COMPENDIUM OF CURIOSITIES CHALLENGE ~ HALLOWEEN CANVAS

Happy Saturday and welcome to my blog!

I hope everyone is having a good week. The temperatures here are turning more fall like ... something I am really looking forward to!

It's time for another new Compendium of Curiosities III Challenge over at Linda's Studio L3. The challenges are based on the wonderful books featuring techniques and products of our favorite Vintage/Grunge/Distress Guy, Tim Holtz. How DO you describe him?

You guys are rockin' these challenges with some really amazing art! I truly mean that and THANK YOU for all of the very positive and complimentary comments!

Your Assemblage Clocks from the last challenge totally blew me away! I've never seen so many beautifully done clocks in one place ... EVER!  They are all so original and beautifully done! Choosing a winner is always so tough for the Curiosity Crew! You guys have NO IDEA! The effort that everyone is putting into your creations each week really inspires all of us.  It is so fun to share all of this amazing art!

That being said, turn to page 52 of your Compendium of Curiosities III book and check out this week's theme; "Effect Powders".  

My creation for this week is a 6" x 12" Halloween themed canvas. My inspiration for the canvas came from this sentiment that I saw on a plain little Halloween plaque at a store.  It "toadily" cracked me up and I knew that I wanted to make something fun with it.  
So ... here it is!

I will give you as many details as I can without "toadily" giving away the Effect Powders technique. I did several variations of the technique on my canvas.

This is where I began ... with Tim Holtz' spooky Iron Work Gate die cut on a piece of textured black cardstock. I swiped my Silver Paint Dabber over the entire surface to give the fence more of a metallic effect.  Here you see the fence half way completed. What a difference the swiped paint makes!

Next I added Distress Embossing Ink and Antiquities Verdigris Embossing Powder to give my fence a more aged and patina look.

Here is the finished fence. Love it!

Next I created Tim's creepy Headstone die cut from Plain Grungeboard and Weathered Wood Distress Embossing Powder.  Weathered Wood really is a pretty cool stone looking color and mixed with Black Soot Distress Ink, I think it came out looking like old weathered stone or concrete headstone.  I also added a touch of the Verdigris Embossing Powder over the Effect Powders technique to give a bit of a mossy, patina look to the headstone. I added the Mini Bat to the center of the headstone using the same techniques that I did on the headstone. Finally, I gently rubbed just a touch of Amber Green Treasure Gold Guilding Wax on some edges of the headstone and the bat. 

I was not sure where this canvas would end up when I started, so I also used the Effect Powders technique on these other Mini Bats and the dangling Spider I thought might come in handy.  I used Weathered Wood Distress Embossing Powder coupled with Black Soot Distress Ink on all of these. 

Now that most of my embellishments were finished, it was time to move on to creating the canvas.

I began with a 6" x 12" canvas. I covered it with Tim's Terminology Tissue Wrap and Matte Multi Medium. Once that was dry, I randomly added some "stones" to the perimeter using Wendy Vecchi's Brick Wall Stencil and her Crackle Texture Paste.  I love those things!  When that was dry, I added Tim's spooky Halloween themed Tissue Tape all around the edge of the canvas, completely securing it in place with 1/2" Scor Tape underneath.

By now, I was REALLY into the project and I wanted to get my hands all inky or painty.  So, I spritzed the canvas with water and mixed some Wild Honey Distress Paint and a little water on my Non Stick Craft Sheet. Let the finger painting begin!  I had so much fun covering the entire canvas, smearing the paint and water mixture all over it with my fingers.  When that was dry, I added some Rusty Hinge Distress Ink around the perimeter to deepen that orange-ish color and give more of a vintage feeling to the canvas.

Next I colored the "stones" with my Weathered Wood Distress Marker and gently tapped them with my Distress Embossing Ink Pad.  Then I pinched some Weathered Wood Embossing Powder between my fingers and sprinkled it over the stones. I brushed away any excess powder with a small paint brush.  Then I heat set it in place to give a rougher more stone like feeling.

I also added a bit of Embossing Ink around the edges of the canvas, sprinkled a little Weathered Wood Embossing Powder, brushed away any excess and heat set it in place. Then I added some Black Soot Distress Ink accents to all. I love the gritty, stone like look and feel of the edges.

Next I cut out all of the letters for my sentiment using Tim's Spooktacular alphabet die cut. I cut all of the letters out of textured black cardstock and set them to the side until I was ready to glue them in place.

 I LOVE my frog!  He's got some serious personality going on! I found him on the internet and sized him to fit behind the headstone. I backed him with kraft cardstock and then cut him out. I edged him with a Black Soot Distress Marker and gently covered him with Antique Linen Distress Ink to soften his pearly whites into a softer more vintage off white.  Before I glued him in place behind the headstone, I created a dimensional witch hat pattern out of the textured black cardstock and fashioned it for him. I added a bit of torn black tulle as a hat band.  I also added some Stardust Stickles to his "sparkle" of his smile.  Then I glued him in place behind the headstone and glued the headstone in place on the canvas.

Next I glued my little spooky dimensional tree that I found at the Dollar Store to the far left of my canvas. After gluing it in place, I could figure out the spacing for my letters.  The "13" is created from Tim's Mini Numerals that were heat embossed with Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder.  Once cool, I added some little black pop dots to the back. I laid out all of my letters and then systematically glued them all in place. Then I added the die cut Mini Bats. To make the letters even more dimensional, I added Glossy Accents over all of the letters. It didn't take them long to dry.

I added several layers of black pop dots behind sections of my fence and popped it into place in front of the tree and the headstone. The pop dots gave it added dimension.

After getting all of the canvas completed, I knew that I wanted to add a broom.  Therefore, I would need a place for broom to "park".  So, I hot glued these little skeleton hands that I have had for some time. I found them at Michaels. I added a bit of some mossy stuff that I found at the Dollar Store and glued the skull out on to the hands enough so that the broom handle would fit behind it.  The skull is a little plastic one that I had from Michaels.  I painted over it with an ivory acrylic paint and then washed it with a Burnt Umber and water mixture.

My broom was made from a stem of a flowering stem thing I had on hand.  The broom part of the broom were thin twigs that I actually cut off of a bigger broom looking thing that I had.  I hot glued the twigs around the stem and then wrapped them first with some twine and then with some orange raffia. Done! ... and so easy!

My little tree looked a little "naked" so I added a scrap of tea dyed cheesecloth I had laying around. Better!

Here is a closeup of my funny violating frog, stylin' in his witch's hat with his crafty little grin.  He seems to be getting a chuckle out of the sentiment, too!

Here is my finished canvas with no broom in place. I love the skeleton hands! They add a lot of dimension and fun to the canvas.

And here is the canvas with the broom resting securely in the skeleton hands. I better hurry up and finish this blog post!  I only have 13 minutes and then I may be "toad"!

Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me share this tutorial with you.  I hope that I've inspired you to jump into your Compendium of Curiosities book and check out the Effect Powders technique.  IT'S NOT HARD AT ALL!  Then create something wonderful using the technique and link it up to the challenge. You could be our lucky winner of either a very generous ...

or a treasure trove of Tim Holtz products donated by the man himself!  

Have fun with this challenge!  

I can't wait to see everyone comes up with this time around.

GOOD LUCK!