Halloween Shadow Box & May Arts Ribbon Halloween Crafts Challenge

I had a shadow box frame I had bought at a hobby store ages ago & it’s been hanging around my craft room getting in my way so I decided to use it to make a project out of some scrumptious May Arts Ribbon I had gotten so I could play in their  Halloween Crafts Challenge  - please go take a look at the amazing creations that other artists made for this challenge; and, if you leave a comment about which project is your favorite you will be in the running to win some ribbon for yourself!  

The wooden frame did have a glass front but I took that out and will use it another time.  I gessoed the frame and then painted it with Lumiere Pewter acrylic paint – if you have never worked with Lumiere paint it is the most beautiful metallic acrylic paint I have ever seen & the colors are amazing! It is made by Jacquard Products and I strongly suggest you get a bottle – there are SO many colors and color combinations you can choose from & you can find them online or in art stores; I’ve seen them priced any where from $3.50 to $5.00, a pretty good deal since the small bottles are 2.25 fluid ounces and can last you a while.  Anyway. . .

Skelly's hanging with his bird friend

I had this very long old necklace I had gotten from a friend of my mother’s who was cleaning out her jewelry – the necklace had been broken once and there was a knot in it or I probably would have kept it to wear – but I cut it and used a length on each side of the box.  I altered a Dollar Tree skeleton (I had to cut him apart & rearrange him a bit) gave him a Dollar Tree bird buddy (who was painted with black acrylic paint long before this project) and made him a festive hat out of some of the May Arts ribbon.  I also added some ruby red gems to his eye sockets so he'd be that much scarier.

And a close up of his scary eyes & cute hat

For the back of the box I painted the panel with Golden Quinacridone Violet with some Golden Micaceous Iron Oxide mixed in (gives it a shimmer that you can't see in the pictures) and then I put some of the spider web ribbon on the top (doesn’t this ribbon rock!?!). I then cut out the Happy Halloween, in orange card stock with my Silhouette Cameo machine & glued it to a piece of the silky black ribbon and attached that below the spider web ribbon. 

My Bat

I had the metal pumpkin in my stash, attached that to the back panel.  I had made the bat already; he is from a mold I made with Amazing Mold Putty (the original of the bat is a metal stamping I have) and then he was cast out of Amazing Clear Cast Resin. I painted him with Golden Carbon Black and attached him to the top of the shadow box.  Done! 

DONE!

I love LOVE this box – it has to be one of the projects I am most proud of and it went together like a dream!  It started as one of those ideas that just seem to sprout wings and all the elements just flocked together (get it? Wings, flock? LOL).  I hope you enjoyed my project & I encourage you to visit both the May Arts Blog & Amazing Mold Putty (find the links within the post). 

I knew I had a better picture of the entire box!

I’d like to enter this shadow box in the following challenges:

•  Creative Cutting Challenge – Halloween, not a card (my SVG is the Happy Halloween Words) 
•  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Spooky 
•  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Halloween or Halloween Colors 
•  The Ribbon Reel Challenge – Purple & Black with a Halloween theme plus Ribbon
• Anything But a Card – Orange and/or Black 
• Drunken Stampers – Wood (The frame is wood)