120 – Stamped Smiles

Hello friends and happy weekend! It’s the last Saturday for this month and next week will be November 1st! Can you believe it?! We’re nearing the end of the year, but I’d like to stop and enjoy the wonderful Autumn season right now while it’s here!

Last Saturday of October brings us to the monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” OCTOBER prompt of “MAGICAL”:

I couldn’t let this month go by without adding in a Halloween themed AJ page! I love making them and getting out lots of dies from several different companies that made this one a fun project to pull together.

Background: I used an 8.5″ x 5.5″ piece of Mixed Media cardstock and blended the background in various colors using a light yellow for the center where the window is open and the cauldron is brewing up something magical!

I then took a cogs and wheel stencil and sponged on some gold ink in various places. I took a cool background stamp from Whimsy Stamps called Vintage Wallpaper and stamped it in random places. I also cut a strip of wood plank background paper from my stash to add at the bottom of the page. I then took my gold ink pad and swiped it around the edges of the page.

Die Cuts: The large spider web cut from holographic paper, the witch, the fire, and cats all came from Whimsy Stamps. The Cauldron and potion bottle came from Taylored Expressions, the window came from Simon Says Stamp and the wood under the cauldron came from Lawn Fawn. For some of the pieces, I ink blended or added a gold highlight to the edges. For the potion bottle, there is a tiny label on it that says “Moon Dust” with a moon on it. (It’s hard to see in the photo.) I added some glitter to the contents. After ink blending the flames, I covered it with a glitter brush pen.

I took a marker to added some shadows under the witch, cat and cauldron. I took some yellow sequins and added it under the potion bottle to make it look like she’s added it to the potion. Lastly, I took a couple of Tim Holtz sentiment clippings to add to the scene.