Friday 7 June 2013

Spooky Spiders

This week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is brought to you by the letter "S". The idea is to be inspired by the letter "s" or to use a product that starts with the letter "s". As you have probably guessed from the title of this post, I've gone for a Hallowe'en theme with Spooky Spiders :-)

"Spooky Spiders"

I know, I know, the sun is shining and it's Summer and there are all sorts of other esses I could have chosen, but "Spooky Spiders" it is! Oh, and there's the Scary cat, the distress Stickles, the Stamping with Stampers anonymous Stamps, the black Soot distress ink edging, Stampendous embossing powder, Sizzix diecuts and Seasonal paper Stash too :-). Plus, I love that the background stamp has "spooky" written in it (does anyone else think "spooky Mulder" from the X-Files when they hear that word?) :-)

"Stamped and Embossed Panel"

The main panel is coloured with various red and orange distress inks, then overstamped with white brilliance ink. You could get a similar result with a resist technique if you preferred, but I like the grungy matt effect of the white stamping over an inked background. After stamping, I lined up the words with the matching embossing folder and embossed to raise the lettering, making the letters pop even more. The panel is matted and layered onto black, and placed onto a card blank decorated with patterned papers and more matting and layering. Then the whole thing is overstamped using the spiders' web stamp from the IndigoBlu stamp set to tie all the panels together.

"Spider diecut"

The scary cat and spooky spiders are diecut, coloured with distress inks and decorated with a good rubbing of black soot distress stickles. The eyes are added with white pen. The diecuts are shaped and adhered to the card with Pinflair for some added dimension.

"Sizzix Iron Gate diecut"

 This iron gate from Tim Holtz is one of my all time favourite dies, it's so versatile and can be used on cards with lots of different themes. Decorated all over with black embossing powder as it is here, it reminds me of the black iron railings that used to surround our school. They used to get the odd new coat of black gloss, but the rust would always come through. I've made as rough a job as possible of the black embossing so it would look like the paint was chipping off. The edges were gone over with a versamark pen before adding some rust-coloured embossing powder and heating again. The railings outside our school always used to bring to my mind impalings so they are quite appropriate for a Hallowe'en card. I blame it on all those gothic novels I read as a teenager, I never really saw anyone impaled  :-)

Well, the Sun is continuing to shine here in Sunny Northern Ireland and long may it continue. It was actually warm enough for shorts today - woohoo!!

Ingredients:
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz stamp set Halloween Silhouettes CMS115
IndigoBlu stamp set Hocus Pocus HP1
Sizzix Texture Fades Tim Holtz Halloween Background and Borders Set
Sizzix Bigz Tim Holtz Candlelight Fright
Sizzix Originals: Cat, Scary and Spider #2
Sizzix Tim Holtz On The Edge Iron Gate
Tim Holtz Seasonal 12" x 12" paper stash
Brilliance ink pad Moonlight White
Distress Ink pads (various oranges and reds plus Black Soot)
Versamark Ink pad
Versamark pen
Inkssentials pen White Opaque
Distress Stickles Black Soot
Stampendous embossing powder, black
Cheap embossing powder, earth colour
cardstock: 300gsm white (for card blank), 160gsm black (for matting & layering)
adhesives: PVA, Pinflair

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - brought to you by the letter S

20 comments:

  1. Brilliant fun card love the spiders. Love Alison xx

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  2. WOW!! This is amazing Maddy. A really spooky design and I love those spiders! I am the only person in our house who doesn't mind spiders, everyone is amazed that I can pick them up!!
    Have a great weekend, I hope the sun stays for a while.
    hugs Sue xx

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  3. Maddy...I love your Halloween card! The embossing is very cool...love the none traditional Halloween colors on this! Those spiders and the iron fence at the bottom are way cool! As always, love your work! Thanks for joining us at Simon Says Stamp and Show. <3 Candy

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  4. hi Maddy, that cat looks like he is terrified of those spiders, no idea why, I love spiders, they eat all the aphids and tiny bugs, we have a pet house spider called Sidney (we made up a story when we visited a cider factory close to my brothers house that the spider living there was Sydney the cider spider! long story)Fi xx

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  5. Great card & loving the colours
    hoppity x

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  6. brilliant card and love the background you have created I thought it was a DP till I read your post-love the cat and spider too
    carol x

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  7. Wow what a shocker I am terrified of spiders and your card certainly did give me a fright. I love the colours that you have used and the background is fab.

    Crafty Hugs
    Kelly

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  8. Love your card, these are the only sort of spiders I like! Thanks for visiting my blog, and for your friendly congrats on my top 3 at SSSS! Valerie

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  9. This is a festival of S's! :) I agree with you, sometimes overstamping with white ink gives just the right feel, especially for a spooky piece like this! :) Thanks for joining us for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge!

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  10. those spiders made my skin crawl, I hate spiders - LOL

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  11. Oh, Maddy, how scary, not too keen on Spiders so this card has definitely scared me! I think we may be crafting twins, I've just been rediscovering my Brilliance Ink Pads (which have been abandoned more recently for Memento and Distress, I don't have white so I can feel a purchase coming on!

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  12. Fabulous card, love the textures! Happy leapblogging! Elaine-xxx- p.s please pop by and hop along to my challenge relaunch and blog hop-lots of prizes to be won!http://www.sparklingblackrose-craftmylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/all-crafts-challenge-blog-hop-and.html

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  13. Great card. Love your boxes too.
    Sue x

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  14. hi maddy ... super scary spider card ... thank you so much for joining in the blog hope whilst I am hosting ... sorry I am so late hopping about but seem to have been down visiting Mum nearly all weekend ... oooo so glad to be home now and she seems a lot happier now she is out of hospital and in the temporary "care home"... hope you have a great week ... happy crafting and love sandy xx

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  15. Fab card and great textures! Just hopping by from DC xx

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  16. Your spooky card is fabulous I love the dies you used and what's wrong with being organised LOl xx

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  17. Fab spooky card, love the colours and detail
    sorry i'm a bit late hopping this week

    Lorna xx

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  18. This is great, love the cat - he puts Grumpy Cat in the shade, lol!

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  19. Ahhhhhhhhhhh SPIDERSSSSSS! Lol, ok you may think thats a bit of an overreaction but me and spiders are not the best of friends, lol. But that being said, this is fabulous Maddy. I love the texture on the (gulp) spiders and cat and your railings look amazing. Oh I'll email you later....change of plan with my Mammy's knee op. It was cancelled (not for good) 2 days before the big day but she may get it next week! I have a wee pressie for you too but I have some bits and pieces I ordered for you that haven't arrived yet....they should have but what can I say....thats good ole Royal Mail, the prices go up and the quality of service plummets! I'll email you. Lee x

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  20. Fantastic, great Halloween theme.

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Thanks for leaving a comment, it's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself :)