Pumpkin with Personality

Challenge #300 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have the theme

Autumn Celebrations Around the World

Challenge 300 is being sponsored by doodlebugsWA and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $25 store credit and the Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  

Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Jaydee of Stamping with Jaydee - our winner from Challenge 293!  Be sure to check out her gorgeous creation inspired by our photo as well as those of my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!

I'd been havering for days about which direction to go for this challenge - I was thinking of the Vizfest celebration (apple pressing) we have here in Luxembourg in Mid October or possibly Oktoberfest which is also popular here!   But yesterday I received a lovely surprise in the post - a stamp set from Donna Walls of Inspiration Station which included Halloween elements so I decided to go with a Halloween theme and use the new stamp set for tone on tone interest behind this very old but still NBUS pumpkin die (Sizzix Movers and Shapers Pumpkin Jack by Tim Holtz).  I also bought the matching Movers and Shapers Mini Scary Jack-o-Lantern Set all those years ago (2014) and both have been overlooked.

I cut the pumpkin with the face from yellow card stock and shaded with some Carved Pumpkin DI, then backed it with a black pumpkin without the face.  The mouth and eyes looked a little dull, so I went over them with Wink of Stella, added the stalk and arranged the new stamps on my stamping platform and stamped with Versamark for a subtle effect behind the pumpkin.  Here's a closeup!

I did have to make a larger than normal card base to accommodate this pumpkin - these Bigz dies are just that!  It measures 12.5 x 17cm (just under 5" x just under 6.75") so should fit in a 5 x 7" envelope.  The larger size is probably why it's sat unloved for so many years.  How many dies have we bought that were much larger (or smaller) than anticipated when they were bought online???

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #79 - NBUS Pumpkin Jack, Jack o'Lantern, Bloody Good Halloween;

Four Seasons October Challenge;

Two Old Bats October Challenge;

Traumfabrik Challenge #144 - Coco Day of the Dead (Halloween Theme);

Inspiration Station Challenge #78 - See below (I was inspired by the pumpkins);

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Spooktacular Bats

I originally started this for another challenge but ended up putting it aside.  I thought I'd try to resurrect it, changing it to a halloween theme.  No, it didn't start out as a Halloween card, would you believe I was going for a Christmas card - I wanted a night sky for St Nick to ride across!  You can see why I put it aside!!!  For some reason my blending didn't go smoothly - didn't help that I couldn't find my blending tool.  I also used the wrong colour of Distress Ink (meant to use Chipped Sapphire).  I also realised after I had finished that I had forgotten to place a circular mask for the full moon.  Never mind I think the uneven blending adds to the eeriness and the purple looks very Halloween and I managed a faint moon by removing some of the purple ink using some water and a circle negative!

The city skyline was created using a Clearly Besotted die I have had for ages and I'm not sure it's ever been used.  I had a little trouble with it because it wasn't wide enough - normally it's not a problem to partially cut, move it along and cut further.  But not that day!  After the third attempt I decided to layer a few of the failed cuts from the previous three attempts behind a single skyline.  I quite liked the look of this as it gave a bit of dimension to the city skyline - like city blocks I suppose!  However the base line looked pretty uneven and needed to be hidden so I placed a frame over the whole scene. 

I knew I wanted to have bats.  When I lived in inner Sydney, there were dozens of magnificent old fig trees that the flying foxes just loved to feed on.  Flying foxes are huge with a wing span of up to a metre.  They used to make a lot of noise when they arrived and boy did they cast a shadow!  None of my bat dies were what I wanted - either too big or too cute - so I turned to my Cameo and the Silhouette Studio software.  Even with all the cut files available at this time of year, I couldn't find any bats in flight.  However, with the aid of of the transform option in the Silhouette Studio software,  I managed to get the angle I wanted and cut three in different sizes.  There were hundreds that used to come feed in the fig trees near where I lived but I was glad I decided to stick with only three bats for my card - the Cameo was misbehaving (of course) and I ended up having to finish the cuts with scissors.  

I wanted a small, subtle sentiment and didn't have anything appropriate so I created one using Word Art.  While doing this, I thought I'd try a Luxembourgish sentiment as well as an English one and decided on "Schéi Ge-BOO-ertsdag" (Schéi Gebuertsdag is Luxembourgish for Happy Birthday - literally beautiful birthday) and "You're Spooktacular".  Not sure how I'll use the card yet, so I haven't attached either of them.  I coated both sentiments with Glossy Accents and the bats as well not that you can tell from any of the photos unfortunately!

I'm entering the following challenges

Simon Says Layer it Up

The Fusion Card Challenge

{Pin}spirational Challenge #274

Little Red Wagon Challenge #572 - Things Beginning with "B"

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes with the option of Winged Things

Also sharing at NBUS Challenge #19, 'cos I'm pretty proud of myself for using something that's been in the cupboard for years (also a little embarrassed)!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  And if you leave a comment  I can return the favour,

Kate

Haunted House

I love it when Simon goes to birthday parties at this time of year as it gives me an opportunity to make spooky cards.  This card was influenced by Male Room Challenge 22 to use wood and the current CASology Cue Card.  I was going to put ghosts inside the window but I got the idea of just using the eyes from Meghan - one of the designer team members at CASology.

The main panel was stamped with the WMS Woodgrain in Antique Linen and then scored to give the appearance of wooden panels.  The sentiment was computer generated using the Cracked font, and cut with a Spellbinders Labels 2 die, trimmed down to resemble a tombstone and then overstamped with the WMS Crackle Mini stamp in Memento London Fog.  The spider was cut with the Cuttlebug Spooky Cut and Emboss set and is suspended from a section of cobweb trimmed from a cobweb border from EK Success.  

I've used Waltzing Mouse stamps so I'm entering this in the Waltzing Mouse Fanatics Challenge 29 

HALLOWEEN

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate

A Haunting Birthday Card

Hi, everyone all ready for halloween ?  We don't really celebrate it here nor did we in Australia, however it is a fun time and whenever one of my children go to a birthday party at this time of the year. I do try and make a Halloween themed birthday card.

Simon is going to a birthday party for one of his class mates today and I've made a Halloween themed  flip-it card for his friend.  I thought to take some construction photos of this flip-it card, so I've posted them here.

Fig 1 : Score and fold your card so that the front of the card is folded back on itself.  Then open the card up again and lay it on your cutting pad as above, with the midpoint of your die laying on the fold line.  Keep in place with temporary tape or a post-it note.

Fig 2 : Place the bottom edge of the top cutting plate so that it lays on the fold line and run it through your machine.

Fig 3 and 4 : Only the upper or left half of the label has been cut.

I embossed a small piece of black magic card using a Cuttlebug spiderweb embossing folder, and cut another Label 2.  I sanded the label to reveal the purple underneath the surface of the black magic card, added a black spider (cut from black glitter card using the Sizzix medium die Spider #2) and the word "Party" (cut from white card using the Sizzix Decorative Strip die Wingo Zingo and distressed with Dusty Concorde Distress Ink).  This became my card front image. 

I then cut another black Label 2 added the word "sweet", a skeleton and a pair of bony hands, all cut using the Sizzix Bigz die Sweet w/Skull.  These were all distressed with Dusty Concorde, Chipped Sapphire and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.  I chose Labels 2 because I wanted to make something that looked like a gravestone, and I tried to make my skeleton look as if he was clawing his way out of the grave.  Love those hands - well there was only 1 hand included with the die but I cut 2 of them and reversed one - could just as well be playing the piano don't ya think.

I dressed up the inside with some DP from Papermania, on which I printed "Schei Ge-BOO-ertstag" (shéi Gebuertstag is luxembourgish for Happy Birthday) and a cobweb border from EK success.

I'm quite liking these flip-it cards.  They're not difficult and they stand open like an easel card but they're much more effective when opened.  One word of advice, make sure you go over that fold line with your bone folder to make it really crisp.  This will ensure you card lies flat when closed.

Hope you liked this Haunting Birthday Card.  As Make My Monday has a Halloween theme this week I'm entering it their challenge.  Lots of great halloween inspiration over there !!!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Haunting !!!