Immortal Beauty

 Even though it's summer, in my craft space Halloween/Fall is creeping around the corner. Just imagine stepping outside, taking it all in with the cool crisp air, falling leaves, and chopped wood for evening fires. I made a mini slimline card to depict one of my favourite holiday seasons.

The Base:

Kraft heavy stock for the base, distress ink walnut stain + mini ink blending tool, start blending around the edges of heavy stock, blending out towards the centre. Distress archival ink in vintage photo, stamp 'her immortal beauty' from TH/SA cms409 tiny text halloween in random sections of background. This stamp set is perfect as a background or as a simple saying.

Making wood is an all time favourite for me. There's a lot of various tools you can use to create dimension. The 3D texture fade cracked is perfect for this card. Distress archival black soot + ground espresso go into the cracks very nicely. Tim has a really cool demo on this technique. You can find it here. It's at the 1:24:02 mark. To give the background more depth, using a mini ink blending tool, apply distress ink in scorched timber around edges softening as you go.

It's all in the Layers:

I never thought I'd have a blast collaging with Tim's idea ology halloween ephemera until I took his Christmas in July class with Heidi from Simon Says Stamp. Now I'm addicted to collaging! LOL 

It's easy peasy! If you'd like to learn more about collaging with awesome tips, you can find the class here.

It's at the 1:53:46 mark. However, I highly recommend watching it from the beginning. A lot of great education, inspiration. For the base I used a #8 tag from SSS, halloween ephemera and a few pieces of ephemera from expedition to make the collage.

This next step is a turning point for me. I wanted to create the illusion of crackle for the leaves as if they were laid to rest on the ground. Tim's/Sizzix leaf fragments is the perfect die.

Giving the leaves a spooky creepy vibe, I chose a little paper doll (I call her 'little gypsy girl') and die cut her in the same shape as the base leaf. Bringing the leaves to life using 3D texture fade crackle. I started out with distress archival vintage photo, found that it was too dark, to make the veins of the leaf more authentic, I swiped distress oxide antique linen over top with a mini ink blending tool.

Back to the collaged tag..... I decided to crop it and add cello tape in random areas. 

Deciding the right saying and style for this card..... Halloween tiny text to the rescue! LOL I chose 'her immortal beauty' on black kraft stock, distress embossing ink + ranger embossing powder white. And of course my all time favourite Ranger handle IT tool. Definitely my go to for embossing. My goal was to have the saying slightly faded but somewhat legible. After a few attempts, I finally mastered imperfection. LOL Skipidy bits for the win.

Finishing touches:

Before assembling the card, I machine stitched a little zigzag motion in opposite corners of the collaged card. Used pop ups for my gypsy girl, saying and collaged card.

Introducing.......

'HER IMMORTAL BEAUTY'

Condemed

 Getting cracked with Tim's/Sizzix new halloween 3D embossing folder, Cracked. Using stamps from TH/SA cms435 rest in peace and cms328 entomology to make a spooky halloween card.

Starting with the distress two tone wood grain in light grey and using a stamp platform arrange words from rest in peace stamp set onto card stock stamping randomly in archival inks.

Stamp the "skelly" twice on light grey wood grain card stock with black archival ink.

Keep one skeleton off to the side. The other one take the 3D embossing folder in cracked and tap or swipe black archival ink on the top side of folder. Run it through machine.

Using a blending tool, blend distress inks starting with walnut stain then overlapping with black soot.

For the focal point I used the moth from one of my favourite stamp sets cms328 entomology and distress archival ink in black soot.

After watching Tim's latest YouTube live in distress halloween. I discovered the magic of watercolouring with mica stains and decided to use this technique on the moth. You can find Tim's technique here. It's at the 1:33/:11 mark. I modified this technique by stamping in archival ink, then using a water brush and mica stains to color the moth.

Next I fussy cut both moths then overlapping them to create dimension. Adhered the moth to skully with pop ups, then using score tape to adhere to two tone halloween wood grain card stock in black. Machine stitched border in cream thread, it's a little bit rusty as it's been awhile since I've sewed on card stock. Wasn't intentional but certainly adds character to this card.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina