The Witching Hour

Hi everyone, I’m very late to the Lavinia Hallowe’en party as I think I have said previously that I don’t really “do” Hallowe’en, but I decided somewhat belatedly to buy a small selection of the 2024 Hallowe’en stamps so that I could decorate the October page of my Lavinia 2025 calendar. I’ve not had a Lavinia calendar before and I have to confess that it has sat in the cupboard since about July, so I recently woke up to the fact that I need to get a wriggle on to complete it before the end of 2024! My new Lavinia stamps and ink pads arrived on Tuesday so I set straight to work, mixing my new items with existing ones to create the October page. My concept was to incorporate both Hallowe’en and autumnal elements - here’s the result.

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I wasn’t brave enough to create straight onto the calendar page, so I measured up and cut a piece of stamping card 19.5 x 14.5cm. I started by creating a background with blended Elements inks, working outwards from light to dark. I then created some landscaping using hill masks and blended Elements, then started stamping. I started with Hattie the witch in the middle of the page, then added the castle, trees and cauldron all in Nocturne VFC. I stamped the moon using Morning Mist, then added the owl, bats, mini mushrooms and cat in Nocturne, and the magical mist and wording using lilac VFC. I coloured the castle windows, mist and Hattie’s dress with Sakura stardust pens, added white Posca accents and highlighted the scene with a clear Stardust pen to suggest moonlight. I then stamped a few autumnal leaves in various  shades of Elements inks, added some shadows with grey Inktense pencil, and blended darker Elements ink around the edges of the panel. 

This panel is very sparkly … here’s an angled picture.

Stamps: Lavinia Hattie, Willow the Witch (cauldron), Magical Mist, Far World Castle, Seasonal Tree, Skeleton Tree Scene, Brodwin & Maylin, Bats, Moon, Small Lanterns, Mini Jinx, Slender Mushrooms Mini, Leaf 1 Mini, Mini Maple, Witching Hour;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Sundance, Sahara, Russet Orange, Violet Chalk, Merlot, Mulberry, Graphite); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Morning Mist, Lilac Bloom); Sakura Stardust (clear, yellow, orange, purple); Posca pen (white);

Tools: Lavinia Hill Masks, Mini Hill Masks, White Orbs stencil.

Challenges I would like to enter:

613 Avenue Create (October) - Anything Goes with option Lots of Leaves (4th entry)

Country View Challenges (October) - Hallowe’en (2nd entry)

Crafting Happiness #198 - Bats

Creatalicious #282 - Anything Goes with option Hallowe’en (2nd entry)

Creative Crafting Uncles #58 - Hallowe’en (2nd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (October) - Anything but a Card (3rd entry)

Dream Factory #133 - Hotel Transylvania (Hallowe’en) (2nd entry) - TOP 5

Fab ‘n’ Funky #603 - Autumn/Hallowe’en (2nd entry)

Hallowe’en and Other Occasions #19 - Hallowe’en (2nd entry)

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie #197 - Boo! Eek! (2nd entry)

Inspired By … - Witch - WINNER

Make My Monday #237 - Spooky/Hallowe’en (2nd entry)

Outlawz (October) - Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone with option Name Game (3rd entry) - WINNER

(I used P for Purple and Posca)

Papercraft #111 - Spooky Season (2nd entry)

Simply Create Too #205 - Hallowe’en/Hallowe’en Colours (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #255 - H is for Hallowe’en (2nd entry)

Sweet Stampin’ - Hallowe’en

Try It On Tuesday - Make It Magical

I must admit I had been putting off decorating my calendar as I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but having completed my first page which was a real labour of love I’m now feeling fired with enthusiasm to continue! So hopefully in amongst the Christmas rush there will be 11 more of these coming along over the next few weeks - watch this space! 

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,