CHRIST-mas Card Swap

My friend Jen, aka cupojafa over on SCS, hosted a swap aiming to keep Christ in Christmas. So of course I gleefully pulled out my ODBD stamps! I wanted to go with a color combo other than red and green. I decided to use purple rather than blue. Colors here are Perfect Plum and Concord Crush. DP is from the In Color Patterned Paper Pack that is an SU hostess gift. This card was made for the fancy fold category. It is a tri-shutter card--you can see a tutorial HERE. I used my SCAL, Cricut, and an SVG file by Penny Duncan to cut the oval on the front. Scripture is embossed in silver on Shimmery White CS. I added rhinestones to the little scallops. I embossed the poinsettia in silver on Shimmery White, misted with water, and added reinkers. Gives a lovely effect, esp. on the shimmery. Then I die cut it with the ODBD matching die. Those things are GREAT! I embossed the words on the DP in silver. It's a little hard to read, but very pretty. Unfortunately, while I was trying to crop the middle pic which shows the cool fold aspect of this card, I somehow managed to delete it. If you look at the tutorial, you can see how it's supposed to look.
Thanks for stopping by today!

Halloween Cards

I found these cool blingy spiders at Mike's. I inked up my Cuttlebug folder with SU Basic Black Craft ink and debossed the spider web. Two of the spiders had purple bling, and two just had black and orange. I had just enough Concord Crush CS left to make 2 cards--this is one of them. The other two had Tangerine Tango card bases--spider web is on Kiwi Kiss. I used my Happy Hauntings cartridge to cut "creepy" in black and layered on TT. Inside I stamped and embossed "Have a wicked Halloween" from the SU set Wicked Cool (I think that's the name of it). Super simple cards and I had so much fun making them! Thanks for looking! Have a Happy Halloween!

Another Halloween Vinyl Project

Here is another of the Krafty Blocks from HL, with Glitter Orange vinyl, cut with the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. It's hard to tell, but it's a tall skinny pumpkin man.

And here it is, filled with candy corn and pumpkins. On this cartridge there is also a squirrel atop a stack of acorns, which I thought would be cute for a container of mixed nuts. But I didn't have any brown or gray vinyl, so a tall skinny pumpkin man is what we have! Thanks for stopping by--have a great weekend! I'm going backpacking with the Venturing Crew. I'm a first-timer, wish me luck!

Halloween Door Decorations

In my quest to try all crafts Cricut, I made these vinyl door decorations for Halloween. The haunted house and scary tree are from the Happy Hauntings cartridge and the trick or treaters are an SVG file I downloaded from HERE and cut using SCAL. I cut the house at 11.5", the tree at 10" (I think; I know it was a little smaller than the house), and the kids at 3".

The words were cut using the vampire font on Happy Hauntings on this smashing orange glittery vinyl at 1.5". I pressed shift for the W on Witches, but for some reason it didn't take, so it's all lower case. By this time I was getting a little frustrated with the project so I decided to let it go. I wish you could see this vinyl IRL; it looks really cool.

Here is a picture of the whole thing. I'm basically pleased with the way it turned out. My DD and her friend told me I was becoming an EXPERT with the Cricut--wasn't that sweet? I learned a lot, especially that maybe I should stick with paper crafting and leave the vinyl alone! However, since I went on a vinyl-buying binge a few weeks ago at Oh My Crafts, I will very likely continue to use it, at least until that's all gone! I already have plans for a wreath door decoration. I'm just sorry I got this up so late, since it will have to come down in a few days. Why does Halloween only come once a year? I love it so!

Etched Glass Block

Hi, I'm hosting the Anything but a Card challenge over on Inspired Crafters today, and the challenge I posted is to do something with glas (or clear plastic). I've been having some fun with glass etching. I used a Krafty Block from Hobby Lobby (they were having them 50% off, so you'll probably be seeing more of them lol!). I cut out a vinyl stencil using my Sure Cuts a Lot software and Cricut, and a doodlebat font from Lettering Delights. This project was the first time I've ever played with the vinyl; it's surprisingly easy! Once I'd made the cut, I used transfer tape to transfer the image to my block, masked the raised edges of the block with masking tape, and smeared the whole front with a thick layer of etching cream. I let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then washed it off and removed the vinyl. TIP: In future, for stenciling purposes, I plan to use contact paper, since it's a lot cheaper than vinyl.

On the other side of the block I did the same thing using a cut from the Christmas solutions cartridge from last year, so I can have the inspirational or secular side facing out. I made these to put battery operated tea lights in--I expect they'll look very pretty in the dark. I topped it with a ribbon and some picks from Mike's.

There's another method for etching glass: emboss resist. There is a cool tutorial HERE, and an example I made HERE.

A thank you card

Hi, I used the Cricut Lite Bloom cartridge for the pitcher with flowers. I embossed the pitcher with a Cuttlebug folder and sponged the flowers to add a little interest. All products are SU, most retired. I thought this DP, called Cutie Pie, went well with the image. Thanks for looking!

A quick birthday card

Wow, this is pink and girly! Wasn't quite how I meant for it to come out. Stamp sets are Lovely Labels by Gina K and Birthday Basics by PTI. CS and ink are SU, DP is PTI, lace is from Flourishes, and brad is from SU. Thanks for looking!

Sympathy card, IC sketch and color challenge

The wife of a coworker of mine lost her grandmother, so I made them a sympathy card. I use Inspired Crafter's Sketch #7 and the color combo by cupojafa. Oops, I just realized I was supposed to make a Christmas card for this challenge. I've never tried the cream and white color combo before--very pretty. I just hope this card is not too wedding-y. It's hard to tell, but I embossed the sent with Hologram Highlights mixed with white EP. The little doily is Martha Stewart (I found out about them from Vickie Y over on SCS), butterflies are SU/Sizzix Embosslits, BG is Cuttlebug, sentiment and border punch are SU, and CS and ribbon are PTI. This card was totally inspired by THIS one and THIS one. Thanks for stopping by!

Shallow Grave Brownies

Pretty gross title right? Emily and I were at Michael's a couple of weeks ago and we saw these Wilton Candy molds with this idea on the front. Well, of course we had to get them! There were only 2 skeletons per mold, so it took several rounds to get enough for a dozen brownies. They were fun to make, even though candy and cake decorating are not really my area of crafting interest.

Stamp club projects

My demonstrator is awesome, and she had these projects for us to make yesterday. The first one is a witch's hat treat holder made using the new waffle paper by SU--LOVE that stuff! We put a little 3 pack of Whoppers in there, but I bet a Reese's cup would fit too. I think Karen got the idea HERE.

Next up is this surprise pop-up card. I have made these before, but not in a while so it was a good memory refresher. I happen to think SU has the best Halloween stamp sets. I love lots of stamp companies, but no one else's Halloween stamps even come close to SU's. The sentiment is not in a Halloween set, but I really like it. The spider web embossing folder is SU. I won't be ordering it because I already have a Cuttlebug one.

I love this last project--anything with test tubes! We embossed the skull on DP then colored the orange dots within the skull image with a black marker. Holes are punched in the card front and ribbon put through to tie on the tube, which is full of Jelly Bellies--margarita flavor! They don't really taste like margies though, just lime.

Test Tube Holder

My friend Michele (who is a chemistry teacher as well as a stamper) found this test tube holder, and I saw it on her blog HERE. Well, obsessed as I am with all things Halloween-y and science oriented, I had to know where she'd found it, and that was how I discovered My Graphico. They have clip art, digi papers, digi stamps, and of course, my current obsession, svg templates for use with SCAL and Cricut. I immediately placed an order and decided to use the template ( by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff) for my stamp club swaps. (I only had to make three LOL! Although it was actually very easy to put together--it's the dressing up of the project that takes the time.) I used SU's Wicked Cool stamp set and their Wicked Fun Specialty designer paper. Don't you just love the word "wicked"? It's so...wicked! I had seen this bone candy at Target last year, and they had it again this year. It comes in little plastic chemistry set-type flasks, in two different colors--orange/green/white and blue/purple/white. And I ordered the tubes a long time ago when I was still an SU demo--aren't the cork stoppers great? A real test tube would have a rubber stopper of course! CS colors are Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Basic Black, and Whisper White. I used almost every stamp in the set. The witch's stockings are colored with a Really Rust marker, which is a pretty good match for Cajun Craze. I also used Going Gray, Old Olive, and Summer Sun markers. "Spooky" is stamped with Cajun Craze ink, and I inked up the spider web with Going Gray and stamped it off once before stamping over "spooky". Oval and tag punches are SU. The "spooky", hat, and boots are all cut out and popped up on foam tape. Which means I can also enter it in the My Graphico Challenge #69--how cool is that? Well, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you've had some time to make something fun today!

Sept. Teacher Birthday Cards, part 2

These two cards are for the teachers I don't know. This first card is for a teacher named Chris, so I really don't know if that's a man or a woman. Here's hoping it's a woman, because this is a trifle girly for a guy! I used a retired SU set called Branch Out. Card Base is Really Rust, layer is Cajun Craze. I used PTI Vintage Cream and DP. I used More Mustard, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, and Ruby Red markers for the leaves, Early Espresso for the trunk, and Palette Noir for the tire swing. Vintage Cream twill and fall Dew Drops were used to embellish. I used Penny Duncan Creations Shaplies SVG files and my SCAL and Cricut to cut the shapes.

This last card used Certainly Celery, Taken With Teal and So Saffron CS and some more retired SU DP. I used the Botanicals Cricut Lite Cartridge for the flower and PDC Shaplies SVG files for the label. Happy Birthday is stamped using PTI's Birthday Basics.

Again, these had matching candy bars. I hope you've enjoyed these cards. I enjoyed making them!