Haunted House Shadow Box

 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:

Mini Haunted House Kit
Small Haunted House Add-On Kit 

Red Brick Wall Scrapbook Paper Small Haunted House Window TrimsSmall Haunted House Shadowbox  Halloween Labels Collage Sheet Tim Holtz 8x8 Kraft Paper Stash - HalloweenLittle Darlings Collage Sheet

Baroque Dresden Borders - Black 

Thin Fleur Dresden Borders - Black 

Assorted tiny bottles
Corked Domes 
Acrylic Black Standing Cat Cut-Out 

Brass Setting

Cameos
Plastic bats, and spiders

Ribbon

Acrylic Paint

A vision of loveliness

The tiniest of projects today.

A wee little shadow box. 

With a pretty little wizard. 

And the sweetest snippet from an old book.

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

Friday the 13th, creepy protective amulets

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

They may appear ooky and totally spooky.

And I suppose they are in a way.

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

Sort of like your own personal boogy man.

Protecting you while kicking evil in the eye!

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

And are really quite tiny!

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

How is your creepy Halloween creating coming along?

Cheery mixed media ATC's

A break from the creepy and ooky today.

A trio of mixed media ATC's

Playing with paper and paint and ink and old stuff.

Whatever was scattered on my desk.

A Dilapidated Greenhouse

More creepy today! A miniature dilapidated greenhouse.

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

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

Let's call it Junior.

There's all sorts of bits, crawly things, and bottles, vials, and bowls of terrible things.

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

All atop a mossy cobble stone base. 

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

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.

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!

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

That's it weirdos! Go make something hotroddy!

Here's how to put them together.

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.

Cabana Row Houses

Faux Metal Number Plates 1 to 25

Miniature Bookplates Shape Set

7Gypsies Paper

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