Viva la Pumpkin

Hi friends! Happy Friday! I'm popping in today with another card I made with the October Viva la Verve sketch. Our challenge is up for the whole month, so there's still about 2 weeks left to play along. I've loved all the entries so far, and can't wait to see what you create with the sketch.

If you've been following my blog, it's no surprise that I reached for the Amber Moon collection again. This paper collection just soothes my autumn loving soul. I even turned the video camera on, so if you want to watch a very unpolished video of me rambling about how I made this card, look for the link to my YouTube video at the bottom of the post. I finally figured out how to do some basic editing and a voice over (which saved you from listening to a hacking, sniffling, sneezing version of me), so yay me! Pardon the super soft volume, I really need to get a better microphone.

If you'd rather just read about it, I stamped the pumpkin and hello pumpkin stamps from Autumn Leaves on the back of an Amber Moon 3 x 4 journaling card, then colored and cut out with dies.  I added some sponging with antique linen and frayed burlap ink to these pieces, as well as to the other portions of paper I had selected.  The stripey paper, the pumpkins and the leaves (which had already been stamped previously) were cut with the stitched rectangle from the Falling Leaves Die Set.  I tied a taffeta bow  to finish off the sketch, then came back later and added the flower and golden leaf.  Then came back one more time and added the little metal leaves underneath.  I just always have to keep on adding!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Let me know if you like the video.

Enabler's List
Stamps: Autumn Leaves (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Amber Moon 6 x 6 paper and 3 x 4 journaling cards (Prima), early espresso (SU!), cream (bazzill)
Ink: antique linen and frayed burlap distress, coffee archival (Ranger), warm sunshine, crimson and espresso (Altenew), copic markers
Accessories: Falling Leaves Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), pierced squares stax (MFT), amber moon flowers (Prima), ribbon (SU!), metal leaves (The Funkie Junkie), MISTI (My Sweet Petunia)

Other Links


View my card tutorial on YouTube
Viva la Verve October Sketch Recap

Look Ma No Stamps

Hi friends! I'm back again today with a scrappy little Halloween tag. I don't typically make a lot of Halloween projects, but since the boys are so excited about Halloween, I thought I'd make a tag or two to dress up my mantel decor this year.

A few weeks ago I picked up some Midnight Haunting 12 x 12 papers and the coordinating ephemera pack.  I just loved how elegant the designs were.  I must really like Pebbles Halloween stuff because last year the only Halloween goodies I bought were their Boo! papers and ephemera.

I started with a plain manila tag, then traced on my paper and cut it down to size and punched a hole to match.  I liked the extra little strip on the 12 x 12 paper with the spiders, so decided not to cut it off and instead positioned it as a border on the bottom of the tag. I distressed the edges a bit with a sander, then started layering pieces from the ephemera pack.

I added in a golden spiderweb from my stash, but the rest of the goodies are from the ephemera pack.  I added Nuvo glitter drops to the spider and the accents on the leaves, then a little to the flower center.  I attached the hello my pretty tag with tulle through the openings of both tags and my work was done.  Such a fun little crafty session and now I have something to stick on my mantel.

I had intended to put some cute googly eyes on the spider to make him not seem so creepy, but my son Kellan told me I'd have to put eight eyes on to be realistic since spiders have 8 eyes.  Ummmm.... that's even creepier, don't ya think?  LOL  So this spider is blind as a bat.

Speaking of spiders, I have quite the phobia of them. Mark and I spent all of Saturday working on cleaning out the third bay of our garage, finally clearing out the old bed I had to squeeze between a couple months ago, the treadmill, a dresser, a dining room table and chairs, as well as countless baby and toddler toys and gadgets.  And Mark finally agreed to get rid of  20 years worth of obsolete computers and components. There's a super cool organization called the Reuseum in town that recycles electronics and holds STEM workshops where kids can come and take things apart and learn to refurbish or reinvent them.

Anyhow, it was a ton of work and we found lots of spider sacs (eeewwwww) and a ginormous wolf spider. Now I'm pretty sure the thing was dead. I vacuumed all around it, moved furniture around it,  and it never moved in several hours. But I was a little too freaked out by it's creepy carcass to actually try to vacuum it up, so I waited for Mark to come back from the Reuseum to have him dispose of it.  I have no idea why, but he took a straw broom and smashed it straight down onto it's body. Mark and I and the boys were all watching and none of us saw where the spider went! It just disappeared! We checked the broom, we checked all around the area and no spider! Eeek! So now I'm super creeped out every time I go into the garage and I wish I had just taken my chance to vacuum him up when I had the chance! Seize the day people, seize the day!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Hopefully my little paper spider or my story didn't creep you out. Have a wonderful rest of your day!

Enabler's List
Paper: Midnight Haunting (Pebbles), manila tag (Ranger)
Accessories: Midnight Haunting Ephemera (Pebbles), gold spider web doily (Recollections), liquid mercury, morning dew and white blizzard Nuvo drops (Tonic), glitter, black tulle

Other Links
Reuseum Educational

Pop Up Thanks

Hi friends! It's another Monday and miraculously all my people were well enough to go to school/work and I've got the house to myself.  I'm still fighting some bronchial issues, but I'm on my second cup of coffee and have some clarinet concertos queued up on Spotify to help ease me back into work mode.

Last Friday when Trevor was home, I set him up with some acrylic paint and color wheel practice exercises as an excuse to be able to hang out in my stamp room. That meant I got a chance to make this little caffeinated creation with some bits and scraps on my desk for another Falliday Fest challenge.  And he had a lot of fun learning about secondary colors... and that acrylic paint doesn't like water the way watercolor paints do!

As you might have guessed from my cards lately, I'm head over heels for the Amber Moon collection by Prima.  So I've got a lot of bits and pieces of it on my desk. Since the Falliday Fest challenge was to use up bits and pieces, I decided to pair my paper scraps with some of the stamped colored and cut images I already had finished that hadn't made it onto a project yet.

The first little bit that was already made was my favorite wreath stamp from the Autumn Blessings stamp set, cut with the coordinating die from the Autumn Thanks die set. I had layered another wreath cut from chipboard behind it for some heft, then popped them up on a circle die cut stamped with the thanks a latte sentiment from Autumn Leaves. Everything had been colored with copics previously and the wreath had been coated with morning dew Nuvo drops and sprinkled with glitter.  I had also splattered with some distress stain.

I tucked some Autumn Leaves leaves behind the wreath that I had previously stamped and die cut, then added a few little nuvo drops to the wreath alternating yellow and orange.

The cup image was another bit that had been previously colored and cut with the coordinating die from the Happiness in a Cup die set. My only new stamping was the steam stamped in mocha ink on the sponged scrap from an Amber Moon journaling card.  I wrapped some vintage lace trim around the piece, then layered another Amber Moon scrap, then the wreath/leaf image and finally popped up the colored coffee cup below the steam.

I knew I wanted to make another pop up gift card holder. I created it the same as the last one I shared, but this time I used the Classy Label Die to cut the opening instead of the word window punch, and then cut a little slit on each side from the die cut opening to about 3/8" from either side.  On the inside of the card, I used a left over strip of paper from the 6 x 6 pad. The center block of the paper actually has a heart that says Autumn is love, but it wasn't the sentiment I wanted, so I covered it with a heart shaped ephemera piece from the ephemera pack, then placed a coffee cup sticker from the Amber Moon planner goodie pack in the center of the heart. I bought this pack entirely because of these little coffee cup stickers! Seriously cute! I finished off with a seasonal chitchat sticker with the sentiment today I am grateful that I fishtailed on either end. Now it's all ready for a quick note of gratitude with a gift card to a local coffee drive-thru tucked in.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful start to your week.

Enabler's List
Stamps: Autumn Leaves, Autumn Blessings (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Amber Moon 4 x 6 and 2 x 3 journaling cards and 6 x 6 pad (Prima), neutral cardstock
Ink: coffee archival, vintage photo distress stain, brushed corduroy distress (Ranger), warm sunshine, crimson, espresso, mocha (Altenew), copic markers
Accessories: Autumn Thanks Die Set, Autumn Leaves Die Set, Happiness in a Cup Die Set, Classy Label Die (A Cut Above by VERVE), Seasonal chitchat stickers (Tim Holtz), morning dew, ripened pumpkin and dandelion yellow Nuvo drops (Tonic), vintage lace, Amber Moon Planner Goodie Pack, Amber Moon ephemera pack (Prima)

Other Links
Color Wheel printables
FF17bejoyce Falliday Fest Challenge
Pop Up gift card tutorial