Happy Friday everybody! This was a long week even though I am not working today. I started to feel bad yesterday like I'm getting a cold. Really tired and achy…slept 10 hours straight last night. I stayed home from work today, and I'm still in my pajamas. I need to get better because we have a crazy weekend ahead of us (more at the bottom of my post).

Today's card is made with a fun Halloween Hedgie! I am in love with Penny Black stamps again! When I first started stamping 17 years ago I used to buy tons of Penny Black stuff. They used to have a booth at our local stamp conventions too. Remember when country was in?? All the stamps were so CUTE and COUNTRY! I still have a lot of those stamps even though that's no longer my style. Recently I re-discovered PB images at one of our local stamp stores. I bought this adorable Halloween Hedgie along with some cute Christmas images I will show you later.

I really had fun coloring this image with my Copics! To make the fur I used a bunch of different shades of brown and gray. No particular method, just kept coloring until I got it the way I liked it. His tummy is done in E000 and his cheek is RV10. Those are my two favorite colors for skin on people too.

I stamped, colored, and cut out a second balloon and then put some bling on it! The ultra fine crystal glitter is a fav! Then I put the second balloon over the first one to add some dimension to the front of the card. I didn't add a bunch of other elements because it's too hard to mail out. Keeping it simple and clean lets me mail out Halloween cards, easy peasy.

The "Flying by to say hi" image is a clear stamp from the Hero Arts Halloween words set. I think it was meant to go with a witch, but I thought it was perfect for our little hedgie too! The inside sentiment is from Amuse.

Okay, so I gotta tell you about our crazy weekend ahead! For part one of this story see this post from June! Part two of the Silver Surfer statue story (say that three times fast) is that tomorrow we are driving to Los Angeles (Greek Theater) to go to the Spike TV Scream Awards show! The producer of the show is the man who bought the SS statue! He has been so nice and gracious to us – unbelievably so. He invited us to be his guest at the awards show: VIP backstage access, parking, drinks… We are meeting his assistant tomorrow so she can show us around! It is bound to be an interesting evening! I'm still not sure if I'm allowed to bring a camera. You know I NEED to take pictures! DH got a new outfit (foxy!) and I just finished putting three coats of glitter nail polish on my nails. I think we're ready! I will have a full report on Monday. Take care everyone!

Today I'm back with more vintage-y Halloween stuff! I had everything out to make my card for this weekend's challenge and just kept going for this week's Taylored Expressions #131 Challenge! I love all this yummy Martha Stewart product! And I always love doing Taylor's challenges… Check it out!

Here is the sketch image:

I have never made one of these accordian circle thingees before! It took me a few attempts to get it right. I ended up cutting a strip of paper 1.25" x 12" and then scoring it at each 1/4 inch on my scor-pal. That seemed to get it the right size for a card. 

I wonder if this leaf bouquet is the reason Mr. Buddy had a tummy ache this week??? I found him munching on it. Of course he stopped and posed all cute when he was busted! 

Well hello there!! Today I'm posting my first Halloween project! I'm also continuing with the vintage theme. The Shabby Tea Room Challenge #30 this week is Vintage Halloween! I knew I had to make something. I happen to really love old Halloween stuff! I busted out all the black and orange and all the stamps and just sat there…overwhelmed… It was hard to get started. So, I decided to put the challenge inspiration image up on my computer screen (see below) and just let it speak to me! Voila! Chandelier pattern paper! and Spiderwebs! That got the creative juices kicked in. Hope you likey. Are you ready for the spooky holiday?

 Here is the Shabby Tea Room challenge inspiration image – so fun!

I decided to use the fun black and orange chandeliers to make my own background paper! Luckily I had a small-ish size chandelier clear stamp (Martha Stewart) so it was easy-peasy to alternate the black and orange!

The inspiration image also has spooky cobwebs so I thought I would add some! The final touch, that I think makes the background paper seem vintage, was to sponge black ink all around the edges.  I think it turned out kinda cool, if I do say so myself.

This card ended up with tons of different elements on it. The large focal image is a stamp I've had forever from Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers. Do you remember them?  After I stamped the image in black I distressed it with walnut ink stain and a sponge. Then I added this neat glitter glue that is black with flecks of green in it.  The other two stamps are also from Martha Stewart collections. I think the ribbon is too. That girl Martha loves her some Halloween goods!!!

While I was making this card I had the internal dialogue (again) about hoarding craft supplies… Some of the stuff on this card I have had for years! I threw caution to the wind…and used it all up! Know what? Nothing bad happened! I think I'll survive! I don't know why I do that. Oh well, just rambling. Hope you are having a great weekend!  

Inspiration can come from anywhere… Sometimes I pick out a stamp first. Sometimes it's a piece of patterned paper…or a die-cut…or a color scheme. Could be just about anything. Today's cards were inspired by a package of thick cardboard stickers from Debbie Mumm that I've had in my stash for a long time. I liked the images, and the colors, and decided to build my cards around them…and they also fit perfectly for the Curtain Call #50 at Stacey's Stamping Stage Challenge!

Here is Stacey's pretty inspiration image and color scheme:  

This pretty leaf border is one of those giant EK Success flat punches… Instead of making a border on the paper it makes a strip of cut-outs! The plaid paper is from a 12 x 12 paper pack I got last year at Michael's and is from K & Company.

Hey! It's October! I went to Target last night and I witnessed the Halloween-o-rama first hand! We are in full-on Fall mode now peeps! Yay! Now, if the weather would just realize it.

I just have a cute and simple card to share today. Sometimes you don't need to use everything in the craft room to make a card. Hee hee.  Sometimes, less is more. The images are super adorable Amuse stamps – what else? Hope you like it! The hubs and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary this weekend – nine years - on Sunday. Looking forward to spending some quality time with that guy! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

I want to share an idea I got from Julie over at her blog – Paper Trufflez. Holla Julie! She did some pumpkins on her card and I just loved the technique. I stamped my Amuse pumpkin in a nice pure orange dye ink. Then I got out my dark orange prismacolor pencil and colored over the image to shade it! Isn't that cool?

I didn't want my card to seem like a Halloween card, but rather just a hello for Fall. If you use orange and black, automatically is says "Halloween." By adding a pop of green (Stampin' Up Kiwi Kiss) you don't get that effect.

Hey! How is everyone today? I am back to Fall cards! Today's card is made with beautiful stamps from Waltzingmouse Rubber Stamps. I got out the Copics and started coloring away to make some pretty shiny red apples to share. 

I'm also super excited to report that I was selected as a Top Crop again for last week's challenge over at Taylored Expressions! Thanks, Taylor, for being so kind to me! This was a great sketch that I know I will use over and over again. It is the perfect sketch for a large square image as your focal point. Check it out!

As you can see, I'm back in the groove with my dark red, olive green and brown color scheme! This is the Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede paper from Stampin' Up and some pretty patterned paper from Amuse. I used some new vintage brads from Stampin' Up also.

Here is a close up of the focal image. I used some clear glaze on the apples after coloring them in. I wanted them to be super shiny and appealing. Also, one trick I've picked up from other stampers is to shade all around the image in a very light grey. For some reason this makes the image seem more crisp. Try it!

Here is my Copic color pallette:

Brown is very hard to shade and blend. Use your darkest color sparingly at first – you can always use more. Start light and just keep working with it until you get the effect you want.