Happy Halloween!

Thank you for visiting!  I hope you like my Halloween framed piece!  I love altering anything I can get my hands on, and this has quite a bit of that going on, so it was a super fun project!

First, I will tell you about the frame--I picked it up at a yard sale last weekend--I thought it had "good bones".  (Ha, Ha!) I can rarely  remember to take before photos, because I get in the Closet and just start going, and usually don't even think of how I'm going to write about what I did. Anyway, it started out shiny black, and had a pretty heron card in it that I will get to use later!

The challenge over at Studio L3  Compendium of Curiosities 3 Effect Powders is to use the technique found on page 52 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3.  Two prizes are up for grabs:  The Curiosity Crew  will chose a worthy winner, who receives a great prize package of Tim's goodies (could use that!), and a random winner will win a very generous $50 shopping spree to Inspiration Emporium.  Wow!  That would be an awesome treat, too!

So I'm putting Tim's great (and my  new favorite) Effect Powders technique to use on this frame, and other parts of my project, too!  I have really enjoyed this challenge!  I can't tell you how to do it, but I can say I used Tim's Distress Powders and Inks to achieve my effect.  You can see it on the frame, the skulls, the thumbtacks and the paperclip!  Too much fun!  I gave my frame a final coat of clear matte acrylic sealer, because I knew it would be handled a lot and I didn't want my effect to go away. If you want to learn this technique for yourself (and I recommend you do--it's easy and rewarding), get a copy of Tim's book mentioned above, go to page 52 and see how you can do this yourself!

I gessoed one of my spiders, and painted him with black Paint Dabbers using a brush.  Drybrushed with a little copper Paint Dabber and glued him on the frame.  The skulls are Idea-ology, altered first with a little blend of alcohol inks, dried and then the magic begins with the Effect Powders technique again.  I used Stickles for the eye sockets.  These were glued on, too.

The stamped back ground was actually the first generation stamping I did from my project "Dirty Little Secret".  I used a Recollections stamp and Distress Ink, laying the water color paper on the inked stamp and procuring the image by rolling with a brayer.  Before it dried I spritzed with water to let it bleed ever so slightly.  I dried it, and inked with Distress Inks, spritzed with water to blend slightly and dried it again.  I patted  the paper in a light spray of Dylusions Pesto Spray ink and mopped up some leftover Seedless Preserves stain and water mixture left on my craft mat from another project, spritzed it  and dried it once more.  Basically this is goulash!

Next I stamped my Tim Holtz images from the Trick or Treat set and a Martha Stewart partial image in Archival Ink.  When everything was fully dry, I covered the entire piece in Rock Candy Crackle Paint (another favorite technique with such gratifying results) and let it dry. I then swiped and swirled Walnut Stain Distress Ink with the ink blending tool.  This did not give the look I was hoping for on water color paper, but there are some areas that crackled nicely.

Trying to show the crackle here.

So now for my school/office supplies!  Craft Hoarders Anonymous wants to know "Who Loves School and Office Supplies?" and is going to award the worthy winner of this challenge a $30 gift certificate to their generous sponsor  Lindy's Stamp Gang!  Boy, I would love to win that!  So I've added a few school and office supplies to this creepy piece--a paper clip and 3 thumb tacks altered using the Effect Powders technique (wish I had that Vintage Photo--it's on my wish list, but not available in stores here).  I had to remove the plastic cap on the tacks in order to do my technique, but they are the real deal. I cut off the pointed ends.  But there's one more school supply I used on here--can you guess what it is?  It's the "blood" dripping down the right side of the stamped paper. I did not prick my finger on the thumb tacks, but I dribbled on Elmer's school glue, let it dry, and inked with Barn Door Distress Ink. (I hope I don't offend anyone with this; I really don't look at Halloween  in a spooky, macabre way usually.  But rather a fun time to dress up things in a silly way!  I just could not think of another way to really use that glue, and I had just pricked my finger on the tacks, which gave me the idea.) I guess water color paper would be considered a school supply, too--it was in my high school art class!

The Halloween Ticket is die cut from Tim's  Ticket Strip die and is stamped with a stamp from Tim's Odds and Ends collection.  I inked it with Distress Inks and stains.

The current challenge at  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is "Rock the Techniques", and they've got a $50 gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp for the randomly selected entry. They want to see what we've got!  I've already talked about using the Effect Powders technique and Distress techniques, and lifting of left over inks and sprays, but I used another technique with an embossing folder, vellum, Distress inks and metallic rubs for the orange background. To emboss a larger piece of paper than the size of the folder,  I  embossed my vellum with the Sizzix folder by running it through just  to before I get to the edge of the folder, back it out, and repeat after lining up the folder with the first embossing.  I'm sure most crafters have done this before, but I often forget the folders are capable of doing more than just the standard size embossing.  Next I used the ink blending tool to apply a light coverage of ink to just the raised lines.  Following this, I applied metallic rubs randomly with my finger.  I backed my vellum with cream card stock in the frame to make it stand out against my darker stamped panel, which I adhered with PPA. I purposely left the glass out of the frame so the viewer can appreciate the textures.

A Vintage Journey Challenge #15 "The Colours of Autumn" wants to see a strong  Tim Holtz influence on our projects using the colors of autumn.  They have a generous shopping voucher to Country View Crafts to award the winner chosen by the Creative Guides.  I'm influenced by Tim in using his many great techniques from his Compendium of Curiosities Vols. I, II, and III as well as using his grungy color palette and style he is so popular for.

In addition, I am entering the following challenges which are looking to see our interpretation of fall and the colors of autumn:

• Inspiration Journal Fall Is In the Air (they have a generous $50 Gift Certificate to Inspiration Emporium to award the winner)
• Crafting For All Seasons #86 Colors of Autumn
• The Artistic Stamper September Challenge- "Autumn Colours"
• Eileen Hull's Art with Heart Challenge September "Fall Back"

I hope you like my Halloween framed art. As always,thank you so much for stopping in and for leaving your sweet comments.  I hope to see you back again soon!