Cranking out the sets!

I have been on a creative roll this week and last creating fun new sets for Fall & Chrismtas. Take a peek and see if any of these make your MUST HAVE list!

If you are a party planner or invitation designer, then this is a must have set! If you just love to create with fancy, elegant frames then this set is also for you. Verses and Frames provided separately as well as in a combined art file so you can mix and match the frames with other verses or stamps. These aren’t just for Halloween. Use them for photos, place cards, signs, cardmaking, scrapbooking, labels, invitations and more. Also, you can use the verses for cards, flyers, labels, party favors, etc. Simply change the brush color in your photo editing or paint program to create these frames in any color you need them to be!

Use the 4 fun bonus images to create other Halloween or border designs.

Spooklicious Frames & Text Digital Brushes (FTDB)

If you are looking for a fun, unique Christmas design, check out this brightly colored set of graphics. So versatile with borders and other complimentary graphics that will make your crafting fun, fun, fun!

Merry Words

This companion set to Merry Words can also be used as a stand alone set for so many creative uses. These layering elements allow you to build your own designs. Scale, add your own text and combine these designs for unlimited possibilities. From Christmas cheer to wintery layouts to even Valentine gifts, let this set help you create fun tags, gifts, monograms, cards, ornaments and more! Perfect for embroidery, too! It will have your creative bells jinga-linga-ringing!

Jinga-Linga-Ring

Turning Life's Tricks into Treats

Sometimes you have great plans and everything seems in order until life plays a little trick on you and you are left to scramble. This recently happened with our make-n-take project at a show I was at in Orlando.We had everything neatly prepared in kits, ready to assemble, but we discovered that the box was no where to be found shortly before the session was to begin. Richard ran on a mission to get replacement items nearby while Betty, Richard's lovely fiance, and I got to experience crafting on the fly. She is not a crafter and was a REAL trooper to step in and help out. Talk about designing under pressure. I just happened to have brought my Sizzix diecut machine with me and a fall leaf die. Hmmm, just gotta believe there was some intuition involved there!

We scrounged up some papers, cut up some ribbons as we waited for Richard's return. Then we would figure out the revised project idea. With some quick prep trimming and our Popsicle Stick Table Top Labels turned out to be a quick and easy to make hit! We joked afterwards how Betty officially crossed over to the crafting world and Richard may just come home one day to find her crafting away!

 I would say we made lemonade out of lemons, however I think it was more like pumpkin pie out of some smashed pumpkins!

The photos are a bit dark, but it gives you an idea of this easy and decorative fall project, which can be used for parties to label food at the table or used as party favors. I decorated the mini flower pots with trim and ribbon using Glue Arts ribbon adhesive and filled them with some M&Ms. Each of the popscicle stick labels turned out so cute and were made in minutes!

This was a Halloween themed version done with a Jolee's Pumpkin sticker. We used the extreme adhesive squares and extreme adhesive cartridge for the Glue Glider Pro to assemble. For the pots, it was the ribbon adhesive. The diecut labels were punched from kraft cards stock using a hand held punch from EK Success. This craft project is easy to duplicate for any holiday or them by switching out the colors and embellishments with the appropriate colors and themes for the season or occasion. 

Just had to get a picture of Richard and Betty with one of their make-n-take creations! The store owners loved the simplicity of the idea especially as a fun craft project to do with kids. Each person could add their own creativity in the assembly process to make it unique. You can wrap the sticks with ribbon using adhesive squares to fasten on each end, add buttons easily with the adhesive squares on back and make ribbon loops, too! Experiment to come up with some other fun uses for extreme adhesive squares.

What do you get when you combine Halloween & silhouette designs?

Why it is my latest set of digital designs...Hallowettes!

The 7 designs come in these formats: 300 dpi eps, 300 dpi transparent PNG, abr brush and svg cutting files...all for only $5. Just think of the possibilities!!!

Use this set of Halloween silhouettes with distressed edges for your next crafting project. Have fun scaling, colorizing, hand coloring or using these b&w images for your projects. Also usable as b&w clip art. You can even digitize these bold art images for embroidery. 

Combine with patterned papers to create cool digital graphics and titles or use the svg files with a die cutting machine and software to cut out the shapes in assorted colors and patterns. Use the brushes to create Halloween overlays, patterned background paper and more!

Here is just one idea combining some of the graphics:

 Have fun crafting & creating!

A “Boo” Can Sometimes be a Good Thing!

O.K., so life has been super busy, hectic, full of tricks and not enough treats lately (except if you count the couple hours stolen at the beach yesterday with just the right amount of sun, a cool breeze and surfers to watch, wooo, much needed)! I know I am posting this project too late to make in time for this Halloween, but now you can feel less pressure by working on it for next year. Here is a link to the instructions on Glue Arts’ website. I am totally in love with Cosmo Cricket’s Halloween collection and had to create something fun with it. I got inspired by some paper mache letters I spotted on sale at JoAnn's before Halloween and the creativity grew from there in working with the Cosmo papers and stickers. I hope this is a boo that you will say “Yay” to!

Here are some close up shots, below, of the individual letters.

The RIP tombstone was also a purchase from JoAnns to add to the spooky setting. It has brought a smile to my face every time I have passed by it going in and out of the door.

Scaring up Smiles

I have to say that I am totally loving texture plates and working them into my crafting projects. My studio looks like a true Halloween horror house. Ree can attest to this, as she got a peek inside the doors to the mad crafter's la-bor-a-tory! Bwahahahah! Yes, I have been busy creating lots of holiday crafts to sell and more project ideas to inspire great gift and holiday ideas for craft enthusiasts. It has meant a lot of hours working into the wee hours and juggling my design projects during the day, but it will mean lots of blog posts to share ideas with you. ;D

Above is a technique I happened upon when trying to rub some black chalk over top of the textured cardstock. This created added spookiness to this halloween Smeary Smiles card. I also did some ink dragging for darker highlights. The pumpkin stamp and verse are from the new Twick or Tweet stamp set from the Holiday Mini catalog, one of my current faves! I also used markers and my color spritzer to add some spattering to the background of the pumpkin stamping. Try some of these simple techniques to add a little spookiness to your Halloween cards and creations.

Twick o' Tweet, oh so sweet!

Twick o' Tweet, smell my feet, give me somethin' good to eat! Ahhh, remember those childhood days of chanting that merrily as you raced from house to house trying to score a pillowcase full of candy bars? I have to say that I love the merriment of Stampin’ Up!’s Twick or Tweet Stamp Set. Here is a Twick o' Tweet Treat Holder made using the stamp set, sanded background stamp, black ink, sponge, orange grosgrain ribbon, black, white, only orange and going grey CS and the ever-so-cool Night and Day Designer Series Paper. I also used some Stampin' Write markers for coloring the chick along with layering a scallop circle punch and the 1-3/8" and 1-1/4" punches. You can fill a cello bag with treats and staple to the inside or use some Glue Arts Adhesive squares to attach sealed bag to the cardstock inside. The countdown to Halloween continues!