World Of Michael Trent

As some of you know, I love Vera Lane Studio digital stamps - they are fun, quirky, odd and there are lots of zombie and coffee themed images to play with. This month, in the  Vera Lane Studio Facebook Group , there is a Coffee ATC Challenge.   Coffee and zombies.  My two favorite words.  But a coffee loving zombie is so much more fun and that is what today's project is all about.  Hence the coffee and zombie! As much as I would have liked to have used real coffee stained paper for this project, I have yet to try that, so I started by printing a free coffee stained digital paper I had in my stash and then cutting it to an ATC size - 2.5" x 3.5".  I also distressed the edges with vintage photo distress ink (Holtz/Ranger).   Using the Calacas Digi Stamp Bundle - I printed two of the zombie images, along with some of the coffee cups, and the phrase.  I then fussy cut the zombie, the flower from the 2nd zombie, and 5 of the cup...

Hello everyone and Happy Day of the Dead or Dia de Los Muertos (Spanish) or Dia dos Mortos (Portuguese) - depending on where you live or what language you speak.  I love this holiday and I love the idea of a special day to remember and celebrate those that have passed before us.  Most people consider this a Mexican holiday but it is celebrated in many other parts of the world.  In the states it's called All Souls Day but parts of the USA in the Midwest and south also celebrate Day of the Dead because of the Mexican influence.  Here in Brasil it's a  public holiday, also called Finados, and is similar to other Day of the Dead celebrations.  Many people go to cemeteries and churches with flowers and candles and offer prayers. The celebration is intended to honor the dead. Memorializing the dead draws from indigenous, African and European Catholic origins. There is a lot to learn about the Day of the Dead and, if you are interested, you can click on...

Hello everyone.  I am having "cyber" coffee and sharing cards with Deb and Celeste again today. Our theme for today is Halloween - one of the holidays I really miss from the states.  It's not a typical holiday here and, although there might be some parties and the kids will dress up for school, there is no trick-or-treating and there is no candy corn!!  I know...sad.   For today's hop I am enjoying a cuppa Cinnamon Blueberry Crumble (YUM) in a new cactus mug that Ruy got a few days ago and which gave me an idea for a card but that will be next week and, I digress.      For my card today, I decided to use a digi stamp I have from  Bugaboo Stamps  called  Trick or Treat Feet  and I printed 4 of the images at 90% onto white cardstock.   I trimmed one of the images and colored it using a variety of BIC Ultra Fine Tip Markers  (my favorite markers).  I also layered it on to a piece ...

Hello everyone and Happy Friday!!  I wanted to make a quick post to show you guys another Halloween card that I made for the If You Give A Crafter A Cookie Challenge Blog - Challenge No. 105.  This is the 2nd card I made for this challenge because I love (and miss) Halloween.  The first card was yesterday and you can check that card out { HERE }.   For today's card I used two digital items.  The first was a digital image from Vera Lane Studio on Etsy.  I love her images...quirky and fun.  The image I used is called October  and it comes with the girl holding the pumpkin and two phrases.  I started by printing out the image two times, coloring them with BIC Markers....one of them fully colored and just the pumpkin on the other.  I fussy cut her out and then I fussy cut just the pumpkin.  I then went back and added some Firefly Stickles (Ranger) to her eyebrows and some Orange Peel Stickles (Ranger) to her dress and h...

Hello everyone.  I wanted to share with you guys a card I made for the current challenge over on the If You Give A Crafter A Cookie Challenge Blog .  This is Challenge No. 105 and the inspiration photo for the challenge is -  I wanted to make a Halloween card but not a typical card with typical colors or images.  I found this great image called " Have A Magical Evening " from a store on Etsy called  All Dressed Up . I started by printing the image at 60% on white cardstock, I cut it using the 2nd largest die from A2 Matting Basics A ( S5-131/Spellbinders ).  Then I colored it using Ultra Fine Tipped BIC Markers . I made an A2 card base of white cardstock and adhered a piece of black cardstock to the front.  Using the largest die from A2 Matting Basics B ( S5-132/Spellbinders ), I cut a piece of apricot colored cardstock.   I adhered the apricot cardstock to the card front and then the piece with the image to the apri...

Hello everyone!!  Yes, it's true.  Today is National Coffee Day.  Not that I need any special day to celebrate coffee since I drink it daily...several times a day, in fact.  But, since today is an extra special coffee day, I made a card....coffee themed. And I am drinking some of the best coffee in Brasil by Melita!  YUM!  I started with a digi stamp called Stay Strong that I recently purchased from Gracielle Designs on Etsy .  If you do not like digi stamps, you can also buy this set as a rubber stamp { HERE } at Unity Stamps.  I printed a full A4 sheet (cuz I will use these).  Then I had my Scan N Cut cut some of the cups out.    Next, I printed out one of the sentiments and die cut it with my stitched rectangle die.    I also stamped the flower image from Blossomy Condolences (Unity Stamp) and had my Scan N Cut cut it out. I colored in the cup and the flowers with a variety of BIC Mark...

Hi everyone!  I am always posting my cards, which I love to do, but I also love to make mini albums. I've always loved taking photos.  And I miss going to a Kodak store to pick up my package of photos that I took with my roll of film.  Remember an actual roll of film??  LOL  Nowadays we keep all of our memories on a cell phone, Instagram, or Facebook and people have forgotten what it's like to sit down and turn the pages of an album and look at an actual photo.  Hence the reason I love to make mini albums.  For this album, I used the Paper Dream printable template from Jen Of Eve Designs along with a digital paper pad from Paper Phenomenon called Flight 2715 . Here is the cover of the book -  And here are some of the pages inside the book -  I made a video of the book, which you can watch { HERE } over on my YouTube Channel.  I hope you enjoy it.  I'd love to know so please leave me a comment below (o...

Hello everyone.  Today's card has been in my head for weeks and I finally found the time to make it. I did some fine tuning as I made the card and it actually came out better in the end than it was in my head.  Has this ever happened to you?  And I have to thank my friend Debra for the sentiment idea.  I was going to use "Seasons Greetings" but then she suggested "Seasonings Greetings", which I love even more, and that's what I went with in the end!   So, thanks Deb!!   Here's how I made this card -  1.  I prepared the sentiment "SEASONINGS GREETINGS" on the computer and printed two of them out on A4 white cardstock.  2.  I positioned the stitched rectangle die over the sentiment, adhered it with some washi tape, trimmed the cardstock, and die cut it with my Big Shot.  (I'm sure there is an easier way with software but I do not know how to do this.  So, if you do, please let me know in the comments and I...