ScrappyShak Design Team: Tim Holtz Blossom

On March 16, 2023 By vicki430In CardsLeave a comment

Hello crafty friends! Today, I’m sharing this card that I made for the ScrappyShak Design Team. I’m not gonna lie, it took me a couple days or three to finish this, so don’t think I just sit down and this happens! 🙂 There’s lots of try this and maybe that, with some good old prying off foam tape and trying again. I’m pretty happy with how it came out in the end.

To start off, I planned on using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Blossom Die. I know it’s pretty big, so I was leaning towards a bigger card, like a 5×7. But first, the flower… I picked dried marigold, scattered straw, and antique linen to start. I colored some watercolor paper with those inks, and also inked some paper with mowed lawn and rustic wilderness, which I was planning on using for the leaves. I also did a piece of iced spruce, just to see if it would fit in for the background. After messing around a bit, I decided the flower was going to be too washed out. I colored some paper with rusty hinge, and liked where that was going. It felt better with the colors for the leaves. So for the flower, I was going to use the rusty hinge, scattered straw, then dried marigold. When I cut those layers out, the dried marigold seemed too washed out. I put that piece back in the negative space of the watercolor paper, and blended some spiced marmalade over it. That looked better. Fitting the die back into the negative space helped to keep all the detailed edges from getting out of shape when I blended over it. I colored some scraps with walnut stain ink and gathered twigs oxide for the center of rhe flower.

I really wanted to use that piece of Iced Spruce, but it just wasn’t working in my mind. Maybe too outside the box for me? I decided to try my go-to blue background, Stormy Sky. I colored a piece of watercolor paper, then ran it through my machine with the Dotted embossing folder, and rubbed some lost shadow oxide ink, direct pad to paper, over the raised dots. This showed up better before it dried, but I’mn happy with how the lost shadow just lightly highlighted the dots after it dried.

I got a little stuck with how to finish up the card, but lucky for me, my ScrappyShak order arrived! I had ordered some of the new idea-ology papers and ephemera and stuff! Yippee!! Because I knew this was going to be a blog post eventually, I wanted to be sure that the card would be something you could reproduce. So I kept the stuff I added to the card to just the Backdrops #5, the Ephemera Palette Pack, and the Quote chips, so you don’t have to purchase the whole release like I did!

This is the fun part for me, pulling out things that I like, or just things that are the right color. I picked an orange piece from the Backdrops #5 pack, as well as a darker blue floral piece. I thought I’d layer them for the background. I also used a piece of the dark blue paper to cut a die from the older Crochet set to add some feminity to the card. I used my favorite squiggle from the Media Marks dies to add some more orange. You can use whatever you have, if you don’t have these same sets. The goal was just to add a layer of something interesting with a touch of coordinating color. You could add some small cirles instead. You could even use the center flower dies to cut some circles out of a coordinating color. Use your imagination! Look through what you have! Shop your stash!

I really wanted to use the oval photo of the young girl reading the book that is in the photo above. But, in the end, it just didn’t seem to work with this card. I chose another piece (this moth) from the Palette Ephemera pack. It sort of has that same neutral silvery blue color that iced spruce has, that I had wanted to use in the beginning. I used the new Large Fasteners on the Quote chip, but I actually just used them as a decoration, and used foam squares to attach the quote chip to my card. I wasn’t sure exactly where I wanted to put it, so this way was more flexible. I could wait until the end.

I hope you enjoyed this card, and I hope you can add some of the new idea-ology items to your stash. It’s so much fun to have more color! If you can only add one thing, I’d suggest the Backdrops Volume #5, because you can always cut it up, and get lots of use out of each piece. Easy to say of course, I had a hard time cutting it because I didn’t want to use up all of my favorites! Thank you for stopping by my blog, I appreciate you!

Products used, available at ScrappyShak:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Blossom die
Tim Holtz Sizzix Dotted Embossing Folder
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Backdrops Volume #5
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Pack Palette
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Quote Chips
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Large Fasteners
Distress Ink Spray Stains – Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw, Stormy Sky, Rustic Wilderness, Mowed Lawn
Distress Oxide Spray – Gathered Twigs
Distress Ink Pads – Walnut Stain
Distress Oxide Pads – Spiced Marmalade, Lost Shadow, Dried Marigold
Bearly Arts Glue with precision tip

Also used:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Crochet Dies
Tim Holtz Sizzix Media Marks Dies

ScrappyShak Design Team: DIY 3D Woodland Animal Kit

On February 21, 2023 By vicki430In Home DecorLeave a comment

Hello crafty friends! I wanted to share this project that I made for the ScrappyShak Design Team. My Design Team friends and I were asked to make something with a potential new product line that Melanie, the owner, was exploring. The products are these adorable Woodland Animals that are laser cut out of Bass Wood. They are easily assembled into a 3D animal. Melanie had three different animals for us to use in a project: a deer, a bear, and a fox. I was drawn to the fox, as my new rescue pup is about fox sized, and has similar colors in her red brindle fur. Below is a photo of what the deer and the bear kits look like, and of course the fox kit is similar.

These kits are not yet available, but if you love them, we’d love to hear from you! They may be available soon, depending on feedback and interest from the Design Team posts. Please email Melanie@scrappyshak.com if you’d like to pre-order some of these! I used Distress paint, inks, and crayons on this wood with good success. It’s beautiful quality. I am more of a paper crafter than a painter… I considered using paper to cover the wood pieces before putting them together, but thought it would probably require a whole lot of cutting. For this project, I went with inks and paints.

I started by coloring my fox. I thought Rusty Hinge would be a great fox color. I tried painting some spray stain onto a scrap piece of the wood first, to make sure the wood would take the ink, which it did. I knew I wanted parts of the fox to be white, but white ink is hard… it’s never as intense as I want it to be. I didn’t think it would cover the wood as well as I wanted it to. Instead, I used Picket Fence Distress Paint, again testing a bit on a scrap piece of wood, before potentially messing up my fox. I thought I should apply the paint first, as it’s permanent when dry, and I can always adjust the ink with water if I had to. So I painted Miss Fox where I thought she should be white, and then added Black Soot Distress Paint to the tips of her ears, her nose, and her feet. I should say that I didn’t put her together until the end. I painted each “puzzle piece” separately, but had to fit them together at times to figure out how the colors should line up, like her cheek fluff. After the paint was where I wanted it, and dry, I painted the rest of her with Rusty Hinge Distress Spray Stain. After that was dry, and I removed any stray marks with water, I assembled her with a tiny bit of collage medium. Later, I used Walnut Stain Distress Crayon to add some shading around the edges to give her a bit of a primitive look. I suck at painting, and I can’t draw a straight line or a circle to save my life! I considered making her look more fur-like, adding different paint, or maybe texture paste, but I know when I’m out of my league! I didn’t want to make a mess, so I stuck with simple.

I thought Miss Fox would fit perfectly in the largest of the Square Vignette boxes. I wanted her to be sitting in a field of flowers. I started by creating a sky background, and then planned to add flowers with die cuts. I hadn’t figured it all out yet… I was kind of just winging it, which I have learned is not the best way to go, but I continue to do so anyways! For the background, I used Stormy Sky Distress Spray and Tumbled Glass Oxide Spray. I was happy how it came out, so I cut it to fit, and glued it inside my box. Then I thought… I should add a sentiment, or an inspiring quote… make this a pretty little decoration for a desk or a shelf. But… my glue had dried already. I tried stamping my sentiment inside of the box, but that was just a hot mess. No worries, it’s just paper. I took a step back, and made another sky colored piece for the inside of the box, but this time I stamped it before gluing it in the box. I stamped the sentiment (which was an older Hero Arts stamp) using my Misti and black VersaFine Ink, then embossed it with clear embossing powder.

I wanted to use the new Brushstroke Flowers Mini dies to make the flowers. This took longer than I thought… the pieces for the flowers are soooo tiny! All of the piece to complete each type of flower are on one die. If the flower has three layers, you would either have to run the same die through your machine with each different color (for example, light pink, dark pink, and yellow for the big rose type flower in my project), or use white cardstock and color each piece individually. This is what I did. Since the pieces are so small, to hold them in place, I used a piece of Sticky Grid underneath, and left the die cuts in the negative space. This helped to hold them while I colored them, and I didn’t lose anything. I used Distress Watercolor Pencils and a waterbrush to color the die cut pieces. I chose to use the watercolor pencils because they are highly pigmented, and I knew they would give me some nice, rich colors for my flowers. I scribbled a little pencil onto each piece, and then blended it out with the waterbrush. I didn’t worry about being precise here, and I think being a little “free” with the coloring added some interest to the flowers.

The leaves in the Brushstroke Flowers Mini set are teeny tiny as well. I wanted something to fill up more of the space, so I went back to an older die that I had in my stash, the Flower Field die. I colored some watercolor paper with Rustic Wilderness and Mowed Lawn, made a couple die cuts out of it, and attached them inside of the vignette box, wrapping them up the sides as well. If you don’t have this die, you could certainly use any kind of flower stems you might have. Or use the leaves that come in the set, and cut strips of paper for the stems. There are lots of different ways to achieve a similar look. It’s the fox and the flowers, and the sentiment, that will draw people’s attention. Use what you have!

To finish up, I covered the outside of the box with idea-ology Paper Stash paper, and used Design Tape to finish the front edge of the box, for a clean look. Of course at the very end, I thought I should have added Tiny Lights! Another reason not to glue anything down until the very end!

Thank you for stopping by my blog, I appreciate you!

Products used, available at ScrappyShak:
ScrappyShak D.I.Y. 3-D Woodland Animal Kit: Fox
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Square Vignette Boxes
Tim Holtz Sizzix Brushstroke Flowers, Mini
Distress Crayon – Walnut Stain
Distress Spray Stain – Stormy Sky, Rustic Wilderness, Rusty Hinge
Distress Oxide Spray – Tumbled Glass, Mowed Lawn
Distress Paint – Black Soot, Picket Fence
Distress Watercolor Pencils – Sets 1 and 2

Also used:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Flower Field
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design Tape – Butterfly/Papillon/Mariposa

ScrappyShak Design Team: Yuletide Colorize

On December 2, 2022 By vicki430In Cards, ChristmasLeave a comment

Hello crafty friends! I wanted to share this card that I made for the ScrappyShak Design Team. The inspiration was the Yuletide colorize thinlit die, and also the Christmas Backdrops paper pack.

This card ended up nothing like I had originally planned! I wanted to make a wreath featuring colors that my son and his partner were using to decorate their home for the holidays – pink, silver, and sage green. My plan was to color watercolor paper using distress inks and sprays, and then assemble the wreath. When I started to look at the dies, I wasn’t sure exactly which colors I wanted to use for the different layers. I figured I had better assemble the wreath with cardstock first, so I could decide how I wanted to color my watercolor paper for the differnt layers. I also thought that I would use a coordinating paper from the Christmas Backdrops papers for the background. That got me going in a whole different direction!

I found the Backdrops paper that looked like an architectural drawing of the front of a home with a door that was pretty much exactly the right size for the wreath. I didn’t think the pink and sage wreath would go the best with this background paper. Looking through my stash, I was drawn to the Idea-ology Kraft stock paper stacks. The coordinate so well together. I pulled out some greens and reds, and decided to use them instead. The pink and sage green wreath would have to wait for another day!

Then I had the thought – wouldn’t it be neat to use only the papers in the idea-ology line? I needed 4 different greens to make the wreath, but there were only two that I thought went together in the Cool paper stack. I ended up using a dark brown from the Neutral paper stack for the base, and added in a metallic green from the Metallic Confections pad. I used three different reds from the Warm paper stack for the bow, and added a metallic pink from the Confections pad for the base layer of the berries. For the bell, I used two gold colors from the Metallic Confections pad, a gold from the silver and gold metallic paper pad, and the gold from the Christmas Deco sheets.

TIP: You don’t have to be a hero and figure out this die on your own! Go to Sizzix.com and check out the video for this die. Otherwise you might start to have a panic attack, like I did! I honestly almost gave up before I watched the video (several times). It is easier than it looks, once you get the hang of it.

The tricky part is the third layer of the wreath. The fourth layer goes right on top of the third in the same orientation. It really is gorgeous in real life, and certainly worth the effort. Photos do not do it justice. I found the berries to be somewhat frustrating, because they are so small, and I absolutely hate glue oozing out of the teeny tiny pieces. Next time I will definitely use double sided adhesive on the back of my paper before I die cut the berries. I’ve also seen many people using sequins, droplets, or other round embeliishments as a replacement for the paper berries, and they look fabulous as well.

To make the door stand out a little more, I cut a piece of vellum to fit over it, so you could still see the details on the door. I found an old brad that I wanted to use as a door knob, but it was silver, so I colored it with Distress Foundry Wax in Gilded, and heat set it. Another TIP: If you heatset something metal it will get VERY HOT! Use something to hold the item, and then don’t touch it to see if it’s dry (speaking from experience)!

I distressed the edges of the Backdrops paper, and added Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I layered this on top of another piece of the Backdrops paper, and then attached them to a 5×7 card base.

I wanted to add a house number and a sentiment. I found the right size numbers in the Postale die set, and decided to use the “Special Delivery” as the sentiment. Both of those were cut out of black alcohol ink cardstock, my favorite black paper. They need to make the black alcohol ink paper in “regulation size” sheets instead of the 5×7 size!

If you have this die, I hope you are inspired to give it a try. I’d love to see what you make, especially if it’s pink and sage green! Thank you for stopping by my blog, I appreciate you!

Products used, available at ScrappyShak:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Yuletide dies
Tim Holtz Sizzix Postale dies
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Christmas Backdrops Paper
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Kraft-Stock Metallic and Metallic Confections
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Christmas Deco Sheets
Tim Holtz Black Alcohol Ink Cardstock
Distress Foundry Wax Gilded

Also used:
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Kraft-Stock Cool, Warm and Neutral
Tim Holtz Tonic Paper Distresser

Church of the Outcats

On October 13, 2022 By vicki430In Holiday DecorLeave a comment

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!

ScrappyShak Design Team: Halloween Curio Clock

On September 27, 2022 By vicki430In Holiday DecorLeave a comment

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

ScrappyShak Design Team: Idea-ology Halloween Perspective

On August 29, 2022August 29, 2022 By vicki430In Holiday DecorLeave a comment

Here’s a link to the video on YouTube.

I went “out of the box” for myself on this one, and actually ordered the whole box! I ordered the “I want it all” Halloween Idea-ology August bundle from ScrappyShak! I’ve always admired the other makes from people who seem to have all of the new products, and I wanted to challenge myself to see what I could do if I had all the stuff. I knew I would want to make some kind of lighted holiday display, so I also ordered the square vignette boxes, the vignette display panel, and tiny lights. Other than that, I had no idea what I was going to do.

When my box arrived and I opened it up, I was totally overwhelmed! What have I done?!? I walked away for a bit… When I came back, I just started going through all of the packages, and picking out things that I liked. It seemed like I had 3 different themes going on… candy, bones/potions, and bats/spiders. I started playing with my vignette boxes, and came up with a three sided design that I would attached to the upside down display panel, using it as a base. I made a template so I could remember where I wanted the boxes, but didn’t attached them to the display panel yet. I covered each square with worn wallpaper, and covered the base with collage paper that I had from last year. I liked the darker colors in the paper from last year better for this project.

As I started to gather more stuff for each of my themes, I thought it would be great to have an extra shelf in each vignette box. For the first one, I cut down a piece of wood that had come with a different vignette tray with removable dividers that I used on another project last year. I only had one of those extra pieces, and being slightly lazy and not-so-slightly stubborn as I am, I cut it down with a pair of wire snips, and kinda made a mess! But it worked. For the second shelf, I found a piece of black foam board that I cut down much more easily with scissors and an X-Acto knife. I’d certainly recommend that route. The shelf doesn’t have to be super sturdy just to hold small items. I used hotglue to glue them in to the vignette boxes, then used the thinnest design tape to cover up the edges all the way around the box fronts.

I began by picking out more pieces that I liked, and playing. I had a pile for each “side” of my project. I started with the fun stuff, like finding things to color with alcohol inks that would look like candy, to go in some of the clear glass vials I had. I also used some colored seed beads I had. Then I got distracted with the laboratory beaker. What can I put in there? It should be green. I know people use resin, and I didn’t have any. I do have hand sanitizer to clean my media mat. That’s clear, pourable, and alcohol based. I wonder if alcohol ink will color it? Yes, it does! Just a couple drops is all I needed. So it kind of went like that… I’d be working on one thing, and it’d trigger an idea for a different “side”, and I’d go do that.

I wanted to do something special with the new confections candy corn. While I was working on this, there was a Tim Holtz live YouTube, showing makes for these products. I purposefully didn’t watch it, because I didn’t want to be influenced or distracted by the beautiful makes from his Design Team. However, I did hear about how he used the candy corn with tiny lights. I just had to go peak at that part of the replay! He made it sound so easy! Just drill holes in these teeny tiny plasticy candy corn! If you try this yourself, I’d recommend being very careful. Make sure you hold the corn with pliers, not your fingers! You might want to make a starting point for the drill with an awl or something. Otherwise the drill bit can move. Watch his video here. It’s at the end, around 3:19 timestamp. The corn is only slightly bigger than the 1/8″ drill bit that Tim recommended. I’m glad I added the corn this way, but it wasn’t easy. I messed up as many as I was successful with, but I got enough for my project, and I’m happy with how they look.

Although I was trying not to spend any more on this project, I felt like I did have to get the amber colored apothecary vials. I’m glad I did. I am not glad that I didn’t take the time to do more to them, like distress them more, but I felt like I had to draw a line in the sand as to how much time I was going to spend on this project! I also had some cards to get out, and regular life stuff to take care of! Some of the vials are empty, some have stuff in them, you can’t really see through the glass. I did have a little bit of a time trying to get the labels to stick that come with the apothecary vials. I first tried them out of the package, and then tried them with collage medium. I heard someone suggest to make sure they were clean before you try to apply the labels, which I will definitely do next time. I will probably wipe them off with alcohol first to make sure the labels stick.

I did most of my embossing powder and glaze at the same time. I’m happiest with the curtain, which is from the layers pack. I wanted the wood part to be an offwhite color, and the curtain part to be a light pink color to match the flowers in the worn wallpaper. I masked off the curtain pieces with bits of masking tape, then applied embossing ink with the dauber top applicator, and embossed the wood part using antique linen embossing glaze. Then I removed the mask, applied embossing ink with a marker, and embossed the curtain with saltwater taffy embossing glaze. I also used wild honey embossing glaze to color the paper doll’s dress, using both the embossing dauber and an embossing marker. Clear embossing powder was used on the bats.

I wasn’t sure what to put on the bottom shelf of the candy shop. I didn’t have anything that said “Confections”, so I went through the layers and ephemera packs, and found something about a florist. Some florists have candy as well, so I figured that would work. I used the paper “bouquet” idea-ology flowers, and sprayed each small cluster with different fall colored spray stains. I let them dry overnight. I played around with trying to display them, then had the idea of putting them in a flower cone, which I made out of a scrap piece of Tim Holtz paper that had a pretty sage green pattern to it.

On the bats and spider side, I used one of the halloween transparencies for the spider web. I cut it down so it would fit in the corner. I also added a small rectangular vignette box, so it would match the other two sides better. I used sewing thread to hang up the spiders, and rubbed white glue on the thread to stiffen it up.

To distress the bones, I added some grit paste. I had some Crypt grit paste leftover from last year’s Halloween release. After the grit paste dried, I rubbed on some vintage photo, antique linen, and peeled paint distress crayons with my fingers. Any grit paste will do, as you can alter the color of the paste with distress crayons after it dries. If you don’t have distress crayons, you could mix a tiny bit of re-inker in with the grit paste before you apply it to the bones, but it won’t have quite the same look. It will still be cool! Sometimes we have to use what we have!

The Sizzix Mischievous cats were fun. I die cut all of the cats using different black paper – shiny, matte, and glitter. My favorite black paper to use is the Tim Holtz black alcohol ink paper. It has almost a suede texture to it. Two of the cats were cut out with the halloween deco sheets. These sheets are very thin, glittered paper, with adhesive on the back. In hindsight, I might have put the deco sheet black paper on cardstock, then cut the cats out, and popped them up with dimensional foam on the back wall of that piece. I think they get a little lost directly adhered to the box. To make the cats stand up in the middle of the box, I used black foam board. I cut a piece the size of the inside bottom of the box, and then cut it in half again the long ways. I glued one piece down towards the back of the box, then stood up my two cats, and then glued the other piece down, holding them up in place. I wanted it to look like a room full of black cats! I glued three of the cats on the front face of the box. The extra one went into the flower/candy shoppe.

I used a little distress spray stain on the mummy cloth, including a little aged mahogany, trying to make it look like dried blood.

I didn’t start gluing everything together until I had my layout and pieces done. I had to figure out where I was going to put the tiny lights. I put the battery packs underneath the display panel, and drilled holes to string the lights up into the back of the boxes. I also ended up with enough extra that I could add drippy candles to the top of one of the boxes, and shape the tiny lights so that the candles look like they were lit.

One of the hardest parts of this project was getting started, and the other hard part was deciding when to stop! I really enjoyed working on this, but probably could have spent another week adding cool things. One of the great things about Tim’s products is that they all coordinate with each other. It’s hard to go wrong. Just start somewhere, and do what makes sense to you. Step away if you run out of ideas. The ideas will come if you try to relax and just enjoy the process. There will be lots of people who will “get” what you create. Some won’t, but it’s not for them, it’s for you! Thank you for stopping by!

Tim Holtz Idea-ology products used include:
vignette boxes (squares)
vignette display panel
halloween baseboards
halloween layers
halloween ephemera pack
halloween worn wallpaper scraps
halloween deco sheets
halloween transparencies
curiosities sticker book
apothecary vials
corked vials
halloween adornments
creepy eyes
boneyard
halloween confections
halloween confections – candy corn
confections (from 2021 holiday season)
halloween trimmings
halloween design tape
halloween paper dolls
halloween collage paper (from 2021 season)
crypt grit paste (from 2021 season)
black alcohol ink paper
distress embossing glaze in antique linen, saltwater taffy, and wild honey