Saturday, October 24, 2015

Something a Little Less Sinister

Hello crafty friends!

You might have noticed I love Halloween!  From the looks of blogland, I think there quite a number of you out there that share my love of Halloween crafting.  What wonderful inspiration is coming from your blogs this month--I love it! So, thank you all for sharing your fantastic creativity and all the inspiration!

I decided to go a little less sinister than my last project, and have a little fun with Halloween. I'm going to leave the how to up to your imagination, for the most part, but if you have specific questions, leave them in your comment and I will respond.


This started as a cheap piece of little girl's artwork. It is a "canvas" on a thick wood frame--I hope the wood frame part makes this fit into the wood theme at Mixed Media World! I pulled off the backing, but left the so called canvas. I had to give it a good coat of DecoArt White gesso, because it was bright pink, and purple! I still remember Barbara giving a pair of these to me last Halloween.  She said she knew I would make something really creepy with it.

I've had the mirror for a couple of years, and each year I try to do a  gel medium transfer on it, and it never works...I think it's all the accumulated dust that's gotten on it or maybe because I'm IMPATIENT.  I tried one more time, and this time it worked...well it's ok.  I used some ink after the image transferred and dried to give the skull some color. The sentiment (Hobby Lobby) and spider web (Tim Holtz) are inked with Staz On. I flicked some Distress ink in Barn Door on for subtle blood spatter. I added the yardsale mustache for fun. Crackle paint and DecoArt Media Antiquing Creme in Raw Umber give a little extra creep to the mirror frame. (yippee, I finally got my order with the new DecoArt Media Antiquing Cremes in it!)





I used DecoArt Modeling Paste through Tim Holtz stencil for the background and sprinkled on some Distress and Wow Embossing Powders while it was still wet. Then I melted with the powders a heat tool when the paste had dried.


DecoArt black gesso on the plastic crickets, followed by more DecoArt  Antiquing  Cremes in Medium Grey and Raw Umber. Crickets are the epitome of creepiness, in my opinion; far worse than spiders, and I'm happy to get them out of my jar of plastic insects. (These were my kids when they were little, and I saved them from the annual yardsale)!

The little skull is left from another project that just didn't need one more skull.  I added some DecoArt Antiquing Creme in Raw Umber.

I made the top hat  out of waste packaging using the pattern in my imagination.  I rubbed some Ranger Perfect Ink Refresher into the card to make it supple and gave it a good beating to age it a bit.  Paint, crackle paint, and DecoArt Medium Grey Antiquing Creme finish it off.



I added a few bottles from my vintage bottle collection to balance out the scene.


I used wide raffia  to wrap around the sides and over the staples on what is now the front of the canvas. This was inked and painted to show off the texture and to make it look like rough hewn wood. The inside of the canvas and the wood frame are painted with Distress paints to match the background, but that is kind of lost now.

Around back, I brushed on some DecoArt black gesso.  When dry, I  repeatedly stenciled spider webs with Tim Holtz' Shattered stencil and paint and Dyslusion spray in White Linen. This was done in layers, drying between layers.



I would like to enter this into the following inspiring challenges:


Thank you so much for your visit today and for all  your lovely comments!  They really make my day, and I try real hard to get around to your blog to repay the visit and because you are all so inspiring! Hugs and Blessings!
Sara Emily



32 comments:

  1. I am going to start with the back first - it is fabulous! I love, love, love the Shatter stencil and it looks amazing in those colours and I love the splats.

    I adore Halloween too and I love the moustache and the quirky eyes on the skull in the mirror but my favourite part has to be the skull with the fabulous hat! Love it all - a lot! Hugs, Anne xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heehee, this makes me smile!! I love that adorable 'stache!! So stinkin' cute!! Wow, the details are amazing!! I want to come craft with you to glean all of your crafty knowledge!! Those spider webs are spectacular!! All of the details are fabulous!! I love Halloween, too and haven't been able to make many projects this year so I'm so happy I can stop by here and get my Halloween fix!! What a fun project this is!! Have a great day :)

    Lisa
    A Mermaid's Crafts

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is creepy! I love the top hat you made! WOW! Way to keep the Haunt going!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This one had me smiling. I loved the use of the mirror. It gave such a great effect with the skull.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fantastic project Sara! So spooktacular! So fun and creative!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ohhhh yeppers Sara! You are on a hauntingly good roll with your projects this month! Love the image transfer and so happy that you were able to make it work this year. It's on my bucket list to try doing an image transfer. You top hat is fantabulous and looks to old and worn. Wowzers! What a brilliant way to make faux wood and such an amazeballs result. You have used so many wonderous techniques on this design, I don't know what to look at first and it's awesome. Your background with the embossing powders is gorgeous and I love the highlights of the 31. It looks like it glows. Stunning! And your layers upon layers of the "spiderweb" stencil-astounding!

    Interesting to know about your dislike of crickets....I think of Jimmney Cricket when I see one. Lol!

    Hats off to you for another hot diggity dang awesome sauce design! Hugz to you creepy muffin!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ooooooooh, dear Sara, I would love to be in your craft room while you are creating! I just adore everything you create especially your Halloween projects! You used so many fantastic techniques here and every single detail is a piece of art! I bet you had a lot of fun making this awesome piece! Bravo, my friend!
    Huge hugs to you! Branka xxx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just love that you adore halloween, then I can keep drooling over all your gorgeous creations. So many interesting details, like that cute top hat in the skull, how fab is that?? and the tash on the main image lol made me laugh!! Please keep making more halloween stuff, I just love what you create for this holiday!! Big hugs my lovely xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mirror mirror on the wall... what fabulous fun spookiness here! Love the skull with his googly eyes and the fabulous 3D version tucked down at the bottom. Fantastic colours in the background too.
    Alison xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. How spookily spectacular Sarah. Love the googly eyes. I too really do not like crickets (so I'm still very af ...af...afraaaaid of this piece :) ) So glad the transfer worked out. It's marvelous on the mirror. Great make! -- Mary Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
  11. Less sinister? First I thought it indeed, when these mustaches and eyes made me smile... Then I really felt this man was drowned! I think it's the light reflecting by the mirror which made this effect. A fabulous scene again, Sara Emily, great!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Me again... YAY!!! Thanks for sharing with us at Emerald Creek Dares Tricks and Treats Challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love the background and the re-purpose g of items you already had!! Thank you for entering the Emerald Creek Dares Tricks and Treats Challenge!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is so cool - love the added moustache LOL! Thanks for joining us for our Dares Tricks and Treats Emerald Creek Dares Challenge

    Karon DT

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wonderful spookiness Sara, that background is stunning, really stunning! Xx

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sorry it took a little while for me to stop by (but you entered the image link only instead of your blog post link).
    Haha, that moustache alongside that slightly scared look of Mr. Skull looks so funny! I suppose he is scared of what's going on around him - Halloween horror can mean a lot of stress to some who do not really enjoy a little fright...lol.

    Thank you very much for playing along with us at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenge and at Our Creative Corner too!

    Claudia x

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow! You must have had so much fun making this -what an amazing range of techniques! I am smiling at this for sure. ....are you trying to convert me? Hugs, Chrisx

    ReplyDelete
  18. What a great creation Sara, love the googly eyes and mustache on your skeleton, great idea to put him onto the mirror, glad you persisted with your attempts because it looks fabulous! Deb xo

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow, what a spectacular Halloween project! Love it, so much spooky-ness! Love it! Thank you so much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Hugs, Sandra

    ReplyDelete
  20. Absolutely awesome, a fabulous Halloween project, i loved looking at at the photos and the details. thank you for sharing it with us at Stamps and Stencils.
    Yvonne

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi Sara..your project is so spooky and spectacular! Love it.. :)
    Suchi xx

    ReplyDelete
  22. Very very cool! Love the use of the raffia- genius!! You are just too creative-and adorable! xo

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wow Sara! Another fantastic project! I love the background and that skull with the top hat is so cool!
    ~~julia~~

    ReplyDelete
  24. Fabulous creation for Halloween and the rustic wood frame is perfect with the background. Your skeletons are pretty dapper with the mustache and top hat. Thanks for joining us at Frilly and Funkie.
    Hugs!
    Cec

    ReplyDelete
  25. Fantastic work, I love how you have used raffia on the frame and I have to agree the crickets are far more creepier than spiders.. Thank you for joining us at Stamps and Stencils....
    Sharon xxx

    ReplyDelete
  26. A perfect work, skeleton, hat, background, everything is beautiful. Thank you for your participation at Sandee & Amelie steampunk challenges.

    ReplyDelete
  27. absolutely brilliant - that moustache did make me smile!! thanks for joining us at countryview challenges and good luck! Hugs rachel x

    ReplyDelete
  28. Wow Sara - absolutely brilliant!! The crickets creeped me out - which is a good thing, right? (smiles). There are so many amazing details - the skeleton, mustache and those quirky eyes and its just wonderful and truly amazing eye candy. Thanks for sharing with us at Mixed Media World and we hope you will join in this month's challenge as well.

    With smiles
    Laine Kammeraad
    DT MMW

    ReplyDelete
  29. Seriously, the background is glorious enough but then you top it with that incredible mirror and spooky ephemera and take it all to another level! Boy do you do Halloween brilliantly! Thank you so much for joining us at Frilly and Funkie. Jenny x

    ReplyDelete
  30. holy WOWsers !!! look at all those little details from the back with the stencilling and the skull with top hat and those little bitty bottles!!! amazing work. thanks for playing along with us at Emerald Creek Dares!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving your comments...they mean so much to me.