In A Witchy Mood

Welcome to the Studio!

I know summer is just beginning, but I'm ready for fall.  It's my favorite season!  So much wonderful stuff is in the fall, pumpkin patches, leaves changing, that crisp, coolness in the air, my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving...I could go on for hours.  I just totally love autumn.  So just to keep my fall yearnings in check, I decided to play along with Forever Night Challenges Freaking Friday #41 and make this witchy, delightfully wicked, halloween card.  The card is based on Sweet Sunday Sketch #161.  I've used that sketch twice already this week.  It's so versatile for these elongated stamps.  I'll be sharing my other card soon.  It's still in the works on my scrap desk;)

And I just love that wicked animal print flower.  I didn't have any seam binding to match - EEK!  So I had to make my own.  I started with ivory seam binding and added it to some water with a drop of black CTMH reinker.  It gave me kind of the gray I wanted, so then I spritzed it with Sassy Shimmer Spritz (my homemade version of Glimmer Mist) in silver.  It came out great, a little glitzy, a little blotchy, and perfectly shabby.  And check out my gossamer-winged bat on my tag.

And you can never forget the inside of your card...

Wanna make your own "Sassy Shimmer Spritz"?  It's easy.  Here's the easiest recipe:
Mist bottle (find those at Wal-mart in the travel size section)
Water
Pearl Acrylic Paint
Water-based stamp pad reinker

All you do is fill the mister bottle approximately 3/4 of the way with water.  Add a few drops of the pearl paint and shake to mix.  Then slowly add reinker until you get the color you want.  Keep in mind that it looks a lot darker in the bottle than it will when it's sprayed, so get some scrap paper out and spritz until you get the color you want.

Recipe #2:
Mist Bottle
Water
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (not Pearl-Ex)*
Water-based stamp pad reinker

I prefer to add the Perfect Pearls first, normally about a 1/4 tsp for a 2 or 3 oz. bottle.  I think add a little water and mix it around to stop the Perfect Pearls from becoming perfect clumps.  Then I begin adding reinker until I acheive the color I want.  I like the way the pearls look better than the paint, plus you can mix and match all kinds of different colors of pearls and reinkers.  If you'd like your spritz to have a more opaque or whitewash finish, just add a few drops of plain acrylic paint in white (for whitewash) or a coordinating shade.

*My reason for insisting on Perfect Pearls is because they have a binder already mixed in with the pearly stuff.  Pearl-Ex requires the extra step of adding a binding agent (gum of arabic, found in the paint section of your local craft store).  Just add about ten to fifteen drops from a pipette into your bottle with the Pearl-Ex and swirl around before adding other ingredients.

Supply List:
Cardstock:  CTMH, Grey Flannel;  Black textured, Recollections/Micheals
Pattern Paper:  Echo Park Apothecary Emporium 6x6
Inks:  CTMH Grey Wool, Sunset, & Black;  Versamark
Embossing Powder:  A La Mode, Detail Black by Hampton Art
Flower:  Prima
Seam Binding:  Really Reasonable Ribbon, dyed by me
Stamps:  CTMH Wicked and Mischief Workshop on the Go stamp set
Sketch:  Sweet Sunday #161
Challenges Entered:  Sweet Sunday #161 and Forever Night Challenges

Hope you enjoyed your visit.  Until next time, Scrap Sassy!