The Write Stuff

Archive for October, 2016

Welcome to the October Blog Hop for Serendipity Stamps! If you arrived here from Jeanne’s blog, you’re in the right place..if not, you may want to head over there first.

The Prize – One $20 gift code will go to one random commenter from the blogs. So be sure  to visit all the blogs because you don’t know which one the winner will be drawn from. You have through Sunday October 23 to leave comments on the blogs for a chance to win. Mary will  announce a winner on October 24. The sale this week will be free shipping on US orders of $25 or more good Wed the 19th through Sunday the 23rd.  There’s no coupon code  required.   Each month a different image is 50% off. This month- it’s the  Pumpkin Border.  On the third Wednesday of every month., we’ll be celebrating with a Blog Hop!  For another chance to win,  be sure to play along with our monthly challenge. You can get all the details on the challenge HERE.

This is also for the Splitcoast Featured Stamper, Bev! I chose THIS card to case, keeping the Christmas theme & layout, but I used different images, water colored my image & used a die cut greeting. For my card, I used this beautiful Poinsettia. I just love poinsettias & I can’t wait for the stores to get them in for Christmas. This image just said “water color” to me but instead of using my usual pan w/c, I used Brushos water color crystals. I sprinkled a few reds & greens on a blank palette then added water & painted w/ them as if they were pan w/c. Since this is a large image, I was pretty sure I was going to have to use my out of the box technique w/ the chosen die. I’ve shown this technique before, but a dear friend of mine, Kittie Caracciolo, who works w/ dies like you wouldn’t believe, mentioned that she just doesn’t “get” the out of the box. So here it is again 🙂 Once you understand the principal, it’s pretty easy. And it’s probably my most used & favorite technique. You can click the green link above for the original tutorial & you can also click any of these pictures to enlarge them.

The reason I didn’t fully cut out the little branches before die cutting is because they are so fragile & it’s easy to break them off. After die cutting, I’ll fully trim them out.

The most important thing to remember is that anything that falls out of the box, must be lifted above the die or else it will be cut off.

Here’s a look at the inside.

Please be sure to comment on all the DT blogs. It will be much appreciated & will also increase your chances of winning! 

Mary’s Blog

Karen Amidon

Marybeth Lopez

Miriam Napier

Patti Kehl

Carol Mayne

Vickie Zimmer

Jeanne Jachna

Julie Warner (you are here!)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

 

Poinsettia Lg 673K	Celebrate die 037ED	Season’s Greetings die 068FD	VersaFine Small Inkpads
MISTI	Brushos Water Color Crystals	Staples 110# White Card Stock	Water Color Paper
The Paper Cut Layering Swatches	MFT Diagonal Stitched Rectangle dies	Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics A S5-131	Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics B S5-132

Today’s Color Challenge (CC605) on Splitcoaststampers, is a collection of wonderful fall colors w/ the dessert of using a leaf or two.

I used a bunch of left over pieces of white linen & plain white card stock. On the small linen rectangle, I used a rainbow pad (that happened to have the right colors) to ink the greeting (sneak peek of a new item!) & stamped it. I used the same ink pad to brayer the partial panel on the left & the large frame bg then arranged all the panels together. I die cut the solid leaves out of more brayered bg & the vein overlay out of more white linen. All in all, pretty quick..especially for me!

Here’s the inside w/ another new greeting to be released soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

 

Wheat Give Thanks 1017H	Thanksgiving Psalm 985H	MFT Layered Leaves dies	Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics A S5-131
Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics B S5-132	Stitched Rectangles Die Set	Staples 110# White Card Stock	Neenah Linen cardstock
Kaliedacolor ink pads	Ranger brayer

 
Today’s Clean & Simple Challenge (CAS399) asks us to spook out the gallery w/ a Halloween card. I think these Zombie images are pretty darn spooky! And fitting..since they film The Walking Dead in my area. So far, I’m just not seeing a way out for those non-zombie folks. But it does remind me of a joke I read…”if the zombie apocalypse ever happens, I’m going to Costco..they have concrete walls, years of supplies & you have to have a membership card to get in”. Yep..that’s where I’m heading!

I picture  these zombies as kind of greenish gray so that’s how I colored this Zombie Gal. Since the background is also a shadowy gray, I wanted some color so I added the orange to her shirt & the spooky moon (which was stamped separately & fussy cut). The bg was sponged in using the pumice ink & a cloud stencil I made using a piece of acetate (from a piece of packaging) & a pair of scallop scissors. I made it out of the plastic because I wanted it to hold up & also so I could wipe it off. Since it was made years ago, so far, so good! I used the same ink to stamp the grass. 

Here’s a look at the inside & below it are the Copics I used.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

Zombie Gal 922H	Zombie Sign 959F	Silhouette Graveyard 579H	RIP Tombstone 570B
Accent Bats 517A	Fall Fence 176M	Batty Halloween Greeting 548G	Easy Grass Bg 059E
Staples 110# white card stock	MISTI	Memento Inks	Recollections Cardstock
Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics B S5-132	Copic Sketch Markers	Stitched Rectangles Die Set	VersaFine Small Inkpads
Distress Inks	Micron pens