Time to pull out the decorations!

This past week has been a little busy as I gave the first exam in my statistics class and just finished getting them all graded. Now it will be a couple more weeks before another exam in either class I teach so I have a bit of a break! :)

Since October starts on Monday it is time to pull out all the Halloween decorations. I love decorating my house for holidays! Of course, when we were living in our 1300 sq ft apartment in Tampa it seemed like we had a lot more decorations than it seems now that we are in a house almsot twice that size. Last year I bought some more decorations to make it seem more festive and we will see how long I go this year before getting something else - I already bought these cute lights to put up on the front window outside.

In the spirit of the holiday that is almost before us, I have a Halloween card to share. I used a couple different techniques on this one.



The background of where the house is stamped is actually Glossy White cardstock. If you haven't used it before, it is really neat because it is smooth and shiney like photo paper. I'm not sure of the actual name of the technique, but you take a cotton ball and wet it with rubbing alcohol. Then add a few drops of reinkers for your stamp pads (I used Only Orange, Real Red and Yoyo Yellow) and dab it all over the cardstock until it is covered. I think it created a really neat eerie background perfect for a Halloween card.

The other technique that I used was stamping with bleach. I wanted to put swirls in the background of the card (it made me think of wind) but I also wanted to have trees in the background. So I stamped the swirls the same color as the cardstock (Ruby Red) but I made a stamp pad of a paper towel that I put bleach on and stamped the trees with that.

Oh - I have had a couple people ask about the game that is so addicting and more challenging than SuDoku. It is called Kakuro - it is like Sudoku in that it uses the digits 1 - 9 and the numbers cannot repeat in each row or column. But it is more like a crossword puzzle in that every puzzle looks different and now you are trying to fill in the digits so that they add to the sums given for each column and row. As a numbers person, I enjoy this far more than a crossword puzzle!

Recipe:
Stamps: Home is Where the Haunt Is, Swirls (non-stampin' up)
Paper: Ruby Red, Old Olive, So Saffron, Glossy White and Basic Black
Ink: Black Stazon, Ruby Red
Accessories: Reinkers - Real Red, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Black Grosgrain ribbon, Photo Corners Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Bleach

Beate's WSC #20

And once again I haven't stamped since last week's sketch challenge. Such a slacker I am! Although I have been a little busy writing a couple exams and grading them for one class, I have to admit that slacker is a good word. Justin has gotten me hooked on a new game that puts Sudoku to shame as far as challenging goes. It is quite addicting, which means that I am not very productive lately.

Anyway - here is my entry into this week's sketch challenge. I have been trying lately to come up with cards that are suitable for giving to a guy, which I think that most people know is easier said than done. This one started as a guy card, but I'm not sure if that is how it ended up. You be the judge!

Recipe:

Stamps: Loads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories

Ink: Timber Brown Stazon, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Basic Gray, and So Saffron

Paper: Certainly Celery, Rose Red, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Au Chocolat (retired), paper from Friends & Flowers Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired)

Accessories: Aquapainter, Celery ribbon, Rose Red brads, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, 1/4" Circle Punch

Finally getting better...WSC #19

Here is the only card that I have made over the past week. I have been sick with a cold and haven't felt like doing anything besides laying around and resting. I really wanted to use this stamp set, but I had a little trouble staying true to the sketch that was presented. I hope that this is close enough! It is a little plain - but I am feeling plain so I guess that explains it.





The image was colored using a combination of watercolor techniques - I used watercolor crayons, but since they don't make those for the In Colors, I watercolored with the ink for those instead. And the Swirls in the background are from the great stamp set that I got from Beate from winning her challenge a couple weeks ago. Thanks Beate!!!


Recipe:
Stamps: Holy Triptych, Swirls (Autumn Leaves brand)
Paper: Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranite, Mellow Moss and Very Vanilla
Ink: Timber Brown Stazon, Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranite and Mellow Moss
Accessories: Watercolor Crayons, Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon

Beate's weekend sketch challenge #18

I am getting this in on about the last day to enter. I don't know what it is lately, but I just keep making Halloween and Christmas cards. At least Halloween is next month though. :)

Recipe:

Stamps: Autumn Apparitions, Halloween Backgrounds (retired)

Paper: Lovely Lilac, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi and WW

Ink: Lovely Lilac, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, Basic Gray and Basic Black

Accessories: stipple brush, gingham ribbon and brads

What came in my mail yesterday

Just over a week ago I posted a Frosty card that I made. It was actually an entry into a sketch challenge that I won. :) So yesterday in the mail I got my prize - it is an set of clear, acrylic stamps. As soon as I get an acrylic block or two I will be able to use it and make a card to post. With this set was a card from Beate, here is a pic of the card:





Beate does such awesome work - I am amazed everyday when I visit her blog.

In the Spotlight

When I placed my big order I got a level 2 hostess set - In the Spotlight. When the catalog first came out, none of the hostess sets really "spoke" to me. Of course (this is really typical with me), as time passed I really grew to like this particular set. So - here is the first card that I made with it.

Notice the use of In Colors on this one - River Rock, Purely Pomegranite, and Blue Bayou. I think that I will cave and get the ink for River Rock and Groovy Guava on my next order - I said it wouldn't be long until I broke down and got them all!

Noel - version 2.0

So - I think that I fixed the Noel card. Before there was just way way too much red. And here it is:

I think it turned out rather cute. :) The bad thing is that I had decided not to order navy ribbon on my last order, so I had to make a run to Michael's and it was a pain to find just navy ribbon.

Anyway - I think I have the 5 cards for my stamp-a-stack of Christmas cards all figured out. That means that I had better start deciding what my own cards will look like. When you have around 150 to make, you need to start early.

getting ready for Halloween already

I am trying to stay on top of my game this year. Already I have been planning Christmas cards (I think that I have found a way to fix the Noel card below - I will try to post it later today) and now I think that I have planned out the invites for our Halloween party.

I wanted to throw a Halloween party ever since the first year that Justin and I were married, but we were living in an apartment and didn't really have the room to invite lots of people over. Then a year ago we moved to the Houston area and had a nice, big house. Perfect for hosting a party. We had the party last year and it was lots of fun. This year I am hoping for a big turnout since we know more people here now. :)

Here is what I have come up with for our invitations for this year. The only pic that I have of our invites from last year contains all of our info (phone # and address) so I won't be posting that, but I think they were pretty cute!

The info about the party will be underneath the folded part. You might notice that I got this from one of the sketch challenges that Beate had on her blog a few weeks ago. I loved it and knew that I wanted to use it for invites.

It has literally been like Christmas today!

It has been a while since I have put in a large stamping order. My sisters and I are wanting to sell cards at a craft fair booth and I have had some requests to do a Stamp-a-Stack of Christmas cards. So I decided that it was time to get some new Christmas stamp sets. Sure - some of them are not "new" but they are new to me. Anyway - I mounted 9 stamp sets this afternoon (thank goodness that 4 of them were the die-cut sets from the holiday mini) and then I started making some cards. Christmas cards to be exact.

I won't post my supplies that I used - I'm not sure that people are paying attention to that anyway. If you want supplies, you can post a comment asking for them.

These are my favorite two that I have made so far.



The City if David card is one that Stampin' Up! did last year and I loved. I had been dying to get the set so that I could make the card. :) The snowflake card is one that I just had to do with the a couple of our In Colors - Blue Bayou and Soft Sky. Last year I refused to buy the In Colors. Now I finally caved and bought 4 of them for this year. How long do you think I will go until I break and get the last 2?




These two both seem like they are missing something. I know what exactly I need for the Santa card - it needs just a bit of bouble-stitched Wild Wasabi ribbon in the empty blue space between the Christmas trees and the "Tis the season" sentiment. I'm still kind of struggling with what to add to the Noel card.

Overall I need to keep these relatively simple so that people can make a lot of them at a class. Any suggestions?

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #17

I took a couple weeks off from the sketch challenges with going on vacation and then getting ready for fall semester. But here is another. Like the last one I did (can't remember which one it was now though) - I love this sketch. There are so many cute things you can do with it. :)

I decided to start in with the Christmas themes and used the old faithful Frosty set for the snowman. I love this set. But I have a feeling that since it has been a around for a few years now it will soon be leaving us (i.e., I am predicting that it will retire either this year or next). I really wanted to use some of my Cutie Pie paper and decided that the little white flowers on the Bashful Blue paper look close enough to snowflakes, although I'm not sure just how many people I am fooling with that.

I made the scalloped edge by punching out a lot of 3/4" circles in Certainly Celery and I used some Confetti White as my neutral on this one. The sentiment is from that retired set that I have been using a lot lately: Cute Converse - I can't help it - they are the perfect size to use with the punches!!!