've been looking at napkins with a whole different eye!

 And this last project is a fun tag that started with a sprayed background (Dylusions ink) that we then built up for interest. I chose spiderweb and spider stamps along with a Stampotique girl (stamped separately, cut out and glued) and a Tim Holtz apothecary label.

So, aren't these some fun techniques and cards? I've already used the ink background idea for a card I'm making for my niece. And did I mention that I've been noticing napkins a lot more lately? If you like any of these ideas then drop by Debi's blog - she promises to post pictures and instructions!

Challenges:
Catered Crop - Halloween
Corrosive Challenges - Monsters & villians
No Matter Which Challenges - Halloween colours
That Craft Place - Make your own background
Crafty Calendar - All things spooky
Forever Night - Anything but a card
Moving Along With the Times - In the dark
Craft Room Challenge - Alter it (I altered the napkin)
Partytime Tuesdays - Frightfully scary