Spooky Expressions Decor Elements

A few weeks ago I hosted my Ladies Night Out group at my house. It's great to get together with this group of friends for some food, chitchat, games and sometimes a quick craft activity. As soon as I saw the Spooky Expressions in the Definitely Decorative catalog I knew what little craft I would be doing as I was hosting in October.

This is a super easy project. I bought some 8 inch standard sized clay pots and several sets of Spooky Expressions Decor Elements. You get 3 different faces on a sheet and they can be cut apart and used separately. Each of my friends choose the face they wanted and applied it to their pot. None of these ladies had used the Decor Elements before and after I showed a few of them how to do it they were teaching the others like they had been doing it for years! I had some fall mums for them to finish off their Spooky Expressions flower pots.

The Decor Elements can be used outdoors so there is no worry of any harm coming to these flower pots and they can be used for years to come. I've even heard of people applying the Decor Elements to their cars and they have stood up to harsh winter conditions.

Supplies: 8 inch standard clay pot, Spooky Expressions Decor Elements, applicator tool, fall mum

Jack-o-Lantern Domino Magnets

Do you have a pile of dominoes that have smudged Stazon images? Are they just sitting there mocking you but you can't bear to throw them out? I did....so I turned them into magnets to use as prizes for my sons preschool Halloween Carnival. Parents donate small favors and candy to be used as prizes for the different game booths that are set up. I had a bunch of dominoes that were stamped and they just didn't look good enough to use (not centered, smudged, too scratched) that I wanted to get off my stamping table to make room for all the other projects I have going on!

I cut 1 inch x 2 inch strips of Only Orange cardstock. I heat embossed the Jack-o-Lantern face from the Autumn Harvest set in black. Because my dominoes had a slightly rounded edge I clipped a tiny bit from each corner with my paper snips. I then sponged the edges of the cardstock with Only Orange ink. I adhered the cardstock to the domino using red sticky tape. The edge of the domino is wrapped in black grosgrain ribbon also adhered with red sticky tape. For the little stem I made a knot with some retired Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon and stuck that on the top with a glue dot. I bought a roll of adhesive magnetic tape and just put a small strip on the backside of the domino. DONE! I made 20 of these in no time at all.

So don't throw out those oops dominoes --find another use for them by covering them up with some stamped images on cardstock or a strip of designer paper and making them into magnets for stocking stuffers, hostess gifts, or for the kids to play with on the fridge (an alphabet set would be cool!)

Stamps: Autumn Harvest

Ink: Only Orange, Versamark

Paper: Only Orange

Accessories: domino game pieces, black embossing powder, heat gun, satin ribbon, grosgrain ribbon, sponge red sticky tape, adhesive magnet tape

October Stamp Club Project #1

For this card I was trying to highlight several new items that are in the Holiday Mini catalog. First, the Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper which is super cool because it is flocked! My husband even thought it was cool! Now that's saying something isn't it?? The second, the Frost White Shimmer Paint- which someone seems to come up with a new technique for every day. And lastly the Berry Christmas stamp set with the adorable little bird.

This card started with the Gatefold technique and I added the Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper to each front flap.

Now it doesn't show up well in the photo but the bird and the holly branch are shimmery! This was done using the Frost White Shimmer Paint and reinkers. Mix 2 drops of shimmer paint with 2-3 drops of reinker. For this card I used Real Red and Old Olive. Use a sponge dauber to pick up just a little bit of the shimmer paint mixture (a little goes a LONG way--I used the leftovers from making this sample to fill and entire sheet of Whisper White with images and I still had some left!). Now ink up your stamp being careful that you don't put the mixture on too heavy. Stamp the image on your cardstock. Voila!! A shimmery image. Definitely try this technique out, it really adds a lot to a card. For this card I stamped the branch first and then bird.

I added a small piece of white organza ribbon to make a tab and then used the ticket corner punch on the top panel. Adhere the bird panel to only one of the flaps so that it can be opened.

Stamps: Berry Christmas

Ink: Real Red, Old Olive (reinkers)

Paper: Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper, Whisper White, Old Olive

Accessories: paper scorer, ticket corner punch, Frost White shimmer paint, white organza ribbon, reinkers, sponge daubers

October Stamp Club Project #2

After seeing all the great projects using the Sweet Treats cups with the little sliding door to get at the goodies I decided to have my stamp club do this project.

First start with a 6x3 piece of Old Olive folded in half. Then stamp the Halloween stamp from the Sweet Centers set in Versamark on Whisper White. I used my pastels and and sponge daubers to do the poppin' pastels technique. The colors used here were Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Perfect Plum & Pink Passion (to mix together to get a close match for Rich Razzleberry). Using the 13/4" circle punch, punch out the center circle on the Whisper White card stock. Now take the image and line it up on the front of the Old Olive piece. Trace the circle with pencil, now use the 13/4" punch to punch out that circle.

Attach the image to the treat cup by placing a few glue dots on the top of the lip of the treat cup (don't remove the paper backing to the treat cup) and putting the image on top of the cup. Next put a glue dot in the very corners on the back of the image. Line the image with the cup attached up to the hole that is punched in the Old Olive piece.

Now to make the sliding door....take the EEEKKK Spider piece that was punched out earlier and adhere it to a 2" x 21/4" piece of Rich Razzleberry cardstock. Punch a small oval in Old Olive and fold in half. Attach it to the edge of the Rich Razzleberry piece. Punch a small hole in the tab and run about 8 inches of Rich Razzleberry dotted grosgrain ribbon through it and tie in a knot. Slid this whole piece between the treat cup and the Old Olive base. You make have to slide it back and forth a few times but now you have a neat little trap door that you can refill many times and not have to rip apart the project to get to the candy!

Stamps: Sweet Centers, Smarty Pants

Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry

Ink: Versamark, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Sweet Treats cups, 13/4" circle punch, small oval punch, dotted grosgrain ribbon, pastels, sponge daubers

October Stamp Club Project #3

For this card I demonstrated how to mask as well as watercoloring with an aquapainter and ink pads.

First you want to decide which image you want in the forefront of your card and stamp that one first in black Stazon. Then make a mask by stamping your image on a sticky note and then cut it out. I stamped the large pumpkin and then masked it and stamped the small gourd, masked that and then did the smaller pumpkin so it was slightly hidden.

For the watercoloring you can either press the lid of your ink pad into the ink to create a little pool to use or you can use a reinker and drop a small amount (1-2 drops- a little goes a long way) on to the inside of the ink pad lid. Use an aquapainter to pick up the ink and then start at the outside of your image and work your way to the center. This give some depth to the image and keeps it from looking flat. Add more color to the edges as needed. I also highlighted the gourd lines with a little bit of Old Olive. A small amount of Sahara Sand was watercolored around the entire image to give a slight shadow again to keep the image from looking flat.

Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Holiday Best

Ink: Black Stazon, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand

Paper: Very Vanilla, Crushed Curry,

Accessories: aquapainter, reinkers, ticket corner punch

Sweet Pea Twins!

One of my stamp club members is expecting twins and is due the beginning of December if she doesn't go early. In lieu of swaps this month my club made a whole bunch of baby thank yous for the mommy to be. She is having a boy and a girl so it was fun to see how everyone made their cards to include both genders.

My card is totally CASED from Andrea Walford's blog. Her sister does a punch art tutorial every week and as soon as I saw this baby card I knew I had to make one like it for someone. It was super easy to add another pea pod to my card and make one a baby girl and the other a baby boy just by adding a little knot of pink and blue ribbon.

Check out the above link for instructions on how to make these adorable sweet peas. The tutorial is great with step by step instructions. Andrea and her sister make AWESOME cards and are total inspirations with so many great ideas.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Warmest Regards

Ink: Old Olive

Paper: Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom

Accessories: 3/4" circle punch, large oval punch, white gel pen, ticket corner punch, black marker, blender pen & Regal Rose watercolor crayon (for cheeks), grosgrain ribbon, glue dots

Baby Shower Favors

Here is something that I've been making the last few days to have ready for a baby shower I'm hosting this weekend. Do the colors look familiar? Check out my baby shower invitation a few posts back! Yup, I'm using the same colors and stamps to keep with the theme. Our friends who the shower is for are really fun and like doing things outdoors like gardening etc. so my co-host and I decided to do daffodil bulbs as the favors. I made 30 of these pretty quickly.

Each bag has 2 bulbs nested in some crimped and shredded paper(run strips of paper through your crimper and then put them through your paper shredder!). The tags are super simple with the giraffe from Wild About You (retired) punched with the 11/4" circle punch, matted on a 13/8" circle punch and that is layered on a scallop circle. The tags are tied on the favor bags with some non-SU ribbon I had left from another project but if you changed up the color scheme to the In Colors you could use the awesome polka dotted ribbon. On the back of the bag I printed out address labels that say "Please plant these bulbs, and watch them bloom, Just like Baby X, Who will be here soon" and then I added a quick line on planting instructions.

Stamps: Wild About You

Ink: Only Orange

Paper: YoYo Yellow, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White

Accessories: favor bags, crimper, paper shredder, grosgrain polka dot ribbon, scallop punch, 13/8" circle punch, 11/4" circle punch, address labels

Happy World Card Making Day!!

Here is a card I made to send out to my customers to let them know about World Card Making Day and to show off something else you can do with this punch. I hope they all get a chance to celebrate by stamping and sending out a few cards. And I hope all of you out there get a chance to celebrate as well. My husband would look at me funny if I told him I had to go celebrate World Card Making Day and lock myself in my stamp room but it sure sounds like a good idea doesn't it? Alas, (don't get to use that word much!) I'll be driving to my 10 year college reunion so there won't be any stamping going on for me tomorrow. But, I celebrated early and made these acorn cards. Maybe next year I can get my act together and plan an event to mark the occasion!

I got my inspiration for this card from several places on Splitcoaststampers. First I'd seen several acorns using the new ornament punch from the Holiday Mini. I thought that was so clever I just had to get in on the action too. Here is the inspiration acorn by VondaThomas. I also saw the technique to make the leaf on this card by dbarry.

To make the acorns I punched out ornaments in Close to Cocoa and sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink then trimmed a bit off of each side of the top of the ornament to make the acorn stem. For the acorn cap I used my large oval punch and snipped a small strip off of the bottom. I gave it some texture by stamping the speckles from Itty Bitty Backgrounds in Chocolate Chip ink and then sponging all around the edges. Adhere the cap to the acorn base and there you have it. Each acorn is popped up on dimensionals and to give the top one more height I stacked 2 dimensionals together.

For the leaf you just punch a scalloped circle in Old Olive, fold it in half the long way and then run it through your crimper diagonally. Unfold it and there's a nice leaf!

The rest of the card is finished off with a strip of acorns from Autumn Harvest stamped in Close to Cocoa and colored in with Watercolor Wonder crayons and a blender pen. A strip of scallops balances off the acorn panel. "October" from the Full Calendar set punched out with the large oval and layered on a Chocolate Chip scalloped oval.

Happy World Card Making Day!

Stamps: Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Autumn Harvest, Full Calendar

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip

Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Ornament punch, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, crimper, blender pens, Watercolor Wonder crayons, scallop edge punch, dimensionals

Stamp-a-Stack Card #1 Autumn Definition

This is the first card we did at my Stamp-a-Stack the other night. I don't think you can ever go wrong with Lovely As A Tree and using Define Your Life gives so many options that you can find a sentiment that will fit all occasions. I cut the top Very Vanilla layer to be big enough to fit the stamp with the row of trees from Lovely As A Tree if my stampers wanted to change the design a bit from my original.

The background is Sanded in Chocolate Chip on Chocolate Chip cardstock. And I broke out the crimper that I hadn't used in a long time for the Really Rust cardstock. The top panel is lightly sponged with Chocolate Chip ink and the leaves are colored with Earth Elements Watercolor Wonder Crayons and blender pens. To finish off the card there is a small bit of Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon pulled through a small hole and tied off with another small bit of linen thread.

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree, Define Your Life, Sanded

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, More Mustard, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, blender pen, taffeta ribbon, linen thread, crimper, sponges

Stamp-A-Stack Card #2 Retro Christmas

This is the second card that we did at my Stamp-A-Stack earlier this week. I wanted to show off the awesome Delightful Decorations set and coordinating ornament punch. I'm all about the circles lately (see my giraffe card from last week!) and this layout is pretty easy so it's good for a SAS. I got the color combination from the Holiday Lounge Designer Series Paper and just changed the Taken with Teal to Bermuda Bay. The white circles are Shimmery White cardstock but it doesn't show well in my photo. The Ruby Red circles are textured cardstock.

The ornament is popped up on dimensionals as is the little accent circle on the ornament. The ribbon knot is adhered with a mini glue dot and the longer piece of ribbon is just tucked underneath the Sahara Sand cardstock and adhered to the back.

Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Four the Holidays

Ink: Ruby Red, Bermuda Bay, Sahara Sand

Paper: Ruby Red, Bermuda Bay, Sahara Sand, Shimmery White, Whisper White

Accessories: Ornament punch, 11/4", 1" & 3/4" circle punches, grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, mini glue dots