Monsters' Happy Halloween!

I recently got this cute stamp set from Lawn Fawn called "Monster Mash," as well as the coordinating dies. One thing I like about it, is that you can use it for general cards, not just Halloween. But for my first time getting it inky, I decided to use it for a Halloween card.

I didn't use a particular sketch for this card, instead making it up as I went along. I started by creating the background. I stamped Hero Arts' "Highline Ironwork Background" stamp onto a piece of white cardstock, using Versamark ink. I heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. When that cooled, I cut it down to 4x5.25", and went over it with Distress stains in Dusty Concord, Crushed Olive, & Peeled Paint. I did end up covering the Dusty Concord with Crushed Olive, since the purple ended up looking a bit lonely with all the green! The two colors combined to make a muted dark green. Then I set that aside to dry.

Another new-to-me die is the "Stitched Film Strip" die from Pretty Pink Posh. I cut a piece of purple cardstock with that. I stamped 3 of the monsters on a piece of white cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored them with colored pencils, using Gamsol on a paper stump to blend the colors. Then I cut those with the coordinating dies. I cut a piece of orange patterned paper from my scrap stash to the same size as the filmstrip die cut, and lightly penciled where the openings went. Then I trimmed down 2 of the monsters, so they wouldn't stick out below the filmstrip, and glued them to the background. Finally, I glued the filmstrip die cut over the orange background piece, sandwiching the monsters in between.

The green background piece was still a bit "stripe-y," so I went over it with Crushed Olive Distress ink, to blend the bands of stain colors a bit better. Then I die cut the bottom edge with the "A2 Curved Edge" die from Simon Says Stamp. I flicked droplets of Heidi Swapp's Color Shine spray in gold over the panel. That added just a bit of texture & shine.

I took another piece of white cardstock & stamped the "Happy Halloween" with Lawn Fawn's "Riley's ABC's." I white heat embossed the letters to create a resist, and colored the cardstock with the Dusty Concord Distress stain. I also ended up going over that panel with the Dusty Concord ink and my mini ink blending tool after the stain dried, to even out the color just a bit more. I flicked more gold spray ink over that.

I lined up the curved edge of the green panel above the stamped greeting. I had to tilt that panel a bit, since my stamped letters were just a tiny bit off, and then trimmed the edges to make everything even. I glued the green panel to the purple, and then adhered the filmstrip piece in place. I matted that panel on a piece of blue cardstock, then adhered that to some gold textured cardstock from American Crafts, and matted the whole piece with the same purple cardstock I'd used for the filmstrip die cut. Finally, I added the front to an A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Send a Smile 4 Kids' "Fall Colors 4 Kids"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"