A Last Halloween Card

(Source)

Happy Halloween Tuesday! May you have just enough ghosts and goblins knocking at your door tonight to leave the perfect amount of trick or treat leftovers. Remember to give out your least-favourite ones first! :D
I really wanted to make an It-themed card this year for Halloween, in honour of the movie being released last month. I have yet to see it, but of course have read the book. A good idea didn't, um, float into my brain until Sunday. Luckily, Shopping Our Stash waited till today to have a Halloween challenge — the perfect excuse to make my card. 

The two stamp sets I used are most definitely stash, having owned them for quite awhile with neither seeing much use. The balloons are stamped in pale blue and the heads stamped on top. I used the balloon blue and the string grey to add sponging around the edges of the panel. I did the custom sentiment on the computer. 
I'm back with two (!) posts tomorrow for the start of a new month! 

Supplies: black cardstock, Bienfang bristol, Neat & Tangled Gifts for You & Mama Elephant Party Kit stamps, Versafine onyx black, Versacolor baby blue & Memento London fog inks 

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Muse Guest Designer

I'm excited to be the guest muse at Muse for the newest challenge! If you're not yet familiar with this challenge, the simple rules are here. And this is the inspiration I'm offering: 

I stuck to my usual CAS (clean and simple) but I hope not overly PAB* style. The sentiment is stamped with a Kaleidacolor ink (which I've had for about a year now, and this is the first time I've remembered to use it), while the books are stamped, embossed and coloured with Copics and Spectrum Noir markers. A thin black mat and a wider patterned paper mat sets off the main panel. 

While CAS, I hope this card offers several possibilities for inspiration! Thank you, Ardyth, for the invitation to guest with Muse. <3 

*PAB=Plain and Boring, my own patented card style description

Supplies: white & black cardstock, Basic Grey patterned paper, Neat & Tangled Stories stamps, Versafine onyx black & Kaleidacolor royal satin inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, Copic & Spectrum Noir markers, fun foam

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The Snarky Sisters Get Chippy

That's right! The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is getting chippy... with C is for CHIPBOARD! We're so excited, we're even offering a prize. We have a generous sponsor, Make it Crafty, offering a $10 credit to the Queen of Chipboard Snark. 

Amazingly, chipboard is one of those supplies I've managed not to overcollect. But I do have a few pieces from a really old Stampin' Up kit. It was nice of the Sisters to give me a reason to use one! 

I started by coating the chipboard frame in gesso — I'm not sure the step was completely necessary, but I thought it would keep ink from sinking in too quickly. Next I patted Versamark all over it and added aged gold embossing enamel. Then I tried the frame with the various Hipsters to see who looked best, and Mr Chimp won. His expression seemed perfect for the sentiment, as well. A little Versamarker allowed me to add a bit of emphasis, and make it look like I totally meant to have that little curve in the clear stamp. Sigh.

Got some chipboard hanging around just waiting to be used? Even if you don't, pro tip: cereal box cardboard works in a pinch! Join the Sisters and our current queen Echo for the current challenge, and you might win a prize as well as the coveted snarky crown! 

Supplies: Hero Arts layering cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Creative Imaginations Dots & Stripes Warm patterned paper, Stampin' Up chipboard frame, Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Hipsters & Hero Arts Irreverent Birthday stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Ranger clear & Stampendous aged gold frantage embossing enamel, Zig markers, Claudine Hellmuth Studio gesso, foam tape

The Annual Pink Christmas Card

It seems like a long time since I found a card challenge and played along just for fun. So yesterday I decided to see what Muse: ChristmasVisions had on offer, and found two beautiful cards by Elizabeth Stewart. Her first card reminded me that I had yet to enter a card in Jingle Belles' annual Pink Christmas challenge! 
Here's Elizabeth's card: 

From this I took inspiration from the central negative die cut snowflake, the white-on-white snowflake die cuts, the scattering of bling, and the "joy" sentiment. Here's my version: 

I don't have any cool shiny pink cardstock like Elizabeth used, so I checked my patterned paper to see if by any chance I had some with pink. And what do you know, I found some that combined pink with red! I'm not a pink fan to begin with, but I like pink and red together even less. So yay, even more of a challenge! I did like the way I could centre the circle of mittens in the central snowflake, though. For the sentiment, I die cut "joy", coated it in Versamark, and embossed it with silver. I built up the sentiment with a few layers of heavy cardstock. 

For every pink Christmas card added to Jingle Belles by day's end, Stephanie and Lauren each donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, so I do like to play along every year. And this year, I found a way to make pink the main colour on my card without there being too much pink! Thanks to Elizabeth's inspiration, we may have my favourite pink Christmas card yet. ;) 

Supplies: white, Neenah white linen & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Crate Paper Sleigh Ride patterned paper, Papertrey Ink Wonderful Words: Joy & Sizzix Mini Paper Snowflakes dies, Ranger silver embossing powder, Hero Arts gems

News!

Yep! That's ME in that design team photo! I'm so excited that Tracey McNeely has asked me to be on her design team for this year's edition of 25 Days of Christmas Tags! I'll be playing along with  Brianna Loeffelbein, Kim Heggins, Carol Mayne and Michele Ferguson. A talented group! 
If you're not familiar with this annual November event, pop over to Tracey's blog for more details, or click the "25 Days of Christmas Tags" label over on my sidebar to see some of my previous participation both as participant and occasional guest designer. 
In honour of my announcement... I made a tag, of course. 

Most of the work went into the tag base, starting with a gessoed manila tag, then sponging with distress ink, adding the music tissue paper with a little Mod Podge (it had been so long since I'd used it, the lid liner had decoupaged itself to the container. Also. I'd forgotten the smell...), then stencilling snowflakes on top of everything else. I haven't used this snowman a lot, even though I have a die for him and no one else in the set, because I don't like that the holly leaves stamp solid. Now I know green glitter glue can solve my issue. :D Lots of Wink of Stella that you can't see in the photo, of course. 
All the fun begins November 1st! As always, Tracey has lined up some terrific sponsors, so if you play along you have a chance to win a prize! And yes, I realize being on the design team puts me out of the running, but I'm excited to be a part of it anyway. ;) 

Supplies: white cardstock, manila tag, music tissue paper, Hero Arts Snow Much Joy stamp & die & Holiday Conversation stamp, Versafine smoky grey & Stampin' Up real red inks, Hero Arts sparkle embossing powder, Copic & Spectrum Noir markers, Memory Box small snowflake stencil, Dreamweavers glossy white embossing paste, Paper Smooches borders 1 die, Recollections green glitter glue, frosted lace Stickles, Nuvo morning dew crystal drops, May Arts & scrap ribbons, foam tape

CASology Sympathy

The cue word this week at CASology is "sorry". Seemed like the perfect opportunity to add a sympathy card or two to the card stash. Of course, then it turned out I needed a sympathy card. And here it is:

(Trying a new style of photography... what do you think?)

No sentiment on the front, but it does say "with sympathy" on the inside. I started by ink smooshing some blue, green and mauve distress inks on watercolour paper. Then I stamped and embossed the flowers as well as a small butterfly and dragonfly. The panel is popped up on some textured cardstock with a cream cardbase. 
There are still a few days left in the challenge, so maybe I will get to add a few cards to the stash! 

Supplies: Stampin' Up very vanilla & Bazzill textured cardstock, Canson watercolour cardstock, Unity Insightful Meadows & Paper Smooches Botanicals 1 stamps, Versamark, chipped sapphire, tumbled glass, bundled sage & shaded lilac distress inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, Hemptique twine, Marvy/Uchida corner-rounding punch, fun foam

Naughty or Nice Spooky Reminder

Middle of the month means it's time to remind you about our current Naughty or Nice challenge: Something Spooky! 
A lot of my Halloween cards this year have centred on inky sky backgrounds, so I decided I wanted to use patterned paper this time. I combined that with Shopping Our Stash's latest SHOE challenge and came up with this: 

I already had this rounded panel of distressed orange paper in my stash (from an ancient Echo Park collection, as is the spiderweb paper), so it was simply a matter of stamping and embossing the shoes and sentiment. The shoes are in a fun Noche d'Oro embossing powder — black with gold, copper and silver glints. It doesn't really want to photograph in all its glory, but here's my attempt: 

I popped up the orange panel with some fun foam and added a few black half pearls to set off the sentiment.

The Naughty or Nice challenge runs for another ten days, so I hope you'll come and get spooky with us! 

Supplies: black cardstock, Echo Park Apothecary Emporium patterned paper, Stampin' Up Tee-Hee-Hee stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, clear & Noche d'Oro embossing powders, Recollections black half pearls, Marvy-Uchida corner-rounding punch, fun foam

For the Book Lover

Edna has gone all out for our new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge, Z is for ZOMBIE! So why on earth did I reference books on my post title? Here's why:

A zombie librarian! This is officially what I want to be when I grow undead. I might even make a dent in my TBR pile if I have all the time in the world. And anyone who loses or damages their library book... snack time! 

This is a free digital image from the talented and funny Jessa Feig — I've linked to her freebies page, but be sure to check out the rest of her blog, too. (Not surprisingly, Jessa has worn the Queen of Snark crown with us in the past.) I printed my librarian and sentiment on bristol then coloured her with watercolour pencils. I don't like to not stamp at all, so I added the cobwebs along the top and bottom before die cutting my panel.  

I'm entering this into the current fall/Halloween challenge at CAS on Friday. 

You will love the range of zombie creations the sisters have come up with for the challenge, as well as our guest designer and current Queen of Snark Michelle! I've even pointed you to a selection of zombie images (🦄, anyone?), so why not join in the fun?

Supplies: black cardstock, Bienfang bristol, Useless Trinkets Edey the Zombie librarian digital stamps, Craft Smart cobweb stamp, Memento grey flannel ink, watercolour pencils, MFT wonky stitched rectangle die, clear sparkle Gelli Roll pen, Glossy Accents

SNARKTOBERFEST!

Now here is a Monday you can look forward to — today marks the start of SNARKTOBERFEST!!! The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is honoured to be a part of this blog hop dedicated to our favourite kind of cards... SNARKY ones, of course! 
It's a blog hop, did I mention there are prizes? 

Each of our generous sponsors is also offering a prize to a lucky blog hop commenter! 

For my contribution to the snark hop, I made a card using a fabulous stamp provided to me by one of our sponsors, So Suzy Stamps. I had to give it the spotlight: 

Truth in cardmaking, I always say. 😉 Also, where's a large tombstone die when you really need one? I hope the cracks and sponging make it look a little gravestone-ish, at least. Since I have a die for a haunted house with front porch, how could I not? Of course I didn't think to mask off a circle when I smooshed my night sky, so a vellum moon suffices. 

The Snarktoberfest blog hop starts with our snarky organizer, Josephine. Of course she saved the best for last 😉 so the Sisterhood is the final stop on the hop. Remember to comment on all the stops by midnight EDT on October 5th — not only will you enjoy all the snarky humour, but you might just win a prize! 

Supplies: black, grey & mauve cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, yellow vellum, So Suzy Stamps Safest Day stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, blueprint sketch, chipped sapphire, shaded lilac, wilted violet, hickory smoke & black soot distress inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, QuicKutz haunted house, Spellbinders circle, MFT blueprints 24 & grassy edges dies, pop dot tape

Nice Spooky? Naughty Spooky?

First of the month! And that month is OCTOBER, so at Naughty or Nice Challenges we are looking for SOMETHING SPOOKY! 

Also because it is October 1st... I made a card I didn't have to colour! 😜 It was nice to have the option after September's colouring extravaganza. Here's my sorta-spooky creation: 

I did try to make a spooky Halloween sky by sponging lots of blues and purples, then using my stippling brush to speckle it with black. I embossed the speech bubble and sentiment before starting so it would (more or less) resist the inks. Next up I stencilled some embossing paste stars; and after waiting as long as I could for them to dry (deadlines!), I embossed the spider. As these things always work out, the last thing I did was add the spider's web with a fine-line marker... OFF-CENTRE. I figure it's so very off it looks like I planned to do it.  🤦🏻‍♀️

I hope you'll hop over to the Naughty or Nice blog to be spooked by all the Troublemakers. You have until October 25th to join us! 

Supplies: black and white cardstock, Essentials by Ellen Got Candy? stamps, Versamark, Versafine onyx black, Colorbox citrine & shaded lilac, wilted violet, dusty concord, blueprint sketch, chipped sapphire & black soot distress inks, Hero Arts clear sparkle embossing powder, Dreamweaver glossy white embossing paste, Heidi Swap confetti stencil, K & Company layered die cut