If you follow my instagram account you may recall, many moons ago, that I posed a bunch of little faces that I had sculpted. It's been a loooong time, but I've finally finished all the old biddies. I'll be posting all 13 of them over the next week or so.
Here's the first oldie, who I am fairly certain is named Winnifred (although she prefers Winnie).
I imagine she's a hedge witch of sorts. She has a bundle of twigs in her belt, keys at her waist and a stick broom.
She is just shy of 9" tall. All of these oldies are are made with paperclay faces, cotton muslin base, and embellished with scrap fabrics.
Instead of days and dates, I've replaced them with reminders to kick ass, to sparkle, and included images of some of my favourite things like Christmas robins, Van Gogh and pretty ladies in pink.
Both sides of the cards are decorated to give lots of variation. When the mood strikes, I'll select new cards, reminders to inhale/exhale, to think nice thoughts and encouragement to keep at it!
I've added gold and pink dresden trims and colourful fun bits of sparkle.
With little angel feet to hold up my happiness.
If you really do need to remember what day it is, laser cuts of the months, days and numbers come with the Perpetual Calendar Bracket Style
Or you can set them aside and decorate the inserts with your own joyful reminders.
I've created a short video with tips on putting together this piece. You can skedaddle over HERE to see it.
A little haunted house shadow box today, for alphastamps.com
Inside a collection of spooky ooky bits
I've kept the little spaces pretty simple and haven't cluttered them up too much since they'll be covered by the house exterior most of the time.
The papers I used for the background are the Tim Holtz 8x8 Kraft Paper Stash. I like them a whole bunch! The simple black and orange patterns are nice and functional and easy to coordinate.
If you know me at all, you know I'm a bit lazy when it comes to hinges. I've opted to not have hinges in this piece at all and simply use a length of ribbon that is tied around the back and hold the front of the front facade in place.
Mine is filled with just a mish-mash of halloween images, but it would be a load of fun to create a themed house. A vampire abode. A monster mansion. Or maybe even include pics of your own family members in their Halloween regalia.
Want to make your own haunted shadow box? Here's the goodies I used for this piece:
One of my very favourite projects from last year were the Mad Max hot rods built with my buddy Paula Mould. It's one of those projects that is just so much messy fun. I mean you COULD be neat and proper and make something stunning... or you can let loose and just glue crap to other crap and have a grand old time doing it.
There's Halloween junk all over the Dollarstore aisles and it made me nostalgic and inspired to revisit that project. This time with a video tute (see below) for you to make your own monster machines.
Since this is a dollarstore, stash busting project, it's not going to break the bank.
We're starting out with simple plastic toy cars and trucks.
Embellishing the heck out of them. Giving them a knock out paint job. And ending up with something like this...
They check off most of the boxes for a kid friendly project. They're cheap, fun, neatness isn't exactly a factor. You WILL need to supervise/modify the project depending on age appropriateness (i.e. glue guns are the devil) but it's do-able for and little hotrodders you know.
I've just used my trusty old hot glue gun for this project. If you want something that can be handled (crashed? raced?) and remain somewhat intact, you'll need to invest/experiment with a better method of adhesion. Or, you know, let them be the $3 works of art they are and just enjoy the destruction.
Here's your supply list:
Toy cars: trucks, busses, boats, planes... whatever strikes your fancy!
Black spray paint: I used gloss in the tute... I MUCH prefer flat/matte
Acrylic paint: I mostly used a product from Colourarte called Silks Acrylic Glaze It has a nice pearlescent finish and it was in my stash. Metalics looks super cool. Paint brush Sponge brush (for blending)
GLUE: I used hot glue because it's fast and easy. Do what works for you! Cutting tools: for chopping up spiders and plastic skeletons
Tape: for covering any bits you don't want spray painted
Halloween is just around the corner so I thought that this month I'd make something spooky for that sweet holiday. Using products from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts, Canvas Corp and 7Gypsies.
I've used the Cabana Row Houses as my base. There's 5 in the set and so you can create quite a nice little haunted neighbourhood!
Some of the houses are covered using papers from 7Gypsies. Some are simply painted white, decorated with Architextures™ Parchment Rub-Ons and then distressed.
There are plenty of embellishment opportunites. I've used Faux Metal Number Plates 1 to 25 but don't forget the larger Faux Metal Number Plates and Gears Shape Set would be super cool for a steampunk haunted neighbourhood. Go check out all the shapes available at Gypsy Soul and I'm sure you'll find some inspiration.
For a final touch I've added plastic spider and ants from the halloween aisle at the dollar store.
Want to make your own? I've created a walk through with some simple practical tips HERE
And here are the goods I used in making my own little spooky neighbourhood.
