Toxic...

Hello and happy Monday friends...

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and you're all staying safe and well! As always, the beginning of the week means we have a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week our theme we are getting SPOOKY!

For those who have followed me, and my blog for a while you will know that I love this time of year and I'm in my element when it comes to Halloween! So, this challenge was a match made in heaven for me and I thought it would be fun to create a home decor project using a few of my favourite Tim Holtz products and incorporating a little bit of upcycling of some glass bottles that I've been storing, some with clear glass and some with brown glass, and just letting my imagination take over and turning those old bottles into something completely different ~ but be warned, once you start altering these bottles you will find it very hard to stop! 

So let's get started and here's how I created this project...

Before starting on the actual box, I prepped all my bottles and whether these are the large bottles I've upcycled or the smaller corked vials and laboratory glass bottles from Tim's idea-ology range, they are all created using exactly the same technique...

...and that starts by priming the surface of each bottle with a coat of Matte Collage Medium and on the large bottle only, I then applied a coat of black gesso over the top. Once the medium was dry, I wrapped twine around the necks of some of the bottles and then I created those drips ~ and for this I used hot glue. I just took my hot glue gun and applied the glue onto the primed surface and allowed it to drip and run down each bottle.

Once the glue is cool and has hardened onto the bottle, I then took some Rock Candy Distress Crackle and brushed the crackle over the top of the bottles, and over the dripped glue before setting the bottles to one side and letting the crackle do it's magic...

You will know when the crackle is ready because it changes from the wet medium into a crusty, crackly finish and when this happens it's time to add colour and for this I used alcohol inks.

This is when your imagination can take over and you can colour the bottles with any ink you want...

...but for my project I wanted to keep them looking as if they'd been sitting on a shelf for a while, getting dusty and old, so I chose and applied a combination of blues, greens and browns using an Applicator Tool and and then added a little metallic to them using Alloy Alcohol Inks.

ALCOHOL INK COLOURS:

Monsoon, Moss, Mushroom, Rosewood, Pitch Black, and Slate together with Statue, Foundry and Gilded Alloy Alcohol Inks and Villainous Alcohol Pearls

I applied the inks by dripping some of the colour over the top of hot glue drips and then used the Applicator Tool and the felts, which sometimes I remove from the tool so that I can get the ink into all the nooks and crevices on the bottles. If you do remove the felt from the tool, I recommend you use a pair of gloves to protect you and so that you don't end up with very discoloured fingers!

Just keep going with the inks until you have the coverage and the colour you are happy with.

So now all my bottles are ready and you can see that I used different ink mixes to create different effects on each of the bottles but I love how the inks seep into the crackles and create some amazing textures.

It's now time to add the labels and I chose to use the labels from the Halloween Ephemera and Halloween Snippets packs. These are perfect for this project and I attached each label onto the bottle using Matte Collage Medium and then applying Walnut Stain and Black Soot Distress Crayons over the top.

I popped the corks into each of the bottles, adding some at angles and then on a couple I attached some Hitch Fasteners, just to make them a little different. To give the corks more of an aged feel, I actually set them alight ~ yep, I lit a match and very quickly, and carefully applied the flame to the cork and then blew it out.

On the large bottle I added a bottle top, again something I stashed away for one of these days and yep, it's finally had it's moment in the spotlight. I painted the bottle top with Black Soot Distress Paint and then attached a couple of resin skulls to the top but these skulls have been coloured using Gilded Alloy Alcohol Ink together with a touch of Mushroom. Around the bottle neck I wrapped some Mummy Cloth, coloured with Distress Spray Stains and hung a Halloween Word Token.

Finally, I added some tiny embellishments to some of the bottles ~ including a creepy eye on the neck of one of the larger ones.

...a chain and a Halloween Word Adornment on the small laboratory vial.

 And a tiny Bauble adornment, placed at the bottom of the drip on the larger laboratory vial.

Right bottles done and moving onto the box....

For this I used the second largest Vignette Box and the matching sized panel and covered both in the champagne coloured metallic kraft cardstock (metallic 3 kraft stock), cut to size and embossed using the Foundry 3D Texture Fade.

With each panel attached to the box and the Vignette Panel which acts as the lid, I then applied a layers of Black Soot Distress Paint, allowed the paint to dry before dry brushing more paint layers over the top ~ Antiqued Bronze, Ground Espresso and a final layer of Black Soot. Allow the paint to dry between each layer before adding the next.

When the paint has dried, I wanted to create a nice finish to the raw wooden edges of the box and adhered one of Tim's Halloween Tape Trims ~ the white numbers on black tape.

On the inside, I lined the box with papers from the Dapper Paper Stash,  and then I added the another of the trims, this time using the pinked edge trim, folding the decorative edge inside the box. 

I then attached a Halloween Baseboard piece onto the front of the box, 'Beaton Drug Co." and attached two small Hardware Heads.

Finally to complete the box, I attached Mini Foundations feet to the base, again painted with Black Soot Distress Paint....

I attached five bottles to the lid and placed moss and floristry fibres in amongst them. In front of the bottles I placed a second Baseboard piece, "Toxique" and just attached this with collage medium applied along the bottom edge.

For the finishing touches, I attached some resin skulls, piling them up on one side...

...and a singular one of the opposite side.

I also hammered a couple of nails from the Vignette Findings into each corner, hanging a spider from the one on the left.

So, that completes this week's project and I really hope you love what I've made and love the techniques and the tips I've given and used! It really was a fun piece to create and I will be using it as a candy store but you can use it anyway you choose ~ just have fun making it!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today ~ stay safe and well, and see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Foundry 3D Texture Fade
Distress Paint: Black Soot, Antiqued Bronze, Ground Espresso

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Hardware Heads, Halloween Ephemera, Halloween Adornments, Halloween Word Adornments, Vignette Hardware Findings, Laboratory, Vignette Box, Vignette Panel, Halloween Baseboard, halloween Snippets Ephemera, Skulls and Pumpkins, Corked Vials, Halloween Typed Tokens, Halloween Trim Tape, Mummy cloth/Halloween Trimmings, Hitch Fasteners, Mini Foundations

Distress Crayons: Black Soot, Walnut Stain

Alcohol Inks: Alloy Set, Villainous Pearls, Moss, Slate, Pitch Black, Monsoon, Mushroom, Rosewood

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Transluscent Grit Paste, Rock Candy Crackle Paint

Surfaces: Metallic 3 Kraft Stash

Glass Media Mat

Alcohol Ink Mini Applicator and Felt

Big Shot

Heat Gun

Hot Glue Gun and hot glue sticks

Chain, twine, moss and florist fibres from my own stash