Halloween Fright

I really haven't been much into Halloween in the past, but for some reason, this year I've had more fun playing with all the fun Halloween papers, accessories, tools, and color themes!!  And even though I don't typically like the whole "scary" aspect of the holiday, and for my kids, I definitely keep it more fun and lighthearted, for my projects, I have not been drawn to the more whimsical papers and colors...but the darker, spookier colors instead.  With that said, I present my Halloween Fright wall hanging.

I am linking this to the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #17 - Fragment Charms, as well as this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, "Show Some Metal."  

This started with an 8x8 sheet of patterned paper from a Recollections Halloween pad from Michaels.  I ran the paper through my Zutter Distrezz-it-All just mildly, and inked the edges with Spiced Marmalade distress ink.  I took a sheet of white cardstock and embossed it using Tim Holtz's Halloween Fright texture fade.  I then used distress inks to add color, and covered portions of it in Rock Candy crackle paint.  I decided I wanted to place this piece behind the crow on the patterned paper, so I used a craft knife to carefully cut around the crow.  I then used an embossing pen to cover the crow, and heat embossed it with black embossing powder. I used Lettuce alcohol ink to color a pearl sticker accent for the crow's eye.

For the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge this week, I had to make a Fragment charm - which is the clock.  I can't share the details of how I made it, per the rules.  :)  I attached a couple jump rings, and then a swivel clasp - showing some metal - which was the challenge for Simon Says Stamp and Show.  I attached the swivel clasp to the header on the layout with a brad.  The brad was originally bright sparkly purple and silver - which would NOT have fit in - so I covered it with some Pitch Black acrylic dabber paint, and it had the perfect effect.

The title piece started as a blank white piece of watercolor paper.  I used a technique called "block inking."  I first applied Spiced Marmalade distress ink all over an acrylic stamping block, and then went around the edges with a darkish purple dye-based ink (I don't have a purple distress ink yet).  I then spritzed the block a few times with water, and then placed it down on the paper.  I pushed it down until the paper was completely saturated under the block, and then carefully lifted straight up.  I then used a cloth to blot the excess puddles of ink off the paper, and used my heat gun to dry the paper.  I then used my Distrezz-it-All to distress the edges of the paper, and used distress inks to add color to the edges all around, then glued the header to the background paper.  I stamped "Happy Halloween," using a dark purple dye-based ink - with a stamp I had cut on my Cricut.  

I took two small skulls from the minis set of grunge board, and wanted to paint them with metallic dabbers; however, neither the gold, silver, or copper seemed to fit with the bronze colored swivel clasp.  So I mixed some copper and black on my craft mat, and got almost a perfect match, then used my finger to apply the paint to the grunge pieces.  I attached both to their respective places with the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher (seriously - BEST little stapler EVER!).

I added a piece of velvety bat trim (Recollections from Michaels), and made a rosette out of a piece of Donna Salazar's Crafty Chronicle using the Martha Stewart scoring board.  (If you've never seen Donna's Crafty Chronicle - you seriously NEED to!  It's like a newspaper, but not...it's all crafty articles and tutorials, on acid-free newsprint paper, intended to be read and then used for flowers and such!  She even has a new one out just for Christmas, called Musical Memories!  So fun!)   I spritzed the rosette with Tiger Lily Glimmer Mist and some homemade purple glimmer mist, then cut out a couple nesting circles of purple and orange cardstock for the center.  Finally, I stapled the second painted grunge board skull to the center, and used hot glue to attach the rosette to the entire piece.

To finish it off, I used the Tiny Attacher to add a few "stitches" along a couple sides.  I decided the piece should be a wall hanging, so I backed it with a pieces of cardboard, and added a piece of wire and tied a few pieces of coordinating tulle and ribbon and fibers around the wire.