Happy Halloween

This week's Topflight Stamps theme is Halloween and I'm back with a second card! Halloween reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe, which makes me think of ravens. Topflight Stamp carries several raven and crow stamps. I decided to use the Rook and Roll Clear Polymer Stamp Set by Pink Ink Designs. It features two large raven/crows stamps, four raven/crow silhouette stamps, and several smaller supporting stamps.

Here's my card!

Topflight Stamps Products Used:

Rook and Roll Clear Photopolymer Stamp Set by Pink Ink Designs 

Acetate Circle Masks by Lavinia Stamps

Midnight Blue, Dark Denim, and Blue Lagoon Elements Inks by Lavinia Stamps

Fine Spray Misters by Spectrum Noir

Pinecone and Nocturne VersaFine Clair Inks by Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko

Gelly Roll Bold Line Stardust Clear Glittering Ink by Sakura

Other Products Used:

140 lb. Mixed Media Cardstock by Strathmore

Black Cardstock by Bazzill Basics

Silvery Glitter Cardstock by DCWV

Repositionable Sticker Paper by Avery

Dr. PH Martins Bleed Proof White

Flowing Branches Stencil by Designs by Ryn 

Warm Grey 6, Blue Grey, Purplish Grey, Grey, Black, and Deep Brown Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers by Kuretake

Small Talk Occasions Idea-ology Stickers by Tim Holtz for Advantus

STAY-tion by Wendy Vecchi for Ranger Ink

Stamping Platform

Instructions:

1. Use Nocturne VersaFine Clair Ink to stamp the largest raven from the Rook and Roll Clear Photopolymer Stamp Set twice — once onto a panel of mixed media paper and once onto repositionable sticker paper. 
2. Fussy-cut the sticker paper version and place it over its counterpart on the image panel to mask the image. 
3. Place one of the circle masks from the Acetate Circle Masks behind the raven's head. 
4. Brush Midnight Blue Elements Ink around the outside of the image panel and over the top part of the moon. 
5. Brush Dark Denim Elements Ink onto the panel over the darker blue, the masked moon, and the masked raven. 
6. Brush Blue Lagoon Elements Inksover the masked moon and raven onto the image panel.
7. Place some Dr. PH Martins Bleed Proof White into a small container, mist with water using the Fine Spray Mister, and mix. 
8. Load a paint brush with the diluted white paint/ink then tap the brush with a pencil to splatter the image panel to add stars to the night sky.
9. Place the image panel onto the STAY-tion.
10. Place the Flowing Brushes Stencil over the image panel so that one of the branches is under the raven's feet and secure with magnets. *
11. Brush Pinecone VersaFine Clair Ink over the stencil onto the image panel. 
12. Since the stencil has an open design on the branches, use the Deep Brown Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker to fill in the spaces.
13. Remove the moon mask and the raven's mask.
14. Use Zig Clear Color Real Brush Markers to color the raven. *
15. Use Gelly Roll Bold Line Stardust Clear Glittering Ink  to outline the moon. 
16. Trim the image panel to 5" x 8" and with Nocturne VersaFine Clair Ink.
17. Cut a piece of silvery glitter cardstock to 5.25" x 8.25" .
18. Edge the silver glitter cardstock with Nocturne VersaFine Clair Inks because you don't want nasty white edges! 
19. Adhere the matted image panel was adhered to a 5.5" x 8.5" black card. 
20. Adhere the "Happy Halloween" sticker stencil to finish the card.

Notes:

•  I mis-placed the stencil and one of the raven's feet was dangling in mid-air, so I moved the stencil and filled in the areas Pinecone VersaFine Clair Ink.
•  I must admit that I'm not thrilled with the results. I clearly need a LOT more practice with the Zig markers. Either than or return to watercolor pencils which I used to use all the time. 
• I misplaced my beloved Classic Sentiments Clear Stamp Set by Heffy Doodle, which is why I used the sticker.

Thanks for visiting today!

Neon!

Astrid Stulemeijer is our hostess this week at Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog. Her challenge is "Neon".

This is what she had to say about her challenge.

"At first I was a bit afraid of these intense colors, but after using them I really love them. They give your work such a nice 'pop'. I challenge you to use at least one Neon color. Can't wait to see your eye popping work :-)"

If you'd like the chance to win your choice of $30 worth of Stampotique stamps, you should play along with this challenge. Visit Stampotique Designers Challenge blog and be sure to read the rules so that you'll have the chance to win that great prize!!!  

I must say that this Neon challenge was a real challenging one for me (which I guess is the point of a challenge after all) because as much as I like bright colors, I don't really like neon and day-glo colors. As such, I don't have a lot of media in these colors. The closest that I do have are Dylusions sprays and a few Distress colors (Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon). I'm also not a big spray gal as I can't control their application very well. As a control-freak Virgo, I find that distressing and not in the fabulous aged grungy way. But, I decided to just go for it and this is what happened.

Here's my journal spread which uses Chessy, Rabbit, and The Tweedles. All three stamps are Janet Klein's designs!

Chessy, Rabbit, and The Tweedles were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink, colored with Copic markers in seriously-bright-verging-on-neon colors, fussy cut, and edged with a black marker. Several layers of Clear Gelly Glaze pen were added to Chessy's eyes and teeth,  Rabbit's  pocket watch, and The Tweedles' cufflinks and shoes to make them dimensional and shiny. White Gelly Glaze pen was added to The Tweedles' trousers. Rabbit's and The Tweedles' eyes were coated with Liquid Glass (DecoArt's Media line) to add glassy pop-eyed dimension and shine. All my characters were put aside overnight while I worked on the background for the journal pages.

As previously stated, I don't much like spray paint because it gets everywhere and because I can't seem to control my spraying. I grabbed a pizza box and opened it on my table to protect the table and stuff that lives there. Two sheets of 140 lb. Mixed Media cardstock (Strathmore) were first misted with water, then sprayed with After Midnight, Lemon Zest, and Bubblegum Pink Dylusions sprays (Ranger). I was too tentative with my spraying, so I repeated the process again, then rolled some paper towel over the cardstock. I repeated the misting, spraying, rolling thang a few more times, then realized that my pizza box was soaked and pools were forming under it. So scrap paper, some white-paper coated corrugate, and white flowers were grabbed to try to soak up the ink pond. Most of those became too muddy to use, reinforcing my "don't like spray" feeling. And I still wasn't happy with the look of my journal pages!

I looked around and noticed I had a ginormous bubble mailer and thought to myself "Self! Cut that sucka open and use it line the pizza box!" So I did. 

I sprayed all three colors over the two pages again, did the paper towel roll, noticed that the bubble wrap had some ink, and pressed the sprayed bubble-wrap onto the pages. Yahoo! I was freakin' delighted with the result and got even happier when I heat set the background. Most of the overspray on my table was wiped up and the pizza box was put into recycling. 

Using an old credit card, Black Media Modeling Paste (DecoArt) was spread over one of the two branches on the Flowing Branches stencil (Designs By Ryn)onto both pages. I must say that I love, Love, LOVE DecoArt's Media Modeling Paste! It stencils like a dream and dries really quickly. The White Media Modeling Paste can be tinted with DecoArt's Media Fluid Acrylics (MFA) too, which extends their versatility and usefulness. -End of DecoArt commercial!

I decided that the background still needed to look a bit more neon to fulfill the challenge, so I grabbed my Picked Raspberry Distress inkpad (Ranger), my Time Travel stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), and a very old teacup/teapot stencil (FairyTale Creations), and added some hot pink clock face bits, tea-cups, and tea pots here and there. Much better. Black Washi tape was added to the bottom of both sheets, then the sheets were adhered to two journal pages, which had been pre-painted with Ebony Black MFA paint (DecoArt). Picked Raspberry Distress and Black Soot Distress inks were sponged around the outside edges of the spread. 

Yellow cardstock was die-cut with old QuicKutz dies to create the sentiment. The sentiment, Chessy, Rabbit, and The Tweedles were adhered to the spread and I called it done!

Thanks for visiting today! 

I shall enter this journal spread into the following challenges:
• Come and Get It Challenges: Make Your Own  Background 
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenges: Lions and Lambs, oh my! - I've got a rabbit and a cat!

Numbers!

Jackie Payne is our hostess this week at Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog. Her challenge is "Numbers".

This is what she had to say about her challenge.

Numbers have been around for a very long time! They feature so much in our lives! I would like you to incorporate a minimum of one number into your project! I hope you have fun!

If you'd like the chance to win your choice of $30 worth of Stampotique stamps, you should play along with this challenge. Visit Stampotique Designers Challenge blog and be sure to read the rules so that you'll have the chance to win that great prize!!! 

As you may or may not know, I've had the flu for more than a week now, so I will claim that the fevers and delirium of the flu made me create this ghastly punny card. The Toucan/Twocan pun had to be released from my feverish congested skull so I could move onto my more normal creations. So without further ado, here's it is.

My card with Toucan and Budgie (Kira Nichols).

 

I used a Post-It note to cover the Budgie prior to inking the stamp with Tuxedo Black Memento ink. The Post-It note was removed and Toucan was stamped onto Neenah cardstock, then onto Eclipse Tape. The Eclipse Tape impression was fussy-cut, placed over Toucan, and poor Budgie was covered up yet again. The second Toucan was stamped with the help of my trusty Stampa-ma-jig stamp positioner, then both Toucans were colored with Copic markers, using a Googled image as a guide. Did you know that there are many, many different variations on a Toucan's coloration? Now you do.

When I was done coloring the Toucans, their beaks, claws, and talons were coated with several layers of Clear Gelly Roll Glaze pen to make 'em shiny and dimensional. Their eyes were coated with Liquid Glass (DecoArt's Media line) to add glassy pop-eyed dimension and shine.

Copic markers were used to outline and then color one of the two branches on the Flowing Branches stencil (Designs By Ryn). which was positioned under the Toucans. The image panel was die-cut with a Nesting Rectangle die (Lifestyle Crafts), then matted with a black cardstock cut with a slightly larger die from the same set. This was set aside while I worked on the background.

I vaguely remembered that I had a piece of 12x12 black and white number-patterned paper in my stash and Eureeka! I was right! The paper is by 7 Gypsies and has a copyright of 2003 on it, which makes it older than most wine I drink. I used Tim's Wrinkle-free Distress Technique with Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold, and a touch of Ripe Persimmon Distress inks to color the paper. 

Spiced Marmalade and Dried Marigold Distress inks were sponged over the Numbers mask (The Crafter's Workshop) to add another numbered element to the mix. 

The sentiment was computer generated with an outline font, which was then colored with a Copic marker. All edges were sponged with Black Soot Distress ink and the card was assembled. I actually think that this sentiment would be great for an engagement, anniversary, wedding, or friendship card!

Once again, sorry about that horrific pun. Thanks for visiting today!

I shall enter this card into the following challenges:
• The Mixed Media Card Challenge: Hints of Spring/Optional Bird
• Marker Pop Challenges: Anything Goes
• Paper Take Weekly: Anything Goes