Pocket Letters Galore

It's been a while since I updated!  I've been spending most of my times swapping Pocket Letters and ATCs with my new pals at Swap-Bot.

Here are some of my most recent swaps - please forgive the photo quality, those shiny folders are a bitch to photograph.

This one is my favorite by far:


Classic Monster

Here are some others:


Owl Pocket Letter


Halloween

I'm also swapping ATCs, handmade postcards and I'm working on my collage skills.  What is up with that?!

If you'd like to swap, let me know.

Thanks for looking!

Pocket Letters

So I recently found a new craft - Pocket Letters!  You can check out the basics via the creator, Janette Lane, on her blog here.

I joined her Pocket Letter Pal network and agreed to my first Halloween themed swap.  I decided to go cute and went to town - I started with some Project Life Halloween cards that I had for unknown reasons since I don't actually scrapbook.  I was thinking I'd do ATCs but then I decided I wanted my swap partner to be to use the supplies on the front of the pockets as well as the back (I'm not sure if that's the intent, but I liked it).

Here's the front:

And here's the back:

  

In my first pocket, I did some ATC papers wrapped ribbon and added a handmade matchbook to the back.  The next pocket is my glitter/confetti pocket - I think I may have muddied this up a little to much with glitter.  It's sealed with washi, so I may redo it before I send it out.  My swap partner is momma to some fancy rat babes, so I made her a rat pocket with chipboard rats on the front that she can remove and some stickers, labels and a few tickets in back.

   

The second row has a spider charm, some black and orange rhinestones with spider and web die cuts and some hand-dyed crinkle ribbon and washi tape in the back.  I'll put my letter behind the card with the owl.  I'm not sure if I should add more the front pockets in this row?

The last row has my swap partner's initials, some more removable die cuts and a free floating bat.  Additional pumpkin and bat themed papers, ribbon and embellishments are tucked in back.  I made some really cute little file folders too.

I can't wait to get started on my next one - it's an owl theme!

I'm entering the above into the following challenges:
Hiding in My Craftroom - HMCR218 - Any Holiday (Halloween)
Corrosive Challenges - Halloween Bingo - Bat, Free Space, Moon  (CORROSIVE233)

Thanks for stopping by!

HDH - Nosferatu

This week's challenge over at Haunted Design House is Nosferatu Ad nauseam - which means vampires!   I wasn't sure I would have time to play (I totally missed last week because, ugh, life is busy) but I remembered the creepy Nosferatu stamp that I picked up in Vegas and I had to play with it.

So, here's my tribute to the original blood-sucker:

I used watercolor pencils to color him a rather disgusting yellow/brown and then sponged red on top with plastic wrap.  Something I find disgusting is milky eyes - the best monsters have them, so I colored his eyes green and added glossy accents on top.  Yuck!

I'm going to enter this into a few different challenges this week:
Crafting for All Seasons - Spooky
Fussy and Fancy - Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks - Spooktacular
Tuesday Throwdown - Halloween

Thanks for looking!

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!!