Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-legged Beasties

Two more Halloween cards to thrill and chill you! Or not :o) Whatever :o) Lots of rich layered stamping in the first card, so much so that the photo doesn't really do it justice! Click on an image to see a larger view.

Create!

Another Halloween rest day today, so here are 2 more pages of the book I'm working on. Once again the blank pages were cut on the Cricut with Sure Cuts a Lot.

The grid pattern on the 2nd page was created by spritzing a checkerboard stamp with water and stamping it onto the previously distress inked card, I love how it turned out! The heart and banner stamp is by Tim Holtz at Stampers Anonymous.

The flower on the first page was cut out freehand with scissors, my hands are clearly steadier than I thought! :) The ticking stamp in the background is by Just for Fun, and the two girls are by Paper Bag Studios.

Tip-toe, tip-toe, BOO!!

Two more Halloween cards today - I include the first because someone yesterday someone said they liked the little guy in the middle, and to answer a question from yesterday, it IS a Stampotique stamp.

All stamps are again from Inkadinkado sets, apart from the afore mentioned Stampotique stamp. Oh, the tree on the first card was a lovely wood-mounted stamp that was a gift from my friend Hels. The wood block is long gone (I have ALL my stamps on EZ Mount foam), so hopefully if Hels reads this she can remind me of who made the stamp, in her comment! :)

Snake Book Pages 1 & 2

I thought, dear reader, that we'd take a break from Halloween today, so here are two pages from a snake book I'm making, which will be bound with the Bind-it-All. They're not actually the first two pages of the book, but I've grouped them together here because the techniques used on both pages are the same. I only wanted 4 holes down each side of the page, so I didn't punch them on the BIA, I cut them on the Cricut instead, using the Sure Cuts a Lot software.

I used the faux batik technique on both pages. The large damask-type designs on the right-hand side of each page were stamped first onto the blank page using a Versamark ink pad and then embossed with clear embossing powder. Colour was then applied to each page using an ink blending tool, with the embossed areas acting as a resist so that colour didn't apply to those parts.

I then placed brown (kraft) paper over each page and ironed with a hot iron which melted the embossing powder until it soaked into the kraft paper and was removed from the page. Other parts of the page were then stamped and finally the main figures were stamped separately, coloured with Promarkers and cut out, then adhered to the page. I ran a pale grey marker around the edge of each figure to make it pop a little more.

2 down, 10 more pages to go! Click on the image for a larger view.

Halloween Card #3

A single panel this time, with stamps from Inkadinkado, Stampers Anonymous and Oxford Impressions. I wanted to make this look deep and rich, so there's a lot of layered stamping on it. Click on the pic for a larger view, another to follow tomorrow!

Happy Haunting!

Another day, another Halloween card. Technique-wise similar to yesterdays, so not much to say about this one other than I hope you like it, and there'll be a new one tomorrow! :o)

ETA: All stamps on this card are from Inkadinkado clear stamp sets, apart from the spider's web at the bottom of the rightmost panel, which is Stampers Anonymous (if I remember rightly!)

Hello (Again) Strangers and Halloween Card!

I call you strangers not because you are strange, but because I haven't "seen" you all in such a while. Not your fault but mine - I believe "life just got in the way" is the expression! I'm happy to be back, and hopefully normal service will now be resumed! :o)

I recently made 13 Halloween cards for a swap I was taking part in. I mostly used some of the clear Halloween stamp sets from Inkadinkado (thanks to Kim from Cutter's Creek for sending them so promptly!). Needless to say, after all that effort I'm pretty much over Halloween now, and it's not even here yet, LOL. I made the cards while I was away on vacation, so consequently there are no particularly complicated techniques involved, as I didn't have my usual range of tools and equipment at my disposal - just stamps, ink, scissors and glue! The stamps I have aren't particularly large images and it wasn't easy using them for the whole of the front of a card, so I adopted a comic-book style panelled approach on many of them, which I adapted from card to card. Here's the first, there'll be another one here every day for the next two weeks or so.

The panels were cut from pale grey cardstock and I applied ink from a Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink pad with an ink applicator tool. The large polka dot stamp (from Cornish Heritage Farms) was spritzed with water and then stamped on each panel. When they had dried I distressed the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink, applied as before.

The main images were stamped with Black Versafine ink and the pumpkin and ghost were stamped separately on white cardstock and cut out and adhered to the panels. The inside of the card was stamped with the "Happy Haunting" stamp from one of the Inkadinkado sets.

Click on the image for a larger view. See you tomorrow, same time, same place! :)

Freebie 38!

A Match Made in Heaven?

I've started to make my files available from my blog again and am adding a new set each week. Check out the "Cutting Files" tab at the top of the page to see which ones are available for download.
I can't take the credit for this idea, someone emailed me a couple of weeks ago suggesting it as a future freebie. Try as I might, I can't find the email anywhere, so humble apologies to the person concerned!

I've been a bit pressed for time today so didn't really have time to decorate these properly, but the important thing is that I've cut them and tested to make sure everything is ok. Hopefully you can see from the picture that that is the case!

The great thing about these is that you don't have to cut them at regular matchbox size. I've put the sleeve and drawer in the same file so that no matter how big or small you resize them, they'll always match. Why not use them to make a stunning Advent Box like the one my friend Linda made last year? (Click on the picture to read her blog post about making it). They're also perfect as gift boxes or for small party favours!
Templates © dan99crafter@gmail.com 2009

Less is More Tag

Another day, another tag!! (Hopefully any german readers will enjoy that pun! lol)

Once again, more new stamps that I'm trying out for the first time (I'll try to remember where they're all from, but I always forget!)

I started out by colouring the tag with Dusty Concord and Dried Marigold distress ink, applied from the ink pads with an ink blending tool. I then spritzed the large dots background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms with water and stamped it on the tag and left it to dry.

I used a wet baby wipe to remove a lot of the colour from the bottom section of the tag, then applied Mustard Seed distress ink to that section with my ink blending tool. I then stamped the rulers background from Lost Coast Designs, with black ink.

The bubble wrap stamp is from a Paperbag Studios plate, and I stamped with with Dusty Concord ink (see how much darker it stamps compared to the areas where I applied it with the blending tool?)

The Less is More stamp is from a PaperArtsy sheet, and I stamped it in black and highlighted areas with a white pen. The shoes stamp was a gift from a friend, so I've no idea where it comes from! I stamped it separately, then used a water brush and Spiced Marmalade distress pad to paint the orange colour into the white area. I used a grey promarker around the toe of the shoes to make them pop a little more. I then cut out the image and stamped the Less is More stamp across it's bottom left corner, then lined it up with the phrase already on the tag and stuck it in place.

The arrow is from the same Paperbag Studios sheet as the bubble wrap (I think!) and it was stamped in black and highlighted with white pen. Finally I used a scratches stamp from Tim Holtz's Slight Alterations set and stamped it with Milled Lavender distress ink around the edges of the tag to finish it off.

I hope you like it, I had a lot of fun making it! :) Click on the image to see a larger view.

Bird Tag

Once again playing around with some new stamps to try them out! No plan or fancy techniques with this tag, just trying to get a feel for the new stamps and seeing how they stamp.

Most of these are taken from an Oxford Impressions plate, "Bird's Nest". I picked this plate up recently at LB Crafts, and when I came to look for it a few days later I couldn't find it. It turns out that it had fallen out of my bag in the car park and some honest person picked it up and put it through LB Crafts' letterbox! Thanks to that mystery honest person and to LB Crafts who promptly put it in the mail to me! :)

I started out by applying Fired Brick and Vintage Photo distress ink onto the tag with an ink blending tool. I then spritzed my hand with water and flicked drips onto the tag. After a few seconds I dabbed off the excess water and left the tag to dry.

I spritzed a checkerboard stamp with water and applied it to the tag, again dabbing off the excess after a second or two and leaving the tag to dry.

The bird, B and fence (I can't remember who the fence is by... B Line designs?)were stamped with a tuxedo black memento ink pad and highlighted with a white pen. The birds nest was stamped separately, coloured with promarkers and then cut out and applied to the tag. I used a couple of pale grey promarkers to give a shadow below the nest. Some scratch lines from one of Tim Holtz's recent stamp sets were applied around the edges with a Vintage Photo ink pad. Finally, some birdy footprints finished it off.

I hope you like it :) Click on the image for a larger view!