Happy Halloween!

Wow, it's been a REALLY long time since my last post - July 2012.  I took a long much needed break after my 13 year old son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes but I missed creating cards and now need some "me time" so I'm trying to get back into creating & posting more regularly now.   I made this card for my two nephews and mailed it to them for Halloween with some McDonald's Treat Gift Certificates this past week.  I used up lots of stuff from my stash (which by now is pretty much everything since it's been so long since I've made anything lol).  The stamp is an awesome PSX Halloween stamp K-422 (there's no name on it).

I coloured the main image with copics and then distressed it with Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I mounted the image on an Stampin Up embossed spiderweb panel which I had also previously distressed.  I used two Halloween sentiment stamps that I got in the $1.00 bin at Michaels a few years ago and added a Making Memories Halloween Brad to the front.  Of course more distressing on the inside to match the front of the card.  

I really had a ton of fun with the distress inks with this card - can't believe the paper was ever white!  I sure hope the nephews liked the card and it made them smile.  If the card doesn't then the gift certificates certainly will :)

I will be entering my card into the following challenges:

1.  Shopping Our Stash (SOS) - Challenge #124 Halloween or Orange & Black
2.  Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 292 Spooktacular

Critter Sketch #122 - Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle

Yes.....my post is late I totally scheduled it for the wrong day and just realized so I'm editing and posting it now :)

For our Critter Sketch Challenge #122 this week we have chosen Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle as our challenge theme.  How perfect to celebrate this past Canada Day and the upcoming 4th of July Celebrations!  Well my card isn't reflecting these wonderful holidays but it sure does sparkle:

I used some of my neglected outline stickers and my Martha Stewart glitter to match this fabulous glittery paper.  Boy does it sure sparkle in real life!  Can't wait to see what sparkly creations you show us this week over at Critter Sketch :)

SOS Challenge #57 - Stars & Stripes OR Red/White/Blue

You have a couple of choices if you wish to play along with our challenge this week over at Shopping our Stash (SOS) Challenge Blog!  For Challenge #57 we want to see Stars & Stripes or Red/White/Blue.  You could do both options like some of our DT girls.  Me....I kept it simple and just went with stars and stripes.  It's been a crazy few days and I needed to keep it nice & simple but I did use up lots of stash on my card:

I knew that I wanted to use my neglected star embossing folder with my Cuttlebug (best invention ever in my opinion) and I paired it with more paper from a My Minds Eye "Complete Boy" paper pad.  I used another neglected item (my fiskars border punch) and even found an ancient rub on which sentiment worked perfectly with all those stars.  I think my arm just about fell off trying to get this rub-on to transfer.  I have tons of rub-ons and rarely use them so I better start giving my arms a good workout as I swear they get harder to transfer as they age, LOL!  Other stash items used:  twine & some of my Tim Holtz distress inks.  Did I mention I have a whole drawer full of just the ink refills that rarely see the light of day?  I really need to work on using them more........

Hope you play along with us again this week over at SOS!

SOS #56 - Stuck on Stickers

Well, this was a hard challenge for me this week over at SOS (Shopping our Stash) Challenge Blog.  Our 56th challenge is called "Stuck on Stickers" and we'd like to see you incorporate stickers on your creation.  Now I'm not a huge fan of stickers and don't have many of them but after seeing some of the cards my DT members made this week I may have changed my mind!  I made this card using some stickers I found in my stash:

I've had these red metallic letter stickers for a while and the puffy, glittery hearts since last Valentines Day and they worked perfectly for my card.  A big THANKS to Leslie who inspired me with her "LOVE" stickers from last week's "Double the Ribbon" Challenge!  The paper I used was from my Bo Bunny Crush 6x6 paper pad.  I even used some satin black ribbon and was going to add a bow but thought it would cover up my letters :)

Hope you'll play along with us this week & change my mind about stickers!  Can't wait to see what you come up with.  

Critter Sketch Challenge #120 - Hi!

This week over at Critter Sketch it's Challenge 120 and we have a sketch for you:

I decided to rotate the sketch and came up with this using scraps from a card I made in a previous blog post:

I've had these chipboard letters forever and figured it would be perfect to use them.  In real life they are actually the same mustard colour (distressed with a bit of red) as the background DP but no matter how many photos I took would not come out that way.  Oh well :(  

This month over at Critter Sketch we are being sponsored by Robyn's Fetish:

SOS Challenge #55 - Double the Ribbon

This week over at Shopping our Stash (SOS) Challenge Blog our 55th challenge is called "Double the Ribbon".  We would like to see your creations featuring at least two different ribbons and/or twine.  Fairly easy right?  I figured since I missed our last week's challenge "masculine" I would combine them both and came up with the following card:

It was perfect since I was finally able to use this super cute image that I received in a card swap.  After colouring it with my copics and distressing with my Tim Holtz inks, I paired it with this great paper from my "Complete Boy" paper pad from My Mind's Eye.  I've had it for soooooo long and only used one time before.  I really think I need to make more masculine cards and use up some of my huge stash of paper :)  I layered my two ribbons, one rust one covered by a thinner brown one.

I made this card for my son who loves to fish whenever we head down to our cabin.  It totally looks like him with the backwards cap & everything.  I can't wait to take him fishing when we go down in a few weeks!

I will be entering my card into the following challenges:

Dream Valley Challenge #34 - For that Special Guy (who could be more special then my son?)

Challenge #118 - Recipe Challenge

It's been awhile since I've posted on my blog or had any time to craft (if anyone noticed)!!  My 12 year old son was recently hospitalized and diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes which kind of turned our world upside down.  We are slowly coming to terms with his diagnosis and learning all about insulin injections, blood sugar, meal planning and all the other "fun" stuff that goes along with it.  It was nice to get a few minutes to finish up a creation that I'd been working on for a while.  I was able to make it work for our new challenge #118 over at the Critter Sketch Challenge blog this week.  We have a recipe challenge for you:

Use 1 ribbon, 3 buttons & 5 brads or eyelets on your creation

How easy is that?  I used this sweet little Pure Innocence Stamp called "Happy Mail" and paired it with paper scraps from my Echo Park Victoria Gardens Paper Pan.  I even paper pieced the dress with some Bo Bunny paper scraps.  

Actually most of my card was made using scraps, don't you just love that?  I used a scrap pink ribbon, some cute little flower buttons (so wish I bought more of these) and 5 white brads which I coloured with my copics to match.  A nice, simple card & so cute to send in the mail.  

I hope you'll check out the Critter Sketch Blog & play along, we have just announced our 8th new DT and there is some great inspiration to be found.  

Since it's a new month, we also have a new monthly sponsor Robyn's Fetish: