This is a Halloween home decor piece I made mostly just for myself, just because. I love to make paper houses, especially for holidays. I thought about this for a while. I actually put the house together a couple months ago before I decided how to finish up the display. Again, I kind of collected a lot of stuff, and then got an idea, and added more stuff until I got enough stuff that seemed to go together. I never really am comfortable stopping when I’m creating something like this. Today I stopped because it was time to feed the dog, and, I was generally happy with it.

Here’s the story…
Once upon a time, there was a snooty little town somewhere. The townspeople were very snooty, especially when it came to their church. They didn’t want anyone in their church who looked different, or sounded different, or wore different clothes. So they built another church, for the “outcasts”. Anyone they didn’t want in “their” church were sent to the Church of the Outcasts. Time went on, and the townspeople saw the error of their ways. Everyone was welcomed back into the big church, and everyone was very happy. The Church of the Outcasts was deserted, and fell into disarray. Along came Fluffy, one of the most intelligent cats in the town. She said to her friends, “Look, there’s a sign on that church for the out cats! That’s us!”. “What are out cats?”, said Blacky. Their friend Kitty said “Out cats are just cats that get to go outside and explore, like we do”. So Fluffy, Blacky, and Kitty started attending the Church of the Outcats every Sunday, and they were very happy.

I used:

Bigz Village Brownstone, Bell Tower, and Rooftops

Thinlits Garden Greens, Mischievous, Vault Series Halloween 2021, Bat Crazy

Cobblestone embossing folder

Idea-ology pumpkins, metal gates, backdrops, tiny bell

This projects took me… I don’t know… weeks. I did not take any process photos, because I was really doing this just for fun. I was kind of “in the zone”, especially when making the house, and the walkway.

For the walkway, I didn’t want to have to piece it together. I used one large piece of watercolor paper (9 x 12). My first attempt was using spray stains. First I cut out what looked like a walkway, then embossed it using the Cobblestone folder. I had to get creative to get the whole walkway through my machine. I chose spray stains to color it in browns and greys. While it was the easiest way to color a large piece, I just didn’t like how it turned out. So I tossed it, and started over. This time I used antique linen to give some color to the whole piece, and then used ink pads smooshed on my mat and a waterbrush to add color to each stone. That was much better, but not quite what I wanted. Then I added a thin layer of Crypt Grit Paste over the whole walkway. Perfect!

One thing I did that was different for me is the fall colored leaves. I wanted something to decorate the ground, and I thought of adding leaves. I wanted something light that would look crinkly, like dried leaves. I had a tube of white collage paper, and decided to use that. I cut two pieces, about the size of a half sheet of paper towel, because that’s what I put it on when I’m using spray stains. One piece I colored with fall colors… orange, yellow, red. Another piece I did in browns. When it dried, I decided to spray the back of the collage paper as well to match the colors on the front. To cut out the leaf shapes, I used the Garden Greens die set. Since the collage paper is so thin, kind of like tissue paper, I layered a piece of scrap cardstock under the collage paper when I die cut it.

The Mischievous cats were cut out of different specialty papers. The black cat was a flocked black paper. I layered a piece of fun foam between two diecuts to make the cat thicker so I could get it to stand up. The brownish cat was a woven metallic paper that was in my scrap box. I have no idea where I got that. For the white cat, I used white paper, and then applied white Fun Flock by Stampendous with collage medium.

Add a comment or send me an email if you have any specific questions about this make. I could literally write pages and pages on it! Thanks for stopping by my blog! Have a Happy Halloween!

This was so much fun! I was actually overwhelmed with ideas for this… candy, creepy, floral… and then there are those wonderful Mischievous Cat dies this year from Sizzix! I started going through what I had in my Halloween stash, selecting things that I was drawn to. The problem was that my pile of cool stuff was way too big! It was never going to fit inside the curio clock! Then I thought, what could I do that was different? In my last Idea-ology project, I had drilled holes in the candy corn, and put them on the tiny lights. I loved how that turned out. Wouldn’t it be cool to drill holes in the little Idea-ology skulls, to light up their eyes? However, the candy corn is a soft material, and the skulls are a hard resin. I was definitely going to leave this up to the expert (my husband!). I had no expectations at all of his success with this tiny, hard, roundish skull, but he was able to drill the holes for me, using a 1/8 inch drill bit. I was so excited! Of course I had to stick lights in the sockets and test it out right away! The skull with the lights in the eyes became my inspiration!

The curio clock is all ready to go, straight out of the box. The back comes separate, and has to be glued on. The silver ring in the front comes off so you can add color to it separate from the body of the clock if you wish. My first challange was to figure out where I going to hide my tiny light battery pack. How was I going to run the wire inside? I wanted to put the tiny lights underneath the base. There are two small screws, attaching the base to the round clock shell. I decided to use one of the screw holes to run my lights through, leaving the switch and the battery pack under the base. This worked out great. One screw seemed like enough to hold the base on the clock. It’s not like I was going to be tossing it around the family room! The finish on the clock is very nice, in my opinion. You don’t have to cover it up or alter the finish if you don’t want to. They are also coming out with a red one for Christmas. But, I have the Skulls embossing folder, and since I decided to go with the skull theme, I was looking for other things to use. I recalled Tim Holtz had made a heart vignette a few years back, using Alcohol Ink Foil Tape in an embossing folder. I think that’s when I probably bought my foil tape, but never used it. The foil tape is great because it comes adhesive backed already. All you need to do is run it through with the embossing folder, peel and stick!

I covered the base of the clock first, while it was apart. I wanted to add some black to the foil to tone it down. I didn’t have any dark alcohol ink. I thought Tim had used Distress Crayon, so I applied it to the base, and worked it around a bit with a brush. This is where I figured out this should be another step done at the end… the crayon takes a while to cure, so I got it all over myself!

The tape is very flexible, but it does hold its shape farily well. Just be careful not to press down too hard, or you’ll loose the texture of the embossing folder. I cut slits in the tape so I could mold it around the front of the clock. You don’t notice it when the project is done. Then it was time to screw the base to the clock, with the one screw, and string the lights up through the other screw hole. I attached the battery pack underneath the base with a double sided foam square.

During this next part, I kind of got lost in the creative process, and forgot to take pictures! I wanted the focal point of the display to be raised up, so I constructed a curved shelf out of foam board, and covered it with brown kraftstock paper. The shelf is a rectangular piece of foam board, with a front and a back piece made to fit the curve of the curio clock on the bottom, and flat across the top. The text on the tombstone is from Idea-ology Remnant Rubs. I added Crypt Grit Paste, and a little Black Soot crayon. The bones also have Crypt Grit Paste. I used hot glue to attach them. They’re easy to cut with scissors if you want to make them look like they’re coming out of the ground.

Next I created the background scene. I used the technique that Tim demonstrated in his 2022 YouTube live Halloween DIstress launch, using mica sprays and the moon mask. After it dried, I cut it to fit inside of the back panel. I thought it would be cool to have some ghosts hovering about, so this is where I used the Vault Series Halloween 2021 dies. The ghosts were cut out of a piece of frosted acetate. I used foam squares to add them to the back, adding dimension.

I finished arranging the tiny lights so they would light up the skull’s eyes, and then run up the side of the clock where the moon would be. They were secured in place with more foam squares. The ground around the skull and bones was decorated with tiny gravel I found at the craft store with the model train stuff, and dried moss from the floral section. I finished the outside of the back of the clock in the embossed foil tape, and secured the back on with hot glue.

Lastly, I added the baseboard sentiment, and the trick-or-treater onlookers. This turned out really cute, in my opinion, and looks good both with the lights on or off. Give it a try with whatever you have in your craft space! The curio clock is a great vessel to hold anything that makes you smile! It doesn’t have to be idea-ology trinkets, it could be any small collection you have that you want to display. I can also remove the inside display if i want, and try another theme next year (candy corn!).

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Supplies used available at ScrappyShak:
Tim Holtz Curio Clock
Idea-ology Skulls
Idea-ology Boneyard
Idea-ology Tombstones
Idea-ology Remnant Rubs – Halloween
Idea-ology Baseboards – Halloween
Idea-ology droplets – Halloween
Distress Crayons – Black Soot
Distress Grit Paste Crypt
Distress Mica Sprays – Halloween
Alcohol Ink Black cardstock
Tim Holtz DIstress Kraftstock Neutral

Also used:
SIzzix Tim Holtz dies Vault Series: Halloween 2021