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:

DecoArt Mixed Media Haunts Challenge

Emerald Creek Dare challenge Tricks or Treats For This Dare Halloween Special

Frilly and Funkie "Something Wicked"

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "The Monster Mash"

Country View Challenges #32 "ADD Some Texture"

Mixed Media World MMW # 8 Anything Goes on Wood

Our Creative Corner "Halloween Horror"

SanDee and Amelie October challenge "Tophats and Moustaches"

We Love To Create Challenge 21 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Stamps and Stencils Make It 3D With a Hop

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