Halloween Banner Card

This is by far the fussiest Halloween card from my Pennywise Arts design month.  

I die cut each jewelry tag and added a rub-on letter, then I folded the top of each tag over my twine 'rope' and glued the tab to the back.  To keep them from all sliding together, I ended up putting each on a pop dot.  I found (okay, I raided the humongous stash of bat things that I have) a few little bat buttons for the knots on either end of my rope. 

The background was a little to plain for me, so I ran the patterned paper through a polka dot embossing folder.  I still wasn't happy, so I decided to stamp a swirl with Versamark and use the O'So Sticky Powder to cover it with Ultrafine Microbeads.

The beads looks like they're colored, but they're clear! They just add a little bit of sparkle.  The word "Happy" is from a Papertrey Ink die - I also used O'So Sticky Powder to adhere it to the card. 

On a side note, remember my Panic! at the Disco cards?  Well, I gave one to a friend who is also in their fan club and we met them at one of their concerts.  She  had the band members sign hers!  I freaked out a tiny little bit (A LOT!) and just had them sign their cd.  EEEEEEE!!!!!

Thanks for looking!

Halloween Skulls

It's time for another Pennywise Arts sponsored card.  Today, I'm all about the skulls and not about bats.

I clear embossed the Boo on crumpled patterned paper and dp'd some red ink over it.  I love the effect! 

The skulls are grungeboard that I covered with white acrylic paint.  After they dried (okay, okay - after they were dryish), I covered them in Versamark and did two layers of clear embossing powder - UTEE would be perfect here, I just can't remember where I put mine - and while the ep was still hot and sticky, dipped them in Ultra Fine Clear Beads.  I added an additional three layers of ep and beads, heating between each layer and ending with a final layer of ep.   Ta-dah!

After they cooled, I cracked them a bit - I tried to rub them with a dye ink pad but it wouldn't stick - duh!  Black Stazon would have been a better choice, but it's apparently run off with my UTEE  and they're living in sin.  :)  

I think I'm going to try this little trick with some colored microbeads and maybe some other shapes - I want to see this technique on a heart or flower shape.   I would be tickled pink if anyone decided to try it and left a link for me! 

Only 46 more days til Halloween!!!

Halloween Blues

I love bats! If every card I made could have bats on it, I would be a happy girl.  Seriously, this is how much I love bats:

That's me, on vacation in Australia, volunteering at a bat hospital!  That's Mystique, she's reaching for a bit of banana.  So beautiful!

So, in honor of bats, here's another Halloween card, graciously sponsored by Pennywise Arts!

The adorable sentiment is from Stampotique and the bat is an embroidery sticker that I've had in my stash.  The stars are plain chipboard which I covered in Versamark and dipped into O'So Sticky Powder from Pennywise.  You heat it up just like embossing powder and it gets - wait for it - sticky!  :)  I then covered the stars with ultra fine glitter and set the powder with another blast from my heat gun then added them to my card base and voila - a happy little Halloween card!

As always, thanks so much for looking!

Halloween at Pennywise Arts!

September is my design team month over at Pennywise Arts Blog.  Definitely check it out; they're currently giving away 10 sheets of double-sided O'So Sticky Tape and only two people have entered - great odds if you ask me!  I'm not eligible to play, so go, get your friends to sign up!

On to my first Halloween card of the season! (Mad props to my crazy staging skills! LOL!)

I took some double-sided paper and made the base card, then I flipped the paper over and made a paper 'ribbon' from the print on the back side (yay! bats!); I couldn't get the tail right, so I ended up using the corner of a medallion shaped die.

Papertrey Ink stamps and die helped make the tickets out of more patterned paper and I added a some hand-dyed seam binding.  To finish it all off, I took a small square of O'So Sticky tape, removed the rubber liner and adhered it to some black paper, which I then punched with a bat. 

I removed the paper liner and dipped it into Clear Mini Beads.  You could use the Black Opaque beads too, if you wanted a little less sparkle but I like a little bit of bling.  Stick it on with some foam tape and you're done!

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more Halloween goodies!!

Birthdays and Frogs

The sun in shining - what is up with that? 

So, I am going for another two  new challenge blogs today.  Crazy me!  I actually love this color combo - the orange isn't something that I normally reach for when I'm doing crafting, but I thought this all went together perfectly. 

I'm entering this into the Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge - Flowers over at  Marks Finest Paper,  as well as the DIY Embellishment challenge at Tuesday Throwdown because I made that fabulous little flower from 4 loose flower petals from Oriental Trading Company.   This will be my first time entering a challenge on both of those blogs.  

I added beads to some Pennywise Arts micro beads and dropped a little frog charm into a card shaker (that I also got from Pennywise) and sealed it up with a stamped background.   I don't know where the lily pad stamp came from - it's foam mounted white rubber and comes with an adorable little frog but it was busy when I added him.  The leaves and the sentiment are Papertrey Ink.

Enjoy! And thanks for looking.

Pennywise Arts Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Pennywise Arts (PWA) Blog Hop, featuring fabulous Micro Beads!

Not only is Pennywise Arts the BEST place to get over 20 different colors of micro beads in 3 different sizes, they also have a huge gallery of project ideas, freebees and tutorials.  You can even join the Yahoo group - there are over 1,670 members! 

The hop will run from Saturday morning, through Sunday, April 17.  There will be tons of opportunities to WIN blog candy and a Grand Prize for a $25 shopping spree at PWA!  To enter, just leave a comment (with your email address) in any of the hop blogs and periodically check the PWA Blog for winners!  Suzanne is also offering a free handmade item from the design team for every web order this weekend.   

All the hop projects are crazy good, so I thought that I would slow it down a bit and feature just a few different ways that you can use microbeads to add a little extra umph! in your every day projects. 

Here is my plan card - it's nice, didn't take me too long to make and is a good general all purpose card.  There's a close-up of the main embellishment - I used the negative frame of an H chipboard die cut.

 In the first sample, I've used the same basic card, but this time I've added Clear Ultra Fine Micro Beads to the frame. I love the texture and shine it gives.  Trust me, you can't resist running your fingers over it again and again.

  

  For the next card, I've added a mixture of the Clear Ultra Fine Micro Beads and Royal Blue Opaque Micro Beads to the opening of the letter.  (Here's a 'not so secret' secret - the clear Micro Beads can be colored with alcohol inks so you can customize your colors! How cool is that?)

And last, but not least, I made a little shaker card out of the die cut by adding acetate and foam tape.  This time I threw in a few Gold Opaque beads as well. 

(Excuse my static cling! It's easy to get rid of, just rub your acetate with a dryer sheet.)

Now I get the pleasure of sending you to visit the always awesome Artistic Guides over at Stamper's Quest magazine! They have many projects guiding you down your creative trail working with micro beads.  Wait until you see their exquisite designs...oooh lah lah!

Thanks for visiting!