I can’t believe Halloween is finally here! I still have Halloween projects I would like to make! As I was beginning to mail out some cards the other day, I just grabbed a bunch and took a photo. You will probably find most of these on other blog posts. And now that Halloween is here, it is on to the other holidays! Have fun tonight! Watch out for the ghosts and goblins!
I would say this punch art black cat Halloween card has two levels of inspiration on it. One day I saw pink being used in Halloween decorations and I thought that would be a fun thing to do. I added some bits of Melon Mambo to this card, in the layers, the stamped greeting and in the paper bow on the punch art cat. (Sometimes just seeing a scrap of paper on your work table will provide inspiration!) The cat came from a picture of a cat decoration of some kind in a magazine article I recently read on the plane (the only time I seem to get to catch up on my magazines!) that made me think of the shapes of our Stampin’ Up! punches.
I used the Extra-Large Oval Punch for the cat’s body and the Large Oval Punch for the head. The ears are the top tip of the Tree Punch. The feet are the Word Window Punch, cut in half. The legs are drawn in with the White Stampin’ Chalk Marker. I don’t remember how I did the eyes! Maybe I just cut the shapes by hand. Possibly I used the leaf on the Bird Builder Punch and trimmed it. Punches just make things easier but there is no reason why you can’t cut things out by hand if you don’t have the appropriate punch – or use something else and then modify the shape.
The greeting is stamped with a stamp from Teeny Tiny Wishes. Have I ever mentioned how I think this is one of the best stamp sets to own?? It has so many greetings to use, both for holidays and generic. Very useful. You can never have too many sentiments and greetings to use. For a little pizzazz, I added two Brights Candy Dots. I love those cute Candy Dots! The little stamped stars are from the Something to Say Stamp Set. The star on the wand is punched from Gold Glimmer Paper with the star punch in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. The jack-o-lantern is stamped with the Howl-o-Ween Treat Stamp Set and punched out with the Boo To You Framelits Dies.
If you are looking for some last minute Halloween card ideas, maybe this punch art black cat Halloween card idea will help you.
If you are looking for a colorful Halloween card, look no farther than this Howl-O-Ween Treat Halloween Trick or Treat Card. The stamps are both from the Howl-o-Ween Treat Stamp Set. The greeting is colored with three different markers and layered on the front of the card. The pumpkin is stamped and then die cut with the Boo To You Framelits Dies.
The background is simply a piece of Whisper White cardstock, with different colors just sponged on. I have always cut the Stamping Sponges into pieces and used them that size.
After the sponging, I could see the card was going to need “something”, so I splattered the watered down Multipurpose Liquid Glue (the “green” glue, as we often say) over the card front and the greeting piece with my Aqua Painter, just like you would with a paintbrush. After applying the glue this way, sprinkle the card with Gold Stampin’ Glitter and then of course shake off. You will have splattered sparkly glitter! Really fun!
You have to hurry if you want to mail any Halloween cards to friends! Halloween is Saturday, Oct. 31!
Did you know that Oct. 31st will be the last day of daylight savings time for this year?! Time to “Fall Back” and get that extra hour of sleep!
*************
Here are the new Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals! Some fun things for jazzing up your cards and projects!
Click to Shop!
Shop for any supplies you need, whether for my Howl-O-Ween Treat Halloween Trick or Treat Card, or any of your other papercrafting projects at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE.
The other day I got this idea to use this background stamp to make this Trick or Treat Watercolor Wash Halloween Card. The Watercolor Wash is a large background stamp, and I colored it with several markers to make a multi-colored background. After coloring with markers, be sure to “huff” (or breathe) on the inked stamp to remoisten the ink before stamping. I thought using Halloween colors with the Watercolor Wash stamp would be fun and interesting!
I recommend getting these background stamps in the wood-mount version. I just think it’s easier to use them on the wood block. I think the really big stamps and the really little stamps are better wood-mounted, and you don’t have to do any mounting as they are all ready to stamp!
After stamping the background, I used the Howl-o-Ween Treat Stamp set for the “Trick or Treat” words, the pumpkin die-cut and the stamped spiders! It’s a fun Halloween stamp set plus comes with matching Boo To You framelits dies. You can also purchase the Bundle and save 15%.
Don’t forget about the very short Stampin’ Up! Stamp Sale, which ends on Friday, October 23!! That is tomorrow! All stamps are 15% off! Don’t miss out!
This Lovely As a Tree Christmas Card is one of the easiest and most beautiful Christmas cards you could ever make! With Stampin’ Up! having the 15% Off Stamp Sale this week,
October 19 – 23, I would like to encourage you to make sure you have this stamp set, Lovely As a Tree, in your collection. If you have been with Stampin’ Up! for many years, you probably DO own it. But if you are newer, you should know Lovely As a Tree is one of the most classic stamp sets Stampin’ Up! has ever sold! It has been around since 2001, I believe, which is around the time I started stamping. The fact that it is still in the catalog means that it is still very popular and still getting sales. This is a stamp set every stamper should own!
I saw the design of this card way back when I was first a demonstrator. The stamping is so easy on this card. Simply ink up the single evergreen tree and stamp. Then immediately stamp again right next to that tree. Since there is less ink on the stamp, that tree will stamp lighter. Then ink up the stamp again and stamp – and then stamp again without inking up. Continue stamping this way over the Very Vanilla card front until it is filled with trees. Stamp a greeting at the top. I used the greeting from the Wondrous Wreath Photopolymer Stamp Set.
One of everyone’s favorite embellishments back then, and probably still, was Dazzling Diamonds Stampin’ Glitter. This doesn’t require any thought or expertise! Simply take the 2-Way Glue Pen and scribble on each tree from top to bottom. Shake Dazzling Diamonds Glitter all over the trees on the card front and dump off the excess. You will be amazed at how beautiful your Lovely as a Tree Christmas Card is now!
With the Stampin’ Up! Stamp Sale this week, you might be looking through all the stamp sets wondering which ones to buy, so I thought I might suggest the Layered Letters Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set so you can make fun cards like this Layered Letters Alphabet Spooky Halloween Card! I liked this alphabet stamp set when I first saw it, back when the new annual catalog was introduced.
This card starts with a 6″ x 6″ piece of Basic Black card stock, folded in half to make a 3″ x 6″ card. Sometimes this size is fun to make! I was in to adding a pop of pink (Melon Mambo) to my Halloween card, so I have a layer of Melon Mambo and then Cucumber Crush. I used the same ink colors plus Tangelo Twist. The black is the new Basic Black Archival Ink. For a little extra pizzazz I added some Happy Haunting Washi Tape just on the very edges of the Whisper White, top and bottom. Then I happened to think of adding some Googly Eyes to the O’s in Spooky! Every crafter has googly eyes in our stash, don’t we??!
Here are the new Stampin” Up! Weekly Deals! Only four items again this week.
Get the Bow Builder Punch just in time for Christmas packaging (it’s small) or cards and projects. Use the Silver Fancy Foil Designer Vellum for making Christmas cards or packaging. Washi tape is always fun for a multitude of uses (there are whole pages on Pinterest for washi tape ideas!), and if you need to do some filing for the new year when we all try to get organized again, you will be ready with the File Tabs Edgelits Dies! But you can also use them for making cards and projects!
I got the idea the other day to make a Halloween card with two different stamp sets, Work of Art and Howl-o-Ween Treat, so here we have the Work of Art Howl-o-Ween Treat Halloween card! The Work of Art Stamp Set has been very popular since it was first introduced, and you can see how versatile it can be. Just change the colors and it can be used for almost any occasion. To make it work for Halloween, just ink the stamp with Halloween colors and add some Halloween images, such as the owl and hat from Howl-o-Ween Treat.
If you don’t like cutting out things, get the Howl-o-Ween Treat Bundle that includes the Boo To You Framelits Dies along with the stamps for a 15% discount! The framelits also cut the “Boo!” which I think is super cute to put on cards.
Even if you do not have “official” Halloween stamps, look through your stamp sets and see what you do have that you can use! You might find a “Happy Halloween” in a large stamp set of words and greetings. You might find a background you can use in Halloween colors. You might find a cat stamp that you make look “Halloweeny”. Just try it and see what you can find! If you aren’t into Halloween, make a fall call in a similar fashion.
HOT OFF THE PRESS: If you are in the market for some Stampin’ Up! stamps, wait until Monday and next week! Check back on Monday for all the details (because I don’t have details yet!)! Start making your wish list over the weekend.
It’s been a weekend of watching baseball games on TV, and in honor of the Astros baseball game today, I have made this Houston Astros baseball card. It’s fun to have a winning home sports team for the city to rally around and enjoy! It’s been ten years since the Astros were in the baseball playoffs (I even got to go to the World Series game, thanks to my friend!) Today is Game 4 of the American League Division Series and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for an Astros win! We’ve also been watching the St. Louis Cardinal games (because when you are from St. Louis, you are always a Cardinal fan!) and we watched one of the Dodger games because our son-in-law is a huge Dodgers fan.
The Layered Letters Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set is perfect for a card like this when you want to express the name of a team or place or certain words. I have loved this stamp set since I first saw it! You just need to have an alphabet stamp set on hand for certain projects, and this is a good one. I love having the background shapes you can use for each letter – or not!
The baseballs were fun to make, and you can make any size. I used the 1 3/8″ Circle Punch because that’s what fit in the space on the card. I punched the baseball from Whisper White card stock, then I used the negative piece over the punched circle as the guide to draw the red curved lines on the baseballs. I used the Real Red Stampin’ Write Marker which has two ends, a brush tip and a narrow tip, to draw on the lines and stitching on the baseballs. Then I sponged a little Soft Suede ink around the edges of the baseballs. I loved the look of that. Sometimes sponging can add so much to your stamping! Use the Stamping Sponges by Stampin’ Up! or the Sponge Daubers to do any sponging around the edges of your stamped images.
Today is the last day for the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals!
Be ready when your team is in a good position and you want to celebrate or support! I hope I have reason to make more Houston Astros Baseball Cards after today’s game!
This Howl-O-Ween Halloween card may look like Halloween exploded! Somehow I felt compelled to add a lot of things on this card for Halloween! And it all started with wanting to use the Happy Haunting Washi Tape! You never know what you will end up with when you start creating!
I applied the Happy Haunting Designer Washi Tape to the bottom of the card. Then I stamped the owl from the Howl-O-Ween Treat Stamp Set and the pumpkin and die cut them with the matching Boo To You Framelits Dies and of course, the Big Shot. I die cut the hat from the Black Glimmer Paper in the Holiday Catalog. Then I added some Gold Glimmer Paper to trim the hat with the band and punched a few stars with the star punch in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.
The stamped spider webs in the background are from the Witches’ Night Photopolymer Stamp Set and the Halloween stamp is from the And Many More Stamp Set. But I was liking the glitter and glimmer so I had to also die cut the “Boo!” in the Boo to You Framelits! I used a piece of parchment paper in between the Glimmer Paper and the framelit and it came out of the die perfectly! My best new tip!
There’s still time to order some Halloween stamping supplies to make this Howl-O-Ween Treat Halloween Card and lots of others!
Don’t forget the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals and Clearance Rack! Some good deals are to be had! Add them to your order!
Today I am going to give you some ideas on how to make a Bra Card! This is an idea from a long time ago and I haven’t seen it recently. I thought it might be fun to bring up the idea again with it being October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
To make the card base, fold paper in half and place Heart Framelit Die (I used the second largest die). The Heart Framelit Die is retired now but if you already own it you can use it or at least it will give you the idea! You can make your own heart shape just out of paper and trace around it. Anyway, leave the fold at the top untouched so that the card will open.
Next, cut a similar piece just out of one layer of card stock which will become the actual bra piece or at least the template if you want to keep it to make more.
With this piece, I folded it in half and then contoured it just freehand with my scissors in the bra shape I wanted. Nothing scientific about this, you know they come in lots of shapes so you can make it wide or narrow or straight or rounded, however you want. I used this piece for a template to cut out the pink card stock.
On the pink card stock, I stamped with Versamark the flourish from Everything Eleanor and then embossed with Stampin’ White Embossing Powder and the Heat Tool to look lacy. And I added a bit of Venetian Crochet Trim for a bit of lace. For the straps, I just cut two thin scraps. For the necklace, I drew on a silver chain with a Sharpie and added a Rhinestone Jewel.
You can make these bra cards with designer paper or plain card stock blinged up with rhinestones or pearls or embossing, both heat and with the Big Shot folders or with stamping a design. So many creative choices! Glue it on a larger card if you prefer!
Stampin’ Up! is helping in the fight against breast cancer by donating to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF.org) for each Paper Pumpkin subscription.
Stampin’ Up! will donate $1 for every active Paper Pumpkin subscriber by October 10th
plus, an additional $1 for every new subscriber.
To find out more about Paper Pumpkin or to join by October 10th, just click HERE.
How about this for an easy Halloween card with eyeballs??! This card is super easy to make and a good way to use up some scraps! The card base is Garden Green, but you could use many other colors, like an orange, purple, black, red, whatever you like. Then gather all the circle punches you have for making eyeballs and go to town punching circles, eyeballs and pupils! Glue some black circles in the very center of the white eyeball and some on the edges. Then you can play around with placement when you adhere them to the card, making some eyes crossed or looking up or down or straight on! Make some of the eyes bloodshot with the thin tip of the Real Red Stampin’ Write Marker. Just do whatever you want! For my greeting, I used the “Boo!” framelit from the Boo To You Framelits Dies.
Here’s a new tip I learned and I think it is working well: Usea piece of parchment paper in between the die and the card stock! It cuts through the card stock fine and releases it easily from the intricate die.
I got this eyeball idea from looking through a food catalog I received in the mail that had a round box decorated with eyeballs. I thought, “I could make a card like that!” So don’t just trash those many catalogs we will all be receiving in the mail for the upcoming holidays. Look through them for ideas for your projects, whether it is copying something directly or using the same color combination or using the design for an idea for a card or bag or other project.
Have fun making some Halloween cards for your friends and family, like this easy Halloween eyeball card! Your kids could help with this one!
Shop Stampin’ Up! Online 24/7!
I made this For All Things Fall Card because we are finally having at least a few days that feel a bit like fall in Houston. Maybe it doesn’t exactly feel like fall here, but the morning temperature was cooler yesterday and today. We’ll take anything that we can get along those lines! For All Things is a stamp set that came out last year in the Holiday Catalog, and I just loved it. Obviously lots of people loved it because it is still here!
This is a simple card to make with just stamps, ink and paper. The card base is Cajun Craze with a layer of Garden Green card stock. The stamp set comes with a background image which I stamped in Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, and Garden Green. In order to make the colors lighter, I stamped “off” once, which means after inking up I stamped on scrap paper to remove some, but not all, of the ink. That makes it lighter so that I could stamp over that background image with the same color leaf and it would show up. The images are stamped on Very Vanilla as I thought Whisper White might be too stark for fall colors. I thought the greeting that came in the stamp set was perfect for what I wanted to express this morning!
There are ways this card could have been made in a “fancier” way, but sometimes just simple is best with stamps, ink and paper and nothing else. If you don’t already own the For All Things Stamp Set, you might want to get it as soon as possible for fall and for Thanksgiving.
Don’t forget to check out the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals ending tonight.
Today I will be starting the 12 Weeks of Christmas campaign as a free gift for my mailing list subscribers. Each week, subscribers will receive an e-mail containing a project idea for a holiday card, gift, tag or wrapping, along with the steps necessary to assemble it! This is ONLY for my mailing list subscribers, and you have just a few hours left before the first e-mail goes out (today at 1:00 p.m. Central time). If you are not on my mailing list, you will not receive this holiday idea, this first email. Just fill in the box in the upper right corner of my blog with your name and email. Then be sure to check your email to look for the confirmation email giving your permission to actually send you email. You will also get a free gift always offered to new subscribers! But be sure to click the link to confirm in the confirmation email.
Sign up now for my Stamping With Karen newsletter and watch for the 12 Weeks of Christmas emails over the next 12 weeks! Christmas is coming!
Now that my brother’s birthday has come and gone, I can post the Airplane Punch Art Birthday Card I made for him. The background layer of the card is made with the Cloudy Day Embossing Folder (retired), but an alternative thing you can do is just sponge some White Craft Ink onto a blue background to make some wispy clouds in the sky. I even have one “cloud” in the sky made with one of the Scallop Circle Punches, depending on which size you want to use.
The airplane is made with the Word Window Punch for the wings and the tail. The front of the plane is made with one of the circle punches. I forget which size! But you can experiment and see which size works for your airplane! For the windshield, use a smaller circle punch and cut it in quarters. Use two of the quarters for the window. Then, of course, the plane nose and jet engines are made with two small circle punches, I probably used the 1/2″ circle or so. For the body of the plane, I used some retired Silver cardstock but you could use Silver Foil for a shiny plane or one of the gray colors. I “tied” on a banner like an airplane pulls for advertising for the birthday greeting and just cut the banner by freehand.
A fun and easy birthday card to make. You could use a design like this for a birthday party theme. Try the Airplane Punch Art Birthday Card and customize it!
If you want to make a card like this and need some papercrafting supplies, just shop at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.
I’ll be starting the 12 Weeks of Christmas campaign as a free gift for my mailing list subscribers. Each week, subscribers will receive an e-mail containing a project idea for a holiday card, gift, tag or wrapping, along with the steps necessary to assemble it! This is ONLY for mailing list subscribers and these projects won’t appear on my blog or anywhere else. You have 48 hours before the first e-mail goes out on Wednesday, so be sure you are on my list!!
You’ll see the sign up box in the upper right corner of my blog!
After you submit your name and email address, BE SURE to click the link in the Confirmation email you will receive shortly. This tells us yes, you really want to receive the emails from me. At that point you will receive my free gift for signing up plus be ready to receive the 12 Weeks of Christmas emails.
If you are already on my mailing list there is no need to do anything! You will be receiving the 12 Weeks of Christmas emails from me!
