Happy BOO-day

Here is a birthday card for those born near the Halloweeny period. it uses the free cover stamp from Craft Stamper. I do hope you all have your copy by now. 

I started with some buff coloured card, to this I added some bits of music paper. then I added Buff, Caramel, Toffee and Chocolate Pudding Fresco paint. 

Over this I added stamping from ESN11 and HPHW04, then I brayered Nougat, and then added the stamped dots from HPXT01

Next I used Mini 23 and Gold Rich Pale WOW embossing powder to add the numbers. This adds a really beautiful layer. 

I pulled out some left over bits of corruagted card, a strip of painted paper left over from making a journal cover, and some other bits, and started playing around layering them up. 

I painted card with Mermaid and Toffee, over this I stamped the skull, and added details with Nougat paint. This is layered over scrumpled waxy paper , lace, and some stamped bones. 

The vertical collections of strips needed something more, so I wound jute string around them. 

Here is it finished.. 

I love how the embossing powder shines when you angle the card. 

It has been so much fun this month, having my design on the cover and being able to play with the stamp. I hope you are having fun with yours. 

Darcy x

Skully Cover

I wanted to make something else with my sugar skull cover stamp from Craft Stamper, and decided this lil skull would look cool in a repeating pattern. I was thinking along the lines of a pop art layout, but instead of the bright colours I wanted to use black,grey and red. 

I began with a piece of cartridge paper long enough to wrap around my journal plus extra for turning over. i marked out the whole piece into 5cm squares, using the left over space to create borders between the squares. 

The colours I used were Concrete, Elephant, Slate, Black, Cherry Red, Blood Orange. I painted all the squares.

Then using the skull stamp, {available for free on the front cover of this months Craft Stamper..}I stamped into each square. I used several ink pads in greys, reds, black and white.. so that the skulls were a different colour to the square they are on. 

I then trimmed some strips of white card. 

I glued these between the squares. You will see there are areas with no strips, these are the fold lines. If I added strips there they would just come off when the book was folded. 

Once dry I trimmed the strips, and turned the whole piece over. I glued brown parcel paper to the inside and then painted this with black gesso. 

using the journal as a guide I folded in the ends and stitched them into place. 

I use a zigzag stitch.. 

I gave the whole of the outside a coat of acrylic wax, this makes the cover wipe clean. 

Darcy x

Sugar Skull Witch

I am having so much fun with this free stamp from the cover of Craft Stamper. I figured it would make a great little witch. 

I drew out a body and a hat.. and I stamped the skull on card that was first painted with Blush and Snowflake Fresco paint. 

I painted the neck, hand and thigh the same, and then mixed Elephant and Eggplant together to paint the dress and hat. Once dry I added shading with Pitt pens. 

I coloured the skull with Pitt pens and attached it to the body and hat. I stamped the bird from HPHW03, cut that out and glued it to her hand. 

I cut a piece of Watercolour paper down to size and painted it with a mix of Toffee and Buff, this gave me a nice neutral background. I used the circle from EEV02 and a mix of Snowflake and Haystack to create the moon, then I stamped and embossed the pumpkins from HPHW03 and the tree from EDY06. I used Black Glint WOW powder. 

Next I splattered the background using twinkling H20's, i used Bolivian Blue and Bamboo. Then I added a little gloss glaze onto the pumpkins, while this was still wet I sprinkled Light Brown and Gamboge Brusho powders onto the pumpkins. 

The bats are from HPHW04, these are stamped in black archival ink. 

To add a little shadow to the ground I mixed Slate with some Bamboo Twinkling H20. 

I painted some card with a mix of Elephant and Bolivian Blue H20, over this I stamped the skulls from HPHW03, these were cut out and glued along the bottom edge. 

Then I glued on the witch. 

Finally I added Graphite texture paste around the edges and added highlights here and there with a white posca pen. 

Darcy x

Skele-cat!

Did you pick up your copy of Craft Stamper yet? if not go and get your copy then you will get my free Sugar Skull stamp. Inside the magazine there are some ideas for using the stamp, but I love it so much I decided to make some more, so here is a skele-cat for you. 

Ages ago, like way back in Februaury I made this cat.. It is just 2 pieces of calico, pinned and stitched.. 

Then it was stuffed and given 2 coats of gesso.. 

Then I lost inspiration and had no idea how I wanted to decorate it, so it sat unloved in a drawer for several months. I finally decided to make it shabby chic and started by applying a few coats of different browns. 

I really liked this base, but again I got stuck with what to do next. 

Then my lil skull stamp came out in the Craft Stamper magazine, and I knew I wanted to use it on the cat. But how.. I searched around and found THESE, now they are wooden and my little cat is just stuffed fabric, but I really liked the overall look. 

So I started over and painted it black. 

I painted some tissue white and then stamped the skull and some extra flowers from the top of the skull. I coloured all these using Pitt pens. I glued them on with Satin glaze. 

I also started adding patterns with paint and posca pens. 

I also stamped some roses from HP1104, leaves from EDY12 and the butterfly from HP1506. These were all coloured with Pitt pens. 

Again they were glued on with Satin glaze. 

I added the butterfly to the back of the head. 

Here is the finished back. 

I gave the whole thing another coat of satin glaze to seal everything in. 

I felt it needed something else, so I added the wire whiskers. 

Hope you liked that, sugar skulls can be fun. I look forward to seeing what you make with your stamp. 

Darcy x