BOO! An Artiste Halloween Card

Ahhhh...it' so nice and cool out today!  A wonderful breeze coming in through the window and I had a whole day to myself in my craft room!  And even better than that, my hubby is making homemade pizzas for dinner as I type this!  yum!!

So with the cooler weather - and I am enjoying this as much as I can because I know it will be hot again - I am back in the Halloween mood!  I have been working on Halloween cards and home dec projects all day.

Here's the first card ~

The card base is from the Artiste cartridge. It is found under Accent 4, shift, button 48.  I sized the card at 5 1/2" in height and it came out to just about 4" in width.  I found an oval on the Artiste cartridge as well (Accent 2, button 6) and sized it in CCR to fit perfectly over the center of the card base.  I'm not sure who makes the striped paper I used - it was a 12 x 12 stack, but the cover had come off.  The cute ghost is from Paper Doll Dress Up and was cut at 3 1/2".  I used a black gel pen to go over the little cuts on the ghost to make his face.  I also stamped two black bats from the Creepy Creatures stamp set with black ink and inked the edges of the oval as well.

I cut the same oval I used on the card front, but this time in white for the inside.  Boo! is cut from the Artiste cartridge at 1".  It is found under Basic, shift, button 47.  I used the bats again and the little rat from the Creepy Creatures stamp set.

Super simple and, I think, super cute!!  I hope you're all having a fabulous day!  Back to work for me tomorrow.  I'm so thankful I was able to take advantage of today.  Have a great week!!

September Specials!
You are My Happy - National Stamping Month
Poster Tidings - Stamp of the Month

Halloween Rosette Wreath

This is my last day of Halloween week - well, until the fall!

Today's project is a rosette wreath.  I just love these!

The basic idea of this wreath I found on Pinterest and it let me to this great tutorial.

I used various Halloween papers that I picked up last year to make the rosettes.

I used hot glue to attach them to a cardboard circle I cut from a shipping box.

I added googly eyes for the centers of the small rosettes.

And for the large rosettes, I added a circle cut from black cardstock.  Then I found a bag of spider rings I bought at the Dollar Tree last year.  I snipped the ring part off the back with my scissors and hot glued them to the circles of the large rosettes.

I found some Halloween ribbon I had, cut a length to make a loop for hanging and hot glued the ends to the back of the wreath.

Hope you enjoyed today's project!  I'll be back next week with Christmas projects each day.  Have a wonderful weekend!!

Pinterest Inspired Halloween canvas

Hi friends,

Short and sweet today.  I'm crazy busy with work and we have family night at camp tonight  :)

This canvas was inspired by Pinterest:

This is a 7 x 14 canvas I bought at Walmart in a set of 2 for around $5.00.  I used orange acrylic paint and covered the whole thing and let dry.

The witch is cut from Autumn Celebrations cricut cart and is sized at 3.347 and the font is from the Artiste cart sized at 1.125.  I used black cardstock and CCR to get the perfect sizes for what I wanted on my canvas.  I adhered the cuts with a  quick dry liquid glue and then sealed it all with Mod Podge.

I have one more Halloween project for tomorrow and next week will be my Christmas in July with a Christmas project each day!

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!!

Magic Potions Cupcake Toppers

Welcome Friends!  I'm always looking for ways to dress up treats.  Since we can't bring homemade treats into school I like to at least make the store bought stuff look good!

So today in the theme of Halloween, I have some cupcake toppers to share

These were made with the Magic Potions stamp set that coordinates with the cricut Artiste cartridge.

What I love about these sets is that it says right on the stamp set what page to find your image and what size to cut it to be the perfect size for the stamp.

I cut the size stated on the stamp set with kraft cardstock and used black ink for stamping the image.  I then used slate ink to go around the edges.  I think this is my must have color, I find myself using it in almost every project!  

I also cut 2 of the images a quarter of an inch larger in black cardstock.  I adhered the stamped kraft image onto one of the black cut with foam tape.

Then I used a quick adhesive liquid glue to attach a craft stick to the back, put foam tape on either side for support and attached the second black cut out.

I also cut these cute cupcake wraps with the Artiste cartridge as well.

I wish I had a cupcake to put it all together, but that will have to wait for another day....when it's cooler!  They say the heat index is around 100 degrees and with no air conditioning - no oven!!  LOL

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Halloween Bat card

Good Morning Friends!  Another day, another Halloween project for this week!

Today I created a fun bat card using the Cricut Artiste cartridge.

This cut is found on page 76 of the handbook under the card feature.  The card was cut in black cardstock at 4.75 inches.  Eek! was cut from the same button as the card with no feature.  I used whisper cardstock and cut it at 1 inch.

The card cut doesn't come with a layer option so I cut a second card at 4.5 inches with slate cardstock.  I cut the wings off, centered and adhered the pieces together.  I  added a couple of red pearls for the eyes and the happy halloween stamp comes from an inkadinkado set I picked up at Michaels last year.

What I really love about this card is that you can size it to fit a candy bar and use as a treat holder instead of just a card.  These are great for Kit Kats or Hershey bars, or could hold a gift card also!

Hope you enjoyed today's project!  Have a wonderful day!

Beware of things that go bump in the night

Hello friends!  I'm just going to call this my Halloween week!  Today I have a wall hanging to share with you.

The wall hanging is made of sturdy chipboard sized 10 3/4 x 6.  I painted it black with some acrylic paint.  While that was drying I cut out my words and shapes with CCR.  'Beware' is cut from October 31st cartridge sized at 1.917. 'of things that go' is cut using the spooky font on Happy Hauntings sized at 1.042.  'Bump in the night' is cut from the Bump In The Night cartridge sized at 2.806.  All were cut with orange cardstock.

The ghost is cut from A Frightful Affair sized at 4.528.  I used a light gray cardstock from Recollections pack  'Citrus Blend' and inked the edges with slate ink from CTMH.

I adhered all the cuts with a liquid glue and then used Mod Podge over the whole thing to seal it.

I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes at the  top and add black eyelets.  Then I strung a black satin ribbon through and knotted it on the back to hold it in place for a hanger.

I hope you enjoyed today's project!  Have a great day!!

Halloween Coffin Treat Box

Hello friends!  Once I started Halloween, I couldn't stop!  Doesn't hurt that my Close to my Heart order came Friday with Halloween stamps!  I'll have some projects coming soon using them!  They will be available Aug 1st for purchase out of the new catalog!!

For today, I went back to the Cricut Artiste cartridge to make another coffin treat box. I love these!!!

For this one I used black cardstock and sponged around the edges with white ink.  The box was cut at the suggested size, 7 1/2". I used CCR so there are some unusual sizes for the rest of the cuts because I sized them to fit my project. The moon is a circle cut from George and Basic shapes at 1.417 and I lightly sponged the edge with slate ink.  The bat is cut from A Frightful Affair at 1.264, sponged lightly with white ink and adhered with foam tape for dimension.

The grass is just green paper that is torn and inked with Tim Holtz Peeled Paint distress ink.  I layered the pieces and only adhered the bottom so I could slip the tombstones behind.  The tombstones are cut from Life's A Party at 1" in slate cardstock and inked with slate ink.  I used a black gel pen to write in RIP.  And finally the fence is cut from Paper Doll Dress Up, sized 1.236 out of slate cardstock.  When this fence cuts there are a lot of little lines that cut to show the aging of the fence - for lack of a better term.  But they aren't seen unless you highlight them somehow, so I went over all the little cuts in the fence with my black gel pen and then lightly inked with slate ink to soften it up a little.

I have read a lot of posts that people don't like to use CCR but I have never had the Design Studio software or a Gypsy so I really love using it.  And what I love the best is that I can save all these files to my computer so when Halloween finally comes around I can have my son pick the one he likes the best and just start cutting.  All the work I did designing and sizing is already done.

Hope you enjoyed today's project!

Here are links to the July specials & deals:
Work the workshop special - 50% off
Let's Get Patriotic stamp special
July Stamp of the Month, Sweet Life
While supplies last - great deals!

A Halloween treat box

Hey everyone!  So I know a lot of crafters are doing Christmas in July and I LOVE Christmas and I love seeing all the projects early to get ideas.....

But I'm not in the Christmas spirit yet. And for me it makes sense to get a start on Halloween before Christmas because we really do a lot for Halloween in our house.  Then I figure by the time October rolls around I'll be more ready to work on Christmas.  Especially if we have one of those years where we have snow in October.  Once the snow hits, I'm in full Christmas mode!

So, I'll be starting to mix in some Halloween projects here and there with the rest of my projects and today's was inspired by flipping through and playing with the Cricut Artiste cartridge some more. I absolutely love this cartridge!  There are so many great images and I especially love all the 3-D projects it has on it.  The Art Philosophy cartridge is on it's way - and actually should be here today if the Fed Ex estimated tracking is accurate.  These are both exclusive to Close to my Heart and you can get yours by clicking on the link to my CTMH shop.  There's also a BRAND NEW cartridge that will be available Aug 1 called Artbooking an this one looks just as amazing as the other two - but more on that later.

For now, let's get back to my project.  So I flipped through the booklet for the Artiste cartridge and I found a coffin treat box for Halloween - how great is that!!

What's really great about these booklets too, is that they have added the size you should use for best results on these 3-D projects, taking all the guesswork and wasted paper out of it!  The coffin box and lid are found on page 76 under the 3-D object button, sized at 7 1/2 inches.

I used Slate cardstock and after I assembled the box and lid I inked around the edges with Slate ink. The web is from Creative Memories This & That cricut cartridge.  I used the Cricut Craft Room to design this and the web is sized at 2.639 an then I trimmed off the edges a bit.  The spider is from the October 31st seasonal cartridge and it is sized at 1.25 inches.  I also covered the spider with glossy accents and drew in a line with a black gel pen.

Don't forget about our July specials, Work the Workshop for 50% off with no qualifying purchase required and the stamp of the month Sweet Life for only $5.00 with a $50.00 purchase!

I hope you enjoyed today's project!  Have a great day!!!