Shameless Image Thievery - Southern Tier Brewing Co.

Southern Tier Brewing Co. produces a pretty good pumpkin beer this time of year.  With a tag line that reads; 
”bewitched and brewed with pagan spirit” - come on, how could you pass that up?  Below is the label affixed to black card stock.  Equipped with a color photo copier and some craft supplies; a little hocus-pocus and....Ta DA!  The Pumking greeting card is born.

They also produce a Warlock pumpkin stout that I have not tried yet.  It too has a pretty cool image, but I'm not diggin' the hat as much as I am the crown. 

Halloween #4 - my favorite so far!

Admittedly, this one is a little sick and twisted.  I've had this idea in my head since the first time I saw that butterfly-squished stamp from Unity Stamps.  They call that image Beautiful Disaster.  Irresistible from my perspective.  Tim Holtz also has a squished moth stamp but it's a lot more pointy than this one.  Oh, I own that one too, but this one was my 'first love', if you will.

So, as always, here are pictures of the products I used, giving credit where credit is due.  And then the finished card. "Life, subject to change without notice."

The Rusty Pickle set got used on the inside of the card - just a simple 'Happy Halloween'.  Those Rain Dots are a very dark purple.  And another set of pennant stamps from Unity added the '31' on the front of the card.  That 'October' stamp I got for a buck on Addicted to Rubber Stamps.  The background paper uses up the last from WE R Memory Keepers.  The line is called Heebie Jeebies.  Added to that were some scraps from My Mind's Eye.  Sprinkle a littel fairy dust on the pile and out popped this card.

 

 

Halloween #3

This card is made from paper meant for scrapbooking more so than card making.  WRMK made this line, but most lines provide something similar.  A sheet of paper with rows of different sentiments or borders.  It's meant to be cut into strips and used for 12x12 scrapbook layouts.  Since I'm not a scrapper (how many pictures of my cat do I really need?) and the strips are too big to fit on a card, that means this is the paper that filters its way to the bottom of the pile. 

Here I cut it into #10 cards and layered on some pennants that I cut from the Lifestyle Crafts Pennant Punches set.  I pulled some scraps from my stack and cut a moon using Spellbinders circle dies, a bat from an oldie but goodie Sizziz Original and boom!  I bizzy, but effective Halloween greeting. 

Pick o' the Patch

This little card came together pretty quickly.  My Mind's Eye provided the background paper and Prima leaves and flowers added to some scrapper's floss and button brads puts just the right spin on it, to make it "The Pick o' the Patch".  (which is what the sentiment is on the inside). 

Playing with my Stamping Gear

With Summer's end comes the time of year where I'm sick of working on the cookie books for Christmas and desperate to dive into Halloween greetings.  Anything NOT Christmas is in order.  While the books are not yet done, I find I get a little sloppy with them, so it's time to put them aside for a bit. 

Here is the first of three Halloween designs.  First a shot of the stuff I used to make it.  I went a little nuts when the Stamping Gear hit the market about a year ago.  I've been buying stamps steadily to use with it, everything I like, which was kind of a lot.  What can I say?  It's a gadget for stamping!  If I were a cat, this thing would be cat nip....just sayin'

It's sold under the Inkadinkado logo, parented by EK Success.  That green cog is the large round version of the tool.  It has a small round as well as a set of ovals, rectangles and squares too.  Essentially it acts as a spacer so you can evenly place images around the shape you've chosen.  They sell a line of stamps made for the Gear, but you don't have to limit yourself to them.  Any foam mounted stamp can be used.  I took one of the clear stamp skulls in the set below, mounted it on foam and used it with no problem.  Sure, sure the clear stamps stick without foam, but if you want the tool to work you need the height of the foam added to the clear stamp for it to work. 

That set of stamps in the center of the Gear is one they sell for the Gear - its their Halloween offering from last year.  I used the branches in the design below.  It should be said that the gear works best with images that are roughly 2" or less.  Anything larger won't fit well onto the handle they provide. 



 



You can see that by varying the color and the notch you use you can layer in the images until the cows come home.  A wreath of anything you can think of becomes possible.  The large circle was used on the front and the small was used on the inside.  I wanted the bats to have some dimension, so stamped them individually and then fussy-cut them out while watching mindless television. 

 

The Gear is a keeper.  If you like to make frames around things, this is a great twist on the standard.  There are lots and lots of Gear stamps available and more every season.  And, with a little ingenuity ANY stamp, as long as it's foam mounted, can work with your Gears.  You can probably even use wood mounted as long as you mark the center of the image on the wood and line that up with the notches on the Gear as you stamp.  Put it on your Amazon Wish List for Christmas!