a couple of handmade Halloween decorations...

This week I whipped up a couple of cute Halloween decorations to add to my Etsy shop. I've been kind of lazy about keeping my shop stocked lately and I was feeling guilty.

First up is a coffin shaped shrine/shadowbox featuring a little pumpkin headed witch swinging on a broom under a happy moon. The quote reads:

When witches go riding,

and black cats are seen,

the moon laughs and whispers,

'tis near Halloween.

I used moss covered twigs, I found while hiking in the mountains, to make a tree. The moss had turned pale yellow as it dried out so I painted it bright green. The swing is a Miniature Rustic Broom tied to the tree with baker's twine. The sweet little witch is from my Little Demons Collage Sheet with a witch hat from my Halloween Dress Up Half Sheet. 

My supply list can be seen here.

Next up is an adorable potion bottle shaped wall hanging. I love how this came out and will find it hard to part with!

All of the cute pumpkin headed children I used came from my Halloween Darlings Collage Sheet.

I fell in love with that Wicker Baby Carriage and really couldn't wait to use it in a piece of art :)

 I used two sets of  Chipboard Potion Bottles to create the base. I simply glued the potion bottles side by side onto a piece of 12"x12" cardstock (after papering the fronts of the bottles).

 Twelve inches wasn't quite long enough so I had to add a small piece to the end. I used washi tape to hold it together until the final bottle was glued in place.

 

 After the glued dried, I cut the excess paper off with a sharp craft knife and sanded the edges smooth with an emery board. Super easy! I added two strips of Half-Round Dresden Borders - Black across the front of the bottles to give it added stability (and make it pretty!).

In order to add the Halloween Fiber Set hanging sash to my bottles I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes in the sides of the bottles then strung the fibers through the holes and knotted them.

My supply list for this project can be seen here.

Thanks for dropping by and reading my post. I hope you are inspired to go make something :)

wise woman's apothecary cabinet...

The Oxford Dictionary defines "wise woman" as a woman considered to be knowledgeable in matters such as herbal healing, magic charms, or other traditional lore. That is the kind of woman I envision using this apothecary cabinet.

She would keep all of her herbs and other ingredients in well labeled, tightly covered, glass jars so nothing would be misplaced or misused.

 She would have lots of books, scrolls, and papers to fill up those two large drawers, and yes, sometimes, to leave stacked on the worktop. Her mortar and pestle would be well used and perhaps a bit dented.

 Her apothecary cabinet would be kept orderly and well stocked.

I used the brand new and wonderfully versatile Storage Hutch and 4 Inch Wide Chest of Drawers - 2 Drawers as the base for my apothecary cabinet. A bit of Dresden trim, some box feet and four skulls, used for drawer pulls, helped give the cabinet a spooky style.

Using my recently designed Tiny Little Grimoires Collage Sheet I made an open book to display on the cabinet worktop. I took photos while I assembled it so I could do a little tutorial to share :)

Carefully cut out the following pieces from the collage sheet. You will also need to cut out a piece of patterned or colored paper to use as a backing to the book cover.

 Glue the backing paper to the back of the book cover, print or color side out.

Trim off any excess paper.

 Ink the edges of the book pages and the cover.

 Score the pages as shown below.

 Glue the first set of pages as shown below.

 Using a large wooden dowel or a pen, bend your pages as shown, to give them the curve of open book pages.

 If you want a ribbon book mark, glue a thin ribbon to the book as shown.

 Next, glue the curved pages into the middle of your book as shown.

 They should look like this from the side.

 Continue to glue the curved pages on top of each other until you have a stack you like.

 It will look more realistic if some of the pages are slightly offset and a corner or two is bent.

 Next, glue the ribbon in place as shown.

 Then, using sharp fabric scissors, cut the ribbon to size and trim the end into a v shape.

 Glue a couple of papers on top if you want your book to look like it's in use.

 There you have it! Just a few simple steps to making an open book for your miniature scene :)

I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for taking the time to read it. If you would like to view my supplies list, it can be found here.

pocket grimoire...

Happy July! A new month means a new monthly kit at Alpha Stamps, YAY! The July kit is called Matchbox Cabinet Kit and it comes with an adorable Matchbox Cabinet. Using the kit, as it comes, you can create a cute little kitchen cabinet with all kinds of vintage grocery items. Now I've been in super Halloween creating mode so I didn't really wanna make a kitchen cabinet BUT... the matchbox cabinet, in the kit, has some witchy potential sooo... I made a couple of collage sheets to turn that cutie into a pocket grimoire...

 So small it could fit in a pocket, but open it up and it's BIG on witchy goodness!

 So much witchy goodness, it couldn't be contained and I just had to decorate the top...

and add a cauldron of bloody bones to keep on the side.

If you're wondering how I assembled my cabinet, here's a quick peek:

 I used a piece of design tape to make a little handle on the cabinet door.

 I covered the inside of the cabinet door with paper.

 I used masking tape to attach the cabinet door to the cabinet. I had already assembled the cabinet and painted it with black gesso. After I applied the masking tape I inked the cabinet door edge.

 I applied design tape to the inside of the cabinet door to cover the sticky masking tape and to make it look pretty :)

 Then I cut out one of the cover images from the new "A witch's Grimoire" collage sheet and glued it onto the cabinet door...

 If you look closely at the above photo, you will see that the cover image is slightly larger than the cabinet door. This is so that the cover image covers the cabinet edges when the door is closed.

Once the door was attached I applied paper to the rest of the outside of the cabinet and decorated the side with a strip of design tape and an image from the collage sheet.

All of the papers, scrolls, labels and books were created using just the two new collage sheets: Tiny Little Grimoires and A Witch's Grimoire. (To assemble the books please see this tutorial.)

By the way, I always use Super Sticky Red Liner Tape - 1/8 Inch to attach the tiny labels to the bottles. It's so much easier to use than glue and keeps the labels attached better too :)

Thanks for stopping by and reading to the end! I hope you will consider making you own pocket grimoire. To help you on your way, here's what I used...

Supplies Used

Tiny Little Grimoires Collage Sheet
A Witchs Grimoire Collage Sheet
White Resin Condiment Bottle
Matchbox Cabinet
Pickle Jar with Lid
Amber Resin Potions Bottle
Even Tinier Bottles
Mini Black Cauldron
Bloody Bones
Miniature Tequila Bottle
Small Amber Resin Potions Bottle
Bottle of Dragon Tears
Super Sticky Red Liner Tape - 1/8 Inch
Mini Pine Fern
Metal Letter Opener or Dagger

Krylon Gold Leafing Pen

Black Gesso - 1 Ounce Bottle
Tim Holtz Design Tape Set - Aristocrat

a Wizard's potion making table...

As Summer nears I always start thinking about Halloween because I love making creepy, spooky, magical and/or fantastical art. So, a couple of months ago, I started designing a Dragon Table that sort of morphed into the Gryphon Table you see here. The table is really easy to glue together and would be fabulous in a Medieval dungeon as well as in a modern library.

I painted my table black and dry brushed white over the top to add a bit of depth and interest. I also used four mushroom plugs as feet to give the table more height. The table comes with a thin chipboard "veneer" that glues onto the top that I chose to cover with a great distressed paper from the Tim Holtz Materialize 8x8 Paper Stash pad.

I made up a bunch of potion bottles using a couple of collage sheets and lots of bottles from the many choices available at Alpha Stamps. Some of the bottles are just beads with bead stoppers, but they do look like real bottles :) The boxes and books were made using collage sheets as well. It always amazes me that so many things can be created with just paper and glue and a little imagination.

My fancy wizard's wand is made out of a painted toothpick with a bit of washi tape on the end. I used Finnabair Art Extravagance Patina Effect Paste Set to color the Mini Scale with Weights so it wasn't so brightly gold. The candles were sculpted out of polymer clay. And, the skull is the Cast Metal Skull - White that is available at Alpha Stamps. I just painted it with dark brown acrylic paint and dry brushed white acrylic paint over it when it was dry.

I really like the way my wizard potion making table turned out. It looks like it was complicated and time consuming to make but it really wasn't. The labels are easily glued onto the bottles with white glue. There's a tutorial for making the books and anyone can paint a miniature table :) I hope you will make one of your own, come on you know you want to!
To see my supply list go here.