New Look, Spooky Tree, and a Gizmo Thing

Hello Friends! I hope you had a great weekend (here in the U.S., it may still be a weekend for you for the Labor Day holiday, so continue to enjoy)! I haven't posted anything in a couple of days because I spent the weekend changing the look of my blog and also celebrating my 12th anniversary with my husband.  

When I first began my blog, I designed my background and banner myself, and I was really pleased with it. I still liked how it looked, but lately it had started to feel a little crowded with all the stuff that was on it, and I wanted to widen my posting area anyway, so I decided this was a great time to make a change. When I'm visiting other blogs, my favorites, esthetically, are the ones that have "calmer" backgrounds. My new look is moderately calm. ;)  I hope you like the "new me."

My husband and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this past weekend. We had dinner at the Atlanta Fish Market. If you're in the Atlanta area and haven't been there, it is quite a treat. Thanks for your suggestions on which anniversary card I should give him. I went with the leafy card and he loved it. I showed him all three cards and he said he liked the leafy card best because it was more masculine, but he also liked the grungier card, which is actually my personal favorite.

I talk about making cards all the time, and in one of those conversations I must have mentioned to my husband that I might want to eventually get a Copic airbrush system. Apparently, he was paying attention because he tried to find one at Michael's. He said he described it to them as something that paints and has brushes on it and costs $99. He said no one knew what he was talking about. I don't think I'd have known from that description, either. :D  Well, he finally gave up and when I opened my anniversary card, this fell out:

I was very touched, and I almost don't want to spend the money. I'd like to keep it just like it is. But, of course, I will spend it. I wouldn't want him to think I didn't appreciate the gift! ;~D

Now, on to my card. I was going to make another Christmas card, but since Halloween is just around the corner, I thought I'd try my hand at a "spooky" card. I used the September Sketch For You to Try and played the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #133 Bingo challenge, using the center vertical row of piercing, pearls, and ribbon. I like how it turned out--a kind of "grown- up" Halloween card.

I stamped the tree with Staz-On ink, then sponged Vintage Photo, Wild Honey, and Faded Jeans inks around it. I used Pumice Stone ink around the inside edge of the circle and Black Soot on the outside edge of the paper. I typed "Happy Halloween" in Word, printed a mirror image onto a transparency and rubbed it onto the tag. The pearls started out as a coppery brown color, but I colored them with a black Copic.

I love the blue and gold strip on the inside of the card. It's the same paper as on the front of the card, but the gold looks metallic here. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week!

 

Stamps: Haunted Tree (Inkadinkadoo)
Paper: Plentiful-digital paper & Dinner Party-digital paper (Shabby Princess); Vintage Wallpaper-digital paper (Lost and Taken); Best of K&Co; Darice; Recollections
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink; Staz-on; Copic markers
Dies: Std Circles Lg; Nested Lacey Pennants; Curved Rectangles (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Bird Call embossing folder (Cuttlebug); ribbon (Joann); pearls-colored with Copic marker (Studio 112); Corner Chomper; piercing tool; sentiment created in computer, printed on transparency and rubbed on
Size: A2 (4.25" 5.5")

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