Step into my parlour...

I love Halloween, it's my favorite holiday. I even prefer it over Christmas. So making crafty, arty, fun projects with a Halloween theme are my passion. This project is a witch's parlour triptych featuring a bookcase full of spooky goodness.

I found most of my supplies at Alpha Stamps and Leslie has graciously supplied a list with links to all of her products, I used, here.

To begin I used three Large Paper Theatre Boxes.

I assembled one of them for measurements and to use as the frame of my bookcase. I used the other two to cut apart to make my shelves. Two of the shelves were made by cutting off the long sides of a box with an extra bit of the back of the box attached so it could be glued together to make the "shelf" thicker and more stable.

The tabs on the ends will be used for gluing the shelves in place.

The third shelf needs two pieces cut from the front of one of the boxes as well as a piece cut from the back of a box.

Take the two small pieces and fold them accordion style.

Glue them together to make one longer piece.

Grab the box that is assembled and glue the end flaps onto the back of the box.

You should also glue the little flaps on the inside of the box in place so they don't move. And then glue the accordion piece in the bottom of the box.

 

Next glue the "shelf" piece without any flaps onto the accordion piece.

Let it all dry, then glue the side of the "shelf" to the front inside of the bookcase.

When that glue is nice and dry, add your other two shelves by gluing their end flaps to the inside ends of the bookcase.

No need to measure, just eyeball it for levelness and placement. You may notice one of my shelves is a bit crooked. It wouldn't effect the end result so I just let it be.

Next take the triptych apart so it is easier to work on.

Then place your bookcase on top of the biggest triptych piece and trace around it with a pencil.

Take a sharp craft knife and a straight edge (metal ruler) and cut out a nice hole for your bookcase to live in.

Remove the cardboard spacers from the inside of the triptych and make sure your bookcase fits in the hole you cut.

If everything fits the way you want it to, remove the bookcase and cover your triptych pieces with the paper of your choice. I used two pieces of An Eerie Tale Enchantment for the inside walls of my triptych. Two pieces of An Eerie Tale Gone Batty for the outside walls and one piece of An Eerie Tale Unsolved Mystery for the edges.

I inked all of my edges with Black Soot ink and made sure to poke the screw holes in the sides of the triptych out so I could find them again later.

Next I painted my bookcase black with a Pitch Black Acrylic Paint Dabber.

After the paint dried I lined the back of the bookcase with some of the Enchanted paper so it would match the walls of the parlour and look like it was a built in book case.

I added black zig zag dresden to the shelf edges.

Then I used the white Enamel Accent to "dot" the outside front of my bookcase. I mostly used white because I wanted it to show up in the photos for this tutorial and I knew I was going to paint over it. You could use the black Enamel Accent or even some Liquid Pearls. Just about anything that stays dimensional would work.

After it finished drying I carefully painted the whole thing with Pitch Black Paint Dabber.

Next I used Krylon Spray Paint in Black Satin to paint my Bordeaux Layered Chipboard Frame and my Chipboard Apothecary Silhouettes.

After the frame dried I cut out some pieces from my left over Eerie Tale papers and layered them with the frame.

Then I glued them to the front pieces of my triptych.

 

I used a bottle of Diamond Stickles to draw a spider web over the roses on my frame.

Next I cut out all of the elements I wanted to use from my Step Into My Parlour Collage Sheet and inked the edges with Black Soot ink.

I used a combination of white glue and adhesive dimensional foam (available at any craft store) to give the illusion of depth to my scene.

I added some Majestic Purple Liquid Pearls to the cauldron since it was glued directly to the wall with white glue and I could have it over flowing a bit.

Once the liquid pearls dried I flipped my panels over so I could add the banner to the front. I slightly curved the banner pieces with my fingers so they would have some dimension to them. Then I applied some pieces of the adhesive dimensional foam to the parts that I wanted to stand out and I applied white glue to the parts I wanted to lay flat.

 Please excuse my glare! It's so hard to take photos indoors.

Going back to my bookcase, I added spiderweb corners, a Baroque frame (with a picture of a mushroom that I later changed to a photo of two witches because I didn't like the mushroom) and some apothecary bottles with labels from my Witchy Little Labels and Ephemera Collage Sheet. I used Liquid Pearls in Majestic Purple and Gold Pearl to add some color.

Next I mixed some Liquid Pearls in Gold Pearl and White Opal until I got a creamy light yellow color and used a tooth pick to "paint" it over the candles on the top of my book case and the candle on the skull.

I put a dot of Diamond Stickles behind the candle on the skull so it looks like it's glowing.

 

Lastly, I cut fronds from some Fern Garland and used hot glue to attach them to the top of the bookcase and to the front of my triptych.

At this point you can reassemble the triptych.

To fill the shelves of my bookcase I used books I made with the Tiny Little Books Collage Sheet and the tutorial I posted here. I crumpled ephemera I cut out of Witchy Little Labels and Ephemera Collage Sheet and inked the edges (using Vintage Photo ink) to make the papers and scrolls. The labels on the bottles are from that collage sheet as well.

I made the Amanita Mushrooms, dripping candle and skull out of paper clay. I'm not going to do tutorials for those as there are already tutorials on Pinterest and YouTube for them. I'll let you search for ones that inspire you.

The Ouija Board and planchette are from Witchy Little Labels and Ephemera Collage Sheet too.

The green potion spilling from one of the Tiny Round Bottles is Tulip Slick Dimensional Fabric Paint in Lectric Lime. I bought it at a craft store.

The adorable little mice are from a dollhouse miniatures store and are made by Falcon.

If you have enjoyed this tutorial and want to see more tutorials in the future please leave me a comment. Thanks so much, Teri