Halloween Cards

I know, I know – it is December, why in the world would I post my Halloween cards?! Well, I kinda like these cards, and seeing as I lost some of my photos when my computer crashed, my blog has become my repository…so if I don’t post, I may lose them!

witchycat

My first card is my favorite. I love the images – and I got to color! I really don’t want to invest in markers, but I must admit I would love to see this card done with Copics to get the bright vibrant look I would prefer.

The layout is a Jen del Muro SFYTT from back in September. I knew as soon as I saw the sketch what I wanted to do – it just took a month or so to get it done!

trickortreatspots

My second card is also based on a sketch, but I can’t remember whose! I love using this grid technique for those small stamps.

skeletalgreetings

Next up is a fun one. I *love* the new Scary Skeleton – though I don’t think he’s all that scary! While cutting him out is a pain, it always seems worth it! I plopped him down on the layer to make it look like he was sitting and waving. The rhinestone eyes were my finishing touch.

The Razzleberry layer has a border punched on the bottom. I don’t own any of those fancy Martha Stewart punches (yet), so I had to make mine by using the SU Curly Label punch. I didn’t get it quite straight and even, but I think it works okay.

monstermash

I really really really want a “Monster Mash” sentiment. I love this song – it is so fun! I thought about finding the perfect font, but as I still needed to make quite a few more card, I opted for hand writing something.

This one was a little harder to color because so much of it should be non-colors. But figuring out the masking was fun – to keep out the mummy’s sign and the ghost’s pumpkin.

sweethalloween

I love Halloween – but to me Halloween is about the scary not so much the sweet. However, many of my recipients are the opposite, so I needed a few sweet cards too. I dislike making more than 1 of any design, but for this card, I made 3. Thankfully it is a very simple design – and I got to use up some of my ancient paper stash!

Halloween Cards
All supplies Stampin’Up! unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Haunting Halloween, Bitty Boos, Scary Skeleton, Booglie Eyes; Sentiment on final card from TAC sets;
Ink: all SU colors
Paper: all SU colors, all DSP is from SU Halloween Night
Other: PTI Plum dotted ribbon, SU Orange ribbon, SU Curly Label punch, PTI black satin ribbon, SU Celery ribbon, CB Ribbon Slider die cut

Silhouette Spots

The final card for the September stamp camp uses Pocket Silhouettes – a new set that is also on special! Since our theme is “Get Ready for the Holidays” I wanted to go with a thank you card in fall colors. I tried a couple other things first (see below), but this is what I settled on. I really like it – a quick card, but still has dimension. After working on the other samples, getting to this place wasn’t hard – the left over circles from the other attempts were scattered on my desk and it was easy to envision this card.

After I made the final stamp camp card, I wanted to finish the cards I had started. I gave them up for different reasons, but I am very happy I went back and finished them!

My first attempt was to use the chipboard frame piece as a template to create the window, behind which the silhouettes can be seen. I tried many different things, but everything that I could think of to “finish” the card required non-SU stuff. I gave up. When I came back to it, I pulled out a tiny Prima flower in red and added a black brad, which made me think of this scrap of ribbon I had. Now, I know if I tried harder, I probably could have accomplished this card using SU supplies, so giving up was more of a lack of mojo!

This spotlight card was another attempt. I really liked where it was going, but it was getting too complicated. We try not to do too many layers, especially when the layers are only 1/16″ bigger, lol. It seems that even when all you have to do is tape the layers together, it takes too long. I love the color palette on this one (that sorta carried over to the final card, but with the brown taking such a smaller part in this card, it feels lighter). The green layer on this is the new Kiwi Kiss. Since SU doesn’t make brads for their InColors (I don’t know WHY?!!), I had to improvise. I found these Making Memory brads weren’t too off so I went with them.

Supplies (All Stampin’Up!):
[Spots card]
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Baroque wheel;
Ink: Chocolate chip, Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive;
Paper: Chocolate chip, Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Vanilla craft;
Other: circle punches

[Window card]
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Linen, Think Happy Thoughts;
Ink: Basic Black, Versamark
Paper: Basic Black, Real Red, Saraha Sand, Whisper White;
Other: circle punch, nonSU ribbon, prima flower, black brad

[Spotlight card]
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Friend by Definition;
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss;
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla;
Other: circle punch, pumpkin striped grosgrain, brads, word window punch;

A Tiny Challenge

I just posted my VSN challenge over at SCS. I can’t take credit for the challenge idea, but it was fun writing up the post and creating the samples. I’ve never done “inchies” before – mostly because I felt the real estate of a card was too big for just 1 inch. I took the easy route for my first venture and did a group of inchies (which I’ve dubbed “groupies” – corny, but cute). This was easy to do, but I didn’t feel like I really tried the challenge since there was more than one of them on the card. So, keeping with the same stamp set, I tried again. This was actually easier than I thought it would be! I don’t know if “inchies” will become a staple in my design box, but at least I’m not afraid of them any more!

FYI, the pattern paper used on the spider card is a spider web (retired SU paper) that I outlined with a Stardust pen. I also punched the bottom of the card to resemble the web edges.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bitty Boos, Everyday Flexible Phrases (SU)
Ink: More Mustard, Black (SU)
Paper: More Mustard, Black, White (SU); Halloween Night (SU)
Other: grosgrain ribbon, stardust pen, slot punch, word window punch, brads