I'm Melting!

A quick little Halloween card using Distress Oxides and some new Halloween stamps from Tim Holtz.

Using blending tools and Distress Oxides, I started with Broken China in the center of the paper, then surrounded it with Faded Jeans and finished with Wilted Violet around the very edges. I spritzed it with water and made sure there were water drops so it looked like it was raining.
Then I stamped the splat from Ravens CMS310 into the very center with Twisted Citron Distress Oxide.
Then I stamped the witch's hat from the Scared Silly CMS311 and colored it with Distress Markers, cut it out and adhered it in the middle of the splat, so it looked like the witch melted when she got wet.
To finish it off I stamped some text randomly around the edges from the Ledger Script CMS241  stamp, added a sentiment from Pumpkinhead CMS309 then sewed around the edge and adhered it to a card base.
All in all this is a really simple card to put together.

Fall Scarecrow Shaker Card

The Scarecrow die inspired me to try my first shaker card. I thought it would be fun to have him all dressed for some fall scaring and to have leaves shake all around him. 

The frame, Scarecrow and leaves were all cut from Distress Woodgrain Cardstock colored with Distress Oxides. 

The linen shirt and denim hat were cut from some of the Ideaology Textile Surfaces and tied with Eclectic Elements Craft Thread. The leaves were punched using the Sizzix Alterations Leaf punches and the word fall was cut with the 3/4" Alphanumeric Thinlits. 

EEK

A simple Halloween card using Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Mini Halloween Things #662379 die set. There are 11 mini die sets in this set that make some adorable little Halloween things that can be used individually, or together to tell a story. I used the owl from the set on a card posted last week called Happy Owlloween.
These dies fit perfectly on the Gift Tags #662423 set of 12 mini tag dies. But I used them on cards and in a future blog post, you'll see them used on some place cards and bookmarks.

I made all of the paper on this card excet for the black frame, by using various Stampers Anonymous Background stamps designed buy Tim Holtz, and using Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. 
To make the border on the title shape, I cut it out and left the die cut in place, then went around the inside edge of the die with the fine tip of a Distress Marker. The Star Fasteners were from my Ideaology stash.

The title, EEK, on both versions of the card is because most of the time, people are scared of spiders, so it might be taken that the eek is because the spider is scary. But the spider is being stared at by 5 cats. And in my house, cats eat spiders. I have zero spider problems in my house. So I thought it would be cute to turn the tables and have the spider saying EEK!

This is another version of the same card using Tim's Distress Coordinations Cardstock.  I like them both.

Additional dies that were used were the Labels Die Set #660060 (one of my favorite sets!) the Halloween Script #660957 die set, and the Alphanumeric 3/4 #660056 Die set.

Beware

The Scarecrow #662382 is one of Tim Holtz's Halloween releases in his Sizzix Alterations line. It consists of three pieces, two with birds and one with the scarecrow and grass/wheat.  They all cut beautifully and make for a quick, easy card or addition to a decor piece.

For the background on this card, I used blending tools and Distress Oxides. For the purpose of this mini tutorial, I blended the Fossilized amber into the Broken China, then Faded Jeans and last the Wilted Violet.  The colors will determine how bright or muted your background sunset will feel.  This one is brighter than the one on the card.

  

 To form the clouds, I used the wide water brush, loaded with water, and brushed in cloud-shapes one at a time. Let the water pool and it will form kind of a border.  I don't know why, but it has something to do with the chemical make-up of the Oxides.  It's pretty cool!

  

Once the border forms, then I ever so gently, soak up a little bit of the pooled water, leaving some to make them look not so uniform and more cloud-like.  I really love the way the clouds look.

I cut two extra bottom portions of the scarecrow die and trimmed them off so I could pop them up with dimensional adhesive. The birds are attached scattered across the sky as if they were just scared from their resting places throughout the field.  And to finish it off, the word Beware was added from the Handwritten Halloween #660598 set.

Happy Halloween Pumpkinhead

The Pumpkinhead CMS309 stamps immediately made me think of Disneyland Main Street at Halloween Time.  Disneyland is adorned with something like 400 uniquely carved pumpkins on the signs, in the windows, on ledges and balconies all throughout Town Square and Main Street USA.  I have a few favorites that I enjoy looking for each year, and I enjoy all of their one-of-a-kind faces.
This stamp set contains 8 pumpkins, each with a different shape and expression as well as three Halloween sentiments.

 

The card I designed kind of mimics some of the pumpkin displays on Main Street in Disneyland, but I also wanted an interesting background, so I used Distress Oxides to form a stone colored background and the stamped the stone background from the Slate & Stone CMS299 stamp set released earlier this year. To add a little interest, I stamped some speckles on it using little speckle stamp in the Haunted House CMS308 set.

 

The pumpkins were stamped on Distressed Mixed Media Heavystock in Ground Espresso Archival Ink with just a touch of Black Soot Archival.  I used the stamp platform to stamp them so I could repeat the stamp if it was too light and also so I could add a touch of black soot. Then I water colored them using various orange Distress Markers.

 

I stamped some speckles on the pumpkins as well. Then I cut them out with my Distress Mini Snips and raised a couple of them and the others I glued straight to the card. 

 

The sentiment was cut from the Sizzix Alterations Labels die set and stamped with the sentiment and the speckle stamp. I wrapped some brown Eclectic Elements Crafter's Thread around the top and adhered the sentiment over it with dimensional adhesive. 

That's it! Super fun, super simple!

Here is a quick little video showing many of the pumpkins at Disneyland.