Happy Halloween!

Boo! :D

I greatly enjoy Halloween; costumes. pumpkins, candy...fun times, my friends. Now if I could just find the house that gives out coffee...

I had so much fun coloring this little kitty in the pumpkin! I could also see one of our cats doing this, given the chance...I cannot find the name of this stamp set, though. Google has failed me! Noooo! If anyone knows what she's called, will you leave me a comment please?

I love the Halloween chevron paper, but the pattern is a little bold on its own. I used the Pretty Pink Posh stitched rectangle die to cut off a piece and a matching piece of vellum to soften it. To hide the glue marks on the vellum, I carefully added adhesive under the sequins stacks, the banner, and the kitty.

The kitty and her pumpkin were colored in with my Spectrum Noir markers, then popped onto the background with foam adhesive.

I stamped the Pumpkin Time! sentiment that came with the set in Memento Espresso Brown ink onto a scrap of this lovely ivory linen paper, then die-cut it with the Mama Elephant banner die. I really love that thing. Of course I HAD to add sequins, so for seasonal flair I stacked the 6mm tangerine and the 4mm onyx sequins from PPP in the corners, then added just some onyx ones to frame the sentiment. Done!

I'll be taking my little ninja turtle dinosaur rider trick or treating tonight (and collecting a candy tax). Be sure to stop by the Mountain Plains Crafters Facebook page all day today for fun Halloween treats!

Happy Crafting!

Snowflake Tag Card + a Video

Good morning everyone! In my never-ending attempt to come up with holiday cards that are easy to duplicate (not to mention quick to create) I came up with this little beauty:

Of course, I couldn't resist making a video of the process for you!

Supplies used
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp, Avery Elle
Paper: Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock, deep teal from Paperandmore.com
Dies: Pretty Pink Posh, Mama Elephant
Extras: 4mm Pretty Pink Posh sequins, Hero Arts Silver ink, Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder, cream twill ribbon

Hope you enjoyed the card and the video! Be sure to subscribe to the blog and/or YouTube so you'll get some email love when a new post or video is available.

I am linking up to:
Merry Monday Christmas Challenge - #131 Non-traditional Christmas Colors
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Happy Crafting!

Cancer Sucks

Cancer sucks. There, I said it. It's not a mind-blowing concept or even a new one, but how often do people actually just come out and say it? Cancer. Sucks.

The Mountain Plains Crafters DT agree wholeheartedly, and today's topic on the blog is all about cancer awareness. Head on over to see what everyone created, and keep reading to see how I made my card and the inspiration behind it.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, but I went further than just the pink ribbon. See, my family tree is riddled with this disease in various forms, so I wanted to acknowledge and draw awareness to all that have touched my life.

I inked up the small poppy flower outline stamp from a Unity kit and created my own patterned paper background. To keep the flowers from messily overlapping, I created a mask from a Post-it note and used it to keep my previous impressions clean. So when I went to stamp the light blue poppy, I stuck the Post-it to the pink poppy to keep the inks from mixing.

Each color I used on the card was chosen with care; pink for my Gram, who's now fighting breast cancer for the 3rd time at nearly 90 years old. Light blue for my Poppy, for it was prostate cancer that finally won. Gray for my mother-in-law, brain cancer took her from us before we were married. Gray ribbons also represent Parkinson's so a second nod to my Poppy there. Dark blue for my Aunt that didn't find the colon cancer until it was too late. Black for the skin cancer that also tagged Gram and that I have a high risk for. Plum purple for all those who take care of those with cancer, for they're warriors as well.

The sentiment is also from Unity, though I have no idea what set as I got it in a grab bag. I love the sentiment for anyone hurting, and cancer certainly hurts all those around it.

On a lighter note (got the tissues out yet?), if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you'll remember that I mixed up my white & clear Wink of Stella pens the other night; it was on this card. I tried to add some shimmer to the middle of the poppies, but it turned out opaque thanks to my grabbing the white pen by accident! Ah well, it still works.

Now go hug your friends, family, cat, dog, and/or gerbil and remember; early detection saves lives. Keep up with your yearly exams so you can live longer and craft more things.

Happy Crafting!

Card Book and World Card Making Day

Woohoo, happy World Card Making Day everyone! There are so many fun contests, product releases, and card sketches out there in blog land today; have you been playing along?

I'm here to share my vintage Graphic 45 project for Mountain Plains Crafters today; we're giving away THREE pads of Graphic 45 paper over on our Facebook page. Just 'like' and 'comment' to enter! Believe me, I wish I could win it...

So, I finally finished a card storage book I started, oh, back in March...what, I've been busy! The book measures 6"x6" and is made from folded sheets of the Place in Time paper pad.

Place in Time card book

Pretty cool, huh? The back & front covers are chipboard covered with some paper from the pad, then topped with one of the tags from the embellishment kit. I added some navy ruffle ribbon from Pretty Pink Posh and a scrap of white shimmer ribbon I had laying around. The flower is from May Arts that I added a chocolate pearl to for the center.

Closeup of the tag

Some clear Wink of Stella finished the tag off, along with my handwriting and a Sharpie. ;)

Inside the book are (2) pages for every month, with pockets for keeping cards in. Now when we make things ahead of time, we have somewhere to put them! Each page also has a tag to keep track of birthdays, anniversaries, and the like.

March with the tag in the special tag pocket

September with a closeup of the tag for the month

Some ribbons over the binding finish the whole thing off. How about you; how do you keep track of your cards for those special people?

Happy Crafting!