Polkadoodles Halloween

We decided as it was so close to Halloween that we had to give the adorable halloweenie download from Polkadoodles another outing. You don't have to make a halloween card to enter the challenge though, and there are prizes for the winner

My card is made with the downloads, spooky Jack is so cute, but I had to add some googly eyes, the big ones looked cuter than the teensy ones I put on first.

I added a strip of drippy-goo punched black paper, but the drips didn't show up, so I added a backing strip of orange and doodled around them. A bit of random stitching, a sentiment from the download, and it still looked a bit blah, until I decided to bring Jack's spooky friend into the scene and put him to peep over the sentiment

We had a most super day yesterday with Joan and Tom, our 'new' friends, although from the moment they walked in through the door, Joan and I never stopped talking, it felt as if I had known her for years. We escaped to a stamping store when the men started to talk about car insurance, and I introduced Joan to copic markers. Oh dear, maybe I am not Tom's new best friend after all...... It was a great day, and we are already planning our next get-together. Amazing what blessings you get from blogging!

Halloween for Polkadoodles

This week, we could use any image we liked for the Polkadoodle challenge as long as we coloured it in ourselves, rather than using one of the many already coloured images on the CD's. I used the Halloween download (so did quite a few of the others on the design team), that purple background paper is so cute with all the little dangling spiders with the big eyes. If I think spiders are so cute, why did I rush to get a can of lethal spray to dispatch one that was sitting on my doorstep when we arrived home tonight. It was the size of a horse - well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was big, and is hopefully now very dead, I am too scared to go and see in case it is mad with me and runs into the house.........

Back to the card, all the images, and sentiment are from the download. Polly is coloured with copic markers, the edge of the mat was punched with the famous Martha Stewart drippy goo border punch. Love the way the cat has his little mask and cloak on, all ready to go trick and treating.

To join in and see all the other samples, go to Polkadoodles - Ruth has done two great tutorials on colouring for you this week as well

I have done two commissions for the November issue of Creativity magazine, a new magazine for me, and I had an email asking for a mug shot. The one on the blog wouldn't do, too small (the smaller the better as far as I am concerned). So I got Anne to take a few, she assures me this is a good photo. Good grief, do I really look like this? I look like someone who has escaped from an asylum and is grinning maniacally, and what's the matter with my eyes, are they always that squinty? Why is this image nothing like the image I have in my head? Anyway, as I was under pressure to send it in, this is the one that will be printed (hopefully in postage stamp size) in the next edition. I know you would all rather see the cards, but that will have to wait - for now

More Halloween - Lily Boo and The Cutting Cafe

Here's another halloween card done with the Lily-Boo halloweenies,( don't forget you have a whole month to do the first Lily Boo challenge and pick up the free download) and another sentiment from the Cutting Cafe. I coloured with copics, and there is a fair bit of glitter on there done with the copic glitter pens, but of course it doesn't show

I used the pointed nestabilities for the sentiment circles, they look sort of spooky on a halloween card
I am wondering when to start doing the big craft-pack-up ready for my trip. Too soon, and I sit chewing my nails in frustration, too late and I inevitably forget something in my haste. I have a lot of the basic equipment I use a lot, doubled up - 2 cricut machines, 2 cuttlebugs, etc etc, but of course I have to take all my embossing folders, cricut cartridges etc. I have great hopes for a new bit of kit that provocraft are bringing out called the Gypsy (go here to see what it's all about). In the meantime, I think this calls for a list - there is something so satisfying about lists, that feeling of satisfaction when you put ticks by the side of completed tasks........

Halloween - The Cutting Cafe and Lily-Boo

This cute halloween set is going on sale this weekend over at Lily-Boo's boutique, and Regina Easter has loads of great halloween sentiments, including this useful background, all ready to download over on the Cutting Cafe site.

The girl was coloured with copic markers, and the edges of the cards inked with Martha Stewart orange ink. I am going back to the US just at the right time, I have only a tiny bit of my favourite gingham ribbon left

I do love making halloween cards, all that purple, orange and black really appeals to me. The spiders web was cut with the cricut from Paper Dolls at 2"
Far more beautiful than any card I could make, here is my latest picture of Milo with his mummy. Click on the photo to see his beautiful blue eyes. He is 15 weeks old now, and such a sweet little boy, all smiles and contentment. I won't see him now until Christmas, my, he will change in that time. Thank goodness for webcams

Not one but two Halloween Cards, would you like them?

Starting with the last card, the design team on Bitten By The Bug were asked to use the house from the Christmas Cheer cartridge, I cut it at 4" and added some doodling and a little ghost from the Paper Dolls cartridge, cut at 1" Click HERE to see all the design teams ideas

The middle card is a stamp by Great Impressions, th pumkins are quite heavily glittered, what a pity glitter doesn't show on photos. The 'hey pumpkin' sentiment was from studio G

The top photo shows all the Halloweeen cards I have made - we have Boo to you with the witches feet, hey pumpkin, haunted house, ghouls just wanna have fun, and best witches. Now would anybody like these cards? I know that most people who look on here are cardmakers, but if you have loads of little ones in your life/not a lot of time/whatever, and would like these, then please just leave me a comment to say so. In the unlikely event that more than one person would like them, I will pick the names out of a hat on Friday evening. Be sure to leave your name in a way that I can identify you ( e.g Enfys from Solihull .....) The cards will all come complete with an envelope ready for you to send.

Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun - Halloween

Okay, so I know this is silly, but I found the saying on a studio G set and just had to make this card. I cut the girlie ghoul from Paper dolls at 3", gave her a bow, googly eyes and some eyelashes as well as a scrolly doodle border. The papers are Daisy D, the scallop rectangles are nestabilities, cut in the cuttlebug, and the black border is a doodle bug paper frill. I thought this would be a perfect Halloween card for a teenage girl.

Talking of silly, I went to Walmart yesterday and when I came out, a truck had parked next to me, it was covered in bright green artificial turf, no paintwork, just turf. A large sign proclaimed that this work of art belonged to 'THE PET BUTLER - your dog poops, we scoop'. On the back it said 'Your dog's #2 is our #1' . There was a chap sitting in the drivers seat, he did not look a happy bunny, and given his occupation I could see why really. It set me thinking, you have to PAY someone to scoop the poop? Is there a rare breed of dog in the USA that I have not heard of, that produces vast, elephant-like quantities of the stuff? I have visions of some very rich person taking a tiny Yorkie out for a little walk, for him to do his little business, then taking out her cell phone "Hello, is that the pet butler? Can you come at once please to the corner of 42StN and 34StS, I have a scoop for you......................."

Best Witches Halloween Card

A new challenge site for me this week, Verve stamps have a challenge each week over on Splitcoast stampers. Click HERE for details. The challenge was to use the 'out of the box' technique, and as I don't have any Verve stamps yet, I used this little witch which is one of this seasons halloween releases from the dollar bin in Michaels (studio G wood mounted). The sentiment and spider are from the studio G clear sets.

So I stamped the witch in black onto white card, then cut around her by hand as it is such a small stamp, cutting around her hat and the moon. Coloured her in with prisma pencils, and inked the edges very liberally in black ink. All the papers are scraps of DCWV that I had hanging around, so I felt virtuous as well. The out of the box technique is pretty effective, and very easy to do. Stamp your image, then cut around 3/4 of it, I usually use a coluzzle cutter for this, but was able to do this one by hand. Cut out the hat and the moon, so that it is totally out of your circle/square/oval. I find that mounting it with pop dots works best as it emphasised the cut out.

BOO! Halloween Card

The challenge on Papertake weekly this week is Autumn. I started to think of russet coloured leaves...........then when I was rummaging through my stamps, found this one from last year which I had never used. The witches feet were a dollar bin find in Michaels. I cut the word BOO at 2" using the stamped cartridge and did lots of random wobbly stitching (yes, this time it was deliberate!) Papers are by Heidi Grace.