Open If You Dare!

Happy Halloween!!!   ***GIVEAWAY!*** We wanted to have a little fun with our blog hop this week, and give away ONE $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE to the Brutus Monroe store! Just leave a comment on each blog post along the hop to be entered! Winner will be announced on next Wednesday’s blog hop post, November 7th, on the Brutus Monroe blog. Please remember to check back next week to see if you are the winner! 
         ***BONUS ENTRY- Post ANY project you have created in the Brutus Monroe Fan Club                    group on Facebook with the hashtag,#TrickOrTreatGiveaway! Good luck!                                            The Team has had a ball creating spooky Halloween cards and I’m excited to share mine!  The Pumpkin Faces and Scare Crows sets have so many great images that I had to use them both!  To begin, I inked up Hit The Brick background with black embossing ink then stamped it onto a panel of Bristol Smooth card stock.  I sprinkled on not just black embossing powder but Brutus Monroe’s cool Glow In The Dark powder too!  I set it with the heat tool and the Glow In The Dark looks amazing in a dark room!

 

 

The next think I did was to heavily sponge on several shades of distress oxide ink (Walnut Stain/Gathered Twigs/Carved Pumpkin and Fired Brick) to create my brick wall, then I trimmed the panel down with Stitched Rectangle dies and cut out a doorway!  I inked up a piece of string with Raven Detail ink then made a handle with it and wrote the words on the door with a Sharpie marker.  Setting that aside, I started on my inside images!

Here’s what the outside looks like in the dark!  I took this photo at 6:30 am in my kitchen!

To create my inside scene, I stamped out the scarecrow image from Scare Crows set, embossed in brown and then colored with Zig markers.  Look at that cute kitty on the left!  I also stamped out the cornstalk and then two pumpkins from Pumpkin Faces and colored them as well.  After fussy-cutting all the pieces, I attached them to a panel of black card stock on which I’d stamped and embossed more cornstalks with Glow In The Dark powder.

Oooooo!!!  Spooky!!!  😀

To construct my card, I adhered the inside panel to the backside of the brick wall panel, then layered that onto a panel of green card stock.  I attached it to a black card base and glued on my cornstalk and two pumpkins to the outside.  This card was a little involved, but so worth the extra effort because I think one of my grandsons will love it!  Especially when Nanna shows him how it glows in the dark!

I want to thank you all for your support and encouraging comments these past four months while I’ve been a part of the fabulous Brutus Monroe Inspiration Team.  It’s been a real joy and a wonderful experience to be part of a group of such inspiring and creative people!  I’m going to bow out with this card as my last official post for Brutus Monroe although I look forward to guest designing in the future!  Now, let’s see what those amazing people have created for this weeks  blog hop!  You’re sure to be inspired!                                                                                                    MARIE
JESS
HEATHER
BERINA
LAUREN
DANIEL
WALESKA
                                                                                                                            

 

 

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Inspiration

As a stamper and card artist, I find inspiration in some unexpected places!  Like, at the Dollar Tree!  I found this gorgeous plate there last week and just love the artists watercolor style!  I had to have it, so it came home with me!  I knew right away that I’d use Brutus Monroe’s Pumpkin Faces set to make my card; it comes with TEN various sized and shaped pumpkins plus ten faces to add on!  Now, I like scary pumpkins as much as anyone, but how wonderful that I can use this set for an elegant card!  

I stamped and heat-embossed the four pumpkins in silver, masking in order to layer them.  In retrospect, I wish I’d used dark gray ink instead.  Using the plate as a guide, I colored the pumpkins with a variety of Zig markers in shades of green, gray and brown, adding water to soften the ink.  My leaves and vines are from an old CTMH set called Grapevine and I think they beautifully complement the design.  I stamped them with Bundled Sage oxide ink.  

At this point, I realized that Brutus Monroe’s Hit The Brick background would go perfectly so I inked it up with Bundled Sage oxide and gently maneuvered the stamp to fill in the space above the pumpkins.  That’s the beauty of flexible cling stamps!  I trimmed my panel with a Stitched Rectangle die then mounted it to a panel of dark gray.  On a piece of vanilla card stock, I stamped more of the vines and leaves with Bundled Sage again and attached it to a base card of Jurassic card stock.  

When my card was complete, I made a coordinating envelope with more vines and leaves.  I’m pretty happy with my card and hope you like it too!  Now, I’m off to Dollar Tree to buy more of these plates!  And you should head straight to Brutus Monroe to check out these pumpkins!  😀

Cozy Country Christmas

Can I just say I’m in love??!!  I’ve been playing with my spankin’ new Unity/Brutus Monroe Hit The Brick background stamp and having SO MUCH FUN!!  I have so many ideas of ways to use this one!  Yesterday I laid out three panels of watercolor card stock, then covered my Brick stamp with a heavy layer of Ranger’s Distress Resist Spray and stamped it onto the stock.  The card above is the first one I did, and the spray was so saturated on the stamp that it lost some of it’s detail.  The second one was a better image and the third one was perfect!  BUT!  There was no way I was going to waste this one and here’s what I made!

So, here are my three panels after stamping out the Hit The Brick background, as mentioned above.  Not a great picture but you get the idea!

I sponged on these colors: Suede Surface ink, Terracotta Surface ink and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide.  The Resist Spray is VERY resistant so the shiny parts didn’t take the ink very well.

My finished panel; I didn’t love it but was hopeful I could make something beautiful with it!

I decided to cut out the center of my panel with Oval Stitched dies and create a “window”~ but what to place in my window?  After trying out several stamps, I settled on this one by Stampendous called Cozy Cottage which I stamped on a separate piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper using Gathered Twigs Distress ink.  I then “painted” over the lines with a watery brush to create the soft sepia look and added a little color using Distress Markers.

Then I realized that this would make a great shaker card!  I’ve only made a few with much angst and frustration, but this one came together beautifully!  I attached a piece of acetate to the backside of the window, then built a wall of foam tape going all around the back of the sponged panel to hold in the “snow” which is actually Ultra Thick Clear Embossing powder!!  I added a few sequins and micro beads as well!  Can you see them?  Anyway, I got all the pieces and parts in the correct order and voila!  A shaker panel!

I found the perfect patterned paper to attach the panel to, then mounted it to a card base of Brutus Monroe’s Lunchbag card stock!  The final touch was a few sprigs of Tim Holtz’ Holiday Greens holly touched up with a bit of Gathered Twigs distress oxide ink and three little “berries”!   Now, isn’t this a lovely scene framed by that amazing Brick background?!

Unity is still holding their awesome giveaway!  You have until October 1st to comment on any of the blogs which participated in the blog hop for a chance to win!  Here’s the link to their blog with the lineup!  On October 2nd, they’ll choose the lucky winners!  I hope it’s you!!  

 

Unity Hollyhocks Hit The Brick

Happy Saturday, friends!  It’s my day to share on the Brutus Monroe blog and we’ve had an exciting week with our recent reveal of the Unity Stamps and Brutus Monroe collaboration!  I received the Hit The Brick background stamp and paired it today with Unity Stamps Hollyhocks!  Above are pictured three panels which I created using the Brick background and Ranger’s Distress Resist Spray on watercolor card stock.  The first panel had the most spray so left a smudgy impression but I kept stamping it out onto the next two panels and got a better impression with each one.  You can be sure I’ll use them all, though!  

On the second panel, I sponged a layer of Zest Surface ink onto the center and then surrounded it with a layer of Sea Surface ink.  Isn’t that textured brick background gorgeous?!  

Next I inked up Hollyhocks with black embossing ink, stamped it onto my panel then heat-embossed with black powder.  I over-stamped another layer of the Hollyhocks with Iced Spruce distress oxide ink.  

My sentiment is from Unity Stamps Tess Girl set and I heat-embossed it in black directly to my card front.  When I added the black embossing powder, bits of it stuck to my Iced Spruce Hollyhocks but I decided to leave the residue as it gave another cool textured element!  

I decided to trim down my panel with Stitched Oval dies, making a slightly larger black oval to frame my main panel, and then stamped the Hollyhocks again onto a white base card with the Iced Spruce oxide ink.  

I adhered all the pieces together and this is my finished card!  

I love how the two stamps, Hit The Brick and Hollyhocks paired so beautifully and the pop of Zest is so striking!  There are four new background stamps made for Unity/Brutus Monroe so be sure to check them out!  Here are the links:                                                                                               Hit The Brick     Dance With Denim      Barn Wall      Spilled Paint