A Halloween To Die For!

Halloween - To Die For is the theme chosen by the lovely and talented Anne for the current challenge at A Vintage Journey. As always this will run two weeks and a prize to Country View Crafts store will be awarded to some lucky trick or treater! Hop on over for some spooky and fun inspiration from the Creative Guides!

I have had this shadow box sitting around for awhile and decided it was about time to do something with it. This box will also be linked to Eileen Hull's "Tricks and Treats" challenge at Art with Heart.

Using the Laboratorie paper, I stamped the Skeleton and then stamped and cut a mask. Next the background was inked with Dried Marigold, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Dusty Concord.

Using the Gothic Stencil, I applied modeling paste and after a few seconds removed for a slight ghostly resist.  Next I applied some Peeled Paint through the Speckles stencil and the shaded with Black Soot. Added a tree from some bright berry branch that was alcohol inked in black. The little pot base is a mix of moss, black alcohol ink and glue.

This section of the box was finished off with some rubs, Shrinky die cut movers and shapers bats, and Halloween!

Now onto the little compartments on the left side of the box!

The Spider was cut from foil backed grungeboard, inked in black alcohol and placed over the web stamped in clear embossing ink, colored and then removed with an iron.

Bottles were treated with alcohol inks and paint and more background paper. Stamped a label for one and added some bones for the other!

And finished off with some Halloween Lovers, stamped over stenciled and inked paper with a little Halloween script and then added a little Vintage Lace die at the bottom. The heart is from a Southwest Airlines coffee stir stick.

Topped off with a word band treated with alcohol inks and paint, some skull and crossbones curtain finials.

Also applied some of Wendy Vecchi's black embossing paste through the Speckles stencil in a few areas on the box and then highlighted them with Treasure Gold.

Thank you for stopping by to visit this spooky post! Have a lovely upcoming weekend.

Tim's October Tag of 2014

Tim's October tag for 2014 was great fun as most usually are. Like so many of us, there is something about Halloween that just adds that little extra magic and childlike feeling. I am also linking this up to Linda's Frilly and Funkie for the "A Haunting Halloween Challenge."

Following the guidelines, I stamped and cut my masks using that cute owl and spider and my stencil of choice was "Speckles." I do not have the new Distress Stain Sprays, so did mix my own using reinkers Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door (orange combo), Dusty Concord and Peeled Paint. Flicked on a Metallic stain with a toothbrush.

The funky witch was calling my name, so she became the focal point and was stamped on manila card stock (because I forgot to using watercolor paper) and using the waterbrush was colored with Barn Door, Shabby Shutters and Dusty Concord. I did have a difficult time getting the shine to show through.

I stamped over the Alpha Chips using Tim's web and flicked on some Barn Door and then shaded around the edges with black.

Finished off with what I had or should say because I could not find where I placed the monocles, recently purchased!!! What can I say!

Hope you are having a wonderful and inky start to the week. Thank you for visiting today and taking the time to comment.

Heavy Metal for AVJ

Hello and welcome to my edition of "Heavy Metal," the current challenge at A Vintage Journey and chosen by me. AVJ is all about Tim Holtz style and products, so we hope you will join us in this current challenge, which runs two weeks. Country View Crafts is our wonderful sponsor and there is always a prize to be won and a chance to be among the "Pinworthies," so that is pretty nice. My incredibly talented DT Sisters have some wonderful inspiration as well, so do stop by AVJ for all the details and get "Metal" on.

This began as a framed tile my DD gave me years ago with a matching little pitcher. I really tired of the pretty little flowers, but could not part with the gift, so it was SALVAGED as well as the light on top (the hubby replaced it from my car). I am also going to take my Spooky little adventure over to my old stamping ground, Frilly and Funkie's "A Haunting Halloween Challenge."

The first thing I did was to figure out what was going to cover the tile and I decided on the "spider web" paper from the Laboratorie stash! This was inked with Wild Honey and Dried Marigold, added some background stamping using Weathered Wood and various Halloween Tim stamps. Next a flicked on some thinned Tarnished Brass and Antique Bronze Distress paints with a toothbrush. Next all edged were shaded.

Next we had to build out house which was done from foil backed grungpaper inked with Alcohol Inks (Pitch Black, Butterscotch, Sunset Orange) and Mixatives Silver and Gold. Using a Dylusions stencil, I added some leaves and again the Metallic Distress paints were applied after the Black paste dried. The people were painstakingly cut from the same Laboratorie stash and glued to the backside.

No house is complete without a picked fence, right? This was cut and painted blacked and then I dabbed on the two metallic paints.

At this point I had most of my items pulled out and ghouled up and played with the arrangement!  Now time to figure out what to do with the actual frame!

First I covered in white gesso and then two coats of black paint. I used the Shattered stencil and using a stencil brush, dry brushed on the Brass and Bronze paints.

And we finished our frame with bits and pieces, tinted with metallic and all chained up.

I had quite a bit of fun with this altered Halloween Heavy Metal project and now I will probably send this back to by DD in an altered state! Thank you for stopping by today and hope you will join in the challenge!

Mirror, Mirror!

I will start out with an apology, because this will be photo and detailed heavy! SORRY! This project was started last Tuesday and I knew it would be Halloween themed, but was not sure which direction this would take me! I finished this yesterday and no I did not constantly work on it, I am slow, but not that slow. Several months back via my blogger friend Sandra, I learned of this guy named Drew and a technique he uses for mixed media. In recent times, a few of my UK friends have been showing some fabulous artwork after taking a Finnabair workshop, which I believe is similar! Oh how I wish to take one of her workshops!

It started with a cheapy mirror from Ikea and I knew from the beginning I was going to use the Gothic 31 female skeleton for the mirror part, but was not sure how! The first thing I did was to apply various layers of trim and goodies and all that will be explained later and I did actually remember to take some pictures along the way, which is either good or torture for you!

I also took some pictures in different lights to give you an idea. Sadly here in the desert the outside light is very bright and sunny and inside pictures are never that great.

When I was looking at the mirror and trying to think how I would stamp on it, I remember one of Tim's acrylic fragments being about that size and with just a little sanding, it did fit perfectly! This fragment was alcohol inked and at first I used lighter colors and had to switch back to darker colors for the image to show through. After I stamped the image in Black Archival, I quickly removed the ink with a soft cloth for the mirror to reflect through! I love that! To show you how the inset looks without the camera and me in the photo, I place the fragment on a piece of glossy white paper just for photo purposes, it is not backing the fragment.

This process involves using white gesso, adhering items, sprays, stenciling and what have you!  The flower was a leftover piece I had used for something else, which had kind of a faux leather look by the time I finished with it! I do remember I had applied tissue paper to grunge paper.

Added a couple of pins, the owl was a metal sticker and a skeleton, I kind of broke apart (so gruesome).

I had also embossed some spider webbing and torn up some pieces to add and of course no spooky mirror would be complete without spiders, which are shrink plastic. Oh those skulls are a new find at Michael's that came in a bag and I added chain to connect them.

Some metal pieces indicating the strike of midnight and a few extra goodies.

Halloween is not complete without pumpkins, which were also gesso and colored and also highlighted with orange paint. I also stenciled along the side.

The hanging charm was stamped on alcohol inked foil paper, that I added a drop of blending solution in the center and then stamped and embossed the skull with clear EP, added the glass dome and hung it from the key!

My fair which from Haunted Halloween, was colored with Distress inks after stamped in Black Archival.

The graveyard is leftover from another project.

The doll was gifted to me from Brenda and that lovely lace next to the fair witch is a gift from Lucy!

The "Happy Halloween" was stamped, inked and clear embossed and obviously added after all the spraying, inking, painted and what have you!

Fun project, so much fun! There is still some time to enter this month's September Referral Program at Artistic Outpost for a chance at a prize and just remember to use the AO stamps! This will be shared at AO tomorrow if you want to visit and say hello.

This will be finding it's little spooky way over to the following challenges:
Country View Crafts - Layers
Frilly & Funkie - Eat, Drink and be Merry 
Inspiration Journal - Falling for Faux 
Our Creative Corner - Forgotten Things - Mirror, trims and other goodies
Unruly PaperArts - 3-D Wood

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed my project as much as I enjoyed creating it. I am listing below the products and some before pictures with some instructions. Enjoy the week!

Stamps: Artistic Outpost, Haunted Halloween, Gothic 31
Whtie Gesso, Multi Medium, Spray Sealer, Glossy Accents, Trims, Stencils, Gears, Metal, Bones
Inks: Black Archival, Distress Inks: Tattered Rose, Shabby Shutters, Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy, Wild Honey
Sprays: Adirondack Wild Plum, Butterscotch, Meadow, Espresso, A mix of Dried Marigold, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Dylusions Black
Alcohol Inks: Black, Espresso, Wild Plum, Lettuce, Sunset Orange

I will do this quickly just to show you the beginning. I applied a coat of Claudine's Multi Medium layered my trims and a few items and then applied a layer of white gesso over that.

Added more items along the way and then did a little stenciling along the way with modeling paste.

Everything is covered in Gesso and left to dry prior to spraying the inks. Once you spray the inks, dry and blot up any excess with a paper towel. Thought I had taken a picture after sprayer, but guess not. Then you highlight with white paint or gesso. These is a step to use black paint, but I have not done this. After all is done, I always spray with a Matt Sealer to keep the colors in place! Here is a video link to Drew's technique.

Happy Halloween!

It is a Halloween Blog Hop at Artistic Outpost and we are having some spooktacular fun, so come on and join in and check out what my DT Sisters have wickedly conjured up for you!

Gerrie, Lisa, Sue, Tracy, Linda, Alison, Terry (Me), Kate

 For my little "haunting," I did a double sided tag using the Haunted Halloween and Halloween Treats collections. The spacing after the photos, I tried to delete and could not!  

Before inking and salting my backgrounds, I stamped the Skully (clear embossed) and Witch (watercolored and masked). I layed my Distress inks starting at the bottom with the darkest color and working up to the lighter.   

Tim's tree was cut from corrugated cardboard, crackled and cut in half. The fence was cut from glassine and crackled and offset with a white panel.

Stamped the hat a second time in Black Archival and clear embossed. And of course what skeleton would not be complete with a few extra bone parts! Gross, but fun!

 

Don't you just love this bat? He was inked and stamped and embossed and cut out using an Stampin Up punch! Have to pull those out once in awhile!

All sentiments/labels were stamped on newsprint and inked up!

 

I think the bumpy effect of the salted paper works pretty well for a Halloween theme!

And when my "Gothic 31" stamps arrived, I could not wait to ink them up! Since this post is pretty long, I will just give you a little peek and share all the details later this week!

Thank you for stopping by and hope you have enjoyed the blog hop or will! There is still plenty of time to ink up those AO stamps and join in the August Monthly Referral Program, so hop to it!

Stamps: Artistic Outpost; Halloween Treats, Haunted Halloween
Inks: Black Archival, Clear Embossing, Distress; Black Soot, Dusty Concord, Peacock Feathers, Spiced Marmalade