An Eerie Tale Stacked Coffins and Mini Album - Part 1

Hello Crafty Friends and Happy Halloween! Have I mentioned that I LOVE Halloween?!?! This year I've been working on a big project with the Graphic 45 An Eerie Tale collection. I used three coffin nesting boxes and stacked them to create this altered art piece. The boxes are magnetized so that they'll stay together when stacked. The top box is a decorative piece, the middle box can hold some Halloween Candy and the bottom box holds the An Eerie Tale mini-album, which I am going to use for Halloween pictures of my son. In this post I'm going to share some photos and details of the stacked coffins. I'll share the mini-album with you in my next post!

 I started off by painting the kraft-coloured coffins with black gesso. I cut papers to fit the insides and outsides of the boxes and used mod-podge (matte) to adhere all the papers. The magnets that hold the stacked boxes together were glued to the boxes before adding the paper so that they're hidden. I've inked all the papers and fussy cuts with Distress Ink in Black Soot and embellished the stacked coffins with some Spanish moss, painted plastic skeleton, mini-skulls and spiders; inked flowers; frosted/glitter pumpkins; Tim Holtz Apothecary Vials (with black wax sealing the corked lids); and fussy cuts from the An Eerie Tale papers (which I backed on black cardstock).

Here are some close-ups and different angles of the stacked coffins!

And a couple of shots of the un-Stacked Coffins!

Join me again tomorrow for Part 2 of this post in which I'll share a look inside the Coffin Mini Album!
Have a Spooky Halloween!

Upcycled Christmas to Spooky Halloween Village

I have a super fun project to share with you today! I bought a small ceramic Christmas Village for $6 at a local second-hand store and have upcycled it to a Spooky Halloween Village. I LOVE Halloween - its so fun and stress-free and this Halloween Village will be an awesome decoration for years to come! My son LOVES it SO much that when we saw another second-hand Christmas Village the other day, he asked me to get it to make more houses for the Halloween Village (I'm still working on these new pieces)! Here's a Before/After Shot of the Village pieces (sorry the before is a little blurry).

I used lots of Finnabair mediums on this, including Heavy Black Gesso, Heavy White Gesso, Soft Matte Gel Medium and Ebony Glitter. I've also used some acrylic paints in metallic purple and metallic green, as well as some orange sparkle paint. I finished off the houses with some "graveyard moss", foam pumpkins and some painted plastic spiders and mini-skulls. More details and close-ups below!

I started off by painting each of the pieces with a coat of black gesso. Once that had dried, I dry-brushed the pieces with white gesso. I highlighted details on each piece using orange, purple, green, white, and red acrylic paints and added ebony glitter to the roofs using Soft Matte Gel. The Soft Matte Gel was also the best way to apply the graveyard moss. Finally, I added the pumpkins, spiders and skulls using Beacon 3-in-1 glue. Here is a close-up of each piece!

Morgue  (Formerly a Firehouse!)

Haunted House

Deconsecrated Church

Fence and Body Snatchers

Bridge and Headless Horseman

Vampire Carriage

Spooky Halloween Village - with Lights

I hope you had fun seeing my Spooky Halloween Village - I can't wait to add more pieces to it!

Happy Halloween! 

A Victorian Christmas Advent Calendar and High Tea at Younique - Nov. 8 and Nov. 15!

Please join me for the first class I'll be teaching at Younique Country Retreat Scrapbooking. This is a class you do not want to miss. You will create a beautiful Advent calendar using Prima's Victorian Christmas papers and flowers and a House of Drawers from KaiserCraft. This will be a keepsake that will be passed down from generation to generation.

This class will be offered at both the Guelph (November 8) and Mount Forest (November 15) locations. The Class fee of $90 includes all materials, instructions and, of course, what's a Victorian project without a High Tea in the afternoon! Register through the Younique Online Store or call (519) 836-0045.

I hope you'll join us at Younique for a fun afternoon of crafting!