I’ve been wanting to color up this cute little C.C. Designs “Monster Eli” since before last Halloween so I finally decided to “just do it!” Also,\u00a0I wanted to try the emboss resist technique that I recently saw demonstrated as part of the MFT Camp Create series, and I had a cute Halloween sentiment stamp set from Studio G that I was reminded of by the demo video.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I first heat embossed three of the little speech bubble sentiments and heat embossed them with white embossing powder. Then I picked Tim Holtz Distress Inks in what I think of as Halloween colors: Black Soot, Wilted Violet, and Spiced Marmalade and used blending tools to create a soft colorful background. The embossed speech bubbles seemed to magically appear as I blended on the colors.\u00a0To create a finished edge on both sides of the background panel, I used a black and orange polka dot paper scrap from the Graphic 45 “Le Cirque” collection and added two rows of those circles to both sides (it was a happy surprise to find that this scrap matched the Spiced Marmalade in the background and the polka dots on Monster Eli perfectly–YAY). I adhered the whole panel to the right of the black card stock base, using some thin Dollar Tree fun foam to raise it just a touch off of the card base for some added dimension.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Then I stamped out Monster Eli with MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink (I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watercolor or Copic color the image so this hybrid ink was the way to go). Ultimately I decided to use the following Copic colors to color up the little monster:
\nHair: C5, 7, 8 and B00
\nSkin: E000, 00, 21 and 11 with R20 for blush
\nEyes and teeth: B00 with white gelly roll pen highlights
\nPolka dots and stripes on monster costume: Y13, 36 and 38
\nPurple part of monster costume: V12, 15 and 17<\/p>\n

To make it look like the little guy was popping off the card, I glued the lower part of him down and raised the middle part of him with 3M double sided foam adhesive and raised the top part of him with extra thick double sided foam adhesive. I think it also helped that rather than including the whole image straight up and down, I popped him in from the side as if he was jumping into the frame of the card. Little Monster Eli is a wild man! He cannot be contained! LOL<\/p>\n

Lastly, to add some more Halloween fun and dimensional accents, I die cut a bunch of bats using the Diemond Dies Flying Bats Die Set<\/a><\/span> from black card stock. I layered some to provide strength where the bats hung off the edge of the card and then added a top layer bat with the wings curled up so that it would look like the bats were flying off the card (they too will not be contained!). To add some magical sparkle and shine I coated the bats with Clear Wink of Stella.<\/p>\n

For the inside of the card, I used another scrap from my scrap box. I had just enough of a shimmery silver paper to die cut a square cross stitched panel from it using the Diemond Dies Cross Stitched Squares Die Set<\/a><\/span>. I adhered it at an angle and trimmed off the excess to re-use at below the offset square. I liked the off-kilter look, especially when I added a few\u00a0more of the die cut bats to give the inside of the card a totally finished Halloween-y look! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Remember, my readers can get 10% off and free worldwide shipping on all orders of $35 or more at Diemond Dies<\/a><\/span><\/strong>!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The following is a card share video that includes the\u00a0emboss resist technique process:<\/p>\n