Halloween ATCs

I recently went on my annual craft getaway weekend with my cousin.  We go to the Scrapbook Lodge every year to enjoy non-stop crafting and pampering.  We had a lot of fun!!  I had a couple of projects marked as have-to-dos and I am proud to say they were both done by Saturday afternoon!  Then it was time to play.  I got out some pre-cut ATC (Artist Trading Card) chipboard and stamps from both Altered Pages and Sin City Stamps.  The two companies are partnered in August and my second project this month is Halloween themed!  Today I am sharing the six ATCs I made with these stamps.

Two stamp sets from Altered Pages and a few stamps from Sin City were used to create the designs above.  Most of these are masked, with the exception of the winged gargoyle.  In that case, this head and body were stamped on a piece of card stock, trimmed and glued on. 

I have provided a list at the bottom of the post for you.  Most of these have a combination of inks ranging from Sharpies to StazOn.  There aren't any dimensional embellishments on these while I decide if they will stand alone or be used to create greeting cards.

A masked scene featuring five stamps

Three stamps make this skull centerpiece

Two Sin City Stamps

Three stamps to make this flying demon

A single stamp which was just larger than the ATC

Four stamps make this spooky entrance

Altered Pages Stamps:
Gothic Halloween Stamp plate
Muse Architecture Stamp plate


Sin City Stamps:
Oct. 31
Winged Cauldron
Halloween Phrase
Art Journaling Diamond Border
Art Journaling 2 Bricks
Halloween Words
Wings
Machine Man

Thanks for stopping by to check out my latest project.  Until next time...Happy Crafting!

Fairy Meadow canvas

Altered Pages and Sin City Stamps are partnering in August 2014.  My first project this month is a chipboard fairy mushroom house. 

 

 

This was originally intended to be an album but my vision for it was a little different.  I started by coating each piece with gesso and then pink acrylic paint.  The topper is cut out from the Glitz Color Me Happy paper stack.  Random circles on the paper were highlighted with glitter glue.



 

 

Splotches of distress paint were chosen to match the colors of the patterned paper, then cut out and glued to the back of the mushroom with the punch outs.  Diamond Stickles glitter glue was added to give the dots sparkle.

 

Green distress paint was used on a 12x12 canvas to provide the grassy field.  After these two colors, a layer of metallic green acrylic paint was painted over the top to give it a mild shine.  The solid mushroom chipboard piece, Bazzill paper leaves and flowers were glued directly to the canvas.  Blades of grass were painted onto each of the mushroom pieces using the metallic paint.  Some of the flowers started white and were inked to become yellow, pink, and orange.  Dew Drops were added for flower centers.

This cute little fairy from Sin City Stamps was colored and sprayed with Sparkle Shimmer Spritz.  Once she was fussy cut, the edges were darkened with a black marker and the main vein on each wing was highlighted with glitter glue.  She was attached to the mushroom piece using foam squares. 

The mushroom with the punch-outs was  attached using a double layer of foam squares so that it would stand out taller than the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by!  If you have a minute, drop me a note in the comment section to say hello and let me know you were here.  See you next time.

Scanned canvas

Feeling Nautical

I wanted to share a card project with you using the Nautical 2 plate of stamps from Sin City Stamps.  I stamped all of these images individually using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored them with various markers.  The sky and water were colored using a water brush and the blueberry Faber-Castell Gelato.

Each image was cut into 1 1/4 inch squares except for the anchor, which will be mounted whole.  The card itself is black with tan and black panels.   To be sure I had enough room on the card to hold at least a part of each image I chose to make a card larger than the standard invitation.  This card fits an A-6 envelope and is 4 1/2 x 6 1/4. 

I arranged and rearranged the images on the black panel, turning them in different directions and trying to find a nice balance of ship, net and fish.  Once all of the squares were glued in place I added a couple strands of natural jute twine and a bow.  The anchor was trimmed and outlined with a black permanent marker.  After gluing all of the panels together I attached the anchor with foam tape for a little dimension.

So that's my card.  I hope you like the project idea!  Drop me a line or follow along!  Until next time...happy stamping!

Scanned card

Three cards this weekend!

It's funny what you find when you clean the craft table, isn't it?  Today I found stickers and other embellishments that I forgot I bought, the scissors I've been looking for, and quite a few unfinished projects.  One of the latter is this goblin that I started this summer.  The house shape was part of a challenge for Rubberstamp Madness magazine.  I received a free sample magazine this summer and was going to give it a try.  I made this base piece and before I could figure out if I wanted it to be a tag or a card the deadline had passed.  It's not like me to miss a deadline once I start a project but this was so far out of my comfort zone that I really got stalled!

I got this Steampunk goblin in a grab bag from Sin City Stamps.  The clock hand on the chimney, "Goblin" word, circle texture and the diamonds on the roof are also from Sin City Stamps.  The little Happy Halloween I found in the Target dollar bin last year and the "Knock" saying is from Rubberstamp Ave.  The second half of the saying pair is on the inside of the card.  The spider rub-ons are from  The Robin's Nest.  The goblin's head and cowl were stamped again and out-mounted with foam tape.  Today I made the card and added the words so it can be sent off into the world to wish someone a Happy Halloween!

Never knock at Death's door.  Ring the bell and run away.

While I was out on Facebook yesterday I happened to see the Unscripted Sketches #226 photo.  I've had my Robin's Nest Halloween paper on my table since I made those banners in my last post and I knew what I wanted to make right away!  I got these cool bat embellishments with a gift certificate from the Robin's Nest.  They are so cool!  I love that they are in different poses.  They also come in two different colors of glitter.  These are black and there are purple, too.  The Happy Halloween stamp is by Hero Arts.

The other card I from this weekend is made with a canvas that came in a gift pack of Faber-Castell watercolor pencils.  The kit has a few pencils, a sharpener and four pre-printed canvases.  This kit is floral but they make other patterns.  I got it over at Altered Pages.  The canvases have a black foam square about 1/2 inch larger to be used to mount and hang them, but I think the foam is a little tacky so I mounted it on a card instead.  The canvas square is a little heavy so I had to use a pretty thick card stock so it would stand.  The saying is one I've had for a while.  It's unmounted and I can't find it in my index.  Sorry!

Thanks for stopping by!  I would love to hear from you or have you join my blog!  Until next time, Happy Stamping!

More weekend projects

I've spent a lot of time in my studio this weekend.  I did some cleaning but not enough to make a dent in the mess on my tabletop.  I finished a page in one journal and started a page in another.  I made some card size backgrounds and finished a doorknob hanger for the Anything But A Card challenge.

The complete page is in my small journal, which I use mostly for doodles.  I had to gesso the backside of some of the pages because when I doodled with a Sharpie it bled through.  So the page I completed this weekend was on one of those pages and uses acrylic paint as well as ink.  It was also a good excuse to try out my new die cuts.

The page started out with a pretty bright pink background and when I was adding the floral stencil, it slipped and the top corner turned into a big black smudge.  I tried covering it with just the birdhouse, but it looked bad so I got out the gesso again.  I planned to cover the entire thing and start over, but I really liked how everything still showed through so I just kept stamping and adding ink and paint...and voila!  This is what I came up with.

The page that I started is in the larger journal.  I grabbed three bright spring-like colors.  I think they are very pretty, but they are out of my normal color palette.  Turquoise and bright green glitter were sprinkled into the wet paint.  When that layer was dry, the edges were colored with a cotton candy Gelato and some drips were added.  I'm still trying to decide what the page is saying to me. 

Finally this weekend, I made a project for the Anything But A Card challenge.  The theme this time around is Steampunk.  I haven't played much with the genre and thought it would be fun to give it a try.  I made a door hanger using the Tim Holtz pocket watch embossing folder and several stamps.

I embossed the image three times across the page and then used a sponge to added Colorbox Chalk toffee colored ink and then brushed a Cat's Eye Colorbox bronze ink page across the numbers.

The images I chose were an acrobat by Viva Las Vegastamps, a hanging pocket watch from Sin City Stamps, train by Creative Gifts and key & steam from Stampin' Up.  Sorry, I have no idea who makes the train track.  The saying was in a set I got at Michael's in the dollar bin.  I got it in a bunch of other stamps on eBay several years ago.  All of these images were masked together on a single piece of paper.  When the images were all on the wooden hanger I added a few charms.

All in all it was a pretty nice way to spend a weekend!  Sure beats housecleaning!!

Thanks for stopping by and spending a minute or two with me.  Please feel free to leave a comment.  And I always welcome new followers!  See you next time.  Happy stamping!

Cards made with my new Sin City Stamps images

I have been playing with the journaling stamps from Sin City Stamps for a couple of months now and I really like them.  There are so many stamps in their collection that I want that it is very hard to decide what to add to my stash first!  So last month I decided to order their 1 lb. grab bag and let fate decide which stamps I get to play with next.  I like to order stamps this way from time to time because it’s an envelope full of surprises!  And who doesn’t like a good surprise, right?

This package had stamps of backgrounds (fabulous for journaling), children & silhouettes (always fun for Mother’s Day, etc) and…Halloween!  And not the happy-funny-smiley Halloween either!  MY kind of Halloween!  I have always made my Halloween cards dark and scary. To me, that is the best kind of Halloween.  When I saw this graveyard stamp I couldn’t wait to play with it.  And I love the spooky font on the Oct 31 stamp.

I started by choosing bold colors.  I love how orange and blue look together and every spooky Halloween deserves a big bright moon so I added a vibrant yellow.  Then I stamped all of my images in all of the colors so I could play around and get the right combination of layers. 

It’s a scary card that can even go to the young people on my holiday card list because the colors are bright and bold and the coffin isn’t too scary.  

Of course, I couldn’t resist playing with the coffin on another card.  I used the direct-to-paper method and my little mini inkpads to get a nice background going.  I stamped some texture images around the sides and randomly in the middle before placing the main image on the card.  

A little coloring and then I sponged more ink around everywhere except the moon. The gray is a chalk ink and gave it a nice muted effect.

Two very different cards with one stamp – those are my favorites!  I love stamps that can be used over and over again without repeating a design. 

Thanks for stopping by and following me on this creative journey.  Please feel free to leave me a comment or like/follow my page.  Happy stamping!