Happy Halloween

I love Halloween and nobody knows that better than Karen and Dana.  I wanted to make them a special card to say Happy Halloween and also a BIG thank you for all they do for me.  One of the best things they do is add my name to my card photos - for some reason I cannot do that!  Now, as you can imagine I couldn't send them this one for editing so attempted it myself.  Apart from my missing name I think I did okay :)
 
This cute little image is from the set called Pumpkins on the Vine from There She Goes.  

I stamped her in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored her with copics.  The sentiment is from Stamping Bella.  I added some glitter with my Stardust glitter pen to her sweet hat and several coats of clear glaze pen to the little pumpkin she's holding.  The layout is MFTWSC43 - I loved this layout!  The pattern paper is Cosmo Cricket Matilda and SU Basic Black, Old Olive and More Mustard.  The spiderweb border punch is from Martha Stewart.  I sewed the edges and you will notice they are relatively straight.....this was before my stamping night went downhill but that's a blog post and photo (!) for another day.

Happy Halloween!

Cheerio.....Leslie

Halloween treats

This is a very quick post with some super sweet little treat favours I made.  I took a bunch for my co-workers this week and last night took some for every one's place setting when we went out for dinner with friends. 

I can't take credit for either of these brilliant ideas though!  The hat is from this blog post and the little EEK package is two Hershey chocolate nuggets (mmmm).  The tutorial is here.  Angie has the best little gift ideas and does great tutorials!  The hat was made with retired SU Halloween paper rolled into a cone shape and a circle for the base punched out of Basic Black cardstock.  The nugget holder was exactly the same papers.  I stamped some address labels with a stamp from It's a Wrap Holidays set (SU Holiday Mini) in Cajan Craze ink to match the paper and wrapped them around the nuggets.  I punched two scallop circles and just wrapped them around the two nuggets and tied it up with a bit of ribbon. 

I love making little treats as table (or desk) favours and these were super easy!

Cheerio.....Leslie

Bellariffic Friday - Stripes

Finally Friday and not a moment too soon!  This week's theme for Bellariffic Friday was "stripes" and seeing as it's Halloween in a few days I squeaked in one last Halloween card.  I think my most favourite technique is brayering and after choosing the owls as my image, I knew exactly how I'd make this card.  Am I allowed to say, I just LOVE how this turned out?! :)

I started with a piece of SU glossy paper and brayered some SU Delightful Daffodil across it.  Then I made a mask of the moon with my circle punch.  I brayered another layer of Delightful Daffodil then a couple more layers of SU More Mustard.  That's when the "happy mistake" happened!  Apparently my mask had moved and I was left with a slight moon shadow.  I couldn't have planned that better :)  I sponged some SU Pumpkin Pie around the top edge and the moon.  Then I stamped Branching Out Owlies in black StazOn and coloured in the branch with a black sharpie.  The striped paper is from my Apothecary Emporium pad by Echo Park.  I used a scallop border die and added some black rhinestones to it.  The BOO sentiment flag seemed a bit bare, so I added a black button from my stash and then tied a little bow with striped black twine.  Have a great weekend and a Happy Halloween!

Cheerio.....Leslie

Thank you Taiba - MFTWSC43

It's been a month since my last MFTWSC and I had to fix that!  Our resident is nearing the end of her rotation with us and I wanted to make her a thank you card.  The PI Girl Doctor was perfect for this week's MFTWSC43 .

I stamped Girl Doctor in Mememto Tuxedo Black ink and coloured her with copics.

The pattern paper is MME Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky and the solid paper is SU Old Olive, Baja Breeze and Rich Razzleberry.  The sentiment is from Worlds Best Doctor - keeping it all medical :)  - and I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to position it perfectly in the circle.  I used SU Perfect Polkadots for the embossed background and added a piece of Old Olive ribbon over the Simply Scallops Die-namic border.

Taiba is a skilled doctor and when not in her scrubs has the cutest clothes and accessories so I had to add some bling to her lab coat and a little glitter to her hair clip!

Thank you Taiba for your wonderful care of our patients - we will miss you!

Cheerio.....Leslie

Sweet Sunday Sketch - Clean and Simple

Karen's sketch today for SSSC140 really threw me for a loop but after looking at all the Sweet Sunday Stampers cards I knew I had to give it a try.  I kept it very clean and simple and am really pleased with how it turned out.  I can see myself using this layout again - and I sure didn't think that when I first saw it  :-)

The base card is SU Peach Parfait and the little coloured squares (SU Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait, Lovely Lilac, Green Galore) were cut out with my tiny square nestie and I know what Dana's talking about now!  The little flower from Just Bugz by OCL was stamped in the same colour ink as the cardstock square and I finished it with a colour coordinated dot in the centre.  The white piece was run through SU Perfect Polkadots embossing folder and I wrapped a piece of SU Peach Parfait around it.  Then I just popped up all the little squares on dimensionals.  The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms, Mona Lisa Moments.  It's a CAS card = clean and simple!  

Cheerio.....Leslie

Bellariffic Friday - Ebru's sketch

It's time for another Bellariffic Friday.  This week it's a cute sketch from BellaBabe Ebru and I really 'tweaked' it!  I used the mirror image and rotated it once - that way my snowflake was in the perfect position for the little circle thing-a-ma-jig on Ebru's sketch!

I stamped Peeptini from Stamping Bella , coloured her with copics and added just a touch of sparkle to her dress.

The pattern paper is MME 12 Days of Christmas and the solid cardstock is SU Real Red and Garden Green.  I used some wide red grosgrain ribbon with a couple of strands of red baker's twine on top.  I love the swiss dots embossing folder for a subtle background.  The swizzle stick needed a festive touch so I covered the olive with a tiny red snowflake and red Bonbon.  Now the drink was supposed to be Blue Curacao but when I added a layer of crystal effects it turned into Creme de Menthe :)

And that's another Christmas card done - thanks for the great sketch Ebru!

Cheerio.....Leslie

Bellariffic Friday - Halloween

It's Bellariffic Friday!  I'll confess, I almost didn't make it this week (which is shocking as I LOVE Halloween) but my friend Dana "encouraged" me and I turned it into a timed challenge for myself!  I only had one hour before bedtime and here's what I made.

I stamped Stella and her Broomstick in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured her with copics.  There really wasn't much to colour but I sure used a lot of copics!

The paper is Echo Park Happy Halloween from an old TE Key Ingredients Kit.  I used Martha Stewart's spiderweb punch for the border and some Tiny Twinkles beside the sentiment BOO!  The BOO sentiment is outlined with my black glaze pen to give it a bit more pop.  I used one of my "go to" favs when I'm in a hurry for the layout.  I cut out an extra broom and paper pieced it so it hung over the edge.  A few coats of black glaze pen on her hat and some glitter on her collar and hem, 'cause even witches have to have a bit of bling.  I did a little paper piercing in the bottom corners.  Some shiny lipstick courtesy of my clear glaze pen and she's ready to go, although she doesn't really look like she's in any hurry, does she?!

Cheerio.....Leslie

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is out enjoying this glorious weather - it's like summer again and for that I'm very thankful!  Today's card is one I made at Mary Jane's cottage last month.

Every September, six of us head up to her cottage for a weekend.  There is lots of stamping, LOTS of food and lots of laughs!  In the past years, I have planned all the stamping projects but this year her two daughters, Lindsay Anne and Sarah Jane designed some of the projects and was great to have help.  Here is a card designed by Sarah Jane - she made it a step up card which was cool because I've seen lots of them but never made one.  The image is called Pumpkins on the Vine and it's by There She Goes stamps.  The pattern paper is MME and the solid paper is from SU as is the Kiwi Kiss ribbon.  I stamped it with Tuxedo Memento Black ink and coloured it with copics.  I did a little 'faux' shine on her shoes and then gave them a coat of black glaze pen.

I am thankful for many things today - Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Cheerio.....Leslie

The Sweet Sunday that almost wasn't!

This week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge SSSC137 was easy for me.  I knew immediately I'd flip the sketch horizontally and started working on my image.  It all went downhill from there!  Seriously, this card had so many mistakes I almost gave up...but...a true crafter perseveres and here's what I ended up with.

This adorable image is from There She Goes and the set is called Wonderful Winter Wishes.  I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured it with copics.

I coloured the big girl's mitten red but smeared it a bit on her sleeve.  No problem, I'll use my 0 copic to 'erase' it.  Nope, not working, made it worse.  No problem.  I'll paper piece her coat.  Nope, cut off her hand by mistake.  No problem, I'll stamp another set of hands and paper piece them on.  Easier said than done - I should have taken a photo of the underneath of those girls!  Thankfully the rest of the card came together very easily.  The cardstock is SU Garden Green, Real Red and some retired SU pattern paper.  The circles and lacey circle are Nestabilities and I used the Perfect Polkadots embossing folder from SU on the white circle and sponged the edges.  MFT Simply Scallops Die-namics finished off the bottom border.

It took much longer than I thought to make this card because of all my "problems" but it seems to have turned out okay in the end :)

Cheerio.....Leslie