Spooky Halloween Greetings card

Hi blogging friends

Today I am sharing the Halloween card that I made for my daughter.  I had so much fun making this card and enjoyed making the scene come together.

This is also my entry for the following Challenges (click on the underlined words to take you to their blogs):-

Papertake Weekly - Take your Pick - the last challenge of every month has several themes and you simply take your pick from them. There’s a sketch, a colour theme, a product theme and a technique theme to choose from. I chose the colour theme which is Halloween Hues ie:  blacks, oranges, purples, greys etc.

Little Red Wagon - Challenge #313 - Ghosts and Goblins or other Halloween creatures.

Splitcoaststampers - Ways to Use It WT555 - Use brushwork on your card - anything from painting to adding various mediums to dry-brushing.  I dry-brushed white pigment ink on the black elements on my card.

Diecutting Divas Weekly Challenge #239 - Happy Halloween - All projects must have at least one diecut on them to qualify.  I have LOTS as you can see :-)

I did a prototype using diecut white cardstock so I knew exactly where to place my diecut pieces which was a big help and saved alot of frustration - and it made the card come together alot quicker too.  I am perilously low on black cardstock so I couldn't afford to make any mistakes on the actual card itself!

First of all, I made the sky using Ranger watercolour cardstock and Distress Inks.  I diecut a circle from stamping mask paper and placed it on the cardstock so I could mask where I wanted the moon to be.  I then coloured the cardstock using my round ink blending tool with the following Distress Inks:  Dried Marigold, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Stormy Sky and Hickory Smoke.  I removed the mask and coloured the moon a little with Dried Marigold and shaded it a little with Hickory Smoke.  I added two layers with my Wink of Stella clear glitter brush over the moon to give it some subtle sparkle.

The house, pumpkin and gravestones and bats are a die by Impression Obsession - Halloween Hill - but I cut off the tree next to the pumpkin and didn't use the far RHS of the diecut (as it didn't fit into the scene but saved it for later on).  The front hill was diecut using another Impression Obsession die - Hill Landscape Layers (which comes as a set of 3) - which I bought from an Australian online store a few days ago.  I don't know about you, but I can't handcut a curvy hill that looks nice so these dies will save me alot of angst!

The gravestones and cat are leftovers from the far RHS of the back hill plus I diecut another scene and cut off a couple of gravestones and tucked them all in behind the diecut hill.

I used a small flat brush dipped very lightly into some white pigment ink to add a bit of whiteness to the tops of all the black diecuts (except for the Orchard Tree frame) so it would look like the moon is reflecting off them and to add a bit more spookiness.  It also adds a bit of depth to the whole scene plus makes the images stand out a bit more.  Here is a close-up so you can see the detail a bit better:

The ghosts were diecut using a Memory Box - Ghastly Ghosts die set - and I added some clear Wink of Stella to them for some sparkle.

The black tree frame is also by Memory Box - Orchard Tree Frame - which I diecut 3 times and glued together using Tombow Mono Multi glue.  Originally I had thought about diecutting one and adding dimensionals behind the frame to 'pop' it up but thought that that would be way too fiddly - so gluing 3 frames together was far easier and alot quicker.  Because the Tombow glue doesn't dry immediately, you have a bit of time to move the parts of the diecut around so that they line up perfectly.  I glued the frame to the scene using the same glue.

I used some cobweb (which I bought from my local supermarket from their Halloween stock) to make some fog/mist over the moon and on the bottom diecuts.  It's awful stuff to work with as it catches on everything but I really love how it looks on my card.  I added very tiny dots of Ranger Multi Medium Matte glue here and there to attach it as this glue dries perfectly clear.

The designer paper has been in my stash forever and is called Spellbound by Making Memories.  I used the Orchard Tree Frame to diecut the paper but used the negative of the diecut.  I used a Lifestyle Nesting Card Template die (rectangle) to cut the paper negative to the size I wanted then just glued that in around the black Orchard Tree diecut frame.  It was great because it just slotted in around the black diecut tree on my black cardstock base.

The sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear set - Happy Halloween - and was stamped in Versamark Watermark ink and heat-embossed using Stampin' Up white embossing powder.  I trimmed the sentiment panel down then cut a flag end on the RHS.  I added a black rhinestone then popped the panel up on 1mm dimensionals.

Lastly, I tied on some Halloween twine. 

I am not sure how many kids will be out trick-or-treating tomorrow evening as it is the Melbourne Cup long weekend here in Victoria and alot of people go away over the four days - plus the weather forecast is looking very wet and stormy. It was great last year seeing the little kids in our street dressed up in cute little costumes and having some fun.  We never do anything really scary - it's all very low-key compared to the USA. 

Thanks for visiting my blog today and for any comments you care to leave - they are always very much appreciated!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Hero Arts Happy Halloween clear set CL353

Ink:  Versamark Watermark, Versacolor white pigment, Ranger Distress Inks - Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Stormy Sky, Seedless Preserves, Hickory Smoke

Designer Paper:  Making Memories Spellbound 12" x 12" (2008) - retired

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Card Templates (rectangles) DC0431 and Nesting Circles LCC001, Impression Obsession Halloween Hill DIE029-P and Hill Landscape Layers DIE343-T, Memory Box Orchard Frame 98300 and Ghastly Ghosts 98701

Accessories:  Small flat paintbrush, Big Shot, Kuretake Wink of Stella clear glitter brush, Tombow Mono Multi glue, Ranger Multi Medium Matte glue, 1mm dimensionals, Kaisercraft rhinestone - Black SB777, Stampin' Up white embossing powder, heat-gun, embossing buddy, cobweb (Woolworths supermarket), Inkadinkado Stamping Mask Paper, Ranger round ink blending tool, Ranger watercolor cardstock, black and white cardstock, Halloween twine by Divine Twine