Lighted Haunted House

Seems like I have been sharing a lot of my experiments with you lately, none of which have gone exactly as I would have liked. Today is no exception as I bring you my first venture into using Chibi Lights. I learned a lot while making this card, and I will share with those of you who may be thinking of venturing into electrifying your cards. But first, let me present the card in question:

UNLIT:


The scene was constructed mainly using the Taylored Expression Haunted Cover Plate die with detail that are listed below. I constructed a simple circuit using the battery, bulb and foil tape that comes in the Chibitronics introductory kit. 

LIGHTED:



It looks really cool, but it was an effort to get here! It took two attempts, but I learned:

1. Make sure the tape is as smooth as it can be, especially in the bends you have to make, but don't smooth too hard or you will break the tape and therefor the circuit.
2. Make a nice pen for your battery to sit in so it doesn't slide around after you get all your card pieces put together.
3. Be careful of the foam tape you use to attach your card front. Mine was too thick and it looked awful. I disguised it by making a frame of washi tape, but I am not happy with the way it looks.

Other than that, this was a fun, albeit expensive card.

MATERIALS:
PAPERS: MFT card stock in Black Licorice, Cement Gray, Orange Zest, Smooth White, White Vellum, Periwinkle, Stone Gray. Yellow vellum from my stash.
STAMPS: Papertry Ink Full Moon, MFT Grave Situation
DIES: Taylored Expressions Haunted Cover Plate; MFT Grave Situation; Memory Box Swirl Ghosts; Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles; Impression Obsession Pumpkin Patch
INK: MFT Black licorice & Pineapple
OTHER: Doodlebug Washi; Chibi Lights

What could be spookier than a haunted house with lights flickering on Halloween night?

I think today I am going to go back to basics and put together some cards in my comfort zone. Then again... 

Be sure to some back and see what I will come up with next in my studio.

Pumpkin Truck

As I have mentioned before, I have been trying to teach myself how to watercolor. I made this card for my husband for our anniversary in a few weeks. I think I'm getting better, but still have so far to go. This is a case of Mimi Jourdain from the Penny Black design team. She is amazing. Her card was also the cover for the Penny Black autumn release. 



Stamps: Penny Black Pumpkin Truck, Penny Black Snowy Grove, Penny Black Autumn Splendor
Papers: Strathmore Hot Press watercolor paper, MFT Milk chocolate and Kraft
Inks: Tombow markers, Inktense pencils, Distress Inks, VersaFine Onyx Black

I won't show you the inside of this one because it's got all sorts of mushy stuff in it! LOL

Have a great Saturday. It's going to rain today and I have some new stamps in the house, so guess where I will be!

Autumn Thanks

Just a quick post this evening. It's been raining all day, which for some reason made me want to pull my studio apart and rearrange. Sometimes I baffle myself. Anyway, I have to go put it back together.

This is a Thank You card I made while experimenting with the new Hero Arts Autumn Ombre ink pad. I need more practice, but I am loving it.



This card was made with the Patterned Leaf stamp from Impress. It was stamped on MFT Smooth White, which was cut down and adhered to a mirror gold panel from Bazzil.



The sentiment is a Memory Box die which was cut twice - once from the gold paper and once from MFT Eggplant. The two die cuts were slightly offset to add more definition. All were adhered to an MFT Sweet Tooth card base. The splatters were added with Distress inks - Wild Honey and Ripe Persimmon.


I added a sentiment from MFT's Kind Thanks to the inside, stamping with the Autumn Ombre pad.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope it's not as chilly and wet where you are.

I Love Fall

Truly, Fall is my favorite season and I love crafting with the fall color palette. Today's card is full of texture and the autumn spirit.

The card base is MFT Milk Chocolate and the panel is MFT Biscotti. I used Simon Says Stamp Stitched Whirl die on the panel. To me it represented the swirl of wind blowing the fall leaves around.

Concord and 9th Layering Leaves die cuts were used for the "bouquet" of leaves. In addition to the colors already mentioned, I used MFT Jellybean Green, Orange Fizz and Kraft.

The tag was cut from using MFT Tag Blueprint #4 and the sentiment from Concord & 9th Give Thanks stamp set was stamped in Versamark and embossed with Hero Arts Brass embossing powder. I love, love LOVE that powder! The leaf bunch was gathered with a piece of twine.

On the inside, I used another Biscotti panel and decorated it with several cut out leaves from the Layering Leaves. I love how this card came out. To me, it represents fall and the harvest season.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope to see you again tomorrow. I will be experimenting with my new Hero Arts Autumn ombre ink pad.

Cozy Holiday

Hello! I don't know where you are, but it is a gorgeous fall day here. The sky is so incredibly blue, it looks like it was Photoshopped. 

I haven't done many holiday projects yet, but with the wonderful products coming out now it is hard to wait. This was a pretty quick and easy card using the Hero Arts Coffee Cup Tags stamp set.

After I had stamped the images in MFT Wild Cherry and Dill Pickle dye inks, I decided the whipped cream topping on the green cup needed some pizzazz so I slathered on some Finnabar Snowflake Paste. Huge mistake as it made the dye ink run a bit. Duh. I like to think it's the mint flavoring showing, right?

The sentiment was stamped in MFT Black Licorice onto Whip Cream cardstock, which was also used for the card base. I used MFT Blueprint #15 to cut the MFT Wild Cherry and Lawn Fawn Christmas Plaid layers. As a finishing touch I adhered the holly and poinsettia stickers from Little B onto the cups.

Now that is two Christmas cards done and who-knows-how-many to go. I actually have a very small family and few of my friends exchange cards, but I send them a homemade card anyway. Do  you make a lot of cards?

Be back tomorrow with an autumn creation using Concord and 9th. See you then.

Llama Love - MFT Color Challenge

Wow! Where does the time go. I knew I was busy and ignoring my blog, but I didn't realize it had been a month. At least I wasn't ignoring the card making, so I have lots to share with you in the next few days. I have been experimenting in different water coloring techniques trying to find what works for me - with mixed results. I will be sharing some of those projects later this week,

Today's card was my interpretation of My Favorite Things' Color Challenge #53. 


I made this card for my daughter. Hope she doesn't pop into the blog!



As you can see, this is one of my water coloring attempts, this time with Zig clean color markers. I began by cutting the inside rectangles with MFT's Blueprints 29 from watercolor paper. Then I stamped the images from MFT's Llama Love set with Versamark ink and embossing with black powder. Because the images were relatively small, I wanted the embossing to help control the travel of the water colors. I then colored them with the Zigs and used a waterbrush to blend the colors. I left the llama's colors kind of random to look more like fur.



Next I cut the rest of the pieces for the card also using Blueprint 29. I used MFT Kraft cardstock for the base,  and MFT Coral Crush and Cactus for the panel and frame. I stamped the sentiment on Gravel Gray with Versamark and used white to emboss this time.



I stamped another sentiment on the inside with Black Licorice ink and finished it off with another llama image. I love the sentiments in this set - so clever.

So there you have it - a card completed for a challenge on time and that will actually get put in the mail this week. I am just soooo prolific at making cards, but mailing them is just another story. I am trying to improve my record.

Do you get your cards mailed, or do you collect them? Sometimes it's hard to part with if I really love how it turned out, but I need to get over that.

Have a great day and see you tomorrow with another card or two.