Welcome to Wayback Wednesday

Wayback Wednesdays feature at least one retired product.  This Halloween card uses one of my favorite retired Stampin' Up! punches.  I CASEd the idea from Andrea Walford, but as most of us do when CASEing, I added my own twist to her card.  

Rather than mask a circle for the moon while sponging the background, I used a large circle punch on So Saffron card stock; stamped it in gray with the splotch from French Foliage, and sponged the edges with Pumpkin Pie and a touch of Cajun Craze for my harvest moon.  

She drew her bat, I made mine from black Shrinky Dink plastic and the Bitty Bat punch (retired but still available on the Clearance Rack; wink, wink).2


Clouds: Frost White shimmer paint

Sentiment from Delightful Dozen stamped in Craft White ink.  I used white embossing powder on the words and the Black Magic Technique to color the pumpkin (colored pencils on white ink on a black background).

Inks for night sky background: Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant, Midnight Muse and Marina Mist.

Fall Thank you

Here's a quick Thank You note I whipped up this morning using the always wonderful Day of Gratitude stamp set.  You can make this card without square punches, but I've found that I just LOVE how perfect the  smallest squares are when using a punch, and of course I love the ability to align the stamped image exactly where I want it within the punched shape.  I've used Confetti card stock, as well as Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze and Old Olive.  Each image is glued to a matching mat which is popped up with dimensionals.

You can't see one of my favorite things about this card, tho'... I have the marker in Cajun Craze, so I used the fine point to write my message inside.  Also, my handwriting didn't look too horrific today, so that was a big plus!!

Halloween Llama Blog Hop

So excited that the second in our series of Fall-i-days blog hops is finally here, and I'm at the beginning of it!   I know my fellow demonstrators have come up with fun and inspiring projects for you!   For links to all their blogs and all of our llama hops, click on the gorgeous banner up there that Stephanie created!

The first thing I'd like to share with you today is a Halloween card.   I love the versatility of stamp sets like this one with lots of little images; they work for treats, tags, cards, anything really!  So cute, too.

Stamps: Spooky Bingo Bits 

Ink: Basic Black, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie 

Cardstock: Old Olive, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie 

Tools / Accessories: 1" circle & Curly Label punches, Stampin' Dimensionals

Technique:  Faux Tearing (sponging w/ a torn mask) and actual tearing

Next is a teacher thank you card I created for this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge using My Digital Studio.   Since version 2 of the software is now in full release, Stampin' Up! is donating the remaining disks of version 1 to schools.   Contact me or your local demonstrator if you would like more information.

I printed out the image from Greeting Card Kids and colored it by hand, then scanned it in and inserted it into my project like a photograph. Used the eyedropper tool to color the circles and the mat of the oval the same red as the girl's apple and the blue of the boy's book.  In the new version of the software, images can be colored digitally; so easy! 


Finally, the first card I've ever made with French Foliage!  A wedding invitation inspired me to make a card stamped with purple leaves.  What do you think?

Stamps: French Foliage, Curly Cute 

Ink: Crumb Cake, Elegant Eggplant, Rich Razzleberry 

Cardstock: Whisper White, Perfect Plum 

Accessories: Linen Thread

Technique: OSW (one-sheet wonder:  create your own patterned paper with your stamps, here I did a half sheet that I cut into strips to make a set of matching cards)

Next in the hop is Marsha, or, if you like to do things backwards, click on the other button to head back to Debbie!

   

Lovely Bella personalized note cards

A set of simple monogram cards makes a great gift for anyone, including teachers!   This first one is a perfect example of why SU! color coordination makes creating easy; without cardstock and ink in the same shade of blue, I wouldn't have been able to make this.  
  

Stamps:  Lovely Letters, Bella Boutique (wheel).   

Ink:  Midnight Muse 

Cardstock:  Whisper White, Midnight Muse 

Tools: scalloped square punch, 1" square punch, distressing tool

Here is a more distressed variation using fall colors:

Ink:  Cajun Craze 

Cardstock:  Very Vanilla, Old Olive, More Mustard

Tools:  Curly Label punch, 1 1/4" square punch

If you've ever tried to cut a smaller square with your trimmer, you know it can be challenging.  Combine that with my inability to stamp straight and this card would have looked a crooked mess, but the square punch came to my rescue!   I punched the square so that the W was evenly spaced from 3 sides, then trimmed off the final side to get a perfect rectangle - phew!