Ink Blended Halloween Backgrounds | Make The Cards Challenge 37

 Hello and welcome back!

This week's Make the Cards Challenge 37 is a theme challenge called "Halloween Witch"! Now this is why I love themed challenges - it can sometimes really get you out of your comfort zone and help you discover new crafty skills or a new niche of cardmaking. I have to admit I don't really make many Halloween cards since I don't really have anyone to give them to. Maybe you can enlighten me and let me know in the comments who you send Halloween cards to.

So let's get started!

Challenge Post

Watch the Video on YouTube

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I started by cutting out a 8" x 3-3/4" white cardstock panel. I chose some Oxide inks to do my ink blending, mainly because they are so easy to blend. I would highly recommend these inks if you are new to ink blending. I also grabbed my make up brushes which I love to use for this technique. I've linked the ones that I use. I find that they are reasonably priced and as long as I clean the bristles right after use (spray a cloth with some water and rush the brush on it to remove ink) I can use them with any inks (pigment and dye interchangeably). I know there are some brushes where if you use them for oxides or pigment ink, it kind of gums up the bristles a bit so they are not so great to use with dye inks anymore, but not with these! 😉

I started with the Wilted Violet in the center of the panel and then I added Blueprint Sketch on either side of the violet, working out towards the top and bottom of the panel. An important tip for ink blending is to always go over the join in colour between with the first colour to help blend them together. Also, once you place down your third colour ( I used Chipped Sapphire), you should go over the join between the second and third colour, with the second colour - so in this case, the Blueprint Sketch. And you continue in this fashion with all of your colours. I used Black Soot as my fourth colour and mainly added it around the edges to give that spooky feel to my panel.

I saw a technique used by Nichol Spohr ( I love her work!), where she created clouds in her background and I felt I wanted to try that here. She used a cloud stencil but I don't have anything like that, so I created my own stencil. I took some thick cardstock and cut some scallops in varying sizes along the edge. This creates a cloudy shape and essentially you've made your own cloudy edge stencil. I tend to do this a lot for simple edge stencils and it saves a lot of money. I also use this for ocean waves, by cutting curvy peaks or for hills by cutting a nice wavy line. (To get a better idea, I suggest watching my YouTube video linked above.) If you feel safer using a store-bought stencil, then there's nothing wrong with that either! All you have to do is place your stencil on your panel near the bottom and use some Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink and brush some ink on in an upwards fashion, starting on the curve of your stencil and brushing upwards onto the panel. It looks like you've done nothing at first but once you move your stencil, you see the beautiful cloudy effect you get. Then you just move the stencil a bit further up, flipping the stencil for variation, to create another row of clouds. I continued in the fashion a couple more times to fill the ink blended panel.

For the sentiment, I used the Simon Says Stamp Slimline Greetings stamp set to stamp out the "Happy Halloween" using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink. I did this a couple time with my MISTI to get a solid image. 

I used the Sizzix Frightful Things Dies by Tim Holtz to die cut the spider web, spider, pumpkin, witch hat, strap and witch legs out of some orange, black and white cardstock using my Sizzix SideKick. I coloured the witch legs and hat strap using some Copic Ciaos (witch legs - 100, V17, BV08, YG06, G05 strap - YG06, G05). I did this by placing the die cut back into the negative space and putting a but of washi tape on the back to hold it in place. This helps you blend your alcohol markers and avoids crumpling or bending your die cut while colouring which I sometimes have trouble with. It also comes in handy when colouring small die cuts like the hat strap.

I used a bit of Twisted Citron Oxide ink to add a green glow to the edges of the witch hat. Once I had assembled my pumpkin and witch hat, I used some Artist-tac Dry adhesive to turn my die cuts into stickers that I could easily add to my card panel. I used a Pigma Micron Black pen to add the line for the hanging spider and I added some highlights with a Sakura White Gelly Roll Pen. I find that the highlights look especially nice on the spider web!

I adhered my panel to an 8" x 8" top folding slimline card base. Then I finished off this card with some Stargazer Jewel embellishments from PinkFresh Studio and I added some Lime Green Stickles to the letters to simulate oozing slime.

And this probably my one and only Halloween card for this year! I encourage you to check out the rest of the designer's inspiration and create your own card to link up to the challenge page. I can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by.