Happy Monster Shaped Card for Halloween

There is definitely a nip of fall in the air and Halloween will be here before we know it.  Yesterday I started testing some new project files.  I have been using digital content that I have purchased over the years to create print and cut as well as regular cut files.  I have been doing digital scrapbooking for years and I have lots of papers and elements from Creative Memories and many other sources.

Creative Memories now sells digital content in a universal format (jpegs and pngs) in addition to the self installing sets that work with directly with the StoryBook Creator 4.0 program.  You can purchase these downloads and use them for digital scrapbooking in any program or adapt them for print and cut projects.  I chose this set of Classic Halloween Digital Embellishments.  I liked the little green monster shaped candy bag in the top left corner.

One of the things I like the most about using the Silhouette machines is the freedom I have to use my own images for print and cut projects.  I'll explain the step by step process in another post.  It is pretty simple to import an image into the Silhouette software and then trace it to create cutting lines.

I traced the monster (I called him Frank) and then created a shaped card.  The back of the card is blank but you could print both sides.  I was trying to conserve printer ink.  I don't have a 12 x 12 printer (but I hope to someday soon...) so I had to set the card up to print on 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock.  I filled in a few small monster images to use on another project along the side.

The cut was nearly perfect - I moved things around on my mat and I didn't quite get it back into perfect alignment when I set up the print and cut.

 I simply inked all around the front of the card with some "Mowed Lawn" seasonal Distress Ink - this hid any white lines and gave a nice bit of shading to the card.  (Distress Inks and reinkers are on sale this week at Blitsy).

I used some Black Diamond Stickles glitter glue to highlight the monster's hair, mouth and added small centers to the eyes.

 It's a bit hard to see the Stickles - here is another view.

I stamped the inside with a Studio G dollar stamp set (I collected these for a few years and stopped when I realized that I hardly ever used them.  I keep them in a binder and "rediscovered" them while sorting out my craft room).

I had to take one more photo with my spiky flower frog holding the card.  The monster seems to be immune to the pain of the spikes!

Have you started making Halloween projects?  I am planning to actually send some of the cards I make this year...

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Merry Halloween! A Fall Blog Hop with Creative Charms

Happy Friday and welcome to the Creative Charms Fall Blog Hop!  The hop officially begins at 9 a.m. so if you are reading this on the early morning email feed, please stop back a little later this morning to follow the hop.  The hop begins on the Creative Charms Blog and there are just ten stops so it won't take too long to get around and see all of the projects.

The grand prize giveaway is November's Kit of the Month and Deal of the Month from Creative Charms. Plus, throughout the weekend, Midori will go to one or another of the blogs on the hop, randomly pick a comment and that person will win a prize. She has tons of prize kits made up just for this weekend. So be sure to leave a post on every blog you visit. All prizes will be announced on Tuesday, November 1st. To win the grand prize, leave a comment on Midori's blog to be entered.

Here is the complete list of blogs in the hop - in case you get lost along the way.

• Creative Charms 
• Lisa
• Kristal
• Diane   (you are here)
• Arlene
• Laura
• Amy
• Ellen
• Angi
• Christine
• Midori 

 So, enough about the logistics, let's get on to my project for today!

Did you know that people used to say "Merry Halloween?"  It sounds funny to modern ears, but there are vintage images that use this greeting.  I love vintage images and it's been a while since I have used any for a project.  One of my "go-to" sources for great vintage images is Twisted Papers.  They have all sorts of wonderful things (over 7,000 images) and I could spend hours just looking through the categories.  While I was looking at Halloween images, I noticed several "Merry Halloween" cards.

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I'd make a few simple cards and enhance them with some Creative Charms vintage items.  Using vintage images is fast and easy.  I just selected some images that I liked and downloaded them.  The images are jpegs so after downloading you can edit them in your favorite photo editing program and also make any adjustments to size that you need for your project.  Most individual images at Twisted Papers are 99 cents but they have a terrific deal on a monthly subscription which allows you to download up to 500 images in a month for only $24.95 - about a nickel an image!  The subscription does not renew automatically. 

I printed out three images on letter size matte photo paper.  I sized them at 5 1/4 inches tall and kept the aspect ratio locked so they would stay in the proper proportion.  The images were a little narrow for a standard A2 card.  To make things fit neatly I either added a strip of paper, matted the image or added trim along the side of the image.  For the first two cards, I wanted to add some velvet ric rac ribbon so I placed a piece of Scor-Tape in the center of the the contrasting strip of paper and then placed the ribbon on the adhesive.

On this card, I used a brown card base and black velvet ribbon on the orange pearl shimmer cardstock strip.  I aligned the ribbon and then trimmed it at the ends.  The Scor-Tape is a strong adhesive and holds the ribbon neatly with none of the marks that you might get with a liquid adhesive.

On the second card, I layered the printed image on a piece of 5 1/4 x 4 inch piece pf the same orange pearl cardstock.  This time I added brown velvet ric rac ribbon to the strip and used a black card base.

There is something about the zig zags in ric rac that seems "Halloweeny" and the velvet adds some fun texture to the cards. 

The finishing touch for each of these cards was the addition of three small gem stickers along the ric rac ribbon.

For the third card, I used a brown card base and aligned the image with the right side of the card front.   Then I added some vintage trim that I found at a rummage sale.  I think it is actually the edging strip that is used for upholstery.  I thought the curves in the trim worked well with the curves in the font used on the card.

The finishing touch is a vintage velvet poppy, another all-time favorite Creative Charms item.  I replaced the pearl brad in the center with a vintage marble brad in amber.

In no time at all I had three cards finished - they may even get delivered in time for Halloween!

If you are interested in vintage images, be sure to check out Twisted Papers - they have over 1,000 Christmas images and can be used with your Creative Charms items for easy and elegant cards.

My Giveaway -
Thanks for visiting - I have a small prize that I will give to one person who leaves a comment on this post.   I'll send some velvet ric rac, velvet poppies and a few other goodies to use for a vintage card.  All you have to do is tell me which card of the three is your favorite - easy peasy!

The next stop on the hop is Arlene's blog.

Have fun hopping!  Remember, to qualify for the prizes throughout the weekend you need to leave comments on each designer's blog hop posting.  Prizes will be announced on Tuesday, November 1st.

Oh, by the way....

...it did snow here last night!


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A Little bit of Halloween with Creative Charms

Happy Tuesday!  Today is my day to post on the Creative Charms blog and I have a few quick and simple projects to share.  This week may seem a bit full of Creative Charms - we also have a Fall Blog Hop on Friday.  The special breast cancer awareness fundraising kit that I posted about yesterday is available through the end of the month.

I am finally getting over that nasty cold and I do have some other projects that I should be able to get back to this week.  They are predicting snow (well at least flurries) for Thursday so I plan to stay home and craft!

The first card is an invitation for a pumpkin carving party.  The framed purple pumpkin is from the Vintage Halloween Metal Frames set. 

If you have this "Spooktacular" paper stack from K & Company, you will find that the Creative Charms Halloween items are a very good match for both the colors and designs.

The orange card base is A2 size, with the white layer cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches and the pumpkin patterned paper cut at 5 1/8 x 3 7/8 inches.  The green strip on the left is 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches and the sentiment block is 1 x 2 3/8 inches.

I put all of the layers together and then pierced a couple of holes for the two flowers from the Orange Groovy Petal Medley.

I changed the center of the flower to a Purple Gem Brad and saved the original center for another project.

When you are working with a bold patterned paper you need to keep an open mind about your layout.  When I had the pumpkin from the Vintage Halloween Metal Frames set centered on the green stripe it blocked out some of the design and the bits that showed did not look very nice.

I moved the frame over to the right to completely hide the black face features in the right side of the pumpkin and expose them on the left side.  This was more pleasing to my eye and made a better frame for the cute pumpkin in the frame.

This card was made to send to my Dad with some Halloween treats.  It is a larger card (5 x 7 inches) in plain white cardstock and I framed the striped layer with a solid black border.  The ghost is an extra one that I cut for the Halloween Wall Display that I posted last week.  I thought about adding a bow but decided to keep it very simple since it was for a man.

I used tiny black Gradient Gem Stickers for eyes and hand cut the little oval for the mouth.  I put a bit of adhesive in the spot for the mouth and then dropped the oval on the adhesive when it turned clear.

Foam squares make the ghost "float" above the card.

 

This size of card sits perfectly in the small flat rate mailing box I was using to send the goodies to my Dad.  (If you want to know what is in the box, you'll have to wait a day or two - I don't want to spoil the surprise!).

The last card is actually a place card or a label for a buffet.  I designed this in the Silhouette Studio software using the spiderweb which is one of the free shapes.

The design is very similar to the place cards I made for our son's wedding.  The spiderweb pops up when the card is folded.  This was easy to design with the Silhouette software - I just eliminated the outer line of the lower section of the spiderweb and added some perforation lines to make the card easy to fold.

This is the card as it is removed from the mat.  If you look closely you can see that the right side is lifting up a bit.

Here you can see the perforation and the spiderweb starting to fold up from the card.

You could add the names of your guests or use the card as a label for a buffet - to keep the Halloween theme going.  I added one of the Vintage Halloween Metal Frames in the corner for a punch of color.

If you have a Silhouette and would like to try this file you can download it at the link below.

Spiderweb placecard (Silhouette Studio file)


Giveaway Results...

A week or so ago I shared a wonderful gift from a blog friend and gave you all a challenge (HERE) - all you needed to do was to make something using anything from Creative Charms and link it up to have a chance to win a bundle of Vintage Jewels.  I don't know if you all are super busy or if you didn't have any Creative Charms to use, but only two people linked up.  Please let me know if you like the idea of challenges or if you prefer to just visit and read about a project.
 
Debbie linked up five projects and Sarabug also added a project.  I asked for "a" photo of a project made with Creative Charms so it came down to a flip of the coin (by Random.org).

Number 2 came up which means that Sarabug is the winner of the Vintage Jewels bundle.  Debbie, I appreciate that you posted your projects so I will also be sending you a bundle of Creative Charms goodies.

I also had an option for people who had no Creative Charms to play along by guessing the total number of Creative Charms embellishments that Marilyn Mae used for the mini album she sent me.  The actual number was 62 (66 if you count the card) which means that Gramjak is the winner of the assortment of Creative Charms items from my stash (in other words - some of these may be partial packs or loose bits and pieces).

Finally, I also had a mini-giveaway on my post with the upcycled bottle tops (HERE).  The winner of the random draw was Dianne

 

Congratulations - I'll be sending you a pack of the Vintage Halloween Frames.

Could all four of you please contact me with your mailing information as soon as possible? I'll send out your packages as soon as I can after I get this information.  You can email me at capadiadesigns@gmail.com - thanks!

Don't forget that we will be having a Fall Blog Hop this Friday - the hop will start right here on the Creative Charms blog. It is a short hop - only ten stops so I hope you'll have a chance to see all of the projects.


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Halloween Cardmaking

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful autumn day and I did find a few treasures at the REUSIT Day here in town.  ("Rescue the Environment and Us from being Smothered In Trash" is the translation of the acronym, in case you were wondering...)  We took more to the Drop Off/Swap Off than we brought home - so that made everyone happy.  I'll be posting some of my crafty recycling projects made with the items I found over the next few weeks.

I have been working on some designs with spiderwebs that are very intricate.  I haven't had a chance to test cut them yet, so I thought I'd post a couple of cards from last Halloween that use some spiderweb tricks. 

I always like to figure out ways to make the best use of my paper and it is fun to cut a design and then use the "leftovers" to create a second card. 

You can read about making the Beware card by clicking HERE to go to the post.

Information about making similar designs can be found  at THIS POST (part one) with a more detailed explanation at THIS POST (part two).  The trick for making all of these cards is the use of the "Hide Selected Contour" option in Design Studio or on the Gypsy.

Once you start to realize the possibilities that are opened up by hiding lines of a cartridge image you might understand why I have become so interested in using some of the other machines and programs that allow you to create your designs by drawing and editing the individual lines of a design.  The screen shot above shows a simple card topper that I made in the Silhouette Studio program.

Here is another more complicated design.  This was easy to make with the extra tools in the Silhouette program.  I would not be able to do this with Design Studio, the Gypsy or the Craftroom. 

Remember, you have a chance to win this bundle of Vintage Jewels from Creative Charms by linking up a project you have made with any Creative Charms embellishments - all of the information is at THIS POST and there is also a second prize of a mystery bundle of Creative Charms goodies from my stash up for grabs.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

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