Hi Lovelies!
Is Halloween your favorite time of year? Though I have long been an admirer, I have not done much for the holiday before, because I never felt particularly confident that I had good crafting ideas for Halloween. Then Tim Holtz came along and challenged me to take a swing at making for Halloween. So here I am!!!
Many of my cards, like the ones you see here, feature simple, accessible techniques that I hope will inspire you to say, "I can do that!"
The sassiness of the Snarky Cat Halloween Stamp Set was the first to grab my attention, I am sure that you can understand why!!!
If I am planning a card, as opposed to free-styling, I break it down into phases that involves the world's ugliest "sketches" (LOL) and then the techniques I want to use:
1. Ink-Blending
2. Stenciling
3. Stamping, Masking and Embossing
Though they were quite unpretty, they get the job done! The sketches allowed me to pair each cat with other images and the sentiments that I wanted to use on each card. With those out of the way, I was ready to get started!
1. INK-BLENDING
When in doubt, I fall back on techniques that are comfortable for me, so of course I dug out my Tim Holtz Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tools and Distress Ink Pads and got to work on a creating some backgrounds to get me started. My color combos are:
- "If I play dead" card: Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet and Dusty Concord
- "It's behind me"card: Aged Mahogany, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Spiced Marmalade, Antique Linen
- "Trick or treat" card: Forest Moss, Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood, Rusty Hinge and Carved Pumpkin
2. STENCILING
Stenciling is another safe haven for me, so I whipped out three of the fabulous stencils from this release along with my Hickory Smoke Distress Ink and gently stenciled over my backgrounds for a subtle pattern.
- "If I play dead" card: Ironwork
- "It's behind me"card: Script
- "Trick or treat" card: Deco Arch
Here you can see the Script stencil gently fading into the ink-blended background.
3. STAMPING, MASKING AND EMBOSSING
With that, I was all ready for a little stamping, embossing and masking of the cutest, sassiest, funniest Halloween cats that I have ever seen.
Tip: Before I inked my stamps, I referred back to my "sketches" and placed each stamp on its intended ink blended background. This allowed me to get a sense of their proportion relative to one another and I fussed around until their arrangement worked for me.
I stamped in black ink and then selectively embossed some images with clear embossing powder to add dimension and to make the images that are in the foreground of my card stand out even more against the colorful backgrounds or other images in the "distance" of the little scenes.
This last card required some masking to allow me place images in front of or behind each other. First, I stamped the pumpkin onto the inked background and then again onto a Post-it Note and cut around the top of the pumpkin.
Tip: I am lazy with fussy-cutting, so I only cut the parts of the pumpkin that I know I would be stamping over with another stamp.
I then placed the partially fussy-cut pumpkin over its "twin" on the inked background to block ink when I stamped the mushroom jar and the broom.
With this simple masking, I created a little scene about a cat who is on the hunt for some Halloween treats!
I finished all the stamped card front's with the "dot splatter" stamp from the Examination set to add some additional flair. LOL.
Happy Halloween Lovelies!!! I hope you will come back to see other makes I have from this awesome release! You can sign up for updates on my ABOUT page on the top right.