Inspire Me Monday: Halloween Bookmarks

Hello friends! Since today is Halloween I decided to scare up a quick and easy craft, Halloween bookmarks.

My oldest son and I are big fans of horror novels and Stephen King is one of our favorite authors. My son recently gave me a new Stephen King book for my birthday so I decided I needed a new Halloween bookmark to go with it.

I used the digital stamp set Boo Cat and Pumpkins and put the images I wanted to use in Word, then manipulated them until I had arrangements I was happy with. I then printed them out and cut them with bookmark dies I have.

Once I had the images cut out I colored them with copic markers.

When I finished I had 3 Halloween bookmarks! This took me less than an hour to get done so if you need some easy Halloween treats to give out these are definitely a treat, not a trick!

Thanks for stopping by for this quick and easy Inspire Me Monday, and I hope you have a BOO-tiful day!

Inspire Me Monday: A Little Halloween Flair

 

Hello all! Since we are three weeks away from 'The Night of Fright', I thought I'd share a little something I came up with on how to transform Marcella's super fun Halloween illustrations into home decor! 

I was at Michaels the other day and they have two rows full of wood pieces that you can use to create your own signs. That's where my idea was ignited! When I saw the options along with some of the fun wooden Halloween messages, I knew I had the start of something fun! 

Want to see what we are creating today? Here's a peek. 

Isn't that super fun? And, while I thought this might take me quite a bit of time to put together, I was done in a little less than 3 hours. I started by printing the digital stamp "Boo Cat & Pumpkins" at 81/2 by 11 inches. Basically, I opened it and printed it so that it would cover an entire sheet of card stock. My wooden base was 91/2 by 14 inches, so I thought this would work perfectly. Then, I continued with some loosey-goosey coloring. No need for super intricate coloring here! I used super large strokes and just colored with strokes instead of constant color. 

So this.....

Grew into this....

And, ultimately, this...

Now it was time to turn my attention to my sign! This is what I started with: a few bottles of acrylic paint, some foam brushes, the natural wooden sign, a natural Halloween sentiment and some decoupage glue. 

You can see I started painting the base of my sign black. I started wanting to cover only those cracks but quickly decided it would be better to give the entire sign a coat of black. You can see, I wasn't too careful to provide an even coat. I already knew I was going to cover this up a bit! 

From there, I took and dry brushed some purple paint over top to create a kind of weathered look. I also painted my Happy Halloween words --- although please ignore this color. After I painted this black I decided I needed a pop of color here and painted over top with a lime green shade of acrylic paint! 

And now, it's time to add my boo cat to this backdrop! I just fussy cut around my image cutting a jagged edge around the kitty so that I didn't have to cut all the little pieces of fur! After it was cut out, I attached it to the wooden base by putting some decoupage glue on the back side with one of the foam brushes. Make sure the edges of your paper don't curl. The key is to apply a super light coat, press down and then weigh the image down by covering it with a book or a few magazines to hold it all in place. 

From there, I added some layered ribbon at the top, securing with a little hot glue. I adhered the Happy Halloween wooden piece with some foam tape so that it would have some dimension. After everything was dry, it was time to add it to the hearth for a little home Halloween flair! What do you think?

And that, my friends, is it! A fun little way to use a digital stamp to create some home decor that's both frightful and fun!

Hope you had fun spending a little time with me today! And, I hope you have a fabulous and creative week ahead!

Until next time, 

Inspire Me Monday - Water Soluble Crayons

 

Hello, colorists! Welcome to October! I know for some of you autumn is in full swing! For me, it is still summer-time weather! It is hard to be creative when it's 90+ degrees outside! I am so thankful that we have solar panels and air conditioning! To help put me into the pumpkin spice spirit, I not only colored up this sweet scene from the Boo Cat and Pumpkins digital stamp set, I used a new (to me) coloring supply!

Raise your hand if you have some water soluble crayons in your stash? They go by several names: crayons, pastels, color sticks, aquacolors, aquarelles, and so forth. I confess that I have a few of the Faber-Castell Gelatos brand in my stash, but I have been less than happy with them or with the colors I have on hand. All the uses I have seen for this product are really not in my area of preferred techniques! However...

I recently noticed a number of the folks in my adult coloring groups using a different brand of water-soluble crayons for backgrounds in their coloring books. I decided...yes, I need that art supply! Who wouldn't need to add a new version of a supply they already have but don't really care for?! Well, me, of course!

I ended up buying this set of crayons from a Swiss company called Caran D'Ache. (They make other coloring supplies, too.) The Neocolor II are water-soluble crayons (pastels) that come in sets of 10, 15, 30, 40, and 84. The price point is quite high (the 30 set was just over $42 on Amazon), hence the reason I only got the 30 count set!

 

I thought the set of 30 colors was enough to give them a try and see if I liked them. There is a good mix of colors in each color family, too. Each crayon is about the size of a standard wax crayon, and they can be purchased singly to replace your favorite colors or add to your color selection.


Now, on to the project and little tutorial on how to use these pretty colors!

I printed my project onto mixed media paper, but I wish the watercolor paper in my stash would have fit through my printer! However, I was happy that my Epson inkjet printer ink did not bleed when wet! A wonderful plus!

You DO need a paper that can stand up to water! The mixed media paper did fine, but I did get to a point where I was afraid to add more water to the project for fear of the paper "pilling up."

I chose a few colors for the larger pumpkin and a few for the stem.

I colored directly onto the paper with the crayons, shading just like I would with colored pencils or alcohol markers. I colored with a LIGHT HAND, just adding enough color, as shown in the first image above.

Then, I added water with a water brush! I was careful to wash the lighter color into the dark to keep the highlights, just like I would with regular watercolors. The result was the most amazing watercolored image! But it was so much easier for someone like me who struggles with water coloring techniques!

If you wish to add a touch more color, you can touch the water brush to the tip (or the end) of the crayon to lift more color. (Note, you can use either a fillable water brush or a standard paintbrush dipped in water.)

When it came time to color the items in the vase, the crayons were just too thick to color into the tiny spaces. I simply scribbled onto a rough surface and picked up the color with the water brush. (I could not find my palette with a rough surface, so I used this scoring tool from my scoreboard! The excess crayon wiped off with a baby wipe!)

I also switched to a detail water brush for the tiny areas.

When the paper is completely dry, you can also add regular wax-based colored pencil to any areas you need to touch up! Once the crayons are dry, they are the same as layers of colored pencil.

I really had fun with these crayons! So much so that the large, 84 set is on my Christmas list!

Thanks for looking! I hope you will give some water-soluble crayons a try and let me know how you enjoyed using them!

Fall is happening - let’s do this!

Happy Friday to you.

It’s finally starting to get fall-ish around these parts, and even though I have yet to gather a single pumpkin, I did plant a whole bunch of ornamental cabbages and kale, which, although they were feasted upon by cabbage moth caterpillars, are putting me in an autumnal state of mind.

We have a fantastic project this week from Julie Koerber to help you get in the trick-or-treating spirit, check out this pumpkin-packed cuteness:

Find instructions on how to make this perky patterned treat basket right HERE.

The image in Julie’s project can be downloaded from the digital set: Boo Cat and Pumpkins, which includes four core images plus lots of Halloween-y sentiments! Why, just look and see what Leslie Miller made with a few of them...

Isn’t that something?? And if you want to learn to color pumpkins like a superstar, you’re going to want to sign up for Vanilla Arts’ upcoming class... here’s a peek:

CAN YOU EVEN??? I want to color like this! Seriously, it’s hard for me to fathom how Amy Shulke does it... and then she teaches us how to do it too. Ain’t life grand?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Speaking of GRAND, here are two incredible new cards to put you into a creative state of mind.... totally WOW cards from these special ladies, one is autumnal, and one is in the holiday spirit!

•  Stacy Morgan  •  Allison Cope  •

See you guys next week, I need to get back to drawing!! Sending hugs,

Creative Confetti: Make it Spooktacular!!!

Hello Power Poppy Fans! If you are anything like me, you are counting down the days to Halloween! I absolutely love this holiday -- not because we get dressed up and have an excuse to eat mondo amounts of candy (although that rocks) but because I absolutely LOVE handing out candy and seeing all the kiddos get so excited about their costumes. It's the best ever!! So, because I am in Halloween mode, I thought why not make some SPOOKTACULAR creations? And that, my friends, is taking center stage in this week's Creative Confetti Challenge!  

HOW TO PLAY: This one is sweet and simple! Just make a Halloween creation! Make it cute! Make it spooky! Make it one that gives us all a chuckle! Anything goes as long as the theme... is HALLOWEEN! Use Power Poppy stamps if you have them but, if not, this might be your chance to win some! Linky closes at the end of the month, letting you play along each week for... extra chances!

Let's get on to my creation! 

If you missed yesterday's Inspire Me Monday, you should click HERE for a step-by-step tutorial on how to make this little treat bag! Its perfect for fun-sized candy bars and oh-so-fun to create! And, on top of it, I linked up to a video tutorial by the fabulous Nancy Sheads where she shows us step-by-step how to color up this darling image that you can get in a clear stamp with Feeling Fall or a digital stamp in Power Poppy's new digi set called Boo Cat and Pumpkins! 

So, that's all there is to it this week! Let's get ready for the Night of Fright by whipping up a creation with a spooktacular design! ;-) Power Poppy has a few images if you'd like to pop on over to the shop and see not only the illustrations but the gallery of cards on that page!

Feeling Fall

Boo Cat & Pumpkins

Painting Pumpkins

So, why don't you whip up something with a Halloween flair and join me this week? Remember, each and every link up with our linky below is one more chance at a $25 gift certificate to the Power Poppy Shop! So, let's see what you've got!

Until next time!
~Julie

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspire Me Monday: Treats Not Tricks!

Hi all! Julie here with another edition of Inspire Me Monday! I figured with the 'Night of Fright' upon us, I would bring you a SUPER EASY, SUPER CUTE project that you can literally whip up in a jiffy! The folding portion of this project takes less than a minute -- no joke -- allowing you to just take your time and enjoy dolling up this little treat bag for the little ghosts and goblins in your life! 

Here's a peek at the finished project before I 

take you though the step by step! 

Now that you know where we are headed, let's get right to creating! I started with an 8" by 8" square piece of paper and folded it from corner to corner. It really helps to have a bone folder handy to make sure that you fold and crease cleanly. 

From there, you take the corner on the right side of the triangle and fold it so that it creates a straight line across when you fold it and the tip of the paper lines up with the edge of the other side of the paper... like so!

Fold the other side in the same manner so that both of your tips of the triangle criss-cross each other. See?

Once you have your folds all lined up, you can glue each flap in place. From here, you'll take the top of the triangle and fold it down, creating a flap over the area you just folded. This creates your treat pocket. You'll flip over the paper and fold down the second flap on the other side.

This creates the perfect little pocket for fun-sized candy bars!

It's just the right size! 

Because I didn't really like the white flaps, I chose to take an orange decorative paper and create a mat for each flap to add a little extra pop of color! This is where a two-sided paper would work perfectly! I just didn't have any in a color that worked for Halloween..... 

I wanted to show you just how big or small you could go with this treat bag! I started with a 6" by 6" piece of paper and honestly, this is small enough for a few Hershey's kisses, a Ghiradelli square, or one fun-size candy bar. Maybe this one would be best for dollar bills? ;-) As you go up in size, the more you can fit! I actually started with a 12" by 12" piece of paper but when I was done, I thought, wow -- that's pretty big! That might actually make a nice little gift bag in a jiffy for smaller gifts? So easy! 

After seeing Instant Gardener Nancy Sheads color up this cute kitty from Power Poppy's Feeling Fall stamp set, I knew I wanted to give her video coloring tutorial a try - so I stamped with Memento Ink Tuxedo Black and cued up the video and colored away following all her cues! If you missed this tutorial, you need to check it out HERE. It was so fun to follow along! Just a little note, if you want instant gratification, Power Poppy just released this cat image in a Halloween digital stamp set called Boo Cat and Pumpkins.  So many fun images in this digital set!

So, when I was done, this is what my treat bag looked like! I ended up sponging Stormy Sky Distress Ink around my image and then, to get a little extra dimension, I sprinkled on some water to get those drops around my image. I was hoping it might look like storm clouds or stars. Not sure if I achieved my goal but I still like the effect! :-) I also added a punched bat with some orange rhinestones for eyes and some fun Halloween ribbon to serve as my treat bag handles. Oh, I almost forgot, on my die cut mat for my main image, I did sponge some white ink around the edges to help it to pop a bit on my darker paper.

And, here's a look at the back of the project. You can see that all I did to secure the treat bag handle was knot the ribbon a few times. 

And, when all is done, you can stuff it with candy -- I chose mini Ghiradelli squares -- and even hang this little treat on a doorknob as a sweet surprise!

Thanks so much for stopping by this Monday! I hope you like this little tutorial and I hope you give it a try yourself! It can be used for so many different occasions --- Christmas (maybe you use these instead of an Advent calendar?), Easter, Valentine's Day, May Day! So many opportunities!

As always, if you give this tutorial a try, I would love to see YOUR take on it! Just leave me a link in the comments! ;-)

Enjoy your week and I will see you back here real soon for our weekly Creative Confetti Challenge!

~Julie