The Haunted Cabin

Halloween is almost here! I've shared so much spooky fun all month long! Yummy treat bags, Artfully Sent cards, adorable mini albums, witch hats and Scaredy Cat scrapbooking layouts!

Today I give you the grand finale!! My biggest Halloween project ever!!

This cabin was all cut on my Cricut Explore machine using a file from SVG Cuts. I used the older Moonlight papers from Close To My Heart which I absolutely love! The paper I chose for the roof even has a scalloped design that perfectly resembles roof tiles! There is so much detail and the finished product was well worth the 8 hours of work! Check out the smoking chimney!

Everything is spookier at night...the entire roof of this house opens up so you can insert a battery operated candle. The glow shines right through the vellum windows, how eerie!

I hope you enjoyed all the Halloween projects this month. Have some spooky, sweet fun this Halloween and come back soon.

An Artfully Sent Halloween

I am having so much fun playing with the Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge. Oddly enough, I've only explored a few pages and the possibilities are endless!! Here are just a few cards I've created using the Halloween themed keys.

On this first card I created a simple front using the ghosts that were cut out from the inside of the card and the sentiment "BOO"  was actually cut from the Artbooking cartridge. It's a pretty plain front, but the star is the scene on the inside of the card.

I told you the inside was the star! How cool is this haunted scene inside? The house is popped up as you open the card along with the fence.

Not only does this cartridge cut cards, but it can also cut out the PML cards for scrapbooking. Here I cut out one of the 4x6 sentiment cards. Being frugal I saved all the cut out letters and then started rearranging them to make up other words. Finally, I decided on the word "candy" and a card was created! Isn't that what Halloween is all about?

Then I created another card with the PML sentiment card. For this I simply added some background papers and few other embellishments to the front of a 5x7 base.

Candy corn kisses is a sentiment card that is super easy to make. I mounted the entire card on white daisy card stock but only after I pieced some colors for the candy behind. I wanted the word "kisses" to stand out more, so for this I simply filled it in with a yellow marker.

Here is another border card as you saw earlier with the "candy" sentiment. This was my demo card at a recent workshop. I wanted to show how fast and easy creating one of these cards can be. It just requires some cutting on your machine, a paper piece behind, some stamping and a couple embellishments.

Once you get a hang of the simpler cuts, you can then get a little more adventurous! Here I combined two different cards to create one. I love the bold colorful sentiment on the spider web. Just a few spiders to dress it up. Even though it looks fancier, it really was not that difficult as the Cricut does all the work for you still!!

I hope you enjoyed all these Artfully Sent Halloween cards. I can't wait to create Christmas cards next!

A Little Boo Ghost

After making some of the Cut Above Halloween Treat Bags, I discovered one little lonely ghost left over! I thought he would look perfect on the Freshly Made Sketches sketch this week! I dressed up the ghost piece a bit, but I left the rest of the card clean and simple with some Scaredy Cat papers and doodling. Here is the card~

Card with the finished treat bags~

Scaredy Cat ~ Witch Hat

Have you seen the darling witch hats that were displayed in the Close To My Heart Annual Inspirations book? (page 38) They were also featured on Jeanette Lynton's Blog, Make it from Your Heart,  with assembly instructions. I admired them all and thought I would give this project a try, and then....while on a shopping trip through the craft store, I saw some paper mache witch hats. I thought these would make a perfect base and cut out some extra steps. {Kind of like cheating!} I did incorporate several other ideas from the CTMH hats, including some Cricut cuts and the Scaredy Cat papers.

Frightfully Cute Mini Album

This little mini album created from the Artbooking cartridge is hardly frightful. It is so cute and fun for the Halloween Holiday!

 

I used the Scaredy Cat papers and coordinating cardstock. Most of the images and sentiments on this album are from this cute set~

Halloween Greetings D1605

I also used the Hopscotch alphabet for the "boo" on the cover and stamped a couple of candy corn from an older stamp set.

Artfully Sent Halloween Cards

At my recent card exchange I did a quick tutorial with the Artfully Sent cartridge while the girls grabbed some delicious Fall food! We explored the Halloween cards in the book. Take a look at some of the cards I had on display.

This was the very first Halloween card that I wanted to create from the cartridge. I just love how detailed the house is and that it is the front of the card. It was incredibly easy to create from start to finish and looks like you spent a good bit of time on it!

This is a swing card that was also easy to create. It can be left simple and be completed quickly, however I did a little fussy cutting to add some cardstock and a zip strip to the front. I simply added a stamped tag, ribbon, button and arrow Washi tape!

I have more cards to share with you from these Halloween keys on the Artfully Sent cartridge. Come back soon!

Not So Spooky Treats

I just had to share the treats that my customers brought to the card exchange last weekend. We love sharing food when we have our get togethers, but they got crafty with theirs!

Whooo wants some peanut clusters?!!

Don't be a "scarecrow" to look inside these little packages. You might just find some candy!

My customers really do surprise me and constantly inspire me also!

A Fall and Halloween Card Exchange

I held my annual Fall card exchange yesterday. The participants had the option of creating a Fall themed card or a Halloween themed card. Last year when I held this event I was the only one that created a Halloween card. This year had a different outcome, which made it very interesting! As always I saw unique ideas and was inspired by all the talent of my wonderful friends & customers!

This is a picture of all the cards, except one. I'll post more about the table decor later!! ;)

First up is the card I made. As you may have seen in previous posts, I teased you a bit with cards that did not make the final cut. I hinted about images that carried forward to my final card. Do you see them now? I used the apothecary jar from the first card I showed with the candy in them. From my Halloween Characters card I stamped the skeleton dudes so they look like their floating in the jar. It was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest {Consultant Mischelle Smith} and I loved the unique and unpredictable blend of images!

I tried to show the shine of the fundamentals paper in this photo. I love Halloween so the purple hearts were just perfect. The added glitter in the shimmer trim and inside the jar just screams Halloween too!

Janet's card~

 Inside Janet's card~

Nikki's card~

Tommie's card~

Julie's card~

Nanette's card~

Pat's card~

{take a close look at this card, the entire front is a shaker card with pieces of straw inside!}

So as you can see there was a great mix of Fall and Halloween themes! Please leave a comment and let these ladies know how beautiful their artwork is!

We are not even half way through the month though!! I still have several Halloween projects to share with you, so visit again soon!

Halloween Characters!

Today I have the other card I made for the Fall/Halloween card exchange that did not make the final cut! It is still a super cute card with the most adorable characters on it and I really can't tell you why it was not my final card. I think that maybe it was just too predictable, I wanted to really mix things up more. I can also tell you that like the first card I showed you, this one has an image on it that I carried over to my final card!?!? OMG what can it be??

I used the Scaredy Cat paper collection, Frightfully Fun MyAcrylix stamp set, black epoxy stars and black striped twill ribbon. I stamped all the images in black ink and then used ShinHan Touch Twin markers on just the outline. It gives them just a bit more character and color!

Scaredy Cat Paper Collection X7185B

Frightfully Fun B1453

Be sure to come back this weekend to see all the cards from the exchange and pictures from the event!

Halloween Candy!

This Saturday I will be hosting a Fall/Halloween card exchange. This year I have a total of 7 participants including myself. I always enjoy seeing the different creations that everyone brings. Card exchanges really let you see ideas that you never would have thought of and gives you inspiration to try something new!

You will have to wait until this weekend to see all the cards, but for now I can share with you the cards that didn't make the final cut.

The first card I'm showing you today turned out really cute, but just wasn't everything I wanted. Plus, there was too much fussy cutting involved! I will tell you that an image from this card did make it on my final selection!! I wonder what it could be?

The stamp set I used on this card is one of the Hostess Rewards stamps found at the beginning of the Annual Inspirations Idea Book. {page 5}As a Hostess you can earn this stamp set with a qualifying order for only $10!

Come back soon as I reveal my other card that did not make the final cut! Then, be sure to visit this weekend to see all the cards from the exchange!

Creative Blogger Nomination

I am honored to have been nominated by the very talented Karen Day for the Creative Blogger Nomination! Karen's Creations are always elegant & beautiful. Often times her creations are also very humorous. I'm always surprised by her art and get a giggle out of her stamped images (with impeccable coloring) & funny sentiments!

The Creative Blogger is ultimately a Blog Hop of artists that will inspire you through their creativity.

Meet new bloggers by hopping along and reading through the answers to these four questions.

1. What am I currently working on?

My husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage recently and I turned 40! We celebrated both events with a little weekend getaway to beautiful Solvang, California. If you have never been there it is a quaint Danish community nestled in the rolling hills and vineyards of Southern California. {Although I liked one of the gentleman's shirts that described it as "A quaint little drinking village with a Danish problem"!} We were there during their Danish Days Celebration and I would highly recommend that you visit during this festivity.

So... currently I'm working on creating scrapbook pages to capture our adventure. I have so many wonderful photo's from picturesque danish village scenes, dancers in costume and lots of food and wine pictures! Here is a collage of just a few of the photo's I will need to scrapbook. I will try to post the pages when they are done!

2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

This is a difficult question! As you will see most of the artist's on this hop are Close To My Heart Consultants, therefore we have the same products at our disposal to create with. I try to set myself apart by thinking about using a product differently or mixing paper collections to create a unique blend. I try to keep things clean and simple as time is of the essence! Staying on top of the latest trends is also important when treating my hobby as a business or reflecting "the times" when I'm creating a scrapbook layout. This card is a great example of mixing colors and patterns. It also features the ever popular honeycombs and Washi Tape to stay on "trend". The black tulle is used unexpectedly as embellishment behind the focal image rather than just ribbon. 

3. Why do I create what I do?

When meeting people for the first time that are interested in scrapbooking or simply CTMH I always share with them what my "why" is.

I was always creative; having a crafty mom and a father who was the art teacher at my Junior High. I sewed clothes for my Barbie dolls, painted on canvas or wood and loved making floral wreaths. As soon as I married and had children I was taking tons of photo's and slapping them in those awful magnetic photo albums. I was introduced to CTMH in 2002 or 2003?! The consultant had me interested in card making immediately, but it was not until later that I became interested in preserving my photo's in better quality albums and using high quality products. In 2005 my Grandfather passed away as did my husband's Grandmother. They had so many loose photo's in boxes with no names, dates or places on them. It was frustrating to sort through them and not have details. It was from that experience that I would properly scrapbook my memories, with details, names and dates! I know it will help me remember "old times" and I'm glad that my kids will also have these memories!

On a side note~ I also find that I need a little creative time to de-stress! About 2 weeks ago, after a long exhausting week I was super cranky. I sat down in my craft room and worked on some Halloween cards for a card exchange this month. After only an hour or so I realized that I wasn't nearly as stressed and was breathing calmly again. What a difference a couple hours of creative therapy makes!

4. How does my creative process work?

My creative process works in four ways~

1. I take life experiences that I have captured on film and create something. Just like I talked about in the first question basically.  Whether its a life event, celebration, vacation or just those little moments you don't want to forget they inspire me to create! I love choosing a layout, papers and colors based on my photographs. I feel like my scrapbooks are truly those items that can never be replaced. I want to build a vault to store them in so they are safe from flood or fire!! :)

2. I am often inspired by other artists and their work. I enjoy challenging myself also so I will often play along with a sketch or color challenge. This brings out creativity that I never expect or a color combination I would never think to use!

3. "If you create it, they will be inspired!" Another consultant mentioned in their answer that they dream about it. Some may think this is silly, but it has happened several times. I can particularly remember visioning a cupcake card and waking up to create it. Granted I was a little hopped up on Nyquil that night, but I was inspired to head to my crafting room at 2 in the morning! I had the most adorable cupcake cards created for an upcoming swap by the time the sun was up!

4. Occasionally I create out of necessity. I am sometimes asked to create something for a family member, friend or co-worker. It is a challenge to be able to take someone's vision and make it reality. I am always thrilled when they love what I was able to create for them.

One last note on my creative process would be this~ When I start feeling pressure or stuck for ideas that is when I take a break! Forcing creativity is no fun, you want it to be a pleasant experience...a time to relax and let the stress melt away...like embossing powder under the heat gun!! {tee-hee}

I hope you found some inspiration here today and have gained some new ideas or solutions to your own creative process!

My nomination is for a very talented lady that I follow on my Crafty Blog list. Jody Gustafson is so good about posting often so there is never a lull in ideas or inspiration. You can find her beautiful creations on Cre8n' Memories Blogspot.   See what you think for yourself!