Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween 2014 Blog Hop- Day 9

Well, it's Day 9 of the 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop, and still counting. As you know by now, I am participating in this month-long blog hop with some awesome artists.  The complete list of Wicked Bloggers (that's what we are called) are in my side bar.  There are lots of prizes in the daily scavenger hunt, and a Grand Prize worth over $300.

To see all of the rules and regulations for 31 Days of Halloween 2014, please visit THIS POST.
To see Scavenger Hunt winners from previous days, please visit THIS PAGE
By now you must realize that I love making cards, so my project today is a card I call "Look Into My Eyes!"

1.  Stamp owl scene with black ink onto watercolor paper.  Use Fantastix applicator to pick up colors from the distress ink pads to color the image.  A small makeup sponge was used to color the entire owl image with Antique Linen, then the water brush was used to pick up some of the color while quickly dabbing the moisture with a paper towel.  This brought some of the color back to white for the owl's feathers.

2.  Frayed Burlap was used sparingly with the water brush onto the castle for shading.

3.  The sky was colored entirely with one single Fantastix applicator.  This tool really works well for blending.  It does not hold a lot of ink, which allows you to simply wipe off any excess ink onto a paper towel before picking up another color from the ink pad.  Like the blending sponge applicators, it will not contaminate your ink pad, even though it stains and looks dirty.  Mind you, if you add a re-inker to it, it will soak it up like a sponge.

4.  Trim purple print paper from the 8x8 pad to 4-1/2" x 6".  Curl two corners opposite each other.

5.  Punch out a piece of beige paper from the 6x6 paper pad, and fussy cut the two rows of diamonds from  the purple print sheet.  Layer onto card, as shown.

6.  Punch a small spider from the Core-dinations cs, sand a bit, and use a large ball stylus to "puff" the spider up. Add to card with a couple of pop dots.

7.  Tear around stamped image and ink edges with Black Soot.  I like to use sheets of fun foam, trimmed to fit behind images that I want to raise off the page.  

Adhere foam to back of image and then to card front.  Gives a nice dimension to a card or page, and supports the entire image, unlike a gazillion pop dots.

Add animal eyes to the image, as shown in the closeup below.  I have had these in my stash for probably a decade, so I am not sure you can get these any more, but they are so realistic and fun to use.

Add a tiny amount of Black Diamond Stickles to spider.

 Supplies:

Black 5"x6-1/2" card
Core-dinations Black Magic Collection cs (black with yellow)
Graphic 45 An Eerie Tale 8x8 paper pad and matching 6x6 patterns and solids
Fabriano 90lb. Hot Press Watercolor Paper
Indigo Blue Hocus Pocus rubber stamp set
Distress Ink Pads:  Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky, Forest Moss, Black Soot
Martha Stewart spiderweb and spider punches
Animal Eyes (Rubber Nature Art Stamps)
IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko Fantastix applicator; Jet Black StazOn
Water brush
Fun Foam (black)
Black Diamond Stickles

I hope you are enjoying the hop today, and thanks for stopping by!

Barbara Rankin