All Hallows' Eve Morbid Masquerade

The creepiest Halloween Carnival has come to town and you don't want to miss it.....but then again, maybe you do!

The story goes like this, in a small, sleepy little hollow of a town, a Halloween carnival appeared over night.  The townsfolk were drawn to the strange conglomeration of eerie booths and macabre games: Toxique Topple, Skull Smash, Spider Sweep and Tombstone Tipping were among the gruesome offerings as was the obligatory Pumpkin Carving booth. Despite the fact that the town's people were having a most dreadful experience, they found themselves compelled to remain, immersed in the morbid masquerade.

This giant skull lured guests over to one of the more toxic games where they tried to toppled to bottles of toxic potions, only to win one to take home.....if they ever get to leave...

Doesn't this lady just look like she is compelled to stand here playing this horrid game?

 The tiny jars of poison are glossy accents with alcohol ink that never dried clear.  A cool mistake.

 They have some Remnant Rubs on the bottles and a little Distress Collage Medium to give them an old dusty look.

I covered the sides and the back with the large Wooden Planks dies cut from not only Woodgrain Cardstock, but also Chipboard so they would stand up. Then I decorated them with Ephemera pieces so that it looked like an old carnival fence.

In front of the Toxique Topple game is the Tombstone Tipping.  If you are able to tip enough tombstones you can have your own made.....

I broke a few of them so that they looked like they had been toppled one too many times.

This little girl watching over the game looks just like she wants to go home but she can't for some reason...she just has to keep watching this game over and over and over....

No Halloween Carnival would be complete without the Pumpkin Carving right?

Well at this carnival, even the pumpkins look like they want to go home!

And these poor children are doomed to stand there, spellbound, holding their jack-o-lanterns....

The Skull Smash booth is the equivalent of the show your strength attraction at those normal carnivals, but this one is far from normal...

In this game, you have to smash a skull with a femur....it just doesn't get any more bone shattering than that!

And then we move on to the spiders....

The game of Spider Sweep is the challenge of sweeping away as many spiders as you can with out having any of them crawl up the broom and bite you....

There were several varieties of spiders in this game because I had some from several different releases over the years...hmmmm...

I wonder which ones were the most poisonous?

I think this pumpkin seeds piece of ephemera was one of my favorites...something so normal in the midst of such a nightmare....

If it was already apparent, I love, love, love Tim Holtz Ideaology products. So I tend to purchase two or three or four of each of the holiday items to be sure that I have plenty on hand.  This crazy, creepy carnival was born out of my stash of product over the years, but mostly of the 2018 Halloween Ideaology and I had such a fun time going all in with it.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that after reading this that you are glad you aren't stuck in this nightmare of a carnival!
Tami

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Memento Mori Ideaology Journal

My celebration of "Halloween" is a little different than the average person. I call it my month of mortality and I decorate with skulls and other cemetery symbols used by the church over the centuries to remind Christians of the fleeting, shortness of life, the inevitability of death and the necessity of facing that certain end by being prepared for it. So in that light, a few years ago I started collecting hymn lyrics, Bible verses and Christian quotes that address the short, fleeting nature of life in light of eternity.
I wanted a journal to showcase these quotes and symbols, so I decided to use of the Halloween 2018 line from Tim Holtz Ideaology.

I started with a Worn Cover, Worn Wallpaper, Halloween Vignette Accents, Tombstones, Halloween Rub-ons, Halloween Ephemera, Distress Mixed Media Tag and some and some photos I took of tombstones and grave markers from graveyards in Boston and Philadelphia.

This is the beauty of a little Pumice Stone and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain on the Distress Mixed Media Heavystock Tags with bits of stamping done in Pumice Stone Distress Ink. Don’t they look old and mildewed? I love them!!

Then stamped on the tags in places with small areas of Ornate and Lace stamp set from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous and the Script background stamp from Stampers Anonymous.

For the cover I started with Worn Wallpaper on the outside and inside of the cover pages. Then I used the Halloween Rub-ons on one of the Ideaology Tombstones to say In Memory and with the skull.

This is attached to an Ideaology Baroque Frame that has been aged with Opaque Crackle Texture Paste from Ranger Ink. I also aged the corners from the Ideaology Vignette Accents and the Halloween Vignette Accents.

All of this was layered onto a Stacked Arch shape that has been embossed, had Opaque Texture Paste on it and then I painted over all of it with Black Soot, Vintage Collage Medium and Distress Crayons. There is also a little linen underneath and some Mummy cloth peeking out from underneath the tombstone.

For the inner pages I cut black cardstock, Idealogy Halloween Stash, and Distressed Mixed Media Heavystock to fit the worn cover and punched holes. Used some of the paper to make pockets and some to adhere back to back to make pages.

On each page I added a tab with left over pieces of the Worn Wall paper, I attached Mummy Cloth in each of the tags and added a little more stamping with the Ornate Trimmings stamp from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous.  I added some of my tombstone photos, like this one of Paul Revere's grave in Boston. Then I hand journaled on each page with one of the quotes I spoke about earlier.

As you can see, sprinkled throughout this journal are bits of Halloween Ephemera, Halloween Quote Chips, Halloween Clippings, Halloween Rub Ons, Halloween Design Tape, Halloween Shape Tokens, Halloween Quote Tokens, and so on.

There are places throughout for me to add some more quotes as I find them, leaving this a work in progress.

That's all there is to this journal. I really love how it turned out and my photos just don't do it justice, I hope this little bit of information helps to inspire you to create one of your own.