Very Simply Susan

I know it’s the dead heat of summer, but for me it is time to start thinking about making holiday cards!  I decided to look at doing some Halloween cards that did not require the typical Halloween stamps.  I decided to keep the color scheme simple and stayed with Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie since that color combination is the most “Halloween” of them all! The card above was very simple to do and used the Sketched Plaid stamped on Pumpkin Pie with a sentiment from the Throughout The Year set.  I added some die cut leaves from the Thoughtful Wishes dies and a bit of black twine. The envelope is decorated using the online exclusive stamp set Of Art & Texture. The “eek! sentiment is from a retired set named Spooky Fun. One of my secrets in doing this card is that I almost always use Basic Gray instead of Black ink when I have large areas to cover. I like the Stampin’ Up! ink better than the Memento Ink. And I think the Basic Gray has a better look for stamping large areas than a black ink.

The card below uses the Of Art & Texture stamp set and the sentiment from Throughout The Year. The Die cuts were made from the Flowers of Beauty dies. It’s a little more somber looking than I usually like for a Halloween card. But I think it works. And stretching my creativity a bit with the Of Art & Texture stamp set was fun.

The Halloween themed card shown below is made using the  Under The Moon stamp set. This set is designed as a nautical or ocean themed set, but I thought the full moon and clouds looked very “Halloween Night.  I added a border using the Of Art & Texture stamp set and again, the sentiment was from Throughout the Year.  This is a little somber too, but I thought it matched the sentiment and conveyed the feeling of a Halloween night.

Well, these are some of my ideas for starting Halloween without much in the way of Halloween sets or paper to work from. We have gotten the news that there is no Halloween shown in the Holiday mini catalog everyone will be getting next month. But the good news is that there are two Halloween sets online in the “Online Exclusives”. We also got the word that there will be a new release with paper and die cuts coming in September! I hope you can take some inspiration from the cards shown today and get your holiday cards started!

SuppliesUsed to Make This Card

Here is another version of a Fun Fold design I used in a card on Friday’s post. You can see that one HERE!  This was one of the designs I created as a possibility for a swap. But as much as I like this, it was going to require more paper than I had on hand to create the 12 cards I needed.  But I love how the Thoughtful Wishes patterned paper makes a wonderful fall themed card.  I hadn’t planned it as a fall card, but once the colors started coming together I decided to give it a fall sentiment and make it a “fall” thank you card!  The Cajun Craze, Wild Wheat and Basic Beige were perfect with this patterned paper.

Just like Friday’s card, this is a simple Fun Fold with one layer at 4.25″ x 8.5″ scored at 3″ and a fold over layer at 3″ x 8″ scored at 4″.  It’s a simple overlapping design.  I also die cut two pieces using the Thoughtful Wishes dies. They are tied together with a strand pulled from the Wild Wheat Jute trim.  The Jute Trim is fairly thick, so if you want a thinner piece, just untwist the strands in the Jute Trim to pull out a single strand.

Supplies Used To Make This Card: 

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This is a design I did for a Fun Fold swap this week.  I love to do Fun Fold cards that someone else designs, but I Have a hard time coming up with designs myself.  I went to a simple Fun Fold that is a 4″ x 8.5″ scored at 3″ and a 3″ x 8″ scored at 4″.  This “flip flap” Fun Fold has been around forever, but I find it easy to make and more importantly,  design around!

My next problem was what pattern papers to use. I tried a couple of ideas, but I needed enough on hand to make 12 cards and my paper supply is getting used up by now. Flipping through my paper file, I spied this beautiful paper, Nature’s Sweetness.  It’s a carry over paper and still in the current line and was just what I needed! I love monochrome designs in the paper and used Pebbled Path as the base color.  The subtlety of the design and the monochrome color make a pretty Fun Fold that is not overwhelming. I love it when I find things in my supplies that have not been used nearly enough. I had forgotten how beautiful both the paper and the matching stamp set are!

Here is a look at the inside of the card:

Supplies Used To Make This Card: 

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