Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Halloween Mini Album using several Tim Holtz dies including Skull & Headstone with Opening Pages, Chunky Charm Dangle, and Handmade Paper Roses


Had a lot of fun making this one.  Every page folds out to multiple pages, there are over 30 tags.  Here are just a "ton" of photos and hopefully I can find my long lost camera and do a video soon.
Opening to the front

The tags remove from behind the frames for extra photos.



Each file has a magnet to help it stay closed
 A photo can fit behind the row of little tombstones if needed.  But that paper is almost too haunting to cover.
Turn the hand and ...



My favorite - the Arch "windows" are 3 layers of chipboard thick.  The resin Gargoyle frames are from Ebay as are the winged charms.  The hand and 2 headed twin cabochons are made from resin poured into silicone molds purchased from ebay, painted with black acrylic touched with gold Krylon paint pen.  The "veins" along the arch frames are simply hot glue.
Each large photo mat comes out of the red painted filigree for more photo storage and the fold out extension has a few flat magnets to keep everything lined up.




The blood "veins" are hot glue coated in Red Alcohol Inks and Stickles glitter glue.  Tim Holtz' wishbone and a little glass bottle altered with "ELIXER" and glued in cork.
The eyeball is a piece of dome resin that I painted on the backside.   The skull is 4 layers of chipboard that I cut around the eye in the bottom two layers to make the eye lay flat.  Dyed with Ranger Ink Dylusions and Color Wash sprays, cheesecloth pokes through the other eye.  The black roses I made using EK Success Retro Flower Punch and coated in Triple Thick to make them fairly hard (I hate squishy flowers).  The words "haunted" and "wicked" are from Tim Holtz dies, Handwritten Halloween thinlits.
 Using 2 large eyelets on each side, I added a length of thick, lightweight, black metal chain made by Blue Moon jewelry and then connected the two sides with a lime green ribbon.  All the other ribbons and fibers are from the tags.



 I was in a swap for a Halloween Chunky Charm Dangle (with Mini Album Scraps) and made one for myself!! The dangle clip is Tim Holtz Idea-ology.
This is a pile of most of the tags pulled out of the book but there were several more.  Tons of spots for journaling and little photos.




Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Halloween WITCH HAT Night Light Home Decor with Skulls Spider & Black Roses


The CRAFT HOLE, a Face Book group, posted an event to decorate a witch's hat.  You could either make one or use an existing hat and add embellishments to meet the challenge.  I looked and looked to find some paper mache hats that I know I have had for years and never decorated ... alas, I finally gave up.  But in searching through the craft hoard, I found an "abandoned" Halloween Tussie Mussie that I had started years ago and never finished.  Gluing it to a piece of black chipboard that I had accidentally hit with overspray splatter ... voila' I had a witch's hat!
The roses were pink (a $1 yard sale find). I sprayed them black with Ranger Dylusions spray.  All ribbons and the real reindeer moss under the inset skull are from my stash.  The raised "dots" around the hat's brim and the inset are little plastic flat back resin rounds that were attached with Glossy Accents.   A wash of black gesso and water were brushed over them.  You can still see a few spots showing through of their original hue - transparent yellow.

Cutting the bottom out under the Tussie Mussie, I used the cutout piece and trimmed it, inserted it farther into the Tussie.  That created the shelf for the inset skull.  Before I glued it in place, I punched a hole big enough for the flame of a battery operated tea light!!  After cutting one of the plastic skulls in half, I added a little paint to give it more shadow and glued it in front of the tea light's flame on a bed of moss.  It created a fun eery night light.

I used hot glue to "draw" the dimensional spiderweb on the side and painted over it with a black gesso wash.  When that dried I dry brushed the web with white gesso.  All splatters are either orange acrylic paint, black gesso wash, or white Dylusions spray.  I just slung it off the brush (and also splattered my pocketbook ... sigh).




Here's what the BEFORE looked like after I attached the Tussie Mussie (it was also made from a scrap piece of chipboard). I used a craft knife to cut out the inset where I would place the moss and tea light.  The switch to the tea light is easily accessible in the bottom of the hat.

The hat is approximately 11" tall.  Great size for a mantel or table decoration.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Home Decorations - WITCH Word Embellished with Graphic 45 Halloween Papers, Mushrooms, Moss, and of course a Spellbook

A few years ago I got a a wooden "WITCH" from The Stinkin' Cute Scrapbook Shop & Boutique in Blackfoot, Idaho.  I had made one a few years ago and thought it was time for another so I pulled it out and finished it up for my Mother-in-Law's mantel.  Turned out FUN!

Here's a few close up pics


 Handmade a little clay hat and tiny removable spellbook for her ... and yes, for fun, I melted her little hand into a ROCK ON sign :D


WISH Birthday Card using Lavinia Stamps Dandelion carrying Fairy & Dancing Fairies on Tim Holtz Color Wash & Dylusion sprayed background

Using two different Lavinia Stamp sets "Make a Wish" and "Three Dancing Fairies" this card was created for my niece's birthday, inside is a holder for a little cash or gift card.  I want her to think about her wishes for the future so there are real dandelion seeds in the bottle.  Our wishes can be unlimited!



Images are stamped with Ranger Ink Archival Ink.  The background is sprayed with Ranger Ink Dylusion and Color Wash sprays on thick water color paper.  A grouping of rhinestones from my stash was put in the middle of the stamped dandelion.  The fairies' wings are glazed over with Triple Thick.  The word WISH at the top are letters made from resin using Martha Stewart's alphabet silicone mold and colored with Ranger Ink patinas & alcohol inks to match the background.  The touches of glitter on the stamped "seeds" and word are made with Diamond Stickles by Ranger. Under the fairy's feet is just a shadow of Black Soot Distress Ink by Tim Holtz.

In the mini bottle are 3 real dandelion "wish" seeds that I gathered earlier this autumn.  E6000 holds the cork in so those seeds will be there for her in years to come should she need them.  A tiny metal butterfly (also touched with Diamond glitter Stickles) hangs from the copper chain that is held with two diamond shaped rhinestone brads.  I brushed a Krylon silver pen over the chain in a few spots so it would match the  brads (I've had those brads in my stash for probably 10 years!)

Green and black paper is by Bazzill.



Thursday, October 1, 2015

Handmade Runes (Rune Stones) for Halloween Psychics & Fortune Telling Props

That Fortune Teller at your Halloween party needs some props to be authentic - but if you don't want to spend a lot of $ on real engraved rocks make your own from clay! I bought a $5 block of polymer clay from Walmart, rolled it out, cut shapes and "engraved" the rune symbols by pressing a straight screwdriver edge into the clay before baking. You can search for symbols on the net, there are different sets with different meanings.  The set I used is found HERE . After baking for 15 minutes I colored them with Acrylic Paint (black) and alcohol inks (Adirondack Inks by Tim Holtz) and sealed with Triple Thick for a gloss finish.  Now the Fortune Teller is ready!


I made 2 sets, one with a 1-inch polygon shaped clay cutter (you could also use fondant cutters - they're like tiny cookie cutters).  The little 1/2-inch square runes are just cut out with a pizza cutter.  
So if your "Psychic" needs these, they take about 2 hours total and then let the coating dry over night.