A Candy Non-Haunted House...!

Hi everyone and welcome! Thank you to everyone for your overwhelmingly positive reaction to my first Halloween 2017 make. As I looked back at it I felt the next version would need an injection of colour to contrast with the first. There were also a number of valid comments from people outside the US who quite rightly said that Halloween doesn't play such a big part in their calendars, so I wondered what other uses this wonderful house image could be put to. Thoughts turned to candy houses in storybooks and films, and so the idea for a 'fantasy' style look took shape. Here's what happened;

This tutorial follows the basic principles from the last monochromatic version, but includes some tips for creating the splattered background by making use of the 'Ravens' stamp set as well as the 'Haunted House' set.

1. Use the Stamp Platform to position the Haunted House stamp on your card and impress with Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink. Leave your stamp in position and wipe away the remaining Oxide ink to prevent transfer to the next ink pad.

2. Paint small sections of the house with bright Distress Paints (in this case Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, Candied Apple and Dusty Concord). Allow to dry.

3. Re-stamp the Haunted House using black Archival Ink - the joy of the Stamp Platform, apart from the fact that you will get a perfect replication of your original stamping, is that you can reapply the ink if any does not transfer properly first time.

4. Repeat the process, this time with the twisted tree from the Haunted House set. I added leaves and after re-stamping with the black ink, painted over the face in the tree to make it less scary. I also used the splatter image from the same set to add faux 'foxing' to the paper before trimming to size.

5. As Distress Paint and Archival Ink will resist Distress Ink I happily blended over Scattered Straw (avoiding the windows) before spritzing with the Distress Spray to get those familiar watermarks. I finished the panel with a quick blending of Walnut Stain Distress Ink to age the edges.

6. To create the background use the splatter stamp from the Ravens set. Position the stamp on the Stamp Platform where required then apply a coat of Distress Paint using the dabber top. You can be sparing with it as it is easy to go in with another layer on top with this fabulous tool. You'll also notice I put scrap paper under the card to protect the Platform from excess paint over the edges. Allow the paint to dry and clean off your stamp before re-positioning and repeating with another colour until the background is complete.

To finish I mounted the main panel and background onto black card, with a strip of altered Metallic Kraft card used underneath the main panel along with a little lace. I stitched the background to the base card bland and added a suitable Halloween Clipping to complete the card.

Here are the close ups so you can see the card in more detail;

I hope this gives you some alternative ideas for using the Haunted House stamp set. If you have your own non-Halloween ideas I'd love to hear them!

That's it for now but I'll be back tomorrow with something completely different (and I do mean COMPLETELY!)
For now take care of yourselves and get creative. Jenny xxx