Nevermore...

In celebration of Halloween, Edgar Allan Poe, and a lot of spooky fun, I wish you all a Happy and a Safe Halloween!

A Witch's Hat

Remember the poem, "I'm a mean old witch with my hat..."? Well, in the Close to My Heart (CTMH) catalog, there is the cutest witch's hat. Fortunately, for all of us that wanted to make one, CTMH kindly published the instructions here.

However, as with many projects, sometimes what looks simple enough really isn't. That was my experience with this hat. My challenge was the CONE!

I followed the instructions. I glued two sheets of patterned paper to two sheets of cardstock. I taped them together. I started to roll from the corner. And my cone was hideous and I couldn't figure out how to even off the bottom and I had a little kindergarten meltdown. Sooooo, I went to bed.

The next day, I watched a couple of YouTube videos on making cones and after work, I tried the cone again, this time with a little help from my very patient husband. We ditched the two sheets of patterned paper and went down to just one sheet of patterned paper adhered to a sheet of cardstock. Rather than just winging it, we created our own even pattern using a pencil and string. Tie the string to your pencil, hold one end of the string tightly at the corner of the paper and draw from the top corner to the other, keeping the string tight. Here is a little video clip of my husband drawing it out.




Once we had the pattern, I cut it out and rolled it into a perfect cone. And then, the rest all came together. The cricut cuts as seen here are still the correct size, I just used three cupcake liners instead of four.

Because I will be making these with my stamp club tonight, I needed to mass produce enough for ten so I simplified a bit and improvised on some of the products. I used black, thistle and slate cardstock, the Scaredy Cat paper packet, Geometric Backgrounds (but any background stamp would work), and black ink.

Rather than using patterned paper for the banners, I used thistle cardstock and then stamped it and sponged the edges.

All in all, I think it turned out pretty great. We'll see if the lovely ladies coming to my stamp club tonight to make their own will agree. And hopefully, if you want to make one of your own, I've saved you a cone meltdown as well.

Halloween is only a week away! Happy Halloween!

One last VW card

Okay, one last VW card and then I will give it a rest (for a while--I really am in love with this cricut cut).

I used the 2" cars again and this time, I did use the shadow background on the Cricut Artfully Sent cartridge.

It's a Herbie the Love Bug race! (Again, please google this if you are too young to know who Herbie the Love Bug is).

Happy Scrapping and Paper Crafting!

A Halloween VW Card

Ahhh, Halloween approaches. Fall is in the air. My Halloween decor is up. Time to create a Halloween card.

It starts out fairly simple, boring almost, but then...

You open it up and there is a VW Halloween party inside!

It's a pop up card! The Cricut Artfully Sent cartridge is fabulous for making pop up cards. I've just been so busy cutting VW bugs that I failed to actually use the pop up feature on the same key (until now). The Frightfully Fun stamps and the Trick or Treat Sweet stamps had the perfect little characters for this card.

Don't you want to go trick or treating with this bunch?

October Stamp of the Month

I take a break in the VW series to share a little October Stamp of the Month happiness. I know, I know--it's October! We are thinking Halloween and Fall. But Christmas is not far away. Why not get a jump on your holiday cards this month? Only $5.00 with a $50 purchase or $17.95 all by its lonesome. Go here to see more.

Baby VW's!

More VWs! And this time, teeny tiny baby ones!

Remember this guide? This time I used the 2" VW. I love it's tiny size!!!! It is perfect for a 3x3" card.

I thought these would be so cute for baby cards. And the Artfully Sent cartridge comes with three stamp sets, one of which includes several sentiments, including these I used inside. 

Congratulations is a separate stamp so that it can be used with several different sayings to fit your occasion.

And on we go. But again, stay tuned because I don't think I'm quite done with the VWs!

More VW's!

I promised more VW cards and I am delivering on that promise. I love that Artfully Sent cartridge.

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. He is a VW fan. He has never owned a bug but he has owned a couple of VW buses and a Karmann Ghia. But hey, it's still appropriate. So this card was for him.

Anyone else remember Herbie the Love Bug? If you are too young to remember, you should google it. 

To get the word celebrate, I saved the letters from another cut out on the 7 key.

I am so enabling you to hoard paper scraps. 

I really do think this card is pretty darn cute. My husband's birthday is shared by a little guy named Rhett who asked for 999 cards for his 9th birthday. I made a duplicate to send to him as well. His birthday's over, but I bet he'd still love a card from you. 

Stay tuned because the VW's are not done! There will be more to come. See you soon.

Simply Inspired Blog Hop--Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge

I love participating in this blog hop. I hope you enjoy the inspiration you receive here as well. If you just arrived here from the generous and talented Michelle Snyder's blog you are on the right track. It's one big loop so if you do get mixed up, you can go here to see all the participants and links to their blogs.

We are celebrating the release of the new Close to My Heart Cricut cartridge, Artfully Sent. Jam packed with images, this one is dedicated to card making. Pop ups, scene cards, fancy folds, etc. there are so many options.

When I got my cartridge, I spent some time browsing the book. I always wanted a Volkswagen bug (still do) so I fell in love with the love bug image on the N key.

 I experimented with different sizes. Each key is pre-designed to cut for a 5x7 card. I wanted a standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card so I played a bit with the sizing. Here's a little guide--these bugs range from 1/2 inch up to 5 inches, increasing in 1/2 inch increments.  The card I made has a 4" beetle.

This VW is perfect with the Wanderful paper and complements. I love this saying from the World Traveler stamp set. And the black arrow washi--ahhh, I love it when products coordinate so well together. 

There is a shadow image of the VW that you can place behind the cut out but for my purposes I preferred to cut another image from glacier cardstock and put the windshield, etc. in place to make my black bug pop. And I sanded my black image just a tad to give it a vintage beetle look.

I had a lot of fun with this particular key so stay tuned for more VW bugs. But now, on to the lovely Lynn Como's blog. Enjoy!

Happy Belated World Card Making Day

World Card Making Day was yesterday. And yes, I was making cards for an upcoming blog hop. But I won't be revealing those today. Instead, I wish you a Happy Belated World Card Making Day and feature a lovely card given to me by Renae Fennema. So cute.