DecoArt Mixed Media Haunts Challenge

Hi all,

Well what with holidays, chest infections and asthma attacks I have had an interesting few weeks, but I'm back now, soooooooo - on with the show.

The challenge was to create something spooky for Halloween using DecoArts products so I decided to do something like a Victorian display case.

Unfortunately the glass dome is really reflective so its hard to see through because of the reflections,so here is a photo of the inside

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To start I cut a large circle of black card to fit the base of the dome to build the scene on.  I die cut Tim Holtz Branch Tree and the D Lites Wrought Iron die twice and also the D Lites Filigree cross die once.  I used a window die to draw round for the tomb stones.    I then made a half coffin from black card and added the letters RIP from the Tim Holtz Spooktacular Decorative Strip.  

This was then painted with raw umber antiquing cream, left to dry then wiped with a damp baby wipe, this gave it a great dusty appearance.  I had a plastic skeleton which I painted with Titan Buff and left to dry,  then added a layer of raw umber antiquing cream let dry again and then wiped with a baby wipe to leave some nice dark shadows.  The skeleton was given a black card top hat with some spiders web and added to the coffin as if it was climbing out.

The grave stones were painted with a mix of white gesso, dark chocolate, paynes grey, and evergreen DecoArt paint in a sploggy sort of way to look like old stone.  One of the trees was given a coat of transparent crackle glaze and after the cracks appeared a little white gesso was rubbed over the top.  For some reason this made the tree go slightly purple but I quite liked that so I decided to go with it.  This tree was mounted slightly off centre onto the other die cut tree and added to the base.

The two fence pieces  and the cross were sploged with paynes grey and white gesso randomly then given a coat of quinacridone gold to give them a rusty look.  The fence was added at the back of the base behind the tree, and the cross behind the coffin.

To make the rough grass I tore some strips of muslin and sprayed them with carbon black and yellow green mixed media mister but to tone it down a bit I also added some grey and brown from another make (sorry).  The muslin was added to the base by scrunching the fabric and gluing it down as I went along.

The base of the dome was covered in white modelling paste and dried with a heat gun to form a skin, then a damp stamp was pressed into the surface, I used a crack stamp and a text stamp, and then set aside to dry.  A coat of Titan Buff was applied and allowed to dry then a coat of raw umber antiquing cream was added on top.  Once dry this was rubbed with a damp baby wipe to reveal the titan buff under coat.

The dome was also given a spooky makeover.  I stencilled some bats onto the inside of the glass, as the dome was curved I needed to stencil some bats onto my non stick craft sheet and when they were dry I peeled them off carefully and added them to the curved part of the dome.  I then made a moon stencil and made some gold stencil paste by adding some metallic gold fluid acrylic paint to the white stencil paste, and added the moon to the outside of the glass behind the bats.

To add a little more atmosphere I added some clouds on the outside of the glass with white stencil paste.

Well there you have it my halloween extravaganza, and as anyone who has visited my blog before will tell you..... my daughter has already claimed this piece for her student house in Chichester!

Oh well

Lyn