It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the queen of diecuts, the talented Laurie, to host this week and she has a timely clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

I haven't bought any new Halloween sets this year or any of the Spooky Night Designer Series Paper, so I had to get creative with existing (and a few retired) supplies coupled with a few stamps from some multi-occasion sets. I used the sketch over at Paper Craft Crew and the colours at Stamp Ink Paper and managed to create not one but two spooky Halloween-themed projects for you. The first one is my card - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Festive Phrases - I focused both of my projects today around the 'pick your potion' stamp in the Festive Phrases stamp set. I actually bought this set for the elf (who can resist him?!) however the other three stamps in this set will also get plenty of use for other festive occasions. It's difficult to se on my card, but having stamped the cauldron in black, I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder for a lovely added shine.

Add Colour - I used a couple of alcohol-based markers - one of my Pumpkin Pie Blendabilities and a! lime green Sharpie - to add colour to my project: I coloured the white dots green on my retired Halloween paper border, I coloured in the dots on the cauldron and then my favourite part on this card - I coloured a few White Perfect Accents with each colour and added them around my cauldron to look like potion bubbles. I love the shine that they have! I also stamped my sentiment again onto a piece of Lemon-Lime Twist cardstock and cut it with my banner punch add another pop of colour and finally a couple of diecut bats using the retired Halloween Scenes framelits for just the right amount of spooky!

Pick Your Potion - I decided that this card needed an accompanying treat that would fit with the 'pick your potion' theme, so whipped up a little test tube holder using a piece of cardstock and my Scalloped Tag Topper Punch to hold a pair of test tubes (love these!), one filled with a green potion and the other with an orange one. The Scalloped Tag Topper Punch was the perfect width and all I needed to do was punch a couple of 3/4" circle holes into the folded-over piece to slot my colourful potions into - here's my treat holder and card together:

I just love this pair of cute projects and they really didn't take long at all to put together; I'm definitely going to make a whole bunch of these in different colours ready for trick-or-treat time!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing your clean and simple creations in the gallery this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; we have been having unseasonably warm weather here in the UK these last couple of days - a good ten degrees warmer than usual. I'm sure it won't last so since we have a reasonably sport-free day, I'm hoping to get out and spend some time in the garden before the autumn chill returns. I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Festive Phrases Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Banner Triple Punch	Scalloped Tag Topper Punch	Treat Tubes
Lemon Lime Twist A4 Cardstock	White Perfect Accents	Lemon Lime Twist 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon	Basic Black Baker's Twine	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour combination for you:

It would be fair to say I struggled big time with these colours this week! I couldn't get away from the idea of Halloween, yet making them work was definitely a challenge! I ended up making two cards and I must confess I'm not completely happy with either of them! That said, I'm sharing my notelets with you anyway - here's the first one:

And here's the second one:

Both use a combination of the challenge colours and the Spooky Fun stamp set and co-ordinating Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies. The second one also includes a sentiment from the 'Suite Seasons' stamp set and a background created with the spots stamp in the 'Perpetual Calendar' set, along with a sentiment banner on each. Each would be quick and easy to create, although first time around they took me longer than I would have liked!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's colours; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Enjoy your day - we are off to Brick Live to play Lego all day, a James family passion! Hope you enjoy your day too and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Spooky Fun Photopolymer Bundle	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes	Perfect Plum A4 Cardstock	Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive A4 Cardstock
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Sunshine Sayings Clear-Mount Stamp Set
Rhinestone Basic Jewels	Silver Metallic Thread	Perpetual Birthday Calendar Photopolymer Stamp Set	Suite Seasons Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Another week and Tuesday already! The James Juniors are on their half-term holiday from school this week as are lots of other children in the area; I had a children's class today making fun Christmas crafts (you can read all about it on my Facebook page here - do give me a 'like' if you'd like to be kept up to date with events and photos). This week I have lots of Halloween fun for you, starting with some quick and easy cute packaging ideas for Halloween treats that are perfect for this week's TGIF Challenge:

I used some of the clear tiny treat boxes so that you could see the goodies inside and decorated with belly bands made from Halloween Night Designer Series Paper and black baker's twine. Here's the first one, a box of pumpkin chocolate balls decorated with a tag made using the Tags and Labels framelits and the Spooky Fun/Halloween Scenes bundle:

For my second box I created an eyeball tag using a 1 1/4" circle punch:

Well, what else for a box of eyeballs, right? In case you're wondering how I achieved the bloodshot look, it's actually really easy - I used the tips of the tree branches from the Sheltering tree stamp set:

Clever and rather effective, even if I say so myself! I love it when a set can be used for more than one thing.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

I'll be back tomorrow with more Halloween treats, so stay tuned. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Spooky Fun Photopolymer Bundle	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Clear Tiny Treat Boxes	Tags & Labels Framelits Dies
Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper	Basic Black Solid Baker's Twine	1-1/4" (3.2 Cm) Circle Punch	3/4" (1.9 Cm) Circle Punch	Sheltering Tree Photopolymer Stamp Set

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the super-talented Sandy to host this week and she has a great fall/Halloween-inspired colour palette for you to work with:

Having missed Claire's Halloween themed challenge last week, I decided to take Sandy's colours and use them for a fun Halloween card this week; take a look:

I also used this week's sketch over at The Paper Craft Crew's Challenge for my layout. Here's the low-down on today's card:

A Halloween Scene - I used my Spooky Fun stamp set and co-ordinating Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies to create the spooky scene on my card. I used my Layered Circle Framelits to cut a Whisper White circle for my oversize moon, then used the spooky tree and witch framelits to give my scene structure. I just love that tree - it reminds me of the whomping willow in the Harry Potter books!

A Wicked Witch - I decided to use the green on my card for the sentiment banner and the witch - after all, aren't all wicked witches green?! I stamped it in black on to Wild Wasabi cardstock and then coloured in some of the detail with my black Stampin' Write marker.

Background Detail - I used the wash stamp in the Perpetual Calendar stamp set for the orange detail on my card base beneath my strip of Halloween Nights designer series paper and added in a couple of spooky fun bats, some sequins and silver metallic thread to complete my card.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's colours. 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies	Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper	Perpetual Birthday Calendar Photopolymer Stamp Set	Silver Metallic Thread	Whisper White A4 Cardstock
Metallics Sequin Assortment	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Many Marvelous Markers	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad
Wild Wasabi A4 Cardstock

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has a great clean and simple theme for you to work with:

I toyed with some time about my card this week: pumpkins, apples, acorns - what to choose? I browsed through my new goodies and when I happened across this pumpkin patterned DSP hidden away in the Halloween Night Specialty pack, I knew what I wanted to do. I also used this week's sketch over at Pals Paper Arts for my layout today. Here's what I came up with:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Not Just for Halloween - Whilst many of the papers in the Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper Pack are overtly Halloween-inspired, this pattern of watercoloured pumpkins can also be used on more general Fall projects, as can the spotted paper I used for my banner and the stripes and checked patterns in the pack. This paper became the starting point for my card.

Spooky Pumpkin Fun - My layered square was the perfect place for my sentiment from the 'Spooky Fun' stamp set, along with a popped up trio of pumpkins, coloured with my Pumpkin Pie ink and a blender pen and cut out with the co-ordinating Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies.

Festive Fall Colours - The colour scheme for today's card comes straight from the Halloween Night DSP: the warm orange tones of Pumpkin Pie, contrasted with Basic Black, Whisper White and Smoky Slate. More Halloween than Fall granted, but by emphasising the warmth of the orange, I think it works. Feel free to save this colour combination if it's one you'd like to try:

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's CAS challenge. We have a day of sport and birthday parties today - we are most certainly back into the swing of things as far as the new school term is concerned!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper	Spooky Fun Photopolymer Bundle	Halloween Night Enamel Dots	Layering Squares Framelits Dies	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock
Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Blender Pens	Banner Triple Punch	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad