Whimsy Stamps ~ Sleuky Time!

Hey crafty pals, hope you're having a good weekend. I'm back to share a fun Halloween creation I've been looking forward to making, as I really wanted to use the multiple apertures die I bought a while back. It's fabulous and was so fun to create with. I've been playing with some Christmas ideas for this die too, so watch this spare for that. But first, let me share my 'sleuky' Halloween creation with you. (If you've followed my blog a while, you'll know that 'sleuky' is Georgie's childhood word for all things scary and spooky.)

The fabulous postage stamp die was my starting point for this creation and I also had grabbed the Halloween Stamp set that came out about the same time, because it's a perfect fit! This is such a fun set, with more than just Halloween stamps too, it has a range of little sentiments which are perfect for use in kinetic creations too. I wanted to use lots more of these images in this creation, but ran out of space, because I wanted also to make the central cross of the apertures into shaker elements. So I actually only needed 4 images, which I paired with some of the features of the patterned papers I've used. The little spider is part of the paper, not stamped on. But the owl, cat and tombstone are from this set as is the spider web which I paired with the spider from the paper. Ooh so fun to play around with, I've more combinations I'd like to try!

I started the background panel of this design off, with some ink blending. I used Peacock Feathers Oxide Ink to create the main colour, then brought in some Black Soot in light random circles to create a smokey eery look and to darken up the edges. I was going to add another layer around the edges, but I so loved how the lighter application looked, I decided to leave it there. I laid over the black frame and worked out where I'd like the sentiment to be, then stamped that on in Versafine Black Onyx Ink. I prefer this ink for sentiments as it gives a good impression first time. So I can just use an acrylic block rather than stamping platform. I often craft in a tiny space, so means I don't have to have 'all' my stuff out!

I had decided I wanted to create a shaker card, but wanted the shaker elements to stay in their own little frames, not shake all through the design, so I used foam tape to pop up all the boxes of the frame. I added acetate across the whole front of the card too, but kept my four corner images to add over the acetate once the rest of the design was finished. They were glued in place over the acetate to 'pop them up' a bit from the rest of the design. I used two fun Sparkletz sets from Whimsy, which I cherry picked out the bits I wanted to use. It was a small space, so I didn't want to flood the apertures with lots of shaker elements and I wanted to have something a little different in the frames. So the two top and bottom, I used ghost elements with sequins and seed beads in, the side frames I used pumpkins and bats with sequins and seed beads.

The gorgeous Whimsy Stamps Halloween Paper Pack called Haunted, has some incredible 'ready to go' Halloween background scenes, they're eery and fun without being too macabre, because this girlie, doesn't do macabre, I'm definitely in the 'too cute to spook' camp and I definitely can't do scary movies! I remember when I was a teenager some friends coercing me to watch Poltergeist, I had nightmares and couldn't eat steak for years! So I know myself well enough, never to go there again! But I love all the cutesy fun that can come with Halloween, kids dressed up as pumpkins, stripy witches tights, food that's creepy but fun (but please don't try to serve me eggs that look like eyeballs! That's too far!) Hehe, bet you didn't think you'd be getting to know me quite THAT well today huh?

Thanks for popping in to have some Halloween fun with me today. I have been creating like crazy with Halloween coming up, because as I said, I can't do the macabre, but I LOVE the 'too cute to spook' Halloween and although I don't send many Halloween cards, I LOVE creating Halloween decor. So watch this space! Hugs and happy crafting xoxo