Not a CREATURE was stirring...

Made this for the current Jingle Belles challenge :

Supplies:

• Rexel Derwent watercolor pencils; the moose was colored with Copper Beech and Brown Ochre
• Moose and sentiment are the Holiday Grumplings by Taylored Expressions inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black and Ground Espresso
• Red twine from the local dollar store
• Canvas pieces from Hand Made Modern line from Target, last year, on clearance... score!  I adhered them with Glossy Accents
• Backgrounds: DCWV polka-dot paper, and BasicGrey green accent mat

Cheers!

STAMPlorations October CAS

This month's challenge for STAMPlorations CAS is to just add black...

I just received my very first STAMPlorations package containing items largely purchased with a won gift certificate and I must say: high quality clear stamps! Nice and sticky.

This card was this stamp's maiden voyage, inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black. The color was added with the following Distress Inks through a Heidi Swapp stencil: Aged Mahogany, Dried Marigold  (duh, had to), and Scattered Straw. I scrawled the sentiment with a Faber-Castell Pitt the same weight as the marigold stamp.

Super easy, and I kind of love  it!

Here's the challenge graphic:

(And I'll also share at the ongoing STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge! First time!)

(Tomorrow I'll add a picture of the self-sewn late-blooming marigold out back that inspired this card) Here it is:

Toxic Tonic

I am so grateful for my health and my faculties.  I really am.  I think about it often.  But sometime I think, "Damn my eyes!" I walked into the thrift store last week to drop some bags off when I saw an old bingo kit!  Mine.

Supplies and notes :

• Old Bingo card and pieces: pieces inked with Picked Raspberry Distress Paint; card squirted with Dylusions spray in Bubblegum Pink and stenciled with Tim's web inked with Black Soot Distress Ink
• Cardstock pieces from Tim's Halloween ephemera die pack and Making Memories Halloween pack from years ago, glittered with Distress Glitter in Black Soot on Glossy Accents
• Pink crepe paper from ___(not sure I have the packaging) Jenni Bowlin Studios stitched on with a sewing machine
• Tim's Idealogy skull + crossbones
• Making Memories skull brad
• True Hemp metallic twine

Of course I see this now and want to add to it... 

I'd like to share this at the following challenges:

• Frilly & Funkie: A Very Vintage Halloween
• STAMPlorations: Mixed Media/Stencil Sunday in October
  
• Simon Says AG on Wednesday

STAMPlorations October Theme & Sketch

Woohoo! Made this baby with a won stamp!

Supplies:

• Seashell Cosmo STAMPlorations stamp inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black
• Sentimrnt written with multiple Faber-Castell Pitt pens
• Background inked with Spiced Marmalade and Seedless Preserves Distress Inks sprinkled with a little H2O
• Black ColorBok paper for mat

I made this for the current STAMPlorations October Theme and Sketch:

Three Trees

This week at Shopping Our Stash, the challenge is to use three trees!  Chrsitmas trees, spooky Halloween trees, or you can stretch it like I always do... 

The "three trees" here are literally three species of tree leaves: my guesses from left to right are valley oak (Quercus lobata), black oak (Quercus kelloggii) and... the last one was tough--  I'm thinking an immature cottonwood leaf or something non-native/ornamental. But I'm a freak about it, so I'll be updating this post!

Supplies and notes:

• This card was made entirely using dismantled cards.  I recently weeded my card stash: I filled a gallon-sized bag with cards for the Student Services Coordinator to use, I used a few cards, and some cards I saw and thought, "I hate this card... I'm not giving that to anyone!" So I tore them apart and kept any reusable scraps.
• Salvaged cardstock was either diecut or embossed.
• The sentiment was a little scrap, already stamped. I used Iced Spruce and Peeled Paint Distress Stains.

I think it's a nice, mellow card that could be used for multiple occasions.  It was certainly an effective way to shop my stash!  What will you find in your stash? Go ahead and be a Looky-Lou and see what my teammates at SOS found in their stashes! See you over there!

Remember, no pressure... just dig through your stash and make something... a card, a scene, an ornament!

Scary, sacred... scary and sacred?

Here's this:

I didn't mean for this skull to look so scary!  Yikes!

LEFT: Before my sister suggested more red.  RIGHT: After
more red added!  Good call!

Supplies:

• Prima Relic sacred heart 
• Fire portion painted with black Liquitex gesso and rubbed with DecoArt Metallic Lustre in Gold Rush
• Heart portion painted with Seedless Preserves and Fired Brick Distress paint, then coated with Black Soot Distress crackle paint.  Once dry, the crackles were rubbed with more DecoArt Metallic Lustre, and dabbed with a bit more Fired Brick Distress paint.
• Wings are Tim- Idealogy, inked with Gold Adirondack alcohol ink mixative 
• The rhinestone strand is from my stash 
• The flowers were purchased in bulk and dyed orange with Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain and then sprayed with Dylusions in Pure Sunshine to saturate
• Main adhesive for this project was E-6000

I will share this with the peeps at Try It On Tuesday for Scary and Spooky.

ATCAS: Coffee

Coffee???

I love this quote!  Makes me laugh.  Well played, Honest Abe.

I plan to share this at Addicted to CAS.

Happy Friday!

Tag! You're it! Reminder post!

In case you forgot (as I almost did with my crazy two weeks...), I am a "guestie" at Tag! You're it!  this fortnight, and here is my hopefully inspiring tag to remind you to join up!:

Do you see the October tradition? :)

I CASE'd this card by Leigh:

Supplies:

• Scrap DP
• Tattered leaves die by Tim Holtz inked with Spiced Marmalade and Festive Berries DI, then veinated with a fine-tip Sharpie. 
• Tim's greenery die adhered to accent
• African heishi beads (picture a thick, flat, matte sequin) adhered with Glossy Accents
• Vintage Dennison hole-protector added to the punched hole
• Coral/white baker's twine from my stash
• The Girl's Paperie word stickers (from 2010!!!)

Please join me and play with the folks at TYI.  What a nice bunch.

This is Halloween...

...this is Halloween...

The other song that popped into my head while I was working on this was, "It's the most wonderful time of the year..." I love Halloween!

How convenient... Blogland loves Halloween, too! This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is

"HEY, GHOULFRIEND!"

Make a Halloween greeting for the ghouls in your life using all that old stuff you bought and didn't use up... or use at all...

Supplies:

• "Network" paper by Authentique, years ago
• Paper doll from MME set years ago... this is one of those items I could keep "special" forever... but I feel liberated to have used it!
• The "hill" is a scrap of Tim Holtz paper 
• Bats from a goody bag from The Funkie Junkie 
• Garland (background) made by painting the reverse of some patriotic bunting with Black Soot Distress Paint and by doodling with a FC Pitt and adding pom-poms with a nail head dipped in Wild Honey Distress Paint (this is, like, the perfect vintage orange color!!!)
• Greeting bunting written on an old library catalog card, cut up and smudged with Blackbird ChalkBox cat-eye. Twine from stash.
• Panel mounted onto a page of the NY Book Review... my MIL reads it religiously, and I take them for using in the scrap shack for protecting surfaces, though I always end up reading parts-- especially the classifieds! LOL! People are so interesting...

See you at SOS! Use up your stuff!  Make a card for a kid's lunchbox!  Really... you can't take it with you... use it!

Xo

Pink watercolor

I made a couple watercolor cards last week and then my life got really busy...

Thankfully, the current challenge at Seize the Birthday is Anything Goes, so I thought I'd throw this in...

I'll share this card at Color Dare:

And I'll just post this.  It has a rightful home...

I used Loew Cornell watercolors and Spectrum Noir pens.

Here is the Color Dare palette:

Travel the world...

I made this for the current challenge at Simon Says... Monday: explore the world:

How do you like the new mappy background?  It's been raining, so I had to come up with an
indoor solution for photographing projects!  I like it, but it's busy... I'll be experimenting in
days to come... let me know what you think! 

Supplies and notes:

• The map paper is from a fat 8x8" pad... I think it was DCWV, but the cover fell off long ago.  I used two different map papers in the layers.  
• The black cardtock is Colorbok
• The globe die is from Pia in Norway... she sent me a bunch of diecuts recently, and they are the bomb!  This was cut from some awesome shimmery black paper.  Thank you, Pia.  I owe ya.
• The quote (from a Modest Mouse song... how typical) was typed on the American Craft Typecast stickers, intended for a typewriter.  (I've used the heck out of these today... the typewriter is like the sewing machine-- I make hay while the sun is shining, you know?!--  use it while I got it out!)

Cheers to my worldwide Blogland friends!  Happy to know you!

(gah)... PINK!!! Oh, deer...

How about this "deer" little card:

Supplies and notes:

• The sweet deer diecut is from Pia in Norway... I inked it with some Vintage Photo Distress Stain on my mat
• The background was a leftover scrap from my card-purge.  I embossed it with a Sizzix folder and sprayed it with Dylusions in Pure Sunshine and Funky Fuschia
• The sentiment was typed onto American Crafts stickers specifically meant for a typewriter

Yay!  Hurry and play at the current Jingle Belles challenge recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness month.  So awesome... read on...

(PINK christmas official blurb!)

What is it? 

A challenge to make and link *PINK* holiday cards in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Where is it?

jinglebellesrock.blogspot.com

Whom does it benefit?

Lauren and Stephanie (aka the Jingle Belles) are each donating $2 per linked up card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

How many cards can I link?

As many as you want to, there's no limit!

What if I don't celebrate Christmas?

You're welcome to make pink Hanukkah, pink Solstice, pink Kwanzaa or pink New Year cards instead.

Does my card have to be ALL pink?

Nope! But it should be noticeably pink, so there should be more than, say, the blush on Mrs. Claus' cheeks, if you see what we mean?

What's with the "(GAH!)"?

Our friend and fellow papercrafting blogger, Leslie Hanna (aka the Crooked Stamper) passed away last December. Each year, Leslie was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of this event... which was pretty cool, seeing as how she really REALLY did not like the color pink, at all. A fact she wrote about quite hilariously on many occasions. So it's a bit of a tribute, and a way to have her with us in spirit!

Please join us to Think Pink and Link Pink at Jingle Belles!

♥♥♥♥♥

With Sympathy

This was super easy, and came together quickly, as you could probably guess...

Supplies and notes:

• I had jut used Tim's greenery die set for the first time, and these pieces were all laying around my desktop.  
• The woodgrain stripe is actually ARC Crafts cherry wood tape
• The sentiment was typed onto American Crafts kraft strickers meant for a typewriter

Done!  Love it!  (Well, I don't love that it's a sympathy card, 'cause that's sad... but I am all about an easy sympathy card, because these are the PITS to make when you are feeling sorrow!)

I plan to share this at the following challenges:

• MFT Sketch #302
  
• Creative Corner: Sympathy
• HLS Anything Goes With Dies
  

Jolly

Here's a holiday card for ya:

Supplies and notes:

• Ghosted Dylusions sprays through a Heidi Swapp stencil
• Pom-pom trim from Target
• "Jolly" Stamp by Hero Arts inked in Ranger Archival in Jet Black
• Viva Paper Pearls in Red and Anthracite... see how I added three little red pearls on the top row?

I plan to share this at the following challenges:

• Creative With Stamps
  
• Merry Monday #217
  
• CAS Mix-Up
  
  
  

Creepy or cute?

I don't know... is this creepy or cute?

With the spider, I'm going with "creepy."

Supplies and notes:

• Library catalog card base, leftover from projects past: it had been monoprinted with Tim Holtz's Stripes stencil with an orange ink...
• Pumpkin stamp from dollar bins at Michael's this year, inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black and colored in with Rexell Derwent watercolor pencils
• I scribbled some watercolor pencils along the bottom (yellow) and the top (grey-purple)
• The spiderweb was drawn with Faber-Castell pens, same as the ground, which was also colored with watercolor pencils
• The spider stamp is by Tim Holtz, inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black
• Pom-poms are from Target
• String at top from a clothing tag
• Viva Paper Pearls in Anthracite in corners

Thanks for visiting... happy mid-October... whatttt???  How did this happen?

Go see the ATCs other folks did at Wicked Wednesday!

So Very Thankful

How's this for a fall beauty?

Supplies and notes:

• Good Stamps oak leaf stamp in background inked with Archival in Jet Black then "painted in"with Peeled Paint and Spiced Marmalade Distess Stain
• Sentiment written with a Tombow dual-tip... my only Tombow pen
• Stickles in Mercury Glass added along edges of leaves and sentiment
• Panel mounted on a piece of 100-year-old sheet music

I'd like to share this at the following challenge sites:

• Creative With Stamps, October
  
• JUGs
  

Viva la SOSS!

Woohoo! My pirate tag earned me a guest designer spot over at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers again!

Here's my current challenge offering:

Click to see the wonderful crazing!

The current challenge is Day of the Dead... my fave!  Edna likes it, too... can't you tell?

We keep Dio de los Muertos paraphernalia up in my house year-round.  Salt and pepper shakers... papal picado banners... we love it all.

Supplies and notes:

• Card base is Tim Holtz/Core'dinations Kraft-Core Shattered cardstock 
• Dark matting is from Tim Holtz paper pad
• Floral DP is BasicGrey from about five years ago, I believe... it was in my scrap box
• The StampAnon Tim Holtz stamp is from his recent Day of the Dead collection, inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black on an old library catalog card base 
• Distress Crayon in Vintage Photo scribbled around edges and blended with water using my fingers
• Distress Collage Medium-Crazing spread roughly over the surface, then more Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress Crayon added, plus Festive Berries, Cracked Pistachio, and Frayed Burlap for stamp detail
• My "sweet" birthday greeting was written with a Prismacolor brush pen in brown, then coated with Distress Collage Medium-Vintage and edged with Blackbird ColorBox chalk, adhered wth Ranger black dimensional tape and Tombow adhesive 
• The stamen added are from Wilton, inked with Slate and Gold Mixative Adirondack alcohol inks

Thank you for stopping by!  Hope you guys enjoy this SOSS challenge as much as I do!

Tag, You're It invited me over!

...was so proud to hear that my taggy-tag was chosen by the folks at Tag, You're It! a few weeks ago!   So the people over there invited me to be their guest!  How nice!

This is the tag I've created to share:

...based on this inspiration piece by Leigh Penner:

I was inspired by the mod-fall look, as well as the layout.

Supplies and notes:

• Library catalog card base coated with matte Mod Podge and covered with Martha Stewart tissue reminiscent of the cross-hatched lines of Leigh's background 
• The leaves used recently arrived from Norway, courtesy of Pia-- thank you, friend!  Love these-- shapes and color! 
• The focal leaf is by Recollections.  It came in a 9-pack containing three each of three shapes. It was adhered using more matte Mod Podge.
• "Thanks" was brush-written with a Loew Cornell brush in Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain, which I also lightly splattered across the background for a little more color. 
• The twine at the top was remaining from a package

When CASEing, I try to always take the awesome art of someone else and break it into "raw chunks" in order to draw inspiration, and then I add my own spin.  For me, this is the most stimulating way to CASE because I feel I'm honoring who I CASE while feeding the creative portion of my brain!  A "win-win" if I succeed!

Thank you for visiting... I hope I did Leigh's inspiration tag justice.  Thank you, TYI, for inviting me over!