Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'Something Spooky'

Time for another Cuttlebug Mania Challenge and the theme this time is 'Something Spooky'. By that we mean you can let your mind go a bit mad - for example, ghosts, mummies, spiders, witches, kids in costume, or lots of black. Or any other bright ideas so long as it fits in with 'Something Spooky'.

I struggled with my DT card as I have almost zilch items here to do with Halloween - and in fact, I used this same main die last year for a similar theme over at Cuttlebug Mania. Mind you, it's so specific to Halloween that it needs an annual outing!

You do have to use a manual die cutting/embossing machine for Cuttlebug Mania entries (it doesn't need to be a Cuttlebug but it must be manual, not electronic). And, you can't mix the two, it must be all manual please. Then make your entry, link into the challenge, link to the challenge in your own blog post and and make sure that you also say what products you used for any die cutting/embossing.

Details of our sponsor can be found over on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog.

This is my DT card:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank, tent style

- slightly smaller layer of SU's 'More Mustard' card stock, glued in place and topped with a slightly smaller again layer of black card stock 

- then I embossed a piece of pearlescent 'platinum' coloured card (bought at the Coventry show) using a Tim Holtz 'Cobwebs' embossing folder and trimmed it to just slightly smaller than the black card layer and glued it in place

- next, die cut the really fun Cheery Lynn Designs 'Witches Laundry' from black card and glued it in place across the card. The Woodware Ultra Fine applicator bottle is perfect for fine work like this! 

- then added a few touches of gold here and there on the die cut using a Signo 'Sparkling Gold' pen

- sat for ages pondering what to do next with the blank patch at the bottom left hand corner of the card - a sentiment? black gems? - totally stuck, until I remembered a die I've hardly used

- out came the Cheery Lynn Designs 'Kitty Kitty Meow Meow' die and a snippet of black card. Die cut just the Daddy cat from the sweet little family, chopped his tail off (ouch!) and popped him in the offending corner

Must be my warped sense of humour, he almost looks like he's quietly looking on - sniggering at the cat hanging on the line to dry - possibly his Lady Wife? :)

We'd love to see you over at Cuttlebug Mania and the challenge runs for two weeks.

Thank you Vicky!

The lovely Vicky Hayes of SU sent my Stampers Six Club goodies last week, along with the most gorgeous little kit to assemble. This isn't my idea, I just followed Vicky's instructions and made it up in a couple of minutes, but what a super way to use the Curvy Keepsake Box die to make a little Halloween Pumpkin Treat:

It was already carefully striped, just lying flat with the other little embellishements included plus an instruction sheet. And Vicky even enclosed two Ferrero Rocher chocolates to pop inside :) My favourites!

So cute. Thank you Vicky!

I made the most of yesterday's peace and quiet by catching up with other little jobs - but will be round to comment on the Playground ASAP I promise.

Di
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The Apprentice

This month's challenge over at 'Penny Black Saturday Challenge - October' is 'Halloween or Halloween Colours'. I went for a bit of both - using one of my two main Halloween stamps (both are Penny Black needless to say):

I used:

- 6" x 6" white card blank

- a slightly smaller piece of white card with the edges coloured using the same violet Whispers pen as I used on the dress and stockings - which came out more blue in the photo, sigh :(

- lime green card stock for another layer, it was still lying on the desk after Wednesday's 'neon parcels' Christmas card making session

- the patterned black and white paper is from Dovecraft's Back to Basics 'Monochrome Colour Study' paper pack - it reminded me a bit of a really OCD spider's web

- image is of course Penny Black, called 'Apprentice', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and coloured mostly with Whispers Pens plus a Pro Marker 'Lime' pen
and then die cut using a 'Stitched Rectangle' die by Lil'inkers

- the 'wonky' orange rectangle was die cut using a 'Stitched Rectangle' die by Lil'inkers

- the 'ticket' sentiment is by Pink Gem Designs, stamped onto a snippet of green card stock using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and hand cut

- final touch, three white Josy Rose nail heads in the bottom left hand corner

The thing is, we don't really make such a big thing about Halloween over here in the UK so I'll have to think about who to send this card too :) And, I'm wondering who the 'apprentice' is - the puddy tat perhaps?

Di
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Trick or Treat

Made this for a little boy living close to us who is coming up to four years old - he's so excited about Halloween and the decorations have been done round their front door so we fully expect a little 'Trick or Treat' knock this evening:

I used:

- 7" x 5 white card stock

- orange backing paper from Papermania's 'Sunshine' capsule collection, it was the only orange paper/card I could lay my hands on although I could have used the Pro Marker 'edge the card trick', wasn't thinking though

- purple mirri card from the snippets folder

- main image stamped using Penny Black's 'Dark Spirits' stamp, coloured with Pro Markers

- sentiment stamped with SU's 'Pumpkin Pie' - sentiment is from Personal Impressions 'Halloween' set

- Josy Rose nail heads

- and the little bat just had to play too - it's the one that Darnell kindly sent me, stamped onto a snippet of grey card. I gave him slightly pink cheeks too as he looks about to do a crash landing :)

Quite a lot of years ago when I lived 'oop North' I was gardening and a little pipistrelle bat (in broad daylight, which is very unusual) flew into the glass of the greenhouse and stunned itself. Not sure what to do, I gently picked it up and just held it in my cupped hands. What a pretty little creature it was, although it shouldn't have been out playing in the middle of the day!  After several minutes it recovered and flew off into the orchard - hopefully to recover before flying back to Mum. Often in the evening, when the colony came out to play, swooping round the terrace at the back of the house, I wondered if he/she was amongst them - I hope so as it was a magical experience I'd been lucky enough to have!

Am skipping WOYWW yet again, not enough time to play fair and blog hop - but I did pick up that WOYWW got a mention on the radio the other morning :)

Di
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Another using up last year's stash!

Last chance at my blog candy - the draw is at midnight today :)

A quick card - again using the Papermania paper pack and embossing folders. Out of the whole set of embossing folders there's only I'm a bit 'iffy' about and that's the prancing reindeer - they look a bit clumsy and overweight (been at the Christmas pudding perhaps!?) so I made one and threw it away :( Didn't look good with the quite sleek and elegant reindeer papers I used - but I guess three out of four folders isn't too bad :( Anyhow, back to the card for today:

I love the holly embossing folder from the set and, although it won't show here, after I made this card it was lying on my desk and on two separate occasions I did a double-take as the poinsettia looked three dimensional. Bit spooky!

I used:

- 6" x 6" plain white square card stock

- topper from from the Papermania's Stephanie Dyment 'Classic Christmas' 8" x 8" paper pack

- embossing folder from Papermania's 'Seasonal Sentiments & Borders' set

- a backing square of red mirri card

- sentiment from the Woodware Clear Magic stamp set - 'Christmas Bubble Tree' -  stamped using a chalk ink pad in 'Aloe Vera'

- Josy Rose nail heads - darkish red

So, that's me for today - err, actually writing this on Halloween Eve, Monday, to publish on Tuesday and the kiddies are still turning up here :)) We have all sorts arriving in some amazing outfits, mostly little ones too and Annie would be pleased to know we've had two little pumpkins - aw, so cute! We have a HUGE bowl (replenished too) of sweeties and treats - plus 'the unknown' - which, if the older ones dare to dip in, is a Halloween decorated box of plastic - and quite gross - skulls........had a few squeals there!) Snort, snort,cackle!! Now, where's me broomstick.........I need to fly:)) 

And, Tuesday (today I guess) is our grand daughter  Livi's birthday, she's 2 today - all the way over in Germany - lots of love and hugs from Grandad and GranDi XXX
Di
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Pumpkin Pie anyone?

That title (taken from the sentiment on today's card) has reminded me of a recipe to dig out and share! I trotted home from Sainsbury's yesterday afternoon proudly bearing a pumpkin - so this morning there will be a wrestling match between said pumpkin and I in the kitchen. If I win, tomorrow's recipe will be something a bit different to Pumpkin Pie or Soup - if I lose then the recipe will be something else and the subject will never be raised again, snort, snort!! My optimistic OH has already smartly remarked that he awaits the outcome with bated breath - and the First Aid kit to hand :(

Back to today's card, during Tuesday's 'photo rescue' service here that I posted about yesterday, I started this card and just finished it yesterday morning:

Oh my life, this could be me after the wrestling match!! I love this stamp and am ashamed to admit I don't fully recall where it came from - I suspect it was from my friend Bernie?

I used:

- white linen 6" x 6" card stock

- Penny Black 'Apprentice' stamp, coloured using Pro Markers to match the papers I'd already selected

- patterned papers free with a recent issue of Making Cards magazine

- black, orange and green snippets from the snippets folder

- sentiment stamp from Pink Gem Designs

- orange gingham ribbon from stash

- tiny little star shaped gems on the witches hat from Papermania, also from stash

As I used more snippets - yay, that snippets folder is the first place I check now - I'm entering this into Jules Crafty Snippets Challenge Week 42

I'd also like to enter it into the following challenge:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - week 174 - 'Too Cute to Spook'

I can't see these two cuties spooking anyone!

Last, but not least, although it will be the last of these for now - here's the box of Wedding Save The Date cards and envelopes, all prettied up in an A4 plastic box and tissues paper ready for collection :))

Back tomorrow with a recipe for Friday Feast - pumpkin or otherwise!

Di
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WOYWW 125

This is my desk, exactly as I left it last night:

Looking suspiciously tidy too, for a reason in the next photo. It's chucking it down with rain and pitch dark in here so I had to switch the daylight lamp on for any chance of a photo :( Above are the bits I was playing with yesterday afternoon to make a Halloween card. To the right of the Nesties I'd been using is the sweetest little pink pincushion, made by Bernie - brilliant for keeping pins to hand to poke into the nozzles of slightly blocked up Stickles bottles and such.

I was keeping occupied whilst my OH recovered a load of lost photos for a friend from his archery club. She's just returned from an amazing holiday in the Kruger National Park and losing photos from a holiday like that is no fun at all. He used some free software that I came across quite a while back when the same thing happened to me with a whole load of photos from Thailand. It took the deeper recovery operation (about 25 minutes or so) but success! The software is free from Piriform, called Recuva, and can work wonders just so long as photos, or files on your PC, haven't been totally overwritten, even if they are showing as deleted or just 'missing in action'. They are usually still lurking there because of the way indexing systems work (that's how the police - and others - recover files from seized laptops etc. - although their means tend to be more sophisticated). So, if you ever think you've lost a whole load of files - don't do any more fiddling with the camera's memory card or your laptop - go straight here and download the free Recuva software. We did a little dance of joy here when the much loved first sighting of an elephant in the wild reappeared - along with all the other photos :) I do love happy endings - oh, and I'm not on commission for recommending Recuva - it's freeware anyhow!

The 'safari' friend is also an amazing needlewoman and totally loved my poppies 'dumfed' picture that Annie made quite a long time ago :)

And, a quick swing to the right shows why I'm keeping anything messy right OFF my desk right now:

Yay, the completed 'Save the Date' cards all ready to be packed in white tissue into an A4 clear box (oh boy, Hobbycraft was manic when I nipped out later yesterday to buy it - half-term!). I've got some wide aubergine ribbon and a large heart-shaped diamante slider, from my stash, so I can tie the box and make it look pretty and a bit special. All the envelopes have an elegant 'scrolled' heart stamped onto the back in aubergine - thanks to Sandra's recent stamp sale. There's one lying to the back of the ribbon from an extra four that I've stamped to include in the box, in case of mistakes when writing addresses :))

So, that's me for this weeks WOYWW - the rain is lashing against the window here and what better to do than to hop round and see what everyone else if up to today - go to Julia's here and see for yourself :) She's showing off some amazing completed sewing this week - hilarious that her daughter refused to hop onto her desk in keeping with WOYWW though!!

Note: If you go to Home on my blog, there's some candy on offer - there's a 'sticky' posting until next Tuesday. Dumbo here ended up with two sets of heart shaped Nesties dies so one is looking for a new home. No catch, no need to follow or publicise, it's just to celebrate over 300 posts.

Happy WOYWW!

Di
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