I'm dreaming of ...Halloween!!

Hello All! I know it's a bit early to start thinking about Halloween, but I was working on some new class ideas and couldn't help but head in the Ghouls and Goblins direction for my September class at China Phoenix 2. I love all things Tim Holtz, but I have never really played with his techniques for creating wonderful distressed backgrounds, so I thought...why not give it a try. Now, trust me, I know I am no Tim Holtz, so these are no where near his caliber of creativity, but I had so much fun, that it didn't really even matter... :D

I started by getting my "brand new" Ranger craft sheet out that I've had for years and dusting it off...LOL!! I swiped Peeled Paint and Spiced Marmalade Distress ink pads on it in a large enough area to cover an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of smooth white coverstock (I like Neenah Solar White). Then I spritzed with just enough water to see it start to bead on the craft sheet. I added a couple of more spritzes in just a few spots to make the colors bleed a little more in these areas, but be careful, because it will get "muddy" real fast with too much water. Then I laid my coverstock down and pulled it across the craft sheet. I quickly dried it with the heat gun and then laid it down again on the ink leftover on the craft sheet to achieve a few interesting blotches on my paper. I completely dried it with the heat gun and then cleaned up my craft sheet with a wet cloth. I ironed the paper with a craft iron on my craft sheet (because it is heat safe) in order to make the paper a bit smoother and easier to work with. I had my craft sheet laid out on a large pad of paper for the ironing, because I didn't want to risk damaging my table. Then I added images from the Tim Holtz Spooky Stuff and Trick or Treat collections and ...voila!!! Background paper!! I selected a few key images from those same sets and stamped and embossed them several times with the aid of my handy dandy Versamarker to make them really stand out against my background paper. I felt like a little kid in art class and had the best time :D