31 Days of Halloween - Day 4: A Much Misunderstood Gentleman

Greetings! I returned from vacation and promptly came down with the flu and a dreadful ear infection. Then I threw myself in to cleaning the house and preparing for a 140th birthday party. You read that right. A friend from college, who I met Freshman year, shares my birthday. We turned 18 together and celebrated our 30th birthdays together. So we decided to celebrate the fourtieth anniversary of our 30th Birthday this year! The party was great fun. Sadly, my birthday twin was feeling under the weather, though he rallied for the party. Two days later, he tested positive for Covid. My husband and I hadn't been feeling great, but atttributed it to talking so much and exhaustion from running around like lunatics prior to the party. Alas, we were wrong and had Covid. We only passed it to our daughter, our nephew, and our niece-in-law. Fortunately, they're young-uns, so they got over it quickly. Not like certain newly old people. This version of Covid was like a bad head cold with a nasty cough and exhaustion. I didn't make it into my craft room for almost a month. 

Therefore, this card shows how rusty I got in my card-making skills. The card was created for the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity's Challenge 202 - the 31 Days of Halloween with the Clown with Balloon Rubber Stamp by Lost Coast Designs, the Cobwebs Stencil by AALL and Create, the Drippy Arch 6x6 Stencil by A Colorful Life Designs, Distress Inks, a debossing die by Little B Designs, a Spiders Die by Memory Box, and a sentiment from the Halloween Clippings Stickers by idea-ology.

Products Used:

Clown with Balloon Rubber Stamp by Lost Coast Designs

Solar White Classic Crest Cardstock by Neenah Papers

Raven and Off-white Cardstock by Bazzill Basics

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink by Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko

Copic Markers:

T5, T3, T2, T1, T0, BV23, BV20, BV13, BG93, BG90, YR31, YR18, YR16, YR12, E41, E40, R39, R27, R24, R22, Y11, Y04, Y02, Y00, N6

White Prismacolor Pencil 

Black Pigma Pen by Sakura

Cobwebs Stencil by AALL and Create

Drippy Arch 6x6 Stencil by A Colorful Life Designs

Black Soot, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone, Aged Mahogony, Barn Door, Rusty Hinge, and Fossilized Amber Distress Inks by Tim Holtz for Ranger Ink

Lost Shadow Distress Oxide Ink by Tim Holtz for Ranger Ink

Stipple Brushes 

Debossing Die by Little B Designs

Spiders Die by Memory Box

Halloween Clippings Stickers by Tim Holtz idea-ology for Advantus

Corner Rounder Punch by EK Success

Nocturne VersaFine Clair Ink by Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko

Repositionable Sticker Paper by Avery

Low-tack Tape

Glassboard by Glassboard Studios

STAY-tion by Wendy Vecchi for Ranger Ink

Stamping Platform

Instructions:

1. Use Tuxedo Black Memento Ink was used to stamp the Clown with Balloon twice — once onto the bottom of a 6" square image panel and once onto repositionable sticker paper. 
2. Fussy-cut the sticker paper version and place it atop its counterpart as a mask.
3. Place the Cob Web stencil was over the image panel and secure with low-tack tape to the Glassboard.
4. Place the outside part of the Drippy Arch Stencil over the Cobweb Stencil on the image panel and secure with magnets.
5. Sponge Fossilized Amber, Barn Door, and Black Soot Distress ink over the over the combined stencils and the mask to create a spider web in a cave scenic background. 
6. Remove the stencils and place the interior part of the Drippy Arch stencil over the center part of the image panel to cover the webby cave interior. Secure the stencil with magnets.
7. Sponge or Brush Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone Distress Inks over the stencil. 
8. Use a stipple brush  to pounce Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, Rusty Hinge, and Fossilized Amber Distress Ink over the newly inked background and the stencil. 
9. Use another stipple brush to pounce Light Grey Distress Oxide Ink over the the background and the stencil to create a mottled look.
10. Remove the stencil and the mask over the Clown.
11. Use Copic markers to color the Clown with Balloon image.
12. Use a white pencil  to add highlights to the balloon. 
13. The white spiderweb was too stark and the Clown with Balloon did not stand out sufficiently, so I used yellow Copic markers to color them. Much better.
14. I also wasn't thrilled with athe way the drippy arch looked so I used a black marker to outline the drippy bits which helped.
15. Trim the image panel to 5 5/8" square and use the corner-rounder punch on the top corners.
16. Edge the image panel with Nocturne VersaFine Clair Ink.
17. Cut Off-white cardstock, that matches the Clown with Balloon's face,  to 5 3/4" square and use it to mat the image panel.
18. Cut Off-white cardstock with a Spiders Die (cuts 5 spiders at once).
19. Detail the spiders with E40 and E41 Copic markers. 
20. Fold the spiders' legs under the spiders' bodies. (I never thought I'd write that sentence).
21. Adhere the spiders to the spider web with dimensional foam adhesive under their bellies and glue on the end of their legs.
22. Adhere the image panel to a 6" square black card.
23. Adhere an appropriate sticker  under the Clown with Balloon's fee.
24. Use low-tack tape to secure the "Happy Halloween" debossing dies facedown  on the top of the card as shown.
25. Run the card through the die-cut machine to deboss the sentiment, which will finish the card.

I sure hope you participate in this month's challenge for the chance to win Lo$t Coa$t Ca$h!