Secret Pumpkin Exchange Hop

Halloween has just got to be one of the best times of the year. I love the decorations and an excuse to get dressed up. This year,  I joined in two swaps for Halloween over at Simply Betty Stamps Facebook Group. The second swap (this one) was a Secret Pumpkin Exchange. I had lots of fun collecting and making things for my parcel which I sent off to the States and was so excited to receive my delivery in the post. More surprises were in store for me though because my wonderful sender had also organised for me to have some money to spend at Betty's store. I chose to put her gift towards the Jude Holiday Bundle and I am sureI will be posting cards using these images soon!
My parcel contained many beautiful things including a handmade card which I adore. Some of the other items were a Halloween paper pad, heaps of cool Halloween decorations I can use on my cards- the glittery spiders and skulls were very cool!, stickers, ribbon and candy ( I had never had the M&M Candy Corn...yummo!!). The owl hand wash is hanging on my craft bag and my Halloween plaque is having in our living room with our other decorations. I would like to say an enormous THANK YOU for my Secret Pumpkin gifts. I will enjoy using everything x

Have fun checking out all of the other surprises on the hop!

Betty Roberts  

http://simplybettystamps.blogspot.com/

NO BLOG:

BreAnn McFarland, Vanessa Bland, Barbara ( Barb ) Ettinger, Carmen Shannon, Lindsey Gehin, Terry Helin

Corinne Jones

http://www.wishuponascrap.blogspot.com

Sheri Loatwall

http://www.mammasscrappin.blogspot.com

Trish thedish Sakulich

http://scrappintillthecowscomehome.blogspot.ca

Marie Franklin

http://marie97-lotlot.blogspot.com/

Maggie Schoener

http://www.maggiescathouse.blogspot.com

Robin Bogle

http://rcz28.blogspot.com/

Ashley Murphy

http://anm61391.blogspot.com/

Lisa Howell

http://www.mindovermattercreations.com

Tanja Charles

http://craft-teeinthecity.blogspot.com

Emily Shroom

http://emilyshroom.blogspot.com.au/

Kay Mowat

http://kaym74.blogspot.com

Wendy Billings

http://www.jazzydoodledesigns.com

Stacey Stratis

http://anastasiasarts.blogspot.com

Katya Bess

http://Kattyxotica.blogspot.com

Elisabete Balcavage

http://thebalcavages.blogspot.com

Jackie Maunder

http://apaperjem.blogspot.com.au/

Anita Blake

http://www.kardmakingheaven.blogspot.co.uk

Rio Ford

http://mommylittlecrafterincrime.blogspot.com/

Summer Hills-Painter

http://1craftypainter.blogspot.com/

Jo Walker

http://joscardsandstuff.blogspot.co.uk/

 Heather Whitlock

http://slightlymadbut.blogspot.com/

Tanya Johnson

http://tanyasbooknook.blogspot.com

Dianna Sowerbrower

http://www.diannas-craftyplace.blogspot.com

Sharette Smith

http://www.scrappernthemaking.blogspot.com

Melissa Varga

http://www.cheesestamperdinpardise.blogspot.com

Kathy Gillon

http://kathyand3kids.blogspot.com

Rochelle Ayris

http://rochelleayris.blogspot.co.uk.

 Roz Wolfe

 http://wolfepak5.blogspot.com

A Final Halloween Card

Just five more nights until Halloween. I love all things Halloween and for this week have used a Day of the Dead image from Simply Betty Stamps. I've had this image coloured for a while but had not got around to putting it onto a card front. It has been coloured with Copics and then cut out and put onto background paper using foam mounting tape behind the image.
The patterned papers used in this card are from a 6x6 paper pad- Happy Haunting by My Mind's Eye. All paper pieces were edged using Ranger Black Archival Ink.
I went around the edge of the chevron paper with double sided tape and then wrapped Tim Holtz black tinsel twine around the paper several times to represent a web. I then placed the paper containing the image over the cross over of the tinsel. I made sureI used red backed tape here for super stick!!
Embellishments on the web include a tag "Fright Night" from Creative Imaginations Mariah Johnson's Wicked collection. There are heaps of great labels in this collection.
The little glittery spider was from a recent craft swap (as was the previous embellishment) and was adhered using foam tape.
In the corners of the page, I made little web embellishments by cutting a strip of spiderwebs using my Martha Stewart punch. I cut out sections of the web at right angles to adhere in the corners.
 I used Black Diamond Stickles over thecorner web shapes to add some sparkle and then put Frosted Lace Stickles on the veil of the image.
 KaiserCraft black bling was added down the side of the image card and randomly on the chevron paper to add some further interest.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes with optional Halloween over at::  http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.com.au/ 

Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy Halloween!

At The Movies Card

Before I start on this week's card, I must thank the team over at Through The Purple Haze challenges for picking my cards for last week's winning entry with the other being selected in the top three- a big happy dance here from me and I can hardly wait to choose an Indigo Blu stamp as my prize because they are brilliant!!
This week's card  features yet another fantastic Simply Betty Digi and the request was to feature food.
I bought this digi a while back with my teens in mind and thought it would be great to make into cards for their friends and movie voucher covers. This example uses the image for a card front. I first coloured the digi using my Copic Markers.

Copic Colours Used:
Skin: YR00, E11, R02  Hair: E35, E53, E57
Popcorn Bowl: BV04, B32  Popcorn: E53, Y11
Shirt: YG06, G05, G07  Jeans: B45, B93, B97, BG10
Seat: BV23, C5, C7  Cushion: R17, R46, R59
Cup: Y08, Y11, Y17

Once the image was coloured, I went over the base of the headband and the glass frames with a light blue Spica Pen- you know I looove a bit of sparkle.

The shape for the card and the image card were made using the Grand Labels 11 Set from Spellbinders. 

I folded the black card in half and then placed the Spellbinder die along the fold edge before cutting. 

Once the white card was mounted, I went around the embossing line on the black card with white gel pen to create faux stitching.

The embellishments were from my stash- I was lucky enough to find the Coke bottle cap which mirrored the red of the cushion and added Flourish with A Bling pearls in the same colour. The mini tags are from Maya Road. I used layers of foam tape to adhere the cap and tickets to add some depth. 

A simple card this week but it was fun to make. Let me know what you think and check out the other "yummy" entries over at

http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.com.au/

Indigo Blu Challenge Card - Hocus Pocus and Bare Woods

My second card  began by creating a background design using Alcohol inks and Gloss Paper. These were dabbed on my craft mat along with some blending fluid before smooshing the colours together using a piece of gloss paper. I then used a background stamp from Indigo Blu and Black Archival Ink to stamp out Bare Forest. To hide the join in the stamp I added a strip of ruched ribbon which I had aged with Distress Ink.

On another piece of white card, I created the smooched background as I did in my previous card using water and Distress Stains on my craft mat. I stamped the owl stamp from Hocus Pocus onto this once dry using black Archival Ink. I also stamped this image onto a piece of plain white card.

Using Distress markers and my water brush ( see more detail for card 1), I coloured the owl and the castle and then cut them out and glued them onto the inked owl background paper. Brushed Corduroy was added to the edges before mounting the design on black cardstock and taping the back with foam tape.

Finishing touches were added with a fine gold Sharpie. 

I hope you like my creations. Please leave a comment.

I am entering this card into the weekly challenge over at:

http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.com.au/

Card using Indigo Blu Stamps - Alice 1

Indigo Blu have a great range of stamps available. I love that they are rubber stamps. Most of my stamps are rubber as I find them more versatile.

This week I have made two cards for Through the Purple Haze Challenge Blog's weekly challenge. We were given notice of the upcoming Indigo Blu challenge some weeks ago so that those of us that live overseas could order our stamps. I ordered quite a few as they had some fantastic background stamps for me to use on ATCs and i loved the stamp sets.

For the first card, I first created a background using blobs of Distress Stain on my craft mat mixed with spritzes of water. I twisted my white paper through this mixture several times and then dried it with my Ranger heat gun.

This paper was taped onto the black card base.

Next, I cut three small squares of white card and placed a Wonderland character in each from Indigo Blu's Alice 1 stamp set. I also stamped out Alice on white card and the tiltle on my backing paper.

Out with my Distress markers...yes, I have ALL the Distress products but don't feel guilty because I use them all the time! I brushed colours onto my acrylic block and then added them to the stamped images using a water brush. Once the areas were wet it was easy to add further details using the markers directly and further blending with the brush if required.

Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink was added to the edges of the small squares before they were mounted on black card and then onto the background.

Alice was cut out and added to the background. I used a grey/brown polychromo pencil to add some shadows.

Finally to finish some Flourish With A Bling and a tiny watch face from my stash. 

I hope you like my creation...love this stamp set!

I am entering this card into:

http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.com.au/

Halloween Card

This week's card uses a Simply Betty Stamp as the feature. I have (In case you have not already worked it out!!) a range of her stamps in both digi and rubber format. This one I already had in rubber but have just bought a Jude Holiday Digi Bundle featuring this image and many others for Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day. Love them all!

My image is coloured using Copic markers. 

Skin: E21, E50 Cheeks: R11 Mouth: R27, E47, E05 Eyes: G07

Costume: BV02, V17, Y38, YR04, YR07

Shadows: W3

I created texture by stippling over the purple areas of the costume with the Copic 00 Blender. 

The background of the card was a piece of orange Bazzill paper which I embossed using a Sizzix Halloween Embossing folder from my collection. I inked around the edge using black Archival Ink. I had tried inking the whole design but decided that it made the card too dark. Instead of wasting the card, I simply turned it over to use the embossing in reverse.
The Sentiment was stampeded onto white card and this was mounted in a Spellbinders frame from Romantic Rectangles.
Martha Stewart's Creepy Fence punch was used for the background and the strip of Beware paper came from  a Dream Street Paper from the Superstition range- Spine Tingler.
I am entering this card into the following challenges:
 http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.com.au/
http://createdwithlovechallenges.blogspot.com.au/