Hauntingly Ghoulish - Halloween Card

Well this card certainly unleashes the spook-tacular spirit of Halloween!!

Featuring a captivating full moon casting an ethereal glow over a shadowy mansion, this card invites you into a world of playful ghosts and fluttering bats.

This card was inspired by the gorgeous Harvest Super Moon that we just experienced here in Ontario this week! It was so unbelievably bright it lit up the whole night - it appeared like outside lights were on casting a light into the darkness everywhere, even in the bush behind our house. No ghosts or goblins could have been hiding in the forest that night.

The background started with a circle mask in place to create the moon. My masking is nothing fancy, I simply cut a circle in the desired size from copy paper and apply removable tape seal to the back of it and adhere in place on a panel of white cardstock cut at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.

Before placing the mask I use the dies themselves that I plan to create the card with a and just place them around on the card to get a feel for where I would like everything to fall into place - this helps me figure out where exactly I need to place the moon mask before the background blending begins.

After the mask was in place I started with a very light circular motion around the moon with a light grey ink. Just an ever so slight shadow of it.

I then moved on to a mellow yellow ink color and a blending brush and blended in a circular motion around the moon mask.

I then moved onto a midnight blue color and blended it into the yellow shading a bit and then outwards in a circular shape around the moon. I continued with this midnight color to the edges of the paper and down into the bottom. Blending the outside edges darker than the section around the moon.

I came back in with the yellow ink color and just blended that yellow back into the blue color so as not to lose the glow around the moon.

I finished off the blend of the background with a nice dark blending of Black Soot ink to darken those edges right up and leave a mystical dark smoky effect on the background.

I used a grass stencil and a black ink to blend in the grass at the bottom of the card in order to create a base for my house to sit on.

I removed the mask from the moon and added a little of that grey shadow to just one side of the moon in a circular motion, then finished the moon up with a very light blending of the yellow. I didn’t want to much yellow on the moon as I wanted it to be a nice bright glowing white moon.

The final touch for the background was a bit of white splatter to add a mystical feel of stars into the night sky.

As the background dried, I die cut the pieces required for my scene using Spellbinders - Haunted House Dies. I absolutely love this die set. I bought it last year for the Halloween crafting season and a year has rolled by and it hasn’t lost it’s glory! It’s still just as much to create with - but a whole lot cheaper! I see the price has come down since last year. So … what better time to grab it for your Halloween crafting!!

I cut 2 of the haunted houses from black cardstock and glued them together to create some dimension for the house. I also traced roughly around the house onto a piece of white cardstock, then trimmed that shape down a little so it would only cover behind the windows. I glued this section to the back of the house. Turned it over and using my copic markers I shaded in the windows to create a nice glow from the windows of the haunted house.

Using another piece of white cardstock I blotted some Versamark Ink over the piece of white paper ( you don’t need a large piece ) then I covered this piece with a clear embossing powder and heat set. This creates a nice glowing white that’s perfect for die cutting the little ghosts included in the Haunted House Dies. I cut 3 ghosts.

I die cut some bats from black cardstock and gave them little eyes with a yellow gel pen.

I attached the haunted house to the front panel for the card using foam tape. I added the ghosts some with foam tape some with just adhesive and used a black marker to color in their eyes once they were attached to the panel.

I adhered the bats in place and a random spooky tree die cut from my stash.

I just used a silver gel pen to add shine from the moonlight to the tree.

And a white gel pen to add some highlights to the haunted house that would indicate the moon glowing on the house.

Lastly I attached this panel to a card base cut at 4 1/4 x 11, Scored at 5 1/2.

And poof… Perfect for sending chilling wishes to your friends and family, it's a delightful blend of ghoulish charm and whimsical design.

Let your creativity soar as you share the magic of Halloween!!