Happy Halloween!!! :o)

So something very eerie happened with this Halloween card that I made last year. The purple copic marker turned pink over time. Spooky! ;-)

(Yeah, last year. What's up with that, hey? I have so many partially finished cards it's sad. About 50 or so! It's been ages since I posted a tutorial. I wanted to share this one much earlier but have been haunted by those scary migraines. Better late than never?)
 

Step 1) Print & heat emboss the Bronson Moon digital image on Paris Bleedproof Paper with clear embossing powder. Colour it. I used these copic colours: Mimosa Yellow YG00, Mauve Shadow BV00, Cool Gray no.5, Cool Gray no.7, Cool Gray no.9, Colourless Blender.

I looked everywhere for the digital stamp I used. It's by Lia Stampz, but perhaps it's discontinued. She has loads of wonderful images here though. I love her whimsical gorgeous art work!

Step 2) Cut slits along his sides about half an inch long (for adding two bat wings.)

Step 3) Cut around the hands as well (for adding a sign hanging from his hands on wire.)

Step 4) Colour the sky (I Stippled BV00 mauve shadow copic, pouncing gently to create little dots. Tip: For a more natural blending, don't leave straight lines as you go. You can make sections darker for shading. (See that sky was surely purple when I first coloured it. Strange, hey?)

 

 Step 5) Pierce & stitch around the outside of the image.

Step 6) Cut away the corners, for a fancy shape to match the stitches.

Step 7) Add little yellow seed beads for stars

To add the beads, pierce holes where you want them.

Pierce 2 holes for each bead if you want it to lay on its side:

I find beads make a nice embellishment that mails well (and is super affordable).

Step 8) Make dimensional bat wings.

Draw bat wings, (leaving an extra bit of length at the start of each wing to use as a tab to stick them on the card. Colour them & cut them out...

Slide the wings into the slits you cut earlier...

And affix the wing tabs to the back of the card.




 Step 9) Add a little sign with a sentiment (this one is made using vellum, a computer generated saying, and some fine silver wire. And some hearts...

Step 10) Layer it all on a top-fold card (cut free-hand to match the stitching & edged with a turquoise marker for some colour).

and that's that...

(fancy sewing: with thread or faux stitches)

This is a cheap trick to get shaped hand-stitching in the corners of cards.

Basically it involves making a "piercing jig" out of vellum cardstock:

A) Cut a piece of vellum cardstock & fold it so that you have a flap that will fit over the card you want to pierce & stitch. 

Vellum cardstock is the perfect material for this because it is sheer enough to let you see through to your project but it will also be durable. You could easily use acetate or clear plastic from packaging or whatever you have that's similar.

 B) Score a line to mark where you will pierce your pattern (or draw one if you prefer).

C)  Score another line equidistant on the second side of the vellum  to create a 90 degree angle or corner. 

Tip: you can also trace something round or shaped if you want that to be your stitching pattern instead of straight lines.

D) Draw your pattern in the corner (using the lines you made before as a guide). You can draw free-hand or even trace something since the vellum is sheer. I used a white pencil so that nothing would transfer onto the card, since pen or pencil might mess things up...)

E) Pierce your pattern into the corner of the vellum piercing jig. I pierced all the way through both the flap and the larger back piece so that the pattern can be reversed.

Tip: I find that curves require stitches that are closer together to look their nicest, but if they are too close the cardstock you're stitching on can tear. I like to use a heavy weight cardstock that's more durable. (Like a smooth 100lb cardstock). Of course, you can always skip the thread and make quick faux stitches with a marker or pen!

F) Lay your vellum cardstock 'jig' over the corner of the piece you want to pierce. Make holes with a paper piercing tool or needle.

G) To get the two other matching but reversed corners flip the piece around and pierce from the back.

H) Then hand-stitch with thread or faux-stitch with a pen.

Happy Halloween, to  those who celebrate it.  

Hope you & yours have a blast!

4 cards: Animated Movies & Shabby Shriek...

Trick or Treat!?!

Today... a whole whack of Halloween cards to share with ya.
Late late late, but I was bound & determined to squeeze them in this year.
(There are 4 cards with the usual photo madness) so it's a lengthy post...

1st
Animated movies...

A tribute to two
Halloweeny animated movie faves:
Snow White & Coraline.



Snow White:

Do you love it when things on your cards dangle & spin?
...makes me feel happy!

Here's the inside of the card:

(the poison apple is double-sided)

I tried but I couldn't resist cutting this
apple out & tying it to a string...

The Poison Apple printable is from
Less Cake {more frosting} here:

Click the image to go to her site & see it.

I added her website to the back of the card with credit to her
fabulous image, since terms of use ask you to keep the watermark.





The white frame is made with the
Martha EK Success Spiderweb punch
& I cut out the center of it with an exacto knife.

The apple & the purple and acid green papers are all
clear heat embossed and messed around with this way...

1) Stamped everything with that Funky I.O. background stamp, heat embossed in clear
2) The apples (front & back ones) are coloured with these Copics: Mimosa Yellow YG00, Yellow Green YG03, Mignonette YG11; Cool Gray no.7 & a colourless blender.
3) The top purple piece was done emboss resist with Milled Lavender Distress Ink (which was too high contrast a look with pure white embossing, so I painted over it with purple acrylic paint to even it out a bit. That was fun!
4) The bottom acid green emboss resist piece is Shabby Shutters Distress Ink tinted around the edges with a Mauve Shadow Copic marker BV00 and black marker).

The trick or treat text used around the frame
(and inside the card) was super easy to make...
a sort of DIY vellum sticker action:

1) Make a word document with the sentiment in grey typewriter font. (Just let me know if you'd like a copy of it)
2) Print it on vellum cardstock & heat emboss the wet ink jet printer ink with clear embossing powder to set it.
3) Add strips of double-sided tape behind the lines of text & trim it
4) Stick your new custom embossed vellum stickers on your project.

But the best part by far was tying the little embroidery floss bow,
since at first it was all messy, then I realized glue would help it
stay nice and tidy & it was satisfying:



I rubbed the acid green embroidery floss with my new glue fave Wellbond,
which is non-toxic and acid-free, so it was okay to get it all over my hands. :o)
I bought mine at an online art store here in Canada (Curry's)...
worked like a charm (and it dries invisible).

A custom chipboard tag printed on the computer,
punched with a circle punch, stitched,
splatted with inky water, then stuck on a cheapo chipboard circle,
& attached to the bow with wire (dressed up with some purple seed beads).

The patterned paper inside is
digital paper from this set:

Hero Arts Just For You

It's the digi version of this stamp:

Antique Brocade

One of my favourite things to do, is to give it an outline & colour it:

Here's the tutorial for how to do that, in case you're curious.

After printing it, I splattered it with watery black ink:



...then edged it with black marker and added more of the DIY
vellum sentiment stickers & stuck it inside the card.








Coraline

A fave! We've bought all of Neil Gammon's books & loved them.
We've got his DVDs in our movie collection
Charles discusses Coraline's use of a sub-world & the double
with his World Lit students.
Nerdy Halloween fun!

So, I made this card to give to Mr. Nerd:



...with, what else, buttons:



If you've seen the movie, you may know that "Black is traditional" ;o)



2nd
Shabby Shriek...






Last year I made these apothescary digis to share as freebies,


but I've never posted a card made with them,
so here's the old card I made last year...


The patterned papers are BasicGrey 6x6 packs.
You might say it's in the "shabby shriek" style! (ynuk ynuk!)

And I made a new A2 sized card, this year,
along the same lines:



The 'funnest' part of making it
was the bat stitching in the corners:



I drew a bat shape on scotch tape & used it on all the corners
as a piercing guide, then hand-stitched them with turquoise sewing thread.

The white distressed heat embossed script background
is from Purple Onion Designs (my fave text stamp):

Late 1800's Script background stamp:

And that's all she wrote, folks.

Hope you're having a frightfully good day!


P.S. I'll be posting new touched up versions of the apothescary jars with a scrapbooking project next month, if anyone wants to try 'em out. (and nope it's not Invasion of the Body Snatchers: I did say scrapbooking there. Crazy, huh?)

P.P.S. Disclosure: two of the items I used in today's cards were given to me for free from companies: EK Success Martha spider web punch and the Purple Onion Designs script background stamp.