Eerie does it

Hello bloggers! The minions at Haunted Design House have challenged us to make something creepy, Gothic, or Halloweeny this time, so I've taken the opportunity to share something I've been playing with for a while.

I'm not sue what to call it - but I think it fits the bill for gothic!  It's made from chipboard which has been given the Andy Skinner weathered wood treatment (and you will need to sign up for Andy's Timeworn Techniques course to find out how it's done) which I've cut into the arch shapes - love that Alterations die, it's one of my favourites.  Another one of my go-to dies is the Spellbinders birdcage, and I've used it here on the three sides of the arches-

The rest of it's just a cotton reel with some texture paint and a small skull from a Hallowe'en decoration with some acrylic paint (another Andy technique).  Last of all I hot-glued the black lucite rose bead.  I still don't know what the final article is, but I hope you like it - and that you come back again some time!

Thanks for coming,

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Spider, Spider

This is my contribution to the Haunted Design House blog challenge - to use black, green, purple, metal and a flourish.  Oh, and make it spooky/creepy.

I'm still playing with sticking kitchen foil to a substrate (in this case, a tag), wiping a bit of surgical spirit over it, and then dropping alcohol inks (purple and green)  onto it.  It spreads out into lovely big spots and looks amazing!  Apart from that, the rest of this tag is just a metallic paper flourish cut with a Tattered Lace die and a spider covered in black Distress Glitter.  It was a lot harder to photograph than to make, as a matter of fact.  And I hope you like it.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Scary Stories

Hi everyone, thanks for visiting!  The latest challenge over at Left of Center is Scary Stories, and we are sponsored by the magnificent Ike.  I've chosen to use Telltale Heart, which is a story by Edgar Allen Poe (and it's a very scary story so if you've of a nervous disposition you might want to look away now)

 I'm still on my faux book kick.  This time I recycled a cover I'd made for another project - I brayered dimensional paint (Tulip paint) in black and silver over card to make the leather-look for the binding

I printed out the digi five times and after I'd coloured all the copies (with Spectrum Noir pens) I did a bit of decoupage, using the folds of the "pages" to separate the layers.

I'm entering this in the 

Quoth the Raven  challenge "Anything Poes", and

Haunted Design House challenge - "Fresh Blood".

3D Halloween

You might not have noticed but at the end of this month it's Halloween.  Amazing how that's crept up on us, isn't it?    At Haunted Design House the challenge is to make something dimensional for Halloween.  Now, I'm beginning to suspect that I was warped in childhood by walking to and from school through a cemetery.  Seriously.  The secondary school I attended was situated between a churchyard on one side and a cemetery and crematorium on the other.  We always said that the neighbours never complained about the noise.  Come to think of it, my bedroom window looked out over the cemetery...and my office is next to a cemetery as well (not the same one) - a pattern is developing here!  Anyway, I wanted to make something that reminded me of the monuments I walked past every day on my way to school.

When I saw the corked vials from Tim Holtz, they reminded me of the domes that Victorians used to cover displays of wax flowers and so on.  Tim's  were too small for what I had in mind so I went hunting on my favourite auction site for jumbo test tubes and cork stoppers.  While I waited for them to be delivered I painted a cotton reel (previously covered in matte sealer) with Viva Terra paint, tinted with a bit of black acrylic.

I made some tiny lilies and ivy leaves with the Susan Tierney Cockburn dies, found a little skull bead which I'd antiqued with acrylic paints (a technique learned from Andy Skinner).  It all went together with some hot glue (for a quick bond) backed up with some glue gel (for a longer-lasting adhesive).  A bit of Flower Soft around the base of the "pillar" and there we are!  Happy Halloween folks!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Mad as a Box of Cogs!

Here I am, sliding in to the Haunted Design House  Macabre Monday Challenge just as they close the doors... 

It's Chunky ATC time, and I have to admit it's something I've never tried before.  For other CATC newbies, the idea is that your ATC is normal size (2.5 by 3.5 inches) but is 1.5 inches thick.  It can be a solid chunk of wood, layers of card or other surface, or an open box, and it's the open box format I've used. 

I made my ATC from chipboard that I'd applied a weathered wood technique (learned from Andy Skinner's Timeworn Techniques workshop).  ATC's, even chunky ones, are great for using up scraps left over from other projects.  The outside of the box I covered with some black card that I'd coated with Viva Ferro paints, again left over from another item. 

 

The gears are textured with my favourite mix of PVA and sand (living within sight of the beach has its advantages!), painted with acrylic, and with gilding wax lightly rubbed over the surface - again, extras from another project - there's a theme developing here.  The little skull is a from a plastic Hallowe'en skeleton, again gives some antiquing with acrylic paint (Andy Skinner again!)  and the roses were made from paper clay using a mould I made from a bead - and yes, I did make them for something else and then never used them. 

And there, at the 11th hour, is my entry.  Hope you like it.  Thanks for visiting - please call again!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Gallows humour

If you like creepy, spooky or Gothic the Haunted Design House is for you.  They don't do pink and fluffy over there, as you can guess by the fact that their latest challenge is  - to use knots or a noose.

It's probably the result of being married to an unrepentant punster (who is much better, thank you to those of you who enquired after him) that I came up with this one. 

The image is clipart downloaded from the web - I hope nobody goes looking at my search history...it includes terms such as hanging, gallows, and gibbet. ("Honestly, officer, I was doing research for a crafting project...")  I added in the words, adjusted the colour to sepia and printed it out on supersmooth card, which I diecut into the tag shape. I gave it  a few layers of DI (Scattered Straw, Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint an Frayed Burlap) till I was happy with it.

The last job was to make the hangman's noose (I've always wondered how to tie a hangman's knot and now I know how!) and adhere to the tag.

A bit grisly - but I hope you like it anyhow.

Thanks for visiting,

Crafty hugs,

Keren

All work and no play...

Hello blog friends, and thank you for stopping by!  Those fiendish folk at Haunted Design House have challenged us to make something with a Stephen King theme, and as you probably know, there's a lot to choose from.  After much thought, I've based my tag on The Shining.

I haven't seen the film;  but I remember very vividly where and when I first read the book.  I'd been to York on a British Rail day trip.  It was a long journey back to South Wales so I wanted something to read.  A friend had recommended The Shining, so I bought a copy, and then read most of it on the journey home, scaring myself silly in the process.

Stephen King was inspired to write the book after a visit to the Stanley Hotel, which is reputedly haunted. For my tag, I've used a Clarity stamp to represent the hotel.  (It's actually a castle).  I wanted a silhouette so I stamped it and then went over it with a black marker and blended in some Black Soot Distress ink some way down the tag.  For the upper part of the tag, I brushed on some Fired Brick with my Inkylicious Colour Dusters and added some Aged Mahogany and Barn Door around the edges.  I typed "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" repeated  over and over and printed it out, trimmed it to fit the tag and distressed it by crumpling it, tearing it, and blending DI's in Tea Dye and Walnut Stain all over it.

I used a Docrafts Chronology key and a Tim Holtz enamelled tag to represent the key of the haunted Room 217, and coloured a white trainer lace with Distress Stains (Crushed Olive and Tea Dye) to look like a fire hose, with a bit of gold card around the end to look like the nozzle. (In the book Danny, the little boy, is chased by a fire hose ) I had a bit left over so I tied it onto the tag. 

And there you have it!  I do hope you like it. 

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

The Ghost of Tom

Have you seen the ghost of Tom?

Long white bones with the rest all gone,

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!

Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on!

 The "Ghost of Tom" has been haunting me lately. In case you don't know, it's a round, in up to four parts, and great fun to sing (especially the ooh-ooh part).

So, as the Macabre Monday challenge from Haunted Design House this time is "Skeletal Remains", I decided to take it as my inspiration.  

At Halloween we got some plastic skeleton decorations and I used silicon putty to make a mould of one of the skulls.  I used this to make a flat-back mould out of Fimo.  (Did you know that you can bake polymer clay in a silicon mould?  I didn't, but it turns out you can.  It takes a little longer but it does mean that you don't distort small pieces taking them out of the mould before they're cooked).  While it was cooking, I die-cut some arches out of chipboard.  I love these Movers &; Shapers arches - I got them as a birthday present.

 I layered them up, using corrugated card from a packing box to add dimension (sturdier and cheaper than foam tape!)

This (and the shape that came from the middle of the frame - the middle sized arch) got a couple of coats of Viva Terra  (in the pale creamy colour) to give it texture, and I gave a piece of black cardstocl a coat of Decoart Fierro (similar to Ferro) to be die-cut with the Iron Gate On the Edge die once dry.

I gave the skull and the chipboard some antiquing with washes of acrylic paint and a bit of dry-brushing and assembled the whole thing, adding a bit of imitation ivy from my stash and the Iron Gate die cut and sticking it all onto a papier mache box.

Finally, I printed out the words and tore them out line by line, stuck them to the sides of the "casket" and blended some Pumice Stone Distress Ink over the top to age them a bit.

Now all I have to do is decide what I'm going to do with the base of the box...decisions,decisons!

Thank you for visiting!

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Famous Last Words!

Good day, gentle visitor, and welcome to my blog.  Today I am sharing my contribution for Haunted Design House's latest challenge, which is to created something creepy, gothic, or Hallowe'eny on the theme of "Famous Last Words".  After some deliberation, (I toyed with "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..." for some time) I chose Oscar Wilde's alleged last words - "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do!"

I stamped the skeleton (from the Tim Holtz Mini Hallowe'en 2 set) and then masked it (masking seems to be may favourite technique lately, don't know what's got into me!).  The halequin background (turned sideways) came next - I used London Fog Memento ink on the stamp at the edge and Tuxedo Black for the rest so it would look as if it were receding into the distance.  Then I masked that bit and stamped the background pattern. 

Leaving ALL the masks in place, I coloured the background (Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge DI, with Frayed Burlap to add shading).  Then I took  the mask away and lightly shaded the skeleton with the ink left on my splodge mat, then added in more shading with a cut & dry nib.

The Famous Last Words were just printed out and distressed, and then cut with a Spellbinders die, as was the frame.   And, quite suddenly, it was complete.  I do hope you like it.  Thank you for calling, and do come again!

Lilith

Today, gentle visitor, you find me at home, due to the office being closed because of the snow.  Yesterday I had a day of waiting in for the delivery of my new freezer,   because my old one popped its clogs on Sunday - fortunately there wasn't much in it and I noticed that it had stopped working in time to transfer what was there to my small freezer and defrost it before it created a lake on the kitchen floor.

While  I waited, I have  my time (a) cleaning the kitchen floor where the old freezer stood so that they don't think I'm a complete slob (even though I am) and (b) finishing off the project that was on my desk on this week'a WOYWW.

 

I've called this one "Lilith".  According to some, Lilith was Adam, the first man's first wife, created at the same time from the same earth - but she wouldn't obey him and left him, so was replaced by Eve.  She's considered to be a bit of a naughty girl as a result! 

 

I'm in a "stamp and mask" mode at the moment.  The Gibson Girl was stamped first, onto the tag and a Post-It.  Cutting out the Post-It mask was a bit fiddly, so I put a bit of Quickie Glue on the delicate bits and let it dry (so it would be repositionable) then put it carefully over the stamped imaged.  I stamped and masked the bat wings, and finally the tiled floor, which is my trusty Harlequin background (from CaroLines) turned sideways.  That was easy to mask - I just stuck the Post-It straight over it.  I used Memento ink because I knew I'd be using my alcohol-based pens to colour in.

 

Then it was just a matter of colouring the background with Distress Inks (Wild Honey, Ripe Persimmon, and Spiced Marmalade, with shadows in Weathered Wood), using Colour Dusters.  I flicked water onto the background and blotted it with a paper towel  to get the speckled effect.

 

Finally, I removed the masks and coloured the Gibson Girl with Spectrum Noir pens and stamped "Lilith" using my 99p a set alphabet stamps to finish the job.

 



I'm rather pleased that I can enter this one into two blog challenges.  It was originally designed for Haunted Design House's  Macabre Monday challenge, but as it features my favourite stamp - that Harlequin pattern, which features in a lot of my stuff - it also qualifies for the Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog challenge.  Bargain!

How long does it take to make an ATC?

Well, in my case, about three weeks.  I signed up for an ATC swap at Haunted Design House and hit the wall, creatively speaking.  The mojo was well and truly on holiday and the position was getting desperate!  How hard can it be to make an ATC, for crying out loud?

And then...inspiration!  I don't know which haunted wing of my mind I dredged this one up from, but here it is....

The stamp I made with my Imagepac, then masked the image and the moon and sponged on Stormy Sky DI with a bit of Black Soot round the edges.  The hat is a bit of clip art.  The sense of humour is all my own.  Sorry 'bout that.



I never drink...wine...

Ah, Hammer films!  Memories of going to the pictures in the 70's with the latest boyfriend, going to see such gems as The Abominable Doctor Phibes or The Devil Rides Out - burying your face in his jacket at the scary bits!  (On reflection, this may be the reason our boyfriends were so keen to take us to see the films in the first place).  The king of Hammer has to be Christopher Lee's Dracula, so that was what I wanted to feature in my challenge piece for Haunted Design House

 

So here he is, ol' red-eyes himself, stamped and masked while I built up the background with red inks - Adirondack Red Pepper, Distress Fired Brick and Barn Door.   I added some hits of red to eyes and fangs with a cut and dry nib.  And I couldn't resist adding in the words (printed onto Safmat) - it's my idea of funny.  You'll just have to get used to it, I'm afraid!



 

Update - I made the Gruesome Twosome!  Whoo-hoo!

Samhain Blessings

 

Create  something with a Hallowe'en-ish theme they said, at the Haunted Design  House Challenge Blog.  No problemo. said I,  my idea of a fun holiday is going and sitting in a haunted house hoping the ghosts will come out to play, so I can do spooky.  Ah, said they, but it has to be - flat!  FLAT? FLAT? That means no lumpy embellies....Oh, the HORROR of it...

 



So here's my interpretation.  The background is done with the Spritz and Flick technique from Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities, Volume 2.  The crow you probably recognise as a Sizzix Alterations die (love that crow).  Samhain is the Celtic New Year festival which corresponds with Hallowe'en and I stamped the letters individually. 

 

What's really scary is that it will be Hallowe'en before we know it, followed by Yuletide before we can blink...where does the time go? 

Come Fly With Me...

It's a Blue Moon!  Tonight's Full Moon is the second in the calendar month, so isknown as a blue moon.  So to celebrate the event, here's a blue moon tag, inspired by the blog challenge at Haunted  Design House!

The requirement for the challenge is to include a BIG moon.  So here it is, nice and big and bright, so that Mysti can see where those cheeky bats are...they are due a talking-to and she's just the cat to do it, after a bit of genetic modification, of course....

Update 6/9/12 - I made the Gruesome Twosome!  Whoopee!