Hippy Chick

There is something about this Gorjuss girl that just screams hippy chick to me so it wasn't much of a stretch to pair her up with some this tree hugging paper from Basic Grey. One of those cards that comes together with very little effort and makes up for all those other cards that take forever and result in much teeth gnashing....

Halloween Tree

My weakness for all things Halloweeny (yes, Barb it is a word!) means I have an insane amount of Halloween paper, not to mention a collection of black and grey Prima flowers that never looked right on any card I made, so over the Labor Day weekend, I worked on this little project using the SCS instructions for Paper Trees and used up a ton of stuff. The original instructions are for Christmas decorations and I had made a couple of Christmas trees last year and still had some styrofoam balls. And, like any good hoarder, I also have a stash of things I picked up "that might be useful one day" which includes more than a few of those metal buckets from the Target dollar spot. Look closely and you will see that it was sponged with alcohol inks to make it black and spooky! Altering tin is one of the very many cool things you can do with thatstuff.
This week has just shot by and the only crafty things I have been working on are my swaps for my fellow Angels on Paper Wings, the angels only forum I am part of. So I can't show you them yet, obviously, but I am pleased with the way they turned out, although it took me forever to decide on what to make. I don't swap often because as soon as I sign up, I become paralyzed with the possibilities, futz around for days, waste tons of supplies and end up regretting the impulse that placed me in this position in the first place but there are so many cute sets in our fall supplement that I gave in.

Tim n' Martha

So I've had this set of Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks sitting in my craft room for at least 6 months now. I picked them up at Michaels one week, while wandering round looking for something to use my 50% off coupon on - you know, because I couldn't not use it and miss out on saving.. my DH LOVES that logic. "look how much I saved you today, honey"

Anyhow, I dug 'em out when I played along with the Macabre Monday challenge, viewed Mr Holtz (genius) doing his thing with them on YouTube and then played with them some more to create the back grounds for these little lovelies. The stickers are from the same MS pack I found on clearance last year and the bats are a MS punch and some sparkly paper from the stash. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out and I pretty much likes them all, but I believe the owl is my favorite. I do love Halloween.....

Operation Write Home

I make Cards For Heroes, or at least I used to! Now I make cards for Operation Write Home - same people, different name. There are a couple of very good reasons for the change and you can find them all here, but the reason for sending cards to them hasn't changed so if you have a few (or a lot) of spare cards in your stash, or you just need a reason to make a bunch o'cards, check out the guidelines on the home page (that whole "no glitter" thing is a challenge for me!!) and get a package in the mail today!
Here's my Halloween stash, sneaking in just before the deadline .....

Halloween Gorjussness

More Halloween cards! I think little Miss Gothic Gorjuss lends herself very well to the spirit of the season - so I decided to play around with her a little. Whaddya think of her with a green face? Purple hair? More alien than goth in the end, IMHO, but maybe someone will love her.
I've had a perfectly splendid Saturday - my first order from The Angel Company's "Inspiration Avenue" arrived with lots of yummy new holiday stamps (there just might be a new Halloween set in there... just sayin') so I spent the afternoon happily trimming and organizing.
And as if that weren't enough I found Bejewelled Blitz for my PC!!!! I have been totally addicted to this game since I found it on Facebook but the PC version is way better. Any of you fellow addicts rush to Target and buy this immediately so I won't be alone like this............

I remember.........

HDH Macabre Monday Challenge 04

Barb Foster is a fellow Angel. We've never met, but I've seen her posts on Paper Wings, the forum for Angels, and I've admired her work in the TAC catalogs because she is frequently featured there. Recently I discovered that Barb, like me, is a big Halloween fan. She is such a big fan that she has a whole blog , Haunted Design House, dedicated just to her obsession. I love it that sort of dedication!
It's been a long time since I played along with any challanges but how could I resist a Macabre Monday challenge? We are challenged to use a ghastly poem within the design and really who is more ghastly than Edgar Allen Poe?? My poem is "The Raven" I've had these Martha Stewart stickers sitting around in my Halloween stash for over a year now with a vague idea of what I wanted to do with them, so this card came together really quickly. I printed the poem on a piece of TAC's (retired) Kamalat DP and inked up the edges with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo ink. Then I used the MS drippy goo punch on a scrap piece of glittery black paper from my stash and mounted it on a piece of glossy card that I doctored up with Tim Holtz alcohol inks and entered it in Barb's challenge.

Light up my life

As soon as I saw this Inkadinkadoo set, I knew they had to be mine. And I knew exactly what I was going to do with them - make Halloween cards! I love this card (she said modestly)
I honestly don't often love my cards - comparing myself to some of my stamping idols, I'm frequently unhappy with the results, but not this time .I was so happy with it I made the mistake of asking my DH his opinion.

Me: " Look what I made - what do you think?"
Him: "What does a chandalier have to do with Halloween?"
Me: "Well, don't you think it's atmospheric, doesn't it make you think of old houses and ghosts and such?"
Him: "Nope - I still don't see what it has to do with Halloween."

Which made my doubt myself for about 5 minutes........... and then I stamped a whole bunch more for Cards For Heroes. See......

I change up the colors and ribbon (because the ribbon on the first card is way sparkly and you can't use sparkle on CFH cards because of the risk to our heroes of stray bits of bling showing up on night vision goggles. Who woulda thunk it?) but I still love these cards regardless of what DH says. What does he know anyway??

The cardstock is TAC kraft, the paper came from a Halloween pad of paper I picked up at Michaels, the "Halloween" sentiment is a TAC stamp from last year, the "happy" is from an SU set that i don't remember the name of , the ribbon also come from M's . Think that's all folks!

Happy Haunting

I had a lot of fun this weekend putting together some Halloween cards for my next Cards For Heroes mailings.
This little witch is from TAC's "Happy Haunting" set, the spider and the sentiment came from a Michaels Inkadinkadoo set, the kraft cardstock is TAC's and the DP came from the scrap pile. A little coloring, some stickles and she was done! I was so pleased with the way it came out, I whipped up a bunch.
Halloween and Kraft Cardstock - two current obsessions. Also the series "Weeds" which I have been watching on Netflix and Bejewelled on Facebook. What's your current obsession?