Whimsical and Spooktacular Cards

Good Tuesday morning, everyone! I have a few more whimsical and spooktacular cards to show. By now you are probably getting tired of seeing all the Halloween cards I made the past couple of weeks, but rest assured, you'll get to view at least one or two more before too long! You can also tell that I went a little overboard with Halloween embellishments, paper, and stamps this year, especially since there was already a huge stash left over from last year :-) But, a girl can never be too thin, too rich, or have enough Halloween supplies...haha! Seriously, I need to reduce the stash to make room :-)

There are plenty of blogs showing fall, Thanksgiving, and lots of Christmas cards, but since I'm going to try to sell the cards you've checked out, I wanted a good selection for customers. Efraim and I are in the process of trying to find a new place to live before the end of the year, so Christmas cards are probably out because of the packing, moving, and unpacking we'll have to do during November and December.

By the way, when the pictures from our fabulous anniversary trip are downloaded, I'll post a couple on the blog for you to see. Hopefully there's one or two places you haven't visited, and the pictures will give an idea of what to expect whenever you do travel. Efraim drove over 1800 miles during the week we were seeing the sights, which included Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, West Point, NY, Martha's Vineyard, MA, and Atlantic City, NJ.

On to the pictures!

The following three Totally Witchin' cards are made using a My Favorite Things stamp set named the the same. I pieced the dresses on the right for each one using scraps of various papers from the stash folder.

The first one was made using a CB ef and orange/black core paper (thanks, Naoma!). It was lightly sanded to show the orange pumpkins. Glitter was added to the boots and hat for some bling bling effect.

#2 was also made with paper scraps new this year called Esmeralda. Some yellow paper was crimped and adhered to the black border punch. I bought a new die cut alphabet (You're Not the Boss of Me!) set (cut out the BOO!) using a 50% coupon at Michael's in Vestal, NY, while visiting week before last. It's nice finding things at other Michael's we don't have in our local store. My friend, Mita, who owns Altheas Mix also has a great selection of various dies in her store, if you live outside of the U.S. that you may want to check them out.

#3 The difference here is a CB ef was used for the base, a black pom pom for the spider, googlie eyes, and a CB die cut for the purple legs (have you ever seen a real spider with purple legs? I didn't think so!) I have literally fallen for this Halloween set from My Favorite Things! It's great that you can make the skin tone any color you choose and since I have friends from all over the world, they can have their own personalized card with the correct skin color.

This card was made for my teenage granddaughter, Bailey, who lives in Texas; she totally rocks!

This quick and easy Halloween card uses some of the stash I bought last year as well as new embellies this year. There is one stamped image, which is the spider web on the top right hand corner.

Here's another quick card to assemble; no stamping whatsoever! The skeleton face was purchased at Michael's and was already painted; I just added the crown sticker to his head. The paper is called Lollipop Lizzy; isn't that the cutest name?

Aren't these skeleton heads spooky looking (haha!) This card has a vellum overlay stamped with a spider web using Tuxedo Black ink from Memento; this ink works great on all the papers I use. The chipboard embellishments are all from the same package; isn't it wonderful when you can actually use up all the stickers from one package?!!!

Thanks so much for taking time to check out these whimsical and spooktacular cards. Hope you're having a great day and that you're abundantly blessed this week!

Gigi

Just Magnolia Challenge Week 24

Good Monday morning! Between household chores, I participated in the Just Magnolia Challenge; you can get the info here. It's a color challenge with pink, grey and black optional. Another requirement is using a Magnolia stamp; no shortage of these in my house :-) Since this little Tilda, holding a heart, is sitting, she needed a bench to make her look normal; guess I should have colored the bench pink or black...haha! Oh, well, it's done...hmmmm, maybe I should try again with another card. Thanks for stopping by today; my day is going great and hope that you're enjoying the same.

Gigi

SFYTT 09_26_09 Ahoy Little Sailor

Goodness, it's been awhile since the last post was written and have to admit that I missed not having time to take photos and write on the blog. Yesterday I spent almost an entire day creating more Halloween cards (yes, I enjoy making whimsical cards every opportunity available.) But today I checked out the SFYTT sketch challenge and decided to put aside the Halloween papers and embellies to create something different for the day. A package of goodies, from Papertrey Ink, arrived while I was out of town celebrating an anniversary with my wonderful hubby in Canada and several New England states for a week. The set I chose to use today is called Bitty Baby Blessings. I don't make very many baby cards possibly because I'm an older mother and don't know many young ones :-) But I love this set and wanted to make a card with it. I hope you enjoy checking it out and can take at least one piece of inspiration with you when you leave this blog.

Gigi

SFYTT Boo!

Another Halloween card! This one was made for the SFYTT challenge. The wooden painted Frankenstein face was purchased at Mike's (also bought a skull and a witch); this little pieces come in handy because I'm not artistic enough to paint my own :-) The brads were silver, but they're colored with a black Copic marker; these markers are wonderful when wanting to change almost anything. An embossing folder was used for the background and small blocks holding rub on letters spelling out "Boo." Notice that the embossing was lightly sanded for more texture. The bat was die cut and some google eyes were added. The black border was purchased in a package containing a lot of borders, which saves on buying more crafty scissors or dies. The moon is a Spellbinders die cut and the bat is die cut using the Cuttlebug.

Thanks for taking a look and hope you take some inspiration, whether it's using your Copic marker for something other than coloring an image or purchasing painted pieces.

Gigi

Happy Halloween!

Am not sure if you know this, but I really enjoy making Halloween cards. There is so much a person can do to make a cutesy, scary, or funny card using great looking papers, fun embellishments, and wonderful stamps. The top card uses Totally Witchin' image from My Favorite Things. One of the dresses is paper pieced and lots of glitter was added for some bling bling.

The second card is basically a card from a set I found at T.J. Maxx the other night. When I saw the box set, there were so many little ideas whirling around in my head, such as the fun crown that was colored, glittered, and placed on top of the little witch's head. Her shoes were also glittered! The crown is a grunge piece from Tim Holtz; these pieces are such fun to decorate!

The bottom card uses an image from a set I bought last year over at Crafty Secrets and yes, the set is still for sale this year. This little witch is such a treat to color with Copic markers. The background is embossed using the spider web ef from Provo Craft. The bats are die cut from Provo Craft, one purple and one black. The Boo ribbon is on sale at Mike's this week. The tag is from Spellbinders.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you know me personally, please leave a message saying you visited today.

Gigi

SFYTT Birthday Celebrations for Alessa!

The weekly SFYTT sketch from Jen del Muro 's blog was used to create a birthday card for a one year old girl, Alessa. The dp, Cupcake, is from the Basic Grey line as well as the chipboard embellishments. The buttons are from Papertrey Ink; a great variety of sizes and shades are included in each bag of buttons sold. A candle border punch was used as a separator between Pure Poppy (PTI) and the dp. The sentiment is from SU! and am not sure if it's retired or not. Select White (PTI) is used for the card base. True Black ribbon, also from PTI, is added for some contrast.

Thanks so much for stopping by and sure hope your day is a great one!

Gigi

Mojo Monday 103 Enjoy the Ride!

Mojo Monday 103 sketch was used for this cute little card. I saw the staple technique on a blog the other day and learned how to do it from a tutorial SCS has; Ashley Newell provides the tutorial. I tried using some decorative staples, but they continued to mess up on the ribbon; decided to use the regular staples on the ribbon and was happy with the results. Some of my favorite paper, Basic Grey's Lime Rickey, was used . The stamp set is from Papertrey Ink and is called Everyday Bitty Buttons. The buttons are from Basic Grey and were purchased from a ss that is about one hour from where I live.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you take some inspiration to try out, such as the ribbon staple technique.

Gigi

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #16

Fall is just around the corner and using the colors Dawn McVey selected for her challenge seemed so appropriate for this card. The main image was colored with Copic markers and cut with Spellbinder dies as was recently released by PaperTrey Ink; the sentiment is included in the set. The ribbon is new to me from PTI. The polka dots are also from PTI inked in Chocolate Chip from Stampin' Up! I have one more card to show, so will close this one out.

Thank you for taking a look today and I welcome you to return soon!

Hugs (kram in Swedish),

Gigi

Papertrey Ink Autumn Abundance SC243

The main image is one of three flower vases that Papertrey Ink recently released as Autumn Abundance. I enjoy coloring with Copics, so this set is perfect for my therapy :-) The dp is last year's release from PTI called First Fruits; I'll never use up all the paper that is in a pack! So happy to have purchased the set from PTI because this particular flower vase goes well with the dp. The sketch is from SCS (SC243), so if you want something that is challenging, check it out.

Notice a little leaf charm hanging from the PTI Summer Sunrise grosgrain ribbon; it was part of a gift that my friend, Mita, from Altheasmix generously gave. I love those little charms and enjoy using them to embellish cards.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Enjoy the day and hope that you have found some inspiration whether it's from this card or from another blog. I always look forward to learning something new from other blogs.

More Halloween Stuff!

I don't like scary or horror movies, but I really enjoy making Halloween cards for family and friends. The papers, sentiments, embellishments, and colors are such fun to use, so have to admit I pick Halloween as a favorite season to make cards :-) Thanksgiving is a beautiful season, but it seems so solemn when it comes to colors and sentiments (there are probably a lot of disagreements). Christmas is another wonderful season because as Christians, we celebrate the birth of Christ, so if I make a cutesy card, a tinge of guilt pops up because I know the reason for the season. So much for explanations; here are more cards I happened to make over the weekend (happy to stay in the craft room on a holiday, such as Labor Day, that we celebrate in the U.S. :-)

The witch card has a wooden face purchased at Mike's for very little. The card was extremely easy and quick to put together, so if you have scraps from the past or present, use them up; the dp was a Mike's sale find. A crimper, Spellbinder dies, CB dies, rick rac, brads, and black paper trim finish off the card.










Last one is a another simple card using stickers from last year's "monster mash" stash :-) A new Papertrey Ink Polka Dot Basics II set was used for the bottom part of the card. Unfortunately I haven't quite succeeded getting the entire stamp inked up correctly yet, so I went over each dot with a purple marker :-) The light green ribbon has been sitting in the ribbon bin for longer than I can remember, so thought it would "light" up the "creepy" skeleton...haha!



Hope you received some sort of inspiration today and plan on coming back to see more later. Have a wonderful rest of the week, my friend!

Hugs (kram in Swedish),
Gigi

MFT Totally Witchin'

Last year, around this time, I was browsing through SCS and found several delightful cards using the Totally Witchin' set from MFT. Since I had already purchased the annual Halloween stamps, I passed on this darling set until this year. I went back to the MFT site that SCS has and notice that this card isn't the most creative, but I don't care; it was great fun putting together and am very happy with the results, especially with the purple glitter on the hat.

The spider is a pom pom with those little google eyes glued to it. I used a Cuttlebug die for the spider legs; saves time on cutting out a stamped version :-) The background paper was embossed with a CB spider web folder; love the texture it gives the card. I used Copic markers to color the main image and applied purple rhinestones to the bottom edge for some bling bling :-) Am not too sure as to where the purple grosgrain ribbon was purchased, but most likely it was at a scrapbook store that I visited within the last three months.

Thanks for stopping by and hope that you're having a great weekend and have some fabulous plans for Labor Day. Tomorrow hubby, a good friend, and I are heading to a place called Occoquan, VA; I was advised to take plenty of moola...oh, oh, that sounds like trouble :-)

Gigi

Mojo Monday 102 Autumn Blessings from Papertrey Ink

Happy Saturday! This is a play day; have spent quite a bit of time playing with new stamps that arrived from Papertrey Ink (PTI), including this recently released set called "Autumn Abundance." There are several other vases of flowers you can use as well as several sentiments, which make this set very versatile. The dp is one of last year's autumn features, First Fruits, which is a paper pack. One other new addition is the Ripe Avocado grosgrain ribbon from PTI. This card can definitely get classified as a challenge, "Use What You Already Have." The sketch was found over at the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge Blog.

Ingredients for Autumn Blessings:

Stamps: Autumn Abundance (PTI)

Paper: Bazzill, all others from PTI, including dp

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Ranger Distress Inks

Embellishments: Hodgepodge hardware (SU!), dies (Spellbinders), ribbon (PTI), Copic markers