Playing with spooky colours ....

... so, I did manage to get some more time in my craft room last night and I decided that I had to play along with this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge - PDCC102 - after all they've picked some of my MOST favourite colours - green, fuchsia, purple and black - sigh!!!!  Love them!

And isn't that inspiration photo just wonderful!!  It had to be a Halloween card and I was able to play with my lovely new Waltzingmouse Halloween stamps.  Claire does design some of the prettiest stamps.  When the Hocus Pocus stamps were launched, Anya created this very atmospheric card and I have to credit her with the inspiration for my card.

I started off by shading with Milled Lavender all over the card base.  Next I stamped the Gothic-style gate and fence and added a crow for atmosphere.  Then I stamped the cottage front (using the second impression to give a lighter tone) and added some subtle colour with Promarkers.  Then I found the owl stamp and decided to include him too.  Some more colour was added by shaded with Dusty Concord and a touch of Black Soot at the edges of the card.  I stamped some stars into the night sky and - if you look closely, you will see a few bats flying away from the roof top.  I used my nesties to cut out a bright green scalloped circle and the inverted scalloped nestie on the fuchsia satin mirri - and then layered them up - I like the effect of green beads!!  I stamped the wonderful Hocus Pocus sentiment in Versafine and embossed with clear powder to give a lovely glossy finish.  Finally, Winnie was stamped onto a piece of card, cut out and then turned over and coloured with a black Promarker - she now faces the right direction!!!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Cottage House, Hocus Pocus Midnight Feast, Halloween Party
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress - Milled Lavender, Dusky Concord, Black Soot
Spellbinders:  Classic Scalloped Circles Sm (S4-125) # 5, Classic Inverted Scalloped Circles Lg (S4-194) #5
Promarkers: Black, Canary, Gold, Warm Grey 1, Warm Grey 3
Accessories:  Card, clear embossing powder from stash

Now, I think I have to give a special mention to my daughter Kathryn, this design owes a lot to her.  I had originally planned to have the Gothic window in the centre of the label, with a sentiment in another nestie in the bottom left hand corner.  I told Kathryn what I was planning; she looked at the card and the stamps and then said "Mummy, it would be much better with the sentiment in the middle and the witch on the side!!"   And do you, she was absolutely right.  So, thank you Kathryn - you're my star!  Here's a close up of the sentiment - it has a lovely translucent look on this mirri card!

That's all for now.  Jonathan and I have got a busy morning lined up with finishing off in the garage, we've got some old (cheap) bookcases that are falling apart and need to go into the skip.  Jonathan has just started to sort through some of his old cassette recordings!  If you listen closely you can hear him crying!!!  It's not that I'm evil, it's just that we have to clear out the old stuff that's cluttering up the place.  I don't know when Jonathan last listened to any of the tapes - although we may be listening to some later :)

See you soon!