Last Minute Halloween Card!

Here’s a last minute Halloween card that is relatively fast and easy to create:

The crazy bird (Tim Holtz), the Halloween scene and sentiment (both Close To My Heart Charmed Holidays and All Hallows Eve sets) were stamped on Soft Finish Cardstock (Elizabeth Craft Designs; check out my post about the paper here).

The bird was colored with Faber-Castell Aquarelle pencils and the scene was colored with Distress inks. I stamped the spider web in white ink on craft card stock then attached all the pieces. (The bird and the sentiment were mounted with foam squares). It felt a little too plain so I added some dots of Ranger Liquid Pearls.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Elizabeth Craft’s Soft Finish Paper

Paper artists are a tactile bunch and Elizabeth Craft Designs has given us something worthwhile to touch in — the new Soft Finish Cardstock. I mentioned this product on my blog here, but finally had a chance to play with it. And it is, indeed, lovely!

The paper, which comes in two weights, is almost velvety to touch with just a dash of texture. It’s not as heavy as most watercolor papers, but I found it held up nicely to various coloring techniques, including watery applications.

For example….

  

Here are four pieces of the card stock that I abused with Distress Inks, sprays, water, etc. (The trio on the left is the lighter 85 lb. weight, the blue/green piece is 100 lb.)

For the first pink piece on the left I smooshed Distress inks (Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves and Tumbled Glass) on my craft sheet, spritzed with water, then pushed my card through the inks. (I used the textured side of the card stock.) I heated it, then filled in some blanks with more color. The second pink piece was created with the left over pools of ink.

Here’s one finished card:

The dies are from Elizabeth Craft, the sequins from Lawn Fawn. The purple card stock is a discontinued Paper Source line.

The bright yellow/green piece below was created using Distress sprays (Marmalade, Broken China and a spritz of metallic Bronze). I was impressed at how well the paper held up. And here’s the card:

The Tim Holtz crazy bird was stamped and black embossed on the smooth side of the card stock, then colored in with Faber-Castell PITT Big markers scribbled on a craft sheet and applied with a water brush. The bird was fussy cut and mounted with a piece of fun foam (adhered with ScraPerfect’s The Best Glue Ever). The circle (Hero Arts) was stamped in grey and Hello! (Tim Holtz Bird Crazy) in black. I also added a few clear dots of Liquid Glass from Close to My Heart for a bit more subtle dimension:

By the way, the Soft Finish paper also cuts like a dream:

I used some of the leftover pieces for these great kimonos (Elizabeth Craft Designs).

I’ll have another card made with the same papers in the next post — a Halloween card.

Thanks for tuning in!

From the Vault: Stampscapes

Sometimes it pays to clean out old boxes …. especially when you find old cards.

Often, when I look at these old cards, made when I first started stamping back in the Neanderthal era, I think, “my, these are so simple… and unsophisticated….” But sometimes I also re-discover some favorite stamps that haven’t touched ink in a long time.

Like these Stampscapes images. I had forgotten how much I loved the designs from Kevin Nakagawa, the king of scene-building images. I have several of his scene-making stamps, but I also have these more stylistic images from the Symmetry Sheet 2 collection:

Oh, so simple! This was way before texture embossing folders were out. So check out the old-school scoring lines for simple texture! The image was stamped on a linen-textured cardstock, so the streaky lines are my fault, no fault of the stamp!

This was stamped on a glossy cardstock and it came out much better. (All the other stamps I show here are from Hero Arts and also among my earliest stamp buys.)

Two more versions of the sun:

(Before I had a large stash of patterned paper or background stamps, I used the inside of envelopes!)

Now I need to dig these out and see what I can do to update the look! If you love making a scene, do check out the Stampscapes Web site.

Thanks for stopping by.

Upcycling a Gift Box

Can you ever have enough gift box or bags? Obviously not!
Here’s a project I made using an old matzoh box (yes, left over from Passover!) and some old calendars (from Cavallini).
I love boxes. I love using up scraps. This was a project made in scrappy heaven.

Here’s the original box.

Notice how the covering is just that, a covering? So I could easily strip it off to get to the plain box:

I then used some heavy duty double sided tape and glue to fold the flaps to the inside. I clipped them until the glue was dry:

This beautiful calendar was the perfect cover:

To make the handle, I just poked holes in the sides and threaded some ribbon through, knotting the ends inside the box.

A little Stickles glitter glue for sparkle and I’m done:

Now, who do I give this to????

Quick Halloween Project with Duck Tape

In preparation for an upcoming craft project for Craftideas magazine, I’ve been playing with Duck brand Duck Tape®. Here’s a quick Halloween project using the tape and a recycled shipping box:

I’ll just toss some candy in there and be ready for any trick-or-treaters! For this box, I simply took the roll and started wraping it around the box, cutting where I needed to using a non-stick scissor. I used three layers so I’d have enough to cover the raw edges at the top of the box.

I’ve been having a little too much fun re-purposing various boxes (boxes my husband keeps trying to throw out!)

Here’s another quick one that went from this….

…to this:

I love the way the box was cut — a perfect way to hold some cards:

For that box, I used a sheet (instead of rolls). I set the box down on the paper-covered side of the sheet, then did a rough trace of the bottom and sides to get my cutting lines. I peeled off the lining and set the box bottom in the middle. Then I just folded up the sides, making slices where I needed to overlap or maneuver the tape. (I put the box on a large cutting mat and used a craft knife to slice. I didn’t worry about being neat or precise.)

These are so fast and easy, you’ll want to cover every blank surface!