Shadow's Castle Stamps

Happy Halloween!!!

I know it's a few days early, but I'm just preparing you all...  Here is a scary card that I made last weekend.  The large spider cupcake is from a stamp of 3 halloween cupcakes that I actually found in Alaska of all places.  I just cropped the spidey-cake out.  The spider paper is from a year or so ago and I found it in my holiday 'treasure' pile (lol)...  but they worked together very well.

  

Long live my friend the Scor-Pal and I also got to use some vintage buttons that I've been playing with for quite some time now.  The black and white twine is fastened to the vintage button on the right and when you close the card, you just wrap the twine around vintage button left.

 

Happy Halloween!!!

Scuba Saturday...

I am happy to say that this is second to the last of the birthday cards for this year - I can't believe it but that means Christmas is just around the corner.  (yikes!)  Anyway, this card was simple and fun to do.  This time of year I'm buried in black, orange and purple, so it was a nice change of pace to switch gears.

Nothing crazy or tricky here, just a lot of color and glossy accents to bring my scuba monkey to life.  The sentiment inside says: 

s.c.u.b.a.

super creative unexpected Birthday acknowledgement

And both the scuba monkey and saying are by Stampendous!  Super cute and super fun!!!

Paper Garden Projects - WCMD Challenge

So I know I've already said this, and you'll probably here it another ten times but I LOVE fall...  I love Halloween, pumpkins, cool weather, etc.  So I was super excited to see Paper Garden Projects' World Card Making Day Challenge where all you have to do is make a card inspired by fall.  I think it's safe to say that my card is self explanatory with the pumpkins front and center in this Lockhart Stamp.  I really like to use Lockhart Stamps because I love to color and they are great stamps to color in.  

Happy WCMD and thanks to PGP for a awesome challenge!!!

As a side note, please take me back to Kindergarten where coloring is an acceptable day-long activity!

A Candy Wrapper Graveyard...

Well, where do all of the candy wrappers go when we're done with them anyway?  Sketchy Thursdays is hosting a Second Chance Challenge with one winner receiving an awesome kit from Scrapbook Kit Club. 

The challenge was to use their sketch and combine it with Halloween Candy.  Soooo easy, so fun!!!  While this sketch is intended for scrapbookers, I turned it into a Halloween card to aid in the celebration of World Card Making Day which was Saturday.

I cut mini tombstones from card stock and wrapped it in candy wrappers (thanks in part to my husband and a batch of Peanut Butter Kiss cookies).  There was lots of paper cutting to make the sky, hills and stickles moon in addition to the Martha Stewart fence and graveyard punch.  The Hershey Kiss papers were decorated with some bling after the 'got candy' sentiment to complete the card.

(The green background was photoshopped in by me, the actual card ends with the white/black polka-dot paper.)  

Happy Haunting!!!

Happy World Card Making Day!!!

It's so exciting and means that Halloween, the greatest holiday, is just around the corner.  I have so many projects to post that I'm not sure where to begin.  You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see what I decide.  But here's a list of the expected items:

• Passport to Alaska - book that I created for our recent journey
• Crafty Secrets Vintage Postcard Kit (Halloween version)
• Sketchy Thursdays' Second Chance Challenge
• Paper Garden Projects' WCMD Challenge

Now it's time to get to business, see you soon...

August already?

I just can't believe it's August already...  We've had a very hot/humid summer this year and while I'm totally okay with moving on from that, I'm just amazed at how quickly the year has been going.

Anyway...  back to stamp land...  Here is a birthday card I put together for my mom:

And I can't even begin to tell you how in LOVE I am with this Maya Road rub-ons.  I bought them at my fav, PaperTales, along with the wood grain paper from A*Muse.  And while I know it's not 'scientifically' possible to have frogs and tigers hanging out together, I just thought they looked cute together.

The rub-ons are actually clear, so you can color them as you wish.  And the owl and 'hoo loves you' are actually from a different set of rub-ons that I bought at PaperTales as well.  My monkey is swinging on a vine of 'fibers' and I distressed the crap out of the wood grain paper to make it look more like i felt it should.  It's amazing what you can do with an emery board.

And again, I have to show off another one of those Hero Arts tickets that I put on the back of this woodlands' creatures card...  Too cute!

Belated wishes...

I always start out with the best of intentions but for some reason, 9 times out of 10 I'm behind the eight ball.  Especially during July, it's 'family' birthday month for me.  So here is the card that I'm sending off to my dad this year.  His birthday was actually back on the 4th...  Have no fear, however, the gift actually arrived early so at least I was partially on time...

Nothing too crazy on this one, but I do LOVE that cute little monkey.  All of the ribbon is courtesy of PinkHedgehog.  

Below is a snapshot of the back - I have a new Hero Arts stamp set of tickets and I absolutely love it and now use them for my signature on the back all the time...  here is one example...

I just love these tickets, I distress the edges to give it that ripped looked, and I have been using my Tim Holtz tiny attacher for the sides on them lately.  I really love the look it gives.

Next belated B-day post coming soon...

Vaca...

July is both vacation month and birthday month for all of my immediate family except for my husband, so it is a very 'crafty' month for me.  This year my mom was heading out of town for a few days for her birthday, so I threw together this money holder to send off to her...  

I used the A*Muse Cabana and the Palm tree silhouette - super simple gift card or money holder.  And don't be fooled by the dollar in the picture...  I just needed something to show the concept and that was all that was in my husband's wallet...  (lol)...

I can't wait until I'm sitting in the cabana!!!  Happy Summer!!!

X marks the 'SPOT'...

It's that magical time of year, A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA is here!   X marks the spot is my response to the AP Challenge #4 - SPOT.  I used quite a few A*Muse stamps in this one including my all time favorite Tiny Crab, along with the Treasure Chest, Pirate Ship and the new Palm silhouette stamps.  It was a lot of fun to create my very own treasure map and forced me to draw a few items as well.  So I will take this opportunity to apologize, if need be, for my rendition of the X and the 'attempted' volcano.  (lol)

Happy treasure hunting to all!!!

Treasure...

Finally!!!  It's been a long time since I have created something without being in a class, so it was definitely fun. These are part of A*Muse's summer release, of course, all courtesy of Paper Tales.  I put my little Pirate Bird on the Treasure chest and paired it with the sentiment, 'life's simple pleasures'.  Nothing crazy or tricky on this one, although I did do some paper piercing and I have to say that I LOVE the chunky glitter from Doodle Bug (again, Paper Tales).

Until next time, Ahoy Mateys!