V is for Vertical

V is for Vertical

Long time no blog! Ugh the past few weeks in my life have been crazy. First we traveled to Chicago for our first visit ever and fell in love. Yes, it does have some issues but we were in the downtown area and never once did we feel uncomfortable or in danger. I've shared photos on my Instagram page (which you can access using my social media icons) and I plan to share some on my FB page as well soon. We took a boat tour and a double decker bus tour and it was interesting to see the city from both vantage points. I also spent an extra week in Nashville, upon my return to Tennessee, visiting my (now 6 week old) grandson and helping out my college girl who's in stress overload these days. Her thesis deadline is the end of the month and she's pulling a lot of all-nighters. She was happy to have her mom around to cook, clean, keep the laundry going, take care of her dog and yes I drove her back and forth to the university each day. She was way too tired to be driving herself and it gave her some extra time in the morning. Hint: she's not a morning person. ;)

Our challenge sponsor is 

Drawn with Character

Prize is winner's choice of 3 images from shop.

Now on to the reason for my post, I'm sharing my DT card for the latest challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. Our hostess, Lorraine A, is asking everyone to create a vertical card. My mojo has taken a hit lately so I turned to You Tube for inspiration and found this adorable card by Vicky Papaioannou.  I used the idea for the moon and background as you'll see if you click the link and while I didn't have the same set of Lawn Fawn stamps that she used I did use Lawn Fawn stamps for my woodland animals and sentiment. I used various dies for the trees and a white Sakura glaze pen adds a snowy effect. The snow drifts are also dies and I used foam tape to add dimension between the layers.  

That's all for me today, pop over to the main challenge blog to see more inspiration by my design team mates or link up your vertical card. I'll be back on Friday to share my incoming / outgoing pocket letters for September. 

Oh, in case you were here before and saw a different card....well I didn't like it very much so I made a new one. Much better, glad that's done lol. ;)

Have a great day, wherever you are.

Lisa xx

Gettin' my Spook On

Howdy, I hope all of you are doing well! 

I have a fun design team share today for The Cutting Cafe featuring one of my favorite files for the fall season. 

Halloween - Fall Milk Carton...Template - Cutting File 

I used it to create 3 Halloween Milk Cartons for my grown trick-or-treaters (aka my kids and DIL). There are 8 designs included in this set which makes it an awesome deal and gives you several creative options. I chose the bat, witch's hat and ghost for my cartons and this has become my favorite way to give each of them something sweet at Halloween. :)

(sentiment is from the Coffin Treat Box set...link below)

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut each carton from cardstock and added designer papers from my stash to the carton as well as Ranger's Liquid Pearls (which I love!). If you don't have an electronic cutting machine that's ok as there is a PDF file included with the set. 

When I cut the carton out I saved the negative image of the ghost and used it on top of the carton (which you can see above). I placed a piece of white cardstock behind the cut out image, added googly eyes and outlined the ghost with Frosted Lace Stickles by Ranger. The BOO sticker is a remnant from an old Martha Stewart Halloween advent calendar that's been in my stash quite a while. For this carton I used a 12 x 12 sheet of Recollections embossed polka dot paper just for fun. 

Designer paper on the remaining 3 sides adds a bit of pizzazz and the Liquid Pearls make it pop. I outlined each bat with Purple Stickles. Can you guess the candy inside?

Again, I used the negative image (this time the bat) and added it to the top of my carton. I punched two holes and run the micro polka dot ribbon through and tied it in a bow. The circular R. I. P. sentiment is from the Coffin Treat Box...Template-Cutting File and I added a paper bottle cap image to the center and surrounded it with Orange Liquid Pearls. It's attached with orange/white twine by Studio G.

The negative image of the witch's hat was attached to a Halloween straw and I printed out a sentiment from the 3 Halloween Shaker Card Templates and Cutting Files. I also used a candy corn sentiment from the Candy Corn Treat Box set and added it to the ribbon closure. Pumpkin Liquid Pearls add a nice border to my milk carton and highlight the witch's hat as well.

I added some acetate designer paper to the back of the hat image and outlined it with Purple Stickles. An orange Goosebump gem adds more sparkle. :)

Don't forget that Regina also offers paper crafting supplies - paper, ribbon, embellishments, acrylic stamps, etc. - at The Cutting Cafe Shop and she has some CUTE paper pads for Halloween and Fall in stock. Be sure to visit The Cutting Cafe Blog on the 7th to see more inspiration featuring Halloween Milk Cartons and Shaker Cards by the design team. You could win 3 FREE SETS from TCC if you leave a comment on the DT post. Good Luck!

See ya soon!

Lisa