That's Life: Toil & Trouble ~ the friendly ghosts!

Hello friends...

Well this time last week, I don't think any of us could imagine what lay ahead and what was to happen in the days that followed! It's been such an emotional time here in the UK, and things have happened very quickly, but as we mourn the loss our beloved Queen Elizabeth II and welcomed King Charles III to the throne, together with the new Prince and Princess of Wales, we have also been remembering our late Queen and all she did for our nation and around the world! We will miss you Ma'am, you were a Princess, a Queen and most of all an icon and you were loved by so many ~ may you rest in peace with your beloved Phillip.

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❤️

So, as we start this momentous new week, we begin with the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week, our theme is all about DIE CUTTING. There are so many companies that have a plethora of dies, so you'll definitely be spoilt for choice and all you need to decide is what you'll be making with them and hope you'll join us and play along.

For my make, I chose to create a tag and I made this piece all about the two friendly mischievous ghosts ~ Toil and Trouble, and used the characters from Tim Holtz's Halloween Vault Series 2021 combined with the my much loved and well used Funky Wreath die set.

So let's get started, it's time to get your spook on and say hello to Toil & Trouble...

We'll begin with the tag and for this I used a Mini Etcetera Tag and I covered this with a combination of paper from the Halloween Backdrop set and an inky background of my own.

TAG BACKGROUND

I covered the top section and bottom section of the tag with the crackle paper from the Backdrop pack before cutting a panel of Mixed Media Heavystock card which would fit across the central section of the tag.

To colour the card stock, I used a combination of Black Soot Distress Spray and Wicked Elixir from the Halloween Mica Stain 4 set. I gave the card a good spritz of the black before applying the green shimmer over the top, and misting the surface with water to blend the inks and create my background. Once I'd heat dried the card panel, I inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then machine stitched a border around the outside before I adhered this panel to my tag.

LAYERED PANEL

For the layered panel that sits in the centre of the tag, I cut a piece of the gorgeous Black Woodgrain cardstock and placed the card in front of me so I could work on that enamelled backdrop.

I placed the Thorned mini stencil design onto my card panel and used a palette knife to apply Translucent Grit Paste through the stencil. Working quickly, after removing the stencil, I sprinkled gold embossing powder over the top and set this panel to one side to dry and once that's happened, I then gently heat embossed the powder until it became molten and enamelled.

I flicked a few splatters of Decayed Mica Stain across the surface, then machine stitched a border around this panel and layered it onto gold kraft card.

MUMMY CLOTH WRAP

Around the tag itself, I wrapped a length of mummy cloth, coloured with a spritz of Villainous Potion and Walnut Stain Distress Spray Stain and then dried. I then tied this around the tag, leaving the ends to hang down the right hand side.

I then mounted the embossed/enamelled layered panel onto the centre of my tag, using foam pads.

WREATH

For the wreath, I coloured some black cardstock with Decayed and Wicked Elixir Mica Stain. I cut all my pieces using all the dies in the set, and assembled these to form the layered wreath, tucking all the extra little pieces of foliage into the wreath to make it more spiky and fluffy.

I mounted my wreath onto a circle of black card, spritzed with Iron Gate Mica Stain and then attached the wreath to my tag with foam pads. You can see the inked card circle in the photo below, behind the ghosts.

GHOSTS

As I mentioned the ghosts are from the Halloween Vault 2021 Series and I cut each ghost from Mixed Media Heavystock card. I did colour them with a light wash of Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap but the camera has washed out the colour, so that's really hard to see.

After inking the edges with Hickory Smoke Ink, I attached Toil and Trouble over the top of my wreath, again using foam pads to add height.

Just at the bottom of the wreath, I added some flowers. These are Bouquet Findings from Tim's idea-ology range and I coloured them with Black Soot and Villainous Potion Spray Stains before attaching them with a clump of moss along the bottom edge of the wreath.

We're nearly there and all that's left is the details...

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS

I attached the Baseboard Quote Chip to the tag, placing it just beneath the wreath and adding a Hardware Head to either side, which I altered with a little Crackling Campfire and Black Soot Distress Paint for a rusty finish. I placed clumps of moss on either side of the quote chip.

There's a little die cut bat in the bottom left corner ~ this was cut from black card and layered over the top of silver kraft cardstock to create a shadow. I then attached it to my tag.

At the top of the tag, I placed the hole reinforcer piece. This is painted with Black Soot Distress Paint and then I applied a small amount of Gilded Foundry Wax to the edge. After I heat set the wax and attached the hole reinforcer piece, I added a Halloween Ephemera piece, the number 31, over the top.

Finally I completed my tag with a Nail Tack that I hammered into either side to the panel, in the top left and right hand corners.

So that's my project finished for this week and I hope you love what I've made...

As always, if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look and if sometimes I miss it ~ just keep nudging me!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....