Boo!!

Halloween cards are just such fun to make that once you start you really want to do more. This was a really quick and easy shaker card to make.

Be warned though if you use bats in an apperture the wing edges are so sharp they stick in the foam pads used to create the shaker effect. Having said that the hanging to the side effect is rather bat like -so yeah another happy accident - errrrrr I mean something I did on purpose to get a realistic effect. LOL!

Materials used:

• black and orange card
• acetate
  
• largest circular nestie to cut apperture
• decoupaged image of Pumpkin by Docrafts - available free here
• bat die cut using cuttlebug die and embossing folder
• sparkly black border peel offs by Papermania
• Boo sentiment stamp by Making Memories
• bats confetti - part of huge set from Poundland (set includes skull, spiders and cats too - what a bargain).
• embossed frame created on Scor-pal
• tag cut using Cuttlebug die
• ribbon from stash

There are just so many challenges involving Halloween at the moment and I'm hoping this continues as I need and want to do a few more cards, but for now...

• Papertake Weekly - The Dark Side (how spooky is that challenge title - yikes goosebumps just typing it!)
• Digital Tuesday - Boo!
• Allsorts - Halloween
• Two Red Bananas - Halloween
• Cute Card Thursday - Halloween
  

and my card also fits the challenges at...

• Everybody's Art - shapes or punchies (my bat and tag)
• My Time to Craft - quick and cute (Pumpkin was already coloured so was much quicker and he's definitely cute)
• ABC Challenge - Flying (on a broomstick is far more fun than Ryan Air)

Well guess that's the lot - 7 challenges yeah not bad but not a record! Have a fantastic weekend everyone and hopefully I'll see you on Monday for the new Pink Elephant challenge.

Ann xxx

New Baby Boy...

I'm adding this card to my blog today for the challenge at Die Cut Dreams where they are focusing on 'babies' due to this week being "Baby loss awareness week".

People whose lives have been touched by the loss of a baby during pregnancy or just after birth are uniting with others across the UK to show their support for the Baby Loss Awareness campaign 2009, which focuses on International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day on today, October 15th.

If you would like to find out more please visit the Die Cut Dreams Challenge blog where they are also giving links to the charities concerned.

My new baby card is a large 8"x 8" one with Hoot the owl by Joanna Sheen forming the central image. The border was embossed with hearts using my Shapeboss and then embellished with gems. Unfortunately the embossing is not showing up very clearly in the photo, but it does in real life - honest!

Happy Birthday Gran...

It's Grandma's birthday on Thursday and Laura wanted me to make a card with one of the gorgeous House Mouse Stamps she bought me for my birthday way back in June. It just had to be the perfume spraying mouse stamp as Grandma has always been a perfume addict and of course there had to be pink on it as Laura is crazy about pink.

The sketch I used is from this week's Mojo Monday challenge with a flower added instead of a star. Talking of flowers isn't this one gorgeous? It's from a tin full of beauties that was one of the presents Irene bought me for my birthday. The pearl brads were also part of my present. Thank you Irene - I loved everything in the birthday bag.

My card is also for the 'Birthday' themed challenges at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps ( a new challenge - do check it out and their fabulous stamps) and the One Stop Craft Challenge.

Also, I have wanted to join in the challenges at House Mouse for so long and for ages I had no stamps and then no time, but yes I think I can sneak in an entry this week. Their theme is 'Movies' and my chosen movie to accompany my image is 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'.

I don't think my little mouse is a murderer, but you never know I could add an evil glint to the eyes. Check out the DT creations at House Mouse they are absolutely gorgeous. The 'Sleepless in Seattle' card just made me chuckle so much.

Have a good day everyone - I'm off to Wath Market - wonder what amazing bargains will be there this week.

Christmas Bauble ...

I love shaped cards and was totally thrilled to find that on my Cricut Christmas Cheer cartridge you can cut a bauble shape that actually folds to make a card. I was going to cut two baubles and link them in some way, but no need after all. Great stuff!

I know the Cricut Design Studio would allow me to weld things, but for some reason I've not got round to uploading it yet. I must soon cause it will open a whole new way of cutting things out with far less waste.

My image is another of the Lofty Celebrations stamps by Joanna Sheen. I think this one is particularly cute. It's so nice to see a dad and baby together decorating the tree. I used Promarkers to colour the image and then matted it on to a scalloped nestie circle. The 'Christmas Wishes' sentiment is from the same set of stamps.

Glad to be able to join in at Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge again this week where the theme is 'baubles' and at Creative Inspirations they are still working on 'Christmas in October.

Have a great day everyone.

Pink Elephant Day...

This week is a very exciting one at The Pink Elephant. We are so lucky in being sponsored by Stamp Happens. Each member of the DT received The Autumn Splendour digi kit to work with and wow they were just perfect for Ella's Autumnal themed challenge.

Isn't that scarecrow image just amazing? I printed him on Ice Gold card and I must admit that as I coloured him with my Promarkers for some reason the ink bled a little, but hey 'happy accident' methinks as what hard working scarecrow would have a clean face? Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Having discovered that the ink ran I made it run on purpose on the trousers as I decided I quite liked the effect, but now I'm not so sure!

The fabulous acetate printed with scarecrows is from Kanban and something I've had in my stash for ages and never quite got round to using till now. I attached it with brads to plain card and then matted and layered the scarecrow image on top.

Obviously here in England we don't do Thanksgiving, but even so I loved this turkey entwined with the word 'gobble' so much that I couldn't resist using it on a card. Again the image was printed on the Ice Gold card and this time I was careful not to encourage the ink to run.

As both my cards are 'predominantly brown' I think they qualify for the challenge at Stamp Something, where they always have a great challenge theme.

Also at Crazy4Challenges they have the theme of 'thankful' and creations can be Thanksgiving cards or for any occasion where you want to say thank you and at the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge the theme is 'Autumn Colours'.

Thank you so much for looking and the fantastic comments I have received recently. I hope you will have time to play in our challenge at The Pink Elephant and also take part in the other great challenges there are around.