Halloween is a FAVORITE holiday of mine.  Part dress-up, part make-believe, a little bit scary – and CANDY (let’s just cut to the chase – CHOCOLATE). 

So it was my delight to FINALLY decorate this paper mache house, that I found ages ago at the delightful store, Absolutely Everything, in Topsfield, Massachusetts.  I found a little lighting kit from a store that sells those snow village pieces, and I’m going to place it in the back and light this up for Halloween.  Let’s get to decorating!

This material is slightly more absorbant than cardstock; so the application dries quicker than usual.  What is fun, is that you can apply the first layer – in this case Pomegranate to the center of the ‘wall’ and then I added some ‘mold’ in the form of green Apple to the bottom of the structure.   I turned the house upside down and let the ‘mold’ drip upwards a bit.  This is the highly non-technical ‘drippage’ method.  But to make it sound unattainable, simply call it ‘drip-ahhdge’.  LOL.  You’re going to try it now, right?

And finally, I added a coat of Sugar Maple over the top of the wall to give it a golden glow.  It’s like adding a warming filter to a photograph.  It always looks a little better with some warmth from Sugar Maple.

Let everybody dry naturally.  Resist the urge to do any toweling and put away the heat tool.  It will be worth the wait.

See what I mean?

And now I need to embellish my house.   I sprayed the chimney first, with Pomegranate.  Then I masked it off (holding a piece of paper or packaging to protect it from overspray), as I applied Black Magic Glimmer Mist to the entire roof.  Get underneath the eaves and get it all soaked good.  Once again, ‘drippage’ makes wonderful shingles as it dries naturally.

Then I played with the roof a bit, to add some cobwebs in the form of the wonderful screen prints stamp set.  First, I stamped the cobweb with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist.  Let it dry completely.  Then overstamp (slightly offset is fine!) with Ranger’s Archival Black ink pad (or anything waterproof).  Just don’t go all Stazon on me.  This isn’t the right surface for that ink, and you really want the image to pop against the white background image.   I added more cobwebs to the flat side of the roof and along the back of the house.

I added shutters, in the form of the postage stamp alphabet frames, cut up and colored with Apple and Sugar Maple.  I added these to the front of the house only.  This is a weird New England-ism; houses with shutters only have them on the windows facing the street.  This bugs me just about as much as sweaters that are only knitted prettily on the front — don’t you want to look good from all sides?  But I digress…

Inside the windows, I added crepe ribbon curtains, sprayed with a bit of Granite Glimmer Mist and some broken windows in the form of torn mica pieces.

I painted the Glimmer Glass piece for my ‘haunted hotel’ with a bit of Orange Crush Glimmer Glaze under the words and Chandelier Glimmer Glam underneath the picture for contrast against the backdrop of the house.

I screened the branchless tree with Granite Glimmer Mist, and then flipped it over and sprayed it with Sugar Maple and Apple Glimmer Mist, which I then ’stamped’ in the negative space.  Once it was dry, I stamped the coordinating Screen Prints stamp with waterproof black ink.

I used this same Orange Crush Glimmer Glaze to paint in the pumpkin on this bit of calling card I used for a decoration along the front edge.  Unlike paint, the glaze upon first application is translucent, so the printed design isn’t hidden from view.  The glaze will also resist the Glimmer Mist that I applied afterwards to tint the vines and leaves as well as the background.  It freezes the color of that part of the design in place so it doesn’t get muddled in further application.  So always apply it first to freeze a color in place.

So that is my haunted post for the day.  Hopefully it gets you in a mood for the Fall palette of Glimmer Mist colors (and cooler temperatures at least here in Connecticut). 

If you like Halloween – perhaps this prize drawing will interest you?  How about we put together a drawing for the Vintage Season Halloween Hauntings Screen Prints stamp set and its coordinating Glimmer Screens.

I will draw ONE winner on Friday at 12:01am and post it with that day’s post.  Good luck!

And if you like detailed posts like this one, be sure to check out the Educator blog.  Lots of great pictorials, inspiration (and you can ask your store to host a workshop!)

Sally Lynn MacDonald
Tattered Angels Golden Ambassador
http://www.sallylynnmacdonald.com
http://www.facebook.com/sallylynn.macdonald

P.S. If you don’t believe how much I love this holiday – I actually AGE at midnight on Halloween.  Could anything be scarier?  And check out this gallery on my blog for the walking canvases… (I face paint too…)

I just LOVE the brand new Halloween Chip Tiles! These ivory based chipboard tiles are just the perfect size that you can do just about ANYTHING with them. For this project I used one as a door hanging for Halloween. I also used the Halloween Pumpkin Screen and some Halloween Bingo Board quotes too! Topped off with some fabric, cardboard, feathers and tulle and this project is just perfect to hang on the door for the holiday!

Liz Hicks

Education Coordinator

www.blogerisms.blogspot.com

I love the “Vintage Halloween Hauntings” Stamps so much … I decided I was going to decorate this little pumpkin I pick up , using the spider stamp that is in this set.

As you can see, there are lots of great stamps in this set. I’m thinking I’ll do another pumkin, using that black cat next! ( back to the store for another pumpkin) lol

I started by using “brick” Glimmer Mist to give a more aged look to my pumpkin ( yes..the pumpkin is real).  What I did ,was spray the Glimmer Mist over the entire pumpkin, and then let it set and dry “some”. I then took a papertowel and lightly wiped away some areas. ( leaving Glimmer Mist in the lines of the pumpkin).   I then set it aside and let it dry completely.

While it was drying I worked on my spiders.  I stamped the spiders on to black cardstock , using an embossing pad.  I sprinked sliver embossing powder over the stamped image, and knocked off any excess embossing powder before heating with a heat tool.    I then cut the spiders out and added them randomly to my “dry” pumpkin using a quick drying liquid ahesive such as Beacon 3 in 1 or diamond glaze. From there, you can just add ribbons and gems to embellish if you wish.

I did also make this cratepaper and cardstock base to set it on .  Being true to my obsessive need to use “Irridesent Gold” over every finished project I seem to make….

Well..you guessed it.   Spray over everything with Irridesent Gold. ( I have too!) l0l

Thanks for coming by!