A quick and easy Halloween treat

So I got called into a class for today. I have been in a few times and I have really enjoyed the students and I had bought some Halloween pencils at Walmart the other day for my teacher bag. So this morning I got an idea to make little tags to put on the pencils to say they were from me. I took a dcwv mat stack I bought a couple months ago which is 6.5 x 4.5 and I cut it into three somewhat equal sections which works out to be a little over 2 inches x 4.5. I cut orange paper to fit on top of the pattern which is a little over 1.75x 4. I stamped this cute pumpkin and "boo to you" on the orange in black ink. Glued the orange paper to the patten and punched to circles on the side for the pencil to slide through. I was able to finish 24 of them in maybe 15-20 minutes. I left them for the classroom teacher to pass out. And it cost only like $2 for the pencils everything else was in my stash!

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Steam punk girl stamp

Michael's had this stamp for sale with their Halloween stuff this season. As soon as I saw her I fell in love and figured she wasn't overly Halloween-y. I kept putting off buying her because I don't buy as many stamps (especially wood mount one) that are not ctmh. But after looking at her for a few visit I made the purchase. So far I have used her on two different cards one a general themed card (using dcwv tattered times stack) the other more Halloween themed (using ctmh moonlight paper pack). She is just fun to color.

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October card club

This months card club is finally planned.... It's tomorrow I never wait this long, but homework and our annual pig roast put card class on the back seat. The Halloween card was planned a week or so ago, but the second card had to wait till this evening. I had a few ideas for it, but ended up doing this simple cardinal card. My more complex card idea will have to wait for next month.

Halloween card supplies:
Moonlight workshop on the go kit
Creepy creatures
Black tulle
Watercolor pencil
Martha Stewart's graveyard punch

Christmas card:
Partridge and pear paper pack
To you and yours stamp set
Kraft cardstock
Cranberry brads
Gold embossing powder

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Altered witch hat work in progress

So at our last art gathering we were each given a witch hat to alter mine has been sitting around neglected ever since. Today I got my homework caught up for the week and a good chunk of boxes cut for my friend Deb's wedding in a few weeks, so I treated myself to a little while of play. So far this is simply what I have done. I started with a base coat of copper paint then I sprayed with slate glimmer mist. I painted the brim copper then black and painted bubble wrap with copper paint. I decided to add seam binding (which is not permeant yet and I added a bling bat. It needs some more work but I haven't figured out what it needs yet and I'm really not sure when I can play again. I'm swamped with work and homework lately. My life consist of work, class, homework, eat sleep start all over again. Speaking of sleep that what about to do. Till next time.

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Some Halloween cards

My artiste cartridge put me in the Halloween mood. I love the bat shaped card and couldn't wait to make it. On top of that I was at Jonann's the other day and they had the new DCWV Halloween stack Bewitched I purchased the mat stack because I don't do a lot of Halloween layouts or cards for that matter. But the last couple days I have been on a roll.

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Stamped plate

Well I'm planning for a Close to my Heart Club gathering at my house.  We are doing our projects a month in advance, so the crafters have a chance to give them out.  This month the projects are Halloween based.  I decided to decorate a little and I wanted to make mini pumpkin cupcakes and I wanted to get a cupcake stand, but ended up with a plate stand from Target then got white plates from the Dollar store.  Then with some purple and green stazon ink and the flourish stamp from the Close to My Heart Stamp set "Pair a Pharse" I stamped around the edges.  I'm not a perfectionist so I tried to space everything out as evenly as possible without measuring in some spots the images overlap and with glass it is hard to get a nice smooth image because between the glass surface, the stamp itself and angle your working on you get images that look a little too mushed and images where everything slides.  But the great thing is that in the end it is handmade and honestly no one will notice but you.  lol.  Why use aryclic stamps for projects like these, because you CAN go back and line the image back up if you don't stamp it evenly the first time.  Even the most experienced stamper has projects where that stamp something and part of image doesn't stamp quite right.  I do it all the time, on your usual cardstock project like cards its easy to correct.  You can put a piece foam like Close to my Heart provides in all of their stamp sets and slip it under your paper and try again.  Projects like my plates you don't really have that option so you have to line your image back up and push a little harder.  Another tip when working with Stazon ink that I have found it takes a little time to dry so if you keep a damp paper towel handy when working on glass projects when you make a mistake that you don't like and you want to start over with you just wipe it off quickly.  Another thing and this works when your using sharpie too.  All you need is a little rain-x to wipe Stazon ink or Sharpie off plastic or glass. I like to label all my craft tools so when I go to a crop and let someone borrow something it will come back.  And once in a while I like to be a little bit of a perfectionist so I sometimes will get a new tool and decide I want all the writing on my tools to match, so if I have say my name in blue on one item and pink on another it SOMETIMES bothers me, so I take out the rain-x and wipe all my tools down and relabel them.  This doesn't happen too often but when it does, it does I can't fight it haha. Pin It Now!

Away to long

Sorry I have been gone so long without posting, but I have been busy starting my christmas stuff. I wanted to get a head start this year. I swear I didn't forget about the blog. I'm sure I will here "post your christmas cards, but I'm weird I can't. I feel like they should be a surprise ever year to my friends and family, so that they can enjoy them first. So when I'm confident that they all have been recieved I will post pictures. I have 3 designs done 12 of one, 12 of another, and about 24 of a third so in total about 48 cards are complete. I think I will be doing some more as back up. I was hoping that I would just continue doing them till I have good start for next year, but I'm not sure that will happen because I have other christmas creations to do as presents. I like to do a couple scrapbook/art related gifts every year it allows me to still create without feeling guilty during the holiday season. lol. That all for now. I hope to have another post soon with some other stuff I've been doing. ttyl Pin It Now!

Halloween fun

Well with Halloween around the corner I thought it was time to do some Halloween crafts because Halloween is my favorite holiday. So I went to Micheal's to find some pumpkins to alter and found this amazing little skull. He is paper mache (sp) so I painted him orange then went back and painted him with Tim Holtz Distress paint (my favorite). Then I took the Tim Holtz Lost and Found stamp set which I just got and used the flock of birds stamp. Then I took an inkadoo. Halloween stamp set for the Trick or treat, the spiders and the spider webs. I used some stickles to bling out the spiders. Then I took one of the wings from Tim Holtz Grunge board and painted them purple and highlighted the dot pattern with orange and green paint. When it was dry I stamped the Spider webs on them and braded them to the back of the skull.

The Pumpkin is pretty simple again it was a paper mache piece boring brown. I painted it orange then the stem with Tim Holtz distress paint. I printed some images off the Internet (they are for my use only and i looked up free images) then I modge podged them around the pumpkin. After that I search my craft room high and low for green wire I know I have somewhere. I couldn't find it so I took boring silver wire and wrapped it with green ribbon. I used clear accent to glue the ends to the wire and voila I had some pumpkin vine.

The last little project I'm working on is an experiment. I bought these really great flat poker chips to alter and the first thing I came up with is to make them into charms for necklaces so I started to play and I came up with these cute halloween pieces that I'm going to give to my little cousins for halloween. They will be double sided one side the cat that you see in the group shot and the other is going to be a monster from a K&company piece of paper I had. I think these will make cool birthday gifts for some very special artists I know. Shhhh don't tell them. lol. I have about 300 poker chips to play with so we'll see. well that is all I have to share for now. I'm going to get in some craft time tonight hopefully. I have some projects due soon. Pin It Now!