Halloween | Hero Arts + Tim Holtz

Hi friends!  Today’s project is a fun Halloween card using the Hero Arts Beep Beep die set and some spooky characters from the Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Halloween Paper Dolls package.  Let’s get started!

The supplies used:

     Hero Arts – Beep Beep Die Set

     Sizzix/Tim Holtz – Moonlight Die Set

     Sizzix/Tim Holtz – Haunted House Die Set

     Waffle Flower – A6 Layers Die Set

     Trinity Stamps – October Night Sky Stencil Set

     Lawn Fawn – Hocus Purr-cus! Stamp Set

     Tim Holtz/Idea-ology – Halloween Paper Dolls

     Altenew – Cosmic Berry Cardstock

     Spellbinders – Royal Amethyst Cardstock

     Spellbinders – Raven Cardstock

     Spellbinders – Fog Cardstock

     Spellbinders – Sage Cardstock

     Impression Obsession – Bats for Halloween 6”x6” Paper Pack

     Altenew – Black Diamond Glitter Cardstock

     Gina K. Designs – Magic Masking Sheets

Ranger – Spun Sugar, Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord Distress Crayons

     Altenew – Grape Agate, Teal Tempest, Jet Black Fresh Dye Inks

     Ranger/Tim Holtz – Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters, Forest Moss Distress Inks

     Ranger/Tim Holtz – Old Paper Distress Oxide Ink

     Hero Arts – Unicorn Pigment Ink

     Tsukineko - VersaFine Clair Nocturne Pigment Ink

     Altenew – Mini Blending Brushes

     Idea-ology/Tim Holtz – Distress Crayons:  Spun Sugar, Dusty Concord,

          Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry

     Copic Sketch Alcohol Marker C4, Cool Grey No. 4

     Picket Fence Studios – Liquid Silver Locket Paper Splatter Watercolor

     Ranger Ink – Glossy Accents

     Altenew – 1” Black Double-Sided Adhesive Tape

     Scrapbook Adhesives – Black Thin 3D Foam Squares

     My Sweet Petunia – Original MISTI Stamping Tool

     Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

Creating the Background Panel

I started the development of the background panel, by die cutting the smallest moon die outline and the smaller moon full die from the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Moonlight die set from a Gina K. Designs Magic Masking Sheet (for the full moon with detail die – keep the outside the moon scrap piece as well as the actual moon).  I die cut a piece of Spellbinders Sage cardstock using the second largest die from the Waffle Flower A6 Layers die set and die cut Spellbinders Raven cardstock using the largest die in this set.  I used a blending brush and inked the entire Sage panel using Distress Bundled Sage ink to give a darker tone than the Sage was presenting.  Once the ink dried, I added the moon mask that I die cut to the top center of the card so that the moon mask was only about 3/4” onto the card panel.  Next, I ink blended approximately an inch of Shabby Shutters Distress Ink around the edge of the moon.  I ink blended Forest Moss Distress Ink beginning at the edge of Shabby Shutters and continued the ink blending until the ink was blended about three fourths of the way down the cardstock panel.  For the bottom quarter of the ink blending, I used a very heavy layer of Altenew Teal Tempest Fresh Dye Ink since I was trying to come up with something more along the lines of a phthalo green and I didn’t own an ink color in that shade of green, then finished out the ink blending with Altenew Jet Black on the bottom edge.

Now back to the moon… I placed the “outside the moon” Masking Magic moon mask to protect the card’s background to mask off the moon.  I added a layer of Distress Old Paper Oxide Ink to serve as the surface of the moon.  Once the ink dried, I removed the outside the moon mask and added the mask that has the moon with the holes in it and inked the apertures with Distress Bundled Sage Ink.  Using the Trinity Stamps October Night Sky Stencil set, I used the stencil with the wispy clouds and inked them onto the upper portion of the background using Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink and spattered the background with Picket Fence Liquid Silver Locket Paper Spatter and a small paint brush.  Alas, I could now set the background panel aside to fully dry.

Creating the Focal Point

Using the Hero Arts Beep Beep die set, I die cut the car twice from Spellbinders Purple Amethyst cardstock and glued the two car die cuts together, then partially cut it a third time from a patterned cardstock in the Impression Obsession “Bats for Halloween” paper pack so I could get the windshield negative piece to adhere behind the occupants of the vehicle.  Next, I used an Altenew Mini Blending Brush along with Altenew’s Grape Agate ink to add shading to the car die cut where I felt shading should be.  I die cut the other vehicle dies from these cardstocks:

     Side Mirrors, Metal Rings Around Lights, Front Bumper:  Brushed Silver Cardstock

     Tires:  Spellbinders Raven Cardstock

     Steering Wheel, License Plate:  Spellbinders Fog Cardstock

     Lights:  Spellbinders Sage Cardstock

Once the die cutting was completed, I glued all the car die cuts (except the license plate and negative, windshield piece) to their appropriate location onto the ink blended car die cut. 

After digging through the many options in the package of Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Halloween Paper Dolls package, I selected two of the paper dolls that made me giggle the most, positioned them behind the front window of the car, trimmed any excess that exceeded the edge of the car, and gave them a bit of color using Tim Holtz Distress Crayons before gluing them into place.  If you would like to use the same colors, I used:

     Cheeks:  Spun Sugar

     Dress:  Twisted Citron

     Suit Coat:  Picked Raspberry

     Suit Vest:  Dusty Concord

Of course, you don’t need to add color to the paper dolls, but I thought it added to the creepiness.  Once the people were glued behind the open windshield, I added the patterned paper windshield die cut and glued it in place behind the paper doll characters.  Next, I used a C4 Copic marker to add some dots to the steering wheel to give it some more interest and added Ranger’s Glossy Accents to the headlights and turn indicator lights then set the car aside to allow the Glossy Accents to dry.

Creating the Sentiment

For the sentiment, I placed the license plate die cut that was created using Fog cardstock during the Creating the Focal Point into my MISTI stamp positioner and used the HALLOWEEN sentiment from Lawn Fawn’s Hocus Purr-cus! stamp set along with VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink to stamp the word onto the center of the license plate die cut.  Once the ink dried, I went around the edges of the Fog-colored license place with a black marker so it would stand out better against the brushed silver car bumper.

Assembling the Card

I added Altenew’s black Instant Dimension Foam Tape to the back side of the car of characters and adhered it to the lower front of the card’s background.  For the bats, I used the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Haunted House die set and Altenew’s Black Diamond Glitter Cardstock and die cut the little bat dies and used liquid glue to adhere them to the night sky.  I adhered the license plate onto the car’s bumper using black Instant Dimension Foam Tape.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out today’s blog post, I really appreciate it.  Until next time, happy crafting!

Happy Birthday Bellany! | Birthday 2025

It's soon-to-be our baby girl Bella's 7th birthday and to help show her how much we love her and how much she means to us, I created a cute mermaid themed card. I'll be using two main products - the mermaid stamp from Trinity Stamps and the birthday coverplate from Simon Says Stamp. Let's get started!

I started the card project by stamping out the mermaid character from the Trinity Stamps "Mermazing" stamp set onto Copic Xpress-It white cardstock using Lawn Fawn's Jet Black ink pad. I allowed the ink to fully dry before coloring since I chose to add color using Copic markers. For coloring the mermaid, these are the marker colors I chose:

Skin: E04, E11, E33

Tail, Shell in Hair, Swim Top: BG49, BG57, BG23

Hair: E29, E37, E33

After the mermaid was colored, I added shimmer to the turquoise parts with the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Glitter Gloss pen, white highlights using a Sakura white 08 Gelly Roll pen, and colored her eyes using a Sakura Black Glaze pen. You can choose to omit these steps if you wanted to, but I thought it added a little livliness to the mermaid. Once the shimmer and white highlights were dry, I fussy cut the image, then used a black marker to color the cut edges of the mermaid.

Next, I cut a piece of Tonic Mermaid Shimmer Ombre Glitter Cardstock to measure 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" which will serve as the background for my card front. I also cut a piece of white cardstock to measure 4-1/2" x 5-3/4" and ink blended three Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks from one end of the panel to the next using these colors: Peacock Feathers, Crackling Campfire, and Antique Linen. It will be okay that the Crackling Campfire and Peacock Feathers won't necessarily want to blend together - it won't be noticeable in the end. After I ink blended the panel, I allowed the ink to dry back about 50% of the way and took my Antique Linen Oxide ink pad and smeared ink onto my glass mat (to avoid color contamination) and blended the Antique Linen lightly across the entire surface of the panel with my foam blender. This step will help tone down the Crackling Campfire and Peacock Feathers to help it to be more cohesive with the Tonic Mermaid Shimmer Ombre Glitter Cardstock background panel. Once the ink blended panel completely dried, I used the Simon Says Stamp "Happy" cover die and die cut the ink blended panel ensuring the "Y" in Happy was on the same end as the Peacock Feathers inked end of the cardstock panel.

Before beginning the next step, I lined my Tim Holtz Splat Box with a sheet of non-stick parchment paper. Then I discarded the negative pieces of the die cut panel and placed all the outline pieces (including the little inner outline pieces from the A and Ps) onto the parchment paper in the Splat Box. I want these outline pieces to have an element of shine to them, so I thoroughly misted all the outlines with Ranger's Distress Resist Spray, carefully removed them from the Splat Box and placed them onto a clean piece of parchment paper and set them aside to dry.

While the cover die outline was drying, I decided to use a Sakura 10 white Gelly Roll pen and add white highlights here and there on the actual letters that spelled out HAPPY that will be placed back onto the outline of the cover die - again, you can skip this step if you want to.

I die cut a second Happy cover die panel from Brutus Monroe's white "Not Your Mama's 130lb Cardstock" to add some dimension to the ink blended/Resist Spray coated outline and I also stamped the BIRTHDAY! sentiment from the same Simon Says Stamp "Happy" stamp set that coordinates with the cover die onto a scrap piece of the Brutus Monroe"Not Your Mama's 130lb Cardstock" using Gina K Designs "Blue Lagoon" ink and simply trimmed it to size using a paper trimmer.

I added glue to the reverse side of the ink blended cover die panel and adhered it to the 130lb cardstock version and adhered those to the glitter cardstock panel. After that, I glued all the individual letters and the centers of the A and Ps onto the card front in their appropriate locations and placed my Misti on top so that everything would adhere nicely.

I strategically placed thin foam squares to the back of the little mermaid and the birthday sentiment and placed them into the lower right corner of the card front. Lastly, I glued a scattering of five Simon Says Stamp "Opal Gems" around the mermaid and sentiment and adhered the completed card front onto a side folding A2, Concord & 9th "Oceanside" card base.

This was a quick and fun card to make, I hope it'll inspire you to create some mermaid fun for the little one in your life. Thank you for stopping by and happy making!

Happiest Birthday Ever! | Trinity Stamps + Honey Bee Stamps

Happiest Birthday Ever!  |  Trinity Stamps + Honey Bee Stamps

Hi friends!  Today I’ve made a birthday card using the Sarah Renae Clark Color Cube card #030 color scheme.  The stamp and stencil products I used are from Trinity Stamps and Honey Bee Stamps.  It’s definitely a hand delivery card with the amount of Hero Paste I used – but well worth it for the look I achieved.  Let’s get started!  

The supplies used were:

Trinity Stamps “Hey Cupcake” Stamp and Die Set

Honey Bee Stamps “It’s a Party” Stencil Set

Hero Arts Glitter Hero Paste

Brutus Monroe Gold Glitter Glaze

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks:

    Honey

    Field

    Morning

    Dusk

    Peachy

    Terracotta

Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Dye Ink

Copic Alcohol Markers –

    Yellows:  Y04, Y18, Y26

    Blues:  B93, B45, B97

    Peaches:  YR01, YR65, E97

X-Press It Blending Cardstock

Spellbinders Sunkissed Cardstock

My Favorite Things Blue Yonder Cardstock

Pretty Pink Posh “Beach Day Shaker Beads”

Wagner Heat Embossing Tool

Misti Original Stamp Positioning Tool

Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

I started today’s card by cutting a piece of white cardstock that measured 4-1/2” x 5”, a piece of Spellbinders Sunkissed cardstock that measured 5” x 5-1/2”, and a piece of My Favorite Things Blue Yonder cardstock that measured 4-7/8” x 5-3/8” (approximately).  I used tape runner to adhere the yellow and blue panels together.

For the stenciling, I used the white cardstock panel listed in the previous paragraph and used the Honey Bee Stamps “It’s a Party” stencils to create my background.  There are six stencils in this set and I used a blending brush and Simon Says Stamp’s Pawsitively Saturated Inks in the colors: Honey, Field, Morning Peachy, and Terracotta.  After my stenciling was completed, I re-used the Layer 4 stencil (the one with the stars) and placed it back onto the ink blended panel and aligned it with the yellow inking that was already completed and applied a generous layer of Brutus Monroe Gold Glitter Glaze with a palette knife all over the stencil until it was evenly covered, returned the excess back into the jar and immediately cleaned off my work surface, palette knife, and stencil.  I set the background panel aside to dry while I moved on to the next step.

Using my Misti stamp positioner, a piece of X-Press It Blending Cardstock, and Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink pad, I positioned the two cupcake stamps from the Trinity Stamps ”Hey Cupcake” stamp and die set into the Misti and stamped the images onto the X-Press It cardstock panel.  After cleaning off my stamps, I used my heat tool to dry/set the ink since I was going to be coloring with Copic alcohol markers. 

For the cupcake coloring I used Copic markers Y04, Y18, and Y26 for the icing portion; markers B93, B45, and B97 for the cupcake wrapper; and markers YR01, YR65, and E97 for the small cake portion.  I used the coordinating dies to die cut the images and also cut an extra layer of the icing from heavy white cardstock to make that piece more structurally sound since I will be applying paste to it later and the extra cardstock will help prevent warping as the paste dries.

I used the smaller icing die included in the “Hey Cupcake” stamp/die set and die cut a piece of heavy weight white cardstock to make a stencil for my pasting (which means I only wanted the negative space).  I used temporary tape to adhere this piece of cardstock to the top of my Copic colored icing die cut and carefully applied a thick layer of Hero Arts Glitter Hero Paste over the inked icing (again, using that negative space stencil I made).  I slowly removed the homemade icing stencil from the yellow icing die cut and used my fingertips and a metal piercing tool to sculpt the edges of the Glitter Hero Paste so that the edges were completed covered and to also clear the paste from the black inked shadow areas that were made by the actual stamp.  I did this until the entire die cut was evenly covered with the paste and then added some Pretty Pink Posh “Beach Day Shaker Beads” to random areas in the icing to mimic nonpareils.  I set this portion of the project aside to dry several hours since I didn’t want to smear my paste.

Once the Glitter Hero Paste dried, I used liquid adhesive to adhere the icing die cut to the top of the cupcake die cut.  I used a white gel pen to add some highlighting to random areas of the blue cupcake holder and allowed that a small amount of time to completely dry.  While the gel pen was drying, I used the “Wishing you the happiest Birthday ever!” stamp from the Trinity Stamps “Hey Cupcake” stamp/die set and stamped it onto a piece of white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated “Dusk” ink then used the coordinating die to die cut it and also an extra one so that I could add dimension to the sentiment.  I adhered the birthday greeting to the blue cupcake holder portion of cupcake using liquid glue and then applied thin foam squares to the back of the cupcake.  Next, I used tape runner to adhere the stenciled card panel to the card front panels, then removed the release paper from the back of the foam tape squares on the cupcake and adhered it to the card front and that completed today’s card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the birthday card and found inspiration for some of your cardmaking projects!  Until next time… happy making!