Happy Halloween!

Halloween is about craving pumpkins, dressing up, and going trick or treating.  The kids at school were super excited to dress up tonight in their costumes and get lots of candy.  I am not completely sure their stomachs have recovered from all of the goodies that they ate at school, but I know that won't stop them from eating more candy.  Tomorrow they will all be crashing from their sugar high.  Enough about Halloween and my student's, let's discuss tonight's creation.

Since it is Halloween, I decided to take a break from Christmas cards and create a card in honor of the holiday.  Using my Big Shot, I used my Deco Label Framelits to create the two overlays.  Once those were cut out, I stamped the pumpkin on the white overlay and then stamped on the face.  I then stamped the hat and star on separate piece.  After they were dry, I used my scissors to cut them out.  Cutting out stamps is not that bad as I thought it was going to be.  My fiance asked why I don't cut out more stamps since it looked so great.  I then adhered the hat and star on top of the pumpkin.  Finishing my card, I stamped "Happy Halloween" on the bottom.  Even though I got called the Grinch of Halloween since I didn't hand out candy tonight, I still enjoyed the holiday and can't wait to celebrate it with a child of my own one day.  Until next time, happy carding everyone!

Halloween Snowman!

Today was a very long day since I had to get up extra early to attend an award ceremony in Madison.  Our school received the School of Recognition Award for the second year in a row. This award goes to schools for their work to break the link between poverty and low academic achievement through rigorous programming and attention to student needs.  I was very honored to be able to accept this award on the behalf of my school.  Our teachers and students have worked very hard and I am honored to be part of all of the great things that we do for our students.  Enough about the pleasures of being a teacher and let's discuss tonight's creation.

Since I woke up in the dark and came home in the dark, I decided that an easy card was in order tonight.  I used a pre-made card from my collection to make tonight's creation.  I am hoping that I will soon run out of my pre-made cards, but just when I think I've used them all I'll find another box.  After picking out the card, I used my trimmer to cut out the white overlay.  I then stamped the orange snowman onto the white overlay.  Using another stamp set, I stamped the triangle eyes onto the snowman.  The stamp set that I have for jack-o-lanterns had a few face choices for the snowman, but they were all too big so I drew the mouth onto the snowman.  Once the face was completed, I used the snowman set again to stamp the buttons on him.  After the Halloween snowman was finished, I stamped "Happy Halloween" on the top of the overlay.  I then used my ink dauber and went around the edges to make the border.  When creating this card, I didn't really have a vision in mind.  I just started stamping and it lead me tonight's creation.  Until next time, happy carding everyone.

TGIF!

After a long and exhausting school week, I felt like a semi-easy card was in store for today (seems like the running theme for this week).  Between the heat and having a full schedule this week, I was extremely tired on a Friday night (all things considered this is my blog for the card that I created).  After downloading the "Freebie of the Day" from Miss Kate Cuttables (something I have used before in my project), I knew that was it was the right image for tonight's card.  After the file was downloaded, I searched my Silhouette library for something to go with the provided one-eyed monster.  Since the monster reminded me of Halloween, I decided that a Happy Halloween was a perfect fit for this card.  Once the place of all the elements was arranged on the mat, it was now time to cut the paper with my Silhouette.  I then assembling the monster and  title I used a glue stick to put together some of the pieces.  This was the easiest part of the card as I found myself struggling to pick out a base that placed while with the elements.  When was the card base was finally chosen with an appropriate overlay, the card was nearly complete.  This left me with a cute card to complete my Friday night.  Until next time, happy carding everyone.

A Haunting Good Time!

Nearly 100 days ago I set myself the goal to create a card a day for a year, as I was only just beginning the adventure at that time.  I always figured it would best to get in the habit of making a new creation each day, but here I am on day 99.  I've had many ups and downs in life since the project started, but with life happening every moment around me I take it in stride and try my best to be creative.  Tomorrow will probably hold a blog much more word filled, as it is going to be a milestone card.  Enough blabber and onto tonight's creation!

After a long day at school combined with a visit to the doctor, I knew that I was going to be run down by the time I finally arrived home.  I was happy to find a  SVG file on the "freebie of the day" from Miss Kate Cuttables, it was meant to be and I downloaded with much glee.  Many different Halloween elements are visible in this card but with enough smiles this card is perfect for any young child celebrating their first Halloween.  The color theme was an obvious choice, as the base card is black with an orange overlay (both were custom cut).  My ever ready Silhouette cut everything else to shape (which I'm surprised hasn't broken down with the amount of use I've put into in the last few months).  I decided to get a bit creative with my placement of the bats/moon/skeleton/tombstone on the card just to keep the flow semi-natural on the card.  I topped the card off with "Happy Halloween" stamped on the right side of the moon.

Measurement Guide:
(a) Card Base:  7" by 10"
(b) Overlay:  6.75" by 4.75"

Ahh!!! One Eyed Monsters :)

Another long day of training and life happening around me faster then I might like, lead me to another simple card for today.  As I have one more day of training and then I can put my feet up and finally relax for just a little longer, just in time for more next week!  So with an early bed time in order for tonight, I give you the "One Eyed Monsters" card.  Inspiration comes from all sorts of places, and today's card was inspired by a similar card I that I had pinned on Pinterest earlier in the week.  Now enough blabber, and let's get to the creation of the card (after all this is Renee's Remarkable Creations!!)

Using my Silhouette I first cut out two 2.5" scalloped circles with an alternating color scheme.  The key part in any card is having an effective base with an overlay to match.  Cutting the base out of orange paper for this Halloween themed card, I custom cut the paper to 7" by 10" in size.  This was proceeded by cutting out my white overlay slightly smaller in size (to 4.5" by 6.5"), to make the orange give a nice border effect on the card.  After I completed that cutting project I moved forward to the next item on the list, appendages for my monsters.  Using the Silhouette again I punched out a total of 7 word windows, using the same alternating color pattern as the scalloped circles as above I also used black paper.  The black paper word window was cut in half and attached to the bottom of the remaining word windows, to give the effect of feet.  If a monster can walk, I sure hope he can see!  My next piece to create was the eyes, using a one inch punch I made 4 one inch circles.  Just as the same as above (in case you didn't notice a pattern), I alternated the colors once more.  Then using the Silhouette I then created smaller pupils to put within the newly punched eyes.  Drawing a smile on each face, my One Eyed Monsters were now complete.  To finish of the card I used my the last of my 7 word windows I cut earlier, and stamped "Happy Halloween" on it and placed it in the lower right hand corner.  Sure is later then I expected, so until next time happy carding everyone!

Happy Halloween

Although Halloween is months away I had an idea floating around in my head and when a friend told me that they put out the Halloween candy at his work I knew that it was meant to be.  Incorporating ideas from previous cards with a bit of my own flair, I was able to create this card with Halloween colors in mind.  The first and easiest step was cutting the "Happy Halloween" text on a solid white overlay, this was easy because really my Silhouette did all the work. Upon completion of cutting, I ran the overlay through my Zyron machine to put adhesive down for the next step.Using orange and black strips sized at .5" wide by 11" long I laid them diagonally across the side of the overlay I had put through the Zyron.  With my scissors, I cut off any excess paper that was left just in case I needed it for the rest of the card.  After all the strips were in place an all excess paper was removed, I then used an x-acto craft knife to fine tune the corners of the letters both inside and out.  This step proved both tedious and tricky because I have been so spoiled to the beautiful cutting job of a Silhouette, I found it really gave me a good challenge.  While the corners and insides may not be perfect, I believe that the final result was similar to that of carving up a jack-o'-lantern as the edges will never be perfect.

Using a custom cut black base card, I then cut a slightly smaller overlay with my Silhouette.  Again running the overlay through the Zyron I then followed the the same technique as described above.  This time my strips were 12" in length and 1" thick.  I picked up both Halloween themed papers at various rummage sales over the last month and was very happy to put them to use today.  After all strips were in place, I again use my scissors to trim the excess, and then using a gluestick I affixed the final product to the black card.  I then used foam squares to attach the text and give it the extra pop against the background.  So to everyone reading, I wish you HAPPY EARLY HALLOWEEN and until next time happy carding! :)