Sweet 'n Spooky in a Jar

Happy Hallow's Eve, Eve!  Thought I'd share a couple more Halloween cards made with leftovers from cards of years past AND some new fun stuff. ;D

I went nuts cutting Halloween paper with dies last year.  I had WAY more cut goods than ideas, but it is so awesome to pull out that precut stuff and run with it later. :)  Here is evidence exhibit A. LOL!  I used to hate spiders as a kid.  Not saying I want one as a pet or anything now, but I have a certain affection for them these days.  They eat so many other creepy crawlies that I despise that now they are on my "good list".  Not sure who to give this one to this year.  Maybe I'll save it for next year.  We'll see...

Here's the sweeter version!  My DH and his sister both seem to like candy corn.  For all the sweets that I love, candy corn is soooo not on my list.  Totally fun to color though!  I might give this card to my DH for Halloween.  I think he can overlook the more "girly" aspects of the card, since he will be mostly focused on the candy corn and wondering if it'll mean he gets some candy corn to go with the card. LOL!

Have a sweet, not spooky, Wednesday!

A Look Back at WCMD 2013

Thought I'd share what I got done a couple weekends back when it was World Card Making Day.  I was going to use the September Kit I got at my LSS kit club, then I realized I had much more pressing matters!  I've been trying to send cards to ALL my family (in-laws and outlaws LOL!) since the end of August.  So far so good btw. :)  I thought I'd make more birthday cards to send, or get some Haloween cards ready.  So anywho, I was standing in the mess that is my studio space trying to get ready to create.  Before I could create though, I needed to find the floor!

Step one was gathering all the cards that were mostly finished.  The ones that didn't have an envie, didn't have a sentiment, or didn't have my signature stamped on the back.  Do you SEE how many cards I found lying around my studio?!?!?!?!?  When I saw how many I had rounded up, creating new stuff got pushed to the back burner.  I needed to finish what I started!  I had card from classes I had taken,  reject cards from class sample production that needed a few tweaks, from DT work that never made it to the final stages for whatever reason, extras from multi card sets I created, and some from challenges I never entered.

Some of these cards are SO OLD!  I can't believe I left them undone for so long.  So I gathered everything I needed and brought it up to the cottage to work.  DH was at my DBIL's annual men's weekend gathering so I could complete my mission in peace. ;D

I sorted the cards by occasion and worked my way through all but a handful.  It was insane how many cards I had- and now have ready to mail out!  Yippee!  I even had some great cards for guys that just needed a sentiment to make them ready to send for all those guy birthdays.  I am soooo happy! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Pumpkin Jack

Another creation using those MME papers from my friend Lynn with some added goods from the scrap pile. :)  They sure have gotten me in the mood for the season.  Not that it takes much!  The leaves here are GORGEOUS- our reward for suffering through a rainy May & June.  (Did you know that?  A rainy spring makes for a stunning fall.)  Then of course there is apple cider, which I am blessed to have easy access to 3 varieties of fresh cider within 3 miles of my house.  My current hometown is deep in the middle of apple orchard country.  Wander a mile in any direction and you'll hit an orchard.  Finally there is decorating for Halloween!!!!!  We pulled down the boxes and started decorating.  We have 7 boxes of pumpkiny goodness.  Ahhhhh, I love fall (she says until we get to winter, which she loves- until we get to spring, which she loves too- summer, oh yeah she loves that too.  Hee-hee).

The pumpkin fella is AMuse and he's colored with YR24, YR23, Y21, W2.  The dies are from Papertrey Ink & My Favorite Things.  The black ribbon is from Michael's and the burlap is from The Hen's Den.

This week I'm making even more fall cards when I take Katie's class on Thursday and then the following Thursday I'm saying good-bye to fall and hello to Christmas with my class.  Hope to see some of you there! :)

Jack and I are going to "scare" up some fun here:
Cards in Envy- Now That's Scary Challenge

"Carving" Pumpkins

Happy World Card Making Day Everyone!  Alas, I haven't made any cards today as we were out an about in Hampton, NH for unsuccessful antiquing.  We did happen upon a great garden in North Hampton and a yummy restaurant in Portsmouth, NH and I do have some fall cards to share with y'all today!

These pumpkins are made with the same MME papers from this post with some additional papers from my scrap heap I've been working my way through.  They are a little labor-intensive to plan & prep, but SO worth it don't ya think? :)

I've only posted 4 here, but the prep allowed me to have everything I needed to make 7.  The pumpkins shape come from the pumpkin die by Papertrey Ink (which I've had for a couple years now and never used).  Each patterned paper got run through to make the "ridges" and then I had to play "puzzle maker" to mix 'n match them.  I only wanted to have one piece from each pattern per pumpkin (say that tongue-twister 10 times fast!).  The leaves are also from a Papertrey Ink die.

Each ridge is edged with brown ink so to give the ridges more definition.   They are all mounted on kraft cardstock.  I feel a little bad about this cover one.  I cut the kitty's head off!!!!  Does that make it for sure a Halloween card then???

I would totally make more of these- they were super fun!  I'm so glad I finally broke out these pumpkin dies!!! I've got one more set of cards to show you this week using this same set of papers, so stay tuned! ;)

I'm taking my patch to party here:
Allsorts Challenge: Autumn colors
Sweet Stampin Challenge: Autumn is here
Simply Create Too: Autumn/Fall
Fairy tale challenge: Pumpkins, Mushrooms, or Bats

Jolly Roger!

 Last year my friend Lynn gave me a set of papers from the spiders web line by MME as a congratulations for getting my first teaching gig at Ink About It.  I was so swamped by getting ready for the class I set the papers aside and forgot about them.  Well, how happy was I when I found them pulled them out this week!!!!

These were so much fun to make!  I did add some Tim Holtz distressed bazzill style paper and a fun grey chevron from the scrap pile.  The stamps are from Papertrey Ink and the dies are My Favorite Things.  The Jolly Roger's bones are colored with Y21 and the eyes are colored with YR23.  Everything is outlined with W2- love that for outlining!

I'm so excited because all of the supplies were already in my stash, I have some Halloween cards ready, AND they are squeal-worthy cute. :)  Wait until you see the cards I'm sharing on Saturday!!!!  I showed everything to my DH yesterday and he actually said wow (that's a huge deal with us) and he thought they were all gold medal worthy (I always have him rank them with gold, silver, bronze.  I'm a geek.  I know. *smile*)

See you Saturday Peeps!!

One Trick Pony

One trick pony here. LOL!  I'm trying to clean my way out of my studio for the big yard sale in a couple weeks.  I'm also trying to be good about sending cards to family & friends on their special days.  3 weeks into my self imposed card sending challenge and I'm already running low!!!

I used up some scraps to bang out these 2 cards.  I figure later I'll add a banner/sentiment to the front when I get closer to needing either a birthday or anniversary card.  Seems like I can get away with saying "zooming by to say" on the cover and then add a celebratory greeting on the inside. :)

The bling for the lights was a last minute inspiration (read I didn't want to get out of my chair to put away the rhinestones. Laziness pays off sometimes! hee-hee)

Have a fun evening everyone!

Autumn Sunset for a Birthday

My mojo has gone AWOL of late. :(  I decided the lift a couple of my previous creations that I really enjoyed. :)

The image is a favorite of mine from Memory Box and I decided to use a favorite technique to go with it.  I used a variety of Copics and blended them together after stamping the image with Tuxedo Black Memento ink.  This was so easy to make that I made something like more versions, but since I didn't have anymore of the orange ribbon or navy paper they each have different bottoms.  With 8 birthdays and 4 anniversaries coming up in the next 6 weeks these will be great to have in the stash!!

I'm in the process of cleaning out my studio for a garage sale happening at the end of the month at Ink About It in Westford MA.  Stop by for AMAZING deals- I'll be practically giving stamps and paper away.  Fingers crossed that the clean sweep of my space will help me find my inspiration again. :)

For a tutorial on this technique, pop over here.

My birdies and I have flown here to tweet greetings:
Moxie Fab Challenge: Tuesday Trigger Apache Tears in Shades of Autumn (I saw the image and thought of this card's colors)