SPOOOOOOOKY!!!

BE AFRAID!  BE VERY AFRAID!

This week at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge the theme is "SPOOKY".  As Halloween draws closer and closer, it's time to create some spooky fun!

Halloween always conjures up wonderful childhood memories of dressing up in costumes, going door to door, Trick or Treating as my Mom or Dad kept a close eye from the street.  Then my brother and I would race home and dump heavy pillow sacks full of candy on the living room floor only to race out again and ring more doorbells.  At the end of the evening, we would spread our candy all over the living room floor, separating it all into piles of like candies and rejoicing in our "haunting haul".

I also remember all of the wonderful decorations that used to adorn our windows; the orange and black cardboard witch heads, the long jointed skeletons, the cutesy yet supposed to be scarey scarecrows.  I love those images much more than today's ghoulish and sometimes really disturbing decorations.  Give me the good ol' days! 

I LOVE vintage Halloween pieces and try to create at least one new one each year.
  Since I now have grandchildren who love to Trick or Treat "Mimi and Papa's house", I wanted to create a frame to hold those treasured memories of each years' Halloween visit! 

Using several Tim Holtz die cuts and stamps, I created this 5" x 7" wooden frame that I dearly love!  It has so many classic Halloween images on it, that I remember as a kid.  Plus my own "spin" on Tim's Picture Wheel die cut to create a funky umbrella that puts me in mind of "Beetlejuice".

  

I began by covering my wooden frame with Matte Multi Medium.  Here, I am using it as a glue to add crumpled up white tissue paper and other pieces that I die cut out of Plain Grungeboard to add to the front of the frame.

Next I added "SPOOKY" from Tim Holtz' Word Play, the dangling spider from Candlelight Fright and the cat from Raven and Scaredy Cat all cut out of Plain Grungeboard. Then I heat set it. 

The next step was to cover everything with a coat of White Gesso and heat set it.  

Now the fun really begins as you being to add a real personality to the frame through color.  Here, I have sprayed the frame with Sunset Orange Color Wash and Black Marble Dylusions Ink Spray.

I added black to the cat and dangling spider using a Pitch Paint Dabber.  I then used some Gold Paint Dabber on my finger to add highlights to the crumpled tissue paper and around the edges of frame, spider and cat.  I thought I would like "SPOOKY" predominantly in Gold with touches of black ...

 but I later changed my mind and made it black and outlined it with Mercury Glass Stickles.  Much better!  Much more vintage looking!

Now to give my frame that real vintage feeling .. the addition of the retro witch's face on a rosette and headstone.

I began by doing the same thing to the headstone that I did to the wooden frame ~ first cover the Plain Grungeboard with Matte Multi Medium and then add the crumpled white tissue paper and the die cut bat.  Heat set.  Then paint over everything with a Pitch Paint Dabber and heat set.  Next add gold to the bat and highlights over the crumpled tissue paper by lightly touching the areas with paint on your finger. Heat set.

To create the Rosette, distress a strip of manila cardstock with Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink.  After die cutting it through the Vagabond, I like to add a long piece of clear scotch tape across the back of my Rosette to make sure it doesn't tear apart while I am folding the creases.  Use Glossy Accents to hold the Rosette together.  Let dry.  Then add Platinum Stickles to the outside edge of the Rosette and let dry.

The Witch is stamped onto Specialty Stamping Paper using Jet Black Archival Ink.  I colorized her face with a Detailer Water Brush and Peeled Paint Distress Ink. The hat is Ripe Persimmon.  The eyes are Mowed Lawn.  The cheeks and tongue are Tattered Rose.  Heat set and then cut her out and use Glossy Accents to center her on the Rosette.  Glue the headstone in place on the left side of the frame.

Create the large Tattered Banner by first distressing a strip of Manila Cardstock very lightly with Ripe Persimmon and then more with Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress Inks.  Die cut the strip, locate the center of it and stamp "Happy Halloween" using Jet Black Archival Ink.  Fold under the two sides of the banner until you have a nice, dimensional curled banner.  Add dots of Glossy Accents to hold the banner together but don't smash the dimension of the layers of curled paper.  Glue in place.

Here is the frame (minus the Mercury Glass Stickles outlining "SPOOKY".... 

(that was added on before the final pictures were taken.)

I love my new frame but I think I want to add something even more spooky that can be added or removed ... whatever my spooky mood is at the time.

Soooooo .... how about a spooky umbrella made from Tim Holtz' Picture Wheel die cut? Yes, that's right ... an umbrella made from the Picture Wheel!

It's fun and funky and easy to make!  Here's how:

Step 1: Die cut two Picture Wheels from Manila Cardstock.  Distress the top of one and the bottom of the other with Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink and a little Black Soot Distress Ink along the outside edges and the inside edges of each cutout square.  

Step 2:  Use Jet Black Archival ink and stamp the dangling spider from Mini Halloween 2 by lining up the spider with ever other picture square.  Only ink the spider string up about half way so that it will die into the hole in the center of the wheel.  

Step 3: Distress some clear vellum with something to yellow it a little bit.  I used some Honey Stain spray but anything would work.  Then using Jet Black Archival Ink (or black Stazon ink), stamp just the head of the skeleton and black cat from Mini Halloween 2.  Heat set and cut into squares big enough to fit into the picture squares.  Apply Glossy Accents on the underside of the wheel and alternate the pictures in the squares.  Heat set.

Step 4:  Die cut two strips of the Tapered Fringe out of black cardstock (as one strip may not be enough to complete go around the wheel.  Be sure to cut the straight edge very close to the tapered edge so that the paper will easily curve when being added to the wheel. Add 1/8" Scor Tape around the outside edge of under the top Picture Wheel and add the fringe just to the edge.  

Step 5:  Stamp the bat onto the center of the distressed orange picture wheel bottom using Jet Black Archival Ink.  Then glue the bottom onto the top, lining up the squares and little rectangles.  (Ignore the stick at this point).

Step 6:  Fold the umbrella along the lines you've created with the dangling spider.  There should be three folded lines across the entire umbrella.  This will give more depth and dimension to the umbrella and it won't look so flat.  Then use a Tonic Craft Tool or something that you can wrap the ends of the tapered fringe around and alternate curling one fringe up and the next one down.  Do this all the way around the umbrella.

Step 7:  Measure a black dowel rod (the diameter of the hole in the Picture Wheel) and paint it with a Pitch Paint Dabber.  Heat set.  You can either leave the point of the dowel rod exposed through the top of the umbrella or add a spooky little skeleton head like I've done on this one, if you can find the little heads.  I got this one at a local craft store.  Use Glossy Accents to glue around the hole and the dowel rod on the underside of the umbrella.  Then repeat this on the top of the umbrella to hold the umbrella in place on the rod.  You may also want to coat the point of the rod (if you are leaving it exposed) with Glossy Accents for a more whimsical look.

And finally...to attach little strips for the umbrella to slide into on the back of the frame:  cut two small strips of Manila Cardstock and color them as best you can to match the frame or distress them with black and gold highlights.  Hot glue them in place, leaving a little room for the dowel rod to be able to slide in and out of the paper holders. 

Right now, this frame is home to a very cool vintage Halloween photo of Trick or Treaters from a long time ago.  But very soon, I will have a photograph of my grandchildren as they come a knockin' at my door.

~ BOO! ~   

Did I scare you?  I hope not!  But I do hope that this spooky vintage frame has inspired you to join the spooky challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge.  

You could be the lucky winner of our random weekly drawing of a 

$50.00 gift voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp.  

You could also receive special recognition in our 

 Designer Spotlight if your work is chosen to be one of the most inspirational for the week.  This doesn't mean that it necessarily has to be a work of art, it just has to fit our theme and be chosen by our Design Team as something special for a number of reasons!

So, what are you waiting for?  I hope you'll join us and share your spooky creations with all of us!

 

Here are all of the products available at Simon Says Stamp 

that were used to create this Spooky Frame.

*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die CANDLELIGHT FRIGHT Bigz 657456	*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die TATTERED BANNERS Sizzlits 657179 Alterations	*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die BEWITCHING HOUR Bigz Bat Alterations	*PRE-ORDER Tim Holtz Sizzix Die HEADSTONE 658249 BIGZ	*Tim Holtz Sizzix WORD PLAY Bigz XL Die Alphabet 657837
*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die RAVEN & SCAREDY CAT Bigz Halloween Alterations	*PRE-ORDER Tim Holtz Sizzix Die TAPERED FRINGE Decorative Strip 658553	*Tim Holtz Idea-ology GRUNGEBOARD BASICS PLAIN Altered Art	*Tim Holtz Sizzix VAGABOND MACHINE Die Cutting Embossing Alterations 656850	*Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS Glue Dimensional Adhesive
*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die PAPER ROSETTE Flower Strip Alterations	*Ranger Tim Holtz Adirondack SUNSET ORANGE Color Wash	*Ranger DYLUSIONS INK SPRAY BLACK MARBLE Dyan Reaveley DYC33837	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2012 * MINI HALLOWEEN 3 CMS140	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps RETRO HALLOWEEN cms092
*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps MINI HALLOWEEN 2 TWO CMS113 Summer 2011	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK AIP31468	*Claudine Hellmuth GESSO Studio Primer Paint Ranger	*Claudine Hellmuth MULTI MEDIUM MATTE Paint Glue Ranger	*Ranger Inkssentials 8.5 X 11 MANILA CARDSTOCK plus Bonus Tag! Surfaces
*Ranger Inkssentials 8.5 x 11 SPECIALTY STAMPING PAPER ISP32908	*Ranger Adirondack PAINT DABBER PITCH BLACK Acrylic	*Ranger Adirondack PAINT DABBER GOLD Metallic Acrylic	*Ranger STICKLES PLATINUM Gray Silver Glitter Glue	*Ranger STICKLES BLACK DIAMOND Glitter Glue
*Ranger Stickles MERCURY GLASS Glitter Glue SGG38467	*Ranger STICKLES STAR DUST Stardust White Clear Glitter Glue	*Tim Holtz DETAILER WATER BRUSH Ranger Watercoloring TIP33080	*Scor-Tape 1/8"" Crafting Tape	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD RIPE PERSIMMON Ranger FALL
*Tim Holtz Distress Ink PAD VINTAGE PHOTO Brown Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD PEELED PAINT Green Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BLACK SOOT Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD MOWED LAWN Ranger SUMMER	*Tim Holtz Distress Ink PAD TATTERED ROSE Pink Ranger
*PRE-ORDER Tim Holtz Sizzix Die PICTURE WHEEL Bigz 658558

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