Bwa ha ha! One more Halloween card!

Gosh! I love the imagery of Halloween! So much so that I can't seem to stop collecting witch, spider web, black cat, and other spooky images. I also can't seem to stop making Halloween cards!

Here it is!


This one uses Third Coast's Spider Witch, which is a companion to Skull Witch. They are sold separately or as a set. I couldn't choose, so I got both. :D It also uses the Spider Web Corner from Bombshell's Dead Necessities set, the cauldron from the Holiday Accessory set, and an empty banner from the new and fabulous Banner Sayings set.
The witch (comes with that fierce cat), cat, and cauldron were colored with Copic markers. I highlighted the wand and the cauldron's contents with glitter pens. The patterned papers are from the Eerie Collection by Basic Grey. The glittery spider web ribbon came from Michael's. The sentiment in the banner was made with Doodlebug rub-ons. The image and the sentiment are both popped up on dimensionals.

I had to take a photo in the evening, so the flash went off, which sort of killed the shading and glitter. :(

Thanks for visiting!

Twofer: TCPTuesday #132 + a SCS Sketch Challenge!

Happy Halloween again!

The challenge was to use red, pink, and orange. For some reason, the color challenge and Halloween made me think of Wendy, the Good Little Witch from the Casper, the Friendly Ghost cartoons from my childhood. I used SCS's most recent sketch, too.

Here's the card!


So I got out The Cat's Pajamas' Fright Night set and made this card. I inked the hat, shoes, and dress with red Memento ink; the face, hands, and broom with gray Memento ink, and stamped the witch image (Dewdrops are perfect for inking parts of the stamp!). I inked the cauldron with pink Memento ink and stamped that. I used grey Memento ink for the steam curls and for the ghost. I outlined all the images (with my not-so steady hand) with a Micron pen. I colored the scene with Copic markers, added a Spica pen glittery bow tie to the ghost, then added glitter to the steam from the cauldron.

Thanks for visiting again today!

Happy Halloween!

The stamp is one from a unmounted set by The Enchanted Gallery. It was stamped with Memento inks and colored with Copic markers and glitter pen was added to her wingls. It was masked, then Distress inks were sponged on to create the background. The patterned papers are by Basic Grey (sky) and Graphic 45 (pumpkins). The sentiment is from the incredibly useful Mini Sentiment sheet by Purple Onion Designs.

Thanks for visiting!

That's one mellow skeleton!

I guess he likes to recline, rather than rattle his bones!



I computer generated the "Happy" and the "Halloween" sentiments. I stamped the skeleton from the Calaveras Fiesta set so that he was lying atop "Halloween". I drew a box around "Happy" and a stick connecting the "Happy" box (*snicker*) to the skeleton's hand. Copic markers were used to color the sentiments and the skeleton. The skeleton was coated with a layer of Glossy Accents. His sign and "Halloween" were coated with a layer of Crackle Accents. I actually let the glue dry overnight without touching it, which lead to a good result! Hallelujah.

The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey's Eerie 6x6 pad. The photo corners came from the 12x12 collection. The text paper is by Making Memories. I used a Martha Stewart/EK Success border punch and ribbon to finish off the card.

Thanks for visiting today!

Ticket to Ride on Third Coast Thursday!

It's Third Coast Thursday on ye olde blog!

Here it is!


Plus, here's a close-up!


I cut a circle of white cardstock and stamped Third Coast's Witch's Flight Large (CO-180-O). I colored the witch using my Copic markers, accented those divine curved heels, the tassels of her scarf, and part of her broom with green Spica markers because "a project just doesn't sing if it doesn't have some bling" (Go ahead and quote me. You know you want to). I then heat set a few layers of clear embossing powder to her boots and hat (though not the ribbon around it) to add some leathery shine and dimension.

The witch was then masked and the circle was sprayed with three colors Glimmer Mist, which I'm now using, thanks to that helpful hint about dropping beads into the bottle to help mix the glimmery powder with the liquid. I heat set each layer before adding the next color. The layers were white, gold, then an orangey-yellow. The end result is a shimmery textured-looking moon. I included a close-up of the image so that the dimensional shine of the embossing on her boots and hat and the cool pocked shimmer of the moon might be more visible. Sadly, shimmery/dimensional stuff is hard to photograph with my mad skillz.

Then I wracked my brains for a suitable sentiment and came up with "Ticket to Ride". I die-cut the ticket with the Alterations ticket strip, stamped it with T!m's Stampers Anonymous ticket using lavender Distress Ink, stamped "10/31" on it using a generic office supply date stamp, edged the ticket with a darker purple Distress Ink, and used rub-ons for the sentiment.

The patterned paper and the border strip are from the Eerie collection by Basic Grey.

If you read all this, pat yourself on the back!

Thanks for visiting!

Bombshell Stamps' Hump Day Hop!

It's the last Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for the Hump Day Hop. Hip. Hip. Hooray!!!

There's also exciting news! Bombshell Stamps stellar Design Team has started a blog, which has been organized by the fabulous Katie!

Anyways, today's hop will start at the blog and then hop along as usual. Kas, our talented Bombshell Hump Day Hop Captain, set the hop's theme of Halloween, Mam. Just Halloween. Our projects have to have either Halloween or Day of the Dead as the subject.

Here's mine:


I used both skeletons, the banner, and the pom-pom trim from the Calaveras Fiesta set. I added the Black Widow spider and the spider web from the Tattoo Backgrounds set and a webby corner from the Dead Necessities set.

The skeletons and banner were colored with Copic markers. The skeletons were cut out, coated with a layer of VersaMark, and heat embossed with several layers of clear embossing powder. The Black Widow spider was heat embossed with black embossing powder to add some creepy dimension.

The patterned paper is by Cosmo Cricket.


Now that you've seen my card, hop along to the next person. Be sure to leave a comment at each stop in the hop to better your chances of winning a fabulous prize!

Here's the list!
Bombshell Stamps Blog
Alaine
Alison
Cheryl
Kelli
AnitaMarie
Katie
Meredith
MaryAnn
Kapree
Kathi
Kas

Technique Tuesday Tuesday!

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for me to post a card using my Technique Tuesday stamps. This one was created for the TTSCS7 Borderlicious Challenge over at Technique Tuesday's Splitcoast forum.



The challenge was to create a project using a border, so I decided to make my own border using a non-border stamp. I used the square from the Flea Market Finds set. I stamped it on its point repeatedly, creating a border. I also used the Hanging by a Thread and the Aviary sets.

The leaves and birds were colored with Copic markers. The sky paper is by Cosmo Cricket. The other patterned paper is by Basic Grey. The sparkly stickers (top left hand corner, on the sentiment, and in the center of the squares) are by Stampendous.

This was meant to be a Halloween card, but it took a left turn. :D I do like how the border came out, so I'll do that again. I'm not thrilled with the rest of the card, but done is good and "Thank You" cards are always useful.

BTW, the sentiment is by the late-lamented Odd Bird Planet. :(

Thanks for visiting today!

Creeptastic Challenge!

Here's my entry to the "Arachnophobia" challenge over at the Smeared and Smudged forum, which is a fun place to share your vintage, goth, edgy, and darker artwork.



Personally, I love spider webs and like most spiders, except the big hairy kind. Those sort of creep me out. The black widow spider's red hourglass makes her truly creeptastic.

The chandelier is from Queen Kat Designs and was part of a kit that was a gift from my talented friend, Danielle.

The spider web and the black widow are from the Tattoo Backgrounds set by Bombshell Stamps, who also made the spider-webby photo corners stamps which are part of the Dead Necessities set. I added a layer of Glaze pen to the talented spider on the left, who spun the web that ensnares the glittery sentiment.

The patterned paper is by 7 Gypsies. White core cardstock was stamped with spiderwebs and the spider. "Creeptastic" is made from glittered stickers and the spider webby "Halloween" are also stickers, which were colored with Copics to match the background. Both sets of stickers are from Making Memories. The cardstock's edges were tattered to add another touch of creepiness.

In case you were wondering, the skull place-card holder came from Michael's. It was originally silvery, but I sanded off most of the silver, added some Distress Ink, and googly eyes. :D

Thanks for visiting today.

It's Third Coast Thursday!

Greetings! It's Third Coast Thursday at my blog. I decided to use SCS's Sketch 303 today to create a wicked hot card for Halloween!

Here it is!


Meet Devilish Daphne by Third Coast Stamps. She's always feeling a bit wicked and sure is hot! I colored her with my Copic markers and added a bit of bling to her lips, horns, and pitchfork.

The flames on the horizontal yellow strip and on the sentiment were stamped using Distress inks. They are from the Tiki Party set by Bombshell Stamps. The long flames on the vertical yellow strip are from the Skin Deep set by Technique Tuesday that has sadly been retired.

The sentiment was computer generated using a font called Devilette. I'm fairly certain it came from FontDiner.com or maybe you can find it using the free font generator at Bombshell Stamps forum (There are some seriously fun ones there).

I think that's it for now.

Thanks for visiting!

It's Technique Tuesday Tuesday!

It's Technique Tuesday Tuesday, so I decided to try my hand at the "Wrinkle Free Distress" technique. It was my first time trying this technique and I had fun!



I swiped Broken China, Concord Grape, Spiced Marmalade, and Worn Lipstick Distress inks onto my craft sheet. Then I misted the ink with water until it beaded. I placed a piece of white cardstock face down in the ink puddles and smooshed it down. Then I dried the cardstock with my heat gun. I repeated this several times until I was moderately happy with the result. I wanted the ink to look blotchier, so I spritzed it with water.

Then I had a "Eureeka" moment. I asked myself what would happen if I used pearl Glimmer Mist? I had experienced mixed results using Glimmer Mist, but I read that you got a better mixing and spraying experience if you dropped a bead into the bottle. The bead would help agitate the mica and the mica would mix better. It worked! The spraying went better and I ended up with a nice splotchier and shimmery multi-colored background.

I used the Va Va Bloom set by Technique Tuesday and stamped the flower, stem, and leaves. Then I decided to add the sentiments running vertically on either side.

I knew that I had a scrap of Club Scrap paper that would work wonderfully with the long tall format of the card. I matted the shimmery stamped piece on black cardstock, then onto the Club Scrap scrap. It needed a horizontal element to break the vertical lines a bit, so after scrounging around, looking for a piece of solid black ribbon, I had to settle for some translucent stuff. Oh well.

So, all in all, I had fun with this technique and will definitely do it again.

Thanks for visiting today!

Bombshell Gift Bag & Notepad

Hi all,
I had another crafting mishap on Friday. I finished the cover for the Notepad and went to spray it with Super Seal® to seal and protect it. All the red from the rose ran! That hadn't happened to me before with that spray, so I was seriously bummed. I think because I hadn't used the spray in a while, the solvent part of the spray got concentrated in the initial burst, causing the Copic marker to run. Whatever happened, I had to re-do it because I'm a Virgo.

This gift bag and notepad set are part of a belated gift for my daughter's friend, Kris. Kris drove for several years before my daughter and drove her all over. When my daughter was learning to parallel park, I found myself at my wits' end, so we called Kris, who drove to meet us (after my daughter scraped a fence with my back bumper in the parking lot of a church). She set the cones and patiently taught my daughter to parallel park, do the "K" turn properly (which was NOT the way I had been having her do it), back up in a straight line. She was most instrumental in saving my sanity while aiding my daughter to pass her road test first time out!

Anyways, the card that will house the gas card (the gift) is below. This notepad and the card will go in the gift bag.

Gift Bag with Note Pad:


Gift Bag (close-up):


Note Pad (close-up):


The "K" on the gift bag is from a set of Chip Chatter chipboard letters that I've had for awhile. I inked it with Distress Ink, then coated it with a layer of clear Crackle Paint, and left it to dry overnight. When it was dry, I inked it with three colors of Distress Ink which settled into the cracks. Nifty!

The stamps used on the bag and the notepad are from Bombshell Stamps' Man's Ruin (skull with rose), Dead Necessities (corner flourish and long flourish), and Rose's Portrait (small rose) sets. I also used the Classic Tattoo Font.

The images were all stamped onto cream colored cardstock and colored with Copic markers. Distress Inks were used to age and edge the pieces.

I hope that Kris likes her notepad, card, and gift bag (which really DO match each other in real life!

Thanks for visiting today!

Third Coast Thursday!

It's Third Coast Thursday and I'm a bit late since I messed up my first version of this card. I got it colored all nice and messed up by dropping an ink pad ink-side down on it. Isn't it always the way? *huge sigh*

Here's the new improved version:


Since it's getting cooler and the leaves are really beginning to change, Halloween isn't all that far away! I do love Halloween and not just because of the candy. I love the imagery of witches, cauldrons, skulls, bats, black cats and all of that, which is well represented in my stamp and paper collection. In fact, I use those images all year around!

Anyways, this card uses Third Coast's Skull Witch with Shadowcat Walking. The witch was colored with Copic markers and is a lovely witchy green (which you can't see because my photo is not great. Silly rain). Her hair is auburn and her outfit is lavender. The skulls on her hat, shoes, and her belt were colored with Copics then heat embossed to give them some dimension and shine.

(An aside: I wish I were as ripped as the Skull Witch!)

The patterned papers are by Making Memories (text) and Basic Grey. The sentiment is from a great and useful sentiment set by Purple Onion Designs. There are Kaiser Craft lavender gemstones on the top left and bottom right corners because a project just can't sing if it don't got the bling! *snort*

Thanks for visiting today.

Tuesday's Technique Tuesday card!

This week's card was created for the current challenge over on Technique Tuesday's SplitCoast forum. However, being a me of little brain, I mis-read the challenge, which was to use word stamps to create a card. Instead, I used an image stamp to create a word, though I do have a ton of words on the card, courtesy of the patterned paper.

Here it is!


I had already stamped, heat-embossed, punched, and used my Copics to color the peace sign ( Peace stamp by Technique Tuesday). I had set the pease sign aside for the proverbial "rainy day". When I saw the challenge, this idea popped into my head. I thought I had a chipboard alpha that was the right size and font, but alas, I was delusional. Fortunately, I had a QuicKutz alphabet that was the right size, though not the optimal font. I cut the letters from shimmery Bazzill Bling, then popped 'em onto very old 7 Gypsies papers from my stash. The letters sort of faded into the background, so I outlined 'em. I could prattle on some more, but I've got to hop to it.

Thanks for visiting!

One card--three challenges!!!

Woo-hoo! I hit the trifecta of challenges! I'm sooo efficient. Bwa ha ha.

This card meets The Cat's Pajamas' Tuesday Challenges #128 (to use PJ the bear), #129 (a sketch), and the "Think Pink" Blog Hop Challenge!



PJ, from TCP's A Cuppa set, was colored with pink Copics to match the teacup paper (from my scrap bin) and the Basic Grey paper. I actually paper pieced, which is a shocker since I'm notoriously deficient in my cutting skills -- I actually failed "Scissors" in Kindergarten 500 years ago.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

It's Third Coast Thursday!

I used Paloma Mini from Third Coast Rubber Stamps on two different projects and am sharing both today. I do need to get her some other people and scenery too, though I'll probably have to wait til holiday time.

Here's my ATC:


She was stamped, colored, then masked. I stamped part of a really old Club Scrap stamp (from the Renaissance kit), using Pumice Stone Distress Ink. I then used green, blue, and pink Distress Inks to color in the background.

The sentiment was computer generated, cut, and colored with the same Distress Inks. The sentiment and the ATC were edged with gold glitter pen.

Stampbord Tile:


She was stamped on the tile, which measures 1.25" x 2.5". I used Prismacolor pencils and Citrus paint thinner to color her. The image was masked and overstamped with an alphabet text stamp using Concord Grape Distress Ink and a harlequin stamp using Violet Distress Ink. I used a crackle pattern stamp with Lavender Distress ink over the harlequin pattern. When all the ink was dry, I lifted the mask, added a gold line between the harlequin and text patterns, edged, then smudged the tile with a gold Krylon leafing pen. Then I got my scratching and gauging tools and scratched up the surface of the tile. When I was happy with it, the tile was embossed with three layers of clear embossing powder.

Thanks for visiting today!

Tuesday's Technique Tuesday card

I created this one for a WCMD challenge over at the Technique Tuesday's SCS forum. The challenge was to use markers. Ha! So not a challenge! These days a challenge for me would be to use any other medium!

Anyways, here's a bright and cheerful card using Technique Tuesday's My Little Poppy Shoppe set that I got at the CK Convention back in the summer.



The flower, stem, and leaves were stamped with Memento inks and colored with Copic markers. The patterned papers are from the Origins 6x6 pad by Basic Grey. I love this collection! The little sentiment is from the Mixed Messages set by Paper Trey Ink, which is fabulously useful with small sets and great fonts. I'm pleased to say that I used three (3) buttons, which leaves a million, gazillion, trillion in my four repurposed jumbo-sized Jif peanut butter-turned-into-button jars.

The design took one of those famous left turns, but I'm kind of pleased with the way the card came out. Oh and the poppy is yellow because that's the only color I've ever seen irl. I must google "Poppy Images" to see what other colors they can be.

Prattle, prattle. Oy. Sorry.

Thanks for visiting today!

Win BIG with Bombshell Stamps' October Sketch Challenge!

Make a card with this sketch (by yours truly)...


...and you can win these prizes.

If you use the sketch with Bombshell Stamps and share your project at Bombshell's Forum in the Sketch Challenge area, you'll have a chance to win these two sets:


If you use the sketch with any stamps (by any company) and post it at Rubber Stamp Chat, you'll have a chance to win:


Here's my take on the sketch!


Rose's Portrait was stamped on some Prism cardstock that I found in my stash. I colored the image with Copic markers, which blended very nicely on that cardstock, which is no longer available. *sad face* Her earring was colored with Copics, accented with a glitter Spica pen, then overlaid with a Sakura Glaze pen to add a bit of dimension. The sentiment is from the wonderful new Banner Sayings set, which arrived today, just in time to be used for this card! I didn't even mount the rubber yet! I just inked it, put the patterned paper over the unmounted sheet, shaded the sentiment banner, and cut it out!

The patterned paper is seriously old paper from Keeping Memories Alive, which was bought in quantity and hoarded!!! It survived several patterned paper purges and I'm so glad!!!

I hope you use the sketch and take advantage of this fabulous chance to win BIG!!!