Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!! Have fun and be safe!!!

Devil's night

With Halloween less than a week away now, I decided to scrap my photos from last year. I struggled a bit with choosing what papers to pick, since my son's red devil costume kept throwing me off. But I finally settled on some old Basic Grey (Indian Summer) and some red papers from even older lines, and this is what I came up with.

My starting point was this AWESOME sketch for the October 2 page Sketch Challenge @ Scrapbook.com. Isn't it cool? I'm sure I'll use it again!

I also wanted some flames on here, so I drew and cut out my own flame stencils, and used them with some Glimmer Mists on white cardstock. The tree on the left was cut out with my Cricut Expression (October 31st) and masked with some black Glimmer Mist. I inked the title with  Distress Inks (festive berries, spiced marmalade, and mustard seed) after cutting it out with my Cricut (Storybook) cartridge.

I used the same Martha Stewart border punch (Garden rail) on both pages, and finished it off with some hand stitching along the right.

Thanks for looking!

Journey for a jacket

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. I just finished this page yesterday of me and my husband, and our journey to retrieve back our son's brand new jacket.

Journey was the topic for this month's challenge at Once Upon A Sketch. Here's the sketch that I was inspired by.

I started this page with the wrinkled background, which was white cardstock that I inked, wet and crumpled. Then I used a Tim Holtz clock mask with some Glimmer Mists (copper, harvest orange, and it's brown). I used a compass mask to create the scallops, which were embossed with Distress Embossing Powder in vintage photo. I used this throughout the page to give the illusion of rust, which is one of the colors for the October Monochrome Challenge @ Scrapbook.com. I included the twist of a cog with some of my masking, like on the clock that I cut out. The flower was made from some leftover parts that I had in my stash. I just misted it with the same colors that I used on the background, and added a brown crystal.

I cut the keys from some Tim Holtz paper and strung them through a chain, which I also covered with Distress Embossing Powder in vintage photo. I love how it really looks like rust, and used it on both brads, the journaling pages, the black alpha thickers, and over the black, grungy dotted, stamping.

I finished this page off with black stitching over the scallops, and the old wooden buttons that I recently inherited from my Grandma Norton. Here's a look at the journaling.

The first word on this page is "and" which is hiding under the brad.

And the last page.

Thanks for looking!!

Spider Web Tutorial

Jeepers Creepers!!! I had a blast working on this Halloween page!

I took this beautiful sketch by Tammy for Flying Unicorn's Mojo Monday, and took it to the dark side.

This is my entry for quite a few challenges, including the Stencil me different challenge where we had to use a stencil in a different way. I used my Tim Holtz spider web mask to make the large spider web by spraying it like normal with some Glimmer Mists. Then after it dried I used a white pen to go over the whole mask. All of the spiders, the title, arm bone, and ghosts are stickers, used for the 4 Categories Challenge for category 1. To do something different with my stickers I used some mini alpha stickers by Lily Bee and masked them with some Distress Inks to make "creepers". Speaking of Jeepers Creepers, that's my song title for the October Music Challenge @ Scrapbook.com, with the twist of using orange and black. 

I love to recycle stuff on my pages, and used some old cardboard to cut a circle, and embossed it with Distress Embossing powders in vintage photo and brushed corduroy. Then I applied some moss that my Mom gathered for me in her backyard a few years ago. I finished the edge off with some yarn that was dyed orange with some Glimmer Mists that I already had in my stash. I added some orange bling to some cork from a wine bottle to make the skull eyes for this month's challenge at Scrap for help.

I made my fence with my Cricut Expression (October 31st) cartridge, cutting it out of black cardstock, and covering it with Distress Stickles in black soot. I also cut out the little tombstones to create a graveyard behind the fence.To mimic a foggy, spooky night, I used Pebbles Inc. white chalk coming up from behind the tombstones. The little spider web here was made in the same way as the larger one, except it only has 2 layers, and I used black soot Distress ink, instead of dusty concord.

To make the larger spider web you'll need some white cardstock, scissors, glue, a black brad, Distress inks, blending tool, and a white pen. I started by cutting these web shapes by hand in small, medium, and large. You're basically making a reverse scallop around a circle. 

Then I used my blending tool and Distress inks (peeled paint, spiced marmalade, and dusty concord) to color them. 

Now wet them and scrunch them up from the centers.

They should look like this after they're dried.

At this point you can darken your colors with some more ink, or leave it as it is like I did. Using my white   pen, I outlined the edges first. Then make lines coming from each point towards the center.

Now make connecting lines from all of your points, and continue down, but don't worry about making lines in the middle since it's not going to show anyway, since this is the largest web.

Only make your lines meet in the middle on your smallest web. They should now look like this.

Glue your webs together starting with the largest one on the bottom. I used my spider stickers for the legs, but you can use a black Sharpie to make your own. Then I added a sparkly black brad through the center, and finished if off by adding two dots for eyes with my white pen.

Thanks for stopping by!
Drea

Birthday Cards for my nephews

Happy Birthday to my oldest nephew Alex who turned 12 today! His brother turned 10 last week, so happy belated Birthday to you too Roan! I miss you boys soooo much!! I made both of their cards using My Mind's Eye (handsome) collection. Here's the first one that I made for Roan.

It was based off of this sketch used for the October Card Sketch Challenge @ Scrapbook.com.

I took advantage of the numbers paper and used it again for Alex's card, using the 12 this time. Both of the pinwheels were already made, making both of these cards quick and easy to do.

The sketches helped too. Here's the 2nd one that I used for Alex's card.

Thanks for looking! Be sure to check back tomorrow for a fun Halloween tutorial. Have a great weekend!

I heart fall

Anyone that knows me, knows that fall is my favorite time of year! So I scrapped this photo of myself standing on my balcony from last fall.

The tree in the background didn't come out that good, but I thought the colors went perfectly with the October Design Seeds Challenge @ Scrapbook.com. I just LOVE this gorgeous color combo and was instantly inspired when I saw it!

I also took inspiration from this sketch for week 1 from the Monthly Sketch Challenge also from Scrapbook.com.

This whole LO started with a sheet of white cardstock, which I splattered with some Distress Re-inkers. Then I used some Distress ink pads and my blending tool to go over the whole page. Once I was satisfied with the colors, I stamped the leaves using 2 different stamps and 3 different brown inks.

I cut the circle with my Cricut Expression and added some trim to the inside, leaving the outside free for some frankenstein stitches that I sewed by hand, making this my example for the Sewing Challenge that I host.I used a stencil and some mustard colored gesso to make the leaves along the right side of the photo.  

For the title I used this wooden tag that I got years ago from (Puppet).Thanks Krista! I added the Tim Holtz heart chipboard , which I brushed with some frayed burlap Distress Ink, along with the I. Then I added a sunflower to the tag and a couple of ribbons.Fall was stamped and embossed using Distress embossing ink (vintage photo).

Thanks for looking! 

Drea