October 2021 DIY: Clever Cat (and pumpkin!)

Posted on October 1, 2021 by mauistamper

I’ve embraced a Halloween theme for October this year. I don’t always, but this goofy jack-o-lantern from Clever Cat stole my heart. How can you resist him with that Sorting Hat on top?

Maui Stamper Stampin Up October 2021 DIY Easel Calendar Clever Cats

Stamps: Clever Cat
Color Palette: Memento Black, Basic White, Pumpkin Pie, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze
Accessories: Big Boss, Forever Flourishing dies, Paper Snips, Stampin’ Blends, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I fussy cut the cat and jack-o-lantern, and then cut apart a couple of leaf images from the Forever Flourishing dies to create some fall foliage (or what I imagine would be fall foliage, that’s not really a thing here on Maui.) Forever Flourishing is such a versatile set of dies!

Stampin’ Blends are my favorite coloring medium, hands down. I’m still learning different techniques for color grading and shadowing, but that doesn’t stop me from playing with them every chance I get. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s handmade!

Be sure you stop by to see what Cheryl and Crystal have created for October.

If you’d like to create your own calendar, the 2022 DIY Calendar PDF is available for sale. Click on Contact the Maui Stamper and send me your email and I’ll invoice you. It’s just $5, and you’re welcome to create for your own use as well as for sale. Please note this is a PDF – you’ll receive a file and print your own copies.

In just 2 days…Trick or Treat!

Posted on October 29, 2015 by mauistamper

There aren’t a lot of trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood so I can afford to have some fun:

If you follow the Maui Stamper, you’ll remember I made these HERE.

These are very similar, using the Pillow Box Framelits, the Howl-o-ween stamps, the Boo to You Thinlits and the Woodlands TIEF – but I used retired DSP for the back and some retired ribbon as well.

I really did use up all of my Happy Haunting DSP!

The fun thing is that with the window on the front (it’s one of the options with the framelit set) you can see the reverse side of the DSP when the treats are gone. As if the local 6-year-olds will care, but it makes me happy to know it’s there.

Witchy Li’l Punkins

Posted on October 22, 2015 by mauistamper

I am shamelessly CASEing these punkins:

They were apparently a big hit a Founders Circle, Stampin’ Up!’s recognition event for the top 100 demonstrators. Janet Wakeland shared them privately with her RemARKable Stampers team , and Patty Bennett shared them on her blog with a little more detail.

I made a punkin-patch worth of these for my hostess club – I know they’ll be after the chocolate inside!

I used a variety of different stamps to embellish the sides – Chalk Lines, Sweet Stack, Awesomely Artistic, and Dotty Angles. It’s a simple idea: assemble the Curvy Keepsake Box, cut a slit down the center of the Spider Web doily and slip it over the handles. I punched a 2 1/2″ circle of Black Glimmer paper and used a craft knife to cut a slit in the center of that (Patty’s example uses the Word Window punch). I slipped the circle over the handles right on top of the doily.

Finally, I punched two trees from Black Glimmer paper and adhered them to one another with Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive). I made a Builder Bow Punch bow with Happy Haunting DSP (told you I used it up!) and used Glue dots to put the bow on the “tree” and the tree on the handle. Patty’s version is a little different – the hat lifts on and off – but I wanted my to stay put.

There’s still time – just a few cranks of that Big Shot and you’ll be halfway there!

It’s not just for Halloween

Posted on October 10, 2012 by mauistamper

Crystal brought me a fabulous present a couple of weeks ago. The gift itself was awesome – The Best Bag Hook Ever!! The wrapping was pretty doggone sweet too:

Tell me, does that look like Halloween paper to you??? Love, love love it!!!

Here’s the side view – she layered solid Blossom punch flowers with the DSP on top and cut through the petals for extra fullness.

Now that’s thinking outside the box!!!
(I know, it’s sick, but I couldn’t resist.)

Booo Spideys

Posted on September 28, 2012 by mauistamper

Still playin’ with the spiders from the Googly Ghouls stamp set. These are decidedly un-scary spiders. I think it’s the lack of hair (as in hairy legs) and teeth.

Googly Ghouls stamp set
Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry and Basic Gray card stock
Staz-on Black ink
Tangerine Tango, Basic Black and Rich Razzlberry Stampin’ Write Markers
Color Spritzer
Crystal Effects
Black striped satin ribbon

Solve one problem, start on another – my photo is really washed out. I need to change my “photo studio” set-up, mostly because it’s nothing of the sort. But that rant is for another day.

I am really crazy about that new black striped ribbon from the Holiday Catalog. It is shiny, luxurious, and can cross between elegant and spooky. It has that softness you need for a card. Doesn’t it seem like Stampin’ Up! has really gotten the ribbon texture thing DOWN lately? They’re all so easy to work with. I think the product design people need some high fives.

Couple things about this card…I just eye-balled the alignment of the spiders but if you really want them straight, use that trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig. I extended the spider-silk line up the card with my Basic Black Stampin’ Write marker and you can too. Use a light touch – I used a ruler to keep me on the straight road. And (I ask myself) WHY DON’T I USE CRYSTAL EFFECTS MORE OFTEN??? So, so awesome! You just have to plan ahead and allow time for it to dry. (*lightbulb moment: this is why I don’t use Crystal Effects more often.) You may not be able to see it in the photo but it is on those spideys and it makes them pop!

Decorating Jack

Posted on October 28, 2010 by mauistamper

I have fond memories of carving Jack-O-Lanterns with my three kids. We always selected “interesting” pumpkins and carefully drew faces with markers on them before we began the cutting to be sure we liked our choices. The children were never terribly enthusiastic about sticking their hands inside and scooping out the gooey stuff, but my oldest daughter would always ask to set the seeds aside for roasting.

Now that there’s only a very busy 16 year old man-child in the house, carving pumpkins doesn’t generate the interest it did in the past. It helps to understand that the carving had to be done on Halloween afternoon, because here on Maui a pumpkin that’s been cut more than 24 hours gets fuzzy very quickly. My favorite Halloweens have been the ones that fell the night before trash pick-up, because I could dump all that soggy mess into the trash late on the 31st and it would be gone before the local insect population came to visit.

This year, when I saw the Decor Elements demonstrated on pumpkins at convention, I knew my problems had been solved:

I wish I had a snazzy camera and lens that would show you Jack’s whole face in one shot, but for now you get to see his Trick side and his Treat side in two parts:

This Jack is already sitting on my front porch – that in and of itself is an amazing thing. Decor Elements, you rock.

Kangaroo Boo

Posted on October 18, 2010 by mauistamper

I have a soft spot in my heart for the Build-a-roo stamp set. To be honest, that spot encompasses all things Australian since my daughter moved there in February. She and her boyfriend were with us for almost three glorious weeks recently, and I loved every moment of it. I’m missing them both:

Build-a-Roo, All Holidays, Vintage Vogue and Sock Monkey Accessories stamp sets
Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla card stock
Early Espresso, Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie classic ink pads
Jumbo brad, Crop-a-dile and Aquapainter
1 1/4 inch Old Olive striped grosgrain ribbon
Stamp-a-ma-jig

Kind of a silly card, isn’t it?

Spooky things

Posted on September 1, 2010 by mauistamper

If you’re like me, a new Stampin’ Up! catalog makes your heart beat faster. One of the (many!) perks of being a demonstrator is seeing the new catalogs before they are released – and getting to order many of those products a month ahead of time.

The Holiday Mini catalog this year practically had me reaching for the oxygen. Not only are there forays into fabulous new product lines – you’ve certainly heard that we have FABRIC – but there are awesome products for cards, scrapbooking, decorating, and just about any kind of crafting you can imagine for ALL the winter holidays (ok, time to cool it on the caps, I know.) We saw a lot of great projects at convention using Holiday Mini products, but this was one of my favorites:

Don’t you love it?? This is a perfect solution to my Halloween dilemma. I know that most of you mainland folks buy your pumpkins and carve them days, maybe even a week before Halloween, and that they last beautifully out on your frosty front porches. It doesn’t quite work that way here…we usually carve our pumpkins Halloween afternoon. By the time they’ve spent a couple of hours Halloween evening on the front lanai with a tea light candle burning in them, they are already looking sort of sad. The morning after is always depressing – there have been years when my pumpkins were already growing things at 8am on November 1. If the trash man isn’t coming soon those pumpkins need to be well-wrapped before they get the heave-ho! Ugh. It grosses me out just to think about it.

Back to the fun stuff – the Home Office Genius Department had to paint orange pumpkins white – just couldn’t find white pumpkins in July – but I think these are just smashing! (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) Take some pumpkins and add a few pieces from the Spooky Things Decor Elements (120909 black, 122296 dark grey, $14.95), some Black Flourish Designer Jewels (123987, $4.95) and black ribbon (lots of choices there!) and you have instant Halloween. They may not last months and months in the tropics, but they’ll at least make it through the week.

We also saw luminarias done with the same Decor Elements:

And one last spectacular project – the Haunted House:

It was worth the entire cost of convention to see this project put together on stage. Suffice it to say that the folks that work in the Stampin’ Up! Home Office have an enormous dose of creativity and the gift of entertainment. This house is a Decor Accents Design-a-House (120911, $5.95) – it comes in white all ready for your own creative blast.

Time to put in a Holiday Mini catalog order! Click on the image and the whole glorious catalog will open in a pdf.

While we’re on the subject of Halloween…

Posted on August 23, 2010 by mauistamper

This was one of those projects that sits around for a while and gathers dust while I decide what to do with it. The final touch was the tree and since my favorite Branch Out stamp set is RETIRED, of all things, I had to wait for Crystal to come by with Season of Friendship so I could use that tree:

Aviary, Season of Friendship, Wonderfully Worn and Paisley Prints stamp sets
Paisley Party Stampin’ Around Wheel
Tangerine Tango, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Whisper White and Shimmer White card stock
Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, River Rock and Early Espresso classic ink pads
Cajun Craze and Old Olive Stampin’ Write marker
Linen Thread, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Sponges and 1 1/4 inch circle punch

The moon is Shimmer paper sponged with Old Olive…or it might have been River Rock, I can’t exactly remember. I added the tree after the card was all finished, and I was terrified to stamp directly on the card even WITH a Stamp-a-ma-jig. I ended up stamping the image on a piece of scrap copy paper (it needs to be thin paper) and cutting the image out carefully. That left me with a negative image of the tree that I temporarily put in place over the card with Dotto repositionable adhesive. I very carefully sponged through the copy paper template to put the tree exactly where I wanted it. Pretty sneaky, huh?

I have to try a couple more like this. I really like the effeect of that sponged tree. In all honesty, there’s no way I would have been able to do this with those gorgeous spidery branches on my Branch Out tree. Season of Friendship finally wins.

Super Simple Halloween Treats

Posted on October 23, 2009 by mauistamper

This is a quick and easy treatment for some simple Halloween goodies…the stamped image is 3″ square, the mat is 3 1/4″ square, and the packaging is 3 1/2″ wide x 8 1/2″ long. Punch holes in the center of everything and double punch some Only Orange cardstock to create a ring and you’re almost done. It doesn’t show in the photo, but I used the absolutely magical Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint to give it all some sparkle – a couple of drops in a small spray bottle with some rubbing alcohol and you are ready to sparkle…and it doesn’t come off the project!

Sweet_Centers_Halloween_Treats

Sweet Centers Stamp Set
Only Orange, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock
Old Olive Classic Stampin’ Ink
1 3/4″ and 1 3/8″ circle punches
White Gel pen, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, Crop-a-dile, Sticky Strip and small cello bag
Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive 1/4″ grosgrain; non-SU 1/8″ black grosgrain

These would be easy to make in quantity! Trick or treat!

The Maui Stamper

papercrafts, my stories, and the occasional insight

Tag Archives: Halloween

October 2021 DIY: Clever Cat (and pumpkin!)

In just 2 days…Trick or Treat!

Witchy Li’l Punkins

It’s not just for Halloween

Booo Spideys

Decorating Jack

Kangaroo Boo

Spooky things

While we’re on the subject of Halloween…

Super Simple Halloween Treats

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