Open If You Dare!

This is not only a Halloween card but a birthday card too.  My friend, Mary Ann has an October birthday & she loves everything Halloween.  I  recently saw a similar card but unfortunately I can't find it again to give credit for my inspiration.

The white card front was cut 5 1/4 X 4 from SU Thick Whisper White then inked with Tim Holtz's Crackling Campfire, Spiced Marmalade & Fossilized Amber Distress Ink.

Using Tim Holtz's Stamp Platform, the spooky house from his Haunted House stamp set was stamped in his Archival Black Soot Ink.  It was also distressed with a little Pumice Stone Distress Ink.

Tim's Tangled Twigs was cut from his Kraft-Core Nostalgic Brown Cardstock. Once cut, it was gently sanded.

The ghost is vellum, cut with Tim Holtz Village Graveyard Die.

The ghost was then inked on the back with Tim's Pumice Stone Distress Ink. 

The card front & Tangled Twigs die cut were sprayed with Tim's Brushed Pewter Mica Spray. 

To complete the project the ghost was woven into & adhered to the Tangled Twigs die cut.  It was then adhered to the card front leaving a narrow reveal & added to the SU Basic Black card base.

The final detail was "open if you dare" from Tim's Regions Beyond Stamp Set.  It was stamped on white cardstock, hand cut, inked with Pumice Stone Distress Ink & popped up.  

Hope you like my creation & thanks for looking! 

Ghostly Treats

Its time for my October tag Tim Holtz Style & Halloween is a given in October. Going back through Tim's old tags on his blog, I decided to use his technique, 12 tags of christmas-day 5 from 2008 which is a shabby chic paint resist.  The left tag is my decorated tag & the right is my technique tag which is stored in my idea-ology worn binder notebook for future reference.

I followed Tim's instructions by painting a #8 manila tag with black soot paint, smoothing it out with a sponge then letting it dry.

The images from classics 1, classics 3 & classics 4 were stamped with embossing ink, sprinkled with clear embossing powder then embossed using a heat tool.

Cracked pistachio paint was smoothed over the black soot with a sponge & dried until tacky.  Using a damp cloth, some of the cracked pistachio was wiped off to create this cool shabby chic look.

Again I followed the steps outlined on Tim's blog (link above) using a #10 manila tag which was painted with black soot & twisted citron paint.  I stamped & clear embossed a large spider web, script and the trick or treaters.  I don't think the twisted citron is bright because I may not have gotten the black paint as dry as it needed to be.

I used the same technique on another tag using black soot & picket fence paint then popped up 3 die cut ghosts.  There's a small piece of black CS behind the eyes & mouth.

I painted these mini numerals with black soot then dabbed them with antique bronze paint.  I love how they turned out!  I also did this to a halloween token (photo below) that says trick or treat which is hung under the ribbon.

This is one of my favorite parts of the tag...an interactive spider!  I tied the spider at the middle of the black thread.  After making 2 holes in the tag, I put each end of the thread though them & tied the thread at the back, leaving a tail.  Since the spider is tied in the middle of the thread, all you do is pull the thread up & down on the back of the tag!  Cute, huh?














Instead of a ribbon I used tulle tied with 2 colors of twine.  Once it was in place I melted it with a heat gun!  It give it a really spooky look.  I then added the token using a loop pin.

Hope you enjoyed my Halloween tag...TFL!!

Wicked Birthday

Last night the Giggler's celebrated Mary Ann's birthday.  Of course when you have a birthday in October chances are you love Halloween (& she does) plus she loves tags so I made this spooky guy & he lights.  

The background was done using Hickory Smoke, Stormy Sky, Wilted Violet & Peeled Paint Distress Ink on a #10 tag then spritzed with water.  The skull (on white CS), spider web, birthday sentiment & pumpkins were stamped in black Archival ink on another manila tag.  The pumpkins were colored with a detailer water brush using Dried Marigold, Carved Pumpkin & Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink then fussy cut & layered.  The skull was lightly inked with Hickory Smoke & fussy cut.  "Wicked" was done by coloring white embossing paste with a few drops from a Twisted Citron re-inker & applied over the stencil.  The words at the bottom are remnant rubs & the bats at the top are die cuts.  I also spattered black ink over everything before adding the spider which was attached with a piece of thread.    

The tag has 2 layers.  The bottom layers holds the copper tape, battery & LED light.  On the top layer, I cut a hole where the eye is & placed the skull over the light.  I also cut a hole in the top layer & placed a pumpkin over top (it's being pressed) so the battery could be changed.  The top & bottom are held together with two layers of foam tape.  The SU Wisteria Wonder ribbon was added last.

TIP:  My friend, Shannon suggested replacing one of the layers of foam tape with Velcro so the battery could be changed.  I think that's a great idea & next time I'll give that a try.

For details on how I make light up tags you can visit my blogl plus there are many YouTube Videos.

Thanks for looking!!

Monster's Mask - Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2016 Technique Remix - October

Time for Tim's tag & I got together with a group of friends at The Craft Shack to make our versions! His October remix consisted of Patchwork Collage from February 2015 & Dimensional Monsters from October 2015.  I don't own the monster dies so I made my own monster,..well it's more like a monster's mask!

I also didn't have the new Halloween ephemera so I used snippets from his new materialize 8x8 paper-pack & some from an old paper pack my friend, Lisa had in her stash.  I found a page with words so I used "costume".  I love how the smudged crayons look over the the crazing medium.  I think I went a little crazy with the tiny attacher but the look is so cool.  I distressed the edges then blended them with black soot ink,  Instead of spattering the tag, I sprayed it with hickory smoke spray stain to finish the 1st part of the tag.

In place of the monster die, I decided to make a spooky mask by cuting 2 leaves from Tim's Big Z Tattered Leaves Die.  I should have used foil tape sheets over a piece of cardstock but goofed up & cut them from a mirrored sheet.  The mirrored sheet is thicker so when I tried to punch a 1/2" hole for the eyes, I only got an impression.  I finished cutting them out using scissors & decided to slant the eyes.   Then I embossed them using the diamond plate texture fade & did the faux metal look with black soot paint. I shaped it a little by bending them & added feathers I had in my stash.  I only had 1 green eye so I put the wicked adornment spider on a wire & place it in the other eye.  I added hex fasteners on each side then adhered it to my tag using black 3d foam squares.  I'm pretty proud of my "masked monster"!   

To finish it off I added "curiosities" from Tim's incantation word bands with wire & stapled it on.  The film strip ribbon was stapled on showing a hand.  The final touch was black string at the top.

Since there are so many stapes I decided to put a back on using paper from the materialize paper pack.  It wasn't long enough so I added a strip of materialize design tape at the bottom.   

I have to say this tag is one of my favorites!!  Hmmm, I think I've said that before...LOL!  TFL!

Spooky!

I love doing ATCs & if it's interactive I love it even more!  I saw a video by Craftin Desert Divas Happy Halloween for an interactive card.  It inspired me to do this floating ghost inlaid card for this month's ATC Club at The Craft Shack.  I did make several prototypes before I was happy with the inlaid tree so if you try this I hope it saves you a little time & maybe frustration!

There's a short video at the end, it's not very good but it shows how the ghost floats & swirls around!

I used 3 pieces of cardstock-Georgia Pacific White for a backer, Neenah Premium 110lb Extra Heavy CS for the ATC front & SU Early Espresso.  I used thicker CS to make sure the Impression Obsession's Bare Tree would lay flat when inlaid so the ghost would glide up the ATC smoothly. The backer made the inside smooth once the tree was inlaid.  The CS is cut 4 1/2 X 4 1/2.  It sounds big for an ATC but it was easier to inlay the tree so I didn't have so many tiny pieces to add.  You 'll see why later.

I started with the thick CS. I laid the tree die on the CS as far to the right as it would go without being off the edge, decided where to place the moon then removed the die. I blended scattered straw ink in that area for the moon.  

Then I blended walnut stain at the base of the tree, chipped sapphire around the moon & a little dusty concord at the bottom of the sky.  To distress the moon, I went over it slightly with chipped sapphire.

I used the same inks on the backer CS so when the tree was inlaid the white CS wouldn't be seen if it didn't fit perfect.  The tree was die cut from the early espresso & the thick CS (as far to the right without going off the edge).  I used the brown tree & the negative of the background. When removing the tree from the inked background CS I saved the 4 tiny pieces in the black box.  Also this die isn't really made to be inlaid & it cuts a small hole towards the top left which I made sure stayed in the background CS.  I covered the hole with an embellishment later. 

In the next step I wet my brush slightly & applied a thin coat of liquid glue over the entire backer. This is where it gets a little tricky, working quickly I put the ATC front over the backer, making sure the branch areas are laying straight & didn't get pushed to the side.  The first time I had a little trouble & that's when I decided to ink the backer CS.  Then I inserted the tree & the 4 tiny pieces I saved from the background.  I really like how the moon appears from "behind" the tree!

Once the glue dried, I cut the piece into a 3 3/8 X 2 3/8 for the ATC front & inked the edges.

After cutting the tombstone from SU Going Gray with the smallest die from Spellbinder's Labels 11, I cut it off at an angle, distressed it with pumice stone ink then with a Sharpie fine point pen hand wrote the epitaph. 

I added the tombstone to the left side of the ATC front using 2 layers of small pieces of  1/2" black adhesive foam tape.  They are only on the left side, bottom & lower half of the right.  This will allow the ghost to "hide" behind the tombstone.

The slider is made from chipboard cut approx. 4" long & 1/2" wide.  I sanded the edges smooth & inked it with chipped sapphire.  Then I added a tiny thin magnet to the end.  The slider will be sealed between the ATC front & back.

This ATC is thick because of the magnet on the chipboard slider & I didn't want a lot of white showing on the edges so I used 1/2" black adhesive foam tape down the sides & across the bottom.  I measured & cut each piece then cut it in half & stacked it so it ended up being 1/4" wide.  The channel is at an angle & it starts behind the tombstone.  I used 1/2" white foam mounting tape, cut it in half & stacked it.  I made sure when I put the tape down that the factory edge faced the inside of the channel so there were no rough edges & the slider fit between the 2 rows of tape.  At the top of the channel, I stacked 2 foam squares to act as a stopper.  The stopper does not have the top backing removed or the slider would stick & not move over top of it.  I added more black tape & foam squares along the top.  

I cut a small piece from a Darice sticky back magnet sheet & adhered it to the back of one of the small ghosts.  The other ghost was adhered to the tree.  I punched 2 bats from Martha Stewart's Vampire & Bats in SU Basic Black.  The small one was adhered to the left of the tree to cover the hole from the tree die. The bigger bat is adhere to the end of the slider after it was trimmed so it would barely be above the ATC. I decided it need something else so I die cut a Poppy Stamp Walking Cat in black & he's walking through the graveyard.

Now that all the embellishments are on, I removed the adhesive backing (except the slider stopper), put the magnetic slider in place & put it on the SU Elegant Eggplant ATC base.  Now all you have to do is gently pull on the bat at the top of the slider & watch the ghost come out from behind the tombstone & swirl up the tree.  Push the slider down & he goes back behind the tombstone.  Of course he may need a little help getting back home every now & then!

  

Hope you enjoyed my project as much as I did making it!  TFL!!

Frightful Observations

I joined a Halloween tag swap in a Facebook group called Love Paper Crafts. I usually only participate in a swap if I'm going to an event or with the Gigglers but what attracted me to this was I only had to make one. We had to post a pic of the front, back or small part of the tag before the deadline to prove we had done it.  I think there were 8 of us & not all from the US.  My partner was Elizabeth from Massachusetts, who generously sent me TWO fabulous tags & a cute bag of goodies.

I decided to use a #8 manila tag & started by stamping the witch in black archival ink.  She has a ring around her for the moon which I didn't want in black so I wiped it off & inked it using a mustard seed marker.  I then blended mustard seed over top for a bright noon.  The rest of the tag is blended using hickory smoke, fired brick, frayed burlap & black soot & the edges are distressed.

The devils are by Sugarland & stamped in vermilion.

The tree is cut in SU Early Expresso & I didn't ink the edges because the manila made it look like a shadow (plus it was too hard...LOL).

I cut 2 Memory Box fences in SU Basic Black then I wiggled it around so it wasn't straight. Both are adhered using a glue pen.

The "31" was cut in Tim's new Halloween black deco sheet.  I love these sheets because the glitter doesn't come off & they're very soft.

The sentiment & spider are from Tim's new Gothic remnant rubs.  I used a fine line Sharpie to draw a line so the spider was hanging from the "31".  I dabbed a small amount of picket fence around for a little fog then added black jute at the top.

I thought it need some dimension & knew I had a skull jewelry charm in my stash.  It was very shiny so I applied a coat of gesso then sponged it with frayed burlap.  It just happened that one of Tim's small arrows fit through the charm!  I also distressed the arrow with mushroom alcohol ink then adhered them with mini glue dots.











The back of the tag was pretty much a mess so I decided to add a paper backing & Tim's new materialize paper pack was perfect. It gave the tag the finished look it needed. I also printed my info, tore it & inked it in fired brick & black soot then adhered it using liquid glue.

I've never done a lot of Halloween projects except for a friend's birthday & a few tags but I did enjoy making this. I so happy Elizabeth enjoyed my creation as much as I enjoyed her's!  One fun fact about our swap...she has the same devil stamp!!

TFL!

Of Corpse I Wish You A Happy Birthday

This is a birthday card for my friend, Mary Ann who has an October birthday & of course loves Halloween!  I was inspired by a card called Happy Halloween on Sunday View's blog which has much for detail. The black card base is layered with an orange DSP.  The top layer was dry embossed then die cut using a small oval. Running it through the Big Shot the 2nd time flatten the embossed area a little but it still looks good.  I lightly sponged the top of the embossed area & around the embossed area with white ink.  The image in the oval is stamped on white card stock, sponged using a grey ink to give it an eerie look then glued to the back of the embossed panel.  There are black eyelets in each corner of the panel & laced with black jute.  I used sticky strip to adhere the panel to the DSP.  The die cut maple leaf is stamped, die cut then distressed with ink & crumpled up.  The leaf was then tucked behind the jute & embellished with a jute bow.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies:  SU Basic Black & Whisper White, Happy Haunting DSP; SU Holiday Frame Embossing Folder; SU Ovals Collection Framelits; SU Best of Halloween Stamp; SU Black Twine; SU Vintage Leaves; SU White & Pumpkin Pie Ink; VersaFine Black Ink; Tim Holtz Distressed Hickory Smoke; American Craft Black Eyelets; Scor-Tape 1/4" Sticky Strip; Tombow Liquid Glue.

Scarin' the Crows?

Two more pages done!!  This was a kit I purchased from  Scrapbook "Fun" Addicts  in 2011 at the CKC Convention in Valley Forge, PA and was designed by Elicia Simon.  I must say it's so cute and a perfect fit for these photos!  If you're new to scrapbooking or just don't want to design yourself, this is a great company to buy from.  They have a good variety of kits at reasonable prices and the instructions are sssoooo easy to follow.  Everything is die cut so all you have to do is put it together!  I can tell you this won't be the last LO from Scrapbook Funaddicts you'll see here.  If you go to their site and look at this layout, you may notice that I embellished it just a tad.  I didn't have photos that were portrait so I cut two of them down and added a panel for my journaling.  There was enough card stock left so the journali mats match perfectly.  On the left page, I made a boo boo when I measured so I added a knotted piece of twine between the photo and the journal panel.  To match it, I added a "rope belt" to the scarecrow.  On the right page, I needed to cover something up in the top photo so I made another crow.  It's not as cute as Elicia's but it'll do.  I sponged the edges of everything with chestnut roan chalk from Color Box. 

I had to add a close up of Elicia's crows because they are adorable.  The eyes are drawn with a white rollerball pen.















    

Supplies:  Kit Scrapbook "Fun" Addicts ; Color Box Chalk Chestnut Roan; SU Natural Twine.



Scary Halloween Pop-up ATC

This ATC is for a swap the NEPA Gigglers are doing at Mary Ann's (Geraldinesmom) SU party. I saw a tutorial for a Surprise Pop-up Card by Beate on Splitcoaststampers & I thought an ATC would be cool.  Cyndi Evans has posted the ATC dimensions at the bottom in the Question & Comment section.  I highly recommend watching the tutorial before starting.  This will give you the entire process (which I'm not going to type) plus if you use my dimensions then they will make more sense.  I did make changes to fit my design. Here are my layers:  Perfect Plum base - 3 1/2" X 2 1/2"; Basic Black - 3 1/4" X 2 1/4", Brown - 3 1/8" X 2 1/8", DSP - 3" X 2", black slider - 2 7/8" X 1 3/4" , paper slider guide - 4" X 1/4".  I  used DSP so it would look like grass & mounted it on the black leaving a 1/8" edge.  I then cut through both layers, 1/4" from the edge of the DSP making 2 cuts 2 1/2" long &1 cut 1 1/2" wide.  I found cutting with the DSP up worked best so I could see what I was cutting & it kept the cuts smooth.  I didn't want to make pencil marks on the DSP so I used the lines on my cutter & the blade as a guide.  I only added the brown layer so it would look like a grave for the "surprise".  The ghost is stamped & hand cut.  He's woven in through the tree which is cut from the Cricut.  I used 2 layers for the trees because their size (2 1/2") made them very delicate.  In front of the tree is a Memory Box die cut wrought iron fence which I trimmed on one side.  Then I popped out the tombstone &  pumpkins.  The pumpkins were colored with Copics & then I used Crystal Effects for a little dimension. 

 

Here is a side view when the slider had been pulled!  Cute huh?  I enjoyed making this into an ATC but I do think by adding the DSP it was a little harder to cut.  If you've never made one, I'd recommend doing a card first. A big thanks to Mary Ann for cutting the trees out and letting me borrow her stamp set.  She's the queen of Halloween!!

 

Supplies:  Card stock - SU Perfect Plum, Basic Black, Basic Brown, Whisper White, DSP Cast-a-spell; Stamps - Spooktacular Greetings; Cricut - Happy Hauntings; Die - Memory Box Wrought Iron Fence; Misc - SU Whisper White Ink, Copics, bright green eyelet, SU Black Hemp, SU Crystal Effects, dimensionals, double sided 1/4" tape.

 



Mary Ann's Halloween Birthday

One of my good friends, Mary Ann, who is also a NEPA Giggler, is an October birthday girl.  She LOVES Halloween so it was a no brainer to make her birthday card with a Halloween theme.  I hate to admit it but I used a stamp set I borrowed from Mary Ann to make her card...LOL.  After embossing the pumpkins, I took my black stamp pad and rubbed if over top on the reverse side.  The black mat is die cut using a Spellbinders as well as the green, which was placed on the black mat at an slight angle.  All the edges are sponged in black.  I printed the sentiment for the sign and cut it out by hand.  The sentiment on the inside of the card was found online (can't remember where) but I changed it a little to read:

When black cats prowl,

and pumpkins gleam,

may your birthday

be as fun as Halloween



 

Supplies:  Card stock - SUDSP Cast-a-spell; Stamps - SU Spooktacular Greetings; Other - Spellbinders Lg Deckled Rectangle, Cuttlebug Punpkin Harvest Emblossing Folder, Unknown adhesive backed black ribbon, SU Basic Black Ink