I'm going to begin this post with a disclaimer - I should NOT make cards when I am tired because I think that they are funny and I don't know that anyone else does - LOL! How I come up with these things when I am most tired is beyond me, but I just had to share this goofy idea being I thought it was hilarious. My girls on the other hand just rolled their eyes and said - OH MOM! in a somewhat exasperated tone Ü
It all started with the bunny and my quest to see how many occasions I can use her for. Then it hit me - yes, I could stuff (or pretend to stuff) her ears into the IB Witch's Hat and she would be all dressed up for Halloween. But then the moment of pure genius - "bippity... boppity... boo" when inked with a marker and changing the "b's" to become "h's" becomes... "hippity... hoppity... boo!!!" GENIUS, I tell you (as I totally laugh out loud.)
I was going to use a Sparkle paper as the background, but unfortunately the Witch's hat just disappeared in to the paper. So I set out to create my own Sparkle inspired paper using my little brayer. I love the size of this small brayer when used with Distress Inks. To begin tear a "hillside" along one edge of the Eclipse tape (or use sticky notes if you don't have this awesome masking tape.) I began with Tea Dye ink and then added a little Walnut along the bottom edge. When I ink my brayer with the darker color I do not ink it evenly, but rather ink only a portion of the roller. Then do a short brayer stroke on scrap paper, before adding the darker tones to my project - this helps you avoid that big "blob" of ink that can occur when trying this technique.
Next I used the edge of the Snow Cap pigment ink pad to add some "streaks" of white directly to the Willow cardstock, giving a blustery appearance to my landscape. Cutting a rough circle "moon" from eclipse tape and brayering a little Tea Dye and Walnut ink on the top edge of the landscape helps bring balance to the color scheme. Finally I placed a strip of eclipse tape down the left edge and added a "building" by brayering first Walnut, and then a little black to add some additional texture. When adding the black ink to my brayer I did not roll it on the ink pad, but rather used the edges of the ink pad to add "lines" of ink to my brayer as shown in the picture below.
Use the Cuttlebug vines and birds folder to first emboss the Mango cardstock. Then sand the surface using a small sanding block. The white core paper is perfect for this technique and quickly reveals a white base. I then inked up my larger brayer with Tea Dye ink, once again brayering first on scrap paper, before lightly running it over the Mango surface. The wonderful think about using a large brayer on an embossed surface is that it only hits on the high points.
I then stamped, colored ,and cut out the witch's broom, pumpkins and IB hat
To complete the look I sewed around the edge and used dimensionals to add depth to the bunny and largest pumpkin. So tell me - am I funny or just a total goofball? LOL! I hope this inspires you to share your "out of the box" ideas, as well as pull out your brayer and begin to use it in creative ways!
