CFC116: Sequins & Chevron & Simon Says...Clear Stamp

 

Just a quick post to share a card I just made for this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge, which I obviously interpreted very literally.  The idea came to me when I first saw the challenge, and I finally forfeited sleep tonight to make this card.  I'm also submitting this to this week's Simon Says Challenge to use clear (or rubber) stamps.  My card turned out exactly as I had hoped.  And I'm happy because I only have a couple more Halloween Cards to go until I have enough to send to my nieces and nephews, which is a good thing because I desperately need to switch my crafty endeavors to working on my son's Halloween costume.  Hope your week is going well. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Curtain Call: Spooky Scene & Simon Says...Clear Stamp

Yay!  I finally got to play along with another Curtain Call Challenge.  Stacey always picks the best inspiration photos, and we had this fun "spooky scene" below as our inspiration.  The front porch scene immediately made me think of trick-or-treaters so I pulled out my favorite (and super old) halloween set.  The black and white with pops of color in the photo also stood out. I initially was just going to stick with orange (and hopefully it still is more dominant), but bits of green and purple got thrown in as this card evolved...and evolve it did.  I've been working on it here and there for the past week.  One other thing that stood out to me was the shine/reflection in the windows.  That got translated into glossy accents on the witch, cat, and mummy's eyes and the dangling spider's body.  I also threw in a few sequins (from the Dollar Store no less....I can't pass up a good deal) because they're so good at reflecting light.  Oh, and the glitter...I may have gotten a bit carried away with shiny accents.  The twine bow tied to the tag was inspired by this card by the truly amazing Amy Wanford.  I'm also linking this up at Simon Says...Use a Clear Stamp Challenge.  Hee...that's an easy one.  I love stamps. :)

Supplies
Stamps: Halloween Dingbats (CTMH), Friendship Jar Fall Fillers (PTI)
Ink: True Black (PTI), VersaMark
Paper: black (MM), orange zest, white (PTI)
Other: glossy accents (CTMH), prisma glitter (PTI), white embossing powder (SU!), charcoal twine (The Twinery), sequins ($ store), colored pencils

Moxie Fab All That Glitters is Gold & Simon Says...We're Going Dotty

This card was totally inspired by two challenges: All That Glitters is Gold Challenge at Moxie Fab World and Simon Says...We're Going Dotty Challenge at the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Blog. Ever since I saw this cake pop inspiration photo on Cath's blog (on Sept. 11th), I knew I wanted to use it to make a card.

From: Glitter Guide

The only problem is that I couldn't figure out a way to pour glitter on the card and have it cascade down without it looking like Halloween ooze.  Not only that, but I knew I wanted a big bold sentiment at the bottom of my card, and I just didn't have any stamps that I felt worked the way I wanted, so I set the idea aside.  Fast forward to last week.  I won a gift certificate to CAS-ual Fridays Stamps and as I was browsing their products, I saw the big bold images in their Shenanigans set, and immediately I remembered my idea.  I didn't place my order until late Friday night, so I knew I would never get my new stamps in time for the Moxie Fab deadline, but I thought maybe sometime I'd get around to making the card I had envisioned.  Then much to my surprise my stamps showed up this afternoon (seriously the fasted delivery of anything I have ever ordered...I'm so impressed).  We had a fun but full evening of apple and pear picking planned, but I knew I had to try to make a card before the night was over.  So after my son went to bed I got to work.  I started with trying to figure out a solution to my Halloween ooze problem.  As I was pondering, I remembered two things from Simon Says...their dot challenge and their new falling snow stencil (which I do not own...yet).

Dots would definitely not look like ooze and would still achieve the cascading look I was going for, so I set out to make my own template.  I drew a grid on some paper, marked x's on the spots I thought the holes should go, and after a bit of trial and error had a template I liked.  Then I used a pin to poke holes through my paper, so I could use it as a template to mark the spots where the gold would go on my card.  I use the smallest dot in Papertrey's Polka Dot Basics set to stamp over my pencil marks and then embossed them with Gold Zing Powder.  The sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays Shenanigans set was embossed in white. (BTW: I actually embossed the sentiment first and then did the gold dots. Oh, and I was glad that the sentiment stamped so perfectly because I didn't even do a test run to see how these stamps stamp.)  And that's it.  The card was done.  And I made it with 5 minutes to spare. Nothing like working under pressure. :)

Moxie Fab Ready-Made Embellishments, Simon Says Dotty, & ColourQ #209

Happy October!  I just love this month.  My son and I had a blast pulling out all our fall/Halloween decorations yesterday.  And although I've been loving the fall colors/theme, I was itching to make something bright and happy, especially after seeing this week's ColourQ Challenge.

This was such a fun card to make.  I love to buy embellishments and yet struggle to use them.  I'm glad that Moxie Fab World's Ready-Made Embellishments Challenge finally gave me the push I needed to break them out and complete a project.  I pulled out a couple coordinating embellishments from My Mind's Eye and set to work.  I trimmed the chipboard flowers, so they would be flush with the bottom and right side of the striped paper (which is actually the packaging from the word stickers....I just loved the stripes and couldn't throw it away).  Inspired by this week's Simon Says...We're Going Dotty Challenge, I then filled in some of the open spaces with some rhinestone dots and added a circle patterned paper to the right edge.  And the MME word stickers finished it off.

I love the dimension and colors on this card, and I'm pretty thrilled that I used some of the embellishments that I tend to hoard.  And it's silly, but I loved that the only thing I had to glue down was the paper.  I was surprised at how happy that made me.  Well, my dough has risen, and I'm off to finish dinner.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope that you have a happy Friday and a fabulous weekend! :)

Fresh Squeezed Birthday Bash, Moxie Fab Gold & Simon Says..Anything Goes

Fresh Squeezed Stamps is celebrating their first birthday this week and I wanted to join in on the fun by making a birthday card for their Fresh Squeezed Birthday Bash Challenge.  I ended up only using their On Trend 2013 set for this card, and I was super happy when I discovered that the watercolor stroke makes a fun cloud.  The layout was actually inspired by this past week's CASE Study Challenge (hence the angle of the clouds & sentiment), but alas I didn't have time to post until this evening and that challenge is closed.  I'm still grateful for the inspiration, though. :) I also gained inspiration from the All That Glitters is Gold Challenge at Moxie Fab World.  I've been wanting to make something for this challenge for weeks and have had several gold supplies (including glitter) sitting out for when the time presented itself.  As I was making this card I thought about how sometimes as the sun sets here it catches the windows of a few buildings at the base of the mountain and they just sparkle.  It's beautiful.  I had that in mind when I added the gold glitter to the windows.  It's just a touch of gold, but it makes me smile.

For sure the most time consuming element on this card was fussy cutting out the skyline.  I was really thankful that I only had to do it once. :)  The final touch was embossing the bottom of the aqua mist panel with Papertrey's Linen & Canvas Impression Plate.  Oh, I almost forgot...I'm also entering this into the Simon Says...Anything Goes Challenge.  I sure love Simon Says Stamp...so convenient to be able to purchase from several companies that I love all in one spot.  Well, that's it for me tonight.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I really do appreciate all the kind comments you leave.