Happy Dance...Literally - Dancin' Ghost from Spellbinders

 

Imagine my surprise to discover an email from Spellbinders earlier this summer asking me if I'd like to play along with a few pre-release die sets.  Let's just say that my response was a very quick "Yes!"  Not only am I honored at the opportunity but also honored that my little crafty creations caught someone's eye.  In the midst of a very sad summer this was definitely a boost for me. 

Today I'm sharing two cards created using dies from the Spellbinders Boo Dance Party Collection which was released yesterday.  This die set, Dancin' Ghost, was totally calling out my name.  

The Dancin' Ghost set includes a ghost with detached swinging legs, a pumpkin bucket, a paper sack, candy and a sentiment.  My card below was created with the ghost and pumpkin bucket. 

I was looking to create a whimsical Halloween card so I chose some bright dye inks, created my own stencil from a transparency and went to work with some ink blending.  The ghost was die cut from white cardstock, the eyes from black and the legs from a combination of teal and white.  The legs are a separate die made with an open circle at the top so that, when adhered with a plastic stacker, they swing freely when the card is tilted.  The jack-o-lantern candy bucket was die cut from orange and black cardstocks.  The speech bubble stamp is from an older discontinued Ellen Hutson as is the sentiment stamp which was heat embossed in white.  I adhered the ghost with foam tape and popped up the card panel using piece of very thin fun foam.  I really love the playful feel to this "not so spooky" card.

My second card is a horizontal slimline and features the ghost in triplicate along with additional Spellbinder dies from my stash.  It most definitely has the traditional spooky Halloween vibe to it.

I began this card with the background.  I used several Distress Oxide inks to blend out the night time sky, adding in splatters of white and black ink.  The sidewalk is merely a strip of gray cardstock that I manually scored to create a bit of texture.  

All die cutting for this card was done with white cardstock which I colored with Copic markers.  The paper bags, jack-o-lantern and BOO dies are included in the Dancin' Ghost set.  The door is from an older Spellbinders Die of the Month kit as is the arm you see poking out from behind the door.  I thought together this made for a fun scene.  

I hope you enjoy today's creations.  I'm including links to the currently available supplies below. (These will be replaced with affliate links soon.)

Dancin' Ghost die set from the Boo Dance Party Collection

Door - Always Welcome (Die of the Month Oct. 2020)

Arm - First Crush (Die of the Month Jan. 2019)  

Please visit back tomorrow for another card share which uses another new set called Dancin' Mummy.

My thanks to Yana and Spellbinders for the wonderful opportunity to play with these cute die sets.

And, as always, thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me!

Jules

Perfectly CAS August Challenge

 

The Perfectly Clean and Simple team is back with a new monthly challenge and this time around we would love to see embossing on your card.

As always we are looking for cards that use 1/3 (or less) of the card front in your design.  There are several types of embossing and the choice is entirely up to you.  

I began with a striped embossing folder and a scrap of white cardstock.  After running the paper through my die cutter I swiped it horizontally with my Distress Oxide pad.  I added a messy nest of silver thread, a die cut washi tape flower and the sentiment.  I adhered it all to a white card panel which was popped up onto the card base with fun foam.

Supplies:

Heidi Swapp - horizontal lined embossing folder

Pink Fresh Studio - Rainbow Floral washi 

Simon Says Stamp - pre-printed sentiment strip

Distress Oxide - Speckled Egg

silver thread

I invite you to visit our blog and hope to see your creation in our gallery.

As always, thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me!

Jules

Happy Little Stampers - August Anything Goes With Dies

Today's card share is for our August die challenge over at the Happy Little Stampers blog.  No special prompts required.  Just use a die cut in any shape or fashion and link it to our gallery. It's that simple.  

Anyone else singing Hello/Goodbye by the Beatles?

If not, you are now.  

You're welcome.  

To create my card I began by ink blending a piece of smooth cardstock with blue and green hues of Distress Oxide to create a horizontal ombre look.  I used this piece to die cut the sentiment.  Using the same horizontal color combo I stamped the circles onto a white card panel before adhering the sentiment.  I wanted a narrow border so I swinked the edges of a slightly larger panel of cardstock with one of the Distress hues and then stacked the pieces onto a white card base.  I added in a generous sprinkling of clear droplets in a diagonal from top left to bottom right.  

Supplies:

Simon Says Stamp - Flipped Hello die set

Simon Says Stamp - Falling Background stamp

Trinity Stamps - Crystal Clear mix

I invite you to visit our blog and hope to see your card in our gallery.

As always, thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me!

Jules

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - Honoring Lindsey

 

These posts aren't getting any easier so I'll get right to it.  I hope you'll join us at the Sisterhood where we are honoring our Snarky Sister Lindsey.  

If you missed my first post about the loss of our dear friend please read it here.  

Lindsey was actually the one who brought me into this lovely fold of strong women who called themselves the Snarky Sisterhood.  We have a lot of laughs and try not to take things too seriously, especially when it comes to our shared hobby.  I gave my card a lot of thought and while it will seem goofy to most, I know she would have loved it.  

She and I shared a love of many things, Star Trek included.  I have loved that show since I was a kid in the early 70s watching reruns after school and still watch it regularly even today.  Here is my card in her honor.

In the words of Spock....   

    I miss you my dear friend.  

My card front in brief ...  I created the Enterprise by hand as I'm sure it shows. *wink*  The background is a blend of Distress Oxides and splatter.  The orange planet is also Distress Oxides covered with a generous amount of Glossy Accents and glitter.  The sentiment is a mix of stamping and alphabet stickers.  The inside sentiment was computer generated.  If you're a Star Trek fan, you'll recognize the quote.

Please join my teammates over at the Sisterhood blog where we are celebrating "L is for Lindsey."  If you were a friend of hers we'd love to see your Lindsey inspired card.  If you didn't know her well (or at all) Lindsey loved the colors purple and red.  She loved flowers, gardening, happy hour beverages, tea, cats, books and of course, Star Trek.  We would be honored if you would share your card in our gallery.

As always, thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me.

Jules 

Happy Little Stampers - August Christmas Challenge

 

It's time once again for our monthly Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge.  Our (optional) theme for August is Flowers.

I wanted to create my card without the use of the obvious holiday poinsettias.  I have no idea what flower this is but stamped in red, I think it works for Christmas.  

I went full-on Betsy Veldman when creating my card.  As I'm sure you know, Betsy was an amazing designer with Papertrey Ink before venturing out on her own with The Greetery.  My card uses her designs from both companies.

I started with this subtly patterned holiday designer paper for my background which I matted with a narrow red border.  I stamped the florals and sentiment in the bottom right and added a sprinkling of clear droplets.  I adhered the finished panel to a card base made with light gray cardstock.  Very simple indeed.

I invite you to visit our blog and hope to see your holiday card in our gallery!

Supplies:

Papertrey Ink - Older Christmas Market kit by Betsy Veldman

The Greetery - 

Simon Says Stamp - Clear Droplet mix

This is actually my second post for the day.  Scroll down if you missed my card for the latest Seize the Birthday challenge.  

As always, thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me!

Jules

Seize the Birthday #244

 

It's time for our first August challenge over at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog.  For this challenge we are looking for card designs that use NO stamping.  Thanks to my friend Michele and her generous sharing of these beautiful die cut washi tapes, my card was very easy to create.  

I laid out my initial design onto a white card panel and then flipped through my cover dies to see what I could do to jazz it up a bit.  I ended up die cutting through a transparency in order to have a polka dot stencil.  I used Distress Oxide Spun Sugar to create this soft background to the washi die cuts.  I popped a pre-foiled sentiment onto the design with foam tape and then added my customary sprinkling of pearls.  Sometimes simple is just best, don't you think?

I invite you to visit our blog and hope to see your birthday card in our gallery.  The topping is always optional.

Supplies:

Pink Fresh Studio - Hydrangea Rose washi tape

Pink Fresh Studio - Foiled Sentiment Ephemera

CC Designs - Circle Cut and Stitch Cover die

Little Things by Lucy - Glossy Watermelon pearls

As always, thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me.

Jules

Color Hues/Seize the Birthday -- Honoring Lindsey

 

This is going to be a very difficult post to write.  As many of you already know, the cardmaking community lost one of it's own last week.  I personally have lost one of my dearest friends.  Today is all about Lindsey Martin-Penny.

Before I dive into the challenge details, let me tell you a little bit about my friend Lindsey.

We "met" during one of Tracey McNeely's 25 days of Christmas tags event years ago.  Lindsey contacted me through social media inquiring about the birch background paper I used in my photography.  It happened to be from Pier One and she asked if it would be okay if she used it as well. Duh!  I was so honored that she even noticed.  Occasional conversations would take place, usually in the comments of each other's posts but where we really bonded initially was over books.  I have a little IG account where I post my thoughts about the books I've read. (I'm really far behind at the moment if you're checking.)  As a former librarian Lindsey was an avid reader and some of my most favorite books and authors are a result of her many recommendations.  As the years passed we became close and emailed several times a week.  Topics included crafting, books, recipes, cocktails, our love of Star Trek, our families, etc.  Emails turned to texting.  Texting soon became a daily occurence.  I still find myself reaching for my phone to text her.  My world is so very sad right now.  

On to the challenge:

Today Seize the Birthday is playing along with their Sister Challenge, Color Hues as Lindsey was a member of both teams.  Today's challenge was to be hosted by Lindsey so the Design Teams want to honor and celebrate her beautiful creative life by sharing "Lindsey Inspired" projects using her previously chosen colors of Blue and Purple.  (Love ya Lins but purple will never be a favorite.  LOL!)  In addition to the chosen color duo we encourage everyone to incorporate Lindsey's favorites into their card.  No sympathy cards please.  She would want us all to be happy.  

As I previously mentioned card themes may include the following:

Humor/Humour

Cats

Gardening

Reading

Friendship

Wine/Spirits

Tea

On to my card:

She and I shared so many common interests so choosing a theme was difficult.  I will be honest.  I scrapped the first three versions (all of them totally different from each other) and in the end decided to just go with a Clean & Simple thank you card.  (CAS was her favorite style to create.)

My design is quite simple.  I stamped the heart onto a white card panel and colored it in with different hues of purple and blue alcohol markers.  I stamped my sentiment below the heart, trimmed down my panel and then adhered it to a slightly larger piece of black cardstock for the narrowest of mats.  I popped the completed panel onto a white card base using a piece of black fun foam.  As a final touch I added a bit of Wink of Stella to the center heart before applying Glossy Accents over the top.  I think Lindsey would approve.  

Supplies:

Simon Says Stamp - Center Cut Heart rubber stamp

Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design - Simply Thank You clear stamp set

I hope to see the Color Hues gallery filled with tributes to Lindsey.  Thank you in advance.

_________________

I didn't want to take away from Lindsey but I would be remiss if I didn't mention my recent absence from blogland/social media.  My father passed away quite unexpectedly on July 3rd.  My parents have lived with us for the past year so not seeing him every day has been especially difficult. My world is indeed extremely sad nowadays.  Miss you Pops.  

As always, thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me.

Jules