craftykiwimama

The Haunted House

About this Project

This 6x6 paper pack from Whimsy Stamps is called Haunted Houses and it's full of beautiful panels perfect for creating enchanting Halloween backgrounds. I built the scene around this kooky and fun Haunted House and so love the way it all came together. I've used a lovely cardstock called Eggplant from Concord and 9th to create my card base. I diecut the Enchanted Word Die from the same cardstock. I love the way this word die looks 'floating' there at the base of the design. It doesn't take over, but grounds the piece and I really love how this ended up looking. I added some gentle highlights with a Gelly Roll Stardust Pen, which just gives a little shine and subtly draws the eye to that detail, without crowding the rest of the make. The frame was diecut from Spellbinders Raven Cardstock and the Itsy Bitsy Spider Die Set. The die set has a wonderful frame which looks like rustic wooden planks. I ran some white ink over the surface to bring out the wonderful embossed details from the die. I used a Simon Says Stamp Sponge Applicator from their Rainbow Splash Range to apply the ink, just across the surface of the die, allowing the embossed details to remain dark and really feature. Doing this brought the frame from a flat matte black to a rustic weathered wood look. I decided I wanted to add a rickety old fence and gate at the bottom of the garden to add to the haunted house vibe. So I diecut one of the fences which I thought was a good fit for this scene from Whimsy's fantastic Rail and Fences Die Set. I had some PaperArtsy Rusting Powder in my stash and decided I'd have a go at relicing this fence. There's no doubt the rust would have been more dramatic on a white fence, but I wanted black and in an effort to bring out the rusty effect more, I added some Distress Crayons in Rusty Hinge (how appropriate!) and Jack-o-Lantern, which is a Mica Crayon, so has some lovely shimmer and sheen to it. There's no lighting that can do this justice really, it needs to be seen in person. But trust me, the rusty look is there and absolutely adds to the ambience of this piece! I added two black cats, let's call them Tilly and Tomas. They come from the Witch Whispers Sister Die Set. I added the bats to add a little depth and dimension to the top of the card. These were cut with the Bats and Bubbles Border Die Set.