Halloween Bats

Happy Saturday, y'all!  I've got two more cards that I want to share today : )

You didn't think I'd miss out on my weekly mashup of Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown, did you?  Here's the sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, and Pool Party for the colors, and went pretty CAS with the sketch.  I love Spooky Sweets from 2018 and I usually manage to pull it out at least once every year for spooky season.

Bonus card today:

Ryan was invited to a birthday party that's happening this afternoon for a girl in his class; the invitation had a unicorn on it in pretty pastel colors so we started with that as our inspiration.  Ryan chose the patterned paper and did the stamping and coloring on the unicorn; I did the sentiment because it was three separate pieces, and he did the die cutting.  So now we're ready for the party this afternoon.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Pool Party, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Spooky Bats punch, Moon punch, Mini Dimensionals

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  The Greeting Farm
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, Blends in Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Flirty Flamingo, Berry Burst
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals

October 2018

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm planning to do some scrapping today : )  And also laundry, because there's always laundry.  But for right now, I've got a layout to share.

Pics are from the month of October 2018.  Man, Ryan was so little!  This kid has gotten so TALL lately.  Amusingly enough, you see that bear shirt in the two photos top left?  I got him that shirt in 2T and loved it so much I went back to buy it in a bigger size, so he still has a 5T one but he hasn't worn it lately and it will soon be in the pile of clothes he's outgrown.  I used to buy him alllll the clothes with bears and/or foxes on them; nowadays his clothes are like 98% superheroes and at least half of them are red and/or black.  He has a lot of Spider-Man and The Flash stuff.

Today's color palette:  Crumb Cake, Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Grapefruit Grove, and Whisper White.  I've used Pretty Peacock on several layouts just recently and I like the Grapefruit Grove as a more muted orange for this one.

Okay, I'm off to go do all the things.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar, Jack of All Trades, Spooky Sweets, Haunt Ya Later
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Grapefruit Grove, Garden Green
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Woven Threads DSP
Accessories:  None

Batty for Halloween

A conversation I had on WhatsApp yesterday with my friend Faith:

Faith:  I'm making a Christmas stocking...I have no idea why lol  I'm almost done and I'll prob make another one

Me:  I'm about to make a Halloween card in August.  Crafters gonna craft!

Faith:  Haha!  I wish I had Halloween colors {in yarn} and I'd make Halloween stockings lolol

True to my word, I did indeed make a Halloween card!

I could not resist making a Halloween card when I saw the Festive Friday challenge!

I used bats, night (the gray panel is the night sky with clouds), black, and embossing.  As I was going through my punches last week I found the spooky bats punch and thought it would be perfect for this.  I embossed the sentiment with white EP and originally I was going to just punch the bats out of black cardstock, but then I saw the Shimmery Black EP and of course THAT had to happen, so my bats are fancy!

I used the sketch from Inspired By...:

The cloud stamps are meant to stand in for the circles on the sketch, and then I put the bats on top plus one more for luck.  I'm also entering this at Retro Rubber:

Spooky Sweets was released in 2018, and Wonderfully Wicked in 2019, so they're both nice and retro for this challenge.  Heck, even my polka dot DSP is retro--I found a big scrap of it with my Pumpkin Pie cardstock and thought why not use that :)

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spooky Sweets, Wonderfully Wicked
Ink:  Versamark, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Pumpkin Pie DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Hippo & Friends dies, Spooky Bats punch, Dimensionals, Mini Dimensionals, White EP, Shimmery Black EP

Who You Gonna Call?

Okay, I shared the Halloween layout from Ryan's baby book on Saturday, so I have to share the layout from my regular chronological scrapbook today!  All the pictures except the two on the right were taken on Halloween.

The two on the right were taken at a Halloween event at Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate.  I think that second picture from the left is hilarious, how Ryan is looking at me like WHAT does she have on her head?!  I made my colander hat myself :D

Today's color palette is Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Old Olive, and Whisper White.  I am running very low on Brilliant Blue cardstock, so it's a good thing I stocked up on Blueberry Bushel before it retired since they're very similar.

The first packers get here one week from today!  Still got a lot to do before they get here...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rough Edges Alphabet, Headline Alphabet, Cauldron Bubble, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Brilliant Blue, Old Olive, Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Brilliant Blue, Old Olive, Thick Whisper White, Brilliant Blue DSP, Summer Picnic DSP
Accessories:  Circle punches

Candy for a Canine

I still want to make ALL THE HALLOWEEN CARDS and it turns out that Halloween is tomorrow.  It's been sneaking up on me.  But at least I did get ONE card made with the last of the Halloween stamp sets that I hadn't used yet...

This cute lil doggy witch is from Trick or Tweet, which I tried to resist and obviously I failed miserably and I'm okay with that.  Really you don't see a lot of doggos on Halloween stuff, unless they're of the werewolf variety...Halloween seems more like a catty holiday?  But I love this pupper and I used him to practice with my Blends again.  I just got a couple new colors yesterday, including Highland Heather.  Slowly working on completing my set!  Anyway, you always hear about the old dog who won't learn new tricks, so I thought this little pup would go great with the "No Tricks, Just Treats" sentiment.

I used the sketch from the Paper Players:

It was fun picking papers for each layer and playing with Halloween colors one more time.  But pretty soon here it's on to all things FALL and THANKSGIVING!  And maybe a few early Christmas things too, we'll see.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Trick or Tweet, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Mango Melody, Highland Heather, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, and Crumb Cake
Paper:  Mango Melody, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Toil & Trouble DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Spooky Bats

Happy Friday y'all!  I wish we had a few more days in October...like maybe an extra week or two...because I love to make Halloween cards!  I'm going to try really hard to actually SEND some out this year too, ha!

I'm in love with Spooky Sweets.

My first idea was to put a stamped-off Cajun Craze moon punch on the circle with the bats, but the circle by itself was reading like the moon so I left it off.  And take a look at that picture, I got the Wink of Stella sparkle to SHOW UP on the bats when I took the picture!!!  I also made my own Candy Dots on the bottom, they're Cajun Craze like the sentiment, with Wink of Stella on them too.  The black stripes were a scrap of DSP I had in my stash, part of a retired stack.

Check out the Fusion challenge:

I used the sketch and the photo inspired me as well.  I paired those with the Color Throwdown challenge:

I read those colors as Lost Lagoon (sadly retired, I love this color), Cajun Craze, and Very Vanilla.  The Fusion photo inspired me to add black to these colors for my spooky bats, but I love that if you swapped the black for some Early Espresso then these would be most excellent fall colors as well.  (I love fall cards too.  Really, October and November are my favorite part of the year.)

I still have one brand new Halloween stamp set that I haven't even inked up yet.  I'd better get on that soon or Halloween will have passed me by!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spooky Sweets, Labels to Love
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Basic Black DSP
Accessories:  Spooky Bats punch, Everyday Label Punch, Layering Circles Framelits, hole punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Frosty Roses

And how are you this fine Wednesday morning?  Ryan and I will soon be on our way to the gym so I can do pilates and run two miles while he plays in the nursery and eats snacks.  I actually do enjoy going to the gym six days a week.

But first, a card!  A shimmery card.

 I love that the Frosted Floral DSP has a shimmer to it, and of course that means I have to pair it with Shimmery White cardstock.  You can see some of the shimmer where the camera flash caught it just under the roses.  I used the latest sketch from Palmtrees and Pogo Sticks:

And the color combination from Just Us Girls:

Technically I used two greens for my combination, Mint Macaron and Tranquil Tide; the other colors are Night of Navy and Fresh Fig.  Blackberry Bliss is the purple that's featured in the Frosted Floral DSP, but I feel like I haven't used Fresh Fig very much so I went with that instead.  I was going for a rich regal take on the colors.  I made the mottled Fresh Fig background by grabbing the "cloud" stamp from Spooky Sweets and stamping it off twice before stamping on my card base.  Love how that turned out!  And it shows you that a Halloween set is more than a one-trick pony.

Dangit, I just realized I had meant to add some glitter epoxy shapes to my card and I forgot to do it before I took the photo.  Oh well, next time!

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  First Frost, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Fresh Fig, Night of Navy, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Shimmery White, Night of Navy, Frosted Floral DSP
Accessories:  Frosted Bouquet Framelits, Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

The Witch Is In

Well, I had to dust off everything in my craft room, but I did get a card made yesterday so yay me!  (And thank you to Ryan, who took a nice long nap!)  Right before my unplanned hiatus, I ordered pretty much all of the Halloween stuff from the SU! holiday catalog, so I had to play with that first.  Here's what I did:

New stamp set, new paper, even new markers!  I used the Basic Black Blends to color in the witch's hat.  I'm working on my Blends collection but I think this is only the first or second time I've used them.  Anyway, this card is a first for me:  a QUINTUPLE CHALLENGE CARD.  And I didn't pick three Halloween theme challenges either...actually none of them is a Halloween theme challenge.

First up is the SUO Challenge to use something from the holiday catalog.  I am not at all ready for Christmas cards, so I went with Halloween instead and that Toil & Trouble DSP kinda feels like retro DSP because it reminds me of a lot of stuff I had when I first started scrapbooking (which is --gulp-- over 20 years ago).

Next up is the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I kept telling myself I wasn't going to get this stamp set and then oops, it came to my house anyway.  Um, I bought all the Halloween stuff this year (stamps and paper anyway, not ribbon and embellishments because I tend not to use that stuff although the black glitter ribbon would have been awesome on this card).  I'm a little bummed I missed when they did the Takeout Treats challenge because I own that stamp set and it hasn't been inked up yet.

Moving right along!  Here's the color challenge courtesy of Fab Friday:

I reeeeeallllly wanted to add some Granny Apple Green or Lemon Lime Twist in there but I was a good girl and stuck strictly to the challenge colors.  Great Halloween colors.

Next up is the Sketch Saturday sketch:

I only recently started following this challenge and this is my first time to play along over there.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Just Us Girls trend week challenge:

Because there are stars on my witch's hat.  :D. There's a really great starry pattern in the Toil & Trouble DSP but I think I may hoard it for future use.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Fingers crossed I can pick up some momentum this week and stamp some more schtuff!  Gotta at least get some ink on the Halloween goodies before the end of the month, right?  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cauldron Bubble, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pumpkin Pie, Gorgeous Grape, Basic Black Blends
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Toil & Trouble DSP
Accessories:  Frosted Bouquet Framelits, Cauldron Framelits, white baker's twine, hole punch, glitter enamel shape, mini Dimensionals

 P.S.  Thought you might like to see one of the projects I recently finished stitching as I think it fits in with today's card:

The pattern is by Satsuma Street; I've also done her owls pattern and these are both with my mom to be framed.  I've recently become a fan of dyed fabric for cross stitch pieces; I got this purple from a lady who sells hand-dyed fabrics through Facebook and we won't even talk about how big my stash is already.  I love alllllll the pretty colors!

Gone Batty

Okay you're going to laugh but the day before the hurricane hit I was quite happy to discover that my Stampin' Up! order arrived (plus some hand-dyed cross stitch fabric) so I have a few new goodies to play with.  And I'm in LOOOOOOOOVE with the Spooky Sweets stamp set and bat punch!

Aaaaaaaahhhhh I love those bats.  And the fonts on the sentiment.  And that texture stamp I used on the Mango Melody strip.  And I always love a matching punch!

Check out the colors at the Inkspire Me Challenge:

I haven't played too much with Mango Melody since it debuted, so I was happy to pair it with my new Halloween stamps.  I added some Smoky Slate to the color palette but in general you can add neutrals to color challenges :)

In addition to the colors, I used the sketch from Fusion:

I love that inspiration picture, but my new bat buddies won out over doing a Lemon Zest card this time.

Stay cool, kids.  See you here tomorrow...same bat time, same bat channel!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Mango Melody, Night of Navy
Paper:  Night of Navy, Mango Melody, Smoky Slate, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Spooky Bats punch, Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals