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I am very blessed to have many talented crafty friends and I am always excited to receive happy mail from each of them. I hang these cards on a display wall as you walk into my craft room and they bring me great joy as I enter and leave the space. These cards are a constant reminder of the lifelong friendships that I have made, and how I have inspired others by teaching and sharing my passion. Today I would like to share with you two ah-mazing Halloween cards created by my friend, Margaret. I hope she doesn't mind that I am sharing these cards with you, but I know that you will be WOW'ed with her creativity and impressed with her attention to the smallest detail.   This first card was last year's Halloween card made by Margaret. Once you open the Velcro gate you see this beautiful alcohol ink background that is covered by spooky trees and an awesome moon. She used the images from the Witch Way is the Candy" stamp set and dies from My Favorite Things to embellish the card.    This year's Halloween card from Margaret features products from Honey Bee Stamps. She used the House Builder Card Base to create the card and then decorated it with stamps and dies from the Haunted House Add-On. The house is made extra spooky with lots of distress inks and vellum ghosts!    I deeply admire Margaret's attention to detail and the time and patience she devotes to her cards. She inspires me to slow-down and appreciate that the art is in the making, NOT in the completing. Please leave Margaret some love in the comments below. Thank you! XO, Crystal
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Hello readers! Today I have a cute slimline card to share with you featuring a new digital stamp from 88 and Clear (formerly known as Richard Garay Designs and RG Avenue)! I combined practically ALL of the pumpkins from the new "Pumpkin Patch" digital stamp with the scarecrow from the "Halloween Treat" stamp set to achieve this final result:  Card details:*A full list of supplies is located at the end of this post. This slimline card measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2". Slimline cards are designed to fit into a regular #10 business sized envelope and require no additional postage. The base of this slimline card is made from Sweet Cane sugar stock. Using a scalloped rectangled slimline line, I cut the first mat from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I printed the digital "Pumpkin Patch" stamp set onto the same Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock and colored the images using Copic markers. I then used my Brother Scan and Cut 2 e-cutting machine to cut out the pumpkins, in lieu of fussy cutting. Using Black Taffy ink, I stamped the scarecrow onto a piece of Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock and also colored it with Copic markers. I fussy cut the scarecrow and adhered him behind the row of pumpkins. I printed out the digital sentiment, fussy cut around it and adhered it to the left side of the card using foam adhesive for added dimension. Lastly, I added a coat of Dazzling Pat to the pumpkins for added sparkle.  If you would like to learn more about working with digital images, please click here to read this informative post I wrote to gain a better understanding.    I love how this card turned out by adding a variety of blue, orange and white pumpkins. It made the card less spooky and more cutesy. What do you think? Thank you for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day! XO, CrystalList of supplies:
Today I am on the Whimsy Stamps blog for day/night 21 of their annual "31 Nights of Halloween" celebration. This annual event features gory (but good) giveaways, BOO-tiful projects and frightful fun for everyone! Please refer to this post to see how you can enter to win some of these spooktacular prizes. We also hope that YOU will share your Halloween themed creations with us  I have created a spooky slimline graveyard scene card for you today using a variety of fun new release products. This slimline card measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2". Slimline cards are designed to fit into a regular #10 business sized envelope and require no additional postage. The base of my slimline card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. This is my go-to white cardstock for everything from card bases to die cutting and Copic coloring.  Using the Slimline Marquee die, I cut the frame from black cardstock. Behind the windows of the frame I used a piece of patterned paper from the Haunted paper pack. This paper is perfect for creating spooky background scenes - without doing all the hard work of coloring or stamping!! : ) Using the Grass and Cloud Edger Die set, I cut the grass from lime green cardstock and placed it in front of the entire frame. I use a Tombow Permanent Dot runner for my main adhesive.   I then used the Build A Graveyard Die set to die cut tombstones from black and dark grey cardstock. I cut out many more gravestones than I knew I would need so I would have them on reserve for future projects. I also used this same set of dies to die cut the fence, skulls and cat. I used the coordinating Grave Epitaphs stamp set to stamp some of the funny names and spooky slogans on the gravestones. I also love that this stamp includes a stamp that will make the gravestones look cracked, a look that I was wondering how I would achieve on my own!   I hope you have enjoyed this card and that you have been inspired by ALL the amazing projects created by the very talented and innovative Creative Team and special guests for "31 Nights of Halloween." Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day! XO, CrystalHello readers and welcome back from the weekend! I hope you found a little time to do something crafty. Today I am sharing another card that I made for the Newton's Nook Inky Paws Challenge. Week number two of Challenge #134 is continuing on with this color challenge designed to inspire you. Our challenges run for two weeks, thereby giving you more time to create, so I have designed a second card to share with you this week that was still inspired by the same image seen below:  Here is the card I designed inspired by this week's challenge colors:  Card details:*A full list of supplies is located at the end of this post. This slimline card measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2". Slimline cards are designed to fit into a regular #10 business sized envelope and require no additional postage. The base of this card is made from 80 lb. Neenah White Solar Smooth cardstock. On a 8 1/4" x 3 1/4" piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock, I ink blended Distress Oxide inks in the colors Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin and Picked Raspberry. I then ink splattered Picked Raspberry and Black Soot distress oxide inks over the entire background. Using the Slimline Frames dies, I die cut the frame from black cardstock and adhered it to the center of the card. I die cut the large "BOO" letters from black cardstock and orange cardstock. I layered the orange letter underneath the black letter offset just a bit. I adhered each letter to the center of each square frame.   I stamped the images from the Bootiful Night stamp set in Memento Black ink and colored the images with Copic markers (in the challenge colors). I die cut the images using the coordinating Bootiful Night dies and adhered the images to the card using 3M foam adhesive. Lastly, using the Feline Batty die set, I die cut four bats out of black cardstock and adhered them randomly on the card.   Are you ready to get your paws inky with us and play along for a chance to win?! We will randomly select one linked entry to receive a $20 store credit to the Newton's Nook Designs online shop! We will also highlight our favorites from each challenge the following Monday, so that all entries have a chance to be featured on the Newton's Nook Designs blog. Please make sure you review the challenge rules page before you link up your project! Deadline to enter is Friday, October 23rd, 2020, at midnight CST. Thanks for visiting and I hope to see your creations there! XO, CrystalList of supplies:
Hello crafty friends! Today I am on the Whimsy Stamps blog showing how to create an easel card for their weekly "Tuesday Tutorial" post. In my mind the easel card I have created for today light's up! Think really hard and you will see it too! (If not, kindly amuse me). I had every intention of learning how to use those cool chibitronic or EZ lights for a light-up card, but let's be honest, I'm the girl who stuck a fork in a light socket when I was 4 years old. I learned my lesson at an early age not to mess with electricity! ; )    To create the base of this easel card, cut a 4 1/4 x 11" piece of black cardstock. Fold it in half and score it at 5 1/2". Then fold the top half in half again and score (see image below).  Place a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of paper from the Haunted Paper Pack on the bottom or base of the card. Using the Arched Window die, place it over another fun patterned piece of paper from the Haunted Paper Pack.   Stamp the images from the Candle Creeps stamp set in Memento Tuxedo black on your favorite white Copic friendly cardstock. I use 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Crest. I then cut the images out using my Brother Scan and Cut 2 e-cutting machine. I used Copic Markers to color the candle images. Adhere the colored candle images to the front of the window scene using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension. Place the die cut window on the lower half of the folded card base.   In order to prevent the window scene from falling down flat, you need to create a little pop up element to stop the window. Here I used the Build a Graveyard dies. I cut the tomb from gray cardstock, the skull from white cardstock and the gravemarker (that reads "RIP) from black cardstock. I placed these on the card base using 3M foam adhesive. *Again, any pop up piece is the key here to block the card from sliding down. I hope you have enjoyed this easel card (and that it lights up in your imagination too)! Thanks for visiting and happy creating! XO, CrystalList of supplies:
Hello readers and welcome back from the weekend! I hope you found a little time to do something crafty. It's Monday, so today we have a new challenge to share with you at Inky Paws Challenge. Challenge #134 is a color challenge. Using the colors shown in the image below, share with us YOUR creations! I have a really fun martini theme Halloween take on this week's challenge colors for you:  Card details:*A full list of supplies is located at the end of this post. This slimline card measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2". Slimline cards are designed to fit into a regular #10 business sized envelope and require no additional postage. The base of this card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I used an orange spiderweb piece of paper for the first mat and it measures 8 1/4" x 3 1/4." Using the Slimline Frames die, I die cut the frame from black cardstock. On the left and right side of the frame are two alcohol ink background pieces made using Tim Holtz Ranger Alcohol Inks in the shades Lemonade and Valencia. I inked these two colors onto Yupo paper and let them dry before adhering them behind the frame.  I stamped the images from the Cocktail Mixer stamp set in Memento Tuxedo black ink on Neenah white cardstock. I colored the images with Copic markers (in the challenge colors) and die cut the drinks using the coordinating Cocktail Mixer dies. I also stamped the bat image from the new Batty Newton stamp set in the same Memento black ink on white paper. I colored the bat with Copic markers and die cut the image using the coordinating Batty Newton dies. I adhered all of the images to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension. In the upper left corner of one of the alcohol ink backgrounds, I stamped the sentiment in Versamark ink and heat embossed it with black embossing powder. Lastly, I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella to the images for added sparkle.     Are you ready to get your paws inky with us and play along to win a prize? We will chose a RANDOM entry to win a $20 store credit to our Newton's Nook Designs online shop! We will also highlight our favorites from each challenge the following Monday so all entries have a chance to be featured on this blog! You have TWO WEEKS to play along - Deadline to enter is Friday, October 23rd, 2020 at Midnight CST. The winners will be announced on the Newton's Nook blog the following Monday. Are you ready to play along and get your paws inky? Make sure you check the challenge rules page before you link up your project. XO, CrystalList of supplies:
 Today I am on the Whimsy Stamps blog for day/night 2 of their annual "31 Nights of Halloween" celebration. This annual event features gory (but good) giveaways, BOO-tiful projects and frightful fun for everyone! Please refer to this post to see how you can enter to win some of these spooktacular prizes. We also hope that YOU will share your Halloween themed creations with us! I have designed a slimline card today featuring one of my favorite Whimsy Stamps Halloween sets called Candy Corn Dress Up. I LOVE this brilliantly designed set featuring candy corns disguised as trick-or-treaters. *Confession - as I was setting up the photo layout for this image, I may have eaten approximately 108 pieces of my candy corn photo props! : )   Card details:This slimline card measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2". Slimline cards are designed to fit into a regular #10 business sized envelope and require no additional postage. For the base of the card I used 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. Using the Slimline Hill House die, I cut the frame from black cardstock. I created the background using Ranger Alcohol Inks in Lemonade and Sunset on Yupo paper. Using the Pierced and Stitched Circle Dies I die cut a large circle from Yupo paper and inked on more orange than yellow alcohol ink. I then placed the moon behind the haunted house. I splattered both backgrounds with white acrylic paint for added visual interest.  I fussy cut the alcohol ink background to fit inside the Hill House slimline frame. I also fussy cut a piece of gray cardstock to fit behind the road (in the lower half of the scene) and then adhered both layers to the white card base using a Tombow Permanent Dot Runner. I die cut the two bats from black cardstock using the Build A Graveyard Die set. I stamped the candy corn images in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on the Neenah white cardstock and colored them using Copic markers. I fussy cut the images and adhered them to the card using 3M foam adhesive. I added some extra highlights to the coloring by using a Uniball white gel pen. I also ALWAYS add a coat of Clear Wink of Stella to my projects for lots of extra sparkle! Sparkle, is like butter (or bacon), it makes everything better! I stamped the sentiment in Memento Black ink on a thin strip of pumpkin orange cardstock, notched the right edge and adhered it to the bottom of the card with 3M foam adhesive.   I hope you have enjoyed this spooky-cute slimline card. Be sure to follow along for the rest of the month to see NEW Halloween themed projects every day by Whimsy Stamps' talented Creative Team. Thanks for visiting and happy creating! XO, CrystalHello friends and happy Friday! I hope you have fun things planned for the weekend ahead. I have a to-do list a mile long calling my name! Today's card may not exactly be the "ice cream" you had in mind, but this play on words is the name of the newest Halloween release stamp set from Whimsy Stamps. The Eye Scream stamp set is filled with eyeballs, eyescreams, bat eyes and more creepy crawly Halloween goodness!  Card details:This slimline card measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2" and it's base is made from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. Using the Slimline Wobbly die, I cut the frame from black cardstock. The green spider web paper behind the frame is a 6" paper pack from Whimsy Stamps called "Haunted." I stamped the eye images in Memento Tuxedo black ink on white cardstock and colored them using Copic markers. I fussy cut each image and adhered it to the frame using 3M foam adhesive. I stamped the various sentiments in lime green ink on thin strips of white cardstock and adhered them beside the images. Lastly, I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella to the images for added sparkle.    Thank you for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful weekend and find some time to do crafty things! XO, CrystalList of supplies:
Hello readers and welcome back from the weekend! I hope you found a little time to do something crafty. Today we have a new challenge to share with you at Newton's Nook Inky Paws Challenge. Challenge #132 is a sketch challenge. Using the sketch shown in the image below, share with us YOUR creations! *I will be taking my first official "vacation" of 2020, and, as such, will also be taking a much needed break from blogging. I will return to regular posting on Monday, September 21st. Be well friends and I'll see you when I return.  Halloween is my favorite cardmaking holiday, so I'm all about spooky colors, bat stencils and cute kitties hiding in pumpkins!  Card details:The base of this A2 sized card is made from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. Using the Frames & Flags dies, I cut the scalloped frame from black cardstock. I cut a 5" x 3 3/" piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock to ink blend the distress oxide inks on to create that background. I first ink blended Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink onto the paper and then I laid the Flying Bats stencil on top. I then ink blended Seedless Preserve Distress Oxide ink and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink bats over the background color. I die cut the grass using the Land Borders die and Granny Apple Green cardstock. I stamped the cat and pumpkin image from the Newton's Boo-tiful Night stamp set in Memento Tuxedo black ink on white cardstock and colored it using Copic markers. I die cut the image using the coordinating Newton's Boo-tiful Night dies. I adhered the image to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension. I cut a thin strip of black cardstock and notched the right end before adhering it to the left side of the card (to fit the sketch image) and I stamped "Happy Halloween" in Memento Black ink on a thin strip of white cardstock to adhere directly below the black strip. Lastly, I added a coat of clear Wink of Stella to the image for added sparkle.    Are you ready to get your paws inky with us and play along to win a prize? We will chose a RANDOM entry to win a $20 store credit to our Newton's Nook Designs online shop! We will also highlight our favorites from each challenge the following Monday so all entries have a chance to be featured on this blog! You have TWO WEEKS to play along - Deadline to enter is Friday, September 25, 2020 at Midnight CST. The winners will be announced on the Newton's Nook blog the following Monday. Are you ready to play along and get your paws inky? Make sure you check the challenge rules page before you link up your project. XO, CrystalList of supplies:
MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY JUST GOT EVEN BETTER WITH THE RELEASE OF THE NEW SLIMLINE HAUNTED HILL DIE BY WHIMSY STAMPS! No, do not adjust your screens, my all caps commentary is not a grammatical error! I'm just shouting these words electronically because I'm that excited about this fun new die! But, what makes it even better is that with the positioning of the haunted house, you can die cut the whole image and then just use the mansion portion for an A2 sized card, if you don't want to make a slimline card. It's a Halloween win-win!  Card details:*A full list of supplies is located at the end of this post. The base of this slimline card is made from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I die cut the Haunted hill die from black cardstock. I ran the same Haunted Hill die through my Big Shot again this time in purple cardstock and I pieced the purple road into the first black mansion I die cut. I had a scrap piece of a green alcohol ink background leftover from another card and was able to reuse it for the background sky of the mansion for a spooky green glow. I die cut the ghosts from the "Boo" die set in white cardstock and put a little piece of black cardstock behind their eyes to give them dark shadow. I die cut the word "boo" out of lime green cardstock and then created a shadow behind the word from black cardstock. I adhered all the ghosts and the word "boo" to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension.     Are YOU as excited about this spooky new die as I am!??? No? That's okay too! : ) It's Friday (and also the start of my vacation), so let's all be excited about that! Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend! *I will be taking my first official "vacation" of 2020, and, as such, will also be taking a much needed break from blogging. I will return to regular posting on Monday, September 21st. Be well friends and I'll see you when I return. XO, CrystalList of supplies:
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