Wednesday 5 October 2011

Bad dream...

October's theme for the postcard swap on UKStampers is Halloween.

Now I'm not a Halloween person and have a grand total of ZERO Halloween stamps. I didn't want to miss a month of the swap though so I decided to improvise by mixing stamps I did have with other stuff and found myself well out of my comfort zone with this!

I had an Itkupilli digi collage sheet and remembered that it had a skull on it. I made the happy discovery that it also includes a bat and while messing about with the two images in Photoshop it struck me that I could combine the two for spooky flying skulls. I printed them onto heavy paper and again on regular copy paper to cut out and use as masks.

I used a punched circle to mask the moon and then sponged inks onto the paper, first just as a background layer and then over a torn "cloud" mask. I sponged a little more ink on after removing the moon mask to tone it down a bit. Stamped tree, barbed wire and sentiment finish it off - I'm sure the "dream" definition is more commonly used as encouragement to indulge in positive thoughts but I thought it could fit a bad dream, too!

Stamps:
Tree branch from Nature plate (Indigo Blu)
Dream definition from Sarah's Choice plate (Indigo Blu)
Barbed wire from Hot Topic plate (Green Pepper Press)

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Weathered Wood, Dusty Concord, Black Soot)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Steampunk Vintage Clip Art sheet by Itkupilli


If you fancy having a go at a Halloween postcard why not come over and join us? You can see what other people have been making and post a picture of your own card for the swap here.

Thanks for stopping by!

16 comments:

Heavens2Betsy said...

Your flying skulls are fabulous against your very cleverly created moody background - i really like this halloween offering. penny

Paula Whittaker said...

love the background...fab postcard!

Effie said...

That's fantastic ,I love the way you made the elements!

Artyjen said...

Ab Fab! Love it...love it! :)
xoxo Sioux

Kaz said...

This is stunning Joanne, love it!! xx

Lulabelle said...

I love your postcard!

sam21ski said...

WOW Stunning postcard Joanne. Love those skulls with wings and the deep background purple colours - fabulous

Sam xxx

Joan said...

Fab ! love your imaginative take on Hallow'een

Joan

salamanda said...

I'm glad you did not have any Halloween stamps and had to mess about in photoshop as I love this - especially the flying skulls.

Janice said...

very effective and quite scary!

Lucy Edmondson said...

This is absolutely superb. Doesn't look out of your comfort zone at all,

Lucy x

tracy said...

thats fab joanne,and looks very 'comfortable' :)

Deborah said...

If you were out of your comfort zone it certainly does not show! I love this (hope it's me you get to send to).

Gez Butterworth said...

Wow! More Joanne more! Brilliant.xx

Hazel said...

You would never guess you were out of your comfort zone - super crafting. And I love that bubble border in the card below. Lovely to have a catch up (sorry that blog hopping has taken a back seat recently). x

Karen said...

This is just outstanding Joanne! xxx