Spooky Book Cabinet Tutorial

Hi and welcome! I was so happy to have been asked to make some samples with Tim Holtz new holiday products and today I have a really fun Halloween tutorial to share. I used a lot of idea-ology papers and embellishments here, as well as Sizzix dies. 

The idea of making a book cabinet full of odds and ends has been on my mind for a while and I had such fun with this project. In the book cabinet, a witch or a wizard has collected all sorts of curiosities. There are books, of course, and I wrote some of the stories I make up for my son in them. The owner's cat has is exploring the cabinet and so is a bat. The owner of the cabinet also forgot her or his hat on one of the shelves. 

I used a Configurations box as my base, and removed some of the boxes to create space for the cat and the other items in the middle section. This is a long post, so let's start. 

Die cut multiple cats, bats and hats from grungeboard using the new Hocus Pocus die. This is such a fun die and you get three great shapes on the one Bigz die.

 Glue the shapes together to form dimensional embellishments.

Paint with Black Soot.

 When the paint is dry, sand the cat slightly.

Ink with Ground Espresso. You don't see it well on this photo, but the ink shows in the areas that were sanded.

 

Mix a little bit of silver paint into Texture Paste and smear through the Batground stencil, for a fun pattern for the cat. I made sure to place the stencil so that one bat was in the center of the face.

I wanted to use the Jack O' Lanterns and Skull dies, but they are too large for this project. The solution was to die cut them from shrink plastic. This is a favorite technique of mine.

Shrink according to the instructions on the packaging. Here you can see how much smaller they get. 

Colour with alcohol inks, using a ink blending tool with a felt applicator. 

Coat the shapes with Glossy Accents for a great finish. Leave to dry.

 

The books were made with the Matchbox die. I die cut them from the cover of one of Tim's paper stashes. I like repurposing packaging in this way. Cut off the two flaps.

Adhere a piece of sticky-back canvas as the spine of the book.

Colour Mixed Media cardstock by smearing Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink on a craft sheet. Mist with water and press the paper into the ink. Repeat on the other side.

Cut the papers and fold. I used three signatures of three papers each in every book. Ink.

The book covers were painted black. This also covered up the print from the packaging on the inside.

I used some of the portraits in the Regions Beyond paper stash to cover the front of the books and other papers for the back. Pierce holes and tie the signatures with twine. Isn't that skeleton fun?

I wanted the inside of the boxes to look as if they had been wallpapered with all kinds of odds and ends, with no particular order. To achieve that, I measured and cut squares and rectangles using the new Regions Beyond 8 x 8 papers. The boxes were painted along all the joints, so that if any edges showed, they would be black. Sand the papers and ink with Ground Espresso.

Stamp the papers with various Halloween stamps using Jet Black ink. I later added some rub-ons too, from the Curiosities set.

This is how I arranged the boxes. Later, I also painted the edges black. Glue the patterned papers into the boxes with matte multi-medium.

 The Trophy Cup and Tiny Vials were aged with alcohol ink.

I folded up a piece of paper and placed inside the new Apothecary Vials. The Tiny Vial in the middle has white embossing powder inside (bone dust) and the one to the right has Spiced Marmalade Distress Glitter.

 I crumbled up a piece of paper and placed in the trophy. The Texture Paste was smeared on top.

 When the paste was dry, I painted it.

After gluing all the boxes into place, I placed a Regions Beyond Design Tape around the edges, using matte multi-medium to make sure it was stuck well.

If you want to hang anything from the ceilings of the boxes, do that before gluing them in place. I used Ring Fasteners to hang items, in this case a very cool Oddities Adornments spider.

Here's the hat of the owner of the cabinet, forgotten on a shelf. An owl peaks through from the back. The spider sticker comes from the Gothic Industrious Stickers set.

In the last small box, a Crypt Cameo hangs from the ceiling. A Boneyard resin skull was glued to the edge. I used another two skulls in other places.

The Wicked Alpha Part words were distressed with brown paint.

I placed thick foam pieces behind the cat, for the sake of more dimension. I was happy with how well she fitted into the box.

 

I painted a little more silver paint on the bats, after the paste was dry.

The cat has climbed up among some ephemera pieces and the two shrink plastic pumpkins.

 The word band was glued to the edge, next to another skull.

The cat is looking at some spooky potions and mixtures, placed on a shelf. The skull at the back was first stamped, but is disappeared a little on the patterned paper, so I used one of the white backed rub-ons, and simply cut off the top so that it looked like the hat is sitting on top of the head.

 There is a pen nib with old ink, which might have been used to write the books.

 I love the look of these. Paint the back with Picket Fence paint to make them a little less transparent.

On this shelf, you find some more mysterious bottles, and a shrink plastic skull. 

I was real happy with how this skull turned out. The combination of Snow Cap Mixative and Pitch Black alcohol ink was very effective.

The label to the left comes from the Vial Labels with a rub-on on top, the label to the right comes with the Apothecary Vials.

The mini books look nice on their shelf, and fit perfectly into this Configurations box.

When the books are removed, their box looks like this. This undertaker stamp is very spooky.

I added some rub-on words to the books.

These are the backs of the books. I really had fun making these tiny books.

In the books, I will write some of the stories I make up for Anton in the evenings. Yesterday, I finished the first one. He wanted a story about Vampires, Monsters and Witches - 'but nice ones, they mustn't be too spooky so that they frighten me'. In our stories, the bad characters often turn out to be nice in the end. I illustrated the book with stamps.

I adhered papers to the top and sides of the box too, the top looks like this.

One of the sides of the box, with a funny skeleton ephemera piece.

The other side of the box.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it inspired you to make some Halloween projects. You could also adapt the ideas and techniques to fit for Christmas projects.

Thank you so much for watching!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Die JACK O LANTERNS Bigz	Tim Holtz Sizzix Die HOCUS POCUS Bigz	Tim Holtz Sizzix Die SKULL Bigz	Tim Holtz Sizzix MATCHBOX	Tim Holtz MINI HALLOWEEN 3
Tim Holtz UNDERTAKER	Tim Holtz LITTLE LABELS	Tim Holtz MINI HALLOWEEN	Tim Holtz CONFIGURATIONS 6.75 x 8.75	Tim Holtz Idea-ology REGIONS BEYOND
Tim Holtz GRUNGEBOARD BASICS PLAIN	Ranger Inkssentials SHRINK PLASTIC	Ranger MIXED MEDIA CARDSTOCK	Ranger NATURAL STICKY-BACK CANVAS 8.5 x 11	Tim Holtz BATGROUND
Tim Holtz BONEYARD Resin Skull Pieces	Tim Holtz Idea-ology HALLOWEEN Trimmings TH92328	Tim Holtz APOTHECARY VIALS	Tim Holtz Ephemera Pack FRIGHTFUL	Tim Holtz ODDITIES Adornments
Tim Holtz GOTHIC Industrious Stickers	Tim Holtz REGIONS BEYOND Design Tape	Tim Holtz Idea-ology VIAL LABELS	Tim Holtz CURIOSITIES Remnant Rubs	Tim Holtz CRYPT CAMEOS
Tim Holtz WICKED Alpha Parts	Tim Holtz TINY VIALS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 2015 TROPHY CUPS TH93217	Tim Holtz RING FASTENERS	Tim Holtz Metal Word Bands OBSERVATIONS
Tim Holtz Idea-ology PEN NIBS	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD PUMICE STONE	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD FRAYED BURLAP	Tim Holtz Distress Ink GROUND ESPRESSO	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK
Ranger TEXTURE PASTE	Ranger 4 Oz. MULTI MEDIUM MATTE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint WALNUT STAIN	Tim Holtz Distress Paint RUSTY HINGE	Ranger Paint Dabber SILVER METALLIC
Tim Holtz Distress Paint PICKET FENCE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint BLACK SOOT	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink SUNSET ORANGE	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink PITCH BLACK	Tim Holtz ALCOHOL INK RUST Adirondack
Tim Holtz Distress Paint GROUND ESPRESSO	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink PESTO	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink ESPRESSO	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink SNOW CAP Mixative	Ranger Embossing Powder WHITE
Tim Holtz SPICED MARMALADE	Tim Holtz Ranger ALCOHOL INK APPLICATOR Tool	Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT PICK	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET
Ranger Inkssentials INK BLENDING TOOL	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS	Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP	Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT KNIFE

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