Fall Paper Pumpkin

In the words of Piglet "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" I'm so behind in sharing my Paper Pumpkin alternate projects! The October kits are already arriving and I still need to show you September! So hold on, here we go. Whee!

I always try to use elements from the kit with little else, that way you can achieve the same looks :) This month I added some Very Vanilla cardstock, and pulled in some ink spots from prior months, but that is it.

I found the easiest way to add the fringe to the card was to put adhesive on the back of the purple strip (cut from the label leftovers) and lay that down on the fringe. Then I cut the fringe to the length I wanted.

Hope you enjoy these extra ideas today! Now finish up last months kit so you can start on the beautiful pink boxes arriving in mailboxes this week :)

Flutterby again soon!

Creative Inking Blog Hop: Christmas Joy

I know, I know... It's not even Halloween yet and here we are talking about Christmas today! However, when you are a papercrafter who sends out oodles and oodles of handmade Christmas cards you've got to get an early start. So think of today as your creative inspiration before you begin making your Christmas cards :) Without further ado, I bring you this months Creative Inking Blog Hop!

I created this adorable card for a swap I was a part of last month. I've always loved the Santa style cards, so I created my own take on it. After I finished it I realized that although it has lots of punching and die cutting there isn't actually any stamping on it! LOL! But I love it anyway. I actually wanted to make the full saying 'Jolly Old Elf' by adding old elf under the die cut jolly using the alphabet rotary stamp... but we couldn't find the rotary stamp. So, if you have one you could add it to your case of this card ;)

You can see from this second view that the card isn't quite a standard fold. Santa's jacket actually folds closed by an inch from the right side as well. Gives it more of the feeling of a real jacket I think! And I love the overlapping opening layers it creates by leaving the belt and buckle hanging over that side.

One trick I have for making this card: since we no longer carry a scalloped border punch, I used the largest of the square framelit dies (which is scalloped itself) to create the wool for the edging of the jacket. It is the perfect size to create scallops for the narrow direction of a standard card :)

Hope you are enjoying today's hop. Now head on over to Kristine to see what Christmas-y ideas she has for us.

Or head back to BJ's blog and check out her project

Flutterby again soon!

WooHoo! Stamp Sale!

What a fun pick me up as the weather turns cold. This week you can get 15% off all stamps. Yippee!

Cleaning Up the Glitter

Here is my final glittered For All Things card.

Now I'm not usually a fussy-cutter, but I decided I could handle a little bit of cutting to get some 3-D ferns and acorns on this card. It gave it the pop that it needed to bring it to life. And, as long as you don't try to cut around every little leaf it isn't even to hard (and since I'm saying that you know it's got to be true!).

Once again I paired the Hello You thinlits with the sentiments from the For All Things stamp set. They both look like curvy flowing handwriting, and the size difference really makes the message jump out.

Now, if you haven't gotten your glitter out yet to try this technique- you've got to give it a go! Just grab an aqua painter, some Tombow glue, and gold/silver glitter; then SPLAT away! Forget how to get the splats- here's a review:
     *Fill aqua painter with water
     *Place a blob of glue in a small bowl (embellishment lids or paper plates work well)
     *Squeeze water out of the aqua painter and mix into the glue to get it runny
     *Pick up gluey substance with aqua painter and flick it onto your card
     *Sprinkle glitter onto the splatted surface, dump/tap card to get excess off
And with that you're done! Beautiful, messy, sparkled splats on your card.

Now- just incase you are thinking 'Ugh' about the glitter- I've got one more handy dandy tip for you. Wet wipes work GREAT for picking up glitter. I don't know why, and I only discovered it by accident (I was feeling to lazy to clean it up the normal way and there were wet wipes close by...) but man did it pick up all the glitter from the table in a flash. I'm used to finding glitter around for weeks after using it, but this picked it all up for me. **Insert shocked face**

Flutterby again soon!

More Fall Glitz

Hope you're not getting sick of all this glitz yet, cause I'm not quite done ;)

I absolutely love the elegance of this card. Even my darling girly thought this one was BEAUTIFUL and wanted to make one of her own. (Note to self: still need to fulfill that promise once more linen thread arrives- I used it all up!!)

The oak leaves in the For All Things stamp set are really great for multiple stampings. Ink once- and then stamp at least two or three times before reinking. That will give you the lovely depths of tone you see along the edge of this card. If you were to stamp them all at full strength it would just start to look like a big blob of ink seeping in from the fold :) Also, it leaves lighter spots where you can add in the acorns and splatters and they will show up with much more contrast and beauty.

I'm so "grateful for you" stopping by today. Flutterby again soon!

For All Things Glittered Some More

Wow! Is it October already? What happened to september- I think it vanished right before my eyes!

Then again, maybe it was the weather that made it disappear. Here in lovely MN it has been a gorgeous late summer... in fact I feel like fall just started a few days ago. Most of the month was hot hot hot, so basically I stayed in summer mode I think until just this past week :)

Even last weekend was warm. My in-laws came to visit from out in Montana and stayed for a long weekend. My kids were thrilled to have them around since they don't get to see them much. And I think my father-in-law has as much energy as my kids (you know, the kind that you want to bottle up so you can save some for yourself and for later). So between the three of them they kept the rest of us trucking all weekend! We went to the apple orchard, pumpkin patch, zoo & conservatory, and then my hubby even went to a Vikings game with his dad. I was so thankful for the rest that day... but I was also coming down with a cold which kept me 'resting' for the next few days after. I still sound 'pretty' even today ;)

Since the fall weather seems to finally be back, it is easier to get into fall mode sharing these cards. I hoping you're loving the shiny take on the For All Things stamp set as much as I do!

I love the elements poking in from the side on this layout. Although one tip if trying to achieve this look- less is more. It is really easy to put to much on and make the edges look cluttered. Especially when you are adding multiple layers of images like this. My first take I had to ditch it and start over because I put on way to many ferns that the acorns just looked muddled. So- start with a light scatter. You can always fill in more later, but you can't ever take that ink away!

I thought that the cajun craze speckles from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set were the perfect addition to this look. It helped balance out the gold flecks perfectly!

Flutterby again soon!