Spooky Sponged Halloween Card

My new Gina K sets finally arrived!!! Yay! I ordered 3 new sets, plus the "Free with 3" set. I am so in love with her newest Halloween set. It's truly spooktacular! Plus, I'm addicted to Halloween stamp sets. Some people collect Christmas stamp sets, I collect Halloween sets.

I started out this card with the intention of participating in the SCS Ways to Use It challenge which required participants to use white gel pen on their card. Well, once I got going, I just couldn't bear to put white gel pen on and risk ruining what I was really starting to like! So I scrapped today's challenge and went with my gut tonight. I tried to make the background brayered like Michelle Zindorf does, but mine turned out much different than hers do. I really like how mine turned out! The photograph unfortunately does not do this card justice... the colors are really muted here... not as spooky as the card looks in real life. I need to get a better photo editing program, but I'll just have to stick with what I have for right now. Maybe I'll ask for one at Christmas. If anyone has any suggestions on an easy-to-use photo editing program, please let me know!

RECIPE:
Stamps: Spooky Silhouettes (Gina K)
Ink: Black, Basic Gray, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark
Paper: Ghostly Greetings DP (SU), Pumpkin Pie, Black, Basic Gray
Accessories: Spiderweb Cuttlebug embossing folder, small and large oval punches, clear embossing powder, brayer
Techniques: sponging and brayering

To create the background behind the scarecrow I brayered Summer Sun onto white cardstock. Then I brayered More Mustard ontop and a little above the Summer Sun. Finally I sponged Pumpkin Pie ink at the top of the cardstock. I stamped the sun in versamark and embossed it with clear embossing powder. To get the foggy look, I carefully sponged (very lightly!) basic gray over everything. This made the sun pop out more too. I finally sponged black ink along the bottom to create the ground. To emphasize the spiderwebbed layer, I also sponged basic gray ink on the raised embossed part of the cardstock.

Can you believe that there aren't any embellishments on this card? I tried black buttons, black bat brads, and ribbon but I thought that they just added "clutter" to the card. It was busy enough with all the sponging and layers of patterned paper and dry embossed cardstock. Sometimes less is more, I guess.

Anyways, thanks so much for looking! Have a wonderful day!!! :)