You see that house upon the hill

I'm so excited to be sharing my last project as a guest designer for the @whimsystamps Halloweeners.

I love the story that this project tells. The starting point was this amazing poem concocted by Wendy Nicola Jackson @craftykiwimama: 

You see that house upon the hill
A witch lived there and haunts it still
Will you enter on a dare
or will you run off scared from there
Trick-or-treat, the children call
Tis' Hallowe'en there's fun for all 

Products:
Halloween poem (Poem on the key tag in the first panel)
Halloween night stamp (Witch Through the key hole panel and sentiment on key tag of the door panel)
Cat-o-lanterns (Cats and pumpkins)
Fuzzy spiders (Spiders Window and Through the key hole panels)
Keyhole and key dies (Keys and keyholes in Front, Door and Through the key hole panels)
Window rubber stamp (Window panel)
Attempted murder (Fence front panel)
Mini-slim notched die (Key tag front panel and Door panel)
Witch broom sale (cobweb in the window panel)
October 31st (Outside cat panel)
Halloween trees and grass stencil (Cat panels)
Coffee break (coffee stains on key tag front panel)
Cute but psycho (Haunted house and blood stains on key tag front panel)
Chippy paint background (Throuh the keyhole panel)
Good fright (big cobweb Through the keyhole panel)
Harlequin stencil (floor Through the keyhole panel)
Brick background (Wall on the Cats panels)
Farmhouse shiplap background (Wood effects on Door and Through the keyhole panels)
Frame labels die set (lock plate, hinges and key tag on door panel)
Clawed stencil (Moon craters front panel and scratches on the Outside cat panel)
No-fuss masking sheets

Distress oxides: Twisted citron, Rustic wilderness, Tea-dye, Gathered twigs, Ground espresso, Speckled egg, Vintage photo, Hickory smoke, Pumice stone, Black soot, Milled lavender, Wilted violet, Villainous potion

Distress inks: Antique linen, Vintage photo and Walnut stain

Front panel

Halloween poem (Poem on key tag)
Attempted murder (Fence)
Keyhole and key dies (Key)
Mini-slim notched die (Key tag)
Coffee break (Coffee stains on key tag)
Cute but psycho (Haunted house and blood stains on key tag)
Clawed stencil (Moon craters)

For this panel, I stamped the haunted house towards the top and masked it. I used the Whimsy stamps No-fuss mask sheets throughout this project. Masking is a technique I like to use a lot and the quality of the masks is crucial to get a neat result. I've tested a number of products on the market and without hesitating I can say those masking sheets truly are the best!

I then masked a circle for the moon and I blended Distress oxides Milled lavender around the moon mask, then Wilted Violet going outwards, Villainous potion and Black soot.

I then removed the moon mask and blended Distress oxide Squeezed lemonade. I then brought in the Clawed stencil, using the blood drops to blend Pumice stone, to create moon craters.

I removed the mask and stamped the fence at the bottom. I then colored the house, fence and grass with Copic markers.

To create the tag, I used the Mini-slim notched die, taking the best size that would fit in the little poem. I then stamped the Halloween poem on it and cut out the bottom part of the tag, using the longest side of the mini-slim notched die to trim the tag. I then blended Distress inks Antique linen, Vintage photo and Walnut stain to age the tag. I also used a distress tool (with a blade) to wear off the edges of the tag. I blended more inks. I then stamped some stains: coffee stains from the Coffee break set, with Walnut stain ink, and blood stains from the Cute but psycho set with red ink.
To finish the tag, I punched a hole at the top.

For the key, I used one of the keys from the Keyholes and key die set, which I die cut from heavy white cardstock. I blended Distress oxide Hickory smoke and Mica spray Brushed pewter. Once dry, I dabbed Versamark on the key. I then added some Distress glaze Fired brick and Salvaged patina in specific places and clear embossing powder elsewhere. I heat set with my heat gun and then repeated the process a couple more times with just clear embossing powder, to get that enamel look and give more dimension to the key.

I then attached the key to the tag with a ring (which I die cut using a die from my stash). I trimmed the bottom edges to fit the tag nicely on the front panel and I adhered it with foam tape.

Window panel

Cat-o-lanterns (Cats)
Fuzzy spiders (spider)
Window rubber stamp (Window)
Halloween trees and grass stencil (Grass)
Witch broom sale (cobweb)
Brick background (Brick wall)

 

For this panel, I first stamped the window. I then stamped the two cats, using masking tape to protect the window. I stamped each window square separately to avoid complicated masking.
I also stamped the small spider from the Fuzzy spiders stamp set and cobweb from the Witch broom sale set. I then masked the entire window.

I stamped the brick wall in the back and then blended Distress oxides Pumice stone, Hickory smoke and Black soot. Because the brick wall background stamp was slightly too small for my panel, I insisted with Black soot on the edges to hide it a little.

I unmasked the window and colored the images with Copic markers. I added highlights in the cats eyes with a white gel pen. Once done, I pulled the Halloween trees and grass stencil and blended Distress oxides Twisted citron and Rustic wilderness to add grass below the window.

Door panel

Farmhouse shiplap background (Wood effect)
Frame labels die set (Lock plate, hinges and key tag)
Mini-slim notched die (Door inside frame)
Keyhole and key dies (Key and keyhole)

I used several dies from the Frame labels die set to create the metallic elements on the door such as the hinges and key hole plate, but also the key tag. I ran the key plate a second time through my die cutting machine with the smallest keyhole of the set. I then applied the same treatment to the metallic elements as I did for the key on the front panel. To finish the key plate, I die cut again the plate from black cardstock with the same Frame label die and glued it at the back.

For the key tag, I stamped the little sentiment from the Halloween night stamp set and aged the tag with the same combo of Distress inks than previously: Antique linen, Vintage photo and Walnut stain. I attached the key tag to the key with a ring die cut using the same die from my stash, as before.

To create the door, I blended Distress oxide Tea-dye on a new background panel and then dabbed Gathered twigs and Ground espresso. To add more texture, I stamped the Farmhouse shiplap background on the panel with Ground espresso, twice.

To add some dimension to the door, I added a frame on the panel, die cutting it from two of the dies of the Mini-slim notched die set and applied the same treatment as on the door.

I then glued all the elements on the door, having the hinges on the right to be consistent with how the card panel will open, towards the right. I also dabbed more Walnut stain on the door frame to make it stand out a bit more.

 

Keyhole panel

Farmhouse shiplap background (Wood effect)
Halloween night stamp (Witch)
Fuzzy spiders (Big spider)
Keyhole and key dies (Big key hole)
Chippy paint background (Background wall)
Good fright (Big cobweb)
Harlequin stencil (Floor)

 

For this panel, I used two card panels. For the front panel, I die cut the key hole opening, using the second biggest die from the Keyhole and key die set. I then blended and dabbed Distress oxides with the same process as described for the door panel. Also used the Farmhouse shiplap background.

For the keyhole border, I used the two bigger sizes of the die set to create a frame and then treated it the same way I customized the keys and metallic parts of the door panel.

Next I stamped the images on the background panel, using the keyhole opening to position the witch and spider. For the witch, I did a little bit of masking to remove the pumpkin she is normally sitting on and make her sit on top of the giant spider from the Fuzzy spiders set.

I masked both the witch and spider and then blended Distress oxide Speckled egg in the background. I then added a strip of masking tape horizontally to create a limitation for the ground and blended Hickory smoke and Black soot through the Harlequin stencil to create the ground.

I moved the masking tape and on the wall, I blended Vintage photo in random spots to make it look more dirty and also stamped the Chippy paint background with the same ink. To do so, I dabbed ink onto the entire rubber stamp, and then positionned the stamp on my panel, but I pressed with my fingers only in random spots, to have chips in specific places of the wall and not the entire panel.

To finish the background, I stamped the big cobweb and then unmasked the images. I colored them with Copic markers. Finally, I adhered the wood panel on top of the background and also glued the key hole frame.

 

Outside cat panel

Cat-o-lanterns (Cats)
Brick background (Brick wall)
October 31st (Sentiment)
Halloween trees and grass stencil (Outside cat panel)

 

For this panel, I first stamped the cats and masked them.
I then added a strip of masking tape at about 1/3 from the left and stamped the Brick background.
On the wall, I blended Distress oxides Pumice stone, Hickory smoke and Black soot. I then moved the masking tape to protect the wall and blended on the right part Milled lavender around the pumpkins to create a glow and then Wilted violet and Villainous potion on the outside.

I removed the masking tape and blended the grass with Rustic wilderness and Black soot and trees with Gathered twigs and Black soot through the Halloween trees and grass stencil. I added details to the trees with a black and brown pencils.

I then unmasked the images, stamped the sentiment from the October 31st set, to create the illusion of a street number. I colored the images with Copic markers. I also drew a line along the wall edge with a black Copic liner. Finally, I blended more grass on top of the images with Twisted citron and Rustic wilderness and also added a few scratches on the wall with the Clawed stencil and Black soot Distress oxide.

 

To assemble the card, I cut two cardbases, both slightly bigger than the different panels and I scored two lines, as close as possible, on each to have a small spine and allow the project to close nicely. I then placed the two cardbases in opposite direction and glued the bottom flap of the left cardbase underneath the bottom flap of the right cardbase. I proceeded that way, because the spine was slightly greater on my left cardbase. But if both had been the same size, a best option, considering the way the card opens and closes, would be to glue the bottom flap of the left cardbase on top of the bottom flap of the right cardbase, creating an alternation in the way the two cardbase combine.

I then glued the front panel on the top flap of the left cardbase. I adhered the Window panel at the back of it. I then adhered the Keyhole panel on the center flap (the one that reunites both cardbases). I then adhered the Cat outside panel on the right to the Keyhole panel. I closed the right flap and adhered the Door panel on the top. And Ta-da! 

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