Happy Halloween! + Quick & Cute Card Ideas!
Happy Halloween, friends! We wish you all the treats today! We wanted to share this adorable reprise of a prior blog post by our friend Cheiron Brandon to inspire you to make some festive cards with your Halloween supplies!
Hello crafty friends! It’s Cheiron Brandon here and I am thrilled to be back with another project this month using Tim Holtz products. Today I have a fun trio of Halloween cards for you that are perfect to send to friends or give with Halloween treats. I combined the Tim Holtz Sizzix Retro Halloween and Halloween Bold Text dies with some of my favorite whimsical Stampers Anonymous background stamps to make these monochromatic cards.
To create these cards, I painted Distress Watercolor Cardstock papers using Distress Paints in Black Soot, Carved Pumpkin and Twisted Citron. Once the papers were dry, I cut my Retro Halloween Thinlits from Distress Watercolor Cardstock (for the white) and the painted papers. You could also use ink, but I love the matte look of the paints on projects, especially paired with the DIstress Oxide backgrounds I used. I cut the Halloween Bold Text words from rectangles of Distress Watercolor Cardstock and backed them with pieces of the painted papers.
To make the card panels I cut Distress Watercolor cardstock (3 3/4 x 5) and stamped each panel with a background stamp in Distress Oxide inks that were the same colors as the painted papers. Once the ink was dry, I added the Bold Text sentiment to the card using foam tape, then the Retro Halloween image (also with foam tape) onto the background, overlapping them ever so slightly. Finally, I mounted the panels to an A2 card using foam tape. I love the look of these one-color cards and hope you do too!
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Thanks so much for stopping by, and thanks to Cheiron for being our guest!
One Stamp, Five Ways: Grateful Florals
Hi friends! Happy Wednesday, and please join me in welcoming back special guest Suzy Plantamura to our blog with our latest edition of One Stamp Five Ways, which means…. another month is just about in the books! WOW! Read on to learn more about these 5 beauties, and enjoy!
I picked the Grateful Florals stamp set from the STAMPtember release for my “one stamp, five ways” guest post today because I illustrated it! It was fun to make 5 projects with flowers I drew. And we all know I love flowers and love to color, so this set worked well for 5 cards. I did make one card with no-coloring required, so stay tuned if coloring is not your favorite thing to do!
This card is 5×7” which is why it looks so big in the photo of the cards together. I cut a piece of Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper in that size. I embossed the large floral grouping along the left side on the bottom with Antique Gold embossing powder. I then added the individual stamps to fill in the open areas lining them up right beside the others. I water colored the card with Karin Brushmarkers. They are my favorite to use with embossed images as it helps keep the color in place. They are very reactive, so when you get them wet again, the color moves. I wet the images to pull color onto the outside for a soft wash. I used my paintbrush against the tip of the markers for the background on the left side, so it was darker and filled in the open areas.
I embossed a sentiment from the stamp set with Antique Gold embossing powder and die-cut it out with the matching dies. I attached that to the bottom right corner with foam tape behind it. I added some gold and red Nuvo Drops around the flowers.
You may recognize this card as it was in the SSS STAMPtember banner. I stamped the large floral grouping with Latte Ink on white cardstock. I then colored it in with various Copic Markers. I went back with colored pencils and added some detailing and shading. I die-cut it out with the matching dies.
I embossed the Basic Weave embossing folder with white cardstock. I sprayed it with Tim Holtz Fossilized Amber Distress Spritz Spray giving it a beautiful sheen. I attached the floral bundle over it letting it hang over the edges (you could trim them if you wanted the card to fit in an A2 envelope. I stamped the sentiment with Terracotta PSInk and die-cut it out. I attached it to the top of the card with foam tape beneath it. I added some Terracotta and Zest Embellishment Mixes around the sentiment.
I stamped the large floral grouping stamp on a piece of white cardstock with black ink. I colored the flowers and leaves in with colored pencils this time. I then colored the background with the Gold Sharpie that was in my LE Stained Glass Christmas Religious Kit. They sell them on the SSS set with a silver one also. I want them both! I went over the gold areas twice to get better more even coverage. It looks so pretty in real life! I cut it down to A2 card size which meant I cut off some of the leaves!
I embossed another sentiment from the stamp set with Antique Gold embossing powder and die-cut it out with the matching dies. I attached that to the bottom left side of the card with foam tape behind it. I added various sequins and pearls around the background to match the flowers.
I die-cut the Large Rounded Tag Die out of Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper. I painted it with Catherine Wheel Nuvo Shimmer Powder. I stamped the 3 individual leaf/flower images with Latte Pawsitively Saturated Ink. I colored them in with colored pencils. I find pencils work the best for no-line coloring. I die-cut them out with the matching dies.
I stamped the sentiment with Terracotta PSInk and die-cut it out. I added that to the top of the tag. I arranged the flowers and leaves around the rest of the tag using foam tape beneath just the large flower. I added some Zest and Terracotta Sequins around the tag. I tied some trim I had on hand and a piece of twine through the top of the tag.
I wanted to show a card that you could make without coloring outline stamps. I am in love with two 6×8” paper pads by 49 and Market called Gardenia Painted Foundations and Spectrum Gardenia Classics. I stamped the three individual stamps multiple times on scraps I had from these pads in blues, purples, and greens using black ink. Not only do the papers have cool little details even on the solid colors, but they are also thick like cardstock, so they were perfect for this technique. I die-cut them all out with the matching dies.
Now, I will admit that I couldn’t leave it at that. I did try. And they looked fine this way! But I added some shading with colored pencils. The paper gave me a great start though making the coloring easy! I cut a piece of the same papers for the card background. I arranged all the flowers and leaves around the card front using foam tape behind just the middle large flower and tucking the rest under and around it. I didn’t attach the edges of the leaves and small flowers so they would float. I stamped a sentiment with black ink on another scrap of the paper and die-cut it out. I added that to the top right corner. I used some Pink Fresh Glitter Drops in Lagoon and Amethyst.
I love to color, so I often pick stamps that allow me to color for my 5 card posts. But I do think there are lots of other ways to use outline stamps without coloring if that’s not your thing. There are a lot of great uses of this stamp set in the STAMPtember Gallery that don’t use coloring. You should check it out for even more inspiration with this Grateful Florals stamp set. Thanks so much for visiting and Autumn Greetings to all! -Suzy
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Thanks so much for stopping by, and thanks to Suzy for being our guest!
Mixed Media with Shari Carroll: Rag-Rug Rope Tree
I’ve got a different spin for the holidays for you today. It’s shabby, fun, and funky!! This is made from Tim Holtz Colorblock fabric for a fantastic no-sew Christmas tree.
Our family is doing a handmade Christmas this year and I promised to step out of my wheelhouse. I’m making something for everyone that uses the rag-rug fabric wrapping technique that I used in this project.
The fabric is cut into 1″ strips and wrapped around clothesline rope. I used my multi color wrapped rope to create a non-traditional, colorful tree. Tim Holtz Colorblock fat-quarters are amazing for these smaller projects.
Try coiling these ropes to make ornaments or even funky stars!
To see the full process, check out my video below. Enjoy!
WATCH THE VIDEO:
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