Matchbox Skeleton Shack

I'm running a swap over on UKScrappers at the moment to mak a little Halloween matchbox of horrors because )a) there are no other Halloween swaps on there and (b) I do love me a good matchbox.

The swap is to decorate a matchbox and make a little book to fit inside it. I may (ahem) have gone a little overboard this time as here is what I've ended up with. I was aiming for the look of an old abandoned haunted shack, and although I'm not too sure about my attempts at cobwebs I'm happy with the overall result.

There are three medium sized matchboxes glue together to make the house as you can see below. All covered with hand cut and inked paper to look like old weatherboard.  I used one of those plastic rulers with an image that appears to move as you move the ruler (sorry, I have no idea what the name for them is) to line the matchboxes. The ruler has marching skeletons on it which,, if you take the little books out can just be seen through the windows of the shack (hence skeleton shack).

The roof is made with a straw chimney and two smaller matchboxes inside - these hold little Halloween tickets that came from here and here which I resized to fit.

Inside each f the larger matchboxes are some little books that I made, and I will leave it for the recipient to find out what's inside.

I hope my swap partner likes it and thanks for looking.

26. Don't Open The Door!

Wow Lou, a fantabulous project yesterday and one I will be making as it would go well with my offering for today.

Heard of fairy doors? Little doors that you place around your house, often next to the skirting, to let the fairies in. Phht - we want no butterflies and flowers and fairy dust coming in at this time of year. We want to welcome something scarier into our homes, right?

So, in the spirit of fairy doors, I present some Halloween doors.

First thing that came to mind was zombies. Of course, you probably don't want to let them in because they'll wreck your house and eat your brains right? So, I did a keep out door, using corrugated card as the base, the frame from a small shadowbox like the one I used for my Danse Macabre post, and faux planks of wood (see my witch's birdhouse post for details). A little gel pen for the nails, some printed zombie tape, a zombie picture behind the frame (mostly hidden) and some arms from the cheapest of cheap pound shop fake barbies, painted green, and bob's your uncle.

See, I told you not to throw away the dolls after you use the legs for Lou's project.

But why stop at zombies? Why not go horror as well? So next, I did a psycho door. Same corrugated card base, a bit of scrap sheer-ish fabric and some eyelets, glued onto the perspex from the shadow box frame for sturdiness. I slashed it a bit and added some alcohol ink for the blood. I also pooled some glossy accents at the bottom, coloured with the same red alcohol ink, and when it dried you have a nice pool of blood emerging from underneath the shower curtain which I accented with a knife photo. Not sure it's the sort of home decor that Janet Leigh would like, but it's going in my bathroom.

A door doesn't have to be just door shaped though. I recently received, via a swap, a coffin cut from chipboard and a skeleton that fit's beautifully inside. Plenty of templates out there on the net. I covered the coffin with paper and added an RIP charm I had. Did you know, if you add a splot of glossy accents and then smear it all over with the side of your finger, you get a passable polished coffin wood effect? Well, you do now.















I added some red crystals to my skeleton's eyes, and then you can leave the door somewhere either closed of half open to make it easier. I imagine skeletons, having not much in the way of  muscle tone, might appreciate the extra help.


And finally, arachnophobes look away now! It's going to get worse!!













I wanted to use the last bit of the shadow box, seeing as I had now used the other bits and couldn't really get a refund any more! So, I lined the base with paper with webs stamped over it, and filled it with a couple of fake plastic spiders and that fake web stuff that you can get in the Halloween aisle at this time of year. I made a web from thin black wire and added another spider, so hopefully it has a bit of depth and looks like a spiders' lair. A door made from embossed and inked card completes the deal.

Just for fun I'm entering this into The Male Room Challenge  and the Left of Center Challenge blogs.

Well, that's it for me for today. Tune in to see another fab project tomorrow, and the next time I post will be for our last Wicked Wednesday giveaway.

Stay spooky.

Bex

17. Get Your Freak On! Steampunk Skeleton Burlesque.

Thanks Lou for the junk to junque ideas yesterday. I am in the process of assembling a journal myself and these would be a great addition.

Now for today. Have you heard of She Art? If not google it. It's all very positive and affirming right? But this is Halloween so we need something a little darker.

With this in mind, I present my version - Freak Art! I am indebted to the lovely Sian  for the freak art idea, and apologies to Lou for spoiling the suurprise as these are for her!

Same basic concept - focal figure, arty background, quote starting with "she".  Only instead of some faceless female surrounded by flowers and sunshine and butterflies and all that malarky, we have a steampunk burlesque skeleton and a much more Halloween type quote.

The background is just embossed card which has been inked to highlight some of the embossing. Very plain, but I don't have much in the way of suitable steampunk stuff and I quite like the effect. The image comes from here because, frankly, there aren't too many steampunk burlesque skeleton images around! I did have to reduce her cleavage somewhat (it was huge!) but other than that, she is just printed out, mounted onto greyboard, and cut. I added some watch parts, hinge and wire to jazz up her corset and hat. The skull and torso are glued to the background, but the arms and legs are attached with brads so that she can be whip off her skirt in true burlesque style! The quote is a play on skeletons in the closet.

And finally, because I'm an equal opportunities kind of person, I did a companion boylesque piece. Skeleton from the same place as before, different quote (comes from a Timberland song, and looked better than jump your bones, but means the same). Again, he is posable so you can decide whether or not he should go the full monty or leave his hat on.

Have fun using your own preferred images - we'd love to see the results.

I have entered this into the Oddball Stamps Challenge blog.

Well, that's all for today, but come back tomorrow to see what fun Jaz has in store.

Bex

14. Danse Macabre

Fabulous project from Lou yesterday - all I need to do now is find some matching socks. I swear I sacrifice socks to the god of washing machines every time I run the thing!

Today, I wanted to do something based on the Danse Macabre, because, well, who doesn't love a dancing skeleton or two?!

This is a simple cheap wooden shadow box frame that I bought from the craft store. There are various ways you could produce this. I actually had a stamp with the moon, tree and graveyard, but if you don't have anything suitable there are plenty of graveyard images out there on the web.

You need to make your background the same height as the interior of your shadow box but, and this is crucial, wider. Rather than trying to cover each side, it is much easier to bend it round. Hopefully you can see what I mean in the photo above. This also gives a better 3D look, plus much less need to fix it in place, although you can add a little glue if you like. You should paint/decorate the top and bottom of the inside of the shadow box before you fit your background in - I used the same paint I used on my stamped image, painted directly onto the wood, and then plain black at the bottom.

Once you've fitted your background, you're going to need some skeletons. If you have suitable sized skeleton stamps then all well and good but I don't. A search online produced a very popular dancing skeleton on the left, although I am unable to find who made it. The one on the right is from Hans Holbein's woodcuts. There are a huge variety of skeletons in there, and since they were produced in the 16th century then they are well out of copyright now!  Print/stamp your skeletons onto as thick a card as you can manage, and back it with another piece of card if possible as they have to be sturdy enough to stand up. Carefully cut around them, leaving a small tab at the bottom of their feet. Colour the tab the same as the bottom of your background and bend it back so that you can glue it to the bottom. As it's a shadow box, you can glue them a little bit apart from the background so add dimension.

Finally, decorate the outside of the fame however you like. I used some paint, web stamp and crackle glaze because, having found my crackle glaze I am determined to get some use it before I lose it again!

I love the way that as the light changes during the day, the shadows from the skeletons change position and add to the general spookiness.

This is also in the Deliciously Dark Challenge.

Well, that's it for today. I will leave you in Jas' capable hands for tomorrow. Enjoy, and hope to see you again soon.

Bex

4 - Arachnophilia, for the LOVE of SPIDERS

Good Morning fellow Halloweeners.  Today I'll show you how I created these gorgeous Junque Journal Covers.  The only limitation is your imagination.

Material Used.
Old Sketchbook cardboard  back cover
Plastic Halloween toys (spider and a skeleton)
Black Tissue paper
Hot Glue & Gun
PVA Glue
Acrylic Paints in Black and Red
Treasure Gold (in Gold)

1. Draw a spiders web onto the cardboard.
2. Using hot glue trace over your pencil lines.
3. Attach spider with hot glue gun.

4. Tear up black tissue paper into small pieces, mine where roughly 1"x2".
5. Slap on lots of PVA glue and stick down lots of tissue paper.  Apply to front and back.
6.  Once dry, use the black and red acrylic paint to add colour to the tissue paper, colour both front and back.

7. Once dry highlight with Treasure Gold.

My finished front and back covers.

I am entering this into the  Frilly and Funkie Halloween challenge.

Googling "altered halloween book covers" will return a freaky selection of ideas, enjoy!

Lou x