Halloween roundup

The weather may feel a bit more like Christmas around here, but Halloween is next weekend. I don't do a lot of celebrating, even during non-pandemic times, but it's fun to put out a few decorations, carve a pumpkin, and maybe watch a suspenseful movie or two. To help you get in the spirit, here are a few not scary Halloween cards.

Supplies:
Stamps: Autumn Owl Cubbies (Art Impressions)
Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); colored pencils - PC1003 Spanish Orange, PC918 Orange, PC916 Canary Yellow, PC930 Magenta, PC932 Violet, PC905 Aquamarine, PC912 Apple Green, PC908 Dark Green, PC1084 Ginger Root, PC943 Burnt Ochre, PC941 Light Umber, PC947 Dark Umber, PC935 Black (Prismacolor)
Accessories: Spooky Fence die (Amuse Studio), Grassy Border Lawn Cuts die (Lawn Fawn), 1" circle punch (Stampin' Up!), Sparkle Silk (Fun Stampers Journey), Gamsol (Gamblin), blending stumps (Jack Richeson), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute), foam tape (3M)

This was definitely my most elaborate card. It wasn't hard -- the dies that come with the stamp set cut out the owls and tree, including all the openings -- but it was a lot of coloring. I didn't spend too much time on shading or realistic coloring and instead dressed up the owls in bright colors. I die cut all the pieces and glued the owls around the tree and pumpkins.

For the card base I used Night of Navy card stock and splattered it with Sparkle Silk to create the look of a starry sky. To set the rest of the scene I added a layer of die-cut grass, a picket fence, a bright full moon, and a few hand-cut clouds. I stamped the sentiment "Hey pumpkin" in the bottom right corner and added the pumpkins and owls with foam tape.

Supplies:
Stamps: Hey Boo, Haunts & Harvest (Gina K Designs)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Smokey Slate (Stampin' Up!), Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), W1 marker (Copic)
Accessories: Haunts & Harvest dies (Gina K designs), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

I love the scripty greetings on these cards, so I combined them with several type-style sentiments to make the backgrounds. It took a little practicing to get the placement right, but I really like how they turned out. For the focal images, I stamped and die cut a group of ghosts and two clusters of bats for each card. I used a very light gray alcohol marker to add a hint of shading to the ghosts and adhered the pieces with Dimensionals.

Supplies:
Stamps: Halloween Scene Background, September 2020 My Monthly Hero kit (Hero Arts); Happy Haunting (Essentials by Ellen)
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Basic Black card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: VersaMark, Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Candy Corn, Lime Zest, Plum Punch (Taylored Expressions)
Accessories: Opaque Bright White Super Fine embossing powder (WOW! Embossing Powder), Happy Haunting dies (Essentials by Ellen), blender brushes (Taylored Expressions), foam tape (3M)

For these cards, I used the same stamps and layout, and just changed the background technique. With the first two cards, I embossed the background stamp on black card stock using white embossing powder and left it at that. For the second pair, I used an embossed resist technique. I embossed the image on white card stock with white embossing powder and used blender brushes to apply three ink colors to the panel. I finished all of the cards by adding a sentiment banner and two die-cut ghosts.

Supplies:
Stamps: Halloween Scene Background (Hero Arts), Happy Haunting (Essentials by Ellen)
Paper: Whisper White, thick Whisper White, vellum, Rich Razzleberry card stock (Stampin' Up!); Royal Ultra White Felt watercolor card stock (The Paper Cut)
Ink: VersaMark (Tsukineko); Rich Razzleberry (Stampin' Up!); gansai Tambi watercolor paints - 33 Cadmium Orange, 37 Purple, 51 Sap Green Light (Kuretake)
Accessories: Happy Haunting dies (Essentials by Ellen), Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn), Jumbo Tag dies (The Stamp Market), Clear Shimmer Spray (Avery Elle), Halloween Nights enamel dots (Stampin' Up!), white embossing powder (Hero Arts), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute), foam tape (3M)

I needed to make a Halloween birthday card, so I decided to use this layout again. This time I embossed the background image on watercolor paper. I applied water to the paper and then dabbed on purple, green, and orange paint. The colors didn't blend together as much as I had hoped, but I still think it's a fun background. Once it was dry, I die-cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die, spritzed it with shimmer spray, and adhered it to a white card base.

I wanted to use "happy boo-thday" as my sentiment, so I needed to get creative. I looked through my word dies and found the Jumbo Tag dies from The Stamp Market (which I've had forever and never used). There are a collection of sentiments, including "happy birthday" and "for you". The "for you" is the same size as the "birthday," so I die cut both sentiments and just used the two Os from "for you" in place of the IR in "birthday." (I created the hyphen by snipping off part of an R.) I glued the letters to a piece of vellum card stock so they would stand out a bit more against the background. I added two ghosts (also spritzed with shimmer spray) and finished the card with two enamel dots.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a spook-tacular Halloween!