Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Blog Hop - Week Nine

It's week number nine of Shirley Sumption's Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down.  I'm running about two weeks behind on this one and am trying to play catchup.  This past two weeks has been hectic with so many doctor appointments and family things happening.  Sometimes life gets in the way of fun!
Speaking of fun when you have time hop on over to Shirley's blog and check out Frankie White's fabulous entry for week eight.

Her card is just too funny!  Frankie designed this
card at the last minute, using the Howl-o-ween Creeps stampset (123827w/123829c) from the Holiday Mini. These little Halloween monsters are having such a great time doing the Monster Mash. Love the light bulbs!  Oh and listen carefully because  you can almost hear the music playing in the background!  No wonder Frankie was the winner!!!! What an awesome card.

While you're visiting the site make sure you check out the other entries because they're simply awesome too and leave some comments for these great projects, they're all very deserving!  

Okay so on to Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Blog Hop Week Nine.  Shirley hasn't even posted yet so I'm sure to make the time line this week.....lol! 

For this week's challenge I chose the A La Card Monkey Challenge sketch #76 from September 30th.

This is a great sketch that lends itself to easy interpretation, and while my entry is a Halloween card, I can envision this sketch being used for just about any occasion.  Wow that sounded a bit heavy and dramatic!

Speaking of dramatic how'd you like this Crow?  I think he's the epitomy of FRIGHT!!!  Although this stamp set featured in last year's catalogue has retired, I know he'll be in my Halloween stash for sometime.............. just can't part with him!

My card base is Very Vanilla layered with a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock that was texturized using the new Houndstooth Embossing Folder.  I've added a Top Note Die Cut from the Pick Your Poison (124001 pg 10 Holiday Mini) that has been jazzed up by adding Basic Black Top Note die cuts on either side.  The edges of the Pick Your Poison paper have been distressed using both Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie inks. 

Bat images were stamped using Basic Black Ink, Versa Mark and Black Embossing Powder to the top section of the DSP.  A second piece of cardstock that was texturized using the Stripes Embossing folder, was run through the Big Shot on the short side of the Top Note Die cut.  See how it fits perfectly across the center of the card.  I've added 3 basic pearls coloured black with a Sharpie Marker. 

For this Lollie base I used a 1 1/2" x 12" strip of Pick Your Poison DSP that was scored every 1/4" on my brand new Simply Scored Scoring Tool (#122334 pg. 7 Holiday Mini).  What fun that was.  A scalloped oval layer was adhered to the top of the Lollie and then the SPOOKY image from the Wicked Cool stamp set (118738w/120600c pg 24 IB&C 2011/12) was stamped and embossed over top of an orange spider image from the reverse side of the Lollie DSP. 

And here's the inside of the card with it's beautiful spooky crow.

Well that's it for this week.  Remember there's still time to participate.  I hope to see your entry this week!  
Here are the rules:
1. It has to be Halloween, card or 3D item.
2. It does not have to be 100% SU 80% is ok.
3. Yes using Retired is OK...
4. Use this Monster Mash Badge/Graphic in your post and a link back to Shirley Pumpkin's blog: http://lookatmycutestuff.blogspot.com/
5. Add your card to the blog hop then put the code on your post.
6. You can enter as many times as you like, but each entry has to be a new card and a new post.

Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Blog Hop - Week Six

It's my most favourite time of the week again, time for the Monday Monster Mash Halloween Countdown (MMMHC ) and it's week six.  That's right week six .........the halfway mark!  I'm ecstatic as I basically have only two Halloween sets to work with right now and I've actually made six cards.  Whoo Hoo! 

So, if you'd like to play along and have been too shy or haven't had time yet or whatever reason, don't worry there's still time to join in.  Hop on over to Shirley Pumpkin's awesome site and see all her wonderful Halloween creations and other projects. Leave her some love while you're there.  Her projects are awesome. 

This week she's combined her MMMHC with the Scaredy Cat Swap that she recently attended over at Terry Blais's place.  What fun!  She's got all the rules for her MMMHC on her fun blog hop, so check them out.  I can't wait to see what you'll make so get card making!

Okay so here's my entry for week six, hope you like it.  I decided since I really like making circle cards to use that format for my entry this week. Circle cards are so easy to make and they are such a fun wow in a class.  They're also awesome to receive.  I've made this one in traditional Halloween colours of Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  No DSP is used.

I've used the cute little halloween girl from the "Greeting Card Kids" stamp set as my focal point.  I've coloured her with blender pens on watercolour paper.  She has a little bit of bling added to her great pumpkin with glitter glue and a shiney purple rhinestone on her witchy hat (see tip below). 

The Best Witches (don't say that fast...lol!) sentiment is from "Halloween Hoot" and I've stamped off some little bats from SU's "Wicked Cool" set.  The image is stamped on Pumpkin Pie, and the large oval punch was used to punch out the sentiment.  It's mounted on a scalloped oval punched out in basic black.  A few purple rhinestone complete the sentiment.  This sentiment is popped up on dimensionals so that when the card is opened it has a prop or anchor to hold it open.  The inside of the card is made with layered circles in corresponding card stock and lots of room to leave a message.  

View of the card opened up. I've used basic black ink to distress around the entire scalloped edge of the card to give it some extra detail.

I've used the bat image from "Wicked Cool" to stamp around the scalloped circle.  I stamped it in versa mark, basic black ink and then heat embossed it with clear EP.  I could have used Black embossing powder too.  It gives a kind of shiny look to the background of the card.

I added a bit of green glitter glue around the Pear Pizzazz layer to add some additional sparkle. 

Okay so here's my economizing tip of the week:

Did you know you can colour your own basic rhinestones inexpensively with any permanent alcohol based marker  (Sharpies work well because they let the colour sparkle through).

That's right your can now have red, green, blue rhinestones...........even black to match your favourite coloured cardstocks.  So no more searching for matching bling, just colour your Stampin' Up basic rhinestones yourself!

All you have to do is j=-0[st colour over the rhinestone with your marker pen and voila! instant colour. Go over it until you get the shade you want.  If it's too dark you can take a cute tip swab to lighten the colour by dabbing a bit of rubbing alcolhol (90% or more works well) on a Q-Tip swab and lightly dab it on the basic rhinestone.  You can also use an alcohol blending solution but be careful as both solutions will remove the colour. 

Okay bye everyone.  Happy card making.

Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Blog Hop - Week Three

Today I'm joining in all the fun over at Shirley Pumpkin's blog "Look At My Cute Stuff" for week three of her twelve week Halloween Blog Hop!  What fun!  Shirley is picking a winner from all the entries submitted each week and then at the end of 12 weeks she'll draw a winner who'll receive $25.00 in prizes from the Holiday Mini.  It's not too late to join in.  All the details on how you play along are on Shirley's blog and it's so easy,  so come along and join in the fun too! 

Week Three

For my entry I decided to combine this Shirley's challenge with this week's Mojo Monday Sketch 206 challenge.  I really liked this sketch and chose to do the square one.  Here's what I came up with

I'd decided to use my "Wicked Cool" stamp set for this week's card but couldn't decide how to do the witch.  I had her hat and her legs but what to do with the body?  I thought about this for quite a while and then the "light came on" while I was doing another project using the "Aviary" set.  You guessed it!  I decided to convert one of those fancy bird cages into my witch.  And here's the result.

  I used Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Concord Crush, Basic Black and Crumb Cake cardstocks.  Concord Crush ink was used for the bird carge and sentiment. The Tangerine Tango was embossed with the Spider Web Embossing folder. 

The witches shoes were stamped in versamark and basic black ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  The same technique was used on the hat but in Concord Crush and I repeated the embossing to give a little bit more shine to the hat.  I also embossed the sentiment using versamark and Concord Crush inks.  The "bird cage" dress was stamped on a small piece of "Cottage Wall" a retired DSP and a few green rhinestones were added at the neck and bottom of the dress.  The leggings were stamped on and old olive piece of the same DSP.  Dimensionals were used to give some elevation to the hat and the two squares and sentiment. 

  

Hope you enjoyed my "Wicked Cool Witch".  Have a great day!