I am done with Halloween!

Ok, not really. But I am done with making Halloween cards. I have been making a card whenever an idea came to mind. The other night I pulled them all out and counted, I have 11 Halloween cards! My list of people that I wanted to send them to was only 6! lol 

Here are cards 9, 10 and 11  haha

All of the primary images came from the cartridge A Frightful Affair.

I love this cat under the street lamp. I just think it is so cool. The green background is from Elegant Edges. The text is from A Frightful Affair.

I love to cook so no way could I pass up this image lol
Again, the background image is from Elegant Edges and embossed with Anna Griffin's Fluted Damask Cuttlebug folder. The spider web border comes from the CTMH Artbooking cartridge.

I wanted it to look like her cauldron was bubbling over so I added blobs of Crystal Lacquer. It looks sort of milking in spots because it wasn't quite dry when I took the picture. It dries totally clear which makes it great for adding cool effects like dew drops on flower petals. (or bubbles in cauldrons)
If you notice, the 'bubbles' on the top have a yellow/orange tint. This is because the Crystal Lacquer is reflecting the orange base layer of the image cuts. Makes for a cool/icky looking brew lol

And finally, what party is complete without a diva? Here is Mrs. Frankenstein modeling her gorgeous gown and striking (heehee) new hairdo.  :-)
The orange background is from Elegant Edges and embossed with Anna Griffin's Crowned Medallion Cuttlebug folder. The spider web frame comes from CTMH Artbooking.

I love this card! I never thought of making an elegant Halloween card before but that is how it looks to me. I am seriously considering keeping this one for myself lol

And of course, I have more birthdays in the near future so I got busy getting some of those cards completed.

I wanted to try out the sunburst technique I am seeing everyone doing lately. Here is a great tutorial if you want to try it yourself.

My friend Crystal was born on Halloween. I usually make a Halloween themed card for her but not this year (although the stamp set I used it basically a Halloween set).
I created the sunburst following the instructions from the tutorial. But I needed a larger card base to fit in my stamped images. You can't tell but my sunburst stops over an inch above the bottom of the card lol

The oval was cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.
The owl is from the CTMH stamp of the month set for August 2014 called What a Hoot S1408. He was colored with Prismacolor pencils, all his parts glued together and then added to the card with foam tape to give him some height.
I stamped the Happy Birthday on a hand cut strip of paper. It comes from the Joyful Birthday stamp set B1419.

I have no idea where I got the cardstock I used for the base. I think it was in one of those jumbo value packs you find around the holidays. It has a metallic sheen to it. (I have it in this teal, a burgundy and  gunmetal blue/black....the Explore does NOT like them lol)

And last, a birthday card for my father in law. He carves decoys so hubby wanted a decoy on the card. The duck is from the Outdoor Man cartridge. The Happy Birthday, heat embossed in gold, is from the Joyful Birthday stamp set.

Since I don't need any more Halloween cards I guess I better get busy on Thanksgiving! :-D

Have a wonderful week everyone. Thank you for dropping by!

Is It Spring yet???

I am so sick of rain and gray skies. I know most of the country is being slammed with more snow and I truly feel for you all!  It seems like winter is really pushing the limits of what we can handle this year.

Thank goodness it is March and spring is just around the corner!

I am still playing with my Cricut almost every day. (and seriously debating as to whether I need the new Cricut Explore or not)

Last time I shared my 'in progress' Art Nouveau hummingbird project. Well, that is done now. 

I mounted the bird and flowers on maroon cardstock (I cannot tell you how many colors I debated over until, with hubby's help, I decided on this maroon). I cut the shape from the Elegant Edges cartridge. Then, after another exhaustive search for another background color (pink), I decided I needed a 'shadow' layer of white to break it up. The pink is also cut from Elegant Edges. Such a great cartridge!

 

 

 

I honestly think it is the weather! My artistic muse seems to have gone into hibernation so I am extremely thankful for my Cricut and all my cartridges! I want to create and yet cannot put pencil to paper and have anything show up.

So, waking up yesterday morning with the urge to create and nothing flowing from my fingers, I grabbed the Pet Shop cartridge and made this little card. (actually it hasn't technically been mounted on a card yet so maybe I should call it a portrait?)

 

I welded the Shih Tzu with a frame from Elegant Edges. I then built the puppy right on the frame. This is a portrait of Molly, the little fur baby of my friend Crystal. Notice the frame and background are the same colors as my hummingbird backgrounds. I am all about using up my scraps! I keep them all sorted by color in gallon ziplock bags so I can rummage through them quickly to find what I need.  :-)  The background was embossed with Darice's Paw Print background folder and then I rubbed it with an ancient ColorBox pigment stamp pad in Frost White. Do they even make those anymore? I think I need to hunt for a re-inker, this poor thing is a tad on the dry side.

 

And finally, last weekend, my friend Mary came over and was checking out my Cricut storage system and my cartridges and fell in love with Teddy Bear Parade. I can't blame her, it one of the most adorable cartridges out there...assuming you love teddy bears, which I do!  So, I just had to make a bear! And seeing how Easter is coming up soon (although I am not sure of the date yet and really need to check my calendar!) I made this adorable 'bunny'.

Now, I have been painting for over 30 years and if you ever saw my fence post pumpkins or egg Santas (I am pretty sure they are way back in the ancient history of my blog lol) you will see that I have been painting cutsie eyes for decades.....so why did I never think to paint them on my cuts? It took seeing a couple of them on the internet to give me one of those V8 moments! Duh!!!

The eyes are painted with acrylics, all shading was done with either pencils or chalks.

Happy Sunday! Keep warm and dry and try to find some creative time....even if you let a machine do half the work  :-)