That's Life: I Want Candy...

Happy Monday everyone...

I can't believe how fast the last week has gone, it doesn't seem a minute since I was last here but as always, the start of the brand new week means we have a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week our theme is called ADD SOME METAL.

With so many products that either are metal or have a metallic finish, you will be spoilt for choice and we can't wait to see what you will be making and hope you'll join us and play along.

For my make, I chose to add metallic shimmer and shine, using papers, sprays and embossing powders and I used these together with a few metal embellishments to make this Halloween card featuring two of the cutest ghosts I've ever seen.

So, let's get started because it's time to share how I created this project...

To begin with I used a metallic pewter coloured card to create my tent fold card blank, measuring, 15.5 x 19.5cm.

I then used some older Halloween idea-ology Design Tape from Tim Holtz and created a border around the edge of the card.

BACKGROUND

Moving onto creating the background and for this I cut 2 panels of black heavy stock card, the first panel measuring 12.5 x 16.5cm and the second one slightly larger in size, 13.5 x 17.5cm.

Taking the smaller panel, I began by inking up the spider web stamp from the Life of the Party stamp set and stamped this in clear ink across the top section of the cardstock. I sprinkled white embossing powder over the top and then after tapping away the excess, I heat embossed the powder until molten and glossy.

Once the powder is cool, I added my metallic shimmer using the following Distress Mica Sprays: Empty Tomb, Crooked Broomsticks and Decayed. You can see the shimmer from the sprays in the photo below...

I misted these sprays very lightly over the embossed cardstock ~ the embossed web will resist the sprays.

Once happy with the background, I repeated the process on the larger piece of black heavystock card and then allowed both pieces to dry thoroughly.

When the mica sprays were dry, I machine stitched a border around the outside, and instead of having the perfect straight edged line, this time I decided to make it uneven and all "higgledy piggledy".

Across the bottom of the card, I added a sentiment banner. For the sentiment, 'candy made me do it", I've used an older STAMPtember Tim Holtz Exclusive stamp set from 2019. You might be fortunate enough to have this stamp set in your stash, but if not, any sentiment will do ~ I just loved the fun nature of this one. The sentiment was stamped onto a narrow strip of black card using clear ink, and then embossing in White Embossing Powder.

After spritzing the banner strip with the same colours of Mica Spray to match the background, I allowed them to dry and then matted the card onto a piece of silver Kraft metallic card.

I adhered the strip to the panel, securing it with some stitching down each side and then mounted this background panel onto the larger panel, followed by a panel of silver metallic Kraft card.

Mount the panels onto the card front using foam pads to add height and dimension.

I completed the sentiment banner by adding a mini clip to either end of the strip, which I painted with gold metallic paint.

I also added three Hardware Heads on the left hand side of the clip, again painting them gold.

GHOSTS

We're now ready to start bringing the scene to life and I began by stamping the ghosts from the Halloween Doodles stamp set.

Using Black Soot Archival Ink, I stamped one ghost directly onto the smooth side of watercolour card. I cleaned my stamp ensuring there was no residue of ink and then, placed some masking tape across the face of the ghost on the rubber stamp. I inked up the stamp once more, removed the tape and then stamped onto another piece of watercolour card. You now have two images, one with a face, one without.

I watercolored each of my images using Distress Watercolour Pencils, and kept the colours neutral. Once I was happy, I used the dies from the co-ordinating SSS die set to die cut the images of both ghosts and inked the edges with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

ADDING DETAILS TO THE GHOSTS

I wanted each ghost to have its own personality, but come together to tell the story of the scene and that's why I chose to mask off the face of the second ghost, because I want it to look up to the other ghost. And the way that I did this was to draw my own face, adding the eyes and the tiny mouth using a black fine line pen.

On the second ghost, I added a tiny patch of calico cotton to his sheet, stitching this onto the card to look as if there had been a hole in the sheet.

Finally, the second ghost needed his witches hat and once again I used the Halloween Doodles stamp set and stamped the image onto watercolour card before watercoloring it with Distress Watercolour pencils and die cutting it with the die set. Ink the edges of the die cut with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

Attach the finished witches hat to the ghost's head and then using foam pads, I attached both ghosts to the background, slightly overlapping them and positioning the one ghost so it looks up towards the other, with a slight look of surprise ~ but in his defence, the candy made him do it!!!

FINISHING DETAILS

We're now ready for the finishing details and I stamped the twinkles from the same stamp set as I've used throughout and stamped these onto black heavy-stock card before I embossed them with gold embossing powder. I then used the dies to die cut them and attached them around the two ghosts, placing them on either side.

I cut some bats from more of the black card, using the die that is in the Sizzix Halloween Coffin Die Set by Tim Holtz and after mounting them onto silver card to create a shadow.

I attached each bat to my card using matte collage medium, ensuring the wings are free, so I can lift them and make them appear to be in flight.

Finally I adhered the number 31 into place. This is from the Halloween Ephemera Pack from 2024, I'm not sure if it's in the 2025 set but if not, then there are plenty of pieces in there that can be used. I adhered this with Matte Collage Medium.

So, that's my card finished and I hope you love all the metallic shimmer and shine that I've used to interpret our theme.

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!

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....