Whimsy Stamps ~ Happy Halloween

Hey crafty friends, Halloween has arrived! We are having a fun Instagram Hop over at Whimsy Stamps to wrap up all the Halloween fun we've been having. The hop kicks off at 3pm EST on the Whimsy Stamps Instagram Channel, but it will be open for comments for a full week to give everyone a chance to enjoy their Halloween! I had two new cards to share in this hop, but only got the first of the two in the line up, which I shared yesterday here on my blog. This second one I left out as I needed the space for the banners. But I'm sharing it here as a fun wrap up to this amazing Halloween season. I've had so much fun creating! My candy cauldron is full and I've a tray of little treats to give out to the early trick or treaters. I wound up with quite a few this year, as I'd made little boxes for the 13 Nights of Halloween Countdown we did at Whimsy. I pulled out the countdown brads and added little pieces of ephemera over the holes, stuffed them with candy and they were good to go! 

This piece started as a playtime panel trying out some new sprays. I used Black Soot Distress Spray Stain with Salvaged Patina Distress Spray Stain and Spun Sugar Oxide Spray to create the background. I was trying to create a spooky moon, but the finish looked rubbish, not at all like previous ones I've done. I'd used a much smaller mask, so the inky bleeds just covered too much of the moon and took away the borders of the moon, so I pivoted and pulled out my Studio Light Glow In The Dark Adhesive Foil and just covered over the moon area with that, piece saved! I was also working on a 'new to me' medium, which may have played into the difference in reactions I've had before with the sprays. More experimentation is clearly needed! I'm so enjoying using sprays, I've accumulated a few colours now, so need to use them more.

I used quite a lot of water when I was spraying and didn't dry between layers, so it merged rather than layered, resulting in this milky muted sky, but I wasn't mad. Once I'd found a fix for the moon, I just went ahead with my vision, which was to add the little black cat shaker with his fish bones and other treats. I found some cute derpy eyes in a Spellbinders set of adhesive eyes. I then went about spacing my Halloween word, which just fit within the margins of the piece and added the 'i' and little diecut heart above. The heart was cut from white cardstock, inked with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and then embossed with Simon Says Stamp Detail Sparkle Embossing Powder. It paired really well with the Spellbinders Black Glitter Foam that I diecut the letters from, using the Whimsy Stamps Mix and Mingle Alphabet and Numbers Die Set. These have some really fun options for some of the letters and diecut beautifully from the foam.

The scene needed some little extra to complete it, so I rummaged through my diecuts and found this little strip of black grass I'd obviously cut but not used for a previous make. I tried it to fit and glued that down to anchor the cat. Then I added some iridescent stars from a Trinity Stamps embellishment box called Oh My Stars. It's a flat iridescent silver star confetti and the shine is delish. I just dotted them around to fill the sky with stars. Inside the kitty, I combined a few confetti sets from my stash, the hexagon shaped dark iridescent confetti is from the Scrapbook.com Shimmer Flakes set called Reputation. The rest of the confetti I cherry picked out of a few mixes I had in my stash including those cute little fish bones. The kitty was cut from Cardstock Warehouse Foundation cardstock in Blacktop. This is a great all purpose black cardstock. I used some ribbon and baker's twine from my stash to finish the tag and a little blue feather which toned with the ribbon and sequins as if the kitty had just been munching a birdy! 

Thanks for visiting today friends. I hope you'll join us for the current hop. You can head to my post here. Cardstock Warehouse are offering a special discount code currently too. It finishes November 5th, so if you've been enjoying seeing the makes I've been creating with their gorgeous papers, do go and check out their store and wonderful collections whilst the coupon code is valid. Details are in the banner above. Thanks for popping in to check out my latest post, I hope you've enjoyed reading about my creative process. I will be back again soon with another crafty adventure. Until then, I wish you a fabulous and creative week! Hugs, Wends xoxo

(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 no 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:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes featuring Studio Light Products (Glow in Dark Foil)

As You Like It Challenge: Favourite Critter (and why) ~ I've been loving Black Cats all through this Halloween Season, I've made several creations featuring these cute critters. I have an affinity for them as we had twin black cats when I was younger.