Pumpkin Season - Creative Artiste Oct

Good Morning everyone

Im still waiting for my eye op so vertigo and extreme nausea still plaguing me, I  can only spend about 5mins looking at a screen so this post has taken weeks to type up so I hope it all makes sense - luckily blogger allows us to plan and schedule these posts well in advance if we need to.

Its Autumn and Its October so for my make for creative artiste this month ive made a pumpkin scene and had great fun making it too.

Over at Creative Artiste its always anything goes as long as you use mixed medias, at least 3 Different types

This is very much an assemblage make for me as no stamping or cutting out involved and all the leaves were die cut previously from my inky scraps.  So I just had fun with texture paste, crackle paste, acrylic and shimmer paints and bringing it all together in a little scene.....which doesn't happen over night😊

Approx Size: 10x8"  Wooden pumpkin from the works a few years ago.  I also decided I wanted to use some of the tim holtz paper dolls I have had for years and keeping in a safe place.  I made this for a friend who I know loves all things Tim Holtz so the ideal opportunity to use the paper dolls.

We've got an end of season pumpkin picking scene.  See below for photos of how i made the background.  Once I had finished the background and adding shimmer and shine to the pumpkins I added some of the dolls to look like they are sat on the giant pumpkins and leant up against them.  

I then added lots of die cut autumn leaves which I have a bag full off as I always die cut any left over inked pieces into leaves as they are always useful. So the leaves were inked up with various brushos, distress inks, oxides, mica sprays, pixie powders etc....  I arranged them to look like they are blowing around in the breeze and falling from the trees.

Close up off the pumpkin pile and dolls

Love this little doggy, he has a little pumpkin beside him and is just wondering if he will chase some leaves.....I added a little plastic spider on one pumpkin...it is a little spider but compared to the size of the chap I guess its huge! lol   To take off the plastic shiny finish i covered it with black gesso 

I painted the edge of the wooden pumpkin with black and then edged the front with gold and orange dora paint 

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now onto how I did the background

I first covered the wooden pumpkin with acrylic paints, then adhered the polystyrene pumpkins and painted them with gesso and added some texture paste here and there to the background and ground.  The large pumpkins I cut in half as they would have been too deep - this also makes them go further too - the polystyrene is fairly easy to cut with a craft knife. 

I then built up the colour of the pumpkins and background using acrylic paints, slowly building up the layers until i was happy, this is quite a slow process for me and comes together over days.  It needed to be dark and in shadow amongst the pumpkins to help give the effect of a deep pile of them.  Also dry brushing on several layers to the background to build up the colour.  To help the pumpkin stack to stand out the main background pumpkin is a much darker orange almost red and the smaller ones more yellowy orange.

I dried brushed on a top layer of cadence dora paint in orange and gold so the pumpkins really shimmer in the light - although hard to capture in photos but it is sparkly.  I very lightly added touches of the dora paint to the main mdf pumpkin so it catches the light in places - less is more as the cadence dora paint is very shimmery

I wanted the main pumpkin to have a gnarly tough skin effect like you get on some pumpkins that have battled the weather and garden wildlife so they sometimes get a tough rough skin.  I added texture paste and some crackle paste in areas.

Items Used:

Mdt pumpkin from 'the works'

Polystrene pumpkins from ebay

Tim Holtz ideology pumpkins

Tim Holtz paper dolls

Spellbinders leaf dies

Cadence dora paint 'gold & orange'

Acrylic paints

Ranger Crackle paste

Texture paste

My dad has grown a bumper crop of pumpkins this year with the dry weather so the girls are delighted and i guess we will be living on soup all winter😁

Do hop over to Creative Artiste to see what the rest of the DT has created and to join in with your creative mixed media makes - we love seeing how you mix those medias.

Wishing you all have a very happy October. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/10/fall-season-october-2025.html

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free.html

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https://pinspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/10/pinspirational-challenge-330-october.html

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Witches supplies coffin box

Good Morning everyone

Last year I bought a couple of  wood coffin shaped boxes, Ive turned this first one into a witches portal and hidden supplies cupboard

Details of how i added shelves further down post.  Once shelves added i covered it all with black gesso.  In the shallow lid side i added green and gold dora cadence paint which really shimmers in the light to give the effect of the witch coming through a portal.  I then added one of Tim Holtz paper dolls which fitted perfectly.

Using items in my stash collected over the years i built up a collection on the shelves of various little bottles and potions, a little caldron and pumpkin, skulls, bones and a little spell book

On the top shelf i had some printed digi images of bottles which i added right at the back to help make it seem deeper than it is and then added a real small bottle with some black beads in.  A bone and little skull bead and then a little book i made up last year which i use kraft card for the cover and a little twine

On the middle shelf - in the back i added a piece of die cut spider web and die cut spider - both of which id added a little dora paint to highlight. Tim Holtz chat sticker reads 'calls answered day and night'

  Tim holtz candle and little pumpkin - the pumpkin i had also added a little orange dora paint too. A plastic ant on top of the pumpkin. 

 A small bottle Id added red alcohol ink too an the poured in a little white paint - from this uncorked bottle springs a ghost - this is chipboard painted with white gesso and a little diamond stickles glitter glue added. 

At the front another small bottle which i coloured inside with blue alcohol ink and then filled up with some cheap glossy accents i bought years ago which had a horrid finish so has just been languishing in the back of the cupboard but using in like this it makes a great mystery potion! 

and the bottom shelf - a little plastic cauldron filled with neon yellow and green paints. A little chipboard cat which i painted with blue gesso putting it on thick to added texture and then highlighted with black dora paint.  I added a strip of card behind its eyes coloured with the same neon paint.  The cats favourite sleeping spot, curled up nice and warm by the cauldron.

All my family have black cats and here in the UK they are still mostly seen as a good thing. (a black cat crossing your path is considered good luck, especially if it runs across your path. In parts of England, a bride who receives a black cat as a wedding gift is said to have good luck in her marriage)  - just as well as my old cat collects waifs and strays so we have 6 black cats that visit daily as well as my own black cat😺

Tim Holtz chat sticker in the back reads 'wool of bat and tongue of dog' 

The Cadence 'dora' paint really glows behind the witch.  These paints used to be called 'starlight' by imagination crafts.

I highlighted all the edges with the gold paint.

This shows how i added shelves.  I took some stiff card from cat food boxes, cut to the depth & length needed and just scored some tabs each add to glue into place and then covered with black gesso. 

The outside.  I added texture paste through stencils on the top, a shattered one which i think is a bit spider web like and a grungy one that contains a few numbers and letters.  Covered all in black gesso, added a few patches of green & red acrylic and highlighted with silver, black and gold dora paint.  

I added a plastic bat and a little tim holtz sticker to the bottom which i covered in glossy accents.

Items Used:

Coffin box from 'The works'

Tim Holtz Ideology range - pumpkin, candle, bone

Tim Holtz paper dolls & chat stickers

Spider & Web die

skull, cauldron, bat, mini bottles all ebay finds

Chipboard cat & ghost - the works

Cadence dora paints

Thank you for stopping by once again.  Next week is half term so i will be crafting with my nieces and also have a cousin and her family coming down to Cornwall so will be lovely to catch up with them. I hope you have a good weekend and don't forget the clocks fall back an hour so then it will be dark and wintry.  Hugs Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/2024/10/halloween.html

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https://stencilfun.blogspot.com/2024/10/october-stencil-fun-challenge.html - used 2 stencils on the outside of the box

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https://dragonflydreamschallenges.blogspot.com/2024/10/october-challenge-anything-but-card-and.html

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https://snarkystampers.blogspot.com/2024/10/soss-255-h-is-for-halloween.html

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https://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.com/2024/10/welcome-to-creative-artiste-challenge.html

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https://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.com/2024/10/challenge-603-autumnhalloween.html

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https://craftygalscornerchallenges.blogspot.com/2024/10/challenge-260-anything-goes-woptional.html

 

The apothecary

Good Morning everyone

Im honoured today to be guest designer at MMTOTY

My last halloween make for now is this apothecary shelf mixed media project.

Approx overall size: 10x7"

I made up this MDF box frame and added texture paste through a brick stencil and also dabbed some here and there to give a rough wall effect.  Out of stiff cardboard box card i cut two strips and glued into place to act as shelves.  Once dry i coated it all in black gesso.  Splodged on some acrylic paint in red, orange and green and then dry brushed over the top with more black gesso and then silver and black cadence dora paint which really shimmers.

I then had fun raiding my stash to fill the shelves.

I knew i wanted a potion bottle that looked like it was glowing & luminous.  I used my daler-rowney acrylic neon paints and poured some of the yellow and green neon into the bottle, dabbing some onto the outside and then popping the cork back in so that it looks like it is really bubbling over.  To give the effect of it really being luminous i then dabbed more of the neon paint around the bottle so it looks like its lit up.  

I also knew i wanted some mini spell books so i played about to make my own, using kraft card and rubbing glycerine in until you get a leather like effect and its becomes malleable for the covers and cut up thin paper pages for the inside - these are just glued into place.  I used twine, touches of distress inks and paint to make them look used and well loved. 

From previous projects i had lots of mini bottles printed out from a very very old daisytrail 

digi-kit, they were printed, cut out and covered with glossy mod podge, so i have used lots of these in the back of my shelves along with real mini bottles to make the shelves look fuller with more depth.

Some of my mini glass bottles i added some alcohol ink and swirled around, others have little beads in them.  The little skulls are beads.

I added some little plastic bugs to the frame, along with the clock and keys.

I used some old wood beads as thought side on they looked a bit like scrolls on the shelf.  A printed eyeball covered with crackle accents in a little wooden bowl.  Can you spot the bat? he really is camouflaged - a little rubber bat, i gave him a coat of black gesso and adhered him up inside the frame.  

Tim Holtz bones, candle & candlestick.  A little broom and a bottle of green glittery potion - this i made up with cotton wool, green ink and gold glitter.   I added die cut spider webs to the back.  Tim Holtz chat stickers added to the scene.

I had really great fun building this up and raiding my stash.

Do hop over to MMTOTY where you can join in with anything halloween or Christmas - my brain is now in full on Christmas crafting mode -scary we are not into November, i know we say it every year but this year really is flying by😀

I hope you all have a great weekend. Crafty hugs Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/11/november-anything-halloween.html

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The specimen jar

Good Morning everyone

Today card is for a good craft friend who is halloween & tim holtz mad, she loves using Tims paper dolls so i have teamed up 3 paper dolls with an acetate jar i had.  It is sat on the shelf in the witches den among her other lotions & potions 

   I took a piece of white card and drew around the jar acetate as it has a border around the actual printed line, i then used a craft knife to cut just inside the pencil line, i used very thin super hightack tape to adhered the bottle behind the aperture.  Before actually sticking the jar in, i used glittery texture paste through a shattered stencil and inked up with oxide inks, once dry attahed the jar.

I cut another piece of white card with the next size up die, in the middle where the bottle would be i inked with lemonade and twisted citron inks to give a glowing effect, the outside edge i inked with violet, potion and sapphire inks.  I worked out where i wanted my 3 paper dolls so that they would appear in the bottle and adhered them in position.  I added foam tape to the back of the front panel and stuck into place.  

From previous years i had these digital images of jars, skulls, eyes, bugs printed off and covered with glossy accents.  They are a very very old daisytrail digi-kit.  I arranged them around the main image.  I also had an offcut of spider web and 2 spiders, all cut from black card and dry brushed with silver paint - i also added crackle accents to the spiders.

Dreadfully wicked chipboard

and then 3 chit chat stickers which i mounted onto black card

'Watching and waiting'

'what horrors they had seen'

'Here in the darkened house of weeping'

..............one day the specimen jar will break and they will escape and get the witch😊

This is my last halloween card for this, ive had great fun letting the imagination run wild and distract from real life for a while.

Items Used:

PET/acetate/transparency jar 

Tim Holtz Stencil - shattered

Tim Holtz Paper dolls

Tim Holtz Halloween clipping stickers & Halloween baseboards

Stamperia texture paste 'arctic ice'

Distress Inks 'squeezed lemonade, twisted citron'

Oxide inks ' violet, villainous potion'

Spider & web die

Discontinued daisytrail digital kit for all the bottles, skull, eyeball etc...

Thank you all for stopping by once again. I can't believe its half term already, babysitting 3 nieces so lots of crafting to be done which is lovely, i provide the stash they provide the energy & imagination.  I hope you all have a great week.  Big hugs Emma

Id love to enter the following:

https://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/10/october-challenge-autumn.html

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https://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/10/challenge-695-halloween-thanksgiving.html

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https://craftrocketchallenges.blogspot.com/2023/10/challenge-108-autumn-andor-halloween.html

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https://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.com/2023/10/challenge-209.html

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https://cinspirations.blogspot.com/2023/10/october-challenge-autumn-or-halloween.html

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https://creativecraftinguncles.blogspot.com/2023/10/46-halloween.html

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https://papercraft-challenges.blogspot.com/2023/10/challenge-99-happy-halloween.html

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https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/10/october-anything-halloween.html