A Spooky Night Shadow Box

Hello everyone!! This week we have a spooky theme at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, anything spooky, it doesn't have to be Halloween at all. We don't celebrate Halloween, but my son now thinks spooky stuff is lots of fun so I have made some projects for him this year.

 

I had a Tim Holtz Configurations shadow box at home that was waiting to be decorated and thought it was a perfect home to a spooky project, full of scary creatures and things hiding in the dark corners (if you dare to look for them). I used the Retro Halloween stamp and die combo for some of the embellishments, shrink plastic, grungeboard, corked vials and more. This is a pretty long post, because there are many details.

 



For the background paper, I coloured manila cardstock with Distress Ink and water (Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Rusty Hinge and Peeled Paint) and stamped with two different Tim Holtz Halloween background stamps. I used Archival Watering Can for the stamping instead of black ink, because I wanted a softer look on the background. The paper was splattered with Walnut Stain and a paint brush. I measured the boxes and scored and cut the papers accordingly. The papers were glued to the boxes with multi-medium.

 

Many of the stamps and dies I wanted to use were too large, so I turned to shrink plastic, which is a favourite surface of mine. The pieces were die cut from shrink plastic, or stamped on shrink plastic and cut out.

 

When I made my Autumn Luminary two weeks ago, I had left over UTEE in my melting pot. To use it up, I die cut shapes from shrink plastic, tossed them in the UTEE, where they shrunk and were covered with UTEE at the same time. Since the leaves I had dipped in the UTEE had been inked, the UTEE was slightly coloured and looked almost like honey. This technique was especially perfect for the bottles.

 

I coloured the non-UTEE shrink plastic pieces with alcohol ink at the back and then painted most of them at the back with Distress Paint, and some of the UTEE dipped ones too. These bottles look pretty cool. The non-UTEE pieces were coated with Glossy Accents, which gives them a great finished look.

 

These are more of the pieces I used; stamped, die cut from grungeboard and Core'dinations paper and metallic Idea-ology embellishments.

 

I have a thing for owls and I love this one. It was die cut from grungeboard and painted with Distress Paints. I stamped it with a crackle stamp for texture, placed orange paper behind the eyes and coated with Glossy Accents. The bottles were also painted with Distress Paints, sanded, inked with Black Soot, stamped with the crackle stamp and coated with Glossy Accents (except for the top).

 

I wanted to do something different with the corked vials and remembered a post by Wendy Vecchi where she had figured out that painting glass with Glue 'n Seal first, would make it possible for Distress Crackle paint to stick to the glass. This is such a cool technique, I love the results. After letting the Glue 'n Seal dry, I painted two of the bottles with Brushed Pewter Distress Crackle paint and the other three with Rock Candy Crackle. When the crackle paint was dry, I rubbed some watered down Distress Paint into the cracks, except for on the bottle to the left which was left as is. The bottles were filled with mica flakes and Distress Glitter.  

 

 These are so cool, I'll certainly do this technique again. 

 

The bottles were embellished with chit chat stickers and rub-ons. I inked the cork with Walnut Stain. I love these three bottles standing on top of the shadow box.

 

I hung some of the stars and the moon from the roof of the shadow box with jump rings and screw eyes. This is a hard project to photograph because of the dimension. The stamped bat is so cute and the title was done with chit chat stickers.  

 

At the back of this box there is a game piece painted black, bats, more chit chat stickers.

 At the bottom there are some UTEE shrink plastic leaves.

The owl was glued to the joints between the boxes. All the edges of the shadow box were painted with Black Soot Distress Paint.

The spider web was die cut from Core'dinations kraft-core cardstock, sanding the cardstock before die cutting.

In the box behind the spider web, a green bottle was placed, with a bunch of grungeboard scraps behind it for dimension. There is also a shrink plastic skeleton and a gear.

In the box to the left, there is another grungeboard bottle, an ink pot and more UTEE pieces. The fence has also been dipped in leftover UTEE, giving it a gooey appearance.

 

I had fun picking contents for the bottles. The clear cracked bottle with mica flakes inside (and screams) is my favourite.

 

In the last box there is a word stick, painted black and more shrink plastic bottles.

A shrink plastic witch, more spider web and a gear painted black.

The images were stamped on Neenah cardstock and die cut with the coordinating dies. The edges were inked with Gathered Twigs.

On the sides of the box I used leftover embellishments, a cat, a spooky tree with an UTEE owl and a smaller shrink plastic moon.

 

On this side there is a larger version of the witch and another UTEE bottle.

At the top I used the pharmacist label from the Poisonous set and of course the three bottles.

Make a spooky project this week and join us in the challenge. As always, one random participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp.

Thank you for looking!! Happy crafting!!

Anna-Karin

 

Supplies:
Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Configurations Shadow Box 5.5 x 5.5, Grungeboard; Ranger: Manila Cardstock, Shrink Plastic; Tim Holtz Core'dinations Kraft-Core cardstock; Neenah Smooth Cream cardstock
Dies: Sizzix: Mini Apothecary Bottles, Apothecary Bottles, Crescent Moon & Stars, Cobwebs, Mini Owl and Crescent Shaped Moon, Halloween Shadows, Writing Desk, Mini Tattered Leaves, Trick or Treat; Sizzix/Stampers Anonymous: Retro Halloween stamp and die set
Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz: Seasonal Catalogue 1, Poisonous, Ultimate Grunge,
Ink: Ranger Archival Ink: Watering Can, Jet Black; Distress Ink: Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs, Walnut Stain
Alcohol Ink: Butterscotch, Sunset Orange, Pitch Black
Paint: Distress Paint: Antique Linen, Walnut Stain, Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Black Soot; Ranger Distress Crackle Paint: Rock Candy, Brushed Pewter
Embossing Powder: Ranger: UTEE
Glitter: Distress Glitter: Spiced Marmalade, Black Soot; Stampendous: Pearlized Mica Fragments
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Seasonal Chit Chat Stickers, Corked Vials, Words Remnant Rubs, Game Pieces, Pen Nibs, Sprocket Gears, Mini Sprocket Gears, Screw Eyes, Word Sticks, Jump Rings
Adhesive: Ranger: Glue 'n Seal, Glossy Accents; Claudine Hellmuth Multi-Medium Matte