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

11. Grow Your Own Zombie

Oh yes, it's Zombie Time! Who doesn't love zombies? Well, now you can (sort of) grow your own little pot zombies.

You will need

A polystyrene hand

Acrylic gel medium/Mod Podge

Black tissue paper

2/3 different green paints

Flesh coloured paint (I used a Posca pen)

Black and red paint pens or markers (again, I used Posca pens)

Crackle Accents

A plant pot (mine was 12cm diameter)

Graveyard silhouette cut out (mine was a Quickutz border cut from black card, optional)

Take your polystyrene hand and cover it with acrylic gel medium (or Mod Podge), and scrunched up black tissue paper. Be sure to make the tissue paper nice and wrinkly, and add a few lumps and bumps too. Cover the tissue paper with another layer of gel medium and leave to dry. Now, go and wash all the black off your fingers! When dry, cover with a mix of two or three suitably zombie green paints and leave to dry.

You can see that I missed some bits so some of the black shows through - this is fine. Note the lumpy bits too.

Once the green is dry, lightly go over some parts with the flesh colour. Don't cover the green, it's more like giving a hint of decomposing flesh!

Add some wounds, especially over those lumps and bumps. by adding a small splodge of red and then roughly outlining in black. Immediately add crackle accents just to the wounds - this will make the red and black run into each other. Leave to dry for longer than you think. You should end up with something that looks a little like this. Note to self - do not put it in the soil before taking the photo, otherwise bits of soil will get everywhere!

Now, because the hand is polystyrene, use your thumbnails to press into it where the knuckles would be, and also around the edge of the hand's nails to emphasis them. Outline the nails in black and again, add your crackle accents straight away and leave to dry.

One you're happy with the way your hand looks, all you need to do is place it in your plant pot and add a little potting soil around it.

I decorated my pot by painting it black and adding a graveyard border around the top, but you can leave it plain or decorate however you like. Et voila - grow your own zombie. It looks a little different here, but my camera loves to show off its flash, even in full daylight!

By the way, if you don't have house room for a full sized zombie plant, you could make a mini one with a doll's hand (bye bye Barbie!) and a mini plant pot.

I have entered this in the Corrosive Challenge Blog for Halloween and the Altered Eclectics Challenge..

Have fun, and come back tomorrow for more from the lovely Jas.

Bex

P.S Winners of the giveaway for matchbox monsters are:

KarmaCraft
Jill
Sue Jones
Gill Parry
Amy Wood
Irene Boothroyd

Congratulations - email your address to rebecca.mclean@gmail.com and I will post to you as soon as possible.