Happy Halloween "Peek-a-Boo" Card Tutorial

Supplies for this card

Cardstock : Gable Green : 5½"” x 11"”, scored at 3½"” and 7"” Gable Green : 6 1/8"” x 5½"”, scored at 4¼"” Basic Black : (2) 2½"” x 2½"” Lovely Lilac : (2) 2¼"” x 2¼" Ink : Green Galore, Black StazOn Stamps : Cheesecloth, Booglie Eyes, Halloween Backgrounds, All Year Cheer II Accessories : Basic Black Marker, Watercolor Crayons, Deckle Scissors, Aquapainter, Black Organdy Ribbon, Bone Folder, Stamp-a-ma-jig, 1 3/8" Square Punch, Mono Multi liquid glue

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1.) First you need to score each of your Gable Green pieces. The 5½" x 11" needs to be scored at 3½" and 11". The 6 1/8" x 5½" needs to be scored at 4¼" (this will create your 5½" x 4¼" card front).

2.) Fold each piece so they look like this (the long piece should look like a backwards Z with the larger fold towards the back).

3.) Punch a square hole through the smaller two layers of the long piece. Fold them together and push the punch down from the top as far as you can and then center it between the the folds.

4.) Next line up the RIGHT edges of the front fold and the B fold. Punch a square hole through the front lining it up with the square hole in the B fold. Your two pieces should look like the ones above.

5.) Decorate the front layer and the C layer keeping any saying at least ¾" from the bottom of the square punches.

6.) Using the Stamp-a-ma-jig, stamp the image that you want to see when the card is closed through the square hole while the larger piece of Gable Green in folded up. The image will be stamped on the Back fold of the card.

7.) Glue the B fold to the back of the front piece (apply glue or mono to the B fold only).

8.) At this point your card should look like the card above. NOTE : When your card is closed you may see the edge of the A fold through the front window. If this happens, trim enough of the A fold so you don't see it. I use the square punch to trim this piece (you can see the image for step 13).

9.) Open the card and and the A fold will now be showing through the square punch. Using the Stamp-a-ma-jig, stamp a saying on the A fold.

10.) Tack the Lovely Lilac and the Basic Black squares together using a small bit of mono in the center. You can line them up centered or at an angle as I have. Next, (I saw this tip on a blog and can't for the life of me find it now ~ thank you whoever you are!!) using a pen or pencil, draw lines on the back of the squares from corner to corner creating an X. Use this X to center the piece in the square punch and viola!! You have a perfectly centered hole. Too cool huh?

11.) I used deckle scissors to trim the edges of the frames and then glued them together. Then adhere one set to the front of the card and the other set to the C layer of the card.

12.) Using your Watercolor Crayons, color the images. 13.) The last step is to apply a line of adhesive or mono right next to the fold on the back layer. This will keep your card together and not allow the back layer to open up. ************************************* I hope that these directions are clear. If you have any questions just ask!

Happy Halloween

It's difficult trying to show seasoned stampers new techniques and more advanced cards. They've seen it all and are hard to impress. I was looking through the paper work for all of the classes that I've done and all of the ones that I've been to and came across a "Peek-a-Boo" card that I made almost 4 years ago. I knew that this was the one. As I looked at it this idea came to me and it turned out exactly as I wanted. It's so nice when that happens. In order to understand the peek-a-boo part I had to take three pictures of it. The colors didn't come out too well on the first two but the third one shows the real colors (Gable Green, Lovely Lilac, Basic Black). This is what it looks like when it is closed. I need to buy the larger square punch as this image just fit in the opening. Here it is half way opened. You can see that another piece slides out to block the first image with a saying. Fully opened you see the second image. Hope that you like it. I have a picture tutorial coming.

Today is my monthly Christmas Card Class. They are making 12 cards in 3 hours so I try to have fairly easy projects for them. Here are the four projects that I came up with for this month. This is made with the new Peaceful Wishes set. I'm still trying to come up with a design that I like using the pinecone. I don't use Handsome Hunter and Sage Shadow very often but really like how they look together. This one is very simple. Just using Gold ink to stamp the snowflakes and then embossing the words and the inside saying with Gold Embossing powder. I was trying for the simple yet elegant look. Hopefully they like it. I try to use at least one unusual color combination each month and this is it. Do you ever use a color combo and just love it? This is it for me. I love how these colors look together. There is glitter on the ornaments that makes them look cloudy in the scan but they're not in real life. What's a Christmas Card Class with out snowmen. This is one of the first sets that I bought from the new catalog and when it arrived I was surprised to see that the three long images were one stamp. I cut the block into 1½" x 3½" sections and mounted them separatelyly. I also used the Cutter Kit on this to distress the edges of the back white layer.

I think that fall is here to stay!

Fall is my second favorite time of year.

• I love how the nights are cool and crisp with no humidity but when the sun comes out it warms up everything!
• I love how the leaves change to such beautiful colors.
• I love the way they smell and sound as they fall from the trees and the kids play in them.
• I love going to field hockey and soccer games.
• I love apple picking with my family.
• I love baking fall recipes.

Hopefully I will be going apple picking this Sunday with my sister, niece and nephew. My husband is looking forward to warm apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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I had my stamp club card class this past weekend and wanted to create cards that show what I love about this time of year. Here are two of the three projects that we made. Simple Sketches is one of my favorite sets but I don't use it that often. It was the perfect choice to try and created the many colors of fall. I made a few more of this design and stamped various sayings on them. I have to restrain myself when coming up with pages and cards for workshops and classes or they would all have some type of watercoloring on them. I can remember coloring for hours at a time when I was young. This card uses two of my favorite In Colors, Marigold Morning and Cranberry Crisp. They are a perfect match.