This Halloween graveyard scene comes alive with this colorful blended background. It's the perfect spooky card to send for Halloween, for an October birthday, or as an October greeting. The word at the bottom can be easily swapped (in fact the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Halloween Words set come with 18 dies).
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Making the Card
1. Cut Canson Bristol cardstock to about 5x7 inches. I find this cardstock to work really well with blending techniques.
2. Mount Graveyard Panel stamp on Stamp Platform or use a stamp positioner to center stamp on 5x7 cardstock. Add some Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink to moon part of stamp (I used my finger to dab around the areas by the bats since the stamp pad wasn't able to get in that area). Stamp. Do not remove stamp! You will be restamping several times. Wipe off stamp.
3. To create a slight halo effect around the moon, use round ink blending tool to bend over moon with a very small amount of Squeezed Lemonade. Heat set with a heat tool. Use a 3/4 inch circle punch to cut a circle in masking paper or Post-It Tape. Place over top of dry moon.
5. Remove moon mask but keep it for step 7. Carefully ink the bats with the fine tip end of Tuxedo Black Memento Marker. Stamp. Repeat if necessary to get a nice dark black. Wipe off stamp.
6. Use a powder tool over the entire blended piece. Ink everything but the moon and bats of the Graveyard Panel in VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I recommend stamping it several times to get a solid image. While the ink is still wet, coat with clear embossing powder and heat. Optional: if you want the bats also embossed, use the fine tip of a VersaMarker to dab over the bats, sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heat.
7. Replace the moon mask before continuing. Sprinkle some water on your fingers and flick across the background. Let set a few seconds then dab with paper towel. Repeat until you like the look. Add some water to the white gold Gansai Tambi paint (Starry Colors). Flick across background either by tapping a loaded brush against the side of your finger or using the brush to apply some of the paint to an acrylic block then flick off the edge with brush. Carefully (!) dab off any paint on the embossed areas (try not to touch background at all!).
8. Cut dark blue cardstock to 7x10 inches; fold in half to form a 5x7 inch card base. Cut orange cardstock 4 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches. Adhere to card base. Trim inked graveyard scene to 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches. Adhere to card front.
9. Die cut 4 or 5 copies of Beware (Tim Holtz/Sizzix Halloween Words: Block) from orange cardstock. Cut a piece of Canson Bristol about 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. Blend ink from bottom to top in this order: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door. Die cut with Beware. Glue all orange copies of each letter together to form a thick stack. Glue blended letters to tops. Adhere to card front where shown (hint: I used the leftover cardstock from one of the block Beware die cuts to line them up - just be sure not to get any glue on it).
Supplies
- Rubbernecker Stamp: Graveyard Panel (588)
- Cardstock: Canson Recycled XL Bristol, Dark Blue, Orange
- Stamp Platform or Stamp Positioner
- Distress Inks: Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot
- Ink Blending Tool
- Masking Paper or Post-It Tape
- 3/4 Inch Circle Punch
- Memento Marker: Tuxedo Black
- Powder Tool
- VersaFine Onyx Black Ink
- Optional: VersaMarker
- Heat Tool
- Clear Embossing Powder
- Gansai Tambi Starry Colors: White Gold (906)
- Tim Holtz/Sizzix Halloween Words: Block (660956)
