DRU - Jack-O-Lantern Faces

 Hello craft friends,

Mary back on the blog today with two more Halloween cards featuring the Jack-O-Lantern Faces die set from Frantic Stamper.  I love this set of scary faces... they are the perfect size for grouping onto a card front.  I used them on two slim cards.

On this first card, I die cut the Jack-O-Lantern Faces into the black card front and used distressed oxide inks to "light" them up underneath. I carried the ink colors a crossed the card base, so that a little bit of it would show once the black card front was glue down.  This was a quick card, the most time consuming part of making it was the ink blending.  

I'm submitting this card to Simon Says: Spooky Challenge, wish me luck!

On this second card, I die cut the Jack-O-Lantern Faces into orange glitter card stock die cut circles (Stitched Circle Stackables) and glue them onto my card making for another quick an easy card.

   

                    Hope your having a fun Fall/Halloween season... Until next time... Take care. 

Don't forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.  There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.  For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE 
 CHALLENGE BLOG
  FACEBOOK
  INSPIRATION BLOG

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New Challenge Blog for YOU - New DT for ME - FUN for ALL!

Hello craft friends,

Everyone who knows me, knows that I love cats, penguins, owls and all things Halloween... order of preference can chance depending on mood and/or on how many hairballs I've had to clean up, but I digress (as I'm known to do).   Halloween, is my favorite time of year and if I could stop the calendar from moving it would be during October, do that I could celebrate Halloween all year long.  

A new challenge blog by Two Old Bats just brought me closer to my dream!  YES!  The new Two Old Bats Challenge is ALL about Halloween ALL the time!  And I'm beyond excited to announce that I'm on their Design Team!  

For my first DT project, I created a 5x5 inch mandala card using Jack-O-Lantern (Lil Inker Designs) and Ghost (IO) dies.  I used a ruler to find the center of the square and drew lines to help me align the the smaller die Jack-O-Lanterns towards the center on the card front panel.  I used two for the wider die Jack-O-Lanterns for my second layer.  I used the positive die cuts of the ghost instead of the negative.  I really like the idea, but I'm not happy with the finished card.  The mandala is not centered.  Will have to try this one again to see if I can make it better.    

Other products used... I used 110lb black card stock from Michaels, Spiced Marmalade and Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide under the die cut Jack-O-Lantern faces. 

Here's how things will work... we'll post an inspiration/mood board each month... something to give you a bit of inspiration.  Use or don't, we're good either way, because this is an ANYTHING GOES HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE!

Here is the first FUN board:

We are calling this challenge a JUMP START challenge and it will run for 2 weeks, ending on the 28th.  For a full list of all the rules please visit Two Old Bats Challenge.

Creeping By To Say Hi

Hello crafty friends,

Halloween is my favorite Holiday, so when I found out Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge was having a DT call, I was excited to make and submit a card for consideration.    

Halloween has two sides (cute and scary) and I love them both.  This card below is more cute then scary, but it has scary spiders on it... and I don't like spiders or bugs of any kind, but orange glittery paper die cut spiders aren't really that scary, except for that one w/the raised eyebrows.  

The finished card measures 7.75x4 inches.  Design note...  I ended up die cutting one of the webs on the wrong side leaving the die cut with scor tape adhesive on what I intended to be the top. Not wanting to "waste" the die cut, I realized this was a happy accident, because gave me the idea to make each web a little different, just by rotating it or flipping it.  

I used the following products:

The Spider Web die from Frantic Stamper.
The Whimsical Spider die set from Cherry Lynn.

The a sentiment from the retired MFT Spooky Sentiment Stamp set.

110lb white and black card stock.

Thanks for stopping bye.  Until next time, take care :)

Impression Obsession - Autumn Colors

Hello crafty friends,

This card idea has been on my mind as an entry for the Impression Obsession "Autumn Colors" challenge for SEVERAL days, but being the procrastinator that I am, I only just sat down to make the card this afternoon.  I know I cut it close on this one considering the challenge ends tomorrow (Oct 6th), but never the less, it was a fun card to make and I love playing with my IO stamps.

I stamped the pumpkin three times, twice masking off the center part of the stamp, so that the eyes and mouth wouldn't stamp.  I watercolored all my stamped images.

I used the Pumpkin Cup CL778 stamp set, which is currently not available on the IO website, but here's a link to other cute cups stamps, some of them would work for a stacked design.  I especially like this Coffee Cup and this Tea Cocoa die set.

Thanks for stopping bye... wish me luck.

DRU - Rainbow Bats and More

 Hi, Mary here... 

My desk is full of Halloween crafty goodies, so I'm back on the blog today with two more Halloween cards.  I used this cute bat die from Impression Obsession on both of the cards I'm showings today.  

I started my first card by die cutting several bats from white mixed media 184lb (400 series) cardstock. Please note this die includes tiny dies for the inner ears, nose and belly, which I didn't use on my card. 

Initially, I inked the bats solid with their Distress Oxide colors, but ended up adding black at the bottoms of all the bats for added interest.  

When I placed the bats on my card background I felt the bats didn't pop enough, so I went back and die cut more of them, so that each inked bat had a white shadowed bat underneath.  I glue the inked and shadowed bat so just a little bit of the white showed. 

 

Here's a picture of all the bats with their white shadows.

 I love how the finished card turned out.  The black card base, I splashed with white ink.

For the inside, I die cute the bat from foam to create a stamp... notice, that it doesn't matter what color foam you have.  

On my second card, I started by die cutting a Double Stitched Oval from my card front.  

I glued the die cut and inked bat on the front over the oval opening and backed it with another die cut bat on the back side.  On the card's inside, I glued the die cut cat.  

I used Cheery Lynn Designs' Whimsical Halloween Cat die set, which is currently not available in the store, but the Large Mod Cat, the Creepy Cat are good alternatives die set if you want to create a similar card.   

Don't forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.  There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.  For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE 
 CHALLENGE BLOG
  FACEBOOK
  INSPIRATION BLOG

FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

Thanks for stopping by!

DRU - Six Witches

 Hello craft friends,

Mary back on the blog today with two cards featuring the Six Witches dies from Impression Obsession.

There a video below showing how I assembled the above card on, which also uses the Stitched Grassy Hill Edgers by Frantc Stamper.  

I used five of the cute witches on the front and one of the inside over a stamped greeting by Impression Obsession.

Here's the YouTube link for this video 

I created this other card by adhering the die cut witches onto a black card front.  I water-colored the witches with metallic watercolors.  The stamped greeting is by Impression Obsession.

Don't forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.  There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.  For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE 
 CHALLENGE BLOG
  FACEBOOK
  INSPIRATION BLOG

FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

Thanks for stopping by!

DRU - Happy Birthday

 Hello crafty friends,

Mary back with a masculine birthday card today.   I know most of us struggle to come up with ideas for guys cards.  If your guys are anything like mine, simple is best, so I've learned to keep my cards for them fairy basic, but with an eye on design.  

When I do cards for guys I tend to reach for bold dies that cover most of the my card front.  I feel this allows me to "get away" with little effort (product) on the card, but still giving the card a bold look.  

For this card, I started with a per-stamped (Penny Black Birthday Candles) slim card front panel I had on my desk.  I adhered two fussy cut "happy" from the Die-Versions Solo Sentiments Happy Birthday die, across the stamped candles.  On the card's inside, I stamped another row of candles and adhered a full Happy Birthday die cut in the center.  

If you're wondering about the color/ink... I will admit, I tried splashing some gold ink (to match the gold letters) on the finished card and it totally didn't work.  I ended up making an inky mess! But I worked through my mistake and created a "grungy" look I could live with.   

Here's a close up of the inside:

Don't forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.  There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.  For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE 
 CHALLENGE BLOG
  FACEBOOK
  INSPIRATION BLOG

FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

Thanks for stopping by!