Halloween bubbling cauldron gatefold

I’ve been making a lot of cards this past year and donating them. Basically, I’m trying to use up my stash in a meaningful way LOL and I found three nonprofit organizations where I donate them to. Most cards are simple since they need a larger quantity of cards. So it’s   been a challenge for me to make simpler but *nice* cards as well as in quantity!! 

I had a stack of 8.5”x11” Halloween card stock so these made a nice card base with decent thickness. To show off the fun prints, I decided to make gatefold cards and each sheet was cut in half to make 2 cards! This card is one of the cards that I made eight of to donate. I really liked the way it turned out though, so I wanted to share it here.

The cauldron is from the Potions and Spells stamp set by Stampin’UP! and I die cut two Deckled Circles to showcase the wonderful stamped cauldron. I used a sponge dauber to quickly add some color to the cauldron then used water color pencils and a blender pen to soften the pencil marks without the need for water! The tops of the bubbles have a hint of purple too (Gorgeous Grape!)

I loved the sentiment “double double toil and trouble“ (from the Potions and Spells stamp set) so I stamped and fussy cut it onto the card front! 

Inside the card, I stamped “Happy Halloween” and I added the potions stamp from Frightfully Cute stamp set in the lower corner.

Here are the two stamp sets I used for this card:

Do you send Halloween cards out? I’ve been making interactive ones for my (growing quickly) great nieces and nephew (which I’ll post soon) and one or two friends, but admittedly it’s not a huge card sending holiday for me…😆

Thanks for stopping by…and have a wonderful day!

Sunflower 3D Embossing Folder

I still remember the first time I embossed a piece of plain white card stock…and the feeling of WOW this is amazing!! And the Sunflower 3D embossing folder is definitely a WOWer! I love that it’s a 6x6” folder so that you can place your A2 sized panel anywhere in the folder and get different angles of the flowers based on where you want your focal flower(s) to be. 

There are so many fun techniques you can use with this: coloring a white card stock panel with sponge daubers, markers, pencils, and brayers. You can tear the embossed panel and of course embossed a colored panel of card stock. For my first play with this folder I decided to use sponge daubers for a softer look:

I used the small sponge daubers that fit over your finger tip, and these ink colors: 

• Pecan Pie
• Daffodil Delight
• Garden Green
• Calypso Coral and 
• Poppy Parade

And I wanted to use a frame to focus on a particular sunflower — the Textured Notes Dies were perfect for that!

Tip: I attached two of the dies together using a post it note and ran the dies with Daffodil Delight card stock through the Cut & Emboss machine. That resulted in a perfect frame for the floral focal (and an extra inner rectangle which will be used on a future project💕) 

Tip: I attached the “frame” to the card base using Adhesive Strips (item#141825). These are thinner than the 6-sided Dimensionals foam stickers and come in a sheet of long strips that you can easily cut down to the size you need. These also make shaker cards so easy to make!!

Since you can never have too many birthday cards, I chose a simple die cut and Happy Birthday sentiment.  To finish off the front of the card, I added some opaque gems in colors that matched the card front. Here’s the full card front: 

The inside is always the last thing and  I try to embellish the inside of my cards somehow, with either a scrap  strip of patterned paper or a stamped image. I found the perfect sunflower-looking leaf from the Friendly Hello stamp set, a  Salebration freebie from a few years back, and stamped it in Garden Green:

That’s it for my first Sunflower Embossing Folder card! Plenty of future ideas but as always, so little time! Thanks for spending some time reading this blog & hope you’re  inspired to do something creative💕

Florals in Bloom fun fold Double Triangle Card

I saw this card design on many a card making website so I don't recall which I accessed for the measurements of this card. I love it but had a dickens of a time getting everything "even". I'm in love with the look but...I may never make another one again! But I suspect it's one of those that are easy once you make a second and third one...I am just not there! (yet?? LOL)

I should have used a different pattern from the DSP pack, but I was drawn the vibrancy of this pattern on a red card base, so that was what I chose to create with.

Since I hate when you write inside a card and it shows when the card is closed, I added a decorative panel as well as a white cardstock angled panel so that you could write a personal message inside and yet know what the boundaries of your writing should stay within. Here's what the inside looked like:

And since I don't know who I will send this card to, it remains without sentiment for the time being. But it is a pretty card, isn't it? 

Thanks for stopping by...have a wonderful day!