Hello Makers! It’s August and for many people that means the beginning of the Halloween season. Today’s card and techniques use Distress Sprays for a spooky themed card to kick off the frightful fun. 

Step 1: Gather the supplies listed. 

Step 2: Begin by cutting the Black Heavystock into two 3.5x8 pieces. In a Splat Box, lay the stencil over one piece and spray through the stencil with the Villainous Potion and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Sprays. Gently lift the stencil up off the paper and set aside to dry. Do not clean off the stencil. We need it for the next step. 

Step 3: Put the second piece of Black Heavystock into the splat box. Place the stencil, stain side down, onto the black cardstock. Lay a paper towel over it and press it onto the cardstock. The paper towel should soak up any excess that presses out the sides or in the openings of the stencil. Lift carefully and dry both pieces of cardstock from Steps 1 and 2 and set aside.

Step 4: Spray some Pumice Stone Distress Stain and Antique Linen Distress Stain onto a Non-stick or Media Mat. Put the candle stamp onto a stamp block and lightly tap the stamp into the stain a few times to get the whole stamp covered. Lightly stamp off onto a corner of the mat away from the stain and then stamp with purpose onto the top center of an A2 piece of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock and dry. Stamp another candle onto a piece of Masking Paper and fussy cut it out on the outside lines. Use this mask in the next step. 

Step 5: Cover the stamped candle with the candle mask. Put the skull stamp onto a stamping block. Spray some Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap Distress Stain onto a non-stick or media mat. Lightly tap the stamp multiple times into the spray stain, stamp off on a corner with no stain, then stamp on the A2 piece of Mixed Media Cardstock that the masked candle is on. Stamp so that the candle will be on the skull head. Remove that mask and dry. 

Step 6: Spray a tiny bit of Antique Linen Distress Stain onto a media mat. Lightly color the candle and dark shaded spots on the skull. Using Frayed Burlap and Scorched Timber Distress Watercolor Pencils, go over the outline and shaded areas to add a little definition, then continue to color the entire skull just with the waterbrush. Don’t get it too wet, just smooth out the color from the stains and the pencils. 

Dry, then fussy cut it out as one piece. 

Step 7: With Black Soot Archival Ink, stamp the spider directly onto the skull, with the back end of the spider off the right side of the skull so it looks like it is crawling up over it. Then using some Black Soot Distress Ink, color the spider in.

Step 8: On an extra piece of the Black Heavystock, stamp the BOO! sentiment in Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide. Fussy cut it out. 

Step 9: Make a slimline card base out of a piece of Black Heavystock. Trim the background pieces to cover the card base with a ¼” mat around the outside. You will need to use both pieces of background, one will be longer than the other. Attach to the cardbase. 

Then attach the Boo directly to the top of the background. Apply foam tape to the back of the skull/candle and attach that below the sentiment with the top of the flame touching the bottom of the Boo.

Thank you so much for reading about these simple but impactful techniques with Distress Sprays. I hope they inspire you to get out your sprays and just have some fun!