Friday, October 25, 2013

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Halloween Cards with Graphics 45 Steampunk Line

About mid-September, I started to get an itch for fall and its holidays.  So I dug out a gift card I had yet to spend and headed off to the only paper crafting store left in  Seattle - Impress Stamps at the UVillage.  It was early, but they had gotten in some of the Graphics 45 Steampunk Halloween collection and I snagged several wonderful sheets.  I just love everything this company does - the colors are so rich and yummy!

One of the 12x12 sheets was actually a set of six, 4x6 "cards" and I wanted to do a set of cards with them.  I am not into the gory and violent side of Halloween - and I find this line to be a very sophisticated take, so it was really fun to work with!  I also played around with making my own 3-D embellishments, mostly using Cricut images from several Halloween cartridges.  I am still experimenting, but love making my own embellishments!  Mostly, though, I kept them simple, because I really loved the cards themselves and wanted to highlight them, not hide them under a bunch of layers and embellishments.

So, here is the set of 6 cards. I made these based on the cards "toppers" from this one sheet, as well as a couple other sheets from this line and and a couple others as well. There is a more complete list of supplies at the end of this post. I really had a blast playing around with these!



 
I love the Dazzles border down the left side!

 
It's hard to tell here, but I used glitter and other gel pens to highlight her hat, and Glossy Accents to cover the pendant at her neck.

 
The skeleton is stamped and heat embossed in white on black cardstock, then (somewhat) fussy-cut.  I love the little Dazzles spider hanging down from the web backing the potion embellishment!

 
I need to learn to take better photos - you can hardly see the Glossy Accents on the spiderweb, which really does make it stand out.  Also, the butterfly is actually a colored-in Dazzle, cut out and layered on top of the one printed on the card (I just matched the colors!)

 
Both the web in the corner and the cauldron embellishment come from Cricut images; the latter was layered and colored with micro-glitter.

 
Another Cricut image on the bottom; the corner piece was a miscellaneous embellishment from My Mind's Eye.  The ribbon was from a Recollections package.
 
 
Let's see, I used:
 
Graphics 45 Steampunk Halloween Collection as the card toppers and for the layering papers I used: Martha Stewart Halloween 6x6 mat pad, a 12x12 sheet of Pebbles (Tricks and Treats Collection), and some pages from the October section of Recollections' All Seasons 12x12 paper pad (from last year).
 
Most of the embellishments came from Cricut images (sorry, I didn't keep track of what came from where); also used: Jolee's Boutique, My Mind's Eye, Recollections, and Hot Off the Press (HOTP) Dazzles (can you tells I love those?!)
 
So now I am almost done with Halloween and getting ready to get out all the winter and Christmas stuff!  I had a LOT left from last year and have collected some things over the past year to add to it.  I see new lines coming out and wish I could find a way to afford another shopping trip.  Instead, I am entering lots of giveaways on blogs and FaceBook pages of my favorite brands and sites.  Who knows, maybe I'll win something!
 
Happy Haunting All!