cardsbymo

Bar none, Autumn is my favorite time of the year. There is something so appealing about the promise of cooler weather and lazy Sunday afternoons in my craft room, with the window wide open and two cats sunning on the sill.

In my personal heaven it’s perpetually Autumn and just a week or so before Halloween. The leaves on the trees outside my Craftsman style home are red, orange and gold.  My stoop is clad in pumpkins and crimson colored mums. And my living room is strewn with accordion crepe paper streamers of black and orange.

As far as heavens go I think I would enjoy an eternity of crafting in the crisp Autumn weather. 🍂🍁🍂

Here on Earth I have already completed my Halloween cards for my nieces and nephews this year. I used a variety of adorable monster stamps to create my Halloween greetings for 2016.

Below is a card featuring Nerdy Ghost from 2 Cute Ink digital stamps. I finished the card and snapped a photo but, then thought it still looked too plain. I added some stars with a white gel pen and then I felt it looked so much cuter.

I used a monster digital image along with some stamped monsters for this card. What an adorable monster family they make.

A Skull illustration converted into a card for my teenage nephew.

The bat below has felt flocked ears and is hanging from a felt flocked branch as well. The image is from Prettygrafikdesign on Etsy.

Another adorable digital stamp from 2 Cute Ink. This little monster is soft and fuzzy thanks to felt flocking. 

A Tim Holtz Distress Ink sky with doodled stars and moon.

Another Nerdy Ghost card. 🎃

Happy haunting,

Mo

Jodie is the creator at Bugaboo Stamps. She has a really great sense of humor and I love her snarky characters. This old guy is named Gus and he is featured in quite a few different stamp sets. (The sentiment is from a different set)

I think that most guys would enjoy getting one of these funny cards but, maybe I’m biased because I made them. 😉

Happy stamping,

Mo

I scored a great deal at Tuesday Morning for this Happy Birthday die. At only $2 for the die it really felt good to be able to use it for several cards right off the bat.

Every few months I stop in at Tuesday Morning to see what they have in the craft section and I usually find at least one or two great items. If you have one near you I would suggest checking them out to see what they have.

This first card is for my brother in law, Paul. He is a man’s man kind of guy so I decided to create a card with a diamond plate look. I made the shiny silver base by covering a piece of cardstock with aluminum foil and then running it through my diecut machine in a diamond plate embossing folder.

I used Hero Arts Neon sprays and stamp pads to create this fun card. Just something light hearted and funky.

This card was for my brother, Ken. I created the background using Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The inks are applying with a sponge dauber and then sprinkled with water to make the ink spread away.

Happy Stamping,

Mo

I recently bought some digital stamps on Etsy from Pretty Grafik Design. There were so many cute digital images to choose from and they were so inexpensive too! The set was only $.99! I suggest that you check out their shop because, it is loaded with adorable images of all kinds.

To create my cards I combined the mermaid images I purchased with some stamp sets from Lawn Fawn. So Jelly includes the starfish and the squid and Year Six features the adorable clam.

Each mermaid has Wink of Stella on the scales of her tail. It was hard to photograph but, they look so sparkly in person.

Happy stamping,

Mo

This has been a year of weddings for us so far. We have been to 3 weddings since Janaury!  Because we had so many to attend, I decided to buy the Bride & Groom die from mftstamps.com to make some special cards.

First was the wedding of two good friends of ours who have been partners for more than a decade but, who recently decided to tie the knot . The grooms got married in Vegas and wore cranberry colored shirts, so I used red paper instead of white for their tux shirts.

The second wedding we attended was for my niece Amanda and her groom Larry. Theirs was a beautiful outdoor wedding and the weather was perfect. And they are great together.

For their card I used the traditional bride and groom portion of the die. I used a patterned paper for the dress and added a string of pearls at the waist. For the base of the card I used another gold and white patterned paper and then overlaid that with vellum.

The most recent wedding was for my husband’s cousin Lauren and her handsome groom Matthew.  They had an outdoor wedding too and the weather in Atlanta was amazing and the reception was tons of fun!

It’s hard to see in the photo but the wedding dress has a pattern that is clear embossed on it. And the tux shirt does as well. I decided to use diamonds instead of pearls since the accent color was silver instead of gold.

Happy stamping,

Mo

Another holiday and another chance to send out cards to my nieces and nephews.

As I often do I created several cards that are really similar because, I send out 11 cards at a time. You can see below the duplicates of these two cards and you can see that they are slightly different from the originals. Some times it is just that the coloration that differs and sometimes it will the layout of the card itself.

Here is a close up of the Glossy Accents that I used on various elements on all of the cards. (I am Glossy Accents addict) If you layer it on and then let it dry before you layer it on again you can really created a thick 3d effect.

I added a $2 bill to each card. I thought the kids would get a kick out of getting a lucky bill like that!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

It’s almost Turkey Day. Definitely my second favorite holiday of the year! Anything that involves gobs of carbs, sweets and turkey is my kind of holiday. 😍🍗😀

I don’t send Thanksgiving greetings to adults but, I do send them to my little nieces, nephews and grand nieces and nephews. Sending cards is just a fun, inexpensive and really personal way to keep in touch with my cutest relatives. And the kids really get excited to receive mail. I have even inspired my niece Brianna, who actually makes handmade cards and mail them to me as well now.

I had a lot of fun coloring these cute little mice from MFT Stamps Harvest Mouse stamp set.

I love the idea of these busy little mice getting ready for a Thanksgiving feast! Just imagine how cute their tiny little turkey would be. And teeny tiny pumpkin pies!

For this little mouse I used a cool technique on his sweater to create a wool look. Just dab some Copic Colorless Blender solution on a terry cloth rag and blot your Copic coloring to achieve this look.

The next two are really similar as many of my cards sometimes are. When I am making multiples of a card to send to different nieces/nephews it is sometimes easier to just make two of the same card. I make between 9 – 12 cards depending on the holiday.

I am looking forward to the holiday season and to cooler weather. It was 86 in our area of Florida today. That is just too hot for fall!

Happy Stamping,

Mo