Snarky Turns Wicked

Happy Saturday! Edna and the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers are back with a new challenge: W is for Wicked! Edna and I both turned to Halloween for our inspiration: 

Bad is several degrees down the scale from wicked, I know, but I worked with what I had. That included a sentiment from one stamp set, the designer boots from another, and some remarkably old patterned paper. :D The boots are coloured in fashionable purple Copic marker, with lime green laces and shiny gold hooks. 

Since I actually made a Halloween card in May, I'll link it up to the May Two Old Bats Anything Halloween challenge. 

Our guest designer and current Queen of Snark, Fran, along with the snarky sisters, have offered lots of inspiration to lure you into... making a wicked card! You have two weeks to join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, Echo Park Apothecary Emporium patterned paper, Catherine Pooler Everything But the Broom stamps & dies, Stampin' Up Tee-tee-Hee stamps, Versamark onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, MFT blueprints 24 stitched rectangle die, Gelly Roll golden star stardust pen

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Happy Halloween!

One final Halloween card, now that it's been received! Hope your Halloween is fill with treats!

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Have a FaBOOlous Day

I'm on the Scrap 'n Stamp blog today with a card for the Random Acts of Cardness challenge prompt, BOO! 

My background is made with distress oxide inks - on the back of a Scrap 'n Stamp postcard! The ghosts and banner sentiment are both from Lawn Fawn, and the B from a Concord & 9th alphabet set. I'm adding this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, SPOOKY/Halloween, the Addicted to CAS challenge, Spooky, and the Two Old Bats challenge October Anything Halloween. More details of how I made this card are available on the Scrap 'n Stamp blog! 

 Hope your week is off to a faBOOlous start! 

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A Tiny Craft: Halloween ATCs

Here we are in the middle of October - time for a new A Tiny Craft challenge! Halloween is just over two weeks away, and a perfect choice for our new theme. 

I am very good at picking up various Halloween bits when I find something fun in a craft store or on sale online. Making a few Artist Trading Cards is an excellent way to use a few of them up! I used some ephemera from K & Company, some die cuts I already had, a sparkly bat background left over from another project, and added a few new items, such as the cobweb embossed panels. Here's a closer look at them: 

I'm entering these in the current Anything Halloween Goes challenge at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge. 

Have some fun Halloween items in your stash? Why not make an Artist Trading Card or Coin and join us? 

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Happy Little Stampers CAS: One Layer Card

October's Happy Little Stampers challenges continue with the CAS Challenge! This month we are looking for a ONE LAYER CARD. I love making CAS cards, but one layer cards are an entirely different beast. There is no room for error! I persevered and made a Halloween card: 

I recently added this fun MFT stencil to my collection, so broke it out and blended a couple of distress inks onto my card front. Leaving it in place, I used the same colours with a raindrop stencil, only upside down. ;) A white glaze pen added some texture to the ghostly eyes. The sentiment is stamped in black and embossed. 

If I can conquer the one layer challenge, so can you! Lots of OLC inspiration from the HLS design team. You have all of October to join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Lawn Fawn Tiny Halloween stamp, Memento tuxedo black & blueprint sketch & shaded lilac distress ink, MFT watercolour wash freeform & ARTplorations abstract April showers stencil

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Color Hues: Orange and Green

October! The month of (Canadian) Thanksgiving, Halloween, and possibly pumpkin spice everything. Of course, to start the month, there's a new Color Hues challenge. It's my turn picking the colours, and with October in mind, I chose ORANGE and GREEN. (I didn't know when I chose them that everyone seems to be going pastel this fall. :D) Time for my first Halloween card! 
 

I started by stamping, embossing and die cutting a few pumpkins and a whole bunch of leaves. They are watercolored using distress inks, with more intensity on the leaves for contrast from the pumpkins. I blended the same green on a scrap of cardstock for the ground. My sky is white pigment ink on dark grey cardstock with a cloud stencil. Although it's hard to tell, I used vellum for the ghosts. Finally, the sentiment is embossed in white. 

Since we celebrated our one year birthday recently, we have two guest designers for this challenge, Marcia and Jacinda! Be sure to check out the variety of creations from them as well as my teammates - you're sure to be inspired! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Memory Box earth neutrals cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, vellum, Ellen Hutson Got Candy & Thankful stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black, Brilliance moonlight white & carved pumpkin, Crackling campfire & rustic wilderness distress ink, Wow clear gloss black & opaque white embossing powder, MFT cloud stencil, foam tape

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Inkspirational: Night

Happy Halloween! It's time for a new Inkspirational challenge, and appropriately for the date, we have the word prompt NIGHT. I almost went in a different direction, but then no, I made a Halloween card. :D

 

To begin my spooky little scene, I masked off a section of my grey card base and blended a cloudy night sky in blues and purples. I stamped and embossed my three little ghosts and die cut them, adhering the bottoms of the ghosts directly to the card base, and popping them up with foam tape at the top for some ghostly dimension. The sentiment is white-embossed on a strip of black cardstock. 

My teammates have a wide variety of NIGHT interpretations for you to admire and perhaps be inspired by! I hope you'll come and play along! 

Supplies: Neenah white, Stampin' Up grey & basic black cardstock, Essentials by Ellen Got Candy? stamp and die, STAMPlorations Boo! stamp, Versamark, Versafine onyx black & faded jeans, chipped sapphire & wilted violet distress ink, Wow clear gloss & white embossing powder, MFT mini cloud edges stencil, foam tape

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It's Time for Halloween in Pink!

Welcome to our annual Pink Halloween challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers! Just to mix it up a bit, we're calling it H is for Halloween (in Pink). ;) We like to shine a little attention each year on October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink may not seem the first choice for a Halloween colour, but you might be surprised at how easy it is to incorporate! Here's my version: 

Not particularly snarky, but it may well be the first ever kinesiology-themed pink Halloween card! I have used four pieces from a Tim Holtz Halloween ephemera pack - the druggist oval and palmistry hand were already pretty in pink, and I added some pink ink to the other two panels. I also tinted the patterned paper base pink. I stamped and popped up the sentiment. 

You will find great pink Halloween inspiration from my sistahs and our current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Beverly, on the Snarky Stampers blog! Grab something spooky in pink and join us!

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, Pebbles Thirty One patterned paper, STAMPlorations Boo! stamp, Simon Says Stamp intense black, spun sugar & worn lipstick distress ink, Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Halloween ephemera, foam tape

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Inkspirational: Photo

Happy Saturday! Time for a new Inkspirational challenge, and we have a photo challenge to inspire you. This is perfect for autumn or Halloween, depending on where the elements of the picture take you - or it may take you in some other direction! I drew on a few different aspects for this Halloween card: 

I really liked that the inspiration pic suggested daytime, but didn't seem to have the stamps to make that work. Instead, I tried to hint at it with my stencilled sky, including some light tones in the blue shading. I also wanted to capture the curved horizon, stippling some browns and orange for the ground (with the gravestones masked off) and then softening the border between land and sky with some generational stamping. The witch. tree and sentiment are stamped and then embossed with matte embossing powder - it seems to make an appearance every Halloween. ;) I even snuck in the fence from the photo, stamping it behind the tombstones. 

As so often happens with a photo challenge, there is a wide variety of inspiration for you at the Inkspirational blog! I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Recollections black & Koh-In-Oor smooth bristol cardstock, Catherine Pooler Spooky Hollow, Stampin' Up Tee-tee-Hee & Gina K. Designs Tropical Flowers stamps, Versafine onyx black, broken china, blueprint sketch, faded jeans, chipped sapphire, carved pumpkin, antique linen & vintage photo distress inks, Wow clear matte dull embossing powder, grey Copic marker

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Sisterhood of Chalky Stampers

Welcome to a new challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers! Edna and the sistahs are challenging you with C is for CHALKBOARD. It has been a loooong time since I've done the chalkboard technique! Once I reminded myself how, here's what I came up with:  

Not that this card is a suggestion; merely an observation. :D The sentiment is inked and embossed in white, and then I die cut the panel with a wonky stitched die. I used the same white ink to add the bat and ghost along with some chalky smears. I used a white pencil crayon to add a few extra lines. A little patterned paper and a black card base finished the card. 

Of course, once I'd remembered how to do the chalkboard technique, I decided to make more! 

I have most of a pad of 12" by 12" "chalkboard cardstock - and not a sheet of black in it! And yes, I have been in classrooms with green chalkboards, so this seemed a good choice. Once again, the main parts are embossed, then the little stars are not. I added pencil borders and shadings.  

One more!

This time I even found a sheet of "chalkboard" patterned paper! 

Of course there is a lot of chalky inspiration on the Snarky blog, from my sisters in snark and our newest Queen of Snark and guest designer, Michelle! Check it out and then join us! 

Supplies: (Halloween) Recollections black cardstock, Echo Park The Apothecary Emporium patterned paper, Crackerbox & Suzy Safest Day & MFT Frightfully Fun Halloween stamps, Brilliance frost white ink, Wow white embossing powder, white Prismacolor pencil MFT wonky stitched rectangle die; (merry & bright) DCWV All Chalked Up green cardstock, Pink Paisley Snow Village patterned paper, Neat & Tangled May Your Holidays Be & MFT Frightfully Fun Halloween stamps, Brilliance frost white ink, Wow white embossing powder, white Prismacolor pencil; (Santa) DCWV All Chalked Up red cardstock, Studio Calico Magical patterned paper, Unity Santas, Stockings, Candy Canes etc. stamp, Brilliance frost white ink, Wow white embossing powder, white Prismacolor pencil, Studio Katia iridescent ice flakes 

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Just Us Girls Trend Week

Welcome to the weekend, and my second Just Us Girls guest designer post! This week we are asking you to "Cut Into Thirds". When I was pondering various ideas, I came across the colour palette at the current Shopping Our Stash challenge, and a Halloween idea was born: 

I started by blending distress oxides on Bristol in three of the SOS colours, then splatted it with water. The bats are a background stamp from Catherine Pooler, stamped in black and embossed in holographic embossing powder. The sentiment on vellum is also embossed in the same powder. Fun thing about vellum - depending on the humidity, it wrinkles a bit as sen in my photos, but if the air is drier, it smoothes back out. Of course this always coincides with poor photography lighting. :D 

I hope you will pick something to "cut into thirds" and join the challenge! 

Supplies: Recollections black cardstock, Canson Bristol paper, vellum, Catherine Pooler Going Batty & Neat & Tangled Booed stamps, Versafine onyx black, fossilized amber, bundled sage & wilted violet distress oxide inks, holographic embossing powder, Spellbinders circle die

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It's That Time Again...

Every year, the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers combines All Hallows Eve and Breast Cancer Awareness Month for PINK HALLOWEEN! Every year, I wonder if I'll be able to come up with yet another pink-themed card, and every year I manage somehow to create something at least a little different. Here is the latest: 

The background came first: I blended three shades of distress oxide inks on some mixed media paper. Then I misted a cobweb stencil with water and laid it on the panel to lift some of the ink. I knew my Tim Holtz paper dolls had some great Halloween images, and this pair of witches seemed perfect. I added a few spots of colour with Copic markers. The sentiment is heat embossed, of course. ;) 
With my spooky cobweb, I'm adding this to the October Anything Goes stencil challenge at STAMPlorations. I'm also entering both of the Simon Says Stamp challenges: Monday's All Things Pink, and Wednesday's Halloween. 

Be sure to check out all the pink and spooky creations by my sistahs and the current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Laura! Halloween approaches, so why not get pretty (and snarky) in pink and join us! 

Supplies: black & purple cardstock, Strathmore mixed media paper, Stampin' Up Tee-Hee-Hee stamp, Versafine onyx black & worn lipstick, festive berries & wilted violet distress oxide ink, Wow matte dull embossing powder, ARTplorations cobweb stencil, Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Paper Doll Ancestors, Copic markers

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Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: RIP

Don't worry! We're not really announcing the death of The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. But it is time for a new challenge, and we have chosen R is for RIP! 

I decided I wanted to make a card with ripped paper, and for a little extra inspiration, I turned to our benevolent overlord, Google. And found the perfect idea! 

Here's my inspiration. While I came up with my own design, the joke itself was too perfect not to use. Here's the inside:

The sentiments I obviously had to make on computer, but for the top layer, I stamped and embossed the newspaper background then blended with distress oxide inks for that vintage paper colour. I covered it with a dot stencil, misted water through, and used a paper towel to soak up the extra water. The dots are very subtle but add a bit of dimension. I used a scallop edged ruler to help me tear it before putting everything together. 

Our theme also made me want to break out the Halloween goodies! 

No obvious RIP, but I thought that fence was ideal for a cemetery look. I also used a ripped mask to blend the night sky and grass, but then covered most of it up so you can't really tell. :D 

While I had my supplies out, I also made a quick and simple card using a background I'd made for another project that turned out a little too dark and spooky: 

The background was made on watercolour paper with Twinkling H2Os and plastic wrap, which makes the sparkle pool nicely. It was a simple matter to cut the panel to size, add it to a card base, and add a few dimensional stickers. 

Head to the Snarky blog to see how my sisters in snark, as well as our Queen of Snark and guest designer, Samantha, have interpreted our new challenge! Hope you will rip into your supplies and join us! 

Supplies: (paper) Neenah white cardstock, Hero Arts newspaper background stamp, Versafine onyx black, antique linen, fossilized amber & wild honey distress oxide ink, Wow clear matte dull embossing powder, Heidi Swapp polka dot stencil, Sugar Pea Designs card front element builder stencil; (spooky) Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, STAMPlorations Boo! & Viva Las VegaStamps Jack o' Lanterns Along Fence stamps, Versafine onyx black, black soot distress & fossilized amber, faded jeans & bundled sage distress oxide inks, Wow clear matte dull embossing powder; (I.B. Dead) Neenah white cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Twinkling H2Os, K&Co stickers, MFT wonky stitched rectangle die

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