Happy Halloween...

I'm working all weekend so thought it might be best to upload my Halloween creations now and also wish every one a fun day on Sunday.  My 'BOO' card was made for a forum friend as part of a card swap with the theme of Faces, Distressing and Spooky!  Well, I don't think it's all that scary even for a wimp like me, but I've got lots of faces in the shaker aperture sections of the word.  I know for a fact that it was certainly 'distressing' for my poor friend, who got caught out by all the skulls that fell out of the envelope when she opened the card.  So sorry about that Ann - at least Tom got a good laugh.  Eeeeeeeeeeeek you might get your own back on me soon - must remember to be wary when opening my post!

The letters were cut out on my Cricut machine and the witch is a fabulous wooden embellishment I bought in a sale years ago.

My second Halloween project is for my daughter Laura - it's not pink, but it is full of chocolates so all should be well.

A Swiss Dots background and an embossed Halloween sentiment sets the scene for the wooden Halloween cat, which was bought at the same time as the witch one on my card.  They are actually fridge magnets so I suppose they could be recycled.  

My projects are for the following challenges...

• Daring Cardmakers - Trick or Treating!
• Rainbow Lady - SPOOKY AND SCARY 
• Tuesday Taggers -a Halloween theme and they must include Deep Purple
• Cupcake Craft Challenge - Sweet Treats with a Halloween Twist
• Dutch Dare - Halloween

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day... Presents...

wowza Friday again and of course that means it's time for a new challenge at Bah! Humbug!  This week our theme is presents.  I have some amazing rubber stamps and digis featuring presents, but as I have quite a few Christmas cards ready this year (thanks to Bah! Humbug!) I decided to spend some time gift wrapping the few items I've already bought for Christmas. 

The snowflake tag on the silver wrapped present is one I made for one of the challenges earlier in the year.  The bottle box is a plain one I bought at a card shop sale a little while ago with the intention of decorating it and making it more special.  I used the Cuttlebug embossing folders and silver peel offs to decorate the panels on the box.  The embossed tree was made using the free embossing folder that was featured on a magazine recently.

Love these kind of boxes as you can decorate them ready to give someone, but fold them flat for storing until needed.

My final gift wrap is a small bag - just the right size for a jewelry gift.  I made the bag myself and then to add oomph added a topper from a QVC set of goodies.

These bags are really easy to make and I do think they make a small gift look far more special.  There may be a tutorial on how to make them coming soon.  Watch this space! Once you've made one it's really easy to do different sizes as my Halloween House Mouse card shows.

I do apologise for the poor photos today, but all the items are in mirri finish, which in real life is fabbie, but on photos dire!

My gifts are also for the following challenges...

• Simon Says Stamp - Punch em (snowflakes on large gift and tags on bag)
• A Spoon Full of Sugar - Let's get punchy ( as above)
• Creative Cottage - Embossing

Have a good Friday - almost weekend and an extra hour in bed.  Somehow I think I've been conned this weekend as I'm working from 10 on Saturday till 10 on Sunday morning.  Is it me or am I right in thinking I will be doing an extra hour at work?  Good job I love my job!

Ann xxx

Haunted House Mouse...

Meet Mudpie, one of the many House Mouse stamps I won in the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge birthday celebrations.  I still can't believe how lucky I was.  Sigh so many gorgeous stamps!  I chose Mudpie from the amazing selection of stamps at House-Mouse Designs.  I knew he would be useful to use if the challenge was one that I hadn't got a specific stamp for and sure enough he came in very handy for the Halloween challenge theme, which started yesterday.

I decided to create a scene card using acetate.  I've done loads of these cards now and they are great fun to make.  My tutorial on how to create this style of card can be found here.  The house and ghosts are part of a clipart set I bought at PC Crafter last year.  As you can see in the picture I printed the house several times and decoupaged it onto black glitter card.  The smoke and the fence were too fine to cut out so I used Stickles to create the smoke and broken cocktail sticks to recreate the fence.  I rather like the rustic effect and am not at all annoyed that after spending ages fiddling around my Cuttlebug fence die arrived in the post.  Ah well maybe use that next time!

Check out Mudpie's half inch square goodie bag!  Oh my I must be mad cutting out and folding up such a tiny version, but hey you can't go trick of treating with nothing to put your stash in.  After folding the bag I panicked about how I was going to add the handles and then had a light bulb moment and filled the bag with Pinflair glue and pushed the handles into the glue.  In the words of the famous meercat 'Simples!'

The bat was not so simples - make mental note draw bat before folding and glueing next time.

Well after all that I think my card is also perfect for the challenges at...

• Crazy for Challenges - Halloween
• Raise the bar - Orange, black and purple
• Stamp Something - use a digi image (house and ghosts are digis)
• Ooh la la Creations - Scary Stuff
• Paper Playtime - Halloween

Have a fab week everyone.

Ann xxx

PS:  Yeah guess what ....
This card got the Top Three award at Raise the Bar - wow what an honour?