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Happy Halloween

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It’s never been my favorite holiday, but I do enjoy making cards for my grandchildren. Usually I make five of the same card, but this year Caleb’s card was created for the Color Hues Challenge: Orange and Purple. I only had one black honeycomb ball for The Greetery’s Hey, Honeycomb Spider, so I needed to come up with an alternative for the girls.

I ended up giving the spider a glittery purple body and googly eyes—there has to be some interactive element on the cards! The spider’s body sparkles a lot more than the photo shows. I also added some pretty purple jewels by Pinkfresh Studio. 

Once again I used the Spellbinders Betterpress Spider Web Background. The sentiment from My Favorite Things Itty Bitty Boos was white embossed on black and die cut with MFT’s Itty Bitty Strips.

It’s dark, rainy, and very windy here so there weren’t many treat or treaters. Hope it was nicer where you are.

Woodblock Wednesday: October 2025

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Woodblock Wednesday: October 2025

Yesterday was Woodblock Wednesday, and I was ready ahead of time but I lost track of time, and today is Thursday! When we returned from our trip I needed a thank you note for my niece and her significant other who hosted us for a fabulous dinner. I pulled out an old favorite woodblock stamp from Denami Designs and then realized I’d have a card ready for Woodblock Wednesday.

I stamped the design on a white panel, added gold and black frames and adhered them to an A4 kraft card by Paper Source. The sentiment is one of the Memory Box Black Greeting Tabs. While I was at it I made an extra to have on hand.

This is off to Amy’s blog with thanks for inspiring us to keep using our old woodblock stamps!

Autumn Abundance

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Recently I found an envelope of already die cut and ink-blended fall leaves after creating a new card using the same die set. They seemed perfect for a card created for three separate challenges: The Paper Players: CAS-Fall Foliage, Just Us Girls: Moodboard of Fall Essentials, and Inspirational: Seasonal. 

I grabbed an already die cut circle and arranged the leaves and fall fruits and vegetables to form a wreath. Once I was happy with the arrangement I laid a piece of Press ’N Seal on top and picked up the arrangement. I very carefully removed the die cut circle and added glue to the back of each of the elements in the wreath.

The next step was to carefully center the wreath on a piece of Dark Chocolate cardstock (PTI). Once the glue had dried, I treated the whole card with anti-static powder so I could gold emboss the sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s Autumn Abundance. I added the focal panel to a Dark Chocolate card base with some dimensional tape. 

The leaves are turning color quickly here, and a very windy Monday put many of them on the lawn. For some reason the trees in our yard are often the last to lose their leaves, and many frequently get buried under the first snowfall. I’m having a hard time adjusting to the fall temperatures after so much fine weather, but I don’t want to think about snow

Christmas Gnome

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I’m delighted to be the Guest Designer for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge. The current challenge is:

I knew I had a small gnome die, but couldn’t find it quickly once we returned from our road trip to the west coast. I found two inexpensive dies online and although I wish the gnome was a bit smaller, the dies worked well. The gnome is from the Christmas Gnome die by Scrapbooking/Cardmaking. I also used the gift from the Gift Gnome by the same company.

After die cutting the gnome and gift from white cardstock, I used finger daubers and inks to color them. Once they were assembled, I set them aside to create the background. I ink blended a Stitched Rectangle by Simon Says with Distress Inks, die cut three trees from green cardstock using Memory Box’s Tall Evergreen Trees, and die cut some snow drifts with Papertrey Ink’s In the Meadow dies. I added some Liquid Applique to the trees and sprinkled on some Candy Rock Glitter which gave the trees a bit of dimension as well as some sparkle. I edged the snow drifts with some glitter as well. 

It’s hard to see in the photo, but there was so much glitter being sprinkled on that the sky has a bit of twinkle as well. 

Hop over to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge and add your gnome(s) to the gallery!

Color Hues #120

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Stef has chosen the perfect colors for the next Color Hues Challenge. 

Knowing I have several Halloween cards to create it was easy to decide on a theme. This Hey, Honeycomb Spider is the last of The Greenery’s honeycomb dies that was still in my NBUS box, so I was delighted to have a chance to use it.

The Letterpress Spider Web Background by Spellbinders also came out of the NBUS box. Once I had the background created I cut it down so I my bright purple card base would create a frame. I die cut the spider from black cardstock, and used the Hey, Honeycomb Basics to white emboss the “directions” for opening up the spider’s body.

I gave some thought to adding googley eyes, but the dies for the eyes looked great, and since this will likely go in the mail, I decided against any more bulk. The spider is attached to the background panel with dimensional tape. The sentiment from Honey Bee’s Sentiment Banners was also white embossed on the purple cardstock.

Be sure to hop over to the Color Hues where you’ll find inspiration for Halloween cards as well as some beautiful fall florals from our Guest Designer, Bobby, and the Design Team. The challenge is open until 9:00 AM on October 29th. Hope to see you in our gallery!

Color Hues #119

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October 1 finds me on the road, and with a pre-scheduled post for the new Color Hues Challenge. Marcia has chosen great fall colors: Rust and Yellow.

My thoughts did go to autumn leaves, but I had a NBUS Concord & 9th set of dies, Friendship Garden, waiting for a debut, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Mums are everywhere right now, and I’m quite sure I still have some Black-eyed Susans in the garden.

After diecutting and assembling all the pieces for the cute flowers, pitchers, and crate, I played around with some different layouts and backgrounds. The rust and yellow flowers were so small, I decided to layer them on a yellow panel with a rust colored mat on a kraft card base. 

The sentiment is also from Concord & 9th but from The Flower Shoppe. When I purchased the Friendship Garden, I thought the dies might play very well together. That will be another project. The end result showcased the color combo well, but I must admit, it feels a bit busier than my usual style.

There is, of course, lots of inspiration on the Color Hues blog from our Guest Designer,  and the Color Hues Design Team. I hope you’ll join us in the gallery.

AAA Birthday Challenge: Guest Designer

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I’m delighted to be the Guest Designer for the new AAA Birthday Challenge: Ombre.

I thought it would be fun to create a card with ombre colored balloons, so reached for the Balloons and Streamers stencil by Kristina Werner for Concord & 9th. 

I don’t own many full-sized Pinkfresh ink pads, but I love having cubes that blend wonderfully from lightest to darkest. I used just two of the inks for the streamers.

Before die-cutting  the sentiment from Papertrey Ink, I did some ombre coloring on a strip of cardstock. I then die cut three more from white cardstock, layered them for some dimension and added them to a strip of vellum.

The final step was to add some clear adhesive stars for a bit of sparkle.

This challenge is open for the whole month, so you have lots of time to join in the fun! Thanks to the team at AAA Birthday for the honor of guesting with them.