Stampin' B's Halloween Challenge

It's Thursday--time for another challenge from the Stampin' B's Design Team!! This week Vicky G. is challenging us to make a Halloween card, but this is a Halloween card with a twist--NO BLACK or ORANGE!! Here's what I came up with. (And just for the record, that mat under the top purple layer is GOLD, kind of a goldenrod sort-of-color, not orange. In real life, it's clearly not orange, but something got lost in the translation in the photo. Sorry!)

I've got to say, though, that this was harder than I thought it would be!! At first, I was thinking, "No problem! I'll just use green and purple. Perfect!" But I found that I kept wanting to reach for some kind of black--black ink for my stamped images, black thread for my stitching, . . . you know how it goes. I even got tripped up when I was adding my brads. After peeking at my Halloween brads, and purposely avoided the candy corn one ('cause it's got orange, don't ya know!!), I spotted the perfect brad to go with this card's theme--a fun spider!! I added it between two purple brads and called it a day. Later, I was showing my family what I came up with for this challenge, explaining that it was to make a Halloween card with no black or orange. My astute 7YO DS immediately piped up, saying, "But, Mom!! What about that black spider brad? You can't use that!!" Ugh!! He was SO right. I didn't even catch it!! Good thing I showed my family or my card would be in total violation right now LOL! :) My quick fix was to swap out the cute {black} spider for a metallic green brad.

This is not my favorite card. I had some great ideas for putting it together, but once all of the different elements were ready and I assembled them, it was kind of a let down. It doesn't have the impact I thought it would. Maybe because it has a less than strong focal point? I'm not sure. But when I was showing it to my family, my dear hubby warmed my heart when he told me he thought I'd been very clever--the vertical panels reminded him of striped wallpaper like you'd find in a creepy old Victorian {haunted} house. Just what I needed to hear! Got to love a man who can serve up a slice of happy :)

Challenges:

• Off the Wall Craftiness: Challenge #29
• Everything But The Kitchen Sink: Challenge 25, a sketch
• Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge: #25, stitching (or faux stitching)
• EtsyInspired Challenge: #110, to be inspired by something from the Etsy store Capturing Creativity. I was inspired by this fun spider and web card:
• A Spoon Full of Sugar: Challenge 126, Boo! (Halloween creations)
• Tuesday Throwdown: Anything Goes

I hope you've been inspired to play along with the Stampin' B's!! If you do make a card, post it on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :) And now I'm off to see what my fellow Bs made for this intriguing challenge. Can't wait to see everyone's creative approach . . .

Card Recipe:
Stamps: The Angel Company (spider background--retired), SU Party Punch, Studio G (spider and web)
Paper: card stock scraps--all from The Paper Company, I think
Ink: Palette belle rose, chartreuse, violette, lavender sachet + ColorBox frost white
Accessories: SU round tab punch, white EP, heat tool, foam tape, sewing machine, brads
Techniques: machine stitching, embossing, backkground stamping