Bloodless Halloween

I listed a last minute Halloween swap: Bloodless Halloween just because I desperately wanted to carve these images.  I found them on a blog called Uncle Ernie's Creature Ink.  The artwork is by Ernie Kwiat.  

I colored this image in with Tim Holz distress markers and mounted it on a mustard colored patterned paper.  After that I painted it with Ranger distress paint  in clear rock candy and finally I used mini round blending tool to blend in some black soot distress ink over the outer edges of the card.  

All in all, I was happy with how this card turned out.  I enjoyed making it so much that I made several extras and sent five copies out in Marjorie's Potpourri for October. I can't wait to see my suprise cards from that tracker!  I really love the MP trades because they are like the box of chocolates in Forest Gump. You never know what you are going to get!  Often times I get cards from swaps I wanted to join, but, was not able to so it can be a fun suprise to get those cards in this monthly swap.

Spotlight On Badegg

Badegg created a really ingenious card for a Recycled Art swap.  When I first saw it I sat back and had a good laugh.  Two playing cards were glued together and a circle was cut out in the middle where the King's tummy would be.  A trio of hand carved eggs was then inserted between transparent sheets of paper and glued together.  You can even shake the card and watch the eggs jostle about in there.  The effect gives you the idea that the King wished he did not have eggs for breakfast!  

Badegg is a really cool individual.  She is covered in tattoos and has a particularly striking half sleeve of her cat and the cats purple castle on her arm.  She is also fluent in sign language (seriously how cool is that?!?) and loves all kinds of eggs from the pickled variety to fried.  

She was a rebellious kid which is where the fun trail name came from.  Many of her cards are tied in with the trail name which I really like.  It's kind of like having a trademark.  

I can't wait to see more fun cards from this LTC maker! 

Harry Potter and a Hot Girl

For my Harry Potter cards I wanted to do something different.  There have been so many Harry Potter swaps and I was afraid my image may have been done before in a more traditional manner.  

I broke the alcohol inks out and decided to make this showdown between Harry and Valdemort appear like it occurred in the middle of a color run.  I used three colors of inks to make the background for this image and I also used distress inks in Orange Marmalade to make the orange mat layer.  Plain black paper was used for the outer frame and lastly I painted the entire card in Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in hard rock candy to give it a more crackly effect.  I was pretty happy with how these cards turned out and can't wait to see the rest of the cards from this swap!

A few friends talked me into signing up for the Babes tracker at the last minute, so I did not have a lot of time to pull this card together.  I needed an easy peasey carve so I could spent more time working on the card itself.  

I decided to customize my paper for this card by using distress paint in black soot for the outer frame.  The inner frame was made using salty ocean distress ink.  I used a blending tool to make the blue background and then stamped a polka dot rubber stamp on top of that in the same color to create a cool handmade background to highlight my hand carved stamp.

Next, I stamped my babe using versa fine ink and colored her dress and tattoo with a Prisma marker.  I gave her some shimmery eye shadow using a clear stardust gelly roll pen and added a fabric flower to her hair.  

For the final touch I carved the words "Hey Daddy-O!" and stamped them on some red paper, then layered them on top of the card.  

With the final touches done, my babe was ready to mail out and I was happy to check this card off of my to do list.  Producing a card in one week can be very stressful!  

Spotlight on Team Awesome Pants

Team Awesome Pants created this card for an Idioms swap. The card is entitled "Mum's The Word".  I was immediately drawn to this card for two reasons.  First, I absolutely love stamps with a lot of negative space (meaning the part of the stamp that takes ink, or the dark part).  Even simple stamps can be very striking when they have a lot of negative space and they have the ability to make very impactful images that stick with you.

The other thing I really love about this card is the layers of paper which were very carefully picked by TAP.  She spent eons in the craft store holding up sheet after sheet of paper in all sorts of combinations before she settled on this trio.  Adding layers to frame your stamped image is truly one of the easiest yet, most striking things you can do to really make an image pop.  

The back of this card has been "finished" as well.  I'm a real sucker for cards that have a finished back.  A finished back can include anything from extra stamped images, some extra color or even an extra layer of paper.  I think it really helps to make a card extra special when the card maker takes a little bit of time to tie the back if the card in with the front.  In this case TAP added an extra layer of paper to the back using the patterned papet from the front of the card. She also hand wrote her trail name, card name, box number and date between the lines to give the card a finished look.  

I think this card is a perfect example of how to compose a great card with a simple yet striking stamp, perfectly matched paper and a well done back.  Great job Team Awesome Pants! 

Corpse Bride LTC

I absolutely love Halloween.  It is easily my most favorite day of the year, so I was so excited when a last minute spot opened up in a Halloween swap. I did not have much time to pick a subject, carve and create a card so I decided to go with a Corpse Bride theme.  I am a huge Tim Burton fan and never get tired of carving his work.  

For this card I made a tripple layered mat and added a fourth layer of the cut out stamped image.  For the mat I used coordinating paper from a paper book.  I know those $20 books look so expensive ; but, if you use a coupon you can buy them for a decent price and to be honest the paper is usually a lot nice than the loose card stock. Also the paper almosr always coordinates well with other sheets in the book, so that helps take the guess work out of things.  

I colored parts of the stamp with Prisma, Marvey and Distress markers.  It took forever and reminded me how much I hate coloring.  Finally I cut heart shapes out with my Cricut and painted them with Black Soot Crackle paint.  Even though the card took forever to make, I wouldn't change a thing.  I'm hoping next year to get in a swap much earlier and go with a more intricate carve. Hard 

Spotlight on The Boxing B's

This is one of the first cards I received in a small individual trade swap that I organized to get my feet wet again with making and trading cards.  I instantly loved this card when I saw it.  I love sparkly things and I especially love the monochromatic look when it is done well.

    I have passed over the sparkle cardstock at the craft stores so many times thinking there is NO WAY I could use that stuff to make a nice card; but, this card totally proves me wrong.  

"Color Wheel: Blue Fishy" was designed by trying to use as many shades of blue as possible.  The Boxing B's were looking for colors of the ocean when deciding on the cardstock, glitter embossing powders and well matched bubble stickers.  The end result was a very streamlined look with a sparkly twist.  This design would make a great greeting card!  

Rainbow Fish

I joined this swap at the last minute after seeing S and D's card on her blog.  I really wanted a copy of that card and I was all caught up on my current swaps, so I figured I would challenge myself to carve and create a card in a week.  It turns our I work well under pressure.  My original design idea for this card was quite different; but, when I colored the image in by hand it looked more like a 70's style image rather than the more streamlined look I was going for.  In the end I settled for something entirely different.

 I almost abandoned this design idea; but, Sharkboy declared it to be the best thing he had ever seen, so I walked away from it for a bit and came back to view it with fresh eyes and only then did I realize it was pretty neat.  I had intended to add another accent stamp at the top and bottom, embossed in black;  however, I had an allergic reaction to the embossing powders, so I will be avoiding that medium for a while till I determine if any embossing is safe for me.  

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise; because, I think the additional design would have made the card too busy.  I actually really like the way this card turned out.  The orange layer was stained in Orange Marmalade distress ink. The inner two layers were created using alcohol inks. I used two colors for the water and three colors for the fish.  The stamp was stamped in archival ink.  Instead of carving an additional stamp for the back I included an image of the un-embellished stamp. It has such a different feel to it when stamped alone and I really wanted to share that since it was much closer to my original design idea.