Water-colored Vampire and Blood-Moon Shaker Card

Halloween will be here in no time so I am sharing a Vampire Shaker Card I made. The eerie "Blood Moon" was inspired by these cool Red Beads I found at a jewelry shop. 

I used Tim Holtz' Bat Stencil and some Black Acrylic Paint + Paste. I will be using some nicer pastes in the future, but this mix is an effective and cheap technique. I let it dry and cut it down to size. Be sure to clean your stencils with hot water afterward so they don't dry on the stencil.. using soap is OK too.

After cutting the hole for the Shaker element, I filled it with Beads + Sequins and adhered it together behind some Black Glitter Card-Stock. You can get 'Shaker Pouches' at a lot of places now, and it makes it easier to make cards like this. This pouch is an old one from Impression Obsession, but I know Simon Says Stamp has some too. Otherwise, you can use Acetate for the window and Foam Tape along the edge to keep the components in place.  

The vampire is from a La-La-Lands-Crafts stamp. I used an Anti-Static Tool to prep the area, then stamped him with VersaFine Onyx Black Ink. Then, I used Clear Embossing Powder. If you get some powder where you don't want it, you can take a dry paintbrush and brush it off. Fingers work too, but a brush works better, trust me. I did the sentiment the same way. The final step is to heat set it with a heat tool and it will become permanent. When it melts, it turns shiny. Note that you can not use a hair-dryer, it needs to be a special heat tool: I personally use a Precision Heat Embossing Tool by Hero Arts and it says "Wagner" on the side.

Then, it was time to water-color! My set is from Kuretake (Gansai Tambi) and I like that the colors are highly pigmented. I took my time in-between layers and let them dry, thus building more saturated color. I also used progressively darker shades to get the shadow effects. I used gold on the buttons and staff; it is hard to tell from the pic, but it shines a lot. I used some Glossy Accents by Ranger on the boots and bats. Then, I cut him out and stuck him under his Blood Moon. 

Hope you enjoyed my creation. I might use the Blood Moon idea again with another concept I thought of based on the Avatar TV show..... Stay tuned... True fans will already know where I am going with this...! 

:D

-John

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
ATC Smitherz
Brown Sugar Challenge