fresh & fun

Today’s Way to use it challenge on Splitcoaststampers is to make a Halloween card. I don’t have very many Halloween stamps and I hardly ever use them. I guess I have a hard time with Halloween projects, because Purple is a MAJOR color in the Halloween color combos. But that didn’t stop me today! I didn’t want to break my Challenge streak. I dusted off my Lavender Lace cardstock and went to work.

I started with a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Basic Black cardstock and layered it with a 4″ square of Lavender Lace and a  3 3/4″ square of Pumpkin Pie Prints designer paper. On both layers I used the ticket corner punch on all corners. I used the Argyle stamp from All in a Row for the  faux stitching and added Pewter Brads in the outer for corners of the card.

The horizontal strip measures 1 5/8″ x 3 3/4″ for the black cardstock, 1 3/8″ x 3 3/4″ for the Lavendar one. I stamped the Polka dots with the Background stamp from the Three for you Punch kit stamp.  The ribbon is from the Ribbon Originals Jersey collection.

For the circles I I stamped the circle from Seeing Spots in Certainly Celery on the same colored cardstock. I used my black micron pen to add the black dots and punched them out with the 1 1/4″ circle punch and layered them on black 1 3/8″ circles. I trimmed part of it off and tape them to the card.

For the main image I stamped Frankenstein from the set Booglie Eyes in Black Stazon on Shimmery White cardstock (1 3/4″ x 1 7/8″) and colored him in with Pumpkin Pie, Lavender Lace and More Mustard markers as well as with aqua painter and Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery and River Rock ink. All corners were punched with the ticket corner punch. The image was layered on a piece of Certainly Celery and a piece of Basic Black cardstock.

The saying is from the set All Holidays. It was stamped with Black Stazon on Shimmery white and added with a small rectangle frame from the Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware kit.

Yesterday’s sketch challenge on Splitcoast was this sketch:

I knew I wanted to use Outlaw paper and the Wanted medaillon.  But by the time I had finished my regular work,  Sherry, aka. Bad Sherry had made an amazing card with that set and paper. So I had to rethink my card.

I was thinking about the sets that would work well with this set, and decided to use my very neglected Carte Postale set. I really like this set, but haven’t used it in quite a while. I recently got the matching Le Jardin Designer paper and hadn’t had a chance to use it yet.  I pulled that out as well.

Okay….so I went a little layer/hardware happy. I do like how it came out though. Definitely not a swap card. LOL

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ of Ricker Rock cardstock folded in half. I set that aside.

First layer is a 5 1/4″ x 4″ piece of Shimmery White cardstock. All four corners were punched with the ticket corner punch. Second layer is a 5″ x 3 3/4″ of Always Artichoke cardstock. Again the corners were punched.

For the panels I cut a 4 3/4″ x 3 1/2″ piece of Le Jardin Designer paper, punched the corners and cut at 2 1/4″ . I took the wider piece and cut it down to 2 1/4″ as well. Next I took both long strips and cut them at 1 5/8″. I cut the longer piece at 1 5/8″ and taped it all four on the Artichoke layer. I paper pierced the edges of the Designer paper. I used the large swirl from Priceless and stamped it on the top right and bottom left designer paper panel in River Rock.

For the big square in the back of my main image, I cut a 2 1/2″ square of River Rock, a 2 1/4″ square of Shimmery White and a 2″ square of Always Artichoke. I used the ticket corner punch for the upper two layers and taped everything a little off center to the left of the card. I added Antique Brass brads in each corner.

For the main medaillon I started with a 2 1/4″ square of River Rock cardstock and layered it with a 2″ square of Le Jardin Designer Paper and 1 3/4″ square of Always Artichoke. Again I used the ticket corner punch on the top two layers and added Antique Brass brads on three of the four corners. I left the bottom right corner blank.

I stamped the Medaillon stamp from Carte Postale in River Rock on Shimmery White and cut it out. Next I stamped the same image in Always Artichoke. I punched out the center with the 1 1/4″ circle punch and adhered it to the River Rock Medaillon.  After I cleaned the stamp really good, I inked the same image up with VersaMark and then, without stamping it with River Rock ink. I stamped it on Shimmery White cardstock, added clear embossing powder over it and heat embossed it.

I cut out the flower and layered it on my center piece. Next I stamped the image one more time in Always Artichoke and cut out the center flower. I taped all layers together and added an Antique Brass brads in the center.

I stamped the Mon Ami in Artichoke on Shimmery White, punched it out with the large oval punch, taped it down on the bottom right panel and layered an oval frame from the Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware.

The top right panel was still too bare so I added more hardware with White Taffeta and Artichoke Grosgrain ribbon to it. Unfortunately my Artichoke grosgrain ribbon looks more like Olive. Since I didn’t have any Artichoke looking ribbon, I had to use it anyway.

My third Upline, Sharon Skelton, is so very nice. She has a LARGE downline and sends out cards to each of the downline that had sales of $1,000 or more in the previous month. I know that must keep her really busy. Her cards are easy to mass produce, but always have great ideas. I thought I share this one with you.

I have seen the pumpkins as Cactus before, but I was tickled pink to see the flower from Baroque Motifs used as flower on there.