This is Halloween

autumn splendor

This card's the result of a weekend outing where my stampin' buddy Pat and I took in a make- 'n-take at my fav local paper crafting store, Capture-a-Memory. The lovely and talented Jill led us in making a couple projects - today's card and a tube containing goodies w Halloween poem tag. Tho' it looks pretty brown in this picture, the card stock background is more like a dark cranberry, and the green sentiment is much darker IRL.

I loved the grunge stamp we used to "texturize" the card stock background using Versamark. The leaves were cut from multicolored DP using one of the store's vast die collection, distressed, then some glued onto chipboard, others placed directly on the card base. If you purchase paper there, you're welcome to use their dies, and if you're a member, you get not only access to some member-only dies but discounts on all product. Using the Ellison machine at my youngest son's school had been one of my fav parts of being his Homeroom Mom in elementary school.

very few deets today - all supplies provided and I was too lazy to ask about them

stamp: Kaisercraft Grunge

it's in the mail

sometimes pictures don't do subjects justice. I remember thinking that when I camped at the Grand Canyon many moons ago; today's card is another example ... or it COULD be the photographer ... sigh ... anywho, the colors are soft and amazing IRL!

I took a vacation day today, and am sitting at my PC which is positioned at a back wall with a slider glass door next to me ... and that beautiful tree I took pics of earlier this week? this morning we had frost on the lawn and when the sun hit the trees, it was like watching Pigpen in a Charlie Brown special! the orange maple has since slowed and now only an occasional leaf is falling, but I expect the yellow one to be leafless by the end of the day.

I'm addressing Halloween cards and this one's in the mail today! It was from a class project at a local paper crafting store - Capture a Memory - from a year or two ago. sorry, no deets today; all supplies were provided to us in class. the bats were from a puffy ribbon strip and I've used them multiple times, cutting each bat apart separately to affix to cards.

I LOVE trees

when we first moved into our current home it had four trees in the front yard - one pine no taller than our knees, one feathery-looking one, a crabapple near the road by our driveway, a decorative berry one just outside our kitchen window, and only one tree in the back ... a small maple that shed just enough shade to prop our kids' blow-up pool under. we've since added three more out back - all maples, but in varying colors. the original's dark yellow/brown, and we have a yellow, orange, and dark red. the dark red hasn't even begun to show signs of turning, but here's the orange one. the yellow one's next to it and the dark red one's behind it, just inside our fence. the original maple in the back is to the orange one's left. it's strange that, tho' it's the oldest of the trees, it's also the smallest. I'm so glad we added more trees out back. pretty, eh?!

autumn's my sister's favorite season. I like spring, summer, and fall equally!

thanx for stopping by!

trick or treat ...

... give me something good to eat!

Another Halloween card today, this was made for a sketch challenge that I then lost the URL for! If you happen to know of the challenge, please let me know!

stamps: My Mind's Eye blackbird; paper: My Mind's Eye spooked, Pink Paislee Twilight & Eclipse DP and Postcards block, Paper Reflections black card stock; ink: Ranger black soot distress ink

frightful & delightful

I'm a fan of Amuse's sentiment stamps and this one gets pulled out every Halloween. The darlin' witch is one of Mike's recent $1 stamps ... they offered lots of cute kids in this series, and I tried to limit myself to a half dozen, really I did! Yesterday's card was based on a challenge to not use orange anywhere; today's FSC38 challenge is to use orange and black.

stamps: Amuse Artstamps' frightful & delightful, Mike's craft smart witch; paper: Pink Paislee's Twilight Collection Eclipse, My Mind'e Eye's spooked black scribbles DP, ColorMates' dark terra-cotta, Paper Reflections' black, and Staples' white card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot and pumice stone distress ink, studio g's peachy chalk pigment ink

black and white and ...

If you're a frequent visitor here, you know one of my fav color combos is black and white and a punch of color ... well, how 'bout a black and white Halloween card for this week's Cas-ual Fridays CFC24 challenge? It's actually to make a Halloween card without any orange, and this one fits that bill! I've made lots of seasonal cards with the main image and snowflakes or fall leaves or butterflies at the different angles but didn't know if I'd made one with bats! I had a hard time finding bats in my stash of stamps, however! I had plenty of stamps that included a bat or two in the background, but finally found this cluster of bats in an sei stamp set I'd picked up a couple years back at a Mega Meet. So ... for this simple card (think KISS - Keep It Simple, Silly) I first inked in Versamark, then distress ink, to ensure I got the necessary coverage over the textured card stock. Easy peasy!

stamps: mike's craft smart haunted house goodness, sei's eerie alley; paper: AC textured white, Paper Reflections' black card stocks; ink: Versamark, Ranger's black soot distress ink

edited 10/21/2011 to add: woot! woot! my card was selected for the VIP club at Cas-ual Fridays! thanx, ladies!

thinking of you

I was in need of a sympathy card and Angie supplied the right elements in today's Stamp Camp for a masculine fall version. This is heading to our friend and former coworker whose wife recently passed away but would also make a beautiful Thanksgiving card as well.

No supplies today ... except that I know that we used Soft Suede, one of my favorite browns. I like the look of the stamped and embossed background too; don't you?!

Oh my, Moxie Fab!

PaperCrafts is tied with BH&G's scrapbooks etc as my fav mags, and Cath Edvalson, PaperCrafts' trends editor, pulls together some of the most amazin' inspirational pics in her "Oh My Moxie Fab" posts. She did it again today with a fall pic from the Boston Commons which in turn inspired me to change my PC background pic ... to this pic at left! SWEET, eh?! Now go scope out Cath's pic!

It's my sister's fav season (mine are spring, summer, and fall), and I'm wondering how she did today in the walk she was in. Hi KAZ, if you're online!

halloween mojo

I'm a fan of Mojo Mondays, and today's card uses the October 3rd sketch #209. I picked up the DP last year and the cute l'il frankie stamp from Mike's recently. I also picked up some Halloween goodies while there for my eldest son's classroom party later this month (hence the spider from one of the spidey rings). And you ready for some trivia? When I logged on to Blogger to upload today's post, the number of entries to date were 1031 (get it, 10/31?!), so it's oh SO appropriate to be uploading Halloween goodness today; don't you agree?!


stamps: Mike's craft smart l'il frankenstein; paper: My Mind's Eye blackbird neighborhood DP, ColorMates' Dark Morning Mist and Dark Terra-Cotta, Paper Reflections' black, SU's Kiwi Kiss, Orchid Opulence, River Rock, and Worldwin Papers' Midnight Surf card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; tools: EK Success' circle and scallop circle, Fiskar's postage stamp border punches; accessories: netting from bag used to hold spider rings, unknown black sparkly ribbon

on Macs and Steve Jobs

Our first computer was a MacIntosh ... I know, I'm showing my years here ... purchased some time between '84-'85. I was the holdout in our family. My DH and I both worked on computers all day, at that time as programmers for GM, and I couldn't fathom coming home and working on one more. I remember my DH arguing his case ... I could do my golf league standings, and organize recipes and our holiday card list on it. Every time I already had a process I was fine with. I LIKE my roll top desk-look recipe file. I had this 1-pg list of Christmas card exchanges that I updated annually. I LIKE playing with the numbers on the standings. Eventually I "gave" and now guess who uses it most?! (grins)

I remember when Windows 95 was introduced and the media made SUCH a big deal about it, coming home and telling my DH, "Look honey, Mac'84!"

I'm looking forward to reading more about Jobs in his autobiography, now pushed forward to be released later this month. Rest in peace, Steve!

have a spooky night!

My local scrapbooking shop, Capture A Memory, holds make-'n-takes every Saturday that are free to members and range between $2-5 for non-members. They offered a choice of one of a few versions of gift bags and small notecard for today's project. I have two boys, and figured I'd alter mine from a bag into another Halloween card, pictured at left.

I'm shocked to report that I couldn't find a bat image among my stamps, so I purchased some of the puffy bat ribbon to use against the moon.

Here's a couple of the cute sampling of bags offered today. They had all sorts of Halloween images already prepared from some of the shop's dies, which are plentiful, including the house I used, the Boo sentiment, cats, and witches riding brooms. It was fun. Thanx, Jill, for the cute offerings!

happy world card making day!

Hi folkes, and happy World Card Making Day to you!

Deals and blog hops abound this weekend. I called ahead to make sure the planned make-'n-take was really taking place as my fav local scrapbooking store usually holds a weekend crop for the event.

I'll keep this short 'n sweet 'cuz I'm off to upload a card and check out other blogs ... then sit and read a BH&G special issue devoted to Halloween. AND I haven't made it outside yet for my walk. I'm trying to get in 10,000 steps daily M-F, and weekends I generally slack off. Have a t'riffic day and thanx for stopping by!