December 2013 Tag (Hot Air Balloon) based on Tim Holtz tags of 2013

I've been wanting to try the paper hot air balloon tutorial by Laura Carson at Artfully Musing. I also wanted to try out the December Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013 tutorial as well.

So I combined the two and created a Tim Holtz Paper Hot Air Balloon with the tattered poinsettia, and the frosted film over the Clearly for Art plastic!

There is a paper hot air balloon template on the Artfully Musing blog that I used to cut out the sections of the balloon. Check out Laura's crazy paper hot air balloons on her blog. They are unbelievable! Laura also has a video tutorial you can watch that is helpful.
Here are my hot air balloon sections. I used the seasonal Tim Holtz red and white paper pad "Merriment".

So first I prepared all the sections of my paper hot air balloon using the pattern. I used glossy accents to glue each segment together. It's kind of tricky, but I followed the instructions on the video tutorial and it worked pretty well.

I used a tart tin for the balloon basket, poked holes in it with nails, and put some wire through the holes. It was my first hot air balloon attempt, so after this attempt I learned that there are probably some better ideas than my own on how to attach the balloon to the basket that I will try next time. Then I heated and molded the 2 largest tattered poinsettia pieces with frosted film on them around the tart tin to make the basket covering. Then I glued it on the basket. I coated the reverse side of the clearly for art with distress paint and let it dry before I heated it to mold it around the basket. Then I made a poinsettia using the smaller pieces and stuck it on the bottom as well.

I used some beads and ribbon to hang up the hot air balloon. There is a bead on the top of the hot air balloon, and some beads inside to hold the ribbon hanger in place. Next time I will add the ribbon and beads BEFORE I finish gluing all the pieces of the hot air balloon together as you can't get your fingers inside the balloon afterwards %#$!

Then I strung on a santa bead and a bell bead onto the ribbon to hang down the center. The basket is the right size to hold a battery votive candle!

So that's my attempt at combing two great tutorials and I love my paper hot air balloon, even though it's a little goofy. (That's what mica glitter is for, to cover up the goofiness). I am also very happy that I completed an entire year of 12 tags and have learned a lot!

Thanks to Tim Holtz and Laura Carson for their great tutorials! I have had tons of fun this year making lots of creative stuff and trying out new mediums that I would have never tried!

Merry Christmas!

Spooky Halloween Mini Hutch Altered Art Shrine

It's well into November so I'm a little late finishing my Halloween mini-hutch project but here it is. It's very spooky and loaded with treasures. The mini-hutch base is from Alphastamps. They had a mini-halloween hutch swap that looked interesting. I started my project after their swap was over, but I was inspired by all of their entries in their mini-hutch swap gallery. Their entries enticed me into working on that blank hutch I'd purchased several months ago. I'd already made some spooky treasures with no home yet.

The hutch kit pieces fit together with some tabs that you glue into place. The kit comes with the hutch, a bat, and 3 skull cutouts! I painted the hutch, then papered and glittered it! The dragon/monster is a jewelry charm. The tiny jars are filled with glitter. I used halloween tissue tape for the jar labels. The table is a small spool with wire. There is a bat flying on the wire.

Here's the back of the hutch. I filled it with just as much spooky stuff as the front. 

I made the candles out of polymer clay. I made the pumpkin following a tutorial from miniature artist Caroline Mcfarlane-Watts. The orange skull is a ceramic bead and I added the chain fringe. The candles are attached to a dollhouse platter, and the black chain is attached to the platter handles. The cauldron-looking flagpole holder is just a small wooden knob-like item found in the craft store near all the packages of small wooden shapes.

Here's the side of the mini-hutch. The little girl graphic is from a collage sheet from Alphastamps. 

 

Here's the other side of the mini-hutch.

This witch is from another collage sheet from Alphastamps. You can see the fringe on the orange ceramic skull bead from this angle.

I made a flag for the top out of a wooden skewer painted black. The flag is some tissue tape. I topped it off with a green bead and owl bead on a headpin that I cut off and glued on the top.

Here's a close up of the scary items.

The paper trim is from the Tim Holtz die called Ironwork Gate. After I die-cut it from cardstock I just snipped off pieces that I needed, painted them black, and glued them on. The die makes great trim.

I really enjoyed making the hutch so my next project will probably be a Christmas hutch of some kind. The finished size is only 2 3/4" X 5 3/4", so it's not very big. I enjoyed making this project because it wasn't overwhelming as it was small and gave me somewhere to display all the tiny treasures I had created.

So Happy Belated Halloween from my spooky cupboard! Make one, its lots of fun!

November 2013 Tag based on Tim Holtz tags of 2013

Here is my tag based on the November Tim Holtz 12-tags-of-2013 tutorial. I was excited to play with chalk because I'd never tried that technique yet from the Chemistry 102 course. So I got out the old school chalk and was ready to try some fingerpainting!

It turned out pretty cool and wasn't hard. I was expecting it to be hard because everyone said it would take lots of trial and error, but the tutorial worked great for me. Here's what I did. I had some cool vintage-looking manila folders from Hobby Lobby, the package said Fiddlestix Paperie. I used the Tim Holz Mover's and Shapers Tag and Bookplates Die to cut out some tags. Now I have some really cool bookplates to go on another project too!

Then I got out some Americana chalkboard paint, and used my fingers to paint an area on the tags. Pretty messy but enjoyable. I painted on two coats. Then I let it dry overnight. Hey, see my cool glass owl place-mat for my spot at the kitchen table so I won't keep ruining my table/tablecloth with my painting projects. I have other places I could paint, but I always seem to like to paint at the kitchen table where more stuff is happening.

Then I stamped using Ranger Distress embossing ink, and poured on the ranger antiquities Frosted embossing powder. I heated it up carefully because I was afraid the chalkboard paint might bubble or melt, but it didn't. I didn't hold the heat gun too close and waited until the embossing powder just barely melted.

Then I got the side of the square chalk and just drew on the embossed image and it worked great! The tutorial worked like a charm. This was my first time trying out the antiquities embossing powder. I'd never heard of it before.

So my tag turned out pretty cool! No blunders this time. I'm hoping to finish up the other two and see if they turn out as well. I think it helped that I was using white cheap-o pastel chalk that is a little softer than school chalk.

Excellent tutorial! I'm learning so much from the 12-tags tutorials and all of the creative tutorials people post! Thanks!

This is the first time I used a stamp from my new stamp set from Chocolate Baroque. I'd ordered the stamp set forever ago, but my order got lost in the mail from England to the US. They were kind enough to send a replacement set. Whew! The set is called Fancy Flowers.

Here's the second tag I created with a Christmas theme. I used embossing enamel this time and didn't use chalk. It's kind of glopy and lumpy, but has a slight shimmer that you can't see in the photo. Very vintage looking.

Even though I'm displaying a Christmas tag, Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey, I found out some of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower, so I will be celebrating it with reverence this year in gratitude for all those who made it possible for me to be here!

The Steampunk Spells Halloween Train!

 I've been playing along with Laura Carson's "Halloween Carnival Event" on the Artfully Musing blog. 

 I wanted a spooky Steampunk Spells Train for my carnival so I created this one and I love it!

I purchased a small plain wooden train from "Toys R Us" to decorate for my spooky carnival. I painted each train car. Then I cut out and glued on paper from the 8 X 8 Steampunk Spells paper pad by Graphic 45, and some from the 6 X 6 Authentique "Enchanted" paper pad. The train is adorable and creepy! I still have to finish two more train cars. Here is the train so far.

I ordered some more Tim Holtz mini-gears to go in the center of each wheel. I ran out after the train engine.

My train also could use some spooky characters to ride the train. I'll work on that as well.

I have two more train cars to finish and my train will be ready for my spooky guests to ride.
I used the Tim Holtz distress ripe persimmon for the orange train, and black soot distress paint for the wheels. I like the fluidity of the distress paint. It's fun to work with. It's like ink, but is opaque. Pretty cool on wood!! The teal and purple paint is from martha stewart. It's a nice paint as well, more like regular acrylic paint. I use scotch quick-drying tacky glue to adhere the papers to the painted wood. After the paper is dry, I sealed the paper surfaces with a matte decoupage medium. I stuck the gears on with glossy accents. I distressed the edges of the paper with the black soot distress paint. Sometimes I distressed the edges with the orange or purple paint. I usually distress with distress ink, but I didn't want it to smear when I applied the matte medium over the top. Distress paint won't smear once it's dry and you can apply matte medium over the top of it with no problem.

Here are the last two cars I finished. The open car, and the caboose.

Here's the caboose! I made the gourd out of polymer clay using a tutorial from Carloline McFarlane-Watts.

Here are the parked train cars from the back.

Here is the Steampunk Spells Train ready to go.

To see the rest of my Halloween Carnival click here.

Happy Halloween!

October 2013 Tag based on Tim Holtz tags of 2013

Here is my October 2013 Tag based on the October Tim Holtz 12-tags-of-2013 tutorial. I love the new owl and moon dies!!! I also plan to get the frame die sometime in the future!

I love Halloween and thought it would be fun to swing on the moon this Halloween!

I tried out the new Tim Holtz glitter on the moon. It works nicely! I crackled the tree and tried out the new Tim Holtz spooky fence strip die. I only used the gate part. It's a cool die. I made the charm using a free image from the internet somewhere and a jewelry charm finding and some epoxy resin.

Here's the second tag I made. I stuck more to the tutorial. I still haven't got the marbleizing with the distress paints technique down yet. I'll have to practice some more. I got it to work better a few months back. I like the glitter frame die from the tutorial, and think it's a great idea for many different cards/projects, so I tried to improvise with the frame since I don't have the frame die from the tutorial yet.

So I glittered up another owl from the new owl and moon movers and shapers die's but then I decided to use the owl in my Spooky Halloween Carnival I'm building for Halloween. The gate strip die will be excellent around my Carnival!! The Carnival is not finished yet, but you can check it out here.

My Spooky Halloween Carnival Village based on the  Laura Carson's "Halloween Carnival Event" on the Artfully Musing blog.

I included a few pictures of items from my village below.

Here you can get a tiny ticket to my spooky Halloween Carnival.

Or take a relaxing seat on the bench where the witches hang out.

or take a ride on my Scary Carousel if you dare!!!

The song is called "Calliope of Death" and is available on itunes.

So even if you don't enjoy Halloween like I do, we just have fun with it. Nothing evil there, only skeletons, spiders, and goblins goofing off!!!

My husband teaches anatomy, skeletons just want to have fun!

So many fun projects, so little time!

The Haunted Halloween Carnival!!!

I've been playing along with Laura Carson's "Halloween Carnival Event" on the Artfully Musing blog.

So far I've made the "Spooky Ticket Booth", the Carousel Entrance, and the "Haunted Carousel" pieces. I'm hoping to finish one more piece by Halloween.

It's been tons of fun so far. All the instructions are on the Halloween Carnival Event blog. Many of the supplies needed are just old cans, and old cake pan, and old pie pan, cardstock, scary paper, glue and spooky items from your spooky Halloween stash. Other items can be found at Alphastamps!

Here's what I've finished so far...

The Scary Ticket Booth

Here's the spooky ticket booth! The bottom is part of a salt container and the top is a water chestnuts can. The rest is spooky halloween cardstock, and some chipboard. (OK, I didn't use chipboard, I just used the cardboard from the back of a new shirt to make the back of the ticket booth.) The Tickets sign is from the Halloween Carnival Event graphics set.

Here's a close up of Mr. Skeleton who works the ticket booth.

 

I made the skeleton candle from a skull bead and some polymer clay I molded like a candle. The wick is some black wire. The dish is a jewelry finding. I made it on the dish and popped the whole dish, bead, and clay in the oven and baked it for 15 minutes. The pumpkins are seed pods that look like pumpkins you can order from  Alphastamps (pumpkin pods).

The witch weather vane I made using some wire I poked into the top. Then I put a bead on the wire, then a spinning propeller. I glued two beads together and paper punched out some witches and glued them together so they were stiffer and glued the witch onto the top of the two beads. After the witch was dry, I placed that on top of the wire so it spins. The propeller spins too! The cone on the roof is just a paper mache cone that I cut down a little. The witch paper punch is from Fiskars.

The Carnival Entrance

The bases are some wooden circles I painted and covered in paper. There are spools on top with wooden dowels. The chain is plastic chain from "Michaels". The Carnival sign and moon girl are from the Halloween Carnival Rides graphics set.

 All the instructions are in the tutorial videos on the Artfully Musing site.

Here's the first bench I finished. It's made from some wood I painted and papered. The sides are some wooden owls from "Hobby Lobby" I painted and glued onto the sides as armrests. The owls are the bench legs. I'm making another bench but it's not finished yet.

Here's the second bench I made. The witch is made from felt and pipe cleaners using the book Felt Wee Folk-Enchanting Projects by Sally Mavor. I added the witch bead head from Alpha-stamps. I made her broom out of a stick and some raffia I had lying around.

The Haunted Carousel

Here's the spinning Haunted Carousel! It's made out an old cake pan and pie tin roof. I can't even begin to explain this one. You just have to watch the tutorial videos on the Artfully Musing site. It looked like it would be very hard to make, but it wasn't. It's do-able. I had an old battery powered spinner platform laying around and it fit perfectly under the base. It spins backwards, but hey, this is a Haunted Carousel. The carousel animals are from the Halloween Carnival Rides graphics set. 

The top of the Carousel is a round paper mache box covered in paper and embellishments. The lion is a jewerly embellishment from "Michaels" that I glued onto a ball-thingy that was in a bag of potpourri. I painted the ball-thingy and stuck spiders all over it as I thought it looked like a spider sack. (gross.)

Here's a movie of the carousel in action. Keep in mind that this is just made of junk, glue, and paper.

The song is called "Calliope of Death" and is available on itunes.

The Umbrella

I finished an umbrella that goes next to a bench. The stand is made from a spool and a festive paper soda straw. The umbrella is from a free umbrella paper template on the Halloween Carnival Event blog. I used glossy accents to stick it together. A wooden skewer holds up the umbrella. Then I just slid the skewer into the umbrella stand. (So the umbrella is removable...in case of a wind-storm ha-ha.)

The Boo Bash

I got a little carried away with the roof on my "Boo Bash" pavillion. I created a little platform that is sitting on top of a glittered styrofoam ball. I got a bag of the glittered balls at Hobby Lobby which were very handy in making my carnival because you can poke wires into them. I used some for the bench legs as well. I glued the balls on top of my wooden circle platform and then stuck the Jolee's dimensional embellishments into the little balls. The embellishment set came on wires to poke into floral arrangements, etc. Perfect! Then I made a little spinner propeller for the top as well.The propeller really spins. Excellent!

I added a microphone graphic for the grumpy pumpkin performers.

"We are the Strike"

So I decided my son's 9-piece band "We Are the Strike" should perform with the Grumpy Pumpkin Trio for one night only, Halloween! Here they are headlining in the Spooky Carnival.

I created the stage platforms using the Tim Holtz Large Pumpkin die. I used more styrofoam glittered balls for the stage legs.

I made the sign support from chipboard covered in paper. I have an old Sizzix hinge die that I used to cut some hinges out of metallic paper that hold the three pieces of the sign support together. I punched through the chipboard with a 1/8 hole punch and used tiny brads to stick the hinges to the chipboard. It's hard to see the little sign platform but it's very dimensional, like a real sign easel made of wood.

I used some graphics from Little Dreamer Designs to make the sign, plus I added my own graphics in photoshop.

Looks like a ghoulish party to me!

Here's a link to the real band's website:  "We are the Strike"!

Here they are playing a cover of Benny and the Jets, with the lead singer of "Chicago".

The Steampunk Spells Train

I purchased a small plain wooden train from "Toys R Us" to decorate for my spooky carnival. I painted each train car. Then I cut out and glued on paper from the 8 X 8 Steampunk Spells paper pad, and some from the 6 X 6 Authentique "Enchanted" paper pad. The train is adorable and creepy! I still have to finish two more train cars. Here is the train so far. 

I ran out of the Tim Holtz mini-gears, but I plan on putting the gears in the center of each wheel like I did on the train engine. I will also add characters inside the train. Still a work in progress.

That's it so far... I will post more as I finish.