Zombie Apocalypse by Amanda Southern

Hi Everyone

I'm getting into the spirit of Halloween with this Tuesday's make which hopefully showcases for you the Tim Holtz "Zombies" stamp set which he has released this year as part of his 2018 Halloween range.

Here's What I Did:

I started this entire project by making my planks. First I brayered up several shades of Distress paints onto mixed media card in shades of brown giving a mix of shades in the finished card. Over this I then stamped with black Archival ink, the planks. This stamp I stamp several times filling the A4 painted card. I then cut each plank so I had individual planks, each plank was then distressed on each of the edges with a paper distresser tool (a real labour of love) as I had worked originally with white card, which was now exposed, I then coloured every distressed edge with a Ground Espresso Distress marker (another labour of love). I then stamped the Zombies onto stamping card, coloured them with blendable pencils and cut them out. I followed the veins in their eyes with a red Distress marker and added Glossy Accents to the eyes. I forgot that using a water based marker would bleed when mixed with the wetness of the Glossy Accents but I quite like the bleed effect that this achieved once the Glossy Accents were dry. I also stamped the Zombie hand but wanted to have a pair of hands so had to reverse the stamped image, this I achieved by stamping onto a small Gel Press and then stamping the gel press onto a piece of card and hey presto a reversed image.

Next was to create my signs. The Do Not Enter was stamped using Versamark so I could then add embossing powder which I heated to emboss as I wanted to start off with a pseudo enamel look that I could then rust up. This stamp doesn't stamp the words it stamps the surround so leaves the lettering as a negative space so I added colour after it was embossed with black Distress ink. I then rusted it up by first added Texture Sand Paste which when once dry coloured using DecoArt media fluid paints Quinacridone Gold and Paynes Grey and some black Distress crayon.

Now the final piece before I put it all together, the sentiment. I wanted the words to look pressed into the sign and this was achieved by cutting a piece of card to size and then adding several layers of embossing powder by covering each layer with Versamark and adding a layer of powder melting with a heatgun then repeat, I think I ended up doing 4 layers. I then prepared the stamp by inking it up with Versafine Clair ink (as it isn't fast drying) I then heated up the embossed card piece to soften it again and stamped with the inked stamp into the molten embossing powder. I left the stamp on until the embossing powder had cooled again. After peeling the stamp of I then gave it the same rust effect as I did on the sign. I did go into the depressed letters again using a Black Soot Distress marker to emphasise the text

The final stage was to put it all together working out how to randomly arrange the planks which ended up using more than I thought but with a bit of creative cutting I 'just' had enough. The Zombies were added as I went along hopefully giving the impression that they are trying to burst through. The final touch was to add some barbed wire die cuts that I gave the same rusty treatment as above. This was then added to the front of a DL Kraft card blank.

I even added a touch to the inside, stamping the Happy Halloween sentiment from the 'Mr Bones' stamp set and trickled down Christmas Red paint as pseudo blood.

I have no idea what I am going to do with this Halloween card as I don't send them but it was super fun to make so that's enough for me. 

Here's What I Used:

Tim Holtz Distress Paints - Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy, Walnut Stain & Gathered Twig

Mixed Media Card

Brayer

Distress Markers - Ground Espresso, Candied Apple & Black Soot

Tim Holtz Stamp Sets - 'Graze & Planks', 'Zombies' & 'Mr Bones'

Blank Page Muse Stamp Set - 'Urban Grunge'
Gel Press 3" x 5"
Stamping Card

Tim Holtz Paper Distresser

Vanilla Embossing powder from my stash but many available HERE

That's Crafty! Texture Sand Paste

Distress Crayons - Black

DecoArt Media Fluids - Quinacridone Gold & Paynes Grey

Versamark Ink Pad
Heatgun
Distress Ink - Black Soot

Archival Ink Pad - Black

Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents

That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Paints - Christmas Red

Coloured Pencils - Similar blendable pencils HERE
Kraft Card DL Card Blank

Barbed Wire die from my stash

Have a fabulous week and I'll see you all next Tuesday

Love

Amanda X