That's Life: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered....

Hello everyone...

Can you believe Halloween is nearly here?!? This month has flown by so quickly, though to be honest, this year has flown ~ where did 2021 go!?! So seeing as it is nearly Halloween at the end of the week, I have one more spooky make to share with you all before I break out the Michael Bublé Christmas album and begin to share all my Christmas makes and that make is one that I created for the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Halloween YouTube Live launch and features the fabulous Toil and Trouble dies, (which I love), combined with the gates from the Vault series die set, and the clouds and moon from Ghost Town 2 die set which all came together to create my little scene featuring the witch, the mouse and the pussy cat who are a little bewitched, bothered and bewildered by what is going on!!!

If you would like to catch up with the replay of the live, then head on over to Tim's blog or his YouTube Channel and see all the amazing makes for this release from all my talented friends and makers!

TOMBSTONE

To begin with I used the Stampers Anonymous Etcetera Mini Tombstone as my surface and base. This comes in 3 separate pieces which when assembled will form the tombstone and in your pack you will find a tag and two overlays and for this project, I assembled my tombstone before I painted it.

At this stage, I added the Bewitched wording across the bottom section of the tombstone and for this I used the Alphanumeric Label Thinlits Die set and cut each letter from black card. I then attached them along the base with Matte Collage Medium.

So with the tombstone ready, I primed it with a coat of black gesso and once that was dry, I moved onto adding some texture using Translucent Grit Paste. I applied the paste around the edges of the tag, drawing some into the centre to create a really gritty texture to the background of this project. After allowing the paste to dry, I started painting it by layering my Distress Paints over the surface, applying them one at a time and always drying them in between layers. If you don't ~ then you could end up with a muddy mess of colours and that's not what we're looking for!

For my first layer I used Hickory Smoke, and once dry, I used the dry brushing technique where you load a dry paintbrush with paint, remove the majority of paint onto a cloth or a piece of kitchen paper towel and then just apply the paint, just allowing it to kiss the surface and the first layer of paint that I used was Black Soot, followed by Pumice Stone. If you feel that any areas are too dark or too light, or you've overpainted them, don't panic ~ just go back with any of the paints and apply another layer.

Once my paint was dry, I then applied some Crackle Paste to random areas of the tag, and also some of the seasonal Halloween Texture pastes. In the photos, you can see that I concentrated on applying the majority of the texture around the edges of the tombstone, and also the areas along the bottom and around the top.

In the centre of the tombstone at the very top, I attached an idea-ology Deco Frame. To create the rusty finish to the frame, I used Rust and Pitch Black Alcohol Inks and then attached it to my tombstone with matte Collage Medium, placing it over the top of a small section of die cut web that I had on my desk, left over from a previous project. In the centre of the frame I attached a creepy eye, surrounding it with moss.

Now, I can set the tombstone to one side to dry and move onto the die cutting...

DIE CUTTING

To begin with I cut all my pieces from plain black card ~ the witch, bats, cauldron, mouse and cat from Toil and Trouble and the gates from the Halloween Vault 2021 dies. I also cut the clouds and moon from Mixed Media Heavystock using the dies from Ghost Town 2. With the exception of the gates, I cut each of the images three or four times, dependent on which piece so that this will create really substantial die cuts that resemble the thickness of chipboard.

GATES

We'll start with the gates first which I will be attaching on either side of the tombstone behind the witch, and I used Tim's Embossing Dabber over the surface before sprinkling them with black embossing powder. Tap away the excess powder and then heat emboss until molten. I repeated this a couple more times to create the enamelled look before I then applied the dabber to just the top spikes of the gates. I then sprinkled gold embossing powder over the top, tapped away the excess and heat embossed the powder.

I then attached my gates to my tombstone using Matte Collage Medium and placed them along the bottom section of the tombstone.

CLOUDS, MOON and BATS

For the moon and clouds, I took my die cuts ~ for these I cut each of them three times and then layered them over one another to make each separate piece. I used exactly the same technique of embossing as I used on the gates but this time I embossed them with Bone Mixed Media Embossing Powder. Once each piece was embossed, I adhered them onto the tag with collage medium.

Just around the moon, I added a glow using Fossilized Amber Distress Crayon. I just applied the crayon directly onto the surface where I was attaching the moon, blended it a little with my fingertip and then placed the moon over the top.

Around the moon, I attached the die cut bats, these were cut three times and layered over one another. I highlighted the bats with a touch of Antiqued Bronze Distress Crayon, blended with my fingertip.

WITCH, CAULDRON, CAT AND MOUSE

With all my die cuts cut four times and layered to create each piece, I glittered the witch, the cat and the cauldron by applying glossy accents over the surface of each die cut and sprinkling with Nightfall Glitter from the Halloween Sparkle Set.

To create a silvery shadow behind the dies, cut each image from silver metallic kraft stash and then placed the silver die cuts behind the glittery images, slightly offsetting the silver backing to create the shadow.

Set these aside to dry and whilst that is happening, I took a small piece of gold metallic kraft stash and applied the colours from the Alcohol Pearls Kit 1 over the surface before placing and attaching the card behind the glittered cauldron. This creates the fiery glow inside the cauldron.

With all my pieces ready, I attached them to the tombstone with foam pads to add dimension, placing the cat to sit on the gates...

...the witch in the centre and the cauldron in front of her. Around the base of the witch and the cauldron, I attached mummy cloth, dyed with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Spray Stains, and moss. These little details will help to ground each die cut piece, so they aren't floating in mid air.

To create the bubbles coming out of the cauldron, I used the Bauble Adornments and coloured these with a combination of Limeade and Envy Pearls Alcohol Ink. I then attached each bauble to spill out of the cauldron, using Glossy Accents to secure them into place.

Taking the tiny mouse die cut which I haven't glittered, I added whites to the eyes of the mouse and then placed this in the witches hand, so that it's hovering with trepidation over the cauldron.

We're nearly there and all that's left is to add some small touches of moss, and a few little twigs around the tombstone and some hardware heads on the base and the top section of the tomb...

...before the finishing piece, which is the Quote Chip, "The Dead of Night", from the Halloween Baseboards pack. I sanded the edges of the chip and then attached it directly beneath the scene, and above the Bewitched wording.

I hope you've enjoyed the stroll through my makand have felt inspired to try some of the techniques I've used to create texture, sparkle and dimension, which can be used for any project, not just for Halloween!