Sharing Halloween Cards from Friends!

I was away over the Halloween holiday and into the second week in November helping my daughter with a room renovation on her beach house in Seaside, Oregon.  I was pleasantly surprised to find two wonderful Halloween cards from two of my favorite cardmaking buddies had arrived in my absence.  I so love making Halloween cards, and I was delighted to receive some that I had not made.  These two ladies and I had lunch and went cardmaking shopping at a little shop in Tukwila, WA called Impress Stamps.  We made many wonderful purchases between the three of us.  Most of our purchases were going to be used for Halloween cardmaking, and the cards I received from them were using some of their new stamps and dies.  I want to share their cards with you.

This card was made by my friend, Sandy.  It depicts our neck-of-the-woods with the Seattle skyline stamp and the Space Needle die cut all from Impress Stamps in Tukwila, WA.  The picture doesn't do the card justice in that the little witch is flying across a glitter covered moon (made with adhesive spray and glitter).  Love, love the gigantic spider trying to make a home on top the Needle!  Thanks, Sandy, so enjoyed getting your card to let me know you were thinking of me this Halloween season!

My next card received was from my friend, Charlene.  She used two stamps from Impress Stamps as well, and applied the chalkboard technique.  She used white embossing powder to achieve this look.  Mr. Skeleton wears a little pirate hat embellishment and a martini glass, which I understanding she garnered from online.  See the cute little Googlie eye in the other stamped martini glass.  Love those eyeball olives!  Thank you, Charlene, for the wonderful chalkboard skeleton card!

Houses in a Scary Neighborhood!

I love so many of the products in the new Stampin' Up 2014 Holiday catalog!  I feel my pockets emptying as we speak!  One of the bundled sets that I love because of their versatility is the Holiday Home stamp set with coordinating Homemade Holiday framelits (dies).  This set can be used for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and even moving or missing you.  Creative juices begin to flow just thinking about all the possibilities.

I attended a cardmaking class with Liz Thayer in late August, and it was such fun to get together with my cardmaking buddies and enjoy using the items from this catalog that would be available at the very end of that month.  Liz had a card kit to put together with a darling Halloween use of the Holiday Home house stamps/dies.  I changed it up just a bit by adding another mat layer and forming a black base.  I thought it added just a bit more color to the card by making the orange Tangerine Tango (previously the card base) POP more.  I was very pleased with my little houses in the scary neighborhood!  I decided this was the perfect card to send to my Mom for this Halloween holiday.  I think she will like it, and it will give her creative food on just how she might use those same stamps and dies from Stampin' Up that I know she bought earlier this month!

The last touch for all my cards is to complete a complimentary and coordinating creations for the inside.  I found this little poem that I adjust just a bit to fit my card theme, and below is the finished product:

Recipe:   Papers:  SU cardstocks:  Black (base), Tangerine Tango, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White.  SU Ink: Basic Gray (+distressing).  Memento: Tuxedo Black.  SU stamps: Holiday Home. SU Dies: Homemade Holiday framelits.  SU Punch:  Word Window.  SU Blendabilities: Smoky Slate Asst, Daffodil Delight Asst.  SU Dizzling Details-Silver.  SU Baker's Twine: Black.   SU 3/8" Stitched Satin ribbon-Tangelo Twist.  Inside-MFT Dies: Photo Corners.

A Superhero for My Great Nephew's 11th!

My grand nephew turns 11 in October.  I purchased a stamp set from Stampin' Up several months ago that was intended to be used on Landon's birthday, Calling All Heros.  It is a cool stamp set with different kinds of hair-dos, masks, and mouths, including a city scape, lightning bolt, word bubbles, letters, etc.  I had such a myriad of choices. . .where to begin?

This was a card that evolved as it got built, even changing out some of the papers I was going to use for others as I went along.  The scene is set in the dark of night and I made my city skyline very 3-D looking by layering it three deep.  I also had to extend my buildings because my card size was larger than this stamp set was built for and I trimmed their height/ shape to suit the skyline.  That turned out to be relatively easy, and I stamped on yellow cardstock to make the windows lit up. 

I decided I would use the full head mask that covers the nose---kind of Batman looking.  I was not happy with the stamped blue on my superhero's head as it was not opaque enough to suit me.  I found the Copic marker B28 was a perfect match to the ink that I used, so I over-colored it to fill it all in.  This also allowed me to add the Batman ears, which the stamp set did not come with (copyright rules, I'm sure).  This stamp set comes with letters, so I made my own sentiment using  the jagged word bubble provided.  My birthday fishtail flag is cut with paper cutter/ scissors.  I made my own batman search light oval and a bat from another die set as the stamp set did not provide these either. . .again, copyright issues I'm guessing.  I'm pretty happy with my little superhero guy, and I hope Landon likes him as well.

My next usual step is to find or build an inside verse that fits the theme of the card and the occasion, and then, to create an interior that compliments the front design.  Here is what I came up with, and I think it meets all the criteria!

Recipe:

Papers:  Stampin' Up -  Black cardbase, Real Red cs, Hello Honey cs; BoBunny - Double Dot:  Denim Vintage Dot, Harvest Dot, Buttercup Dot; DCWV - The Glitter Stack.  SU stamps: Calling All Heros.  Ink: SU Real Red; Memento Danube Blue, Tuxedo Black; StazOn Black.  Dies: Spellbinders - Circles, Pinking Circles.  Sizzix - Bats #3.  Punch: Stampin' Up Large Oval.  Other:  Copics: 100 (Black), B28.  Technique: Fussy-cut.  Size:  6-3/8" x 5-1/4".