Autumn Beauty in Simplicity

 Today's card is the opposite of yesterday's. This card was made from the negative impression when an Alcohol Ink background on Yupo paper is stamped with Alcohol Ink Lift.  I just love the beauty of the Nature's Wonder CMS343 leaf impressions in the Alcohol Ink.

 If you look closely you can see the the background mat has a light pattern to it. I stamped the Lace CMS348 background stamp onto Distress Mixed Media Heavystock in Old Paper Distress Oxide.

 You can see I also stamped the back ground of the sentiment with the Lace stamp and the Old Paper Distress Oxide.

Autumn Wonder

 The Nature's Wonder CMS343 leaf stamps and sentiments from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous are so lovely! You can really make some beautiful fall cards and Thanksgiving crafts with them.

For these stamps I decided I needed to do an Alcohol Lift Ink on them. So I gathered my supplies:
Yupo Paper and Alcohol Inks w Felt Applicator
Stamp Cleaner
Alcohol Ink Lift Ink Pad
Alcohol Ink Cardstock
Stamping Platform

Rather than reiterating how to do an alcohol ink lift and stamp, I'll refer you to the video below by Tim Holtz. He explains it the best!
So after I made a background with alcohol inks on Yupo paper, I arranged the leaf stamps from Nature's Wonder to fit on a piece of Alcohol Ink Cardstock. on the Stamp Platform.
Then I inked up the stamps with the Alcohol Ink Lift and stamped it on the Yupo background. I removed the background paper from the platform and inserted the Alcohol Ink Cardstock and stamped the lifted ink onto the cardstock.
Once it was dry I stamped the Craze CMS344 background stamp over the leaf images in Pumice Stone Distress Ink, and also on a second piece of Alcohol Ink Cardstock for the outer frame. 

To finish it off I stamped the branch from the Mr. Bones CMS345 stamp set on top of the leaves in Vintage Photo Archival Ink, and added a sentiment  from the Nature's Wonder stamps which I layered on top of a bit of Alcohol Ink Cardstock colored with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink and stamped with the Ornate CMS348 background stamp also in Seedless Preserves.

Here is Tim's video discussing all of the products needed to do this technique as well as how to do it.

Halloween Barn Party.

 This was a fun card to make! I pulled out several Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamp sets to make this card. I had an idea and I love how it finally came together. 
I started with the new background Planks CMS344 stamp. When turned on horizontally, it looks like the side of a barn, which was exactly what I wanted. I then stamped the Tangled Webs CMS346 on the background and embossed them with Superfine White Embossing Powder.

 Here you can see the detail of the Planks and the Tangled Webs. The sentiment is from the Mr. Bones CMS345 stamp set. I love the font on that set!

I finished the card off by embossing two images from the Ravens CMS310 set, and a little spider from Mini Halloween CMS275. It's a fabulous set from a couple of years ago.

It's always a good thing to get out your past stamps and pair them with your new ones to make a card that you love, and I love this one!  It came out just as I had imagined it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Trick or Treat - Give me Candy Corn!

 Oh you know I couldn't go too long without posting another shifter card! This card was 100% inspired by one of my favorite Halloween candies, and one of Tim's too -- CANDY CORN!  I just don't understand people who don't love candy corn and candy corn pumpkins. So.good!

 I used Distress Watercolor Cardstock for this card and for the yellow and orange I went straight for the latest Distress Oxide #4 Set and pulled Ripe Persimmon and Mustard Seed.
The sentiment and focal stamp were from a fun little set called Spooky Scribbles CMS349. This set has some great sentiments and images that are sized to be stamped together.
I stamped the jack-o-lantern and sentiment in Black Soot Distress Ink and embossed it with Black Superfine Embossing Powder. Then I blended the Mustard Seed Distress Oxide down toward the pumpkin, and added in the Ripe Persimmon at the bottom, leaving the top white like a candy corn.

The Mini Layering Shifting Stencil Set #36 were used on this card with both the Mustard Seed and Ripe Persimmon. I added some messy machine stitching and a Halloween Token tied with a little black Eclectic Elements Craft Thread.

The last touch was to cut very thin black cardstock mats for everything and handcut a mat for around the stamped shape that was cut from one of my go-to Sizzix Alterations die cuts called Labels.

Toy Jack-o-Lantern - Inventor 4

 This is another card made with the Inventor 4 Halloween Patent stamps from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous.  I would love to own one of these Toy Jack-o-Lanterns from 1904, wouldn't you?
It's a very basic card design, made to show the stamp in all its glory.

 As with yesterday's card, the background is made by stamping Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide on Distress Mixed Media Hardstock  using the Lace and Ornate CMS348 stamp.

I added a "filed"stamp to the side with an Ideaology Mini Paper Clip. The word filed is from the Mail Art CMS339 set.

The Bone Collector

 The Inventor stamps this year have been a fabulous new addition to the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous line.  Aren't you so happy he added some holiday Inventors too?   The Halloween Inventor stamps are actually named Inventor 4 CMS347.
For this card I used it in a very straight forward manner with a few additions of stamps from previous releases and one of the new background stamps called Ornate and Lace CMS348.

 The Bone Collector title was made by stamping the alphabet stamp from the Typography CMS188 set. I stamped it twice on some Distress Heavystock and then cut the letters apart to form the title I wanted. This is a great way to get a little more mileage out of some of the sentiments and typography type stamps when you want a specific sentiment.

 The registered stamp is from a recent release called Mail Art CMS339 and the number is from a set called Etcetera CMS302.

Lastly, the image itself was stamped onto Distress Heavystock that had been colored a little with Old Paper Distress Ink and the image was stamped in Ground Espresso Archival.
The background was made by lightly coloring a piece of Distress Heavystock with Crushed Olive Distress Oxide, then stamping over it with the Ornate stamp in the same color Distress Oxide.

Mr Bones is Shifty

 Oh that Mr. Bones is a shifty one. This Halloween card features the Shifter Stencils with the "double shift" technique, and the Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous Mr. Bones stamp set.

 I love using the "double shift" technique so I can use four colors! For these papers I just used the Harlequin and the Dots. I used two of the newest Distress Oxide Colors, Ripe Presimmon and Crushed Olive along with Hickory Smoke and Black Soot Distress Oxides.  The background color is Antique Linen Distress Oxide.

The BEWARE! sign is also in Crushed Olive Distress Oxide.

Ghoulish Decor - Sizzix Alterations Halloween

I loved these Ghoulish dies so much that I was compelled to make a decor piece out of them and to give them all their own space. To do this I used a Large Vignette Tray and separated it into three "rooms" by placing two pieces of cardstock in the middle of the tray and gluing it in place. Then I covered the cardstock with the various background papers described below and covered the edges with the embossed cardstock strips.
Since I was making a sample for the Halloween 2018 Sizzix Alterations release, I challenged myself to try to make almost everything from currently available Sizzix Alterations. With the exception of the Ideaology Large Vignette Box, Ideaology Mini Foundations, Mini Fasteners, a bit of Ideaology Mirror, and some mini lights, it's made of all current Sizzix Alterations dies or texture fades.

In the first room, I tried to showcase Frankenstein's Monster and the bats from the Ghoulish die set. The room is framed by a piece of black cardstock cut out with the largest Stacked Deckle Die. Then I embossed some black cardstock with the Rosette Texture Fade and cut it into 1/4" strips to cover the edge of the frame. Then on each corner I cut the smallest bolt from the Industrial die for more detail.

I put the Foundry 3-D Texture Fade paper on the back and side walls, and the 3-D Lumber on the floor. I cut all of the Pipeline parts and some of the gears and bolts from the Industrial die. I popped these out from the wall with layers of chipboard.

To make the monster stand out, I covered him in Peeled Paint Distress Oxide and then with Distress Resist Spray. He looks really slimy.

Room number two belongs to the Count. I framed his room the same way I did Frank's. The walls are covered with the Brick Texture Fade and the floor is 3-D Lumber.

I colored Distress Heavystock with various Distress Inks like, of course, Fired Brick, then when I embossed it, I inked the side that had the depressions with Black Soot Archival Ink to really make it look distressed.

I made two wooden beams for the back corners by cutting a 1" strip of 3-D Lumber paper, and then scored it at 1/4" three times. When I folded it on each line it made a skinny beam I could glue into the back corners of this room.

The Count has a lovely wood framed mirror cut from the Stacked Archway dies. I also cut him backwards from the Ideaology Mirror Sheets and applied it to the back side in an attempt to make it seem like he didn't show in the mirror. Because vampires don't show in mirrors right? It was mildly successful.
The last two details I added were the bats and the black ivy from the Garden Greens dies.

This vignette of the Skeleton in the graveyard was made before knew that the Village Graveyard was going to be available again this year. So I had to get creative. The tree branches are from the Twisted Edge die.

On this side of the graveyard you can see parts of the Gothic Gate in the back ground. The tombstones are made from the Gift Tags dies. I cut off the top part with the little hole for twine and used that side as the bottom of the tombstones. With the variety in this set, you can get tombstones in many shapes and sizes.

The RIP tombstone is decorated with the Alphanumeric Cutout Lowercase.  The weeds and grass are cut from the Funky Floral 3.

On this right side, the tombstones are decorated with the bits from the Mixed Media Halloween 2 set.

The roof of this piece is made from the Village Rooftops and run through the 3-D Texture Fade.

To make this woodgrain I again colored some Distress Heavystock with Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone vwith small areas of Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint Distress Inks. Then I ran the paper through the 3-D Lumber Texture Fade

The sides of the piece are covered in paper with the Wooden Planks Texture Fade.

I chose a different folder below for the sides of the Vignette Tray, trimmed it to fit and added it to the outside edges so they looked like old barn siding.

I hope you like this piece as much as I do! It was a lot of work but it was well worth it and it makes a wonderful decor piece.

Tomb Sweet Tomb — Sizzix Alterations Cut Out Alphanumeric

This is a super simple Halloween card! My purpose with this card was to use the great new Alphanumeric Cut Out Upper and Lower case letters.  It's a great alpha and the perfect size for cards.

Photo Credit: Davelandweb.com

I took inspiration from the wall hanging in the hallway of the Haunted Mansion that says Tomb Sweet Tomb. 

Photo Credit: D23.com

Since that was my inspiration, I had to add the raven from Feather and Ravens, because in the Haunted Mansion, the raven represents your host...your Ghost Host.

Lastly, the saying is framed with and oldie but a goodie, the Ornate Frame 2.

Tombstone Card — Sizzix Alterations Halloween Sideorder

Today's post features a Halloween card that I really like for its simplicity. This card features the skeleton from the Halloween Side Order, several dies from the Stacked Arches, 
 and a flower bud from Funky Floral 1.
I cut everything from papers in various shades of black and grey from some of the Ideaology Paper Stashes.

The card base was cut by folding the black and white diamond paper in half and then laying the largest Stacked Arches arch on top of it with the fold just inside the cutting edge on the right . This will allow the tombstone shape to open like a card. 

I then cut the arched frame and smallest arch for the skull. 

That is all there is to this incredibly simple card.

Halloween Tags - Sizzix Alterations Halloween Sideorder

All of the Sizzix Sidekick Side Order dies this year have been such fun to create with. They made wonderful additions to other dies, or as you see here, they can make a terrific stand-alone tag. 
The Halloween Side Order die set comes with the skeleton, cat, monster, boo, and a small bat texture fade folder. Everything is sized to fit perfectly in the Sizzix Sidekick. 

To make these quick Halloween tags, it is simple enough to just use the tag that came with your Sidekick, but I decided to use another set of dies to make these tags and it is one of my favorite sets, the Labels. I truly think it should be one every paper crafter owns. 

I chose the ornate tag shape from the Labels set for the base, and the large shield shape to emboss. The shield made for a perfect frame for the Halloween Side Order shapes.

I colored several pieces of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock with Distress Inks for the tags and the shield shapes. Then I cut the various pieces for the Skeleton, Monster and Cat from plain Heavystock and then colored each piece once it was cut.

To finish them off, I punched a small hole in the top center of the ornate tag shape and tied some black twine through it.
These are very quick and fast to make and can be added to treat bags, made into cards, or added to a gift.