World Of Michael Trent

  Hello everyone, and welcome to the September 2023 Edition of The Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas.   If this is your first time here, on the 25th of each month, I am part of a Christmas collab with some of my Crafty Elf friends - Debra of  Meticulosity  and  Lisa of  Life of a BZScrapper  - and we each post a fun Christmas or Holiday card to help inspire you to make your own.   This month we have a Guest Crafty Elf - Pam Kline Stang of Mustang Creations . Links to the other Elves' cards, and to our social media pages, are at the end of this post.    This month I made a Christmas card using 2 stamps - Christmas Frame and the Gifts of Christmas Set - both from Technique Junkies . I made a top-folding A2 card base using red cardstock.  Then I stamped the Christmas Frame stamp on white cardstock, die-cut it using a 4.25" x 5.5" stitched rectangle die, and adhered it to the card front.   Next, I colored in th...

  Hello everyone and welcome to the first night of Rosh Hashana, or Shana Tova, or Shanah Tovah, which are all the ways Jewish people say Happy New Year.  Even though I am Jewish, I don't think I ever made any cards for this holiday and I have no stamps or dies that I could really use.  But a friend of mine told me she was going to mail me one and that lit a fire under my bum to make one for her too - and a few extra.   Before I get to my card...what is Rosh Hashanah?  Short answer... Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the universe, the day G-d created Adam and Eve, and it's celebrated as the head of the Jewish year.  It begins at sundown on the eve of Tishrei 1 (Sept. 15, 2023) and ends after nightfall on Tishrei 2 (Sept. 17, 2023).  The holiday also includes round challah bread with raisins (gosh I miss challah bread) and apples dipped in honey that symbolize the wishes for a sweet year. To learn more about Rosh Hashanah check out chabad.org , whi...

  Hello everyone and welcome to a new He Made It/She Made It collaboration with my friend Debra of Meticulosity .  Each month we decide on which stamp to use and then we each make a card using that stamp to see what we each come up with.   This month we chose the new Explore The World stamp from Technique Junkies . Debra and I love to read and it really is the best way to explore the world if you cannot travel.  You can also explore the world from the comfort of your own home by watching videos and documentaries on YouTube or Netflix.  But I think the best way to explore the world is by eating or making dishes from other countries or nationalities, which is something I love to do.  So I took a photo of some of my cookbooks to use as the main focal point of my card.     I made a 5.75" square card base using black cardstock. I cut a piece of white cardstock, 5.5" x 5.5", embossed it with the Cross Weaves 3D Embossing Folder from Altenew, ...

  Hello everyone and welcome to Day 9 of my 31 Days {hopefully} Halloween/Autumn Cards 2023 series.  Today I have another simple and beautiful (I think) gratitude/blessings/Thanksgiving card using Worn Leaves Background and Autumn Framed Sentiments , both from Technique Junkies , with the Ombré Autumn ink from Hero Arts.    I started with an A2 card base from white cardstock. I adhered a piece of autumn orange cardstock to the card front. I die-cut a piece of white cardstock using a stitched rectangle die and then I stamped Worn Leaves on the front using the Ombré Autumn ink pad from Hero Arts.  I LOVE this ink pad.  :-) For my sentiment - I used the same cardstock as my card front, stamped my sentiment using Onyx Black Versafine Ink, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, trimmed it, layered it on a piece of black cardstock, and then adhered it to the card front.   Done.  If you wanted, you could add a few crystals or enamel dots bu...

  Hello everyone, and welcome to Day 8 of my 31 Days {hopefully} of Halloween/Autumn Cards 2023.  If I'm being honest, I gave a class today and had no energy to also do a blog post.  But, while cleaning, I found a cool skeleton chipboard (from an old My Mind's Eye Collection) in the bottom of a bag along with the September 2016 Die of the Month from Spellbinders with pumpkins, bats, etc. and an idea started to form.    Since the skeleton is large, I made a 5" x 7" card base using black cardstock.   Then I found this cool paper (moon and tree branches) in the digital version of the Trick or Treat Collection from Carta Bella, designed by Steve Duncan.   I printed the paper, cut it down, layered it on a piece of black fun foam, and then adhered it to the card front.     I adhered the skeleton so the hand was in front of the moon.   Using a few of the dies from the Spellbinders September 2016 Die of the Month kit, I die-c...

  Hello everyone and welcome to Day 7 of my 31 Days {hopefully} of Halloween/Autumn Cards 2023.  Today is Independence Day here in Brasil, which means that 201 years ago, Brasil declared itself independent from Portugal. Everything is closed but we will heading to an Orange Festival soon and I wanted to post a simple and fun card for Halloween. Like I said in some of my previous posts, a simple sentiment and a sheet of Halloween paper is all you really need to make a fun card.   I made a top-folding A2 card base using some lime-colored cardstock.   Using the Digital Version of the I Love Halloween Collection , I printed one of the papers (with the bats on them), die-cut it using a 4" x 5.25" stitched rectangle die, and I adhered it to my card front.   I stamped Spidery Halloween on a piece of white cardstock, adhered it to a piece of black cardstock, and then to the card front using foam tape. For the inside of the card, I die-cut another piece o...

  Welcome to Day 6 of my 31 Days {hopefully} of Halloween/Autumn Cards 2023.  I  love making square cards.  I have so many 6x6 paper pads and it's so easy to just adhere one of the sheets to a card front and work from there. Today's card is a 5.5" square card using the  Drop A House  stamp from  Technique Junkies  and one of the papers from the  Hocus Pocus Collection  from Echo Park.  It's an older pad and I used the digital version from  Snap Click Supply .   How to make the card: I started by making my card base 5.5" x 11", which I scored in the center. I adhered one of the papers from the Hocus Pocus Collection to my card front and trimmed the excess.  I went with the witch's feet to match the stamp.  I stamped Drop A House on white cardstock and colored it with some alcohol markers and then I die-cut the image using a stitched square die . I die-cut two more pieces of cardstock - orange and purple - in the n...

  Welcome to Day 5 of my 31 Days {hopefully} of Halloween/Autumn Cards 2023.  5 days so far!  I'm on a roll.  :-) Today I went with two gratitude/Thanksgiving cards with Autumn colors.  One has splatters and crystals and the other only has crystals.  I started making this card for a CAS {clean and simple} card challenge blog.  I have issues making one-layer cards with lots of white space, but I did it.  When I went to post it, the challenge had ended.  Sigh.  But, thankfully, there are several other card challenge blogs that have autumn or autumn-colored challenges and that's where this card will go.   Links to these challenges are at the end of this post if you want to play along along with a coupon code to save 10% on these stamps.   To make this card... I really wanted to use the Worn Leaves Background from Technique Junkies for my focal point.   But I only wanted part of the stamp.  So I cut it!...

  Welcome to Day 4 of my 31 Days {hopefully} of Halloween/Autumn Cards 2023.  Some of these cards will be on the Technique Junkies Blog  because this month is their big Halloween release and I made several cards for them.   Today's card is a simple Halloween card with a skeleton theme.  I used 1 sheet of black cardstock, 1 sheet of white cardstock (or scraps), the No Skeletons stamp from Technique Junkies, and 1 6x6 sheet of Halloween paper with skeletons on it.       I will also enter this card on the September Anything Goes challenge on the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge Blog .  The mood board is below, which includes skeletons and helps with my theme.  :-) Let's make the card: I started with a top-folding A2 card base from black cardstock.   I wanted paper with skeletons on it to match the sentiment and I found one in the Halloween Market Mega Digital Collection from Carta Bella/ Snap Click Supply .  I pri...

Hello everyone and welcome to Days 2 and 3 of my 31 Days [hopefully] of Halloween/Autumn Cards 2023.  My card for Day 2 is below but my step-by-step for the card is on the Technique Junkies Blog .  It's a really fun card using the Spidery Halloween and Halloween Scene Set - and, of course, lots of googly eyes.   I hope you will stop over there to check it out.  I even stamped on the inside of the card.  For Day 3 - today - I am making a fun and simple Halloween card using card Sketch 14 from Tawny Owl Paperie | Inky Inspiration , a cardmaking group on Facebook run by my friend Crystal.  If you love card sketches, cardmaking, or just want inspiration, this is a great group to join.    I am adding this to Crystal's TOP Inky Inspiration Sketch Challenge - All the Sketches .  Links to everything I used are at the end of this post. I started by making a top-folding A2 card base using black cardstock.   I printed one of the papers ...

  Hello everyone, and welcome to September and the September 2023 New Stamp Release from Technique Junkies .  This month there are 10 new stamps - mostly for Halloween and Fall, which are my favorite cards to make.  I will admit, I do miss Fall in New York - the amazing colors on the leaves, apple picking, the pumpkins and gourds in the supermarket, and the bags of fun candy for Halloween, which we do not have here.  Imagine.  And I love making Halloween and Fall cards.   All of the stamps in the release are 15% off through Friday, September 8th - no code needed - and, if you use my code - TJ10Michael - you can take an additional 10% off the rest of the website.   And, for those of you who "want them all", you will love the  Gotta Have Them All  Deal, in which you save $17.51 by purchasing them all.    To help kick off the new release, I made this super simple Halloween card using the new Frequent Flyer stamp and a 6x6 pa...