Decay and Spiders! BEWARE!

Hello friends!  Well, I hope we'll still be friends by the time you're done looking at this!  My project is more than on the dark side, but really made in good fun! Chris, you might not want to go on...

What's lurking in your backyard?  Or maybe in your basement, if you have an old house like ours??!  After all the recent flooding here, things got a little soggy in our garden...and this is what popped up!

It all started innocently enough with a styrofoam skull I picked up at Michaels.  I REALLY would love to win some DecoArt media products, so I thought I better have another go at  DecoArt Mixed Media Haunts Challenge.  I only have 4 DecoArt Media products-Media Gesso in black and white, Media Crackle Paste and Media Modeling Paste, so I thought I would make the most of them.  Lucky me, a friend lent me some of her Liquid Glass, too, so really  5 of these wonderful products were used on my project. And after using what was left of my Modeling and Crackle pastes,  I can now say I have only two DecoArt Media products left!  So I have all my fingers, my legs and my eyes crossed that Mr. Skinner will not be too creeped out by my project. Tee Hee!

 I wanted to do something just a little different with my skull, so I got out my hot craft knife and got to work with  a little oral surgery. I found a set of kiddie vampire teeth in my Halloween stash, and thought that might jazz him up a bit. Not quite skilled at using my knife (ages old, but only used once), I really made a mess out of my skull. Should have taken a photo, because it was really horrible what I'd done to the poor fella.

I glued in the fangs and did some repairs around his mouth using a mixture of  DecoArt Modeling paste, black gesso, acrylic paints and soft gel medium. Not too bad; my malpractice insurance might not go up after all!

I gave my skull a good coat of DecoArt black gesso, and let that dry.  I added Decoart Crackle paste in thin and thick layers and got this fantastic crackle. I like the way the black gesso shows through the thin areas and the cracks.

 I  headed back to my local craft store, because I remembered they carried DecoArt  Creme Wax.  None of our local stores offer products from the Media line, and it's too late for an online order, but I do love how the Creme Wax shows off the cracks while giving my skull an aged look. This was taken in progress.

Next I made a mud out of Modeling paste, black and green acrylic paints and a tiny bit of water and added some cut up medical gauze.  This makes really incredibly gross rotted hair and rotted eye sockets. I molded this to the.skull and when dry, reinforced it with some glue. I added a little glow in the dark paint to the socket, and that ups the gross factor.

I started out using a styrofoam eyeball (party favors left from a past party), but felt that was lame, and I wanted the look of it hanging out of the socket.  I made mine from paper clay and acrylic paints, and gave it a coat of my friend's Liquid Glass. The iris is from Tim Holtz Regions Beyond paper stash.

This poor skull looks so lost without a body, and I wanted to use a little wood on my project so I could join in the fun at Mixed Media World's Anything Goes with Wood challenge.  I found these 3 pieces of wood in my stash, and a few wood discs.  I piled them up and thought they resembled a spine.

 I gave them a coat of black gesso, followed by Crackle paste and the Cream Wax as I did on the skull.  I used black gesso on the discs, as well, but they just didn't look like the cervical discs I was going for.

 I found four wood rings in my stash already coated with black glitter; leftovers from another project.  I added regular gel medium mixed with a couple of drops of Dylusions sprays in  Fresh Lime, Chopped Pesto, and Black Marble and slathered that on for the look of rotting cervical discs.  I also used this on some plastic cord for the nerve roots.  By adding a little blast from the heat gun, which makes it bubble, I was able to make this extra disgusting.  I mixed up more of the gel medium, modeling paste and black gesso, leaving out the green paint for some rot on the vertebrae, and when dry, added some of the gel medium/spray mixture. A little glow in the dark paint was added randomly to the spinal discs and nerve roots.

Not too bad, but a spine can't just hang there.  I found a wood plaque that looked just like this (a slightly different shape because these are real wood slices) in my stash. I gave it a coat of the same blackish mixture used on the vertebrae and added some rubber worms. I thought it looked a little flat, so I added some antiquing cream to bring out the texture. No kidding, after our flooding, I found a real worm about 9 inches long, and fat!!! Yuck!

A spider web die cut (Tim Holtz) out of wax paper and a few plastic spiders coated with black gesso finish off this horrible anatomical section. The web looks so lifelike when it blows in the breeze.

 I took a few shots of him hanging out with some of the guys in our front yard.

 

Looks like they shared a few good laughs...

And at night he parties...

Look me in my one good eye and tell me you're NOT terrified!

Wwha!ha, ha, ha!

I would like to enter my repulsive project into the following inspiring challenges:

DecoArt Mixed Media Haunts Challenge

Our Creative Corner Halloween Horror

Left of Center challenge # 100 good Old Fashioned Horror With ADFD

Country View Challenges # 32 ADD Some Texture

Mixed Media World MMW # 8 Anything Goes On Wood

Try It On Tuesdays It's Frightening-/-Halloween

Frilly and Funkie Something Wicked

Crafty Calendar Challenge Halloween

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge The Monster Mash

Emerald Creek Dares Tricks and Treats for This Dare "Halloween Special"

Thank you for visiting today and for all your heart warming comments! I promise I won't be so gruesome with my next project! 

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

UPDATE: They like it!

And so does Mixed Media World!!!


And Emerald Creek Dares!!!