Something Wicked

Hi, everyone!  Thanks for dropping by today, the day before Halloween!  I can't believe we're this far into the Fall season already.  Of course, things have been hopping around here so the time has gone by quicker than usual. 

I was really sad that I had not found the time to make any thing for Halloween or Fall/Thanksgiving.  Then The Frilly and Funkie blog had the theme of Something Wicked!  I really wanted to participate in this challenge!  It would force me to make at least one Halloween project.  I even had the base for what I wanted to do.  Well, I finally made the time and made this:

 

 

 

I had gotten the paper mache witch's hat at Michael's last year on sale.  I had plans to do something with it this summer.  Well, that didn't happen!  I always plan to do Fall and Halloween things in the summer but it rarely happens.  Anyway, I thought this was my chance to use the hat.  I painted it with black gesso and used Peeled Paint Distress Glitter on the edge of the brim.  I glued black feathers and glittered leaves as a hat band and then used a black and an orange die cut cat that I had from another sale package from Michael's.  The little purple glittered spider is also from the same package of die cuts.  I found some little skulls in my stash and glued that in front of the cat.  Using an awl, I poked a hole in the point of the hat and inserted a black wire with a glittered star on it.  Here you can see some details.

 

 

 

 

 

This is about as spooky as I get!  I love Halloween but not the way Halloween is now.  I don't like the gore and horror that has become so prevalent now.  I like the vintage Halloween of cute Jack-o-lanterns, cute little witches, black cats to go with them, and cute little ghosts out on the prowl .  So I do a lot of my own things for Halloween since I love to include it in my Fall decorating. 

 

 

I'm so happy that I decided to use this hat for the challenge.  I'm heading over to the Frilly and Funkie blog now to post it.  Check the other entries.  They are always great!

 

 

Thanks again for stopping by today.   I hope you enjoy your Halloween!



The Ghostly Witch

Hi, all!  It's so nice to have you visit me today.  We are having some lovely Fall weather and I'm really getting into the Fall spirit.  It's one of my favorite times of the year.  I love everything about it. Since tomorrow is October 1st I'm going to share my first Halloween project of the year with you today. 

I've always loved Halloween.  I remember sitting at our dining room table with my mom a few weeks before Halloween putting together treat bags for the kids who would come to our door.  I didn't particularly like dressing up but I loved all the jack-o-lanterns and other decorations that appeared in the stores in October.  Back then there wasn't all the gore and zombies that are around today.  Just witches and ghosts and jack-o-lanterns with big goofy grins!  It was a fun time of year.  I still feel that way.  I love decorating my house with pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns and lots of fun Halloween ephemera.  Every year I add to my collection of mixed media projects and tags.  I love making them! 

Here is my newest one.



I love ATBs, so I thought I would make one for Halloween.  I just bought the lovely witch stamp and decided to make her the focus of the ATB.  And, why use one cube if you can use three!  So, I painted each box with black paint and covered the sides with white, purple and orange lace printed paper from Authentique's new Halloween collection.  I outlined the paper squares and the bottom of the witch's cape with Black Soot Distress Glitter.    I stamped the witch on cardstock with black archival ink and used a Distress marker to color the jack-o-lantern.  After gluing the boxes to one another I wrapped a glittered die cut from Michael's around the bottom box.  I glued the witch to the front of the second box. I attached a glittered flourish from the same group of die cuts on the top box and then a beaded witch's hat as a finishing touch to the top of the ATBs.   I added smaller scrolls and paper flowers to the tops of the other boxes.  I dipped the tops of the flowers in glue and then in the Distress glitter.  Here are some details.





 

 

 



I'm really pleased with my newest Halloween decoration!  I love the way the witch stamp looks.  I named her the Ghostly Witch because she looks rather ephemeral, I think. 

I'm going to enter this in the Frilly and Funkie challenge that is going on now called a Haunting Halloween. 

Thank you so much for visiting.  It's great to have you and I hope you have a wonderful week and get some time to spend creating.

Glenda's Spells Book

Hello everyone!  I have a fun little project to share with you today.   I call it Glenda's Spells Book.  As I was working on it I had a little story about a witch named Glenda running through my head!  She's a cute little witch who isn't very neat and makes a big mess while she's mixing her potions and brews!  I had so much fun making this canvas.  It's one of the most fun Halloween things I've ever made.  This is what it looks like.

I  told you she was messy

 

And, this is how I made it.  I sprayed the background with Dylusion sprays in Dirty Martini, Fresh Lime and Black Marble.  It took several applications because the spray beaded up on the canvas.  I then used ultra thick gel medium and a Tim Holtz stencil to get Glenda's splashes and spills on the canvas.  When they were dry I rubbed them with Inka Gold Rub in the green/gold color.  I dry brushed some lavender Silks over the stenciled areas.  Next I made the little book.  I distressed the edges and sponged them with Distress Ink.  Here's a close up of it.

 

 

 





 

  



I used the TH Apothecary Bottles die to cut the bottles.  The packaging the die came in was what I used so that I would end up with clear bottles.  Icolored them with alcohol ink.  Then I brushed rock candy crackle paint on the front. I have found that the crackle paint tends to flake off the acrylic packaging so I sprayed it with a clear fixative.  In one of the fortunate things that happens sometimes the spray wasn't well shaken initially so the bottles have some white speckles at the top which I love because it makes them look really old and messy!!   I picked up a tip from Tammy Tutterow to cut the bottle tops out of cork.  Once everything was dry I glued the tops on the back of the bottles and glued the bottles to the canvas.  The little book was glued to the canvas and the "beware" label was attached to the top. 

 

Here are some other details.

 

 

 

Glenda even managed to spill potions inside the book! 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my little adventure with Glenda the Witch!  She's the kind of witch who makes you giggle!!  I'm going to enter this in the Frilly and Funkie challenge which is What's your poison.  You have to use green and black, and NO orange! 

 

Thank you so much for visiting today.  I really appreciate it!  I hope you have a wonderful day and you get to do something fun and creative.

 

 



 

 

 

 



October means Fall and Halloween!

Hello everyone!  Welcome!  I meant to post this on October 1st, but time gets away from me.  October has become one of my favorite months.  I love Fall and everything about it.  I love the colors and the cooler weather.  I love the way the light makes everything in the garden look so rich and intense.  I also love Halloween.  Not the gory, horrible Halloween, but the Halloween of yesterday, cute witches and jack-o-lanterns with big toothy grins,  children in cute costumes.  I love making home decorations and I always have a great time adding to my collection of paper art for the season. 

My newest, for the moment, Halloween project is an accordion flip card.  This is what it looks like.

 



I don't remember where I first saw this Sizzix die and it's companion frame and label die, but I fell in love with it.  I finally bought both dies a few weeks ago and I couldn't wait to play with it. I cut the accordion card four times from black card stock.  I used Authentique Halloween papers for the labels and black card stock and orange glitter paper from the stash for the labels.  I love Authentique papers and they do some of the best Halloween papers so I knew I was going to use them for this project.  The little ovals of vintage Halloween children were in my stash of Halloween papers.  They worked perfectly for the labels.  I cut scalloped ovals with a Spellbinders die to back them.  The bare branch tree and the lamp post are Tim Holtz dies and the black cat was also from the stash.  Here are some close ups of the panels.

 

 

 

 

And, the back.

 



 

 

I always like to do something to the back so that it's a little detail that maybe I'm the only one who knows about it!

 

So, there you have it.  My first Halloween project of the year.  Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting.  I really appreciate your visit and your comments.  I hope you have a wonderful week.



Happy Halloween with a Theme

I love Halloween and I hope everyone has a safe and fun day!  I mentioned a theme.  My lovely daughter, Carrie, has started a feature on her blog that she calls "Thursday Themes".  She hopes to showcase some of her paper arts by grouping them into themes.  I thought I would occasionally join in the fun!  I don't always work in themes or related ideas.  I realize that it's important to work in series sometimes.  It improves technique and it creates a body of work that has some cohesion. But, I've also realized that I'm beginning to work certain techniques repeatedly into my wire and metal work. Perhaps I'll be able to participate in Thursday Themes more often than I originally thought!
One art form I've been working with for a few years now is tags.  I love tags and I love making them for the different seasons and holidays.  I had a great time this year making new Halloween tags, and so that's my theme for today, even though today is Wednesday!

Here are  this year's Halloween tags. 

I had the background for the "Boo" tag in my stash. 

I love the vintage Halloween images, especially the Ladies!

These I call my "dark" tags!  The "Poison" one is about as "dark" as I get!

That's the collection for this year.  I had so much fun making the tags.  They don't take long, you can try techniques and products on a small scale and you have a small piece of paper art to display or give away. If you have a chance go on over to Carrie's blog and see what she's been up to for Fall and Halloween!

So, I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by.  

Happy Halloween!

Almost Halloween!

I had so much fun creating this tag banner for Halloween.  I collect a lot of Halloween "stuff"!  I don't like gory or zombie, or horror.  But, the vintage and cute images I love.  I used a lot of what I had been collecting for a Halloween fabric book, which didn't get made, and some of Tim Holtz' products.  Next year the fabric book!

Some close ups:





Have a great day!



Halloween Treats



I  love giving my family and friends fun little treats for Halloween.  This year I found this great earring design at Fusionbeads.com.  They always have seasonal designs that I love to make for my daughter, myself and two of my closest friends.  As you can see, this year it's these adorable witches' hats.

They are made with Swarovski componets, Jet and Sun margarites, 1 Jet cosmic ring, and 1 Jet artemis beads.  I love the artemis bead.  It's a described as a spacer bead but I think this is a great application for it.

Since I love to make the presentation part of the gift, I decided to make  tags to hang them on.  I've had fun making Halloween tags this year, and after completing a Halloween tag garland, which I'll post later in the week, I still had some ideas left!  

Making the earrings and the tags was lots of fun, now I can't wait to deliver the treats.  I'll see one friend tomorrow for breakfast, so I'll take hers along with me.  My other friend will have to wait until next week.  But, they'll have them for Halloween, and it will be cool thinking of them wearing them at the Witching Hour!!

One last photo, my daughter's tag, purple and black, embossed with a stamp she loves because she's a Baltimore Ravens fan!



Thanks for stopping by.  Have a creative day.