Happy Halloween!

It is MUCH too warm here tonight to feel like Halloween, but it's always my favorite day of the year! My oldest (12) had been saying all week that he thinks he's too old to go trick-or-treating this year, but as his younger brother was getting into costume shortly before sunset, he had a change of heart. Ha! So he pulled together a costume with pieces from his last 3 costumes and it turned out pretty good. They both got huge amounts of candy and began trading like mad once they got home. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Swap Day Aftermath

Another card swap has come and gone. This month we did a sketch challenge with a Mojo Monday sketch. I ended up changing it up a bit because the original sketch and I just were not getting along. I used the Halloween kitty stamp from Inkadinkado, stamped in black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder, and colored in the moon with an orange Spica glitter pen. I went looking for orange brads to attach to the ribbon, but I couldn't find them. I came across the orange rhinestones during my search, though, and they worked just fine. The cardstock is SU and the polka dot paper is something I picked up a few years ago at Hobby Lobby.

My dining room table is always a disaster area once I finish my swaps. I can't work on swaps here in the closet since I need lots of room to spread out when I'm mass producing, and I just don't have that kind of space here in the closet. Anyhow, I've since cleaned off the table, but here's how it looked after I finished the cards. A complete mess! :)

Supplies:
Stamp: kitty, Inkadinkado
Ink: SU Basic Black Craft
Paper: SU Basic Black, Green Galore, Only Orange, Georgia Pacific white, patterned paper from my stash
Accessories: SU black grosgrain ribbon, Kaiser orange rhinestones, Marvy circle and scalloped circle punches, Spica glitter pens, SU clear embossing powder, Stampin Dimensionals

Birthday Swap

I keep forgetting to post my card for the Birthday Card Swap at the LSS. It turned out really cute though the only pic I have of it was taken at the store before I swapped them all out. I had seen a card on someone's blog using this cupcake stamp (from the Stampin Up Party Hearty set) with the toppings cut out and popped up on top of another cupcake image, mixing up the colors, so I tried that and thought it was a really fun look. The sentiment is by Stamping Bella.

Our September swap is our first sketch challenge -- any theme -- so that should be fun to see what everyone comes up with. I still have last month's summer theme swap to post here too. I'll get caught up eventually!

Soft Sky wedding

I know, I know -- more bad lighting! I made this card in the middle of the night for one of my husband's co-workers, and the only place I could snap a quick photo of it without waking up anyone was in the dining room, where the lighting isn't all that bright.

This is about a 90 percent CASE of a card I saw on SCS. I loved the Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip color combo and the layout. About the only differences are that instead of tying a bow in the middle of the satin ribbon (didn't want it to look any more feminine than it already did with the doily edge punch at the bottom), I stamped the word 'congratulations' and punched it out with the new SU Modern Label punch and I used the adhesive pearls differently than they were used on the original card.

The only downside is that now I have even less Soft Sky cardstock! Eeek! Don't know what I'll do when my supply is gone! It's sooooooo pretty!!

It's swap time again at the LSS. The theme this month is birthday. And as usual I have no idea what I'll be doing. I'll have to post my card from last month's swap later this week. It turned out much better than I expected. I love it when that happens! Hee!

Supplies:

Stamps: Together Forever set (SU); congratulations (Wedding Centers set, CHF)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip (all SU)

Ink: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip (SU)

Accessories: Oval Coluzzle, SU Modern Label punch, adhesive pearls, Paper Trey satin ribbon, Martha Stewart doily edge punch

Navy Swap

I joined a swap on SCS recently in which the only stipulation was that you incorporate the color navy into the cards. And since I've always loved my Night of Navy cardstock and ink, I had to sign up for a spot in the swap! And this is what I came up with. It's quick and elegant. Or at least it's quick NOW -- I fought with several variations of ribbon before settling on this combination. First I used just the narrow navy grosgrain tied into a knot, but I thought it was too small. Then I grabbed the wider vanilla grosgrain and tied it into a knot. Too much. I even tried navy organdy but it didn't look right either. Finally I thought to try this combo, which looked OK by itself, but I thought it needed one more little something. So then I went to my old standby -- punches! And there it was, the perfect finishing detail!

I have a Father's Day swap for the LSS to work on this week. They're due Sunday and, naturally, I haven't even started yet. But days off are coming up so I'll play around with some ideas then and hopefully be done BEFORE Sunday for a change!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral background (retired), Thanks (from Thank You Kindly set) -- both SU

Paper: Night of Navy, Very Vanilla cardstock (SU)

Ink: Night of Navy (SU)

Accessories: oval punches, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/4" circle punch (all SU); dimensionals, vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, navy 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (both SU)

Rainy Day Brayered Roses

I made my first attempt at the brayered roses technique on the mother's day card I made for my mother-in-law a few weeks ago. I snapped a quick photo of it outside as we were leaving to go have dinner with her, and unfortunately it was overcast and you just can't really see the great colors in the roses. But the technique was pretty much foolproof and the results were fabulous! I really hope Stampin Up releases more embossing folders in the upcoming new catalog (which will be revealed to demos this week!!) Though I don't know how they could top this one -- I love it!

I took a beginner Copics class last week to learn some of the basics of using these markers. I have quite a collection already, but I wasn't using them to their full potential. I've been experimenting with blending and shading since the class, so maybe I'll be happy enough with one of the "experiments" to post here soon. And next time I'll be sure to use better lighting! ha!

Supplies:

Stamps: Paper Trey (mother), Stampin Up (rose on envelope from Fifth Avenue Floral set)

Ink: Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Cameo Coral

Paper: Shimmery White, Cameo Coral

Accessories: Brayer, oval punch, scallop oval punch, dimensionals

Blast from the past

I found this photo on my laptop. It's from a birthday card I whipped up at the VERY last minute more than a year ago. Looking at it now, there are a couple of things I would have done differently, but I still love the color combo (Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive). And that VLVS sentiment always makes me smile. The kitty stamp is from The Cat's Pajamas, one of my favorite stamp companies!

I feel like I should be working on summer cards today -- it's 83 degrees outside! April is MUCH too early for such hot weather. We're usually in the 90s here in Charleston well into September, so I'd rather cling to the 70s for as long as possible!