Halloween cards

I haven't done a huge amount of crafting of late, partly because my employer has said we can no longer give the children treats and partly because I have been busy trying to get the work we want done in the gardens organised and completed. (easier said than done).  Along with trying to repair all the damage caused  by a leaking roof and  having our cloudy windows replaced. 

Any crafting I have done has been very last minute, and I have forgotten to photograph  it before giving it  away .  I realised  this too late.  But enough of the excuses. I have severely  neglected my blog for way too long, for which I apologise. 

BUT THERE IS A LITTLE GOOD NEWS.  I was  recently inspired by new set of Halloween stamps  by Lavinia stamps based here in the UK.  

( I believe they're available in some parts of  the U.S too)

So I  purchased  the newly released bundle of witches stamps  and had some playtime.

The bundle consists of three individual witches and two trees small and large, a stamp with three smaller witches on, a cauldron , a verse , two tiny cats and two larger cats a set of three bats and a dotty flourish .

 On these two cards, I used two of the larger witches, sections of the larger tree, the small bat, one of the small cats, the flourish, the verse and the cauldron, along with a foliage, a berry and  a twig  from the mini stamps collection. Which retail at £1.10 

 These mini stamps are not included in the bundle. In my opinion  these minis  are worth their weight in gold.  They don't look like much but they are so,so useful for building up scenes.

 I  have enjoyed playing with these stamps after my long break from stamping.

if you're wondering how I created the background . I used a brayer and applied thin layer of  Versamark Clare ink  (colour twilight) onto my gelli plate  then sprinkled  splatters of  yellow brusho powder  mixed with water over the top.

I placed a sheet of watercolour card stock on top of the inked up Gelli plate and rubbed over the back of the card well  to transfer the colours to the card, peel off the card and allow it dry before stamping in black Versamark Clare ink. 

 Black Versafine in  is an intense black,  so silhouettes really pop out.

The sparkles were created by drawing small circles with a yellow posca pen and adding a smaller white dot in the middle once the yellow has dried.

 I also added dots of stickles (glitter glue) randomly over the scene.

Bookmarks.

About 6 weeks ago I agreed to do a bookmark swap.

My swap was going to be the silhouette bookmark here on the right , but I mislaid it and didn't find it until after the  postal deadline. So I made a couple of butterfly bookmarks  and sent one of those instead. The recipient loved the butterfly version.

The multi-coloured butterfly was created by daubing different colour inks on to the stamp and giving the stamp a big huff  or three (to replace the moisture that had evaporated ) before stamping. 

A little sponging around the edges and stamping the splatters in crumb cake ink completed the image. I mounted the completed image onto a piece of brown card stock to frame the image and to hide the ink smudges on the back.

The silhouette bookmark was sponged,  splattered with bleach,   stamped and then mounted.... If you want to know more about  how I  created the background see my post on inking with makeup brushes in  a post below. 

Silhouette card

At the risk of being boring, I am posting a few more cards where I have used microfibre  make up brushes to apply the background colours.

 I have also dug out a few more silhouette stamps to try out with this technique. I have quite a few silhouette stamps that I purchased many years ago.  I was absolutely rubbish at colouring in images, so I tended to opt for images I didn't have to colour. Until I discovered Copic Markers.  I think this cat from Lavinia stamps would be great for a cat lover or a Halloween card

 I found this long forgotten romantic stamp in a drawer of stamps that rarely see day light.  It was bought at a craft show many years  ago . It's grey rubber and had no foam or wooden block and I have no idea who makes it.  It's a stamp that might be good for an engagement, wedding or Valentine's card.

 On this one I used the little boy with the binoculars from the silhouette scenes stamp set. But this time I added a moon to give him something to look at. The plant life is from the Pocket silhouettes stamp set. The willow stamp is from Lavinia stamps.

I've added this closer view  to show the grass a little better. I created the grass  using the edge one of my old sponge daubers. It's bobbly and has bits hanging off but it's great for creating grass.
 This image almost ended up in the bin as I splattered the bleach I ended up with the line of bleach spots that I really didn't like. But  I continued to work on it anyway.   Then I remembered the Elon Musk sky train that we spent hours looking for at the beginning of lockdown. Although the satellites were not actually that close together, I think I can get away with it.   Artistic License and all that.     Needless to say this one didn't end up in the bin.

On this one I thought I'd try something  a little different.  I cut an oval aperture in some scrap paper and used it as a mask to brush the ink through. Then I stamped the fairy from Lavinia stamps over the top and added a sentiment. 
Here's hoping you like these and will have a go yourself.  The instructions for these backgrounds are in a post below. It's easier than you might think.