Decorated Halloween Treat Bag

This is how I used the Bird Crazy tag I made.  On the front of the treat bag I stamped with a Peachy Keen stamp set.  The rear of the bag is also decorated using Peachy Keen stamps - white ink on black paper.  The white ink pad I used was not bright enough so I went over the outline with a white gel pen.

Embossing Dies - swatches

I recently came across this idea on Pinterest and thought I really needed to sort my embossing folders out.  Well, I set out to die cut a whole lot of labels from Tim Holtz Tag & Tie die and thought I would need a couple of hours to get the swatches finished.

What I did not count on was the amount of embossing folders I have. My word, I have more than is shown above and think my new year's resolutions should be to use them more often and not buy any more !!

The card stock I used is rather thick and came from a stationery store where we buy the off cuts of invitations.  They are dirt cheap and were ideal for this sort of project.  I did feel the tag die was not 100% suitable with square edges so I used my Zutter half inch corner chomper to round them off.  The rings were ones I had in my stash.

Tim Holtz -In the Bag die for Halloween

I think this Tim Holtz In the Bag die is going to come in very handy.  I have been experimenting with it and find it works best for me using around 100g weight paper.

On this treat bag I used the Stampin Up jumbo wheel Haunting Halloween Witch (I think that is the name).  The trim top and bottom is from Doodlebug Paper Frills and I used Distress inks to give colour to the background.

Clear Dollar - Filled with Cheer

Using the Tim Holtz In The Bag die I made this small bag out of 250g card stock.

The stocking image is from the Clear Dollar set called Filled with Cheer and I paper pieced the red part.  Behind the stocking is a Spellbinders Oval die.  The sentiment is from Peachy Keen's Chill Baby Chill Snowman set and it was punched out with a Stampin Up oval.

Inkadinkado stamp set

I have a number of different coloured cards which I bought a long time ago on eBay which I thought I should start using.  I think this one is from SU cardstock and it came with a spare piece of the same colour which was much appreciated.

The background paper is another leftover from a project and I cut it into 3 parts.  Truth be told, it was a bit too small for the card so I thought I would make it fit.  The bird and foliage stamp is from an Inkadinkado set I bought years ago and it has no name on it.  I used a SU white craft inkpad for the image which I matted onto a Tim Holtz Artist Trading card die.

Halloween Witches Hat

There have been a couple of witches hats on the craft blogs and I decided to combine a few of the designs. 

The tall cone of the hat was made using the SU Petal Cone die cut out twice.  Of the four flaps on the die I cut off three.  I also cut out a band of the patterned black and white paper using the die. The brim is made with 2 Nestabilities Grand Circles.  I used a distress tool around the top brim to give it a slightly ragged look.  You might ask why 2 brims, well, firstly, it gives a bit of strength to the hat and secondly it hides the elastic I used to close the hat.

As you can see the cone part lifts up to allow sweets to be popped in.  I used a button to hook the elastic over.  This was not my idea as I saw it on a blog but cannot for the life of me remember where.
To decorate the hat I used the larger of the Tim Holtz Rosette dies with a Nestabilities Pinking Circle in the middle.  The stamp is from a SU set called Wicked Cool.  I used Distress Ink around the outside and coloured the socks in with a Spica pen.

Tim Holtz & Marianne D dies

I recently bought the Tim Holtz die called Vintage Cabinet Card.  I cut out a full sized card and saw I had a bit of cardstock left over.  Not wanting to waste it I ran it through the top half of the die and came up with quite a cute card shape.

Using a Hero Arts background stamp and Distress Inks I made a patterned circle and popped on the Marianne D Cupcake die which is really great to work with.  A quick and simple card ideal to give with a batch of cupcakes or cookies.

Tim Holtz - Artist Trading Card die

When my Tim Holtz ATC and Corners die was delivered I promptly tried it out making a whole batch of ATC's.  On this one I used a stamp from the Hero Arts Memories set and I think I used Archival ink - maroon.

Using a couple of different colour Distress inks I changed the ATC from a beige cardstock to a bit more of an interesting coloured one.  The border punch is from Martha Stewart and to say this was an easy card to put together is an understatement.  Sometimes I just like to keep it straight and simple.

Moulin Rouge - Tim Holtz stamp set

Although I am a Tim Holtz fan I am not really attracted to his range of stamps.  When I saw this Stampers Anonymous French Market Place set which included the Moulin Rouge image I could not resist it.  You see, I spent a very special evening at the Moulin Rouge in Paris for one of the celebrations for my 21st birthday (many moons ago !) plus I hold a fascination with all things French.

The background to the stamp is sponged with Distress Ink and I then stamped the image using Archival Ink.  This was then matted onto a piece of paper punched with an EK Success border punch.  The background paper is CM and the tag at the top of the card is a SU punch called Round Tab.

Sizzix XL Box Die

All of the SU Bigz XL dies I have actually make only small boxes and sometimes one needs a larger gift box.  I was rather pleased when I found a local online store selling this Sizzix Box Die. 

When it arrived I cut out what I thought was the box and sat looking at it wondering how on earth I could make a box out of a two sided piece of cardstock.  There were no instructions or pictures (I do well with those) on the die or on any part of the packaging which is a little stupid on the manufacturer's part.  Anyway, I wondered if I cut out another one would it work.  Well, it did and once I had fathomed it out it was relatively simple to put together.  The box is large and measures 92 mm height, width and length (it is square shaped).  I found a beautiful candle to put into it for a gift.

The blue paper is from a pad in my stash, the 'Handle with care' is from a SU set and the rosette is a Tim Holtz die which I had also just received.

TIM HOLTZ DIE - HANGING SIGN

The two pieces to this die have been sitting on my craft table for a couple of weeks now just waiting to be used.  The problem is I was unable to find a suitable background paper until I bought a Crafty Individuals stamp from Simpy Creative, cut the stamp up (not sure that was what one was supposed to do) and made the background myself using sepia ink.

I sponged the edges and put dabs of ink in the middle using Tea Dye Distress ink.  The actual sign was stamped with a Hero Arts woodgrain stamp and the sentiment is from Kaszazz.