Spooktacular!! ;D ;D

Hello there!! :)

I'm back again with a quick share- something I'd hoped to post yesterday but I think my inspired week caught up with me- that's the trouble with inspiration, my body can't keep up and so it's exhausting!!- and I spent all of yesterday feeling lousy and too ill to even think let alone think about writing a blog post, though I did finally feel upto managing to edit the pics ... typically, at about the time I should have been heading to bed!! lol Well, at least we had that extra hour – I put mine very good use (not!!) and slept through it…  ;)

So, onto the cards... now, I don't normally do Hallowe'en cards- in fact I think these are my first ever- but when the lovely Robin, Artist and Owner of Bows & Berries Digital Stamps Shop and the My Partner in Crafting Crime challenge, sent me a couple of digis from her fab Hallowe'en release I just knew I was going have to have a play... unfortunately, because of my aforementioned printer issues, it was kind of late in the day before I was able to, but I have managed to get a few cards made and in the post to friends!! :) Kinda had fun, too- you can let go a bit with creations for something fun like Hallowe'en, I think!! :)

These first two are using Robin's fab Silly Pumpkins- they are so fun, I love their grins!!lol I always print/stamp more than one of an image as I so often find I mess up the colouring somewhere along the line but both of these came out okay so I stamped a polka dot background straight onto two base cards- two different colours just for a bit of variety!- and embossed it... the powder didn't take brilliantly for some reason but I didn't worry too much as I knew I was going for a distressed look anyway, and then added a line of black Stickles for definition :)

I coloured with PMs- much like my pink and green card last week, a lot of these pens have probably never been used before but I'm thoroughly in experimentation mode with my PMs at the mo'- and loving it, even when the results aren't quite up to scratch, 'cause I'm still learning!! :) Then for the distressing... I often apply ink, then use my scissors or paper distresser, then add more ink (because of the white line you get just inside the edge if you distress first and the white fibres you can see if you distress second and don't apply more ink, iykwim), but this time, with two contrasting colours if ink pad sat open in front of me, I decided to try using the opposite colour the second time and, for this sort of fun card, I rather like the effect :) Oh, and I added the doodled spider's web (against all my better spider-fearing instincts!!lol) and little lines in the corners for interest... and promptly felt I'd ruined the whole thing... 'til I remembered I was going for distressed and rustic again... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!lol

Then I remembered I had printed off a couple of the gorgeous lil’ B&B 2 Cute 2 Spook ghostie, too, so thought I'd make a couple more quick little cards :) And they were very quick- dinky little 4" Sq. cards with a mat, tag for the printed greeting and bit of ink on the edges...

 ...and the little spook took no time to colour with just some pale grey shading and her cute little bow to worry about!! :) If you need anymore Hallowe'en cards, treat bags, decorations, etc. in a hurry for tomorrow, then I'd really recommend this digi!!lol

The List:

For the pumpkin cards:

• 6" sq.  Scalloped On The Edge white card blank
• Silly Pumpkins Digi image from Bows and Berries Digital Stamp Shop
• Coloured with Promarkers – hope you won't mind but, as I seem to have used a ridiculous number of pens and have recently finally got around to labeling the ends of them all, I have taken photo and will add this after the list to save my energy (and patience!) dictating, correcting and capitalising every single pen name in my voice software!! :S (The square one is a Spectrum Noir, and the clear capped one is a Copic Blender as I find the brush tips easier for blending out to white)
• Polka dot border stamp from Waltzing Mouse's Off Beat Background set
• Dusty Concord DI and ???  Big and Juicy ink pads
• Clear embossing powder and heat tool
• Black Diamond Stickles
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• Black and purple flat-backed pearls

For the little spook card:

• 4" sq.  White card blank
• 2 Cute 2 Spook Digi image from Bows and Berries Digital Stamp Shop
• Coloured with Promarkers – using colours I already had out from the pumpkins, pic above
• White card for matting
• Dusty Concorde DI
• Computer generated greeting
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• 3mm and 2mm gems

I'd like to enter these cards in the following challenges: Dream Valley – Anything Goes :) ; SweetStampin' – Anything Goes :) ; The Secret Crafter – Spooky or Whimsical :) ; Craft Your Days Away – Autumn/Fall :) ; Charisma Cards - Anything Goes :) ; Fab'n' Funky - Hubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble :) ; Divas By Design - Something Spooky :) ; My Mum's Craft Shop - Spooktackular :)

Well, thank you for stopping by today and for all your comments on all my posts last week- think I shall be taking it a bit slower on the posting (and actual crafting :( ) front for the next little while as I need a rest but will hopefully be back with my DT card for the next FF challenge on Thursday :) In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed my little bit of spooky fun today... and have a spooktacular night tomorrow!! ;D ;D