A Pair of Jacks

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  The hubs took this week off from work and Ryan is on his second week of fall break (uh, I think he should just have one week off) so we've been doing all the touristy things around our area this week.  We've seen some cool things, but I haven't gotten to spend any time in my craft room this week.  At least I have Halloween cards already ready to go for the Hex-Travaganza!

Here is tonight's offering:

A couple of cute jacks and also the card that made me realize I need to ink up my Flirty Flamingo and Highland Heather ink pads.  We have low humidity where I am in Colorado and I don't think about it until I have to ink up yet another ink pad.

You've seen me use this CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch before:

My Witch Way card is actually the second card I made with this sketch, and tonight's card was the first one.  I had to use the other two triangular pieces of DSP : )

Stay spooky, friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jack of All Trades, Cutest Halloween
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Highland Heather, Flirty Flamingo, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Thick Basic White, Cute Halloween DSP Stack
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals

Bone-Jour

Midnight greetings, spooky pals!  I'm back with another Halloween card and I picked this one because I just mailed it off to my friend Krissy earlier this week.  Say Bone-Jour to our friend Pierre:

I'm bringing back the Bag of Bones bundle along with the very old Modern Label punch for the sentiment.  Fun fact:  I have visited the Paris catacombs twice, so I have in fact seen many many French skeletons.

Once again, my card is inspired by a CASE-ing Tuesday sketch:

See, you can turn any sketch into a Halloween card if you try hard enough.  That's it for tonight, y'all.  Stay spooky, pals!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bag of Bones
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Them Bones DSP
Accessories:  Bag of Bones dies, white EP, Modern Label punch, black rhinestones, Mini Dimensionals

Vlad's Boo-quet

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  Tonight's Halloween card features one of my favorite spooky pals, Vlad!

I can't believe we're three weeks into October and Vlad has just now joined the chat : )  I usually do at least one card with Vlad or one of his pals from Best Fiends, Agatha and Frankie, every October.  Best Fiends and the coordinating greeting set Just Between Fiends debuted pretty early in my stamping career and I still love them--we've never had another set that's quite this style.

Anyway, Deborah's card for last week's Paper Players color challenge inspired me to break out the colored pencils for the first time in a long while.  Funny story:  I have a big set of Prismacolor pencils, but earlier this year I got a wild hare that I just *really* wanted a set of 100 Crayola colored pencils (I use the Crayola ones mostly for coloring in what I've done on cross stitch patterns).  Did I need them?  Hubs would say no.  Did I get them anyway?  I think we know the answer to that.  So I got out my brand new never-before-used Crayola pencils to color in Vlad here, and then I went looking for something in another drawer and I found...a SECOND set of 100 Crayola pencils.  So apparently I went through that same thought process and just forgot that I'd already bought the pencils.  I also have a brand new set of 36 and another set of 8 that are retired crayon colors, not to mention the 24 set that I actually use with my cross stitch stuff.  And the giant box of Prismacolors.

My erratic (but probably relatable) purchasing habits aside, Vlad would like to join the Color Hues Challenge:

I knew I was using the Happy Haunting DSP, so I matched my orange colored pencils to Tangelo Twist, but then I just picked purple pencils that I liked and then decided that Lovely Lilac cardstock was the best match after I had colored him in.  I finished with a few purplish stars from an embellishment pack a few years ago.

And I remembered to take a picture of the inside!

Just Between Fiends also has a stamp that says "This Boo-quet's for You" but for some reason I wanted to do this one this time.

Okay, I've been far more chatty tonight than I usually am with the Hex-Travaganza posts, but I hope you enjoyed getting to see Vlad.  I've got ten more nights to get Agatha and Frankie inked up so that just has to happen.  Stay spooky, friends!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Just Between Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Lovely Lilac, Basic Beige, Happy Haunting DSP
Accessories:  Hippo Friends dies, Crayola colored pencils, Dimensionals, star embellishments

October 2021

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  This time I remembered!  Okay I haven't scrapped in months because I've been obsessed with Nancy Drew--reading the books, doing the Nancy Drew challenge here (that will be returning this Saturday), and doing my in-depth look at the books on my other blog (still on hiatus for a bit), but one day I'll get back to scrapping and in the meantime I have this layout to share that I made earlier this year.

This is my monthly catch-all layout for October of 2021, when we lived in Germany.  Halloween is not a big thing in Germany so the Americans in the area have a bunch of trunk-or-treat activities; we went to those and Ryan *finally* got to wear his Scooby Doo costume that was comically large when I first bought it for him, I can't remember what year.  And this layout is the first time I used Ghoulish Goodies, another Halloween stamp set eBay purchase, and DID YOU SEE THE SCOOBY STAMP?!  Right next to where it says October?  C.C. Designs has *multiple* Scooby Doo stamp sets and yes I bought them all.  And the Hocus Pocus ones, of course!

Today's color palette:

I had a lot of blue in my pictures and of course I wanted to use orange since so many of the pics are Halloween-related, and happily for me the VERY old Jersey Shore DSP had exactly what I was looking for.  So today's color palette is Pumpkin Pie (which I almost never use for page bases, so I'm happy it worked here), Brilliant Blue (very similar to the now-current Blueberry Bushel), Wild Wasabi, and white.

Okay, the hubs is off work all week and Ryan is on his second week of fall break, so I don't know how much stamping I'll get to do this week even though I am *finally* starting to feel more like my usual self (stupid appendix).  But here's hoping that I'll get to do some crafting this week.  In the meantime, I need to take Daph-Daph for her walk and then we're going to a ghost town museum.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin, Ghoulish Goodies, Best Buds by C.C. Designs
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Brilliant Blue, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, Thick Basic White, Jersey Shore DSP
Accessories:  1 3/4 circle punch, Layering Circles dies

Toxic Treat Gravestone

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  How are you enjoying my favorite month of the year?  We've had some cooler temperatures in the last few days and I am loving it!

Not quite so sure I'm loving tonight's card, though.

Have you ever bought a stamp set that you like, and yet you have trouble when it comes to making things with said stamp set that you like?  That's me and Toxic Treats.  I like this stamp set but I've had trouble making things I like *with* it, even when paired with my favorite Cast-a-Spell DSP.  The sketch from CASE-ing Tuesday Sketches did at least give me a good way to use up some long and skinny scraps!

I converted the sketch to a regular A2 card size as I personally dislike making slimline cards.  Not because I have anything against the different proportions really, but because it seems more wasteful of cardstock when I can't get two card bases out of a single sheet.  Just my opinion though.

Stay spooky, pals!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Toxic Treats
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Cast-a-Spell DSP
Accessories:  label punch, Dimensionals

Falling for Foliage with the Paper Players

Gooooood morning stampy friends!  Hope your weekend is going well, and that you're ready to add a bit of fun with a new Paper Players challenge from Jaydee!  Take a look:

Yes please, I love it!  I've been posting all the Halloween cards lately, but I also love making fall cards so this challenge is right up my alley.  I actually ended up making FOUR cards altogether but this is the one I'm sharing today:

I did a simple two-color background wash with blending brushes and then added my greeting, popped up leaf, and some iridescent gems.  I had to buy the greeting stamp from Riley & Company after seeing a card by Linda Callahan because October definitely *is* my favorite color.  I have never related to a book character more than when Anne Shirley said she was so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers, and I'm pretty sure I will be starting off 2026 with a reread of Anne of Green Gables because it's been far too long.  Anyway, I showed this card to Ryan, my know-it-all 8-year-old, and he informed me in no uncertain terms that October is not a color.  Good thing he's not the boss of me *or* my stamps.

We hope you enjoy the challenge too and upload your creation at the Paper Players blog so we can all see.  Have all the funs and don't forget to check out what my Paper Players teamies have created too.  Cheers!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

  and now me : )

Supplies:
Stamps:  Best of Autumn (SU!), Funny Bones (Riley & Company)
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals, Iridescent Foil Gems

Haunted House on the HIll

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  I can't believe we're already over halfway through October and I would like to start a petition to make October be more like 75 days long please : )  For tonight's card, I present...a haunted house:

I have owned House of Haunts for many, many years and I still love this haunted house image.  Once again I started with a CASE-ing Tuesday sketch:

I moved the sentiment strip upwards to where it made more sense with my haunted house image.  I pulled out my Cast-a-Spell DSP and Perfect Plum Candy Dots, which are both also quite old by craft supply standards but don't they still look great?  I would love to have some Halloween DSP more like Cast-a-Spell.

Stay spooky, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  House of Haunts, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Perfect Plum, Old Olive, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Perfect Plum, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Cast-a-Spell DSP
Accessories:  Squares Framelits, Word Window & Modern Label punches, White EP, Clear EP, Dimensionals, Perfect Plum Candy Dots

Spooky Couple

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  And today is a special day as the hubs and I are celebrating our twenty-second wedding anniversary, so I had to choose this card to share today:

I love love love the Monster Bash DSP, especially for the page of different spooky characters; the coordinating Spooktacular Bash only has Dracula and a mummy that go with this paper and I would have taken a stamp set with ALLLLL the characters on the DSP.  Also, side note, Gomez and Morticia Addams are relationship GOALS.  I bought the original Addams Family TV show on digital a while back and I need to watch it.  I need to watch the movies too, I am so far behind in watching spooky movies this month (stupid appendix has me sleeping through far too much of spooky season).

Anyway, this card ended up being a modified version of a past Just Add Ink sketch:

I had to move the spooky couple so that it allowed more of the haunted houses on the background paper to show up.  The only stamping is the "spooky" greeting and the Wild Wheat In Color Dots ended up being a pretty good match for the Summer Starfruit DSP.

Stay spooky, friends!  How many times did I use the word "spooky" in this blog post?  Well, it's warranted ; )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spooktacular Bash
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Terracotta Tile, Monster Bash DSP, Summer Starfruit DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, In Color Dots

Trick or Treat!

Midnight greetings once again, spooky friends!  I chose tonight's card because it went out in the mail earlier this week and it's all about the colored embossing powder.

I miss the colored embossing powders, you know?  I mean, I still have embossing powders that are probably over 10 years old as even the tiny pots last me forever, but I liked the options, you know?  One year we even had embossing powders in five In Colors.

Anyway, this one was inspired by another CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

I didn't strictly follow the sketch but you can see the inspiration.  Also I've been quite intrigued by all the hot pink on Halloween decorations at Michaels this year, so I've experimented a couple of times with using it myself.  What do you think, is hot pink an acceptable Halloween color?

Stay spooky, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Scary Cute
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Polished Pink, Gumball Green, Basic Black, Cutest Halloween DSP Stack
Accessories:  Gumball Green EP, Melon Mambo EP, Pumpkin Pie EP, Black EP, Scary Silhouettes dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Dots

Scary On

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  Honestly, what's got me spooked with tonight's card is that the colors aren't showing up right.  That's Lemon Lime Twist on there, I promise!

I don't know what that color looks like on my monitor, but it's not LLT.  I do like the layout though, another one from CASE-ing Tuesday Sketches:

I think this sketch was great to show off the silhouette images in the Scary Cute stamp set, what do you think?

Stay spooky, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Scary Cute
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Basic White, Cutest Halloween DSP Stack
Accessories: Scary Silhouettes dies, Dimensionals, Cute Stars Sequins

Creepy Crawly Boo!

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  Tonight we're straying from purple and green and going with the Halloween classic orange and black!

That particular shape from the Nested Essentials dies reminds me vaguely of a coffin so it seemed appropriate for a Halloween card.  I love that giant circular pattern but I'm glad that SU! doesn't put their logo on the edge of the paper anymore, you can see it in the top left corner.

For this card, I started off with another CASE-ing Tuesday sketch:

And since I don't have that diamond-shaped die they used in the catalog sample,  I went with my pseudo-coffin instead and accented with some small Halloween images from a past Paper Pumpkin kit.

Stay spooky, friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Basic White, Creepy Crawly DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Picture This dies, Dimensionals

A Spooky (or Not) Sketch for SUO Challenges

Gooood morning stampy friends!  I had to miss the last challenge at SUO Challenges because of my drama queen appendix going nuclear (I am recovering...very slowly), but I am ready for today's new challenge!

And it is...a sketch!

My teamie Tammy beat me to making a Halloween card using this sketch, and since I've been posting all the Hex-Travaganza cards this month (which I luckily have been making for almost a year so I had *something* to post while I recover) I thought I'd pivot and do something NOT spooky.  Here's my card:

I adore the Floral Charm DSP so I decided to feature it on today's card.  I chose the floral rose pattern and the Night of Navy pattern is on the flip side of the roses, so I cut a piece to the size I needed for the card front, then cut it into my four pieces and flipped over two of them so we see both patterns.  Then I took the scrap and fussy cut some more flowers to adorn the sentiment circle, and I also put some of those on the inside of the card (which I forgot to take a picture of).  So the only stamping is the greeting, which is a great one from Gathering Moments.  I thought about making another card with the Gathering Together DSP but then I had to take a nap instead.  Stupid appendix drama.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this sketch too and don't forget to upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  Whether you choose to make a Halloween card, something autumnal, or something else entirely, we'd love to see!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Berry Burst, Pretty Peacock, Bubble Bath, Floral Charm DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Charming Shimmer Faceted Dots

Witchy Wardrobe

Midnight greetings, spooky pals!  I am back with the third card I made for this week's Paper Players color challenge, and once again I went with a witchy theme:

I got Tee-Hee-Hee earlier this year on eBay and this is my first card using it.  See, I get to use a much bigger variety of Halloween stamp sets thanks to the Hex-Travaganza, and that makes my little witchy heart happy : )  Here's the Paper Players color challenge to refresh your memory:

Stay spooky, y'all!  I'm going to see if I have any more uninked Halloween stamp sets...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tee-Hee-Hee
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gorgeous Grape, Granny Apple Green, VersaMark
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Halloween Spells DSP, Gorgeous Grape DSP
Accessories:  white EP, Perennial Postage dies, Mini Dimensionals

Leaf Lineup

Gooooood afternoon, stampy friends!  I forgot to do a Scrappy Monday post this morning, and instead I had a post-op meeting with my surgeon who broke up with me (he says I'm recovering fine and don't need to see him anymore), then I ran by the store (why do I *always* need something from the store), and then I came home and ate yogurt for breakfast (not my favorite but it's part of the recovery stuff) and took Daph-Daph out for her walk.  And then I got *really* extracurricular and did a good clean on the kitchen and put some chicken taco soup in the crockpot.  Except I didn't clean the oven or the microwave, let's not get too crazy here.

Anyway, after consuming a truly concerning amount of Doritos, I made a card to share today!

The trees here are on board with me manifesting fall and finally the temperatures are starting to get into the spirit too, our high today is in the 50s and I am Here For It.  This card came together in 15 minutes or less thanks to the Sunday Stamps sketch:

Paired with the Color Hues challenge:

I used Cajun Craze and Crushed Curry, with Very Vanilla as my neutral.  Love these colors together.  And finally the As You See It challenge:

When I first saw this challenge, I debated a bit about what my very favorite thing about fall (my favorite season) is.  Pumpkin recipes?  (We had pumpkin coffee cake for breakfast yesterday!)  More excuses to drink tea and wear comfy sweaters?  (I do love tea and comfy clothes!)  But when I took Daphne out for our walk today, I decided that you just cannot beat fall colors.

LOVE.  We currently live in COLORado (see what I did there) and the maples in the neighborhood are putting on a show and we are planning to buy one to replace the very dead tree in our front yard.  I also saw this goth tree:

Seriously this one has purpley-black leaves and I was previously unaware of the goth subculture in the tree community.  Hubs and I both grew up in Texas, the land that autumn forgot because everything turns brown in the space of about a week and falls off immediately after, there is no such thing as fall colors where we grew up unless you put on a rust-colored shirt and pretend real hard.  An actual autumn season and having mountains nearby are my two favorite things about living here.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk about why autumn is the best season ever : )  I'm going to go finish my tea, hopefully before it gets cold, and snuggle my girl Daphne while wearing my fleece Halloween pajama pants.  Maybe watch Hocus Pocus again because I fell asleep last time.  Bliss!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla, Gathering Together DSP
Accessories:  Gathering Moments dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Cajun Craze & Gold Dots

Witchy Greetings

Midnight greetings, spooky pals, and a lucky #13 at that!  When I posted yesterday's Paper Players card, I mentioned that I had made three different cards with the challenge colors, and then let Ryan choose which one to post for the challenge.  So here's one of the alternates:

These are perfectly witchy colors, no?  I thought I'd have some fun with the Bewitching stamp set, which is image only so I picked up the "Best Witches" greeting from the eponymous stamp set.  For this one I used multiple shades of the Paper Players challenge colors:

I've got both Gorgeous Grape and Highland Heather for purples (seriously, when are we getting Gorgeous Grape Blends???), and Granny Apple Green and Lemon Lime Twist for greens.  Elizabeth chose the challenge colors, I'm just her stunt double for hosting challenges for the rest of the year, she just happened to choose my two favorites : )

Stay spooky, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bewitching, Best Witches
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, VersaMark, Stampin' Blends in Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, Highland Heather
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Basic Black, Highland Heather, Thick Basic White, Halloween Spells DSP
Accessories:  Witch Hat punch, Circles Collection dies, Perennial Postage dies, white EP, Glitter Enamel Dots, Basic Black 3/8" taffeta ribbon

Hulk-Inspired Colors with the Paper Players

Happy Sunday y'all and get ready for a new Paper Players challenge!  I hope you enjoyed Claire's Halloween costume challenge as much as I did,  I am sure you've realized by now that I am all in when it comes to Halloween cards : )  Daphne is still blissfully unaware that I have an entire plastic tub of dog costumes, but she'll be finding out all about that soon!

Anyway, it's time for a new Paper Players challenge and Elizabeth has chosen some great colors for us to play with!

Seriously I was very tempted to make an Incredible Hulk card but I've done that already, so then I made three different purple and green cards and asked Ryan to pick which one I should post today.  He said that made him feel important, but unfortunately I just don't have the bandwidth to make multiple cards for every DT commitment, ha!  Here's the card Ryan chose for me to share today:

Wonderfully Wicked came out in 2019 and I still like to play with it every year, what's not to love about that giant die-cut word?  I still have some Iridescent Ice embossing powder, so I covered the word with that so it's green glittery sparkles and I love it.  I stamped the rest of the message and then had to add some punched bats from Spooky Sweets, another perennial Halloween favorite, and a few Granny Apple Green glitter enamel dots which are also quite old but I bought I think five packs.  I've used a lot of the green and purple enamel dots, I need to make a concerted effort to use up the Melon Mambo and Coastal Cabana ones.

Anyway, I hope you will enjoy Elizabeth's colors as much as I did, I am sure I will be sharing the other two green and purple cards I made later this week.  Don't forget to post your creation on the Paper Players blog, and most important, have fun!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

  and now me : )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfully Wicked, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gorgeous Grape, Versamark
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Granny Apple Green, Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White, Gorgeous Grape DSP
Accessories:  Wicked dies, Triple Bat Punch, Iridescent Ice EP, Mini Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots

Halloween Spider

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  How is your October going?  I'm seeing more and more Halloween decorations go up in our neighborhood--we have inflatable decorations including the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus as well as Bluey, which makes my little heart happy.  Ryan says we need twice as many Halloween decorations outside so maybe I'll see if I can get more half-price after the big day.  I saw a duck pirate inflatable (should it be duck pirate or pirate duck?) that he would love.

Anyway, my mom has a giant inflatable spider that she's put in her yard for years, but I prefer spiders to be flat, unmoving, and not alive.  Like this one!

I'm not 100% sure I liked this CASE-ing Tuesday sketch, but I gave it a shot!

I love the Wonderfully Wicked stamp set, but this time I skipped the giant die-cut word and went for the spider and web (usually I go with the cat or the bat since I don't like spiders!) and paired it with a fantastic plaid in Halloween colors.  I should mail this to my mom, who always texts me when she puts on her spider earrings for Halloween.

Stay spooky, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfully Wicked
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Plaid Tidings DSP
Accessories:  Hippo & Friends dies, Milky Dots

Magical Night

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  I'm back with another Halloween card.

This one is all about the bats and that beautiful Magic In This Night DSP, I do love that black harlequin pattern.  And here is the CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch I used as my jumping-off point for tonight's card:

The original catalog card was super springy in pastels:

Just more proof that a good sketch works in any season, am I right?

Stay spooky, friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hallows Night Magic
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Pretty Peacock, Magic In This Night DSP, New Horizons DSP Stack
Accessories:  Halloween Magic dies, Tags & Labels dies, Black EP, black rhinestones, Dimensionals