Now I have no issues with the patchwork collage (although I do not have any Halloween ephemera, I do have several resources for Halloween-themed papers which can be cut and pasted) but I do NOT have the Sizzix monster dies. I didn't order them last October 2015 and I don't plan on ordering them now --- I'm just not into "monsters" and I can't see multiple uses for these dies (like Alton Brown, I am into extending the use of my tools by concentrating on multi-taskers). And I do not GET the fascination with zombies...
But lest you think I am totally anti-Halloween, think again. I am more on the cute and fluffy side of Halloween: little kids dressed up as pumpkins or Batman or Jedi Warriors or princesses; carved pumpkins and stacked cornstalks, and the occasional spider web (my husband has a PhD in spider behavior and I helped type the drafts of his dissertation), I am NOT into zombies or vampires or Frankenstein or "the Alien" or "the Thing from Outer Space" or "Hannibal" or... Maybe that comes from having nightmares as a child after watching "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" in 3D at the movie theater (or maybe that was from the headache I got from those horrid 3D glasses! I can't really say). Needless to say, I do NOT watch horror movies now, ever, at all!
Anyway, I wondered how I handled the lack of a Sizzix monster in the October 2015 tags and found that I did, indeed, go with cute rather than horrid! I enlisted a Crazy Bird costumed for Trick-or-Treat! So I decided to go "crazy" again, this time with the new "Crazy Cats" stamps and dies.
But first my patchwork collage background. I followed the instructions to the letter, using cut pieces of various Halloween-themed papers and card stocking read of ephemera. I went a little lighter, however, with my Distress Crayons, opting instead for "Rusty Hinge", "Vintage Photo" and "Walnut "Stain" instead of the darker grey and blacks... and this is what I came up with:
Now there is back story here. I own (or am owned by) three black cats. (Well, one is really more brown than black but I took some artistic license here, because you wouldn't really note that he is brown unless you saw him next to his black relatives.) Anyway...the tom (known as Shug), unlike his sister and aunt in this trio of cats, is a real wimp. He is terrified of loud noises, strange people (and he considers everyone but my husband and I and the house cleaner as strangers, no matter how many times - and for how long - the others have been in this house over his ten-year life span) and strange objects that suddenly appear in his living space. The look on his face and the posture he takes is exactly that in the Crazy Cat image I selected. And, after turning the balloon into a large pumpkin with a few well-placed (if I say so myself) doodles with a black pen), I introduced a pumpkin and a carelessly discarded witch's hat into this black cat's "living space". Hence the caption "Something Wicked This Way Comes" from 1962 Ray Bradbury novel (I am a fan of Bradbury, by the way, no matter how horrific his plots could be. It's different when reading, you see...)... Clearly that is what the black cat in my tag is "thinking" and he is already looking for a bolt hole to escape that wicked thing!
So I assembled cat, eyes, hat, "pumpkins" all-around a picket fence (which was a freebie" with an order from The Funkie Junkie Boutique) and added some detail with a white gel pen (whiskers), a gold pen (hat buckle) and some Distress Markers (hat band, fence posts). I stamped a caption on a strip of the same striped paper which I used in the collage background: Finally, another freebie: a colored piece of crinkle ribbon from yet another Funkie Junkie Boutique order:
- Stamps: Stampers Anonymous "Crazy Cats" (CMS252) and "Crazy Things" (CMS 237); Karen Foster's "Mini-Formal Alphabet"
- Dies: thinlits "Crazy Cats" (661209) and "Crazy Things" (660953)
- Inks: Distress Markers: Black Soot", Hickory Smoke", Distress Crayons ""Rusty Hinge", "Vintage Photo", "walnut Stain", "Picket fence";"Pumice Stone"; Archival "Jet Black"; Sigma UM153 "white"; Fude Ball 1.5 "black"; Marvy Brush Marker "yellow"; Sailor Gold Rolling Ball Pen
- Papers: Paper reflections "medium tag "white"; Authentique 6x6 stacks "Spirited" (SPI018) and "Moonlit" (MNL015); scarps of scrapbook themed papers (maker unknown), and organic, black, purple and lime green card stock; white die-cut fence (freebie from Funkie Junkie Boutique)
- Embellishments: dyed Crinkle Ribbon (freebie from Funkie Junkie Boutique)
- Adhesives: Multi medium Matte; Collage Glue Stick; Collage Medium Crazing