Spooky Family Portrait Card

BEST time of year for card making!

It is almost (almost but not quite) Halloween and I am trying to rein in my natural instinct to get my Halloween on. I don't want to be THAT person- actually if I was, I would be in a huge and lovely group so I am almost certainly wrong.

The spooky possibilities!

Anyway, I am trying to see other sides to Autumn as well as JUST Halloween so I am making myself create a card this time that is Autumn and earthy but nothing to do with monsters or anything monstrous.

I am becoming a bit scared of the little guy with the wings to be honest.

This is a personal journey and one that is supposed to teach me to see that there are lots of things going on in this, the greatest season of all, blah, blah, blah. Ah who am I kidding! I am totally making a Halloween card and I will square it with my zen consciousness later on!

It doesn't have to SAY Halloween to be a Halloween card! Experiment!

I  never played with dolls as a child because I always always creeped out by them. So the Paper Dolls collections have been a real revelation for me; a license to creep!
So let's get on anyway and see what I did to make this card.....

I do apologise for the appalling lighting problems - all that shiny paper on the dolls! That's my story and i am sticking to it.

You will need
-a 5"x 7" card blank
-white watercolour cardstock
-white 300 gsm cardstock
-4" sq. masking paper
-distress spray stains: crushed olive, black soot, weathered wood, hickory smoke
-iced spruce distress oxide spray
-distress archival ink: hickory smoke
-distress markers in a few favourite colours
-any Ideology paper dolls
-3" round die to cut the moon
-Mr Bones stamp set 
-dimensional foam squares
-your usual card making needs

Before we begin, a huge shout out to my friend Stacy for the inspiration for the background! I love her work and you can check it out here on her awesome blog. I am sure that you will love it too!

Start by cutting the watercolour cardstock just a bit smaller than the size of the card and cut a round shape from the masking paper

My 'masking paper' is just a post it note and I spritzed it with water to get it to stay put. You actually want the colour to bleed slightly so it doesn't need to seal perfectly.

Use the crushed olive spray to make some marks on the paper

I am working in my Splat Box - this is a really great investment.

Add the other colours of spray stain, drying off in between until you have a motley and creepy sky

I am totally keeping this green post it note when I am finished!

Dry this and then it is time for the big reveal!

As you can see, the not-quite-perfect-seal of the masking paper works well - all part of my cunning plan!

Now spritz the moon with plain water and allow the wicking of ink to occur...

Magic! Well, the magic of science of course!

I flicked a couple of spots of distress oxide spray over the moon too to increase the shadows

It doesn't take much to achieve an incredible effect.

Time for some branches! I am using the ones from the Mr Bones stamp set but where Stacy used black ink, I am going for a smokey grey so that they fade into the background a bit....

The stamp platform means that you can repeat the print and get some nice crispness.

I wasn't 100% happy with the depth of colour so I inked the edges softly with black soot distress ink

This step is optional so I haven't put the ink into the requirements list.

Okay, we need bats next!

I LOVE this bat die set - it is going to be one of those ones brought out year after year!

Consider getting some white 300 gsm card and colouring it with various spray stains. It really is like money in the bank when it comes to die cutting. I have made mine with hickory smoke and black soot. An A4 piece of card in each colour lasts ages and is really inspiring to plan with.

One of my favourite things to do with card!

Cut some bat shapes from the different coloured card and the different sized bat dies...

I adore this die!

Next I chose a few paper dolls. It is not important to get them from the same set. What is important is to make sure that they look great together and that the scale is right.

Mix and match until you get a family group that works well.

I tinted the paper dolls with some distress markers (my camera isn't all that interested in showing you apparently).

Trust me the colour is subtle, but it is there!

I glued the older boy and the two girls down first

These dolls will form the background.

Then the little boy and the dog were put on with dimensional foam squares

Even has its own spooky shadow thanks to my appalling lighting

We are almost there! I have to sew everything though so out came the sewing machine next

I love the way this frames the work. I may shade it a bit though. That is the beauty of using white thread, you can ink it and make it blend a little into the background.

Now the bat's turn...

When you put the bats on, only glue the bodies allowing the wings to 'fly'.

I glue the card onto the blank at this point. I like to put design tape around the edges of the card. This makes a really neat border.

Roll the edges over to make them look a bit more distressed.

The design  tape is the same colouring as the paper dolls (sepia) and this ties everything together. The background is more cooler colours and this element makes the card look more connected.

And finally (well almost finally) we need the card to say something

These label letters are great for making any word that you want. 

Just as I was finishing, I wondered what the little boy would look like with wings....

Some cards are never finished!

But finally (yes really this time), I realised that I had done everything necessary.

Finished and ready for Halloween!

And before you go - I have changed one of may page sections to a card inspiration gallery and it might be worth a look. Let me know what you think!
Hugs
Debbie
xx