Making Stuff

Halloiuja

Posted by frykitty on April 29, 2016
Posted in: Art, Halloween, Making Stuff.

It’s Secret Pumpkin time again, and this year my giftee was the Mistress herself, Jenna of Shadow Manor.  Boy howdy did I have fun with this one.

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It started with a board from Laser Lizard. I didn’t take a picture, but you’ll see the whole thing later.  I wanted to make stencils for the elements that repeated, so I started sketching flourishes on the edges of the board.  Afterward, they were traced and imported to my Silhouette Cameo, then cut from Contact paper.  After the board was stained, the stencils were carefully applied and painted in.

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You can’t see them here, but the stencils included extra little circles for registration marks, so I could get everything where I wanted it. I cut the stencil from clear plastic, laid that down, then filled in the registration marks. Then I could line up the Contact paper stencil with the marks.

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Here is the finished border.

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Next, even more pencil guidelines, and out came the Montana Marker. I did some preliminary sketching, then went for it.  NOTE: Do not use brush varnish with Montana Markers. Trust me on this. Spray is your friend.

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Some of my favorite bits from the alphabet:
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Oh, and the HALLOIUJA in the first picture is a nod to the font from the original Oiuja board.

The main art pieces were a haunted house and a cemetery. Note how I snuck my signature on to one of the tombstones.

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The planchette was a triangular wood piece that I trimmed down with a Dremel. I cut a hole and use a router bit to make a shelf to hold the lens.

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Feet were glued on, and felt added to the bottom of them. Then it got a candy-corn paint job.

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Here’s the whole shebang, with about a million coats of varnish. I didn’t take a pic, but I also made bags for the board and planchette using an extra vampire cape I had hanging around. Because doesn’t everybody have one of those?

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This was massively fun, and it turned out pretty much exactly as I pictured it in my head.  Sure, it may summon a demon, but it will be a very silly demon.

Hallowvember: Gelli Plate ATC Set

Posted by frykitty on November 18, 2015
Posted in: A Month of Spookdays, Art, Halloween, Hallowvember, Making Stuff.

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I’ve been wanting to play with my Gelli Plate for ages, so I finally got it out. Then I remembered why it had been a while. For some reason, I get stuck when I’m trying to use it. I’m rarely happy with my results, and just feel like I’m burning through prodigious amounts of paper. So I did what I often do when I’m stuck: follow directions.  Gelli Arts is one of my favorite Youtube channels. They have a hell of a designer, and I always find their videos inspiring. I decided this video on making transfer film with packing tape looked like fun (seriously, go watch–it’s cool), so I followed along, copying as closely as I could. I loved the results, so naturally, I had to do it again–with skulls.

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I used my Dyan Reavely Skulls stencil, and followed the video again. I used all mica powder on the background of these. You can’t see it well here, but they have a great shimmer. I think the bottom strip is my favorite–the yellow bits are the mica powder.

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So what to do with this sparkly largesse? Just so happens, I have a ton of pre-cut ATC paper. I even have some that is leftover from other sets, so it already has pretty backing.

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I started by cutting the strips and attaching them with some gel medium. Of course I goobed–see that one with the smudge? I actually put that on sticky-side UP. Which is the wrong way. So I had to cover it with gel so I wouldn’t get mica powder everywhere. We’ll see how it turns out.

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Next, I used light molding paste to apply a spooky stencil.

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The paste and paper areas get a light wash of color. I love how this brings out the texture of the paste.

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Shimmery paint, either Lumiere or Silks, is added just to the stenciled shapes. Because I didn’t want to lose the texture, I blotted the paint back.

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Here’s the set, and I’m pretty pleased with them! I like the contrast of the slick Gelli Plate art and the organic molding paste.

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Hallowvember: Creepy Flag

Posted by frykitty on November 10, 2015
Posted in: A Month of Spookdays, Halloween, Hallowvember, Making Stuff.

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Maybe I’ll do the whole garland, maybe I won’t, but I at least have two flags done.

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Started by laying out some paisley fabric and some pretty orange lace. They got attached with fusible interfacing, and sewed on the top edge.

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The pumpkin is from the My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found Halloween set.  After I’d filled that in some, I started doodling.

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At about this point I realized there was nothing spooky about the flag. Fixed that.

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To bring out the pumpkin more, I used Lumiere’s Halo Pink-Gold and Metallic Russet.

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This time I distressed the edge with a mix of Neopaque Brown and Lumiere Russet, heavily watered. I like it much better. The edge was sewn, and the spiders given a bit of dimension with beads. After the beads were done, the back got covered in fabric.

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Finally, a spider charm with a couple of beads attached to the bottom.

This went a lot faster than yesterday’s flag. I think I’m getting the hang of it. So to speak.

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Hallowvember: Spooky Flag

Posted by frykitty on November 9, 2015
Posted in: A Month of Spookdays, Halloween, Hallowvember, Making Stuff.

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I think it was some kit subscription I dumped long ago that sent me this garland kit from Maya Road. It includes six canvas flags. They are nice and heavy, and pre-grommeted. I thought I’d make a garland! We’ll see how that turned out.

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I wanted to use these Tulip Fabric Markers that I got when I was on a fabric painting kick. I grabbed a piece of muslin close in color to the flags, and did a swatch test. These are gorgeous and bright, and as long as there aren’t a lot of solid areas, they stamp well. Also, they don’t usually bleed.

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You can only see a bit of my table, but lemme tell ya, half of my studio is on it. I grabbed stamps and ribbons and lace and charms…anything I thought might be nice on the garland.  I chose some fabric, lace, a charm, and a stamp from Craftsmart. I stamped on paper first, so I could decide on placement.

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Fabric is down with fusible interfacing, stamp is stamped. I grundged things up a bit, and started doodling paisleys.

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I had planned to get away with no sewing, but the flag cried out for it. I’ve added some color to the paisleys and the skull, and run around the red fabric and the entire flag a few times on the machine. Next, I used a Hampton Art letter set to add some text, and sewed around that, too.

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A few more details on the paisleys. I decided the skull wasn’t standing out enough, so I added some Lumiere Pearl White. Of course, I took the picture before I added the paint, because I am a genius.

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A few beads were required. I took out the red delicas from the last project and highlighted the red paisleys.

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To cover my many sins on the back of the flag, I attached some cool fabric with fusible interfacing.

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Last, a grommet on the bottom, a jump ring, and red beads to highlight the skeleton charm.  The cord is just for taking pictures. I may or may not make this into a garland later.

See, this took me all morning. Like allll morning, so I decided one flag was good enough for today’s project. I love this, and I’m thinking six like it would be pretty cool, but that’s for later.

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Hallowvember: Mini Trinket Quilt

Posted by frykitty on November 8, 2015
Posted in: A Month of Spookdays, Art, Halloween, Making Stuff.

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I subscribe to quite a few magazines. They are great motivation. My method: I have a Post-It flag dispenser on the ledge of the tub. I go through the magazines, marking things I’d like to try. Then I copy the first page of the article and put it in a notebook, making sure the issue is somewhere on the page. The magazine is stored neatly in date order, so I can choose something from the notebook, and grab the appropriate magazine.

I mention all this, because I picked something from the notebook tonight. This mini trinket quilt is inspired by Vesna Taneva-Miller, and was featured in the Summer 2015 issue of Sew Somerset.

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For this project, I’m going to use upcycled shrink plastic–#6 plastic from a takeout container. Rock N Roll is one of my favorite sushi rolls. It’s deep fried. Don’t judge.

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I cut out the best piece of plastic, gave it a good sanding on one side, and stamped on the sanded side. The spell book is from Inkadinkado’s Nevermore set. I often leave the pressed symbols from the container in, as I like to show where the material came from.

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Next, the image is lightly colored with pencils. You don’t want to add too much color, as it will become very concentrated when the plastic shrinks.

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A 1/8″ is used to make stitching holes around the image. A couple of these got very small, and had to be opened with one of my tiny diamond files. Not much to be done about that.

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All shrunk. See what I mean about color concentration?

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Time to choose fabric! Muslin, tulle, a very soft fleesish (it’s a word because I say so) thing, and some lace scraps.

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I used a machine to go around the layers several times with black thread. Red embroidery thread attached the spell book.

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I’ve been wanting to use those silver beads forever. Along with the red delicas, they are nice accents.

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Muslin backing is added once all the embellishment is done. Because of those nifty corner beads, I had to hand-sew. And since I was hand-sewing, hey, why not add some jute?

Mind you, I had to do this twice, because I cannot sew a straight line. The second time, fusible interfacing kept everything in place.

Eyelets were set in the upper corners (because I found a Crop-A-Dile for half price at Tuesday Morning!), and binding tape used to make an over-the-head necklace.

The only thing I would do differently is use a shaped stamp, like a pumpkin or skull, so it was more immediately recognizable. This thing is tiny, and if someone wanted to see what it was, they’d so be up in my face. Overall, though, I loved the process, and I think the result is fabulous.

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Hallowvember: Raven Postcard

Posted by frykitty on November 7, 2015
Posted in: A Month of Spookdays, Halloween, Making Stuff.

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I had some paints I wanted to play with, Silks Acrylic Glazes and Pebeo Prisme Fantasy. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t.

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I found some nice flat cardboard in my stash, and decided it had to be postcards. I cut four, and will use the rest later.

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I started out with a coat of gesso, then some Silks in Wine and Roses and Azurite. So pretty.

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I used Versafine to stamp this raven from Inkadinkado. Since I got it a little too high, I added a Hampton Arts banner. After three tries. Getting it upside-down the first time. Let us never speak of it again.

Clear embossing powder came next. I was hoping it would act as a resist.

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I read the directions on the Pebeo, and realized it required turps to clean up. Then I thought, hey, I’ll just use a disposable makeup sponge! Did you know? I always get paint on my fingers. Luckily, alcohol worked well enough on my skin. The layer wasn’t thick enough to get the paint’s effect, and of course the embossing didn’t resist it much. I ended up buffing it with a baby wipe. It actually looks pretty cool, though next time I would just use something water-based, like Lumiere.

I also took a cotton ball (because there was one sitting on my table for no reason), and went over the edges with more Wine and Roses.

Then I kinda got involved and stopped taking pictures, because I am a goob.

I wanted a little more color and contrast, so I used the Silks again–Persimmon for the banner and Chestnut Brown for the wreath. I painted them then pressed a tissue over the paint to pull most of it back.

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The bird was an issue. It ended up with five different layers of three different paints on it. In the end, I’m okay with it. It had a base of Lumiere black mixed with Golden black, then many attempts at dry brushing with Lumiere white and Golden white, then finally a very watery wash in black.  Oof.

Overall, I like the look, and would like to try again with different paints, and a better idea of direction.

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BONUS!

USCB has released their library of cylinder recordings from the turn of the 20th century. It is way cool. Only one thing comes up for Halloween: “The Halloween Dance.”