Happy Halloween - Owls and Lace

The Mr. Bones CMS345 Stamp set from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous has a great variety of images and sentiments. I really like the font on the sentiments on this set.  The images pair so well with lots of other stamp sets too!

This card came about from some of my leftovers. When I get the stamps to make samples, I start by stamping them all. Sometimes with sentiments and sometimes just images and sentiments separately. The backgrounds all get stamped whole in several different colors of ink.

Last summer Tim gave me some advice about taking time just to create without an end purpose in mind. Just set aside time to make backgrounds, stamp images, or die cut shapes. Then later get those creations out and see what might work together to make an end product. That's what happened here.

 For this card I focused on the owl sitting on the moon, that I had stamped with a sentiment. It's just a fabulous image that can be spooky, beautiful or even peaceful. The image was watercolored on Distress Mixed Media Heavystock, then covered with a layer of Distress Glaze, and then the rest of the paper is lightly colored with some Distress Inks. I paired it with an owl charm from Tim Holtz Halloween Ideaology.

To make this image into a card, I looked through some of the stamped and inked backgrounds I had made during a create session and found several that I thought worked with this stamped image. The background layers are as follows:

1. The small brown mat helps the owl stand out. It is the Planks stamp from the Planks and Craze CMS344 stamp set and colored with brown distress ink.
2. The black background mat is the Lace stamp from the Ornate and Lace CMS348  stamp set. This lace stamp is incredibly versatile!
3. The blueish purple background mat is a Distress Oxide background using Distress Oxides on Alcohol Ink Cardstock and then adding a layer of Distress Glaze over them.

I encourage you to try having some create time with no project in mind. Just spend a few hours making backgrounds, a few hours stamping and coloring images, a few hours die cutting and inking shapes. Then later, pull them all out and see what can go together to make something.I think you will be surprised at how many cards or tags you can pull together in a short amount of time this way.