Ombre ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hey everyone!

Can you believe it's Monday already?!? The weeks are flying by but a new week means there's a brand new challenge starting over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and this week the theme is OMBRE!!

From the popular Hero Arts ink pads to the new Distress DIY ink pads, ombre is one trend that is going strong! You can be inspired to use an ink pad, make your own blend of colours or even go for something monochromatic ~ whatever you choose, we can't wait to see what you create and hope you'll play along with this week's challenge!

For my project this week, I made a fun Halloween Invitation, with plenty of dimension and created an ombre background for the front of my invite, using Distress Stains and for a couple of friends who came along for the ride! Say hello to my "trick or tweeters"....Frankie the green monster and Esmeralda the witch!

So, here we go and here's how I made my card....

I started by making my background and for this I began with a base of watercolour card which I misted lightly with water. Apply small amounts of Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass Distress Stains to a craft sheet and using a wide paint brush, dip the brush into the stains and apply the colour by dragging the colour across the moist card, starting with the darkest and working down the card towards the bottom and ending with the lightest colour. At this stage, don't oversaturate the card and heat dry between applications but if you need more colour, just repeat the process until you're 100% happy!

Once you have your background, spritz a light mist of Brushed Pewter Distress Spray Stain over the top of the night sky and again, heat dry the card.

Ink up the Webs stamp with Jet Black Archival Ink and stamp a web into the top left and right hand corners of the card. Ink around the edges of the card with Black Soot Distress Ink and then I finished by machine stitching around the outside using silver thread.

Matt the background onto kraft card before matting and layering this section onto a layer of card, inked with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, a piece of Core'dinations card and a layer of cheesecloth, lightly inked with Pumice Stone Distress Ink to take the whiteness of it! Mount all the layers onto a black card blank which I had already altered with a very light coat of Brushed Pewter Distress Paint.

So, that's all your backgrounds complete and now all that's needed is my party guests and for this I used the Bird Crazy stamps to stamp my images onto watercolour card and die cut them using the co-ordinating dies. 

I coloured each image with Distress Marker Pens. I then added their accessories which again are stamped onto watercolour card and coloured with the pens.

I attached each of the characters onto my card using foam pads and then because all good monsters need a "trick or treat?!?!" ~ I added a little corked vial full of a poisonous potion to keep them guessing.

To complete the card, I stamped the Trick Or Treat message onto a piece of inked card stock and cut it into a banner shape before attaching it with foam pads and added an October 31 Remnant Rub, a couple of spiders from the Gothic Industrious Stickers set, with enamel dots attached to their backs and popped them into the webs.

Inside the card, I added my invite and voila...the invitation is finished and ready to go!

 I hope you've enjoyed how I created my project for this week and as always, if you need any further inspiration for this challenge, then you need look no further than our 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....

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Thank you so much for all your visits today and hope you all have a great week ahead

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Tim Holtz Dies: Bird Crazy

Tim Holtz Stamps: Bird Crazy, Crazy Talk, Crazy Things

Distress Paint: Brushed Pewter

Distress Spray Stain: Brushed Pewter, Festive Berries

Distress Stains: Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass

Distress Marker Pens

Distress Ink: Black Soot, Pumice Stone

Mediums: Distress Marker Pens, Jet Black Archival Ink

Idea-ology: Vial Labels, Tiny Vials, Curiosities Remnant Rubs, Gothic Industrious Stickers

Enamel Dots, Twine

Surfaces: White Card, Kraft Card, Kraft Core Core'Dinations Card, Black Card, Watercolour Card

Ranger Craft Sheet

Water Brush

Mini blending Tool

Heat Gun

Big Shot

Brushes

Cheesecloth from my stash