Snarky Cat Autumn Tags

I didn't get the Stamper Anonymous Tim Holtz Snarky Cats Halloween stamp set until it was too late to make Halloween stamped projects so I adapted them for the autumn season. I love the snarky sayings and the weird looking cat.  Since I already had some leftover large tags cut out using a Little B die, all I had to do was stamp the images, sayings and color them in with water color pencils. The mushroom stamp came from another Tim Holtz stamp set. I spattered the resulting tags with gold and copper ink. Finally, I used a hand punch to pierce a hole in each tag and attach  fibrous yarn and ribbons. I made a bunch of these tags so I am ready to quickly tie them onto hostess gift baskets during the holiday season.  I hope the recipients appreciate the odd humor. LOL!  I already have a set of snarky cat Xmas Tim Holtz stamps....can't wait to ink them up!

 

Foxes and Autumn Leaves Card

Although I've never seen a fox in the wild, I do admire their sleekness,  agile movements and coloration.  It makes me sad to think of how many foxes were hunted by hounds and horse riders over the decades.  With all of this in mind, I designed this card for the fall season.  The fox images were from a Hero Arts bundle set which includes the dies.  The leaves and words were from a Pink and Main stamp and die set.  Pink and Main were also the makers of the 6x6 paper pack from which I cut the background for this card.  Using Copic pens I colored the three loose leaves and group of leaves with the FALL letters.  I tried to match the colors of the 6x6 paper and used color pencils here and there to enhance the shades.  The F-A-L-L letters were cut from copper colored foil which are a bit too shiny at some angles.  I'll choose a low sheen foil next time. Foam adhesives were placed under the three loose leaves and foxes to give more dimension to the card.  This is one of my favorite autumn cards and it makes me smile as I think of foxes playing in crisp falling leaves. Ah, Happy Fall to All!!

 

Honey Bottle Gift Tags

My husband and I support the Adopt a Beehive program on the Big Island.  We believe that bees are a necessary element to the agriculture industry, so we willingly donate to Adopt a Beehive and in return receive bottles of honey several times a year and have our name on one of the hives on the Hilo agriculture campus. I am so impressed with the quality of the honey that I dressed up some of the bottles to give away at upcoming events.

Since I just recently purchased a Hero Arts honeycomb design foiling plate for use with my Spellbinders foiling machine, I felt it was perfect for glamming up the honey bottle tags.  At first I was just going to hot foil the gold onto yellow card stock and then die cut the hexagon shape but then I thought the same idea would work on printed card stock. I chose some Pink and Main bee themed card stock from a 6x6 paper pad. The foil was applied easily and then the tags were die cut with the Spellbinders hexagon die.  Some Sticko bee stickers were applied to each tag. Then a small round paper punch was used on the top of each tag and raffia was attached. Some small squares of washi paper with fibers included were positioned on top of each bottle before the raffia with tags was tied to each one. A short message was written behind each tag.  I am pleased with the outcome of the decorated honey bottles and hope that the recipients will appreciate the hard work the bees did to produce the 'nectar of the gods'!

DID YOU KNOW?  Honey is the only food that needs no preservatives.  It was found in the tombs of the Egyptians still in edible condition!

Autumn Squirrel Card

I couldn't resist making a squirrel card again this fall because it is my grandson's favorite animal. ( He sleeps with 6 identical stuffed squirrels. They are not identical to him. They all have names and he can tell them apart!) Anyway, I worked hard on the backgrounds for these cards. I started by impressing the solid colored paper with the Sizzix texture folder.  Then I rubbed the surface with Inka Gold paste, sprayed it with Ranger Distress Mica, and applied Ranger Distress Pearl Crayons here and there.  I applied and rubbed and applied some more until I was satisfied with the look.  Next the squirrels and nuts were stamped with the three part stamps, layering one over the other.  I used the matching dies to cut them out.  The embossed panels were sized to fit the card blanks which were made from printed autumn themed 12x12 card stock.  The inside of the the top card has small leaves which will not distract from a message written inside so I think this card stock was a fortunate find.  The squirrels were adhered with foam dots.  The top card message was actually a tag that was cut to fit.  I really like the message. 

The background for the second card looks very different from the first but it was created in the same way....cool huh?  The William Blake quote was clipped from the edge of an Authentic paper.  It pays to save stuff that appeal to you. You never know when it will be useful and just what you need.

A SCARY SQUIRREL STORY:  Recently, while in Boston, I was waiting in a car when I spied a squirrel cutely wiping his face with his paws. I was about to go out and take a photo of the lovable grey animal when he got off his haunches and slithered away swishing his snake-like tail behind him. It was a RAT! This is my belated Halloween TAIL! LOL!
 

Double Treat Halloween Cards and Photos

Because this is Halloween, I thought I'd give you a double treat...two cards today and photos from Halloweens of my past.  First, this card was an easy peasy one because it only involved a background of printed jack-o-lanterns from an old pack of K and Company papers and a stamped, colored and fussy cut image of a sassy costumed lady (Art Impressions). A Lawn Fawn die was used to cut out the DCWV foil paper words in the background.  I stamped the words for the conversation bubble cut it out freehand and colored the edges. Everything was attached with foam dots or Fabri-Tac glue.  I enjoyed making this card because it reminded me of a Halloween that I remember with great fondness....baby's first Halloween! See the photo below...it'll make you smile!

Here is the second Halloween treat....a card with a sweet little boy dressed as dinosaur ready to eat a luscious candy apple.  It was basically made the same way as the cat lady Halloween card. The background paper was from my Halloween  paper scrap bag and the die for the words was made by Sizzix. The dinosaur boy image is from Yumi and Fumi (no longer in business?) and the candy apple is a Lawn Fawn stamp/die set.

I hope this card and the following photo make you smile and enjoy the special time that only Halloween can bring.  Don't miss out on the fun of trick-o-treating, dressing up, being spooky and eating candy! Please give out the good stuff... full sized candy bars! LOL!

Why are you smiling little boy?  Aren't you afraid of me?  Hahaha!  Happy Halloween!!!!

Halloween Tags Made from Used Scrap Foil

I've always been a 'waste not, want not'sort of person so when I was doing some foiling using the Heidi Swapp Minc system I was bothered by the foil leftover after it was used on some toner design cards. In my previous posts you can see the foiled designs that I used on Halloween cards.  When I saw that Pink and Main sold ombre toner cards created just for using up the usually discarded foil sheets that had the reverse image of the original toner cards, I immediately ordered some. They did work but the resulting cards did have some minor spots of missing foil so I used them to make some Halloween tags. The missing foil spots actually look spooky like cracks or spider webs. LOL! 

Basically, I just cut tags using Little B dies and added some fussy cut stamped images.  Copic pens were used for most of the coloring but for the tiny parts I used Click Art pens.

To add more fun to the tags, I attached some specialty yarns and Halloween buttons (from HM BFC). A cute, colorful tag can turn even a plain bag into an exciting goodie treat container. Next, I will be testing out some toner ink to see if I can stencil it onto plain and printed card stock so that I can create my own foiled toner cards. Please check back to see the results. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Happy Meow-lloween Card

For this card I used a Whimsy Toner Card and the Heidi Swapp foiling machine.  Because the toner cards are a bit boring (the background is a plain white), I decided that candy-corn-like colors applied  via the Distress Oxide sprays would help to liven up the foiled background.  The foiled candy corn repels the oxide colors so you could really apply any water based ink meant for porous paper. I think that the cats playing on the carved pumpkins are delightful even though they were a bit time consuming to fussy cut. Once mounted on foam dots, the cats playfully match with the heat embossed words, Happy Meow-lloween! I have a few more Halloween project to show you so please check back often for some ideas and inspiration.