Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Translucent Ghost Banner Tutorial

Hi friends! I posted a friendly ghost project yesterday, and today comes a ghost tutorial, which is a little spookier. It was done with Sizzix dies and embossing folders.

I made a fun ghost banner/pennant using Lori Whitlock's Big Banner as my base, and embellishing it with dies and texture fades by Tim Holtz. The Big Banner is an L Bigz die and it is 5.2 x 8 in, which is a great size for a banner or pennant. Since it is a Bigz die, it can cut through thick material, so you can make banners from chipboard, thick fabric, etc. I used mat board, but you can use chipboard instead. I had the idea of making a banner where the ghosts are dimensional and translucent, which will look cool hanging in front of a window, for example. 

Cover a piece of mat board with foil tape and die cut the banner. Use this sandwich: Cutting Pad, die facing up, mat board, second Cutting Pad.

 Here's what the banner looks like.

Position the Ghost die in the centre of the banner and die cut. I will use the ghosts on another project.

Emboss the banner in the Batground and Cobwebs texture fades.

Paint the whole thing with Black Soot.

Leave the paint until it is almost dry and then wipe most of it off. The paint will remain in the recessed bats, and around the web.

Die cut the Ghosts from Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art Modeling Film, which you might already know is one of my favourite surfaces.

Stamp ghosts with a script stamp and Stazon ink.

Heat the film with a heat gun and shape the ghosts. You might need to work one section at a time. Be careful not to burn yourself.

Also die cut the ghosts three times from vellum.

Emboss the vellum ghosts in the Mesh folder, for texture.

Staple the three vellum ghosts behind the clear one. 

At first, I was planning to hang the ghosts from two holes, but I changed my mind and poked a small hole above its head instead. Use fishing line through the larger eye. You hardly see the line at all.

Since I had already punched two holes to hang the ghosts from, I added some more holes to the banner, to make it look like they were there on purpose. It was meant to look a bit like eyes looking through from the back. Here you can see how translucent the ghosts are when held up against the light. 

To hang, I punched holes, set eyelets through them and stapled a Halloween Trimmings ribbon. The bats are from the Wicket Alpha Parts

I hung a typed token in jump rings on a Ring Fastener.

Chit Chat stickers were used to add some words to the project. Here you can clearly see the effect of the embossed bats together with the metal and paint. 

The Wicked Alpha Part word was painted with Picket Fence, since the banner needed something more in white.

It looks pretty cool with the textured and translucent ghosts hanging in the opening of the banner, almost as if they are floating.

Anton wanted to pose with the banner to show you how the light shines through the ghosts. We have decided to hang it in the living room window, where there is good light in the afternoons and early evenings, instead of in his room, since his room is already pretty full of Halloween decorations, both mine and decorations he made himself. Halloween is a big thing for him.

Thank you for looking! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

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