O is for...October ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hello everyone!

Hope you've all had a fabulous weekend and you're ready for this week's brand new fun challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog!?! This week is all about "O Is For....".

So, what will you use? October Afternoon products? Be inspired by the number one? Create an ombre effect? Or just order lots of new exciting goodies to play with? Whatever you choose, we want to see what O means in your crafting!

For me? It was always going to be about O for October, and of course in October, we have Halloween and here's a card that I created using a combination of some gorgeous new, and some fabulous older Tim Holtz products. Isn't it funny how I can love using spiders and spiders webs in this context but absolutely run a mile if I'm ever faced with one in reality?!?!

To begin with, I took a piece of Manila cardstock 12 x17 cm in size and swiped it through some Seedless Preserves, Barn Door, Picket Fence, Dusty Concord and Brushed Pewter Distress Stains that I applied to my craft sheet and spritzed with water. After picking up all the stains and drying the card, I then went back to pick up the small droplets that remained to give the mottled effect that you can see on the background.

Next, I inked up the Spider's Web stamp with black Archival Ink and stamped it across the two corners of the inked card before stamping the Carved Spider stamp to hang down in between.

I then wanted to add another layer to the card and to do this, I used the Halloween Layering Stencil and applied Texture Paste through the stencil to create the "spider web" wording across the top.

After inking the edges of the card with Black Soot Distress Stain, I then aged them and slightly tore the card to give a vintage, distressed look before matting it onto purple cardstock.

Cut a piece of linen ribbon and once again, using Dusty Concord Distress Stain applied to my craft sheet, I dyed the ribbon purple and then wrapped it around the inked background, tying it into a bow to secure it into place. I then mounted the background onto black Core'dinations card and matted it onto my kraft card blank.

To create the bottles, I used the Apothecary Dies and die cut two bottles from Grungeboard. I painted each bottle with Picket Fence Distress Paint and then added some Antique Linen and Pumice Stone over the top to give an aged look to the bottles. Apply a layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and leave to dry. Once the crackles have appeared, I then applied a small amount of Brushed Pewter Distress Stain and allowed this to sink into the crackles before wiping away any excess, as I still wanted to have the bottle mainly white in colour!

I tied a small amount of black and white string around the necks of the dried bottles and then added them onto the front of my card blank, using foam pads to add dimension and then coloured the cork bottle tops using Gathered Twigs and Frayed Burlap Distress Paint and added these to the bottles.

I used Vial Labels, slightly inked with Black Soot Distress Ink and placed them on the front of each bottle and added a Remnant Rub.

To complete the card, I added some piece of Idea-Ology to the linen ribbon bow....

...and then attached a Hinge Clip to the side of the card, which I altered with Picket Fence Distress Paint and hung an Enameled Charm from the clip, painted with Seedless Preserves Distress Paint before using a white Remnant Rub over the top and finished it all off with a further Remnant Rub down the side of the inked background.

And that's how I created this spooky card and as always, I hope you love what I've made!

If you're looking for some more great ideas and inspiration for this challenge, then you need to look no further than the blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. Good luck....

Thank you so much for all your visits today!

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Stamps: Tim Holtz Webs, Tim Holtz Carved Spider

Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies: Apothecary Bottles

Tim Holtz Layering Stencil ~ Halloween

Distress Paint: Picket Fence, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs, Rock Candy Crackle Paint

Distress Stain: Seedless Preserves, Barn Door, Picket Fence, Dusty Concord, Brushed Pewter

Distress Ink: Black Soot

Jet Black Archival Ink

Idea-Ology ~ Game Spinners, Sprocket Gears, Hinge Clip, Vial Labels, Trinket Pins, Linen Ribbon, Black and Cream Trimmings, Enameled Tag, Apothecary Remnant Rubs

Surfaces: Kraft Card, Manila Card, Black Core'dinations Card, Dusty Concord Core'Dinations Card

Ranger Craft Sheet

Ranger Texture Paste

Grungeboard

Big Shot

Ranger Blending Tool