Halloween sticker fun...

I always try to pick up a few Halloween stickers on sale after October 31st. Joann's and Michael's usually have 60-70% off if I wait until then. I use them the following year to make a few Halloween cards.  Here's an example of what I mean:

The witches hats and shoes that you see on these cards are felt stickers. They make for some rally quick cards. The spider web border is a Martha Stewart punch.

Normally, I wouldn't put a mostly black image on a black background, but I thought it worked ok on these black circles.

A few orange sequins added a little sparkle to my cards.

For this card I had just a small scrap of the spider web paper left - barely enough to cut two circles.

The inside of each card was pretty simple with a computer-generated sentiment. I used the "Chiller" font for some added spookiness.

We will soon be packing up our little RV for our biennial trip to some section of the U.S. This year we'll be heading southeast. I'm so looking forward to seeing some new countryside and a few unexpected adventures (they always happen!).

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

Cheryl

May all your dreams come true...

This was a birthday card for my beautiful granddaughter Polly. She is such a sweet girl, and I really do hope all her dreams come true.

I first created my background using several Distress inks.  I used a variety of butterfly dies and cut enough of them out of glitter paper and cardstock to fill the front of the card.

I have a stamp set of larger words from Inkadinkadoo and selected the word "Dreams" from this set. I heat embossed it with turquoise embossing powder and then colored in some of the letters with a lighter turquoise marker. The rest of my sentiment was heat-embossed with white on black cardstock.

On the inside of my card, I printed a sentiment with my computer and stamped a few colorful butterflies.

The real fun part of this card came when I tucked in this mechanical butterfly so that when the card was opened, it would flutter out. It has a little rubber band mechanism that you wind up before you place it in the card. Here's a link to a YouTube video if you'd like to see one in action:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKxHXqYo810. My granddaughter, and those sitting next to her when she opened the card, were very surprised.



I was able to order several of these butterflies online. I thought they would be a fun addition to some of my cards. You can find them on Amazon by searching for "wind-up paper butterfly."

Our house guests have left--but they'll be back in a week. They took a little side trip to Chicago to visit other relatives and to sight-see. It is quite lovely to have the house to ourselves again and not have to worry about feeding 5 or 6 people at every meal, even if it's just for a few days.

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

Candy corn card...

I was inspired by a few candy corn cards on Pinterest, and so I decided to create one of my own, using my Silhouette Cameo.

I first created my card base by tracing a clipart candy corn in the Silhouette software, creating a larger "offset," duplicating it and then joining the two shapes on one side.

Once that was done, I cut my original candy corn into three different parts so that each could be cut out of a different patterned paper.

Then came the most fun part--decorating the front of my card. I used some unbranded dies for my sentiment, ghosts and bats. The green eyeballs came from a pack of different-colored eyeballs that I had purchased at the Dollar Tree. The adhesive trim was some I had left over from last year's Halloween cards.

I love these little ghosts (there are four more in the set, all with different expressions) and bats. I used a white gel pen to give the bats some spooky eyes.

For the panel on the inside of my card, I simply cut one of the original candy corn shapes that I had traced.

The "Happy Halloween" is another unbranded die that worked well for this card.

I'm not very talented at designing cards in the Silhouette software, but it sure is fun to try. I learn a little bit more each time.

We finally had a little bit of rain here after a long stretch of dry hot weather that turned our grass brown and caused some of our grapes to shrivel up. The weather folks have predicted we'll get more rain at the beginning of next week. I sure hope so!

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

Simple Halloween card...

I've been busy trying to get all of my Halloween cards made, as we leave on an RV trip in mid-September and don't return until the end of October. That means I'll need to mail them from the road.

Here is a simple card I designed in the Silhouette software and cut out with my Cameo.

I found some clipart of a pumpkin face and traced it. Then I used the text tool to spell SPOOKY. I cut some small portions off the top of each "O" and off the underside of the "P." That way the centers would remain attached and I wouldn't have to try to adhere them to the glitter cardstock underneath.

I cut the card front the same size and color (gray) as the card base and then popped it up on foam tape. The glitter cardstock behind "SPOOKY" is a little greener than the photo shows, so it's a nice contrast to the orange glitter cardstock behind the pumpkin face.

This is one of those cards that doesn't look so hot in a photograph, but I actually really liked it IRL.

My inside sentiment is computer-generated. Super simple!

I'm entering this card into the CardzTV Challenge #61 Anything Goes.

I spent today cleaning house, washing my car and repairing three defroster grid lines in the back window of my car. Did you know you can repair them yourself?

I got a little kit at an auto parts store. It was actually really easy to do, using conductive paint. Of course, I don't know if it actually works yet--we've got temps in the 80s, so nothing to defrost. I'll be excited if they do work, though. The car dealership told me I'd have to replace the back window to fix the problem. Obviously, I didn't buy that line!!!


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

Cheryl

Birthday shaker cards...

Two more of my grandsons are celebrating their birthdays this month, and here are the cards I made for them:
 

As you can see, one is turning 11 and the other 9.  I didn't closely compare them as I was making them, so the one on the right has a lot more sequins in the shaker area. I'm not sure why I got so carried away with the sequins. I think I was having just a little too much fun making a boy's card with sequins!!

Here's a little closer look at the over-filled shaker. I used fun foam to create a frame for each of the shakers. On top of that, I adhered a square of acetate and then a green cardstock frame. I used some 1/8" super sticky double-sided tape to put everything together. It worked really well.

My numbers were glued onto the acetate with Glossy Accents.

The inside sentiments were computer-generated.

These cards were so much fun to make. I'm not sure why I haven't made more shaker cards. Especially since I now know how fun foam makes those shaker frames a snap to create.

Last week the thrift shop where I volunteer insisted I take home hundreds of (it may even be over a thousand!!!) sheets of double-sided, patterned, layering-weight cardstock by Stampin' Up. There were also some sheets of heavier cardstock in the mix, which I am currently using to make some gift boxes to sell in the thrift store. I'll be using as much of the cardstock as I can to make products to be sold in the store, but they've also made it very clear that I should use it for my own cards and projects, too. They are so good to me! It was fun to go through the paper a couple of times and pull out some patterns that really caught my eye. You'll definitely be seeing it on future cards.

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

Cheryl

Twofer Card Challenge fun...

I was surprised and honored to be chosen as one of the winners of the June Twofer Card Challenge. And I was doubly honored to be asked to serve as a guest designer for the August challenge. The August theme is "Geometric"--LOTS of possibilities with this one! Geometry was my very favorite subject of all time--in high school and in college--so I smiled at the thought of this theme.

Here is what I came up with:

I know it's a Twofer challenge, and a photo of just the two cards is shown on the Twofer Blog, but I couldn't help myself--I added a little geometric Christmas tag as a Threefer.

I used my smallest hexagon die (no longer have packaging, so I'm not sure of brand) to make my three apertures. If you look closely, you'll see that the six sides of the hexagon are not exactly the same length, as they should be, but I used it anyway. Per the rules of Geometry, that means the angles will not all be the same either! Oh, well.

Once I was done die-cutting, I added a strip of striped paper to my card base and then adhered the black panel with foam tape to raise it up a bit.

My three little Halloween emojis are from a stamp set by Bo Bunny. The set has a whole bunch of different holiday emojis, so I think I'll get lots of use out of it.

Here's a little closer look at my emojis. I've colored each of them with ProMarkers, fussy-cut them out and popped them up on foam squares.

To finish my card front, I added a die-cut "Happy Halloween" sentiment and a few orange sequins from my stash.

The inside of my card is very plain at the moment. I'm thinking of adding one of those cute emojis, just to dress it up a bit--maybe the purple bat, flying above the sentiment.

The sentiment is an old wooden stamp by Stampin' Up that I purchased at our local thrift shop.

My second card is very geometric with its shapes, angles and lines. I used the three negative die-cuts from my Halloween card to serve as an anchor for my ribbon and bow. The middle hexagon is popped up on a foam square for a little added dimension.

The angled piece of white cardstock was dry-embossed with a Darice embossing folder. I added the die-cut sentiment with some spray adhesive.

Do you think I need to add something more than the sentiment stamp to the inside of this card, too? I'm not sure. I will most likely add a hand-written note, so maybe that will be enough.

Finally, I made my little tag. I folded a scrap of red cardstock in half and then used a larger hexagon die to cut it out, making sure to keep the fold just below the cutting line.

The wreath/JOY stamp is from a Bo Bunny Christmas stamp set. I used a green marker to ink the wreath and a red marker to ink up the word Joy. Then I "huffed" on it a bit before stamping, and it worked quite well.

The tiny berries were made with Nuvo Crystal drops, and the little pine branches beneath my little hexagon were cut with a Martha Stewart punch.

For the inside of my tag, I cut yet another hexagon and stamped it as shown. As a final touch, I put some double-sided tape on the back so it can be adhered to a package.

I make all my own Christmas tags, so I need to keep working on them. This turned out to be quick one, so I think I'll make more hexagon tags.

Now it's your turn to make a couple of "geometric" cards, using the same stamp, image or die-cut for two completely different occasions. Just visit the Twofer Card Challenge for all the details and loads of inspiration.

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

Card for a teen...

Today is our grandson's 15th birthday. Teen boys are so hard to make cards for, but this is what I finally decided on:

I made this card with a couple of rectangles with rounded corners and some circle dies.  My background is embossed with a Darice music embossing folder.

The "Make a wish" stamp is a really old one. I'm not even sure anymore who the manufacturer is.

My inside sentiment was computer-generated. I also added a little piece of musical clipart.

This was a simple card--easy to make--but I think it works well for a teen boy.

Do you have a hard time with teen boy cards, too? I'd love to learn something about your "go to card" for teen boy birthdays. I've got 5 grandsons, three of whom are now teens, and it won't be long before the other two are, as well. Believe me, I need all the help and advice I can get when it comes to making cards for them.

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

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #140: LOTS OF LAYERS with the option of Anything Goes...

The August challenge over on the Let's Craft and Create blog calls for lots of layers. I'm not one to usually add a lot of layers to my cards, so I had to think about this one for a while. What helped immensely was looking through some card layouts that I've saved. Here's what I came up with:

I was in the mood for making a sunny, happy card, so I picked out some coordinating yellow patterned cardstock from which to cut my layers. As I looked at the cardstock, it reminded me of daisies, so I searched through my flower dies to find something that would work. I created my sentiment banner with an unbranded stitched die and added a little yellow twine for decoration. It's been popped up with foam tape.

This daisy die and its leaves are also unbranded, but there are lots and lots of other daisy dies out there. I know I've used one from Spellbinders in the past.

My little butterfly is a Fiskars punch and the flower centers are Nuvo Crystal Drops.

I maybe shouldn't have added the polka dots to my butterfly, but it is well and truly glued down now, so it'll have to remain as is.

I've added just a couple of little punched butterflies to dress up my card's interior and kept the stamped sentiment very simple.

I actually had a good time following the card layout, so I think I'll try to use more layouts in the future. It certainly saved time in figuring out the sizes of all my layers.

Now it's your turn. We'd LOVE it if you'd join our August challenge at Let's Craft and Create and make your own card with lots of layers.  Or, you can always enter with the "Anything Goes" option.

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