Happy Halloween Birthday

I have a very good friend whose birthday is tomorrow, unfortunately she won't get her card until the day after. I really need some belated birthday stamps! I don't think I've gotten one ready on time in months ... maybe years.

I received an October prize package full of Halloween confetti that was the inspiration for this card. I've been picking up and rescuing little plastic spiders, spider webs and circles all month because they were too cute to lose! Most of them were saved for this year, but I had to make shaker card for now. I wish I'd chosen better colors for the cat's body, but it's still cute.

Stamps: Haunting Halloween and Hugs and Wishes. Cardstock: Basic Black, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White. Ink: Black Stazon, Basic Grey. Other: Stampin' Up Markers and Scalloped Border Punch. Non-Stampin' Up Twinkling H20s, Acetate, Halloween confetti, and 1/8" foam adhesive strips.

Happy Birthday Stampin' Up!

I'm still suffering from major stamper's block. I'm hoping that "forcing" myself to stamp a little every day will help clear it up. I really do love to stamp, but get so frustrated with myself sometimes! Thank goodness for new rubber and card sketches!

This layout was from Stamper's Showcase (a Stampin' Up feature just for demonstrators) several months ago, I've used it several different times with varying colors, designer paper and stamps. It's a great basic layout! The stamp is from Crazy for Cupcakes, which I just got. It's stamped with Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder. I colored it with Copic Markers and Liquid Metal. The cherries are "Candy Corn" Stickles. I used Whisper White, Ruby Red and Not Quite Navy cardstock, the designer paper is Not Quite Navy from the Patterns hostess pack in the current Stampin' Up catalog.

This year is Stampin' Up's 20th anniversary. We're celebrating by giving YOU the presents. There are only a few days left in this sale, it ends Friday. Until then, if you spend $20 on any stamps or other supplies, you can purchase on seven different birthday stamp sets at 20% off. Check out the Stampin' Up website or contact me for details.

Also, there's a super special for hostesses through November 30th. Hostess a $350 workshop and receive your choice of any one stamp set from the fall and winter catalog sampler in addition to regular hostess benefits. When is a good date for you?

Twinkling Halloween

If any of you know of any cures for Stampers' Block, please let me know, because I've had a terrible case of it!!! I pick up my stamps, inks, paints, paper and tools and can't figure out a thing to do with them. It's very frustrating! So I'm looking for ideas on how to get over it. Please let me know any you have!

I did manage to come up with this fun idea, though. I was given a bottle of Candy Corn stickles and I wanted to use them for a Halloween card. I only have a few Halloween stamps, so there weren't many to choose from. I thought the the steam coming from this cauldron would be perfect. Then I thought some more and decided the whole card needed to sparkle. So, I painted the image with Twinkling H2Os. Cute, but not enough sparkle. So, I did a really light wash of Lime Green Twinkling H2Os on black cardstock and to ink the mini background stamp as well as color in the lettering. Now I want to stamp some more, unfortunately I have to work tomorrow so it's bedtime. Oh well...

Ingredients: Stamps: Stampin' Up Haunting Halloween, ClearStamps Halloween. Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Gable Green. Ink: Stazon Black. Accessories: Not Corner Punch, Aqua Painter, Twinkling H2Os.