Trenouths Crafty Creations: skull

Showing posts with label skull. Show all posts

Friday, 3 November 2023

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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Monday, 11 September 2023

Beware...

Good Morning everyone

Although its a bit early for halloween i had the urge to make something for my craft friends birthday as she absolutely loves anything spooky. I came up with this home decor piece which can either be hung up on the wall or stood up on its pumpkin feet to display.

I have put step-by-step below with how i built it up. Once i had the background and paint work finished i added a black die cut spider web which i added touches of silver paint to, 3 tim holtz chip board sayings and covered with glossy accents, a candle and then the plastic spider, fly & ants, these i covered with black gesso to take away the plastic look and then a touch of black cadence dora paint. .

I sealed the final piece with mod podge to give it some protection

I took a chipboard page from a very old chipboard album i bought and never used, added polyfiller through a crackle stencil to give a spider web effect and then just dabbed the excess onto the side of the panel to give some texture and interest to the finish effect. I glued 2 little wooden fences into place.

I took 2 of the larger polystyrene pumpkins and cut slots into them to slide the bottom of the chipboard into and glued into place, this gave it feet so it can stand up on its own. I cut a 3rd large pumpkin in half and glued one half into place in the middle. I cut a smaller pumpkin in half and glued both halves into place, building up my pumpkin stack.

I chopped the head & one arm off a plastic skeleton, pushed the neck into one of the pumpkins and the arm to the top of the pumpkins. I took a plastic arm and glued between the bottom pumpkins. Once the glue was totally dry i covered it all in black gesso.

I added a couple of small tim holtz pumpkins to the top of my pumpkin stack & I then splodged on acrylic paints in orange, green & purple - Yes it is a right mess but a necessary step to give the final finish depth and colour rather than just flat black. Even once you add all the top layers of paint these colours really do still show through. I also rounded the top corners with my WRMK corner chomper which easily cuts the chipboard

I then dry brushed on more black gesso

I then dry brushed silver & black candence dora paints to the background, these are super shimmery in real life and when the light hits them. I built up the pumpkins with orange & gold dora paints & acrylic paints, adding little by little until it was at a level i was happy with which happened over several days.

This shows the bits before i assembled, collected over the last few years, the plastic skeletons from poundland (I think) are great as for this project i just cut the head and arm off one which leaves more body parts for another project. The plastic dolls arms came from poundland many years ago too, the insects were from morrisons and the polystyrene pumpkins from ebay

Id love to enter the following: