Artbooking Halloween Card

Since both of our girls are in college, I wanted to send them something special in the mail for Halloween.  I decided to use the CTMH/Cricut Artbooking cartridge to make a haunted house "card" even though the Cricut idea is to make a mini book.

I cut all of these pieces at 4.25" so that they would easily fit in a card envelope.  I had originally planned on using the Saffron bat cutout behind the black haunted house cut, but you really couldn't see the bats.  I decided to cut a Saffron background for the haunted house cut and then a Charcoal background for the Saffron bats cut out.  (Hopefully that makes sense!)

I attempted to sponge a sunset on the Saffron background so that the windows would seem lit up and the background would be the setting sun.  I sponged Saffron, Paprika, and Sangria inks on the background.  I used a scrap of Hawthorn Sage herringbone B&T for the door.  I added gold Stickles to mimic candles in the windows, and used a white epoxy gem for the "full moon."  I bound the card together with thin white & gold ribbon.

On the inside of my card, I used a retired Halloween stamp set for the bats and the "Happy Halloween" sentiment (stamped in Sangria and again in Charcoal to fussy cut the bat after cutting out the circle with my Thin Cuts).

Hopefully the girls will like their Halloween surprise!  I am featuring this card on the Heart2Heart "Anything Goes" challenge and entering the Color Dare #366 Hawthorn Tic-Tac-Toe challenge (Sangria, Charcoal, & Saffron), the Double Trouble #41 Batty Challenge, and the Crafting Happiness #20 Halloween challenges.

CTMH Technique Blog Hop: Back to the Basics

This month's technique blog hop is to get back to the basics.  You are going to see so many variations on this theme, and you might learn a new technique or two along the way! (If you're already hopping, then you've probably arrived from Melissa's blog.  From here, you'll visit Miss Carrie's Creations next.)

My first "back to basics" is that I used the Hawthorn collection with a sketch from the (retired) Magic How-To Guide. 

 I used the October stamp of the month, Autumn Air, to accent my layout.

My next "back to basics" is rainbow inking, or inking up my stamps in more than one color before stamping.  NOTE: Always ink up with your lightest and then move to your darker colors.  For "Fall" I inked up the top half with Paprika and the bottom half with Sangria.  The small leaf was inked with Sage and I then rolled an edge in Paprika.

You can really see this stamping technique on the large sentiment square.  After lining up the two stamps onto my block, I inked up the top portion with Saffron and then the middle portion with Paprika, finishing with Sangria on the bottom.  (With a large image like this one, you might want to "huff," or blow some warm breath, onto your inked image to make sure all the ink is wet before stamping.)

Thank you for visiting!  Please leave a comment before you hop on over to Miss Carrie's blog to continue the Back to the Basics blog hop.

H2H Sparkle

Close To My Heart offers so many ways to add sparkle to your projects, and the most recent October Heart2Heart Challenge is capitalizing on this sparkly goodness!

While you might not see the sparkle at first, just turn this wedding card a bit in the light to see the Mint and Juniper shimmer brushes on the vellum flower die cut.

That velvet Julep ribbon is delicious and luxurious!  Unfortunately, the Swiss Dots folder is no longer available.

Be sure to check out all of the H2H Sparkly creations and join us this month!

October Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: Autumn Air

The calendar says that fall is here, but we are still sweltering in the South!  Hopefully the October stamp of the month, Autumn Air, will help you get into the fall spirit.  (If you're already hopping, you've probably arrived from Brenda's blog.  From here, you'll visit Kristine next.)

My card was quick to make.  (I was inspired by a card on p. 20 of the current September-October catalog.)  I began with a Toffee cardstock base, then added pieces of Hawthorn paper.  Because I didn't have the new Paprika and Sangria inks (yet), I stamped the sentiment in Saffron only, but now that I have all three inks I would use them all for a rainbow effect.  I finished my card with gold shimmer trim and the acorn and leaf that I fussy cut then mounted with foam tape for a little dimension.

Please leave a quick comment before you continue along the hop to see what Kristine has created to inspire you!

{Click HERE for all the hop participants and their blogs.}