I have three Halloween cards to share, one of which I'll enter in this month's challenge at The Heart's Desire.

It was Nan who inspired me to get going with a few Halloween cards. Luckily I had a stash of already die cut and colored elements, a couple of new dies to play with, and a little bit of time. 

I started off with a pile of papers and elements on my desk, and two dies I've never used: MFT's "Essential Cover-up: Vertical" and Memory Box's "Group of Ghosts." I also had a Hero Art's stamp and die set I purchased last year, but didn't end up using, "Witch's Feet." True Black and Orange Zest cardstock make for the perfect Halloween combination.

This card uses the MFT's framing die, a scrap of scrapbook paper, and the Hero Art's Witch's Feet set. I die cut the feet, stamped them in black, and colored them with an orange Tombow markers. The hat is from a sticker sheet filed in my "Fall" sticker folder, but I don't have the manufacturer's name. It's been there at least a year. The sentiment also comes from the Hero Art's set.

Last year some of my Halloween cards used the Papertrey Ink "Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers," and this image is one I die cut and colored last year. The PTI Cover Plate: "Horizontal Stripes" was in a folder of precut dies—how nice that there was an Orange Zest one. The sentiment came from the same sticker sheet as the witch's hat in the first card.

For the first card, I die cut the MFT die from the scrapbook paper to get the insert for the focal image. This time I used the frame which worked out perfectly. I had two sets of the Happy Halloween sentiment in my stash which I had cut last year with the Silhouette, and didn't use. The ghosts I die cut this year (2 sets of them) and the "EEK" is another one of the stickers. Thanks to saving my die cuts from last year, this year's cards came together pretty quickly.

I'm off to check out the other entries in the Halloween challenge and to look for some inspiration for next year's cards.

It's the last day of the NBUS Challenge over at Darnell's, so I pulled out two new items in my stash:  the October Simon Says Card Kit and a stamp set from Clearly Gina K. The stamp set includes a large, stunning image of a calla lily but also a wonderful set of sentiments. It's my first purchases from Gina K. and I'm impressed with it.

All the rest of the supplies came from the Simon Says kit:  beautiful papers from My Mind's Eye from their Blush collection, a piece of Burnished Rose Mirrored cardstock, cream cardstock, and a jar of SSS Steel Navy embossing powder. 

This angle highlights the bronze paper and bronze stripes in the patterned paper. You can almost see the sheen of the embossing powder which is really lovely. This is the last card I need for October birthdays and anniversaries. I need to start thinking about a Christmas card design, and be sure I have the beginning of November covered. There's a huge collection of cards linked to Darnell's challenges—plenty of inspiration here.

I have another entry into the NBUS (Never Before Used Stuff) Challenge hosted by Darnell. In my last PTI order I received a new stamp set called "Hey, Stacks." It's a great set with lots of options for sentiments and a variety of stripes of different weights. The MISTI came in really handy again in order to get vibrant colors for the stripes. Lining up the lines and sentiments wasn't as hard as I originally thought. I drew two light pencil lines and was able to line everything up pretty effectively. I'm thinking I'll find lots of uses for the set.

I chose orange, navy, and a lime green color combination which seemed like good party colors. As I often do, I die cut the focal panel as well as the navy panel with a stitched rectangle die from Simon Says. This was actually my second card. I had some black ink on my hands when I stamped the sentiment the first time and got a smudge on the card. I solved that problem by cutting the smeared section off, and ended up with this:

I don't like it quite as much, but I was happy to salvage it. Both cards could easily be sent to either a man or a woman, though both of these are off to guys!

As soon as I saw this month inspiration for the Papertrey September Ink Blog Hop, I knew I wanted to participate. I love the colors and the way they pop against the black background.

Although it's certainly not necessary to use a bird as the focal point, I turned to one of my favorite PTI sets, "Songbirds," and used some of the same colors and elements seen in the inspiration piece.

There are no wing dies in this set so I drew and fussy-cut one for the little bird. I sponged some "Honey Nut," "Cocoa Bean," and a touch of "Terracotta Tile" on the bird after die cutting it with Rustic White cardstock. I trimmed one branch from the leaf dies after they were cut from New Leaf and Green Parakeet cardstock. The little flowers were punched from very old punches in my collection. The banner and sentiment are both part of the "Songbirds" set.

Before adhering the black piece to the Pure Poppy card (love red and black!) I adhered a piece of fun foam to the back so it's popped up a bit. I'd love to have a stamp set that features the bird and flowers in the inspiration piece, but "Songbirds" will have to suffice for now.

I'm linking up to Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop and also to the Time Out Challenge:  "Paint The Flying Spirit Of The Birds Rather than its Feathers."

The days are flying by, and blogging seems to be at the bottom of the "to do" list; not intentionally, but by the time the day ends there's not much creative energy left for a blog post. I did get some crafting done over the weekend: a few cards, and another month of Project Life completed. Before I share those, however, I thought I'd share some more cards made with "Stemmed Statements." I think this might become a go-to set for floral cards. I have two sets of cards to share. The first with pansies and an ombre stamped background with the "Cover-up: Diamonds" background stamp. Both the "Stemmed Statements" and "Cover-up: Diamonds" stamps were in my July Papertrey Ink order. 

I used some of the Altenew mini-cube ink sets to stamp the ombre pattern for the background. The ink pads come in sets of four coordinating, and increasingly darker shades which really speeds up the process of creating an ombre pattern. The pansies and clovers were colored with Copics. I cut the background with a "Stitched Rectangle" die and added a trimmed "Double-ended Banner" with the sentiment.

This card is nearly a duplicate, stamped in a blue palette. I wanted to have a couple cards ready to send when I hear of someone in need of cheering up!

The second set of cards use the geranium image in the set. It's one of my favorites. Once the geraniums were colored, this card came together quickly, thanks to the patterned paper (also PTI) from the Lovely Lace kit. I didn't purchase the kit, but a friend recommended getting the paper pack, and I'm glad I did. Once again, a "Stitched Rectangle" die that I adhered to Simon Says Smoke cardstock. Their three gray papers are my favorite grays. The banner die is an old Spellbinder die, stamped with a sentiment from "Stemmed Statements."

I added three rainstones to the card for a bit of sparkle.

This time some pink geraniums mounted on a Spellbinders Oval die cut from another piece of patterned paper from the "Lovely Lace" pack. I made six score lines down the side of the card for some texture on the Fresh Snow Linen cardstock, and tied a bow from the white silk ribbon Papertrey Ink used to sell. I wish I had stockpiled a couple of spools of it before they discontinued it.

I think this card qualifies for this week's challenge at Addicted to CAS: Florals so I'll be linking it up there.