Sabbatical complete: Projects from the journey No. 2

I hope all of you have been enjoying the season of the witch, werewolf and horrible sexy kitten costumes for children (yup, actually saw a sexy kitten costume for a child -- I really hope karma is on the way to that company).

Anyhow, it's such a pleasure to see all of the art you've been showing: Skeletons, crows and graveyards abound everywhere!

My own reach into the beautiful, strange darkness that is Halloween made use of a Haunted Door Shrine Kit from Alpha Stamps.

So, you can pretty much stop reading here and check out the photos, or keep reading to learn how I put together the various shrine elements! Thank you for coming this far, and if you're one of the steadfast souls in the path of Sandy, may you find safety and calm to ride out the storm!

This project, roughly the size of a chunky ATC, is covered in acrylic paints that I crackled, aged and inked for a vintage finish.

The shrine interior is lined with designer paper, inked and edged with black paint for aging effect. Our circus clown, and performing dog, are Antikamnia images.

Text, Cirque Mortel (which hopefully means, more or less, Deadly Circus), was cut multiple times from black stock on Tim Holtz's Carnivale Sizzix strip. Each letter cut was stacked and combined until each letter is roughly 1/8 inch thick.

These were carefully dipped in gold Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel. The "Cirque" text was attached to blue-dyed copper wire on the top and the "Mortel" text was attached with a twine that tucks inside of the shrine when closed.

Hey! You're still here! Thank you again! Have a great Halloween week!

p.s. sorry about the wonky ass layout here ... I don't know what the hell Blogger is doing ... maybe it's a Halloween TRICK or treat! 

Sabbatical complete: Projects from the journey No. 1

Today's project show-and-tell is something I completed back in late August, right before I went on sabbatical.

It's another reveal that deserves big time thanks, this time to Sandy Ang at Sandy's Space. A beautiful woman who creates unbelievable art, often with designer papers, she chose me as a winner of some pieces from Fundamentals and Ruby Rock It's decoupage line.

The card you see here is a pedestal style using a sweet teddy bear Fundamentals decoupage that is perfect for a brother-in-law who is expecting the arrival of a baby girl.

You can't imagine how easily the pieces punched out of the sheet that has an entire second teddy bear set, nor how cleanly they came out -- only a few "chads" to trim. Then I got another happy surprise when the layering went together quickly and neatly.

Look at the layers!

All I had to do was choose background paper (Die Cuts With a View), ink a handful of edges and TaDa!

Isn't this wonderfully cute and glittery? Isn't this the card you'd expect to see on a pink-wrapped package for a baby girl?

You're maybe thinking to yourself "Um, yeah, great for a baby girl ... a little weird for me and my adults friends."

Ruby Rock It's has you covered with some gorgeous Victorian-style images such as birds and flowers. I'll show off some of these in the future, but for now take a look HERE at Sandy Ang's blog. There you'll see some of the amazing RRI decoupage pieces she has put together.

Thanks again Sandy, for your kindness and sharing!