Thanksgiving Cards of all styles

I took a crack at making some cards for the upcoming eat-too-much holiday. I'm trying to get back in to some kind of schedule where I actually #sharehandmadekindness like I used to [note this is my 2nd blog of 2015. Yikes.] It's been stressful this year, so I really got off course. Most people only got their Halloween cards a day late... 

Although the holidays are usually chaotic, the lack of a reason to be outside helps keep me at the craft desk. The man and I did a little IKEA hackery to my craft desk: we moved a table leg so I could have access to a power receptacle, and drilled holes in the back of a drawer for cables. And now that the setup is 'perfect', I have no excuse not to make things. So here we go!

Both cards are watercolor over clear emboss resist. The embossing powder was ironed off after the watercolor dried. It doesn't come out of the Distress Watercolor Paper's thick texture as well as it does regular card, so I had to go back over the sentiment with pen to get the weak spots where there was leftover emboss. Idea from Case This Sketch #149. Sentiment from Lawn Fawn. Leaves from the latest Simon Says kit. I think the damask is from Inkadinkadoo. The watercolor has some metallic mixed in (thanks, gelatos) but it's hard to see.

Papers and stamps from Lawn Fawn. Sketch from Freshly Made Sketches #212. The "In To the Woods" papers haven't been touched for at least a year, if not longer... how's that for "in with the old?"

Papers and stamps from Lawn Fawn. My own layout, but I was remembering one of this nature I had seen before.



Some past cards that I made between blogs....

 

Stamps from Altenew. For the wedding of my friend, Ayako in Japan. I learned red and white are the best colors for weddings. I wanted to do a bunch of other symbolic Japanese things (the number 9, a special knot) but my supplies didn't match up to my ideas. Plus, I was still kinda recovering from surgery, so... this is what I ended up with.

This guy missed my Halloween post. I don't make enough distress ink backgrounds. White splats are from white Mister Hueys. Stamps from Lawn Fawn. (Anyone sensing a theme, here? No? Okay then...)

Halloween Cards: My first serious makes in forever!

It's been a long, long time since I have devoted some serious amount of time to paper crafting. This isn't to say I haven't done any, but that I've not given it a central focus for months on end. I decided to get back on the "holiday schedule" with cards for the loved ones outside of the immediate area. Here are the four I've made this past week. Lots of Lawn Fawn stamps, Spectrum Noir coloring, some We R Memory Keepers "Bewitched" papers, and some Wink of Stella here and there (both pen and brush). I think these all meet the "Too Cute to Spook" Lawnscaping Challenge. Maybe?

This is off of Get Sketchy #1.

This last card was a beast. I actually started the diagonal background stamping sometime last year. Gave up on the coloring because I didn't have the full set of Spectrum Noirs yet and it was getting a bit nuts to blend orange from the handful of colors I had. I also didn't quite know what to do with a sentiment. The small ones that came with the set were going to get lost. Found a bigger one from a different set, white embossed it, distressed it, and then added a dark purple "drop shadow" with a Sakura Micron to the lettering. That made it stand out enough for me to be happy with it. A few pop dots, and boom!

Blog? Who blogs? Here's over three months of stuff!

Basically, summer happened, Europe happened, and then I got viral vestibular neuritis. So I haven't blogged in forever  

But that didn't mean I haven't made anything. Here's everything I made (and took cell phone pics of) since the last time I blogged. 

 

It's not really Halloween until there's blood dripping down the walls!

That's what they say, you know. Or maybe, that's what Dexter says. I didn't like the ending. I could have lived without that last 30 seconds or so. I digress.

I'm playing along with Retro Sketches 87. I needed to cram in a few fast Halloween cards, and this sketch fit the bill.

The first up is the design I had in mind the whole time -- which of course I don't like. The second was what I came up with while making the first, and decided it didn't work with those papers, so I ended up making four total (two of each kind) and using the papers I had got out plus more for the 'blood work'. What do you think? Enjoy!

Supplies: Paper, mostly Authentique 'Enchanted'; Stamps, MME Lost & Found Halloween; red watercolor; Tsukineko VersaMark Black, Brilliance Starlite Black; Queen & Co. dots; American Crafts Thickers / Amy Tangerine

Creepy. Crawly. Spooky. Skull!

Just a quick one today for CTS 46. As usual, I'm super-literal. But I loved the simple sketch. I'm seeing Halloween stuff on the shelves and on the blogs, so it's rubbed off on me quite a bit earlier than usual this year!

I used Spellbinders Labels 3 to cut the hole out of the card, then I stamped the skull on orange distressed paper and embossed. I used a few dimensional squares to pop the orange off the inside of the card, then added the sentiment and the brad. Using a needle punch tool is a quick way to pierce through both tag and card, marking the spot for the brad.

Supplies: black and orange card; My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Halloween Stamps; Tsukineko VersaMagic Midnight Black; Teresa Collins Fabrications brad; Mr. Huey's Dark Calico; clear embossing powder; dimensional adhesive.

Hoppy Halloween from the Vampire Bunny!

I knew my other half would get a kick out of 'Bunnicula' here. He's also rather fond of my first-ever attempt at an inked background. I've seen plenty of inked night skies, but never built my own. It's a little harder to do, I think, with my chalk inks rather than the Distress inks, but I worked with what I had!

Mr. Vampire was masked out over watercolor paper and the blues and greens were inked. He and his shadow were done with colored pencils. The moon and stars stamps are just outlines. I stamped the outlines in VersaMark, then filled them in (quickly!) with an embossing pen. Then I used white embossing powder over it all.

I like him! I never seem to do square cards, but I felt he needed something solid to sit on, and an A2 was just not cutting it. Hope you enjoy!

Supplies: Black cardstock; ivory vellum; Authentique 'Enchanted' 6x6 papers; Lawn Fawn 'Hoppy Halloween' stamps; Lawn Fawn and American Crafts twine; Basic Grey brad; Doodlebug Designs pearls; white embossing powder; Tsukineko inks -- almost every blue and green VersaMagic Dewdrop plus VersaMark and StazOn black.