More Halloween Inspired Cards

Ok I am still finishing up using backgrounds I made from the Tim Holtz products from the classes I took and honestly I am not even sure how this spider web background came out. It really was just a bunch of mistakes covering up mistakes.

I do know I loved what I started with which was a nice vibrant purple water colored card using his distress reinkers, then I tried to mist on some black distress spray using a spider web stencil which I hated so I took a wet towel and blotted off what I could which brought back some of the purple then I misted some perfect pearls on top of the stencil, then I gave up. It does have a nice sheen to it.

And one thing about spider webs that trouble me, the spiders never look realistic so I decided to give this a bit of three dimension and put a plastic spider on it. It's actually not too bulky as the spider is fairly flat.

Happy Halloween

Continuing with more of my Tim Holtz class byproducts I created the background using his paints as a stamp resist. Much like using any other ink or embossing technique this one simply uses paints to stamp an image with, then you ink up the card and wipe off with a wet paper towel to reveal the resist stamped image. I have to say I prefer these types of techniques by far than anything else I've tried.

Then using a plethora of die cuts I created my little scene. The pumpkins and broom are from Poppystamps, the tree from Quickutz or whoever they are these days. The Happy from My Favorite Things, a circle punch for the vellum then I used part of a Memory Box stamp to stamp just the Halloween sentiment. The plaid paper was part of that Authentique 6x6 Halloween pad I picked up at the expo.

BTW for a little tip, I use a piece of paper tape to cover up the sentiment part I don't want to stamp, ink up the stamp then pull off the tape. It's a pretty easy way to just use part of a mounted rubber stamp or any stamp where you don't want the entire sentiment or image for that matter.

Watercolor Halloween

So technically the background on this card is the water coloring, no image per se. This was another Tim Holtz technique. Using his reinkers on a pre wet water color piece of cardstock.

After you get your initial colors on the water color card you go back (once it's dry of course) and use his distress inks to layer on more color adding or intensifying some areas and adding in a color in other areas. I did have Halloween in mind when I made this background. I do like the vibrant colors his inkers lend.

The dies are from Impression Obsession and normally I would add a sentiment but somehow it just doesn't work here, it's just too distracting from the die cut image and watercolor contrast.

Watercolor Birthday

Well I don't know about you but I am struggling lately, struggling with time. I just don't seem to have enough of it to do all the things that I have on my plate. Of course I am the one who fills my plate I just keep adding to things I want to do and I guess I don't have to complete them all, but if I didn't that means things I want to get done won't. Sometimes I find it hard to keep focus but so far I am hanging in there.

My mother's birthday will be here before you know it and rather get caught off guard like I did with my grandson's birthday this past weekend I want to be a little more prepared. I do have her quilt done and I just wanted to make sure I had a card to go with it.

I decided to have the card match her gift and painted my new WPlus9 Mum stamp with some oranges and yellows. I love mums especially those spider ones..they are so cool.

Any hoo here is my card and now I am officially all set on the gift giving for my mom anyways.

Vintage - Halloween

Well I finally got a few minutes in my craft room and after unpacking and cleaning my room I did manage to come across a tag I had forgotten about. This was created during my Chemistry 101-103 classes.

I used a kraft tag and then used distressed inks to create the base. I then stamped in black a few details and the technique I was most excited about was using Perfect Pearls. I had some sudo ones that I really love and when I saw Tim use Perfect Medium to adhere perfect pearls I was hooked.

Of course that meant buying some perfect medium but I think it was an investment well spent. All you need to do is stamp the image in perfect medium then dump some perfect pearls on it and use a fan paint brush to brush off the excess.

The numbers 3 and 1 were from a stamp set I bought many years ago and in fact I just recently got rid of the alphas but forgot about the numbers because I kept them separately I am so glad I did because they really work great on this tag.

I also am a huge fan of black/orange plaid ribbon but its so hard to find in less than 1 inch but I just folded over my wide ribbon and adhered it to the tag with some hot glue.

A few punches from QK, vintage HW paper pad I picked up the expo from Authenique and then I experimented with this fun black sparkling glitter from Judikins. I wondered how embossing would work on vellum, a risk I decided to take and am pretty happy on how it came out although it's hard to capture the sparkle with a camera.

Disney Project Life

I went to the Expo last weekend, can't say I accomplished a whole lot but did enjoy the fun time.

I also have had visitors so my craft room has been given up for our company which means alas not much time spent in there.

I did manage to work on some of my project life. I still haven't done my DD and I hope I can accomplish that before this year's December.

These pages are from my most recent visit with the grandkids. I didn't embellish the pictures that much, sometimes I think a picture is beautiful just as it is. As you can see I still need to do my journaling. I think I need two or three expos or some sort of crop event where I can just sit and get things done away from day to day interruptions.

Stampscapes -Let It Snow

Since I had been on a roll making Christmas cards I have been wanting to make this card forever, and I do mean forever. Stampscapes were one of the first stamps I purchased besides Stamping Up and that was a good fifteen years or so ago . I love these scenes but little did I know how many stamps and inks one needed to assemble this.

Happy to say I finally have gotten everything I need and viola my first ever truly completed Stampscapes card. I plan on sending this to my Father in law since this is almost his home exactly. I am pretty sure he's gonna love it.

Vitnage - Merry and Bright

 

For this card I bought some of Tim Holtz resist cardstock. I admit it's kind of fun to alter. I never would have given this a second thought having seen it, but I guess if I was into the grunge antique look then I would know more about those products.

 

On this card, I just used the antique linen paint to white wash it then added in the distressed inks and then same thing swiped it with a wet towel.

 

The deer die was given some glitter from Martha Stewart then I die cut the holy leaves from Penny Black, punched out some berries and finished it with a metal heat embossed die cut. 

 

 

 

Vintage - Joy

On to my second technique, this one I really like. Basically you use his paint as a resist. I used the antique linen paint to stamp some script onto a card then you add in the distress ink. Then to bring the stamped antique linen color out you wet a towel and rub it over the stamped image and like a heat emboss resist the images or in this case the script text pops out.

I tried some other techniques but didn't care for them and as I mentioned before it just wasn't my style.

Most of what I do seems to be creating backgrounds but I do like the look of this for another vintage card. Keeping my theme of Christmas I added in some snowflakes, a stamped banner and bits of flowers and leaves. I also added in a trio of stick pins and the Joy die cut from Papertrey Ink which I used glitter cardstock as the back layer of the sentiment.

Vintage - Merry Christmas

Well I know it's insanely early to be thinking about Christmas cards and normally I wouldn't even be giving it more than a thought, but alas my bff gifted me 3 Tim Holtz classes on onlinecardclasses.com

I have taken the first two and the third starts this week which is a live class. The other two were self study. I have to say the first one really goes into depth about all the distress products and the difference between them and demonstrates which ones do what. Very informative and of course very enabling. I did go buy some more inks and a few stains.

Then I took the second class which IMO is just a more casual repeat of the first. You do get to see Tim create more tags with the products which gives you ideas on creating with them, more enabling and I went and bought some paint. Now I will confess to you that almost everything else he used which was a lot I already owned. Nice to see alcohol inks being used because years ago I bought that and then realized I didn't really care that much for them, until these classes. Now I am trying to debate do I really need more of them.

I finally got all my supplies and proceeded to start playing with them. As I started to get through some techniques it was apparent to me why I stopped buying and creating the whole distress/grunge look. It's just not my style. Now I feel like a sucker having bought more of the distress products and am committed that I will use them. So doing what I know I love I decided to go vintage with some of my Halloween and Christmas cards because I love love love the vintage look of these two seasons.

So my first attempt was to go and create tags but then I realized why am I making tags, I don't normally use them, so I quickly changed from tags to cardstock in the size of cards rather than the tags. But I started a tag so I didn't want to waste it.

This is just the basic distress ink type of technique. I did use the Picket Fence stain to white wash the tag then added in his distress inks, then stamped it. Then thinking hey I can mist some water on it, I realized what it did was pull that white picket fence stain to the forefront which gave me a washed look. I then used some metallic embossing ink for the sentiment and added all the other bits of pieces to create the card.