Halloween parade (of cards)

Happy Halloween! I don't always make a lot of Halloween cards; usually just enough to send to a few friends and family members. But this year I decided to make extra so I could also send cards to my young cousins. (I even mailed them all separately so they each got their own piece of mail to open. It was always so fun getting something actually addressed to me when I was a kid.) I got them all mailed last week, and I was hoping to post them on my blog before Halloween. But October is a busy month for me, so here we are. While it's a little late for this year, maybe they will give you an idea or two to tuck away for next Halloween.

Most of these cards are fairly simple and kid-friendly, but I think they're still pretty cute. I'll just list the supplies for this parade of cards, so if you have any questions, please leave me a comment below.

Supplies:
Stamps: All Inside, Bear Ware 2 (Essentials by Ellen); "Trick or treat" (unknown)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper), Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); journaling marker (Stampin' Up!); Blends/Blendabilities alcohol markers: Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Mocha (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: All Inside and Bear Ware 2 dies (Essentials by Ellen), Dimensionals

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Haunting, Pumpkin to Talk About (Essentials by Ellen)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper), Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!), Build-a-Scene Halloween paper (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Gorgeous Grape, Lemon Lime Twist, Mango Melody, Smoky Slate, daffodil Delight (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: happy Haunting dies (Essentials by Ellen), mini action wobble springs (Art Impressions), black rhinestones (EK Success), google eyes (Inkadinkadoo), Mono Multi liquid glue (Tombow), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

Supplies for purple card:
Stamps: Happy Haunting, Pumpkin to Talk About (Essentials by Ellen)
Paper: Gorgeous Grape, Basic Black, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Gorgeous Grape, Pumpkin Pie, Granny Apple Green, Close to Cocoa (Stampin' Up!); Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); black pen
Accessories: Triple Peek-a-boo Stitched Windows die (My Favorite Things), Happy Haunting and Spiderwebs dies (Essentials by Ellen), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

Supplies for candy corn card:
Stamps: Happy Haunting (Essentials by Ellen), Something Good to Eat (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper); Whisper White, Basic Black card stock (Stampin' Up!); Build-a-Scene Halloween paper (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark (Tsukineko); Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Happy Haunting dies (Essentials by Ellen), 1-3/8" circle punch (Stampin' Up!), white embossing powder (Hero Arts), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

Here is another photo of these two cards so you can see the first card open:

Supplies for spider card:
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper), silver foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), Build-a-Scene Halloween paper (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Silver Uni-Ball gel pen (Sanford)
Accessories: Spiderwebs dies (Essentials by Ellen), black Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

Supplies for cat card:
Stamps: Purr-fect Halloween (Close to My Heart)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper), Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); alcohol markers: E53 (Copic), Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Granny Apple Green (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Black rhinestones (EK Success); Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

Supplies:
Stamps: Best Witches (Unity Stamp Company)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper), Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!), Build-a-Scene Halloween paper (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Blends/Blendabilities markers - Rich Razzleberry, Granny Apple Green, Mango Melody, Nude (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Stitched Shapes dies (Stampin' Up!), clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen (ZIG), black rhinestones (EK Success), 1/8" black taffeta ribbon (Stampin' Up!), foam tape (3M)

Supplies:
Stamps: Too Cute to Spook (Unity Stamp Company)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper), Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!), Build-a-Scene Halloween paper (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Blends/Blendabilities markers - Rich Razzleberry, Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables dies (Lawn Fawn), clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen (ZIG), black rhinestones (EK Success), foam tape (3M)

Supplies:
Stamps: Spooky Bingo Bits (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper); purple, yellow card stock (Stampin' Up!); Build-a-Scene Halloween paper (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Circle punch (Stampin' Up!), bat punch (EK Success), clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen (ZIG), white embossing powder (Hero Arts), black foam squares (Gina K Designs)

Supplies:
Stamps: Owl Tree Tag (Rubbernecker Stamps)
Paper: Pre-folded 4-bar cards (Marco's Paper), Build-a-Scene Halloween paper (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Clear embossing powder (Stampamania), silver sequins (unknown), star sequins (Stampin' Up!), black/white twine (Hero Arts), glitter washi tape (Stampin' Up!), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

That's it for the Halloween parade. I hope you have a not-too-spooky night filled with plenty of treats -- and no tricks! Thanks for stopping by!

October Christmas card: Retro sparkles

Last weekend was my annual craft weekend with my friend Lisa. (Although I think we've decided we need a weekend in the summer, too!) It was so much fun to make whatever cards I wanted without a to-do list. Well, almost no to-do list. I did have one project that I needed to tackle: October Christmas cards.

Supplies:
Stamps: October 2019 My Monthly Hero kit (Hero Arts)
Paper: Whisper White note cards and envelopes, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Sea Glass (Gina K Designs), PC992 colored pencil and blender pencil (Prismascolor), embossing ink (Hero Arts)
Accessories: Sparkle Silk (Fun Stampers Journey), Aqua Tinsel embossing powder (Ranger), foam tape (3M)

I was really excited to use the stamps and dies from my October My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts. The set includes a variety of fun images and sentiments that you can combine to make all kinds of retro holiday scenes. But since I was making several of this card design, I decided to keep it clean and simple with just a couple of the images.

I knew I wanted to use the turntable image with the "Rockin' around the Christmas tree" sentiment, so I just added in the tree to complete this little scene. I stamped the sentiment on a white note card and the images on white card stock. I added colored accents to the images with an aqua pencil and then die cut them.

I used aqua as my accent color because I wanted to try out my new Aqua Tinsel embossing powder. It's a perfect ocean-y, tropical blue with glitter mixed right in. I chose a cluster of starry images, stamped them around the tree (I set the die-cut images on the card base, without adhering them, to get the correct placement) and then embossed them with the embossing powder to add some sparkle.

But that wasn't enough sparkle! :) I used my Sparkle Silk (which comes in a nail polish-style bottle) to flick sparkles all over the card base. Then I used the brush to carefully dab a bit on some of the ornaments on the tree. With the cards appropriately sparkled, I just used foam tape to add the die-cut images to the card.

Well that's ten months of Christmas cards done. I'm not sure if I'll make any in November; I need to count up what I have and start making my card list. How are your Christmas cards coming along?

Thanks for stopping by!

Koi pond

I've got a short post tonight with just one card. But it's a card I love -- it looks like a little koi pond.

Supplies:
Stamps: Koi Pond, Waves (Local King Rubber Stamp)
Paper: Baja Breeze, Basic Black, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Baja Breeze, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Koi Pond dies (Local King Rubber Stamp), clear droplets (Pretty Pink Posh), clear Wink of Stella glitter brush (ZIG), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

I think this card looks more complicated than it actually is. It's really just stamping, die cutting and layering.

The Waves background is stamped on Baja Breeze card stock with Baja Breeze ink (one of my favorite retired Stampin' Up! colors). I layered that on Basick Black card stock and then adhered the panel to a Baja Breeze card base.

For the other stamped elements, I used markers to color ink directly on the stamps and create the multicolored effect. The best part was making the koi. For each fish I inked the whole stamp with Pumpkin Pie ink. Then I randomly scribbled on patches of black and stamped the image. I learned that technique at a stamp show when I bought this set. I never would have thought it would work, but it's perfect - and so easy!

I die cut the stamped images and adhered them to the card base, using Dimensionals to pop up the lily pads so it looks like the koi are swimming under them. I added some Wink of Stella glitter to the flowers (though you can't see it in this photo), and a few clear droplets are the perfect embellishment for the watery background.

Thanks for stopping by!

A little surprise on the inside

I think I've mentioned before that I don't always decorate the insides of my handmade cards. I'll usually stamp a sentiment (unless I want a blank card), but sometimes that's it. So I thought it would be fun today to share three cards that all have a little bit of decoration on the inside.

Supplies:
Stamps: Inside Out: Birthday (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Basic Black, Very Vanilla card stock (Stampin' Up!); The Mariposa Mat Stack (Die Cuts With a View)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Mocha pearls (Close to My Heart), foam tape (3M)

Sometimes patterned paper is too pretty to cover up, especially when it's all glittery. That was definitely the case for this card. I trimmed the patterned paper to the size I wanted, matted it with a layer of black card stock and then attached both to a Baked Brown Sugar card base.

To add the sentiment on the card front, I used a leftover strip from another piece of patterned paper in the same paper pack. That way the colors and patterns coordinate, and it has a little more visual interest than just a piece of card stock. I added a few pearls for a simple embellishment.

For the inside of the card I cut a layer of Very Vanilla card stock and, along the left side, I added a strip of patterned paper leftover from the front of the card. Then I stamped my sentiment on the vanilla card stock.

Supplies:
Stamps: The Inside Scoop - Birthday (Taylored Expressions)
Paper: Thick Whisper White, pink card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks - Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers (Ranger)
Accessories: Blooming Garden Stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), blender brushes (Picket Fencce Studios), sequins (Craft Medley), Cookie Monster enamel dots (Taylored Expressions), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

This card may look familiar to you -- I posted a very similar card a few months ago. This background was actually my first attempt using this stencil and blender brushes, but I wasn't crazy about it. So I set this one aside, made another background, and used that one for the previous card. But as so often happens with me, after I let this one sit for awhile I decided it wasn't so bad and turned it into a card. I trimmed the card stock, added a few embellishments and a sentiment, and mounted it on a card base.

When I started to cut a layer of card stock for the inside of this card, I looked at what I had trimmed off the card front and realized it was perfect for the inside. I love that little pop of color and the peeking flowers! I just cut that piece to the right size, rounded the corners to match the card front, stamped my sentiment and adhered the layer inside the card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Birthday (Honey Bee Stamps)
Paper: Bermuda Bay textured and smooth, Whisper White, Crumb Cake card stock (Stampin' Up!); Insta Photo Fun card stock pack (Die Cuts With a View)
Ink: Bermuda Bay
Accessories: It's Your Day die (Simon Says Stamp), Tim Holtz Mini Stencil Set 40 (Stampers Anonymous), blender brushes (Picket Fence Studios), Aqua Dots (Close to My Heart), chevron ribbon (Stampin' Up!), foam tape (3M)

This card is a little party of patterns! The top part of the card was created with a stencil and blender brushes. The bottom part is a piece of patterned kraft card stock from a 4" x 4" paper pad. I adhered both pieces to a Bermuda Bay card base and then covered the seam with a piece of ribbon in a neutral chevron pattern.

For the focal point I die cut "It's your day" from textured Bermuda Bay card stock. I adhered that to a piece of Crumb Cake card stock and then hand-cut off the excess. I used foam tape to adhere the sentiment over the ribbon and added a few enamel dots as a finishing touch.

Inside the card I adhered a panel of white card stock with a simple sentiment stamped in Bermuda Bay. At the bottom of the panel I added a strip of the blended card stock trimmed off the piece on the front of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Evening silhouettes

A few months ago, I shared several cards I made with a watercolor wash sunset background and stamped wildflower silhouettes. I really enjoyed making those cards, so I decided to build on that theme with an evening sky and die-cut silhouettes.

Supplies:
Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic Black card stock (Stampin' Up!); watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!); Gansai Tambi watercolor paints - 66 Prussian Blue, 91 Bluish Gold (Kuretake)
Accessories: Wildflower Thinlits dies (Sizzix - Tim Holtz), black hemp twine (Stampin' Up!), gold sequins (Craft Medley), foam tape (3M), black foam square (Gina K Designs), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

For all of the cards in this post, I started by cutting panels of watercolor paper and using one shade of blue watercolor paint to make a wash on each panel. I kept the color darker at the top of the panels and added more water to make it lighter at the bottom. When the blue was dry, I splattered gold watercolor paint across the panels to create the look of stars in the sky.

For this card set, I cut six Crumb Cake card bases. I used a splatter-type stamp and Crumb Cake ink to add some texture and visual interest in the upper left and lower right corners of each card base. I wrapped black hemp twine around the front of each card and tied it off on the front of the card.

Using foam tape I adhered a watercolor panel to the front of each card, covering the knot in the twine. I die cut several wildflower silhouettes from black card stock and mixed and matched them until I had six groupings I liked. I placed black foam squares behind the larger parts of the die cuts and liquid glue on the thin stems and then adhered the wildflowers to the watercolor panels, letting some of the stems overhang the watercolor panels. TO finish off the card set, I added three gold sequins on each card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Tree Rings (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic Black card stock (Stampin' Up!); watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Crumb Cake (Stampin Up!); Gansai Tambi watercolors - 66 Prussian Blue, 91 Bluish Gold (Kuretake)
Accessories: Wildflowers Thinlits dies (Sizzix - Tim Holtz), mini sewing machine (Provo Craft), foam tape (3M), gold sequins (Craft Medley), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

After making the card set I still had a couple of panels left, so I made two individual cards using the same basic layout but with a few changes. For this card, I used a mini sewing machine to add black stitching around the edges of the watercolor wash. I continued the nature theme by using the Tree Rings stamp on the card base. I left off the black twine but kept the gold sequins.

Supplies:
Paper: Blueberry Bushel card stock, gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!); watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolors - 66 Prussian Blue, 91 Bluish Gold (Kuretake)
Accessories: Clear droplets (Pretty Pink Posh), Wildflowers Thinlits dies (Sizzix - Tim Holtz), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

For this last card I decided to switch up the colors. I used a Blueberry Bushel card base instead of Crumb Cake and gold foil silhouettes instead of black. With the extra gold of the die cuts, I switched the embellishments to clear droplets instead of gold sequins.

Thanks for stopping by!