Whimsy September 1st Release - He Is Just A Poe Boy

Woohoo! The Whimsy September 1st release is here! There are some awesome spooky Halloween products in this release. I made a mixed media style card using some of the new products. When I first saw this stamp set it was literally screaming 'mixed media' to me. So how could I resist getting inky and digging my fingers in all these different mediums. Mixed media is just so releaxing and SOOOO much fun to do. If you have never tried it before give it a go. It really is not difficult at all. I always say you can never do something wrong with mixed media. No matter how it turns out it is always the way it is supposed to be ;-) 

Below is a detailed 'How-To' on how I created this card. Maybe I can inspire you to give it a try.

How-To:

My card base is a A2 portrait top-fold card in black. The second layer is a piece of violet cardstock cut a 1/4" smaller than my card base.

To create the background I stamped the NEW Slimline Spider Webs BG onto mixed media paper with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and heat embossed with black embossing powder.
Then I inked the background using Distress Oxide inks and Whimsy Ink Blending Brushes.
Distress Oxide colors I used: Villainous Potion, Seedless Preserves, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade, Black Soot.
Because even after heat setting sometimes the Oxide Inks tend to rub off of mixed media paper I treated the inked mixed media panel with Distress Glaze. I used a foam applicator to apply the waxy Distress Glaze in a thin layer. With a piece of paper towel I gently wiped off any excess wax.
I love the distress glaze because it does not only make the Oxide Inks waterproof it also removes the milky haze of the Oxide Inks (which I usually love, depending on my project) and they look brighter and more radiant.

Next I stamped the images onto Tim Holtz plain tissue wrap. The reason why I am using tissue paper is that I want the background to show through on my images. I used my Versafine Clair Nocturne ink but I should have used StazOn ink. The Versafine Clair ink never dried completely and I ended up heat embossing the images. Which was not a problem at all but StazOn could have saved me some time and effort here. Then I fussy cut the images and set them aside for later use.

Next I created the frame using the NEW Drippy Frame die. I die cut the frame from Strathmore toned blue mixed media paper. The blue of this mixed media paper is a soft greyish blue tone. I then heat embossed the frame using Versamark ink and Distress Embossing Glaze Hickory Smoke. I embossed several times to achieve a thick enamel like layer on the frame. The hickory smoke embossing glaze over the toned blue cardstock gives a nice dark gray shade.

I cut my spider webs background to fit into the drippy frame but did not adhere the frame to the background yet. First I had to adhere my images onto the background panel. To do thisI I used a matte gel medium. In my case it was what I had on hand: Vicky Boutin Matte Acrylic Gel. With a flat brush I added a very thin layer of gel medium onto the background where I wanted to place my images. (thanks to our layer of Distress Glaze the background is waterproof and adding the gel medium is no problem.) The I added the images followed by another thin layer of gel medium. 

After everything was dry I adhered the drippy frame to the background using liquid glue and set it aside.

Now I had to color my white cheesecloth to accommodate the colors on my card. I decided to stick with the Distress Oxide line and used Oxide Sprays to add color. I used Carved Pumpkin, Seedless Preserves and Villainous Potion.
While the gauze was drying I stamped the sentiments onto white cardstock with black ink and cut them out. I inked them with Tea Dye Distress Ink and added Stickles Black Diamond for some bling and dimension. 

Now it's time to assemble the card. I adhered the frame panel with foam tape to the card front and then draped the gauze/cheesecloth around it using liquid glue to secure it. I adhered the smaller sentiment with foam tape and the larger tomb shaped one on top with a small metal clip.

I hope this was helpful and I could inspire you to make your own mixed media Halloween card! With all the Halloween goodies on the shelves in the Whimsy store it is almost irresistible.

Whimsy products used on my mixed media card:

Thanks so much for dropping in today!

Hugs,