Creepy Crow Card Tutorial

I thought I was losing my mojo for stamping. I felt uncreative and bored. I was browsing Splitcoast Stampers when I came across a card by Michelle Zindorf. I was totally engrossed with her style. I quickly clicked over to her blog and went nuts! My juices started flowing again! I think over the past couple of years, I had been using more designer paper for my backgrounds and forgot to use my whole stamp set, like I used to!!!! I quickly ran down to my stamp room to recreate her card that I posted here: Michelle likes using the brayer and teaches classes on how to use it all over the country! I have a brayer, but just never used it. Why? I don't really know. I guess it was because I haven't been real successful at it. After looking at her blog, I pulled it out again for the first time in probably 8 years!!! Yes, 8 years! Needless to say, we will be using the brayer at our next stamp camp on the 28th of this month! Ha ha!

Okay, so now that I have given a shout out to Michelle for getting my mojo flowing again, on to my card. I love paper, stationery, etc... like I have said in the past... yada, yada, yada! Anyway, I got an email from on of my favorite sites that I have ordered from in the past, (Stationery Studio) great website with great stuff and I saw this Halloween Invitation. My head was spinning with ideas!!! Even though I broke a lunch date to stay home and clean, I couldn't help myself and I am so pleased that I did!! Sorry, Linda and Cathy! Hope you forgive me!! So here is my VERY FIRST TUTORIAL!! YEAH!!

The finished card.
1. You will need a brayer, Versa Mark Pad, Basic Black pad or Staz On pad. More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie ink pads, glossy card stock, black ribbon and, if you choose, punches for the Halloween sentiment.
The stamp sets that I used are: Graveyard Gala, Autumn Days, Branch Out, Teeny Tiny Wishes and the retired set, Simple Shapes.

2. Stamp the moon (circle) with Versa Mark on to glossy card stock.

3. Using the lighter color first, brayer it on to the bottom of the card. Use the darker color for the top of the card. The circle will show up during this step.

4. Tear a piece of paper and place it just below where the two colors meet. Brayer it in the darker color again to give it shape.

5. This is how it should look.

6. Take the tree from Branch Out and turn it upside-down to make it look like the tree is above.

**Branch Out stamp set is on the Dormant List and is not in the current catalog. If you don't have this set, it is one I highly recommend. It is also one of my favorites!! :)

7. Stamp the crows on the trees from Graveyard Gala. 8. Using the Autumn Days stamp set, stamp the wild weeds over one another to make it look wild. I even turned the stamps over and used the bottoms to make more weeds.

9. Adhere the glossy cardstock to Basic Black card stock. If you look closely, you will notice something has changed on my card. I only have one crow and my weeds are a little different. Why? Because after all that work, when I went to adhere the glossy to the black cardstock, I didn't notice how messy my hands were and I got BLACK FINGERPRINTS all over my card! UGHHHHH! So I had to go back and start over. Make sure your inky fingers are clean!! Oh well, didn't I say this was my FIRST tutorial! hee hee! 9. Add whatever you like to the inside of the card...

10. Add ribbon and a punched out sentiment and voila'! The finished product!

How did I do??