Whimsy Stamps ~ Widow of the Web

I had an 'aha' moment recently, thinking about my Halloween stash and films I've loved of old. This was spurred on by a challenge we have coming up at Sweet Stampin' soon which uses the prompt to design with a movie in mind. (Spoiler alert, but now you can get ready to join us!) I already had a make done for that challenge, but it made me think of another movie I could theme my card on and I've had the best time bringing my vision together. A passion project if you will!

This creation is based on the fantasy film Krull and specifically the character known as the Widow of the Web. There's lots of interesting lore surrounding this character and this make started with the idea of red sand, which was the colour of the sand in the hourglass she turned in the story. I won't explain it all, but that is where the idea for the red hourglass sand comes from. I've coloured some Tim Holtz Distress Rock Candy Glitter with three alcohol ink colours to achieve this lovely rich red. I used Terra Cotta, Watermelon and Cranberry to colour the glitter. I just kept adding drops until I was happy with the colour. I followed the method Tim Holtz has taught a few times now in his lives. He's such a great teacher and I have to say it was pretty quick and easy, so I needn't have been so nervous about the process!

I worked out how to bring together my layers and there were some things that didn't work quite as well as I'd planned, such as the web on the acetate obscuring a little more of her face than I'd intended. But overall, it came together much like I envisioned. I wanted the image to look as if it was deep in the web, as the widow was in the story and there of course had to be an ominous spider! I had first planned to use a spider from the same set as I diecut the webs from, but this spider turned out to be a little bit small and not ominous enough, so when Whimsy recently released the Itsy Bitsy Spider Die Set, I knew that was the spider to use!

I've made a video which steps through my process of the whole make. I did make some changes after finishing my filming, which you can see in the second pic above compared to the first pic. Click on the pics to see a bigger version for closer details. I decided the Crystal Spider needed a slightly more sparkly body so trimmed the vellum body and overlayed it on a second diecut from white glitter cardstock. If you'd like to understand a little more of the lore I was working with for this make, click the Crystal Spider link to a video which explains it so well. I also added some clear glitter brush marker onto the red abdomen of the spider to make that stand out better. The diecut webs have been treated with Decayed and Unravelled Distress Mica Spray Stains, for a slightly grungy but sparkly finish. I wanted the black cardstock that I'd chosen for the muted background to have a little more shimmer too, so ended up running my clear glitter brush marker around the cardstock edge, for a bit of shimmer and shine.

Beautiful Lyssa, the Widow of the Web, was played by Francesca Annis in the movie. She's quite exquisite in the role. I knew exactly which image I would use to portray her character once the idea for the card had formed. I knew she would be buried in the web and not all that visible, but I still wanted to try and capture the essence of 'her'. So I altered the image to obscure the wine glass. I did toy with trying to create her iconic headgear, but felt there was enough of a hint of a headdress there, to get away without embellishing it further. If you imagine her hair as the black veil, it all works rather well! I'll be honest and say, I forgot to colour her skin! But hubby pointed out, she would be so pale from years without the sun on her skin, so I'm going with that! I do love the way the red glitter has stuck to the overlap of red and black ink on her dress. It will likely shake off, but it looks pretty cool there! The letters of her name, I cut from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Kraft Stock Metallic Classics silver cardstock. I wanted to add this little hint at the story, for those who have seen Krull and would enjoy working it out for themselves, without the letters taking over and being too obvious, so the silver letters toned and worked well to sit in the scene without shouting their presence.

My video shares a lot of the process of this creation, so if you're curious and would enjoy a longer video or some company while you're crafting, I hope you'll enjoy watching. It's a big list to go through all the elements I've used, and they appear on the video bar the alcohol ink I used to colour the glitter and the Mica Spray Stains I coloured the webs with. Thumbnails of the products are below, but the explanations of use are best seen in the video.

The beautiful heavyweight cardstock I've used for the hourglass in this creation is from Whimsy's lovely sponsors for September and October, Cardstock Warehouse. This is such a lovely cardstock, it's the Quartz cardstock from their Stardream range. It was a perfect weight to stand up to this design. I used a black cardstock called Blacktop from their Foundations range, which was from my stash and also their lovely heavyweight vellum.

Cardstock Warehouse are offering Whimsy customers a 10% discount on purchases at the moment, be sure to use the discount code when placing an order on full priced items. This is a single use code per customer.

We had our last Halloween release at Whimsy at the end of September. The current release is all about Christmas, but gosh it's good! So whatever your crafty heart desires, there's a pretty good spread of options at Whimsy right now. I really do adore the fun take Whimsy has had on Halloween this year! I've loved it all! I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure. In the meantime, I wish you a magical and creative week! Hugs, Wends xoxo

NB: I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, and so appreciate if you use these when shopping. They cost you nothing extra whatsoever. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.

Challenge Entries:

Love To Craft: #88 ~ Anything Goes

Craft Rocket Challenge: #130 ~ Autumn/Halloween

Stamping Sensations: October ~ Autumn or Anything Goes

Daisy Chain Challenges: #101 ~ Autumn and/or Halloween

Crafty Calendar Challenge: October Challenge ~ Halloween

Creative Inspirations Challenge: Autumn/Something Spooky

The Old Bats Halloween Challenge: October 2025 ~ Anything Goes Halloween

As You Like It: Square or Not? I love making slimline cards, A2 cards too, I used to make far more square cards when I lived in the UK, but it's harder to get hold of nice square card bases in New Zealand. So I prefer to make slimline and A2.