The most wonderful time..... and Mr Holtz

I hope you have all had a magical Christmas and are now looking forward to a wonderful New Year!  I was not going to post this project for reasons I will explain in a moment.  Mr Mojo took off on his holidays as soon as he knew I broke my hip and sadly, he has not been back much at all since!  The dilemma was, how do I create Christmas cards for family and friends without any inspiration.....

And along came Mr Holtz and his fabulous skate die which I had just purchased.  He posted THIS and I was inspired!  I did a tag card shamelessly copying his design to see if using his techniques would give me some ideas and it did.  Off I went making lots of cards and gift tags using the skate die (and this time using my own ideas!).  But they have all been given away to family and friends and I did not want to end the year without doing one more post...... so all I have left is this tag card and my leather look skate which I have already blogged.

The only differences between my tag and Tim's is the embossing folder I used and I added one of Tim's beautiful idea-ology ice skates and a brown ribbon bow at the top.  For details on the 'how to' please follow the link to Tim's blog.

This really is the most wonderful time of year, when family and friends come together to share the joy of Christmas and look forward to a new year.

Many people are showing their favourite makes for 2013 and what better way to round off the year.  I am just going to show you one, something that I am totally happy with (we are our own worst critics aren't we?), my Halloween Configurations box.   I followed the tutorial by the very talented Richele Christensen, it was an absolute delight to make and I won the most fantastic prize from Richele of guess what? - a bumper bundle of Tim Holtz goodies so I have plenty to play with next year..........  I am linking this up with Jennie the Artistic Stamper HERE who is asking us to show our favourite piece from this year.  You can find my original piece here.

 I have a lot to thank Tim Holtz for and long may it continue, despite it making me rather poor most months!

And finally, it would take me forever to thank people for their kindness this year, so I just want to say a very big thank you to all my friends and followers who were kind enough to visit my blog and leave comments, those who sent me well wishes, beautiful cards, wonderful gifts and most of all, those who shared friendship.  I am truly thankful for each and every one of you so THANK YOU!

I wish you and yours all the very best for 2014 and hope that it is happy and healthy and that you get lots of time to create your own forms of art.  Big hugs, Anne xx

Tim Tag December 2013 and something different

Tim's tag for December is, I think, my most favourite one this year.  I cannot think of a better marriage than Tim's Frosted Film and Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art!  This tag was such fun and the resulting flower is just stunning.  To see Tim's original you can go HERE.

Without further ado, here is my effort:

I actually loved Tim's tag so much that I didn't want to do anything different, although sadly, I do not yet have the sentiment stamp that Tim used and I did improvise by using a Stampendous stamp.  Other than that I followed Tim's tutorial exactly.  If you want further details then please have a look at Tim's link above.

Here is a close up of the gorgeous flower and you can just see a hint of the stencilling I did in the background, using Tim's star stencil.

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And now for something a little different.  I think you know how much I love using Tim's new skate die, I have made lots of cards with it this year and will never tire of using it.  My lovely blog friend Angela (if you have not looked at her blog before, I hope you will, she is a very talented lady) put a note on my blog telling me of some Dutch friends she has, who have a very old pair of brown leather skates.  Well that got 'the little grey cells' awakened and then they went into overdrive!  I don't have any leather but I do have a pack of Tim's Kraft Glassine so I did some experimenting and this is the result (click on the photos for a closer look):

I did a couple of attempts which did not work, the Kraft Glassine on it's own is not strong enough to put laces through so I used some double sided adhesive sheets.  I screwed up and crumpled up the Glassine, put some double sided adhesive sheets on the back and then attached this to some Kraft card stock and bingo - it was strong enough to take the laces.

I used a white base card, matted and layered with some more Kraft card.  The top layer is some patterned paper from my stash and I randomly stencilled over the top with Tim's Dot Fade stencil.  I added the Merry Christmas from the Simple Sayings stamp set and some greenery in the corner from the Festive Greenery strip die.

To make the heel and the blade of the skate I did this on white card, coloured the heel with Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil Archival ink (my current favourite) and covered the blade with Treasure Gold in Pewter.

To age the faux leather of the skates I took a piece of cut and dry foam and randomly brushed Potting Soil Archival ink over the skate.  I am really pleased with the result, in real life it does look like aged leather.

Thank you for looking and in the event that I do not post again before Christmas, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year!  Thank you all for being such wonderful and caring and supportive blog friends.  Big hugs, Anne xxx

A Very Vintage Christmas

This month, over at Our Creative Corner, the lovely Laura has chosen the challenge theme which is 'A Very Vintage Christmas'.  In Laura's own words:

For this challenge we are abandoning traditional Christmas colours and are giving Christmas a Vintage tone.  No reds, no greens, just neutrals.

Quite the challenge for me, I don't do either neutral or vintage very well but once I started I actually loved it!  I was able to use my new (and current favourite) ice skate die by Tim Holtz to make a Christmas card.  I liked it so much I made a few.  For a closer view just click on the photos.

The base is a 6" x 6" square white card which I coloured with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  I then matted two layers, one in Frayed Burlap core'dinations card and one in a rustic map design paper from my stash.  The edges were roughed up and coloured with Tea Dye DI.  I added some Frantage to the bottom corner to give the appearance of snow or ice.  The sentiment is from Tim's Seasonal chit chat stickers, part of a huge parcel of Tim goodies that I won from Richele Christensen for my Halloween Configurations Box.  She knows me well and my obsession with Mr Holtz's products, it seems!

I inked the edges of the skates to give them a vintage feel.  The beauty of this skate die is that it has little holes in it where you can actually add laces.  The laces are made from some twine and the blades have been coloured using Treasure Gold in Pewter.  I dabbed this on with a paint brush, again to give a mottled and aged appearance.

At the top I added some vintage ribbon which was coloured quite randomly with Tea Dye DI and the fabulous rusty jingle bells.

We would love you to join in the challenge at Our Creative Corner, there is still time, the challenge closes on 28 December 2013.  Please have a look over HERE for full details of the challenge.  I hope you will go over here and visit to see what my other teamies have made - I promise you will not be disappointed!

I would like to say a huge thank you to my long standing followers and also to my new ones, it is so lovely to have you along on my creative journey.  I really do appreciate all of you!  As some of you know I have recently been a bit indisposed and Mr Mojo went on his holidays around the same time, but I hope to get back to creating and blogging a little more often in the new year.  I will be back soon though with my Tim Tag for December, I could not end the year without completing the last one. Hope to see you then.

Edited:  I intended to link this up to Country View Crafts challenge blog where the theme is Bah Humbug and there is a fabulous prize of £20 to spend in the shop or a place on Brenda Brown's workshop!

Big hugs,  Anne x x

Luminary - A Christmas decoration

This is a scheduled post, so hopefully it works, as I am enjoying the delights of the fabulous artist that is Finnabair along with my lovely friend Annie.

I have wanted the Tim Holtz Luminary die since I first saw it on a video from the CHA.  I finally got my hands on a couple of die cuts and set about making a start on some Christmas decorations.

To be honest, it is not the easiest die to use when you have stiff, arthritic hands but it looks great as a finished article so I am going to make more to line up on the window sill at Christmas.

This is how it started.

Those who have this die already will appreciate my next comment, I think.  I made the mistake of painting the pieces before I put them together.  I used Distress Paint in Brushed Pewter and gave each piece two coats, front and back.  The second coat was randomly placed to create a more distressed metallic look, which you can see below.  The paint made the pieces a little stiff and folding them was not so easy.

The 'glass' is made from Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art, using a technique that Wendy demoed, which is putting a coat of Glue and Seal on the CfA and then when dry, coating it with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint.  I love that 'Jack Frost' look it creates.

To decorate the top I used Tim's Pinecone and Branch die.  The pinecones have been coated with glue and glittered to resemble a light dusting of snow.

To finish off I added a Tim Word Band saying 'good tidings of peace and joy' which I attached with some thin red ribbon and added a couple of bows.

Now, I really must get cracking with making some Christmas cards.  I did buy a few from Jenny (Buttons) who did a Craft Fair last weekend, the cards are absolutely gorgeous, so I have got a lot to live up to!  I also bought the gorgeous Christmas tree Jenny made which you can find here.  How lucky am I?

The old hip is mending slowly, still have to keep the weight off it for another 4 weeks, which is the most frustrating part, but I am being good (for once) and doing what the Doctor orders.........lol.

Thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon.  Hugs,  Anne xx

Tim Tag November 2013

My broken hip is a real nuisance and prevents me doing lots of things but I was not going to let it stop me from doing my Tim tag!!  I especially love this chalkboard technique that Tim taught us on Creative Chemistry 102 so I was pleased to see him using it for the November tag.

I don't have the leaf stamp that Tim used on his tag which you can see HERE.  I thought the technique would really suit the snowflake stamp from the Christmas Blueprints set. I thought it might help kick-start me into making some Christmas cards.....

I am not going to go through the whole technique because Tim explains it so well in his tutorial, but I stamped the snowflake onto the base tag and twice more onto black card.  I then fussy cut one whole snowflake and then the centre part of the second one.  I layered them up with silicone glue to give some dimension.

The sentiment was stamped onto black card and given the same chalkboard treatment, cut out and applied to the tag.  For some extra interest I added some of Tim's Remnant Rub snowflakes and to finish off I added an Ideaology 'Jingle' charm, a pearl and some sheer white ribbon.

I scruffed up the rest of the tag with the chalk to give a real chalkboard appearance.  Did I say how much I love this technique!  Here's another look at the finished tag.

Thanks so much for looking and thank you for your continued well wishes, it really does mean a lot and keeps my spirits lifted - you really are a remarkable tonic and a truly wonderful group of crafty friends.  Big hugs to you all,  Anne xxx

Steampunk Tic Tac Toe

Hello everyone, I am here today with my Design Team piece for Our Creative Corner.  My wonderfully talented team mate Claudia chose the theme this month, which is Steampunk Tic Tac Toe.  In Claudia's own words:

'So all you have to do is use three of the ingredients from the diagram that are in a straight line (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) when creating your projects for our challenge and name them in your post!'

I am a little out of my comfort zone with Steampunk but I do like a challenge so I chose the top line - wings, gears and wire and created a card.

The base card is 6" x 6" and I coloured it with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  The backing paper is from my stash. The watch is a Tim Holtz die which I cut several times from heavyweight card as I wanted the watch rim to be elevated.  The watch was coloured with several colours of Distress Paint to give a aged look. The wings are from another Tim Holtz die.  The wire on the left hand side is chicken wire from the DIY store and I have rusted it with Rust coloured Alcohol Ink.  The cogs are a mix of wood and metal cogs from my stash (in part a candy win from my blog friend Kath). The key and chain are also from my stash.  

I hope you will go over to Our Creative Corner to see the fantastic projects by my team mates, including our newest member, the amazing Astrid, I promise you will not be disappointed!  If you have not joined in yet, you have until the 28th November, we would really love to have you join in.

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I have not posted much since my accident but I just wanted to let you know that I am making reasonably good progress, I still need to use the crutches for the next six weeks, which is a bit of a pain!  I have been totally overwhelmed by the messages, gifts, flowers and cards that I have received from my fabulous blog friends and I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You really did lift my spirits when I needed it most.

I have been such a lucky girl!  The picture was taken last week, there are even more this week.  Thank you so much everyone.  Take care everyone and keep well.  Hugs, Anne xx

THANK YOU / UPDATE and Birthday/Halloween Accordion Card

The post below was scheduled but Mr Blogger did not do his duty so it is out of date by more than a week but I still wanted to show it for my friend Sandy and also bring you up to date and say thank you!

I wanted to send emails to everyone but there are just too many of you!  I am home from hospital now, my broken hip is starting to mend although I am under instruction not to put any weight on it or it will be a hip replacement for me .....not a pleasant thought so I am following Doctor's orders to the letter.

THANK YOU for all your messages, your kindness has overwhelmed me, I always knew my blog friends were wonderful but even you, dear friends, have gone above and beyond and I am not sure I will ever be able to repay you......... you will never know how much you all mean to me!

Thank you to Jenny, Mo and Lynn for spreading the word about my horrible accident.  Thank you to Jenny, Rita, Annie, Astrid, Brenda, Nicola, Terry, Sandy, Toni, Diane and Chris for the absolutely stunning flowers which arrived today (with chocolates too!).  Your kindness has warmed my heart and given me a much needed boost.

Thank you to Darnell, Claudia, Alison, Lynne, Mark, Rachel, May, Kelly, Carole, Kath, Patricia, Jennie, Laura, Julia, Linda, Amy and two Elaines, Di, Sue, Dianne, Jo Ann, Donna (and there are more that I have not read yet)........ for your kind and thoughtful words by email and on my blog.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends and I treasure you all.  I will show all my beautiful cards when I feel a little better.

I am sorry that I will probably get behind again in looking at your blogs and commenting but as soon as I feel a bit more like myself I will be back stalking you all..........

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Now, below is a post which should have gone out on 26th October.............

It is the birthday of my lovely blog friend Sandy this week.  Sandy also loves Halloween so I took the opportunity to make an accordion card to cover both occasions.  Sandy has received her card and loved it.  I do not normally show cards that I have made for family and friends, but I know that Sandy will love seeing her card again here.

This is one side of the card - the birthday side.

I used mainly Tim Holtz items: the backing paper, the gorgeous Blueprint dragonfly and the wonderful mini Tattered Floral die, the Simple Sayings stamp set and of course his gorgeous paints to colour the flowers and the little square of burlap.

 The base card is made from Karen Burniston's fabulous Accordian base and frame dies (which I love!).

The Halloween side of the card again uses mainly Tim Holtz products: backing paper, the fabulous skull stamp and his Halloween die cuts, chit chat words and the Simple Sayings stamp set.  The orange colour in the background is Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint which is so perfect for Halloween makes.

I just love the way that this Accordion card can be made double sided, it is so versatile!

Thanks so much for looking, I look forward to catching up with you all soon.  Big hugs, Anne xx

Tim Tag October 2013

Firstly, a big welcome to my latest followers, I am so thrilled to have you along on my creative journey! A quick post as I don't want to be on the last minute with my tag this month.

I absolutely love Halloween and I love Tim's tag for October, but sadly I don't have any of the new dies that he has used.......so once again I have had to improvise.  You can see Tim's beautiful tag HERE.

And here is mine:

I created the background with Ripe Persimmon, Seedless Preserves and Scattered Straw Distress Paints, following Tim's instructions.  The edges were distressed and aged with Black Soot Distress Ink.  The tag has been stamped randomly with the script element from the Chemist stamp set - well I had to get that in there somewhere!

The bats and the bottom part of the dome (a Tim die) have been coated with Glossy Accents and then liberally coated with Black Soot Distress Glitter - I am not a huge glitter fan but these distress ones are lovely, not too sparkly and quite chunky, so easy to handle.

The top part of the dome has been done in two parts.  The background has been embossed and lightly coated with Pumice Stone Distress Ink.  The see through element of the dome is one of my latest obsessions - it has been cut using Wendy Vecchi's wonderful Clearly for Art.  I gave it a coat of Glue and Seal, allowed this to dry and then coated it quite thickly with Clear Rock Candy Distress Paint - an idea by Wendy Vecchi that Tim shared with us recently, but with a glass vial.  I thought I would try it out with Clearly for Art and it worked really well.  I waited until it dried and then I gently heated the CfA and shaped the dome slightly so that I could fit the bats underneath.  Sadly, this is one of those pieces that looks much better in real life but hopefully the close-up gives you the general idea.

To finish off I stamped trick or treat from the Simple Sayings stamp set and added some vintage ribbon to the top which has been coloured with Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint and then stenciled with the Burlap stencil.

Thanks so much for looking, I will be missing for a couple of days so will not be able to visit your lovely creations but I hope to catch up with you again soon!  Big hugs, Anne xx

Tim Holtz Configurations Book - a labour of love

I am sharing something today that I have been working on for several weeks.  The very talented Richele Christensen shared a Tim Holtz Configurations Book HERE and invited people to make one along with her.  Since I love Halloween and I loved what she had created I decided to join in and I have had so much fun making this.  As ever, I did not have all of the elements that Richele used so I had to improvise on quite a few things but I am thrilled with the result and will be displaying it in my window on All Hallows Eve.

Richele has been doing the tutorial in stages but has been ill recently so I have taken the liberty of finishing the box off myself by following the photo on her blog.  I needed to get it finished because, as I will not be around much over the next week.

There are quite a few photos but not too much by way of explanation because Richele has gone into great detail, so if you want to make one you can follow her brilliant tutorial.  It does look much better in real life, but to see it better just click on the photos.

This is the front of the closed box.  Tim Holtz very kindly gave Richele permission to scale up the scary house die onto a template which was used to cut the house shape from the box cover - that was the hardest part because the configurations boxes are very strong.  The moon, bats, wrought iron fence and tree are all die cuts, all TH with the exception of the fence.

This is the inside of the whole box, each box has been trimmed with tissue tape.

The skeleton is holding a lighted lamp, the battery pack is threaded through and I'll show you where later.

These are my favourite sections, I love Tim's new Movers and Shapers clock die.  It was hard to photograph the bone dust but this section is actually a working shaker box and is filled with broken up Tim's Idea-ology wishbones.

For the bottom half of the box, my friend Mo helped me out with the owl (a new die that I do not have) and she created a melt pot one which I have coloured.  She also gave me the wonderful dome bottles at the top of the box and the fence on the front - thank you Mo!

This is a view of the back of the box.  The wire from the light has been threaded across the top and down the right side, hidden by Tim's Laboratorie papers and the battery pack is hidden behind that die cut bottle.

This is just a view from the inside of the box, looking out, to give you an idea of the shape of the house.  The box itself is approx 12 inches by 9 inches so there is lots of space to work in.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my little spooky house!  I am entering this into Simon Says Stamp/Monday Challenge this week, which is 'Spooky'.

Edited: In my haste to post this I forgot to mention that I would like to enter this into Country View Crafts Challenge which is 'Something Spooky'.

I am also including it in Richele's blogpost linky HERE.


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Finally - NOT FOR THOSE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION - please look away now if you have!



I was so inspired by Lynne's recent spooky skeleton creation (Mr and Mrs Bones) that I created one of my own.  I did this for my soon to be Son-in-Law, who is a History Teacher and loves skulls, a bit like me.  Lynne, these photos are just for you!

Mr and Mrs Skeleton are decked out in Graphic 45 Steampunk papers and Mr Skeleton is sitting in a Tando Creative coffin........... his top hat is handmade.  Mrs S wears a skirt of lace, coloured with Black Soot Distress Paint.  They are ready to go to the Halloween ball.......


I am entering this piece into Anything But a Card Challenge which is Colours of the Season - Orange and Black

Thanks for looking, hope to visit you all soon, but please forgive me if I miss a few posts over the next week or so.  Hugs, Anne xx

It's Halloween - Let's tag it on!

Well, that's the theme over at Our Creative Corner for this month and the wonderful  Julia has given us a Halloween Challenge.  Julia has asked us to create a Halloween tag with some surface texture on it.

I absolutely love using stencils and I am getting better with embossing paste (I won some Wendy Vecchi paste recently and it is wonderful to use) but I chose to use a dry embossed base for my tag.

In fact, a lovely American blog friend sent me this Tim Holtz embossed background and I knew it would be perfect for this tag.  It has a beautiful raised texture which I sanded and then went over it with Pumice Stone Distress Ink to give it even more definition.  The cat and bats are die cuts, as is the fence.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Simple Sayings set.

The cobweb in the corner is my new Tim Holtz strip die, I love this one!  On the right side, I wanted to add even more texture to the surface of the tag and I used Frantage - Aged Black Embossing Enamel which has a lovely sheen to it.

The ribbon is vintage seam binding which I coloured with Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint and then stencilled over with a burlap stencil.  The skull and crossbones is Idea-ology and I just glued this to the ribbon, after giving him some orange Ranger Stickles eyes.

I really hope you will pop over to Our Creative Corner to see what my talented teamies have come up with and then I hope you will join in this wonderful challenge.  You never know, you could be our winner and be spotlighted or one of our top three.  We would love to have you join us and you have until the 28th to get your entry in!

I must say a big thank you to my latest followers, it is lovely to have you along.  Thanks so much for visiting, hope to see you soon.  Big hugs, Anne x

Tim's Creative Chemistry 102

I was not really going to show any of my Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 stuff because I don't actually make anything, I just do the techniques and put the tags/elements in a  file for reference and for inspiration.  Lots of others made amazing creations and posted them in Tim's Gallery and I so admire their ability to do the class and then create something straight away!  I am a bit late to the party, too late for the Gallery, but better late than never I guess.

This year I made a tag folder to hold all my tags, I tried to make it look a bit like a book, so that it will sit on my craft shelf for inspiration:

The tag book has been made with No. 10 tags and some Kraft card to form the pockets.  On the right it has been filled with all of the tags I made over the 5 wonderful days of learning.

I added Tim's Creative Chemistry 102 logo.

I will add some stained ribbon to the top to finish it off although it is free-standing, but I think it will finish it off nicely.

So here are my efforts over the 5 days.

Day 1 was all about Distress Paint - there are so many ways to use them!

Day 2 was my favourite by far!  It's all about using Layering Stencils - loved doing these tags.

Day 3 was using Distress in different ways - love the faux crackled glass technique...devised by Wendy Vecchi and great fun to do.  I am obsessed with these little glass domes, both have the technique applied and I have lightly coloured one of them with Cool Peri alcohol ink.

Day 4 was all about Alcohol Inks, not my favourite medium but I really enjoyed learning the techniques.

Day 5 was all about Embossing Techniques, I love, love, love the chalkboard technique!

If you have not joined in yet and you want to learn these amazing techniques, you still can, as long as you have completed Creative Chemistry 101 (which is still available to do).  Check out Tim's blog for details HERE.  I have to admit I have really enjoyed doing CC102  and have learned so much already.

Thanks Tim and also Mario for taking me out of my comfort zone!

Thanks for looking, Big hugs, Anne xx

Trick or Treat bags

Hi Everyone, thanks so much for all your comments on my spooky arch.  Have I said how much I love Halloween...........?  Not that we get many children coming to the door these days....

Just a quick post today.   I am going to show you some Trick or Treat bags that I created with Ignacio of Nicecrane's wonderful Spooky Halloween ATC Pack and some Kraft card stock.  Ignacio also does some fabulous Halloween cones, which are very easy to construct,  but I wanted to do something a little different for our older Grandchildren.

This is the front of the bags, they are 3" x 5" and approx 2" deep in size but fairly sturdy because I used good quality Kraft card (a gift from my lovely friend Mo of Almocraft).  The one on the left has a couple of die cuts added (cobweb and Trick or Treat) and the one on the right has a stamped background and wording and some wonderful silk autumn leaves (a gift from another crafty friend Jo).  The little dome in the middle is a Tim Holtz corked dome and has a sparkly skull inside.

This is a view of the back, more wonderful Nicecrane ATC images, a couple of die cuts on the left and stamping and a die cut bat on the right.  To finish off I punched holes in the top and threaded thick wire through the left one and hessian cord through the right one. I did not do a template for the bags but a good scoreboard and an A4 piece of card is all that is required.

You can find the images I used HERE.  Ignacio has some wonderful Halloween images, some scary, some just delightful, I hope you will check them out as they are idea for quick and easy makes.

Finally, I wanted to show you a wonderful Gothic home decor piece I purchased from the lovely Ali of Ali-Craft.  They do the most fantastic Gothic/Steampunk gifts.

I am entering my little bags at Craft My Life where the October/November Challenge is 'Anything Goes - No Cards).

I am also entering them into Ali-Craft Challenge blog where the theme is Halloween.

Hope you are all well.  Tomorrow we will be announcing the winner and top 3 over at Our Creative Corner, I hope you might find time to have a look.  I will be engrossed in Day 2 of Tim's Creative Chemistry 102.... Big Hugs,  Anne x

Halloween begins...

Hello everyone, it's nice to have you visit.  I have a slight obsession with all things Autumn, Halloween in particular.  I miss the days when I made costumes for the children and have to satisfy myself with crafty things instead!

Whilst searching the internet for Halloween goodies (so difficult here in the UK) I found some spooky arches by Tando Creative and some other bits and pieces which may appear in a future post.  I had to dig out my Tim Holtz skull stamp from the Apothecary set, my favourite, next to the Chemist set of stamps, to make this simple Halloween decoration.

The frame itself comes in four parts, the base and the third layer were painted in the lush new Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint and then overstamped with a cobweb stamp by Stampendous.  The second and top layer, which includes the large cobweb were painted in Black Soot Distress Paint.  Before assembling, I stamped the skull on the base, then stamped another skull on white card with Wendy Vecchi Archival ink in the fabulous Watering Can - much more subtle than black.  I cut out the eyes and part of the mouth from the separate stamped piece and added this, raised up with foam pads, for dimension.

I added the spooky orange gem eyes and the spider who has a bottom glittered with Ranger Stickles in Paprika.  To finish off, I filled an Idea-ology jar with some cream coloured embossing powder and added a Tim Rub on - bone dust........ love that!

The frame is quite sturdy and I added a little stand at the back so it will sit in the window on Halloween night.

I am entering this into Country View Crafts - 'Something Spooky' Challenge.

I am also entering this into Ali-Craft's 'Halloween' Challenge.

Over at Haunted Design House the challenge (177) is to create something with dimension, so I am entering my piece - the frame is dimensional and the skull is raised up.

Edited: I have just found that Tando Creative have a Challenge blog so I would love to enter as the theme is 'spooky', hope this is spooky enough!

I know Halloween/Spooky is not to everyone's taste but normal service will resume after the end of October!  Keep well.  Big hugs,  Anne xx