In my family of cat lovers Halloween cards must feature a cat or two or five...  You could say that this die cut from Penny Black is purrfect.  Actually the cats are in a horizontal frame which I cut off because I envisioned a nice big moon which wouldn't fit, but I am getting ahead of myself.

I started with a piece of Bristol and positioned a circle where I wanted the moon to be.  I used  blending brushes to apply areas of Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen and Speckled Egg Distress inks.  Next I used a fan brush to flick mostly small drops of water on the panel, let them air dry, and reapplied more ink to soften the effect.  I brushed more Antique Linen around the moon and Shabby Shutters  around the edges of the panel.  Next I brushed Speckled Egg in random spots though the Starry Night stencil from Hero Arts to give some texture and spookiness to the sky.  I removed the circle mask, lightly brushed on Colonial White pigment ink from Close to my Heart and Antique Linen and Old Paper distress inks to give the moon some dimension, and then outlined it with a Stardust Gelly Roll pen.  I stamped a sentiment from Close to My Heart's Purrfect Halloween set, attached the die cut and then attached the completed panel to a Very Vanilla cardbase.

I plan to enter this card in the Two Old Bats Anything Halloween, Simply Create Too All Things Spooky, Scary, Etc, Cut It Up Trick or Treat, and My Time to Craft! Halloween or Fall Colours challenges.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

 

The theme for the current Paper Players Challenge is Spooky with this mood board for inspiration:

 

Anyone who knows me will know I zeroed in on the cat.  I was also attracted to the greenish sky and the moon.  This was my cue to leave my usually fairly clean, smoothly blended ink with die cuts style and go out of my comfort zone.  I love the look of layers and layers of ink and images but am intimidated by the idea of creating it, so I took a leap of faith!

I started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper, masked off a circle for the moon with masking paper and positioned a deckled rectangle stencil from A Colorful Life Designs over the smooth side.  I used a blending brush to apply areas of Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen and Speckled Egg Distress inks.  Next I used a fan brush to flick mostly small drops of water on the panel, let them air dry, and reapplied more ink to soften the effect.  Next I brushed Speckled Egg in random spots though the Starry Night stencil from Hero Arts to give some subtle texture.  Then I used a small acrylic script stamp without a block, inked it with Vintage Photo Distress ink, stamped off on scratch paper, and then pressed parts of it randomly along the left side.  I stamped along the bottom with Frayed Burlap and Ground Espresso using a stamp from Stampin' Up's Timeless Textures set.  I removed the circle mask and lightly brushed on Antique Linen and Old Paper to give the moon some texture.  I used too heavy a hand and had to lighten it with a bit of Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink.  Now I could finally remove the stencil to admire my handiwork.  For a first attempt I was pretty pleased with it.  I stamped the Tree of Courage from Lavinia Stamps in Ground Espresso Archival ink from Ranger and Mooch the Cat from Lavinia Stamps and a Sentiment from Close to My Heart's Purr-fect Halloween set in Black Archival ink.  By the way, smooth is relative.  I had to stamp Mooch four times and the sentiment three to get a solid impression on the "smooth" side of the paper.  I used dark brown and black Prismacolor pencils to create a shadow under Mooch to ground him and a Gelly Roll #700 pen to outline the moon and add some reflected moonlight to Mooch's head and left side.  I used foam tape to attach the panel to a card base made with Always Artichoke cardstock from Stampin' Up.

Here is the inside using the same materials and techniques featuring Mooch's sister, Mimsey, from Lavinia.

I also plan to enter this in the Stamping Sensations October - Animals, Birds and Bugs, Watercooler Wednesday All About Occasions, and Show Us Your Pussy Cats Furrything Goes/Meowloween challenges.  Was there any question that I would use a cat for the Stamping Sensations challenge?

Summer is winding down which means it is time to think about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and *gasp* Christmas.  I made this card using this Freshly Made Sketch:




The cats were cut using a die from Penny Black, coated with Versamark and black embossing powder, and heat embossed three times to give them shine and dimension.  I also embossed the sentiment.  I used a clear shimmer pen on the "moon" to make it sparkle, sponged the edges of the background with Goldrush ink to ground it, and finished the front with some Nuvo Crystal Drops in Bottle Green.  Here is the inside of the card featuring a trimmed, un-embossed version of the cats:






Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used:
Paper:  Moonlight with Black, Garden Green, Goldrush, and Creme Blulee cardstock from Close to My Heart
Ink:  Black and Goldrush from Close to My Heart, Versamark
Stamps:  Purr-fect Halloween (retired) and Just to Say from Close to My Heart
Embellishments:  Bottle Green Nuvo Crystal Drops, Black embossing powder from Stampendous
Other:  Cat die by Penny Black

The temperatures are in the 70's and the humidity tolerable.  Never mind that the leaves are green and I'm still wearing sandals, fall is finally here!  That means it's the season for black cats and pumpkins (and chocolate).  I made my first Halloween card of the season using Close to My Heart's Artistry Cricut cartridge and this sketch from Atlantic Heart's Sketch Challenges:



One thing to remember about cutting the cats on page 10 is that setting the dial on the same size for all of them will result in cutouts that are nowhere near the same size.  To get cats that were similar in size I cut the sitting cat at 1.75 inches, the playing cat at 1.5, and the walking cat inside at 1.25.  You may have noticed that I did not punch out the hearts.  The pumpkin can be found on page 44 and was cut at 1.25.  The paper is from the long retired Moonlight pack.  Here is the inside:



Now my husband wants me to make ten for him to give to people on his team at work!  Now why not check out some more takes on this sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenges?  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Moonlight (retired), Olive (retired), Goldrush, Saffron, Black and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Smokey Plum and Olive (both retired)
Stamps:  Holiday Tags, Eek and Shriek (both retired)
Embellishments:  Black sequins
Other:  Artistry Cricut cartridge

The Color My Heart Color Dare this week is to pick your own orange, so I combined the Sunset in an old paperpack, Mischief, with this Atlantic Hearts Sketch to make a final Halloween card.

This week the ladies over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges continue the "Sound of Music" theme by asking to see a few of our favorite things.  Let's see...

Cats:  I have loved them for as long as I can remember and currently have two four footed children who regularly provide design assistance.
Halloween:  I love carving pumpkins, dressing up, seeing the kids in their costumes, Snicker's Bars...   I love Halloween almost as much as Christmas.
Paper crafting and playing with new techniques.
Close to My Heart products:  Beautiful papers with lots of dimension, cool bling and stamp sets that include not only icons and sentiments, but usually graphics with lots of possibilities.

Yes, these are a few of my favorite things!

I just got the "Eek & Shriek" stamp set that includes a cat full of attitude, so of course I had to use it and I have also been wanting to try the chalkboard technique which could more accurately be described as techniques.  It seems some people are purists and stick to stamping white pigment ink on black or dark gray paper, maybe drawing a bit with a chalk pencil, and smearing some white ink or chalk on the background:


 Next I tried embossing just the cat and sentiment (the background is not quite as "dusty" as it appears):



Lastly, because I love resist embossing, I tried embossing the cat with clear detail powder and rubbing on a heavier layer of ink.  I think of it as the cat who refuses to be erased:


These cards may not show off CTMH's beautiful papers, but they do show off CTMH's stamp sets.  I used bits and pieces from five different sets!  The cat and sentiment come from the aforementioned "Eek & Shriek" set, the side borders from the retired "Wicked" (August 2011 SOTM) and "Pear & Partridge Scrapbooking Workshop" sets, the flourish below the sentiment from the retired "Simple Memories" set and the corner flourish from the "Instant Memories" set, also retired.  I should mention that although CTMH carries a vinyl chalkboard paper, I used plain old black cardstock and Mischief which I bought more of on the "While Supplies Last" section, another one of my favorite things.  You never know what you will find there!

The layout was adapted from this Atlantic Hearts Sketch.  I had to swap the sentiment and icon positions to be able to use the cat.

Now the question becomes, which one do I like best?  I think I like the black cat version best because it is unexpected.  How about y'all?  I don't see a limit on entries to either challenge, so I will enter them all, even if I have to pick just one card to show on the link.  Thank you for stopping by!  Now please hop over to Heart 2 Heart and Atlantic Hearts to see some more creations.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Black and Barn Red cardstock, Mischief (retired)
Ink:  White Daisy
Stamps:  Eek & Shriek, Simple Memories (retired), Wicked (retired), Pear & Partridge Scrapbooking Workshop (retired), Instant Memories (retired)
Embellishments:  Opaque White embossing powder from Michael's, Clear Detail embossing powder