Just a quick post today...

Here's another Halloween card to share. We FINALLY got our fabulous news on Friday and now maybe life can get back on track. We are totally loving the civilian life, hubby's new job, and well...just being together and FREE!!!

Eek!

Nothing says Halloween like a black cat. We used to have one many years ago. She was a demon cat. I couldn't help but think of her while I was making this card. No more black cats ever again. Well, how bout no more cats ever again. Love em, just not in my house.

I made this invite for some friends of ours who love cats a little too much. They have 5--or maybe it's 6 now. The black cat stamp is inkadinkado(they really do Halloween right) embossed with black ep and the spider web is also Inkadinkado. Some more BG Eerie on this one, as well as the QK label die and QK Haunted font. I finally used one of my Marvy Giga punches that take up entirely too much space(the scalloped square) and played with the Martha Stewart spider web punch duo. I don't really like being confined to certain dimensions with these punch-around-the-page sets, but it's working out ok.

Just one more invite to make. I mailed off what I had done yesterday and I have 2 stragglers to get in the mail tomorrow. Then it's time for a few more Halloween cards for my niece and nephew and the start of Christmas cards for the troops. I'm excited to do my first batch for Operation Write Home. It's given me a great excuse to stock up on more Christmas stash. If you haven't heard of this great cause please visit their website here. Cutoff for Christmas cards to reach the ladies who mail out the packages of cards is Nov. 1st.

I've been a bad girl...

Instead of finishing my party invites, I hit the road yesterday in desperate need of a shopping fix to take my mind off life for a little while. I still can't share any good news seeing as how the powers-that-be are still holding our lives hostage and don't appear to want to speed the bureaucratic mess up in the foreseeable future. S0--I thought my stress levels that have been pretty darn high for the past 3 months would be all but forgotten about by now but no--I was forced to shop my worries away.

I got some fun new toys though! Some new Cuttlebug embossing folders, more Powder Keg embossing powders, some Graphic45 Christmas papers, some flower soft(had to see what all the fuss was about) and more nesties.

I have a few cards completed that I haven't shared yet, but I'll space them out and just share this one today. The inspiration for this card came from SCS here This black cat stamp is from that Inkadinkado Scary Night Halloween set and I added some diamond stickles to the tail. More BG Eerie and of course, that cute QK label die again. I used the argyle cb embossing folder along the bottom.

It's another nasty rainy chilly day here again so I'm off to work in my scrappy zone all weekend. Hope you enjoy yours too!

Once upon a midnight dreary...

...I created this spooky raven card with the most awesome Halloween stamp set ever!! (this is Inkadinkado Scary Night in case you find yourself dying to buy this set) It also includes the creepy skull and a fabulous black cat that I'll share in tomorrow's post.

More BG Eerie on this one. While I loved this spooky tree scene pp, I had no idea exactly how to use this on a card. Then--stepped a stately raven. I'm really happy with how this turned out, ok I'll stop gushing now. The spires on the gate screamed EK fleur de lis border punch and I can't say enough how awesome those QK CC labels are. If you don't have them by the end of this week, you should seriously have your head checked. I know, I know, you already have the SU TopNote die AND the Nesties Labels 8, you say?? Nope, sorry. These QK labels are a necessary addition to your obnoxious label fetish. They're--for lack of a better description--squished. Totally different from the others. Well, not totally. In fact, not really that much different, but they do cut that thin border strip as well and your nesties don't do that. When oh when is QK gonna contact me for that sales rep position??

Anyways, I stamped the raven image in Versamark and embossed with black Powder Keg ep and sponged a little SU almost amethyst over top. The sentiment was embossed with Powder Keg's Jackpot ep. It's difficult to photograph the varying colors in this ep, but it has tones of purple and silver and sparkly stuff and was just what I was looking for to fit the feel of this card. I was never much into embossing until I discovered that little company and their unique powders. They're truly gorgeous.

Gotta run. Our invite list got longer(thanks Jeff) and I have to crank out more cards!

Happy Haunts

So I originally was going for "happy haunting" on this card but do you ever just get stuck on using something and you just refuse to veer down a different path? Sometimes I envision a project a certain way using a particular product and I can't not use it. That's what happened with this card and the QK Haunted font. Oh yes, I was gonna use it. It wasn't gonna go down any other way. Only one small problem. This font's pretty big and there was no way "haunting" was gonna fit. So, it's happy haunts. I like it better anyways, so there.

I used all kinds of fun goodies on this one. A little nesties, some BG Eerie again mixed with that awesome new QK font and an oldie but goodie QK Indigo font that I think really goes nicely with Haunted. I used the MS drippy goo and graveyard punches again seeing as how I'm trying desperately to justify their purchase with their somewhat limited uses. So far so good.

The creepy skull stamp is Inkadinkadoo. I used a pearlescent Wausau paper,stamped the image in Versamark and embossed it with a Powder Keg antique copper ep. I then masked the skull and sponged SU More Mustard and Old Olive inks over top. Just gotta knock out 4 more cards and get these in the mail!

More Halloween spookiness

Here's another party invite I finished this week. Progress is not going so good on these but I work best under pressure so I'll get them done by the 15th. Even if it means pulling a few all-nighters. I'm having a blast using all this Halloween stash though! Loving the MS punches and I was seriously itchin to use the QK Haunted font. I'll be squeezing that in on a few more cards for sure.

On this one I stamped the Inkadinkadoo trick-or-treaters(too cute!!) and colored them using Prismacolors and baby oil. I decided to bling it out a bit with some SU iridescent ice ep on the witch's dress. I just used a versamark pen over the dress after I had finished coloring the image. I used the same ep on the "boo" diecut title and used pop-dots for a little dimension. The 3 panels behind the stamped image were run through the branches cuttlebug embossing folder.

It's funny how much the colors of the BG Eerie collection are so similar to the colors in this 3 or 4 year old SU dsp. I can't even remember the name of the collection it's been so long that it's been gathering dust in my stash. It feels good to use stuff you've been hoarding forever. Off to find what other Halloween goodies I can use this weekend!

Hello October!

Seriously, where does the time fly? Lots of big changes happening in my little world lately and I finally figured out--scrapbooking and cardmaking is really relaxing and an awesome diversion from life in general. Wish I could say the stress around here is done and over with, but unfortunately we're not quite there yet. When we are(hopefully this week) I will share what's been going on. Until then, I think I'll be posting more pics on here as I lock myself away in my scrappy haven and lose myself in paper, punches, and ink.

I'm working on Halloween costume party invites. Yes, you read that right. We're throwing the Halloween to end all Halloween parties on well, Halloween night, of course! It should be a ton of fun. Jeff and I got our costumes all figured out a few weeks ago and I totally scored at JoAnn's last weekend with a matching costume for our dog! I can't wait to post pics and I'm forcing myself to scrap them right away. (I'm so flippin excited....I already have the papers and embellies for the layouts)

I've seriously hoarded a TON of Halloween sb product this year. It's bad. REALLY bad. Because of this, I'm making each one of the party invites different and mailing out a few Halloween cards to friends and family this year that won't be able to attend. Here's the first card. I plan on using the BasicGrey Eerie collection for probably all of the cards. They really knocked this one out of the park. What an awesome collection for Halloween!! This one uses a Stampendous stamp I picked up at Michael's and the Martha Stewart graveyard and spider web border punches. I used a nestie and a Recollections stamp set on the inside of the card with some of the spider web corner and border punch accents again. Oh, and I almost forgot about the cute little batties--they're from the EK bat border punch and the spooky branch is Martha Stewart, all are coated in black diamond stickles.