The Hallowed Spot...

Hello everyone...

Today, I'm back with another sample that I created for the Tim Holtz Halloween Inspiration Series and if you follow Tim on Facebook and Instagram, by now you have probably seen the inspiration series and seen all the wonderful projects by many talented designers but if you haven't you can always catch up with a recap each Saturday on Tim’s blog.

For this project, I used the beautiful Ornate Owl die from Sizzix, together with the Cobweb die which I have found so useful, for so many of my projects during the Halloween run up and I hope you enjoy all the photos in this post, showing you all the close up detail of The Hallowed Spot. I'm not going to do a full tutorial for this post but I am going to share how I created the enamel effect on the die cut...

So to begin, I die cut the owl itself from black paper which I then embossed to create this beautiful glossy enamelled look to the owl. To do this, I applied clear embossing ink in a dabbing motion, over the top of the die cut before sprinkling it with clear embossing powder and heating it to become molten. I repeated this process another 4 times to create the thick enamelled effect. For the final layer, I added a sprinkling of gold embossing powder to random areas and then heated it for the final time.

As you can see, it gives such a wonderful effect and also creates a really substantial die cut. I then backed the die cut owl with a silver deco sheet, which had Cranberry. Eggplant and Gold Mixative alcohol ink randomly applied to it, mainly concentrating around the body area of the owl. To complete my die cut, I added a Halloween Token to the body, altered with Picket Fence Distress Paint.

For the background, I used a circle of black card and Antique Linen Distress Oxide Ink. I applied the ink to my craft sheet, misted it with water and just dragged the card through the ink, picking it up in random areas ~ I don't want the ink to cover the whole piece of card, I just want it to create the look of a misty night sky. I heat dried the card and matted it onto gold and black card layers to create a border. I added the cobweb, cut from silver metallic card and altered with Mushroom and Latte Alcohol Ink which I then attached to my background using Collage Medium.

I then attached my owl die cut over a bed of cheesecloth, dyed with Pumice Stone and Antique Linen Distress Spray stain, and added a twig from my garden for him to perch on.

To complete the panel, I used Mirrored Stars and a spider from the Halloween Adornments set, and stuck them around the image...

... before finishing the project with a Halloween Clippings Sticker!

Thank you so much for popping over to my blog today and thank you for all the lovely comments you've continued to leave on the projects that Tim has shared.

See you soon...Emma x

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies: Ornate Owl, Cobweb
Antique Linen Distress Oxide Ink

Distress Spray Stain: Pumice Stone, Antique Linen

Idea-ology: Halloween Clippings, Halloween Adornments, Halloween Typed Tokens, Mirrored Stars

Mediums: Collage Medium, Ranger Clear Embossing Powder, Gold Embossing Powder
Alcohol Ink: Latte, Mushroom, Eggplant, Cranberry, Gold Mixative

Surfaces: Metallic Kraft Stock, Deco Sheets

Ranger Craft Sheet
Big Shot

Heat Gun

Cheesecloth, black card, twig ~ all from my own stash