Love Ya Silly Halloween Card for Color Dare #166

Welcome back to another Color My Heart Color Dare challenge post!  This week we are challenging you to combine the following Close to My Heart colors:  Sunset, Black, White Daisy, Kraft and an option of green.

I'm still making Halloween cards and these challenge colors were perfect for my card:

I followed the Retrosketches #187 sketch to make my card:

Close to My Heart products used:

     Black CS

     White Daisy CS

     Pear CS

     La Vie En Rose paper (black and white print)

     Hooligans paper (retired)

     Love Ya Silly stamp

     Say it All stamp

     Black Ink

     Pear Ink

     Liquid Glass (to coat the little monster and make him shiny)

     My Legacy Writer .05 to outline monster

Other products:

     Drippy Goo border punch by Martha Stewart

     tiny wiggle eyes

We would love to have you join in on the challenge!  If you don't have these exact colors you may substitute similar colors so you can still play along.  You can link up your project here.  The challenge ends on Thursday evening, November 5 at 9PM CDT.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful week filled with fun and creativity!

:) Marie

Best Witches for Try Stampin' on Tuesday #142 and Use it Tuesdays Challenge #66

Happy Halloween! Here is a card made with all retired products from Close To My Heart.  I just love it when I can use of some of my vast stash! (a requirement for Use It Tuesday is to use your stash!) The stamped cat on the jack o' lantern is from an old wooden set called "Punkin' Patch" and the greeting is from another wooden set called "Best Witches".  Patterned papers are from the Hooligans and Spellbound paper packets.  Coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils (formerly carried by CTMH).  The stars and jack o' lantern mouth and nose were glittered with Glow in the Dark glitter glue.  The focal frames were cut from Art Philosophy--Square 3 at 3" and 3.25" from Black.  I used a steel pan scrubber and Gypsy ink to texturize the White Daisy CS.

This card follows the Try Stampin' on Tuesdays sketch #142 which is pictured here:

I'm also entering this card into the Use it Tuesdays Challenge #62 featuring "Creatures".  Please stop by tomorrow for a new Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge post.

Have a wonderful week filled with fun and creativity!

:) Marie

Color Dare #23--Sky and Gypsy--A Tribute to Toby

This week I have the honor of being a guest designer for Color My Heart Color Dare #23--Sky and Gypsy.  (You can view my winning entry that earned me this spot here.)  Last week my local quilt store closed it's doors forever and I wanted to do something special for it's owner, Toby, who has decided to retire and enjoy her new grandchild.  I have been wanting to make a card with a quilting theme for a long time and thought these colors would work together nicely in this format.  The CTMH patterned paper that I used was from Believe (blue with dots), Hooligans (darker purple--Gypsy and outside lighter purple scalloped edged border) and Magnifique (light blue squares in the center).  I also created my own "fabrics" by stamping images from the Love Life set with Sky and Gypsy inks.  The light purple center squares were made with a sponge and Gypsy ink.  I chose this particular quilt pattern because it was very similar to a pattern made by the quilt store owner called "Namchee Bazaar"--there were even smaller 1/2 square triangles and squares that I eliminated to make it easier to do.   Here is a helpful hint--when assembling these small pieces--glue them on to a piece of grid paper.  (The grid paper I used had 1/2" squares).   After I had all my pieces glued down I used a dry embossing folder by Darice (Plaid) and my Cuttlebug machine to add some texture.  The greeting is from the For Every Occasion set and was stamped in Versamark ink and Gypsy ink and then clear embossed.

This card truly was a labor of love and appreciation for all the wonderful times I spent sharing my love of quilting at Toby's store and all the inspiration I found there with all the people who worked there.

Thanks for stopping by!  Please consider joining in on the challenge this week at Color My Heart.  Have a wonderful week filled with fun and creativity!
:) Marie

"Wicked" Halloween for Numerous Challenges

I was initially inspired to use this sassy witch from Close To My Heart when I saw the latest Cupcake Inspirations photo of  witch decorated cupcakes--very cool!  The card is a little bit larger --6.5 x 5--so I could have the witch placed in the side panel and have room for the greeting. The witch and the greeting were clear embossed using versamark ink first and then black ink.  The products I used are all retired from Close To My Heart except for the Art Philosophy cut label and layer (page 55 rectangle 7 and layer cut at 2.25"). The stamps are from the Wicked stamp set which was a stamp of the month in 2011 and the papers are from Hooligans paper pack which was available in 2010. 

The adorable cupcakes that inspired me:





I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #183--Witch
Exploring Cricut--Happy Halloween
Heart 2 Heart--Halloween/Pumpkin
Fantabulous Cricut #134--Orange and Black
Top Tip Challenge #88--Halloween
Friday Favorite Things--Anything
Sweet Stampin'--Halloween
Crafty Mess Challenge #20--Halloween

Freshly Made Sketches #57, Cut it Up Challenge #4 and RRR #58

As usual I really liked the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and decided to combine it with a Halloween theme as in Cut it Up Challenge and Really Reasonable Ribbon.  I used Close To My Heart Hooligans paper (retired) with a bat cut from the Close To My Heart Cricut Artiste cartridge.  The Pear CS was embossed with a cuttlebug folder. The card is 6.5" x 5" and the bat was cut at 2.5" (pg. 76 of artiste handbook).  The greeting inside the bat's wings is from the Thriller stamp set from Close To My Heart (also retired). The bat was outlined with a CTMH Silver Metallic Marker and the eyes are shimmery silver brads.   Don't you just love the eyeball ribbon that I found?

The sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!  I invite you to check out this blog post for information about a giveaway I'm offering in celebration of my 100th blog post--deadline for entry is October 21, 2012.