Bats over the city for Halloween

CVC - Heavenly bodies/Space    

For my inspirational challenge project for Country View Crafts I created a simple scene to fit in with the challenge title and Halloween. 

Firstly create a background using brown distress inks - dip, drip and dry. Splatter etc until happy with it. Then die cut some buildings from the cityscape die set. Also cut some of the extras from coloured card to add some roof details.

Create another background using the same technique as above and using black, blue and brown distress inks, keeping it very dark. Splatter with the spritzes. Diecut the bats.

Take a third piece of card to create the night sky background, using removable tape fix the largest moon mask to the card. First blend over the distress inks and distress oxides .....

..... then start the distress process of using a small stamp block spritzed with water dabbed on to create movement, also dry between each step and splatter water droplets, dry some and repeat and blot others. Also splatter watery ink droplets and dry in layers. Remove the mask and give a final spritz around the edges of the moon. It softens the edge, allows some of the colour to creep into the moon shape to add shadow and texture, plus the oxides start to do their magic and create an oxidised effect where the ink components split, resulting in a muted, opaque, and slightly chalky appearance It reminds me of the milky way. 

When those layers are perfectly dry add the mask again and splatter the brushed pewter spray stain to create star constellations. 

They look grey in one light direction but sparkle in another. Don't forget to clean the mask and your paint brush straight away before the stain dries.

Remove the mask and dabble distress inks within the moon shape,, spritz, splatter and dry.

Assemble the city buildings onto the card, add some bats and a halloween message.

xx

Supplies linked to Country View Crafts

Tim Holtz Sizzix dies - Cityscape, Metropolis 661804, Mixed Media Halloween 661588

Tim Holtz Moon Mask THMSK0,

Tim Holtz Distress inks Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot, Salvaged Patina

Tim Holtz inks for the sky - DI Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled Glass, Hickory Smoke. Dox Faded Jeans, Iced Spruce

Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain - Brushed Pewter

Tim Holtz - Spritz - Peacock Feathers, Hickory Smoke

Tim Holtz stamps - Skull Blueprint 659375

Faber Castell Pitt artist pens - brushes - TERRA

Halloween Collage Panel - Country View Crafts Design Team

Having had a playtime creating some potential halloween backgrounds (see post) I've taken the red one to use but before I created the collage I splattered some Barn Door Distress Spritz over it to give it some highlights.

This is my second inspiration project for October's Country View Challenges theme on FaceBook.

The Wicked Undertaker 

It is Victorian England and one of the creepiest crime waves in the East of London is surging. Anatomists and surgeons are needing an ever-increasing amount of bodies to advance their research in the study of human anatomy, and, as a result, they turn a blind eye to the dead body trade that is booming. Individuals and gangs are turning to body snatching (digging up graves to extract bodies) and selling them to make a neat profit— these are the scary body snatchers known as the London Burkers (burking meaning ‘killing someone for their marketable cadaver’). A gang led by John Bishop and Thomas Williams, who began their crimes by robbing fresh graves, quickly graduate to murder for an even fresher corpse to sell to the unscrupulous anatomists who are working with such criminals very regularly. Frightening!

Here is one of the unethical undertakers, Bertie Burns who engages in some of the underhand activities. At times bodies are very hard to come by, and sometimes, because desperate times call for desperate measures, the trade in human bodies also includes body parts, and often those who need bodies settle for body parts instead and Mr Burns makes a pretty penny.

xx

Materials

Dies Sizzix - Specimen,

Stampers Anonymous - Apothecary CMS138,  

Distress Inks - Seedless Preserves, Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso, Scorched Timber

Distress Spritz - Barn Door, Fossilized Amber

Idea-ology  Corked Vials, Snippets Curator, Film Strip Ribbon, Muse Token - Halloween, Found Framed Portraits - Halloween, Remnant Rubs - Curiosities, Mummy Cloth, corked glass vials

Halloween Twilight Panel - Country View Crafts Design Team

Twilight 

Imagine it's dusk, there's a clear starlit sky and the moon is bright and golden and shining down across the wooded landscape. Slowly the nocturnal creatures are emerging into the shadows and a gentle breeze is beginning to rise. The leaves are rustling and whispering together softly whilst beautiful spidery sculptures of silvery threads entwine between them often glistening as they catch the light of the full moon. Bats are seen swooping and flying between the trees looking for their food and are beginning to gather together before migrating or hibernating. A large black bird with shimmering plumage alights on a branch of the gnarled tree amd cautiously surveys the area around him.  

It is October 31st, it is twilight and so a Halloween night of chills and tension begins.

Process Steps

I had such fun putting this panel together I thought I would frame it to go on the sideboard at Halloween. When I'd finished I also took some close detail photos. I love how 3D it looks now.

xxx

Supplies

Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Bundled Sage, Evergreen Bough, Cracked Pistachio, Forest Moss, Pine Needles, Salty Ocean, Scorched Timber, Walnut Stain, Scattered Straw

Distress Spritz - Weathered Wood, Peacock Feathers

Distress Sprays - Black Soot, Mica Spray Brushed Pewter

Distress Watercolor Pencils - Scorched Timber, Iced Spruce

Distress Crayon - Peeled Paint

Distress Paint - Rusty Hinge

Distress Embossing Glaze - Hickory Smoke

Ranger Embossing Powder - Black

Distress Crayons - Fossilized Amber, Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint

Sizzix Dies - Vault Lovebirds, Funky Wreaths, Festive Gatherings, Mixed Media Halloween

Idea-ology -  Muse Tokens - Halloween, Metal Quote Band Ephera Snippets - Curator, Remnant Rubs - Curiosities, Mini Pumpkins, Boneyard

Stampers Anonymous - Halloween CMS093, Halloween 2 CMS 113

Treasure Gold - Aquamarine, Treasure Silver

Rust inspired D'Oxides

 I love playing with inks and colours to produce different layers of for distressed backgrounds. As it's Halloween month I thought I would try out rust effects with distress oxides to see what happened. I love the result.

On A4 card. Used scorched timber, walnut stain, vintage photo, hickory smoke D'oxides, splattered and dipped into walnut stain Spritz then mixed left over spritz to vintage photo DO and water and dipped into it. Did another puddle of vintage photo and water and dipped into it some more. Finally spritzed water droplets and dried.

Cut card into 3 pieces.....

.... and got a gorgeous layered dipped, drippy, distressed effect.

I make very few projects for Halloween usually and I've already got my Country View Challenge ones made and scheduled so I think I'll chop these three pieces in half again and aim to create 6 small 10.4 x 9.7 cm panels.

xxx

Halloween Backgrounds - Distress inks and sprays

 Been playing with a variety of colours to make some distress backgrounds for potential Halloween backgrounds. I like most of them lol.