Boo...

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you all have had a brilliant week, it's a nice short one this time around thanks to the Bank Holiday. I keep getting confused about what day it is though lol. It's been quiet and busy here in my crafty nook, I was thinking about applying for the Crafter's Companion Design Team (closing date 2nd September) but my mojo has been sorely lacking and until the last couple of days (with the exception of last week's Mermaid image) I've felt as though I'd just been going through the motions and nothing's really inspired or thrilled me. I'm sure part of that is down to organising my crudy (craft/study room) because even though I've been doing it for weeks now there's still so much to go through. On the plus side it's brilliant to be able to find things quickly and easily thanks to the die cut labels I've made and attached to everything. As always I've got my usual problem with my organising - too much stuff in too small a space but like many crafters I suspect, crafting brings out my inner hoarder (I'll save that scrap of card just in case!) Something's clicked into place this past week and I've actually got a fairly clear(ish) work space to craft in so I've been working on a couple of cards for the past two days.

The first card I'd like to share is a departure from my usual style and is a Halloween card, I don't celebrate Halloween but I do like some of the cards you can see on YouTube. Amy R (aka Prairie Paper and Ink on Facebook and YouTube) has recently started a Halloween series and she's been buying new products like crazy for the past month or so, one of the new products she bought was a pot of Glow in the Dark embossing powder. I've had some in my stash for years and it's by Personal Expressions, I don't use it much mainly because it's a pale green colour which can be a bit distracting and in all honesty it doesn't glow much so unless you're embossing something large it's quite hard to see any details. After seeing Amy R's video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78DIwLNLw_w (please click this link if you want to see what inspired me!) I decided to get my embossing powder out and have another go.

Glow in the dark Halloween card

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Bones

Close up of the BOO, Pumpkins and the skeleton's knobbly knees - not sure about those boots!

Taken with the Daylight lamp OFF - slightly glowing in the gloom lol

The skeleton was diecut using the Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners "Day Of The Dead" Skeleton dies. I smooshed Versamark ink onto each diecut piece, coated them with the glow in the dark embossing powder and heat set them with my heat tool until the powder melted. I assembled the complete skeleton using a strong liquid glue to add the limbs to the the torso. I cut a piece of black card stock to the required size and added it to a Darice Spider's Web embossing folder and ran it through my Big shot, once embossed I went over all the lines and the spider webs with a Papermania Metallic brush marker in silver. I added markings to the spider using a white gel pen. I realised that the skeleton was a bit longer than the embossed piece so I extended it with another piece of black card after I punched a decorative border from the bottom using a Tonic Studio Punch (one of my brilliant £1 bargains from Every Craft's A Pound from a while back). I mounted this embossed piece onto a panel of ribbed purple card stock (Halloween colours of choice seem to be purple, orange, black and green) and I added that panel to a black card blank. I stamped a couple of Clearly Besotted Stamps Pumpkins from a stamp set released a few years ago using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, Lucky Clover Distress ink and Memento Tuxedo Black ink for the carved face details. I fussy cut around the pumpkins and added them as shown. Finally I added the glow in the dark skeleton using a glue pen. I should have used a different adhesive because the hands and part of the rib cage keep lifting up but the bones are really spindly and I was worried that a liquid adhesive would spurt out and ruin the card. I die cut the BOO using a new alphabet die from XCut called 'Headliner' out of a scrap of the purple card and added it below the main image using cut down black foam pads. I've made a matching envelope using my WRMK envelope punch board but I've forgotten to take any photos and my camera is charging at the moment - once it's charged I'll add a couple of photos.

I'll be sharing my second card with you tomorrow as this is already a pretty long post. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. Why don't you follow me on Google or by email? The details are in the sidebar. Please check out Amy R on YouTube, she does some brilliant cards and you might be inspired to make a Halloween card too! Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx