Midnight Quilt Mania

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Halloween in July??




Halloween in July??


You’ve heard of Christmas in July, well what about Halloween? We love Halloween and have already been talking about what we need to do to get ready for this year. I guess that it what made me think of my Halloween stamps for this month’s Papertrey Ink blog hop.


The PTI challenge was to focus on text and use it any way we wanted in a project. The first thing that came to mind was to create a fun text background using my PTI Halloween sets Spooky Sweets and Spooky Sweets II. So here we go!



I love the funky pattern on this first card. Look real close to see how I created this retro looking background. It’s one of the bat stamps from Spooky Sweets! I stamped the bats in a row across a sheet of Guidelines Two cardstock and then turned the bat upside down and stamped it directly underneath the other bat. The result was this really cool pattern. In between the X created by the bats I used the Boo! stamp from the same set. I kept the layout very simple so the focus would be on my background. Just a simple band of orange suede ribbon topped with a scallop circle and a little bat and sentiment on Ripe Avocado cardstock.


Backgrounds for the next two cards were also stamped on Guidelines Two cardstock. I can see that I am going to need more of this cardstock! ;) The cards are basically the same but with a few slightly different embellishments. I started my background by stamping one of the decorative ring stamps from Guidelines Two around the circles. Then I stamped the little spider from Spooky Sweets in the negative space between the circles and alternated sentiments inside the circles. Again I tried to keep the focus on the text since that was the theme for the Blog Hop. :) I cut out the text background using Nestabilities Labels 2 and then added another layer with Smoky Shadow cardstock. In the first sample I edged the panels with silver pen and added black glitter to the little spiders. For the embellishment I stamped the larger spider on PTI white cardstock and added Doodlebug crushed velvet in black. IRL it is so cool looking and fun to touch, unlike real spiders which give me the willies! Why do I like making Halloween cards with spiders when I’m terrified of them? I’m sure Freud would have had something interesting to say about that but I digress. I finished it off by using some thin silver cord as the spider’s web string. I got a little messy with the silver pen. Note to self: Add silver pen BEFORE you glue down the layers. If I had it to do over again I would probably leave that part out.


The second card is just like the first without the silver pen and using some lovely polka- dot ribbon and a big Summer Sunrise button. And I’ve included a shot of the inside of the cards too.



Thanks for stopping by! I can’t wait to see what you all came up with.

Happy Halloween 3 months early!

Kim




Supply lists (All supplies by PTI unless otherwise noted):


Card #1: Stamps: Spooky Sweets, Spooky Sweets II (inside). Cardstock: Guidelines II, Smoky Shadow, Ripe Avocado. Ink: Palette Noir, SU! Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Suede ribbon (stash), circle punches by SU!.


Card #2: Stamps: Guidelines II, Spooky Sweets, Spooky Sweets II (inside). Cardstock: PTI White, Guidelines II, Smoky Shadow, SU! Pumpkin Pie, Heidi Grace dp. Ink: Palette Noir, SU! Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Doodlebug glitter and crushed velvet, Silver Cord (stash), silver pen (Prismacolor), circle punches by SU!


Card #3: Stamps: Guidelines II, Spooky Sweets, Spooky Sweets II (inside). Cardstock: PTI White, Guidelines II, Smoky Shadow, SU! Pumpkin Pie, Heidi Grace dp. Ink: Palette Noir, SU! Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Swiss dot ribbon, Summer Sunrise button, black twine (stash).


ETA: Fixed some spelling errors and put in the title of my post. Geesh, I always forget to do something when I'm prepping for Blog Hop! :)

Saturday, July 11, 2009

A GSS submission and babble




I am not so patiently waiting for the PTI July release on the 15th. This month I am really loving most of the sets previewed so far. If only money were no object! Well in the meantime, I uploaded this gift set for the PTI Guest Star Stamper contest this month.


The set contains 4 note cards w/ envelopes, an altered frame and a cute little altered tin. The inspiration for the color scheme and design came from the pretty Daisy D's paper I used on the picture frame. The colors were a great match for PTI's Spring Moss and Melon Berry and I thought the images from Life would make wonderful images for the cards.

I first stamped a foliage image in Spring Moss on Bitty Box paper and then stamped a flower image over it in Spring Moss (stem) and Melon Berry. Before I loaded on the Perfect Match ink I stamped my stamp in Versa Mark. That way I was able to emboss the flower image. It deepened the color of the flowers and gave it a nice finished look. I stamped various sentiments from the Life set on the bottoms of the cards and found lovely coordinating sentiments from Birthday Basics and Mother to go on the inside of the cards.




I used some fun natural cotton trim for accent on some of the cards and around the photo cut out on the frame. When I make cards to give away I make them as flat as I can, while hopefully keeping them interesting, so that the person I give them to can mail them without having to pay extra postage or worry about embellishments punching through the envelopes.

For the frame I stamped my sentiment on the paper and then adhered the paper to the frame with Perfect Paper Adhesive. This is my favorite product for attaching paper. It's not as wet as ModPodge, doesn't leave my hands as sticky and I have less problems with bubbles. When that was on I adhered the trim, buttons and ribbon.


The tin was super easy. It already had those cute embossed flower
designs on it so all I had to do was punch holes in it and thread on my buttons
and ribbon. Easy Peasy! I think the set turned out super cute!

Supplies: Stamps: PTI Life, Birthday Basics, Mother. Ink: Melon Berry, Spring Moss,
Vintage Tea Dye Duo, Versa Mark, Ranger Walnut Stain. Cardstock: Rustic Cream,
Melon Berry, Kraft, Accessories: Bitty Box paper, Daisy D's paper, border punch,
PTI vintage buttons, ribbon and twine, cotton trim (stash) tin box - Target.