Bewitching Fun

Good morning all!  Hope you're doing great today and getting much accomplished.  I know I've mentioned more than once that I totally love autumn, but I'm not so much a fan of Halloween.  That said, I just had to try another card with the Bewitching stamp set on page 57 of the 2022 July - December Mini Catalog.  It would be a shame to only make one card with a set and then give up on it.  Of course, my card isn't ghoulish or gory, none of that stuff.  Just kind of cute and innocuous.   But I hope it makes you smile anyway.

I started out with the idea of using Parakeet Party and Pumpkin Pie together with large amount of Basic Black to make the card.  Then it was a matter of trying to figure out how I wanted the colors used.  I remembered the brick-like die in the Brilliant Wings die set that would be a good background for my little witch.  This die set is found in the 2022-2023 Annual Catalog on page 169.  The bricks were die-cut into the Basic Black layer four times - twice on the top and twice at the bottom.  The contrast between the Basic Black and either color was too strong for me, so I die-cut a number of bricks from Basic Gray cardstock and inlaid random pieces into the black layer.  At this point, I decided to make the card base Pumpkin Pie and not Parakeet Party.  That left my witch to be Parakeet Party instead.

I laid down a piece of Parakeet Party on the Stamparatus and then attached both the hat and legs to stamp on the cardstock at the same time.  It's a good thing I did!  Using Memento Tuxedo Black ink, I stamped them onto the cardstock.  Tip:  You're never going to get a true coverage when stamping on a color of cardstock versus white or vanilla.  There isn't the same smoothness on the color cardstock and the ink doesn't lay on the surface the same as with Basic White and Very Vanilla.  Looking at this image, you'd never guess I inked and stamped it seven times! It certainly doesn't look like it at all.  I figured if I hadn't gotten solid coverage after seven times, it simply wasn't going to happen.  And it's amazing how much more the 'speckling' stands out in a photo than real life.  Oh well, live and learn!  If I was starting over again (which maybe I should have), I would have stamped on Basic White and colored in the areas with a Parakeet Party marker.  I just didn't want any white on the front of the card.

Before cutting out, I used Wink of Stella to color the polka dots on the hat, the hatband, and the stripes on the stockings.  I have a Gold Wink of Stella that I used on the buckles.  After stamping and coloring the hat and legs, they were cut out with my Paper Snips.  I didn't care for them placed directly on the brickwork, so I used a Stitched Rectangle die and cut a piece of Vellum to go between.  I liked this much better because the brightness of the brick was still bothering me a little.

A small bit of the Parakeet Party 1/8" Metallic Woven Ribbon is wrapped around the middle of the hatband.  Then a small bow is made for an accent.  It's stretched out a little on the bow and at the tail ends.  The bow is attached to the hatband with a Mini Glue Dot.

The hat and legs were attached to the Vellum layer with Dimensionals.  The vellum has adhesive on the back only underneath the hat and legs and that's how it's attached to the card front.  This way none of the adhesive shows through the vellum to the front of the card.  

It's too bad the Wink of Stella isn't showing off its glimmer on the photo.  It really does add a little bit of extra pizzazz to the card.  Tell me, do you think the card needs more bling?  And if you think it does, what would you suggest using to step it up another notch??  Help me out here ladies.  I'm sure you have some excellent ideas!

Lastly, I want to share the inside of the card.  It's quite simple looking.  I started out with a piece of Basic White that measures 2 1/2" x 3 3/4".  I stamped a spider from the Bewitching set on the left side with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Then I stamped another on the right side, but down lower.  I used a Black Stampin' Write Marker to add enough dots to reach the top of the card.  Then I used it to write Boo!  between them.  Nothing says you can't add your own sentiment if you don't have a stamp that says just what you want!

The Basic White layer was attached to a Basic Black layer that measures 2 3/4" x 3".  Then both of these were attached inside the card with adhesive.  There's plenty of room left to write a little note to the recipient of the card underneath the dangling spiders.

Well, that's it for today's edition of the blog.  Hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something new from my misadventures.  Many times you just don't know how something is going to work out until after you try it.  Thank goodness it's only paper!  There have been a few card ideas that never made it past my work table, but hit the trash can fairly quickly.  Or I've pried pieces apart and used them on different card projects.  Yes, I've made my fair share of duds too.  So give your ideas a try.  If you don't like them, repurpose, reuse, or recycle.  It's only paper!  But if you create a masterpiece along the way, make sure you share it!!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Remember that the Perfect Partners sale is going on right now until the end of September.  Don't wait too long in case any of the new die sets sell out before then.  If you have questions, I'd be happy to help you out.

Did you know that October 1st is designated as World Cardmaking Day?  Stampin' Up! has some festivities planned and you can sign up for the card making fun.  I'll probably be doing some creating that day myself so come join me.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon 

A Bewitching Card

Hello friends!  Back again with another card idea for you to try.  You know how much I love autumn.  I think I might have mentioned that once or twice.  Today I thought I'd go with a Halloween card.  I know lots of people go all out for the holiday, but that's not really my thing.  I do have to make several cards every year, so here goes with the first one.  I bought the new Bewitching stamp set found on page 57 of the July - December 2022 Mini Catalog for this year's cards.  For some reason I like just the witches' feet and hats.  How weird is that?  Please don't tell me I have some weird fetish.  I'm sure I don't.  At least I don't think so!

Here's my version of the wicked witch of the west kind of melting down to her shoes.  Well, maybe not that exactly.  My idea started with Smoky Slate cardstock as the base.  I wanted just gray and black tones with Fresh Freesia as an accent.  I think it worked out pretty well.  At least in real life.  I've taken 27 pictures with different backgrounds and different lighting, and nothing worked very well to show the cool Fresh Freesia accents against the gray.  I love the subtle differences between the Smoky Slate and Fresh Freesia colors on the card.  Well, I better explain what I did in case you really can't tell from the pics.

There is a 3" x 5 1/2" layer of Basic Black cardstock that is attached to a 3 1/4" x 5 1/2" layer of Fresh Freesia cardstock.  A 7" strip of the Metallic Mesh Ribbon is wrapped around this and attached in the back.  The mesh ribbon reminds me a little of spider webs, so I thought it would be a great addition here.  This is all attached to the folded Smoky Slate card base using adhesive.

The witch's hat was stamped onto Smoky Slate cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  After punching this out with the Witch Hat Builder Punch, I used Smoky Slate Light Blends to shade the spider web on the hat, and Smoky Slate Dark Blends to shade the left and bottom sides of the hat.  Using Wink of Stella, the web was lightly traced for just a bit of shine. 

The legs and shoes were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto another piece of Smoky Slate cardstock.  Fresh Freesia Dark Blends was used to color the stocking stripes. Wink of Stella was colored onto the shoe buckles.   I actually colored three layers of this so it would show more, but the pics don't show it at all.  Bummer.

Since there's no punch for the legs and shoes, these were fussy cut.  I left them attached at the top for ease in placing them, but maybe I should have cut them out separately.  Something to think about for next time.

When the hat was punched, it also punched out the gray hat band and three stars.  I knew I didn't want the hat band to be Smoky Slate, so I punched just the hat band from a skinny strip of Fresh Freesia.  Then I thought I'd also prefer the stars in that color, so punched them also.  The hat band has some 'wrinkles' colored in with Fresh Freesia Blends.  The hat and legs were attached to the card front using Dimensionals.

Now I ran into a problem.  I didn't own any current stamps that have a Halloween sentiment.  Okaaay, time to go checking into my retired stash.  The first set I found was the Banner Year set from last year.  I liked the 'Happy Haunting' and 'Boo!' stamps and decided to look no further.  The sentiment for the card front was stamped onto Fresh Freesia with Tuxedo black.  Then was trimmed a little closer to the sentiment.  It was attached with Dimensionals over the ribbon at the bottom.

To stay with the layering on the front a little, I cut a 3" x 5 1/4" strip of Basic White.  There are two skinny strips of Fresh Freesia added to top and bottom this time instead of along the sides.  I placed it on the middle of the Stamparatus for my next step.  The spider from Bewitching was stamped to the left side.  It required two stampings to get the face of the spider to show nicely.  Then Boo! was attached to the Stamparatus.  It was stamped once with Tuxedo Black ink.  Then the cardstock was moved 1/2 grid square up and to the left.  Boo! was then stamped with Smoky Slate ink.  The cardstock was moved 1/2 grid square up and to the left again.  Then Boo! was stamped with Fresh Freesia ink.  I really liked how the wording turned out!  It sort of reminds me of a spooky echo. 

Last look at the card and you can see the addition of a knot of Mesh Ribbon added with Mini Glue Dots to the top of the card.  And multiple Fresh Freesia and Smoky Slate punched stars added to both the card front and inside to finish it off.  They were also attached with Mini Glue Dots to make it quick and easy.

So that's my first Halloween card for the year.  It's amazing what can be done with just a hat and some shoes.  I'll have to give this one a whirl again.  So sorry I had to use retired sentiments on the card.  I try to stick with current items, but every once in a while, that just doesn't work as planned.

Thanks for stopping by again.  Let me know what you think of the card.  I always appreciate your comments!

If you're placing an order soon, please use the Host Code shown at the top of the blog post.  I really appreciate it!  I've already got some goodies planned for sending out to all of you that order.  I think you'll like them!!

Happy spooky stamping and creating,

Sharon