Toxic Trick or Treat

With October only a few days away, I thought it was about time I shared something Halloweeny! Here's a cute, but simple card I created to demo for a workshop I had last week.

I have the clear mount Toxic Treats set, so it was easy to line up the "Happy Halloween" sentiment over the fence image right on my block and then stamp onto my card stock. After that I used the Apothecary Accent Framelits to cut the tag shape, and just cut the other rounded end at the bottom off. The rounded tab at the top is the perfect spot to add some sparkle using a Glimmer Brad.

Stamps: Toxic Treats
Card stock: Tangerine Tango, Basic Black, Lucky Limeade & Rich Razzleberry
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Apothecary Accent Framelits, Glimmer Brad, Spider Web Embossing Folder, 1/2" Striped Satin Ribbon, 3/4" Circle & 1-3/8" Square Punches

Hope you have a weekend full of treats!

Here's to the Last Day of Summer

Even though the calendar and all other signs point to the fact, it's hard to believe that tomorrow is the first official day of Fall. The weather certainly has cooled down and the trees are starting to change, but it just can't be...Summer just went by way to fast! So, for the last official day of Summer I have two cards to share that feature fun, summer colors along with flowers, a butterfly, and an ice cold cocktail.

As you can see, I was inspired by this card over at SCS. I  just changed up the colors and the DSP and added a few other details, like the piercing around the Label die cut and the pennant shape at bottom of each strip of DSP. This is a fairly simple, quick & easy card and was one of the cards we made at my last card class. To show how versatile this layout is and how easy you can change the look, here's another version using the Happy Hour set.

Both use Floral District DSP and the same layout, but look so much different.

Enjoy this last day of Summer and the weekend too!

Everything Eleanor in Pink & Chocolate

Here is one of the cards we made at my All Occasion Card Class yesterday.

I haven't used one of my fav color combos, pink & brown, in a while and I think it suits this pretty feminine set well. After I stamped the Apothecary Accent die cut, watercolored the flowers & inked the edges, I spritzed it with some Log Cabin Smooch Spritz...unfortunately a blob just had to land right on the sentiment! BOO! But after all the work I didn't want to have to re-do it...other than the little ink blob, I love the way it turned out. I guess that's why I rarely use the Smooch Spritz...it's too hard to control. I really need to make my own using the little Stampin' Spritzer bottles I bought a while back. I hear those work much better.

Stamps: Everything Eleanor & Sincere Salutations
Card stock: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette & Whisper White
Ink: Basic Brown (to ink flowers to watercolor) Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette & Primrose Petals
Accessories: Primrose Petals Stitched Satin Ribbon, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Large Scallop Edgelits, Delicate Designs Embossing Folder, Log Cabin Smooch Spritz & Basic Pearls

If you like the pretty Primrose Petals Stitched Satin Ribbon used above...all this month you can get it for free with your $40 order!

Happy Hour CD Pockets

For almost 20 years now, a group of my girlfriends and I have a weekend getaway each summer. For the most part,  the destination has remained the same...near or on the water in beautiful Northern Michigan! We enjoy a relaxing weekend of fun in the sun, eating & drinking...probably more than we should, laughing until our stomachs hurt and just enjoying each other's company. Most of us have known each other since way back in high school, and I don't really remember who came up with the name, "Wild Women Weekend" but it has stuck! Anyways...I'm usually the photographer of the group, so this year after I went through all the photos, I compiled the best ones on a CD for each of my friends and made this cute little CD pocket to hold the disk.

I used some retired product here...Taken With Teal & Pear Pizzazz along with  Sweet Pea DSP, one of my all time favorite wheels...Lazy Days and the cute Happy Hour stamp set. Here's a closer look...

I had the girls who live local over last week for some wine & delicious appetizers I've been wanting to try that I found on Pinterest. We had fun...and they loved their CD's.

Have a great day!

Fossilized Autumn Accent

I'm baaaack! I hadn't realized I took such a long break from blogging until I signed in here this morning to make this post. I have been really enjoying the summer and getting some things done around here and I guess just not being particularly creative. The past week or so I've been back to stamping more, so I have some new stuff to share. Today I have a masculine birthday card I created using the Autumn Accents Bigz Die and the Faux Fossil Technique.

I just love the new Woodgrain Embossing Folder...I've been wanting an EF like this for quite some time! The Timber Wheel is also great...and works perfectly with this die and EF.

The Faux Fossil technique is a lot of fun...and so easy! I taught this at my Faux Much Fun Class yesterday and the ladies loved it! Besides your card stock & ink, all you need is a plastic page protector...

• Cut off the bottom & one side seam (keep the side with the 3 holes attached)
• pick out 2 colors of ink and ink up plastic...one color per side. (ink an area large enough to fit your card stock piece)
• close the page protector and run hand along outside to blend colors. Air bubbles will form, and that's what will give you the fossil look.
• Open page protector and insert two pieces of card stock (back to back) White or Vanilla works best.
• Close the page protector and rub with fingers or a brayer to ink up your card stock.
• Remove your two pieces of fossilized card stock and use as a background, stamp onto it or cut into shape as I did above.

I also added some sponging to my leaf to give it more of a vibrant fall color. Thanks to Carol at Crafty Cat for showing this great technique! I've been having lots of fun with it...and I hope you will as well!