Halloween in the Graveyard

The new challenge starts today at Frilly and Funkie.  This time Sara Emily is our hostess and calls it 'Tis Near Halloween.  Here is what she has to say about the challenge:

It's no secret. I.Love.Halloween. With Halloween just a few weeks away, I challenge you to create a vintage or shabby chic project with a Halloween theme. If Halloween isn't your thing, that's OK--just be sure to include orange, black and purple in your vintage or shabby chic project (These colors are not required if your theme is Halloween.) It would be a grave mistake to miss this challenge!

Now that I live in a subdivision where the homes are owned primarily by old retired folks like us and the very few young people around are teenagers, Halloween doesn't really interest me all that much.  We usually get about 8 trick or treaters coming to the door but we buy enough treats for 90.  Why that much you ask - well we buy little bags of Nacho Chips because my husband likes them with chili or soup and we don't buy snack stuff any other time of the year.  For me, it is portion control that I don't have to worry about and always need :).

I decided against making a card because I knew it would never be sent to anyone so I made a little decor item.

I started with a cheap canvas from Dollarama and used it like a shadow box to create a vignette.  The first step was to add paper from Tim Holtz to create a gloomy background.  Next I covered the edges both inside and out with some texture paste using a palette knife to make it rough.

I used a variety of acrylic paints to add colour - Russet (DecoArt), Black and Coffee Bean (Folk Art) and Khaki and Silver Gray (Craftsmart).  Once it was dry, I decided it wasn't going to work with the elements I planned for my little scene so I painted over it with the Black paint but didn't take care to cover everything.

Now it was time to make some grave stones.  I hand cut the shapes from some scraps of card stock and corrugated cardboard and glued the layers together.

The stones were covered with Course Pumice Gel (Golden) and I used an embossing tool to scratch some cracks and engraving in them.

I mixed some Dove Gray Acrylic Paint (Folk Art) with some Mudstone (Delta Ceramacoat) and coated the stones.  Then I took a fine black Micron pen to highlight my cracks and engraving.

I found a spooky house in my stash that I had cut out a couple years ago so I covered it roughly with some Heavy Black Gesso.  There is no photo of this step because black on black didn't show up.  Then I made some windows and a door from acetate that I coated with Sunshine Yellow Alcohol Ink.  I cut a skeleton and a scary woman from the paper pad and put them behind a couple of the acetate openings.  This could be the haunted house of the keeper of the graveyard.

I altered some silver charms with a mixture of Pitch Black and Silver Mixative Alcohol Ink to use in my scene.  Then it was time to put everything together.

I found some clipart online of a spooky tree, printed it and fussy cut it.  The man in the moon was also found online.  I added a bit of Bronze Luscious Powder (IndigoBlu) to the house and then cut the house numbers from a piece of paper from the paper pad.  The "Keep Out" sign was handmade.

I used a bit of Crushed Olive Distress Ink to make the face of the paper doll boy more goulish before I adhered him.  Next, I added my grave stones along with some reindeer moss, skull beads and purple roses that I inked with some Black Soot Distress Ink.  All the charms were added next along with a beetle fussy cut from the paper pad.  Finally I added some spiders that I picked up at the dollar store along with their very prolific webs. 

The following products used to create this scene came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique: