Aloha, all!
I cannot begin to tell you how busy I've been the past week or so – and it's going to continue into this coming week. After that I do believe that life should slow down a bit. I had a summer-long commitment with one volunteer organization and an early fall commitment with one another, and wouldn't you know they overlapped during the first two weeks of September. Yikes, I'm really going to try not to let that happen again!
But that never stops me from participating in the biweekly Stampin' Up! Only Challenge Design Team, and the new challenge starts today!
I actually made this project for a greeting card swap that I joined at the beginning of August. These products weren't available for you to order – and have fun with! – back then. But they're definitely available now! And now, of course, is the time to start making Halloween Cards if you send a few of those out to your friends and family. I love to send them, because they are so unexpected, but so much fun to make!
The stamp set that I used for this project is Merry Cafe. The images I used are the stamped words on the coffee cup as well as the little spider web up in the corner. They are just SOOO cute – and there are others in the stamp set, too! For the cup, which I made with the Coffee Cup Framelits set, I used a design from the Spooky Night Designer Series Paper set. I also found those fun witch hats in that paper set, and cut them out by hand before adhering them to the card with some Stampin' Dimensionals. The final fun accents on the central set of images are those fun Black Rhinestone Jewels. Those really added to the fun of making this card!
The background was fun, too. Now we really get into my favorite Autumn Colors and the SUO Challenge. Pumpkin Pie and Cajun Craze are my go-to and definitely favorite Autumn Colors in the Stampin' Up! Collection. To make the top background layer, I got out my Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and inked up the raised side of the folder with a Stamping Sponge and some Pumpkin Pie Ink. Then I ran a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock through the Sizzix Big Shot with the embossing folder and what a fun, almost spooky, look resulted! Note that this was the very first card I made for this multi-card swap. Once I saw it finished, I made one change, and that was to sponge not only the Pumpkin Pie layer, but also the brick wall textured layer. Boy, did that made a good difference!
Finally, I layered everything up, first on a layer of Cajun Craze Cardstock and then a layer of Pumpkin Pie Cardstock, before adding it all to a card base made up of Thick Very Vanilla Cardstock.
SOOO much fun! Here are the main products I used in this card. I do hope you'll think about buying one or two of them to help you with your own Halloween Cards! Just click on any of the icons below and you'll be whisked away to my very own Stampin' Up! store where you can purchase any of them!