Halloween Card Inspiration

Halloween is my least favorite holiday.  I remember not even liking it as a kid.  I don't even pass out candy - I turn my porch light off and hide upstairs - I'm THAT neighbor.

That being said, I LOVE Halloween themed scrapbook supplies!  I love looking at it, but don't really ever buy any - well, because I have no Halloween pictures to scrapbook.  I do make a few Halloween cards though, just for fun.  (I don't send them out though - they just sit in my drawer!)  I thought I'd share them today if you are looking for Halloween card ideas.

Boo!

This card has really great textures.  The bat is adhered with foam dots, lifting him off of the page.  The word Boo! is cut out from orange-core Coordinations paper with a bit of the black sanded off to show the orange center.  The tree is inked with black and then painted with Tim Holtz crackle paint (I still love that stuff!)

I made this card last week while staring at my January 2012 Studio Calico kit.  The orange stripe patterned paper, the black cardstock and the black washi tape were all from the kit.  I added the stars, the happy stamp and the orange dot paper from other kits.  The pumpkin and the word Halloween were cut with the Silhouette Cameo.

This card I made for a Cards Magazine style challenge.  The challenge was to use pea-green, purple, black and spiderwebs (or was it spiders?) on a card.  The card didn't get picked up for publication, but I love it!  I used POW glitter paper for the pleated circle behind the spider.

Have you made any Halloween cards this year?

Have a great week everyone!

I AM a cardmaker!

(She tells herself, a bit unconvincingly.)

  I never considered myself a cardmaker.  I don't make a lot of cards.  I struggle with them much more than with a scrapbook page.  I make them mostly to use up excess supplies.

However, I have made cards that are good enough to be published - three of them!  So, I decided to embrace calling myself a cardmaker.

With cards, I generally start out with a sketch, a challenge, or I lift a card I saw somewhere (but only if I am  just sending the card to someone - not if I am submitting it.)  Cards magazine has a sketch and a style challenge each month, so sometimes I create something for that.  The style challenge for January 2013 is:  the colors chartreuse, aqua, light grey, with the element tags.

 

I went through my stash of Crate papers because they always have the best chartreuse colored patterned papers.    I found a chartreuse and an aqua in the Pretty Party collection pack.  I had a great tag from an older Studio Calico kit that I knew that I wanted to use.  I cut two more tags out using my Slice and decorated the card with butterflies, a border sticker and my favorite embellishment - a mini clothespin.

I think it came out pretty cute!!

So, do you scrapbook and make cards?  Do you enjoy creating one more than the other?  Are you better at cardmaking or scrapbooking?  I'd love to know!

Have a great week everyone!

Card Inspiration

I'm relatively new to making cards and I find that I need a little inspiration in order to create them.  I found this "Style Challenge" from Cards Magazine for their March 2012 call:
Style Challenge - Colors: lime green, lemon yellow, melon pink / Element: honeybees & honeycombs

Interesting combination, I thought - I have a bee stamp from Studio Calico - I can do this!  I really struggled with the color combination though.  They just didn't seem to work.  Three days later (yes, three days!), I came up with this card.

It came out pretty cute!  I used bits and pieces from a lot of different Studio Calico kits.  I love making those rolled flowers.  I think they add a lot to a card or a layout.

I decided to try another challenge - this time a "Sketch Challenge" for their April 2012 call.  Here's the sketch:

Here is my card:

I used the August 2011 add-on kit from Studio Calico "Sandcastle."  I loved the sweet colors from this add-on.  The buttons and string were from my stash.

Thanks so much for looking!  Have a great Saturday everyone!

Brenda

Cosmo Cricket/Cards Magazine Sketch Challenge

 I thought I'd give this challenge over at the Cosmo Cricket blog a try.  I think that trying to decide what line to use is the hardest part!  I recently added the entire Circa 1934, Upcycle, and Social Club lines to my Cosmo Cricket collection so I had a lot to choose from.  This is the sketch that I got to play with:

I ended up using mostly Upcycle with a chipboard butterfly from the Earth Love line.  Here is my take on the sketch:

The solid background color is "elephant" and the patterned paper is "repeat."  I cut a tag from the elements sheet, scalloped the top edge with my Fiskar's edge punch and then added some cardstock stickers (the alphabet across the bottom of the label and then the gold above 'happy birthday.")  The Happy Birthday rub-on is from Pebbles.  I took my sewing machine out for the finishing touches.  Love the way it came out!

Thank you Cosmo Cricket and Cards Magazine for another great sketch challenge!

Have a great Friday night everyone!