Open If You Dare!

Happy Halloween!!!   ***GIVEAWAY!*** We wanted to have a little fun with our blog hop this week, and give away ONE $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE to the Brutus Monroe store! Just leave a comment on each blog post along the hop to be entered! Winner will be announced on next Wednesday’s blog hop post, November 7th, on the Brutus Monroe blog. Please remember to check back next week to see if you are the winner! 
         ***BONUS ENTRY- Post ANY project you have created in the Brutus Monroe Fan Club                    group on Facebook with the hashtag,#TrickOrTreatGiveaway! Good luck!                                            The Team has had a ball creating spooky Halloween cards and I’m excited to share mine!  The Pumpkin Faces and Scare Crows sets have so many great images that I had to use them both!  To begin, I inked up Hit The Brick background with black embossing ink then stamped it onto a panel of Bristol Smooth card stock.  I sprinkled on not just black embossing powder but Brutus Monroe’s cool Glow In The Dark powder too!  I set it with the heat tool and the Glow In The Dark looks amazing in a dark room!

 

 

The next think I did was to heavily sponge on several shades of distress oxide ink (Walnut Stain/Gathered Twigs/Carved Pumpkin and Fired Brick) to create my brick wall, then I trimmed the panel down with Stitched Rectangle dies and cut out a doorway!  I inked up a piece of string with Raven Detail ink then made a handle with it and wrote the words on the door with a Sharpie marker.  Setting that aside, I started on my inside images!

Here’s what the outside looks like in the dark!  I took this photo at 6:30 am in my kitchen!

To create my inside scene, I stamped out the scarecrow image from Scare Crows set, embossed in brown and then colored with Zig markers.  Look at that cute kitty on the left!  I also stamped out the cornstalk and then two pumpkins from Pumpkin Faces and colored them as well.  After fussy-cutting all the pieces, I attached them to a panel of black card stock on which I’d stamped and embossed more cornstalks with Glow In The Dark powder.

Oooooo!!!  Spooky!!!  😀

To construct my card, I adhered the inside panel to the backside of the brick wall panel, then layered that onto a panel of green card stock.  I attached it to a black card base and glued on my cornstalk and two pumpkins to the outside.  This card was a little involved, but so worth the extra effort because I think one of my grandsons will love it!  Especially when Nanna shows him how it glows in the dark!

I want to thank you all for your support and encouraging comments these past four months while I’ve been a part of the fabulous Brutus Monroe Inspiration Team.  It’s been a real joy and a wonderful experience to be part of a group of such inspiring and creative people!  I’m going to bow out with this card as my last official post for Brutus Monroe although I look forward to guest designing in the future!  Now, let’s see what those amazing people have created for this weeks  blog hop!  You’re sure to be inspired!                                                                                                    MARIE
JESS
HEATHER
BERINA
LAUREN
DANIEL
WALESKA
                                                                                                                            

 

 

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Pumpkin Pile

Welcome back, friends!  I’m sharing another Halloween card which I made with Brutus Monroe’s Pumpkin Faces and a couple images from Scare Crows!  The two sets pair beautifully and I had so much fun creating this!  I began by stamping the top pumpkin first, then masked in order to stamp the next one, and so on.  Before I stamped the bottom pumpkin, I added the fence from Scare Crows, then masked that so I could pop the big ol’ punkin behind it!

My next step was to heat-emboss the faces onto each pumpkin before coloring them with Copics.  I used the masks again to cover each one so that I could add the pale blue background with a soft makeup brush.  I also heat embossed in black the sentiment from Scare Crows directly to my panel.

I stamped the cute little crow from Scare Crows onto the fence, then drew in some grass and flowers for a little extra interest.  When my panel was completely colored, I  spattered on some orange and black ink; the black actually appears purple so that influenced my choice of patterned paper!  I trimmed down my panel with a Stitched Rectangle die then tilted it slightly sideways onto the paper.  A white card base makes the colors pop!  If you’re interested in a versatile set of pumpkins for  your fall and Halloween cards, consider adding Pumpkin Faces to your stash!

Inspiration

As a stamper and card artist, I find inspiration in some unexpected places!  Like, at the Dollar Tree!  I found this gorgeous plate there last week and just love the artists watercolor style!  I had to have it, so it came home with me!  I knew right away that I’d use Brutus Monroe’s Pumpkin Faces set to make my card; it comes with TEN various sized and shaped pumpkins plus ten faces to add on!  Now, I like scary pumpkins as much as anyone, but how wonderful that I can use this set for an elegant card!  

I stamped and heat-embossed the four pumpkins in silver, masking in order to layer them.  In retrospect, I wish I’d used dark gray ink instead.  Using the plate as a guide, I colored the pumpkins with a variety of Zig markers in shades of green, gray and brown, adding water to soften the ink.  My leaves and vines are from an old CTMH set called Grapevine and I think they beautifully complement the design.  I stamped them with Bundled Sage oxide ink.  

At this point, I realized that Brutus Monroe’s Hit The Brick background would go perfectly so I inked it up with Bundled Sage oxide and gently maneuvered the stamp to fill in the space above the pumpkins.  That’s the beauty of flexible cling stamps!  I trimmed my panel with a Stitched Rectangle die then mounted it to a panel of dark gray.  On a piece of vanilla card stock, I stamped more of the vines and leaves with Bundled Sage again and attached it to a base card of Jurassic card stock.  

When my card was complete, I made a coordinating envelope with more vines and leaves.  I’m pretty happy with my card and hope you like it too!  Now, I’m off to Dollar Tree to buy more of these plates!  And you should head straight to Brutus Monroe to check out these pumpkins!  😀