Never too soon for Halloween

It seems like every year goodies for certain holidays start showing up sooner and sooner. I know that this can make many people roll their eyes, but not me. I love the first signs of Halloween goods popping up in stores, because that means fall is upon us. This for me starts the most magical time of the year. We start with Halloween, all the adorable costumes, and all the spooky movies. So it should not come as any surprise that my cards for this week are Halloween themed.

I picked up MFT Stamps Witch Way Is The Candy by Birdie Brown a couple of years back and did nothing with it until this year. Honestly, I used to have a job where I was on call 24/7 so as much as I love crafting, I never have time for it. These days though I have a set schedule and much more time to do what I LOVE!

This week I made two Shaker Cards using Witch Way Is The Candy.

My first shaker was easy enough to make. I used Stampin' Up!'s Summer Sun Cardstock for the frame and base of the card because I thought it went really well with the patterned paper from my stash. I die cut some clouds out of white cardstock using Lawn Fawn's Puffy Clouds Border Die and inked it up with some black soot Distress Ink. I threw in some Doodlebug Sequins and BAM, shaker was done.

I didn't run into any issues until I went to color that precious witch. My hubby recently surprised me with a full core set of the Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. While they are similar to Copics, they don't blend quite the same as Copics do. There's definitely a learning curve to them, but they are great markers and a truly sweet gift from a fantastic hubby!

My second card using that cutie put up a little more of a fight.I knew I wanted to put a shaker tag onto a card front and started working on the tag first. My first tag ended in Utter Disaster. I am not saying this to be dramatic, my first tag warped, my sequins fell out due to the warping, it was not pretty. The only thing I managed to salvage from that first tag was the sequins.

Creating my second tag went much smoother than the first. The sentiment is embossed onto black card stock and comes from the HSH Halloween Additions set by  There She Goes. I used some patterned paper from my stash for the background of the tag and sponged some Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide Ink onto some white paper and die cut it out for the top of my tag. I finished the tag off with some Lawn Fawn Gold Sparkle Cord, black ribbon, and some gold Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

My tag ended up just a little bigger than I originally intended so I made a 5x7 card base out of Canson watercolor paper. I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi to watercolor the base with black and gold and put it all together.

My question to y'all is, are excited to see Halloween stuff already or do you wish they would wait until closer to the actual holiday?

Until next time, keep on craftin'!

Card Design Contest

I'm back y'all. I have been working on Halloween and Fall cards for the blog, but decided to put that on hold to enter My Favorite Things Stamps 2017 Card Design contest. I have to say after viewing all the entries I am definitely intimidated by the talent pool. That being said, I had such a blast working on these cards. I'm hoping y'all like them too.

So first up is my entry for the Clean & Simple Genius

For this card I used MFT's Polynesian Paradise by Birdie Brown

My card base is made out of Canson Watercolor Paper. I started by stamping that adorable chameleon, then masking off the area where my sentiment was going to go with Post-It note tape. I next stamped the flowers from the same set and pulled the Post-It note tape off and used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to color both the flowers and the chameleon. Next I used natural hemp twine to line the top and bottom of the sentiment area and finished it all off with sequins in two shades of green. I know it's hard to tell as my lighting was off..

My next entry is for the Coloring Virtuoso

I do not by any means consider myself a "Coloring Virtuoso", but challenges and contests like these help me to push myself and continue to work on my coloring abilities!

For this card I used three of MFT's stamp sets: The Whole Herd, Ewe are the Best, and Beary Special Birthday all by Birdie Brown.

 I did A LOT of masking for this card. I started by using my Die-namics Circle STAX Set 1 to die cut a circle out of a piece of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 masking paper. I saved the interior circle mask for later use and lined up the exterior portion of the mask with my Canson Watercolor card base. I first stamped the party hat from the Beary Special Birthday set and masked it. I next stamped that cute cow from The Whole Herd set and masked it off. I used the Beary Special Birthday set again to stamp the balloons onto the cow's tail. I then used the grassy hill from the Ewe are the Best set to complete my stamped scene. I left everything masked and used MFT's Stencil Cloud with my Distress Oxide Ink in Broken China. The clouds were darker than I wanted, but overall I like the way it came out. At this point I pulled all the masks off my project and started coloring with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I finished the card off by using stickles on the balloons, my white gel pen on the cow's cheeks and hat, and embossing my sentiment onto black card stock. BOOM!

And last but not least is my entry for the Innovation Master

Can I start by saying I underestimated how complex other people's card would be. I toyed with not entering this card at all, but at the end of the day you just have to go for it.

For this entry I used MFT's Magical Unicorns set by Birdie Brown

I stamped several of the smaller images using my Memento Drops in London Fog all over two 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 pieces of white cardstock. I left one as is then colored the second piece using Copic markers.
I took the uncolored panel and die cut a stitched square out of it using my Slider Channel Companion Windows. I also die cut out the Channel Slider and stamped it to match my background. I then stamped the galloping unicorn using the same Memento ink in London Fog and colored it in with my Copics and added some shine to the mane with my Spectrum Noir glitter marker. I die cut the unicorn out and used foam tape to adhere it's leg onto the slider panel I had set up on the card front. Next I took my colored panel and covered it in VersaMark ink and used some old Stampin' Up! iridescent ice embossing powder. I mounted this panel behind my card front. I finished it all off by embossing my sentiment onto pink cardstock and cutting the ends at different angles and adding some Doodlebug twine.

I hope you enjoy these cards as much as I enjoyed making them. Keep on crafting!!

Cards make the best gifts

My favorite Aunt in the whole world hates when people spend money on her. She would rather people save their money and just spend time with her. She is the sweetest lady you could ever know. She also happens to love my cards, so every year I make a stack of cards to give to her for her birthday. She absolutely loves this because she gets to give handmade cards to friends and family throughout the year. I thought I would share my last batch I did.


I wanted to make a little bit of everything for her. Since I try and make multiples of a card when I sit to do my crafting, I was also able to throw in some of my duplicates.

Let's start with the newer cards:

I love to buy patterned paper. It is always so adorable, but half the time I am not sure what to do with it. I am working on using more of my stash, so you will see quite a bit of patterned paper used here!

This first card happened by accident. I love this pattern paper, which I have no idea where I got it from. I found that Stampin' Up!'s Pink Passion, Basic Gray, and Summer Sun worked well the pattern.

(Papertrey Ink: Butterfly Die)

(Lawn Fawn: So Jelly Stamp and Die Set)

(Papertrey Ink: Out to Sea Stamp Set)

(Lawn Fawn: Baked With Love Stamp and Die Set)

(The Greeting Farm: Roll Call Wild Sprouts Stamp Set)

(Stampin' Up!: Well Scripted Stamp Set)

(Stampin' Up!: Well Scripted Stamp Set)

(Papertrey Ink: Fillable Frames #8 Mini Stamp Set and Die)

All the cards above were boxed up with envelopes in the box below. The bow was made with my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to keep crafting!!

Mistakes

The hubby and I recently babysat our niece and nephew over night. Once we put the kids to bed, I pulled out my iPad to continue my Clean and Simple Card Making Class by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner. My niece couldn't sleep so I let her snuggle next to me while I was watching one of the videos. My niece was absolutely adorable; she had several questions about card making. In the end, I got her to finally go to bed by promising to make her a card with a rainbow. 

I sat down this weekend to work on her card and struggled quite a bit. I'm not sure about any of you, but there seem to be days when I am crafting and nothing seems to work out right. My ink smeared, I grabbed the wrong ink for the medium I was working with, and on and on the list went. I was frustrated but determined to make the best of a bad situation. In the end I was able to make something that I think is rather charming and magical. I'm hoping my niece will love it as much as I do. 

I started by smooshing (this is a real word, I swear) some Memento Ink  onto a clear acrylic block.

(Colors: Lady Bug, Tangelo, Dandelion, Pear Tart, Bahama Blue, and Lilac Posies)

I brushed on a thin layer of water and started to paint on each of the colors to achieve a rainbow background. 

I loaded up my "Palette" again and started to watercolor my Magical Unicorn images by MFT Stamps. 

While I has some issues on the rainbow, I loved the way the rest of the images came out. 

 (See I told you that rainbow game me problems)

I then took that rainbow background I and ran it through my Cuttlebug using Darice's Cloud Background Embossing Folder.

I cut down my background to 4 x 5.5 and then stapled my sentiment using  Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher. I next affixed it to the front of So Saffron Card Base. I die cut out my images, stamped my sentiment onto Neenah Solar White, and put it all together. I felt like it still needed a little something so I added some iridescent sequins that I added some Ranger Stickles. 

So here it is my final project... 

Until next time!

Top 5 Online Stores

Sorry I didn't post anything last week. As it turns out, last week was crazier than the previous couple of weeks. Last week I participated in g.i.s.h.w.h.e.s. (which stands for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen) is a 7-time Guinness World Record breaking scavenger hunt hosted by Misha Collins that you can compete in from anywhere in the world (even from your own home!). My plan is to do a write up on my whole experience next week.

Since all the crafting I have done has been for g.i.s.h.w.h.e.s. and I can't post any images of what I did until points are tallied, I thought I would write up a post about my top 5 favorite online sites to buy crafting supplies.

5. Ellen Hutson

Why I love shopping here: Ellen Hutson also carries my favorite companies, and a few more than Simon Says Stamps. They have good prices, and are quick on shipping.

Shipping Costs: All USA orders totaling $0.00-$100 ship for $7, orders totaling over $100 ship for $8

What do I purchase here: I mostly buy stamp sets, and dies. I do have to say that every time I order from Ellen Hutson, there is always a little something extra and a thank you included!

4.  Marker Pop

Why I love shopping here: Marker Pop always has something on sale,but what is even better is that they price match! WOOT!

Shipping Costs: Free shipping on all order over $75 in the contiguous US. 

What do I purchase here: Low cost stamps, dies, embellishments, and tools.

3.  Butterfly Reflections Ink

Why I love shopping here: I found this site in my search for a set of out of print dies. Not only did I find the dies,but they were on sale. I was not sure what to expect, but service is amazing, shipping is speedy, and they have a frequent shopper program!

Shipping Costs: $5.00 for Stamps and Dies, $7.00 for other items. Shipping is Free on all orders over $77.

What do I purchase here: Their prices are so great that I purchase quite a few stamp sets and dies. I tend to wait for sales to make large purchases. Also using their frequent shopper program is a breeze!

2. Simon Says Stamps

Why I love shopping here: Simon Says Stamps often has great sales. They carry all the products I love (Neat & Tangled, MFT, Your Next Stamp), but they also have amazing exclusive products. Simon Says Stamp Sets vary from cute and whimsical, to sophisticated. 

Shipping Costs: All USA orders under $75 ship for a flat fee of just $6.99, and all USA orders $75 and over ship for a flat fee of just $7.99! 

What do I purchase here: I buy ink, stamp sets, and dies. Most times when I place an order on Simon Says Stamps and make it a point to include a Simon Says Stamps Exclusive set because they are so darn adorable!

1.  Amazon.com

Why I love shopping here: I know that not everyone loves Amazon because they can make it more difficult for smaller stores. This being said, I am on a budget and I can get a lot of bang for my buck through Amazon.

Shipping Costs: Free for orders over $25 (or with Prime) if sold by Amazon or affiliate. Otherwise shipping varies

What do I purchase here: I tend to purchase most of my ink, embellishments, and super low cost stamps sets I happen to see.

So what are your favorite online places to shop? Is there somewhere I have missed? I'd love to hear from you!  Until next time!