In the Dog House

Hidy ho, crafty peeps!

I'm in the dog house!

It's not what you think...

This is a GOOD thing!

Today, I am posting as a Guest Designer for Top Dog Dies! How cool is that? They're having a HUGE release of new dies just in time for fall! I was chosen to showcase a couple of their new sets--

• Pocket Page Halloween Die Set  (item TC132)
• Spiders Die Set (item TC134)

I love playing with dies! Who doesn't???

My first and second projects use their Pocket Page Halloween Die Set. For my first project, I wanted to try something different than a traditional "Halloween" card, and I thought these dies would be SWEET all decorated up as sugar skulls!

(It may also have something to do with the fact that my husband and I were recently talking about how much we liked the animated movie "The Book of Life")...so that's where the idea for my "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) card came from.

I started by diecutting the skulls out of white cardstock, and the cat out of black cardstock. With a microfine-tipped marker I drew on the fun sugar skull decorations and colored them in with my Prismacolor colored pencils. For the cat, I drew a kitty skeleton on the cat die with a white gel pen and gave her a mask with another sugar skull. Rhinestone eyes finish her!

Then, I used a black cardstock base (fold on the top), and decorated it all up, freehand, with a white gel pen. I added pearls, and little paper flowers to complete the decoration. I cut out a heart shape from the front of the card and suspended the sugar skulls in the opening with some baker's twine.  On the inside of the card I did a little more white penwork that can be seen through the opening.

My second project is a traditional Halloween card.  This time I used all the dies in the set! I added a little detail to the dies and the background edge with a microfine-tipped marker and added some details, highlights, and shadows to the dies with my colored pencils. Then, I lightly inked all the edges of the card elements with brown stamping ink.

Here's a closeup of the details! I love how the rhinestones add just the right amount of bling! Those skulls are just too, too cute!

My final project uses the Spiders Die Set. Now, those of you who know me know that I am not fond of spiders.

They creep me out...even though I realize what beneficial beings they are.

They still creep me out.

But these spiders from Top Dog Dies are cute, friendly spiders. So...I never once felt compelled to grab my shoe or a can of Raid in the making of this card! Although, if I ran into a nest of them like this (even as cute as they are), I most definitely would yell, "Eeeek!"

I cut 2 of the web die out of white cardstock and flipped one over so that they formed a frame for my card. It's hard to see, but I covered the webs with micro glitter (that's what the little white dots are on the card...glitter). I adhered the webs to a piece of darkest eggplant-purple cardstock that I had embossed with a funky embossing folder.  I cut 3 of each letter of Eeeek...in 3 progressively darker shades of the same color. I glued them to each other-slightly offset (with the lightest color on top) to create this echo effect.

I diecut all the tiny spiderlings out of several shades of purple cardstock (an excellent way to use little scraps!) I added some penwork details on all of them with a microfine-tipped marker. Then, I tucked them here, there, and EVERYWHERE in the web frame. To finish it off, I scattered pearls here and there at junctures in the webbing. Hurry on over to the Top Dog Dies website and check out all their new (and older) dies!

A big thank you to the folks at Top Dog Dies for inviting me to be a guest designer! And a big THANK YOU for venturing out to see me here in Left Field!!!