Hot Picks Halloween

Hello all!  I'm back again... this time with the PaperArtsy Hot Picks Halloween creations.  If you missed the how-to details of the Christmas ones you'll find them at A PaperArtsy Christmas.  I know you all saw these on the original release post on Monday.  I'm really just popping these posts on for anyone who's curious about how they were made - don't feel you have to comment again!

It also gives me a chance for a couple more close-ups.  The Christmas samples were a) a bit too early for me and b) a bit pink-and-purple for my personal taste, but I really loved creating these Halloween bits and bobs.  I do love a good skull (the Yorick connection?) and a good vintage label too.

As I mentioned, the colour palette Leandra gave us had the most delicious names!  Toffee, Caramel, Vanilla, Granny Smith (and Brown Shed and Teresa Green too, but they're less tasty... if only the old Cinnamon colour hadn't been discontinued we would have had the perfect pudding!).




Let me start with the bottles, as that's where my imagination started.  I used the Tim Holtz Apothecary Bottles die to cut my basic shapes.

They're cut in fairly sturdy card (I knew these samples would have to survive going on the road) which had a smooth white surface on one side.  An old card envelope I'd hoarded... 








The green bottles are painted in shades of Teresa Green and Granny Smith (loving these new Limited Edition greens) with a coat of Gloss Glaze over the top, and the brown ones have a glaze of Brown Shed mixed with Gloss Glaze and painted on.  Brown Shed is already only semi-opaque, so you get a really translucent glow once it's mixed as a glaze.

The white labels are stamped on Smoothy card, and then I stamped the others on the PaperArtsy kraft coloured waxed tissue paper.  It's almost see-through by the time it's got glue on the back, so you get great variation according to the colour of bottle it's stuck on.













Crackle backgrounds (of course)...












... with the fabulous Beware label and some checkerboard stamping, rusty wire and we're done.















Here's the 5x7 panel, again playing with the idea of labels, but this time without the need for bottles.














For the background, I brayered the neutral paint from the palette on to the card from the lightest to the darkest and then some Vanilla back on top, so that gets you some pretty good layers to start with.  I gave it another one with Brown Shed through the Tim Holtz Shatter stencil (hmm... you say "shatter", I say "cobweb").











I added the Danger stamp, stamped in Sepia and clear-embossed, and then I sprinkled some grains of black embossing powder in places and re-heated.  I loved the look so I added more granules in other places!







The labels are stamped in Jet Black onto Crunchy Wax Craft Paper, and I added clear-embossing powder before heating to melt the image into the wax.  I stuck them on plain white card so they would show well, and mounted them on padded tape for a pop of dimension.







This fantastic Arsenic collage stamp has also been embossed.  I have a feeling that this time I used Versamark and some Detail Black embossing powder rather than stamping in black and clear-embossing.











Same thing for the Beware label.  And Leandra wanted green accents, so she got them - some delicate shading around the skull (with Granny Smith mixed with water to make a wash - otherwise my background would disappear as all the new paints are opaque), and of course the green glass bottle in the other image.











I added the Idea-ology metal bits also with a hint of bilious green added (hmm... been eating too much Granny Smith Toffee pudding!), and attached with good old rusty wire.  You can see some more of those black embossing powder "splatters" here too.











I really wanted to see what the skulls would look like in more of a bone white colour, so for this pair of tags I embossed with Vanilla White embossing powder, and I love it!












We're over a background of torn bookpage strips, painted Vanilla and with the Tim Holtz cobweb stencilled over in Brown Shed.  There's some more of the checkerboard to add another layer of interest too.











The Vanilla White embossing gives you not only the bone colour but also a lovely knobbly texture.










The labels were made in the same way as the ones for the panel, but this time I left a border of the white card around the edge to make them pop.









I do love how the book pages can be seen in the cranium of this skull!

All these creations were mounted onto thick white card to finish them off.  I really like the shabby borders, plus it also gives them just that bit more sturdiness for when they're on tour.













A bit more rusty wire around the centre of the tags as well as up at the top to hold the seam binding in place, and that's two more ready for the off.











Finally, we come to a pair of tags with maybe my favourite background of the lot.















I painted the tags in Brown Shed, applied a layer of Crackle Glaze and allowed it to dry.  Then I applied my Vanilla paint through the cobweb stencil, and I love the effect.











I've used the checkerboard and Danger stamps again to create more background layers, and used a blender to apply Sepia Archival ink around the edges.  (It's Archival for all the edging - again if they're going off in an envelope or boxes and going up on the wall, there's a chance they could get wet, so Distress would be vulnerable.)











The main images are stamped in Sepia with some Coffee blended onto the stamp too, and then clear-embossed.














I'm not obsessed - I just think it's a good way to get an image to pop over a busy background.












I got up to my credit card tricks again, adding some accents of Granny Smith...















There's even some Granny Smith checkerboarding this time (somehow I feel sure she always wins).












... and the Idea-ology Muse Tokens were altered with Teakwood alcohol ink to warm their tone a little.













Curled rusty wire at the top of the tags finishes us off, and we're (finally!) done.








It's a tough call to pick my favourite stamp from this set, they're all fantastic.  And they seem to complement each other so well... I think that's why I ended up working in tag pairs - the stamps wanted to talk to each other.  (Don't mind me - it's been a bit full on round here lately so I may be losing it slightly.)

So there's some behind the scenes details for those who want to try out something similar or are just plain nosy.  Be my guest!  It's process rather than results which always fascinates me, so I'm happy to share.  It also reminds me in the future if I ever want to reproduce the effects... 

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
~William Shakespeare

Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title.
From Scooby-Doo

Things are still cooking over at PaperArtsy - Hot Picks on Monday, Clare Lloyd Eclectica³ on Tuesday, Emma Godfrey Eclectica³ last night... who will it be tonight at 7pm?  You'll just have to wait and see.