I have been wanting to make this card for a very long time and thought today would be THE perfect day to share this cute little owl and to wish you all a "Hooty" Halloween!
To begin I stamped the Wood Grain backgrounder in black on Vanilla Bean. I couldn't believe the WOW that this simple contrast made. The whole idea is to have this little owl sitting in a tree with the moon peeking from behind. I then used my circle Nestie to create both the moon and the window in my card.
Being I didn't have a "swiss cheese" type of background I thought I would share a wonderful trick I use my airbrush for. If you have any interesting textured papers, or products around the house that have holes in them you can create THE most interesting backgrounds.
I used W4, Warm Gray No 4 to create the shadows and craters on my moon. I then used W1, Warm Gray No 1 to spray over the entire mango moon to bring down the color and have it meld better with the coloring of the owl.
I then stamped my tree branch and owl using Memento Tuxedo Black on Solar White. First I colored the entire branch with E31. I then added the darkest colors using E47.
My favorite palette for blending colors is the non-stick craft mat. The reason I like this surface is two-fold. First is the texture of this surface. I have found that it will really "grab" the color from my marker and therefore give me more ink to work with when blending. Secondly, it is SO easy to clean up! Just a little regular rubbing alcohol wipes it clean. Using my E31 I picked up the E47 from my palette and added depth to the branch, providing some shadowing around the lower edge as well as the top to help the branch feel rounded.
The same tones were used on the owl, with the addition of Y21, YR24, and Y38 for the beak and feet. Just a little sparkle on her eyelids, beak and feet using the Copic Spica Glitter Pens.
I hope that you have fun with the little ghouls and goblins in your lives tonight. My girls think that I'm a goof, but I told them we only do "cute Halloween" at our house Ü So a "whoot, whoot" sent out to you on this Halloween eve from this cute little "spooky" owl!
