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 pumpkin patch

Good Morning everyone

So this year ive been in a real halloween vibe, I think as i did alot of crafting with my nieces in the summer holidays and for a few sessions they were making halloween items with air dry clay which also got my mum & myself joining in.  Its just good to make something a bit different.  So anyway i made a batch of 10 pumpkin shaped halloween cards

After looking on etsy for a digital halloween stamp i came across these amazing images which were just the thing.....of course it might have been the cats that convinced me 😺

PrntHive - Etsy

So that i could fit 2 on an A4 sheet of card i die cut 2 sizes of ovals, so one set is slightly smaller.  Approx sizes are 7x5.5"  &  6.5x5"  I also used 2 different cardstocks, one is a bright orange pearl card and the other a more muted peach.  On the peach ones i used a soft sage green for the stalks and leaves. 

After die-cutting my ovals i embossed them with a swirl embossing folder, then Inked the edges with vintage photo distress ink and adhered them together with the middle oval on the top.  I then drew around this shape with pencil onto more orange cardstock, cut out, scored a flap on the top edge and glued to the back of my pumpkins, this made my cardblank.  

Die cut leaves from green, stamped the greeting and added a hand cut stalk to the top. The smaller pumpkins i gave 2 leaves and 3 for the bigger ones.

I then had fun arranging the images for my little scenes.

This is a rather majestic kitty with her witches outfit, candle stick, skull on books & pumpkin.  I added touches of stickles 'diamond' glitter glue so that each one has just a little sparkle

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I die cut the tombstone into an oval added to the middle of the pumpkin with the ghosts

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Sticker reads' An eccentric, but estimable gentleman'

This crow image is magnificent - such intelligent birds and the gentleman reminded me of a vampire, hence the coffin image i placed in the background

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Now this one is a bit creepier, the stickers i chose read

'the young girl became possessed'    'Horrible sight'  'The Jack O'Lantern'

I added some green star gems to this background

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Heres another creepy little girl - reminds me of one of my nieces with those eyes😁

Stickers read 'something wicked this way comes'

'her luminous eyes'

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'In the shadow of the trees' 

'in the darkness'

'the witches dance and then vanish'

I added some fab bats and green star gems

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'Elmira is a curious women'

'wonders of a witch'

'smouldering rubbish with an old broomstick'

I added some gold gems to this one

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Now a bit less dark and more autumnal.  I added some die cut leaves with this kitty, pumpkins and a clearly besotted sentiment stamp 'autumn leaves & pumpkins please'

One of my cats loves chasing leaves so this is quite apt

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Kitty in leaves version 2 - i had printed the images out in 2 sizes so this was the bigger version of this image which i cut around.  Added some more die cut leaves and a lovely pumpkin

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and last but not least.  Heres a lovely little wood goblin out collecting leaves and pumpkins

 

My dads pumpkins have done well this year in the garden so we are planning a pumpkin carving session with my nieces at half term - that will be a new one for me having never done one before

Thank you for stopping by once again.  Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://everybody-art-challenge.blogspot.com/2023/10/544.html- pumpkins

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https://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/2023/10/sos507-franken-card.html

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-monday.blogspot.com/2023/10/october-2nd-monday-greetings-with.html - Fall/halloween & add a pumpkin

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https://inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/10/inspiration-station-october-2023.html - inspired by the pumpkins

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https://daranddiane.blogspot.com/2023/10/pumpkins.html

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https://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.com/2023/10/pumpkins.html

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House of Horrors

Good Morning everyone.  

So today im sharing something a bit different with a 3 dimensional project.  Im not really into halloween but am into all things mystical - witches, vampires, Cornish Piskeys so had great fun decorating this house shaped printer tray.

I bought a pack of halloween emphemra from ebay, containing lots of different products including tim holtz and combined with items ive collected over the years in my stash.  I decided to give each room of the house a different theme.  The attic isn't yet finished, im still looking for the perfect items which i have in mind. 

Overall Size: 12x7" (20x30 cm).  I first added touches of sand texture paste for the front edges and through a brick stencil on the outside sides of the house.  Once dry covered it all with black gesso. I then highlighted with dry brushing silver acrylic paint on top to give a kind of moonlight feel. 

I cut a blue and gold foil paper, inked the edges and glued to the back of each room of the house as wallpaper. I then bit by bit built up the rooms with items until i was happy, more details below on each room.  I then die cut spiders & webs from black cardstock, again added silver paint and added these to the front of the house.  

The Copse Bride room - i added a grunge board skull & cross bones to the back of the room, my immortal soul tab on top. A vintage wedded couple image, grave stone, skull, spider and white flowers inked with a touch of red. I added a black inked heart in the background. 

Close up, love the skull, so much detail in it

A close up on the spider web, see the fly? - Morrisons supermarket Halloween isle, i toned it down a bit with black ink but think it looks quite realistic. 

Lots of bottles of potions for the witches to use, ive built them up in the background using digital images printed out and sealed with mod podge.  For my real bottles in some i added a drop of alcohol ink just to stain the glass, in the red one there ive added lots of red alcohol ink and glued the cork lid in - a bottle of blood of course.  Micro beads, and glitter in another bottle.  Bits of twine and handmade tatty labels.  One bottle has tipped over and lost its cork stopper and that pesky fly is about. 

Is it an Angel, A Cherub or a nightmare?! I added wings which are actually a die cut angel wings but were the perfect size for the Tim Holtz doll, i also added black ink to tone down the white.  

The bats are sleeping peacefully while the spooky hand carries away an eyeball to its hidden lair.  Not another fly!  My eye balls are digital images, printed out and covered with glossy accents.  The hand reminds me of 'thing' in the Addams Family.

The Witches Lair -  2 Witches over seeing their latest potion.  The cauldron is chipboard - i painted it with black gesso, adding the gesso thick in places to give it texture.  In the backgound a pale whispy girl - Is it a ghost?!  More spiders and cobwebs.  Label in the front.  I added a metal bat at the top of this room too, being too shiny i again added black gesso to dull it down. 

More potions, i used sequins for my mermaid scales bottle, another spider and a little key...... maybe the key unlocks the attic...... time will tell....

This shows the outside wall of the house.  I added sand texture paste through a brick stencil, the sand texture gives a more realistic look to the bricks i think.  Once dry covered with black gesso and dry brushed on red and orange imagination crafts starlight paints and then just a light touch of silver acrylic paint. 

Items Used:

Tim Holtz idea'logy range

Mini bottles and various metal, chipboard charms & ephemera

spider & web die

Daisytrail 'steampunk emporium' digikit

Serif craft artist

Imagination crafts starlight paints

Brick stencil

Sand texture paste

Black gesso