Monday, 28 September 2026

Somebody's Watching Me....

Hello everyone...

Hope you've all had a fabulous weekend and you're ready for a new week if adventures and crafting!

As always, the start of a new week means we have a new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, and we want you to USE MORE THAN ONE STENCIL on your makes and hope you'll join us and play along with this fun theme.

For my project, I created a spooky tag and used products from Tim Holtz, Stampers Anonymous and SSS to create this project all about the Bone Collector...

So, let's get started, it's time to get for me to share all the details of this tag....

 

To begin with I used a Mini Etcetera Tag as my base, together with Mosaic Etcetera Tiles ~ all by Stampers Anonymous.

TAG and TILES BACKGROUND

To create my background for this piece, I cut two pieces of Mixed Media Heavystock Card. Taking one of the pieces of the card, I used a palette knife to apply Black Opaque Texture Paste through the Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Crossed Layering Stencil and on the second piece, I applied the same paste through the Script stencil. Allow for each piece to dry and make sure to wash the stencil and palette knife immediately.

Once the paste was dry, I added the colour using a combination of Unravelled, Decayed, Ominous Mica Spray Stains.


At this stage, I also spritzed a third piece of the cardstock with the Mica Sprays but didn't apply paste to this piece.

Once I was happy with the colour, and the card was dry, I cut the Script stencilled card into pieces to fit four of the tiles measuring 1.5 x 3 inches and then cut the remaining card, stencilled with the Crossed design into four 1.5 x 1.5 inches pieces. Adhere each of these pieces onto the Etcetera Tiles with Matte Collage Medium.

Taking the tiles, I placed these a Mini Etcetera Tag, attaching them to the centre of the tag, starting with the square tile in the top left, followed by the rectangular tile, next to it and then working down the tag, alternating the tiles each time to complete the four rows.

At the top and bottom of the tag, I added the plain pieces of Mica stained card, placing them to cover the bare areas of the tag itself and trimming away the excess.

Apply Walnut Stain Distress Crayon along the edges and between the joins of the tiles to complete the background and in the top right corner, I added an October 31 Ephemera label from the Halloween Ephemera Pack, attached with Matte Collage Medium and with a small ripped piece of Cello Sticker Tape.

FOCAL POINT

Now we move onto the focal point of this tag, the part that tells the story of the Bone Collector.

For this I used the Tim Holtz and Simon Says Stamp Co-Ordinating Anatomy Chart stamp and die bundle.

I stamped the images of the hand and the femur bone onto a piece of Mixed Media Heavystock card and coloured them with Distress Watercolor Pencils before die cutting them with the co-ordinating dies.

After inking the edges of each die cut with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, I shaped the hand into a curve and together with the bone die cut, I attached them to my background using foam pads. 

To the left of the stamped images, I placed an Ephemera Piece. This was actually from an older set of idea-ology Baseboards but it can also be found in the Halloween Ephemera Pack but if you use this piece, I would mount it onto a piece of chipboard or cardstock before attaching it to the project.

To complete this section, I used the "Bone Collector" Word Plaque from the Halloween Word Plaques and Tags set and altered the silver metal with Distress Paint; Black Soot, Antiqued Bronze, Crackling Campfire. I then accentuated the raised lettering with a coverage of Treasure Gold gilding wax that I have in my stash.

I attached the plaque to the background using foam pads to add dimension and then added a screw head onto either side, again altered with the same Distress Paints to match the rest of the plaque.

LEDGE

Along the bottom of the tag, I added a ledge that is filled with haunted treasures.

To create the ledge, I used two Pinked Etcetera Trims and stuck these together to form one thick ledge which I then attached along the bottom edge of my raised Etcetera Tile panel.

Now, all I need to do is fill the ledge with all these treasures using the following products from Tim's idea-ology range:

Drippy Candles, Corked Vials, tiny Corked Vials, mini books made using the covers from the Halloween Ephemera pack and labels on the spine from the Curator Snippets pack, Halloween Skulls and bones from the Boneyard pack

There are lots of tutorials on my blog showing how I alter and create these tiny pieces, and these techniques can be searched for in the search engine, which is just on the left hand side of my blog...

But for now, once all my little trinkets were made, I attached them to the ledge using Matte Collage Medium.

Tiny Books and Skulls

Corked Vials and Drippy Candles

FINISHING DETAILS

We're nearly there and all that's left is to add those all important finishing touches.

I added some drippy wax around the bases of the candles by using my hot glue gun and just allowing the glue to ooze out and then drip. Once this is dry, I painted the glue with a layer of Antique linen Distress Paint, allowed this to dry, then dabbed on a light coverage of Ground Espresso Distress Paint.

I finished with some small clumps of moss and hammered some Nail Tacks into the tag.

Finally, I added the final creepy touch, a small spider. This is from the Halloween Adornments pack and I painted it black. I then attached it to my project, placing it so it appears to be held in place with the finger on the stamped hand.

So, that's my project complete and I hope you love what I've created and the techniques I've used.

As always, if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....






Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today...
Love Emma xxx

Sunday, 27 September 2026

Frozen...

Happy Sunday....

Hope you all had a wonderful and enjoyed yesterday's Tim Holtz STAMPtember Technique Workshop. If you missed it, you can watch the replay HERE.

As soon as I saw this beautiful kit, I knew it was a must have ~ the stamp sets are stunning, and there were matching dies which means no fussy cutting, plus the kit itself was such amazing value for money. Sadly it has sold out but don't worry as you can always use many of Tim's other stamp sets to create exactly the same results.

But in celebration of the workshop, I've created an Etcetera Panel project which I hope you love...

For this project, and apart from the kit itself, I used some extra idea-ology items, Matte Collage Medium, embossing ink and powder. The clouds are from Tim's Edison Colorize Thinlits die set and the extra foliage was cut using the Vault Festive Wreath Die. Both of these die sets are by Sizzix.

BACKGROUND

I covered the edges of the panel with some of Tim's Design Tape that I have in my stash and this formed a border.

I cut a panel of watercolour card for the background and using the Stormy Sky Distress Stain in the kit, I added droplets of the stain to my craft mat, spritzed it with water and then smooshed my card to pick up the colour. Once I was happy, I heat dried the card.

I then stamped the snowflakes onto the background using the stamp from the Season of Magic stamp set and embossed these with white embossing powder.

After adding a machine stitched a border, I adhered the background to my Etcetera Panel.

To create the snowdrift in the background, I cut a piece of the watercolour card to fit across the bottom section of the panel and then using a pencil, I drew a wavy line along the top edge of the panel and cut along the line to form the snowdrift.

I wrapped a piece of the Candy Cane Twine around the bottom of the snowdrift, tied it into a big fluffy bow and added a mini pin to the knot before I attached the completed piece to my panel using foam pads.

SCENE

To create the scene I used both stamp sets from the kit ~ the snowman, tree and foliage and stamped these images using the Nocturne Black Versafine Clair Ink Pad onto the watercolour cardstock.

I watercolored each image with the Distress Stains included in the kit and then used the co-ordinating dies to die cut them. I then applied Glossy Accents where I wanted to add Rock Candy Glitter Highlights. You can see I added them to the tree, the snowman's hat and the foliage pieces.

Using foam pads, I attached them to my background to form the wintery scene.

At this stage, I also added a little more foliage. This was die cut from watercolour card, coloured with Rustic Wilderness Distress Stain, using the same technique as I used on the background to apply colour to the cardstock. I then used the Vault Festive Wreath die set to die cut each piece, and applied Rock Candy Glitter to add some more frosty magic.

To complete the scene, I stamped the shining star and attached this to my background....

...before stamping the sentiment 'winter wishes' which I then die cut with the co-ordinating die set and attached to the right of the snowman.

FINISHING DETAILS

For the finishing details, I added some more glitter along the base of the images to ground them and make it look even more sparkly.

For the clouds, I used one of Tim's older die sets, Colorize Edison and I cut these clouds from more of the watercolour card before adding some shading and attaching them to my project with foam pads.

Finally, I stated added a postal stamp ephemera piece, and some cello sticker tape which completed my panel full of wintery magic.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today...see you soon!
Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

STAMPtember Kit SOLD OUT
Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Etcetera Panel
Sizzix: Big Shot, Edison Colorize Thinlits Die Set, Vault Festive Wreath
Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Cello Sticker Tape, Christmas Ephemera Pack, Design Tape Trim from my own stash

Monday, 14 September 2026

Bat Man Returns...

Hello friends...

Happy Monday everyone and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. This week, we challenge you to TRANSPORT IT and hope you'll join us for this fun theme.

For my make, I created a card and because we're now in the 'ber' months, that means Halloween is just around the corner and I couldn't resist making this project featuring Count Dracula and his batty mode of transport. As with most of my projects, I used products from Tim Holtz, Simon Says Stamp, Sizzix and Stampers Anonymous...

So, let's begin and here's how I made this dreadfully wicked card...

CARD BLANK & MATTED LAYERS

To begin with I made a card blank from black card, measuring 19.5 x 15cm.

I then added some background layers to frame the main image. beginning with a layer of Design Tape, that I applied around the edge of the card blank, leaving a border of approx 0.5cm around the edge.

I matted a piece of slate coloured card, 13.5 x 18cm onto the card blank to complete my base.

BACKGROUND

To create the background, I cut a panel of black card, 12 x 16.5cm and spritzed the background with the following Tim Holtz sprays:

Distress Oxide Spray: Speckled Egg

Mica Spray Stain: Unravelled, Decayed, Phantom Mist

Once I was happy with my background and it was dry, I stamped the cobwebs along the top section of the panel. I used one of the stamps from the Tangled Web Stampers Anonymous stamp set and stamped this in clear embossing ink. I then sprinkled silver embossing powder over the top, tapped away the excess and heat embossed the powder until shiny and molten.

I added some die cut clouds, cut from mixed media heavy stock card using the dies in the Sizzix Vault Fright Night Die Set by Tim and after inking them with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap ink, I attached them to the background.

I completed the panel with a machine stitched border around the edge and then matted this onto a plane of silver metallic kraft card, followed by a panel of black card. Mount these layers onto the front of the card blank.

Across the bottom of the panel, I added a border strip for the sentiment. Cut a strip of black card, 2 x 12cm and I used the same Mica Sprays as I used on the background to add colour.

Once dry, I mounted the strip onto silver metallic Kraft card and then attached this across the bottoms edition. of the background using foam pads.

I then attached the "Something Dreadfully Wicked" sentiment across the centre of the strip which I took from the idea-ology Halloween Sticker Book, before completing this section with a Screw head on either side of the sentiment, altered with a little Distress Paint to give a more vintage, rusty look to the metal.

Now we're ready to build the scene...

CREATE A SCENE

For the scene I used the Tim Holtz and Simon Says Stamp Monster Reunion stamp and die bundle, the Sizzix Roadtrip Die Set by Tim, Vault Wicked and Vault Fright Night.

Starting with the character stamps from the Monster Reunion Stamp Set, I stamped the image of my 'Bat Man" and the Tombstone in Black Soot Archival Ink onto a piece of Distress Watercolour Card.

I watercolored the images with Distress Watercolour Pencils and then used the SSS co-ordinating die set to die cut each image. Set these to one side whilst we make the car...

For the car, I used the Roadtrip Die Set by Tim and cut the base layer for the car from gold metallic Kraft card and the next layer from a piece of Mixed Media Heavystock card that I coloured with Lumberjack Plaid Distress Spray Stains. For this layer, I only applied the red to the bottom section and then I painted the top section with Black Soot Distress Paint.

For the subsequent layers, I cut all the other pieces from Mixed Media Heavystock Card that I coloured with Black Soot Distress Spray Stain.

Assemble each layer over the top of one another to form the car, and then die cut all the highlights from silver metallic card and attach them to complete the car.

Now, there was one final detail that was needed on this car, and that was the bat. I can't remember which die set of Tim's this bat is from, but with so many to choose from, I'm sure you'll find one that fits. I cut the image from silver metallic Kraft card and then layered a second die cut, cut from black card over the top before attaching it to my car.

The car is now ready and waiting for it's owner to jump in...

I cut the legs off Mr Bat Man and then tucked him into the car, placing him so he sits nicely and looks comfortable before I attached the images to my background, using foam pads, attaching the car to the right, slightly overlapping the edge of the card and the tombstone to the left.

You can see the dimension that foam pads add to the card in the photo below.

Add small clumps of moss along the base of the two images to ground them.

FINISHING DETAILS

For the final details, I used some more die cut bats, cut from black card using the dies in the Vault Wicked Die Set and then added some silver stars, again cut using a die from the Wicked set.

...and completed the card with the 'I don't bite ...usually" sentiment from the Monster Reunion stamp set. This was stamped onto black card in clear embossing ink, then embossed with silver embossing powder before die cutting the sentiment with the co-ordinating die by SSS.
So with the finishing touches add, that completes my card and I hope you love what I've made...

As always, if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....






Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today...
Love Emma xxx

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