Hello friends and Happy Halloween!  Today I'm sharing a new stamp from the October Life Celebrations release from RG Avenue.  This fun Day of the Dead inspired stamp set was too unique not to share ALL of the calaveras (skulls), so I had to create a slimline card for the entire familia!  My thought process going into this was that if I colored all of the calaveras with ALL of the colors, it would simply be way too much color! 
Because, hi, remember me, the neutrals girl. . .
So, I decided to color each skull within a similar color family (green, blue, pink and yellow).  I felt it added more cohesiveness to the overall appearance.  It's still bright and colorful without being entirely loco!

The base of this 8 1/2" x 3 1/2" slimline card is made from Black Taffy cardstock.  I cut a 8 1/4" x 3 1/4" piece of Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock and stamped the grunge splatter on it using the RG Avenue Tangy Apple Sugar Cube, Tangy Gum Sugar Cube, Sweet Lavender Sugar Cube and Tangy Orange Sugar Cube.  As the La Familia stamp set was a digital once, I printed out all of the images and then colored them using Copic markers.  I added highlights to each image using a white gel pen.  I adhered the images to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension.  I stamped the sentiment on Black Taffy cardstock in Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I notched both ends of the sentiment strip and adhered it to the bottom center of the card using 3M foam adhesive.  Lastly, I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella for added sparkle. 

I hope you have enjoyed today's card.  Thank you for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

If it weren't for two extra days of crafting in LA last weekend with my dear friend Donna, I'm not sure I would have sent out my Halloween cards this year. . . And, oh the stress I have felt about this!  I knew that September and October were going to be two very busy months for me, and I did my best to plan accordingly by having kits made in advance for most of my classes and having my blog posts pre-photographed and drafted.  But, I still had this nagging voice in the back of my head that kept haunting me about those darn Halloween cards.  Here is just one (of a set of 8 matching cards) that I made in Donna's beautiful LA studio:

The base of this A2 sized card is made from Basic Black cardstock.  The first matted layer is a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of plaid cardstock from Echo Park.  Using the Gina Marie Scalloped Stitched Nesting dies, I cut a piece of Basic Black cardstock.  On a 4 1/4" x 3 1/2" piece of white cardstock, I stamped the spider, web and tree in Memento Tuxedo black ink.  I cut the grass using a scrap piece of Old Olive cardstock and a grassy border die.  The tombstones were heat embossed in white embossing powder on Smoky Slate cardstock.  I then fussy cut the tombstones and adhere them to the card with pop dots.  I stamped the sentiment in Pumpkin Pie ink on a thin piece of white cardstock and notched both ends before adhering it to the center of the card with pop dots.  Lastly, I added a coat of clear Wink of Stella to the tombstones for added sparkle. 

No, not everyone on my 98-person Christmas card list is going to be getting a card for Halloween, but I tried, and I did the best I could do in the time that I had available.  With age and wisdom comes the acceptance that I cannot do it all (nor does anyone expect me too!) My new mantra is "done is better than perfect" and some days I really am okay with that.

Thanks for visiting!

Hello and welcome to my Create w/ Crystal monthly cardmaking "club!"  About five months ago, I asked some fellow crafty friends who would be interested in a FREE little "kit."  Every month I send each member a small envelope of supplies that they will have to use to create a card.  Everyone in the group will receive the exact same supplies.  Once they have completed their card, they mail it back to me (in a self-addressed stamped envelope) and I share all their cards with you!  The idea is to see how vastly different our cards can be, despite all using the very same products. 

You will notice that some people submitted two cards and that's entirely okay by the "rules."  They were given instructions to create whatever they wanted with their supplies.  If they had enough for two cards, that's great.  But, they can also submit scrapbook pages or any other papercrafted item as well!

Let's take a look at what they made:

What a wide array of ideas have been presented in these beautiful samples!  I hope you have enjoyed seeing the talents of my crafty friends.  Please leave them some love in the comments below! 

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

Happy Monday, readers!  We are counting down the last few days until Halloween this week, so I'll be sharing just a few more themed cards.  I'm happy and I'm sad, because as Halloween comes to an end, that means Christmas is even closer and these are my two favorite cardmaking holidays.  For today's card, I actually turned these owls, which are part of a lovey-dovey stamp set called "Love Birds" from RG Avenue into a Halloween card because as sweet as these birds might be, they still owl-ways make me think of Halloween!  Haha!  : )

The base of this A2 sized card is made from Black Taffy cardstock.  I cut a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of Sweet Cane cardstock and stamped the Burlap Print background on it in Black Taffy Sugar Cube.  Using the Gina Marie Scalloped Stitched Nesting Rectangle dies, I die cut the medium sized rectangle from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  I used a grunge stamp and stamped splattered spots of Black Taffy sugar cube on the white background.  I also stamped the sentiment in Black Taffy Sugar Cube.  The sentiment is from the RG Avenue Halloween Treat stamp set.  As the Love Birds stamp set is digital, I printed out the images on Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock and colored them using Copic markers.  I used my Scan & Cut machine to die cut the owls and adhered them to the card using 3M foam adhesive.  Lastly, I added a coat of clear Wink of Stella to the owls for added sparkle. 

Here is the Love Birds stamp set from RG Avenue that I used to create this card:

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my website.  As always, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest too! 

Hello friends and TGIF!  I hope you are lucky enough to have a long three day weekend like I do!
Today I am sharing a uniquely creative Halloween card made using the new October convention release by RG Avenue called Boho Skull.  I say "uniquely creative" because this card is kinda out-of-the-box for me, but very much in the style of RG Avenue.  Grunge, check.  Bright colors, check.  (You all know how much bright colors scare the bejeezus out of me.  I'm the neutrals girl!) But, I'm liking how this turned out with the striking contrast between life and death.  What do you think, keeping in mind it's truly an homage to the "Day of the Dead" traditions from Latin America?  And, for a little language lesson, "calaveras" means skull in Spanish!

The base of this A2 sized card is made from RG Avenue Sweet Lavender cardstock.  Using a Gina Marie Scalloped Stitched Nesting Rectangle die, I cut the first layer out of Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  Using the Tangy Apple sugar cube, I stamped some background splatter using an old grunge stamp.  I printed out the entire digital Boho Skull stamp set on Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock and colored in all of the images using Copic markers.  I added in highlights to the images using a white gel pen.  I then ran the colored images through my Scan and Cut to cut the digital images.  I adhered the skull to the center of the card using 3M foam adhesive. I arranged the flowers around the skull until my desired liking and adhered them with 3M foam adhesive for added dimension.  Lastly, I added a coat of clear Wink of Stella to the flowers for added sparkle.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

Hi friends! Today I am sharing this spooky slider card over on the Butterfly Reflections, Ink. blog!  One of the things I love most about all of the Lawn Fawn products is that they are designed to coordinate uniformly across the entire product line.  This means they are perfect for mixing and matching! Even if I didn't necessarily do that on today's card, I love having that option.
 
I recently learned how to assemble the Lawn Fawn Double Slider Surprise Die and I've been making them ever since!  You can see my others samples here and here.  I strongly encourage newbies to watch the Introductory Videos on YouTube by Kelly Marie Alvarez (the owner of Lawn Fawn) and they are a game changer.  Whether it is the Double Slider Surprise Die, the Lawn Fawn Pivot Pop Up Die, the Lawn Fawn Magic Picture Changer Die or any other Lawn Fawn product, she walks you through step-by-step instructions on how to assemble these products.  I promise, it makes all the difference and you will feel confident and be successful in putting this card together.  If I can do it all by myself, so can you! 

The base of this A2 sized card is made from black cardstock.  I used a scrap piece of designer paper for the first 5 1/4" x 4" layer of this card.  I wish I could tell you where this "trick-or-treat" paper came from because it's so fun, but I can't recall!  I was able to assemble the surprise slider die and adhere it directly to the center of my card. 
I stamped all of the images from the Lawn Fawn Spooky Village stamp set in Memento Tuxedo black ink on Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  I colored in all of the images using my Copic alcohol ink markers.  I added small highlights to each of the colored images with a Sakura White Gelly pen.

I die cut the grass from a celery cardstock using the Chunky Grass die from Waffle Flower.   I adhered the grass to the bottom of the center component of the card and the two side pull-outs. I adhered a black chevron paper to both sides of the pull-outs when I was making the double slider surprise base.  I used a piece of orange pattered cardstock for the front portion of the slider. 
*As a little tip, when you begin to adhere the pieces to your card, be sure that the pieces on the slider pull-out portion of the card are adhered directly to the cardstock.  You cannot put foam adhesive or pop dots on the slider because then it won't work effectively.   For the front of the card, you can pop them up all you want!  Lastly I stamped the sentiment "Ghostly Greetings" on a scrap piece of white cardstock also in Memento Tuxedo black ink and popped it up with foam adhesive. 

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

Hello and happy Monday!  I hope you all had a great weekend and hopefully took some time on Saturday to celebrate World Cardmaking Day.  Today I'm happy to announce that I have been invited to join the 2019-2020 RG Avenue Design Team!  I'm honored and grateful that I was selected to represent this family owned and operated company, based out of Phoenix, Arizona.  I have always admired the more "artistic" look I have seen their designers create, though if I'm being honest, mixed media still scares me just a little!  Okay, a LOT.  But, I look forward to stepping out of my comfort zone to "make amazing happen!"  Thank you for following along on my creative journey. 

  Today I am sharing the first project I created for RG Avenue.  While I cannot take credit for the original idea of putting stamped images inside a ceramic pumpkin, I did put the RG twist on it! 

I purchased this ceramic pumpkin at my local Michaels' craft store.  Using a 40% off coupon, I only paid $6. 
I also found some shredded black paper in the $1 section and bought two of these to fill the base of the pumpkin.  I printed the digital stamp set and began coloring. Two hours later, when I was finished with my coloring I had to figure a way to add the stamped images into the pumpkin to create a scene. . .

Initially I tried adhering mini clothespins to the backs of the images in order to get them to stand up inside the pumpkin, but this didn't work out so well.

Plan B was to use tented acrylic sheets and adhere the images to the top of the tent fold.  This idea worked better, though I'm still not fully satisfied.  It worked good enough to take the pictures and to sit on my display table.  Essentially, as long as no one touches it (or breathes on it!) it's all good.  But, if you have any suggestions for a more permanent solution, I'm open to your ideas.

Here is the Halloween Treat stamp set by RG Avenue that I used to create this project.  It is available as both  an actual clear stamp set and in digital format:

I hope today's project will inspire YOU to create something similar!  Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

Hello readers and TGIF!  I feel like we need to have a party today because it's Friday and we've all made it through the week!  So, I'm bringing out the Lawn Fawn Costume Party stamp set and the Lawn Fawn Shadow Box to celebrate!  These little trick-or-treaters are ready for the weekend too!

The base of this shadow box card is made from Basic Black cardstock.  I followed the Lawn Fawn Introduction to Shadow Box card tutorial on YouTube in order to assemble this shadow box die.  If you own any of the Lawn Fawn interactive dies, I highly recommend watching the "Introduction" tutorials on YouTube, done by Kelly Marie Alvarez (the owner of Lawn Fawn) for the best step-by-step tutorials.  After assembling the shadow box frame and hillside pieces (also in black cardstock), I stamped each of the images in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  I colored the images with my Spectrum Noir makers and added highlights to each image with a Uniball White Gel Pen.  I added the images to the shadow box card with tear tape for strength.  Lastly, I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella to the images for added sparkle. 

Here is the Lawn Fawn Costume Party stamp set that I used to create today's card:

Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a wonderfully creative weekend!

Hello friends and happy Thursday!  I hope you are all having a nice week!  I have been sharing a lot of interactive and detailed cards on my website lately, so today I'm sharing something much more simple and quick.  This would be an excellent card to make multiples of for Halloween - if you make 50+ cards like I do!  I also recognize that my readers are all of various cardmaking levels from beginners to advanced, so I hope to inspire each of you by offering a little of everything.

The base of this A2 sized card is made from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  The first matted layer is a black frame that I die cut using the Hello Bluebird Gallery Frame dies. Behind the black frame is a piece of Lemon-Lime cardstock.   I stamped all of the ghost-like images using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on scrap pieces of Neenah White Smooth cardstock.  I cut the images with the coordinating MFT Fab-Boo-Lous Friends dienamics and adhered them to the card using foam adhesive.  On a thin scrap piece of white cardstock, I stamped the sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I notched both ends of the sentiment strip and adhered it to the card using foam adhesive for added dimension.  Lastly, I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella to all of the images for added sparkle.  

Here is the stamp set Fab-Boo-Lous Friends from My Favorite Things that I used to create today's card:

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!

Hello crafty friends!  Today I am sharing this fun card over on the Butterfly Reflections Ink, website.  This card combines my love of Halloween, interactive components, cute critters and candy!  What's not to love!?

Last weekend I was in Vermont on an annual craft retreat and I brought my Lawn Fawn Double Slider Surprise Die with me because, well, I've owned it for over two years now and it's high time I learned HOW to use it!  I think the Lawn Fawn Double Slider Surprise is such a cool card, but I was very intimidated by putting it all together.  I strongly encourage newbies to watch the Introductory Videos on YouTube by Kelly Marie Alvarez (the owner of Lawn Fawn) and they are a game changer.  Whether it is the Double Slider Surprise Die, the Lawn Fawn Pivot Pop Up Die, the Lawn Fawn Magic Picture Changer Die or any other Lawn Fawn product, she walks you through step-by-step instructions on how to assemble these products.  I promise, it makes all the difference and you will feel confident and be successful in putting this card together.  If I can do it all by myself, so can you!

The base of my card is a smoky slate cardstock.  I lined the card with a piece of  chevron paper.  To create the base of the Double Slider Surprise component I used an avocado green cardstock.  I stamped all of the images from the My Favorite Things Frightfully Sweet stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  I also added the pumpkins from the Lawn Fawn Costume Party stamp set and the ghosts are from the Lawn Fawn Happy Haunting stamp set.   I colored in all of the images with Copic markers and added highlights to many of the images with a white gelly roll pen. I die cut the images using the coordinating My Favorite Things Frightfully Sweet dienamics, the Lawn Fawn Costume Party Lawn Cuts and the Lawn Fawn Happy Haunting Lawn Cuts.

I stamped the "pull here" tab on each side of the sliders in Memento Tuxedo Black ink using the Lawn Fawn Push Here stamp set.

*Tip - When you adhere the images to the two outside slider component of the card, you must adhere them directly to the card.  You cannot add pop dots or foam adhesive to the sliding component, because they will no slide in appropriately! 

For the front of the slider component, I added the colored images with foam adhesive and adhered the images to the card.  On a scrap piece of avocado cardstock, I stamped the sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and adhered it to the top of the slider component with foam adhesive.   Lastly, I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella of the images for added sparkle. 

I hope you have enjoyed today's interactive card!  After putting a few of these slider cards together over the weekend, I am no longer intimidated by assembling this die and I hope you will try it too because it really has such a "WOW" effect!

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!