A couple final Halloween cards...

There hasn't been time to feature all my Halloween cards here on the blog (and I'm pretty sure you're all getting a little tired of them), so here are the last two I'll share with you for now...

For this card I used several strips of Halloween-themed DSP. It seemed like a good way to use up some of my scraps. The spider web is half of a doily from a package of orange, black and gold spider web doilies that I picked up during the Halloween sales. The sentiment stamp is from a really old set - the packaging is long gone. I heat-embossed it, cut it out and adhered it to a black circle die-cut.

I stamped a spider web on the inside where I also printed a sentiment with my computer.

For this card, I once again used my Perfect Pearls for the cauldron image. Then I cut it out with a circle die and backed it with a sunburst die-cut from some glitter paper. I added some dimension to the bubbles in the cauldron with a pearly Viva Décor pen.  The web is 1/4 of one of those spider web doilies, and the little spider on the ribbon was cut using the Happy Hauntings cartridge.

Another 1/4 web doily on the inside, a stamped spider and a computer-generated sentiment finished off this card.

Tomorrow I will carve my pumpkins to set out on our front steps for the trick-or-treaters. I always carve them on Halloween day. Then I line them with foil to protect the inside and keep it fresh. The foil also reflects the light of the candle, so they look a little brighter in the dark. As soon as the kids quit coming, I bring the pumpkins in and bake them. After mashing the cooked pumpkin, I freeze it in 2-cup bags - just enough for a pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread or muffins. I'm going to get a lot of frozen pumpkin this year because my pumpkins are really big!

Hope you all have a great Halloween with lots of cute trick-or-treaters at your door.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Halloween treat bags and another card...

Here are three of the Halloween treat bags that I made. Each one is made from a 12" X 12" piece of DSP. There's very little waste and they are super easy to put together.

Here's a side view so you can see how deep ( 1 1/2") they are. They started out at 10 1/2" tall, but I cut them down with a pinking shears to the height I needed (about 8 1/2").

Here are the final three bags I made. I used a combination of Cricut cuts, die cuts, stickers and gems to decorate them. I punched two holes in the top of each one and used some color-coordinated baker's twine to tie them shut.

Here's the card for today. The image was actually made with a Cuttlebug 5" X 7" embossing folder. Then I used a white ink pad directly on the cardstock to lighten the raised areas.

After the ink was dry, I added some sparkle to the moon with a glitter pen. I also used a black artist's pen to re-blacken the windows a bit, as some of the white ink had gotten into them.

The two little ghosts are stickers and the "ticket" is a stamp from one of the $1.50 bins at Michaels. I thought it was perfect to put the ticket on the front as though it was needed to go into the haunted house.

The card is sitting on its envelope so that you can see I stamped an image on it, too.

Here's a peek at the inside of my card. I just used a couple of corner stamps and a computer-generated sentiment.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all my creations today.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Sometimes the paper does almost all the work...

I made this card in just a few minutes.  The polka-dotted paper already had the scroll-y Halloween design on the left. I just cut it to size, wrapped a couple lengths of purple ribbon around it and adhered it to my card base.

To make my embellishment, I stamped the image with Perfect Medium and then brushed on the gold colored Perfect Pearls powder. To set the powder, you simply spray it with a fine mist of water. I usually give it a quick spray of an acrylic finishing coat to make sure it stays in place.

Then I cut my image out with a circle die, glued it on top of a larger circle cut out of some gold cardstock and adhered this with double-sided foam tape.

I used my gold Viva Décor pen to add some dimension to the bubbles in the cauldron.

My final embellishment was 3 purple gems in the corner. Done and dusted!!

Oh yeah, except for the inside.

I went easy, peasy on the inside. Just a computer generated sentiment.

NOW I can say, "Done and dusted!"

On to the next card.

Once again, the paper did nearly all the work! I only added some sparkly Stickles to the dots on the moon (I know you can't see them, but they are definitely sparkly). My ribbon across the bottom is a piece of Washi tape over the top of a strip of orange cardstock. I put the tape onto the cardstock because it's transparent on the light parts of the design, and I wanted those light parts to be more orange.  My sentiment is a dimensional sticker.

Here's the inside of this one. A stamped sentiment that's been sparkle-ized with a glitter pen, a few tiny punched bats and another strip of Washi tape.

As I said, the cardstock really did the work for me on these cards. It came from a 6" X 6" stack (not sure of the manufacturer, too lazy to go find it again), but it is now nearly gone. Yikes! I need to find another small Halloween themed stack for next year. I'll be checking out those sales this week. he he

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

More Halloween cards to share...

Here are a couple more Halloween cards with still more to come!

You've probably seen a lot of these cards around, but I still just had to try one. I ripped some strips of text-weight paper and inked the edges. Then after adhering a small piece of black CS to my kraft card base, I began layering the paper strips onto the front of my card. When that was done, I added the scary eyes and a spider and stamped "Boo!"

The inside of my card has a computer-generated sentiment.

My spider has a lot of dimension (it creates a hard bump in the envelope), so this card needed some extra postage, but you could easily add a flatter spider and it would work just as well.





 

My second card today is a side-step card. I love these cards! They're fun to make and easy to decorate (now that I have the Sizzix die set). For this one, I cut a scary tree and some tombstones using the Happy Hauntings cartridge. The black tree was backed with a solid cut-out in dark gray so that you can just make out the scary face on the trunk of the tree. I used a white ink pad on the moon (which was originally dark gray) to give it an eerie appearance. I cut the grass twice so that I could also add it to my tombstones. The pumpkins are dimensional stickers.

Did you notice that I ran a black marker along the edge of my DSP to give it an "outlined" look? I thought that worked really well on this card, especially given that the DSP was so close in color to the cardstock.

Please excuse this wonky photo, but I was trying to hold the card open and take a photo at the same time.

A couple of fun stamps on the inside and this card was done!

I'll be back tomorrow with still more Halloween cards. Hope you're not getting too bored yet.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Halloween is nearly upon us, and I've been busy...

Here are a couple more cards I've (rather frantically) created in my craft area. These are both interactive cards. I love this kind of card for the grandkids. They need a little action!

This first card is a spinner card. It's a little hard to see in this photo, but the moon with the bat is suspended on a string inside the circle aperture.

Here's a little better peek from the inside of the card.  I'll be spinning the moon around and holding it in place when I put it in the envelope. That way, when the card is first opened, it will spin.

The line of green goo on the front of the card is a Martha Stewart punch and the ghosts, bats and "spooky" sentiment are stickers.

I heat embossed the "boo" on the inside and added another ghost. This was a quick, but fun, card to make.

I used more of those glittery bat stickers on this card. It looks very plain on the front, but when you open it up...

...it's a pop-up surprise! I used the Sizzix pop-up die set to create the insert and the little posts to hold my boo banner.

The little monsters were created from the Create a Critter 2 cartridge. Aren't they funny?

The bats are more of those cool stickers, and the pumpkins are also dimensional stickers.

It was a bit fiddly to put this all together, but this was my first time using the pop-up die. I'm hoping that once I use it more, I'll get better and quicker!!















Here's a side view so you can see a little better how the pop-up insert works.

I'll share some more of my Halloween cards with you tomorrow. I really like making them because they're mostly for kids. I don't feel they have to be "perfect." Not that ANY of my cards ever are, but I feel a bit more relaxed making these.

Which kinds of cards are your favorites to make?

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Ghostly greetings...

This card was so much fun to make! I saw a card on Pinterest with three little apertures and some characters peeking out through them. It wasn't a Halloween card, but I thought it would work perfectly with some little 3D ghost stickers I had in my stash.

I layered the purple DSP onto some dark gray cardstock. I embossed the left side of the CS with a  "Happy Hauntings" border embossing folder and highlighted it with some white pigment ink and a little sparkle from a glitter pen.

My apertures were cut with a small circle die. I also made a little frame for each opening with that circle die and a My Creative Time sunburst die. The dark gray cardstock (with the purple DSP) was adhered to my black card base with double-sided foam tape to pop it up a bit.

I added some spooking looking gray DSP behind the apertures to add a little background for my ghosts.  To curve the bottom of my ghosts properly, I held my circle die on each ghost and cut away the foam so that it would fit snugly against the inside curve of the opening.

On the inside of my card I used the same DSP that is behind each aperture. Isn't it reminiscent of a stormy night sky with lightning streaks? Believe it or not, I found this cool paper (12 X 12) at a thrift shop! I only wish they would have had more than one sheet.

I used some sparkly white stickers for my sentiment and added one more ghost for good measure. This card was so fun that I made a couple more.

I spent this afternoon making more Halloween cards. I simply must get them done this weekend and get them in the mail. I've already sent 10 of them but I've got at least a half dozen more people on my mailing list. I've got about 5 that I will hand-deliver, too. I guess that makes 20+ cards. Whew!

I also managed to get outside this afternoon and pick all my green tomatoes (it will probably freeze this weekend). I hope they ripen. If not, I may have to try making some fried green tomatoes. :)

I hope you are having a splendid weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Peachy pumpkin faces...

I really wanted to use my Peachy Keen face stamps on a Halloween card, and this is what I came up with:

I cut the pumpkins from the Create A Critter cartridge, eliminating any cut lines on the faces with my Gypsy. Once that was done, I stamped each pumpkin with a different Peachy Keen face from the Everyday Character assortment. Aren't they so cute? I can see in the photo that I should have given them some "cheeks" with a little chalk. I can still do that since this card hasn't been sent yet.

The spider, as well as the "boo" and "eeeek," are stickers. The strip of kraft cardstock across the center was embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder. I inked the spiders lightly with some distress ink to make them stand out a bit.

I colored the stems with a brown ProMarker and then used a white gel pen to add the whites of the eyes and to draw in the stitch lines.

Each pumpkin is popped up with a little double-sided foam tape.

The inside of my card is pretty simple. I just added a spider hanging from its web and a Halloween greeting. Can you see that I've added a little sparkle to the spider with my glitter pen?

The stamps I used on the inside are from different sets that I've had for a long, long time. Not even sure who the manufacturers are anymore.

Just for fun, I'm entering this card in The Stamping Boutique's Halloween challenge.

I'm so glad to be nearly done with my Halloween cards. Now I've got to get them in the mail!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

First let me apologize...

to all those talented card makers whose blogs I generally visit for inspiration. I know that I haven't left you any comments for many weeks now, but I will start again soon. Believe it or not, I am STILL catching up after being gone a month. My inbox was filled with nearly 800 emails that needed to be read and either discarded or responded to. I still haven't gotten to the many, many blog posts from the bloggers I follow, but they're next on my list. I'll get there...eventually!

I did grab a little time and made a quick card for a birthday that I had missed while I was traveling.

I found this cute retro alarm clock on the Nifty Fifties cartridge. It was simple to cut out with my Cricut and layer up. I don't usually cut the shadow for images, but I did for this one. It added a little more depth, and I thought it looked great.

The sentiment was computer-generated, and then I cut it out with a circle die that also pokes the dotted line around the edge of the circle (from Sizzix). Finally, I backed it with a die-cut from My Creative Time.

The little strip of teal paper was embossed with a Cricut border embossing folder.

The inside of my card was super simple with another computer-generated sentiment. No embellishments inside this time. This card is for a guy, and I think they appreciate simplicity.

Well, I've got to keep working on those emails. There's definitely a light at the end of that tunnel!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Happy anniversary...

The Memory Box Precious Hearts dies make it so easy to make a pretty anniversary card. For this one, I also used one of my favorite color combos: red, white and black.

Add caption

I used one of my smaller scalloped oval dies by Lifestyle Crafts for the sentiment, which was created with two Stampabilities word stamps.

Adding a few flat-backed gems always makes me happy! :)

On the inside of my card I printed a sentiment with my computer and added a tiny heart-shaped gem.

The red mat added a little color to my card's interior, but as I look at this photo, I think there could be a strip of the black polka dot paper across the bottom. What do you think? OK as is, or add the DSP?

I always want to "fix" my cards when I see the photos. I try not to send them until I check out the pics because they help me to know if I've got my elements straight and if my card looks too plain.


I am just now back from a month-long trip to Germany and Italy, so I'll be sharing some photos with you in the near future. If I haven't commented on your blog lately, that's why!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Let's Craft & Create Challenge #106: Use Ribbon or Twine...

Can you believe we're closing in on Halloween already? I need to focus on those Halloween cards for the grandchildren, so I decided to use the new challenge on Let's Craft & Create to get started.

Since our new challenge over at Let's Craft & Create asks that we use ribbon or twine on our creations, I decided to use both!

First, I created three little tags in Halloween colors using a Hampton Arts tag die that is actually part of a holiday stamp and die set.

The stamps I used on this card are miscellaneous ones from six different companies. I just pulled out stamps from here and there that suited my fancy. he he

The harlequin patterned paper behind my tags is from Echo Park.
  

If you look closely at my picture, you'll see that I've used a glitter pen to add some sparkle to the images on each tag. I've also popped up the pumpkin stack, the witch and the body of the spider.

You probably already know how I like to embellish the inside of my card, too. Here I stamped a Halloween "ticket" and fussy-cut it. The  "Happy Halloween" greeting on it is barely readable in this pic because of the sparkle I added with my glitter pen. There's also some sparkle on the spider web.

This angled pic lets you actually read what's on the ticket.

I absolutely love making Halloween cards, and I will be in full Halloween mode for the rest of the month.




 

 

Now please take a little time to check out what the rest of the Design Team has made with ribbons or twine to inspire you.

Eileen

Tania

Karen

Catherine

Cheryl – that’s me!

Gail

Deborah

Maryvonne

Hazel

Mary

Sabina

Monika

 

Aren't their creations amazing? Now, go. Make something. Remember ribbons or twine. Then upload it here. There's a prize to win!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl 



Wedding gift embellishment...

My nephew got married a couple of months ago, and I wanted the gift for him and his bride to look extra special. This is what I did:

These photos were taken with my cell phone, so please excuse the glare in the center and a bit of blurriness.

Tissue paper flower:

I had some white tissue paper and decided to make a big tissue flower. I remembered making them as a kid. You just layer about 8 squares of tissue paper (mine were about 8" X 8"), accordion fold all the layers at once in about 1" folds. You'll end up with an 8" long accordion-folded strip that is about 1" wide. Tie it off tightly in the center with some string, fan out the folds and carefully begin pulling each single sheet of tissue toward the center. You have to be very careful so as not to tear them.

Once I had all the layers pulled toward the center as much as I could, I adjusted and fluffed them until I had what I wanted. I put some pearls in the center with hot glue. As a final touch, I brushed the outer edges of the tissue paper with some glue and sprinkled on some clear glitter.

Leafy branches with pearls:

The leafy branches that stick out on either side of my flower were cut from white CS with a Sizzix Bigz die called Branch with Leaves. I simply added some large flat-backed pearls to dress them up a bit.

Mr. & Mrs.:

The Mr. & Mrs. was cut from white CS using the Tie the Knot cartridge. I simple sprayed it with adhesive and covered it with clear glitter before adhering it to my package.

Card Pocket:

At first I didn't know what to do with my card. I wanted it attached to my package, but I didn't want to put it on the top, I solved my dilemma by creating a little pocket on one end to hold it. I used a border punch to add a fancy edge across the top and some wide glitter tape across the center. It was adhered to the package on the sides and bottom with double-sided red-line tape.

 

Here's a better look at the card pocket and the top of the gift.

The wedding was held at an historic farm, so the happy couple chose decorations that combined a rustic look with touches of elegance. There was a lot of burlap along with many, many flowers and candles. I thought my gift fit right in! A very lucky coincidence.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl