Saturday, October 21, 2017

Haunted House Shadow Box

 A little haunted house shadow box today, for alphastamps.com

Haunted House Shadow Box - Nichola Battilana

Inside a collection of spooky ooky bits

Haunted House Shadow Box - Nichola Battilana

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.

Haunted House Shadow Box - Nichola Battilana

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.

Haunted House Shadow Box - Nichola Battilana

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.

Haunted House Shadow Box - Nichola Battilana

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.

Haunted House Shadow Box - Nichola Battilana

Want to make your own haunted shadow box? Here's the goodies I used for this piece:

Mini Haunted House Kit
Small Haunted House Add-On Kit 
Red Brick Wall Scrapbook Paper
Small Haunted House Window Trims
Small Haunted House Shadowbox 
Halloween Labels Collage Sheet
Tim Holtz 8x8 Kraft Paper Stash - Halloween
Little Darlings Collage Sheet 
Baroque Dresden Borders - Black 

Brass Setting
Cameos
Plastic bats, and spiders
Ribbon
Acrylic Paint

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

A vision of loveliness

The tiniest of projects today.

vision of loveliness - Nichola Battilana

A wee little shadow box. 
With a pretty little wizard. 
vision of loveliness - Nichola Battilana

And the sweetest snippet from an old book.

vision of loveliness - Nichola Battilana

If she belongs with you, you can find her listed HERE

Friday, October 13, 2017

Friday the 13th, creepy protective amulets

 In the wee hours of this morning, Friday the 13th, these creepy little fellows came to life.

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

They may appear ooky and totally spooky.

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

And I suppose they are in a way.

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

But the only thing they're meant to frighten away is negativity directed toward their owners.

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

Sort of like your own personal boogy man.

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

Protecting you while kicking evil in the eye!

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

They're made with rusty old nails, twigs, jute, paperclay and wool roving.

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

And are really quite tiny!

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

If you'd like your own, they are available HERE

Friday the 13th Creepy Protective Amulets - Nichola Battilana

How is your creepy Halloween creating coming along?

Sunday, October 08, 2017

Cheery mixed media ATC's

A break from the creepy and ooky today.

Mixed Media ATC - Nichola Battilana

A trio of mixed media ATC's

Mixed Media ATC - Nichola Battilana

Playing with paper and paint and ink and old stuff.

Mixed Media ATC - Nichola Battilana

Whatever was scattered on my desk.

Friday, October 06, 2017

A Dilapidated Greenhouse

More creepy today! A miniature dilapidated greenhouse.

Miniature Dilapidated Greenhouse - Nichola Battilana

It's crawling with creepy things and covered in fine spider webs.

Miniature Dilapidated Greenhouse - Nichola Battilana

And there's something icky hatching inside, it's tentacles reaching and squirming...

Miniature Dilapidated Greenhouse - Nichola Battilana

Let's call it Junior.

Miniature Dilapidated Greenhouse - Nichola Battilana

There's all sorts of bits, crawly things, and bottles, vials, and bowls of terrible things.
Miniature Dilapidated Greenhouse - Nichola Battilana

A skull, lantern, gargoyle, and toadstools too (which are undoubtedly poisonous).

Miniature Dilapidated Greenhouse - Nichola Battilana

All atop a mossy cobble stone base. 

Miniature Dilapidated Greenhouse - Nichola Battilana

The finished piece is listed HERE

Or try your hand at making your own, Here's THE BIT LIST:
Wooden base
Miniature Greenhousee with Stand
Heavy acrylic medium
Cobblestone Texture Sheet
Faux moss
Large White Turquoise Skull Beads*
Tiny Wooden Flower Pots
Various glass bottles
Thrifted gargoyle
Speckled Eggs**
Thin Fleur Dresden Borders - Black
Creative Paperclay*
Plastic spiders and ants
Faux spider webbing
Moss
Polymer Clay (for tentacles)
Handmade toadstools
Chipboard Shingles - Half Scale Sampler
Silicone Mold - Architectural Flourishes
Acrylic paint

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Halloween Hotrods with Tutorial

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.

Halloween Hotrods: Dollarstore project with video tute • Nichola Battilana

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.

Halloween Hotrods: Dollarstore project with video tute • Nichola Battilana

We're starting out with simple plastic toy cars and trucks.

Halloween Hotrods: Dollarstore project with video tute • Nichola Battilana

Embellishing the heck out of them. Giving them a knock out paint job. And ending up with something like this...

Halloween Hotrods: Dollarstore project with video tute • Nichola Battilana

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.

Halloween Hotrods: Dollarstore project with video tute • Nichola Battilana

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.

Halloween Hotrods: Dollarstore project with video tute • Nichola Battilana

Here's your supply list:

Toy cars: trucks, busses, boats, planes... whatever strikes your fancy!
Halloween swag: skeletons, bugs, beads, bones, skulls, spiders, bats
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 Hotrods: Dollarstore project with video tute • Nichola Battilana

That's it weirdos! Go make something hotroddy!

Here's how to put them together.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Spooky Wee Houses

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.


Each of the houses uses pieces from the Miniature Bookplates Shape Set as windows. Creating the rooves was super simple with burlap pieces from Canvas Corp


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.
7Gypsies Paper
Architextures™ Parchment Rub-Ons
Burlap from Canvas Corp
Plastic spiders
Vintage images
Twine/Ribbon
Acrylic Paint
Hot Glue
White Glue