Spookylicious!

I loved the stamps in the Elusive Images Halloween collection this year and have been looking forward to having a play with them for some time. Today I got some play time and realised my time was running out to make something spooky in time for this year. I've been wanting to make something for Peter to display in his room at university. When I read Lynn Robinson Hunter's tag tutorial in this month's Graphicus Guild newsletter it all started to come together.

Lynn's tag is actually a Christmas one with a flower, chipboard flourishes and the new Tim Holtz Facets. But what I really wanted to try for myself was her lovely background. I love the way she had used Distress Inks over an embossed design then stamped over the top. Lynn also has a real talent for combining DI colours that I wouldn't think of putting together.

I followed Lynn's tutorial quite closely at first, using a giant tag as she had done. She stamped a flourish in Brilliance Moonlight White which I didn't have so I used Versamagic Cloud White instead and stamped a bat flourish from Inkadinkado's Halloween Trails. I embossed this with clear embossing powder then applied Antique Linen DI with Cut n Dry over the top. I was a bit discouraged to find my flourishes were barely visible. But I had also planned to use Dusty Concord and, as I had hoped, that picked out the bat flourishes really well. I also just caught the edges of the tag with Black Soot for a little extra definition.

The text is the Viva stamp Lynn used and is stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia. The house (from Elusive Images' Spookylicious plate) was stamped three times on plain white card and lightly watercoloured using Dusty Concord and Antique Linen again. The roofs were clear embossed although that isn't really visible in the picture above. I curved the top two layers slightly to shape the house. The moon was coloured with a clear Stardust pen and is quite silvery in the light although it looks quite dull in the photo.

I had a few ideas for adding embellishments and  some wording but I was already quite pleased with the way the tag looked and the glue was still wet when Pete had to leave so I found a perfect deep purple satin ribbon and left it at that.

I really enjoyed making this tag and was glad I took a photo before it Peter took it away. I feel inclined to make some more spooky houses even though Halloween is over now. I am even thinking of ways I could use Lynn's design for backgrounds on my Christmas cards and, as luck would have it, Elusive images have made a Christmas cottage stamp in a similar style to this spooky house. And yes, you guessed it, I have that stamp already!