As soon as I saw the Halloween Greetings stamp set for Close to My Heart, I knew I had to use it. I had a tag swap to make some tags for, so I decided it was the perfect time to use it.
Halloween Greetings Stamp Set
I decided to layer a cream color over a black piece of card stock, rounding the corners, and used black ink to stamp with. I knew I was going to color in the image with the Touch Twin alcohol markers, so I made sure I used an ink that would be suitable. You do NOT want to use StazOn ink when combining with alcohol based markers. StazOn is a solvent based ink, which is why it is suitable to use on so many surfaces. However, alcohol with dissolve the solvent and you can end up ruining your makers!
A zip strip from one of the patterned papers in the Scaredy Cat paper pack was going to be a great addition to the tag. Instead of leaving it as it was, I colored it with an orange Touch Twin marker to coordinate with the color I’d already applied. A zip strip is the extra half inch that is added to on side of the patterned paper in the paper pack. One side has a extra decorative element that will coordinate with the paper pack, and the other side has product information, including the paper and ink colors that coordinate with the pack. I think it is genius to add a little sumpin-sumpin, for us to use on a piece that would normally be tossed!
Broom straws were made by using a couple of small lengths of hemp twine, and knotting it near one end. Separate the fibers and you’ve got a great look for the broom! I used the open tip of scissors to help separate the fibers. Then a dab of Liquid Glass clear lacquer adhesive was used to make sure the knot stayed put, and it was added above and below the knot, flipped over and adhered to the tag.
The stars got a bad of glue and glitter, to help them sparkle. Then a bit of ribbon was secured with a tiny attacher, and I declared the tags to be complete!
Welcome to this week’s Make It Monday blog hop! If you arrived by way of Karen Fitting’s website at Photos Kept Alive, welcome! I don’t want you to miss her post because she always has such great ideas, so I’ll tell you how to get back to it at the end of this post.
Today’s theme is Fall/Halloween for the hop. I have had this idea for a little while, and so I saved it for today. Since so many people want to know how to create the mixed media projects they are seeing, I decided to create something with a limited set of products. I chose the Scaredy Cat paper pack and Scaredy Cat Complements pack from Close to My Heart because I felt it offered such a great collection for what I wanted to create.
Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item
This project was done on a 12″x12″x1″ canvas. By painting the edges, it doesn’t need to be framed. If you wanted to, you could use a canvas panel so that it would be thin enough to place in a regular picture frame.
First off, select what you’ll use for the background. I chose the Slate paper for the top or sky, and the black for the ground bottom. I cut a strip off the bottom of the Slate paper and then tore a tiny bit along the edge. That way, the layers ease together nicely. Now, use an adhesive medium to coat the back side of your paper. Turn it over onto the canvas add a layer of your medium over the top to seal it.
Tear along the bottom edge to create less bulk when adding the next layer.
Next, I tore an edge on my Black paper to create the ground. Again, coat the back of the paper with your adhesive medium, turn it over onto the canvas and add another layer of the medium.
Black paper turn to give curves for the ground portion of the project.
Next, you can either add some texture to background or you could just continue to the next step. I like to add a lot of different textures, so I used black StazOn as well as some white paint and a bit of Thistle ink. In the end I was sorry I had added too much of the white, so I grabbed some black paint and gave a squirt into my white paint to make a nice gray. I then brushed this over the sky portion of my background and restamped my texture in StazOn.
After my night sky became too light, I ended up creating gray with my paint and toned it back down.
Now it was time to really start having some fun. Between the paper pack and some stickers from its coordinating set, there was a lot to play with. Since these were the only products I wanted to use, I did a lot of cutting. One of the decorative sheets has a lot to choose from, and the parts that didn’t get cut up from that sheet will still be used to make some other things — cards, treat bag toppers, etc. You can get a lot of mileage from that one piece of paper! Here is what it looked like
Major pieces placed and doors and windows added.
Next I added details with a fine line marker, placed more stickers, and then used a black Pitt Pen to smudge around the edges of everything to give it more definition. A bit more black was smudged into the sky to add a little more darkness. NOTE: You MUST have sealed everything with your medium over the top, even the stickers. The Pitt Pen will smear for a second as soon as you put it on, but it will not smudge if it is on unsealed paper. You have to act quickly, and you may need to dampen your finger, as well.
The last thing I did was use a white gel pen to add some final definition to a few areas. You’ll notice that I didn’t try to make perfectly straight lines. That’s it. Complete! Here are some close ups.
White Gel Pen used to add some details.
Black Pitt Pen smudged around edges.
Night sky with more black smudged in over the Slate background.
Here is the final piece. I may go back in and use my fine tip black pen to outline the witch and broom over the moon. What do you think?
Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item
Here is the FINAL piece. I went back in and outlined the witch!
Add a little decorative element to your home for Halloween by creating some “magic potions!” I know many of you enjoy doing your own lettering and drawing, and you can use this idea as you like. However, when pressed for time, or if you just want to use the get it done version, here’s how to make it happen. When I saw these cute little label stamps, I knew I had to do something fun with them!
Magic Potions Stamp Set, #C1509
Each of these label shapes can be cut with a Cricut die cut machine from the CTMH Cricut Artiste Collection cartridge, #Z1790. You can see that the page of the accompanying booklet and the cutting size are marked right along side the stamps. Since they are clear, they are easy to see exactly where to place your stamp on the label.
I grabbed some random bottles and decorated them! You can see I did a very basic version of dressing these bottles. There is so much more you could do, but I wanted you to see that just doing something simple can be very effective! These would look cute with candy in them. Since these bottles are rather tall, I filled them with water and added food coloring to the water to create the colors I wanted in each one.
CTMH Scaredy Cat papers with the Magic Potions stamps.
I love the Black Shimmer Trim! It was perfect for this project to add a little zip to the top of each bottle. All you have to do is pull off the backing tape, and it’s ready to adhere to your project!
Paper rosettes make a nice backing to the labels, or just use some of the coordinating papers from the Scaredy Cat collection, #X7185B.
Magic Potion stamp with paper rosette from Scaredy Cat paper collection.
Cutting the labels with the die cut machine makes easy work of decorative labels. Inking the edges finishes this label nicely.
Magic Potions stamped label with inked edges.
Coordinating decorative papers, as well as plain colored card stock make it easy to create projects have a cohesive look when doing a grouping of items.
Coordinating papers make the perfect background to add even more interest.
There are so many possibilities for these label stamps. Wouldn’t they look adorable on treat bags? What do you think you’d make with them, my little pretty?
Here’s a peek at the Scaredy Cat printed paper. There are also pieces of coordinating card stock not shown.
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I’ve had so many people tell me that the buttons and bows on the digi page I did looked like a lot of work! Guess what — it was! I decided to gift you a copy of my layout! All you have to do is sign-up in the box at the right, and press the orange button. You’ll be taken to the page where you can download a set of the pages.
This Halloween page uses the same layout on the left page that I showed you in yesterday’s post. However this layout was done so each of the grandkids could have copies. Having to have pages for more than one person of the same events is another great reason to do a digital layout! Thought I would show you a double page layout so you could see the finished layout.
You can see that this actually covers two different years. By the time I got to the page on the right, I had decided the little black bows reminded me of bats, so I just added them onto the page with that intent. Also, the white button is a “moon.”
Just take it a layout at a time! Have you run across some favorite pictures from years ago that you want to get on pages?
Welcome to this week’s Make It Monday blog hop! If you arrived by way of Karen Fitting’s website at Photos Kept Alive, welcome! I don’t want you to miss her post because she always has such great ideas, so I’ll tell you how to get back to it at the end of this post.
